Hunter College High School Tournament
January 19th, 2008
Round Ten

Tossups

1. One character attempts to sell chocolate-coated cotton, after buying an entire year’s worth of Egyptian cotton on impulse. The protagonist is part of the “two to the fighting eighth power” squadron stationed on an Italian island. Snowden’s death  affects the protagonist greatly, leading him to ask, “Where are the Snowdens of yesteryear?” Aarfy rapes and murders Michaela, who represents pure innocence. M&M emterprises, run by Milo (*) Minderbinder, is really a black market racket. Its title refers to the illogical military rule that prevents Doc Daneeka from grounding the protagonist. In the final chapter, it is discovered that Orr has deserted to Sweden, which leads Yossarian to escape to Sweden himself. FTP, name this novel set in World War II by Joseph Heller. 
ANSWER: Catch-22  
<Chen>  

2. During the Hellenistic period, the millefiori technique was developed, allowing people to create intricate designs in it. A light green type of this, called trinitite, was formed as a result of the Trinity nuclear test. It is formed by quenching a melt. In medieval Europe, the bullseye of the crown type of this was less expensive than the outer edges. Because of the lack of electric transition states in the range of visible light and because of its homogeneity, it is usually transparent. (*) Some common types include the Germania, soda-lime, and borosilicate types. Natural ones, such as obsidian, are usually produced in lava flows. It is cooled through its transition temperature quickly enough so that a crystal lattice cannot form, hence they are amorphous. FTP, name this solid material commonly used in window panes. 
ANSWER: glass (prompt on “amorphous solid” or “non-crystalline solid”) 
<Chen> 

3. The most primitive members of this group are sea squirts, whose motile larval stage sports a muscular post-anal tail.  In craniates, the nervous system develop into a brain and head, while pharyngeal slits become gills, such as those in hagfishes, which technically are not true fish.  True fishes have jaws while lampreys do not, but since they both belong to the subphylum (*) vertebrates, they have an extensive skeletal system, including a spinal column evolved from the shared notochord. FTP – name this phylum in the Animal Kingdom to which amphibians, reptiles, and mammals all belong. 
ANSWER: Chordates or Chordata 
<Cheng> 

4. In one legend, she took the form of a wild cat and killed all who come near, but Thoth told her stories to get her to come back, and her cult was centered at Dandarah.  People would come to her temples to have dreams explained, and her cult was unusual as men and women were priests.  Known as the Lady of the Limit, during the war between Horus and Seth, she danced naked around Ra in order to cheer him up.  Often identified with Aphrodite, she is often depicted behind Osiris, in the form of Sakhmet, and another god had to get her drunk in order to prevent her from wiping out humanity.  The “Eye of Ra”, her name translates as (*) “the House of Horus”, and her headdress features a sundisk.  FTP, identify the Egyptian goddess depicted with the head of a cow. 
ANSWER: Hathor 

5. Among the most famous adventures of this novel are those of the Spider Monsters and the Skeleton Monster. One of the four protagonists is lazy and gluttonous, and has eight abstinences he must abide by which make up part of his name. Another was trapped under a mountain as a punishment for a misdemeanor, but was freed and given an opportunity to redeem himself. He has magic power for seventy-two transformations (*) whereas the glutton only has thirty-six. FTP, name this novel in which Chu Pa-chieh, the half-pig glutton, Sun Wu-k’ung, the half-monkey fighter, and the loyal Sha Monk all help the Buddhist priest Hsuan-tsang embark on a pilgrimage, one translation of which is called Monkey, written by Wu Ch’eng-en in Ming Dynasty China. 
ANSWER: Journey to the West or Hsi yu chi or Xi you ji or Monkey before it is mentioned 
 <Tse> 
 
