The Wall Street Journal Weekly Quiz s5

The Wall Street Journal Weekly Quiz

Answer Key

Covering front-page articles from Feb 28 – Mar 4, 2005

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

Questions 1 – 12 from First Section, Section A

1. House prices in the U.S. have jumped _______% over the past decade.

a. 20

b. 60

c. 35

d. 85 Correct

2. In California, house prices have more than _____ in just the past five years.

a. doubled Correct

b. tripled

c. quadrupled

d. stayed the same

3. In what Mr. Bush calls an "ownership society," Americans would assume more of the responsibilities and _______ now shouldered by government.

a. bills

b. functions

c. risks Correct

d. rewards

4. In the Bush vision, the nation's social safety nets would still exist, but on a smaller scale, targeting _____________.

a. the most needy Correct

b. the most rich

c. the elderly

d. immigrants

5. Yahoo sees itself as a __________ company.

a. chocolate milk

b. technology

c. media Correct

d. small

6. Google views itself as a _________ company.

a. big

b. flavored milk company

c. media

d. technology Correct

7. More than 500 public companies have reported deficiencies with their ________________________ under a controversial new federal rule.

a. managerial accounting controls

b. foreign accounting controls

c. external accounting controls

d. internal accounting controls Correct

8. The 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley corporate-accountability law, is pushing a lot of U.S. companies into line. But business groups complain that it's costing them a lot of ______________.

a. time

b. money Correct

c. loyalty

d. good will

9. Mr. Bush has said he wants to allow workers to divert a portion of their Social Security taxes into _______________ accounts.

a. collective

b. private Correct

c. public

d. hidden

10. A key senior citizen lobby group is called ________.

a. AARP Correct

b. TARP

c. CARP

d. SARP

11. In Donegal, Pa. Ethan Ward, is the 33-year-old _____________ of this tiny township on the West Virginia line.

a. dog catcher

b. minister

c. high school coach

d. police chief Correct

12. Mr. Ward manages to run a staff of three persons on an annual budget from the township of $_______________.

a. 5000

b. 20,000

c. 88,000 Correct

d. 547,500

Questions 13 – 17 from Marketplace, Section B

13. Ms. Martha Stewart is scheduled to return from _________ this week.

a. college

b. boot camp

c. state prison

d. federal prison Correct

14. Surveys show that big businesses are filling a lot more jobs with _______.

a. the youth

b. the elderly

c. outsiders Correct

d. slackers

15. For a few executive felons, serving prison time is a lot like a __________.

a. unpaid vacation

b. paid leave of absence Correct

c. holiday

d. company retreat

16. With the new Netscape, you can see the ___________ version of a page.

a. PDA

b. English

c. Firefox

d. Internet Explorer Correct

17. Because __________, a provider of background-check data, refused to change information Carlos Ramirez a victim of identity theft was fired in 2002. Mr. Ramirez sued and the case was settled under undisclosed terms.

a. NoChoice

b. Money Love INC

c. ChoicePoint Correct

d. WE LIE INC

Questions 18 – 22 from Money & Investing, Section C

18. “Short sellers” sell stock they have borrowed in hopes they can buy it back at a __________ price later.

a. lower Correct

b. higher

c. new

d. inflated

19. Americans' willingness to spend has shown little sign of flagging but investors' willingness to believe in the U.S. consumer has ________.

a. slowed down Correct

b. not changed at all

c. grown

d. stayed about the same

20. More companies are trying to get away from regular ______________.

a. pay raise forecasting

b. product development forecasting

c. staffing forecasting

d. profit forecasting Correct

21. Unocal Corp., the ninth-largest U.S.-based oil and natural-gas producers market value at the close of regular trading March 2, 2005 was $________.

a. 14 million

b. 14,000

c. 14 billion Correct

d. 140 billion

22. Over the past week, expectations of a surge in the _________ have also helped push the yield of the benchmark 10-year Treasury note up from 4.28% to about 4.39%.

a. jobs number Correct

b. cars number

c. layoffs number

d. college graduates number

Questions 23 – 25 from Personal Journal, Section D

23. A British Airways 747 had an engine _____during takeoff in Los Angeles 10 days ago.

a. communicate with the pilots

b. added

c. fall off

d. fail Correct

24. Medicis Pharmaceuticals Corp., maker of the anti-wrinkle skin filler Restylane has started ___________ to spur beauty-minded consumers to get regular treatments.

a. foreign efforts

b. lowering cost

c. milk carton advertising

d. an online rewards program Correct

25. Lowe's, Home Depot, Wal-Mart and Kmart, are ratcheting up their presence in the ____________ business.

a. travel

b. computer

c. gardening Correct

d. lumber