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Hello and welcome to the semi-finals of the second season of Scholastic Scrimmage here on WQLN PBS.

I'm your host, Glenn Holland.

The match will have two halves with a lightning round midway through each half.

We'll get to know the students a little better at halftime.

As a reminder, Scholastic Scrimmage is a game that requires rapid recall of specific factual information and is not indicative of academic training.

Time for our first toss up.

What program, whose first mission ended with a fire that killed Gus Grissom, sent three NASA astronauts to the moon- [bell dinging] Mercyhurst, Finn.

Apollo?

Yes, the Apollo program.

Here's your bonus, pencil and paper ready.

What is the value of x given that the quantity seven raised to the fourth power times 49 cubed equals seven raised to the x power?

[team chattering] [bell dinging] Eight?

No, it's x equals 10.

Toss up, what events, which the helicopter-based Los Angeles News Service pioneered televising in the 1990s, may be ended by PIT maneuvers or spike strips?

[bell dinging] Fort LeBoeuf, Thatcher.

Road chases.

I'm sorry?

Like road chases.

Could you tell me what sort of chases on the road?

High speed road chases.

Thank you.

Yes, high speed.

This is your bonus.

What word, which denotes a stable language developed from mixing other languages, also refers to styles of music and cuisine from Louisiana?

[team chattering] [bell dinging] I need the answer from Thatcher.

[team chattering] Creole.

Correct.

Toss up, what quantity has a first time derivative called jerk, is measured in meters per second squared- [bell dinging] Mercyhurst, Finn.

Acceleration.

Correct, here's your bonus.

In the seventh century BC, Ashurbanipal took the throne of what empire, which then controlled almost all of the Near East from its capital, Nineveh?

[team chattering] [bell dinging] Persia?

No, that's the neo-Assyrian Empire or the Assyrian Empire.

Toss up, in 2022 what man's killers, Travis and Gregory McMichael, were sentenced to life in prison in Georgia for shooting- [bell dinging] Mercyhurst, Finn.

Trayvon Martin?

No, let me continue for Fort LeBoeuf.

In 2022 what man's killers, Travis and Gregory McMichael, were sentenced to life in prison in Georgia for shooting him while he was jogging?

Is it Ahmaud Arbery?

That is correct, here is your bonus.

In 2022 British company DeepMind announced that its AI "AlphaFold" had predicted the structures of nearly all known examples of what molecules?

Gold.

No, proteins.

Here's your toss up.

What NAACP attorney argued the cases Cooper v. Aaron and Brown v. Board- [bell dinging] Mercyhurst, Finn.

Marshall?

That's correct, Thurgood Marshall.

Your bonus, the German word for "building up" names what principal of quantum mechanics, which governs how electrons progressively fill an atom's subshells?

[team chattering] [bell dinging] Dalls?

No, it's aufbau.

Oh!

LAUGHS: Here's your toss up.

What letter used as a pseudonym by the villains of the Pretty Little Liars franchise is placed on- [bell dinging] Mercyhurst, Sophia.

A.

Correct, here is your bonus.

The pillar of Islam that requires the giving of alms is known by what Arabic term that, in the English alphabet, starts with Z?

[team chattering] [bell dinging] Zabat?

No, it's Zakat.

Toss up, what partition, which travels between the Diomede islands, mostly follows the 180th meridian and causes a time change- [bell dinging] Fort LeBoeuf, Seth.

The international date line?

Correct, here's your bonus.

In what opera by Richard Strauss does the "Dance of the Seven Veils" precede the off-stage beheading of Jachanaan, who represents John the Baptist?

And I need this from Thatcher.

Yeah.

[team chattering] [buzzer beeping] That is Salome.

Toss up, what structures, which include New Zealand's rapidly shrinking Franz Josef, give rise to eskers and moraines and are slow-moving bodies- [bell dinging] Mercyhurst, Finn.

Glaciers?

Correct, here is your bonus.

What six-letter word, which is used as a distress signal in radio communications, comes from the French for "help me" and sounds like a spring holiday?

[bell dinging] CONTESTANT: May day?

Correct.

Your toss up, what author of a lecture on Beowulf subtitled "The Monsters and the Critics" wrote about the dwarf Thorin and the dragon- [bell dinging] Fort LeBoeuf, Seth.

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien?

That's correct, J.R.R.

Tolkien.

Here's your bonus, what constellation's nominal alpha star Dubhe is part of an asterism variously called "the wagon" or "the plow"?

[team chattering] Pisces.

No, the alpha star is Ursa Major.

Also called the big dipper.

