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| Sample questions from our Accent on Academics
publication for the November 1, 2004, Volume 20/10
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| 1) Although the U.S. is unable to get the half of its flu
vaccine it expected from a U.S. plant in England, it will get another 2.6
million doses in January from a company in which country, for a total from
this company of 58 million, or a little more than half of its expected 100
million doses? |
| Answer: France (from Aventis Pasteur; some are calling
the shots "Freedom Shots"; some consider January too late for
the shots as the flu season will have peaked). |
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| 2) Which word designates both a well-paying job for which
little work is required and a smooth-skinned edible fruit with a stone or
pit? |
| Answer: Plum. |
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| 3) Which nonmetallic element, whose name comes from a Greek
word for "purple," does the thyroid gland take from blood and
use to make the hormone thyroxine? |
| Answer: Iodine. |
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| 4) Which 2 verbs complete this line from "Casey at the
Bat": "And somewhere men are __________ and somewhere children
__________"? |
| Answer: "laughing" and "shout." |
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| 5) Identify the circus girl in Bedrich Smetana's opera The
Bartered Bride who shares her name with the gypsy dancer in Victor
Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame. |
| Answer: Esmeralda. |
| Sample questions from our Accent
on Academics publication for the November 15, 2004, Volume 20/12 |
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| 1) Identify the 3 Democrats who have lost to a Bush in
presidential elections, in 1988, 2000, and 2004. |
| Answer: Michael Dukakis, Al Gore, and John Kerry,
respectively. |
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| 2) Identify the only 2 independent countries in the Western
Hemisphere in which French is an official language. |
| Answer: Canada and Haiti. |
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| 3) In which story by Stephen Vincent Benét
does Jabez Stone say, "I vow it's enough to make a man want to sell
his soul to the devil! And I would, too, for two cents!" |
| Answer: "The Devil and Daniel Webster." |
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| 4) Identify the Norwegian explorer who told of rafting across the Pacific
and sailing a papyrus-reed boat across the Atlantic in his Kon-Tiki
and The Ra Expeditions. |
| Answer: Thor Heyerdahl. |
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| 5) Name the sculptor and king of Cyprus
whose prayers for a wife as lovely as the statue of a woman he had
sculpted were answered when Aphrodite brought the statue to life. |
| Answer: Pygmalion. |
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| Sample questions from our Accent on Academics
publication for the November 22, 2004, Volume 20/13
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| 1) With which country has Panama opened talks about building an
85-mile road linking North and South America northwest of Bogotą, thus
completing a highway from Alaska to Argentina? |
| Answer: Colombia. |
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| 2) Identify the human-powered aircraft that crossed the 74 miles
between Crete and Thira in 1988 and was named after the mythological
character who flew over the sea when escaping from the Labyrinth on
Crete with his son. |
| Answer: Daedalus. |
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| 3) Identify the Greek dish of marinated lamb chunks skewered between
vegetable chunks and cooked over a grill. |
| Answer: Souvlaki(a). |
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| 4) Which word designates both the scoring of a point in Canadian
football by the punting team when the other team does not advance the
ball into the field of play and the reddish cosmetic powder or cream
women wear on their cheeks? |
| Answer: Rouge. |
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| 5) Which play by Henrik Ibsen is based on a legendary hero of Norse
folklore who has many amazing adventures in many lands? |
| Answer: Peer Gynt. |
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