Quiz created: 131001

Vocabulary Quiz 27

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. “Microsoft’s massive bet on mobile computing kicks off today at company-owned stores and electronics retailers with the official launch of Windows 8, the latest revamp to the Seattle-area software giant’s UBIQUITOUS computer operating system.” (San Diego Union Tribune 121026, p C1) Something “ubiquitous” is
everywhere 
efficient 
unintelligible 
gigantic 
lumbering and slightly clumsy 
elegant 
old and venerable 
No Answer
2. “[Catholic theologian professor Tina] Beattie wrote in her blog that she planned to steer clear of controversy in her [cancelled University of] San Diego lectures and seminars to avoid problems for her hosts in the currently FEBRILE atmosphere of American Catholic politics.” People who are “febrile” are
wear and unenergetic 
ignorant 
over-excited 
in conflict with each other 
disaffected 
No Answer
3. “Willing or not, Democratic or Republican, the next U.S. president shall have to tone down his get-tough-on-China rhetoric made along the campaign trail and deal with his country’s SCLEROTIC ineptness toward China’s inevitable rise.” (Xinhua News Agency English language dispatch, 121023) "Sclerotic" is a term borrowed from medicine and used metaphorically for a political system. It means
foul-smelling 
becoming unnaturally rigid 
extremely limp 
extremely elderly 
bleeding 
festering and rotting 
No Answer
4. “Willing or not, Democratic or Republican, the next U.S. president shall have to tone down his get-tough-on-China rhetoric made along the campaign trail and deal with his country’s sclerotic ineptness toward China’s INEVITABLE rise.” (Xinhua News Agency English language dispatch, 121023) Something “inevitable” is
valuable 
unavoidable 
gradual 
rapid 
glorious 
No Answer
5. “Willing or not, Democratic or Republican, the next U.S. president shall have to tone down his get-tough-on-China RHETORIC made along the campaign trail and deal with his country’s sclerotic ineptness toward China’s inevitable rise.” (Xinhua News Agency English language dispatch, 121023) "Rhetoric" is language that is
false 
persuasive 
intended to sell an inferior or unworthy product 
true but counterintuitive and unpersuasive 
used to present shocking facts or arguments 
No Answer
6. “San Marcos, where more than 30 homes collapsed, bore the brunt of the TEMBLOR’s fury.” (Associated Press 121108) A “temblor” is
a hurricane 
a typhoon 
a raging fire 
a tornado 
a tsunami 
an earthquake 
No Answer
7. “There is plenty of criticism of the plan [to change India’s system of benefits for the poor to reduce the role of middlemen]. Many opponents presumably fear losing their rake-offs, though the arguments made are ALTRUISTIC. Some claim that the poor might not spend the money wisely ….”(The Economist 121110, p. 14) An argument is “altruistic” when it is
true 
persuasive 
not self-interested 
beneficial to poor people 
accurately representative of all relevant facts 
slightly threatening 
that a given course of action will make matters worse 
No Answer
8. “But Obama must now defeat an especially virulent form of magical thinking entrenched on Capitol Hill and elsewhere: that a difficulty delayed is a difficulty ALLAYED.” (The New Yorker, 121119 p. 26) An “allayed” difficulty is one which
has been alleviated 
can be kicked down the road 
that can be turned to one’s advantage 
is mixed with other difficulties to create a whole new kind of problem 
No Answer
9. “[A neighbor of a woman murdered by her husband] called the woman harmless and said he often saw her on the street collecting cans. He described her husband as RECLUSIVE.” (San Diego Union Tribune 121117, p. B5) A “reclusive” person tends to
hide 
make verbal threats 
frighten people by being unpredictable 
be drunk in public 
he lazy and shiftless 
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.