NAQT You Gotta Know Lists
You Gotta Know These Economists
1.
Adam Smith (1723-1790) Scottish philosopher and economist. Though he wrote on nearly
every subject of moral and social philosophy, he is basically remembered as the author of An
Inquiry into the nature and causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776) and as the creator of the
metaphor of the "invisible hand." This work more-or-less single-handedly founded the
Classical school of economics.
2.
Milton Friedman (1912- ) American economist. Conservative thinker famous for his
advocacy of monetarism (an revision of the quantity theory of money) in works like A
Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960 (1963). he is strongly associated with the
ideals of laissez-faire government policy.
3.
Karl Marx (1818-1883) German economist, historian, and social philosopher. Marx's
principal contribution to economic thought was extending the labor theory of value to its
logical conclusion, his theory of surplus value. This theory, along with his defense of
economic materialism, appeared in Das Kapital (1867, 1885, 1894).
4.
John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) English economist. He is most famous for The
General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936), which judged most of classical
economic analysis to be a special case (hence "General Theory") and argued that the best way
to deal with prolonged recessions was deficit spending.
5.
David Ricardo (1772-1823) English economist. Ricardo is best known for Principles of
Political Economy and Taxation, which introduced more-or-less modern notions of
comparative advantage and its theoretical justification for unfettered international trade. He
also put forth the so-called iron law of wages.
6.
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908- ) Canadian economist. Galbraith probably wouldn't
make this list if contributions to economic theory were all that mattered; as it is, his liberal
popular writings like The Affluent Society and The New Industrial State (with their emphasis
on public service and the limitations of the marketplace) ensure his coming up again and
again.
7.
Francois Quesnay (1694-1774) French economist. Quesnay was the undisputed leader of
the Physiocrats, the first systematic school of economic thought. Among its tenets were the
economic and moral righteousness of laissez-faire policies and the notion that land was the
ultimate source of all wealth.
8.
Alfred Marshall (1842-1924) English economist. Marshall's magnum opus, 1890's
Principles of Economics, introduced the notions of consumer surplus, quasi-rent, demand
curves, and elasticity, all fundamental concepts in introductory macro- and microeconomics.
9.
Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929) American economist (of Norwegian heritage). Veblen is
primarily remembered for his The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) that introduced
phrases like "conspicuous consumption." He is remembered for likening the ostentation of
the rich to the Darwinian proofs-of-virility found in the animal kingdom.
10. John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) British economist and social philosopher. Mill is mainly
known today (in economic circles) for his work extending the ideas of Ricardo in Essays on
Some Unsettled Questions of Political Economy (1844) (for example, the relationship
between profits and wages) but also for exhaustively examining the necessity of private
property in his Principles of Political Economy (1848).
Do you want another opinion? The San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank has its own list of the Great
Economists to which you can compare and contrast. With respect to quiz bowl, we will add that Irving
Fisher is probably underrepresented in quiz bowl with respect to his importance. We were surprised
to see Thomas Malthus on their list as his lasting contributions to economic thought are not thought
to be very great; that said, he caused an enormous contemporary stir with his pessimistic predictions
of omnipresent starvation in 1798's Essay on Population which does come up quite frequently.
You Gotta Know These Kings of France
1.
Louis XIV (1638-1715, r. 1643-1715) House of Bourbon. Louis XIV's reign is often cited as
the best historical example of an absolute monarchy. Louis led France against most of the
rest of Europe to win the throne of Spain for his grandson (the War of the Spanish
Succession). He championed classical art, religious orthodoxy, and instituted a great
program of building throughout France. Known as the "Sun King," his 72-year-reign is the
second longest in recorded history.
2.
Louis XIII (1601-1643, r. 1610-1643) House of Bourbon. Sometimes working with his chief
minister, Cardinal Richelieu, and sometimes against, Louis XIII turned France into the preeminent European power during his reign. This was largely achieved via French victories in
the Thirty Years' War. The Three Musketeers is set in the early years of his reign.
3.
Francis I (1494-1547, r. 1515-1547) House of Valois. Francis's early military victories (like
the Battle of Marignano), his lavish court, and his support of luminaries like Leonardo da
Vinci augured a splendid reign. His rivalry with Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire spelled
his doom, however. He was captured in battle in 1525 and held for a humiliating ransom.
Wars continued after his release, but bankruptcy and religious strife laid France low.
4.
Henry IV (1553-1610, r. 1589-1610) Founder of the house of Bourbon. Henry, the king of
Navarre, became the heir to the throne when Henry III's brother died in 1584. After fighting
Catholic opposition in the War of the Three Henries, he renounced Protestantism and
accepted Catholicism in order to enter Paris and become king. With the help of Maximilien
Sully he erased the national debt and removed much of the religious strife with the Edict of
Nantes (1598).
5.
Philip II (1165-1223, r. 1179-1223) House of Capet. Philip was the first of the great Capetian
kings of France. Fighting and negotiating against Henry II, Richard I, and John of England,
Philip won back Normandy, Brittany, Anjou, and other territories. He also took part in the
famous Third Crusade (with Richard I and Frederick Barbarossa) and made use of the
Albigensian crusade to pave the way for the annexation of Languedoc by his successor.
6.
Charles VIII (1470-1498, r. 1483-1498) House of Valois. Charles' short reign is remarkable
for the enormous cost in men and money of his Italian campaign but more so for the number
of his successors that to followed his catastrophic lead. Charles was motivated by a desire to
govern Naples, which he had theoretically inherited. He died before he could surpass or
absolve his disastrous first campaign with another.
7.
Louis IX (1214-1270, r. 1226-1270) House of Capet. Louis led the Seventh Crusade that
ended in military disaster, but after his ransoming remained in the Holy Land to successfully
negotiate for what he couldn't win. He returned to Europe with his reputation intact and
negotiated a peace with England that saw Henry III become his vassal. He stabilized the
French currency and is generally held to have reduced corruption in the kingdom. He died
leading a crusade against Tunisia. St. Louis is the only canonized king of France.
8.
Louis VIII (1187-1226, r. 1223-1226) House of Capet. Though he reigned for only three
years, Louis' contributions to the rise of French power were enormous. He annexed
Languedoc and captured Poitou from England. Perhaps more importantly, he established the
systems of appanages (land grants) which replaced the older, local nobles with barons who
owed their fiefs to the crown. This allowed for the subsequent rise in French royal (and
national) power.
9.
Charles V (1338-1380, r. 1364-1380) House of Capet. Charles had an inauspicious start
(before his reign even began) with having to ransom his father, John II, from England for
three million crowns and most of southwestern France. Later, with military advisor Bertrand
du Guesclin, he recaptured almost all of that territory. He also concluded alliances with
Portugal, Spain, and Flanders, reorganized the army, and restructured the collection of taxes
while leading France's recovery from the devastation of the early period of the Hundred
Years' War.
10. Henry III (1551-1589, r. 1574-1589) House of Valois. Henry's reign was suffused with blood,
at first because of the continuous Wars of Religion that pitted Catholics against Huguenots,
but later because of the struggles that arose when it became clear that he was going to be the
last of the Valois line. The War of the Three Henries broke out after his brother died and the
then-Protestant Henry of Navarre (later Henry IV) became heir, leading the Catholic Holy
League to strike out of fear for its interests. Henry III was assassinated by a crazed friar in
1589.
You Gotta Know These Footballers (Soccer Players)
1.
Pelé (Edson Arantes do Nascimento) (1940-) (Brazil-Forward) Also known as "the
Black Pearl", Pelé led the Brazilian national team to three World Cup victories in 1958, 1962,
and 1970 (though he was injured for most of '62 finals) and to permanent possession of the
Jules Rimet Trophy. In his professional and international career, he played in 1,363 matches
and scored 1,282 goals. He made his professional debut with Brazil's Santos in 1956 and
played with them until 1974. In 1975, he came out of retirement to promote the game in the
United States by starring for the NASL's New York Cosmos, earning him 1976 NASL MVP
honors; his retirement game in 1977 at Giants Stadium against his old club Santos drew over
75,000 people, the largest crowd to see a soccer match in the U.S. before the 1984 Olympics.
He later became Brazil's Minister of Sport and, in 1999, the National Olympic Committees
named Pelé the IOC's Athlete of the Century, despite having never partaken in an Olympic
Games.
2.
Franz Beckenbauer (1945-) (West Germany-Sweeper) Nicknamed "Der Kaiser,"
Beckenbauer invented the position of attacking sweeper, helping him to become the only
man ever to win the World Cup as both team captain and as manager (1974 as a player, 1990
as manager). Beckenbauer's first World Cup saw him help West Germany to the 1966 World
Cup Final, where they lost to host England 4-2 at Wembley Stadium. 1972 saw West
Germany win the European Championship and Beckenbauer named European Footballer of
the Year. Two years later, Beckenbauer had one of the single greatest football years in
history, captaining FC Bayern München to the Bundesliga (German First Division),
European Cup (now known as the UEFA Champions League) championships and West
Germany to the World Cup, the nation's second triumph. In 1976, he left Germany for the
NASL's New York Cosmos, where he teamed with Pelé and was named 1977 NASL MVP. He
now serves as the FC Bayern München club president.
3.
Mia Hamm (1972-) (United States-Forward) The youngest American, male or female, ever
to play for a U.S. National team, Hamm was a member of both the 1991 and 1999 Womens'
World Cup Champions and the 1996 Olympic Gold Medal winning side. A UNC-Chapel Hill
alum (BS 1994, Political Science), and two-time Hermann Trophy winner and Missouri
Athletic Club Player of the Year winner (1992 & 1993), her #19 was retired by the Tar Heels,
where she won 4 NCAA titles. In international play, she holds the all-time international
scoring record, for men and women, when she scored career goal 108 on May 16, 1999,
against Brazil in Orlando. One of People's 50 Most Beautiful People in 1997, the largest
building on Nike's Corporate Campus in Beaverton, Oregon, is named for her.
4.
Sir Stanley Matthews (1915-2000) (England-Winger) Known as "Wizard of the Dribble,"
the winger debuted for England as a 19 year-old, and closed his international career in 1956
at the age of 41, when he was named the first-ever European Footballer of the Year. Though
he played for unfashionable northern first division clubs like Blackpool and Stoke City, he
was the most popular player of his era. In the 1953 F.A. Cup final against Bolton at Wembley,
thereafter always called "The Matthews Final," Matthews lead a rousing comeback from a 3-1
deficit with 30 minutes remaining, setting up three goals. He is also one of the most
gentlemanly players in history, having never been sent off with a red card during his entire
career. In 1961, he became the first English footballer to be knighted. In 1963, at the age of
48, he helped Stoke City back into the FA First Division by scoring the goal that clinched
promotion. He retired, quite reluctantly, from the game in 1965 at the age of 50.
5.
Diego Maradona (1960-) (Argentina-Forward) The oft-controversial strike helped
Argentina to the 1986 World Cup Championship with two amazing goals against England in
the semi-finals, including the infamous "Hand of God" goal, in which Maradona directed the
ball into the net with his hand illegally, undetected by officials on the pitch. A two-time South
American Player of the Year (1978 and 1979) before joining FC Barcelona in 1982 after the
World Cup in Spain, in 1984, he moved on to FC Napoli, where he would help his side claim
two Serie A Championships and a UEFA Cup win in 1989. He was banned for failing a drug
test in 1991 and by the time he returned, he was no longer his old playing self, though he did
lead a stirring performance for Argentina at the 1994 World Cup in the U.S., before being
banned again for failing another drug test during the tournament. Maradona finally retired
in 1997 from his original team, Argentina's Boca Juniors.
6.
Johann Cryuff (1947-) (The Netherlands-Midfielder) A stringent believer that "the game
should be played beautifully," Cryuff helped usher in the system of "total football" into the
world game, in which all positions should be equally willing and adept to play all portions of
the game. Despite being both gawky and a chain-smoker, Cryuff helped Ajax Amsterdam to
three European Cups (now known as the UEFA Champions' League) as well as being named
European Footballer of the Year in 1971 and 1973. His greatest international success came in
1974 when he helped the "Orange" to their first appearance in the World Cup Final, where
they lost to West Germany in Munich. "The Orange" would also make the 1978 World Cup
Finals, this time without Cryuff, who retired from international play after the qualification
stage. This was followed by a brief stint in the NASL, where he earned 1979 NASL MVP
honors. In 1984, at the age of 37, he helped Ajax's arch-rival Feyenoord to its first Dutch
league title in a decade before moving into coaching at former club FC Barcelona, where he
led the team to four Spanish League titles and a European Cup in a nine-year stint.
7.
Michel Platini (1955-) (France-Midfielder) Arguably France's greatest footballer, this
midfielder won three straight European Footballer of the Year Awards beginning in 1983. He
led Italian side Juventus FC to success in both Serie A (Italy's First Division) and UEFA
(European) competitions. In 1985, he led Serie A in scoring for a third straight year, a unique
achievement as well as leading Juventus to its only European Cup triumph, the tragic game
at Heysel (Belgium) against Liverpool in which 39 Italian supporters were fatally crushed in
the stands. He also led his French national side to triumph in the Euro 1984, setting the Euro
scoring record. After his retirement in 1987, he was instrumental in organizing France's bid
for the 1998 World Cup.
8.
Ronaldo (Ronaldo Luiz Nazario da Lima) (1976-) (Brazil-Forward) Currently with
Inter Milan of Italy's Serie A, Ronaldo was twice World Footballer of the Year, winning those
honors in 1997 (while with FC Barcelona) and 1998 (with Inter). While he was on the Brazil
squad that won World Cup `94 in the US, he was expected to star in the 1998 World Cup,
where he helped Brazil to the Finals, winning the Golden Ball Award as tournament MVP.
That MVP performance was tarnished slightly by a poor showing (one blamed by the media
on a supposed all-night session of "Tomb Raider" on PlayStation) that kept Brazil from its
fifth title. Injuries have plagued him over the past few seasons, but, when healthy, he is still
among the world's elite players.
9.
David Beckham (1975-)(England-Midfielder) Midfielder for Manchester United FC, known
as much for his talent as his marriage to Victoria Adams, better known as "Posh Spice." One
of the FA Premiership's finest midfielders, he was named runner-up for both the 1999
European Footballer of the Year and the 1999 World Footballer of the Year. He also helped
guide Manchester United to the rare 1999 "Treble," helping the Red Devils secure the FA Cup
(Open Cup competition for all English sides), Carling FA Premiership Title (regular season
champion of England's top division) and UEFA Champions' League (championship for
national league champions of UEFA countries). These three titles made ManU only the
fourth team (and first English team) to accomplish the feat. His results with the English
national side have been mixed, including his now infamous booking against rival Argentina
in World Cup '98, and his obscene gesture to English fans at the opening game of Euro 2000.
10. Zinedine Zidane (1972-) (France) Known the world over as "Zizou," the 1998 World and
European Footballer of the Year as an all-around player is France's midfield. Zidane was a
critical player in the World Cup '98 (he scored a pair of header goals in the final against
Brazil) and Euro 2000 (a game-winning overtime penalty kick in the semi-finals against
Portugal), both triumphs for the French national side. Like fellow French legend Platini,
Zizou plays for Italian side Juventus, where he has helped the Turin side win two Serie A
titles.
In as much as that football is the world game, we readily acknowledge that this list is by no means a
ten greatest players list, nor is it a ten most influential. In 1998, FIFA named its "Team of the
Century," which can be found at: http://www.infoplease.com/ipsa/A0765272.html. As five of the 11
players on the list are also on this list, we feel comfortable with those five along with four modern
players and the first English player to be knighted.
You Gotta Know These Organelles
The word "organelle" comes from the Latin for "little organ," which fits their function as organized
structures found within cells that allow the cell to survive.
1.
Nucleus The nucleus is the "command central" of the cell because it contains almost all of
the cell's DNA, which encodes the information needed to make all the proteins that the cell
uses. The DNA appears as chromatin through most of the cell cycle but condenses to form
chromosomes when the cell is undergoing mitosis. Commonly seen within the nucleus are
dense bodies called nucleoli, which contain ribosomal RNA. In eukaryotes, the nucleus is
surrounded by a selectively-permeable nuclear envelope.
2.
Ribosomes Ribosomes are the machines that coordinate protein synthesis, or translation.
They consist of several RNA and protein molecules arranged into two subunits. Ribosomes
read the messenger RNA copy of the DNA and assemble the appropriate amino acids into
protein chains.
3.
Mitochondria The "mighty mitos" are the powerhouses of the cell. Mitochondria are
double-membrane-bound organelles that are the site of respiration and oxidative
phosphorylation, processes that produce energy for the cell in the form of ATP. The inner
membrane of a mitochondrion forms folds called cristae [KRIS-tee], which are suspended in
a fluid called the matrix. The mitochondrial matrix contains DNA and ribosomes.
4.
Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) The ER is a network of tube-like membranes continuous
with the nuclear envelope that comes in rough (with ribosomes) and smooth (without
ribosomes) varieties. In the ER, proteins undergo modifications and folding to yield the final,
functional protein structures.
5.
Golgi Apparatus The stack of flattened, folded membranes that forms the Golgi apparatus
acts as the "post office of the cell." Here proteins from the ribosomes are stored, chemically
modified, "addressed" with carbohydrate tags, and packaged in vesicles for delivery.
6.
Lysosomes Lysosomes are membrane-bound organelles that contain digestive enzymes
that break down proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, and nucleic acids. They are important in
processing the contents of vesicles taken in from outside the cell. It is crucial to maintain the
integrity of the lysosomal membranes because the enzymes they contain can digest cellular
components as well.
7.
Chloroplasts Found only in plants and certain protists, the chloroplast contains the green
pigment chlorophyll and is the site of photosynthesis. Like the mitochondrion, a chloroplast
is a double-membrane-bound organelle, and it has its own DNA and ribosomes in the
stroma. Chloroplasts contain grana, which are stacks of single membrane structures called
thylakoids on which the reactions of photosynthesis occur.
8.
Vacuoles Found mainly in plants and protists, vacuoles are liquid-filled cavities enclosed by
a single membrane. They serve as storage bins for food and waste products. Contractile
vacuoles are important for freshwater protists to rid their cells of excess water that
accumulates because of salt imbalance with the environment.
9.
Cilia/Flagella Cilia and flagella are important organelles of motility, which allow the cell to
move. Flagella are long, whip-like structures, while cilia are short hair-like projections. Both
contain a 9 + 2 arrangement of microtubules in cross section and are powered by molecular
motors of kinesin and dynein molecules.
10. Centrioles Not found in plant cells, centrioles are paired organelles with nine sets of
microtubule triplets in cross section. They are important in organizing the microtubule
spindle needed to move the chromosomes during mitosis.
You Gotta Know These Revolutionary War Generals
1.
Benedict Arnold Volunteering for service following the Battle of Lexington, he joined
Ethan Allen in the attack on Fort Ticonderoga. Appointed by Washington to capture Quebec,
he was severely wounded in the failed December 1775 assault that also saw the death of
General Richard Montgomery. Arming a flotilla on Lake Champlain, he attacked the British
forces at Valcour Island, earning accolades, perhaps at the cost of the support of other
officers. Passed over for promotion, Washington personally persuaded him not to resign.
Promoted following his defense of Danbury, he again considered resignation, but won victory
at Ft. Stanwix, and commanded advance battalions at Saratoga, being wounded in the fight.
Sent to command Philadelphia, he lived extravagantly among Loyalists, and skirted several
regulations to raise money, prompting investigations. After marrying Peggy Shippen, he
made overtures to the British, alerting them to a plan to invade Canada, and planning to
betray his expected command of West Point. When his contact, Major John Andre was
captured, he escaped. Later, as part of the British army he raided New London, Connecticut,
and led several raids on Virginia.
2.
John Burgoyne "Gentleman Johnny," as he was known due to his cultural tastes
(Burgoyne was also a playwright), he began his Revolutionary War career under Gage,
returning to England after ineffectiveness in 1774-5. Sent to reinforce Canada, he formulated
a plan to isolate New England, with the help of Barry St. Leger and William Howe. The plan
worked as far as capturing Fort Ticonderoga, but met resistance when he sent his Hessians to
attack Bennington. Exhausted, his troops met trouble at Saratoga, being repulsed at
Freedman's Farm, and being forced to surrender after Bemis Heights. Paroled on condition
he returned to England, Burgoyne was later appointed commander-in-chief of Ireland.
3.
Charles Cornwallis, First Marquess of Cornwallis An aristocrat and ensign in 1756,
he fought in the battle of Minden, and by the end of the Seven Years' War, he was a captain.
Made aide-de-camp to George III, he made colonel, and was promoted to major general
before being sent to America. After a failed assault on Charleston, he served under Sir Henry
Clinton in the battle of Long Island, but made his mark in fighting at Manhattan and pursued
Washington across the Hudson, being outmaneuvered by Washington at Princeton (January
3, 1777). Following this defeat he directed the main attack on Brandywine Creek, and
reinforcing Germantown, as part of the plan to capture Philadelphia. Promoted to second in
command under Clinton after the Philadelphia campaign, he led the Battle of Monmouth
before returning home to attend his sick wife. Sent south in 1780 to capture Charleston, he
bested Horatio Gates at Camden (N.C.) and Nathaniel Greene at Guilford Courthouse, the
latter a pyrrhic victory which likely led to his defeat in attempts to contain Lafayette in
Virginia. Following this, he occupied Yorktown in August 1781, where he was surrounded by
American and French forces, and forced to surrender. Following the war, he was appointed
governor-general of India, and proved to be a capable administrator.
4.
Horatio Gates Wounded in the disastrous French and Indian War attack on Fort
Duquesne, it was there he first met George Washington. Recommended by Washington to be
adjutant general of the army at the outbreak of revolution, he organized the army around
Boston into an effective force. Promoted to major general in 1776, he was assigned to
command troops in New York originally intended to invade Canada. Briefly put in charge of
Philadelphia, he then directed the defense of New York against Burgoyne's invasion attempt,
leading to victory at Saratoga. Following this he became involved in the Conway cabal, an
attempt to replace Washington, which led to coldness between the two. Placed in command
of the South over Washington's objections by Congress, he tried to raise adequate forces, but
lost the battle of Camden to Cornwallis, and was replaced by Nathaniel Greene. Washington
then accepted Gates back as his deputy, a position he held until the end of the war.
5.
Sir Guy Carleton Irish-born, he led grenadiers across the Plains of Abraham in the 1759
siege of Quebec under his close friend General Wolfe. He entered the war as second in
command to Thomas Gage before taking command after Gage's 1775 recall. Carleton then
directed British troops from Canada to Boston after the Battle of Concord, resulting in a
revolt. Carleton then repulsed efforts by Montgomery and Benedict Arnold to capture
Montreal and Quebec, routing a second attempt by Arnold, by defeating an American naval
buildup on Lake Champlain. Following this, he attempted to support Burgoyne's failed plan
to isolate New England. Brought back to Britain to govern Armagh in Ireland in 1777, he sat
out all but the end of the war, returning in 1782 as commander-in-chief after Cornwallis'
surrender.
6.
Nathanael Greene A prominent Rhode Island politician prior to the revolution, he raised a
militia company but was not elected their captain due to his partial lameness. Following his
work in the siege of Boston, he marched his army to Long Island, where they aided in the
battles around New York. Following the loss of Fort Washington, Greene led forces into
victory at the Battle of Trenton, and then again distinguished himself by protecting
Washington's force at the Battle of Brandywine. Greene then led the main force at
Germantown, and led the evacuation of positions along the Delaware River in fall 1777. The
next year, Greene's logistical talents led Washington to appoint him quartermaster general, a
position he only accepted if he were allowed to retain field troops. He then led those troops as
the right wing in the Battle of Monmouth. The quartermaster general position led to conflicts
with the Continental Congress, and Greene resigned in 1780. Appointed to command to
replace the traitor Benedict Arnold, he was sent south following Gates' loss at Camden.
Joining with Daniel Morgan, he retreated from Cornwallis' forces for two months until a
crippling counterattack at Guilford Courthouse, which gave a costly victory to the British.
Until the end of the war, Greene led a spirited offensive against Lord Rawdon's, and later
Duncan Stuart's, forces, besieging Augusta and Ninety-Six, and establishing headquarters in
Charleston following Washington's victory at Yorktown.
7.
Sir William Howe A veteran of the siege of Louisbourg, and the leader of the ascent to the
Plains of Abraham (Quebec, 1759), he was dispatched in 1775 as second in command to Gage.
After directing the attack on Bunker Hill, he succeeded Gage as commander, and coordinated
a strategic retreat from Boston to Halifax. In Halifax, he coordinated a joint army-navy attack
with his brother, Richard, an admiral, resulting in a campaign which allowed the British to
control New York City. After his attempts to secure a peace in 1777 failed, he led the attack on
Philadelphia, defeating Washington at Brandywine. After this, he wintered in Philadelphia,
waiting for acceptance of his resignation, due to the failed peace negotiations. On May 25,
1778, he relinquished command to Sir Henry Clinton and returned home.
8.
Tadeusz Andrezj Bonawentura Kosciusko After receiving military training in his
native Poland and France, he resigned his commission due to poor advancement prospect.
Offering his assistance to the Americans, he helped fortify the Delaware River in 1776,
earning himself the rank of colonel. That winter, he planned the building of Fort Mercer, and
the next spring headed north with General Gates, becoming commander of the northern
army and building fortifications which helped win the battle of Saratoga. In 1780, he worked
on building defenses for West Point, then headed south when Gates was appointed command
of the Southern Department. Serving under Nathaniel Greene, he distinguished himself in
the Race to the Dan River, and at Charleston, but mishandled the siege of Ninety-Six.
Following the war, he was granted American citizenship but returned home to Poland. Back
home he resisted partition, and attempted to liberate the nation afterward.
9.
Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette
Approached by U.S. Minister to France Silas Deane, he arrived in April 1777 with Baron de
Kalb. First seeing action at Brandywine, his primary early action was in supporting
Washington during the winter at Valley Forge. After participating at the battles of Barren
Hill, Monmouth, and Newport, he returned to France, raising support for an expeditionary
force. Returning to America a colonel, he served on the board that sentenced Major Andre to
death, and then faced Andre's confederate Benedict Arnold in battle in 1781. Working in
Virginia, he evaded Cornwallis' forces, until reinforcements arrived in June. Coordinating
with Anthony Wayne, the two combined forces against Cornwallis in the battle of Green
Spring. Pursuing Cornwallis to Yorktown, Lafayette helped the siege there until Cornwallis'
surrender.
10. Francis Marion Previously an Indian fighter, Marion was given command of Fort Sullivan
in 1776. Commanding the 2nd South Carolina, he fought at Savannah, and escaped capture
when the British recaptured Charleston. From there, Marion fought a successful guerilla
campaign against British troops, forcing Cornwallis to appoint Colonel Banastre Tarleton to
eliminate Marion. Tarleton's frustration at the task led to the remark "But as for this damned
old fox, the devil himself could not catch him," creating Marion's nickname of "Swamp Fox."
Promoted to brigadier general in 1781, and later given command of the North and South
Carolina militias, Marion fought the British at Eutaw Springs.
11. John Paul Jones A Scotsman who had fled Britain after two deaths at his hands, he added
the last name Jones to his given name of John Paul. At the outbreak of conflict, he was
commissioned to outfit the Alfred, which he then used to help capture New Providence in the
Bahamas. The next month, April 1776, saw him lead the Alfred against the HMS Glasgow,
leading him to promotion and command of the Providence. Ordered to raid until his
provisions were expended, he sank and captured ships in operations along the Atlantic coast.
Commissioned captain of the Ranger, he sailed to France to acquire new ships, and captured
the HMS Drake. Leaving Europe in August 1779, he met the British ship Serapis in battle
September 23, 1779.
12. Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben Formerly part of Frederick the Great's staff, the
Prussian Steuben was recommended by Ben Franklin to George Washington. Accepted by the
Continental Congress, Steuben joined Washington at Valley Forge, and began training the
army. Appointed major general and inspector general in May 1777, he aided in the Battle of
Monmouth, then spent two years writing the Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the
Troops of the United States, an army training manual. Sent to Virginia in 1780 to oppose
Benedict Arnold's actions, illness caused him to turn over his troops to Lafayette, but
Steuben recovered in time to aid in the siege of Yorktown.
13. George Washington Selected by the Continental Congress to serve as general-in-chief, his
first actions were to blockade Boston. Key to the success in Boston was the capture of
Dorchester Heights, allowing cannon fire against the British and forcing the withdrawal of
Howe. After failing to defend New York, Washington retreated toward Pennsylvania,
extending British supply lines and allowing a successful counterattack on Hessian
mercenaries at Trenton. Following victory at Princeton, Washington retired to winter
quarters at Morristown. Sending his best forces north to deal with Burgoyne's attack in
spring 1777, he kept Howe engaged in the mid-Atlantic. Autumn setbacks at Brandywine and
Germantown led to a demoralized winter camp at Valley Forge, countered by the work of
Lafayette, Steuben, and others. After a costly draw with Sir Henry Clinton's forces at
Monmouth, Washington sent Greene south to replace Gates, and worked with the French
general Jean Baptiste Rochambeau to plan the Yorktown campaign. The success of this
campaign led to Cornwallis' surrender on October 19, 1781.
You Gotta Know These Hockey Hall of Famers
1.
Wayne Gretzky (1961- ) Born in Brantford, Ontario, "The Great One" was named Canada's
athlete of the century. Gretzky holds or shares 61 NHL records, including career goals (894),
assists (1,963), and points (2,857). The winner of ten scoring titles (Art Ross Trophies) and
nine NHL MVP's (Hart Trophies), his #99 was retired league wide. He won four Stanley Cups
with Edmonton in the 1980s before a major trade sent him to Los Angeles in 1988. After a
brief stint in St. Louis, he would finish career with New York Rangers in 1999.
2.
Gordie Howe (1926- ) Born in Floral, Saskatchewan, "Mr. Hockey," was equally adept with
his stick as he was with his fists. A "Gordie Howe hat trick" was later joked to consist of a
goal, an assist, and a fight in a game. A six-time Art Ross Trophy winner, he played 26
seasons with the Detroit Red Wings, retiring in 1971. After a two-year retirement, he returned
to the fledgling WHA, to play with his sons on the Houston Aeros. He played his last NHL
season at the age of 52 in 1980 with the Hartford Whalers, finishing as the NHL's career
points leader until 1989.
3.
Mario Lemieux (1965-) Born in Montreal, Quebec: "Super Mario" scored his first NHL goal
on the first shift of his first game, against Boston in 1984. He led the Pittsburgh Penguins to
consecutive Stanley Cups in 1991-92. After a bout with Hodgkin's disease, he returned to lead
the NHL in scoring in 1995-96 and 1996-97. He then later helped bail the Penguins out of
bankruptcy by becoming the lead owner of the team in 1999.
4.
Bobby Orr (1948-) Born in Parry Sound, Ontario, Bobby Orr revolutionized the position of
defenseman. The first blue liner to win the Art Ross Trophy (scoring title), he also won the
Norris (best defenseman), Hart (league MVP), and Conn Smythe (playoff MVP) in the same
season (1969-70). That same year, he led the Bruins to their first Stanley Cup in three
decades with the now famous "Goal." He recorded the highest +/- rating ever for a single
season, +124 in 1970-71 and won eight straight Norris Trophies from 1968-75. Unfortunately,
his bad knees forced him into early retirement in 1979.
5.
Maurice Richard (1921-2000) Born in Montreal, Quebec, "The Rocket" was one of the
most gifted offensive players in NHL history. He was the first NHL player to score 50 goals in
a single season, doing so in 1944-45, and also the first to score 500 in a career. The winner of
eight Stanley Cups, his suspension by league president Clarence Campbell in 1955 led to "The
Richard Riot" on March 17, 1955, which was quelled only by an appeal by Richard for peace.
Many sociologists credit the Richard Riot with starting the Quebec independence movement.
The NHL began awarding the Rocket Richard Trophy in 1999 for the league's top regular
season goal scorer.
6.
Terry Sawchuk (1929-1970) Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, "Ukey" played more games
(971), won more games (447), and recorded more shutouts (103) than any other netminder in
NHL history. In 1952, he recorded eight straight wins, including four shutouts, in the playoffs
for Detroit. Winning 5 Vezina Trophies in his career for lowest team GAA (the criteria during
his era), Sawchuk also won the Calder Trophy as NHL rookie of the year in 1950-51. Always
deeply psychologically troubled, he died in a household accident in 1970 while a member of
the New York Rangers.
7.
Ken Dryden (1947-) Born in Hamilton, Ontario, he had a standout career at Cornell
University before joining the Montreal Canadiens organization in 1970. In 1970-71, he
starred in the playoffs, winning Conn Smythe Trophy honors (playoff MVP), before going on
to win Calder Trophy (Rookie of the Year) honors the next season. Along with Tony Esposito,
he served as Canada's goalie during the legendary 1972 Summit Series with the USSR. He sat
out the entire 1973-74 season in a contract dispute, and worked as a legal clerk and obtaining
his law degree from McGill. He currently serves as the President of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
8.
Vladislav Tretiak (1952-) Born in Moscow, USSR; Tretiak is first Russian player in Hockey
Hall of Fame. He came to North American prominence when he starred in 1972 Summit
Series against Canada. A 10-time World Champion, he also won three gold medals (1972,
1976, and 1984). The decision to pull Tretiak after the first period of the U.S./USSR game in
the 1980 Olympics is considered to be part of the reason the U.S. went on to win the gold. He
played for CSKA Moscow (Central Red Army) for 15 years and, since his retirement, he now
serves as the goaltending coach for the Chicago Blackhawks.
9.
Bobby Hull (1939-) Born in Point Anne, Ontario; "The Golden Jet" was the star of the
Chicago Blackhawks of the 1960s, he won three Art Ross Trophies and led the NHL in goals
seven times. In June of 1972, he defected to the fledgling WHA's Winnipeg Jets for a record
10-year, $2.75 million deal, where he would star and help make Winnipeg one of the four
WHA teams to merge with the NHL in 1978-79. He is also the father of Brett Hull and the
duo is the only father-son combination to score 500 each in NHL history.
10. Eddie Shore (1902-1985) Born in Fort Qu'Appele, Saskatchewan, "The Edmonton Express"
is the epitome of "Old-Time Hockey," as stated in the 1977 film Slap Shot. As a blue liner for
the Boston Bruins he was named a first team NHL All-Star for eight of nine years during the
1930s and is the only defenseman to win 4 Hart Trophies as NHL MVP. He later went on to
be the owner/GM of the AHL's Springfield Indians and the anecdotes about his stingy ways
are now hockey lore.
