The 1998 TIME Current Events Quiz

By Bennett Singer and Dan Zinkus

What happened in 1998? Test your knowledge of the news as seen in the pages of TIME.

ANSWERS APPEAR ON LAST PAGE OF QUIZ

PEOPLE IN THE NEWS Match each numbered description to the photograph of the newsmaker who fits it best.

1. Politician who ranks as his country's most popular leader since World War II.

2. SEAL, wrestler, talk-radio host and Governor.

3. Winner in a Texas "food disparagement" lawsuit but an apparent box-office loser with a long-cherished movie project.

4. Longtime Saturday Night Live cast member who was murdered in his San Fernando Valley home.

5. Experimental subject, hero of the 70+ generation, beneficiary of a political payoff or a bit of each?

6. House kingpin who once said a political leader must "keep his eye always on the ball and his ear very, very tuned to the people." He didn't. He's out.

7. She has a new nose and $850,000, but no apology.

8. Folk-rocker, later Congressman who died in a skiing accident.

9. Prominent Baptist leader who was indicted on charges of racketeering and grand theft.

10. Teacher whose involvement with a student led to a jail term on a charge of child rape.

11. Harvard graduate whose guilty plea enabled him to avoid a possible death penalty for an 18-year terror campaign.

12. She blasted rain-forest sounds through enormous speakers to prevent the media from listening in on her wedding ceremony.

13. U.S. Justice Department attorneys have painted him as a power-hungry demon.

14. Young scientist whose experiment undercut the widely practiced medical treatment known as therapeutic touch.

15. Entertainer who finally gave up a fight to stop people from seeing a personal video.

16. Crusty former Senator, known as "Mr. Conservative," who died in May at age 89.

17. Twenty-one-year-old gay student whose lynching prompted calls for expanded hate-crime legislation.

18. Superstar whose TV show was axed after nine weeks.

19. Icon of the chattering classes whose resignation stopped the media world dead in its tracks.

20. Washingtonian insider who asked, "What's a Muppet?"

21. Wanted for questioning about bombings at the Atlanta Olympics and at a Birmingham, Ala., abortion clinic.

"HE SAID, SHE SAID" Identify the source of each remark made during the investigation of President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky

1. "I feel like a character in a novel." (a) Lucianne Goldberg (b) Bill Clinton (c) Paula Jones (d) Jack Stanton

2. "I would lie on the stand for my family. That is how I was raised...I have lied my entire life." (a) John Gotti (b) Lucianne Goldberg (c) Monica Lewinsky (d) Linda Tripp

3. "If the dress doesn't fit, we must acquit. If it's on the dress, he must confess." (a) Rep. Barney Frank (b) Rep. James Traficant Jr. (c) Sen. Joe Lieberman (d) Johnnie Cochran

4. "Take your anger and frustration with the President and vent them on me." (a) Vernon Jordan (b) James Carville (c) Al Gore (d) Linda Tripp

5. "What I'm glad about is he's getting caught. At something. If it took this to get him, fine." (a) Lucianne Goldberg (b) Rep. Newt Gingrich (c) Kenneth Starr (d) Paula Jones

6. "I came here thinking I could change the world. Now my only ambition is to leave the room with dignity." (a) Monica Lewinsky (b) Mike McCurry (c) Rep. Henry Hyde (d) Bill Clinton

7. "I don't think this will evaporate, but I anticipate it will slowly dissipate over time, reaching to insubstantiality." (a) Al Gore (b) Rep. Henry Hyde (c) Hillary Clinton (d) Betty Currie

8. "I don't plan to be ubiquitous very long." (a) William Ginsburg (b) Kenneth Starr (c) Rep. Newt Gingrich (d) Monica Lewinsky

9. "I have done everything I could to avoid the kind of questions you are asking me here today." (a) Mike McCurry (b) Linda Tripp (c) Bill Clinton (d) Betty Currie

10. "My trust in his credibility has been badly shattered." (a) Kenneth Starr (b) Hillary Clinton (c) Saddam Hussein (d) Sen. Dianne Feinstein

NAMES AND NUMBERS Match each description with the appropriate name, number or term.

1. Amount in billions of dollars that three television networks paid to broadcast National Football League games until 2005.

2. Media giant whose purchase of Random House made it the leader in American publishing.

3. Amount, in billions of dollars, that 46 states will get in a settlement with cigarette makers.

4. The most magical number of the baseball season.

5. It's been called "the biggest shock to the global financial system since the...'70s."

6. Company whose $76 billion merger with Travelers Group was the largest in the history of financial services.

7. Oops! This object won't hit the earth.

8. Drug that treats ED by suppressing PDE5--and American men love it.

9. A company involved in one of the largest industrial mergers in history.

10. Drug that's effective against breast cancer but may increase the risk of uterine cancer.

11. Approximate percentage of the world's desktop computers on which Microsoft's Windows 95 is installed.

12. Estimated amount, in billions of dollars, the Federal Government spends each year on corporate welfare.

13. First operational element in a space project that's 14 years behind schedule and may end up costing $96 billion.

14. July jackpot for Powerball and the biggest ever lottery award in the world, in millions of dollars.

15. Firm that added "gender-identity characteristics or expression" to its equal-opportunity policy.

Daimler-Benz Viagra 295.7 70 euro 17.6 tamoxifen Metromedia 85 1997 XF11 4 Citicorp kava 125 Wells Fargo Lucent Technologies 3,609 Bertelsmann AG 206 laetrile Zarya Ritalin Mir

AROUND THE GLOBE Match each of the following descriptions with the appropriate people and places on the world map above.

