All Souls exam questions and the limits of machine reasoning

Oxford University is immersed in the past like no other place I’ve seen.

One example: when I was a visiting student at Oxford in 2005, I remember meeting two students at a pub one evening. They were drinking ivy-laced beer. The reason, I was told, is that centuries ago, a student from Lincoln College had murdered a student of Brasenose. Ever since then, Brasenose students had been allowed into Lincoln and given free beer once a year.

Here’s the event back in 1938:

The actual truth behind “ivy ale day” is unclear — accounts of it usually use phrases like “some half-remembered collegiate slight.” But I found this description from 1904, which in turn cites a reference dating back to 1604.

There are many more stories like this, all circling around Oxford’s unusual relationship to history…