Quiz created: 090619

Vocabulary Quiz 10

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.

1. "Mr. Benezra [the director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art] said that he and the board chairman, Charles Schwab, founder of the EPONYMOUS investment firm, had their eyes on two spaces flanking the museum for future expansion but were waiting for the economy to improve." (New York Times 090319:F2) Mr Schwab's investment firm is "eponymous" because it
is profitable 
is huge 
bears the same name as its founder 
is world-wide in scope 
has been sold to other owners 
No Answer
2. "Middle-aged people may indeed be less violent than young men, but research indicates that among people over 65, there is a greater likelihood of frustration, DESPONDENCY, mental impairment, and violent outbursts. So with baby boomers aging, get ready for a new menace: the attack of the crazed senior citizen." (The Week, 090626, p. 12) "Despondency" refers to feelings of
anger 
dependence \ illness 
discouragement 
ambition 
impoverishment 
No Answer
3. "About 18,000 issues of Brigham Young University's student newspaper were pulled from newsstands because a front-page photo caption misidentified leaders of the Mormon church as APOSTATES instead of apostles. … The mistake happened when a copy editor ran a computer spell check and apostate was suggested as the replacement for a misspelling of apostle." (Associated Press 090408) An "apostate" is
a beginning student 
a person who has abandoned a religious organization 
a janitor 
a painful swelling on the buttocks 
a gland in males that adds fluid to the sperm just before ejaculation 
No Answer
4. "The conventional wisdom is that you get what you pay for, that the larger the price tag, the better the product. But that's not true in higher education. Tuition has been skyrocketing for years, with little evidence that education has improved." (The Atlantic, July/August 2009, p. 58) Something which "skyrockets"
explodes 
is only briefly impressive 
is intended to fool the gullible 
rises rapidly 
increases in cost surprisingly 
No Answer
5. In the theatrical script "— many small changes were made to bring together all the pieces of narrative and enhance PELLUCIDITY. Phrases have been mingled, sentences stirred." (program notes for a book-on-tape audio disk). "Pellucidity" refers to
dramatic impact 
conciseness 
musicality 
having pauses that can be filled with musical interludes 
being clear of copyright problems so that all may make use of it 
clarity 
No Answer
6. "[Republican National Committee Chairman] Steele's speech comes after a rocky start to his two-year term that drew criticism from some longtime RNC members as well as a sustained Democratic campaign tagging conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh as the GOP's TITULAR head." (Associated Press, 090520) The reporter has probably misused the word "titular" here, which properly should mean
in name only 
stimulating 
providing official commentary 
secret 
incoming 
No Answer
7. "Shiism, whose followers constitute a mere 15 percent of the world's 1.4 billion or so Muslims, long ago ACQUIESCED to second-class status in the Arab world." (The Atlantic, July/August 2009, p. 66) This means that the Shiites
diminished in status 
rose in status 
agreed to their status 
asserted their status through bluffing and boasting 
asserted their status through force of arms 
concealed their status 
No Answer
8. "The projected debt from the IMF and Scandinavian rescues, combin3ed with Icesave's obligations, will exceed $11.1 billion, roughly equal to Iceland's GDP in 2007. So the budge, when finally presented, is likely to contain some SWINGEING spending cuts and tax rises." (The Economist 090502, p. 52) To "swinge" means to
beat 
astonish 
be welcomed, like good weather after bad 
be long feared and much hated, like enemy soldiers 
No Answer

      Points out of 8:

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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 October 6, 2008.