6. Typically, one side is flat and has a shorter lead to mark the cathode side, as they must be inserted in the right direction. The flat side corresponds to a straight line segment on one side of their circuit diagram symbol. In AC applications where the current exceeds the breakdown voltage, they can be protected by placing a second one in inverse parallel. Although they are much more reliable than incandescent sources, (*) they can still be damaged by a sudden change in temperature, which might cause cracks to form in the epoxy resin in the packaging. Aluminum gallium arsenide is used in red and infrared ones, while blue ones require a quantum well and are thus more expensive to produce and rarer. The color of the plastic casing does not significantly affect the color. FTP, name this electronic device which exhibits electroluminescence and allows current to flow in only one direction. 
ANSWER: Light-Emitting Diode (prompt on “diode”) 
<Chen>

7. After his father died at the Battle of Point Pleasant, his mother moved to Missouri and he was raised by his sister and his brother, who trained him to become a warrior. On a trip south, he won over members to his cause by predicting the New Madrid earthquakes and claiming that a comet was a good omen, because his name meant Shooting Star. With his brother, a reformed alcoholic who became known as The (*) Prophet, he set up the city of Prophetstown, which soon saw the arrival of many Native Americans for his confederacy. Two years before being killed at the Battle of the Thames, forces under his brother were soundly defeated by William Henry Harrison at the Battle of Tippecanoe. FTP, name this Shawnee leader whose war for Native American unity was later subsumed into the War of 1812. 
ANSWER: Tecumseh or Tekamthi (be lenient with vowels) 
<Tabachnick> 

8. It has been called “The Helen of Geometers”, because it often caused quarrels among 17th century mathematicians. First studied by Nicholas of Cusa and named by Galileo, it is an example of a roulette curve. It is related to the epitrochoid and hypotrochoid curves, which can be constructed using a Spirograph toy. The solution to both the (*) tautochrone and brachistochrone problems, its area is 3 times that of the generating circle, and its length is 4 times the diameter of the generating circle. FTP, name this curve traced by a fixed point on the edge of a circle rolling along a straight line. 
ANSWER: cycloid 
<Chen> 

9.  Contrary to popular belief, this painting was popular enough to be reproduced by Gerrit Lundens in oil, which is now found in the National Gallery in London. It was moved in 1715, and in the process it was cut down, losing 3 figures on its left side. It was commissioned by Franz Banning (*) Cocq, and its subjects were probably taking part in a parade. In the background a mustachioed man lifts a blue and gold striped banner, while another beats a drum on its right side. FTP name this group portrait of a ceremonial marching company by Rembrandt, so misnamed because of the dirt accumulated on over the ages. 
ANSWER: The Night Watch or The Company of Franz Banning Cocq before that name is read 
<Dees> 

10. One of these belonging to an elite trainer can generate voodoo dolls out of ice, and also create wispy bands of ice around targets, which that trainer then uses to track down with her powder case. An episode was made with Santa Claus and this Pokémon, which was known in Japan as Rougela. In another episode, three of these were overprotective of another Pokémon which would later evolve into it, Smoochum. After complaints, this Pokémon’s complexion (*) was changed, because she was originally depicted as being in blackface. According to the Pokédex in Red/Blue, “It seductively wiggles its hips as it walks.” FTP, name this Pokémon, #124, an ice/psychic type with egregiously feminine features.
ANSWER: Jynx (accept Rougela early)
<Tabachnick>

11. The penultimate section of this work was adapted into Land of the Rising Sun, the national anthem of Biafra, and other uses for the same tune include A Prayer for Wales and We Rest on Thee. When it was first performed, it was the last of four movements, the other three of which were later published as Scènes historiques. For a while, it had to be performed under the title Impromptu due to Russian rule, but the name by which it goes today was first suggested by Axel Carpelan, a fan of this work. Words for that penultimate section were written first by Wäinö Sola, and then rewritten two years later by V.A. (*) Koskenniemi to support the namesake nation in a war against Russia. FTP, name this tone poem about the native land of composer Jean Sibelius. 
ANSWER: Finlandia (accept “Finlandia Hymn” until “last of four movements”) 
<Tabachnick> 

