Quiz created: 081004

Vocabulary Quiz 6

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.

Words in this quiz are taken from The Economist, October 7, 2006, and Time, October 16, 2006
1. "China will continue gearing up its navy for possible conflict in the Taiwan Strait, an area of enormous strategic concern to Japan because it STRADDLES vital shipping lanes." (The Economist 061007, p. 31) The Taiwan Strait's relationship to shipping lanes is that it
obstructs them 
stretches across them 
is the most important among them 
includes all of lanes leading to Japan 
No Answer
2. "Mr. Woodward's central argument will be familiar to Bush-haters the world over. The 43rd president is a lightweight who relies on gut instinct, not reason, and prefers feel-good rhetoric to serious analysis. He is incurious to the point of DOLTISHNESS." (The Economist 061007, p. 42) This means Mr. Bush's lack of curiosity suggests he is
senile  stupid  stubborn  admirable  totalitarian  persecuted  uneducated  No Answer
3. "There is no more illustrious guest than Bob Woodward. Ever since he helped to DEFENESTRATE Richard Nixon in 1974, Mr. Woodward has been a sort of super-reporter, employed by the Washington Post to cultivate high-level contacts and churn out bestselling books." (The Economist 061007, p. 42) If I have been "defenestrated," I have been
kicked out of office 
exposed as a fraud 
left defenseless 
thrown out a window 
protected against enemies 
No Answer
4. "Since then students [in Chile], often backed by their teachers, have been staging SPORADIC demonstrations and strikes in pursuit of demands that the government use some of its record earnings from Chile's most valuable export [copper] on improving the dire quality of state schooling in South America's most successful economy." (The Economist 061007, p. 44) The demonstrations have been
continuous 
contagious 
catastrophic 
occasional 
grand occasions 
No Answer
5. "China's biggest problem is a culture of DEFERENCE — a culture that was refined by the mandarin tradition and then reinforced by the Communist Party." (The Economist 061007, p. 16) In this analysis Chinese tend to
venerate those above them 
protest in the street 
write underground Email messages 
confuse the past with the present 
maximize the differences between mandarins and Communists 
argue a lot 
No Answer
6. "Ms. Rice gave them the brush off. This charge has produced a CONVOLUTED debate." The debate was
annoyingly trivial 
intricate and confusing 
acrimonious 
filled with expletives 
informative and productive 
unnecessarily a embarrassingly public 
No Answer
7. "PROGRESSIVE taxation can help. For much of the post-war period most rich countries taxed talent too heavily, causing bright flight. But today, in America at least, the danger is the opposite." (The Economist 061007, p. 24) Taxes are "progressive" when
they are used for liberal causes 
everybody pays the same amount 
there is a "flat tax" 
they increase enough each year to keep up with inflation 
rich people pay more than poor people 
No Answer
8. "Spy scandals are usually gentlemanly affairs that end in discreet expulsions. But the latest Russian-Georgian ROW has erupted openly." (The Economist 061007, p. 62)The row referred to is a
line of border forts 
competition between boats 
competition between groups of boats 
conflict 
cooperative effort 
secret effort suddenly exposed to view 
No Answer
9. "All this is GRIST to the diplomatic mill being operated by [Iran's top nuclear negotiator] Mr. Larijani, and by his combustible president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (shown above, announcing that Iran had just enriched uranium)." (The Economist 061007, p. 53) To say that something is grist to (or for) a mill is to say that it is
destructive to normal activity 
about to be destroyed 
like fuel for a fire 
useful to clarify a situation 
No Answer
10. "Both China and India are now trying to emulate Ireland's success in wooing back the DISASPORA, but China is trying harder." (The Economist 061007, p. 13) What China is trying to do is to
get overseas Chinese to return to China 
keep deadly diseases like AIDS from entering the country 
prevent immigration 
prevent emigration 
persuade alienated young Chinese to support the Communist party 
No Answer
11. "To be sure, Foley might have sent the [inappropriate Email] messages [to Congressional pages] even if had lived a life of integrity rather than one ETIOLATED by lies." (Time, 061016, p. 40) Something which is etiolated is
explained 
deprived of light 
stained or disfigured 
made wrongly famous 
infiltrated 
concealed 
No Answer
12. "Again, that seems not to describe Foley. So what is he? A pathetic flaneur who exchanged LOUCHE messages with unattainable youths rather than own up to his homosexuality." (Time, 061016, p. 40) Something is louche when it is
ill-advised 
secret 
politically suicidal 
infantile 
decadent or indecent 
inappropriate to the context 
No Answer

      Points out of 12:

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This consummately cool, pedagogically compelling, self-correcting,
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Think Again Quiz Maker
of August 29, 2008.