NSC 2019 Set Discussion

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NSC 2019 Set Discussion

Post by Ike »

This is your thread for discussing the set. The set has not been sent off to the archives yet; mostly, the set will be updated to reflect the resolutions of the protest committee.

You are free to request a question for viewing until then. It would be best if you could give a reason as to why the question interests you in the spirit of generating productive discussion. Please be patient if I don't respond to your requests for question -- I'm several time zones away from America, a co-editor will certainly honor your request.

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Re: NSC 2019 Set Discussion

Post by Ike »

I, Ike Jose, was the head editor of the set, and also subject-edited all the Literature, Philosophy, "Other Science," Non-Economics Social Science, and some amount of other visual arts. My co-editors were Will Alston (The lion's share of the Fine Arts, World Religion, Economics), Mike Bentley (Current Events, Geography, Other Academic, American History, Judeo-Christian Religion), Rob Carson (Mythology), Andrew Wang (Biology, Chemistry, Physics), Tejas Raje (Non-American History). Dozens of writers produced questions for the set, and hopefully the care and thought that each of them gave towards their work showed this weekend.

A note on some of the set's goals: this year, the distribution was tweaked to allow for questions. Instead of having 2/2 European History, there was 1/1 "Cross History" that allowed for questions to skirt the arbitrary line that demarcates Europe from the rest of the World. Engineering was explicitly mandated so that questions with a more "general knowledge" bent such as the "artificial meat" one could be asked. A previous complaint in past years was the (over-)prevalence of country answerlines as easy parts. This year I tried to have writers and editors minimize repeated answerlines in bonuses so that World War I or France wasn't an answer 5 or so times throughout the set. That being said, there were still some pretty odd-feeling repeats, and I apologize for those; I also apologize for the goofy feng shui errors that were noticeable in the set.
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Re: NSC 2019 Set Discussion

Post by Jeje Lalpekhlua »

I really enjoyed the set and thank you to all who contributed to this set! Could I see the tossups on "Joy Luck Club" and "Pinkerton" because for Joy Luck Club, I did read the novel and felt that I should've got it earlier and I want to see the clues before I got it. I would like to see "Pinkerton" because I felt it might've been a bit transparent. All in all, thank you for a great experience!
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Re: NSC 2019 Set Discussion

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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.
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Re: NSC 2019 Set Discussion

Post by reindeer »

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.
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Re: NSC 2019 Set Discussion

Post by UlyssesInvictus »

I'm not sure if there's a separate difficulty discussion, but I was talking to some people about perceived difficulty in the set, so I decided to do some quick analysis:

PPB:
Quartile data: 13.2, 15.2, 18.2
St Dev: 3.6

Powers:
Quartile data: 8, 12, 18.2
St Dev: 9.9

PPG:
Quartile data: 211.4, 291.4, 384.7
St Dev: 119.4

Which honestly doesn't seem terrible, though the very central measure of the data (i.e. small standard dev) for PPB, is a little concerning. (Though, on the other hand, the practically exactly 15 PPB is very commendable.)

Can any editors comment on if, statistically, this is about what they were aiming for, or if there were any deviations in any direction from what they anticipated?
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Re: NSC 2019 Set Discussion

Post by Good Goblin Housekeeping »

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]
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Re: NSC 2019 Set Discussion

Post by naan/steak-holding toll »

Thanks for playing this year's NSC, everyone! I hope the set was enjoyable and felt like a rigorous, but fair test of knowledge - and, importantly, that it taught teams new and interesting things, which is why we play this game after all. Congratulations to TJ for winning again, and to Taylor for making the final and playing a magnificent first game.

I heard a number of teams state that this year's set was different than what they expected. Without sounding too self-indulgent, I wanted to offer some thoughts on my approach to writing questions this year, to perhaps contribute to a discussion as to why this set felt different. My aim was to emulate the best parts of previous NSCs, which wrote questions on deep cut on something that appears in high school curricula, or topics that an intellectually curious high schooler might know a lot about if they "cared about" a subject or, in the case of music, were a practicing musician; this being contrasted with shallowly mining the college canon and transporting it down. I also tried to work more "world" content into the fine arts than in previous sets. So, when I heard a comment that this set felt like it was testing a much more expanded canon, my thought was "that's because I didn't really care about the canon when writing this set" - I think it'd be pretty hard to power my tossups on Arabic numerals, speed limits, canoes, world drums, or musical cadences from reading old packets.

Without trying to speak too much for the other writers and editors, I think this attitude was also present in many other questions they wrote. At its worst, this led to a few questions that were too ambitious or hard; at its best, and I think it was at its best more often than worst, this produced questions that were more exciting to answer and tapped into fresh reserves of knowledge.

I did also want to note the anomaly of PPBs being 1-2 points lower in the prelims (for example, TJ was around 21 in the prelims and over 23 in the playoffs). I don't really have any good theories as to how this happened - it could be that the prelims were straight-up harder, it could be that teams were slow in the morning, it could be that people hadn't warmed up to the set. I did, however, want to note this, and I think the later rounds had stats that were roughly in line with previous NSCs.

