2007 Deep Bench Questions by University of Minnesota Edited by Rob Carson and Andrew Hart

2007 Deep Bench Questions by University of Minnesota Edited by Rob Carson and Andrew Hart Quads Packet Tossups

1. One character in this work believes that religion is "bad sex," while another responds to any question with common advertising slogans in an attempt to avoid confronting his pathological religious obsession. The protagonist gets up the nerve to ask out a girl under the influence of a placebo "truth pill." Dr. Martin Dysart theorizes that the protagonist's obsession originated began with the replacement of a picture of the Crucifixion with one of the titular animal, and the protagonist blinds six of those animals after he fails to get an erection with Jill Taylor. FTP, name this 1973 play written by Peter Shaffer, in which Alan Strang is obsessed with horses. ANSWER: Equus

2. Xander Crews of Frisky Dingo believes these, rather than man, to be "the most dangerous game," while one of these created by Sanrio wears an apple hat and has a pet caterpillar named Imomushi. One stage in We Love Katamari has the Prince raising money to save the red variety of this creature, which is actually more closely related to the raccoon than its namesake. A character named Kuma has a crush on one of these; that one works as a bodyguard for Ling Xiaoyu and made her debut in Tekken 3. FTP name this mammal, often seen mauling Brent Sienna in the webcomic PvP and which was anthropomorphized as a race in the Warcraft universe. ANSWER: Pandas

3. Similar to the Blanc chloromethylation reaction, a variant of it used to created fused rings is called the Scholl reaction. The Gatterman-Koch synthesis involving carbon monoxide is a specific form of this reaction, while the similar Fries rearrangement is applicable to phenyl esters. It cannot proceed if a substituent group is electron withdrawing but is also hindered by hydroxyl and amine groups, and it requires a Lewis acid like aluminum chloride or iron chloride as a catalyst. Named for the two scientists who discovered it in 1877, FTP, identify this reaction which is an electrophilic aromatic substitution existing in the alkylation and acylation forms. Answer: Friedel-Crafts reaction or alkylation or acylation

4. Paul Kroll argues that this man's "The Lady of the Highest Prime" cannot be properly read without understanding the deific implications of a "caftan of red frost." An anecdote about this author recounts how he compared writing to catching giant fish, using "any man lacking in righteousness" as bait. Most of his poems such as Drinking Alone by Moonlight are in the "music bureau" form, while others are in a form of five- or seven-line quatrains known as the Jueju form. His most famous work opens with the speaker recollecting when her "hair was still cut straight across [her] forehead," and that speaker's husband has gone to Ku-to-en on "the river of swirling eddies." FTP, name this author of The River Merchant's Wife, a Chinese poet notably translated by Ezra Pound. ANSWER: Li Po or Li Bai

5. This measure inspired similar efforts which led to Initiative 200 in Washington and Proposal 2 in Michigan. Its first major proponent was Ward Connerly, whose American Civil Rights Institute grew out of efforts to pass this initiative, and that institute continues to combat policies such as the ones this measure sought to prohibit. Its most important section reads "The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin." FTP, identify this 1996 California ballot measure, which sought to ban state-sponsored affirmative action programs. ANSWER: Proposition 209

6. Anderson and Perkins suggested that volcanism in western United States is characteristic of magma produced in this region, and it is conventionally believed to have a temperature gradient with the region above it. One evidence for its existence is the formation of island arcs near deep sea trenches, and its existence was proved when it slowed down waves that passed through it during a 1960 earthquake in Chile. It can be called the "plastic region" because of its low density, and it decouples the lithospheric plate from the mantle. Also known as the low velocity zone, this is, FTP what upper layer of the mantle on which the tectonic plates move? ANSWER: Asthenosphere 7. The Rad30A and Rad30B genes encode for two "low-fidelity" kinds of these entities. The gamma kinds of these entities are localized to mitochondria, while the beta kinds can be found in the nucleus and cytoplasm. John Cairns found a mutant version of the first one of them to be discovered in E. Coli, and Arthur Kornberg won the 1959 Nobel prize in chemistry for isolating them. Their main function is preceded by the work of a primase on the lagging strand because they can only work in the 5'-3' direction. FTP, identify these enzymes which read template strands of DNA and produce complimentary strands from available nucleotides. ANSWER: DNA Polymerases (prompt on early "polymerase" buzz; accept "polymerase" after DNA)

