Quiz created: 160925

Vocabulary Quiz 50

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. “A tribunal in the Hague ruled on July 12 [2016] that [China’s] claims to most of the South China Sea had no basis in international law. … China’s government has shown no sign of wanting to dig itself out of a diplomatic hole —or any sign that it thinks it is in one. Officials had two opportunities to be EMOLLIENT and passed them both up.” (160723, The Economist, p. 35) The word “emollient” is usually a noun and refers to
a decorative outer casing for a large machine, such as the cover on a radiator or the silent decorative “pipes” on the front of a pipe organ 
a gracious loser in a court case 
a gambler who loses in a casino 
a person skilled at putting a positive “spin” on bad news 
a cream for softening rough skin 
No Answer
2. “Thailand has seen a dozen successful coups since the 1930s and a new constitution on average every four years. The army typically installs conservative governments that favor the urban elite. That has ENTRENCHED inequality and infuriated the rural poor.” (160723, The Economist, p. 9) Something which is “entrenched” is
magnified 
reduced to insignificance 
not spoken of out of fear of the government 
unmovable, literally “dug in” 
a subject of widespread and emotional discussion 
No Answer
3. “[Fox News CEO Roger Ailes] hooked his older, mostly white audience on apocalyptic fearmongering about black radicals, SHREWISH feminists, and villainous Muslims, building Fox [News] into a ratings behemoth that generated more than $1 billion in profits a year.” (160805, The Week, p. 17) A “shrew” is
a beggar 
a street brawler 
a person motivated by deep-seated hatred 
an ill-tempered, scolding woman 
a secret agent of a foreign government or of an underground movement 
a person determined to have an office colleague fired 
No Answer
4. “… [Canadian] police scrambled to identify and located a BALACLAVA-wearing would-be suicide bomber they feared was on the verge of committing a terror attack in Canada.” (160812, Associated Press via San Diego Union Tribune, p. A-11) A “balaclava” is a
kilt 
knitted head covering with an opening for the eyes 
baseball hat 
brightly-colored scarf, usually made of lace 
backpack of a style used in World War I 
No Answer
5. “… former Republican National Committee staff members said that [Donald] Trump’s campaign [for president] will have a ‘CATASTROPHIC impact’ on down-ballot races.” (160812, Washington Post via San Diego Union Tribune, p. A-4) Something “catastrophic”
is minimal 
is large and mostly (but not completely) favorable 
relates to lions, tigers, pumas, jaguars, and other large “cats” 
is unpredictable 
is disastrous 
No Answer
6. “… former Republican National Committee staff members said that [Donald] Trump’s campaign [for president] will have a ‘catastrophic impact’ on DOWN-BALLOT RACES.” (160812, Washington Post via San Diego Union Tribune, p. A-4) A “down-ballot race” is
a presidential election 
voter turnout, i.e., the number of ballots completed and set “down” 
a preliminary election or “straw vote” conducted before a legal election and believed to predict it 
a contest that is not the most high-profile one in a given election 
competition among political candidates to solicit campaign funds from small donors 
competition among political candidates to solicit campaign funds from large donors 
No Answer
7. “Plagued by opaque and ever-shifting regulations and a culturally ABSTRUSE way of doing business, [American companies attempting to operate in China] have fallen one by one to Chinese heavyweights, including Google to Baidu, Facebook to WeChat, and Amazon to Alibaba.” (160826, The Week, p. 34) Something “abstruse” is
is hard to understand 
is nationalistic 
requires constant and burdensome documentation 
requires the payment of many bribes 
involves extreme risks but possible high payoffs 
No Answer
8. “In bookshops, for every copy of Mr. Trump’s auto-HAGIOGRAPHY, ‘The Art of the Deal’, or Kim Kardashian’s book of auto-pornography, ‘Selfish’, there are scores of tributes to [Warren Buffett,] a ukulele-playing Nebraskan who reads [financial] accounts for fun.” (160813, The Economist, p. 46) The word “hagiography” refers to
an account of the life of a saint 
a biography 
a “how-to” book 
a philosophical treatise 
a best-seller 
No Answer
9. “But, as is often the way of the Middle East, in their quest to mark out their identity, liberation movements are PRONE to suppressing similar stirrings in others. Kurdish officials have submerged the predominantly Kurdish-speaking Yazidis into a broader Kurdish collective.” (160813, The Economist, p. 33) A person who is “prone” to do something is
reluctant to do it 
inclined to do it 
eager to do it 
unable to do it 
endangered by doing it 
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.



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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 September 6, 2015.