2017 Division II SCT: specific question discussion

[Important Bird Area]

This is your discussion thread for specific questions from the 2017 Division II SCT.

[Votre Kickstarter Est Nul]

Could I see the Pat Venditte bonus, the Maris and Catcher tossups, and any other baseball questions if there were any (unless that's too much of a request in which case don't worry about it I don't know how easy it is to just find all the baseball questions).

Also Idi Amin and Tom Stoppard.

[Important Bird Area]

When this man debuted, the East Oregonian ran a headline erroneously describing him as "amphibious." For 10 points each--

A. Name this switch-pitcher who was traded from the Blue Jays to the Mariners in August 2016.

answer: Pat _Venditte_ (or Patrick Michael _Venditte_ Jr.)

B. Venditte made his MLB debut for this Bay Area American League team. They were the subject of the book and film Moneyball.

answer: _Oakland_ _Athletics_ (or _Oakland_ _A's_; accept any underlined portion)

C. In college, Venditte pitched for a team based in this Nebraska city that annually hosts the College World Series.

answer: _Omaha_, Nebraska [Venditte pitched for Creighton University.]

[Important Bird Area]

This player told fan Sal Durante to keep a baseball and "make yourself some money" after homering on the last day of the season off Red Sox pitcher Tracy Stallard. This right fielder edged out his teammate Mickey Mantle twice to become MVP. Commissioner Ford Frick never actually suggested that a (*) record this man set be marked with an asterisk. For 10 points—what Yankee broke Babe Ruth's single-season home run record?

answer: Roger (Eugene) Maris

A Mercedes was painted black to mimic this leader's limousine in an operation planned by Motta Gur. This man welcomed Wilfried Bose after the Revolutionary Cells brought the hijacked Air France Flight 139 to this man's country. (*) Benjamin Netanyahu's brother died in this man's country during an operation to rescue hostages. The Entebbe raid took place during the rule of—for 10 points—what autocratic leader of Uganda?

answer: Idi Amin (Dada)

In 2013 Dayn Perry wrote that defenders at this position had quietly saved the Brewers over 40 runs. UZR is not available for this position, whose defense can partly be measured by "takeoff rate." In 2006 a camera system began allowing the tracking of (*) "framing" stats measuring when players at this position "steal" strikes. For 10 points—what baseball position requires players to throw out base-stealers and receive pitches?

answer: catcher(s) (accept catching)

In the opening scene of a play by this author, Henry Carr remembers a library in Zurich frequented by James Joyce, Vladimir Lenin, and Tristan Tzara. This playwright of Travesties also created Septimus Hodge, a tutor who becomes the "Hermit of Sidley Park" after his doomed romance with (*) Thomasina in Arcadia. For 10 points—what author wrote about two minor characters from Hamlet in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead?

answer: Tom Stoppard (or Tom\'a\vs Straussler)

[AGoodMan]

There was a certain Ptolemy bonus that claimed that he argued for heliocentrism, which I am pretty sure is incorrect. Either the question was wrong or the reader read it wrong.

[theMoMA]

There was a certain Ptolemy bonus that claimed that he argued for heliocentrism, which I am pretty sure is incorrect. Either the question was wrong or the reader read it wrong.

You're correct that the question was incorrect (in both the DI and DII set). Apologies for the error (which we've now fixed).

[CPiGuy]

Can I see the tossups on San Marino and Papua New Guinea, as well as the tossups on bijections, convergence, the number 1, and the Tower of Hanoi?

[Important Bird Area]

This country's flag and coat of arms both depict three citadels atop its Mount Titan. The Guard of the Rock is the military of this country, whose most populous city is Dogana. This "most serene republic" claims to be the oldest (*) constitutional republic and sovereign country in the world. For 10 points—name this landlocked country in the heart of the Apennine Mountains that is entirely surrounded by Italy.