8. Tara Smith wrote about it in her book Viable Values: A Study of Life as the Root and Reward of Morality, Moral Rights and Political Freedom as well as a work regarding its founder and the "virtuous egoist." Its outright rejection of David Hume's idea that "No is implies an ought" is based on this founder's belief that life itself is provides this ought. The axioms of this philosophy are that consciousness exists, existence is identity, and A is A by stated by its fictional spokesman, John Galt. FTP, name this philosophical school centered around existence and reason, first postulated by Ayn Rand in Atlas Shrugged. ANSWER: Objectivism

9. One character offers to free the protagonist if he pays 30,000 monetary units, but the protagonist's lawyer simply rakes up scandals against all his accusers. The protagonist is inspired by the resourcefulness of Konstanzhoglo and intends to buy an estate in the Kherson province. Exposing the poshlost of provincial people such as Plushkin and Nozdrev, this work begins with the protagonist paying visits to Manilov and Sobakietvitch to acquire the titular entities. FTP, identify this novel which describes Pavel Tchitchikov's humorous transactions as he purchases the titles to deceased serfs, a work by Nikolai Gogol. ANSWER: Dead Souls or Myortyve dushi

10. A man involved in this event dubbed himself "Mr. John Johnson," and many involved in this event were captured by Richard Walsh. Several others participants in this event were eventually killed or captured at Holbeach House. Oswald Tesimond related news of this to Father Henry Garnet, who was executed for being aware of this event, and Everard Digby, Ambrose Rokewood, and Robert Catesby were plotters in this event, but it was betrayed by Francis Tresham to Lord Monteagle before it could be carried out. FTP, name this plot to assassinate James I that was with explosives prepared by Guy Fawkes. ANSWER: The Gunpowder Plot

11. Shinbrot's conjecture states that the "weak solutions" of it possesses fractional derivatives of orders less than one half. The Reynolds-averaged type yield time-averaged models for laminar flow, and integrating them over its streamline results in Bernoulli's principle. It is derived from the principles of conservation of mass, momentum, and energy, and it has been widely used to study Newtonian fluids which are assumed to have incompressible flow. FTP, identify this non-linear partial differential equation named after a French and an Irish mathematician, which is the most general model of fluid dynamics. ANSWER: Navier-Stokes equation(s)

12. One of these paintings sees three cloaked figures, a man, woman, and boy with his hand on the man's leg, looking towards the ground on the beach. In addition to The Tragedy, one of these paintings depicts a woman with a hood and one crusty eye, Celestina. Another of these works shows a nude woman embracing a nearly nude man while a fully clothed mother and child look on, and three figures in the background are huddled in the fetal position, La Vie. The most notable one inspired a poem about a man who "does not play things as they are" by Wallace Stevens, and bends awkwardly over the title instrument. FTP, name these period paintings of Picasso exemplified by The Old Guitarist. ANSWER: Blue Period Paintings

13. In the aftermath of this conflict, Isokyro was burned to the ground. An early treaty in this war saw one side agree not to intervene and cede territory to Holstein-Gottorp, the Peace of Travendal. One side in this conflict scored its first ever naval victory at Gangut, while a land victory for the opposing side saw Charles Eugene de Croy defeated by a force one fourth the size of his. Carl Gustav Rehnskiold commanded for one side in the bloodiest battle of this war, Poltava. FTP, name this war during the time of Charles XII and Peter the Great, which saw the downfall of the empire of Sweden. ANSWER: The Great Northern War 14. The protagonist of this work is attracted to a woman he imagines to be "clean to the hollows of her toes" and as translucent as a silkworm. This work is an extension of the story "The Mirror of an Evening Scene," which featured a similar scene in which the protagonist observes a woman in a reflection. The protagonist trips and observes the Milky Way while rushing to a movie-house fire, and his pastimes include collecting chijimi cloth and critiquing western ballet. One of the protagonist's love interests, Yoko, nurses the sickly Yukio, the son of his other lover Komako's music teacher and possibly her former fiancé. FTP, name this novel about Shimamura's rela- tionship with two geishas in the hot springs region of Niigata Prefecture, a work of Yasunari Kawabata. ANSWER: Snow Country or Yukiguni

