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Sample questions from our Accent
on Academics publication for the December 1, 2003, Volume 19/14
1) Identify the state whose Supreme Court recently ruled by
a 4-3 vote that the state constitution guarantees gay couples the right to marry
and gave the Legislature 6 months to rewrite the state's marriage laws for the
benefit of gay couples. 2) Which word, meaning "scurrilous satirical
satire" and identifying Harvard College's undergraduate humor magazine, is
derived from the French word lampons, used as a refrain in a song and
meaning "Let us drink"? 3) On which general, described as "fat-free" and
having "the figure of an athletic god," did John Le Carré base the
U.S. general in his novel The Tailor of Panama, having met this general
while he was the U.S. Southern Commander in the Canal Zone? 4) Which name identifies both the parrot that taught Doctor
Dolittle to talk to the animals and a scattered group of Pacific islands that
includes Hawaii and the Marquesas? It literally means "many islands. 5) In which hills in western Massachusetts is Tanglewood,
the Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer home, located? Sample questions from our Accent
on Academics publication for the December 8, 2003, Volume 19/15
1) Just as President Bush made a secret trip to Baghdad on
Thanksgiving, which President secretly had a malignant growth on his upper left
jaw removed and replaced with an artificial jaw of vulcanized rubber on a
private yacht, the Oneida, in 1893? 2) Which word identifies all of the following: a large kind
of white or yellow onion, a kind of short pants extending to just above the
knee, and a triangular region in the Atlantic where many ships and aircraft have
allegedly disappeared since the 1940s? 3) Which 2 words beginning with M and B are
used to describe tumors, one meaning "very dangerous" and the other
meaning "harmless"? 4) After being banned from the Massachusetts Bay Colony by
Governor Roger Winthrop for "disseminating new & dangerous
opinions," which clergyman fled into the wilder-ness in 1636 in the search
for religious freedom? 5) Complete the title of English composer John McCabe's
orchestral piece The _________ Windows naming the Russian artist who did
the stained-glass windows in a synagogue of Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Sample questions from our Accent
on Academics publication for the December 15, 2003, Volume 19/16
1) Identify the country whose JAXA space agency recently
failed once again when it tried unsuccessfully to launch an H2-A rocket carrying
a pair of spy satellites and had to detonate it in midair. 2) Which national park, created by the 1994 California
Desert Protection Act, is named after giant cacti unique to the Sonoran Desert? 3) Name the 3 popular Caribbean resort islands known as the
ABC islands of the Nether-lands Antilles and located north of the Venezuela
coast. 4) In his Dictionary, which word beginning with the
letter L does Samuel Johnson define as "a writer of dictionaries, a
harmless drudge"? 5) Identify the short medieval trumpet used by armies
because it was easy to carry and its high-pitched notes were easily heard. Its
name, beginning with C, is also used as an adjective meaning "clear,
sharp, and ringing," as in the phrase "a ________ call."
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