Final Jeopardy: Modern-Day China (5-14-13)
The Final Jeopardy question (5/14/2013) in the category “Modern-Day China” was:
Because internet censors block mention of this 1989 date, Chinese bloggers write it as “535”.
Today’s semi-finalists are: Jed Silver, a Tufts senior, Cindy Cammarn, a Bowdoin junior; and Kristen Jolley, a Georgia Tech senior.
Cindy was the winner of her match with $12,700. Kristen was a Wild Card winner with $19,000 and Jed also got a Wild Card spot with $9,999. Obviously the money matters more than winning the match since, as you may have noticed, Kristen went first.
Jed found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “On the Map.” He was in third place with $200, $1,000 behind Cindy’s lead, but one clue before he and Cindy were tied! He bet $1,000 and named the Yucatan and Baja California peninsulas. That was WRONG.
They’re the two large peninsulas that nearly enclose the Gulf of Mexico. show
Kristen and Cindy finished in a tie for first place at $2,600. Jed was in second place with $600.
Kristen found the first Double Jeopardy Daily Double in “Biology 101.” She was now in the lead with $3,000, $400 more than Cindy in second place. She made it a true Daily Double and she was RIGHT.
The green pigment necessary for photosynthesis is contained in these bodies within plant cells. show
Cindy found the last Daily Double in “America After the Revolution.” She was in second place with $8,600, $600 less than Kristen’s lead. She bet $2,000, said it was the ABC Affair and that was WRONG.
In this 1797 Affair, French agents demanded the U.S. loan France $10 million before our diplomats could meet Talleyrand. show
Kristen finished in the lead with $9,200. Cindy was next with $8,600 and Jed was in third place with $7,400.
NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
In 2012, on June 4th, Peter Ford wrote in The Christian Science Monitor: “For the 23rd year in a row, the Chinese authorities today continued their efforts to impose collective amnesia about the Tiananmen Square massacre on June 4, 1989, seeking to stamp out any public reference to the event…. Censors at Sina Weibo, the popular Twitter-like social media platform, were working overtime to block searches for – or references to – “6.4” or other obvious signifiers such as “tank,” “crush,” “never forget,” and “square.”
“535” was a forbidden term, too, because Internet users have taken to referring to May 35, instead of June 4. Classically minded censors wouldn’t let you post anything with VIIIIXVIIV in it either, in case readers familiar with Roman numerals could decipher 89.6.4. And by late afternoon, even the word “today” had been banned….”
Jed wrote down June and almost a 5. That was wrong anyhow so he lost his $1,801 bet and finished with $5,599.
Cindy thought it was May 5th. That cost her $8,599 and she finished with $1.
Kristen wrote down “What is the date of Tiananmen Sq.” True, but not what they were looking for, so she lost her $1,799 bet. That still left Kristen with enough to win the match with $7,401 and she will be joining Trevor Walker in the finals.
