Round 1 First Half

Transylvania University Academic Tournament

Feb. 12, 2000

1.

Name the class of monomers (simple molecules) from which proteins are synthesized.
Answer: amino acids

2.

In a mammal, how many Barr bodies would be present in cells of individuals who were XXXY?
Answer: 2

3.

Find the derivative with respect to x of $4x^3+12x^2+7\pi$ (read: 4 x raised to the third power plus twelve x squared plus seven pi).
Answer: 12x²+24x (12 x squared plus 24 x)

4.

What is the slope of the line tangent to the graph of y=x²-7x (read: y equals x squared minus seven x) at the point (8,8)?
Answer: 9

5.

Who led the 1831 slave revolt in Southhampton, Virginia?
Answer: Nat Turner

6.

This noted lawyer once got upset when a fan recognized him from the Star Trek episode And the Children Shall Lead.
Answer: Melvin Belli

7.

About how old in years before present is the oldest fossil flower?
Answer: 150 million years; count anything between 130 million and 170 million correct

8.

Who was the first president of the National Association of Colored Women?
Answer: Mary Church Terrell

9.

The probability of an event occuring is five sevenths. What are the odds against the event occuring?
Answer: two to five

10.

Where did 1989's ``Velvet Revolution'' take place?
Answer: Czechoslovakia

11.

How did Anna Karenina die?
Answer: Committed suicide or fell in front of a train

12.

What is wrong with the following sentence: Between Bob and Jane, I think Jane is the best one.
Answer: ``best'' should be ``better'' OR the superlative adjective should be a comparative one.

13.

This question requires multiple answers. On the border of what two present day nations is Mount Everest found?
Answer: Nepal and Tibet

14.

In what century was the Protestant Reformation?
Answer: 16th

15.

Why was pi chosen to signify the ratio of circumference to its diameter?
Answer: Greek word for perimeter begins with the letter for pi

16.

A doctor is treating you for a disease and gives you 10 pills to take, one every half hour. How long does it take you to finish the pills?
Answer: 4.5 hours

17.

Man of La Mancha is a musical based on what literary work?
Answer: Don Quixote (or Don Quixote de la Mancha).

18.

What class of biomolecule would contain uracil?
Answer: RNA (ribonucleic acid)

19.

The sum of two numbers is 43. Their difference is 25. What is the smaller of the two numbers?
Answer: 18

20.

What was the covert name of the group that broke into the Democratic Headquarters under Nixon's orders?
Answer: The Plumbers

21.

What do the following books all have in common: Ulysses, Fanny Hill, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and The Bridge to Teribithia?
Answer: they have all been banned in this country

22.

In Mediaeval art, what color stood for repentance?
Answer: Green

23.

Who conceived a theory of evolution identical to Darwin's?
Answer: Alfred Wallace

24.

Nude Descending a Staircase #2 is a cubist work of what artist?
Answer: Marcel Duchamp

25.

What is the geometric mean of 12 and 75?
Answer: 30

26.

What Russian city is known as the most polluted place on earth?
Answer: Mayak

27.

In 1875, Aristides became the first winner of what event?
Answer: the Kentucky Derby

28.

What group of organisms form proglottids?
Answer: tapeworms

29.

What is the volume of a sphere with surface area 144 pi square centimeters?
Answer: 288 pi cubic centimeters

30.

What famous philosopher completed work on his magnum opus Phenomenology of Spirit only as Napolean's forces were invading his home town of Jena?
Answer: G.W.F. Hegel

31.

What is the measure of each exterior angle of a regular dodecagon?
Answer: 30 degrees

32.

George Washington crossed the Delaware to fight and win what battle?
Answer: Battle of Trenton

33.

What famous hiking trail covers states from Maine to Georgia?
Answer: Appalachian Trail

34.

This question requires multiple answers. What two crops are harvested to produce table sugar?
Answer: sugar cane and sugar beets

35.

How mant ghosts visit Scrooge in A Christmas Carol
Answer: four (three ghosts of christmas and the ghost of his business partner)

36.

Express 692 as a Roman numeral.
Answer: DCXCII

37.

Who headed the joint allied command which stopped the Germans at Chateau-Thierry in June 1918?
Answer: General Ferdinand Foch

38.

This author wrote novels such as Pudd'n'head Wilson and Life on the Mississippi, but he is best remembered for creating the characters of Tom and Huck.
Answer: Samuel Clemens or Mark Twain

39.

How many valence electrons do the period 2 and greater noble gasses possess?
Answer: eight

40.

What was the name of Pablo Picasso's painting protesting the bombing of civilians by Franco's forces in the Spanish Civil War?
Answer: Guernica