12. This novel begins in Gateshead Hall, with John Reed bullying his cousin, who fights back and is taken to the red room as punishment. After a near-death experience on the moors of northern England, the title character is taken in by the Rivers family and assumes the false surname of Elliot. She later shares her inheritance of 20,000 pounds with the Riverses, after discovering that they are her cousins. After spending eight years at Lowood School, (*) the title character advertises and is hired at Thornfield Manor as a governess for Adèle Varens. After unsuccessfuly trying to marry her employer, she discovers that he has been keeping Bertha Mason, his violently insane wife, locked up in the attic. FTP, name this novel written by Charlotte Brontë in which the title character falls in love with Mr. Rochester.
ANSWER: Jane Eyre
<Chen>

13. In the north is Qeshm Island, a free trade zone, 21 miles away to the south is the territorial exclave of Musandam, and it is mentioned but left unnamed in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea.  In following with a Traffic Separation Scheme, the traffic lane is only 6 miles wide, consisting of 2-mile inbound and outbound lanes with a 2-mile buffer zone in between.  Some 35 percent of the world's and 75 percent (*) of Japan's oil supply pass through this strategic passage, which was the location of the 1984-1987 Iran-Iraq Tanker War.  FTP, name this opening to the Persian Gulf.  
ANSWER: Strait of Hormuz  
<Cheng> 

14. A League against these helped James Wilson found The Economist publication.  Thomas Malthus believed 80 shillings for a quarter-hundredweight to be fair price, and Duke of Wellington devised a sliding scale which reduced it to 73 shillings.  They were first instituted by the Tory government of Lord Liverpool, and after the disaster of (*) Peterloo Massacre, the Six Acts declared any reform movement meeting "an overt act of treasonable conspiracy".  Later repealed by Sir Robert Peel, these were, FTP, what last protectionist policy of the mercantilist era which placed a tariff on imported grain, not the namesake maize product? 
ANSWER: Corn Laws   
<Cheng> 

15. These cause the only known diseases that can be sporadic, genetic, or infectious. They behave somewhat like ice-nine in Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle. Initially controversial because they violate the central dogma of molecular biology, the abnormal ones propagate themselves by causing the normal molecule to fold itself into the abnormally structured form, without the use of nucleic acids. They can cause Kuru, (*) as well as scrapie in sheep and goats, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. They aggregate to form plaques called amyloids, which disrupt tissue structure and make brain tissue appear “spongelike”. FTP, name these infectious agents responsible for mad cow disease. 
ANSWER: prions or proteinaceous infectious particles 
<Chen> 

16. This man began to collect portraits of famous people in 1845, eventually compiling them into his 1850 A Gallery of Illustrious Americans.  At the outbreak of the American Civil War, he embarked on a project that costed $100,000 and would eventually bankrupt him.  Among his hired staff were Alexander Gardner and Timothy H. O'Sullivan (*) and 20 others, each of whom were given a mobile darkroom, capturing scenes of Civil War battlefields, including shots of Antietam which were exhibited in "The Dead of Antietam".  FTP -- Name this pioneering American photographer, who took the pictures of every president from John Quincy Adams to William McKinley. 
ANSWER: Mathew Brady
<Cheng> 

17. Hardin’s tragedy of the commons is sometimes said to be an example of a multi-player generalization of it. It demonstrates that in a non-zero-sum game, the Nash equilibrium isn’t necessarily Pareto optimal. In its iterated form, successful strategies tend to be nice, (*) retaliating, forgiving, and non-envious, making tit-for-tat one of the best deterministic algorithms. In its payoff matrix as described by Douglas Hofstadter, the sucker’s payoff must have the lowest value and the temptation to defect payoff must have the highest value. FTP, name this game in which each of two players can choose to either cooperate or defect. 
ANSWER: prisoner’s dilemma 
<Chen> 

18. Much of his love poetry is addressed to Jeanne Duval, and although his projects The Lesbians and Limbo never appeared in book form, six poems excised from his most famous work were republished in Wreckage. His translation of "Mesmeric Revelation" was the first of many that would later be part of a collection of translations of Edgar Allan Poe, Extraordinary Tales. Various poems in prose were published posthumously in (*) Paris Spleen, while "Spleen and Ideal" is the first section of his most famous work. Other sections include "Parisian Scenes", "Wine", "Revolt", "Death", and one that shares its name with the title of the work. FTP name this French author of Les Fleurs du Mal, or The Flowers of Evil.
ANSWER: Charles(-Pierre) Baudelaire
<Tabachnick> 

