| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Procopius revealed that this royal created a convent for former prostitutes in a work titled the Secret History. A speech given by this royal includes the quote "In my opinion, flight is not the right course, even if it should bring us to safety." That speech was given by this figure after factions of charioteers took up arms in Constantinople during the Nika [[NEE-kah]] Riots. For the point, identify this theatre actress and spouse of Justinian the Great. | Empress Theodora |
| Independent of Oliver Heaviside, this man invented modern vector calculus. This man coined the term "statistical mechanics" for a framework he developed alongside James Maxwell and Ludwig Boltzmann. This man names a type of energy used to calculate the maximum reversible work in a thermodynamic system. For the point, name this American scientist who names a type of "Free Energy." | Josiah Willard Gibbs (accept Gibbs Free Energy) |
| This character marries a woman named after purple wisteria and the young Lady Aoi [[ah-oh-ee]]. This character's death is implied by the blank chapter "Vanished into the Clouds." This character's infatuation with Lady Fujitsubo [[foo-jee-tso-boh]] results in him secretly becoming the father of an emperor. For the point, name this prince from a Japanese "Tale," the title character of an early novel created by Murasaki Shikibu. | Hikaru Genji |
| A tribute to this painting by photographer Alex Thompson was taken in front of the same setting in Cushing, Maine. Despite using his wife as a model, the artist for this painting was inspired by his neighbor, Anna Olson, who developed a degenerative muscular condition that left her unable to walk. For the point, identify this 1948 painting by Andrew Wyeth that depicts a woman in a pink dress lying in a field and leaning towards a farmhouse. | Christina’s World |
| In one story, this man is able to choose when to die after he meets Joseph of Arimathea who uses his blood to draw a red cross on this man's shield. This man was the only Knight of the Round Table who was able to sit in the Siege Perilous, which started his most notable quest with Bors and Percival. For the point, name this chaste son of Lancelot and Elaine who retrieved the Holy Grail. | Galahad (accept Galaad; or Galeas; or Galath) |
| This kind of natural object is found in lodes and is often refined by smelting, in which high heat separates metals from non-precious rocks. Prospectors typically search for this kind of natural material, the extraction of which is the goal of mining. For the point, name these rock formations that contain valuable minerals or metals like iron and gold. | Ore (prompt on "Rock" or "Metal" or "Mineral") |
| During this war, frontiersman Daniel Boone led an American wagon train which fled from the disastrous defeat of the Monongahela [[mah-NOHN-gah-HEH-luh]]. The construction and battle of Fort Necessity occurred during this war, which included the only instance of a military surrender by George Washington. The North American theatre of the Seven Years' War was, for the point, what conflict which led to the British annexation of Quebec? | French and Indian War (accept Guerre de la Conquête; prompt on the "Seven Years' War" before mentioned) |
| At the beginning of this Newbery Medal-winning novel, the Community awaits the Ceremony of Twelve. During that ceremony in this novel, Jonas is told that he has been selected to become the next Receiver of Memory, but he later runs away to protect his brother, Gabe, from being "released." For the point, name this 1993 novel by Lois Lowry. | The Giver |
| The Helsinki Memorandum put an end to this nation's Aceh Insurgency. One ruler of this country promoted a national ideal known as Nasakom and gathered leaders from Africa and Asia for the Bandung Conference. This country invaded neighboring Malaysia during the Konfrontasi and previously held control over Timor-Leste. For the point, identify this Southeast Asian country once led by Sukarno and Suharto. | Republic of Indonesia (or Republik Indonesia) |
| This author described a race of Elder Beings who built an ancient civilization with the help of the "shoggoths" in At the Mountains of Madness. The fictional location of Arkham, Massachusetts provides the setting for some of this author's stories, including The Shadow over Innsmouth and The Shadow Out of Time. For the point, name this author of horror stories such as "The Call of Cthulhu [[kuh-THOO-loo]]." | H.P. Lovecraft (or Howard Phillips Lovecraft) |
| Hermann von Helmholtz championed this man's statement that the human ear perceives sound as a set number of pure harmonic tones, known as his "acoustic law." In electromagnetics, this man's namesake law describes the proportionality between voltage applied across a conductor and its electric current. For the point, name this German scientist, the namesake of the SI Unit for electrical resistance. | Georg Simon Ohm (accept Ohm's Acoustic Law; or Ohm's Law) |
