Northern Kentucky Academic League
Varsity Packet – Week 1
-First Half1. This eight foot tall Greek statue was discovered in 1863 and it is believed to have resided above a
theater. It was found on an Ottoman island in the Aegean Sea. On display at the Louvre, what is this 2nd
century BC sculpture that depicts the goddess Nike but has lost its head and arms but has both wings?
Winged Victory of Samothrace
2. One branch of this religion views the Pali Canon as the most important collection of scriptures in this
religion. The three Pitakas explain, respectively, the rules by which monks must live, the words of the
religion’s founder, and last various commentaries and philosophy on the religion’s teachings. What is
this religion that developed in Northern India in the 5th century BC?
Buddhism
3. This scientist wrote such books as Africa in My Blood, In the Shadow of Man, and My Friends the Wild
Chimpanzees. Who is this British primatologist that is studied chimpanzees in and around Kenya?
(Jane) Goodall
4. When Clement Atlee was elected as Prime Minister in 1945, it was largely due to his far left leanings
toward this economic doctrine. Unlike communism which intends to eliminate the idea of social classes,
this school of thought focuses its attention on public ownership of manufacturing. What is this political
and economic philosophy in which the methods of production are publicly owned?
Socialism
5. Multiply the complex numbers two minus three i and four plus i.
Eleven Minus Ten i
6. This man wrote a play in which a group of girls become trapped in Thebes, unable to continue their
passage to Delphi. He also wrote of the wife of Jason who seeks revenge on her husband by murdering
their children. Who was this Ancient Greek author of The Trojan Women and Medea?
Euripides
7. Examples of this style of art include Perseus with the head of Medusa by Cellini and Madonna with
the Long Neck by Parmigianino. The works of El Greco exemplify this style. What is this period in the
history of art that occurred during the 16th century that often features figures with elongated necks?
Mannerism
8. It is believed that this compound first appeared in the fossil record via trilobites. It serves a similar
role for fungi as cellulose plays for plants. What is this long-chain polymer that composes the cell walls
of fungi and the exoskeletons of lobsters, crabs, and other crustaceans?
Chitin
9. Sixth in the line of presidential succession, as of May 2014, this office is held by Chuck Hagel, a former
Senator from Nebraska. What is this position in the president’s cabinet that was formed with the
dissolution of the position, Secretary of War?
Secretary of Defense
10. What is the value of u dot v if vector u equals eight, nine and vector v equals negative four, negative
five?
Negative Seventy-Seven
11. Symptoms caused by this viral condition include jaundice, an enlarged spleen, and a loss of appetite.
This disease comes in multiple varieties differentiated by the responsible virus with the one referred to
as “B” killing over one million people each year. What is this medical condition in which a person
experiences an inflamed liver?
Hepatitis
12. This musical texture exists when the same melody is being sung by multiple voices, each of which
produces their own individual variation of the melody. What is this musical term which is taken from
Greek words meaning “different sound”?
Heterophony
13. The only extant manuscript of this story also includes the poems Pearl, Purity, and Patience. One of
the title individuals turns out to be Bertilak and the lady of his castle is Morgan le Fay. What is this story
about two knights and a challenge called the “beheading game”?
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
14. This 1857 Supreme Court case ruled that African Americans could not hold United States citizenship,
whether they were free or slave, and thus had no right to bring a case to court. What is this case in
which a slave attempted to sue for his freedom when he was taken to a free state by his owners?
Dred Scott v. Sanford
15. Reciprocating the cube root of a number is equivalent to raising the number to what power?
Negaitve One-third
16. This carboxylic acid has the chemical formula c-2-h-4-o-h-c-o-o-h and was first isolated by Carl
Scheele. It is sometimes referred to as milk acid and is found in that liquid. What is this acid that is
created during anaerobic workouts and causes the soreness felt in muscles afterward?
Lactic Acid
17. This type of cell was discovered by Otto Friedrich Karl Deiters. The gaps between these cells are
known as synapses. What is this type of cell that has a dendrite, a soma, and a terminal and is located
within the brain?
Axon
18. The name of this type of musical work is taken from Greek words meaning someone who recites
poetry. Rachmaninoff created one of these works “on a Theme of Paganini.” What is this one-movement
work that has distinct parts as was the case in a song by Queen that was “Bohemian” and a piano
composition by George Gershwin that was “in Blue”?