You Gotta Know These Japanese Authors
Please note that unlike most of the other "You Gotta Know" articles, this one is primarily aimed at
advanced college players. It's probably fair to say that high school (and new college players), only
really "gotta know" Lady Murasaki, Basho, Kawabata, and Mishima.
1.
Murasaki Shikibu (978? - 1015?) Novelist, diarist, and courtesan. She was the author of
the Tale of Genji (Genji monogatari), the first known novel; the diary, Murasaki Shikibu
nikki; and a collection of tanka poems. The daughter of the court official Fujiwara Tametoki,
she sat in on the classical Chinese literature lessons that her brother received, in spite of the
Heian traditions against higher education for women.
2.
Sei Shonagan (966/7 - 1013?) Like Lady Murasaki, Sei Shonagan was a lady-in-waiting of
the Empress. Since Lady Murasaki and Sei Shonagan were contemporaries and known for
their wit, they were often rivals*. Sei Shonagan's only work is the Pillow Book (Makura no
soshi), which is considered the best source of information about life at the Japanese court
during the Heian period (784-1185).
3.
Zeami (1363-1443) (also called Kanze Motokiyo). The second master of the Kanze theatrical
school, which had been founded by his father, he is regarded as the greatest playwright of the
No theater. He provided 90 of the approximately 230 plays in the modern repertoire. Among
his best works are Atsumori, The Robe of Feathers, Birds of Sorrow, and Wind in the Pines.
Also a drama critic, he established the aesthetic standards by which plays have been judged
ever since. His Fushi kaden (The Transmission of the Flower of Acting Style) is a manual for
his pupils.
4.
Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) (pseudonym of Matsuo Munefusa) Generally acknowledged as
the master of the haiku form, the most notable influences on his work were Zen Buddhism
and his travels throughout Japan. He is noted for works like The Narrow Road to the Deep
North (Oku no hosomichi), which includes descriptions of local sights in both prose and
haiku. He took his pseudonym from the name of the simple hut where he retired: Basho-an,
which means "Cottage of the Plaintain Tree."
5.
Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653 - 1725) He was Japan's first professional dramatist.
Originally named Sugimori Nobumori, Chikamatsu wrote more than 150 plays for both the
bunraku (puppet theater) and the kabuki (popular theater). Chikamatsu's scripts fall into
two categories: historical romances (mono) and domestic tragedies (wamono). One of
Chikamatsu's most popular plays was The Battles of Coxinga, an historical melodrama about
an attempt to re-establish the Ming dynasty in China. He is also largely responsible for
developing the sewamono (contemporary drama on contemporary themes) in the joruri, a
style of chanted narration adapted to bunraku.
6.
Akutagawa Ryunosuke (1892 - 1927) His mother died insane while he was a child, and his
father was a failure who gave him up to relatives. Despite this inauspicious childhood, his
1915 short story Rashomon brought him into the highest literary circles and started him
writing the macabre stories for which he is known. In 1927 he committed suicide by
overdosing on pills, and his suicide letter A Note to a Certain Old Friend became a published
work. Rashomon also was key to his international fame, when Kurosawa Akira made it into a
film in 1951. One of Japan's two most prestigious literary prizes is named for Akutagawa; it is
awarded for the best serious work of fiction by a new Japanese writer.
7.
Kawabata Yasunari (1899 - 1972) Recipient of the 1968 Nobel Prize for Literature, he was
the first Japanese author to be so honored. His works combine classic Japanese values with
modern trends and often center on the role of sex in people's lives. His works are often only a
few pages long, a form given the name "palm-of-the-hand." He is best known for three
novels: Thousand Cranes, based on the tea ceremony and inspired by The Tale of Genji; The
Sound of the Mountain, about the relationship of an old man and his daughter-in-law; and
Snow Country, about an aging geisha. A friend of Mishima Yukio, he was also associated
with right-wing causes and openly protested the Cultural Revolution in China. He committed
suicide two years after Mishima.
8.
Mishima Yukio (1925 - 1970) (pseudonym of Hiraoka Kimitake) He was a novelist whose
central theme was the disparity between traditional Japanese values and the spiritual
emptiness of modern life. He failed to qualify for military service during World War II, so
worked in an aircraft factory instead. Mishima's first novel, Confessions of a Mask (Kamen
no kokuhaku), was successful enough to allow him to write full time. His four-volume epic,
The Sea of Fertility (Hojo no umi, consisting of Spring Snow, Runaway Horses, The Temple
of Dawn, and The Decay of the Angel), is about self-destructive personalities and the
transformation of Japan into a modern, but sterile, society. Mishima, who organized the Tate
no kai, a right-wing society stressing physical fitness and the martial arts, committed ritual
suicide after a public speech failed to galvanize the armed forces into overthrowing the
government.
9.
Endo Shusaku (1923-1996) He converted to Catholicism at the age of 11, and majored in
French literature. His first works, White Man and Yellow Man, explored the differences
between Japanese and Western values and national experiences. Silence tells of the
martyrdom of the Catholic converts of Portuguese priests. The Samurai recounts the tale of a
samurai sent to establish trade relations between his shogun and Mexico, Spain, and Rome.
The latter two novels are generally considered to be Shusaku's greatest achievements.
10. Oe Kenzaburo(1935 - present) Novelist and recipient of the 1994 Nobel Prize for
Literature. His first work, Shiiku (The Catch in the Shadow of the Sunrise), describes a
friendship between a Japanese boy and a black American POW, and won him the Akutagawa
award while he was still a student. His early works are filled with insanity, abuse, perverse
sex, and violence, but his later works (including A Personal Matter (Kojinteki-na taiken) and
The Silent Cry (Man'en gannen no futtoboru)) reflect the experience of being the father of a
brain-damaged child. His fiction centers on the alienation following Japan's surrender and
his political writings focus on the search for cultural and ideological roots.
You Gotta Know These Egyptian Deities
The Egyptian creation myth begins with the emergence of Ra (or Re), the sun god, from the ocean in
the form of an egg (or, alternately, a flower.) Ra brought forth four children: Geb, Shu, Nut, and
Tefnut. Shu and Nut became manifestations of air and moisture. From Geb, the god of the earth, and
Nut, goddess of the sky, were spawned four other gods: Osiris, Isis, Set (or Seth), and Nepthys.
These nine gods became known as the ennead ("group of nine"). The center of their worship was
Heliopolis, as all were tied to Ra, the sun god. The Heliopolitan ennead was one of several in Egyptian
theology, and at times this grouping was superseded by other sets. Two notable alternatives were the
ennead of the city of Memphis led by the god Ptah, and the ennead of Thebes, with Amon at its head.
Not surprisingly, the pre-eminence of these variations coincided with their corresponding cities'
political control of Egypt.
The Stories
Fortunately for quiz bowlers, there are, for most practical purposes, only three major episodes in
Egyptian mythology. Knowing the principal actors in these (as well as the various animal heads) will
go a long way toward scoring points in the category.

The first is the "family quarrel" of Osiris and Set: Osiris took Isis, his sister, for his wife, and
ruled over the earth. Set grew jealous of his brother and killed him, afterwards cutting his
body into 14 pieces and hiding them in various places around Egypt. He then claimed
kingship over the land. Isis searched the breadth of the land until she had recovered all of the
pieces and, with the help of Anubis, embalmed the body. She then conceived a son, Horus, by
the (still dead) Osiris and then resurrected him. Horus defeated Set to regain the kingship
and all subsequent pharaohs were said to be aspects of him.

The second is the afterlife; the Egyptians believed that the soul had three components, the
ba, ka, and akh, each of which had different roles after death. The ka remained near or
within the body (which is why mummification was required). The ba went to the underworld
where it merged with aspects of Osiris, but was allowed to periodically return (which is why
Egyptian tombs often contained narrow doors). The akh could temporarily assume different
physical forms and wander the world as a ghost of sorts. In the underworld, the ba was
subjected to the Judgment of Osiris in the Hall of Double Justice where the heart of the
deceased was weighed against Ma'at, commonly represented as an ostrich feather.

The third is actually an historical episode: during the reign of Amenhotep III (1390-1353 BC),
worship of the god Aton (or Aten)--a representation of the disc of the sun--was resurrected.
This process was carried to its extreme conclusion by his successor, Amenhotep IV, who
eventually declared Aton to be the only god, thereby creating one of the earliest known
monotheistic religions. The pharaoh even changed his name to Akhenaton, meaning "Aton is
satisfied." The worship of Aton was centered on the capital city of Tell-al-Amarna and was
largely confined to upper classes and the pharaonic court and, in any case, did not survive
Amenhotep himself. Under his successor, Tutankhamen (of King Tut fame), traditional
religious practices were restored.
The Pantheon
1.
Osiris Husband of Isis, father of Horus, and brother of Set, Osiris served as god of the
underworld, and protector of the dead. In addition to his role as the chief and judge of the
underworld (as a result of the above-mentioned murder by Set), Osiris also served as a god of
vegetation and renewal; festivals honoring his death occurred around the time of the Nile
flood's retreat. Statues representing him were made of clay and grain, which would then
germinate. Osiris was represented either as a green mummy, or wearing the Atef, a plumed
crown.
2.
Set Created in opposition to the forces of Ma'at, Set (termed Typhon by Plutarch) fought the
demon Apopis each day, emerging victorious, symbolic of the struggle of forces that brought
harmony. In later times, this struggle led Set to be associated with the serpent itself, and Set
became the personification of violence and disorder, and the cause of all disasters. Having
killed his brother Osiris, Set did battle with Osiris' son Horus, being emasculated in the fight.
His cult was diminished over time, due to reaction against violence. His effigies were
destroyed by some, while others were changed into representations of Amon, by replacing
the ears with horns.
3.
Isis Isis, daughter of Geb and Nut, protected love, motherhood, and fate in the Egyptian
mythos. Many of her roles are similar to the goddess Hathor, but she is often equated with
the Greek Demeter. Her powers were gained through tricking the god Ra. By placing a snake
in his path, which poisoned him, she forced him to give some power to her before she would
cure him.
4.
Horus The god of the sky and light and the son of Isis and Osiris. In earlier myth he was the
brother of Set, and son of Ra. His mother impregnated herself with the dead Osiris, and
Horus was hidden by his mother. When he was grown, he avenged his father's death, driving
away Set. In the battle, he lost his eye, but regained it thanks to the god Thoth. Thus Horus
came to rule over the earth. He was known to have two faces, that of the falcon, Harsiesis,
and that of a child, Harpocrates.
5.
Ra Personification of the midday sun, he was also venerated as Atum (setting sun) and
Khepri (rising sun), which were later combined with him. He traveled across the sky each day
and then each night, the monster Apep would attempt to prevent his return. Other myths
held that Ra spent the night in the underworld consoling the dead. The god of the pharaohs,
from the fourth dynasty onward all pharaohs termed themselves "sons of Ra," and after
death they joined his entourage. He was portrayed with the head of a falcon, and crowned
with the sun disc.
6.
Amon Amon began as a local god of Thebes, governing the air, fertility and reproduction, his
wife was Mut, and his son Khon. Later, Amon became linked with the sun god Ra, and the
two combined as Amon-Ra. In this form, he became worshipped beyond Egypt, and
identified with Zeus and Jupiter. His appearance in art was as a man in a loincloth, with a
headdress topped by feathers, but other appearances show him with the head of a ram. The
temple of Amon-Ra at Karnak was the largest ever built.
7.
Thoth Serving the gods as the supreme scribe, ibis-headed Thoth was known as the "tongue
of Ptah" for his knowledge of hieroglyphics, and as the "Heart of Re" for his creative powers.
His knowledge of science and calculation made him the creator of the calendar, and his
symbol of the moon was due to his knowledge of how to calculate its path. His knowledge of
magic led to his association with the Greek Hermes. Thoth was consulted by Isis when
attempting to resurrect Osiris, and was again consulted when the young Horus was stung by
a scorpion.
8.
Ptah Principal god of the city of Memphis, he was portrayed as a mummy, or wearing the
beard of the gods on his chin. His godhood was achieved by himself, much like his creation
power, done merely by act of will. A patron of craftsmen, he also was seen as a healer, in the
form of a dwarf. In the death trilogy (Anubis, Osiris, Ptah), he was seen as the god of
embalming. His wife was the cat headed Sekhmet and his son was the lotus god Nefertem.
9.
Anubis Son of Osiris and Nepthys, and god of embalming to the Egyptians, he was typically
pictured with the head of a jackal. He also served as the god of the desert and the watcher of
the tombs. He also served to introduce the dead to the afterlife, and as their judge. To decide
the fate of the dead, Anubis would weigh the heart of the dead against the feather of truth.
Anubis is sometimes identified with Hermes or Mercury.
10. Ma'at The daughter of Ra, she predated the universe, and served over the creation of it,
ensuring balance between everything. Primarily seen as the keeper of order, Ma'at was
responsible for seasons, day and night, rainfall, and star movements. A symbolic offering of
Ma'at, in the form a statuette was given to the gods, as Ma'at encompassed all other offerings.
Ma'at's aspect as god of justice also showed through her role in death ritual, where her
ostrich feather symbol was weighed against the hearts of the dead in the underworld. Judges
wore effigies of Ma'at, and the supreme head of courts was said to be the priest of Ma'at.
11. Hathor Hathor (or Athor or Athyr) was the patron of women. Hathor was the daughter of
Ra, and wife of Horus. She fulfilled many functions as goddess of the sky, goddess of fertility,
protector of marriage, and goddess of love and beauty. In that final role she became equated
with Aphrodite and Venus. Pictures of Hathor show the goddess with the head of a cow.
12. Nephthys Termed the "lady of the castle," for her role as guardian of the tomb, she sided
against her own husband, Set, in his battle against Osiris, but when Set was destroyed, she
collected the bits of his body, and brought him back to life, much as Isis had done for Osiris.
Isis' sister, she was also said to be Osiris' mistress, leading to much complaint from Isis. Due
to her close ties to all the other gods, she was rarely associated with a cult of her own.
You Gotta Know These Planetary Moons
1.
Charon (Pluto) Named for the mythical boatman of the Greek underworld. Its expected
pronunciation of "KAIR-en" is not the correct one, which is actually "SHAHR-en", in honor
of Charlene Christy, wife of Jim Christy, its discoverer. The largest moon relative to the size
of its orbiting planet, Charon not only is in synchronous orbit with Pluto, but the two show
the same face toward each other at all times. The relative sizes of the two bodies has led some
to call Charon and Pluto a double planet system. Charon's surface is believed to be water ice.
2.
Deimos and Phobos (Mars) Named for two sons of Ares and Aphrodite. Phobos and
Deimos (Greek for "fear" and "panic") are the two moons of Mars and both were discovered
in 1877 by Asaph Hall. Phobos orbits closer to the planet and has as its most prominent
feature the crater Stickney (Hall's wife's maiden name). Unlike the Earth's moon, it rises in
the west and sets in the east, about twice per Martian day. This is due to it being below the
radius for synchronous orbit. This position also means it will either impact Mars or break
into a ring in around 50 million years. Deimos is the smallest moon in the solar system. It
was discovered two days before Phobos. Deimos was likely an asteroid brought into Mars'
orbit after being disturbed by Jupiter. Like Phobos, Deimos is heavily cratered, rich in
carbon, and believed to have water ice.
3.
Europa (Jupiter) One of the Galilean moons, discovered in 1610 by Galileo (the others are
Callisto, Ganymede, and Io). It resembles Io, and to a degree, Earth, in its composition of
silicate rocks. However, it is coated in a thin layer of ice, which causes it to be exceedingly
smooth. This ice layer may also provide a thin atmosphere as hydrogen and oxygen are
released when the planet is exposed to sunlight. There is the possibility of an active sea of
liquid water beneath the surface. The most striking feature of the surface is a series of dark
streaks that may be due to geysers or volcanic eruptions.
4.
Ganymede (Jupiter) The largest satellite in the solar system, this Galilean moon is larger
than Mercury, but has only half its mass. Based on the observations of the Galileo spacecraft,
it is thought to have a three-layer structure of a molten iron core, silicate mantle, and ice
exterior. Its surface is marked by older, dark, highly cratered regions, mixed with lighter,
grooved regions. These grooves indicate tectonic activity, but Ganymede does not appear to
have undergone recent tectonic shifts.
5.
Io (Jupiter) Like Europa, Io (named for a lover of Zeus) is primarily formed of silicate rock.
Its surface, however, is unlike any other satellite. Rather than craters, Io is dotted with active
volcanoes, calderas, and other signs of geological activity. The eruptions are believed to
consist of sulfurous compounds that comprise Io's thin atmosphere. The tremendous activity
is due to tidal warming from the gravity of Jupiter and other satellites. Additionally, as Io
orbits it is heated electrically from currents produced by Jupiter's magnetic field. This action
strips material from Io, producing a radiation field and increasing Jupiter's magnetosphere.
6.
Nereid (Neptune) Discovered by Gerard Kuiper (who also discovered Miranda, Titan's
atmosphere, and an asteroid belt), Nereid (named for the daughters of Nereus and Doris) has
the most eccentric orbit of any known satellite, ranging from 1.3 million kilometers to 9.6
million. The oddity of this orbit indicates it is likely a captured asteroid.
7.
Oberon (Uranus) Named for the King of the Fairies in A Midsummer Night's Dream (all of
Uranus' satellites are named for literary, rather than mythological, characters), Oberon is
both the second largest of Uranus' satellites, and the outermost of its large satellites. Like all
large Uranian moons, its structure is about half water ice, half rock. Large faults are visible
across its southern hemisphere, but its surface is heavily cratered, indicating long-term
tectonic stability. Some craters have dark floors that could possibly indicate post-impact
upwellings of water.
8.
Titan (Saturn) The largest of Saturn's satellites, Titan might be the largest satellite in the
solar system, but this awaits more accurate measurements. Those measurements are difficult
because of Titan's major characteristic: It is the only satellite to have a substantial
atmosphere. Its significant atmosphere, a mix of nitrogen (80%), methane (20%), and argon
(trace), also makes it unique among satellites.
9.
Titania (Uranus) Another of Herschel's discoveries, Titania is named for Oberon's wife, the
Queen of the Fairies, and is the largest of the Uranian satellites. Its surface is an odd mix of
craters and valleys. One theory regarding this is that it began as a liquid, then cooled surface
first. Once ice had formed, the interior, freezing forced surface cracks which formed the
valleys. This also accounts for the appearance of some craters, where ice appears to have
melted and filled in.
10. Triton (Neptune) By far the largest of Neptune's satellites, Triton is also unusual for its
retrograde orbit, which indicates that it was not part of the natural formation of Neptune's
other moons. It also features seismic activity in the form of ice volcanoes, a tenuous nitrogenmethane atmosphere, and a southern hemisphere "ice cap" of nitrogen and methane. All of
these may be caused by Triton's odd rotational axis, which tends to alternate polar and
equatorial regions facing the sun.
This list obviously excludes the most famous moon of all, the Earth's moon. While odd, this is in
keeping with the spirit of "You Gotta Know" lists because, for whatever reason, there are relatively
fewer questions about it.
You Gotta Know These Elections
Every U.S. presidential election is fair game for quiz bowl questions, but some elections are asked
about very frequently, either for the unusual nature of the election (e.g., 1876), for the extraordinary
significance of the election in American history (e.g., 1860), or for the figures involved (e.g., 1912).
The following 10 that "you gotta know" are listed in chronological order.
1.
1800: Democratic-Republican Thomas Jefferson narrowly beat incumbent Federalist John
Adams 73-65, marking the ascent of that party's power. One electoral vote each is cast for
president and vice president, so Democratic-Republican VP candidate Aaron Burr also has 73
votes, but Burr refused to step aside. In the House of Representatives, neither man won the
necessary 9 state delegations outright until the 36th ballot, when James Bayard of Delaware
changed his vote to Jefferson. The debacle leads to passage of the 12th amendment in 1804.
The Federalists never recovered; Alexander Hamilton's opposition to Adams led to a
permanent split between the two, and Hamilton's opposition to Burr was one cause of their
1804 duel, in which Burr (then vice president) killed Hamilton. Also notable is the first
peaceful transfer of power from one party to another.
2.
1824: The candidates were John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, William Crawford, and Andrew
Jackson, all Democratic-Republicans. After John C. Calhoun decided to seek the vice
presidency and Crawford (from Georgia) had a stroke, Jackson took most of the South and
won the popular vote. Jackson had 99 electoral votes, Adams 84, Crawford 41, and Clay 37,
but since none had more than 50% of the vote, the House decided the election. Adams won in
the House with support from Clay, and Jacksonians cried foul when Clay was made Secretary
of State (the so-called "corrupt bargain"), giving fuel to Jackson's victorious 1828 campaign.
Jackson is the only candidate to lose a presidential race despite having the most electoral
votes, and he is one of four (with Tilden, Cleveland, and Gore) to lose despite winning the
popular vote. The election also led to the founding of the Democratic Party.
3.
1860: Another four-candidate election, with Republican Abraham Lincoln, (northern)
Democrat Stephen Douglas, (southern) Democrat John C. Breckinridge, and Constitutional
Unionist John G. Bell. The Republican Party, founded in 1854, won in its second election (its
first candidate being Fremont in 1856), aided by the fragmenting of the Democrats. Bell took
Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia, Breckinridge swept the other slave states, and Lincoln
nearly swept the free states. Though winning under 40% of the total popular vote, Lincoln
dominated the electoral count with 180 to a combined 123 for his opponents (Breckinridge
72, Bell 39, Douglas 12). Seven southern states seceded before Lincoln even took office, and
war soon followed.
4.
1876: Republican Rutherford B. Hayes faced Democrat Samuel Tilden, best known for
battling Tammany Hall and the Tweed Ring in New York. Tilden won the popular vote and
seemed to win the election, but results in Florida, South Carolina, and Louisiana were
contested, as was one vote in Oregon; if Hayes swept these votes, he would win the electoral
count 185 to 184. In Congress, an informal bargain was reached (often called the
Compromise of 1877) in which Hayes won the election in exchange for Reconstruction being
brought to an end.
5.
1896: In the election itself, Republican William McKinley swept the North and Northeast to
beat Democrat William Jennings Bryan, but the campaign was the interesting part. The most
prominent issue, the gold standard versus free silver coinage, led to Bryan's famous "Cross of
Gold" speech. Shunned by Eastern press, Bryan, a legendary orator, traveled 18,000 miles
through 27 states and was heard by some 3 million people. McKinley would not accept
Bryan's challenge to debate, comparing it to putting up a trapeze and competing with a
professional athlete. McKinley instead had a "front porch" campaign, as railroads brought
voters by the thousands to hear him speak in his hometown of Canton, Ohio. Mark Hanna,
McKinley's campaign manager, is often considered the first modern campaign manager. The
election also represented the demise of the Populist Party and ushered in a 16-year period of
Republican rule. The gold question would disappear soon after the election with gold strikes
in Australia and Alaska.
6.
1912: Three presidents--Teddy Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson-earned electoral votes. Roosevelt, displeased with his successor Taft, returned to lead the
progressive Republican faction; after Taft got the Republican nomination, Roosevelt was
nominated by the Progressive Party (nicknamed the "Bull Moose" Party). Wilson won with
435 electoral votes to Roosevelt's 88 and Taft's 8, making Taft the only incumbent to finish
third in a re-election bid. Though Wilson did set forth his New Freedom program, his
dominating win must be credited largely to the splitting of the Republican vote by Roosevelt
and Taft.
7.
1948: In the most recent election with four significant candidates, Democrat Harry Truman
beat Republican Thomas Dewey, contrary to the famous headline of the Chicago Tribune,
printed before results from the West came in. Dewey dominated the Northeast, but Truman
nearly swept the West to pull out the victory. Former vice president Henry Wallace earned
over a million votes as the Progressive candidate, and Strom Thurmond--yes, that Strom
Thurmond--took over a million votes and 39 electoral votes as the States' Rights (or
"Dixiecrat") candidate.
8.
1960: John F. Kennedy defeated vice president Richard Nixon 303-219 in a tight election,
winning the popular vote by just two-tenths of a percent. The first Kennedy-Nixon debate
(from September 26, 1960) is a classic in political science; those who saw the calm,
handsome Kennedy and the tired, uncomfortable-looking Nixon on television were more
likely to select Kennedy as the winner than were those who listened on radio. (Theodore
White's notable The Making of the President series began with the 1960 election.) Voting
irregularities in Texas and Illinois (especially in Richard Daley's Chicago) led to allegations of
fraud, but a recount would not have been feasible, and Nixon did not press the issue. Nixon
would go on to lose the 1962 California gubernatorial race (occasioning his famous
statement, "You won't have Dick Nixon to kick around any more").
9.
1968: After Lyndon Johnson declined to run for re-election, and after Robert F. Kennedy
was killed in California, the Democratic nomination went to Hubert Humphrey. Richard
Nixon, gradually returning from political obscurity over the past six years, gained the
Republican nomination. Alabama governor George Wallace ran as the American
Independent candidate, becoming the last third-party candidate to win multiple electoral
votes. Nixon edged Humphrey by half a million popular votes and a 301-191 electoral count,
while Wallace won nearly ten million votes. Wallace's presence may well have tipped the
election to the Republicans, who, after being out of power for 28 of the last 36 years, would
hold the presidency for all but four years through 1992.
10. 2000: The closest election in American history, it is sure to be a long-term staple of history
questions. Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the electoral vote by a final count of 271-266
(one Gore elector abstained). Ralph Nader of the Green Party won an important 2.7% of the
vote, while Pat Buchanan of the Reform Party placed fourth. New Mexico and Oregon were
initially too close to call but went to Gore, and Florida became the center of attention. Ballot
confusion in Palm Beach County, intimidation of vote recounters in Miami-Dade County, and
absentee ballots throughout Florida became significant issues, as Americans had to hear
about butterfly ballots, hanging chads, and Florida Secretary of State Katharine Harris for
the next five weeks. Gore officially conceded the election on December 13, 2000.
Other notable election events include Polk's win as a "dark horse" candidate in 1844,
Cleveland's loss in 1888 despite winning the popular vote, Wilson's narrow victory in
1916, FDR's defeats of Hoover in 1932 and Willkie in 1940, Reagan's victory in 1980,
and Clinton's win in 1992.
You Gotta Know These 20th-Century Paintings
Below is a list of ten paintings which are frequent quiz bowl topics. This list focuses on individual
paintings rather than bodies of work; thus, an artist like Georgia O'Keeffe is not included because no
specific one of her familiar cowskull-and-flower paintings is sufficiently prominent. The list is notably
skewed toward the first half of the 20th century, as only one work was painted after 1950. Perhaps the
earlier paintings have simply had more time to be influential and make their way into the artistic
canon. Also, many prominent post-1950 painters, like Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, do not have
a specific work with a catchy title that has gained particular attention above all others; like O'Keeffe,
they are known for their style and collective body of work rather than for any one painting.
1.
Guernica, by Pablo Picasso. Guernica was a Basque town bombed by the Germans during the
Spanish Civil War in April 1937. Picasso had already been commissioned to paint a mural for
the Spanish Pavilion at the World's Fair, and he completed his massive, black, white, and
grey anti-war mural by early June 1937. Picasso's Cubist approach to portraying the figures
adds to the sense of destruction and chaos. Guernica was in the Museum of Modern Art
(MOMA) in New York until 1981, when it was returned to the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte
Reina Sofia in Spain.
2.
Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2, by Marcel Duchamp. First painted in 1912, Nude
Descending a Staircase created a sensation when shown at the 1913 Armory Show in New
York, where one critic referred to it as "an explosion in a shingle factory." Painted in various
shades of brown, Nude Descending a Staircase portrays a nude woman in a series of broken
planes, capturing motion down several steps in a single image. The painting reflects a Cubist
sense of division of space, and its portrait of motion echoes the work of the Futurists.
3.
The Persistence of Memory, by Salvador Dalí. First shown in 1931, The Persistence of
Memory is probably the most famous of surrealist paintings. The landscape of the scene
echoes Port Lligat, Dalí's home. The ants, flies, clocks, and the Port Lligat landscape are
motifs in many other Dalí paintings, and the trompe l'oeil depiction of figures is typical of his
works. It currently belongs to MOMA; its 1951 companion piece, The Disintegration of the
Persistence of Memory, hangs at the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida.
4.
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, by Pablo Picasso. This painting depicts five women in a brothel.
However, the images of the women are partly broken into disjointed, angular facets. The
degree of broken-ness is rather mild compared to later Cubist works, but it was revolutionary
in 1907. The rather phallic fruit arrangement in the foreground reflects the influence of
Cezanne's "flattening of the canvas." The two central figures face the viewer, while the other
three have primitive masks as faces, reflecting another of Picasso's influences. It is currently
housed at the MOMA.
5.
Broadway Boogie Woogie, by Piet Mondrian. While Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and other
Cubist paintings represent an extension of Paul Cezanne's division-of-space approach to the
canvas, Mondrian's De Stijl works are a still further abstraction, such that the canvas is often
divided up into rectangular "tile patterns," as in Composition in Red, Yellow, and Blue. The
painting simultaneously echoes the bright lights of a marquee, resembles a pattern of streets
as seen from above, and creates a feeling of vitality and vibrancy, not unlike the music itself.
This work can also be found at the MOMA.
6.
Campbell's Soup Can, by Andy Warhol. Pop Art parodies (or perhaps reflects) a world in
which celebrities, brand names, and media images have replaced the sacred; Warhol's series
of Campbell's Soup paintings may be the best illustration of this. Like the object itself, the
paintings were often done by the mass-produceable form of serigraphy (silk screening). Also
like the subject, the Warhol soup can painting existed in many varieties, with different types
of Campbell's Soup or numbers of cans; painting 32 or 100 or 200 identical cans further
emphasized the aspect of mass production aspect in the work. The same approach underlies
Warhol's familiar series of prints of Marilyn Monroe, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and other
pop culture figures.
7.
Nighthawks, by Edward Hopper. As is often the case with his works, Hopper uses a realistic
approach (including such details as the fluorescent light of the diner, the coffee pots, and the
Phillies cigar sign atop the diner) to convey a sense of a loneliness and isolation, even going
so far as to depict the corner store without a door connecting to the larger world. Hopper's
wife Jo served as the model for the woman at the bar. Nighthawks is housed at the Art
Institute of Chicago.
8.
I and the Village, by Marc Chagall. Painted in 1911, I and the Village is among Chagall's
earliest surviving paintings. It is a dreamlike scene which includes many motifs common to
Chagall, notably the lamb and peasant life. In addition to the two giant faces—a green face on
the right and a lamb's head on the left—other images include a milkmaid, a reaper, an
upside-down peasant woman, a church, and a series of houses, some of them upside-down. I
and the Village is currently housed at MOMA.
9.
Christina's World, by Andrew Wyeth. The Christina of the title is Christina Olson, who lived
near the Wyeths' summer home in Cushing, Maine. In the 1948 painting, Christina lays in
the cornfield wearing a pink dress, facing away from the viewer, her body partly twisted and
hair blowing slightly in the wind. In the far distance is a three-story farmhouse with dual
chimneys and two dormers, along with two sheds to its right. A distant barn is near the top
middle of the painting. One notable aspect is the subtle pattern of sunlight, which strikes the
farmhouse obliquely from the right, shines in the wheel tracks in the upper right, and casts
very realistic-looking shadows on Christina's dress. The Olson house was the subject of many
Andrew Wyeth paintings for 30 years, and it was named to the National Register of Historic
Places for its place in Christina's World.
10. American Gothic, by Grant Wood. Wood painted his most famous work after a visit to Eldon,
Iowa, when he saw a Carpenter Gothic style house with a distinctive Gothic window in its
gable. Upon returning to his studio, he used his sister Nan and his dentist, Dr. Byron
McKeeby, as the models for the two figures. The pitchfork and the clothing were more typical
of 19th-century farmers than contemporary ones. American Gothic is among the most
familiar regionalist paintings, and it is said to be the most parodied of all paintings. It hangs
at the Art Institute of Chicago, where it was submitted for a competition by Wood upon its
completion in 1930 (Wood won a bronze medal and a $300 prize).
Among the many other notable individual paintings are The Bride Stripped Bare by Her
Bachelors, Even by Marcel Duchamp, Red Room by Henri Matisse, Mystery and Melancholy
of a Street by Giorgio de Chirico, The Twittering Machine by Paul Klee, the incomplete Man
at the Crossroads by Diego Rivera, The Kiss by Gustav Klimt, and Time Transfixed by Rene
Magritte. Two notable painting series are the Woman series of Willem de Kooning and the
White on White series by Kasimir Malevich.
You Gotta Know These Psychologists
1.
Sigmund Freud (Austrian, 1856-1939) Sigmund Freud founded the extremely influential
discipline of psychoanalysis, which used the technique of "free association" to identify fears
and repressed memories. He argued that many problems were caused by mental states rather
than by biochemical dysfunction--a purely materialist viewpoint then in vogue. He separated
the psyche into the id (illogical passion), ego (rational thought), and superego (moral and
social conscience). His best known works are The Interpretation of Dreams and The
Psychopathology of Everyday Life, though many others come up frequently in quiz bowl.
2.
Carl Jung (Austrian, 1875-1961) Carl Jung was a close associate of Freud's who split with
him over the degree to which neuroses had a sexual basis. He went on to create the
movement of "analytic psychology" and introduced the controversial notion of the "collective
unconscious"--a socially shared area of the mind. Quiz bowlers should be familiar with
"anima," "animus," "introversion," "extroversion," and "archetypes," all terms that occur
frequently in questions on Jung.
3.
Alfred Adler (Austrian, 1870-1937) Alfred Adler was another close associate of Freud who
split with him over Freud's insistence that sexual issues were at the root of neuroses and
most psychological problems. Adler argued in The Neurotic Constitution that neuroses
resulted from people's inability to achieve self-realization; in failing to achieve this sense of
completeness, they developed "inferiority complexes" that inhibited their relations with
successful people and dominated their relations with fellow unsuccessful people, a theory
given the general name of "individual psychology."
4.
Ivan Pavlov (Russian 1849-1936) Ivan Pavlov was more of a physiologist than a
psychologist, but questions about him are more often classified as "psychology" than
"biology" by question writers. He is largely remembered for his idea of the "conditioned
reflex," for example, the salivation of a dog at the sound of the bell that presages dinner, even
though the bell itself is inedible and has no intrinsic connection with food. He won the Nobel
Prize in 1904 for Physiology or Medicine for unrelated work on digestive secretions.
5.
