Law & Politics in the News — Set 1: Practice flashcards
6 of 15 questions free to study here · 7 topics · the whole deck is built into Willys
Fifteen sentence-completion questions on the Set 1 words, set in courtrooms, councils, campaigns and embassies: four choices, one blank, and why the tempting wrong answer fails.
Practice deck · part of Law & Politics in the News · written against: 150 words of courts, lawmaking, elections and world affairs; US usage; nonpartisan; not legal advice. Updated 2026-10-10.
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Three former members sued the gym chain over fees it kept charging after they canceled, and because eleven thousand others were billed the same way, the three members' ______ now seeks refunds for all of them.
A) bloc
B) class action
C) injunction
D) depositionB) class actionCourts & Trials
When a few people sue in the name of everyone who suffered the same harm, their case is a class action. Bloc is tempting because the members now stand together, but a bloc is lawmakers, voters or nations whose shared interests make them vote or act as a unit, not a court case. An injunction is a court order, not a claim for refunds. -
Charged with forgery, the bookkeeper walked out of jail on ______ that afternoon, after a bondsman pledged the sum the court required to guarantee he would return.
A) parole
B) probation
C) bail
D) habeas corpusC) bailCrime & Punishment
The price of getting out of jail before trial, paid or promised to the court by the accused or by someone on their behalf, is bail. Parole is tempting because he goes free, but parole is early release from a prison sentence, and he has not even been tried. -
The senator steered nine million federal dollars to an ice rink in her hometown of four thousand people, and the state's largest newspaper mocked it in an editorial as ______ politics at its worst.
A) earmark
B) gridlock
C) mudslinging
D) pork barrelD) pork barrelLawmaking
Public money a lawmaker steers home to their own district or state, which critics see mainly as a way to keep voters happy, is pork barrel. Earmark is tempting because the money went to one place, but earmark is the neutral term, with no charge of buying votes. -
Using ______ figures on residents' ages and family sizes, the school district predicted it would need two new elementary schools within a decade.
A) census
B) turnout
C) precinct
D) approval ratingA) censusGovernment & Power
A survey in which a government counts every resident and records facts like age and household size is a census. Turnout is tempting because it is also a count, but turnout counts only those who vote or show up at an event, not every resident. -
The billionaire was convicted under the same tax laws as everyone else, and commentators called the verdict a victory for the ______.
A) separation of powers
B) rule of law
C) checks and balances
D) balance of powerB) rule of lawRights & Citizenship
A powerful person held to the same laws as everyone else shows the rule of law. Checks and balances is tempting, but it means the branches limiting one another, and no branch checked another here. -
The two governments stayed on friendly terms, yet each time one navy launched a faster warship the other ordered two, and the costly ______ lasted a decade.
A) arms race
B) cold war
C) blockade
D) armisticeA) arms raceWorld Affairs & Trade
Rivals each building more and faster warships are in an arms race. Cold war is tempting, but a cold war is a hostile rivalry of threats, spying and propaganda, and these governments stayed friendly.
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Review status: Second-reader reviewed, with corrections applied.
Checked against:
- Senses, parts of speech and pronunciations checked against Merriam-Webster.com, the American Heritage Dictionary and the Oxford Learner's, Longman and Cambridge learner's dictionaries; all definitions, notes and example sentences are original.
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