Week to Week News Quiz for 11/21/14

Week to Week News Quiz for 11/21/14
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Before you turn off your mind and go into pre-Thanksgiving mode, take our latest Week to Week news quiz and see what you know about the world.

Here are some random but real hints: Less than half; you're thinking of the former Python; that's a lot of white stuff; and at least it's his native tongue. Answers are below the quiz.

1. About how many people will be covered in President Obama's plan to give relief from deportations?
a. 5 million
b. 11 million
c. 500,000
d. 7 million

2. Director Mike Nichols died at the age of 83. Which one of the following films did Nichols notdirect?
a. Silkwood
b. The Graduate
c. Charlie Wilson's War
d. The Fisher King

3. Who is Dr. Martin Salia?
a. President Obama's nominee to be U.S. surgeon general
b. The second person to die from Ebola in the U.S.
c. The first Republican African-American U.S. senator elected from the South since Reconstruction
d. Winner of the American Literature Prize for Fiction 2014

4. On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate fell short of votes to pass a bill supporting what?
a. The Keystone XL pipeline
b. Extending the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan
c. Net neutrality
d. Comprehensive immigration reform

5. U.S. Representative Paul Ryan got a long-sought new post this week. What is it?
a. Ambassador to Fillory
b. Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee
c. House majority leader
d. Chairman of the GOP congressional re-election committee

6. Israel's government promised harsh retaliation for what?
a. A Palestinian attack in a synagogue that left at least five dead
b. A Turkish ship that ran the Gaza blockade
c. The infiltration of Egyptian fighters across the Sinai peninsula
d. A threat by an ultra-conservative party to pull out of the ruling coalition

7. What family-friendly icon has been beset with claims that he sexually assaulted women?
a. Kirk Cameron
b. Quentin Tarantino
c. Bill Cosby
d. Harrison Ford

8. Early this week, 50% of the lower 48 states had what in common?
a. They were prevented from voting
b. They have passed legislation seeking secession
c. They have passed legislation legalizing recreational marijuana use
d. They were covered with snow

9. A state judge in Texas denied a motion to do what?
a. Drop felony charges against Governor Rick Perry
b. Alter the state's politically drawn voting districts
c. Close the border with Mexico
d. Reverse the results of November's gubernatorial election

10. What foreign politician is rejecting IRS claims that he owes taxes even though he hasn't lived in the United States since he was five years old?
a. Poland's President Bronisław Komorowski
b. Philippines' President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III
c. London Mayor Boris Johnson
d. Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi

BONUS. Which one of the following is notan actual quote from a New York Times magazine interview with child stars Jaden and Willow Smith?
a. "I mean, time for me, I can make it go slow or fast, however I please, and that's how I know it doesn't exist."
b. "Right, because you have to live. There's a theoretical physicist inside all of our minds, and you can talk and talk, but it's living."
c. "I don't pay attention to the number of birthdays. It's weird when I say I'm 53. It just is crazy that I'm 53. I think I'm very immature. I feel like a kid."
d. "There're no novels that I like to read so I write my own novels, and then I read them again, and it's the best thing."

Want the live news quiz experience? Join us Monday, December 1 in downtown San Francisco for our next live Week to Week political roundtable with a news quiz and a social hour at The Commonwealth Club of California. Panelists include the San Francisco Chronicle's Carla Marinucci, KQED's Scott Shafer, and Hoover Institution's Bill Whalen.

ANSWERS:
1) a.
2) d.
3) b.
4) a.
5) b.
6) a.
7) c.
8) d.
9) a.
10) c.
BONUS) c (that's actually an Ellen DeGeneres quote).

Explanations of the hints: Less than half: the 5 million covered is less than half of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country; you're thinking of the former Python: former Monty Python member Terry Gilliam directed The Fisher King; that's a lot of white stuff:snow is white, at least for a while; and at least it's his native tongue: London's mayor got a good grounding in the English language during his first five years of life, spent in the United States, for which he still holds a passport.

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