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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. A competing canal to the Panama Canal is being built by China in this Latin American nation.
[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”]Nicaragua. Chinese tycoon Wang Jing has acquired a concession to build the canal, which is expected to serve as a competitor to the Panama Canal, whose attempt to double its capacity is running behind schedule. Opponents in Nicaragua argue that the project will displace indigenous groups, harm the environment, and is not in the country’s best financial interest. Jing’s group will manage the canal’s shipping for fifty years and can renew the contract in another fifty years.[/toggle]
2. This company, which handled healthcare.gov, has been replaced. Also, which company took its 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”]CGI Federal, who was contracted to build healthcare.gov, will be replaced by Accenture.[/toggle]
3. When does Janet Yellen take over as chairwoman of the Federal Reserve?
[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”]Yellen, who was confirmed last week in the Senate 56-26, will take over the Federal Reserve on February 1st. She replaces Ben Bernanke, who has held the position since 2006, and will become the first woman to head the Federal Reserve in its 101-year history.[/toggle]
4. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is under fire over what issue?
[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”]Christie is under fire after it emerged that high ranking members of his staff worked to create a traffic jam in Fort Lee, New Jersey as revenge against Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich for not backing Christie’s re-election bid. Christie has argued that he was not aware of the plan and evidence has not yet emerged that directly links him to the scandal, but it has done damage to his public image and some New Jersey lawmakers are calling for his resignation or impeachment.[/toggle]
5. A book written by this former Obama administration official was highly critical of Vice-President Joe Biden’s foreign policy views.
[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”]Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, whose second memoir Duty argues that Vice-President Biden has been wrong on “wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.”[/toggle]
6. What is the current U.S. unemployment rate?
[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 current U.S. unemployment rate is 6.7%, but economists warn that this unemployment rate is not truly representative of the state of economy because the rate declined since more Americans dropped out of the labor force. If people are not actively looking for work they do not count into the unemployment rate.[/toggle]
7. Why is Ariel Sharon a controversial figure in Israel and the Arab world?
[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”]Sharon, a former Israeli prime minister who passed away last week, is controversial among Israeli conservatives for evacuating the Gaza Strip in 2005 and is controversial among Arabs because of his role in the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and complicity in the massacre of hundreds of Palestinians by Lebanese Christian militias in the aftermath of that invasion.[/toggle]
8. What has caused 300,000 West Virginia residents to lose access to clean tap water?
[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”]West Virginia residents are not able to access clean tap water because chemical 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, a coal processing chemical, leaked out of a tank at Freedom Industries, a chemical provider and got into local drinking water.[/toggle]
9. Which group took control of Fallujah and parts of Ramadi in Iraq two weeks ago?
[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 Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). It worked with SUnni tribal allies in Iraq to seize control of both areas as a sign of defiance against Iraq’s Shi’ite-controlled government. The ISIL’s activities are a demonstration of how the Syrian civil war is destabilizing neighboring countries.[/toggle]
10. Reports have come out that French President Francois Hollande has been having an affair with Julie Gayet. Who is Juliet Gayet?
[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”]Gayet is a French actress and film producer. Hollande has not denied the affair and French conservatives have said that it has embarrassed France abroad. However, more than 70% of French voters think it is a private matter.[/toggle]