Literature Quiz Finals - BITS Pilani Hyderabad Campus

Literature Quiz Finals

The Team

Siddharth SinghKushagra AgrawalSuchit KarViswanath Kasyap Pasumarthy

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Format of the Finals The finals consists of 5 rounds – 3 written and

2 dry rounds. Dry rounds shall proceed by infinite bounce

and pounce, clockwise in one round, anti-clockwise the other.

Scoring for the dry rounds – +10 on a correct bounce or pounce -5 on an incorrect pounce

Scoring for written rounds will be given before the round.

ROUND 1 – DRY ROUND

Infinite bounce and pounce. +10 on correct bounce or pounce. -5 on incorrect pounce. 12 questions. Clockwise

Q1 According to various character histories, he obtained

an item from his abusive father that would employ it in a perverse nightly ‘game’ that always ended with a beating. This would instill in him, his lifelong struggle with free will and his eventual inability to make choices on his own. This reflected in other facets of his life as he staged events to happen at 10.22 pm.

Contrary to his depiction in film, this character was ‘created’ due to acid and not oil.

Which character?

Slide for Nefarious Purposes

Ans- Twoface, or Harvey Dent

Q2 Following Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's December

26 visit to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, the Chinese ambassador to the United Kingdom wrote in an op-ed in the Daily Telegraph: "If militarism is like the haunting X of Japan, the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo is a kind of Y, representing the darkest parts of that nation's soul.“

It was followed by another published by his Japanese counterpart, Keiichi Hayashi, in the same newspaper, headlined: "China risks becoming Asia's Y".

ID X and Y.


Ans- X=Voldemort, Y=Horcrux.

Q3 X watched his father, formerly in the Army, grow weak

and frail with old age. Thus, the speaker in his poem tries to convince his father to fight against imminent death. The speaker addresses his father using wise men, good men, wild men, or grave men as examples to illustrate the same message: that no matter how they have lived their lives or what they feel at the end they should die fighting.

Give me the poem.


Ans-

Q4 Her first novel, ‘Stillborn’, a medical thriller, was

published by Penguin Books. In 2008, she anchored a television show called Uncommon Ground for NDTV, in which created a rare dialogue between top leaders of the corporate and social sectors in India. Penguin Books India has released a book based on the show. She is the Founder-Chairperson, ARGHYAM and Pratham Books. Identify her and her famous husband, whom she met at a quizzing event at IIT.


Ans- Rohini Nilekani, Nandan Nilekani.

Q5 Train number 17303/4, an Express of the Indian

Railways, plies between Yeshwantpur (Bangalore) and Mysore in Karnataka. This comes under the SouthWestern Railway.

In 2011, this train was given a more endearing name, something fitting to that particular section of the country. Perhaps a tiger or M.K.Gandhi will one day board the express.

What name?


Ans- Malgudi Express.

Q6

They occur as a series on the River Aar in Bern canton. Tourists visit this place by climbing the path to the top and then crossing a bridge and following a trail down the hill which leads to the actual ledge. The actual place is marked by a plaque written in English, German and French which explains the event that occurred there.

What place is this?


Ans- The Reichenbach Falls.

Q7 FITB."You mean there's a _____?""Sure there's a _____", Doc Daneeka replied. "_____-__. Anyone who wants to get out of combat duty isn't really crazy."There was only one _____and that was _____-__, which specified that a concern for one's own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane, he had to fly them. If he flew them, he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to, he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of _____-__ and let out a respectful whistle.


Ans- Catch-22.

Q8Someone had to clarify this on repeatedly as to who or what is X:“….if by X I had meant God I would [have] said God, and not X. “It would be fatuous of me to pretend that I am not aware of the meanings attached to the word ‘X’, and the opinion of many that it means 'God'. But you must remember – I wrote the play in French, and if I did have that meaning in my mind, it was somewhere in my unconscious and I was not overtly aware of it.”Give me X.


