The Quizbowl Resource Center

The Joy Luck Club wrote:One member of this group decided to name her child after the street she lived on after she disfigured her nose while riding a bus. A member of this group recalls a childhood memory in which Popo's pain while dying was alleviated by a soup made using human flesh. This group's stories appear under the headings "Queen Mother of the Western Skies," "Twenty Six Malignant Gates," and "American Translation." It was founded after two of its members met while working at a (*) fortune-cooking factory in San Francisco. At the opening of a 1989 novel, Jing-Mei Woo replaces her recently deceased mother in this group that regularly plays the game of mah-jongg. For 10 points, name this group of Chinese immigrants that titles a novel by Amy Tan.

Pinkerton National Detective Agency [accept Pinkerton Consulting & Investigations, Inc. or Pinkertons; accept Anti-Pinkerton Act; prompt on Securitas AB] wrote:This company lends its name to an 1893 Act of Congress that barred government agencies from hiring its employees or those of George Thiel's rival firm. The Chartist founder of this company operated a stop on the Underground Railroad after fleeing Glasgow for Chicago. This company was the main rival of a firm established by William J. Burns, and its western division was headed by James McParland. This company gained a government contract after (*) foiling an 1861 plot in Baltimore against Abraham Lincoln. 300 employees of this organization, equipped with Winchester Rifles, floated down barges to seize "Fort Frick" in 1892 after being hired by Carnegie Steel during the Homestead Strike. For 10 points, name this private detective agency.

reindeer wrote: ↑Tue Jun 11, 2019 11:26 am I enjoyed reading the set! Can I see the spectrogram/larynx/nose bonus (bonus 9 in I think round 14)? This is very much in my real-life field so I was excited to encounter it. However I remember the "larynx" part saying something about how spectrograms aren't used to analyze voicing in favor of MRI, which was pretty surprising to me so I'm curious to hear more about what that's referring to.

spectrogram bonus wrote:

Code: Select all

The use of these diagrams allows sounds to be categorized into formants. For 10 points each:
[10] Name these diagrams made practical by computers, which show the variation in the frequency of a sound over time.
ANSWER: spectrograms [accept sonographs or voiceprints or voicegrams]
[10] MRIs are used instead of spectrograms to study voicing, a process which distinguishes the sounds [p] and [b]. Voicing occurs if the vocal folds, which are located in this "voice box," vibrate.
ANSWER: larynx
[10] On a spectrogram, consonants made by passing airflow through this structure resemble vowels. The velum controls airflow into this organ's passages, which is used to help produce the "-ang" sound in "pangs."
ANSWER: nose [accept nasal consonants]

Periplus of the Erythraean Sea wrote: ↑Tue Jun 11, 2019 12:34 pm I also tried to work more "world" content into the fine arts than in previous sets.

UlyssesInvictus wrote: ↑Tue Jun 11, 2019 2:44 pm

Periplus of the Erythraean Sea wrote: ↑Tue Jun 11, 2019 12:34 pm I also tried to work more "world" content into the fine arts than in previous sets.

Off the top of your head, do you remember (and can you post the content of) which questions these might have been? I remember the (Middle Eastern) rugs tossup, which I enjoyed, wondering if there were others.

Economist Charles Lave argued that loosening these restrictions would reduce deaths, contradicting theories built on the Solomon curve. Part of Richard Nixon's Project Independence withheld federal funds if these restrictions were not aligned with national standards. Anders Wiklöf ("VICK-loef") received a 95,000-euro penalty for violating one of these in Finland, where such penalties equal half a day's (*) salary. In the US, violators of them may use a "margin of error defense" due to the limits of LIDAR ("LIE-dahr") guns. In 2018, a court ordered New Miami, Ohio to pay back millions in fines collected from violators of these restrictions with the help of hidden cameras. Germany's Autobahn lacks, for 10 points, what restrictions on a driver's mileage per hour?
ANSWER: speed limits [or maximum speed limits]

bananas (accept Banana trilogy; accept plantains or plátanos; prompt on fruit before 'fruit') wrote:In a novel, producers of this good form a union at the urging of Lester Mead, but the title "Strong Wind" breaks the movement. In another novel, a man who produced this good is thrown onto an ocean-bound train filled with a bunch of corpses, but when people do not believe his tale about his ordeal, he spends the rest of his days studying alchemy. Miguel Asturias ("ahs-TOO-ree-as") fictionalized the plight of workers producing this product in a (*) trilogy named for it. Mr. Brown oversees producers of this good, and later has nearly all of those workers gunned down in a massacre described by José Arcadio Segundo in the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude. The nickname "El Pulpo" refers to a company that harvested, for 10 points, what fruit?

Descartes maintained a correspondence with this Swedish Queen, an important female philosopher in early modern philosophy.

This philosopher argued that "passion often turns the brightest man into a fool" in some Commentaries on the Maxims of La Rochefoucauld. For 10 points each:
[10] Name this philosopher whose maxims are collected in The Heroic Sentiments. One of her goals was to turn a town she ruled into an "Athens of the North."

