The Great Middle School Pyramidal Experiment

[Auks Ran Ova]

I am eagerly awaiting your eight-line "agriculture" tossup on ducks.

[Mechanical Beasts]

I may have overshot the difficulty just a little, but I think this is mostly pyramidal. A lot of kids could buzz on a physical description of male mallards, almost everyone will buzz on mallard, and turducken is a giveaway. (Granted, I got a little culinary to give it away, but I found that much information about the domestication history of the duck, certainly agro-relevant, on Wikipedia alone.)

Only one variety of the domesticated form of this animal is not descended from Anas platyrhynchos. That variety is native to Mexico, Central, and South America, though there exists a small American population as far north as Texas. That variety is uniquely identified by its facial markings, a set of red spots arcing around and behind the eyes. Occasionally called the “Barbary” variety in England, and supposedly receiving its name from its distinctive musky scent, the Muscovy variety of these birds was long raised for its stronger-tasting, and far less fatty, meat. Much better known is a variety whose breeding males have green heads and yellow bills, while females are a light brown, with brown bills. FTP, name these birds of family Anatidae, whose most famous variety, the mallard, is frequently served in Peking varieties and comprises the middle layer in a John Madden favorite, the turducken.
ANSWER: duck

Note: I'm not delusional. This would not actually work for middle school level.

[Golran]

Here's what I have so far:
1) Periodic ones will not be complete until their end, and so they are the opposite of the nuclear types. Balanced ones will employ parallel structure throughout. Microsoft Word has a displeasure with ones in passive voice, even though they are grammatically correct. When left incomplete they will be considered fragments. Also a term for a punishment of a guilty party, this part of speech can end with a number of punctuation marks.
1.) (Grammar) SENTENCE
2) His most famous debates took place for a senatorial seat, not the presidential. While he lost this race for senator his national image was much improved and only 2 years later he became a candidate for the Presidential election, which he won. He was against the addition of territory in the form of the Mexican-American war, but he had no desire to see some of the land removed from the United States of America. Name this 16th president of the United States who issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
2.) (History) ABRAHAM LINCOLN
3) Cancer in this gland often has no signs or symptoms until it is too late. Krukenberg tumors are often found in both simultaneously if in either. In vertebrates, this gland will also dissipate essential hormones into female bodies, such as estrogen and progesterone. About 500,000 eggs are present at birth in what female reproductive gland?
3.) (Life Science) OVARY
4) The New York Islanders gave up this number of goals in the 2004-2005 season. Three major league baseball players share this amount of home runs tied at 380th on the all-time list. A previous Indians record for RBIs, it was the most in the season held by Hal Trotsky set in 1936. It is the number of points an NHL team would have if it won all but 1 of their games, and lost that one in regulation. Players, how many games does each team play in the major league baseball regular season?
4.) (Sports) 162
5) The product of the smallest odd prime and the 30th prime number, it is the area of a 6 by 113 triangle.
5.) (Geometry Computation) 339 cm
6) A former chancellor of the exchequer, he completed his PhD study with a thesis called The Labour Party and Political Change in Scotland 1918-29. In his efforts to become head of his party and prime minister he had committed to continuing his predecessor’s reform and modernization. He plans to pass laws allowing the British government to detain terrorist suspects for up to 28 days. Name this current British Prime Minister, the successor of Tony Blair as head of the New Labour Party.
6.) (Current Events) GORDON BROWN
7) Supposedly living during the time of Tiberius, he is thought by some to be real and others to be fake. A play about him was written by George Bernard Shaw opens with his wife Megaera asking him to stop and rest as they travel to the next town. That play concludes with him asking the emperor to allow the animals he has been able to tame to be left free. Name this runaway slave of the Roman Empire who was written about by Aesop and others for his actions with lions.
7.) (Literature) ANDROCLES
8) All objects have some measure of it, but some have very low measures of this. Brittle objects exhibit low quantities of it, as they are unable to return to their previous state. Everyday examples of materials high in this property are spandex, Jello, and rubber bands. Name this property, also exemplified by springs that allows a deformed object to return to its previously non-deformed state.
8.) (Physical Science) ELASTICITY
9) Pencil and Paper ready. John wants to know how much his front tire rotated in degrees. His bicycle tire has a radius of 10 divided by pi inches. Given that the bicycle travelled 80 feet, we can easily figure out how far the wheel turns by knowing that the Circumference of the circle is 20 feet, and that means there are 4 revolutions of the tire. Since each revolution of the tire is 360 degrees, how many degrees does the tire turn in these four revolutions?
9.) (General Math Computation) 1,440
10) Scheduled to perform here are the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Boston Symphony Orchestra as well as the Orchestra of St. Luke. They have brought free concerts to the streets of New York City and the five boroughs. Name this building, located on 57th street and 7th avenue in New York City that was built in 1890 by William Tuthill and designated a national historic landmark in 1962.
10.) (Music) CARNEGIE HALL


I found the computational geometry one hardest to write, and so it sucks. Other than that, I think it's pretty OK. All questions are 4-5 lines in TNR 10pt 1 in margins except the geometry.

[Mechanical Beasts]

Somewhere, out there, a middle schooler is furiously memorizing the first through thirtieth prime numbers in hopes that Ian will use that sort of leadin again. Heh.

[Stephen Colbert]

Only one variety of the domesticated form of this animal is not descended from Anas platyrhynchos. That variety is native to Mexico, Central, and South America, though there exists a small American population as far north as Texas. That variety is uniquely identified by its facial markings, a set of red spots arcing around and behind the eyes. Occasionally called the “Barbary” variety in England, and supposedly receiving its name from its distinctive musky scent, the Muscovy variety of these birds was long raised for its stronger-tasting, and far less fatty, meat. Much better known is a variety whose breeding males have green heads and yellow bills, while females are a light brown, with brown bills. FTP, name these birds of family Anatidae, whose most famous variety, the mallard, is frequently served in Peking varieties and comprises the middle layer in a John Madden favorite, the turducken.
ANSWER: duck

Note: I'm not delusional. This would not actually work for middle school level.

Given that the question originally read...

What type of poultry does Mr. West raise if he only raises the breed known as Muscovy?

...which was answered correctly at the regional I attended, so I suppose it's at least answerable by middle schoolers as early as the "Muscovy" clue.

[Mechanical Beasts]

It's possible that poultry helped give it away, though, if they can simply say for sure that there probably aren't varieties of chickens or turkeys (the former, possible hybrids of the Red and Grey Junglefowl; the latter, though there was another sort of turkey that was kinda maybe domesticated once, doesn't have a cool name). Only after Muscovy does the word "bird" come.

That's impressive, though. I'll call that deep duck knowledge.