Rhapsody
19. This character was the subject of many ballads that saw him square off with a monk, a potter, and
the Guy of Gisborne. Who is this character, possibly based on a historical figure that is best remembered
for stealing from the rich to distribute to the poor?
Robin Hood
20. Solve the following system of equations for x and y: x plus three y equals fifteen and x minus three y
equals negative three.
X equals six and Y equals three
21. It is this specific process that happens to Americium-241 in smoke detectors that creates the
situation whereby the smoke is detected. Quantum tunneling is the mechanism by which this form of
decay occurs. What is this type of nuclear decay in which a helium nucleus, consisting of two protons
and two neutrons are released?
Alpha Decay
22. In this ballet position of the arms, the dancer curves their arms into a position even with the belly
button in front of the body with the fingertips of each hand touching each other or only slightly
separated. What is this ordinal position that is the same in both the French and Russian schools of
ballet?
First Position
23. The overthrown Duke of Milan is trapped on an island alongside his daughter, Miranda. The title
event is conjured up by the former Duke, which brings his brother, Antonio, and the King of Naples,
Alonso, to the island via shipwreck. What is this William Shakespeare play, the plot of which is guided by
the hand of Prospero?
The Tempest
24. It has been theorized that this financial system would re-emerge in the case of worldwide
apocalypse and it has increased via websites such as craigslist. What is this system of directly exchanging
goods or services without the use of currency?
Barter (System)
25. X and Y vary inversely. X equals twenty-four when y equals two. Find the value of y when x equals
seven.
(X equals) forty-eight sevenths
26. The smallest organic compound in this group is the primary component in natural gas and its
presence in the atmosphere of another world would be a likely sign of life on the planet. What is this
group of hydrocarbons that consist of carbon atoms single bonded to hydrogen atoms such that there
are 2x plus 2 hydrogen atoms bonded to x carbon atoms?
Alkanes
27. This time period on the Muslim calendar is followed by Shawwal, the tenth month of the year. The
holiday Eid Al-Fitr marks the ending of this Islamic holy month. What is this month throughout which
Muslims fast from dawn until dusk?
Ramadan
28. This is the most expensive book ever sold at auction. The auction sold one of the eleven copies
remaining from the initial printing of this book in 1640. It contains a series of songs which were to be
sung in church. What was this first book to be published in the British Colonies in North America?
Bay Psalm Book
29. Consider the function f of x equals five x plus eleven and g of x equals six x minus seven. Simplify the
composite function f of g of x.
(f of g of x equals) 30x - 24
30. Flatlands and Flatbush are two of the original parishes in this borough that is located on the western
part of Long Island. What is this second largest and most populous borough of New York City which was
independent until 1898?
Brooklyn
31. This American composer created Two Fanfares for Orchestra, one of which was Tromba Lontana and
the other was Short Ride in a Fast Machine. He is sometimes referred to as a minimalist, other times a
post-minimalist. Who was this composer of Doctor Atomic about Robert Oppenheimer, On the
Transmigration of Souls in remembrance of the victims of the September 11th attacks, and the opera
Nixon in China?
(John) Adams
32. Pen name answer please. This French realist’s real name was Marie-Henri Beyle and in 1839 he
published one of his four completed novels, The Charterhouse of Parma. Who was this author that nine
years earlier wrote The Red and the Black?
Stendhal
33. This SI unit is equal to 1 kilogram meter per second squared. Named for a 17th century British
physicist that developed the second law of motion, what is the SI unit of force?
Newton
34. Express the following logarithmic expression as a single logarithm: 3 log 10 – log 5 + Log 3.
Log 600
35. This body of water is connected to the Arctic Ocean via the Nares Strait. Though the Vikings likely
traversed its waters, John Davis was the first recorded European to sail here. Located between
Greenland and an island of the same name, what is this Canadian bay?
Baffin Bay
-End of First Half-Second Half1. The Irish author of this serialized novel was accused of indecency after its printing. The titular object
was created by a character named Basil Hallward, it surprisingly ages, and is later destroyed by the man
depicted. What is this only novel by Oscar Wilde?