19.  In 2004, the Pet Shop Boys created a new soundtrack for this movie, while the original was composed by Edmund Meisel. At the climax, the word “Brothers!” is shown on the screen and the title entity passes unharmed in the fifth and last section, “Rendezvous with a Squadron”. Its third section, “A Dead Man Calls for Justice”, sees the people of a certain port mourning the death of Vakulinchuk, (*) who died leading a rebellion over meat infested with maggots. Cossacks are then called into that port city, Odessa, and ruthlessly massacre citizens by marching down a staircase with guns pointed. FTP, name this 1925 silent film directed by Sergei Eisenstein that begins and ends with the story of the title warship. 
ANSWER: The Battleship Potemkin or Bronenosets Potyomkin 
<Tabachnick> 

20. These people called themselves the gag-gigga, meaning "black-headed people."  During the rule of Ennantum of Lagash, who unified many city-states and even extended the realm to Elam.  The last king of the Lagash dynasty, Lugal-Zage-Si was the last king of the ethnicity, conquering (*) Uruk, where he established his capital.  Following his rule, the lands came under the domination of Semitics from Akkad, during which their native language phased out of common ussage.  FTP – What civilization is credited with the invention of the wheel, and the establishment of the first writing system, which is called cuneiform.  
ANSWER: Sumerians  
 <Cheng> 

Hunter College High School Tournament
January 19th, 2008
Round Ten

Bonuses

1. Alkaloids are amines produced by plants, and sometimes animals or fungi. FTPE, name these alkaloids with pharmacological effects. 
[10] This xanthine alkaloid, found in over 60 plants, acts as a central nervous system stimulant in humans and is the world’s most widely consumed psychoactive substance, with over 90% of adults in North America consuming it daily. 
ANSWER: caffeine (prompt on “guaranine”, “mateine”, or “theine”) 
[10] This bitter-tasting alkaloid found in the bark of the South American cinchona tree was the first effective treatment for malaria. It is also an antipyretic and an analgesic. 
ANSWER: quinine (prompt on “quinidine”) 
[10] This highly poisonous alkaloid is used to induce polyploidy in plants, producing, for example, seedless watermelons. It is used to treat gout and also as a catharthic and emetic.
ANSWER: colchicine
<Chen>

2. Name these Stendhal works FTPE: 
[10] In this novel, Julien Sorel is the son of a carpenter who is convicted for shooting his ex-lover Madame de Rênal. 
ANSWER: The Red and the Black or Red and Black or Scarlet and Black or Le Rouge et le Noir 
[10] This only other Stendhal novel details the story of Fabrizio del Dongo, who fights for Napoleon at Waterloo and is confused about whether or not he has been in "a real battle", and is arrested for murder and imprisoned. 
ANSWER: The Charterhouse of Parma or La Chartreuse de Parme
[10] This novella's title is the pen name of Marie-Henri Beyle. The title character falls in love with Pietro Missirilli, who is executed, and ends up marrying Livio Savelli, a man she scorns. 
ANSWER: Vanina Vanini
<Tse> 

3. FTPE, name these addictive stimulants that are widely abused around the world:
 [10] This most famous stimulant was first developed as a pain reliever and was endorsed by Sigmund Freud, as well as being inserted into drinks like Coca-Cola  
ANSWER: Cocaine  
[10] Nicknamed “Tina”, this drug was used by the Germans in World War II to combat fatigue and is trademarked under the brand name Desoxyn.  
ANSWER: Methamphetamine (also accept crystal meth)  
[10] Most used in Somalia and the Arabian Peninsula, this drug is most famous  with Scrabble players for being a “q without a u” words.  
ANSWER: Qat (accept Khat, Kat, Gat, Chat, Jaad, and Miraa)  
 <Moschetti> 