John B. Watson (American, 1878-1958) John Watson was the first prominent exponent of
behaviorism; he codified its tenets in Behavior: An Introduction to Comparative
Psychology, arguing that psychology could be completely grounded in objective
measurements of events and physical human reactions. His most famous experiment
involved conditioning an eleven-month-old boy to be apprehensive of all furry objects by
striking a loud bell whenever a furry object was placed in his lap.
6.
B. F. Skinner (American, 1904-1990) B. F. Skinner was one of the leading proponents of
behaviorism in works like Walden II and Beyond Freedom and Dignity. He argued that all
human actions could be understood in terms of physical stimuli and learned responses and
that there was no need to study--or even believe in--internal mental states or motivations; in
fact, doing so could be harmful. Guided by his ideas, he trained animals to perform
complicated tasks including teaching pigeons to play table tennis.
7.
Jean Piaget (Swiss, 1896-1980) Jean Piaget is generally considered the greatest figure of
20th-century developmental psychology; he was the first to perform rigorous studies of the
way in which children learn and come to understand and respond to the world around them.
He is most famous for his theory of four stages of development: sensorimotor,
preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. His most famous works are
The Language and Thought of a Child and The Origins of Intelligence in Children.
8.
Erik Erikson (German-born American, 1902-1994) Erik Erikson is best known for his
theories on how social institutions reflect the universal features of psychosocial development;
in particular, how different societies create different traditions and ideas to accommodate the
same biological needs. He created a notable eight-stage development process and wrote
several "psychohistories" explaining how people like Martin Luther and Mahatma Gandhi
were able to think and act the way they did.
9.
Abraham Maslow (American, 1908-1970) Abraham Maslow is principally known for two
works, Motivation and Personality and Toward a Psychology of Being, that introduced his
theory of the "hierarchy of needs" (food, shelter, love, esteem, etc.) and its pinnacle, the need
for "self-actualization." Self-actualized people are those who understand their individual
needs and abilities and who have families, friends, and colleagues that support them and
allow them to accomplish things on which they place value. The lowest unmet need on the
hierarchy tends to dominate conscious thought.
10. Stanley Milgram (American, 1933-1984) Though he did the work that created the idea of
"six degrees of separation" and the "lost-letter" technique, he is mainly remembered for his
experiments on "obedience to authority" that he performed at Yale in 1961-1962. Milgram
found that two-thirds of his subjects were willing to administer terrible electric shocks to
innocent, protesting human beings simply because a researcher told them the experimental
protocol demanded it.
You Gotta Know These Artistic Creations
The following table lists the thirty most-frequently referenced works of visual art in NAQT questions
as of May 7, 2002. While you really gotta know their creators, these are also some of the works about
which more substantive questions are written, so teams should be prepared for questions on their
materials, design, technique, depicted action, and circumstances of creation.
Rank Title
Genre
Creator
Date
Freq.
1
Painting
Jan van Eyck
1434
21
The Arnolfini Wedding
2
The Birth of Venus
Painting
Sandro Botticelli
1480
20
3
Perseus With the Head Of
Medusa
Sculpture Benvenuto Cellini
1563
20
4
The Persistence of Memory
Painting
Salvador (Felipe Jacinto)
1931
Dalí (y Domenech)
18
5
The Kiss
Sculpture
(René-François-)Auguste
1886
Rodin
18
6
Mona Lisa
Painting
Leonardo da Vinci
1500
17
7
Liberty Leading the People
Painting
Eugene Delacroix
1830
17
8
David
Sculpture
Michelangelo
(Buonarotti)
1504
17
9
Last Supper
Painting
Leonardo da Vinci
14951498
16
10
The Thinker
Sculpture
(René-François-)Auguste
1880-1 16
Rodin
11
School of Athens
Painting
Raphael
1509
14
12
The Death of Marat
Painting
Jacques-Louis David
1793
13
13
Luncheon on the Grass
Painting
Édouard Manet
1863
13
14
American Gothic
Painting
Grant Wood
1930
13
15
Arrangement in Grey and
Black, No. 1: The Artist's
Mother
Painting
James (Abbott) McNeill
Whistler
1871
13
16
Bird in Space
Sculpture Constantin Brancusi
1919
13
17
Fallingwater
Building
Frank Lloyd Wright
1936
12
18
The Hay Wain
Painting
John Constable
1821
12
19
Nighthawks
Painting
Edward Hopper
1942
12
20
Las Meninas
Painting
Diego (Rodríguez de
Silva y) Velázquez
1656
12
21
The Blue Boy
Painting
Thomas Gainsborough
1770
12
22
I and the Village
Painting
Marc Chagall
1911
11
23
The Scream
Painting
Edvard Munch
1893
10
24
Guernica
Painting
Pablo Picasso y Ruiz
1937
10
25
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
Painting
Pablo Picasso y Ruiz
1907
10
26
Primavera
Painting
Sandro Botticelli
1478
10
27
Impression: Sunrise
Painting
(Oscar-)Claude Monet
1872
10
28
Burial at Ornans
Painting
Gustave Courbet
184950
10
29
David
Sculpture Donatello
c. 1440 10
30
The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa
Sculpture Gianlorenzo Bernini
1646
10
You Gotta Know These Russian Tsars
1.
Peter I (1672-1725; ruled 1682-1725) Peter the Great is famous both for his push for
Westernization and for his boisterous personality. His Grand Embassy to Europe enabled
him to learn about Western life (and even to work in a Dutch shipyard); he later invited
Western artisans to come to Russia, required the boyars to shave their beards and wear
Western clothing, and even founded a new capital, St. Petersburg--his "window on the West."
He also led his country in the Great Northern War (in which Charles XII of Sweden was
defeated at Poltava), created a Table of Ranks for the nobility, and reformed the bureaucracy
and army. But Peter could also be violent and cruel: he personally participated in the torture
of the streltsy, or musketeers, who rebelled against him, and had his own son executed.
2.
Ivan IV (1530-1584; ruled 1533-1584) Ivan IV is known in the West as "Ivan the Terrible,"
but his Russian nickname ("Groznyi") could be more accurately translated as "awe-inspiring"
or "menacing." Ivan was proclaimed Grand Prince of Muscovy 1533 and tsar in 1547.
Scholars differ on whether Ivan was literate and on how auspiciously his reign began. Early
in his reign, he pushed through a series of well-received reforms and called a zemskii sobor
(or "assembly of the land"), but Ivan had an amazingly cruel streak and eventually became
unstable: he temporarily abdicated in 1564, killed his favorite son, created a state-within-thestate called the oprichnina to wage war on the boyars, and participated in the torture of his
enemies. Ivan combined the absolutist tendencies of his predecessors with his own violent
personality, helping to plunge the country into the subsequent period of civil strife known as
the "Time of Troubles."
3.
Catherine II (1729-1796; ruled 1762-1796) Catherine the Great wasn't really a Russian at
all: she was born Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst (a minor German principality) and was chosen as
the bride of the future Peter III. She had thoroughly Russianized herself by the time Peter
became tsar, and soon had him deposed: she then dispatched several claimants to the throne
and crushed a peasant uprising led by Emilian Pugachev. She also corresponded with
Enlightenment philosophes, granted charters of rights and obligations to the nobility and the
towns, oversaw the partition of Poland, and expanded the empire. Catherine is well known
for her extravagant love life: her 21 acknowledged lovers included Grigorii Potemkin (who
constructed the famous Potemkin village on an imperial inspection tour).
4.
Nicholas II (1868-1918; ruled 1894-1917) Nicholas II, the last of the Romanovs, ruled until
his overthrow in the February Revolution of 1917. He is usually seen as both a kind man who
loved his family and an incapable monarch who helped bring about the end of the tsarist
state; he led his country through two disastrous wars, the Russo-Japanese War (which
helped spark the Revolution of 1905), and World War I (which helped cause the 1917
revolutions.) He is best known for his loving marriage to Alexandra and for allowing the
crazed monk Grigorii Rasputin to influence court politics while treating the hemophilia of
Alexei, the heir to the throne. Nicholas abdicated in 1917 and was shot in 1918.
5.
Alexander II (1818-1881; ruled 1855-1881) Alexander II embarked on a program of Great
Reforms soon after taking the throne near the end of the Crimean War. The most famous
part of his program was the serf emancipation of 1861--a reform which occurred almost
simultaneously with the end of American slavery (and whose gradual nature disappointed
liberals.) But he also introduced a system of local governing bodies called zemstvos, tried to
increase the rule of law in the court system, eased censorship, and reorganized the army.
Alexander became more reactionary after an attempted 1866 assassination and was
assassinated in 1881.
6.
Alexander I (1777-1825; ruled 1801-1825) Alexander I took the throne in 1801 when his
repressive father Paul was assassinated and immediately set out on a more liberal course, but
he left his strongest supporters disappointed. He is best known for his wars with Napoleon
(first as an ally and then as an enemy), and for seeking to establish a Holy Alliance in the
years that followed. Alexander was an eccentric and a religious mystic. Some even say that he
didn't really die in 1825: instead, they argue, he faked his own death, became a hermit, and
died in a monastery in 1864.
7.
Nicholas I (1796-1855; ruled 1825-1855) Nicholas I, who ruled Russia from the failure of
the Decembrist Uprising to the middle of the Crimean War, has traditionally been portrayed
as the embodiment of the Russian autocracy. His government pursued a policy of Official
Nationality, defending a holy trinity of "Autocracy, Orthodoxy, and Nationality," and
established a repressive secret police force known as the Third Section. Contemporaries
referred to him as the "Gendarme of Europe" after he helped the Habsburgs squelch the
Hungarian Revolution of 1848.
8.
Alexander III (1845-1894; ruled 1881-1894) Those who hoped that the assassination of
Alexander II would lead to liberalization saw the error of their ways when the new tsar,
Alexander III, launched his program of "counter-reforms." Under him, the state enacted a
series of Temporary Regulations (giving it the power to crack down on terrorism), increased
censorship, tightened controls on Russia's universities, created a position of "land captain" to
exert state control in the countryside, and either encouraged or ignored the first anti-Jewish
pogroms.
9.
Boris Godunov (ca. 1551-1605; ruled 1598-1605) Boris Godunov began his career as a
boyar in Ivan the Terrible's oprichnina, and eventually became tsar himself. Boris first
cemented his influence by marrying a daughter of one of Ivan's court favorites and arranging
his sister Irina's marriage to Ivan's son Fyodor; then he became regent under Fyodor, and
was elected tsar when Fyodor died in 1598. But Boris was rumored to have arranged the
murder of Fyodor's brother Dmitrii, and the first of several "False Dmitriis" launched a revolt
against him. Boris died in the midst of growing unrest and is now best known as the subject
of a Pushkin play and a Mussorgsky opera.
10. Michael (1597-1645; ruled 1613-1645) In 1613, near the end of the Time of Troubles, a
zemskii sobor elected the 16-year-old Michael Romanov as the new tsar. Michael was a
grandnephew of Ivan the Terrible's "good" wife Anastasia and the son of a powerful
churchman named Filaret (who soon became patriarch); as tsar, he has usually been seen as
a nonentity dominated by Filaret and other relatives. Nevertheless, his election marked the
return of relative stability and the succession of the Romanov dynasty.
You Gotta Know These Golfers
1.
Tiger Woods (1975-present) Born to an African-American father and a Thai mother, he
appeared on "The Mike Douglas Show" with a golf club at age two. Woods won three straight
U.S. Junior Amateurs, and then became the only golfer to win three straight U.S. Amateurs
(1994-1996). In 1997 Woods became the youngest ever to win the Masters--by a whopping 12
strokes. At the 2000 U.S. Open, when he won by 15 strokes, Woods began a remarkable run
of four straight major championships: British Open (by eight strokes, making him the
youngest ever to complete the career Grand Slam), PGA Championship, and the 2001
Masters. Woods added a third Masters in 2002, giving him seven major pro titles.
2.
Jack Nicklaus (1940-present) Nicknamed "The Golden Bear," he won the U.S. Amateur
twice (1959 and 1961), and was the 1961 NCAA champion at Ohio State. He took his first
major the following year at the U.S. Open, beating Arnold Palmer on Palmer's home course.
Nicklaus became the youngest Masters champion at the time in 1963, and 23 years later
became the oldest champion with a final round 65 in 1986. He has a record 18 major pro
championships overall, including six Masters, five PGA Championships, four U.S. Opens, and
three British Opens. Nicklaus is still somewhat active on the Senior PGA Tour, and as a golf
course architect.
3.
Arnold Palmer (1929-present) A native of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, Palmer made golf
popular with the masses, as his fans were known as "Arnie's Army." He won seven majors,
including four Masters, and was the first golfer to earn one million dollars on the PGA Tour.
Later Palmer became one of the stars of the Senior Tour, winning the Senior PGA Open in
1980 and 1981. In 2002 he played in his last competitive Masters.
4.
Ben Hogan (1912-1997) The PGA Tour's leading money winner from 1940-42 and in 1946
and 1948, two events interrupted his playing career: service in World War II and a near-fatal
1949 head-on car accident. After each, though, Hogan rose to the top of his game; he won
nine majors overall (six after the accident), including four U.S. Opens. In 1953 he
accomplished a feat matched only by Tiger Woods: winning three modern major
championships in one season: the Masters, U.S. Open, and British Open.
5.
(Robert Tyre) "Bobby" Jones (1902-1971) An Atlanta native, and the greatest amateur
golfer of all time, Jones never turned pro, but won thirteen major championships in eight
years, including four U.S. Amateurs. In 1930 he won what was then considered the Grand
Slam, taking both the British and U.S. Amateur and Open Championships. After that season,
Jones retired from golf to practice law, but helped design a golf course in Augusta, Georgia
that became the permanent site of the Masters in 1934.
6.
Sam Snead (1912-2002) No golfer has won more PGA Tournaments than Snead's 81, and
he amassed 135 victories worldwide. Nicknamed "Slammin' Sammy," he won seven major
professional championships between 1942 and 1954, but he is known more for the one he
never won: the U.S. Open. In 1939 Snead led the Open for 71 holes but lost on the last hole
when he took an eight. In the 1960s and '70s he won a record six Senior PGA Championships.
7.
Byron Nelson (1912-present) He won five major championships overall, but Nelson is best
known for having the single most dominant year in golf history. In 1945 he won a record 18
tournaments in 30 starts, including 11 consecutive tournaments, a feat no one has come close
to matching. Nelson was so even-tempered and mechanically sound that the USGA named its
mechanical club and ball-testing device, the "Iron Byron," after him.
8.
Tom Watson (1949-present) He became the major rival to Jack Nicklaus in the second half
of the Golden Bear's career. Watson's greatest achievements were at the British Open, a
tournament he won five times between 1975 and 1983. He took eight major championships
overall, and still competes occasionally on the regular PGA Tour, though mostly on the
Senior Tour, where he won the 2001 Senior PGA Championship.
9.
Lee Trevino (1939-present) Nicknamed "Supermex" for his Mexican-American heritage,
Trevino came from a poor Dallas family and served in the Marines, but came from nowhere
to win the 1968 U.S. Open. He won six majors: the U.S. Open, the British Open, and the PGA
Championship twice each, his second PGA in 1984 at age 44. That last win was most
impressive because it came after the 1975 Western Open, where Trevino was struck by
lightning on the golf course.
10. Gary Player (1935-present) The most successful non-American golfer in history, this South
African has won nine majors. When Player took his only U.S. Open crown in 1965, he not
only became the first non-American to win that tournament in 45 years, but he also became
one of three (now five) golfers (along with Nicklaus, Woods, Hogan, and Gene Sarazen) to
win all four modern Grand Slam events. Nicknames include "The Black Knight" for his dress
and "Mr. Fitness" for his devotion to exercise.
11. Gene Sarazen (1902-1999) Born Eugene Saraceni, he came to prominence in the early
1920s, winning the PGA Championship in 1922 and 1923, as well as the U.S. Open in 1922.
Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen then dominated golf until the early 1930s, when Sarazen
returned to form, winning four more majors. At the 1935 Masters, he carded an albatross
(three under par) from the fairway of the Par-5 15th hole to force a playoff; when he won,
Sarazen became the first golfer to complete the modern career Grand Slam.
12. Walter Hagen (1892-1969) Nicknamed "The Haig," he was the first great pro golfer,
appearing in over 2,500 exhibitions. A five-time PGA Champion, including four straight from
1924 to 1927, Hagen won eleven majors overall, and he was known most for his
showmanship and his ability to recover from poor shots with spectacular ones. Hagen
captained the U.S. Ryder Cup team six of the first seven times the event was held.
You Gotta Know These American Plays
1.
Our Town (Thornton Wilder, 1938). A sentimental story that takes place in the village of
Grover's Corners, New Hampshire just after the turn of the 20th century. Our Town is
divided into three acts: "Daily Life" (Professor Willard and Editor Webb gossip on the
everyday lives of town residents); "Love and Marriage" (Emily Webb and George Gibbs fall in
love and marry); and "Death" (Emily dies while giving birth, and her spirit converses about
the meaning of life with other dead people in the cemetery). A Stage Manager talks to the
audience and serves as a narrator throughout the drama, which is performed on a bare stage.
2.
Long Day's Journey Into Night (Eugene O'Neill, 1956). O'Neill wrote it fifteen years
earlier and presented the manuscript to his third wife with instructions that it not be
produced until 25 years after his death. Actually produced three years after he died, it centers
on Edmund and the rest of the Tyrone family but is really an autobiographical account of the
dysfunction of O'Neill's own family, set on one day in August 1912. The father is a miserly
actor, while the mother is a morphine addict, and the brother is a drunk; they argue and cut
each other down throughout the play.
3.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Edward Albee, 1962). The author Virginia Woolf has
little to do with the story, except that Martha sings the title to George when she is mad at him
in Act I. In fact, Albee got the title from graffiti he saw on a men's room wall. In the drama,
George is a professor who married Martha, the college president's daughter, but the two
dislike each other. Martha invites another couple, the instructor Nick and his wife Honey, for
drinks after a party for her father. All four of them get drunk, and they end up bickering over
their flawed marriages: Besides George and Martha's problems, Honey is barren, and Nick
married her for her money.
4.
A Streetcar Named Desire (Tennessee Williams, 1947). Blanche DuBois and Stanley
Kowalski represent Williams's two visions of the South: declining "old romantic" vs. the
harsh modern era. Blanche is a Southern belle who lost the family estate, and is forced to
move into her sister Stella's New Orleans apartment. Stella's husband Stanley is rough
around the edges, but sees through Blanche's artifice; he ruins Blanche's chance to marry his
friend Mitch by revealing to Mitch that Blanche was a prostitute. Then, after Blanche
confronts Stanley, he rapes her, driving her into insanity. The drama was developed into a
movie, marking the breakthrough performance of method actor Marlon Brando.
5.
A Raisin in the Sun (Lorraine Hansberry, 1959). Her father's 1940 court fight against
racist housing laws provided the basis for Hansberry's play about the Younger family, who
attempt to move into an all-white Chicago suburb but are confronted by discrimination. The
first play by an African-American woman to be performed on Broadway, it also tore down the
racial stereotyping found in other works of the time. The title comes from the Langston
Hughes poem "Harlem" (often called "A Dream Deferred").
6.
The Crucible (Arthur Miller, 1953). Miller chose the 1692 Salem witch trials as his setting,
but the work is really an allegorical protest against the McCarthy anti-Communist "witchhunts" of the early 1950s. In the story, Elizabeth Proctor fires servant Abigail Williams after
she finds out Abigail had an affair with her husband. In response, Abigail accuses Elizabeth
of witchcraft. She stands trial and is acquitted, but then another girl accuses her husband,
John, and as he refuses to turn in others, he is killed, along with the old comic figure, Giles
Corey. Also notable: Judge Hathorne is a direct ancestor of the author Nathaniel Hawthorne.
7.
Death of a Salesman (Arthur Miller, 1949). This play questions American values of
success. Willy Loman is a failed salesman whose firm fires him after 34 years. Despite his
own failures, he desperately wants his sons Biff and Happy to succeed. Told in a series of
flashbacks, the story points to Biff's moment of hopelessness, when the former high school
star catches his father Willy cheating on his mother, Linda. Eventually, Willy can no longer
live with his perceived shortcomings, and commits suicide in an attempt to leave Biff with
insurance money.
8.
Mourning Becomes Electra (Eugene O'Neill, 1931). This play is really a trilogy,
consisting of "Homecoming," "The Hunted," and "The Haunted." Though it is set in postCivil War New England, O'Neill used Aeschylus's tragedy The Oresteia as the basis for the
plot. Lavinia Mannon desires revenge against her mother, Christine, who with the help of her
lover Adam Brant has poisoned Lavinia's father Ezra; Lavinia persuades her brother Orin to
kill Brant. A distressed Christine commits suicide, and, after Orin and Lavinia flee to the
South Seas, Orin cannot stand the guilt and kills himself as well, leaving Lavinia in the house
alone.
9.
The Glass Menagerie (Tennessee Williams, 1944). Partly based on Williams' own family,
the drama is narrated by Tom Wingfield, who supports his mother Amanda and his crippled
sister Laura (who takes refuge from reality in her glass animals). At Amanda's insistence,
Tom brings his friend Jim O'Connor to the house as a gentleman caller for Laura. While
O'Connor is there, the horn on Laura's glass unicorn breaks, bringing her into reality, until
O'Connor tells the family that he is already engaged. Laura returns to her fantasy world,
while Tom abandons the family after fighting with Amanda.
10. The Iceman Cometh (Eugene O'Neill, 1939). A portrait of drunkenness and hopeless
dreams. Regular patrons of the End of the Line Café anticipate the annual arrival of
Theodore "Hickey" Hickman, but in 1912 he returns to them sober. After the patrons reveal
their "pipe dreams," Hickey implores them to give up those dreams and lead productive lives.
The "Iceman" is supposed to represent the "death" found in reality.
11. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Tennessee Williams, 1955). Centers on a fight between two sons
(Gooper and Brick) over the estate of father "Big Daddy" Pollitt, who is dying of cancer. After
his friend Skipper dies, ex-football star Brick turns to alcohol and will not have sex with his
wife Maggie ("the cat"). Yet Maggie announces to Big Daddy that she is pregnant in an
attempt to force a reconciliation with--and win the inheritance for--Brick.
12. The Little Foxes (Lillian Hellman, 1939). Set on a plantation in 1900, Hellman attempts to
show that by this time any notion of antebellum Southern gentility has been destroyed by
modern capitalism and industrialism. Three Hubbard siblings (Regina and her two brothers)
scheme to earn vast riches at the expense of other family members, such as Regina's husband
Horace and their daughter Alexandra. The title is taken from the Old Testament Song of
Solomon: "the little foxes that spoil the vines."
You Gotta Avoid These Common Mistakes
This article is a little different from other "You Gotta Know" topics in that it consists of common
mistakes that players make when answering questions and answers that are often confused.
1.
Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Two different people; Mary
Wollstonecraft (1759 - 1797, married name, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin) is best known as
an advocate of educational equality for women, particularly in A Vindication of the Rights of
Woman (1792). She is the mother of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797 - 1851) who married
the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and is best known as the author of Frankenstein: or, the
Modern Prometheus.
2.
"Bloody Mary" and Mary Queen of Scots Two different people; "Bloody Mary" is a
(pejorative) nickname of Mary I Tudor, the queen of England who preceded Elizabeth I, so
named for her persecution of Protestants. Mary Queen of Scots was Mary Stuart, who was the
queen of Scotland during the first part of Elizabeth's reign.
3.
The Merchant of Venice The title character of The Merchant of Venice is not Shylock-who is a money-lender--but Antonio.
4.
Hudson Bay The large sea of eastern Canada is Hudson Bay (no apostrophe). The company
named for it is the Hudson's Bay Company (with an apostrophe). Using the wrong form is
sufficient for the answer to be counted wrong under NAQT rules.
5.
Saint Augustine Two different people; the earlier (354 - 430) served as the Bishop of
Hippo and wrote Confessions and City of God The later (? - 604/605) founded the Christian
church in southern England and was the first archbishop of Canterbury.
6.
Compound last names The last names of David Lloyd George, Andrew Lloyd Webber,
Gabriel García Márquez, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe are "Lloyd
George," "Lloyd Webber," "García Márquez," "Vaughan Williams," and "Mies van der Rohe"
respectively. Starting with the 2002-2003 season players in NAQT events will be prompted if
they give part of a compound last name, but this rule doesn't (necessarily) hold true at other
quiz bowl tournaments.
7.
Invisible Man Invisible Man is a 1952 novel by Ralph Ellison about an unnamed AfricanAmerican protagonist in search of personal identity. The Invisible Man is an 1897 novel by
H. G. Wells about a man who has turned himself invisible but is slowly being driven insane.
Under NAQT rules, players are usually allowed to drop leading articles or add them where
they are missing (but not use incorrect ones)--but in this case (and others, for example,
Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale and Helprin's Winter's Tale), it creates ambiguity and is
wrong.
8.
Primates The scientific name for the order of primates is Primates [pree-MAY-teez], not
Primata.
9.
John Adams Even though NAQT rules generally call for players to be prompted on partial
names, an answer of "John Adams" will not be prompted if the correct answer is "John
Quincy Adams." An answer of "Adams" will be prompted in either case.
10. "Concerned" philosophical works David Hume wrote An Enquiry Concerning Human
Understanding, George Berkeley [BARK-lee] wrote Treatise Concerning the Principles of
Human Knowledge, and John Locke wrote An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.
These three philosophical works are often confused.
11. The Russian Five The nationalist composers popularly known as "The Russian Five" or
"The Mighty Handful" were César Cui, Aleksandr Borodin, Mily Balakirev, Modest
Mussorgsky, and Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov; in particular, they did not include Peter Ilich
Tchaikovsky.
12. Oliver Wendell Holmes Two different men; the father, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809
- 1894) was a physician, poet, and humorist who wrote "Old Ironsides" and The Autocrat of
the Breakfast Table. The son, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841 - 1935) was a justice of the
Supreme Court known as "The Great Dissenter."
You Gotta Know These Phyla
Plant, algal, and fungal "phyla" are often referred to as "divisions." Some taxonomists also extend this
usage to bacteria, while others advocate replacing the term "division" with "phylum" for all
organisms.
Taxonomists do not always agree on the usage of even the most common terms. Some textbooks and
other publications will use alternate names or spellings to describe taxonomic groups, or will lump or
split groups in different ways.
Under NAQT rules, unless the question states otherwise, both Latin names (Mollusca) or Anglicized
names (molluscs) are acceptable for a given taxon.
Note that spelling and pronunciation are not completely standardized in the taxonomic world, so
other sources may have slightly different versions of these phyla.
Estimates of phylal diversity vary. Because many invertebrates are inconspicuous, all estimates are
probably low. Unless stated otherwise, numbers represent an estimate of the number of species that
have been named.
1.
Porifera (pore-IH-fer-ah; 5,000 species) The sponges are all water-dwellers (98% marine,
2% freshwater), and are sometimes classified separately from other animals because of their
asymmetric bodies and lack of distinct tissues. They are sessile (immobile) except in early
dispersing stages, and collect food particles via the sweeping motions of flagellated cells
called choanocytes [koh-ANN-oh-sites].
2.
Cnidaria (nih-DARE-ee-ya; 10,000 species) Also called Coelenterata [se-LEN-ter-AH-tah],
the cnidarians develop from a diploblastic (two-layered) embryo, and have two separate
tissue layers and radial body symmetry. Many cnidarians have two life stages, the mobile,
usually bell-like medusa and the sessile polyp. All cnidarians have nematocysts, or stinging
cells, for capturing prey, and some can inflict painful stings on swimmers. Examples include
the hydras, sea anemones, corals, jellyfishes, and Portuguese man-o-war (which is actually
an aggregation of colonial cnidarians).
3.
Platyhelminthes (PLAT-ee-hel-MIN-theez; 15,000 species) The flatworms are the most
primitive phylum to develop from a triploblastic (three-layered) embryo. They have bilateral
body symmetry, and are acoelomate (lacking a true body cavity), so that the space between
the digestive tract and the body wall is filled with tissue. As the name implies, they are
generally flat-bodied. They have a true head and brain, but the digestive system has only one
opening that functions as both mouth and anus. Most are hermaphroditic. This phylum
includes parasites such as the tapeworms and flukes, as well as free-living (i.e., non-parasitic)
organisms such as the planarians.
4.
Nematoda (NEM-ah-TOE-dah; 15,000 species) The roundworms are unsegmented worms
that live in a variety of habitats. They are pseudocoelomate; the three tissue layers are
concentric, but the body cavity is not lined with tissue derived from the mesoderm (middle
embryonic layer). They include both free-living and parasitic species; human parasites
include hookworms and the causative agents of elephantiasis, trichinosis, and river
blindness. Soil nematodes may be crop pests, while others are beneficial predators on other
plant pests. The nematode species Caenorhabdis elegans is a common subject in genetics
and developmental-biology labs.
5.
Annelida (AN-el-LEE-dah; 11,500 species) The annelids are segmented worms and
represent the first lineage of truly eucoelomate (having a body cavity lined with mesodermderived tissue) animals; their body cavities are lined with tissue derived from the embryonic
mesoderm. Annelid classes include the marine Polychaeta, as well as the mostly terrestrial
Oligochaeta (including the earthworms, Lumbricus) and the mostly-aquatic Hirudinea, or
leeches. Characteristics of annelids include nephridia (kidney-like structures), blood vessels,
and, in some classes, hermaphroditism.
6.
Arthropoda (ar-THROP-oh-dah or AR-thro-POE-dah; over 800,000 species described;
estimates of actual diversity vary but go as high as 9 million species) The most diverse and
successful animal phylum on earth (incorporating about 75% of all described animal species),
the Arthropoda are characterized by jointed legs and a chitinous exoskeleton. Like annelids,
they are segmented, but unlike annelids, their segments are usually fused into larger body
parts with specialized functions (such as the head, thorax, and abdomen of an insect).
Arthropods are often divided into four subphyla: Uniramia (insects, centipedes, millipedes);
Chelicerata (arachnids, sea spiders, horseshoe crabs); Crustacea (shrimps, lobsters, crabs,
crayfish, barnacles, pillbugs), and Trilobitomorpha (the trilobites, now extinct).
7.
Cycliophora (CY-clee-oh-FORE-ah; 1 species) The most recently named phylum; its only
known member is Symbion pandora, a tiny invertebrate first identified in 1995 when a
Danish biologist found specimens on the mouthparts of a Norwegian lobster. It is believed to
be closely related to the marine phyla Entoprocta and Ectoprocta (Bryozoa), which are not
discussed here.
8.
Mollusca (mol-LUS-kah; 50,000 species) The molluscs are second in diversity only to the
arthropods. Body plans within this phylum are diverse, but general characteristics include a
soft body covered by a thin mantle, with a muscular foot and an internal visceral mass. There
are two fluid-filled body cavities derived from mesodermal tissue; a small coelom and a large
hemocoel that functions as an open circulatory system. Many molluscs have a shell
composed of calcium carbonate and proteins, secreted by the mantle. Familiar groups within
the Mollusca include the classes Gastropoda (slugs, snails), Bivalvia (clams, oysters,
scallops), and Cephalopoda (nautilus, squids, octopi).
9.
Echinodermata (ek-KY-no-der-MAH-tah; 6,500 species) Characteristics of this phylum
include an endoskeleton composed of many ossicles of calcium and magnesium carbonate, a
water vascular system (WVS), a ring canal around the esophagus, and locomotion by tube
feet connected to the WVS. Unique to echinoderms is the five-fold radial symmetry obvious
in sea stars (seafish), sea urchins, and sea lilies. Others, like sea cucumbers, have varying
degrees of bilateral symmetry. In the echinoderm body plan, a true head is absent; the
anatomical terms oral (mouth-bearing) and aboral (away from the mouth) are used to
describe orientation of the body surfaces. Feeding adaptations include particle feeding
through the WVS, everting the stomach to engulf prey (sea stars), and a scraping device
called Aristotle's lantern (sea urchins).
10. Chordata (kor-DAH-tah; 44,000 species) Our home phylum is divided into three subphyla:
Urochordata, the sea squirts; Cephalochordata, the lancelets, and the true vertebrates
(Vertebrata, the most diverse subphylum). Defining traits of chordates include pharyngeal
gill slits, a notochord, a post-anal tail, and a dorsal hollow nerve cord. In vertebrates, some of
these structures are found only in embryonic stages. The lancelet Amphioxus
(Branchiostoma) is often used as a demonstration organism in biology labs.
You Gotta Know These medieval Islamic dynasties
Most of NAQT's You Gotta Know articles are targeted at high school and novice collegiate players, but
this one has a narrower focus and is aimed at experienced collegiate teams. Islamic history is not a
major subject in the NAQT distribution, but it is a fascinating one; these nine dynasties cover much of
what is frequently asked.
1.
Umayyad The Umayyads ruled as caliphs from Damascus from 661-750. They came to
power in the civil war following the death of Uthman when Mu'awiyah Ibn Abu Sufyan
defeated the forces of Ali Ibn Abi Talib after the latter's assassination. Denounced in
traditional Islamic historiography for their secular rule, they introduced hereditary
transmission of office into Islam and favored Arabs at the expense of other Muslims. Under
'Abd al-Malik, the Umayyad Mosque was constructed in Damascus. In the 10th century, an
Umayyad scion re-established the dynasty in Cordoba, Spain.
2.
Abbasid The Abbasids reigned as caliphs from Baghdad from 750-1258, and later from
Cairo from 1261-1517. They rode to power on widespread disaffection with the Umayyads and
the sense that a member of the Prophet's family was best qualified to lead the community.
Their greatest rulers were al-Mansur, Harun ar-Rashid, and al-Mamun the Great. During the
9th century, however, power began to devolve onto increasingly autonomous local dynasties,
and the Abbasids fell under the control of outside forces such as the Buyids and Seljuqs.
When the Mongols destroyed Baghdad in 1258, the caliph as-Mustazim was wrapped in a
carpet and trampled to death by horses.
3.
Fatimid The Fatimids were Isma'ili Shi'ite Imams who founded their state in North Africa in
909 under the caliph al-Mahdi. They conquered Egypt in 969 under al-Muizz and built Cairo,
becoming the Abbasids' rivals. At its height their regime reached into Yemen and Syria, and
they had a network of missionaries spreading Isma'ili doctrines into Abbasid territory and
beyond. In the eleventh century, the caliph al-Hakim, considered insane, disappeared, giving
rise to the Druze religion. A later succession dispute gave rise to the sect of the Assassins. The
last caliph, al-Adil, died in 1171.