15. This man co-sponsored a 1984 act with Bill Nichols which consolidated the military command structure, and sued Jimmy Carter for nullifying the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty. He began his senate career by defeating the incumbent majority leader Ernest McFarland, but he replaced Carl Hayland the next time he ran for senate. He chose William Miller as his vice-presidential candidate, and himself ran as vice-president in 1960, the year in which he wrote Conscience of a Conservative. FTP, name this conservative icon, who lost the landslide 1964 election to Lyndon Johnson, a Republican dude from Arizona. ANSWER: Barry Morris Goldwater

16. He was just 5'4" as a high school senior, but in college he grew seven inches and added ten miles per hour to his fastball. He was drafted in the sixth round in 1999 despite being from Navan, Onterio, and he had Tommy John surgery while a minor leaguer. He started at least 24 games each year since 2004, and his ERA has gone down from 4.59 to 3.16 in that span. Along with teammate and countrymate Adam Loewen, he had a perfect ERA in the World Baseball Classic. Despite starting only 28 games in 2007, he had a career-best .722 win percentage and was fourth in the majors in strikeouts, and he set the all-time franchise record for strikeouts in a game and season, both of which were previously held by Mike Mussina. FTP, name this Baltimore Orioles lefthanded Canadian ace. ANSWER: Erik Joseph Bedard

17. It has its roots in a 1795 Kant work, but empirical research for this idea did not exist until the 1960s, when sociologist Dean Babst published findings supportive of this theory. Rudolph Rummel, Melvin Small and J. David Singer, and Maoz and Abdolali all published articles on this theory that has been strongly criticized by realists like Farber and Gowa. The Sicilian Expedition, Trail of Tears, and the American Revolution are oft-cited counterexamples to this theory. FTP, name this theory of international relations, which holds that countries under a certain type of government will never go to war with each other. ANSWER: Democratic peace theory or liberal peace theory

18. One character is told to come "Close, close, close!" when it is revealed that this entity is "the reason why it's no go...Why things are what they are." An offering to this entity muses "Fancy thinking [this] is something you can hunt and kill," and takes on its form, confessing "I'm part of you" in a climactic scene. Its existence is first reported by a character with a mulberry-shaped birthmark, and it is alternately called a snake-thing for several chapters. This entity is discovered to be a fighter pilot's bloated corpse hanging by a parachute, but Simon is killed in a frenzied mob before he can reveal its true identity to Jack and Ralph. FTP, name this fearful entity that terrorizes the minds of shipwrecked boys in William Golding's Lord of the Flies. ANSWER: The Beastie (do not accept "Lord of the Flies")

19. This person's experiences were set in a modern context in Erik Ehn's play Polio Comes from the Moon, while an Emile Zola work which criticized the reaction to the events surround this person was satirized in a later work by Franz Werfel. She experienced two "miracles of the candle," and while suffering from an asthma attack late in life, she asked for water from the spring she had earlier found, which seemingly cured her. The location of that spring would later become a major pilgrimage site. Most famous for her eighteen visions of a woman standing in the niche of a rock who eventually revealed herself to be "the Immaculate Conception," FTP, identify this patron saint of the sick, a former peasant girl from Lourdes. ANSWER: Saint Bernadette Soubirous or Saint Bernadette of Lourdes 20. Lesser known cities in this state include Patiala, and Ludhiana is called "the Manchester" of this state because of its manufacturing industry. Alexander the Great fought Porus along the Jhelum river in this region, and this fertile region is irrigated by the "five rivers." Notable cities include one the Le Corbusier designed Union Territory of Chandigarh, a city that serves as the capital for this state and Haryana. Operation Blue Star resulted in troops storming the Golden Temple in this region's city of Amritsar. FTP, identify this northwestern state of India which was the birthplace of Sikhism. ANSWER: Punjab

TB. Donald J. Senese wrote a book detailing this main's "Legacy of Constitutional Liberty," and James Brown Scott gave a speech about him in 1926 on the 150th anniversary of his biggest in-state achievement. He lived for most of his life at Gunston Hall, along the Potomac River, and along with Randolph and Gerry, he insisted that a declaration of rights be included in the federal constitution. Objections to this Constitution of Government and is the namesake of a university in northern Virginia. FTP name this Founding Father, whose agitation for such guarantees has earned him the nickname "Father of the Bill of Rights." ANSWER: George Mason 2007 Deep Bench Questions by University of Minnesota Edited by Rob Carson and Andrew Hart Quads Packet Tossups