This country's national emblem depicts a wooden kundu drum. "Raskol" gangs plague the capital of this country, where Tok Pisin is the primary language. It controls New Britain and the rest of the Bismarck Archipelago. This country north of the (*) Torres Strait shares the world's second-largest island with an Indonesian province once called Irian Jaya. For 10 points—name this Pacific country whose capital is Port Moresby.

answer: Papua New Guinea (or Independent State of Papua New Guinea or Papuaniugini; do not accept or prompt on "Papua" or "New Guinea")

This kind of function is shown to exist by the Schroder-Bernstein theorem. Double-counting proofs must demonstrate that this kind of function exists. A permutation is this kind of function from a set to itself. Two sets are said to have the same (*) cardinality if this kind of function exists between them. For 10 points—give this term for a function that is both injective and surjective, and is therefore invertible.

answer: bijection or bijective function (accept one-to-one correspondence but do not accept or prompt on "one-to-one")

Every bounded sequence has a subsequence with this property according to the Bolzano-Weierstrass theorem. In complete spaces this property is equivalent to being Cauchy. Series can be (*) tested for this property by the alternating series test. A sequence has this property if its elements become arbitrarily close to a fixed value. For 10 points—name this property in which a sequence or series approaches a fixed limit.

answer: convergence (prompt on answers containing "limit" before "limit")

This number is the limit as n goes to infinity of the natural log of n minus n over the prime-counting function at n, in which context it is called "Legendre's constant." This number plus twice a prime may be a Sophie Germain prime. It is subtracted from a power of 2 to give a (*) Mersenne prime. This positive number is its own square and cube. For 10 points—name this natural number that is neither prime nor composite.

answer: 1 (accept Legendre's constant before "Legendre's")

An extended version of this problem, solved by the Frame-Stewart algorithm, is called the Reve's puzzle. The minimum number of steps to solve this problem is one less than a power of 2. Edouard Lucas formulated this problem based on a legend that the (*) world would end when priests finish solving the 64-disk version of this problem. For 10 points—name this problem about putting disks in order on one of three pegs.

answer: Towers of Hanoi (or Towers of Brahma; accept Lucas' Tower before "\'Edouard"; accept Reve's puzzle or Reve's problem before "Reve's")

[CPiGuy]

Thanks!

Special abbreviation to the Legendre's constant clue -- that was beautiful.

[Fado Alexandrino]

The DII tossup in round 13 on Sacramento, California does not mention that it's the capital, even though the D1 tossup does, which seems counter-intuitive to me.

[jonah]

The DII tossup in round 13 on Sacramento, California does not mention that it's the capital, even though the D1 tossup does, which seems counter-intuitive to me.

I removed that clue from the Division II question because I find most capital giveaways to be insultingly easy, and just plain obnoxious when they're not plausibly tied in with the clues. I didn't have an editorial role in the Division I set (other than subject-editing math and occasionally providing some other suggestions), and didn't wish to impose my editorial views on it.

[Zealots of Stockholm]

Can I see the tossup on crosses in art? I'm interested in which paintings the clues drew from. Thanks!

[AGoodMan]

Can I see the New York, Stendhal, and Rilke tossups?

[Votre Kickstarter Est Nul]

Thanks for posting the other ones above! Also, could I see the Madame Butterfly tossup, the Chagall tossup, and the bonus part that included Donizetti? Thanks!

[Important Bird Area]

Can I see the tossup on crosses in art? I'm interested in which paintings the clues drew from. Thanks!

In a Salvador Dali painting, this object is replaced by a hypercube. A woman in a blue dress faints at the left as a man shaped like an "inverted T" is removed from one of these objects in a painting by Rogier van der Weyden. Seven muscular men struggle to (*) raise one of these upright in a Peter Paul Rubens triptych showing its "elevation." For 10 points—name this object to which Christ is attached in the crucifixion.

answer: cross(es) (or kruis; accept crucifixes before "crucifixion"; accept True Cross or Cross of Christ; accept The Descent from the Cross or Descent of Christ from the Cross or Kruisafneming or The Elevation of the Cross or The Raising of the Cross or Kruisoprichting)
[Dali's painting is titled Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus).]

[Important Bird Area]

Can I see the New York, Stendhal, and Rilke tossups?

In this city the developer Richard Ravitch hosted a meeting at which Albert Shanker agreed to ask his union to invest 150 million dollars in bonds. This city delegated spending authority to the Municipal Assistance Corporation. Gerald Ford's threat to veto a bailout of this city led to the headline (*) "Ford to City: Drop Dead." A 1975 financial crisis rocked—for 10 points—what city more recently led by Michael Bloomberg?

