Quiz created: 121013

Vocabulary Quiz 24

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. “[Headline:] FLAKE Wins GOP Race for Ariz. Senate Bid.” (Associated Press 120829) The headline refers to Jeff Flake, a candidate in the Republican primary for the U.S. senate seat. The headline is striking because a “flake” is slang for
an unreliable person 
a housebreaker 
a pickpocket 
someone just released from prison 
an agent for prostitutes 
No Answer
2. “Arizona Rep. Jeff Flake defeated wealthy businessman Wil Cardon on Tuesday in an unexpectedly FEISTY Republican U.S. Senate primary race marked by accusations of hypocrisy, broken promises, and flip-flopping.” (Associated Press 120829) Someone or something “feisty” is
boring 
legally contested 
noisy 
quarrelsome 
long-lasting 
exciting 
No Answer
3. “Arizona Rep. Jeff Flake defeated wealthy businessman Wil Cardon on Tuesday in an unexpectedly feisty Republican U.S. Senate primary race marked by accusations of HYPOCRISY, broken promises, and flip-flopping.” (Associated Press 120829) “Hypocrisy” refers to
homosexuality 
theft 
concealing information 
setting a moral standard for others to which one does not conform oneself 
deserting a social movement to which one previously devoted support 
cheating on tax, jury duty, welfare eligibility, or other civic responsibilities 
No Answer
4. “Preoccupied with collapsing economies, rocketing bond yields, and possible bank runs, European leaders have understandably paid less attention to the nuances of the constitutional SHENANIGANS in Hungary or Romania.” (The Economist, 120714, p. 10) “Shenanigans” are
modifications in a legal document 
acts of a parliament 
implications or actual applications of a law 
unforeseen consequences 
mischievous acts 
No Answer
5. “Complaints from the International Monetary Fund and the EU have prompted Mr. Orban [Prime Minister of Romania] to RESILE from his attack on Hungary’s central bank.” (The Economist, 120714, p. 10) When one “resiles” from something, one
draws back from it 
apologizes for it 
changes it in light of new information 
conceals it 
admits it 
points to it with pride 
condemns it 
No Answer
6. “Three choirs had been singing since dawn. There was an Office of enormous length to be got through before the coronation Mass —psalms, prophecies, lections, and many minor but PROLIX rites of purification.” (Evelyn Waugh, Black Mischief p. 353) Something “prolix” is
unintelligible 
effective 
ineffective 
orthodox 
wordy 
superstitious 
No Answer
7. “For it was one of his most exacting duties [as editor] to ‘ginger up’ the more RETICENT of the manuscripts submitted and ‘tone down’ the more ‘outspoken’ until he had reduced them all to the acceptable moral standard of his day.” (Evelyn Waugh, Vile Bodies, p. 18f.) “Reticent” usually means
unforthcoming 
uninteresting 
outrageous 
retouched 
plagiarized 
threadbare 
No Answer
8. “The latest austerity package has come after Spain won approval from the other 16 countries that use the euro for the first 30 billion euro TRANCHE of a bailout of up to 100 billion euros for its troubled banking sector.” (Associated Press 120714) “Tranche” when used in a financial context, as here, refers to
an installment of one part of an amount of money owed or promised 
the forgiveness of a debt 
a court case against a debtor 
a “half” bankruptcy in which creditors are paid back 50% of what is owed 
No Answer
9. “Investors’ response has been lukewarm, and the yield on Spain’s benchmark 10-year bonds, a measure of investor wariness of a country’s debt, remains very high at 6.61 percent, up 4 BASIS POINTS for the day.” (Associated Press 120714) A “basis point” is
the difference between what was predicted and what was observed 
one one-hundredth of one percent 
one percent 
an international measurement of inflation taken against a standard that uses 1950 as its 0 point 
No Answer

      Points out of 9:

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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.