1. For ten point each, give these loosely related chemistry terms. [10] This method is used to separate constituents of a mixture by separating substances of varying volatility. It exists in dry, extractive and fractional forms. ANSWER: Distillation [10] This law used by spectrophotometers states that absorbance is directly proportional to the concentration of a solution and the length of the path through the solution. ANSWER: Beer-Lambert Law [10] Molar absorptivity is directly proportional to this coefficient, which is a measure of a substance's ability to scatter or absorb light. ANSWER: Extinction coefficient (prompt on: molar absorptivity)

2. It was known as King George's War in North America, and pretty much all the European powers got in on the fun! FTPE: [10] Name this war that took place after Charles VI's Pragmatic Sanction didn't provide the necessary legitimacy for Maria Theresa to rule the namesake country. ANSWER: War of the Austrian Succession [10] George II led his British troops in battle, the last time an English monarch would do so, at this June 1743 battle. It was a resounding success for George over the outnumbered duc de Noailles. ANSWER: The Battle of Dettingen [10] Maria Theresa ceded Silesia to Frederick II of Prussia in this treaty that ended the First Silesian War, a smaller phase of the War of the Austrian Succession. ANSWER: Treaty of Breslau

3. For ten points each, name these characters from Dostoyevsky novels. [10] This misanthropic narrator introduces himself to the reader with the infamous opening lines "I am a sick man… I am a spiteful man." ANSWER: the Underground man, or narrator from Notes from Underground (accept reasonable equivalents) [10] Raskolnikov falls in love with this girl and confesses to the pawnbroker's murder because of her. She accompanies him to Sibera. ANSWER: Sofya Semyonovna Marmeladov or Sonya or Sonechka [10]This father of the Karamazov brothers is abandoned by his wife, which leads him to seek worldly pleasures. He competes with one of his sons for the love of Grushenka, and is finally murdered by Smerdyakov. ANSWER: Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov

4. This guy is so crazy large that even Thor is frightened by his size and strength. FTPE [10] Identify the giant, a master of illusions who is only able to outlive Thor's terrible temper by deftly substituting a hill for himself when Thor decides to kill him. Needless to say, the hill does not survive. ANSWER: Utgard-Loki [10] Loki is challenged to an eating contest with Logi, a servant of Utgard-Loki. In the time it takes Loki to eat a trencher of chopped-up meat, Logi devours the meat, bones, and the trencher itself because he assumes this form, and consumes faster than anything else. ANSWER: Wildfire or fire, accept equivalents [10] Thor is asked to pick up Utgard-Loki's cat, and is embarrassed when he can only lift its paw. Utgard-Loki, on the other hand, is terrified by Thor's strength, because his cat is actually this snakey adversary of Thor. ANSWER: Jormungand, or the Midgard Serpent 5. Answer the following about the geography of Mongolia FTPE: [10] Situated to the west of the Greater Khingan Range this desert spans much of southern Mongolia. ANSWER: Gobi Desert [10] The Shilka river rises in the Khentii Mountains of Mongolia. It joins the Argun on the Russo-Chinese border to give rise to this river, the ninth longest in the world, that makes up much of the Russo-Chinese border. ANSWER: Amur River or Heilong Jiang [10] Partly located in western Mongolia, this mountain range has a name which means "mountains of gold." An eponymous family of languages contains Turkish and Korean subdivisions. ANSWER: Altai Mountains (the family is the Altaic family)

6. Stuff about a region, FTPE: [10] This charged layer of the atmosphere allows for the propagation of radio signals. One of its substituent layers is the Kennelly-Heaviside Layer. ANSWER: ionosphere [10] This dude won the 1947 Nobel prize in Physics for confirming the existence of the ionosphere. He used the BBC's Bournemouth transmitter to confirm the existence of his namesake layer, the outermost of the ionosphere. ANSWER: Edward V. Appleton [10] Caused by blasts of solar flares, these are perturbations which are characterized by high plasma density in the ionosphere. ANSWER: Sudden Ionospheric Disturbances or SIDs

