Final Jeopardy: African Geography (9-23-16)
The Final Jeopardy question (9/23/2016) in the category “African Geography” was:
The Zambezi River reaches the ocean in this country that lends its name to the body of water where it happens.
4x champ Seth Wilson passed the $100K mark in winnings yesterday at $105,800. In the last game of the week, he faces these two players: Charlie Geer, from Columbus, OH; and Elena Stuewe, from Birmingham, AL.
Round 1 Categories: 4-Letter U.S. Cities, Not a Real Muppet or Sesame Street Character, Getting from Here to There, A Homophone of a Past Tense Verb, Animals, It’s Plain to See It’s 33
Seth found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “It’s 33” under the $600 clue. Two clues and two categories remained after it. He was in the lead with $4,200, $3,400 more than Elena in second place. He bet $1,500 and he was RIGHT.
“The 33” is a film based on a real-life copper mine collapse that trapped 33 miners underground in this country. show
Seth finished in the lead with $7,900. Elena was second with $1,800 and Charlie was last, in the red to the tune of $600.
Round 2 Categories: In Praise of Older Writers, Med. Abbrev., Musical Instruments, The Movie’s Title Character, The “Sym”s, Remembering World War I
Seth found the first Daily Double in “Older Writers” under the $1,200 clue on the 10th pick of the round. In the lead with $9,900, he had $4,900 more than Elena in second place. He bet $2,000 and he was RIGHT.
In his 90s, this Irish playwright was still writing comedies like “Far-Fetched Fables.” show
Elena found the last Daily Double in “Musical Instruments” under the $1,600 clue. It was the first clue chosen in that category and there were only 4 clues left after it. She was in second place with $9,400 now, $10,900 less than Seth’s lead. She boldly made it a true Daily Double and she was RIGHT.
The oud, of the Middle East, is a member of this stringed instrument family with a 4-letter name. show
Only 3 of the remaining clues in the same category were uncovered. No one got the $2K clue and Seth got the other 2. He finished in the lead with $21,900. Elena was next with $18,800 and Charlie was in third place with $4,600.
NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHAT IS MOZAMBIQUE?
“The Zambezi makes a double S curve from the north western Zambia to the Indian Ocean. With the source at 1,524 m (5,000 ft) above sea level, it flows through eastern Angola, traverses western Zambia, forms the border with the north-eastern Namibia at Caprivi Strip and briefly touches Botswana at a point where four countries meet (Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia). Later it forms the boundary between Zambia and Zimbabwe and finally cuts across Mozambique to flow into the Mozambique Channel….” (Zambia: The African Safari)
Take the African Rivers and Lakes Quiz on LizardPoint
Charlie drew a blank. He lost his $1,601 bet and had $2,999 left.
Elena thought it was South Africa. She lost $3,101, finishing with $15,699.
Seth came up with Zambia. He didn’t bet a metical so he won the game with $21,900. His 5-day total is $127,700. WOWEE! Elena’s late round true DD certainly made for an edge-of-the seat ending to this match!
A triple stumper from each round:
A HOMOPHONE OF A PAST TENSE VERB ($600) On the periodic table, it could also be interpreted as “escorted”
THE MOVIE’S TITLE CHARACTER ($2000) Navin R. Johnson, the son of black sharecroppers (1979)
2 years ago: ALL of the players got this FJ in “Famous Americans”
In 1936 at age 79, he published an article in Esquire Magazine in which he described how to pick a jury. show
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As an editor at the daily student paper at UMCP, I supervised several telephone polls of campus ugrads on their views, but we occasionally slipped in a knowledge question. The gist of one was to name just FOUR countries in Africa other than Egypt and South Africa. Only something like one-quarter of the students did so, with close to 50 choices available. I was and am dumbfounded. To USA Americans, apparently Africa remains the terra incognito Dark Continent. I thought this was a modestly easy FJ, and not likely to be a Triple Stumper.
This was circa 1984 by the way.
This FJ seems to have been written by someone who speaks English as a 3rd language. Yeah, I know, “What African country shares a name with…[something, something]” might’ve been too elementary—ambiguous, even —but, cmon!
For the record, I got it. 🙂
I agree, Cece, ma petite pomme de terre lol. I thought it was phrased very awkwardly. Not that I would have gotten the answer had it been phrased differently, though. Congrats to you for knowing it!
Merci, mon petit lapin, lol.
Certainement lol!
I guess world geography is best learnt where one is young, especially when collecting stamps at a youthful age. Otherwise, I guess the schools don’t have time for it, nowadays.
Nor should they. Schools must prepare students for higher level reasoning. The memorization of facts is significantly less important now than it was before. It is also a lower form of intelligent thinking (Bloom).
As you have stated your age range before, and there are many similar readers, it is fair to acknowledge the importance of the memorization of facts in previous eras of education. To apply facts for further reference, a student would often have to address the labyrinth of information, the card catalog (or skirt the dangerous line of use/abuse of the reference librarian). This task became easier with more memorization as the student could cross-reference facts to derive the article of reference needed. This is no longer the predominant case.
Consider mathematics. Would it be valuable to remember the first ten multiplication questions a student was ever asked? I believe the overall concept of multiplication is significantly more important. Of course, if the student does not remember the term “i” in the equation, what is 3i squared?, then the correct response is unlikely.
Lastly, btw, what is this “stamp” of which you mention?
Even though I am older than Godzilla, I know that they still require students to memorize geographical information.
My granddaughter had to memorize all the African countries and capitals for one class last year, and her Spanish teacher had them memorize the names and capitals of all Spanish speaking countries. Neither teacher bothered to go over them first and teach the kids the correct way to pronounce some of them. Can you believe that?
Anyway, memorizing stuff to pass a test is one thing. Learning and knowing it is another.
VJ, Thanks for the metical reference. I had to look it up. You are so clever!
Thanks for noticing it, Marilyn. I looked up Mozambique’s monetary unit to get it myself. ha ha ha!
Hope it comes up in a World Currency category someday. We’ll nail it 🙂
Thanks for pointing it out, Marilyn. I thought VJ made some kind of typo lol!
lol Rhonda, maybe I should have put a link in there. Here is one to a video on youtube where they show various Mozambican banknotes, from 20 to 1000. I also learned that the plural of metical is meticais.
Another win for Seth and this was an amazing match. I have to tell you, Seth’s playing style is just like Buzzy Cohen for some reason. Congrats to Seth on his fifth game victory! Vj I really liked the sesame street category but are you familiar with any of the characters on that show since each of the clues revealed the choices of which character is or isn;t a muppet?
@Lou, yes I am fairly familiar with those characters– my kids used to watch Sesame Street, The Muppet Show and some Muppet movies. I liked the Muppet Show and their guest stars like Liza Minnelli doing Copa Cabana
Seth knows when to bet the farm and when not to. That’s what I think. :):)
Here’s a link to 10 more clues from this match
Finally, a 5x champ. Congrats Seth. What a way to go.
Fantastic performance week!
Surprised fj was a triple stumper. Victoria Falls, which is the largest Falls in the world I believe, is on the Zambezi River. I thought this river’s mouth was famous. But, I guess not.
Agreed! But I gotta say, that $0 wager was really risky though!
Leena, it sure was risky.