Ans- Godot. Samuel Beckett

Q9In times when TB was rampant, a family was very hard hit by it. The parents in the family succumbed, leaving their children, a brother-sister pair to fend for themselves.The brother heard that TB could be cured on moving to warmer climates. Desperate, he went to warmer zones and sometimes later, returned healthy. Just days after his return, his sister died of TB.By coincidence, winter had struck his town hard at the time. People realized that corpses were not decaying. Erroneously, of course, they came to the conclusion that the dead were sucking on the life of the living (It would explain the freshness of the corpses and the sorry state of the living).People asked the brother to dig up his sister’s coffin to check whether this theory was true. He did, and to his horror, found the corpse surprisingly well preserved. This finding emboldened the theory. A dramatist was visiting the town at the time of these happenings. He heard the tale and came upon an idea for a character.What did he thus create? Who was he?


Ans-Dracula. He was Bram Stoker.

Q10Early in 1843, as a response to a government report on the abuse of child laborers in mines and factories, the author of Y vowed he would strike a “sledge-hammer blow on the behalf of the Poor Man’s Child”. The blow was in the form of the book Y.

Before deciding on the name X for a character in the book, he considered a host of other names including Little Larry, Small Sam and Puny Pete.

Give me X and Y.


Ans- X= Tiny Tim, Y= A Christmas Carol

Q11Emily Moreau, a French author, during his visit to Allahabad observed the reading habits of the English. Noticing an opportunity for a profitable business, he co-founded, with help from TK Banerjee, an entity X that would become an iconic hotspot for the reading enthusiasts in times to come.Moreau, realizing the suitability and impact of having a famous name associated with his firm, sought out the help of a Mr. Arthur Henry, an established figure in England.Mr. Henry obliged.Thus was found X. Give me X.


Ans- Wheeler(A.H. Wheeler and Co.)

Q12

Raghava Yadaviyam (Ram Krishna) by Venkatadhvari, written in the 17th century is an anulom-vilom kavya (backward and forward poetry). It showcases ‘the encryption capabilities of Sanskrit’ and the verbal ingenuities of the poet’.

Only 30 slokas long, it is a short work, but is a very noteworthy work.

Why?


Ans- Read forward, it’s the story of Ram. Backward, it’s Krishna’s story.

ROUND 2 – MINIMALIST POSTERS ROUND

The Following Slide contains minimalist posters of some famous and some not so famous books.

Your job – Guess the underlying book. +5 for correct . +10 for all correct No negatives. Guess away Written round, so ask for sheets 9 Questions in total

MINIMALIST 1

MINIMALIST 2

MINIMALIST 3

MINIMALIST 4

MINIMALIST 5

MINIMALIST 6

MINIMALIST 7

MINIMALIST 8

MINIMALIST 9

EXCHANGE SHEETS

ANSWER 1 Soulless by Gail Carriger

ANSWER 2 – 1984 by George Orwell

ANSWER 3 The Golden Compass

ANSWER 4 THE TIME MACHINE HG WELLS

ANSWER 5 – TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA JULES VERNE

ANSWER 6 – ROBIN HOOD

ANSWER 7 – GONE GIRL, Gillian Flynn

ANSWER 8 – Divergent Veronica Roth

ANSWER 9 – COUNT DRACULA By BRAM STOKER

ROUND 3 – DRY ROUND

Infinite bounce and pounce. +10 on correct bounce or pounce. -5 on incorrect pounce. 12 questions. Anticlockwise

Q1An eight page comic strip parodying popular characters of their day in various sexual escapades, Xs were published without any consent and with utter disregard to copyright and legal issues. One featured Snow White with each of the 7 dwarves featuring in his own X-rated episode.

Stereotypes were repeated with utter disregard, and popular figures were lampooned without mercy. The authors and artists remain anonymous and the publishers too are mostly unknown.

Identify X.


Ans- Tijuana Bible

Q2 With the advent of the 16th century, England witnessed an upsurge in

rationalist thought and the concept of ‘absolutism for the sovereign’. X was a famous proponent of the movement and X’s atheistic views began to be denounced by society and the House of Commons alike. Much so, ‘X’ism came to be viewed as blasphemous, in a sense.

