Mark Brader:
These questions were written to be asked in Toronto on 2014-02-10,
and should be interpreted accordingly... For further information...
see my 2022-09-09 companion posting on "Reposted Questions from
the Canadian Inquisition (RQFTCI*)".
* Game 5, Round 4 - Sports - Winter Olympics
First a reminder of Olympic terminology. There """are"""
7 *sports*, subdivided into 15 *disciplines*, within which are
98 different *events* with medals awarded for each event.
For example, men's 1000 m speed skating """is""" an event within
the discipline of speed skating, which """falls""" within the
sport of skating.
Answers may repeat.
1. At the 2014 Olympics, what skiing discipline """will have"""
both men's and women's competitions instead of only men's
as before?
Ski jumping. 4 for Joshua, Erland, and Dan Blum.
2. The """last remaining""" Winter Olympic discipline to be
contested only by men combines ski jumping and cross-country
skiing. What's it called?
Nordic combined. (Still true.) I accepted "Nordic combination".
4 for Joshua and Erland.
3. At Sochi, because of the suspension of their nation's Olympic
committee, the three Winter Olympians from *what country* """must
compete""" as independent participants, under the Olympic flag?
India.
4. Nearly all """current""" *world* records (not just Olympic
records) in speed skating were set at just two facilities,
each originally constructed for the Olympics. Where are they?
Name either city.
Calgary (1988), Salt Lake City (2002). (Still true.) 4 for Erland.
All other Olympic speed skating venues in the past 50 (now 60) years
have been at elevations below 600 m (2,000 feet); but the Calgary
track is at 1,048 m (3,440 feet) and the SLC one at 1,320 m (4,330
feet). See:
http://ep.physoc.org/content/95/3/411/T1.expansion.html
5. This speed skater """has won 6""" Winter Olympic medals, """more
than any other Canadian""". She won a bronze in 2002, then gold,
2 silver, and 2 more bronze in 2006. She """still holds"""
the women's world records at 1500 and 3000 m. Who?
Cindy Klassen. (Still true, except for the world records, which
were both beaten in recent years.)
6. Who won """Canada's only medals""" in biathlon -- a bronze in
1992 and 2 golds in 1994?
Myriam B�dard. (Still true.)
7. Name any of the """three current""" Winter Olympic disciplines
in which *no* Canadian team or individual has ever won a medal.
2014 answer: Luge, Nordic combined, ski jumping. 2023 answer:
Nordic combined is now the only one.
8. Canada's 1920 gold medal for hockey (or "ice hockey" as the
Olympics people call it) is usually excluded from Winter Olympic
lists and totals. Why?
The Winter Olympics had not been invented in 1920. Although played
a few months before the other events, the hockey tournament
was considered part of the regular Olympic games. 4 for Joshua
and Erland.
The tournament had an interesting format. First all the teams played
a standard knockout for the gold medal; then all the teams that
*had lost to the gold-medal winners* played a *second* knockout for
silver; then all the other teams that had lost to *either* the gold-
or the silver-medal winners played a *third* knockout for bronze.
This arrangement was called the Bergvall system and it dropped out
of favor soon afterwards.
There were only 7 teams entered altogether, so the first knockout
was 3 rounds, and the other ones 2 rounds each, with one team in
each of the three knockouts getting a first-round bye. Canada took
the gold by beating Czechoslovakia 15-0, the US 2-0, and Sweden
12-1: a combined score of 29-1 in three games. The US took silver
by beating Switzerland 29-0, losing to Canada, then beating Sweden
7-0 and Czechoslovakia 16-0: a combined score of 52-2 in four games.
And by the way, all the games were only two 20-minute periods long,
not three!
As to the bronze, Czechoslovakia only played 3 games altogether
because they got the bye in both the silver and the bronze knockouts;
having lost their first two games by a combined score of 31-0, they
then beat Sweden 1-0 to take the medal.