7. He makes a fortune by weaving tirelessly, only to find his old stolen one stormy evening. FTPE: [10] What titular character's stolen treasure is found near the remains of Dunstan, but is eventually content to have Eppie as his adopted daughter? ANSWER: Silas Marner, the weaver of Raveloe (accept either) [10] Identify the author of Silas Marner, who also wrote works such as Adam Bede and The Mill On The Floss. ANSWER: George Eliot or Mary Ann Evans [10] This character is the good natured brother of Dunstan, whose marriage with Molly Farren results in Eppie. He eventually marries his true love, Nancy Lammeter. ANSWER: Godfrey Cass (accept either)

8. This year was kind of an off-year for catchers in the big leagues. FTPE: [10] Name the Dodgers' backstop. He batted .293 with 19 homers and most importantly for fantasy baseball players, 21 stolen bases. ANSWER: Russell Nathan Coltr Martin [10] This Yankees catcher had one of his finest offensive years at age 36. He ranked 12th in the league in OPS, smashed 20 HR, and drove in 90. ANSWER: Jorge Rafael, Jr. Posada [10] This Pirates starting catcher absolutely crushed lefthanded pitchers in 2007, batting .407 against them in 108 at bats. ANSWER: Ronny Leonel Paulino

9. It divides the titular concept into freedom to think and feel as one wishes, the freedom to pursue tastes as long as no harm is done, and the freedom of assembly. FTPE: [10] Name this 1859 work that advocates the independence of the individual from the state, a central document to Utilitarianism. ANSWER: On Liberty [10] This man was heavily influence to write On Liberty by the works of Jeremy Bentham. ANSWER: John Stuart Mill [10] This technical and non-political 1843 Mill work is often inconsistent with his following works and outlines five namesake principles of inductive reasoning. ANSWER: A System of Logic Radiocinative and Inductive 10. At the beginning of one of his short stories, Juvencio Nava screams "Tell them not to kill me!" FTPE: [10] Name this Mexican author of the collection The Burning Plain, which contains the aforementioned "Tell them not to kill me!" as well as "Because we are so Poor." ANSWER: Juan Rulfo [10] This is Juan Rulfo's masterpiece. The title character appears out of nowhere a couple of times, and the locale of Comala Mexico inspired García Marquez's Macondo. ANSWER: Pedro Paramo [10] This character from Pedro Paramo stabs Pedro after getting drunk and asking for funeral money. ANSWER: Abundio Martinez (accept either)

11. Identify these phyla which belong to the superphylum Lophotrochozoa, FTPE: [10] This phylum contains such classes as gastropods and cephalopods. You might better know them some of them as snails, clams, and octopuses. ANSWER: Mollusca or Mollusks [10] Divided into classes polychaeta and clitellata, which includes Oligochaeta, this phylum is made of triploblastic protostomes with coeloms. ANSWER: Annelida or Annelids [10] Lingula is one genus of this phylum which has few surviving organisms. The members resemble clams, though their shells are dorsal and ventral rather than lateral. ANSWER: Brachiopoda or Brachiopods

12. This work claimed that the Soviet Union and Nazi German had gone down the titular place. FPTE: [10] Name this book that posited that all forms of collectivism lead to tyranny. ANSWER: The Road to Serfdom [10] This Austrian economist of Monetary Theory and the Trade Cycle and Individualism and Economic Order wrote The Road to Serfdom. ANSWER: Friedrich August von Hayek [10] This Hayek work talks about the value of freedom, freedom and the law, and freedom in the welfare state. Hayek talks about Social Security and taxation and redistribution, and the postscript to this work is generally "Why I am not a Conservative." ANSWER: The Constitution of Liberty

13. Answer the following about the Azuchi-Momoyama period, FTPE: [10] After the death of Oda Nobunaga at the hands of Akechi Mitsuhide, this retainer of Nobunaga took control of his forces and completed the unification of Japan. ANSWER: Toyotomi Hideyoshi (accept Hashiba Hideyoshi) [10] Tokugawa Ieyasu led the Eastern army against the remnants of Hideyoshi's forces at this 1600 battle; his victory here allowed him to take control of Japan. ANSWER: Battle of Sekigahara [10] This man, formerly the administrator of the Sakai province under Hideyoshi, led the Western Army with Mori Terutomo at Sekigahara. ANSWER: Ishida Mitsunari

