The Wall Street Journal Weekly Quiz s4

The Wall Street Journal Education Program

Weekly Review & Quiz

Covering front-page articles from Oct 21-27, 2006

Quiz Fall 2006

Developed by: Scott R. Homan Ph.D., Purdue University

1. Current rules allow airline pilot to work for _____ hours before they are forced to take a break.

a. 6

b. 8

c. 10

d. 12

2. Jetblue states that safety was never compromised because ___.

a. pilots were given triple espressos every two hours

b. a third pilot was always on board to take the controls if needed

c. the pilots took turns napping after the eight hour mark had passed

d. the flight attendants kept them awake by telling humorous stories

3. Powerful members of Congress are lining up to pass laws that would block Wal-Mart, from getting into the _____ business.

a. airline

b. used automobile

c. new automobile

d. banking

4. Early last year, Wal-Mart deciding to apply for a Utah charter to open an ____.

a. industrial loan corporation

b. industrial light and magic corporation

c. industrial distribution corporation

d. industrial purchase corporation

5. The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law permits a ___ of damages.

a. review

b. doubling

c. tripling

d. legal determination

6. If Vivendi can reclaim what it says is its rightful share of the ______ company or recover some of its investment, it could further its international expansion plans.

a. British mobile-phone

b. Universal Studios mobile-phone

c. Dutch mobile-phone

d. Polish mobile-phone

7. William Swanberg had a thing for Legos, after he was arrested last November near Portland, Ore., police investigators determined he had stolen more than ______ of the Danish building toys over three years from dozens of stores in at least five Western states.

a. $600

b. $6000

c. $60,000

d. $600,000

8. William Swanberg pilfered toys by creating _______.

a. counterfeit receipts

b. counterfeit credit cards

c. counterfeit gift cards

d. counterfeit bar codes

9. When Fiat hired Mr. Marchionne he had experience working for the following car companies.

a. Ford and GM

b. Ferrari and Maserati

c. Renault and Nissan

d. none because he had never worked in the auto industry

10. When Mr. Marchionne arrived at Fiat, he pledged to ____.

a. shut any of Fiat's Italian factories running at just 60% of capacity

b. shut any of Fiat's Italian factories running at just 80% of capacity

c. not shut any of Fiat's Italian factories

d. shut all of Fiat's US factories

11. Many Texans are paying 15 cents to 19 cents per kilowatt-hour, about ____ the national average.

a. double

b. triple

c. four times

d. five times

12. Stubbornly high electricity bills are one sign of how the four-year-old Texas ______ plan has failed to bring the benefits originally envisioned.

a. coal energy

b. nuclear energy

c. reregulation

d. deregulation

13. It is difficult for hypermarkets like Wal-Mart to stock shelves in China because

a. of the lack of refrigerated trucks for shipping

b. of the wide variety of diverse local tastes

c. the freshness and low prices at the local open air markets are hard to beat

d. All of the above

14. Bobcats are used to

a. plow snow & clean barns

b. slaughter livestock

c. harvest corn & soybeans

d. round up cattle

15. The success of Viking appliances is due in part to

a. outsourcing

b. an aura of exclusivity that entitles their producers to charge premium prices

c. every stove and other major appliance made in Greenwood is made to order

d. Both b and c

16. Wal-Mart hopes to launch a new campaign next year initially targeting

a. price-sensitive loyalists

b. fashionable city dwellers

c. selective shoppers

d. All of the above

17. Three days after reporting its worst quarterly results in 14 years, the company Chairman of ______ arrived in Nanjing, China for a glimpse of what he believes will be the auto maker's future.

a. Fiat

b. Ford

c. GM

d. Subaru

18. Recently, Grameen Bank and its founder, Muhammad Yunus, won the _____ for their work making small loans to poor people with big dreams.

a. Global Entrepreneur Prize

b. Malcolm Baldridge Prize

c. Deming Prize

d. Nobel Peace Prize

19. On Oct 5th a strike erupted after ______ and its union failed to negotiate a new three-year contract to replace one that expired in July.

a. Goodyear

b. GM

c. Ford

d. Wal-Mart

20. Under federal law, a prisoner serves at least 85% of his sentence. If his conviction and sentence withstand appeal, Former Enron Corp. President Mr. Skilling will face imprisonment until he was older than _____.

a. 60

b. 70

c. 80

d. 90

21. Japan, long known for legions of low-profile corporate executives, has become one of the world's fastest-growing markets for _______, a strategy used by executives to retool their companies out of the glare of public shareholders.

a. employee buyouts

b. management buyouts

c. stockholder buyouts

d. bankruptcy

22. Economists Erick Snowberg, Eric Zitzewitz, and Justin Wolfers found that in the past investors have seen the election of a Republican president as good for _____.

a. bonds

b. stocks

c. gas prices

d. food prices

23. Later this year, Beijing will begin allowing foreign competitors greater access to China's banking market, in which individual deposits total ______.

a. $1.9 billion

b. $19 billion

c. $1.9 trillion

d. $19 trillion

24. Companies have offered an increasing variety of benefits to appeal to employees such as ____.

a. extending health coverage benefits to domestic partners

b. casual full-time dress code

c. allowing employees to lump vacation and sick days into a single bank of days off

d. All of the above

25. Companies from health-care suppliers to fast-food chains are handing out free iPods so that employees can download audio and video files of CEO announcements, _____ and sales seminars.

a. company approved musical selections

b. training courses

c. advertisements

d. the latest episodes of “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives”

26. For years, the census did the official head count once every 10 years and asked _______to fill out a more detailed "long form" to produce once-a-decade reports on demographic, housing, social and economic trends, community by community.

a. one in twenty households

b. one in ten households

c. one in six households

d. one in three households