4.
Seljuq The Seljuqs were a family of Ghuzz Turks who invaded the Middle East in the
eleventh century and came to control the Abbasid caliphs of Baghdad. Following their defeat
of the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, they settled in Anatolia as well, where
they founded the Sultanate of Rum. Following the Central Asian model of "collective
sovereignty," they divided territory among the ruling family, which prevented strong political
unity. Their rule saw the beginning of the Sunni revival and the spread of religious schools
called madrasas in the Islamic world, giving uniformity to elite beliefs and practices. By 1200
their power was all but extinct.
5.
Ayyubid The Ayyubids were Kurds who took control of Egypt under the Zengids. In 1171
Salah ad-Din (Saladin) abolished the Fatimid caliphate, and later took Damascus as well. He
retook Jerusalem from the Crusader kingdoms; however, subsequent Crusades undid some
of these gains. It was in Ayyubid times that the Sunni revival came to Egypt. The sultan alKamil gave Jerusalem to Frederick II in a peace treaty and was visited by St. Francis of
Assisi. The Ayyubids followed the practice of collective sovereignty, and were often politically
divided. The woman Shajar ad-Durr was the last to rule Egypt.
6.
Mamluk The Mamluks were slave soldiers of foreign origin who deposed the Ayyubids in
1250. Baybars, who turned back the Mongols at the Battle of Ayn Jalut, is a popular figure in
Arabic heroic literature. In 1291 they drove the last Crusaders from Palestine. Their reign is
divided into a "Bahri" period from 1250-1382 and a "Circassian" period from 1382-1517. They
were defeated by the Ottomans, who conquered Egypt in 1517.
7.
Ottoman The Ottomans were Turks of uncertain origin who conquered the Balkans and the
Middle East and brought the central Islamic lands into the European state system. Their key
military victories were the defeat of the Serbs in the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, the capture of
Constantinople in 1453, and the defeat of the Mamluks in 1517. During the 15th century their
lands replaced Palestine as the major target of the Crusades. They reached their height under
Suleyman the Magnificient, who beseiged Vienna in 1529. The empire's remnants became
Turkey after World War I.
8.
Mughal The Mughals ruled most of India from the early 16th until the mid-18th century,
and claimed descent from both Genghis Khan and Tamerlane. Their empire was founded by
Babur and expanded under his grandson Akbar. The Taj Mahal was built under Shah Jahan,
who brought the empire to the brink of bankruptcy. Aurangzeb excluded Hindus from public
office, and the empire began to break up soon after his death in 1707.
9.
Safavid The Safavids were founded by a Sunni Sufi (mystic) order under Shah Ismail, and
ruled Iran from 1502 until 1736. They forcibly converted Iran to Shi'ism, and later converted
themselves (this sounds strange, and is--it's one of history's mysteries). Together with the
Ottomans and Mughals, they form the three "Gunpowder Empires" in what Islamicists
consider the late medieval period. Under Abbas I, a European expert was hired to reform the
military following defeats by both their Ottoman and Uzbek rivals. Abbas later captured
Baghdad and expelled the Portugese from the Persian Gulf. Esfahan was their capital during
their height.
You Gotta Know These Norse Gods and Goddesses
1.
Ymir A primordial giant who formed in the void of Ginnungagap from fire and ice. He gave
birth to the frost giants and created the primordial cow Audhumla. He was killed by Odin
and his brothers, who used his body to construct most of the universe.
2.
Odin (or Wodin or Wotan) The All-Father, he is the leader of the Aesir, the principal group
of Norse gods. He is a god of war, death, wisdom, poetry, and knowledge, and rides the eightlegged horse Sleipnir. He hung himself for nine days on the world tree Yggsdrasil, pierced by
his own spear, to gain knowledge, and traded one of his eyes for a drink from Mimir's well to
gain wisdom.
3.
Frigg (or Frigga) The wife of Odin, and mother by him of Balder, Hoder, Hermod, and Tyr.
She is the goddess of the sky, marriage, and motherhood, and often works at her loom
spinning clouds.
4.
Frey (or Freyr) The son of Njord, and twin brother of Freya. He is one of the Vanir, a second
group of Norse gods, but lives with the Aesir as a hostage. The god of fertility, horses, sun,
and rain, his possessions include the magic ship Skidbladnir. He travels in a chariot drawn by
the golden boar Gullinbursti, and had to give away his magic sword to win the hand of the
giantess Gerda.
5.
Freya The daughter of Njord and twin sister of Frey, she is also a Vanir hostage living with
the Aesir. The goddess of love, passion, and human fertility, her possessions include a cloak
that allows her to turn into a falcon, and the necklace Brisingamen. She travels in a chariot
drawn by two cats.
6.
Thor A son of Odin and the giantess Jord, he is the god of thunder, weather, and crops. One
of the most popular of the Norse gods, he travels in a chariot pulled by two goats, and wields
the hammer Mjolnir. He is married to Sif, and his special nemesis is the Midgard Serpent.
7.
Loki He's actually giant-kin, but lives with the Aesir and is Odin's blood-brother. The god of
fire and trickery, his many pranks include duping Hoder into killing Balder. His children
include the wolf Fenrir, the Midgard Serpent Jormungandr, Hel (the ruler of the
underworld), and Sleipnir. After killing Balder he was chained to three boulders with snakes
dripping poison onto him.
8.
Heimdall The son of nine sisters, he is the god of light and guardians. He guards Bifrost, the
rainbow bridge into Asgard. His senses are so sharp, he can see 100 miles by night or day and
hear grass growing. He will call the Aesir into battle at Ragnarok with his horn Gjall (or
Gjallerhorn).
9.
Balder (or Baldur) The fairest of the Aesir, he is the god of light, joy, and beauty. He
dreamed of his own death, so Frigga extracted promises from everything not to harm Balder,
but she skipped mistletoe. Loki tricked Balder's blind brother Hoder into killing him with a
spear of mistletoe.
10. Norns The goddesses of destiny, represented as the three sisters Urd (or Wyrd), Verdandi
(or Verthandi), and Skuld. The counterparts of the Greek Fates, they tend the Well of Fate at
the roots of Yggdrasil.
You Gotta Know These British Monarchs
1.
Henry VIII (1491-1547, r. 1509-1547) House of Tudor. The son of Tudor founder Henry VII,
he brought England into both the Renaissance and the Reformation. Henry patronized the
philosopher Erasmus, the painter Hans Holbein the Younger, and the writer Thomas More.
Originally a supporter of the Catholic Church--the Pope had named him "Defender of the
Faith"--he named himself head of the Church of England in 1533 so that he could divorce
Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn. Henry executed top ministers who crossed him,
including Thomas Cromwell and Thomas More. He married six times, but only his third wife,
Jane Seymour, bore him a son, the sickly Edward VI.
2.
Elizabeth I (1533-1603, r. 1558-1603) House of Tudor. Known as the "Virgin Queen"
because she never married, as Henry VIII's daughter by Anne Boleyn, the Catholic Church
considered her illegitimate. After the death of her Catholic sister Mary I, Elizabeth I tried to
restore religious order by declaring England a Protestant state but naming herself only
"Governor" of the Church. She foiled attempts at her throne by Spanish king Philip II and
Mary, Queen of Scots; the latter Elizabeth reluctantly executed in 1587. Her reign saw great
expansion of the English navy and the emergence of William Shakespeare, but when she
died, the Crown went to Scottish king James VI, the son of Mary, Queen of Scots.
3.
George III (1738-1820, r. 1760-1820) House of Hanover. Though he lost the American
colonies in the Revolutionary War, Britain's economic empire expanded during his reign.
While George's ministers kept their lives, they fell from power frequently, including both
William Pitts, Lord Bute, and Lord North. Popular at home, he suffered from porphyria,
causing the "madness" that ultimately led to the Regency period (1811-1820) of his son
George IV.
4.
(Alexandrina) Victoria (1819-1901, r. 1837-1901; Empress of India 1876-1901) House of
Hanover. The longest-reigning monarch in British history, she relinquished much of the
remaining royal power, both to her husband Albert and to her favored prime ministers, Lord
Melbourne, Robert Peel, and Benjamin Disraeli. After Albert's death in 1861, Victoria largely
went into seclusion, though she influenced the passage of the Reform Act of 1867, which
doubled the number of Britons who could vote.
5.
William I (the Conqueror) (1028-1087, r. 1066-1087) House of Normandy. Duke of
Normandy from 1035, he was promised succession to the throne by Edward the Confessor,
but when Edward gave the throne to Harold II in 1066, William invaded England, killing
Harold and defeating the Anglo-Saxons at the Battle of Hastings. An able administrator, he
authorized a survey of his kingdom in the 1086 Domesday Book. By that time William had
replaced Anglo-Saxon nobles and clergy with Normans and other continentals.
6.
Charles I (1600-1649, r. 1625-1649) House of Stuart. The last absolute English monarch,
Charles ran into trouble almost immediately. His minister, the Duke of Buckingham, asked
Parliament for money to fight costly foreign wars, and when Parliament balked, Charles had
to sign the Petition of Right. From 1630 to 1641 he tried to rule solo, but financial troubles
forced him to call the Short and Long Parliaments. His attempt to reform the Scottish Church
was the last straw, as Parliament entered into the English Civil War. They defeated Charles,
convicting him of treason and executing him. England became a Commonwealth with Oliver
Cromwell as Lord Protector.
7.
James I (1566-1625, r. 1603-1625) House of Stuart. At age one James succeeded his mother
Mary as King James VI of Scotland. As the great-great-grandson of Henry VII, he claimed the
English throne upon the death of Elizabeth I. James was the intended target of Catholic
fanatic Guy Fawkes' failed Gunpowder Plot in 1605. A believer in absolutism, James
dissolved Parliament from 1611 to 1621, favoring ministers Robert Cecil and the Duke of
Buckingham instead. His rule saw English expansion into North America, through royal
charter in Virginia and Puritan protest in Massachusetts.
8.
Richard III (1452-1485, r. 1483-1485) House of York. He was made Duke of Gloucester in
1461 when his brother Edward IV deposed the Lancastrian king Henry VI, as part of the Wars
of the Roses. Upon Edward's death in 1483, Richard served as regent to his nephew Edward
V, but likely had the boy murdered in the Tower of London that year. Two years later,
Richard died at the hands of Henry Tudor's Lancastrian forces at Bosworth Field, ending the
Wars of the Roses and beginning the reign of Henry VII.
9.
Elizabeth II (1926-present, r. 1952-present) House of Windsor. Representative of the
modern ceremonial monarchy, she and her husband "Prince" Philip Mountbatten have
traveled the globe representing British interests. Marital failures by her sons Charles (the
Prince of Wales) and Andrew have plagued her reign.
10. John Lackland (1167-1216, r. 1199-1216) House of Plantagenet. Though he tried to seize the
crown from his brother Richard while the latter was in Germany, Richard forgave John and
made him his successor. Excommunicated by the Pope for four years for refusing to accept
Stephen Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury, John was also weak as a fighter, as French
King Philip II routed him at Bouvines in 1214. A year later, England's barons forced John to
sign the Magna Carta at Runnymede, an event that marked the beginning of the development
of the British constitution.
11. Charles II (1630-1685; r. 1660-1685) House of Stuart. While Cromwell ruled the
Commonwealth, Charles was crowned King of Scotland in 1651. After Cromwell died, Charles
used the Declaration of Breda to restore himself to the English throne. He fought two
lackluster wars against the Dutch, and needed protection from Louis XIV through the Treaty
of Dover. His wife Catherine of Braganza produced no legitimate heirs, but this "Merry
Monarch" has as many as 14 illegitimate children. Tolerant of Catholics, he dissolved
Parliament over the issue in 1681 and refused to prevent his brother James from succeeding
him.
12. James II (1633-1701; r. 1685-1688) House of Stuart. The 1678 Popish Plot against Charles II
would have elevated the Roman Catholic James to the throne, had it been real and not
fabricated by Titus Oates. James's three years, however, did feature heavy favoritism toward
Catholics, so much so that Protestants invited James's son-in-law William of Orange to rule
England, deposing James in the bloodless Glorious Revolution. Exiled to Louis XIV's court,
he made an attempt to regain his crown in 1690 but was routed at the Battle of the Boyne.
13. Henry II (1133-1189; r. 1154-1189) House of Plantagenet. The son of Geoffrey of Anjou and
Matilda, he married Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152, and invaded England the following year,
forcing Stephen of Blois to acknowledge Henry as his heir. While king he developed the
common law and due process, but fought with Thomas (à) Becket over submission to the
Pope; Henry had Becket executed in 1170 but performed penance at Canterbury. Eleanor and
his four sons conspired with French king Philip II against Henry on several occasions.
14. Richard I (the Lion-Hearted) (1157-1199; r. 1189-1199) House of Plantagenet. Third son
of Henry II, he spent only five months of his reign in England. He went on the Third Crusade
to Jerusalem, winning many victories in the Holy Land, but on his way back was captured
and ransomed by Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI. He also fought Philip II in Normandy, and
died while defending his possessions in Aquitaine.
15. Alfred the Great (849-899; r. 871-899) Saxon House. Actually just the King of Wessex in
southwestern England, he expelled the rival Danes from the Mercian town of London in 886,
eventually conquering most of the Danelaw territory. Alfred also kept England from the
worst of the Dark Ages by encouraging his bishops to foster literacy; in addition, he
translated Boethius, Augustine, and the Venerable Bede's works into Anglo-Saxon.
You Gotta Know These Religious Texts
This list of religious works from around the world specifically excludes the Old Testament and the
New Testament, which will be the subject of an upcoming You Gotta Know article.
1.
Analects One of the "Four Books" used by the ancient Chinese for civil service study, it
contains the sayings (aphorisms) of Confucius. The philosopher Confucius did not write or
edit the words that make up the Analects; his disciples compiled them in the 5th or 4th
century BC. Confucianism is more of a philosophical system than a religion, and Confucius
thought of himself more as a teacher than as a spiritual leader. The Analects also contain
some of the basic ideas found in Confucianism, such as ren (benevolence) and li (proper
conduct).
2.
Apocrypha Protestants and Jews assign lower authority to the Apocrypha because it was
written between 300 and 100 BC, but Catholics and Orthodox Christians consider the books
that make up the Apocrypha to be "deuterocanonical," meaning that they are just as
important and divinely-inspired as other parts of the Old Testament. "Apocryphal" in general
means "something outside an accepted canon," and, in particular, in ancient Greek it meant
"hidden things." Scholars differ as to which books make up the Apocrypha, but Tobit, Judith,
1 and 2 Maccabees, Wisdom, Sirach (or Ecclesiasticus), and Baruch are almost always
included.
3.
Avesta (or Zend-Avesta) Sacred scripture of Zoroastrianism. It consists of five parts:
Gathas (poems written by Zoroaster), Visparat (homages to spiritual leaders), Vendidad
(legal and medical doctrine), Yashts (hymns to angels and heroes), and Khurda (lesser
rituals and hymns). The Gathas may be as old as the 7th century BC, when Zoroaster is
thought to have lived, but most of the Avesta was put together by the Sassanid Persian
dynasty, between 200 and 640. Zoroastrianism centers on the eternal struggle between a
good entity (Ahura Mazda, or Ormuzd) and its evil counterpart (Angra Mainyu, or Ahriman);
the religion is still practiced by about 120,000 Parsees in Bombay and a few thousand
adherents in Iran and Iraq.
4.
Bhagavad-Gita Sanskrit for "The Song of God," it is a poem found in Book Six of the Hindu
epic Mahabharata. Likely formalized in the 1st or 2nd century, the Bhagavad-Gita begins on
the eve of a battle, when the prince Arjuna asks his charioteer Krishna (an avatar of Vishnu)
about responsibility in dealing with the suffering that impending battle will cause. Krishna
tells Arjuna that humans possess a divine self within a material form, and that Arjuna's duty
is to love God and do what is right without thinking of personal gain--some of the main
tenets of Hinduism.
5.
Dao de Jing (or Tao Te Ching or The Way and Its Power) Philosophical text behind
Daoism, a religion-philosophy founded by the semi-legendary Laozi in the sixth century BC,
though scholars now believe it was written about 200 years later, during the Warring States
period of the late Zhou Dynasty. The Dao de Jing instructs adherents in restraint and
passiveness, allowing the natural order of the universe to take precedent.
6.
Hadith A hadith is a report of the words or actions of a Muslim religious figure, most
frequently the Prophet Muhammad. Each consists of a matn, or text of the original oral law
itself, as well as an isnad, or chain of authorities through which it has been passed by word of
mouth through the generations. Collectively, the hadith point Muslims toward the Sunna, or
practice of the Prophet, which together with the Qur'an forms the basis for shari'a , usually
translated as Islamic law.
7.
Book of Mormon Published in 1830 by the founder of the Mormon Church, Joseph Smith.
Mormons believe that the prophet Moroni revealed the location of the Book of Mormon to
Smith, and then Smith translated it from a "reformed Egyptian" language. The Book of
Mormon is inscribed on thin gold plates, and documents the history of a group of Hebrews
who migrated to America around 600 BC. This group divided into two tribes: the Lamanites
(ancestors of American Indians), and the highly civilized Nephites, a chosen people
instructed by Jesus but killed by the Lamanites around 421.
8.
Qur'an (or Koran) Arabic for "recitation," it is the most sacred scripture of Islam. The
Qur'an is subdivided into 114 chapters, called suras, which, with the exception of the first
one, are arranged in descending order of length. According to Muslim belief, the angel Jibril
[Gabriel] visited the prophet Muhammad in 610 and revealed the work to him. Various suras
discuss absolute submission to Allah [God], happiness in Heaven versus torture in Hell, and
the mercy, compassion, and justice of Allah. The third caliph, Uthman (644-656), formalized
the text after many of his oral reciters were killed in battle.
9.
Talmud Hebrew for "instruction," the Talmud is a codification of Jewish oral and written
law, based on the Torah. It consists of the Mishnah (the laws themselves), and the Gemara
(scholarly commentary on the Mishnah). The Gemara developed in two Judaic centers:
Palestine and Babylonia, so there are two Talmuds (Palestinian and Babylonian), the latter
considered more authoritative by Orthodox Jews. Rabbis and lay scholars finished the
Babylonian Talmud around 600.
10. Upanishads Also called Vedanta, or "last part of the Vedas," the Upanishads were written
in Sanskrit between 900 and 500 BC. Part poetry but mainly prose, the earlier Upanishads
laid the foundation for the development of several key Hindu ideas, such as connecting the
individual soul (atman) with the universal soul (Brahman). Spiritual release, or moksha,
could be achieved through meditation and asceticism. The name "Upanishads" means "to sit
down close," as pupils did when a teacher recited them.
11. Vedas Consist strictly of four hymnbooks: the Rig (prayers in verse), Sama (musical
melodies), Yajur (prose prayers), and Atharva (spells and incantations). Each Veda, though,
also contains a Brahmana (interpretation), and the Vedas also incorporate treatises on
meditation (Aranyakas) as well as the Upanishads. Written in an archaic form of Sanskrit by
early Aryan invaders, possibly between 1500 and 1200 BC, the Vedas concentrate on
sacrifices to deities, such as Indra (god of thunder), Varuna (cosmic order), and Agni (fire).
The major gods Vishnu and Shiva appear as minor deities in the Vedas; their elevation, as
well as the concept of karma, does not develop until the Upanishads.
12. Yijing (or I Ching or Book of Changes) The basis for ancient Chinese philosophy and
religion, the Yijing was created between 1500 and 1000 BC, though legend has it that the
dragon-emperor Fuxi derived its eight trigrams from a turtle shell. The trigrams consist of
three either broken (yin) or unbroken (yang) lines, and by reading pairs of these trigrams
randomly, one could learn about humans, the universe, and the meaning of life. Qin emperor
Shi Huangdi burned most scholarly books, but the Yijing escaped because it was not seen as
threatening.
You Gotta Avoid These Common Mistakes II
This article is similar to the previous common mistakes article in that it consists of common mistakes
that players make when answering questions and answers that are often confused.
1.
Revelation The final book of the New Testament. In particular, it is singular and the plural
form will be counted wrong in NAQT competitions. The full name varies from translation to
translation, but sometimes appears as "The Revelation of St. John the Divine" or "Apocalypse
of John."
2.
Tom Wolfe and Thomas Wolfe Two different people; Tom Wolfe (1930 - present, in full
Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr.) is the modern author and journalist who wrote The Right Stuff,
The Bonfire of the Vanities, and A Man in Full. Thomas Wolfe (1900 - 1938, in full, Thomas
Clayton Wolfe) was an earlier author of works like Look Homeward, Angel and You Can't Go
Home Again. In NAQT competitions, "Thomas Wolfe" will be counted wrong for the former
and "Tom Wolfe" as wrong for the latter.
3.
Greco-Roman Mythology Greek and Roman mythology have many analogous characters,
many of which are closely identified (e.g., Aphrodite and Venus). However, a question that
mentions specific names, traits, or otherwise makes clear that it is about one tradition
requires that the answer from that tradition be given; analogous figures from other traditions
will not even be prompted under NAQT rules. Thus the answer to "From whose head was
Minerva born?" must be "Jupiter" and not "Zeus."
4.
Enharmonic Notes While it is true that on a piano the notes C-sharp and D-flat are
indistinguishable, this is not true on other instruments or under most systems of tuning. In
general music theory differentiates between notes that are enharmonic in the specific case of
the piano and NAQT questions will require that correct note (and will not prompt on the
other).
5.
East Asian Names Many East Asian languages (but in particular Japanese, Chinese,
Vietnamese, and Korean) traditionally place the family name before the given name:
Mishima Yukio's family name is "Mishima". Under NAQT rules, all answers (regardless of
the usual cultural order) may be given in either order: "Mishima Yukio," "Yukio Mishima,"
"Henry James," and "James, Henry" are all acceptable, but players should make sure that
they know which part of an East Asian name is the family name as "Yukio" will be neither
prompted nor accepted. Players who are not certain may wish to give both names, though it
is usually a good idea to only give the family name when answering (since family names are
usually sufficient and always will be prompted if not).
6.
The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg is the correct title of the short story by Mark
Twain. In particular, "The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg" is incorrect.
7.
United Kingdom Since the Act of Union in 1707, England has not existed as a separate
political unit and questions about political entities after that time will nearly always require
"United Kingdom" (or "Great Britain") and will not prompt on "England." England, of
course, continues to be a reasonable answer in modern times for geography or sports
questions.
8.
Immaculate Conception The Roman Catholic belief that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was
not affected by Original Sin from the moment of her conception onward. In particular,
despite the lack of male involvement, it does not refer to the conception by Mary of Jesus the
Christ.
9.
IWW An abbreviation for the early 20th-century labor organization Industrial Workers of
the World. In particular, it does not stand for the (redundant) "International Workers of the
World."
10. Daniel Shays An officer in the Revolutionary War who went on to lead a 1786-1787
rebellion in western Massachusetts opposing its high taxes, an episode known as "Shays'
Rebellion." In particular, his name is not "Shay." A similar error is often made in giving "van
der Waal" as the name of the Dutch chemist, but his name is actually "van der Waals."
11. The Sign of Four The Arthur Conan Doyle novel about the theft of the Agra treasure by
four men including Jonathan Small. In particular, the title is not "The Sign of the Four."
12. Visual Art Titles From 1300 to 1700, relatively few religious paintings were given specific
titles; most have been assigned traditional names based on their subject manner. This means
that many titles (e.g., The Descent from the Cross, The Annunciation, The Adoration of the
Magi, etc.) occur very frequently and players should not be as quick to ring in upon
immediately recognizing as a title as in other fields because there is a good chance that more
than one painter produced a work by that name. Similarly, the titles are often not canonical
(e.g., El Greco's Christ Driving the Money-Changers from the Temple may appear as
Expulsion from the Temple) and players should keep in mind that the form of the title they
know may not be the one given in the question.
You Gotta Know These American Warships
The following list of nine American warships includes eight of the most important or interesting ships
in the U.S. Navy, as well as one from the navy of the Confederate States of America. Though there are
some ships that were more involved in battle, these mark significant advancements in naval
technology or turning points in U.S. history; most importantly, they are the ships that come up most
frequently in quiz bowl.
1.
USS Constitution Better known as "Old Ironsides," the Constitution was one of the first six
ships commissioned by the U.S. Navy after the American Revolution. Launched from Boston
in 1797, the Constitution first saw action as the squadron flagship in the Quasi-War with
France from 1799-1801 and also fought in the Barbary War and the War of 1812. She later
served many years as the nation's flagship in the Mediterranean. Retired from active duty in
1846, the words of Oliver Wendell Holmes' "Old Ironsides" saved her from the scrap yard-she became the training ship of the U.S. Naval Academy until the mid-1880s. She became the
symbolic flagship of the U.S. Navy in 1940 and is now a floating museum in Boston.
2.
USS Chesapeake The USS Chesapeake was built at what is now the Norfolk Naval
Shipyard, between 1798 and 1799. The Chesapeake was attacked by the British Leopard off
Cape Henry in 1807 (which led to the duel between Commodores James Barron and Stephen
Decatur), one of the causes of the War of 1812. She was captured off Boston in 1813 by the
British frigate Shannon, on which occasion her commander, Capt. James Lawrence, uttered
his celebrated dying words, "Don't give up the ship," which have become a tradition in the
U.S. Navy.
3.
USS Lawrence/USS Niagara Oliver Hazard Perry's decisive victory over the British fleet
in the Battle of Lake Erie on September 10, 1813 ensured American control of the Great Lakes
during the War of 1812. In the battle, Perry's flagship, the USS Lawrence, was severely
damaged and four-fifths of her crew killed or wounded. Commodore Perry and a small
contingent rowed a half-mile through heavy gunfire to another American ship, the USS
Niagara. Boarding and taking command, he brought her into battle and soundly defeated the
British fleet. Perry summarized the fight in a now-famous message to General William Henry
Harrison: "We have met the enemy and they are ours."
4.
USS Monitor/CSS Virginia [aka USS Merrimack] After departing Union forces
burned the Gosport Navy Yard in Norfolk in April 1861, yard workers salvaged the USS
Merrimack and converted her into the ironclad CSS Virginia. On March 8, 1862, the CSS
Virginia left the shipyard and sank two Union warships in Hampton Roads. The South's
ironclad rammed and sank the USS Cumberland and set fire to and sank the USS Congress,
one of the nation's first six frigates. The Monitor was sent to end its rampage and the two
ironclads battled for 3 1/2 hours before the Virginia ran aground in its attempt to ram the
USS Minnesota. Visibly damaged, the Virginia retreated and the Monitor withdrew to
protect the Minnesota. The Confederates destroyed the Virginia soon after to prevent her
capture by Union forces. The Monitor, victorious in her first battle, sank in a storm off Cape
Hatteras, NC. The shipwreck is a national underwater sanctuary under the purview of the
NOAA.
5.
USS Maine (ACR-1) [Second class] The first Maine, a second-class armored battleship was
launched in 1889. A part of the "Great White Fleet," in 1897 the Maine sailed for Havana to
show the flag and protect American citizens. Shortly after 9:40 pm on February 15, 1898, the
battleship was torn apart by a tremendous explosion. The court of inquiry convened in March
was unable to obtain evidence associating the blast with any person or persons, but public
opinion--inflamed by "yellow journalism"--was such that the Maine disaster led to the
declaration of war on Spain on April 21, 1898.
6.
USS Arizona (BB-39) [Pennsylvania class] A lead ship of the honor escort for President
Wilson's trip to France in 1918, she was on Battleship Row at Pearl Harbor when Japanese
aircraft appeared just before 8:00 am on Sunday, December 7, 1941. The Arizona came
under attack almost immediately, and at about 8:10 was hit by an 800-kilogram bomb just
forward of turret two on the starboard side. Within a few seconds the forward powder
magazines exploded, killing 1,177 of the crew, and the ship sank to the bottom of the harbor.
In 1962 the USS Arizona memorial opened and is now administered by the National Park
Service.
7.
USS Missouri (BB-63) [Iowa class] The fourth USS Missouri was the last battleship
completed by the United States; she was laid down January 6, 1941 by New York Naval
Shipyard. The Missouri was launched January 29, 1944 and received her sponsorship from
Miss Margaret Truman, daughter of then Missouri Senator, Harry S Truman. Commissioned
on June 11, 1944, the "Mighty Mo," as she became known, sailed for the Pacific and quickly
became the flagship of Admiral Halsey, which is why she was chosen as the site of the formal
surrender of the Empire of Japan on the morning of September 1, 1945.
8.
USS Nautilus (SSN-571) [Nautilus class] In 1951 Congress authorized construction of the
world's first nuclear-powered submarine. On December 12 of that year, the Navy Department
announced that she would be the sixth ship of the fleet to bear the name Nautilus. She was
launched on January 21, 1954. Eight months later, on September 30, 1954, the Nautilus
became the first commissioned nuclear-powered ship in the U.S. Navy. On the morning of
January 17, 1955, Nautilus' Cmdr. Wilkinson signaled "Underway on Nuclear Power." In
1958 she departed Pearl Harbor under top secret orders to conduct "Operation Sunshine,"
the first crossing of the North Pole by a ship.
You Gotta Know These Programming Languages
1.
C++ is a popular, compiled, high-level language developed by Bjarne Stroustrup in 1985 at
Bell Labs. C++ is similar to C, but adds object-oriented features (classes), generic
programming (templates), and exception handling to the language. It is a popular language
for developing business applications and, increasingly, games.
2.
Java is a popular high-level language developed by Sun Microsystems in the early 1990s.
The language was originally named OAK and unsuccessfully used for set-top devices, but hit
it big after being renamed in 1995 and introduced to the World Wide Web. It is a relatively
pure object-oriented language with syntax similar to C++. Instead of being compiled to
object code, it is compiled to Java bytecode, which is then interpreted or compiled on the fly.
This use of machine-independent bytecode gives it its "write once, run everywhere" property.
Java is principally used for client-side web application ("applets") and server-side web
application ("servlets") that make use of J2EE technology. The success of Java inspired
Microsoft to introduce its C# language and .NET framework.
3.
BASIC (Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a high-level language
developed by John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz at Dartmouth College in the mid 1960s. It is
easy to use but its relative lack of structure makes maintaining programs difficult. There have
been many versions of BASIC and some more modern ones (TurboBasic, QuickBasic Visual
Basic) have added advanced features. Stereotypical programs like 10 PRINT "HELLO" and
10 GOTO 10 are written in BASIC.
4.
C, a compiled successor to the B programming language, was developed by Dennis Ritchie in
1972. It is a high-level and highly standardized language that remains very "close to the
hardware" and allows the programmer to perform useful, fast, and dangerous tricks. It is
widely used for business applications, games, operating systems (particularly UNIX and
Linux), and device drivers.
5.
Perl is an interpreted language designed principally to process text. It was written by Larry
Wall and first released in 1988. It is intended to be practical and concise rather than
theoretically elegant and is sometimes lampooned as "write one, read never" because of its
heavy use of symbols and idiom. It is often used for web CGI scripts and parsing log files.
"Perl" is an unofficial retronym for "Practical Extraction Report Language."
6.
ALGOL (ALGOrithmic Language) was created in the late 1950s and was the first procedural
language intended for solving mathematical and scientific problems. Formalized in a report
titled ALGOL 58, it progressed through ALGOL 60 and ALGOL 68 before waning in
popularity. ALGOL was sufficiently advanced and respected that most modern procedural
languages reflect its overall structure and design; some, like Pascal, are very closely related.
7.
Pascal is a high-level, compiled language built upon ALGOL. It is named after the 17thcentury mathematician Blaise Pascal and was developed by Niklaus Wirth during 1967-71.
Pascal is best known for its emphasis on structured programming techniques and strong
typing; because of this, it was extremely popular as a teaching language in the 1980s and
early 1990s, though it was never popular for business or scientific applications. The objectoriented language Delphi was based on Pascal.
8.
LISP (LISt Processing) is the ancestor of the family of functional languages that emphasize
evaluating expressions rather than executing imperative commands. It was developed in
1950-1960 by John McCarthy and is used primarily for symbolic manipulations of
complicated structures rather than numerical calculation. It and its descendants (Scheme,
CommonLisp, etc.) continue to be used in academic research, particularly artificial
intelligence.
9.
Fortran (FORmula TRANslation) is the oldest high-level language. Designed by John
Backus for IBM during the late 1950s, it was once in use on virtually every computer in the
world and is still used today for engineering and scientific applications because of the quality
of its compilers and numerical libraries. The most popular Fortran versions are Fortran IV,
77, and 90. The name "Fortran" was originally entirely capitalized, but the ANSI Fortran
Committee has since declared the "initial capital" spelling official.
10. COBOL (COmmon Business-Oriented Language) was developed in 1959 by CODASYL
(Conference on Data Systems Languages) under the direction of Rear Admiral Grace Hopper
and is the second-oldest high-level language. It emphasized record-processing and database
access and uses an English-like syntax, all attributes that led to widespread use in business,
particularly the financial sector. It is characterized as especially wordy (just as C and Perl are
characterized as terse). The vast majority of Year 2000 problems involved programs written
in COBOL.
You Gotta Know These Olympics
1.
1896 Summer (Athens, Greece; April 6 - April 15, 1896) The first edition of the modern
Olympics was the brainchild of Baron Pierre de Coubertin of France; winners were awarded
silver medals. Some of the stranger events included one-handed weightlifting and 100-meter
freestyle swimming for members of the Greek navy. Appropriately, Greek shepherd Spiridon
Louis became the hero of the Games by winning the marathon.
2.
1912 Summer (Stockholm, Sweden; May 5 - July 22, 1912) While the Swedes introduced
electronic timers to the games, the athletic hero was United States decathlete and Native
American Jim Thorpe. He won the pentathlon, placed fourth in the high jump, and seventh
in the long jump. Finally, Thorpe went on to win the decathlon with a score so astounding
that it would still have won him the silver medal in 1948. During the medal presentation,
Swedish king Gustav V said, "Sir, you are the greatest athlete" to which Thorpe purportedly
replied "Thanks, King."
3.
1936 Summer (Berlin, Germany; August 1-16, 1936) These games are best remembered for
Alabama native Jesse Owens' amazing work on the track against a backdrop of Nazi
propaganda emphasizing Aryan superiority. The American athlete won the 100-meter dash,
200-meter dash, long jump, and 4 x 100-meter sprint relay. Despite the growing strength of
the Nazi state, the German people became enamored with Owens and named a Berlin street
for him after his 1980 death. On other fronts, the Olympics were broadcast on television for
the first time (as seen in the film Contact) and also saw the introduction of the relay of the
Olympic torch.