| This author wrote the Tristia while exiled to Tomis on the coast of the Black Sea. This author presented a series of instructional elegiac couplets in his Ars Amatoria, or the Art of Love. This author's most famous work ends with Julius Caesar becoming a god. For the point, name this Roman poet who collected mythological stories about change in his Metamorphoses. | Ovid (or Publius Ovidius Naso) |
| The adoption of the maniple system during the Samnite Wars led to the introduction of an Italic example of these objects called the scutum, The hoplite infantry of Ancient Greece derived their name from a wooden type of these armaments. The testudo, or "Turtle Shell" formation, of Ancient Rome was formed using, for the point, what military accessory used to deflect arrows and protect from enemy blows? | Shields (accept Aegis) |
| This artist depicted two people kissing while their heads are covered in cloth in a work titled The Lovers. In another work, this artist includes a brown pipe with the caption, “This is not a pipe.” Perhaps the most famous work by this artist depicts a man wearing a bowler hat and a suit with a green apple placed in front of his face. For the point, identify this Belgian Surrealist who painted The Treachery of Images and The Son of Man. | René Magritte (or René François Ghislain Magritte) |
| The cempasuchil [[sem-puh-SOO-chee]], or Aztec marigold, is a plant commonly used as decoration for this holiday. Altars called ofrendas are constructed for this holiday, during which calaveras, or sugar skulls, are displayed. For the point, name this holiday that coincides with the beginning of All Saints Day when families in Mexico gather to remember those who have passed on. | Day of the Dead (or Dia de los Muertos) |
| Since 1989, this state and Thailand have recalled each other's ambassadors due to the Blue Diamond Affair. De facto leader of this state Mohammed bin Salman intervened in the neighboring Yemeni Civil War after the ousting of the Hadi government by Houthi rebels. The holy cities of Medina and Mecca are in, for the point, what state whose politics are dominated by the royal Al Saud [[SOWD]] family? | Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (or Al Mamlakah al Arabiyah as Suudiyah) |
| This compounds name derives from Pliny's description of a salt mined in Cyrenaica [[seer-uh-NAY-kuh]] near a Temple of Jupiter. Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch invented a method of synthesizing this compound, which is commonly used as a precursor for fertilizer. For the point, name this pungent compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula NH3. | Ammonia |
| This territory's Mount Thor is the world's tallest vertical cliff. The flag of this territory features a stack of rocks known as an inuksuk. This territory contains the world's largest uninhabited island, Devon, as well as Alert, the world's northernmost weather station, on Ellesmere Island. For the point, name this Inuit territory with capital at Iqaluit [[ee-KWAL-ee-it]], the largest territory in all of Canada. | Nunavut |
| This painting appears behind three women in Grant Wood's Daughters of Revolution. This painting that appears on the back of New Jersey's state quarter depicts Nathanael Greene and others pushing past floating blocks of ice. For the point, identify this Emmanuel Leutze painting that depicts the first president of the United States and a cadre of men on their way to the Battle of Trenton. | Washington Crossing the Delaware |
| Okun's law describes an inverse relationship between the rate of unemployment and this quantity. Bhutan uses a variant of this quantity abbreviated as GNH, which instead measures the country's happiness. Luxembourg and Qatar are constantly highly ranked in the "per capita" measurement of this quantity. For the point, name this quantity that measures the final amount of goods and services produced by a country. | Gross Domestic Product (do NOT accept "GDP Per Capita") |
| This language was used to write the poem Message as well as novels titled The Gospel According to Jesus Christ and Blindness. Works written in this European language are described as Lusophone and include The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho. For the point, identify this language used by Fernando Pessoa, José Saramago, and writers from Brazil. | Portuguese (accept Português; accept Língua portuguesa; prompt on "Lusophone" or "Lusófono" before mentioned) |
| This country's southern boundary is formed by the Aras River, and it has large expatriate communities in Los Angeles and Nagorno-Karabakh. This country that contains Lake Sevan was the world's first to adopt Christianity as its state religion. Georgia and Azerbaijan form a majority of this country's eastern border. Turkey's Mount Ararat is a national symbol of, for the point, what country with capital at Yerevan? | Republic of Armenia (accept Hayastani Hanrapetut'yun) |