Later, in 17th century France, another influential person Y, proposed Reformist changes in popular Christian doctrines and his views still continue to move large parts of the West.

In honour of X and Y, an insanely famous literary series was initiated in the late 20th century, with the views of X and Y conveyed to the audience in a humorous fashion.

What is the series in question?


Ans- Calvin and Hobbes.

Q3 X was an event that shook America in 1938, and has ever since

been etched in pop-culture history. Possibly the reason why X happened is because, in an attempt to make the show more appealing, the producer included a last-minute change that involved including a speech from ‘The Secretary of the Interior’ that seemed to lend credibility to what was to ensue. In addition, a certain Kenneth Delmar, was roped in, to lend his services in impersonating Franklin D. Roosevelt; and in the process produced a never-forgettable event.

What is being talked about here?


Ans- Orson Welles’s ‘War of the Worlds’ radio broadcast.

Q4 In an experiment conducted, different groups of participants

were asked to recall a good or bad past deed, after which they were asked to fill in the letters of three incomplete words: "W_ _H", "SH_ _ER" and "S_ _P". Those who had been asked to recall a bad deed were about 60% more likely to respond with cleansing-related words like "wash", "shower" and "soap" instead of alternatives such as "wish", "shaker" or "stop". The choice of alternatives draws parallels from a famous episode in the world of literary fiction; so much so that the priming effect described above derives its name from the work of fiction.

The effect, please.


Ans-The Lady Macbeth Effect.

Q5

Shown on the next slide are pictures of a certain Tower that has now been converted into a museum, to honour the author who spent six nights therein, cooking up his award-winning novel. The museum houses some ephemera related to the author, including empty pots, toy panthers and the like.

ID the author.


Ans- J.D. Salinger.

Q6 The inspiration for the title of this book stems from the

Biblical story of the brothers ___________. Interpretations of ‘Genesis 4’ by ancient and modern commentators have typically assumed that the motives for the crime committed by one of the brothers (that of making his brother a martyr) were jealousy and anger. As retribution, all his descendants perished in the Great Deluge.

What is the book being spoken about?


Ans- ‘Kane and Abel’.

Q7 The answer to the famous riddle in question had people on

tenterhooks ever since it first appeared in Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’. Several possible answers have been suggested, including ones like ‘Poe wrote on both’ and ‘Because there is a 'b' in both and an 'n' in neither’. Fed up of being bugged by people to reveal the answer, Carroll himself came up with the solution – ‘Because it can produce a few notes, tho they are very flat; and it is neve(a)r put with the wrong end in front.’

Which riddle is being spoken about here, which also catapulted the Mad Hatter to fame for its inception?


Ans-‘Why is a raven like a writing desk?’

Q8X was a French photographer, caricaturist, journalist, novelist,

and balloonist (or more precisely proponent of manned flight). In 1863, X commissioned the prominent balloonist Eugène

Godard to construct an enormous balloon, 60 metres (196 ft) high and with a capacity of 6,000 m3 (210,000 cu ft), and named Le Géant ("The Giant"), thereby inspiring Jules Verne's Five Weeks in a Balloon.

Later, "The Society for the Encouragement of Aerial Locomotion by Means of Heavier than Air Machines" was established, with X as president and Verne as secretary. X was also the inspiration for the character of Michael Ardan in Verne's From the Earth to the Moon.

ID X, widely regarded as inspiration for Jules Verne’s works.


Ans-Felix Nadar.

Q9 What is being talked about here?

In the debut, X chose _____ for the Y because he wanted a colour that did not suggest any particular ethnic group. Colourist Z, however, had problems with the _____ colouring, resulting in different shades of _____, and even ______, in the issue. After seeing the first published issue, X chose to change the skin colour to ______. ______ was used in retellings of the origin, with even reprints of the original story being recoloured for the next two decades, until Y vol. 2, #302 (December 1984) reintroduced the _____ Y in flashbacks set close to the origin story. Since then, reprints of the first issue have displayed the original _____ colouring, with the fictional canon specifying that the Y's skin had initially been _____.


