2020 FLopen - Specific Question Discussion

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reindeer
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Re: Specific Question Discussion

Post by reindeer »

I enjoyed a lot of the question ideas in this! Sadly after 11 hours of reading I don’t remember most of it very well, but at a minimum I enjoyed the “apothecaries”, “whales” and “matchbox” tossups, and the linguistics was outstanding across the board.

The “pop art” tossup mentioned a painting (Pauline Boty’s “Bum”) that "showed a women’s bare ass”. I realize this is an accurate description of the painting, and that it’s normal for sets at this level to handle mature/explicit topics. But this wording is crude in a completely gratuitous way—there are so many other options available to the writer, and I don't think this should have been the choice. It was jarring and, honestly, kind of alienating. I think it's good to keep in mind that sets are both played and read by people with varying comfort levels when it comes to language and topics like this, and would love to see these kinds of questions written with more care to the diversity of the potential audience.
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TaylorH
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Re: Specific Question Discussion

Post by TaylorH »

The Hands Resist Him wrote: Sat Jan 09, 2021 11:46 pm Could I see the bonus part about rock edicts cluing from Ashoka? Our team answered "steles" instead, which I think should at least be prompted, although I might be missing something.
The question was:

12. The western movement of the Xiongnu confederacy pushed these people south, which in turn pushed the Sacae into the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom. For 10 points each:
[h] Name these Tocharian-speaking nomads who, along with the Wusun, were visited by the Han diplomat Zhang Qian, who reported on their one hundred thousand horse archers.
ANSWER: Yuezhi [accept Greater Yuezhi or Lesser Yuezhi; prompt on, but DO NOT REVEAL, Kushans]
[m] The Yuezhi eventually emigrated southeast and formed this Silk Road empire that encompassed northern India and the Tarim Basin. The conversion of this empire’s leader Kanishka was largely responsible for the spread of Buddhism in the 2nd century CE.
ANSWER: Kushan Empire [or Kushana]
[e] Much of the known dynastic history of the Kushan rulers comes from a monumental one of these works in the town of Rabatak. Ashoka the Great promulgated a series of “edicts” in this form.
ANSWER: rock inscription [accept Rabatak Inscription; accept relief sculpture or bas-relief; accept Rock Edicts; prompt on sculpture]
<Ancient History, TH>

"Steles" and probably several other answers are certainly correct for the second clue: I will expand this answerline by the next mirror. Thanks for noting this.
reindeer wrote: Sun Jan 10, 2021 8:36 pm I enjoyed a lot of the question ideas in this! Sadly after 11 hours of reading I don’t remember most of it very well, but at a minimum I enjoyed the “apothecaries”, “whales” and “matchbox” tossups, and the linguistics was outstanding across the board.

The “pop art” tossup mentioned a painting (Pauline Boty’s “Bum”) that "showed a women’s bare ass”. I realize this is an accurate description of the painting, and that it’s normal for sets at this level to handle mature/explicit topics. But this wording is crude in a completely gratuitous way—there are so many other options available to the writer, and I don't think this should have been the choice. It was jarring and, honestly, kind of alienating. I think it's good to keep in mind that sets are both played and read by people with varying comfort levels when it comes to language and topics like this, and would love to see these kinds of questions written with more care to the diversity of the potential audience.
I'm glad you enjoyed those other academic questions and the linguistic question! I'm happy to know the expanded social science and these more "out there" OAc topics were fun to hear about.

With regards to that pop art clue: you are totally correct, I should have phrased that clue in a less crass way. My apologizes. I will revise the clue to be more tactful and less jarring by the next mirror. Thank you for bringing this up.
Last edited by TaylorH on Mon Jan 11, 2021 5:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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naan/steak-holding toll
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Re: Specific Question Discussion

Post by naan/steak-holding toll »

The western movement of the Xiongnu confederacy pushed these people south, which in turn pushed the Sacae into the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom. For 10 points each:
[h] Name these Tocharian-speaking nomads who, along with the Wusun, were visited by the Han diplomat Zhang Qian, who reported on their one hundred thousand horse archers.
An extremely pedantic point - we have no idea whether the Yuezhi spoke the languages that are designated "Tocharian," which in turn is simply a convention based on the use of the term "Tokharoi" by ancient Greek authors. The idea that the Yuezhi spoke Tocharian, in the sense of the Tocharian family of Indo-European languages, is a reasonable conjecture, but most surviving inscriptions from the states founded by the Yuezhi (namely the Kushan empire) are written in variants of Greek and Sogdian. The bonus also seems to (incorrectly) imply that only the Wusun, Xiongnu, and Yuezhi were visited by Zhang Qian.