| This man solved the Holstein Question by invading Denmark alongside Austria in the Second Schleswig War and dissolving the German Confederation. Pius IX [[the NINTH]] feuded with this politician as part of the Kulturkampf. The policy of Realpolitik guided the diplomacy of this politician who delivered the Blood and Iron Speech. For the point, name this chancellor of Prussia who orchestrated the Unification of Germany. | Otto Eduard Leupold von Bismarck |
| The first probe to reach this celestial body was Pioneer 11. Launched in 1997, the Cassini-Huygens probe explored the possible habitability of this planet before crashing into its atmosphere in 2017. Mimas, Enceladus, and Titan are some of the natural satellites among this planet's 82 moons, the most in the solar system. For the point, identify this gas giant, the sixth planet from the sun. | Saturn |
| This country once referred to itself as the Republic of New Granada, and afterwards as the United States of its current name. Those states included Cundinamarca [[koon-deen- uh-MAR-kuh]] and Antioquia [[an-tee-oh-KEE-uh]], the latter of which contains this country's city of Medellín [meh-"DYE"-een]]. This country formed a union with Ecuador and Venezuela under its current name during the rule of Simón Bolívar. For the point, name this country that once named a "Gran" region of South America. | Republic of Colombia (accept República de Colombia; accept Gran Colombia) |
| Jewish Senator Judah P. Benjamin served in this president's cabinet as Secretary of State. During this man's presidency, he and his cabinet used "Cotton Diplomacy" to gain recognition from the UK. This former senator from Mississippi fled Richmond upon its capture by General Grant. Alexander Stephens served as the vice president of, for the point, what first and only president of the Confederacy? | Jefferson Finis Davis |
| One musician who played this instrument pioneered a style of improvisation known as "Sheets of Sound." That musician who played this instrument recorded the albums A Love Supreme and Giant Steps. Alto and tenor are the main varieties of, for the point, what brass woodwind instrument played by John Coltrane, Bill Clinton, and Lisa Simpson? | Saxophone (or Alto Saxophone; or Tenor Saxophone |
| Charles Darwin wrote the treatise The Power of Movement in [[these organisms]], explaining how they rotate circularly in a process called circumnutation. It's not fungi, but this general class of organisms utilizes "phototropism," which allows these organisms to orientate towards light through the use of auxins. For the point, name these multicellular organisms that can be split into angiosperms and gymnosperms and include weeds and flowers. | Plants (accept Plantae) |
| David Scott tested this scientist’s theory by dropping a feather and a hammer on the moon. This scientist tested his theory of free fall by dropping two different massed balls from the Leaning Tower of Pisa. This scientist’s observation of Jupiter’s moons countered the belief that celestial bodies revolved around the Earth. For the point, identify this Italian scientist who was put under house arrest by the Catholic Church for defending heliocentrism. | Galileo Galilei (or Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de’ Galilei) |
| Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed for performing this illegal act. It's not teaching, but a person in this profession allegedly stated "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country" before being hanged by the British. Nathan Hale and Mata Hari were executed for performing, for the point, what illegal act practiced by agencies such as the CIA and MI6? | Espionage (accept Spies or Spying; accept Intelligence Gathering or similar) |
| In a war named for these animals, the power Dai Viet [[DYE VYET]] used early access to cannons from the neighboring Ming to conquer rival Lan Xang [[SHANG]]. Alexander the Great made various animal sacrifices to the God of Fear the night before the Battle of Gaugamela due to having to face a corps of these animals in battle. For the point, identify these animals, a mix of "Syrian" and "African" varieties of which were used in Hannibal's crossing of the Alps. | Elephants (accept White Elephant War; prompt on "Pachyderms") |
| This book of the Bible includes works of communal lament and works of individual thanksgiving. The shortest chapter in the Bible is in this book, and that passage begins "O praise the Lord, all ye nations/praise him, all ye people." The 23rd entry of this book states "The Lord is my Shepherd" and recounts walking through “the valley of the shadow of death.” For the point, name this poetic Biblical book legendarily written by King David. | Book of Psalms |
| The character Darl in this novel is suspected of setting a barn fire that threatens the safety of his family. The phrase "My Mother is a Fish" begins and ends a short chapter in this novel given by Vardaman. The central family in this novel travel to the town of Jefferson by wagon at the behest of their now-deceased mother and wife. For the point, identify this William Faulkner novel about a family's quest to bury their dead matriarch. | As I Lay Dying |