Ans-How the Hulk was supposed to be grey originally but was changed to green.

Q10 ID X Succinctly put: “X” is when female characters suffer and even die

in superhero comics. Most of the time it is because of their relationship to the male hero.

“X” appears in many comics and comic adaptations. For example, in the recent Christopher Nolan film The Dark Knight, the Joker forces Batman to choose between saving Harvey Dent and Rachel, and through trickery, murders Rachel. The moment is truly shocking because the viewer expects Batman to save her. In most cases, “X” works to provide emotional shock value. We anticipate salvation and instead must deal with death.

On the surface level, “X” comes off as a misogynistic violence fantasy. I’m not going to refute that altogether, but the problem feels more specific than that. The problem occurs because the comic infrastructure is largely patriarchal.


Ans- Gwen Stacy Syndrome

Q11 When quizzed about his out-of-the-blue revelation in August

2015, X had the following to say: “In late 1968, a member called Ronnie sought me out. The Nigeria-Biafra conflict had been ongoing for 15 months, and Ronnie needed ’an asset deep inside the Biafran enclave’, what he termed ‘someone in on the ground’”. However, X was not paid for his services, but returned in kind, with passages about ‘The Firm’ in his novels, which are known for their authenticity.

Who is X and what was his revelation?


Ans- X=Frederick ForsythThe revelation was that he was an MI6 agent for almost two decades.

Q12 _____________ analysis is an essential tool in Natural Language

Processing. The typical algorithm for processing them goes as follows: “When computing the _________ you typically move one word forward

(although you can move X words forward in more advanced scenarios). For example, consider the sentence "The cow jumps over the moon". If N=2, then the _________ would be”:

the cow cow jumps jumps over over the the moon ________ are now being used in supervised machine learning designs. FITB.


Ans- Ngram

ROUND 4 – GUESS THE BOOK FROM THE SONG

The following slides contain the lyrics of the songs by various bands which are inspired from famous literary works.

Your job should you choose to accept it ( You don’t have a choice anyway) is to give me the literary work

7 lyrics follow +5 for each correct +15 if you get all correct No negatives. Guess freely

1-Barefoot Children in the Rain by Jimmy BuffetScratch my back with a lightning boltThunder rolls like a bass drum noteThe sound of the weather is Heaven's ragtime bandWe all fell down from the Milky WayHangin' round here till Judgment DayHeaven only knows who's in command

Barefoot children in the rainGot no need to explainWe'd be swingin' on a ball and chainIt's always understood by those who play the gameBarefoot children in the rain

Show me yours and I'll show you mineTake me back to days full of monkeyshinesBouncin' on a bubble full of trouble in the summer sunKeep your raft from the riverboatFiction over fact always has my voteAnd wrinkles only go where the smiles have been

Lyric 2– The Scentless Apprentice by Nirvana

Like most babies smell like butterHis smell smelled like no otherHe was born scentless and senselessHe was born a scentless apprentice

Go away - get away, get a-way

Every wet nurse refused to feed himElectrolytes smell like semenI promise not to sell your perfumed secretsThere are countless formulas for pressing flowers

Lyric 3 - Calypso by Suzanne VegaMy name is CalypsoAnd I have lived aloneI live on an island And I waken to the dawnA long time agoI watched him struggle with the seaI knew that he was drowningAnd I brought him into meNow todayCome morning lightHe sails awayAfter one last nightI let him go.

Lyric 4 -Home by Breaking BenjaminI've got a little red bowAnd I bought it for you'Cause I know you're not fairI don't get it, oh wellAnd you color my skinAnd the colors don't blend'Cause I'm gonna get youAnd your little dog tooThere's a yellow brick roadThat we follow back home'Cause I know you can't waitYour belligerent hateThere's no place like homeThere's no place like home

Lyric 5 - The End of The Universe by S.P.O.C.K I've got a head with a very special brain

enough to drive me insane

analyzing everything inside and out until there is no doubt

Now I know the truth, I've been fortunate it's a good time to quit

Then right ahead of me: the final mystery!Can't make up my mind as I see the sign "The End of the Universe"