I also may have misheard the "Carthage" tossup but I heard the phrase "non-Athenian Sacred Band" which narrowed the answerspace down to Thebes, Carthage, or "maybe there's some other city with a Sacred Band" for me. I'm guessing this was either written as "non-Theban" or meant to be?
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Re: Specific Question Discussion

Post by VSCOelasticity »

naan/steak-holding toll wrote: Mon Jan 11, 2021 3:13 pm I also may have misheard the "Carthage" tossup but I heard the phrase "non-Athenian Sacred Band" which narrowed the answerspace down to Thebes, Carthage, or "maybe there's some other city with a Sacred Band" for me. I'm guessing this was either written as "non-Theban" or meant to be?
You misheard or something, because the tossup is
Already satisfied with having restored their authority west of the river Halycus, this city-state abandoned Mamercus of Catane (“kah-TAH-nee”) after his loss near the river Abolus. At a battle near Entella, a thunderstorm turned the Crimisus river into a torrent, causing almost all of the members of this non-Theban city-state’s Sacred Band to drown. In an account of this city-state, Cleitarchus describes the “sardonic laughter” of sacrifices burned alive in bronze braziers to curry favor with Cronos. This city-state provided naval support at the Battle of Alalia because it had forged an alliance with Caere (“SEE-reh”) and other (*) Etruscan cities under Mago I. Tanit and Ba’al Hammon were worshipped in this city-state’s children-sacrificing tophets. Hanno the Navigator was a denizen of this city-state. For 10 points, name this Phoenician city-state in modern-day Tunisia.
ANSWER: Carthage [or Carthago; or Kart-hadasht]
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Re: Specific Question Discussion

Post by naan/steak-holding toll »

VSCOelasticity wrote: Tue Jan 12, 2021 12:10 am
naan/steak-holding toll wrote: Mon Jan 11, 2021 3:13 pm I also may have misheard the "Carthage" tossup but I heard the phrase "non-Athenian Sacred Band" which narrowed the answerspace down to Thebes, Carthage, or "maybe there's some other city with a Sacred Band" for me. I'm guessing this was either written as "non-Theban" or meant to be?
You misheard or something, because the tossup is
Already satisfied with having restored their authority west of the river Halycus, this city-state abandoned Mamercus of Catane (“kah-TAH-nee”) after his loss near the river Abolus. At a battle near Entella, a thunderstorm turned the Crimisus river into a torrent, causing almost all of the members of this non-Theban city-state’s Sacred Band to drown. In an account of this city-state, Cleitarchus describes the “sardonic laughter” of sacrifices burned alive in bronze braziers to curry favor with Cronos. This city-state provided naval support at the Battle of Alalia because it had forged an alliance with Caere (“SEE-reh”) and other (*) Etruscan cities under Mago I. Tanit and Ba’al Hammon were worshipped in this city-state’s children-sacrificing tophets. Hanno the Navigator was a denizen of this city-state. For 10 points, name this Phoenician city-state in modern-day Tunisia.
ANSWER: Carthage [or Carthago; or Kart-hadasht]
Figured as much - glad the question is correct! In any case I liked this one a lot.
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Re: Specific Question Discussion

Post by AGoodMan »

I don't think it's right to call "Arirang" the "Korean national anthem" -- there is no unified Korean government and neither North or South Korea's official national anthem is "Arirang." My understanding is that the song is of similar stature to "Lift Every Voice and Sing" in Korea but without any official designation.
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