And that brings us to our lightning round.

[upbeat music] [electricity zapping] Fort LeBoeuf called the toss and so they have the opportunity to pick first between our two topics.

First topic is literary foundlings and orphans.

Second topic is countries bordering the Mediterranean.

[team chattering] We like Mediterranean countries, how about that?

All right.

So your lightning round.

In which country bordering the Mediterranean sea or its arms will one find the coastal cities of Valencia and Barcelona?

Spain.

Correct.

The recently rebuilt Library of Alexandria?

Egypt.

Correct.

The Cote d'Azur, also known as the Riviera?

France.

Correct.

The Peloponnesus?

Greece.

Correct.

The Hagia Sophia, originally built as a cathedral?

Turkey.

Correct.

Mount Vesuvius and Mount Etna?

Italy.

Correct.

The ruins of Carthage?

Bolivia.

Sorry, sorry, Tunisia, Tunisia.

Correct.

A forest called the Cedars of God?

Israel.

Lebanon.

Sarajevo, which hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics?

Serbia.

No, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

A partition known as the Green Line that runs through Nicosia?

Pass.

That is your last question.

Okay.

Repeat it, Albania.

No, Cypress.

Nicosia is the capital split between Turkey and Greece.

Due to an error, we will deduct one point from the score for Fort LeBoeuf for the previous lightning round.

As we continue to the second, Mercyhurst Prep, your category is literary foundlings and orphans.

Name the authors who wrote about these foundlings and orphans.

David Copperfield.

[team chattering] [bell dinging] Pass.

Mowgli.

[team chattering] [bell dinging] Pass.

Heathcliff, who loves Catherine Earnshaw.

[bell dinging] Bronte.

Correct.

Quasimodo.

[bell dinging] Hugo.

Correct.

Lord Greystoke, better known as Tarzan.

[bell dinging] Pass.

Cosette, who falls in love with- [bell dinging] Hugo.

Correct.

Natty Bumppo, a frontier scout also called Hawkeye.

[bell dinging] Stan Lee.

No, it's James Fenimore Cooper.

Tom Jones.

[bell dinging] Pass.

Anne Shirley, a resident of Green Gables.

[team chattering] [bell dinging] Austen.

[buzzer beeping] That was L.M.

Montgomery.

And we're back to regular play with the toss up.

What office, later held by Alfredo Stroessner, did Francisco Solano Lopez lose after starting the War of the Triple Alliance in a landlocked country?

[bell dinging] Mercyhurst, Finn.

The presidency of Paraguay?

That is correct, your bonus.

What politician, elected to the Senate in 2018 to replace the retiring Jeff Flake, is the first openly bisexual member of Congress?

[team chattering] [bell dinging] Finn.

Booker.

No, that's Kyrsten Sinema.

Pencil and paper ready for this toss up.

What difference results from subtracting the fractions two-sevenths minus one-fifth?

[bell dinging] Mercyhurst, Finn.

Three thirty fifths.

That's correct, here's your bonus.

In a heated rivalry that peaked in early 2019, what Swedish YouTuber competed with T-Series to become the most-subscribed YouTube channel?

[bell dinging] Pewdiepie.

That is correct.

Toss up.

What author who depicted Sutpen's Hundred, a plantation near Jefferson, Mississippi, in he novel Absalom, Absalom!, also wrote- [bell dinging] Fort LeBoeuf, Seth.

William Faulkner.

That is correct, here's your bonus.

What letter can be used to denote the set of rational numbers, or a coenzyme in the electron transport chain?

[team chattering] E. No, the letter's Q. Toss up, what country, the setting of the 2021 film Drive My Car, was the home of the director of Throne of Blood, Ran, and Rashomon, Akira Kurosawa?

[bell dinging] Mercyhurst, Finn.

Japan.

That is correct, here is your bonus.

Edna St. Vincent Millay's poem "First Fig" describes what kind of object that "will not last the night," but still "gives a lovely light"?

[bell dinging] A candle?

That is correct.

Your toss up, what organ that contains vitreous and aqueous humor- [bell dinging] Fort LeBoeuf, Thatcher.

The eye.

That's correct, here's your bonus.

What general served as a consul of Rome a record seven times, reformed the Roman legions, and maintained a long-running rivalry with Sulla?

[team chattering] Africanus.

No, that was Gaius Marius.

Toss up, what elder son of Livia Drusilla reigned during the traditional date of Jesus' crucifixion and lived on Capri after becoming the second Roman emperor?

[bell dinging] CONTESTANT: Augustus.

No, that answer is Tiberius.

