Questions

NOTE: Answers by email has ended for the school year.  You will begin receiving “Answers” emails again on Sept. 2.
Answers to this quiz will be posted here on Monday at the bottom of the page.  [The last quiz for this school year will be Friday, June 13th.]

1. The purpose of Memorial Day is to honor:
a) all U.S. service members who died while in military service
b) all veterans of the current war
c) all veterans who served during a war
d) all U.S. service members

2. The Memorial Day flower is the:
a) poppy
b) pansy
c) petunia
d) carnation

3. The census bureau reported last week that Texas leads the nation in:
a) job growth and the number of housing units built
b) number of students enrolled in college and unemployment
c) number of babies born and largest immigrant population
d) percentage of residents on food stamps and medicaid

4. Which industries are causing such enormous growth in Texas?
a) automotive, insurance and real estate
b) gambling, tobacco and firearms
c) technology, finance and oil
d) health care, telecommunications and utilities

5. 49 of 53 Democratic Senators wrote to the NFL asking the organization to force the Washington Redskins to change the team’s name because:
a) they are up for re-election in September
b) many Native Americans groups have asked Congress to force the Washington Redskins to change the team's name
c) they only like college football
d) the Senators considered it racially offensive

6. In a letter to Democratic Senator Harry Reid responding to the Senators’ letter to the NFL, Redskins president Bruce Allen:
a) told Senator Reid to mind his own business
b) cited a respected poll to prove that Native Americans are not offended by the team name
c) asked why the name should matter because Native Americans don’t play pro-football
d) offered to give Senator Reid lifetime season passes for box seats

7. What is significant about the report released Wednesday by the Office of the Inspector General for Veterans Affairs?
a) It was the Obama administration’s first official confirmation of the problems at the VA
b) It was the first time problems at the VA were made public
c) The report found that there was no problem with wait times at the VA medical facilities
d) It was what first alerted President Obama to the fact that there was a problem with the VA facilities

8. Which one of the following is not true?
a) In 1996, Congress passed a law requiring that any vet needing care be seen within 30 days.
b) The General Accountability Office (GAO) reported in 2000, and again in 2001, that excessive waiting was still a problem.
c) In 2007, and again in 2012, the VA’s own inspector general reported that VA schedulers routinely cheated to hide long waits.
d) The VA problems were documented in a March 2013 hearing of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, more than a year before the Phoenix scandal broke.
e) President Obama and Congress have no authority to reform the system; only the VA has authority over its hospitals.

9. Which statement about Google’s self-driving cars is false?
a) they don’t have steering wheels or gas or brake pedals
b) they are electric
c) they can go as fast as 100 miles an hour
d) they are built with reinforced steel to make the cars safer

10. Google has pointed out that their self-driving cars will help many types of people and mentioned all but which one?
a) drunk drivers
b) teenagers
c) people who are visually impaired
d) senior citizens