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Here is this week’s Extemp Central news quiz. Good luck!
To access a list of all our old quizzes, click here.
1. How much did the U.S. birthrate increase in 2014?
[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”]1%. This was the first posted increase since 2008 as the U.S. birthrate had declined for five consecutive years after the beginning of the financial crisis. Observers note that the rising birthrate is the sign of an economic recovery.[/toggle]
2. When will Haiti hold its presidential election?
[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”]October. The election will see the emergence of a new leader as President Michel Martelly is prohibited from seeking office again. This will be the third consecutive time that the country has democratically elected its leader, something that is very significant in a country that has a history of dictatorships. However, the new president will inherit significant political and economic problems.[/toggle]
3. Out of the nineteen women who started Ranger School in late April, how many remain?
[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”]Two. The two women, both of whom are West Point graduates, have one more week of training in the Florida swamps. If they succeed they will become the first women to be Army Rangers.[/toggle]
4. Who is Lawrence Lessig?
[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”]Lessig is a Harvard law professor that says that he may seek the Democratic presidential nomination if he receives enough crowdsourcing via the Internet to mount a campaign. He has pledged to campaign on campaign finance reform because, in his words, “the way we fund campaigns for America is crazy corrupt.”[/toggle]
5. China recently decided to devalue the yuan by this amount.
[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”]2%. Chinese officials moved to devalue their currency in light of ongoing evidence of an economic slowdown in the country. The cheaper currency will help to make China’s exports more competitive. American politicians have decried that the country is engaging in currency manipulation.[/toggle]
6. The United Nations’ envoy for Libya hopes that its feuding political factions can reach a peace agreement by this point in 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”]The first weeks of September. Envoy Bernardino Leon says that if the country’s political factions show a willingness to cooperate that a national unity government could be agreed to in three weeks and a peace agreement reached. The country has been riven with division since the overthrow of Moammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011.[/toggle]
7. Japan restarted its first nuclear power plant on Tuesday. How many months had the country ceased to operate any of its nuclear reactors?
[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”]Twenty-three months. During this period the Japanese government worked to create stricter standards for the nation’s nuclear apparatus, which helps to generate electricity for the resource-deprived nation’s energy needs. Anxieties about Japanese nuclear power stem from the nuclear disaster at Fukushima in March 2011 when an earthquake and tsunami damaged that facility.[/toggle]
8. The Troika’s recent agreement with the Greek government would provide the country $94 billion over the next three years in return for what measures?
[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 Troika’s deal mandates that the Greek government engage in a cost-cutting review of the country’s social welfare system, privatize some state assets, and gradually increase the nation’s retirement age to sixty-seven by 2022. These steps are unpopular among Greek voters, but if the Greek government refuses it could default on its debts on August 20 when it owes $3.3 billion to the European Central Bank (ECB).[/toggle]
9. Anti-trafficking organizations and Hollywood actresses criticized this recent vote by Amnesty International.
[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”]Amnesty International, a human rights group, recently voted to support decriminalizing the sex trade at its decision-making forum in Dublin, Ireland. Amnesty argues that its stance is not an endorsement of the exploitation and abuse that sex workers encounter on a daily basis.[/toggle]
10. When and where will the first Democratic presidential debate take place?
[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”]October 13 in Nevada. The debate will feature the existing Democratic presidential candidates and will be one of six contests. Contenders for the nomination such as Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley have criticized the Democratic National Committee for only scheduling six debates, which they say is a plan designed to ensure that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is the nominee. The debate will be moderated by CNN.[/toggle]