Quiz created: 060726

Vocabulary Quiz 3

Instructions: Answer the multiple choice questions, guessing if necessary; then click on the "Process Questions" button at the end of the quiz to see your score in the adjacent message box. The program will not reveal which questions you got wrong, only how many points you have. Go back and change your answers until you get them all right. (The message box will rejoice at that point and the page will change color to show it is tickled pink.)

Points to note: (1) Questions with only one possible answer are one point each. (2) Questions with one or more possible answers (represented by check boxes) give a point for each correct answer, but also subtract a point for each wrong answer! (3) The program will not attempt to score your efforts at all if you have not tried at least half of the questions. (4) This quiz is for your own use only. No record of your progress is kept or reported to anyone.

Words in this quiz are taken from Time, July 31, 2006
1. "…most candidates have decided to talk mostly about other things —a metaphor, perhaps, for the nation's traumatic paralysis over the MESOPOTAMIAN disaster." (p. 23)
The disaster is so named because it
is like a pot that boils over to make a mess 
is like being equidistant between two bad alternatives 
involves Islam 
occurs in Iraq 
is enormous in scale 
involves serious disease 
No Answer
2. "For the Arab states, it is AXIOMATIC that a second key for curing the ills that have plagued the region is peace between Israel and the Palestinians." (p. 31)
In the Arab view, the importance of such a peace is
irrationally resisted 
irrationally endorsed 
not something that needs examination 
too costly 
No Answer
3. "Operating from … fortified BUNKERS are some 600 active-duty Hisballah [Hezbollah] members joined by many more of the several thousand reserves from around the country ready to fight." (p. 44)
The Hisballah members operate from fortified
double-story "beds" 
two-man tanks 
lunatic asylums 
underground chambers 
freight cars 
hill-top forts 
palisades 
No Answer
4. "We [at Dell] have 160 KIOSKS that have been very successful, and all we are doing is expanding on that success." (p. 57)
Expanding on the success of a kiosk involves marketing
in retail stores 
using mail-order catalogs 
through established brokerage houses 
in more than one country 
without helmets 
in bottles 
by the case 
on the Internet 
No Answer
5. "The idea that buttoned-up Singapore, better known for punitive CANING and a one-time ban on chewing gum, should emerge as a center of enlightenment seems unlikely. But the government sees both scientific and fiscal promise in the biomed field [and in attracting stem cell researchers from other countries]." (p. 58)
Singapore is better known for
its fish processing industry 
its sugar production 
petrolium refining 
mineral processing 
the use of forced labor as a criminal punishment 
the use of beating as a criminal punishment 
No Answer
6. "The idea that buttoned-up Singapore, better known for punitive caning and a one-time ban on chewing gum, should emerge as a center of enlightenment seems unlikely. But the government sees both scientific and FISCAL promise in the biomed field [and in attracting stem cell researchers from other countries]." (p. 58)
For the government, stem cell research shows promise of scientific gains and
new medicines 
new buildings 
longer life 
popularity in the next election 
a chance for prestige in the scientific world 
income 
No Answer
7. "A group of seven ASYMMETRICAL buidings with sci-fi names like Nanos and Proteos, all connected by transparent sky bridges, [Singapore's] Biopolis is meant to be a self-enclosed science city… ." (p. 59)
The seven buildings are
unfinished 
extremely tall 
perfect copies of each other 
intended for multiple uses 
not radiating out from a center 
not suited to any other purpose 
No Answer
8. "Tony Bennet will turn 80 on August 3, and while he doesn't think of LONGEVITY just in marketing terms, he's happy to have a son who does." (p. 60)
His son thinks there is a way to make money from his father's
length of life 
music 
books 
wisdom 
secret to good health 
politics 
continuing popularity 
connections with the drug industry 
No Answer
9. "[Ralph] Reed was the PRETERNATURALLY boyish spear carrier for the religious right, the brash Evangelical who transformed the Christian Coalition into a ppopulist power center, that helped usher Republicans into control of Congress and George W. Bush into the presidency." (p. 52)
His being preternaturally boyish meant that Reed
looked unnaturally young 
looked like a girl 
had a constant smile 
always looked as though he was planning mischief 
looked like a young angel 
looked older than he really was 
No Answer
10. "The profits [from clients opposed to his public positions that Evangelical politician and lobbyist Ralph] Reed collected … were not, by any indication, the wages of illegal behavior. But to some they were the wages of sin. 'He got nailed for being a phony,'says a fellow G.O.P. operative in Washington, with more than a little SCHADENFREUDE." (p. 53)
The GOP operative spoke with
despair 
envy 
too much to drink to be able to exercise good judgement 
a heavy accent 
joy at Reed's misery 
fear that he would be exposed next 
No Answer
11. "In April he told Congress that the Fed might pause its interest-rate hikes, a comment that helped send the stock market soaring, since higher rates siphon money away from EQUITIES." (p. 56)
Equities are
all financial assets 
the nation's "money supply" 
a system for keeping equal dollar amounts in stocks and bonds 
the system of comparative values of different currencies 
stocks 
bonds 
bank accounts  
No Answer

      Points out of 11:

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This consummately cool, pedagogically compelling, self-correcting,
multiple-choice quiz was produced automatically from
a simple text file of questions using D.K. Jordan's
dubiously original, but publicly accessible
Think Again Quiz Maker
of August 27, 2005.