The Picture of Dorian Gray
2. It was this empire that opposed the Spartans in the Battle of Marathon. It was located in the Middle
East, especially around the area of modern-day Iran and lasted from 550 to 330 BC. What was this
empire that was led by such men as Cyrus the First, Xerxes the First, and Darius the First?
Persian Empire (accept: Achaemenid Empire)
3. Every time a sacrifice was made in the home of the Greeks, the first such offering was made to this
goddess. Her Roman equivalent was Vesta. The sister of Hera and Demeter, she was the daughter of
Cronus. Who was this Greek goddess of the hearth, home, and family?
Hestia
4. One of the two ways in which radio waves are transmitted for use by a radio is done by the
modulation of this attribute of the waves. What is this attribute of a periodic variable that is the
maximum distance of the wave above or below the average value of the periodic variable over one full
cycle?
Amplitude
5. Evaluate the tangent of 72 degrees multiplied by the cotangent of 72 degrees.
1
6. Professionally, this Frenchman was a practitioner of medicine who treated many victims of the
plague, but is better known for foretelling publications he made in 1555, 1557, and 1558, which
together were known as The Prophecies. Who was this 15th century occultist whose prophecies were
often written in the form of quatrains?
Nostradamus
7. If two conductor plates are held in parallel close together, this is given as the charge divided by the
voltage. The SI unit of this attribute is named after the physicist Michael Faraday, who greatly expanded
human understanding of electricity and magnetism. What is the ability of an object to store an electrical
charge?
Capacitance
8. This man’s novel, Maurice, was published posthumously in 1971. His first two novels, written in 1905
and 1907, were Where Angels Fear to Tread and The Longest Journey. Who was this English author
whose most successful works were the novels A Room with a View, Howard’s End, and his final novel, A
Passage to India?
(E. M.) Forester
9. This Island Records has won more than 20 Grammy Awards including their greatest selling album The
Joshua Tree. That album included the hits “With or Without You” and “Where the Streets Have No
Name.” Formed in Dublin 1976, what is this band that includes members Adam Blayton, Larry Mullen,
The Edge, and Paul David Hewson, who is also known as Bono?
U2
10. The horizontal asymptote of the rational equation y equals the quantity 6x squared minus 2x plus 5
close quantity over the quantity 3 x cubed plus 2x squared minus 5 x plus 6 approaches what y-value?
0
11. This author spent two years in solitary confinement over his role in the Nigerian Civil War and much
later he spent time in exile in the United States. Two of his important works were Kongi’s Harvest and
Death and the King’s Horseman. Who is this 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature winner, the author of The
Lion and the Jewel?
(Wole) Soyinka
12. Sir Arthur Eddington used one of these astronomical events to prove Albert Einstein’s General
Theory of Relativity as it provided him the only time in which a sufficiently massive body was blocked
out to allow for the viewing of light passing in its gravitation field. What is this event that only occurs on
Earth because we have a moon whose relative size in comparison to the sun is similar to its relative
distance from the Earth compared to our star?
Solar Eclipse
13. He played an important role in the Risorgimento, or unification of Italy, by serving the leading
general in many of the military campaigns that led to the country’s formation. Who was this Italian hero
that led his volunteer army, the Red Shirts, on the Expedition of the Thousand?
(Giuseppe) Garibaldi
14. Examples of this type of work include The New Republic by W.H. Mallock, Landor’s Imaginary
Conversations, and many of Plato’s works in which he presents Socrates as one of the speakers. What is
this theater and literary term describes a work presented as two or more people having a conversation?
Dialogue
15. Consider the rotation that maps the point (radical 3, 1) to the point (1 , radical 3). What is the
shortest angle through which this rotation was done?
30 degrees (accept: pi over 6 radians)
16. This play is sometimes performed in two separate parts, Millennium Approaches and Perestroika.
Main characters include Prior Walter, Joe Pitt, and Roy Cohn. What is this Tony Kushner play, the winner
of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and is subtitled A Gay Fantasia on National Themes?
Angels in America
17. This Russian author’s best known work had to be smuggled out of the Soviet Union for publication
and he was not allowed to accept the Nobel Prize in Literature, an award he received in 1958. Who is
this Russian author of Doctor Zhivago?
(Boris) Pasternak
18. Find the length of the hypotenuse of a right triangle with legs measuring 7 centimeters and 6
centimeters.
