Quiz created: 2020-04-24

Vocabulary Quiz 85

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. “Combine the economic consequences of such a scenario with the optics of the president’s blundering and SOLIPSISTIC response, and the coronavirus seems very likely to doom Trump’s reelection effort, no matter where he casts the blame.” (200320, The Week, p. 4) To say that President Trump’s response was “solipsistic” means the author thinks that it was
ineffective 
sloppy 
centered on himself 
penny-pinching 
unscientific 
No Answer
2. “No coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Yemen, but public health experts noted that large swaths of the country are without basic health care, making them difficult to SURVEIL. (200329, New York Times via SDUT, p. A18). In other words, because they are “difficult to surveil,” some regions are
hard to observe 
from the country’s borders 
far from the country’s coastline 
quite rural and without efficient roads 
difficult places to live in 
No Answer
3. “State governments in India have been more generous still, with some paying pensions in advance and others paying a month’s wage to all migrant construction workers. Such FILLIPS are vital [during the Covid-19 public-health lockdown], say economists.” (200328, The Economist, p. 36) A “fillip” is
a concession to the opinions of a political opponent 
a visible sign of concern for one’s political supporters 
a renewal refill of resources, as in a fillip at a gas station 
a light blow to excite or stimulate an animal or machine 
No Answer
4. “[The Fed acted well in the Covid-19 crisis.] Hopefully, the IRS, Small Business Administration, state and local unemployment agencies, and small-business lenders who’ve WHIFFED on this crisis have in turn learned something for the next one.” (2020-04-24, The Week, p. 32) The term “whiff” is borrowed from sports and means
to swing the bat but miss the ball 
to become confused and run toward the wrong goal posts 
to hit a golf ball into a sand trap 
to run a car or horse off the edge of the race course 
to swallow water accidentally while swimming 
No Answer
5. “Questioning why the WHO ‘did not press China harder,’ she [Caitlin Oakley, DHHS spokesperson] said, ‘the lack of transparency AIDED AND ABIDED by WHO leadership hampered understanding of the virus and delayed the global response.’” (2020-04-20, NYT via SDUT, p. A4) Following the Trump party line, Ms. Oakley here blames the Corvid-19 pandemic in part on China on in part on the World Health Organization, which she says “aided and abided” China. The phrase is actually “aided and abetted.” The word “abet” means to
provide financial assistance 
help a criminal commit a crime 
propagandize in favor of something or someone 
approve and encourage 
suggest improvements 
No Answer
6. In contrast, the word “abide” means (Select two.)
to remain in a place 
put up with (something annoying) 
to wait for conditions to be right for (an undertaking) 
to take orders from (someone) 
to hold (a point of view) temporarily 
to advocate something about which one has doubts 
to give a command to (someone) 
7. “[Former Vice-President Joe] Biden was empowered and trusted by President Obama on his ‘pivot to Asia’ to handle China. He failed. The EXACERBATION of the problem with China came under Joe Biden’s watch.” (2020-04-24, Anti-Biden campaign ad, quoted in SDUT, p. A7) To “exacerbate” a problem is
to imagine it 
to create it 
to worsen it 
to solve it 
to conceal it 
No Answer
8. “Only four rulers in the world continue to deny the threat to public health posed by covid-19. Two are FLOTSAM from the former Soviet Union, the despots of Belarus and Turkmenistan. A third is [Nicaragua’s] Daniel Ortega … . The other is … [Brazil’s] Jair Bolsonaro … .” (2020-04-??, The Economist) The word “flotsam,” here used metaphorically, literally refers to
material left floating on the ocean surface after a shipwreck 
elements of the former aristocracy who survive a revolution by hiding 
elements of a former aristocracy who survive a revolution by disguising themselves as impoverished workers or peasants 
elements of a former aristocracy who manage to obtain to leadership positions in a revolutionary government 
No Answer

      Points out of 9:

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This consummately cool, pedagogically compelling, self-correcting,
multiple-choice quiz was produced automatically from
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of March 24, 2015.