4.
1968 Summer (Mexico City, Mexico; October 12-27, 1968) In addition to being the first
Olympics to be held at high altitude, these Games saw U.S. long jumper Bob Beamon set a
record of 8.90 meters that would remain untouched for 23 years. The Games ended on a
controversial note: to protest the Mexican government's killing of at least 250 unarmed
demonstrators on the eve of the Games, Tommie Smith and John Carlos staged a silent
protest with a black gloved, raised fist "Black Power" salute during the award ceremony for
the 200-meter race. This didn't sit well with the International Olympic Committee who
promptly ordered them home.
5.
1972 Summer (Munich, West Germany; August 26-September 11, 1972) One of the most
tragic Olympics ever, these Games saw the kidnapping and killing of 11 Israeli athletes by
eight Palestinian terrorists, five of whom were shot dead by West German police. Jim McKay
of ABC Sports remained on the air for hours, bringing American viewers up to date on the
situation. Though the Olympics paused for 34 hours, the IOC ordered the games to continue
and memorable performances were turned in by American swimmer Mark Spitz, who won
seven gold medals, and Russian gymnast Olga Korbut, who captivated audiences en route to
winning three gold medals.
6.
1980 Winter (Lake Placid, NY, United States; February 12-24, 1980) In an Olympics where
a single man, American speed skater Eric Heiden, would win five gold medals and not be the
biggest story, something very special had to happen. In what would become known as "The
Miracle on Ice," the U.S. Olympic hockey team, led by head coach Herb Brooks and captain
Mike Eruzione, defeated the powerful Soviet team 4-3 on February 22, 1980. Two days later,
they defeated Finland to claim America's second Olympic hockey gold medal, the first being
in 1960 at Squaw Valley.
7.
1980 Summer (Moscow, Soviet Union; July 19 - August 3, 1980) Despite the glow from the
Lake Placid Games, these Games were marred by a United States boycott ordered by
President Jimmy Carter in response to the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. This lead was
followed by Canada, West Germany, Japan, Kenya and China, while other Western nations
left it up to their individual athletes, many of whom chose to partake. The result was an
Eastern Bloc field day, with all 54 East German rowers earning a medal and the Soviets
totaling 80 gold medals. British distance runner Sebastian Coe produced the West's best
performance by winning the 1500-meter race.
8.
1984 Summer (Los Angeles, CA, United States; July 28 - August 12, 1984) One good turn
deserves another, or in this case, "The Russians aren't coming, the Russians aren't coming."
Virtually every Communist nation skipped these games, leaving the door open for a "USA all
the way" feeling, as the Americans took home 83 gold medals out of a total of 174. Among the
highlights were American sprinter Carl Lewis' repeat of Jesse Owens 1936 performance:
winning the 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash, long jump, and 4 x 100 meter sprint relay. In
gymnastics, West Virginia native Mary Lou Retton won the all-around gold medal.
9.
1994 Winter (Lillehammer, Norway; February 12-February 27, 1994) Massachusetts native
Nancy Kerrigan and Oregonian Tonya Harding were among America's leading hopes for gold
in women's figure skating. During the Olympic Trials in Detroit, Kerrigan was viciously
attacked by an unknown assailant, who would later be traced back to Harding. In the ensuing
media circus, both Kerrigan and Harding were sent to Norway, but their thunder was stolen
by Ukrainian skate Oksana Baiul, who edged out silver medallist Kerrigan, while Harding
placed eighth. Sweden won the ice hockey gold by defeating Canada in a shootout; future
Colorado Avalanche forward Peter Forsberg's game-winning effort against Canadian goalie
Sean Burke was immortalized on a Swedish postage stamp. In speed skating, Bonnie Blair
won her third straight gold in the 500-meters and second straight in the 1,000-meters,
perennial hard luck kid Dan Jansen won Olympic gold in his last race, the 1,000 meters, and
Norwegian Johann Olav Koss won three gold medals, all in world-record times.
10. 1996 Summer (Atlanta, GA, United States; July 25 - August 8, 1996) In what have been
called "The Coke Games," due to their exceptional commercialization in the city of Coke's
business headquarters, the sweltering Georgia heat and organizational problems made these
Games a veritable nightmare. But a still-unsolved bombing in Centennial Olympic Park that
killed one person and injured one hundred that remains the Games' most memorable event.
Irish swimmer Michelle Smith won three gold medals in the pool, only to be plagued by
rumors of steroid use. Carl Lewis got his ninth gold by winning the long jump for the fourth
consecutive Games, while American sprinter Michael Johnson became the first man to win
the 200-meter and 400-meter races, the former in a world-record 19.32 seconds.
You Gotta Know These Quintuples
These ten topics are connected by only two things: There are five answers in each set and they all
come up repeatedly in quiz bowl.
1.
"The Waste Land" The five parts of T. S. Eliot's 1922 masterpiece "The Waste Land" are
"The Burial of the Dead," "A Game of Chess," "The Fire Sermon," "Death By Water," and
"What the Thunder Said."
2.
Mitosis The five stages of the biological process of mitosis (the production of new body cells
from existing ones) are interphase, prophase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase.
Interphase is not technically a part of mitosis, but it still sometimes finds its way in.
3.
Nobel Prize Winners The five original winners of Nobel Prizes (1901) were Wilhelm
Röntgen (physics, for the discovery of X rays), Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff (chemistry, for
laws of chemical dynamics and osmotic pressure), Emil Adolf von Behring (physiology or
medicine, for his serum therapy remedy for diphtheria), Sully Prudhomme (literature, for his
idealistic poetry), and Henri Dunant and Frédéric Passy (peace, for founding the
International Red Cross and the first French peace society, respectively).
4.
The Mighty Handful Five nationalist Russian composers are often referred to as "The
Mighty Handful" or "The Five." They are Modest Mussorgsky (1839 -1881), Mily Balakirev
(1837-1910), Alexander Borodin (1833-1887), Cesar Cui (1835-1918), and Nikolay RimskyKorsakov (1844-1908).
5.
D-Day The codenames for the five beaches attacked in Operation Overlord on D-Day are
Gold, Juno, Sword, Utah, and Omaha. The first three were attacked by British and Canadian
forces while the latter two were assaulted by American troops.
6.
Orders of Architecture There are five classical "orders of architecture," a term that
primarily refers to the design of the columns used in the building. They are the Doric (simple,
used for the Parthenon), Ionic (fancier, fluted with scrolls on their capitals), Corinthian
(baroque, fluted with acanthus-like leaves for capitals), Tuscan (plain, similar to Doric), and
Composite (mixture of Ionic and Corinthian). The latter two orders are Roman
developments, the other three originated with the Greeks.
7.
Cooperstown The first five members elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame were Ty Cobb,
Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson, and Walter Johnson.
8.
Spectral Lines Hydrogen produces an infinite series of spectral lines. The first five of those
series are named after scientists who observed them before it was known that they were
actually examples of the same phenomenon. From lowest to highest energy of the final level,
they are known as the Lyman, Balmer, Paschen, Brackett, and Pfund series. Only the Balmer
series exists in the visible spectrum.
9.
Platonic Solids There are only five regular polyhedra, three-dimensional shapes with
congruent regular polygons for sides. These, known as the Platonic solids, are the
tetrahedron (4 triangular sides), cube (6 square sides), octahedron (8 triangular sides),
dodecahedron (12 pentagonal sides), and icosahedron (20 triangular sides).
10. Pillars of Islam Islam has five fundamental tenets of religious life, a group known as the
Pillars of Islam. They are the declaration of faith (Shahadah), prayer (Salat), giving charity to
those in need (Zakat), fasting during the month of Ramadan (Sawm), and the pilgrimage to
Mecca (Hajj) to be performed once in each adherent's lifetime.
You Gotta Know These Computation Areas
This You Gotta Know article is devoted to twelve computational areas that will help the most in
solving the sorts of math questions that come up in NAQT invitational series. NAQT's collegiate sets
tend to have very little computation and much of that is in the context of a specific field (physics,
economics, chemistry, etc.).
1.
Pythagorean Triples. Almost certainly, the most important things to know are the basic
sets of integers that satisfy the Pythagorean Theorem (a2 + b2 = c2) and could be the side
lengths of a right triangle. These are called Pythagorean Triples and the simplest ones are 34-5, 5-12-13, 7-24-25, and 8-15-17. Note that any multiple of a Pythagorean Triple is also a
Pythagorean Triple so that 6-8-10, 15-20-25, and 300-400-500 are also ones by virtue of 34-5 being one.
2.
Matrices. Every team should be able to add, subtract, multiply, take the determinant of,
transpose, and invert matrices, particularly two-by-two ones.
3.
Vectors. Every team should be able to find the length of a vector, and add, subtract, find the
angle between, the dot product of, and the cross product of two vectors.
4.
Solids. Teams should be able to calculate the volume and surface area of simple geometric
figures including the sphere, cone, cylinder, pyramid, hemisphere, prism, and parallelepiped.
5.
Plane Figures. Teams should be able to calculate the areas of triangles (especially
equilateral triangles), trapezoids, parallelograms, rhombi, and circles using different angles
and lengths.
6.
Similar Figures. The areas of similar figures are related by the square of any
corresponding length and the volumes are related by the cube of any corresponding length.
For instance, if a square has a diagonal that is 30% longer than another square, it has an area
that is (1.30 x 1.30 = ) 1.69 times as great (69% greater). Similar reasoning applies to
perimeters, side lengths, diameters, and so forth.
7.
Permutations. Teams should be able to compute the number of permutations and
combinations of n objects taken m at a time. They should also have memorized the first eight
(or so) values of the factorial function to make this easier.
8.
Logarithms. Teams should be familiar with basic operations of logarithmic math:
simplifying the logarithm of a product, difference, or power, and converting from one base to
another.
9.
Complex Math. Teams should be familiar with the symbol i representing the imaginary
square root of -1, basic operations on complex numbers, graphing complex numbers, and
converting complex numbers to magnitude-angle form.
10. Divisibility Rules. Teams should be able to quickly apply the divisibility rules for small
integers (2 through 11) to large integers.
11. Polynomial Math. Teams should be able to quickly add, subtract, multiply, divide, factor,
and find the roots of low-degree polynomials.
12. Calculus. Teams should be able to find the derivative, integral, slope-at-a-point, local
extrema, and critical points of polynomial, trigonometric, and other common functions.
You Gotta Know These Jewish Holidays
1.
Rosh Hashanah Celebrated on the first and second days of Tishrei, Rosh Hashanah marks
the beginning of the Jewish year. It is believed that on this day, people's souls are judged, and
God "temporarily" decides their fate. Between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the Day of
Atonement, are the Ten Days of Repentment, when people are given a chance to reflect and
repent. On Rosh Hashanah, it is customary to wear white clothes and eat apples, honey, and
pomegranates. Other customs include the blowing of the shofar (an instrument made from a
ram's horn) and the ceremony of Tashlich, in which Jews throw bread crumbs into running
water to symbolize the cleansing of their sins, is also performed.
2.
Yom Kippur Celebrated on the tenth day of Tishrei, it is the Jewish Day of Atonement; at
the end of Yom Kippur, it is believed that one's fate is sealed. Jews are required to abstain
from eating, drinking, washing, and sex. Forbidden fashions include jewelry, makeup, and
leather shoes. One traditionally wears white clothes to symbolizing purity from sin. In the
afternoon, the Book of Jonah is read. A full day of prayers begins with the Kol Nidre, an
ancient incantation that forgives Jews from vows or promises unwittingly made during the
past year. As on Rosh Hashanah, the shofar is blown.
3.
Sukkot Celebrated on the 15th of Tishrei, Sukkot commemorates the sukkot (booths) that
the Israelites lived in following the Exodus from Egypt; it also celebrates the harvest.
Traditionally, Jews build booths, in which they live and eat for seven days. In synagogue, four
symbolic species (the palm, the etrog [a large yellow citrus], myrtle, and willow) are waved in
seven directions. Each night, in the sukkah, it is traditional to invite a Biblical figure to be
your guest for that night.
4.
Hanukkah This festival lasts for eight days, starting on the 25th day of Kislev (the third
month). It celebrates the victory of the small Maccabee army against the large Greek army of
Antiochus, as well as the recapture and purification of the Temple in Jerusalem (ca. 168 BC).
It is traditional to light the eight-branched Menorah each night and spin the dreidel.
Exchanging presents is only a recent tradition developed in the U.S.
5.
Purim Celebrated on the 14th of Adar (the sixth month) and commemorating the victory of
the Jews, led by Esther and Mordechai, against Haman, who tried to destroy the Jews
because of his anger at Mordechai. The story, recorded in the Book of Esther (read from a
one-handed scroll called a megillah), takes place in Shushan, the capital city of the kingdom
of the Persian King Ahasueras. On Purim, it is traditional to dress up, get drunk, give charity,
eat triangular pastries called hamentaschen, and exchange gifts (Mishloach Manot) with
friends.
6.
Passover (Pesach) Celebrated for seven days beginning on the 15th day of Nissan (the
seventh month), Passover commemorates the Exodus from Egypt. It is also the ancient
Hebrew New Year (superceded in that role by Rosh Hashanah). On the first two days, Jews
have a festival dinner called a seder, where they retell the story of the Exodus, from a book
called a hagaddah. Jews are required to abstain from eating or owning leavened bread for
the duration of the festival; matzah (usually a square flat unleavened bread) is eaten instead.
On Passover, the Song of Songs is recited. Passover also begins a cycle of seven weeks, called
the Omer, a period of semi-mourning.
7.
Shavu'ot Celebrated on the sixth day of Sivan (the ninth month), the 50th day of the Omer,
after Passover; the word Shavu'ot means "weeks," hence the name Pentecost. Shavu'ot
commemorates the giving of the Torah to the Israelites at Mt. Sinai, as well as the beginning
of the harvest in ancient Israel. Sukkot, Passover, and Shavu'ot are the three pilgrimages,
when Jews would all gather at the Temple each year; on Shavu'ot, Jews would dedicate their
first harvest fruits to the Temple. The Book of Ruth is read in synagogue on Shavu'ot, and it
is traditional to study all night on this festival.
8.
The Ninth of Av This is a day of mourning for the destructions of both the First and Second
Temples. It is traditional to fast and to keep oneself in a solemn mood. The Book of
Lamentations and the Book of Job are read, traditionally while sitting on the floor and with
candles as the only lights, as Jews are supposed to refrain from physical comfort.
You Gotta Know These Civil War Battles and Campaigns
1.
Fort Sumter (April 12, 1861). Built on an island in 1829, the fort was one of three that the
United States maintained in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. In order to claim true
independence from the Union, Jefferson Davis decided that the forts needed to be taken; a
Confederate force under P.G.T. Beauregard ordered the small Union garrison, controlled by
Major Robert Anderson, to surrender. Anderson refused, shots were fired, and the Union
commander surrendered two days later, with only one soldier killed. The Union made two
unsuccessful attempts to recapture the fort with ironclad ships in 1863, but Confederate
forces finally abandoned Sumter when they left Charleston in February 1865.
2.
First Bull Run / First Manassas (July 21, 1861). Fought at a creek near Manassas,
Virginia (30 miles west of Washington D.C.), this was the first major showdown of the war.
Beauregard led an army against Union commander Irwin McDowell and received
reinforcements from Joseph Johnston's troops (whom Union General Robert Patterson
failed to detain). The Confederacy routed the Union when Thomas Jackson's brigade held the
left line at Henry House Hill; this effort earned him the nickname "Stonewall." Congressmen
and reporters, who had expected to watch a Union victory, fled in panic back to D.C.
3.
Hampton Roads (March 9, 1862). A channel in southeastern Virginia was the site of the
first major fight between two ironclad ships. The Confederates raised an old wooden boat,
the Merrimack, and fit it with ten guns and iron armor plates. Renaming the Virginia, it was
captained by Franklin Buchanan. The Union countered by constructing a large oval with a
rotating gun, called the Monitor and piloted by John Worden. The Virginia tore through
Union wooden ships (Cumberland, Congress, Minnesota) but when the Monitor arrived, the
two ironclads fought to a stalemate - thus the Union maintained its blockade. The South
deliberately destroyed the Virginia two months later, while the Monitor sank in a storm off
Cape Hatteras in December 1862.
4.
Shiloh / Pittsburg Landing (April 6-7, 1862). This was named after a church in Pittsburg
Landing, Tennessee (100 miles southwest of Nashville). Confederate commander Albert
Sidney Johnston led a force north from Corinth, Mississippi. Ulysses S. Grant, who had just
captured Fort Donelson, brought five Union divisions to face him. At first, the South led the
attack, but Union troops held the "Hornets' Nest" for hours, killing Johnston in the process.
Beauregard took over, but by the second day Northern Generals Don Carlos Buell and Lew
Wallace (who wrote Ben-Hur) brought reinforcements, causing the Confederates to retreat.
More than 13,000 Union and 10,000 Confederate soldiers lost their lives.
5.
Peninsular Campaign (March - July 1862). Union commander George McClellan devised
this plan to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia by sending 110,000 men
up the peninsula between the York and James rivers. Advised of Northern maneuvers,
Southern commander Joseph Johnston detached a force to defend the peninsula. He also
sent a small unit (led by Stonewall Jackson) that crushed Union reinforcements in the West.
After Johnston was wounded at Seven Pines (June 1), Davis replaced him with Robert E. Lee.
Lee concentrated his force north of the Chickahominy River; in the Seven Days' Battles (June
25-July 1), the Confederates broke through Union defenses, leading to McClellan's retreat
down the James toward Harrison's Landing, and failure of the campaign.
6.
Second Bull Run / Second Manassas (August 29-30, 1862). This resounding victory by
Lee and Jackson pushed Union forces back to Washington, D.C. President Lincoln had
replaced McClellan with John Pope, who would supposedly be united with the Army of the
Potomac, commanded by Henry Halleck. Lee maneuvered Jackson's troops behind those of
Pope; Jackson detained Pope's men at Manassas while Lee sent James Longstreet to crush
Pope's left flank. Halleck's army was supposed to land at Aquia, but instead retreated to
defend Washington, ceding all of Virginia to the Confederacy and marking a low point in the
Union effort.
7.
Antietam / Sharpsburg (September 17, 1862). The bloodiest day of the Civil War: 12,000
Union men lost their lives, as did 10,000 Confederates. Lee planned a northern invasion into
Maryland but a Union soldier discovered those battle plans wrapped around three cigars.
Instead, Lee marched his army toward Sharpsburg Creek. Meanwhile, Jackson's forces
captured Harper's Ferry, Virginia, and rushed to reunite with Lee. McClellan had a large
enough force to capture the entire rebel army but did not use all of his troops nor coordinate
one solid attack. Antietam thus was actually a series of five skirmishes; in one of them,
dubbed "The Bloody Lane," 2000 Union soldiers fell in a few minutes. As it was, Union forces
drove the Confederates back across the Potomac.
8.
Fredericksburg / Marye's Heights (December 13, 1862). At this site, about 50 miles
south of Washington, Union commander Ambrose Burnside (who had replaced McClellan)
tried to take the initiative and cross the Rappahannock River in a march toward Richmond.
He met Lee's forces, which were well entrenched in the hills behind the town. With a superior
position, Lee routed the Union army; 13,000 Northern troops fell there, while only 5000
Confederates were killed. After the battle, Burnside's troops were forced to make "The Mud
March" up the Rappahannock, made foul by weather and dead and wounded bodies.
9.
Vicksburg Campaign (April 29 - July 4, 1863). This campaign was launched by Grant to
take control of the Mississippi River and cut off the western Confederate states from the east.
Grant ordered regiments led by James McPherson, John McClernand, and William
Tecumseh Sherman through bayous west of the Mississippi to Hard Times. They were up
against rebel forces under Joseph Johnston and John Pemberton. Sherman and McPherson
drove Johnston from Jackson, Mississippi on May 14, and the Union scored a victory at
Champion's Hill two days later, but could not drive the Southerners out of Vicksburg, so
Grant laid siege to the town. Outnumbered 71,000 to 20,000 and on the brink of starvation,
Pemberton finally surrendered his men; Johnston withdrew east.
10. Chancellorsville (May 1-4, 1863). Victory for the South, but with great cost, as Stonewall
Jackson lost his life. Lincoln called on "Fighting Joe" Hooker to command the Union army;
Hooker took a force of 134,000 and provoked Lee and Jackson's 60,000 men into battle.
Jackson moved around Hooker and counterattacked the Union flank on May 2. That night,
while Jackson was on reconnaissance, his own men mistook him for a Northerner and shot
him; he died of pneumonia eight days later. The following morning, a cannonball blast hit the
Chancellor House, knocking Hooker unconscious; Union troops led by John Sedgwick then
retreated. Casualties for the North outnumbered those of the South, 17,000 to 13,000.
11. Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863). This marked both the farthest northward advancement by the
Confederacy and the turning point that led to its defeat. Lee, along with Longstreet, A.P. Hill,
and Richard Ewell, led the southern Pennsylvania attack; J.E.B. Stuart was supposed to
monitor Union movement with his cavalry but strayed so far east of Gettysburg that his force
did not return (exhausted) until the second day. George Meade replaced Hooker as leader of
the Union side; Southern forces drove Northerners through the town but could not secure
key positions at Cemetery Ridge and Little and Big Round Tops. Low on supplies, on the final
day Lee ordered an attack on the center; George Pickett led his famous "charge" through
open fields, where the Union mowed down one-third of his 15,000 men. The Confederates
lost 20,000 and Lee retreated to Virginia.
12. Chattanooga Campaign (September-November 1863). It began when Union General
William Rosecrans forced Confederate commander Braxton Bragg out of the city on
September 9. Ten days later, at Chickamauga (in Georgia), Bragg and Longstreet turned the
tables by whipping Rosecrans, forcing him into a siege position at Chattanooga. Only George
Thomas (the "Rock of Chickamauga") saved Rosecrans from annihilation. Well-developed
railroad networks, however, allowed Grant, Hooker, and Sherman to bring reinforcements.
On November 24, Hooker took Lookout Mountain in the southwest, in the "Battle Above the
Clouds." The next day, Thomas ran right over the Southern force at Missionary Ridge,
securing Tennessee for the North.
13. Wilderness Campaign (May 5 - June 12, 1864). The first clash between Grant and Lee,
this series of conflicts started with the Battle of the Wilderness (50 miles northwest of
Richmond), where Southern leaders A.P. Hill and Ewell held the line, and over 17,000
Northerners fell. At Spotsylvania Court House, Meade assaulted Lee's men, but they repelled
Meade at the "Bloody Angle." The trenches in which much of the fighting took place were
similar to those later seen in World War I. Advancing within ten miles of Richmond, Grant
met Lee at Cold Harbor (June 3); he lost 7,000 men to Lee's 1,500 and withdrew across the
James River, but with the entire campaign he severely reduced Confederate strength in a war
of attrition.
14. Petersburg Campaign (June 1864 - April 1865). After Cold Harbor, Grant moved south to
lay siege to this railroad hub, 25 miles from Richmond. On July 30, Pennsylvania coal miners
detonated four tons of powder in a tunnel underneath the Confederate line; this "Battle of the
Crater" killed many defenders. Although the South maintained the city, its supplies ran thin
in the winter of 1865. Grant finally destroyed the Confederate right flank at Five Forks (April
1-2), 14 miles southwest of Petersburg. This resounding defeat led to Lee's surrender to Grant
at Appomattox Court House one week later, effectively ending the Civil War.
You Gotta Know These Latin American Authors
1.
Gabriel García Marquez (1928-present, Colombia; Nobel Prize for Literature 1982). The
master of magic realism, his birthplace of Aracataca was the model for the fictional town of
Macondo. The town played a prominent role in many of García Marquez's works, such as
Leaf Storm and his seminal novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), which details the
decline of the Buendía family over seven generations. A newspaper journalist in the 1950s,
García Marquez exposed a naval scandal (chronicled in The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor).
Other prominent novels include In Evil Hour, Love in the Time of Cholera, and The General
in His Labyrinth, a depiction of Simón Bolívar's final years.
2.
Pablo Neruda (1904-1973, Chile; Nobel 1971). Born Neftalí Reyes, he adopted the surname
of the 19th century Czech poet Jan Neruda. Gabriela Mistral (see below) was the head of his
school in the small city of Temuco. 1923 saw the publication of Neruda's best-known work,
Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, which led to diplomatic appointments. As a
penniless consul in Burma in the 1930s, he wrote the surrealist collection Residence on
Earth. He served in the Chilean senate in the 1940s, though government opponents forced
him into exile over his Communist views. Crossing the Andes on horseback inspired his epic
Canto general (1950). He died of cancer days after his friend Salvador Allende was executed.
3.
Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986, Argentina). One-quarter English, Borges learned that
language before he learned Spanish. Educated in Europe during World War I, he met a circle
of avant-garde poets in Spain, which inspired him to found the ultraismo movement and
publish the collection Fervor of Buenos Aires (1923) when he returned to Argentina. While
working in a library, Borges developed his greatest short stories, collected in A Universal
History of Infamy (1935), Ficciones (1944), and The Aleph (1949). By his fifties, a disorder
inherited from his father had taken Borges's eyesight, but in 1962 he completed the
influential story collection Labyrinths.
4.
Isabel Allende (1942-present, Chile). Actually born in Peru, at age three she moved to her
mother's native Chile. A successful news reporter in her twenties, she and her family fled to
Venezuela after General Augusto Pinochet deposed and executed her uncle Salvador Allende,
setting up a dictatorship. Her formal literary career began at age 40, when she published The
House of the Spirits, a magic realist work that chronicles several generations of the Trueba
family. Other works of fiction include the short-story collection Eva Luna (1989) and Paula
(1995), which detailed Allende's care for her terminally ill daughter.
5.
Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957, Chile; Nobel 1945). The first Latin American to win the
Nobel Literature Prize, Mistral was actually named Lucila Godoy Alcayaga, but took her pen
name from the Italian and French poets Gabriele D'Annunzio and Frédéric Mistral
respectively. At first a prominent educator, she wrote "Sonnets of Death" (1914) after the
suicide of her fiancé. Those sonnets later appeared in her most famous collection, Desolation
(1922). A native Chilean, she served as a diplomat both in the United States and Europe.
Langston Hughes translated a portion of Mistral's poetry into English just after she died.
6.
Octavio Paz (1914-1998, Mexico; Nobel 1990). A prominent poet and essayist, Paz
supported leftist causes in Mexico; he fought briefly for the Republicans during the Spanish
Civil War. He published the poetry collection Luna silvestre at age 19, and his 584-line poem
The Sun Stone deals with the planet Venus, an important symbol to the Aztecs. While
studying in Los Angeles, Paz observed flamboyantly dressed Mexican-American pachucos
("zoot-suiters"), who inspired him to write about Mexico and its Native American/mestizo
heritage in his pivotal essay collection, The Labyrinth of Solitude (1950). Another prose
work, In the Light of India (1997), reflected Paz's part-(East) Indian heritage.
7.
José Martí (1853-1895, Cuba). Best known as a poet and a revolutionary, Martí fought
tirelessly for Cuban independence. Imprisoned at age sixteen and exiled from the island
several times, he settled in New York for the last fifteen years of his life, where he wrote
essays on Walt Whitman, Jesse James, and the threat of Latin American economic
dependence on the United States. His Ill-Omened Friendship (1885) is considered the first
Spanish modernist novel, and his poetry collections include Our America and Simple Verses;
the poem "Guantanamera" was the inspiration for several songs. Martí was killed in a
skirmish at Dos Ríos while participating in an invasion with other Cuban exiles.
8.
Mario Vargas Llosa (1936-present, Peru). While attending military school in Lima, Vargas
Llosa wrote the play The Escape of the Inca (1952), but the harsh treatment he received there
was the basis for his best-known novel, The Time of the Hero. Conversation in the Cathedral
(1969) was Vargas Llosa's serious take on living under the dictatorship of Manuel Odría,
while in 1977 he published the lighter, autobiographical Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter,
about soap operas. Other important works include The War of the End of the World and A
Fish in the Water, which discusses his political career; Vargas Llosa ran for president of Peru
in 1990 but was defeated by Alberto Fujimori.
9.
Miguel Asturias (1899-1974, Guatemala; Nobel 1967). Asturias left his native Guatemala in
1923 to study in Paris. There he discovered Mayan mythology, and translated the Popol Vuh
into Spanish; the theme would pervade his work, such as 1963's Mulata de tal. He most
famous novel, El señor presidente (1946), was a satire against the oppressive Guatalemalan
dictatorship. Asturias also completed a trilogy that blasted exploitation by the American-led
United Fruit Company, and the short-story collection Weekend in Guatemala (1956), based
on the CIA-led overthrow of president Jacobo Arbenz's liberal government.
10. Carlos Fuentes (1928-present, Mexico). Though born into a well-to-do family, Fuentes has
often dealt with the betrayed ideals from the Mexican Revolution of 1910, the subject of both
his first novel, Where the Air is Clear (1958), and his most successful book, The Death of
Artemio Cruz (1962). Other notable novels include Terra nostra, set during the reign of King
Philip II of Spain, and The Old Gringo, which portrays Ambrose Bierce's last days in Mexico.
Fuentes has also penned absurdist plays and essay collections on Mexican and American art
and literature.
You Gotta Know These Tennis Players
Men
1.
Rod Laver (1938-present). Australia produced many talented players (Emerson, Rosewall,
Newcombe, Stolle, Hoad) but Laver was the best of all. He weighed just 145 pounds in his
playing days but his massive left arm generated incredible topspin shots. The only player to
win the Grand Slam twice - in 1962 as an amateur, and in 1969 as a professional - Laver took
11 major singles titles overall. Turning pro in 1963, Laver won five U.S. Pro Championships;
had he been allowed to play the majors from '63 to '67, he likely would hold the wins record
instead of Pete Sampras. Martina Navratilova and Sampras both idolized Laver, the first to
earn $1 million in a career.
2.
Pete Sampras (1971-present). "Pistol Pete" burst onto the scene in 1990, when he became
the youngest man ever to win the U.S. Open. He would take five U.S. Opens and two
Australian Opens, but his greatest accomplishments came on the Wimbledon grass. Starting
in 1993 he won the tournament seven times in eight years, losing only to Richard Krajicek in
the quarterfinals in 1996. The last Wimbledon win (2000) gave Sampras the all-time men's
major record, passing Roy Emerson's 12. Married to actress Bridgette Wilson, Sampras
silenced his critics (who thought he was washed up) by defeating Andre Agassi for the 2002
U.S. Open title -- then he retired.
3.
Bjorn Borg (1956-present). On both grass and clay in the late 1970s, resistance to Borg was
futile; he won Wimbledon five straight years (1976-80) and the French Open six times, for a
total of 11 majors. Borg got started at age nine, after his father won a tennis racket in a pingpong tournament and gave it to him. He took his first French in 1974 and dominated through
1981, when John McEnroe finally knocked him off at Wimbledon. Borg then inexplicably
retired at 26; he tried an unsuccessful comeback in the early 1990s. Despite his great success,
Borg never won the U.S. Open (reaching the final four times). He never played at the
Australian Open, preferring to take the winter months off.
4.
Bill Tilden (1893-1953). Between 1920 and 1925, he was almost unstoppable: He won six
straight U.S. championships and took Wimbledon both times he played. Tilden was
nicknamed "Big Bill" for two reasons: He stood 6-foot-2 with his trademark "cannonball"
serve and he faced "Little Bill" Johnston in six out of seven U.S. finals. In all, he won ten
majors (seven U.S., three Wimbledon) and turned professional in 1930 - winning a pro title
at age 42 and competing in barnstorming tours until he was 50. Tilden also loved the theater;
he performed in several Broadway shows (including the lead in "Dracula"), but lost a lot of
money backing failed ventures.
5.
Andre Agassi (1970-present). His father boxed for Iran in the 1948 and 1952 Olympics; his
own Olympic exploits included the 1996 tennis gold. Born in Las Vegas, he reached the
world's #3 ranking at age 18 but was better known for his image than for his play. Perhaps
the greatest returner and baseline player ever, Agassi won his first major on Wimbledon
grass in 1992. Briefly married to Brooke Shields, he fell to #141 in the world in 1997, but after
they divorced, Agassi rededicated himself to the game. In 1999 he won the French Open,
becoming just the fifth man to complete the career Grand Slam. In all, Agassi has won eight
major singles titles (five since 1999), and is now married to women's great Steffi Graf.
6.
John McEnroe (1959-present). Though perhaps best known for his fiery temper and abuse
of referees (with taunts like "You can't be serious!"), McEnroe was the dominant player of the
early 1980s. As a 17-year old amateur qualifier, he made the semifinals of Wimbledon, and in
1979 he won the first of three straight U.S. Opens. He almost ended Borg's run of
Wimbledons in a five-set thriller in 1980, but succeeded the following year. In 1984,
McEnroe compiled an 82-3 record, winning Wimbledon and his fourth U.S. Open, for a total
of seven majors. An outstanding doubles player as well, he won 77 titles, many with partner
Peter Fleming. He also played in the Davis Cup 12 times, captaining the U.S. team in 2000.
7.
Arthur Ashe (1943-1993). Ashe once claimed that he would consider himself a failure if he
were remembered only for tennis. The first black man to win either the U.S. Championship
(1968) or Wimbledon (1975), he was also the first American tennis player to earn over
$100,000 in one year (1970). The author of Hard Road to Glory, a history of black athletes,
Ashe announced in 1992 that tainted blood from a 1983 heart surgery had given him the
AIDS virus. Arthur Ashe Stadium, the current home of the U.S. Open, was named for him in
1997.
Women
1.
Martina Navratilova (1956-present). Born in Prague, she defected to the United States in
1975 because the Czech Tennis Federation had taken most of her earnings. A bit heavy early
in her career, Navratilova won the first two of her nine Wimbledons in 1978-79 but
subsequent losses led her to pursue a grueling fitness regimen. This paid off: She won 18
singles Grand Slams (58 overall), 167 total singles titles, and even more doubles crowns,
many with partner Pam Shriver. A Wimbledon finalist at 37, Navratilova retired from singles
in 1994, but returned to play doubles in 2000. In 2003 tied Billie Jean King with 20 overall
Wimbledons, taking the mixed doubles… at age 46!
2.