4. Answer these questions about conic sections, FTPE: 
[10] This non-negative quantity associated with every conic section is the ratio of the distances PQ and LQ, where P is a fixed point, L is a fixed line, and Q is the conic section. For a circle it is zero, for a parabola it is one, and for a hyperbola it is greater than one and less than infinity. Denoted e or epsilon, it can also be thought of as how much the conic section deviates from a circle. 
ANSWER: eccentricity (grudgingly accept “first eccentricity”, however do not accept “linear eccentricity”) 
[10] Conic sections are defined in terms of the eccentricity, a fixed point called the focus, and this fixed line which does not contain the focus. A parabola is the locus of points which are equidistant from it and the focus. In a circle, it is infinitely far away from the focus. 
ANSWER: directrix 
[10] This quantity, denoted l, appears in the polar equation for a conic section. It is defined as half the length of the chord parallel to the directrix which passes through the single focus, or one of the two foci. 
ANSWER: semi-latus rectum (be lenient, prompt on “latus rectum”) 
<Chen> 

5. FTPE, answer these related questions about heat transfer:  
[10] This mechanism of heat transfer cannot occur in a vacuum because it depends on the movement of fluids. It can occur naturally when there are differences in the density of a liquid, causing it to rise.  
ANSWER: convection or convective heat transfer  
[10] This is the process of lowering the temperature of a liquid below its freezing point without it becoming solid, because of the lack of nucleation sites around which crystals form. It is the principle behind liquid hand warmers.  
ANSWER: supercooling  
[10] Convection and supercooling are proposed explanations for this counter-intuitive phenomenon, observed by its namesake Tanzanian high-school student in 1963 when he was making ice cream and discovered that hot ice cream mix freezes faster than cold ice cream mix.  
ANSWER: Mpemba effect  
<Chen>  

6. Identify these about religions that cropped up in Rome FTPE: 
[10] This religion has roots in Indo-Persian sun worship, had tauroctony altars in caves, excluded women, and held that the highest God was infinite time or Aion. December 25th was it winter-sun rebirth holiday. 
ANSWER: Mithraism (prompt on "Mithra" or "Mithras") 
[10] This Egyptian goddess was the focus of a unified religion the Ptolemaic dynasty tried to form, and became a significant cult among the lower classes, with her temples constructed after Caligula legalized her cult. 
ANSWER: Isis or Aset 
[10] This religion arose in Judea after its God was crucified and resurrected. Its leader Paul was later crucified, and it was later split into Orthodox and Protestant variants along with the original Catholic Rite. 
ANSWER: Christianity 
 <Dees> 

7. The African Great Lakes are formed as part of the Great Rift Velley, and includes Lake Victoria, the second largest freshwater lake by volume.  FTPE name these other African Great Lakes:
[10] The second deepest lake in the world, this lake forms part of Tanzania's western border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  It lent its name to the colonial region of continental Tanzania. 
ANSWER: Lake Tanganyika
[10] Also known as "Livingstone's Lake" because he was the first European to see it, this enlongated lake is filled with more fish species than any lake on the planet.  The naming of the lake itself is a subject of controversy, since it was traditionally called Lake Nyasa, though it now shares its common name with the landlocked country it borders, with the capital of  Lilongwe. 
ANSWER: Lake Malawi
[10] Africa's seventh largest lake, it sits between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, and was formerly known as Lake Mobutu Sese Seko, after the Congolese dictator who had named it after himself.
ANSWER: Lake Albert
<Cheng> 

8. Name these Thornton Wilder works FTPE: 
[10] Perhaps the most produced American play, it takes place in Grover’s Corners, and much of the story is told by the Stage Manager. 
ANSWER: Our Town
[10] In this play, the story of the 20th century Antrobus family also recounts the beginning of the Ice Age, the start of the Great Flood, and the end of the Napoleonic Wars. 
ANSWER: The Skin of Our Teeth 
[10] This Wilder novel is about a friar who wants to find the answer to why several people died when the titular bridge collapses. 
ANSWER: The Bridge of San Luis Rey 
<Tse> 

