Maryland Fall Classic High School Tournament Playoff Round 1 Questions By Jeremy Eaton Letter Round The Letter “S” Sit on down for a super-special and stupendous session of solving solutions to several stumpers!

1) This birthplace of gangster Lucky Luciano has a capital at Palermo, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean. It forms the ‘toe’ of Italy’s ‘boot’.

2) This leader of the Admirable Campaign and issuer of the Decree of War to the Death was the victor at Boyacá. He's also known as “El Libertador”.

3) Existing in Spenserian, Petrarchan and English varieties, these 14 lined poems were most famously written my William Shakespeare.

4) His namesake equation explains how the laws of quantum mechanics change the wave function over time. Name this Austrian-Irish physicist known for his famous thought experiment involving a cat.

5) Symbolized by silver and green and founded by a namesake Salazar, this Hogwarts house was formerly headed by Severus Snape and was home to Draco Malfoy.

6) Known for the short stories “The Laughing Man” and “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” in his collection, Nine, this author also wrote of a phony-hating Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye.

7) Located in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican, this work by Raphael depicts several Renaissance figures as famous Classical people and is set in Plato’s Academy.

8) Often caused by genetic drift or the founder’s effect, this process of new kinds of organisms arising from older types can be allopatric, sympatric or peripatric.

9) This battle ended the Campaign of 1777 and resulted in a triumphant victory for the Americans as British general John Burgoyne surrendered his army securing the northern states from future attacks from Canada.

10) Having such tributaries as the Phlegethon, Acheron and Cocytus, the ferryman Charon would send souls across this mythical river of the Greek underworld.

1) A key believer in the Post-Napoleonic ‘balance of power’ in Europe, this Austrian minister’s negotiations at the Congress of Vienna earned him the nickname “The Coachman of Europe”.

2) Set in 1547, the almost identical son of Henry VIII and a poor beggar by the name of Tom Canty switch places in this tale by Mark Twain.

3) Found only in plants, these organelles contain structures called thylakoids and have a major role in converting light energy into simple sugars.

4) This four-legged animal from Southwestern Native American mythology is seen as both a creator an trickster figure.

5) Artists like Maurice Prendergast and Robert Henri made up The Eight, a part of this American art movement that was named for the dusty New York City scenes they painted.

6) Including such phases as Sensorimotor and Concrete Operational, the cognitive developmental stages of this Swiss psychologist helped create the constructivist theory of learning.

7) An indicator species of this desert is the Joshua Tree, a species mostly found in this desert's boundaries of northwest Arizona, southern Nevada, eastern California and southwest Utah.

1) In addition to establishing the Holy League, this Russian czar obtained both Finland in 1809 and Poland in 1815 during his reign.

2) This short story by the author of The Minister's Black Veil sees the title character leaving his newlywed wife Faith to attend a satanic ritual in the forest.

3) Usually only found in animals, these structures migrate toward the cellular poles during mitosis and are composed of packed bundles of microtubules.

4) In one myth, this trickster figure meets his demise when crushed by the womb of a mother goddess. He is also known for creating the islands of Hawaii and New Zealand with his magical fishhook.

5) Led by Andre Derain and Henri Matisse, this movement focusing on simplistic lines, bright and clashing colors and exaggerated perspective took its name from a word meaning “wild beast”.

6) Known for coining the term ‘identity crisis’, this psychologist’s eight stages of social development involve conflicts between abstract ideas. Chances are you are in his ‘identity vs. confusion’ stage now.

7) The rainy season results in standing water in this desert of Botswana and Namibia due to the overflowing of the Okavango River.

1) Its fourth movement represents a thunderstorm while its first movement is said to evoke the pleasant feelings upon arriving in the country. This describes what Pastoral symphony of Ludwig von Beethoven?

2) Also known as Nernst's Theorem, this scientific law is usually expressed: "as a system approaches absolute zero, the entropy of the system approaches a minimum value."

3) Some of its characters include Colonel Korn, Milo Minderbender and Major Major Major Major. Name this Joseph Heller novel featuring a John Yossarian stuck in the work's namsake unescapable situation.

4) Released as Doki Doki Panic in Japan, this NES sequel to a highly successful 1985 game allowed players to play as Toad, Princess Toadstool, Luigi and the title plumber.

5) Led by Mao Zedong's widow, Jiang Qing, this group of Communist leaders was arrested in 1974 on the grounds that they were to blame for the Cultural Revolution.

6) This Shakespearean play features the character Viola entering the service of the Duke Orsino while dressed as a young man named Cesario, and is subtitled "Or What You Will".

7) Marrying Maria Theresa after the Treaty of the Pyrenees and reforming the market with the help of Jean-Baptist Colbert are some of the accomplishments of this French "Sun King".

8) This law, stating that "an object in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by an external force", is also called the Law of Inertia.

9) Composing the fourth part of the Four Noble Truths in Buddhism, these tenants are divided into three categories including wisdom, ethical conduct and mental discipline.

10) Introducing such concepts as Newspeak, Doublethink and Big Brother, this novel by George Orwell depicts a dystopian society in the title year.

1) John Winthrop, who made the phrase “City on a Hill” popular, was a governor of this colony. Later governors would include Thomas Hutchinson.

2) Essentially a reworking of Chekov’s earlier work the The Wood Demon, this Chekov play climaxes with the title family member failing to kill his enemy, Serebryakov.

3) This Czech composer wrote a six song cycle titled “Ma Vlast” which featured scenes from his native land of Bohemia, and an opera entitled “The Bartered Bride”.