Steffi Graf (1969-present). Her most devastating shot earned her the moniker "Fraulein
Forehand." Graf turned pro at age 13 and steadily rose through the rankings, garnering the
#1 ranking and her first major (French) in 1987. The following year, Graf made history by
winning the Grand Slam and the gold medal at the Seoul Olympics, the only player ever to go
5-for-5 in one year. Seven Wimbledons, six French, five U.S., and four Australians add up to
22 major career singles crowns - the last coming at the French in 1999 after two years of
major back injuries. Graf retired that fall, and is now raising her son Jaden with her husband
Andre Agassi.
3.
Chris Evert (1954-present). Queen of the Clay Courts, she won the French Open a record
seven times and rolled off a 125-match win streak on the surface. As a 15-year old, Evert
upset Margaret Court, who had just won the Grand Slam. 1974 was the first of a record 13
straight years in which she won a major - several of them hard fought against her rival,
Martina Navratilova. In all, Evert took 18 Grand Slam singles titles, and was the first female
player to win $1 million in her career. She was married to British tennis player John Lloyd
for eight years, but they divorced in 1987, and she then wed Olympic skier Andy Mill.
4.
Billie Jean King (1943-present). Her records themselves are impressive: 12 Grand Slam
singles wins (including six Wimbledons) and 20 overall Wimbledon titles. King, however, is
best known for advancing women's athletics. Her brother, Randy Moffitt, pitched for the San
Francisco Giants; she herself reached a #4 world ranking in 1960 and turned pro eight years
later. At the time, prize money for women was paltry, so she co-founded the Virginia Slims
Tour, and in 1971 became the first female athlete to earn $100,000 in a year. Two years later,
in front of over 30,000 at the Astrodome, she whipped Bobby Riggs in the "Battle of the
Sexes." King retired in 1983, but not before winning a singles tournament at age 39.
5.
Margaret Smith Court (1942-present). The most prolific winner, male or female, she
amassed 62 Grand Slam titles, 24 of them in singles (3 Wimbledon, 5 French, 5 U.S., and 11
in her native Australia). Billie Jean King called Court "The Arm" because of her long reach,
aided by her height of nearly six feet. In 1970 she became the second woman (after Maureen
Connolly) to win the Grand Slam, taking 21 singles championships overall that year; less
impressive was her 1973 loss to 55-year old Bobby Riggs. Court did defeat King, Riggs's
nemesis, 22 of 32 times. She retired in 1977 and became a lay minister.
6.
Venus and Serena Williams (1980-present and 1981-present). Althea Gibson and Arthur
Ashe may have preceded them as trailblazing African-American players, but the sisters have
taken the game to new levels and to more people. Born in Compton, California and coached
from an early age by father Richard, Venus broke through first, reaching the final of the U.S.
Open in 1997. Serena won a Grand Slam before Venus did (1999 U.S. Open), but Venus hit #1
by sweeping Wimbledon and the U.S. Opens in both 2000 and 2001. For a long time Serena
could not beat her older sister, but that changed in 2002, when she took four straight major
finals against Venus. With her 2003 win at Wimbledon, Serena now has six majors to
Venus's four. On the side, both are fashion designers, while Venus also designs interiors.
7.
Helen Wills Moody (1905-1998). A California native nicknamed "Little Miss Poker Face"
because her expression rarely changed on the court, Wills's play contrasted with that of the
other great woman of the era, the emotional Suzanne Lenglen of France, though they met
only once (as Lenglen turned pro). Nonetheless, Wills dominated her competition; between
1927 and 1932 she did not even drop a set! She won 19 major singles crowns - out of 22
entered - including eight Wimbledons, six U.S., and four French championships, in 1928
becoming the first player to win three Grand Slams in one season. Wills also swept the
singles and doubles gold medals at the 1924 Paris Olympics.
You Gotta Know These Trojan War Heroes
Greeks
1.
Agamemnon The king of Mycenae, Agamemnon shares supreme command of the Greek
troops with his brother, Menelaus. An epithet of his, "king of heroes," reflects this status. As a
commander, however, he often lacks good public relations skills, as shown by his feud with
Achilles (book 1) and by his ill-considered strategy of suggesting that all the troops go home
(book 2). Upon his return home, Agamemnon is murdered by his wife, Clytemnestra, and her
lover, Aegisthus.
2.
Menelaus The king of Sparta, Menelaus is the husband of Helen, the cause celebre of the
war. He tries to win Helen back by fighting Paris in single combat but Aphrodite carried Paris
off when it seems that Menelaus will win. Despite his notionally equal say in commanding
the troops with his brother Agamemnon, in practice Agamemnon often dominates.
3.
Achilles This "swift-footed" warrior is the greatest on the Greek side. His father is Peleus, a
great warrior in his own right, and his mother is Thetis, a sea nymph. The consequences of
Achilles' rage at Agamemnon for confiscating his geras (prize of honor) are the subject of the
Iliad. Achilles kills Hector, but is killed by a poisoned arrow in the heel, the only vulnerable
place on his body.
4.
Patroclus Achilles' foster brother and closest friend. Although Patroclus is a formidable
hero, he is valued for his kind and gentle nature. Patroclus is killed by Hector while wearing
the armor of Achilles.
5.
Ajax This prince of Salamis is the son of Telamon. He once fights all afternoon in single
combat with Hector; since neither one can decisively wound the other, they part as friends.
Ajax's most glorious achievement is fighting the Trojans back from the ships almost
singlehandedly. He commits suicide after the armor of Achilles is awarded to Odysseus
rather than to himself.
6.
Diomedes In his day of glory, Diomedes kills Pandarus and wounds Aeneas before taking
on the gods. He stabs Aphrodite in the wrist and, with Athena as his charioteer, wounds Ares
in the stomach. Along with Odysseus, he also conducts a successful night raid against King
Rhesus.
7.
Odysseus This son of Laertes is known for his cleverness and glib tongue. His
accomplishments include a successful night raid against King Rhesus, winning the armor of
Achilles, and engineering the famous Trojan Horse. His ten-year trip home to Ithaca (where
his wife, Penelope, awaits) is the subject of the Odyssey.
8.
Nestor, king of Pylos, is too old to participate in the fighting of the Trojan War, but serves as
an advisor. He tells tales of "the good old days" to the other heroes.
Trojans
1.
Hector The son of Priam and Hecuba, he is probably the noblest character on either side. A
favorite of Apollo, this captain of the Trojan forces exchanges gifts with Ajax after neither can
conquer the other in single combat. He kills Patroclus when that Greek goes into battle
wearing the armor of his friend, Achilles. Killed by Achilles to avenge the death of Patroclus,
he is greatly mourned by all of Troy. Funeral games take place in his honor.
2.
Paris (sometimes called Alexander) Also the son of Priam and Hecuba, he is destined to be
the ruin of his country. He fulfills this destiny by accepting a bribe when asked to judge
which of three goddesses is the fairest. When he awards Aphrodite the golden apple,
Aphrodite repays him by granting him the most beautiful woman in the world; unfortunately,
Helen is already married to Menelaus. Known less for hand-to-hand fighting than for
mastery of his bow, he kills Achilles with an arrow but dies by the poisoned arrows of
Philoctetes.
3.
Priam The king of Troy and son of Laomedon, he has 50 sons and 12 daughters with his wife
Hecuba (presumably she does not bear them all), plus at least 42 more children with various
concubines. Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, kills him in front of his wife and daughters
during the siege of Troy.
4.
Hecuba (or Hecabe) The wife of Priam, she suffers the loss of most of her children but
survives the fall of Troy. She is later turned into a dog.
5.
Andromache The wife of Hector and mother of Astyanax, she futilely warns Hector about
the war, then sees both her husband and son killed by the Greeks. After the war she is made
concubine to Neoptolemus and later marries the Trojan prophet Helenus.
6.
Cassandra This daughter of Priam and Hecuba has an affair with the god Apollo, who
grants her the gift of prophecy. Unable to revoke the gift after they quarrel, Apollo curses her
by preventing anyone from believing her predictions. Among her warnings is that the Trojan
horse contains Greeks. After Troy falls she is given to Agamemnon, who tactlessly brings her
home to his wife Clytemnestra. Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus then kill Agamemnon
and Cassandra, leaving Agamemnon's son Orestes (egged on by sister Electra) to avenge the
deaths and kill Clytemnestra and Aegisthus.
7.
Laocoon Yet another son of Priam and Hecuba, this priest of Apollo shares Cassandra's
doubt about the merits of bringing the Trojan horse into the city. "Timeo danaos et dona
ferentes," he says (according to Vergil), "I fear the Greeks, even bearing gifts." Later, while
sacrificing a bull, two serpents from the sea crush both him and his two young sons. The
death of Laocoon is often blamed on Athena (into whose temple the serpent disappeared) but
more likely the act of Poseidon, a fierce Greek partisan.
8.
Aeneas This son of Aphrodite and Anchises often takes a beating but always gets up to
rejoin the battle. Knocked unconscious by a large rock thrown by Diomedes, he is evacuated
by Aphrodite and Apollo. He succeeds the late Hector as Trojan troop commander and
survives the fall of Troy, ultimately settling in Italy. His son Iulus founds Alba Longa, near
the site of Rome. That bloodline is the basis of Julius Caesar's claim to have descended from
Venus.
You Gotta Know These Hindu Deities and Heroes
1.
Vishnu One of the Trimurti (the holy trinity of Hindu gods), Vishnu is the Preserver,
protecting the world. When needed, Vishnu descends to Earth as an avatar, or incarnation.
Nine have appeared so far: Matsya, Kurma (tortoise), Varah (boar), Narasimha (man-lion),
Vamana (dwarf), Parashurama, Rama, Krishna, and Buddha. A tenth, Kalki, will appear with
a flaming sword to save humans from the darkness. Some cult followers worship Vishnu as
Narayana, the primal being. Vishnu has dark blue skin, rides with the eagle Garuna, and sits
on the snake Shesha. His symbols are the conch, disc, club, and lotus; his chief wives are
Lakshmi and Bhu (the Earth). Kama, the god of love, may be his son.
2.
Shiva Also known as Lord Mahesh, Shiva is the Destroyer in the Trimurti. Developed from
Rudra, the Vedic god of death, Shiva is often shown sitting on a tiger skin and riding the bull
Nandi. He is also associated with a lingam (phallus). He has three eyes, of which the third (in
the middle of his head) is all-knowing; when it opens, the world is destroyed and
regenerated. Lord of all underworld beings, he wears a necklace of skulls and another made
of a snake. He carries a trident as a weapon and has a blue throat, the result of drinking
poison while the ocean churns. Parvati, one of his several consorts, bears him two sons:
Kartikeya (the god of war) and Ganesha.
3.
Brahma The third of the Trimurti, Brahma is the Creator. By dropping an egg into the
cosmic waters, he hatches a younger form of Brahma that creates other beings. Also the chief
priest, he has four heads that each point in a cardinal direction, representing the Four Vedas.
Brahma has a fifth head until Shiva plucked it off; as punishment for that act, Shiva is forced
to wander as a beggar and carry Brahma's severed skull as a bowl. Brahma's wife is Savitri,
who curses him after he lets a cow-maiden stand in for her at an important ritual. Few people
worship Brahma, either because of the curse or because he lost a power struggle to Vishnu.
4.
Krishna This eighth avatar of Vishnu is born when Vishnu plucks two of his own hairs - one
light, one dark - and used the dark hair to impregnate Devaki. Her husband Vasudeva saves
Krishna from evil King Kansa by carrying him across the river Yamuna to safety in Gokula.
Krishna can be depicted as a child, adolescent, or adult. As an infant, he plays pranks such as
stealing butter. As a youthful lover, he plays the flute and dances with the gopis (cowmaidens) in the Vrindavana forest. As an adult, he is a dark-skinned warrior with a light,
angelic face, charioteer to Arjuna (in the Mahabharata). In the Bhagavad-Gita it is he who
reveals the importance of dharma and bhakti. His consort is the cowherd girl Radha.
5.
Ganesha This elephant-headed god of wisdom and learning is often shown riding a rat.
Parvati "gives birth" to Ganesha by creating him from the saffron paste she scrubbed off of
herself after bathing. When Parvati instructs Ganesha not to let anyone in as she took
another bath, Ganesha prevents Shiva from entering, prompting Shiva to cut off Ganesha's
head. To calm Parvati, Shiva tells servants to take the head of the first baby found whose
mother had her back turned; the servants bring back the head of a baby elephant. Ganesha
has two wives (Riddhi and Siddhi), two sons, and a daughter. People pray to this remover of
obstacles and bringer of good fortune before they commence business.
6.
Rama The seventh avatar of Vishnu is hero of the Ramayana. Born as a prince to King
Dasharatha and Queen Kaushalya, Rama wins the hand of his wife Sita in a competition held
by Sita's father, King Janaka; only he can string Shiva's bow. When his aunt Kaikeyi schemes
to deprive him of Dasharatha's throne by putting her son Bharata there, Rama and Sita are
banished to a forest for 14 years. During that time, the ten-headed demon Ravana kidnaps
Sita but Rama rescues her and killed Ravana. Bharata abdicates; Rama makes Sita walk
through fire to prove that Ravana had not corrupted her.
7.
Indra The god of rain, thunder, and war, Indra wields the thunderbolt (vajra) and rides
Airavat, the four-tusked white elephant. In early Vedic times he was king of the gods who
ruled swarga; many Rig Veda hymns are devoted to him. With the aid of both the Marut
storm gods and his favorite drink, soma, Indra leads the Aryan conquest of India. He also
defeats the dragon Vritra, who had stolen the world's water.
8.
Lakshmi (or Sri) The last and greatest treasure born from the "churning of the ocean,"
Lakshmi is the goddess of prosperity and patron to moneylenders. The epitome of feminine
beauty, she sits or stands on a lotus flower and appears in her own avatars alongside Vishnu:
Sita to his Rama; Padma the lotus to Vamana the dwarf; Radha (or Rukmini) to Krishna. A
form of the mother goddess (Shakti, or Devi), she also represents virtue and honesty.
9.
"Shiva's consort" Several incarnations of the "mother goddess" take this moniker. Parvati,
the most benevolent form, is the reincarnation of Sati, who threw herself into the fire. Durga
is a demon-slayer who rides a lion into battle and carries a weapon in each of her many arms.
Kali is a black-skinned goddess of destruction, who defeats the demon leader Raktavija by
drinking all of his blood. Although Kali's dance can destroy the world, Shiva throws himself
at her feet to calm her, turning her into Parvati.
10. Arjuna The chief hero of the Mahabharata, Arjuna is the son of Indra and one of five
Pandava brothers, who fight a bitter war against their one hundred cousins, Kauravas,
culminating at the battle on "Kuru's Field." Before the battle, Arjuna asks his charioteer
(Krishman) why he must fight. Krishna responds that Arjuna must follow a devotion to god
(bhakti) and that even as he slays his brethren, it is for a just cause. Along with the rest of the
Pandavas, Arjuna is married to Draupadi.
11. Hanuman Son of the wind god Vaayu and Queen Anjana, Hanuman has a human body with
a monkey's head. As a boy he swallows the sun (mistaking it for a piece of fruit); the angry
Indra whips him with a thunderbolt. In response the wind god Vaayu refuses to breathe air
into the world, prompting Indra to apologize and the other gods to bestow immortality and
shapeshifting ability on Hanuman. He figures prominently in the Ramayana, where he flies
to Lanka to tell Sita that Rama will rescue her from Ravana.
12. Agni Part of a trinity with Surya (the sun) and Vaayu (the wind), Agni can be brought to life
by rubbing two sticks together. Since Agni is responsible for sacrificial fires, he is the patron
of priests. He has a red body, two heads, three legs, four arms, and seven tongues; he often
carries a flaming javelin. In the Mahabharata, Agni's grandfather is one of seven great sages;
with the help of Krishna, he devours the Khandav forest.
You Gotta Know These 20th-Century Composers
1.
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971). He studied under Rimsky-Korsakov and completed two
grand ballets for Diaghilev, The Firebird and Petrushka. His Paris premiere of The Rite of
Spring (1913), however, is what inaugurated music's Modern era. A pagan story featuring
polytonal music, The Rite of Spring shocked the audience so much that riots ensued, leading
a stunned Stravinsky to pursue rational, "neoclassical" music, such as his Symphony of
Psalms. In 1940 he moved to Hollywood, where he composed his one full-length opera, The
Rake's Progress, with libretto by W.H. Auden. Late in life, he adopted the serialist, twelvetone style of Webern, producing the abstract ballet Agon (1957).
2.
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951). This Austrian pioneered dodecaphony, or the twelvetone system, which treated all parts of the chromatic scale equally. Schoenberg's early
influences were Wagner and R. Strauss, as evident in his Transfigured Night (1900) for
strings. Yet by 1912, with the "Sprechstimme" (halfway between singing and speaking) piece
Pierrot lunaire, he broke from Romanticism and developed expressionist pieces free from
key or tone. His students, especially Alban Berg and Anton Webern, further elaborated on his
theories. Fleeing Nazi persecution in 1933, he moved from Berlin to Los Angeles, where he
completed A Survivor from Warsaw. The first two acts of his unfinished opera, Moses und
Aron, are still frequently performed.
3.
Benjamin Britten (1913-1976). Reviver of the opera in the U.K., most notably with Peter
Grimes (1945), the story of a fisherman who kills two of his apprentices. Britten broke
through with Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge (1937), a tribute to his composition
teacher, and wrote incidental music for works by his friend W.H. Auden. With his
companion, the tenor Peter Pears, Britten founded the Aldeburgh Festival of Music and
wrote operas such as Billy Budd, The Turn of the Screw, and Death in Venice. Britten's nonoperatic works include The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (1946) and War Requiem
(1961), based on the antiwar poems of Wilfred Owen, who was killed during World War I.
4.
Aaron Copland (COPE-land) (1900-1990). At first a modernist, he was the first American
student of Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1920s; there he finished his Organ Symphony and
Music for the Theater. By the 1930s, Copland turned to simple themes, especially the
American West: El Salón Mexico was followed by the ballets Billy the Kid, Rodeo, and
Appalachian Spring (1944), the last containing the Shaker hymn "Simple Gifts." Copland's
Third Symphony contained his Fanfare for the Common Man, while Lincoln Portrait
featured spoken portions of the President's writings. Copland wrote several educational
books, beginning with 1939's What to Listen For in Music.
5.
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953). He wrote seven symphonies, of which the First (Classical,
1917) is the most notable. While in Chicago, he premiered the opera The Love for Three
Oranges, based on Italian commedia dell'arte. Prokofiev moved to Paris in 1922, where he
composed works for Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, including The Prodigal Son. In 1936
he returned to the USSR, where he completed the popular children's work Peter and the Wolf
and the score for the film Alexander Nevsky. When Stalin denounced Prokofiev as
"decadent," the composer was forced to write obsequious tributes to the premier. Prokofiev
survived Stalin, but only by a few hours (both died on March 5).
6.
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975). His work was emblematic of both the Soviet regime
and his attempts to survive under its oppression. Shostakovich's operas, such as The Nose
(1928) and Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, were well received at first--until Stalin
severely criticized his work in Pravda in 1936. Fearful for his security, Shostakovich wrote
several conciliatory pieces (Fifth, Seventh/Leningrad, and Twelfth Symphonies) in order to
get out of trouble. He made enemies, however, with his Thirteenth Symphony (Babi Yar).
Based on the Yevtushenko poem, Babi Yar condemned anti-Semitism in both Nazi Germany
and the USSR.
7.
Béla Bartók (1881-1945). A young girl singing a folk tune to her son in 1904 inspired Bartók
to roam the Hungarian countryside with Zoltan Kodály, collecting peasant tunes. This
influence permeated his music, including the opera Duke Bluebeard's Castle (1911) and the
ballets The Wooden Prince (1916) and The Miraculous Mandarin (1919). A virtuoso pianist
and an innovative composer, Bartók refused to teach composition, contributing to financial
problems, especially after he fled Nazi-held Hungary for the U.S. in 1940. Bartók wrote many
prominent instrumental pieces; best known are six string quartets, the educational piano
piece Mikrokosmos, and Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta (1936).
8.
Charles Ives (1874-1954). He learned experimentation from his father George, a local
Connecticut businessman and bandleader. Ives studied music at Yale but found insurance
sales more lucrative; his firm of Ives and Myrick was the largest in New York during the
1910s. Privately, Ives composed great modern works, including the Second Piano (Concord)
Sonata (with movements named after Emerson, Hawthorne, Alcott, and Thoreau); and
Three Places in New England (1914). His Third Symphony won Ives a Pulitzer Prize in 1947,
while his song "General William Booth Enters Into Heaven" was based on a Vachel Lindsay
poem. Poor health ended both his insurance and music careers by 1930.
9.
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937). His Basque mother gave him an affinity for Spanish themes, as
evident in Rapsodie espagnole and his most popular piece, Bolero (1928). Ravel produced
Pavane for a Dead Princess while a student of Gabriel Fauré, but was frustrated when the
French Conservatory overlooked him for the Prix de Rome four times. He completed the
ballet Daphnis et Chloe (1912) for Diaghilev, which was followed by Mother Goose and La
Valse, and also re-orchestrated Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. His health declined
after a 1932 taxi accident; unsuccessful brain surgery ended his life.
10. George Gershwin (1898-1937). Known at first for producing popular songs and musicals
with his older brother Ira, Gershwin successfully melded jazz and popular music with
classical forms, most famously the Rhapsody in Blue (1924), the Concerto in F for Piano and
Orchestra (1925), and the folk opera Porgy and Bess (1935), based on a story by DuBose
Heyward. Gershwin's first major hit was 1919's "Swanee," sung by Al Jolson, and his 1931
musical Of Thee I Sing was the first to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Gershwin died of a
brain tumor at age 38.
11. John Cage (1912-1992). An American student of Arnold Schoenberg, Cage took avant-garde
to a new level, and may be considered a Dada composer because he believed in aleatory, or
"chance" music. His Imaginary Landscape No. 4 (1951) used twelve radios tuned to different
stations; the composition depended on what was on the radio at that time. The following
year's 4'33" required a pianist to sit at the piano for that length of time and then close it;
audience noise and silence created the "music." Cage also invented the "prepared piano,"
where he attached screws, wood, rubber bands, and other items to piano strings in order to
create a percussion sound.
12. Ralph Vaughan Williams (RAIF) (1872-1958). Best known for reviving the Tudor style
and folk traditions in English music, as exemplified in his Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas
Tallis (1909). Vaughan Williams completed nine symphonies, the foremost his Second
(London) in 1914; other principal symphonies included the First (Sea), Third (Pastoral) and
Seventh (sinfonia antarctica). His orchestral work The Lark Ascending was based on a
George Meredith poem, while Sir John in Love (1924) was a Shakespearean opera that
featured the "Fantasia on Greensleeves." Hugh the Drover and The Pilgrim's Progress are
other major Vaughan Williams operas.
13. Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943). A highly skilled pianist and conductor, Rachmaninoff
twice turned down conductorship of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He failed to reap the
monetary benefits of his early pieces (notably the C-Sharp Minor Prelude of 1892), because
he sold them cheaply to a publisher. Treated by hypnosis in 1901, Rachmaninoff began a
productive period with his Second Piano Concerto (known affectionately by Julliard students
as "Rocky II") and the symphonic poem The Isle of the Dead (1909). He moved to the U.S. in
1917, after the Bolshevik Revolution. There his output decreased, though he did complete the
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in 1934.
You Gotta Know These Architects
1.
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867 - 1959) Wright's life and works are staples of quiz
tournaments. Born in Wisconsin, he worked under Louis Sullivan before founding a Chicago
practice. His early homes, like the Robie House at the University of Chicago, are in the
"Prairie" style: horizontal orientation and low roofs. His "organic architecture" tries to
harmonize with its inhabitants and site: Examples include the Kaufmann House (also known
as Fallingwater) in Pennsylvania; the Johnson Wax Museum in Racine, Wisconsin; and
Taliesin West, his Arizona home and studio. (The original Taliesin, in Wisconsin, burned
down in 1914). Other notable Wright works are the Guggenheim Museum in New York City,
the Larkin Building in Buffalo, the Unity Temple in Oak Park, and the Imperial Hotel in
Tokyo, one of few buildings to survive a 1923 earthquake.
2.
Walter Gropius (1883 - 1969) Though Gropius also designed the Fagus Factory (Alfeld,
Germany) and the Pan American Building (New York City), he is better known for founding
the Bauhaus. Beginning in Weimer in 1919 and moving to a Gropius-designed facility in
Dessau in 1925, the Bauhaus school emphasized functionalism, the application of modern
methods and materials, and the synthesis of technology and art. Its faculty included artists
Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, and Josef Albers. Gropius would later head Harvard's
architecture department from 1938-52, shifting its focus to incorporate modern design and
construction techniques.
3.
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886 - 1969) The leading architect of the International
Style of skyscraper design, he (like Gropius) worked in the office of Peter Behrens. He
directed the Bauhaus from 1930-33, shutting it down before the Nazis could do so. His works
include the Barcelona Pavilion for the 1929 International Exposition; the Lake Shore Drive
Apartments in Chicago; the New National Gallery in Berlin; and the Seagram Building in
New York, which he co-designed with Philip Johnson. The phrase "less is more" is associated
with Mies, whose glass-covered steel structures influenced the design of office buildings in
nearly every major city in the U.S.
4.
I(eoh) M(ing) Pei (1917 - Present) Pei is among the most famous living architects. Born
in China, he emigrated to the U.S. in 1935. Though he has also designed moderate-income
housing, Pei is best known for large-scale projects. His works include the Mile High Center in
Denver, the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, the John Hancock
Building in Boston, the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the
Fragrant Hill Hotel in Beijing, and the recent Miho Museum of Art in Shiga, Japan. He may
be best known for two fairly recent works: the glass pyramid erected outside the Louvre in
1989, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, completed in 1995.
5.
Sir Christopher Wren (1632 - 1723) When fire destroyed much of London in 1666, Wren
was an Oxford astronomy professor who had designed his first building just four years
earlier. Charles II named him the King's Surveyor of Works in 1669, and he was involved in
rebuilding more than 50 London churches in the next half-century, including Saint Paul's
Cathedral. An inscription near his tomb in Saint Paul's declares, "Reader, if you seek a
monument, look around you."
6.
Le Corbusier (born Charles-Eduoard Jeanneret) (1887 - 1965) Possibly more
influential even than Wright, he wrote the 1923 book Towards a New Architecture, standard
reading in architectural theory courses. One famous Corbusian quote is: "A house is a
machine for living in." His floor plans were influenced by Cubist principles of division of
space, and the Villa Savoye (Poissy, France) is his best-known early work. He wrote of the
"Radiant City" begun anew, a completely planned city with skyscrapers for residents.
Applications of his approach to government buildings (such as in Brasilia or in Chandigarh,
India), however, largely failed, as did many urban renewal projects produced on the same
ideological foundation. Nonetheless, he influenced every other 20th-century figure on this
list.
7.
Louis Sullivan (1856 - 1924) Sullivan did not design the first skyscraper but did become a
vocal champion of skyscrapers as reflections of the modern age. Though most associated with
Chicago, his best-known work is the 1891 Wainwright Building in St. Louis. His partnership
with Dankmar Adler produced over 100 buildings. Later works, such as the Babson, Bennett,
and Bradley Houses, reflect an organic architecture distinct from that of Wright. Sullivan's
dictum that "form should follow function" strongly influenced modern architecture; his
writings helped break the profession from classical restraints.
8.
Filippo Brunelleschi (1377 - 1446) A friend of Donatello, Brunelleschi was a skilled
sculptor and goldsmith whose 1401 competition with Lorenzo Ghiberti for the commission of
the bronze doors of the Florence Baptistery is a frequent question topic (Ghiberti got the
chief commission). As an architect, he is mainly known for the extraordinary octagonallybased dome of the Santa Maria del Fiore (also known as the Florence Cathedral), which
dominates the Florentine skyline. The task required an innovative supporting framework and
occupied much of his career (as described in detail in Vasari's Lives of the Artists). Other
projects include the Spedale degli Innocenti (a hospital), the Old Sacristy at San Lorenzo, and
the Pazzi Chapel in the Cloisters of Santa Croce, all from 1421 to 1430.
9.
Frank Gehry (1929 - Present) Winner of the 1989 Pritzker Prize, Gehry is best-known
today for large-scale compositions like the Experience Music Project in Seattle, the Walt
Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, and the recent, controversial Guggenheim Museum in
Bilbao, Spain. (Bilbao natives describe the latter as "the artichoke," given its layers of
abstract titanium structures.) Gehry often uses uncommon materials such as plywood and
limestone; his designs range from Kobe's Fishdance Restaurant, shaped like a giant fish, to
the soft-sculpture look of the so-called "Fred and Ginger" buildings in Prague. He also
designs furniture: The Easy Edges line is made of laminated cardboard; the Gehry Collection
consists of chairs named for hockey terms (e.g. Cross Check and Power Play). As of 2002,
active projects included a new wing for the Corcoran Gallery and the SoHo Branch of the
Guggenheim.
10. Andrea Palladio (1508 - 1580) Born Andrea di Pietro della Gondola, Palladio designed
villas in or near Venice, including the Villa Rotonda and Villa Barbaro. He integrated GrecoRoman ideas of hierarchy, proportion, and order with contemporary Renaissance styles. His
Four Books on Architecture from 1570 relates his theoretical principles. Among architects
heavily influenced by Palladio were Inigo Jones and Thomas Jefferson.
11. Eero Saarinen (1910 - 1961) The son of architect Eliel Saarinen, Eero was born in Finland
but spent most of his life in the U.S. and died in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He designed many
buildings on the campuses of MIT and Yale, as well as Dulles International Airport and the
TWA terminal at Kennedy Airport. Saarinen may be best known for designing the Gateway
Arch in St. Louis, though he died before it was completed. Many of his works are
characterized by elegant, sweeping forms, such as the Kresge Auditorium at MIT.
12. Antonio Gaudi y Cornet (1852 - 1926) Gaudi created many extraordinary buildings in
Barcelona in the early 20th century. His Art Nouveau-inspired works include the Casa Mila
and Casa Batllo apartments, known from their undulating facades, and several works for
patron Eusebi Guell. He spent 40 years working on the Expiatory Church of the Holy Family
(also known as La Sagrada Familia); although its spindle-like towers are in place, the
building remains unfinished, and Gaudi's models for it were destroyed in the Spanish Civil
War. He was also fond of using hyperbolic paraboloids in his work.
You Gotta Know These New York Yankees
Enough baseball players are frequently asked-about in quiz bowl that nearly any appropriate subset of
them would still be too large for a single "You Gotta Know" entry. One franchise, however, has--for
good or bad--easily the most distinguished history in baseball. The players and managers below form
a reasonable starting point for quiz players just beginning to learn baseball lore. What follows was
written by an avowed Yankee fan and edited by an NAQT officer who describes the Yankees as his
least favorite team, though he readily acknowledges their singular place in the history of the sport.
1.
(George Herman) "Babe" Ruth (1895-1948), the son of a saloon keeper, grew up on the
Baltimore waterfront and in the St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys. Ruth spent six seasons
with the Boston Red Sox, primarily as a pitcher, winning 89 games and three championship
rings. He also distinguished himself at bat, setting a record in 1919 with 29 home runs. Debtridden Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sold Ruth to the Yankees to finance a Broadway
production of No, No, Nanette. Prior to the sale, Boston had won five World Series (three
with Ruth) to New York's zero; since then the Yankees have won 26 championships (four
with Ruth) versus none for the Red Sox. Moved to the outfield, Ruth led the league in home
runs ten more times, including the 60 he hit in 1927 as part of the "Murderers Row" lineup.
In the third game of the 1932 World Series, he allegedly gestured towards the center field
stands before his "Called Shot" home run. Beyond his on-field exploits, Ruth was an
infamous eater and carouser.
2.
(Ludwig Heinrich) "Lou" Gehrig (1903-1941) was born in Manhattan and played
football and baseball at Columbia. In 1925 he replaced incumbent first baseman Wally Pipp
on Pipp's "day off" but stayed in the lineup for 2,130 straight games, a streak broken by Cal
Ripken, Jr., in 1995. The "Iron Horse" also set an American League record with 184 runs
batted in (1931) and a major league record with 23 grand slams. After he was diagnosed with
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (now commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease), he told
Yankee fans on July 4, 1939: "Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the
Earth." In deference to Gehrig, no Yankee was appointed team captain until Thurman
Munson in 1976.
3.
(Joseph Vincent) "Joe" McCarthy (1887-1978), no relation to the Wisconsin senator,
began managing the Yankees in 1931, the first of nine straight years that his teams finished
first or second. McCarthy led New York to four straight championships (1936-39) and seven
overall. His .615 career winning percentage is the all-time best among big league skippers.
Besides winning - his teams never finished below .500 - McCarthy's teams were
distinguished by their offense: The 1931 Yankees scored 1,067 runs, most by any big league
team since 1900.
4.
(Giuseppi Paolo) "Joe" DiMaggio, Jr. (1914-1999) left the San Francisco Seals of the
Pacific Coast League and joined the Yankees in 1936, in time to lead New York to its fifth
championship, the first of nine the Bronx Bombers would win in his career. The "Yankee
Clipper" won three Most Valuable Player awards, two batting titles, and two home run titles.
In 1941 "Joltin' Joe" hit safely in a record 56 consecutive games (he had hit in 61 straight for
the 1933 Seals). Post-career highlights include his nine-month marriage to Marilyn Monroe,
his ads for Mr. Coffee (among the earliest televised celebrity endorsements), and the mention
of his name in Simon and Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson."
5.
Mickey (Charles) Mantle (1931-1995) was born to play baseball--his father named him
for Hall of Fame catcher Mickey Cochrane--but his left leg was not. In high school it was
nearly amputated because of osteomyelitis, the first of his many leg problems. Known as the
Commerce Comet (after his speed and the Oklahoma town where he grew up), Mantle
became the Yankee center fielder following DiMaggio's retirement. Mantle's Yankees played
in 12 World Series (winning seven of them); he holds Series records for home runs (18), RBI
(40), runs (42), walks (43), extra-base hits (26), and total bases (123). In the regular season,
the switch-hitting Mantle had 536 home runs, three MVP awards, and a Triple Crown (1956).
In 1961 he and teammate Roger Maris each had a chance of breaking Ruth's home run
record; Mantle was the fan favorite but injuries limited him to 54 longballs (Maris broke the
record with 61).
6.