9. FTPE, answer these questions about everyone’s favorite ubiquitous pharaoh, Ramses the Great. 
[10] Ramses is often associated with the pharaoh who released a bunch of Jews in this book of the Torah. 
ANSWER: Exodus or Shemot 
[10] Ramses fought a war with these people whose capital at Hattusa was rediscovered in the beginning of the 20th century. 
ANSWER: Hittites 
[10] Ramses got more or less owned by the Hittites and was forced to retreat after this 1274 BC battle, most likely the largest chariot battle ever fought. 
ANSWER: Battle of Kadesh 

10. It was an extension of atonality used in works of the 2nd Viennese School FTPE: 
[10] What is this compositional technique where one uses all 12 tones of the scale in a row before beginning the next 12 tone row. 
ANSWER: Serialism 
[10] This man developed serialism as an extension of his earlier creation of atonality. He wrote such works as the opera Moses and Aron and Pierrot Lunaire.
ANSWER: Arnold Schoenberg 
[10] This French BBC conductor took serialism one step further, applying it to dynamic markings and creating the totally serialized works Polyphonie X, Structures, and The Hammer Without Master. 
ANSWER: Pierre Boulez 
<Dees> 

11. Identify these about a South African author FTPE:
[10] This novel follows the reverend Steven Kumalo, who travels to Johannesburg to find his criminal son Absalom. On the way he runs into his brother and sister living in sin.
ANSWER: Cry, The Beloved Country
[10] This man wrote Cry, The Beloved Country, as well as the book about Pieter van Vlaanderen who is arrested for having an affair with the black woman Stephanie called Too Late The Phalarope.
ANSWER: Alan Paton
[10] This novel features Prem Bodasingh, and Indian woman, and Hugh Mainwaring who loves her, as well as Robert Mansfield and the Afrikaner Jan Fischer.
ANSWER: Ah, But Your Land is Beautiful
<Dees> 

12. FTPE name these pre-Socratic philosophers:
[10] This Eleatic spent all of his time arguing with people who disagreed with Parmenides, and proposed the so called "paradoxes of multiplicity and motion" which include "if you keep bisecting a line you will never reach its end."
ANSWER: Zeno of Elea
[10] This resident of Miletus was the first to create a philosophy independent of Greek religion, and believed that water was the source of all existence.
ANSWER: Thales of Miletus
[10] This author of On nature and Purifications is considered to have developed the theory that earth, air, fire, and water were the 4 elements of life. Love and Strife constantly war in his belief system, and he supposedly jumped into Mt. Etna to prove he was a God. Guess not.
ANSWER: Empedocles

13. Name these early colonial leaders, FTPE:  
[10] This Quaker founded a colony named for him in 1681, from which Delaware later split off.  
ANSWER: William Penn  
[10] This theologian founded the colony of Rhode Island based upon precepts of religious tolerance and separation of church and state.  
ANSWER: Roger Williams  
[10] This man, the 2nd Baron Baltimore, was the first proprietor of the Maryland colony. The ownership of the colony was given to him because his father George died shortly before it was granted.  
ANSWER: Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore (be nice and prompt on “Lord Baltimore”)  

14. Answer these questions about mitochondria FTPE: 
[10] This theory states that a prokaryote survived endocytosis by another cell and became the mitochondria. 
ANSWER: endosymbiotic theory (accept word forms) 
[10] The inner membrane of a mitochondrion forms these folds, which provide a lot of surface area in the mitochondrion. 
ANSWER: cristae 
[10] Because mitochondrial DNA is inherited from one's mother, this is the name of the woman who is the matrilineal most recent common ancestor for all living humans. 
ANSWER: mitochondrial Eve 
<Tse> 

