Quiz created: 110917

Vocabulary Quiz 17

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. “The tyranny of distance, so long Australia’s enduring curse, has been turned on its head. It is now the ANTIPODEAN advantage of adjacency.” (The Economist 110528, supplement p. 7) Something “antipodean” is
dangerous 
profitable 
unexpected 
opposite 
often forgotten 
No Answer
2. “‘The American people outside of the BELTWAY are tired of excuses,’ White House press secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday. ‘They want action.’” (110908 MTC News Service) The “Beltway,” a metaphor frequently used in political commentary, refers to
a ring road around Washington, DC 
the collectivity of government workers, imagined all to have large stomachs and hence large belts 
the collectivity of members of Congress, imagined all to have large stomachs and hence large belts 
an imaginary zone from the inside of which people cannot see out (from a 1920s science fiction novel) 
a term for the practice in Puritan New England of fastening blinders on students to prevent distractions (especially flirting) by allowing them to look only straight ahead at the teacher 
No Answer
3. “America is popular in Australia and vice versa. When [Prime Minister Julia] Gillard delivered a GLUTINOUS speech to a joint session of [the American] Congress in March, she got six standing ovations No big changes seem likely, but Australia is rich these days and America is feeling poor.” (The Economist 11052, supplement p. 18) The author is using the word “glutinous” figuratively. What it literally means is
bulky 
sticky 
colorful 
like a strident bird call 
tasty and delicious 
No Answer
4. “The shocking collapse of the Gadhafi forces [in Libya’s “Arab Spring” civil war] appeared to signal the end for one of the world’s most flamboyant and MERCURIAL political figures, the leader of an idiosyncratic government that was frequently as bizarre as it was brutal.”(NYT News Service 110822) A person who is “mercurial” is (Select two)
fickle 
charismatic 
quick-witted 
likely to kill people with poison 
secretive 
fascinating 
5. “Though the event was marred last week by clashes between the police and protesters condemning its cost, the huge and EBULLIENT welcome for the pope provided a powerful demonstration of his influence, even at a time when church attendance has been dwindling in Roman Catholic countries like Spain.” (AP 110822) Behavior that is “ebullient” is
apathetic 
destructive 
high-spirited 
impatient 
relieved 
tearful 
No Answer
6. “But exaggeration, inexactitude, and MENDACITY are the currency of politics. The voter who grumbles about these things is like the farmer who grumbles about the weather. If Mrs Bachmann is guilty of such sins, she is hardly alone.” (The Economist 110820, p. 34) “Mendacity” refers to
lying 
selling out your friends 
using misleading statistics 
making inaccurate historical references 
bad grammar 
No Answer
7. “The anti-corruption campaigners seem to be mostly city types, students, and ROMANTICS frustrated by the bitter compromises of Indian democracy. Elections, by contrast, are won mainly among ill-educated, rural voters, most influenced by inflation, jobs, welfare, and the charisma of the ruling Gandhi clan.” (The Economist 110820, p. 41) “Romantics” are
also called Gypsies 
people in love 
people who flirt 
people with strong commitment to political parties 
urban people who misunderstand rural life 
people with idealized but fanciful understandings of the world 
No Answer
8. “[Syria’s President] Assad has one military trump card left. He may yet deploy the air force, especially if Damascus and Aleppo, the two largest cities, become more RESTIVE than they are now. Even so, Mr Assad looks decidedly insecure. No matter how hard he cracks down, the protesters always seem to come back.” A person who is “restive”
stubbornly refuses to cooperate 
looks calm when s/he is not 
is calm and dependable 
resists all change 
No Answer
9. “Mr Mashai is an unpredictable force in [Iranian] public life. He is an Iranian nationalist in a regime that stresses the universal values of Islam. Yet his approach to external relations … can be surprisingly EMOLLIENT.”(The Economist 110820, p. 45) Something which is emollient (a term usually used in medicine) is something
that erupts unexpectedly 
potentially toxic 
soothing 
oily 
rapidly changing 
that appears and then quite quickly disappears again 
No Answer

      Points out of 10:

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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 April 25, 2010.