(Lawrence Peter) "Yogi" Berra (1925-Present) is best known for his quotes and
malapropisms (e.g. "Little league baseball is a very good thing because it keeps the parents
off the streets"). Berra was also notorious for swinging at bad pitches, but he made contact
just often enough to set the record for most home runs by a catcher (306, a mark later broken
by Carlton Fisk). After playing on ten championship teams and winning three MVP awards,
Berra was hired as the Yankees' manager in 1964 but fired following the World Series loss to
the St. Louis Cardinals. His 1973 pennant with the Mets made him the second manager (after
Joe McCarthy but before Sparky Anderson) to win pennants in both leagues.
7.
(Edward Charles) "Whitey" Ford (1928-Present) was called "Chairman of the Board"
because of his cool, efficient pitching. With 236 career wins against 106 defeats, he has the
best winning percentage of any pitcher with 200 or more wins. He broke Babe Ruth's World
Series record with 33 consecutive scoreless innings (1960-62); his other Series records
include ten wins, eight losses, and 146 innings pitched. Manager Casey Stengel often rested
him against bad teams so that he could pitch more often against contenders, making his 2.75
career ERA more impressive.
8.
(Charles Dillon) "Casey" Stengel (1890-1975) managed the Yankees to ten pennants and
seven championships, including five in a row from 1949 to 1953. The "Old Perfessor" did not
use a set lineup or pitching rotation, instead often mixing and matching players. As a player
he was best known for his two home runs against the Yankees in the 1923 World Series. Off
the field he was known for his vaudevillian personality and (like Berra) his mangled quotes.
In 1958 a Senate subcommittee called him to testify on baseball's anti-trust exemption,
leading to an hour of nearly incomprehensible "Stengelese."
9.
(Alfred Manuel) "Billy" Martin (1928-1989) managed the New York Yankees on five
separate occasions, the result of his frequent hirings and firings by owner George
Steinbrenner. An alert, combative second baseman from 1950 to 1957, he caught Jackie
Robinson's bases-loaded popup in Game 7 of the 1952 World Series and won the final game
of the '53 Series with a single in the bottom of the ninth. As manager Martin won two
pennants and a World Series (1977) but also nearly came to blows with Reggie Jackson
during a nationally televised game.
10. (Reginald Martinez) "Reggie" Jackson (1946-Present) was one of baseball's first highprofile free agent signings. After winning three straight World Series with Oakland (1972-74),
Jackson left the A's following the 1975 season, spent a year in Baltimore, and then joined the
Bronx Zoo (as the Yankees' chaotic clubhouse was then known). Known as Mr. October, he
hit three home runs in Game 6 of the 1977 World Series, each against a different pitcher, each
on the first pitch of the at-bat. Also in 1977 he created a sensation by proclaiming himself
"the straw that stirs the drink." He hit 563 career home runs and led the league in homers
four times, but also set a major league record with 2,597 career strikeouts.
11. Don(ald Arthur) Mattingly (1961-Present) is almost unique among Yankee greats for his
lack of a World Series ring. He holds the major league record with six grand slams in a
season, led the league in hits twice, and won the 1985 MVP award. "Donnie Baseball" also
won nine Gold Glove awards at first base and posted a .996 career fielding percentage. The
Yankees of the 1980s, led by Mattingly, Dave Winfield, and Willie Randolph, consistently
finished above .500. Mattingly's 1982 rookie season, however, was the first of a 13-year
playoff drought. A 1995 Division Series against the Seattle Mariners (won by Seattle in five
games) was his only post-season experience.
12. Derek (Sanderson) Jeter (1974-Present), in contrast to Mattingly, has reached the
playoffs every year in his major league career, including six pennants and four
championships. He was Rookie of the Year in 1996, the same year that 12-year-old Jeffrey
Maier reached over a railing to turn his fly ball in the American League Championship Series
into a controversial home run. In 2003 the Yankees named Jeter their 11th captain in
franchise history and first since 1995. (In baseball a "team captain" is a purely honorary
position; some teams dispense with the practice of naming one.) His junior high school
yearbook named him "Most likely to play shortstop for the New York Yankees."
You Gotta Know These Old Testament Characters
1.
Abraham was the first of the patriarchs, whose lives are told in the book of Genesis. He
proved his military prowess during the War of the Kings, rescuing his captured nephew Lot.
He also tried, unsuccessfully, to persuade God to spare the evil cities of Sodom (where Lot
lived) and Gomorrah. His wife Sarah gave birth to Isaac when she was ninety years old;
Sarah evicted Abraham's concubine, Hagar, and her son Ishmael (said to be ancestor of the
Arabs). Abraham also bought the Cave of Machpela (near Hebron) as a burial ground for him
and his descendants (Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebeccah, and Jacob
and Leah are supposedly buried there).
2.
Isaac was, as a child, almost sacrificed by his father Abraham on Mt. Moriah, when God
tried to test Abraham's faith. He married Rebeccah, and she gave birth to the twins Jacob
and Esau, of whom Esau (the older one) was entitled to a birthright. However, Jacob tricked
Isaac with Rebeccah's help. This incident caused Esau and Isaac to be mortal enemies.
Denied his birthright, Esau went to live in Mt. Seir and became the father of the Edomites.
3.
Jacob was Esau's twin brother, but had to flee Esau's rage after stealing Esau's blessing and
birthright. Jacob loved his uncle Laban's daughter Rachel, but Laban tricked him into
marrying her sister Leah first. Leah bore him Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and
Zebulun; Leah's maidservant Zilpah, bore Jacob Gad and Asher; Rachel gave birth to Joseph
and Benjamin, and Rachel's maidservant Bilhah bore Dan and Naphtali. The Twelve Tribes
of Israel descend from Jacob's twelve sons, with the exception of Joseph; Ephraim and
Menasseh, sons of Joseph, each head "half-tribes." Jacob was later renamed "Israel,"
meaning "he who fights with God."
4.
Joshua was the charismatic attendant to Moses during the Exodus from Egypt. Joshua was
one of the twelve spies sent to scout Canaan. Ten of the other spies gave negative reports of
the land and were killed in the plague as punishment; Joshua and another spy, Caleb, gave
positive reports and were rewarded. Appointed Moses' successor, Joshua led the Israelites in
conquering and dividing Canaan. One of his most famous victories was against the city of
Jericho, which he destroyed by circling the city seven times while blowing on rams' horns
(shofarim).
5.
Deborah was one of the Judges, leaders who governed the Hebrews in Canaan during the
period between Joshua's death and the establishment of the monarchy in Israel; she used to
judge while sitting under a palm tree. In battle, she and Barak (son of Abinoam) led the
Hebrews to a stunning victory against Jabin, the Canaanite king. She won when the chariots
of Sisera, Jabin's general, got stuck in the mud of the river Kishon, and he and his soldiers all
fled or were killed. The victory ended an era of persecution of the Hebrews by Jabin.
6.
Lot was the nephew of Abraham and later left him to settle around the evil cities of Sodom
and Gomorrah. When God prepared to destroy the two cities, two messengers were sent to
Lot to evacuate him from the area; as Lot and his family were fleeing, his wife accidentally
glanced back, and she was transformed into a pillar of salt. Afterwards, fearing that they were
the only people left alive on Earth, his two daughters got him drunk and became pregnant
from him, beginning the future nations of Moab and the Ammonites.
7.
Noah, being a "righteous man and blameless in his generation," (Genesis 6:9) was chosen by
God to continue the human race, while the rest of mankind was destroyed by a flood because
of their wickedness. Afterwards, he and his family populated the Earth. His son Shem is
considered the father of the Semitic people (e.g., Arabs and Hebrews), Ham, the ancestor of
the Africans, and Japheth, the ancestor of various other races, including Indo-Europeans.
8.
Cain, Abel, and Seth were the sons of Adam and Eve. (Adam begat other sons and
daughters but the Bible mentions none by name.) Cain killed Abel out of rage because God
had preferred Abel's offering from his flock, rather than Cain's. When asked about Abel's
fate, Cain answered, "Am I my brother's keeper?" Cain was punished for the murder by
becoming a vagabond, and he was given a special mark on his forehead to protect him from
anyone who might kill him (God promised that anyone who killed Cain would suffer
punishment for seven generations). Later, Eve gave birth to Seth.
9.
Ruth was a Moabite woman who converted to Judaism. Her lineage includes David, King of
Israel. She stayed with her mother-in-law, Naomi, after Naomi's husband and two sons died
of illness. Ruth later married Boaz, one of the family's relatives, as the custom was that a
family member must continue his relative's lineage if he dies by marrying his widow. The
Book of Ruth is read on the holiday of Shavuot.
10. Ezra was a Jewish scribe who led a group of Jews back to Israel from their exile in
Babylonia. He was also instrumental in working to rebuild the Temple (with permission from
Cyrus) after the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed it. When Israel's neighbors
tried to convince King Artaxerxes that the Jews shouldn't be able to rebuild the Temple
because of their reputation as a rebellious province, Ezra intervened and appealed later to
King Darius, who allowed them to resume construction. Additionally, Ezra helped to
reestablish Jewish religious practice in Israel after the exile.
11. Saul, David, and Solomon were the first three kings of Israel. The young David, popular
after killing the giant Goliath, succeeded Saul at the behest of the prophet Samuel and with
the blessing of his close friend, Saul's own son Jonathan. For this, Saul greatly resented
David and made more than one attempt to kill him. David, like Saul, spent much of his reign
at war; because of the blood on his hands, God decreed that Solomon (not David) would
build the Temple. David captured the city of Jerusalem and made it his capital. He fell in love
with his future wife Bathsheba after he spotted her bathing; he had her husband killed so
that he could marry her. He also exhausted himself supressing a rebellion by his son
Absalom, who was captured when his long hair caught on a tree branch. Bathsheba's son
Solomon, in addition to building the Temple, was credited with writing Proverbs,
Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs.
12. Daniel was a young Jew who, together with his three friends (Hananiah, Mishael, and
Azariah), was taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar when he conquered the Kingdom of Judah.
Daniel was given a Babylonian name, and he gained favor with Nebuchadnezzar when he
correctly interpreted one of his dreams. Nebuchadnezzar was later replaced by King
Belshazzar. During a royal feast, a mysterious hand inscribed strange words on the wall.
Daniel was summoned and interpreted the famous message, the writing on the wall (it read
"Mene, Mene, Tekel, Ufarsin"), as predicting Belshazzar's downfall. Later that night, the King
was killed, and King Darius the Mede took over. Servants of Darius convinced him to lock
Daniel in the lion's den, where he magically survived with God's help.
You Gotta Know These Asian Rivers
Asia is home to seven of the world's twelve longest rivers, but its waterways are also of high cultural,
spiritual, and economic importance. Here are the ten Asian rivers that every quiz bowl team should be
familiar with.
1.
The Yangtze (or Chang Jiang or Ch'ang Chiang) is the longest river in China and Asia and
the third longest in the world. It rises in the Kunlun Mountains, flows across the Tibetan
Plateau, passes the cities of Chongqing, Wuhan, Nanjing, and Shanghai, and empties into the
South China Sea. Its basin is China's granary and is home to nearly one in every three
Chinese citizens. The river has been in the news for the construction of the Three Gorges
Dam, the world's largest, which will reduce flooding but displace 1.5 million people and bury
more than 1,300 known archaeological sites.
2.
The Brahmaputra (or Tsangpo or Jamuna) runs 1,800 miles from its source in the Tibetan
Himalayas; it starts eastward across the plateau, then turns south into the Indian state of
Assam, and then enters Bangladesh where it merges with the Ganges to form the world's
largest delta. While serving as a historical route to Tibet, the river is also prone to disastrous
flooding.
3.
The Yellow River (or Huang He or Huang Ho) is, at 3,400 miles, China's second-longest; it
is also the most important to the northern half of the country. It rises in Qinghai province
and flows into the Bohai Gulf of the Yellow Sea. The river's name comes from the
extraordinary amount of loess silt that it carries, an average of 57 pounds for every cubic yard
of water. Among its notable features is the Grand Canal, built during the Ming Dynasty, that
links it to the Yangtze.
4.
The Ganges (or Ganga) is the holiest river of Hinduism. It rises in the Himalayas and flows a
comparatively short 1,560 miles to the world's largest delta on the Bay of Bengal. Among that
delta's distributaries are the Hooghly (on whose banks Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) may be
found) and the Padma (which enters Bangladesh). Approximately one in every twelve human
beings lives in the Ganges Basin, a population density that is rapidly polluting the river; a
significant source of that pollution is cremated remains.
5.
The Mekong is the chief river of Southeast Asia. It originates in eastern Tibet, forms much
of the Laos-Thailand border, flows south through Cambodia, and enters the South China Sea
in southern Vietnam just south of Ho Chi Minh City. The capital cities of Vientiane and
Phnom Penh are on the Mekong. The building of dams and clearing of rapids are a source of
diplomatic conflict between China, Laos, and Cambodia.
6.
The Tigris is the eastern of the two rivers that define the historic region of Mesopotamia
(meaning, "The Land Between Two Rivers") that was home to the ancient civilizations of
Sumer and Akkad. It rises in Turkey, then flows southeast by Mosul, Tikrit, and Baghdad
before joining the Euphrates to make the Shatt-al-Arab, which subsequently empties into the
Persian Gulf.
7.
The Euphrates defines the western border of Mesopotamia; it also rises in the Zagros
Mountains of Turkey and its shores are home to Fallujah and Babylon. It is the longer of the
two rivers with a course of 1,740 miles (compared to the Tigris' 1,180). Both the Tigris and
the Euphrates have changed courses several times leaving ruins in the desert where cities
have been abandoned.
8.
The Irrawaddy (or Ayeyarwaddy) is the chief river of Myanmar (also known as Burma). It
flows 1,350 miles past Yangon (formerly Rangoon) and Mandalay to the Gulf of Martaban, an
arm of the Bay of Bengal. Its delta is one of the world's most important rice-growing regions,
and its name is thought to come from the Sanskrit word for "elephant."
9.
The Indus is the chief river of Pakistan as well as being the ultimate source of the name of
India. It rises in Tibet and flows 1,800 miles to a delta on the Arabian Sea southeast of
Karachi. The five major tributaries of the Indus, the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej
Rivers, are the source of the name of the Punjab region, which is Persian for "Land of the
Five Rivers". The Indus is the cradle of the Indus Valley Civilization, one of the world's
earliest urban areas, whose main cities were Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa.
10. The Jordan River rises in Syria from springs near Mount Hermon. It flows south to Lake
Merom, through the Sea of Galilee, and into the Dead Sea, which lies 1,300 feet below sea
level. The river forms the nation of Jordan's boundary with the West Bank and northern
Israel. In the New Testament, the river was the site of the baptism of John the Baptist. In
modern times, about 80% of its water is diverted for human use, a figure that has led to the
shrinking of the Dead Sea and serious contention among bordering nations.
You Gotta Know These Classes of Particles
Physics and chemistry are often difficult subjects for quiz bowl teams if those classes are taught
during the junior or senior years since many players will not have completed them before
encountering the subject matter at tournaments. One high-yield area of physics to study is the
nomenclature of various groups of particles.
Some conventions: The mass of particles is usually given in mega-electronvolts (MeV), where an
electron-volt is the energy acquired by an electron when it crosses a potential difference of one volt.
The energies are converted to masses by Einstein's famous equation E = mc2, where c is the speed of
light. Charges are given in terms of the fundamental electric charge (the absolute value of the charge
on an electron).
Every kind of particle also has a corresponding anti-particle made of anti-matter; when it is said that
there "six leptons," anti-particles are not counted (so, in some sense, there are twelve). Anti-particles
have the same mass, but the opposite charge, of the original. There are no particles with negative
mass. Note that in some rare situations, a particle can be its own anti-particle.
1.
Leptons are one of the classes of "fundamental particles" (meaning that they cannot be
broken down into smaller particles). There are six "flavors" of leptons: the electron, the
muon, the tauon, the electron neutrino (usually just called "the" neutrino), the muon
neutrino, and the tauon neutrino. The three neutrinos are neutral (and were once thought to
be massless), while the other three have a charge of -1. All neutrinos are fermions and the
total number of leptons is conserved (counting regular leptons as +1 particle and anti-leptons
as -1 particle). The word "lepton" comes from the Greek for "light" (as in "not heavy"), even
though the muon and tauon are fairly massive.
2.
Quarks are another class of fundamental particle. They also come in six flavors: up, down,
charm, strange, top (sometimes, "truth"), and bottom (sometimes, "beauty"). The up, charm,
and top quarks have a charge of +2/3, while the down, strange, and bottom have a charge of 1/3. All quarks are fermions and they combine in pairs to form mesons and in triples to form
baryons. The enormous mass of the top quark (178 GeV) made it difficult to create in particle
accelerators, but its discovery in 1995 confirmed an essential element of the "Standard
Model" of particle physics. The name "quark" comes from the line "Three quarks for Muster
Mark" in Finnegans Wake that appealed to Murray Gell-Mann. The study of quarks (and the
strong nuclear force) is quantum chromodynamics.
3.
Baryons are composite (i.e., non-fundamental) particles made from three quarks. The most
common examples are the proton (two up quarks and one down quark) and the neutron (two
down quarks and one up). All baryons are fermions. Quarks possess a characteristic called
"color" (which has nothing to do with visual color) which can be either red, green, or blue
(which are arbitrary names). A baryon must have one quark of each color so that the "total
color" (analogous to mixing red, green, and blue light) is colorless (i.e., "white"). The word
"baryon" comes from the Greek for "heavy." The total number of baryons is conserved (again,
counting anti-baryons as -1).
4.
Mesons are composite particles generally made from a quark and an anti-quark. There are
dozens of examples including the pion, kaon, J/Psi, Rho, and D. All mesons are bosons. The
quark and anti-quark must have the same color (such as red and anti-red) so that the
resulting meson is colorless (or "white"). It is also possible to make mesons out of two (or
more) quarks and the same number of anti-quarks, but this kind of particle (a "tetraquark")
is rare, both in nature and in quiz bowl.
5.
Fermions are particles with half-integral spin. Spin is a form of "intrinsic angular
momentum" which is possessed by particles as if they were spinning around their axis (but,
in fact, they aren't). The values cited for spin are not (usually) the real magnitude of that
angular momentum, but the component of the angular momentum along one axis. Quantum
mechanics restricts that component to being n/2 times Planck's constant divided by 2 pi for
some integer n. If n is even, this results in "integral" spin, if it is odd, it results in "halfintegral" spin. Note that the exact value of the spin itself is a real number; it's the multiplier
of h/2pi that determines whether it is "integral" or not. The most significant thing about
fermions is that they are subject to the Pauli Exclusion Principle: No two fermions can have
the same quantum numbers (i.e., same state). The name "fermion" comes from that of the
Italian-American physicist Enrico Fermi.
6.
Bosons are particles with integral spin. All particles are either bosons or fermions. The spin
of a composite particle is determined by the total spin (i.e., the component of its intrinsic
angular momentum along one axis) of its particles. For instance, an alpha particle (two
protons and two neutrons) has four half-integral spin values. No matter how they are added
up, the result will be an integral spin value (try it!), so an alpha particle is a (composite)
boson. The Pauli Exclusion Principle does not apply to bosons (in fact, bosons prefer to be in
the same quantum state). The name "boson" comes from that of the Indian-American
physicist Satyendra Nath Bose.
7.
Hadrons are any particles made out of quarks (alternatively, any particle affected by the
strong nuclear force). Generally, this means the baryons and the mesons. All hadrons are
colorless (in the sense of the combined color of their constituent quarks). The name "hadron"
comes from the Greek for "thick."
8.
Gauge bosons (sometimes called "vector bosons") are fundamental bosons that carry the
forces of nature. That is, forces result from particles emitting and absorbing gauge bosons.
The strong nuclear force is carried by gluons, the weak nuclear force is carried by the W, Z-,
and Z+ particles, the electromagnetic force is carried by the photon, and gravity is carried by
the (as yet unobserved) graviton. The name comes from the role of "gauge theories" in
describing the forces (which are beyond the scope of this article).
9.
Gluons are the gauge bosons that carry the strong nuclear force and bind hadrons together.
Gluons have no charge and no mass, but do have color (in the sense of quarks). This color
cannot be observed directly because the gluons are part of the larger hadron. The name
comes from their role in "gluing" quarks together.
10. Partons are an older name that was used for the "internal parts" of hadrons before the
discovery and widespread acceptance of the quark model. Models based on partons are still
used but, for the most part, it was determined that partons were quarks and the term is
rarely used at the high school level except in historical contexts.
You Gotta Know These Operas
Opera is the subject of a disproportionate share of the musical fine arts questions in quiz bowl
because the genre is more conducive to the verbal nature of the game than instrumental music. The
big difference, of course, is that operas have stories and characters that can be easily described by
words. It is much easier to parse a question on an operatic plot than to understand a description of
the notes, tempo, or harmony of, for instance, Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, in the rapidfire atmosphere of quiz bowl.
Each operatic title is followed by the name of its composer, its librettist, and the year of its first
performance.
1.
Aida (Giuseppe Verdi, Antonio Ghislanzoni, 1871) Aida is an Ethiopian princess who is held
captive in Egypt. She falls in love with the Egyptian general Radames and convinces him to
run away with her; unfortunately, he is caught by the high priest Ramphis and a jealous
Egyptian princess Amneris. Radames is buried alive, but finds that Aida has snuck into the
tomb to join him. The opera was commissioned by the khedive of Egypt and intended to
commemorate the opening of the Suez Canal, but it was finished late and instead premiered
at the opening of the Cairo Opera House.
2.
Carmen (Georges Bizet, Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, 1875) Carmen is a young gypsy
who works in a cigarette factory in Seville. She is arrested by the corporal Don José for
fighting, but cajoles him into letting her escape. They meet again at an inn where she tempts
him into challenging his captain; that treason forces him to join a group of smugglers. In the
final act, the ragtag former soldier encounters Carmen at a bullfight where her lover
Escamillo is competing (the source of the "Toreador Song") and stabs her. The libretto was
based on a novel of Prosper Merimée.
3.
The Marriage of Figaro (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Lorenzo Da Ponte, 1786) Figaro and
Susanna are servants of Count Almaviva who plan to marry, but this plan is complicated by
the older Marcellina who wants to wed Figaro, the Count who has made unwanted advances
to Susanna, and Don Bartolo who has a loan that Figaro has sworn he will repay before he
marries. The issues are resolved with a series complicated schemes that involve
impersonating other characters including the page Cherubino. The opera is based on a
comedy by Pierre de Beaumarchais. Be careful: Many of the same characters also appear in
The Barber of Seville!
4.
The Barber of Seville (Gioacchino Rossini, Cesare Sterbini, 1816) Count Almaviva loves
Rosina, the ward of Dr. Bartolo. Figaro (who brags about his wit in Largo al factotum)
promises to help him win the girl. He tries the guise of the poor student Lindoro, a drunken
soldier, and then a replacement music teacher, all of which are penetrated by Dr. Bartolo.
Eventually they succeed by climbing in with a ladder and bribing the notary who was to
marry Rosina to Dr. Bartolo himself. This opera is also based on a work of Pierre de
Beaumarchais and is a prequel to The Marriage of Figaro.
5.
William Tell (Gioacchino Rossini, unimportant librettists, 1829) William Tell is a 14thcentury Swiss patriot who wishes to end Austria's domination of his country. In the first act
he helps Leuthold, a fugitive, escape the Austrian governor, Gessler. In the third act, Gessler
has placed his hat on a poll and ordered the men to bow to it. When Tell refuses, Gessler
takes his son, Jemmy, and forces Tell to shoot an apple off his son's head. Tell succeeds, but
is arrested anyway. In the fourth act, he escapes from the Austrians and his son sets their
house on fire as a signal for the Swiss to rise in revolt. The opera was based on a play by
Friedrich von Schiller.
6.
Don Giovanni (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Lorenzo Da Ponte, 1787) Don Giovanni (the
Italian form of "Don Juan") attempts to seduce Donna Anna, but is discovered by her father,
the Commendatore, whom he kills in a swordfight. Later in the act, his servant Leporello
recounts his master's 2,000-odd conquests in the "Catalogue Aria." Further swordfights and
assignations occur prior to the final scene in which a statue of the Commendatore comes to
life, knocks on the door to the room in which Don Giovanni is feasting, and then opens a
chasm that takes him down to hell.
7.
Salome (Richard Strauss, Hugo Oscar Wilde, 1905) Jokanaan (a.k.a. John the Baptist) is
imprisoned in the dungeons of King Herod. Herod's 15-year-old step-daughter Salome
becomes obsessed with the prisoner's religious passion and is incensed when he ignores her
advances. Later in the evening Herod orders Salome to dance for him (the "Dance of the
Seven Veils"), but she refuses until he promises her "anything she wants." She asks for the
head of Jokanaan and eventually receives it, after which a horrified Herod orders her to be
killed; his soldiers crush her with their shields.
8.
Boris Godunov (Modest Mussorgsky (composer and librettist), 1874) The opera's prologue
shows Boris Godunov, the chief adviser of Ivan the Terrible, being pressured to assume the
throne after Ivan's two children die. In the first act the religious novice Grigori decides that
he will impersonate that younger son, Dmitri (the (first) "false Dmitri"), whom, it turns out,
Boris had killed. Grigori raises a general revolt and Boris' health falls apart as he is taunted
by military defeats and dreams of the murdered tsarevich. The opera ends with Boris dying in
front of the assembled boyars (noblemen).
9.
La Bohème (Giacomo Puccini, unimportant librettists, 1896) This opera tells the story of
four extremely poor friends who live in the French (i.e., Students') Quarter of Paris: Marcello
the artist, Rodolfo the poet, Colline the philosopher, and Schaunard the musician. Rodolfo
meets the seamstress Mimi who lives next door when her single candle is blown out and
needs to be relit. Marcello is still attached to Musetta, who had left him for the rich man
Alcindoro. In the final act, Marcello and Rodolfo have separated from their lovers, but cannot
stop thinking about them. Musetta bursts into their garret apartment and tells them that
Mimi is dying of consumption (tuberculosis); when they reach her, she is already dead. La
Bohème was based on a novel by Henry Murger and, in turn, formed the basis of the hit 1996
musical Rent by Jonathan Larson.
10. Madama Butterfly (Giacomo Puccini, unimportant librettists, 1904) The American naval
lieutenant Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton is stationed in Nagasaki where, with the help of the
broker Goro, he weds the young girl Cio-Cio-San (Madame Butterfly) with a marriage
contract with a cancellation clause. He later returns to America leaving Cio-Cio-San to raise
their son "Trouble" (whom she will rename "Joy" upon his return). When Pinkerton and his
new American wife Kate do return, Cio-Cio-San gives them her son and stabs herself with her
father's dagger. The opera is based on a play by David Belasco.
You Gotta Know These U.S. Supreme Court Cases
Each case is followed by the name of the presiding chief justice, the vote, and the year it was decided.
1.
Plessy v. Ferguson (Melville Fuller, 7-1, 1896) Homer Plessy (an octoroon) bought a firstclass ticket on the East Louisiana Railway. He sat in the whites-only car in violation of an
1890 Louisiana law mandating separate accommodations. He was convicted, but appealed to
the Supreme Court against John Ferguson, a Louisiana judge. The court upheld the law
provided that "separate but equal" facilities were provided. John Marshall Harlan issued a
famous dissent claiming "Our constitution is color-blind." Plessy was overturned by Brown
v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas.
2.
Marbury v. Madison (John Marshall, 4-0, 1803) On his final day in office in 1801, John
Adams signed commissions for 42 federal judges (the so-called "midnight judges"). His
successor, Thomas Jefferson, opted to not deliver most of the commissions. One appointee,
William Marbury, sued the new secretary of state, James Madison, to force the delivery of his
commission. The Judiciary Act of 1789 had granted the court original jurisdiction in such
cases, but the Constitution did not. The court ruled that the Judiciary Act conflicted with the
Constitution and was therefore void. Therefore Marbury's request was denied for lack of
jurisdiction. This case established the principle of judicial review, the power of the court to
nullify unconstitutional laws.
3.
Roe v. Wade (Warren Burger, 7-2, 1973) Norma McCorvey (under the alias Jane Roe), a
rape victim, sued Dallas County attorney Henry Wade for the right to an abortion. When the
case reached the Supreme Court, the plaintiff depended on the growing recognition of a
"right to privacy" which began with the 1965 case of Griswold v. Connecticut. The court
struck down state anti-abortion laws as "unconstitutionally vague," held that the word
"person" in the Constitution "does not include the unborn," and legalized abortion in the first
trimester. McCorvey later joined the pro-life movement and claimed that she was not
actually raped and that she was pressured into filing the case by her ambitious attorney
Sarah Weddington.
4.
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (Earl Warren, 9-0, 1954) The suit
was filed on behalf of Linda Brown, a third grader, who had to walk a mile to a blacks-only
school when a whites-only school was much closer. Future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood
Marshall argued the case for the plaintiff. The court overturned Plessy v. Ferguson and ruled
that "separate but equal" facilities were not constitutional. A second case in 1955 required
that desegregation proceed "with all deliberate speed" but Southern schools were notoriously
slow in complying; it was not until 1970 that a majority had complied with the ruling.
5.
McCulloch v. Maryland (John Marshall, 9-0, 1819) After the Second Bank of the United
States began calling in loans owned by the states, Maryland passed a law taxing out-of-state
banks. The federal bank refused to pay, so the state sued its Baltimore cashier, James
McCulloch. The court ruled that the federal government had the right to establish the bank
even though it was not expressly enumerated in the Constitution and also noted that since
"the power to tax was the power to destroy," Maryland could not tax the bank without
destroying federal sovereignty.
6.
Baker v. Carr (Earl Warren, 6-2, 1962) Charles W. Baker, a Tennessee citizen, sued the
Tennessee secretary state, Joe Carr, claiming that the state's electoral districts had been
drawn to grossly favor one political party. The defendant argued that reapportionment issues
were political, not judicial, matters, but the court disagreed and declared the issue justiciable
before remanding the case to a lower court. Two years later, in Reynolds v. Sims, the court
mandated the principle of "one man, one vote."
7.
Gideon v. Wainwright (Earl Warren, 9-0, 1963) Clarence Earl Gideon was accused of
breaking into a pool hall in Florida. Because his crime was not capital, the court declined to
provide him with an attorney. He was convicted, sued Louie Wainwright, the director of the
corrections office, and took his case to the Supreme Court. The court overruled Betts v.
Brady and held that the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments required appointed counsel in
all trials. Gideon was retried and found innocent. The case is the subject of the book Gideon's
Trumpet.
8.
Hammer v. Dagenhart (Edward Douglass White, 5-4, 1918) The Keating-Own Act
prohibited the interstate sale of goods produced by child labor leading Roland Dagenhart to
sue U.S. attorney Hammer in Charlotte since his two sons would be put out of work. The
court ruled that the federal government did not have the right to regulate child labor; Oliver
Wendell Holmes wrote a notable dissent focusing on the lack of proper state regulation. The
case was overturned by the 1941 U.S. v. Darby Lumber Company case upholding the Fair
Labor Standards Act.
9.
Fletcher v. Peck (John Marshall, 6-0, 1810) In 1795 the Georgia legislature corruptly sold
land along the Yazoo River (now in Mississippi) to private citizens in exchange for bribes.
The legislators were mostly defeated in the next elections and the incoming politicians voided
the sales. In the meantime, John Peck sold some of the land in question to Robert Fletcher,
who then sued him, claiming that he did not have clear title. The Supreme Court held that the
state legislature did not have the power to repeal the sale. This was one of the earliest cases in
which the Supreme Court struck down a state law.
10. Ex Parte Merryman (Roger Taney, 1861) This was not actually a Supreme Court case, but
a federal court case heard by Chief Justice Roger Taney while "circuit-riding" when the court
was not in session. Lieutenant John Merryman of the Maryland cavalry took an active role in
evicting Union soldiers from Maryland following the attack on Fort Sumter. Abraham
Lincoln declared a secret suspension of the writ of habeas corpus and had a number of
opposition leaders, including Merryman, arrested. Taney found the president had acted
unconstitutionally (only Congress can suspend the writ), but Lincoln simply ignored his
ruling.
You Gotta Know These Treaties
These are the twelve treaties that have been mentioned most frequently in NAQT's questions since
our very first tournament set back in 1997. As with all of the You Gotta Know lists available on our
website, they aren't necessarily the most important treaties from a historical point of view, merely
those that have proven most gettable as answers and most useful as clues.
1.
The Treaty of Versailles (1919) officially ended World War I and was signed at its
namesake French palace after the Paris Peace Conference. It is noted for the "Big Four"
(Woodrow Wilson, David Lloyd-George, Georges Clemenceau, and Vittorio Orlando) who
headed the Allies' delegations, discussions of Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points
(particularly the League of Nations), and its controversial disarmament, war guilt, and
reparations clauses. The conference was also notable for up-and-coming world figures who
attended (John Maynard Keynes, Ho Chi Minh, Jan Smuts, etc.).
2.
The Treaty of Utrecht (1713) was a series of treaties signed in the Dutch city of Utrecht that
(mostly) ended the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714). They were signed by France
and Spain for one side and by Britain, Savoy, and the United Provinces (The Netherlands) for
the other. The treaty confirmed a Bourbon prince (Philip, Duke of Anjou) on the Spanish
throne (ending Habsburg control), but took steps to prevent the French and Spanish thrones
from being merged. Some Spanish possessions, including Sicily, the Spanish Netherlands,
Naples, and Gibraltar, were given to the victors.
3.
The Treaty of Ghent (1814) ended the War of 1812 between the U.S. and Britain. It was
signed in the Belgian city of Ghent but, due to the distances involved, could not prevent the
Battle of New Orleans two weeks later. The treaty made no boundary changes and had
minimal effect; both sides were ready for peace and considered the war a futile and fruitless
endeavor.
4.
The Treaty of Portsmouth (1905) ended the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). It was
signed in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, after negotiations brokered by Theodore Roosevelt
(for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize). Japan had dominated the war and received an
indemnity, the Liaodong Peninsula in Manchuria, and half of Sakhalin Island, but the treaty
was widely condemned in Japan because the public had expected more.
5.
The Adams-Onís Treaty (1819) settled a boundary dispute between the U.S. and Spain that
arose following the Louisiana Purchase. It was negotiated by then-Secretary of State John
Quincy Adams and most notably sold Florida to the U.S. in exchange for the payment of its
citizens' claims against Spain. It also delineated the U.S.-Spain border to the Pacific Ocean
leading to its alternate name, the Transcontinental Treaty.
6.
The Camp David Accords (1978) were negotiated at the presidential retreat of Camp
David by Egypt's Anwar Sadat and Israel Menachem Begin; they were brokered by U.S.