15. Name these historically significant hills, FTPE: 
[10] This hill, whose name means "place of the skull", was the site of Jesus' crucifixion. 
ANSWER: Golgotha or Calvary 
[10] This hill saw a Pyrrhic victory for the British in 1775, in one of the first major battles of the American Revolutionary War. 
ANSWER: Bunker Hill (also accept Breed's Hill, as much of the actual fighting took place there) 
[10] According to Aeschylus, Orestes was tried upon this hill for killing his mother and her lover. Earlier, it had functioned as the site of the council of elders of Athens, before Ephialtes deprived it of almost all its functions in 462 BC. 
ANSWER: the Areopagus or Areios Pagos 
<Tabachnick>

16. This Geat fights a monster and his brother before being killed fighting a dragon. FTPE:  
[10] Name this thane of Hygelac, the title character of an Old English epic poem.  
ANSWER: Beowulf  
[10] The monster Grendel is attacking the Danish kingdom under this king, whose main hall is called Heorot.  
ANSWER: Hrothgar or Hroðgar  
[10] Beowulf begins with the funeral of this Danish king, an ancestor of Hrothgar.  
ANSWER: Scyld Scefing or Shield Sheafson  
<Tabachnick>  

17. Name these space telescopes that are part of NASA’s four Great Observatories FTPE: 
[10] This infrared space observatory is the last of the Great Observatories, and was launched in August 2003. It is the first to capture light from extrasolar planets. 
ANSWER: Spitzer Space Telescope 
[10] This telescope that focuses on the visible and ultraviolet light spectrum is the first of the Great Observatories, despite its original launch date being delayed by the Challenger disaster. 
ANSWER: Hubble Space Telescope 
[10] Like Hubble, this x-ray observatory is a satellite, and its name comes from Sanskrit for “moon” or “luminous” along with the name of a man who has a limit governing white dwarves. It is the third of the Great Observatories and was launched in 1999 from the space shuttle Columbia 
ANSWER: Chandra X-ray Observatory (prompt on "Chandrasekhar") 

18. Events in Eastern Europe sometimes happen in threes.  FTPE: 
[10] Though chronologically the third, the Second event of this name provoked the Thirty Years’ War, when two Imperial governors were cast out of a window from the Bohemian Chancellery. 
ANSWER: Defenestration of Prague 
[10] The First and Second Balkan Wars were fought over Ottoman-held possessions in Macedonia and Thrace.  The term “Third Balkan War” is sometimes used to describe the conflict that resulted in the breakup of this federal republic. 
ANSWER: Yugoslavia 
[10] Three of these events took place between 1772 and 1795 involving the schemes of Prussia, Russia, and Habsburg Austria.  As a result, a certain country disappeared off the map for over 120 years. 
ANSWER: the Partitions of Poland or Partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (accept equivalents, prompt on "Poland")

19. FTPE answer these questions about polycephaly: 
[10] This deity has four heads, and had five before Shiva punished him for lying by cutting one off.  
ANSWER: Brahma (do not accept Brahman or Brahmana, as they are completely different concepts) 
[10] This Roman god of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings, and endings has a temple that only opens in time of war. He is usually depicted with two. 
ANSWER: Janus 
[10] In Shinto myth, this troublemaker saved the day by having an elderly couple prepare eight vats of wine and set one at each gate in preparation of the arrival of the eight-headed dragon Koshi.  After slaying him, he obtained his sword, Kusanagi. 
ANSWER: Susano-o (accept Susanowo or Susanowa no Mikoto) 

20. Given the description of a work by Marcel Duchamp, name it FTPE.
[10] A very stylized woman is seen walking at several different points of time. Despite one critic's outrage, no shingles are depicted.
ANSWER: Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 or Nu descendant un escalier n° 2
[10] In the top is a lone woman, while the bottom contains her nine suitors. The scene is composed out of oil, varnish, lead, and dust wedged between two large, transparent panes.
ANSWER: The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even or La mariée mis à nu par ses célibataires, même or The Large Glass
[10] A reproduction of the Mona Lisa with a goatee and mustache drawn on it. Its name is a French pun meaning "She's got a hot ass."
ANSWER: L.H.O.O.Q. (accept pronunciation as in English or like French "Elle a chaud au cul", or I guess also accept mispronunciations of the French)