Final Jeopardy: The Ancient World (12-22-15)
The Final Jeopardy question (12/22/2015) in the category “The Ancient World” was:
Dedicated to a female, it’s among the few of the 7 Ancient Wonders whose ruins you can visit.
New champ Liz Quesnelle was the winner of a rare match with three new players yesterday and she won $20,001. Today her opponents are: Ted Johnson, from Shoreview, MN; and Theresa Tejada, from Allen Park, MI.
Round 1: Liz found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Elementary School” under the $800 clue. It was right before the first break and she was in the lead with $3,800, $600 more than Theresa in second place. She bet $1,000 and he was RIGHT.
The 2 most abundant elements in earth’s crust are oxygen & this one used in making electronic circuits. show
Liz and Theresa finished in a tie with $5,800 each. Ted was right behind them with $5,000.
Round 2: Liz found the first Daily Double in “Double Up on Your Countries” under the $1,200 clue. She was in third place with $8,200, $4,000 less than Theresa’s lead. She bet $3,000 and she was RIGHT.
These 2 Mediterranean islands are independent countries. show
Theresa found the last Daily Double in “Arts & Culture” under the $1,600 clue. In the lead with $15,400, she had $1,800 more than Liz in second place. She bet $2,000 and she was RIGHT.
Because it has 6 units called iambs, the poetic line “Thou art unseen but yet I hear thy shrill delight” is in iambic this. show
Theresa finished in the lead with $17,800. Liz was next with $14,000 and Ted was in third place with $12,200.
Only ONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
“In the marshy basin between Selçuk and Ephesus in Turkey are the pitiful remains of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Temple of Artemis (or Artemision). The ancient temple, built around 650 BC to the cult of Artemis, was constructed on a site already sacred to the Anatolian Mother Goddess, Cybele. The temple was financed by the wealthy king of Lydia and marshy ground was selected for the building site as a precaution against future earthquakes…. On July 21, 356 BC, the night Alexander the Great was born, legend has it that a psychopathic arsonist intent on immortality set fire to the temple. Plutarch remarked that Artemis was too preoccupied with Alexander’s delivery to save her burning temple.” (Sacred Destinations.com)
Ted thought it was the Parthenon. He bet and lost everything.
Liz came up with the Temple of Athena. She also went for the gusto and wound up with zero.
Theresa got it right, even including the location. She bet $3,799 so she won the game with $21,599 and she’s the new champ.
Reverse Ruling: This was the $2,000 “Geographic Features” clue in the first round, initially ruled wrong for Ted and later reversed: “This word describes maple & oak trees & the forests full them.” Ted said hardwood. Liz got what they were looking for with deciduous. Alex announced the reversal right before Liz made her DD bet.
Thy shrill delight: Most of us don’t find shrill sounds a delight, but that DD line is about a bird. Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote it in his ode “To a Skylark.”
2 years ago: TWO of the players got this FJ in “Geopolitical Hot Spots”
On the Grand Trunk Road, the Wagah border separating these two countries since 1947 is called the “Berlin Wall of Asia.” show
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44/54 here.
Fairly easy fj today.. Lol was thinking lighthouse of Alexandria.
can someone please elaborate on Theresa’s FJ bet? I thought it was quite absurd.
My guess is she didn’t like the category and bet so she would win if it was a triple stumper as that would leave her with $14001.
Or also if Ted bet to barely cover Liz (thus Ted trying to win on a triple stump ). It also knocked out either player with a zero bet, regardless of the outcome.
But yes, it is a defensive strategy, perhaps employed with a perceived challenging category.
Tollroad should have been accepted, along with turnpike. Are researchers and/or judges getting slack?
The clue said “A pay-to-drive highway”. A toll road isn’t necessarily a highway, but a turnpike always is. I’m sure that’s why they didn’t accept it.
Speaking for myself, I was amazed that nobody got Ivanhoe. Slightly less surprised, though a bit disappointed, that nobody got “La Belle Dame sans Merci”.
I’m not surprised anymore when they don’t know Sir Walter Scott stuff. I was surprised on La Belle Dame miss and I bet one or more of them has come across the Waterhouse painting somewhere if not read the poem.
Tight Banksy (yes, again, lol)
I’m from the West, and we have no turnpikes. All I know of turnpike is from school history – a dirt road with a pike across it, to collect a toll.
I thought toll road was unacceptable because it is two 4-letter words and not one 8-letter word.
Tollroad is not a word. Toll road is two words, hence it didn’t fit the category and was wrong.
Wow, the two rounds in this game were pretty good . Liz was a good player and I was hoping she’d be our first 4x champ.
Now I have to look to Theresa, both smart and fast! Wouldn’t it be cool if she kept winning till Claudia comes back?
Indeed a good game—even Ted, who was quiet in the first round, came alive in double J. But I personally found the timid bets on the DD’s annoying; I kept yelling go for it damn it!
I was surprised Liz didn’t get FJ.
Totally agree on the DD bets but I guess if Liz went big on hers, that would have forced Theresa to do the same and Theresa still would have won.
Exactly, both of them should have gone big on those DD’s. I would have been OK with either of them winning. 🙂
Funny that it was less than a month ago that you mentioned the word deciduous in a comment about pronunciation. I learned at that time that it had to do with trees. So today when the clue came up, the word came to me, though I don’t quite understand its meaning on that clue. 🙂
well, according to wikipedia, some oaks trees are deciduous and some are evergreen, so that would make the hardwood response more correct.
But it is always fine with me when two players get paid because the cluewriters missed a possible correct response.