“What in the World?” Quiz – Week of July 16-22, 2017

Note: Beginning in July the end of month quiz prize winner will be chosen from among the weekly winners who are members of the Tennessee World Affairs Council  — one more benefit of membership. To become a supporting member of the World Affairs Council visit TNWAC.org/join. Thanks!

Check your global affairs awareness with these ten questions taken from the week’s news reports provided via @TNWAC #TNWACquiz.

The only rule is to use the ‘honor system.’

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A dual biography of Winston Churchill and George Orwell, who preserved democracy from the threats of authoritarianism, from the left and right alike.

Both George Orwell and Winston Churchill came close to death in the mid-1930’s—Orwell shot in the neck in a trench line in the Spanish Civil War, and Churchill struck by a car in New York City. If they’d died then, history would scarcely remember them. At the time, Churchill was a politician on the outs, his loyalty to his class and party suspect. Orwell was a mildly successful novelist, to put it generously. No one would have predicted that by the end of the 20th century they would be considered two of the most important people in British history for having the vision and courage to campaign tirelessly, in words and in deeds, against the totalitarian threat from both the left and the right. In a crucial moment, they responded first by seeking the facts of the matter, seeing through the lies and obfuscations, and then they acted on their beliefs. Together, to an extent not sufficiently appreciated, they kept the West’s compass set toward freedom as its due north.

It’s not easy to recall now how lonely a position both men once occupied. By the late 1930’s, democracy was discredited in many circles, and authoritarian rulers were everywhere in the ascent. There were some who decried the scourge of communism, but saw in Hitler and Mussolini “men we could do business with,” if not in fact saviors. And there were others who saw the Nazi and fascist threat as malign, but tended to view communism as the path to salvation. Churchill and Orwell, on the other hand, had the foresight to see clearly that the issue was human freedom—that whatever its coloration, a government that denied its people basic freedoms was a totalitarian menace and had to be resisted.

In the end, Churchill and Orwell proved their age’s necessary men. The glorious climax of Churchill and Orwell is the work they both did in the decade of the 1940’s to triumph over freedom’s enemies. And though Churchill played the larger role in the defeat of Hitler and the Axis, Orwell’s reckoning with the menace of authoritarian rule in Animal Farm and 1984 would define the stakes of the Cold War for its 50-year course, and continues to give inspiration to fighters for freedom to this day. Taken together, in Thomas E. Ricks’s masterful hands, their lives are a beautiful testament to the power of moral conviction, and to the courage it can take to stay true to it, through thick and thin.

About the Author

Thomas E. Ricks is an adviser on national security at the New America Foundation, where he participates in its “Future of War” project. He was previously a fellow at the Center for a New American Security and is a contributing editor of Foreign Policy magazine, for which he writes the prizewinning blog The Best Defense. A member of two Pulitzer Prize-winning teams, he covered U.S. military activities in Somalia, Haiti, Korea, Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Kuwait, Turkey, Afghanistan, and Iraq. He is the author of several books, including The Generals, The Gamble, and the number one New York Times bestseller Fiasco, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

More information and ordering

To get in on the quiz make sure you’re getting TNWAC emails (here’s the free subscription link: http://eepurl.com/gt6dn) and make sure you’re following @TNWAC on Twitter.

We’ll post the answers and the names of the winner(s) in next week’s quiz.

Here’s last week’s questions and answers:

WHAT IN THE WORLD? QUIZ

Week of July 9-15, 2017

1. This week North Korea marked a military milestone and changed its dynamic with the rest of the world by successfully launching what?

A. A communications satellite
B. An Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM)
C. A nuclear-powered submarine
D. A new operating platform for smart phones

Correct answer: B. An Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM)
http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/07/05/535465234/after-north-koreas-icbm-launch-now-what

2. The World Health Organization warned this week that a new “superbug” form of THIS disease exists; the new strain is considered completely untreatable.

A. Malaria
B. Ebola
C. Gonorrhea
D. Cholera

Correct answer: C. Gonorrhea
http://uk.reuters.com/article/us-health-gonorrhoea-idUKKBN19R37G?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=Social

3. The G-20 Summit met this week in which Germany city?

A. Berlin
B. Munich
C. Hamburg
D. Hanover

Correct answer: C. Hamburg
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/07/06/world/europe/g-20-summit-quiz.html?emc=edit_mbe_20170707&nl=morning-briefing-europe&nlid=67583361&te=1

4. THIS African country launched its first satellite, designed to help with coastal mapping.

A. Ghana
B. Kenya
C. Nigeria
D. Senegal

Correct answer: A. Ghana
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-40538471

5. Former French Minister of Health, Holocaust survivor, and outspoken supporter of women’s rights Simone Veil became the fifth woman to be laid to rest in THIS Parisian monument, reserved for France’s greatest citizens.

A. Notre Dame Cathedral
B. Les Invalides
C. Sacré Cœur Basilica
D. Pantheon

Correct answer: D. Pantheon
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-40507990

6. With an eye to stabilizing an electrical grid prone to blackouts, Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk confirmed this week that his company would build a 100-megawatt lithium ion battery—the world’s largest—in the southern state of THIS country.

A. Australia
B. Mexico
C. Indonesia
D. South Africa

Correct answer: A. Australia
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-40527784

7. In an unusual secret ballot vote that drew ire from Israel, UNESCO named parts of THIS city a Palestinian World Heritage Site:

A. Gaza
B. Hebron
C. Ramallah
D. Nablus

Correct answer: B. Hebron
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-40530396

8. In an effort to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, and as a sign of renewed commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement, THIS country announced plans to ban the sale of gas and diesel operated vehicles by 2040.

A. Sweden
B. Switzerland
C. France
D. Germany

Correct answer: C. France
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/07/06/535799765/france-plans-to-ban-sale-of-diesel-and-gas-vehicles-by-2040

9. 19 of the nations that participated in the G20 summit this week signed a communique stating that the Paris climate accord was irreversible. Which of the 20 world leaders present said this: “In the end, the negotiations on climate reflect dissent—all against the United States of America”?

A. Justin Trudeau
B. Emmanuel Macron
C. Xi Jinping
D. Angela Merkel

Correct answer: D. Angela Merkel
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-g20-germany-communique-idUSKBN19T07P

10. The European Union and THIS country announced a broad trade agreement this week that would create one of the world’s largest free-trade zones, and representing more than a third of the world’s GDP.

A. Japan
B. Australia
C. China
D. Canada

Correct answer: A. Japan
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/06/business/economy/japan-eu-trade-agreement.html

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