Ike wrote: ↑Tue Jun 11, 2019 10:59 pm Difficulty is always a tricky thing. I think everyone in quizbowl wants the set to be only as hard as necessary.

But sometimes I feel that it's necessary to stretch difficulty in the service of other goals. To bring up something that Olivia astutely pointed out -- the inclusion of women in quizbowl content. I don't think this tournament was particularly new in including marginalized groups, but one thing I tried doing this year was tried writing questions on women philosophers so that players were forced to think about them in ways other than their gender.

For example, a past bonus part on Queen Christina might say,

Descartes maintained a correspondence with this Swedish Queen, an important female philosopher in early modern philosophy.

While that's a perfectly functional hard part, I think the way the set wrote it this year:

This philosopher argued that "passion often turns the brightest man into a fool" in some Commentaries on the Maxims of La Rochefoucauld. For 10 points each:
[10] Name this philosopher whose maxims are collected in The Heroic Sentiments. One of her goals was to turn a town she ruled into an "Athens of the North."

allowed you to appreciate her philosophical work regardless of gender*, which is the same privilege we afford to white, male philosophers. Hopefully the questions on Wollstonecraft and the trolley problem drawing from almost exclusively female philosophers showed that you could write philosophy questions that goes beyond their gender.

*Yes, I do give that the answer is seeking a woman and that she's probably better known for being a ruler, but not revealing that would have made the question prohibitively hard. Again, it demonstrates the constant tension between balancing making sure the question plays well and quizbowl is a more inclusive game.

Everything That Rises Must Converge wrote:This story's title derives from a section of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's ("teh-yar duh shar-dan'z") The Omega Point that argues love will allow humanity to evolve into the divine. A woman in this story goes on a long tangent about the time her father paid off the mortgage for the Godhighs' mansion, which had double stairways. A character in this story wears a hat that resembles a green "cushion with the stuffing out" and has a purple velvet flap. This story is set during a trip to (*) Mrs. Chestny's "reducing classes" at the downtown Y. In this story, the narrator's mother has a stroke shortly after being struck by a black woman for giving her son Carver a penny. A young man named Julian is the protagonist of, for 10 points, what story by Flannery O'Connor?

The Prose Edda (accept the Younger Edda or prompt on Snorri's Edda; prompt on Edda) wrote:This text's prologue mentions a "war-duke" of Thrace named Lorikus, who becomes the foster father of a child born to a man named Munon and a daughter of King Priam named Troan. In its first section, a king gives a wandering woman as much land as four oxen can plow in a day, only for her to plow up an entire island; that king then poses a series of questions to figures named "High," (*) "Just-as-High," and "Third." This text's final section, a catalog of verse forms called the Háttatal, follows a dialogue in which a list of kennings is provided by the skaldic god Bragi. The origin of the world from the Ginnungagap is described in the Gylfaginning, which is the first section of, for 10 points, what text attributed to Snorri Sturluson that is often paired with a "poetic" counterpart?

This woman's declaration that she shouldn't have to wash her hair in the same water as Gudrun prompts Gudrun to produce a ring that once belonged to this woman. For 10 points each:
[10] Name this female warrior who, in the Völsunga saga, orders her husband Gunnar to have her former betrothed Sigurd killed.
ANSWER: Brunhild [or Brunhilda; or Brünnhilde; or Brynhildr]
[10] In Norse myths, Brunhild is generally identified as a shield-maiden or as one of these female warriors, who bring half of those who die in battle to Valhalla.
ANSWER: valkyries
[10] Performing this action was a prerequisite for marrying Brunhild. Gunnar failed to perform this task twice even though he used two different horses, after which Sigurd took his shape and did it for him.
ANSWER: riding through the ring of fire around her tower [accept any answer that indicates crossing or passing through fire or flames]

gimmedatguudsuccrose wrote: ↑Tue Jun 11, 2019 11:51 pm

Ike wrote: ↑Tue Jun 11, 2019 10:59 pm Difficulty is always a tricky thing. I think everyone in quizbowl wants the set to be only as hard as necessary.

But sometimes I feel that it's necessary to stretch difficulty in the service of other goals. To bring up something that Olivia astutely pointed out -- the inclusion of women in quizbowl content. I don't think this tournament was particularly new in including marginalized groups, but one thing I tried doing this year was tried writing questions on women philosophers so that players were forced to think about them in ways other than their gender.

For example, a past bonus part on Queen Christina might say,

Descartes maintained a correspondence with this Swedish Queen, an important female philosopher in early modern philosophy.

While that's a perfectly functional hard part, I think the way the set wrote it this year:

This philosopher argued that "passion often turns the brightest man into a fool" in some Commentaries on the Maxims of La Rochefoucauld. For 10 points each:
[10] Name this philosopher whose maxims are collected in The Heroic Sentiments. One of her goals was to turn a town she ruled into an "Athens of the North."

allowed you to appreciate her philosophical work regardless of gender*, which is the same privilege we afford to white, male philosophers. Hopefully the questions on Wollstonecraft and the trolley problem drawing from almost exclusively female philosophers showed that you could write philosophy questions that goes beyond their gender.