Should I go ahead or am I dead at the end of the universe

Lyric 6 - Holland,1945 by Neutral Milk HotelAnd now we ride the circus wheelWith your dark brother wrapped in whiteSays it was good to be aliveBut now he rides a comet's flameAnd won't be coming back againThe Earth looks better from a starThat's right above from where you areHe didn't mean to make you cryWith sparks that ring and bullets flyOn empty rings around your heartThe world just screams and falls apart

But now we must pick up every pieceOf the life we used to loveJust to keep ourselvesAt least enough to carry on

Lyric 7 - Fable by Gatsby’s American DreamLanded in this placeTried to make this island more like homeBut there are some thingsBetter left behindWe came here on a planeJust a bunch of little boysOh oh oh oooooDance around the fireAnd we strike him downNever going homeNot reallyWe'll take this island everywhere we go

EXCHANGE SHEETS

1 - Huckleberry Finn

2- Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind

3 – Odyssey by Homer

4 – The Wizard Of Oz

5 - The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams

6 - The Diary of Anne Frank

7 - Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Round 5- Etymology Following are some common literary phrases,

terms or words that we’ve come to use irrelevant of their actual roots. Guess the roots or sources of these phrases/ terms in the slides that follow.

6 questions follow. +10 for every correct answer. +20 if you get all correct. No negative marking.

Q1The Latin phrase, “______ et Circenses”, meaning, ‘Bread and circuses’ (or bread and games; ) was coined by Juvenal. It refers to a superficial means of appeasement. In politics, the (English) phrase is used to describe the generation of public approval, not through public service but through diversion, distraction, or by satisfying shallow requirements.

As written by the author, in the third instalment of this highly successful franchise (which itself is heavily inspired from the tale of Theseus and the Minotaur), what gets its name from the blank?Note – The answer asks for the English phrase.

Q2 Rene Descartes is said to be the first to use this. Arabic

sounds were difficult to pronounce in the European countries and is said to be the reason why it is used ubiquitously now. The word for "thing" or "object" in Arabic - which was the principal language of sciences during the Islamic civilization - is "shei" which was translated into Greek and shortened to X, and is considered by some to be the reason for using X. The Greek word Xenos which could mean stranger or foreigner is also said to be the origins of X. What is X?

Q3

In the Cornish mines in the 18th century, pumps were installed to drain floodwater. When working at their full capacity, these pumps could drain 19,000 gallons of water for every 12 bushels of coal that powered them. This gave rise to a popular phrase meaning ‘going very fast’.

Identify the phrase.

Q4Also known these days as the name of a comedy website, this word originated in Lewis Carol’s poem “Jabberwocky”, which was included in the 1871 book ‘Through the Looking Glass’.The word is a blend of “chuckle and snort”, describing the noise made somebody who manages to laugh while utilizing their nose in the process.Give me the word.

Q5The word Y is eponymous with Captain Charles Y, who managed Irish estates in County Mayo, Ireland. In September 1880, tenants and labourers were demanding reduced rents, and he evicted them. In response, the Irish Land League organized the tenants and neighbours to resist the evictions, refuse to rent a farm from which someone had been evicted, refuse to work on the estate Y managed, and even to refuse to deliver the mail to Y.

The word was evidently coined by one or more of the local protesters. The first recorded use of the verb is in the Glasgow Herald of 1 November 1880. The noun appears in the Times (London) on 9 December.

Give me Y.

Q6 Even though this guy(X) is the origin of many oft-repeated

allusions and phrases( butterfingers, boredom, flummox, and about a 1000 others), he’s not the source of this polite way to say “hell”.

As far back as the 16th century, “devilkin” meant “devil”, and it was pronounced phonetically similar to X’s surname.

This misleads load of people who think that X is somehow the source of the phrase.

Give me the phrase.

Ans-The Hunger Games

Ans- X.Sometimes the question can be answer too. :P

Ans-Nineteen to the dozen.

Ans- Chortle

Ans- Boycott.

Ans-

The End

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Literature Quiz Finals - BITS Pilani Hyderabad Campus