14. FTPE, answer the following about a playwright and his works. [10] This national symbol of Norway is famous for his plays that defy traditional Victorian morals, such as the commentary on marriage in his most famous work, A Doll's House. ANSWER: Henrik Johan Ibsen [10] This work tells the story of Helen Alving and her efforts to protect her son Osvald from his father's evils. Helen finds out that Osvald contracted syphilis while away and is in love with a maid who turns out to be Osvald's half- sister. ANSWER: Ghosts or Gegangere [10] This character from Ghosts is a pastor who calls up the ghosts of that Ibsen play. At the beginning of the play, he calls on Helen on the tenth anniversary of her husband's death. ANSWER: Pastor Manders 15. Identify the following about topology FTPE: [10] Meaning "many faced," these are three dimensional objects which have polygons as faces. The Platonic solids make up five of the nine regular kinds of them. ANSWER: polyhedron or polyhedral [10] Commonly represented with the letter chi, this is a number that is calculated by subtracting the number of edges from the sum of the number of vertices and faces. It is two for any convex polyhedron. ANSWER: Euler number or characteristic [10] Grigori Perelman proved this conjecture early in the 2000s. The conjecture states that any closed 3-manifold on which each loop can be continuously tightened to a point is a 3-sphere. ANSWER: the Poincaré conjecture

16. Identify these parts of the traditional Requiem Mass FTPE: [10] Often thought to be penned by Thomas of Celano, this section contains such segments as Tuba Mirum and Lacrimosa describes the day of God's judgment and wrath. ANSWER: Sequentia or Dies Irae [10] This second section of the Mass, the only one sung in Greek, implores God to have mercy on his subjects. ANSWER: Kyrie Eleison [10] This second-to-last section echos the Kyrie as well as imploring God to spare his subjects from "everlasting death on that dread day when the heavens and earth shall quake." ANSWER: Exsequiae or Libra Me

17. My debts are large, my failures great, my shame secret and heavy; yet I come to ask for my good, I quake in fear lest my prayer be granted. FTPE: [10] Identify the poet of those lines, known for "Golden Boat" and "Ghare Baire." ANSWER: Rabindranath Tagore [10] This collection is Tagore's most lasting work. In an introduction to the English translations , Yeats said "these prose translations [...] have stirred my blood as nothing has for years." ANSWER: Gitanjali or Geetanjali or Song Offerings [10] Tagore's collection Golpoguchho is a compilation of these types of works. Another work by Tagore in this genre is "The Fruitseller from Kabul." ANSWER: short stories (accept word forms)

18. Identify the following musical androids FTPE: [10] This French duo claims that an explosion in their studio caused them to become robots. Their debut album "Homework" features the song Around the World, the lyrical content of which consists of the title repeated 144 times. ANSWER: Daft Punk [10] This crazy German foursome was famous for bizarrely reclusive behaviors such as only answering their studio phone at a precise, prearranged time. Notable singles include The Robots, Trans-Europe Express, and Pocket Calculator. ANSWER: Kraftwerk [10] In The Big Lebowski, the three German nihilists were said to have been in a "Kraftwerkian" band by this name in the 1970s. The band shares its name with Kraftwerk's fourth album and its 22-minute title track. ANSWER: Autobahn 19. He wrote the 95 Theses. FTPE: [10] Name this guy who didn't like indulgences very much. He had this notion of justification by faith alone. ANSWER: Martin Luther [10] This hymn by Luther claimed that a certain powerful deific dude is a building that is a "bulwark never failing." ANSWER: "A Mighty Fortress is our God" or "Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott" [10] Luther debated this theologian through the proxy Andreas Karlstadt after Pope Leo X issued the edict Exsurge Domine. ANSWER: Johann Eckius or Johann Maier

20. Name these famous fires from American history FTPE: [10] This fire which began on the eighth floor of the Asch Building in New York City on March 25, 1911 resulted in 148 deaths and a scandal over the conditions of workers in the garment industry. ANSWER: Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire [10] This fire of July 6, 1944 killed 168, and resulted in the type of entertainment venue it occurred in being banned from Connecticut. It was probably helped by the fact that the structure it started in had been waterproofed using paraffin and gasoline. ANSWER: Hartford Circus fire [10] This fire destroyed 12 separate towns in Wisconsin and Michigan on the same day as the Great Chicago Fire. It caused the most deaths by fire of any single event in American history. ANSWER: Peshtigo fire