Final Jeopardy: Literary Heroines (7-23-14)
The Final Jeopardy question (7/23/2014), in the category “Literary Heroines” was:
Fittingly, this character is named for a plant also known as arrowhead that belongs to the genus Sagitarria.
Day 3 of the 2014 Teen Tournament Quarter-Finals: Today’s players are: William Golden, a 7th grader from Houston, TX; Eileen Bunch, a freshman from Ft. Thomas, KY; and Nikki Airi, a junior from Worthington, OH.
Round 1: William found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Ici On Parle Français” under the $1,000 clue before the first break. In fact, it was the last clue in the first category they decided to go through. He was in second place with $600, half of Nikki’s lead. He made it a true Daily Double and he was RIGHT.
Rue a sens unique is this type of street. show
William finished in the lead with $6,400. Nikki was second with $4,200 and Eileen was last with $1,000.
Round 2: William found the first Daily Double in “European Geography” under the $2,000 clue. He was in the lead with $10,800, $5,400 more than Nikki in second place. He bet $2,000 and thought it was Vatican City. That was WRONG.
In North-Central Italy, you’ll find another country altogether, the tiny republic of this. show
Right after that, William picked the last Daily Double in “10 Years Ago: 2004” under the $1,200 clue. Still in the lead, he had $8,800, but only $3,400 more than Nikki second place. Unfazed, he bet $2,000 again. He got one RIGHT and one WRONG, so he missed out.
At the Democratic National Convention, these 2 Johns got the nod as the 2004 ticket. show
William finished in the lead with $15,200. Nikki was next with $11,000 and Eileen was in third place with $1,400.
TWO of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
“‘Katniss’ is of course the cattail root, as she tells us. But it is a heavily nourishing plant, important to Katniss who sees herself as the provider for her family…. The plants of the forest are part of Katniss, so much so that the katniss roots give her her name….
“Suzanne Collins notes that she ‘owes her last name to Bathsheba Everdene, the lead character in Far from the Madding Crowd. [Thomas Hardy] The two are very different, but both struggle with knowing their hearts.” (Katniss the Cattail: An Unauthorized Guide to Names and Symbols in Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games
Eileen got it right. Her $1,399 bet brought her up to $2,799.
Nikki started writing something that began with the letters “Li” too late. She lost her $8,200 bet and finished with $2,800.
William also got it right. He bet $1,000 so he won the quarter-final spot with $16,200.
William talked about his first confession experience during the chat. The priest forgot to turn the microphone off after giving everyone instructions and he went first. Everybody got to hear what he said. Alex didn’t think it could have been that bad since William was only about 7 and William responded, wellll…
Despite throwing $2,000 away with a guess on the very last horse race measurement clue, William was mindful of the Wild Card cutoffs when making his FJ bet. We’ll put Nikki on the Wild Card list for now, but unless the betting is really cray cray, she doesn’t have much of a chance of still being on it after tomorrow’s game. It might have been Erin falling off, if Nikki had chosen to stand pat.
Jeff Xie — $19,000
Kat Deabill — $14,400
Erin Christopher — $9,000
Nikki Airi – $2,800
2 years ago:: NONE of the players got this FJ in “Opera”
The swan boats in Boston’s Public Garden were inspired by this opera in which a swan pulls a boat on the Scheldt River. show
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nikki took her response out of context in the “french” category. she replied ” VERY” much and that was wrong, although in colloquial french it is implied. “merci tres bien” would come closer, so nikki was actually wrong. fortunately it did not matter.strange, how often translations are believed to be verbatim, when the meaning/intent is only implied. in german you can say “danke schoen” which means literally “thank you beautiful” the ‘BEAUTIFUL” not directed at the person you want to thank 🙂 or you can say “danke sehr”, verbatim “thank you very”.
would’t it be wild, if she got a wild card by the $1 she leads eileen? stranger things have happened…. if nobody gets up to 2.800 tomorrow or friday as non-winner ..nahhhh! still, there could be ONE dominant player in the 2 remaining games, the other 2 need (or think they need) to bet it all to get to a level where you have a chance for a wild card and then wipe
what also struck me is the difference in appearance. 1 or a maximum of 2 years difference (unless nikki took 10 years off from studying) between the two, but if you would have shown them to me on the street, i would have guessed that eileen is maybe 10 and nikki closer to 25. that changed however the moment eileen started to talk. she has a very strong, firm voice. nothing you would expect from such a frail and delicate person. i thought to myself “if she were 200 pounds heavier, she could one day make a good singer in a wagner opera…)
@John, I was surprised at how strong Eileen’s voice was for her age. She might be a singer and Alex opted to discuss her typewriter since he said he also uses one.
She should’ve not risked that much if she knew she wasn’t going to know the answer. She could’ve had a wild card spot if she risked less than $1,000. I wish she was smarter in her wager.
All she knew when she made her bet was the category was a heroine in literature and I daresay most girls would feel very comfortable betting on that.
A 16-year-old male pointed out to me this afternoon that all I had to do was focus on one word and disregard the words following it and I would have the correct response. That word was “arrowhead.”
Maybe she couldn’t think of the heroine’s name. I had no clue but I’m not a teen.
You know, Ben, 11,000 is a very tough number to stand on. Traditionally, it is not enough to qualify. You have to remember that she doesn’t know how much the other wild cards have and she bet enough to almost assuredly qualify if she was right and actually left just enough to tie third. Her bet was only one dollar too much, in my opinion (remember ties are bad in qualifying rounds: she could lose out on a tie-breaker: at least, I think).
Betting less, like 2,000 or 3,000 seems bad, because if right, she may not qualify still: that’s a bad position.
Again, from last night, somewhere (it could have been The Final Wager) I heard that a tie-breaker may go to the player who entered FJ with the greater amount. I have seen that this was not the case for a first place tie a couple of years ago, but may be a wild card tie-breaker (which makes sense because the players may be coming from different games).
It looks like Kat will get away with her bet on Monday: it might be a free lesson. For her not to qualify, all of the remaining players in the next two games would have to exceed her total. Jeff, of course, is into the next round.
William, like someone I know here, is really smart. He toppled a Junior and Alex said he is the youngest contestant in the tournament. Way to go William.
Wow. He’s a seventh grader! I just saw that.
I’m assuming he’s 13 and his bday is after the cutoff date. But he is one I thought looked like he wasn’t in high school yet in the howdies.
TOM CLARK: it has been virtually proven that there was a malfunction on the part of Jeopardy yesterday on Jeff’s answer. So, in what was a big moment in his life, he answered correctly, and then responded with grace. He may be a good player for whom you may enjoy rooting.
I second that statement.
I don’t think either will make it, but we just missed a tie for a possible wild card.
These bets are just weird. I think that by following game theory, Jeff has a huge advantage for next week.The week is, of course, not over.
Keith Williams: please do a qualifying tutorial.
I blew my prediction again. Low scores too.
I was close. I said a guy would bet nothing. I should have been right.