Quiz created: 2020-01-09

Vocabulary Quiz 81

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. “And books were a means to his glorious end: to make his home town stand proudly on its own two feet, freed from the shackles of the useless town council, the Welsh Tourist Board, and the QUANGOS of the Development Board for Rural Wales.” (190831, The Economist, p. 70) “Quango,” a very British term, refers to
an entity or agency financed by a government but operating independently of it 
a fool with authority 
an ill-considered but accidentally successful plan of action 
a plan of action which most people correctly anticipate will fail, but which is endorsed by someone in power 
No Answer
2. “… so for jobless local people [in Dayton, the Chinese industrial firm] Fuyao’s arrival was a miracle. Before long, however, STAKHANOVITE bosses clashed with a restive and outspoken factory floor.” (190831, The Economist, p. 55) A “Stakhanovite” is
an adherent to or apologist for Stalinism 
corrupt 
inclined to show favoritism to physically attractive subordinates 
a worker who shows exceptional diligence in increasing factory production 
a boss who makes impossible demands for productivity from his employees so as to make it easy to fire them 
No Answer
3. “And Ms Dziczek cautions that trade policies are just one of many considerations when companies are deciding where to locate new plants. American demand for cars is sagging, and production is shifting from SALOON cars to other larger vehicles such as SUVs, as well as electric cars.” (191116, The Economist, p. 65) In America the word “saloon” formerly almost always referred to what today is called a bar or tavern, but in broader usage it could refer to a social lounge. A “saloon car,” a largely British term, refers to
a private railway carriage 
a sedan 
a car with three rows of seats 
a 12-passenger mini-bus 
a Recreational Vehicle (RV) 
No Answer
4. “The American president’s threat to reverse that decision and impose the metals tariffs on Argentina and Brazil is another example of his MERCURIAL approach to trade policy.” (191203, SDUT, p. A-3). A “mercurial” policy is
secretive 
fascinating 
inscrutable 
subtle 
counter-productive 
dictated by a single person 
the result of military intervention in diplomatic affairs 
volatile 
forgetful 
No Answer
5. “A man who has spent his entire life shouting at servants and consorting with sheikhs, oligarchs, and other sleazy characters is unlikely to suddenly cease to behave like an apex GIT.” (191206, The Week, p. 14). In British slang usage a “git” refers to
a person used to having a lot of money to use for flamboyant gifts 
an out-of-touch aristocrat 
an ignorant boor 
someone with a very short span of attention 
No Answer
6. “He knows how to squeeze the last FARTHING out of a tomato and has turned the sorting of groceries in warehouses into a science … .” (191116, The Economist, p. 59) A “farthing” is a
small seed 
tiny bit of fruit or vegetable juice 
long-term plan 
quarter of a penny 
No Answer
7. “In demanding America step back while [Turkish] troops pushed [the Syrian Kurds] from his border, [President Erdoğan appealed to Mr Trump’s INCHOATE desire to withdraw from Middle Eastern wars.” (191116, The Economist, p. 30) Something “inchoate” (in-KO-ate) is
self-contradictory 
unintelligible 
strongly or fanatically experienced or believed 
incipient and/or imperfectly formed 
No Answer
8. “Mr Finn’s own writing shines in his descriptions of pre-war American high society: the SYBARITIC circuit of parties, night clubs, and restaurants that meant everyone knew everyone.” (191012, The Economist, p. 88) A place or situation that is “sybaritic” is
extremely expensive 
deafening 
dazzling but superficial 
morally bankrupt 
devoted to pleasure and luxury 
No Answer
9. “In response to White House stonewalling, House Democrats provided an additional legal rationale, saying they needed to see Trump’s tax returns to ensure the [IRS] agency was correctly conducting its annual audit of the president … . Their concerns were PRESCIENT.” (191018, The Week, p. 14) Someone or something “prescient”
is finicky 
is politically loaded 
is politically motivated 
correctly anticipates the future 
goes beyond what is normal or reasonable 
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 March 24, 2015.