1. How many private contractors were hired to build HealthCare.gov, the Web portal set up to enable people to buy health insurance on exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act?
a) 12
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2. In July, the worried chief project manager of HealthCare.gov reminded underlings of a promise to Congress that the site would be operational on its launch date. “I under oath stated we are going to make Oct. 1,” the manager pleaded. “I would like you (to) put yourself in my shoes.” Name that project manager.
3. During a 21-hour speech on the Senate floor in protest of Obamacare, Sen. Ted Cruz read a Dr. Seuss book. What was the title of the book?
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4. Why did congressional Republicans shut down the government for 16 days in October?
a) To protest the Democrats changing filibuster rules
b) To prove that government isn’t necessary
c) To force President Obama to “blink” on Obamacare
5. IRS official Lois Lerner outraged lawmakers by doing what during a May congressional hearing into the agency’s special scrutiny of partisan groups seeking tax-exempt status?
Someone’s watching
6. Edward Snowden, an outside contractor working for the National Security Agency, was one of 480,000 contractors who had what?
7. This foreign leader expressed outrage and canceled her planned October trip to Washington when Snowden’s leaks revealed that the NSA had spied on her emails and phone conversations, as well as hacked into the computers of the state oil company.
8. So far, Snowden has turned over 58,000 stolen files to The Guardian (U.K.), whose stories have revealed that the NSA essentially can spy on all phone calls and Internet activity on planet Earth. Within 5 percent, what percent of the stolen NSA documents have yet to be published, according to The Guardian?
Curiosities
9. Toronto Mayor Rob Ford had an unusual excuse for smoking crack cocaine. What did he blame for that bad decision?
10. Business magnate and inventor Elon Musk unveiled a proposal to build a new transportation system that would whisk passengers through a vacuum tube from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 35 minutes. What did Musk call his futuristic idea?
11. A California woman this year became the first person to receive a ticket for driving while wearing what potentially distracting piece of headgear?
12. Name the newsmakers who brought fame to these invented names this year:
a) Lennay Kekua
b) Carlos Danger
c) Robert Galbraith
International
13. A shortage of what vital commodity led angry Venezuelans to take to the streets and storm factories?
14. After a Bangladesh factory collapse killed more than 1,100 textile workers, major clothing retailers from around the world signed a protocol committing them to ensuring that suppliers meet safety standards. Name the one country whose retailers refused to sign on.
15. Whose skeletal remains were finally located beneath a parking lot in Leicester, Britain, and identified, in part, by a distinctive curvature of the spine?
Pop culture
16. Kanye West proposed to Kim Kardashian by taking over the stadium of which major league baseball team?
17. Jay Z and Beyoncé caused a furor by taking a vacation to which global hot spot?
18. Which deceased historical figure did Justin Bieber call “a great girl,” and speculate that, were she alive today, “hopefully she would have been a “Belieber”?
By the numbers
19. This relentless predator kills 14.7 billion birds and small mammals in the U.S. every year, according to a Smithsonian Institution study.
20. Women hold more seats in the House and the Senate than at any time in U.S. history. Of the 535 seats available, how many are filled by women?
a) 78
b) 101
c) 211
Science & Health
21. What happened in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk in February that blew out thousands of windows, knocked pedestrians to the ground, and injured more than 1,500 people?
22. Scientists found evidence that this disease could be diagnosed by determining whether a person has difficulty smelling peanut butter through his or her left nostril.
23. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced a tenfold increase in the estimated number of cases of what increasingly common infection?
Arts & Letters
24. In a new biography, authors David Shields and Shane Salerno claim that reclusive writer J.D. Salinger was so averse to publicity and normal relationships because he was intensely self-conscious about a physical deformity. What was it?
25. Which 1980s pop star won her first Tony Award for contributing to a musical about a shoe factory saved by transvestites?
26. “HELEN FIELDING...WHAT THE HECK DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING. DO YOU WANT ME TO BE DEPRESSED FOR REST OF MY LIFE?” read one of scores of angry tweets directed at the author of the Bridget Jones series. How did she provoke such outrage?
27. “It was well below what I’d wished to do,” said the creator of Sunset at Montmajour, a now-priceless 1888 painting that until this year was dismissed as a fake. Who was the painter?
They said it
28. “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”
29. “I have made it clear to the president of the United States that spying on friends is not acceptable at all.”
30. “I personally believe, even if it means a change to the law, the president should honor the commitment the federal government made to those people and let them keep [their current health-care plan].”
31. “Frankly, I think [Tea Party and other conservative groups like FreedomWorks] are misleading their followers. And frankly, I just think that they’ve lost all credibility.”
Answers
Calling in sick 1. b) 55 2. Henry Chao, who is also the deputy chief information officer at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services 3.Green Eggs and Ham4. c) To force Obama to blink 5. Invoking the Fifth Amendment, and refusing to answer questions Someone’s watching6. A “top secret” security clearance 7. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff 8. 99 percent Curiosities9. “One of my drunken stupors” 10. The Hyperloop 11. Google Glass 12. a) Manti Te’o. b) Anthony Weiner. c) J.K. Rowling International13. Toilet paper 14. The U.S. 15. King Richard III Pop culture16. San Francisco Giants 17. Cuba 18. Anne Frank By the numbers19. Cats 20. b) 101—81 in the House, 20 in the Senate Science & Health21. A meteor strike 22. Alzheimer’s 23. Lyme disease Arts & Letters24. He had only one testicle 25. Cyndi Lauper 26. She killed off Bridget’s love interest, Mark Darcy 27. Vincent van Gogh They said it28. Pope Francis 29. German Prime Minister Angela Merkel 30. Bill Clinton 31. House Speaker John Boehner
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