9. """Three Winter Olympic events, all men's events, are not
concluded until the last day of the games. One is hockey,
and there is one other team sport.""" Which one? *Note*:
in the 2022 Olympics there were also mixed or women's events
on the last day, but if only men's events are considered,
the description is still true.
Bobsled (or "bobsleigh"; the 4-man event).
10. """The only individual event on the last day""" is the longest
ski race of the Olympics. How long is this cross-country event?
*Note*: In 2022 it was on the second-last day.
(Men's) 50 km. 4 for Joshua and Erland.
* Game 5, Round 6 - History - Famous Russian Historical Figures
Russia is in the news as the world focuses on """Sochi""". Though they
are not Olympians, all of the people that these questions ask
you to identify were born in Russia. However, some of them later
lived and made their careers elsewhere. In each case, name the
person described.
This was the easiest round in the original game, and the
second-easiest in the entire season.
1. This Russian chess champion was famously defeated by Bobby
Fischer in a match in 1972.
Boris Spassky. 4 for everyone -- Joshua, Dan Tilque, Erland,
and Dan Blum.
2. Born in Vladivostok, this Hollywood actor played King Mongkut of
Siam and the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses during his long screen
career.
Yul Brynner. 4 for Joshua, Dan Tilque, and Dan Blum.
3. Born in 1866 in Moscow, this painter is credited with painting
the first purely abstract works and he was the founder of the
Blue Rider school of painting, named after an early famous work.
He also taught at the Bauhaus school of art and architecture
from 1922 until the Nazis closed it in 1933.
Wassily Kandinsky. 4 for Erland and Dan Blum.
4. He was born in 1973 in Moscow and immigrated to the US at the
age of 6. Decades later he co-founded Google.
Sergey Brin. 4 for everyone.
5. This controversial "spiritual advisor" to Russian Czar
Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra was held by many to be a
charlatan. His sway over the czar ended when he was killed --
by being poisoned, shot, beaten, and drowned in the Neva River.
(Or at least, that's one version of the events.)
Grigori Rasputin. Not to be confused with any other Putin.
4 for everyone.
6. Born in 1849 this physiologist is known primarily for his
work in classical conditioning or conditioned reflexes and won
the 1904 Nobel Prize for medicine. Bells and dogs figured in
his experiments.
Ivan Pavlov. 4 for everyone.
7. This emigr� is one of the 20th century's most prolific and famous
choreographers and a co-founder of the New York City Ballet
company. He is also known for his neoclassical style -- and
for his romances with numerous ballerinas.
George Balanchine. (Doesn't sound Russian enough? His original
name was Georgy Balanchivadze. The surname is actually Georgian.)
4 for Joshua and Dan Blum.
8. His 28-year tenure as Soviet foreign minister preceded the Cuban
missile crisis and extended to the ascension of Mikhail Gorbachev
in 1985, when he was shunted aside.
Andrei Gromyko. 4 for Joshua, Erland, and Dan Blum.
9. Several impersonators tried to claim the identity of this
youngest daughter of Czar Nicholas after the family was murdered
by the Bolsheviks in July 1918. What was her name?
Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanova. ("Anastasia" was sufficient.)
4 for everyone.
10. The surname of this military leader and lover of Catherine the
Great is associated with a ruse involving the construction of
painted facades to mimic real villages, full of happy, well-fed
people, to impress visiting officials. A battleship was also
named after him and fictionalized in a movie by early filmmaker
Sergei Eisenstein.
Grigory Potemkin. 4 for everyone.
Scores, if there are no errors:
GAME 5 ROUNDS-> 2 3 4 6 TOTALS
TOPICS-> Lit Can Spo His
Joshua Kreitzer 40 0 16 36 92
Dan Blum 24 4 4 40 72
Erland Sommarskog 16 0 20 32 68
Dan Tilque 32 4 0 28 64
Pete Gayde 19 12 -- -- 31
--
Mark Brader "Exercise 5-3: ... When should you
Toronto have stopped adding features...?"
[email protected] -- Kernighan & Pike
My text in this article is in the public domain.
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