Quiz created: 2020-10-13

Vocabulary Quiz 91

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. “Debating Hillary Clinton in 2016, Mr Trump strained the [debate] rules to the limit … . In Cleveland [in 2020] he largely ignored them. He interrupted, contradicted, and TRADUCED Joe Biden, and sometimes also the moderator, Christ Wallace of Fox News. He cavilled and scowled; he huffed and he ranted. The ferocity of his claimed grievances was formidable. It was also ludicrous. (2020-10-03, The Economist, p. 26) To “traduce” someone means
to hypnotize someone 
to interrupt someone 
to shout indecorously at someone 
to “out” someone by exposing his or her secrets 
to defame someone with false statements in order to cause humiliation 
No Answer
2. “Debating Hillary Clinton in 2016, Mr Trump strained the [debate] rules to the limit … . In Cleveland [in 2020] he largely ignored them. He interrupted, contradicted ,and traduced Joe Biden, and sometimes also the moderator, Christ Wallace of Fox News. He CAVILLED and scowled; he huffed and he ranted. The ferocity of his claimed grievances was formidable. It was also ludicrous. (2020-10-03, The Economist, p. 26) To “cavil” means
to quibble over petty issues 
to make inappropriate facial expressions while listening to someone 
to make inappropriate facial expressions while speaking 
to drool 
to spit 
to gesticulate wildly 
No Answer
3. “Debating Hillary Clinton in 2016, Mr Trump strained the [debate] rules to the limit … . In Cleveland [in 2020] he largely ignored them. He interrupted, contradicted, and traduced Joe Biden, and sometimes also the moderator, Christ Wallace of Fox News. He cavilled and scowled; he huffed and he ranted. The ferocity of his claimed grievances was formidable. It was also LUDICROUS. (2020-10-03, The Economist, p. 26) Something “ludicrous” is
pornographic 
extremely impolite 
absurd 
destructive 
unworthy of the dignity of the speaker or listener 
No Answer
4. “Under the statue, a president can be declared incapacitated, with the vice president taking over. But the bar is extremely high. Vice President Mike Pence, who has made EGREGIOUS sycophancy his signature, would have to initiate it … .” (2020-10-16, The Week, p. 4) Something “egregious” is
conspicuously offensive 
highly decorated 
deceptive 
foul-smelling but handsome 
ugly but pleasant-smelling 
enormous 
No Answer
5. “I grew up watching the Three STOOGES, which may explain some of my issues.” (2020-10-05, SDUT, p. C-2) Although the Three Stooges was a comedy team from the 1920s through the 1960s, the word “stooge” itself refers to
a badly made piece of furniture 
a person manipulated by someone else 
the boss of a badly managed firm 
the steersman of a ship which has run aground 
No Answer
6. “In the LIMINAL condition in which we now live, with public institutions threatened but not yet defeated by an elected President, the would-be autocrat must still face the indignities of journalism, legal inquiry, and popular opposition.” (2020-10-05, The New Yorker, p. 11) Something “liminal” is
unpredictable 
rapidly deteriorating 
encouraging 
discouraging 
humorous 
intermediate between two states 
No Answer
7. “But this [first presidential debate in September, 2020] was not a two-way fight. Mr Biden’s rehearsed chuckling forbearance was more striking in the moment than his insults. And Mr [Chris] Wallace’s increasingly desperate REMONSTRATIONS [as moderator] were almost exclusively aimed at the president.” (2020-10-03, The Economist, p. 26) To “remonstrate” is to
lecture 
threaten 
disqualify 
plead in protest 
fact-check 
No Answer
8. “California Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D) left a few zingers on the vice-presidential debater stage last night that have already become CHUM for comedic social-media wars.” (2020-10-08, The Washington Post,-online) The word “chum” as a count noun can refer to a friend, but when it is a mass noun, as here, it refers to
ground fish used as bait 
a text material 
data, regardless of format 
comedy (as against other theatrical forms) 
No Answer
9. “In March, 1933, as Franklin Roosevelt approached his first Inauguration, the country was submerged in the Great Depression. It was a dark time of breadlines and HOOVERVILLES. The unemployment rate was around twenty-five percent.” (2020-10-??, Lost Source) “Hooverville,” a term from the Great Depression, refers to
homeless encampments 
small towns suddenly deprived of the ability to celebrate Christmas 
a program instituted to employ out-of-work people to sell vacuum cleaners and other goods door to door 
travelling carnivals subsidized by the government to help keep people’s minds off the depression 
psychiatric hospitals for people who tried to commit suicide 
No Answer

      Points out of 9:


Awesomeness
Score
Awesomeness Score: The following awesomeness score is a measure of how much guessing you did to get all items right. It is 100 if you got all questions right when you clicked the process button for the first time. It gets proportionately lower if it took more clicks, until it hits 0 if your clicks exceeded the number of questions.



Return to top.

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 March 24, 2015.