President Jimmy Carter. They led to a peace treaty the next year that returned the Sinai
Peninsula to Egypt, guaranteed Israeli access to the Red Sea and Suez Canal, and more-orless normalized diplomatic and economic relations between the two countries. This isolated
Egypt from the other Arab countries and led to Sadat's assassination in 1981.
7.
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) ended the Mexican-American War (1846-1848)
and was signed in its namesake neighborhood of Mexico City. Its most significant result was
the "Mexican Cession" transferring California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of four other states to
the U.S. It also made the Rio Grande the boundary between Texas and Mexico.
8.
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918) was a "separate peace" signed by the Bolshevik
government of the new USSR and Germany. The USSR needed to make peace to focus on
defeating the "Whites" (royalists) in the Russian Civil War, and it gave up Ukraine, Belarus,
and the three Baltic countries after Germany invaded, an outcome worse than a German offer
which chief Soviet negotiator Leon Trotsky had rejected. The treaty was negotiated in
modern-day Brest (in Belarus) and was nullified by the subsequent Treaty of Versailles
following Germany's defeat.
9.
The Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) ostensibly divided the New World (and, in later
interpretations, the entire world) between Spain and Portugal. It resulted from a bull by
(Spanish-born) Pope Alexander VI granting lands to Spain and established a line west of the
Cape Verde islands between future Spanish possessions (west) and Portuguese possessions
(east). The line passed through Brazil, allowing the Portuguese to establish a colony there
while Spain received the rest of the Americas. Endless wrangling and repeated revisions
ensued.
10. The Peace of Westphalia (1648) is the collective name for two treaties ending the Thirty
Years' War that were signed by the Holy Roman Empire, minor German states, Spain,
France, Sweden, and the Dutch Republic. It confirmed the principle of "cuius regio eius
religio" (that a ruler's religion determined that of his country) introduced by the Peace of
Augsburg, but mandated relative tolerance of other (Christian) faiths. It adjusted the borders
of German states and strengthened their princes with respect to the Emperor and transferred
most of Lorraine and some of Alsace to France.
11. The Lateran Treaty (1929) created the independent country of the Vatican City, made
Catholicism the state religion of Italy (ended in 1984), and determined the proper
remuneration for Church property taken by Italy. It was signed by Benito Mussolini and a
representative of Pope Pius XI in the namesake papal residence and ended the so-called
"Roman Question" that arose out of the unification of Italy and the dissolution of the Papal
States.
12. The Treaty of Paris (1898) was, surprisingly, the only Treaty of Paris to make the list. It
ended the Spanish-American War and transferred Guam, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico to
the U.S. while making Cuba (ostensibly) independent. The treaty was the beginning of
American imperialism and underwent a lengthy and contentious ratification.
You Gotta Know These Artistic Creations
The following table lists the 40 most-frequently referenced works of visual art in NAQT questions as
of November 1, 2007. While you really gotta know their creators, these are also some of the works
about which more substantive questions are written, so teams should be prepared for questions on
their materials, design, technique, depicted action, and circumstances of creation.
This is an update of an earlier You Gotta Know article.
Rank
Title
Genre
Creator
Date
Freq.
1
Louvre
Building
Pierre Lescot
Francis I of France
(patron)
1546
137
2
Parthenon
Building
Ictinus and
Callicrates
Pericles (patron)
447 BC
136
3
Notre Dame
Cathedral
Building
unknown
1160-1345
108
4
Mona Lisa
Painting
Leonardo da Vinci
1500
104
5
Statue of Liberty
Sculpture
Frédéric-Auguste
Bartholdi
1886
100
6
Guernica
Painting
Pablo Picasso (y Ruiz) 1937
89
7
Westminster Abbey
Building
Henry III of England
(patron)
1245
78
8
Taj Mahal
Building
Ustad Ahmad Lahori
Shah Jahan (patron)
1632
77
9
Sistine Chapel
Building
Giovanni Del Dolci
Pope Sixtus IV
(patron)
1473
76
The Birth of Venus
Painting
Sandro Botticelli
1480
76
10
11
Saint Paul's
Cathedral
Building
Sir Christopher Wren
1708
74
12
Mount Rushmore
Sculpture
(John) Gutzon (de la
Mothe) Borglum
1927-1941
74
13
Nighthawks
Painting
Edward Hopper
1942
70
14
Empire State Building Building
(Firm of) Shreve,
Lamb & Harmon
1931
68
15
St. Peter's Basilica
Building
Donato Bramante et
al.
1626
66
16
The Persistence of
Memory
Painting
Salvador (Felipe
Jacinto) Dalí (y
Domenech)
1931
65
17
Abraham Lincoln
Memorial
Building
Henry Bacon
1922
64
18
The Thinker
Sculpture
(René-François)Auguste Rodin
1900
64
19
The Shooting
Company of Captain
Franz Banning Cocq
Painting
Rembrandt
(Harmenszoon Van
Rijn)
1642
64
20
Fallingwater
Building
Frank Lloyd (Lincoln)
Wright
1936
63
21
School of Athens
Painting
Raphael
1509
61
22
Last Supper
Painting
Leonardo da Vinci
1495-1498
60
23
American Gothic
Painting
Grant Wood
1930
60
24
David
Sculpture Donatello
c. 1440
59
25
The Arnolfini
Wedding
Painting
Jan van Eyck
1434
57
26
The Death of Marat
Painting
Jacques-Louis David
1793
56
27
Solomon R.
Building
Guggenheim Museum
Frank Lloyd Wright
1959
56
28
Uffizi Palace
Building
Giorgio Vasari
Cosimo I de' Medici
(patron)
1560-1581
55
29
The Gates of Hell
Sculpture
(René-François)Auguste Rodin
1880
55
30
The Third of May,
1808
Painting
Francisco (José) de
Goya (y Lucientes)
1814
53
31
Chrysler Building
Building
William Van Alen
1930
52
32
Starry Night
Painting
Vincent (Willem) Van
Gogh
1889
50
33
Arrangement in Gray
and Black, No. 1: The Painting
Artist's Mother
James (Abbott)
McNeill Whistler
1871
50
34
Alhambra
Building
Mahomet Ibn Al
Ahmar (patron)
1354
49
35
Gateway Arch
Building
Eero Saarinen
1965
49
36
Eiffel Tower
Building
(Alexandre-)Gustave
Eiffel
1889
49
37
Cathedral of Florence Building
Filippo Brunelleschi
1420
49
38
Temple of Jerusalem
Building
Solomon (patron)
10th century BC
49
1793-1811
(reconstructed
1815-1826)
49
1656
48
39
United States Capitol
Building
Wiliam Thornton
(original)
Benjamin Latrobe,
Charles Bullfinch, et
al. (revisions)
40
Las Meninas
Painting
Diego (Rodríguez de
Silva y) Velázquez
You Gotta Know These Musical Works
The following table lists the 50 most-frequently referenced works of music in NAQT questions as of
November 1, 2007. While you really gotta know their creators, these are also some of the works about
which more substantive questions are written, so teams should be prepared for questions on their
style, instrumentation, performance, lyrics, key, program, and circumstances of creation.
This is an update of an earlier You Gotta Know article.
Rank
Title
Genre
Creator
Date Freq.
1
Carmen
Opera
Georges Bizet
1845
147
2
Aida
Opera
Giuseppe Verdi
1871
146
3
The Ring of the Nibelung
Opera
(Wilhelm) Richard
Wagner
1876
122
4
Messiah
Oratorio
George Frideric Handel 1741
102
5
Symphony No. 9, "Choral"
Symphony
Ludwig van Beethoven
1823
100
6
Symphony No. 6,
"Pastoral"
Symphony
Ludwig van Beethoven
1808
97
7
Symphonie fantastique
Symphony
(Louis-)Hector Berlioz
1830
92
8
The Nutcracker
Ballet
Pyotr Ilyich
Tchaikovsky
1892
91
9
The Rite of Spring
Ballet
Igor (Fyodorovich)
Stravinsky
1913
90
10
Madama Butterfly
Opera
Giacomo Puccini
1904
89
11
Symphony No. 3, "Eroica"
Symphony
Ludwig van Beethoven
1804
86
12
The Barber of Seville
Opera
Gioacchino (Antonio)
1816
85
Rossini
13
The Magic Flute
Opera
Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart
1791
84
14
Appalachian Spring
Ballet
Aaron Copland
1944
83
15
Rigoletto
Opera
Giuseppe Verdi
1851
82
16
Don Giovanni
Opera
Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart
1787
79
17
La Bohème
Opera
Giacomo Puccini
1896
78
18
Fidelio
Opera
Ludwig van Beethoven
1805
77
19
The Four Seasons
Concerto
Antonio Vivaldi
1725
73
20
Rhapsody in Blue
Composition
George Gershwin
1924
72
21
The Marriage of Figaro
Opera
Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart
1784
72
22
West Side Story
Musical
Leonard Bernstein
1957
68
23
Siegfried
Opera
(Wilhelm) Richard
Wagner
1876
66
24
Moonlight Sonata
Sonata
Ludwig van Beethoven
1801
63
25
The Planets
Suite
Gustav(us Theodore
von) Holst
1918
61
26
Symphony No. 6,
"Pathétique"
Symphony
Pyotr Ilyich
Tchaikovsky
1893
60
27
Porgy and Bess
Opera
George Gershwin
1935
60
28
William Tell
Opera
Gioacchino Rossini
1804
59
29
Peter and the Wolf
Composition
Sergei (Sergeyevich)
Prokofiev
1936
59
30
The Song of the Earth
Symphony
Gustav Mahler
1909
59
31
Swan Lake
Ballet
Pyotr Ilyich
Tchaikovsky
1877
58
32
The Flying Dutchman
Opera
(Wilhelm) Richard
Wagner
1843
58
33
Lohengrin
Opera
(Wilhelm) Richard
Wagner
1850
57
34
Boléro
Composition
(Joseph) Maurice Ravel 1928
55
35
The Phantom of the Opera
Musical
Andrew Lloyd Webber
1910
54
36
Tosca
Opera
Giacomo Puccini
1900
54
37
Turandot
Opera
Giacomo Puccini
1762
53
38
La Traviata
Opera
Giuseppe Verdi
1853
53
39
Pictures at an Exhibition
Composition
Modest (Petrovich)
Mussorgsky
1874
53
40
A German Requiem
Sacred Choral
Johannes Brahms
1868
51
Work
41
Symphony No. 94,
"Surprise"
Symphony
(Franz) Joseph Haydn
1791
50
42
Symphony No. 41,
"Jupiter"
Symphony
Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart
1788
50
43
Symphony No. 9, "From
the New World"
Symphony
Antonín (Leopold)
Dvorák
1893
49
44
The Mikado
Musical
Arthur Sullivan (music)
William S. Gilbert
1885
(words)
48
45
My Fair Lady
Musical
Frederick Loewe
1956
47
46
Falstaff
Opera
Giuseppe Verdi
1893
47
47
Boris Godunov
Opera
Modest (Petrovich)
Mussorgsky
1869
47
48
Cats
Musical
Andrew Lloyd Webber
1982
46
49
Enigma Variations
Composition
Edward (William) Elgar 1899
46
50
Salome
Opera
Richard (Georg)
Strauss
45
1905
You Gotta Know These Works of Literature
The following table lists the 100 most-frequently referenced works of literature in NAQT questions as
of November 1, 2007. While you really gotta know their authors, these are also some of the works
about which more substantive questions are written, so teams should be prepared for questions on
their characters, plots, settings, and circumstances of creation. The Bible was excluded from this list
because its total would swamp the other work.
This is an update of an earlier You Gotta Know article.
Rank
Title
Genre
Creator
Date
Freq.
1
Hamlet
Drama
William Shakespeare
1601
292
2
Oedipus Rex
Drama
Sophocles
430 BC
196
3
Macbeth
Drama
William Shakespeare
1606
182
4
King Lear
Drama
William Shakespeare
1605
156
5
Othello
Drama
William Shakespeare
1622
156
6
The Tempest
Drama
William Shakespeare
1611
145
7
Moby-Dick
Novel
Herman Melville
1851
139
8
The Great Gatsby
Novel
F(rancis) Scott (Key)
Fitzgerald
1925
138
9
Don Quixote
Novel
Miguel de Cervantes
1605
137
Saavedra
10
Jane Eyre
Novel
Charlotte Brontë
1847
128
11
Iliad
Poem
Homer
8th
century BC
125
12
Pride and Prejudice
Novel
Jane Austen
1813
123
13
1984
Novel
George Orwell
1948
122
14
Ulysses
Novel
James (Augustine
Aloysius) Joyce
1922
121
15
Romeo and Juliet
Drama
William Shakespeare
1594
121
16
The Merchant of Venice
Drama
William Shakespeare
1596
119
17
Paradise Lost
Poem
John Milton
1667
119
18
The Canterbury Tales
Poem
Geoffrey Chaucer
1387
117
19
The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn
Novel
Mark Twain
1884
116
20
The Scarlet Letter
Novel
Nathaniel Hawthorne
1850
115
21
A Streetcar Named
Desire
Drama
Tennessee Williams
1947
114
22
Our Town
Drama
Thornton (Niven) Wilder
1938
113
23
The Adventures of Tom
Sawyer
Novel
Mark Twain
1876
111
24
The Divine Comedy
Poem
Dante (Alighieri)
1314
111
25
Crime and Punishment
Novel
Fyodor (Mikhaylovich)
Dostoyevsky
1866
109
26
The Red Badge of
Courage
Novel
Stephen Crane
1895
108
27
Candide
Novel
Voltaire
1759
107
28
Billy Budd: Foretopman
Novel
Herman Melville
1891
106
29
Les Misérables
Novel
Victor(-Marie) Hugo
1862
105
30
Anna Karenina
Novel
Leo Tolstoy
1877
105
31
A Midsummer Night's
Dream
Drama
William Shakespeare
1595
105
32
Pygmalion
Drama
George Bernard Shaw
1912
103
33
Julius Caesar
Drama
William Shakespeare
1599
103
34
War and Peace
Novel
Leo Tolstoy
1865
101
35
The Three Musketeers
Novel
Alexandre Dumas (père)
1844
100
36
A Farewell to Arms
Novel
Ernest (Miller)
Hemingway
1929
100
37
Vanity Fair
Novel
William Makepeace
Thackeray
1848
100
38
To Kill a Mockingbird
Novel
(Nelle) Harper Lee
1960
99
39
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Novel
Ernest (Miller)
Hemingway
1940
99
40
The Grapes of Wrath
Novel
John (Ernst) Steinbeck
1939
98
41
Lolita
Novel
Vladimir Nabokov
1955
98
42
A Tale of Two Cities
Novel
Charles (John Huffam)
Dickens
1859
98
43
Little Women
Novel
Louisa May Alcott
1868
97
44
As You Like It
Drama
William Shakespeare
1599
97
45
The Waste Land
Poem
T(homas) S(tearns) Eliot
1922
95
46
Aeneid
Poem
Virgil
19 BC
95
47
Odyssey
Poem
Homer
8th
century BC
94
48
Heart of Darkness
Novella
Joseph Conrad
1902
94
49
Pilgrim's Progress
Novel
John Bunyan
1678
94
50
David Copperfield
Novel
Charles (John Huffam)
Dickens
1850
94
51
One Hundred Years of
Solitude
Novel
Gabriel García Márquez
1967
93
52
Antigone
Drama
Sophocles
441 BC
92
53
Faust
Poem
Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe
1808
92
54
The Count of Monte
Cristo
Novel
Alexandre Dumas (père)
1845
91
55
A Doll's House
Drama
Henrik (Johan) Ibsen
1879
90
56
Robinson Crusoe
Novel
Daniel Defoe
1719
88
57
Animal Farm
Novel
George Orwell
1945
87
58
The Call of the Wild
Novel
Jack London
1903
87
59
Much Ado about Nothing Drama
William Shakespeare
1598
87
60
The Glass Menagerie
Drama
Tennessee Williams
1945
86
61
The Crucible
Drama
Arthur Miller
1953
86
62
Brave New World
Novel
Aldous (Leonard) Huxley
1932
85
63
Beowulf
Poem
unknown
8th
century
85
64
The Sun Also Rises
Novel
Ernest (Miller)
Hemingway
1926
83
65
The Jungle
Novel
Upton (Beall) Sinclair
1906
83
66
Twelfth Night
Drama
William Shakespeare
1623
83
67
Great Expectations
Novel
Charles (John Huffam)
Dickens
1861
82
68
The Rime of the Ancient
Poem
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
1797
82
Mariner
69
Oliver Twist
Novel
Charles (John Huffam)
Dickens
1838
81
70
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Novel
Harriet Beecher Stowe
1852
81
71
Rip van Winkle
Short
Story
Washington Irving
1818
79
72
The Catcher in the Rye
Novel
J(erome) D(avid)
Salinger
1951
77
73
Waiting for Godot
Drama
Samuel (Barclay) Beckett 1952
77
74
Death of a Salesman
Drama
Arthur Miller
1949
77
75
Alice's Adventures in
Wonderland
Children's
Lewis Carroll
1865
76
76
Long Day's Journey Into
Night
Drama
Eugene (Gladstone)
O'Neill
1956
75
77
All the King's Men
Novel
Robert Penn Warren
1946
75
78
Things Fall Apart
Novel
(Albert) Chinua(lumogu)
Achebe
1958
75
79
Slaughterhouse Five
Novel
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
1969
75
80
The Charge of the Light
Brigade
Poem
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
1854
74
81
The Merry Wives of
Windsor
Drama
William Shakespeare
1600
74
82
The Importance of Being
Drama
Earnest
Oscar (Fingal O'Flahertie
Wills) Wilde
1895
73
83
The Magic Mountain
Novel
(Paul) Thomas Mann
1924
73
84
Invisible Man
Novel
Ralph (Waldo) Ellison
1952
72
85
The Taming of the
Shrew
Drama
William Shakespeare
1593
72
86
Eugene Onegin
Poem
Aleksandr (Sergeyevich)
Pushkin
1833
72
87
Sense and Sensibility
Novel
Jane Austen
1811
72
88
The Brothers Karamazov Novel
Fyodor (Mikhaylovich)
Dostoyevsky
1880
72
89
Inferno
Poem
Dante (Alighieri)
c. 13101314
71
90
The Stranger
Novel
Albert Camus
1946
71
91
Catch-22
Novel
Joseph Heller
1961
70
92
A Raisin in the Sun
Drama
Lorraine Hansberry
1959
70
93
Wuthering Heights
Novel
Emily Brontë
1847
69
94
The Sound and the Fury
Novel
William (Cuthbert)
Faulkner
1929
69
95
Oresteia
Series
Aeschylus
c. 458 BC
69
96
Decameron
Poem
Giovanni Boccaccio
1353
69
97
The Raven
Poem
Edgar Allan Poe
1845
69
98
Ivanhoe
Novel
Sir Walter Scott
1820
68
99
The House of the Seven
Gables
Novel
Nathaniel Hawthorne
1851
68
My Ántonia
Novel
Willa (Sibert) Cather
1918
68
100
You Gotta Know These Non-Fiction Works
The following table lists the 50 most-frequently referenced works of non-fiction in NAQT questions as
of November 1, 2007. While you really gotta know their creators, these are also some of the works
about which more substantive questions are written, so teams should be prepared for questions on
their key ideas, cultural context, and circumstances of creation.
This is an update of an earlier You Gotta Know article.
Rank
Title
Genre
Creator
Date
Freq.
1
Bible
Religious
divinely inspired, many
authors
2
U.S. Constitution
Document
James Madison (chiefly) 1787
465
3
Qur'an
Religious
Mohammed
(transcriber)
Uthman (codifier)
660
178
4
Book of Genesis
Religious
Moses
950-500
BC
147
5
The Gospel According to
Religious
Matthew
Saint Matthew
1st
century
137
6
The Declaration of
Independence
Document
Thomas Jefferson
1776
122
7
Federalist Papers
Politics
Alexander Hamilton,
John Jay, and James
Madison
1787
94
8
Book of Exodus
Religious
Moses (attributed)
c. 900 500 BC
94
9
Book of Revelation
Religious
John of Patmos
c. 95
91
10
Book of Psalms
Religious
David (traditionally)
various
86
11
Leviathan
Politics
Thomas Hobbes
1651
81
12
The Republic
Politics
Plato
4th cent.
BC
73
13
Magna Carta
Document
King John (signer)
1215
71
varies
751
14
The Elements
Math
Euclid
c. 300 BC
69
15
The Prince
Politics
Niccoló Machiavelli
1513
68
16
The Gospel According to
Religious
John
St. John the Apostle
c. 100
68
17
The Social Contract
Politics
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
1762
66
18
Book of Numbers
Religious
Moses (traditionally)
6th
century
BC
65
19
Ninety-Five Theses
Religious
Martin Luther
1517
64
20
Vedas
Religious
divinely inspired, author 1500 to
unknown
1000 BC
59
21
The Wealth of Nations
Economics
Adam Smith
1776
58
22
Acts of the Apostles
Religious
Luke (traditionally)
AD 70-90
57
23
J'accuse
Open Letter
Émile(-ÉdouardCharles-Antoine) Zola
1898
57
24
Pragmatism
Philosophy
William James
1907
55
25
Principia Mathematica
Physics
Isaac Newton
1667
54
26
Bill of Rights
Document
James Madison
1789
54
27
Book of Mormon
Religious
Joseph Smith (Jr.)
(traditional translator)
1830
54
28
Book of Ecclesiastes
Religious
Solomon (traditionally)
3rd
century
BC
53
29
Torah
Religious
Moses (traditionally)
6th
century
BC
52
30
Talmud
Religious
divinely inspired, author c. 300 to
unknown
600
51
31
Utilitarianism
Philosophy
John Stuart Mill
1863
51
32
Common Sense
Politics
Thomas Paine
1776
51
33
Coming of Age in
Samoa
Anthropology Margaret Mead
1928
50
34
The Communist
Manifesto
Politics
Karl Marx and Friedrich
Engels
1848
49
35
Rig Veda
Religious
divinely inspired, author c. 1500
unknown
BC
49
36
Critique of Pure Reason
Philosophy
Immanuel Kant
1781
47
37
Cross of Gold speech
Speech
William Jennings Bryan
1896
47
38
Meditations
Philosophy
Marcus Aurelius
c. 161180
45
39
On The Origin of
Species
Biology
Charles Darwin
1859
45
40
Walden
Philosophy
Henry David Thoreau
1854
45
41
Deuteronomy
Religious
Moses (traditionally)
950-500
BC
44
42
Book of Jeremiah
Religious
Jeremiah
c. 600 BC
44
43
An Essay Concerning
Human Understanding
Philosophy
John Locke
1690
44
44
The Book of Judges
Religious
Samuel (traditionally)
c. 550 BC
44
45
On Liberty
Politics
John Stuart Mill
1859
43
46
King James Bible
Religious
54 scholars on 6
committees
1611
43
47
Book of Leviticus
Religious
Moses (traditionally)
7th
century
BC
41
48
Mishna
Religious
divinely inspired, author 3rd
unknown
century
40
49
The Protestant Ethic
and the Spirit of
Capitalism
Sociology
Max Weber
1904
40
50
Sinners in the Hands of
an Angry God
Religious
Jonathan Edwards
1741
39
You Gotta Know These Sculptors
1.
Michelangelo (1475 - 1564) A Florentine "Renaissance man" also known for architecture
(the dome of St. Peter's Basilica), painting (The Last Judgment and the Sistine Chapel
ceiling), poetry, and military engineering. His sculpted masterpieces include David, a Pietà,
Bacchus, and a number of pieces for the tomb of Pope Julius II (including Dying Slave and
Moses). He preferred to work in Carraran marble.
2.
Auguste Rodin (1840 - 1917) A French sculptor known for stormy relationships with "the
establishment" of the École des Beaux-Arts [ay-kohl day boh-zar] and his mistress, fellow
artist Camille Claudel. His works include The Age of Bronze, Honoré de Balzac, The
Burghers of Calais, and a massive pair of doors for the Museum of Decorative Arts (the
Gates of Hell) inspired by Dante's Inferno. That latter work included his most famous piece,
The Thinker.
3.
Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598 - 1680) A Roman who, with the rarely asked-about Francesco
Borromini, defined the Baroque movement in sculpture. Bernini is principally known for his
freestanding works including David and The Ecstasy of St. Theresa. Bernini's David differs
from that of Michelangelo in that the hero is shown "in motion," having twisted his body to
sling the rock. Bernini is also known for his massive fountains in Rome including the Triton
and the Fountain of the Four Rivers.
4.
Donatello (1386 - 1466) A Florentine sculptor who helped define Renaissance sculpture as
distinct from that of the Gothic period. He is known for St. Mark and St. George in the Or
San Michele [OR SAHN mee-KAY-lay] (a Florentine church), the bald Zuccone (which means
"pumpkin-head," though it depicts the prophet Habbakuk), and the first equestrian statue to
be cast since Roman times, the Gattamelata in Padua. He is also known for mastering the
low relief form of schiacciato.
5.
Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378 - 1455) A Florentine sculptor and goldsmith who taught both
Donatello and Filippo Brunelleschi. He is best known for two pairs of bronze doors on the
Florence Baptistery (associated with the Duomo, or Florentine Cathedral). He produced a
single, low-relief panel to win a 1401 competition (defeating Brunelleschi) for the
commission to design the 28 panels for the north doors. After that, he was given another
commission to design ten panels for the east doors. This latter work, by far his most famous,
was dubbed the "Gates of Paradise" by Michelangelo.
6.
Gutzon Borglum (1867 - 1941) An American known for crafting Mount Rushmore in the
Black Hills of South Dakota. He is also known for The Mares of Diomedes and an unfinished
(and later replaced) tribute to Confederate heroes on Stone Mountain in Georgia.
7.
Phidias (c. 480 BC - c. 430 BC) An Athenian considered the greatest of all Classical
sculptors. He created the chryselephantine (gold and ivory) Statue of Zeus at Olympia (one of
the Wonders of the Ancient World, now lost) and the statue of Athena in the Parthenon (now
lost). He was supported by money from the Delian League (that is, the Athenian Empire) run
by his friend Pericles; he was later ruined by charges of corruption generally considered to be
part of a political campaign against Pericles.
8.
Constantin Brancusi (1876 - 1957) A Romanian sculptor who was a major figure in
Modernism. He is best known for The Kiss (not to be confused with the Rodin work or the
Klimt painting), Sleeping Muse, and Bird in Space. He's also the center of anecdote in which
U.S. customs taxed his works as "industrial products" since they refused to recognize them as
art.
9.
Daniel Chester French (1850 - 1931) An American who created The Minute Man for
Concord, Massachusetts and Standing Lincoln for the Nebraska state capitol, but who is best
known for the seated statue in the Lincoln Memorial.
10. Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi (1834-1904) A French sculptor primarily known as the
creator of Liberty Enlightening the World, better known as the Statue of Liberty. He also
executed The Lion of Belfort and a statue of the Marquis de Lafayette in New York's Union
Square.
You Gotta Know These Mathematicians
These are the ten people that have come up most frequently in NAQT's questions as a result of their
accomplishments in pure mathematics.
1.
The work of Isaac Newton (1643-1727, English) in pure math includes generalizing the
binomial theorem to non-integer exponents, doing the first rigorous manipulation with
power series, and creating "Newton's method" for the finding roots. He is best known,
however, for a lengthy feud between British and Continental mathematicians over whether
he or Gottfried Leibniz invented calculus (whose differential aspect Newton called "the
method of fluxions"). It is now generally accepted that they both did, independently.
2.
Euclid (c. 300 BC, Alexandrian Greek) is principally known for the Elements, a textbook on
geometry and number theory, that was used for over 2,000 years and which grounds
essentially all of what is taught in modern high school geometry classes. Euclid is known for
his five postulates that define Euclidean (i.e., "normal") space, especially the fifth (the
"parallel postulate") which can be broken to create spherical and hyperbolic geometries. He
also proved the infinitude of prime numbers.
3.
Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855, German) is considered the "Prince of Mathematicians"
for his extraordinary contributions to every major branch of mathematics. His Disquisitiones
Arithmeticae systematized number theory and stated the fundamental theorem of
arithmetic. He also proved the fundamental theorem of algebra, the law of quadratic
reciprocity, and the prime number theorem. Gauss may be most famous for the (possibly
apocryphal) story of intuiting the formula for the summation of an arithmetic series when
given the busywork task of adding the first 100 positive integers by his primary school
teacher.
4.
Archimedes (287-212 BC, Syracusan Greek) is best known for his "Eureka moment" of
using density considerations to determine the purity of a gold crown; nonetheless, he was the
preeminent mathematician of ancient Greece. He found the ratios between the surface areas
and volumes of a sphere and a circumscribed cylinder, accurately estimated pi, and presaged
the summation of infinite series with his "method of exhaustion."
5.
Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716, German) is known for his independent invention of calculus
and the ensuing priority dispute with Isaac Newton. Most modern calculus notation,
including the integral sign and the use of d to indicate a differential, originated with Leibniz.
He also invented binary numbers and did fundamental work in establishing boolean algebra
and symbolic logic.
6.
Pierre de Fermat (1601-1665, French) is remembered for his contributions to number
theory including his "little theorem" that ap will be divisible by p if p is prime. He also studied
Fermat primes (those of the form 22n+1) and stated his "Last Theorem" that xn + yn = zn has
no solutions if x, y, and z are positive integers and n is a positive integer greater than 2. He
and Blaise Pascal founded probability theory. In addition, he discovered methods for finding
the maxima and minima of functions and the areas under polynomials that anticipated
calculus and inspired Isaac Newton.
7.
Leonhard Euler (1707-1783, Swiss) is known for his prolific output and the fact that he
continued to produce seminal results even after going blind. He invented graph theory with
the Seven Bridges of Königsberg problem and introduced the modern notation for e, the
square root of -1 (i), and trigonometric functions. Richard Feynman called his proof that eiπ =
-1 "the most beautiful equation in mathematics" because it linked four of math's most
important constants.
8.
Kurt Gödel (1906-1978, Austrian) was a logician best known for his two incompleteness
theorems proving that every formal system that was powerful enough to express ordinary
arithmetic must necessarily contain statements that were true, but which could not be proved
within the system itself.
9.
Andrew Wiles (1953-present, British) is best known for proving the Taniyama-Shimura
conjecture that all rational semi-stable elliptic curves are modular. This would normally be
too abstruse to occur frequently in quiz bowl, but a corollary of that result established
Fermat's Last Theorem.
10. William Rowan Hamilton (1805-1865, Irish) is known for extending the notion of
complex numbers to four dimensions by inventing the quaternions, a non-commutative field
with six square roots of -1: ±i, ±j, and ±k with the property that ij = k, jk = i, and ki = j.
You Gotta Know These Deserts
NAQT has a quota for geography questions at all levels of play; these are the deserts that have been
most frequently asked about in our past packets.
1.
Antarctica (5.4 million sq. mi.) Because it is covered with (solid) water, it is somewhat
surprising that Antarctica is considered a desert, but it is classified as such due to its lack of
precipitation. Players should be familiar with its tallest mountain (Vinson Massif, in the
Ellsworth Mountains), its active volcano Mount Erebus, the surrounding Ross and Weddell
Seas, and the Ross Ice Shelf. Norwegian Roald Amundsen was the first to reach the South
Pole (1911), while Englishman Robert Scott died trying to reach it. Ernest Shackleton had to
abandon his ship, the Endurance, during an attempt to cross Antarctica on foot.
2.
Sahara Desert (Northern Africa; 3.5 million sq. mi.) The Sahara is the world's second
largest desert, but its largest hot desert. Players should know the Atlas Mountains (which
bound the western Sahara on the north) and the Sahel, a savannah-like strip that bounds it
on the south. It is dominated by rocky regions (hamada), sand seas (ergs), and salt flats
(shatt) and dry river valleys (wadi) that are subject to flash floods. Its most asked-about
inhabitants are the Berbers and Tuaregs.
3.
Atacama Desert (Chile; 70,000 sq. mi.) The Atacama's chief claim to fame is the rain
shadow of the Andes which makes it the driest (hot) desert in the world. The desert was the
primary bone of contention in the War of the Pacific (1879-1883, Chile defeats Peru and
Bolivia) that sought to control its nitrate resources (which were necessary for the production
of explosives).
4.
Kalahari Desert (Botswana, Namibia, South Africa; 360,000 sq. mi.) The Kalahari is a
large region, not all of which is arid enough to qualify as a desert. It is known for its red sand,
large game reserves (meerkats, gemsbok, springbok, steenbok), and mineral deposits
(notably uranium). Most famous are its San Bushmen and their click language.
5.
Mojave Desert (U.S.; 25,000 sq. mi.) The Mojave is bounded by the San Gabriel and San
Bernardino mountain ranges along the San Andreas and Garlock Faults. It lies between the
Great Basin and the Sonoran Desert and it contains the lowest and driest point of North
America, Death Valley. It is most strongly associated with the Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia).
6.
Gobi Desert (China and Mongolia; 500,000 sq. mi.) The Gobi, Asia's second largest desert
(after the Arabian Desert), is bounded on the north by the Altai Mountains. It is known for its
role in the Silk Road trading route and the Nemegt Basin, where fossilized dinosaur eggs and
human artifacts have been found.
7.
Rub' al-Khali (Arabian Peninsula; 250,000 sq. mi.) Its name means "Empty Quarter" in
English and this desert can be considered the most inhospitable place on earth. It is known
for the world's largest oil field, the Ghawar, and for once being part of the frankincense trade.
8.
Namib Desert (Namibia and Angola; 30,000 sq. mi.) The Namib, a coastal desert, is known
for its bizarre Welwitschia and medicinal Hoodia plants. It is thought to be the oldest desert
in the world.
9.
Painted Desert (Northern Arizona) The Painted Desert, which is shared by Grand Canyon
and Petrified Forest National Parks, is known for its colorful, banded rock formations.
10. Negev Desert (Israel; 4,700 sq. mi.) The triangular Negev covers the southern half of Israel.
11. Taklamakan Desert (China; 105,000 sq. mi.) The Taklamakan is an extremely cold, sandy
desert known for splitting the Silk Road into branches running north and south of it. It is
bounded by the Kunlun, Pamir, and Tian Shan mountain ranges.
12. Great Sandy Desert (Western Australia; 140,000 sq. mi.) Part of the Western Desert, and
the ninth largest in the world.
Oddly, half of the world's ten largest deserts don't make this frequency-based list: the Arabian Desert
(#3, which includes the Rub' al-Khali), the Patagonian Desert (#5), the Great Victoria Desert (#6), the
Great Basin (#7), and the Chihuahuan (#8).