EDIT: In addition, our serious efforts to make easy parts meaningful (per Ike's statement above) may have meant that teams missed more of these parts than normal. Easy parts that say things to the effect of "This country is home to Jabanizu Kawasaki" or "Jean-Francois Nome-du-France worked in this capital city" are not meaningful, and I think middle and lower bracket teams are done a disservice when we don't use the whole bonus to gradate them at a national tournament. In some cases, we overshot - in particular, I think I wrote the easy part on "coffins" in a way that made it far easier to mess up than ideal. However, I do suspect this was a contributing factor to lower PPBs - even some of the best teams were getting a zero or two, and I personally think that's fine.
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Re: NSC 2019 Set Discussion

Post by UlyssesInvictus »

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.
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Re: NSC 2019 Set Discussion

Post by naan/steak-holding toll »

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.
Here are the questions that had some non-negligible "world art" content (not all of these were played in regulation):

Music: drums TU, gong TU (it was mostly Mahler and Western music though), maqams bonus ft. the oud, Amy Beach bonus ft. Balkan bards
Painting: prisons TU, Hokusai TU (I know this is pretty standard), Egyptian art bonus, Simon Schama / miniatures bonus. You could also count the "caves" tossup as that definitely falls outside the traditional Western "painting" canon
Other Arts: carpets/rugs TU, Brazil TU, Ai Weiwei TU, busts bonus, "world music" bonus (hard part was def too hard), Ghanaian art bonus, alebrijes / Mexican folk art bonus, Fatehpur Sikri bonus

This is probably a bit less than in my ideal tournament, but I think it represents a modest step in the right direction. It may be less than previous NSCs though, I'd really have to check more thoroughly.
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Re: NSC 2019 Set Discussion

Post by Amiable Vitriol »

I thought there was admirable representation of marginalized groups in this set (especially women), so thank you to those on the editing team who made that happen. That effort doesn't go unnoticed! And memes about the difficulty aside, I thought this was a largely engaging and appropriate set for HS nats. Much fun was had all around. :)
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Re: NSC 2019 Set Discussion

Post by benchapman »

Could I please see the tossup on speed limits? I really liked the idea but I think that there should have been more latitude for the moderator to accept equivalent answers.
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Re: NSC 2019 Set Discussion

Post by Stained Diviner »

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]
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Re: NSC 2019 Set Discussion

Post by worr72 »

Can I see the tossup on bananas?
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Re: NSC 2019 Set Discussion

Post by Stained Diviner »

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?
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Re: NSC 2019 Set Discussion

Post by Ike »

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.
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Re: NSC 2019 Set Discussion

Post by gimmedatguudsuccrose »

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.
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Re: NSC 2019 Set Discussion

Post by DavidB256 »

This was my first NSC, and it was a super fun shift away from what I'm used to. The lit questions were the most fun I've ever played, and felt super rewarding. It was a great experience overall. Can I see the tossups on Everything that Rises Must Converge (it's my favorite short story) and The Prose Edda (I was surprised to not power that), and the bonus on Brunnhilde/running through fire (my teammate and I both read Der Ring des Nibelungen for a class and we only got 10 on it lol)?

Thanks so much
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Re: NSC 2019 Set Discussion

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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]
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Re: NSC 2019 Set Discussion

Post by Carlos Be »

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.
Yes, this.
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Re: NSC 2019 Set Discussion

Post by Carlos Be »

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?
[/quote]

This is fun, although, shouldn't Snorri's Edda be outright acceptable?
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Re: NSC 2019 Set Discussion

Post by Auks Ran Ova »

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?
It was when I edited it! Unclear what happened there.
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Re: NSC 2019 Set Discussion

Post by worr72 »

Can I also see the tossup on the Caulfield family?
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Re: NSC 2019 Set Discussion

Post by Incognito »

Even though this set wrecked me it was really fun! I'd like to see the chaperonin tossup.

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Re: NSC 2019 Set Discussion

Post by Stained Diviner »

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?
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Re: NSC 2019 Set Discussion

Post by savannahd42 »

Could you by any chance share the tossup on footraces? I buzzed in on the second clue with “funeral games” and was prompted but missed the prompt.

(This is my first post and I’m doing this from my phone so I’ll just put my signature in the body of the post.)
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Re: NSC 2019 Set Discussion

Post by Good Goblin Housekeeping »

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.
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Re: NSC 2019 Set Discussion

Post by savannahd42 »

Thank you.

I also really enjoyed that musical cadences tossup and would like to see the rest of it, if you would?
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Re: NSC 2019 Set Discussion

Post by Good Goblin Housekeeping »

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"]
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Re: NSC 2019 Set Discussion

Post by Harpie's Feather Duster »

This year's NSC is now posted on the archive. We at PACE hope everyone enjoyed the set!
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Re: NSC 2019 Set Discussion

Post by naan/steak-holding toll »

I rudely forgot to thank Ophir Lifshitz and Itamar Naveh-Benjamin for their extensive help in playtesting and revising the Fine Arts questions. The set was greatly improved by their efforts.
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