Tiberius Caesar.

And that brings us to our half time with the scores Mercyhurst Prep 125, Fort LeBoeuf 120.

And now, we have the opportunity to get to know our students just a little bit better.

[upbeat music] My name is Anwen and if I could have any superpower it would probably be shapeshifting.

My name is Sofia and if I could have any superpower it be teleportation.

My name is Finn and if I could have any superpower it would be Magneto's.

Hi, I'm Jack.

If I could have any superpower it would be a perfect memory.

Hi, I'm Hamilton.

If I could have any superpower it would be telepathy.

I'm Thatcher and I would want to be able to teleport.

Less walking.

My name is Seth Darnell and my preferred superpower would also be teleportation.

My name's Trent Michael and if I could have any superpower it would be mind reading.

And beginning the second half, here is our first toss up.

What two writers, who began the Deutsches Worterbuch or "German Dictionary," were siblings who popularized "Snow White" and other- [bell dinging] Mercyhurst, Jack.

Brothers Grimm.

That's correct, here is your bonus.

Port Louis is the capital of what African island nation that was once home to the dodo bird?

[bell dinging] Madagascar?

No, it's Mauritius.

Toss up, what unit, which is proportional to the common logarithm of a ratio of powers, is named after the inventor of the telephone and measures loudness?

[bell dinging] Mercyhurst, Finn.

Bell.

That is correct, here's your bonus.

John T. McLaughlin's "Mosquito Fleet" fought in what series of three wars involving Osceola, which took place from 1835 to 1842 in Florida?

[team chattering] [bell dinging] Seminole?

The Seminole Wars, that is correct.

Toss up, what battle, intended to coincide with an attack on the Aleutian Islands, saw US planes sink four Japanese- [bell dinging] Mercyhurst, Finn.

The Battle of Midway.

Correct, here's your bonus.

Ascalaphus, the keeper of Hades' orchards, revealed to the gods that Persephone had eaten the seeds of what fruit?

[bell dinging] Pomegranate.

That is correct.

Toss up, what composer of Black, Brown, and Beige and "In a Sentimental Mood" led a jazz band with the signature tune "Take the A Train," and was nicknamed "Duke"?

[bell dinging] Fort LeBoeuf, Seth.

Ellington.

Yes, that is correct.

Duke Ellington.

For your bonus, pencil and paper ready.

If two-fifths of x equals eight, what is the value of three-tenths of x?

[bell dinging] Yes.

24 25ths.

No, it's six.

Toss up.

What process, which is induced by gratings, can cause light going through an aperture to spread out, or cause light- [bell dinging] Mercyhurst, Finn.

Refraction.

I'm sorry?

Refraction.

No.

Fort LeBoeuf, can cause light going through an aperture to spread out, or cause light to bend around an obstacle?

Reflection.

I'm sorry?

Reflection.

No, it's diffraction.

Toss up, what general, who took command of the Atlantic Wall after losing to- [bell dinging] Fort LeBoeuf, Hamilton.

Erwin Rommel.

That is correct, here's your bonus.

In 1905 Odessa and Kiev were the sites of what types of organized riots against Jewish people, whose name comes from the Russian word for "destroy"?

[team chattering] Mob.

No, that was pogroms.

Toss up, what amendment - passed shortly after Franklin Roosevelt first took office reduced "lame duck" periods by starting the presidential- [bell dinging] Fort LeBoeuf, Seth.

20th.

That's correct, the 20th amendment.

Bonus, Alan Alda played Hawkeye Pierce, an army surgeon during the Korean War, on what TV show that in 1983 aired the most-watched series finale of all time?

Mash.

Correct.

Toss up, what country, where Ometepe Island lies in the largest lake in Central America, is between Honduras and Costa Rica, and has its capital at Managua?

[bell dinging] Mercyhurst, Finn.

Nicaragua.

That is correct, here's your bonus.

What French author's seven-volume magnum opus has been published in English under the titles Remembrance of Things Past and In Search of Lost Time?

[team chattering] [bell dinging] Voltaire.

No, that's Marcel Proust, the man who fell in love with a cookie.

[everyone laughing] That is now time for our lightning round.

[upbeat music] [electricity zapping] This time, Mercyhurst Prep has first choice of two topics.

The topics are female athletes and coins.

We'll take coins.

All right.

Give these terms related to coins and coinage.

Metal that gives a US penny its color.

[bell dinging] Copper.

Correct.

Four-letter word for a building that produces- Mint.

Correct.

Spinning top used to win coins called gelt at Hanukkah.

[bell dinging] Dreidel.