Friedrich Nietzsche approved of this man's quip that one should "enter society with a duel." This author wrote about a man who falls in love with Madame de Chasteller in the unfinished novel Lucien Leuwen. A dedication to "the happy few" concludes this author's "chronicle of the 19th century," in which (*) Julien Sorel must choose between the army and the clergy. For 10 points—what Frenchman wrote The Red and the Black?

This poet's mother Phia dressed him as a girl until he was five years old. In his 20s, this poet worked as a secretary to the French sculptor Auguste Rodin. This man declared "every angel is terrifying" in a series of poems that begins (*) "who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angelic orders?" The book Letters to a Young Poet contains correspondence from—for 10 points—what German-language poet of the Duino Elegies?

[Important Bird Area]

Thanks for posting the other ones above! Also, could I see the Madame Butterfly tossup, the Chagall tossup, and the bonus part that included Donizetti? Thanks!

This character describes a warm breeze before telling her friends that she has obeyed the "summons of love" in the aria "Ancora un passo." She sings of her longing to see smoke on the horizon and to end three years of separation in (*) "Un bel di." This character names her child "Sorrow" after she is abandoned by Pinkerton. The maid Suzuki serves—for 10 points—what title character of a Giacomo Puccini opera set in Japan?

answer: Madame Butterfly or Madama Butterfly or Cio-Cio-San (do not accept or prompt on "M. Butterfly")

In one of this man's paintings, a book appears between a scarved woman and a cut-off scroll, below a man in green with a sack over his shoulder and a brownshirt looting the ark from a burning synagogue. A man with a scythe approaches an upside-down (*) violinist in a work by this man whose foreground shows a goat starting at a green-faced man. For 10 points—name this artist of the White Crucifixion and I and the Village.

For 10 points each—name these 19th-century Italian opera composers:

A. Figaro repeatedly sings his own name in the aria "Largo al factotum" from this composer's The Barber of Seville.

answer: Gioachino (Antonio) Rossini

B. This bel canto composer drew upon a tale by Sir Walter Scott in the opera Lucia di Lammermoor.

answer: Gaetano Donizetti (or Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti)

C. This man's Cavalleria rusticana, or Rustic Chivalry, ushered in the "realism" or verismo movement in Italian opera.

answer: Pietro Mascagni

[AGoodMan]

Can I see The Sun Also Rises?

[Important Bird Area]

This novel's protagonist expresses irritation after receiving a telegram in Spanish that means "I come Thursday." This novel begins by describing a Jewish man who "was once middleweight boxing champion at Princeton." Because of war injuries that have made him impotent, this novel's protagonist is shunned by (*) Lady Brett Ashley. Jake Barnes is the main character of—for 10 points—what novel by Ernest Hemingway?

[TylerV]

So just now hearing the Div II set, since it was played at Illinois State, I have some problems with the Tale of Genji tossup.

The lead-in gives the literal translation of mono no aware, the "pathos of things", and then gives some slight background information about the Kokugaku. My problems with this are as such:

First, I was taught mono no aware as the "impermanence of things," I understand that "pathos of things" is the literal translation but using a term with multiple, what I assume, commonly used translations as really your only clue for the lead-in doesn't strike me as a good idea.

Second, I may be remembering it wrong but I don't think the lead-in as written is correct. While it seems, according to wikipedia, that the Tale of Genji was the first to have the term mono no aware applied to it, it isn't the only work. In my class we had the term applied to the Pillow Book and the Manyoshu as well.

The two clues that follow immediately afterwards are also problematic. They first test "do you know that the work in question is Japanese?" followed up with "do you know the Japanese words for purple or blue", and then finally "do you know a work which has the characters Murasaki and Aoi."

At this point we are very nearly to the end of power and someone who read the book in its entirety, in the non-original Japanese, has nothing solid to buzz on.

The first "real" clue that the tossup offers is that the main character seduces his step-mother and it comes after power has ended. Further making this an issue, the tossup immediately goes to Aoi, a main character, because there is no longer space to differentiate knowledge.

I understand that the Tale of Genji is a hard work to write a tossup on. For most high school sets it is a quite difficult answerline, and for anything harder it is heavily clue studied. However this is not the way to do it.