*Yes, I do give that the answer is seeking a woman and that she's probably better known for being a ruler, but not revealing that would have made the question prohibitively hard. Again, it demonstrates the constant tension between balancing making sure the question plays well and quizbowl is a more inclusive game.

Another difference between these bonus parts is that the rewrite is significantly more challenging than the first, given that neither Descartes nor Sweden are mentioned in the second.

Deviant Insider wrote: ↑Wed Jun 12, 2019 12:49 pm

The Prose Edda (accept the Younger Edda or prompt on Snorri's Edda; prompt on Edda) wrote:This text's prologue mentions a "war-duke" of Thrace named Lorikus, who becomes the foster father of a child born to a man named Munon and a daughter of King Priam named Troan. In its first section, a king gives a wandering woman as much land as four oxen can plow in a day, only for her to plow up an entire island; that king then poses a series of questions to figures named "High," (*) "Just-as-High," and "Third." This text's final section, a catalog of verse forms called the Háttatal, follows a dialogue in which a list of kennings is provided by the skaldic god Bragi. The origin of the world from the Ginnungagap is described in the Gylfaginning, which is the first section of, for 10 points, what text attributed to Snorri Sturluson that is often paired with a "poetic" counterpart?

justinfrench1728 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 12, 2019 8:20 pm

Deviant Insider wrote: ↑Wed Jun 12, 2019 12:49 pm

The Prose Edda (accept the Younger Edda or prompt on Snorri's Edda; prompt on Edda) wrote:This text's prologue mentions a "war-duke" of Thrace named Lorikus, who becomes the foster father of a child born to a man named Munon and a daughter of King Priam named Troan. In its first section, a king gives a wandering woman as much land as four oxen can plow in a day, only for her to plow up an entire island; that king then poses a series of questions to figures named "High," (*) "Just-as-High," and "Third." This text's final section, a catalog of verse forms called the Háttatal, follows a dialogue in which a list of kennings is provided by the skaldic god Bragi. The origin of the world from the Ginnungagap is described in the Gylfaginning, which is the first section of, for 10 points, what text attributed to Snorri Sturluson that is often paired with a "poetic" counterpart?

This is fun, although, shouldn't Snorri's Edda be outright acceptable?

A member of this family named Vincent has his draft survey hidden by his mother Mary Moriarty since her other son Kenneth died in the war. Princeton's Firestone Library holds the only authorized manuscripts of several stories about this family, including "The Last and Best of the Peter Pans" and "The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls." A member of this family ends the novel in which he appears by saying "Don't (*) tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody." Characters from this family include a "sell-out" writer who works for Hollywood named D. B., and a narrator who observes his sister riding a carousel shortly after he is expelled from Pencey Prep. For 10 points, what family includes Holden, the narrator of The Catcher in the Rye?

chaperonin wrote:The major example of these proteins in eukaryotes is composed of T-complex protein-1. Unlike most members of the CLP family, ClpB is one of these proteins. A conserved example of these proteins is composed of two interlacing heptamer rings capped by a heptamer "lid" that opens upon ATP hydrolysis. A major class of these proteins, indexed by their molecular weight, are upregulated in the (*) heat shock response. According to a common metaphor, these proteins speed up the search for the bottom of the energy funnel by providing an isolated environment in the cytoplasm to achieve the most stable secondary and tertiary structure. However, they can also induce prion formation. For 10 points, name these proteins that fold other proteins.

footraces wrote:In the Aeneid, Salius complains about the outcome of one of these events after Nisus, who had an unfortunate encounter with the blood of sacrificed steers, chose to help his lover Euryalus ("yur-ee-AL-us"). In the Iliad, a silver mixing bowl is given as a reward during one of these events in which Athena helps Odysseus best Ajax the Lesser. Male participants in a series of these events were (*) killed if they lost to a character who had earlier received the pelt of the Calydonian boar from Meleager ("meh-lee-AY-ger"). Aphrodite gave three golden apples to Hippomenes ("hip-POM-en-eez") to help him win the hand of Atalanta by beating her in one of these contests. For 10 points, identify these athletic contests, another type of which commemorates Pheidippides' ("fee-DIP-ih-deez") feat after Marathon.

cadences wrote:In early music, the function of these musical elements was performed by passages consisting of a sixth expanding by step in contrary motion to an octave, called a clausula vera ("CLOW-soo-lie VAIR-eye"). Two consecutive dissonances, usually at an interval of a major or minor second, exemplify one of these musical elements called a "clash" named for Arcangelo Corelli. The so-called "Amen" progression exemplifies one of these elements which passes through the subdominant, but not the dominant, and is called a (*) "plagal" one. Unexpected, dissonant chords come at the end of "false" or "deceptive" examples of these elements, which intentionally fail to create a sense of finality. For 10 points, name these chord progressions that resolve a musical phrase or piece.
ANSWER: cadences [accept cadenzas; accept Corelli cadences or plagal cadences or false cadences; prompt on resolutions; prompt on clash before "clash"]