Extemp Central News Quiz for the Week of March 2-8, 2015

[fblike]

Here is this week’s Extemp Central news quiz.  Good luck!quiz-01

To access a list of all our old quizzes, click here.

1. Why are Myanmar’s students protesting?

[toggle title_open=”Close Me” title_closed=”Open Me” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]Students are protesting an education bill that they see as centralizing more state control of high education institutions.  Students are demanding greater academic freedom, the ability to create teacher and student unions, a student say in government education policy, and more government spending on education.  The protests have been ongoing since January.[/toggle]

2. What is a “right-to-work” law?

[toggle title_open=”Close Me” title_closed=”Open Me” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]A “right-to-work” law prohibits the use of union shops, whereby someone must pay union dues or fees to a union as a condition of employment.  Opponents of “right-to-work” laws argue that they undermine workers benefits because they weaken unions, while supporters say that the laws attract business investment and preserve personal freedom of association.  Wisconsin is seeking to become the twenty-fifth U.S. state to have a “right-to-work” law.[/toggle]

3. President Obama has called on Iran to freeze its nuclear activity for this length of time.

[toggle title_open=”Close Me” title_closed=”Open Me” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]Ten years.  President Obama says that Iran should agree to freeze its nuclear acitivities so as to ensure an agrement with international powers over its nuclear problem.  However, the Iranian government says that Obama’s plan is “excessive and illogical.”[/toggle]

4. What demands has Venezuela recently made of the United States government regarding its presence in their country?

[toggle title_open=”Close Me” title_closed=”Open Me” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]The Venezuelan government has demanded that the U.S. reduce its diplomat presence by eighty diplomats, thereby having seveteen diplomats in the country, which is equal to the number of Venezuelan diplomats in the United States.  Veneuzelan President Nicholas Maduro has also stated that U.S. citizens visitng the country must now apply for visas that will be charged at the same rate as those obtained by Venezuelans visiting the U.S.  Maduro has blamed Venezuela’s national problems on the United States and has said that the U.S. is trying to overthrow his government.[/toggle]

5. Who topped Forbes magazine’s recent ranking of the world’s richest people?

[toggle title_open=”Close Me” title_closed=”Open Me” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]Microsoft founder Bill Gates.  Gates net worth is pegged at $79.2 billion.  It is the sixteenth time that Gates has topped the list.  Mexican media mogul Carlos Slim was second in the rankings with $77.1 billion and investor Warren Buffett was third with $72.7 billion.[/toggle]

6. This U.S. senator announced on Monday that they would not seek re-election in 2016.

[toggle title_open=”Close Me” title_closed=”Open Me” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]Maryland Democrat Barbara Mikulski.  Mikulski announced that she would retire after serving five terms.  She is the longest-serving woman in Congress, having been elected initially to the House in 1977.  She was first elected to the Senate in 1986.  She has always won re-election to the Senate with more than 60% of the vote.  Democrats expect to easily retain her seat in the next election cycle.[/toggle]

7. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has recently come under fire for allegedly illegal behavior while serving. What is she being accused of?

[toggle title_open=”Close Me” title_closed=”Open Me” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]Reports have surfaced in recent days of Clinton using her personal e-mail account to do official business.  This could be in violation of federal law, which requires official messages to be retained for archival purposes, and also raises questions about a blurring of what constitutes private and public correspondence.  The New York Times has reported that Clinton never had a government e-mail address while serving as Secretary of State and that her aides did not try to presere her all of her e-mails as required by the Federal Records Act.[/toggle]

8. This Major League Baseball team was not happy that pictures of “Jihadi John” showed him with a hat bearing their logo.

[toggle title_open=”Close Me” title_closed=”Open Me” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]The Pittsburgh Pirates.  “Jihadi John,” a British national who has allegedly been involved in the murder of Western hostages captured by the Islamic State, was revealed as Mohammed Emwazi last week.  The Pirates have said that they are sickened that photographs have emerged showing him with their merchandise.[/toggle]

9. Who was Boris Nemtsov?

[toggle title_open=”Close Me” title_closed=”Open Me” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]A Russian liberal politician who was a significant critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.  He served as Deputy Prime Minister between April and August 1998.  Nemtsov was assassinated last week in Moscow near the Kremlin.[/toggle]

10. What is net neutrality?

[toggle title_open=”Close Me” title_closed=”Open Me” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]Net neutrality is the idea that all Internet traffic should be treated equally.  In other words, Internet providers should not be able to prejudice certain content by blocking or intentionally slowing down websites. The term was coined by Columbia Law Professor Tim Wu in 2003.[/toggle]

This entry was posted in Quiz and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.