In the game the tossup was heard, a finals match between two very good lit teams, the tossup went all the way to Aoi before there was a buzzer race. In the audience, both I and another member of the U of I team, who have taken a class that studied Tale of Genji for the better part of a month, were unable to power the tossup. At the Division II level that's a problem.

I know this comes off as a long-winded rant about a specific question but I constantly hear complaints about literature questions from my teammates and this is one of the few that I am qualified to pick apart.

[naan/steak-holding toll]

So just now hearing the Div II set, since it was played at Illinois State, I have some problems with the Tale of Genji tossup.

The lead-in gives the literal translation of mono no aware, the "pathos of things", and then gives some slight background information about the Kokugaku. My problems with this are as such:

First, I was taught mono no aware as the "impermanence of things," I understand that "pathos of things" is the literal translation but using a term with multiple, what I assume, commonly used translations as really your only clue for the lead-in doesn't strike me as a good idea.

Second, I may be remembering it wrong but I don't think the lead-in as written is correct. While it seems, according to wikipedia, that the Tale of Genji was the first to have the term mono no aware applied to it, it isn't the only work. In my class we had the term applied to the Pillow Book and the Manyoshu as well.

The two clues that follow immediately afterwards are also problematic. They first test "do you know that the work in question is Japanese?" followed up with "do you know the Japanese words for purple or blue", and then finally "do you know a work which has the characters Murasaki and Aoi."

At this point we are very nearly to the end of power and someone who read the book in its entirety, in the non-original Japanese, has nothing solid to buzz on.

The first "real" clue that the tossup offers is that the main character seduces his step-mother and it comes after power has ended. Further making this an issue, the tossup immediately goes to Aoi, a main character, because there is no longer space to differentiate knowledge.

Yeah, so I wrote this question. It was used in D1 and it was down-converted for D2. I have issues with your arguments about whether the cluing approach here was legitimate or not, since idea that clues that are not about plots and character aren't "real" is ridiculous.

The fact that Murasaki used a pseudonym is not insiginificant - and yeah, we talked about what her pseudonym means in class as well. Instead of writing using the basic plot points that come up in a zillion high school questions, this question used clues about the historical significance of the work and how it has been studied by others - the D1 question has a clue about a widely-reviewed recent translation by Dennis Washburn. Maybe you never talked about that in class, but we definitely talked about all the things in that tossup except the leadin in the Japanese classes I took, and every single one of those clues has been mentioned in the survey Japanese history books I've read that cover the time period.

Also the tossup says that the Tale of Genji is the "principle" example of mono no aware, and this is definitely true since it's definitely the book that kokugaku dudes talked about the most. As for pathos vs. impermanence - I've heard both, but NAQT has a character limit, so using the shorter word makes more sense.

Are these clues possibly a bit hard? Yes. Are they illegitimate, just you because didn't know them? No.

EDIT: I do think I could have improved this question by tying the analysis to some clearer plot details, to not screw people who didn't know the "secondary" clues.

[Auger recombination]

In packet 4 bonus 24 part B, the question is asking for thrust but gives lift as the answer

[jonah]

In packet 4 bonus 24 part B, the question is asking for thrust but gives lift as the answer

Thanks; I have fixed this.

[Fado Alexandrino]

The tossup on Keats drops "Ode to a Nightingale" way too early, like, ~5 words after power.

[Important Bird Area]

One of this author's poems concludes by describing a "bright torch, and a casement ope at night" to "let the warm Love in." Another poem by this author wishes for a "beaker full of the warm South" that would allow the speaker to "fade away" with the title (*) bird. Odes "to Psyche" and "to a Nightingale" were written by—for 10 points—what English Romantic who stated that "beauty is truth, truth beauty" in "Ode on a Grecian Urn"?

[On a lurgid bee]

May I please see the stress tossup? I believe it called stress an emotion which didn't seem quite right to me.

[Important Bird Area]

Experiencing this phenomenon leads to general adaptation syndrome, which usually involves activation of the HPA axis and, in many women, a release of CRF that promotes a "tend and befriend" response. An acute response to this emotion can cause hyperarousal, as cortisol is released in the (*) "fight or flight" response. For 10 points—what feeling of psychological pressure and strain is the 'S' in PTSD?

answer: stress(es) (accept post-traumatic stress disorder after "PTSD"; accept stressors; do not accept or prompt on "threat" or "fear" or "anger" or other specific types of stress)