4) Lending its name to a modern country in Western Africa, this 13th to 17th century Islamic empire was led by such leaders as Mansa Musa.

5) Also known as Vedanta, the oldest ones date back to the 8th century BC and are composed as follow-ups and commentary to the Hindu Vedas.

6) Discovered by Galileo, this fourth largest moon and most actively volcanic body in the solar system is geologically powered by tidal resonance.

7) With a father named Teague, this character has possessed a jar of dirt, a compass that points to your heart’s desire and a piece of eight capable of summoning the sea-goddess, Calypso.

1) Edward Maria Wingfield was the first Proprietary Governor of this colony, a role also filled by John Ratcliffe and, before the Revolution, the Earl of Dunmore.

2) This Oscar Wilde play concerns the title character’s decision to leave her husband after her suspicion that he is seeing a woman by the name of Mrs. Erlynne who turns out to be her own mother.

3) This composer of such operas as “Expectation” and “Moses and Aaron” is more well-known for his innovations in modern music with his use of atonal motifs and the 12-tone row.

4) This Southern African empire, taking its name from the Shona words for “houses of stone”, is known from massive stone ruins located in the modern namesake country.

5) Obtained through self-actualization and the seeing of the illusion of maya, this is the action of liberating oneself from the cycle of reincarnation in Hindu religion.

6) Found to have hydrocarbon lakes thanks to the Huygens probe, this largest moon of Saturn is the only moon in the solar system with a substantial atmosphere.

7) Portrayed by Gerard Butler on the big screen, this Frank Miller hero has his story told by an orator named Dilios and is notable for kicking an ambassador into a deep well.

1) This goddess takes the form of a mare to escape Poseidon and disguises herself among the horses of King Onkios. A central figure of the Eleusinian Mysteries and mother to Persephone; name this Greek goddess of grain and agriculture known as Ceres among the Romans.

2) While in Rome for Carnival, the title character rescues the young Albert de Morcerf from the bandit, Luigi Vampa. Identify this novel starring a young Edmond Dantes set on revenge against his enemies for his 14-year imprisonment in the Chateau d’If, a work by Alexander Dumas.

3) Members of this phylum were among the first to inhabit terrestrial environments due to their chitin exoskeletons helping to prevent desiccation. From the Greek for “joint-legged”, name this invertebrate phylum that includes crustaceans, insects and arachnids.

4) In an event termed "dropping the pilot", this man resigned on advice of the emperor, being replaced by Leo von Caprivi. In 1884, he formalized the European “Scramble for Africa”. Known for waging a war called Kulturkampf against the Catholic Church, name this German "Iron Chancellor" under Kaiser Wilhelm I.

5) As an interlude to the main sections, there is a theme that alternates between 5/4 and 6/4 time called the “Promenade” that signifies a transition between scenes. Ending with the movement, “The Great Gate of Kiev” this is what piano suite by Modest Mussorgsky following the composer through an art gallery.

6) The splitting of this element’s atoms resulted in the first man-made nuclear reaction, and it is the heaviest element to be produced by the Big Bang. Common uses of this substance include applications in ceramics, batteries and in drugs used to combat bipolar disorder. The lightest of all alkali metals, identify this silvery-white metal with atomic number 3.

7) In the memoir, Gather Together in My Name, this author explores her teenage years as a mother, Creole cook, dancer and chauffeur. She would read one of her poems at Clinton's 1994 inauguration. Name this African-American writer of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

8) Important geographical features on this second most populous island in the world include the freshwater Lake Biwa. It also contains the large Kanto Plain and such cities as Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo. Home to Mt. Fuji, identify this largest island of Japan.

9) In fear of death, this man asked God to place a mark upon him that would make it so anyone who killed him would be given sevenfold vengeance. The monster Grendel is said to be a descendant of this man. Name this eldest son of Adam and brother and killer of Abel.

10) Among his namesakes are a clubbing of the fingers and the condition of the face after death. This man is credited with the concept of Humorism, the idea that all illnesses were caused by imbalances in the body’s four humours. Born on the Greek island of Kos, name this father of medical practice with a namesake oath.

11) In the fifth book of this work, entitled “Pro and Contra”, one of the title characters meets another in a cave and tells him a poem in which Jesus meets with a leader of the Spanish Inquisition. Featuring Dmitri, Ivan and Alexei as the title characters, this is what novel by Fyodor Dostoevski?

12) At the left of this painting, the god Mercury can be seen dressed in a purple and red toga reaching up to pick an orange. Next to him, on the right the three Graces are seen dancing, hands embraced, in a circle. Depicting the arrival of the title season, this is what famous painting by Sandro Botticelli?

13) In a 1927 collaboration, he and Werner Heisenberg discussed various matters of quantum mechanics in what is known as the Copenhagen interpretation. Creator of a namesake atomic model, name this Danish physicist known for his concept of quantized electron energy levels.

14) Among his economic reforms include the Underwood Tariff which established the lowest tariff rates since 1857’s Walker Tariff. The Progressive Amendments were passed during his presidency and he entered the US into World War I. The 28th president of the USA, name this man who gave Fourteen Points at the Treaty of Versailles.

15) Anatomical features of these people include short, stocky bodies, large noses and large braincases; all these traits benefiting them in their environment of Ice Age Europe. Named after the German valley that they were discovered in, identify this species of human that died out about 30,000 years ago.

TB) In math, it is used to describe a function made famous by Lambert and also symbolizes fitness in population genetics. On Sesame Street, Bert serves as the president to National Association of Lovers of this letter. Journalists are taught to use five of these letters in interviews. Name this 23rd letter of the English alphabet.