Radical 85 centimeters
19. This royal spent the final 23 years of his life in exile in the Netherlands where he died in 1941. He
succeeded his father and within two years had demanded the resignation of Otto Von Bismarck. Who
was this German Emperor that led that nation from 1888 until the monarchy was abolished following
the First World War?
(Kaiser) Wilhelm II
20. Spain and the Ottoman Empire are vying for control of the title island in this play that was written
toward the end of the 16th century. A wealthy man, left penniless by the island’s governor, he seeks
revenge against those that he perceives to have done him wrong. What is this Christopher Marlowe play
in which Barabas eventually becomes governor himself before being murdered?
The Jew of Malta
21. What is the area of an equilateral triangle with sides measuring 11 inches each?
121 radical 3 over 4 inches squared (or square inches)
22. One of this man’s most famous poem, “Richard Cory” was originally published in his The Children of
the Night, a collection published in 1897. Another narrative poem by this author was “Miniver Cheevy.”
Who was this American poet that won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry an astounding three times?
(Edwin Arlington) Robinson
23. This theory was first put forth by Roman Catholic priest George Lemaitre, who imagined Edwin
Hubble’s expansion of the universe in reverse across the scale of time. What is this theory for the
creation of the universe that is wide accepted as the method by which the universe was all but
confirmed when predictions for the cosmic microwave background radiation were measured to be
accurate?
Big Bang
24. This Pre-Colombian civilization’s descendants and culture thrives today in Southeastern Mexico,
Belize, and Honduras. Located on the Yucatan Peninsula and surrounding areas, what was this PreColombian civilization that built such cities as Tikal, Caracol, and Chichen Itza?
Maya
25. Foes of this monster include Rodan, King Ghidorah, and Mothra. Reptilian in appearance, he is a
kaiju that was created by Japanese directors Tomoyuki Tanaka and Ishiro Honda. Who is this title
character of many films including a 2014 version in which his existence is a military secret?
Godzilla
26. A circle has a radius of 10 feet. What is the area of a 72-degree sector of the circle?
20 pi square feet (or feet squared)
27. This novel is about a young man fighting on the side of the Second Spanish Republic during the
Spanish Civil War. That young man, Robert Jordan, is assumed to die during the war as the novel ends
with him, mortally wounded, while lying in wait for an oncoming offensive from the fascists. What is this
Ernest Hemingway novel?
For Whom the Bell Tolls
28. An extreme case of this process has occurred on Venus resulting in extra barometric pressure and
heat on the planet’s surface. What is this effect whereby certain compounds in the Earth’s atmosphere
prevent the escape of heat from the planet?
Greenhouse Effect
29. This man was hired by Philip of Macedon to educate his son and served as his tutor for over thirty
years. Unfortunately, scientists and the world at large, held onto many of this man’s beliefs about the
world for the next 1700 years, setting mankind back intellectually. Who was this Greek philosopher that
created the school known as The Lyceum after himself being a student of Plato?
Aristotle
30. The motto of this institution is Veritas, which is Latin for truth. It was founded in 1636 and named
after the clergyman that became its first benefactor. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, what is this
institute of higher learning, the first university to be founded in what would become the United States?
Harvard (University)
31. Approximately sixty-eight percent of the universe’s combined matter and energy is referred to by
this two word term. Its presence was originally theorized by Albert Einstein who introduced it as his
cosmological constant. What is this theorized pressure on space and time and that is resulting in the
expansion of the universe?
Dark Energy
32. Examples of this type of literature include The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope and many of the
works of Jonathon Swift. What is this genre of literature in which something or someone is ridiculed?
Satire
33. What is the slope of a line passing through the points (-5, 8) and (-8, 20)?
-4
34. Principal dancers in this ballet troupe include Patricia McBride, Allegra Kent, and Mikhail
Baryshnikov. It was this troupe that was produced the most famous production of The Nutcracker in the
United States. What was this ballet troupe that developed out of the American Ballet and was founded
by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Lincoln Kirstein in 1948?
New York City Ballet
35. This man developed the Share Our Wealth program in which he wanted to use a tax on the total
amount of assets a person or company had each year to tax them as a method of wealth distribution.
Assassinated in 1935 by Carl Weiss. Who was this Louisiana Senator that was widely known by the
nickname “Kingfish”?
(Huey) Long
-End of Second Half-