Questions

1. A year after the Pentagon opened up combat roles to women and then changed the requirement on the annual physical fitness test to equalize physical standards, approximately ________ of women failed the new pull-up requirement.
a) 0%
b) 5%
c) 50%
d) 99%

2. The pull-ups requirement was added to the female physical fitness test with the belief that pull-ups require the muscular strength necessary to perform common military tasks such as scaling a wall, climbing up a rope or lifting and carrying heavy munitions. Starting January 1st, all female Marines were supposed to be able to do at least __________ pull-ups on their annual physical fitness test. Female recruits previously had to complete a "flexed arm hang," or holding their chins above the pull-up bar for at least 15 seconds.
a) 3
b) 15
c) 30
d) 100

3. The State of the Union is an annual address presented by the President to Congress. By tradition, the President makes this report each January before a joint session of Congress. The SOTU is based on the _________________ (Article II, Section 3: “The President shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.”)
a) U.S. Constitution
b) Bill of Rights
c) Declaration of Independence
d) Emancipation Proclamation

4. President Obama mentioned all but which one of the following in his State of the Union this week?
a) ways in which he intends to use executive powers
b) his plan to restrict gun ownership
c) equal pay for women
d) Iran's nuclear program (negotiations vs. sanctions)

5. In December, Ukrainians began protesting after President Viktor Yanukovych spurned a long-planned agreement with the European Union in favor of working with _________________. Then on Jan. 17, Yanukovych's government passed laws banning almost all forms of public protest, which had galvanized the protests against the president.
a) the United States
b) Russia
c) North Korea
d) Iran

6. In response to massive protests in the past two weeks over the laws banning protests, Ukraine’s president gave the protesters everything they demanded except:
a) dismissing his entire cabinet
b) his own resignation
c) rescinding the new laws banning protests
d) forceing the prime minister to resign

7. Edward Snowden's latest information leak divulged the fact that the NSA and its British counterpart were working on a project to acquire user information from apps including:
a) Angry Birds and Netflix
b) Amazon and GoogleMaps
c) GoogleMaps and Angry Birds
d) none of the above

8. When asked about the latest leak from Snowden, President Obama's press secretary Jay Carney said the Obama administration:
a) was focused only on the people who used the apps
b) didn't know anything about it
c) was focused only on intelligence targets
d) does not care about it

9. It was reported this week that a Long Island man has been filling the potholes in his neighborhood for all of the following reasons except:
a) it's his hobby
b) his car was damaged by a large pothole
c) he is fed up with the growing number of potholes in his neighborhood
d) he thinks the town's highway crews are neglecting his community

10. Town and county officials oppose the residents's pothole repairs with all but the following reason:
a) the town highway crew does a very good job
b) its dangerous
c) he is not a state-licensed pothole repairman
d) his actions violate town codes