Correct.

The Spanish dollar was known as a "piece of" this number.

[bell dinging] Six.

No, piece of eight.

A coin with one specific use, such as for a bus ride.

[bell dinging] Token.

Correct.

Suffragette who once appeared on US dollar coins.

[bell dinging] Susan B. Anthony.

Correct.

Term for pressing an image into a coin, used in other contexts in sports.

[bell dinging] Pass.

Country that uses Krugerrand coins.

[bell dinging] Spain.

No, South Africa.

Rich man from ancient Lydia who first made pure gold coins.

[bell dinging] Mansa Musa?

No, it was Cresus.

Term for the side of a coin- [buzzer beeping] Opposite the obverse and that is the reverse.

So Fort Leboeuf, your topic is female athletes.

Given an athlete, name the primary sport in which she competes.

Give an overall sport, not the name of any particular discipline within that sport.

Here we go.

Gabby Douglas.

Gymnastics.

Correct.

Mia Hamm.

Soccer.

Correct.

Serena Williams.

Tennis.

Correct.

Candace Parker.

Volleyball.

No, basketball.

Lindsey Vonn.

Snowboarding.

No, alpine skiing.

Laila Ali.

Soccer.

No, boxing.

Suni Lee.

Ice skating.

Gymnastics.

Carissa Moore.

Ice skating.

No, surfing.

Katie Ledecky.

Swimming.

Correct.

Danica Patrick.

Soccer.

No, she's an auto racer.

She's a what?

Auto racing.

Good for her.

All right, we go back to our regular line of questioning.

Toss up, what state, where Union troops found Robert E. Lee's Special Order 191, was the site of the Battle of Antietam- [bell dinging] Fort LeBoeuf, Hamilton.

Maryland.

Correct, here is your bonus.

What order of aquatic mammals takes its name from the Latin word for "whale" and also includes dolphins?

[team chattering] Porpoise.

No, that's cetacea.

Oh, darn.

Is the order.

Toss up, what aramid polymer developed by Stephanie Kwolek at DuPont has a very high strength-to-weight ratio, making it useful for bulletproof vests?

[bell dinging] Mercyhurst, Finn.

Kevlar.

That is correct, Kevlar.

Your bonus, the surname of what woman, the first saint born in the US, precedes "Hall" in the name of a New Jersey university?

[team chattering] [bell dinging] Seton.

That's right.

Elizabeth Ann Seton.

Toss up, what author of the novel Pincher Martin wrote about Ralph, Piggy, and other schoolboys who are trapped on an island in the novel- [bell dinging] Mercyhurst, Finn.

Golding.

Correct, here's your bonus.

What father of Laertes and Ophelia does Hamlet describe as a "tedious old fool" before unknowingly stabbing him through a tapestry?

[team chattering] [bell dinging] Duncan.

No, the tedious old fool is Polonius.

Your toss up, what leader, who delivered the "Jewel Voice Broadcast" reigned until 1989 during the Showa Era, and was the emperor of Japan- [bell dinging] Mercyhurst, Finn.

Hirohito.

That is correct.

Bonus, the cities of Plattsburgh and Burlington lie on opposite shores of what lake that forms part of the border between Vermont and New York?

[team chattering] [bell dinging] Champlain.

Correct.

Here is your toss up, pencil and paper ready for this one.

What is the surface area of a cube whose edges each have a length of two, given- [bell dinging] Mercyhurst, Jack.

24.

Correct, here's your bonus.

What sculptor who died in 2022 is known for massively oversized sculptures of everyday objects, such as his Dropped Cone and Clothespin?

[bell dinging] Yes.

Duchamp.

No, that is Claes Oldenburg.

Toss up, what NFL team won Super Bowl XLVIII over Denver, had Richard Sherman and Earl Thomas in its "Legion of Boom" defense- [bell dinging] And Fort LeBoeuf, Hamilton.

Seattle Seahawks.

Correct, here's your bonus.

What poem that ends by describing a bronze statue of Neptune is a dramatic monologue by Robert Browning about the deceased wife of a sinister duke?

[team chattering] The Humphreys.

No, the poem is called My Last Duchess.

[buzzer ringing] And that's the end of the game.

[upbeat music] Fort LeBoeuf, your score was 220.

Excellent job during the matchup, and good luck with the rest of your academic year.

Congratulations to Mercyhurst Prep with a score of 290.

You will be moving on to the next level of competition.

I'm Glenn Holland, thank you for joining us for Scholastic Scrimmage, and please be with us again to see the rest of the competition.

[upbeat music continues]