1. Where Hurricane Mitch did some of its worst damage. Honduras

2. Scene of the 20th century's last great oil rush.

3. The street value of this nation's currency fell 50% in late August, sending shock waves around the world.

4. Espousing a political Third Way made him No. 1 in elections here.

5. Shannon Dunn, Chris Witty and Eric Bergoust were among the U.S. winners here.

6. Drought and human folly combined to cause a famine in this country, threatening 2.6 million.

7. Following his sudden death, this nation's leading civilian politician was hailed as a champion of political freedom.

8. Unusual weather patterns that had devastating impacts around the world originated here.

9. During Pope John Paul II's first visit here, he criticized both U.S. policy toward this nation and its political ideology.

10. After 32 years in power, this nation's ruler stepped down amid growing economic unrest.

11. The first nuclear tests here in 24 years shocked the world and drew strong condemnation.

12. This year's Nobel Peace Prize went to two leaders for their efforts to resolve the conflict here.

13. Bill Clinton took a nine-day trip to promote "the de-demonization" of this country.

14. Richard Holbrooke succeeded in negotiating a deal to halt ethnic bloodshed here.

15. Bombings of U.S. embassies in these two countries were blamed on Osama bin Laden.

THE YEAR IN ARTS Match the quote to the photo of the artist or work.

1. "[T]he smartest, edgiest, most human and handsomely acted romantic comedy in elephant years...It has two births, two deaths, five sexual affairs and no special effects."

2. "[The artist] in only six years has gone from sucking on feet to using them as catalysts for spiritual revelation."

3. "Not only does his music define the time and temper of the American decades in which it was made, but his singing moves those songs out of time into something indistinct, everlasting."

4. "[He] has to be the most methodical artist that ever lived in America. He goes at the canvas with all the afflatus of a silkworm eating its phlegmatic way across a mulberry leaf."

5. "[A]n eccentric little ($60 million) film about one mild man reaching the end of his world... The only weapon flaunted [here] is a dicer-peeler-grater."

6. "The novel opens starkly--'They shoot the white girl first'--and then coils back and forth through a century of imagined history to explain who 'they' are and why, on a dewy Oklahoma morning in 1976, they felt compelled to storm a decaying mansion and wreak violence on the handful of women living within it."

7. "At its heart, [the work] is a cliff-hanging morality tale."

8. "In its weird scale and weave of plot lines, [it] was indeed innovative; its basic premises, though, were old news, which made its whiff of self-congratulatory nihilism annoying."

9. "[He] was a great painter; at least he painted some great pictures, which changed the face of American art, and look as fresh and strong today as they must have 50 years ago..."

10. "Though his protagonists live in clean, secular Toronto, they carry around the primal ties and cycles of guilt that belong to the other side of the globe and leave them in half shadow."

11. "[The] album is the kind of galvanizing work neo-soul needs: unabashedly personal, unrelentingly confrontational, uncommonly inventive."

12. "The first television show explicitly designed for the one-to two-year-old set, it centers on the comical activities of four fuzzy creatures who speak in baby talk...and have TV antennas on their heads..."

13. "...a roguish and sophisticated sex comedy with a few brain teasers tipped in."

14. "A war film that, entirely aware of its genre's conventions, transcends them as it transcends the simplistic moralities that inform its predecessors, to take the high, morally haunting ground."

15. "Sure, [the artist] has faltered at times and made music that seemed overly domesticated, but [this work] vigorously documents [his] struggle to stay committed to his core subject: the postindustrial howl of Everyman."

16. "...a sometimes funny but ultimately monotonous chronicle of a year in the life of an unmarried thirtysomething London editor whose thoughts never veer far from dating, the cocktail hour and her invariably failed attempts at calorie cutting."

17. "...an impassioned social drama that is as far as one can imagine from the [playwright's]...more personal, lyrical style...What's amazing is how shocking the play's depiction of human brutality remains even today, 60 years and several Quentin Tarantino films later."

18. "[T]his is strong, supple entertainment, not a girlish cartoon in the style of The Little Mermaid, in which a girl becomes a woman. Here, a girl becomes a man."

19. "She animates and elevates her roles with fire, precision, suavity. And she accomplishes her little miracles in showcases that few would mistake for film art."

20. "His playing has grown deeper and more forceful in recent years, and these warmly romantic performances faithfully reflect that change; the interpretations are far more personal in tone, the sense of fantasy much richer."

21. "...[her] penchant for scandalizing stodgy opera buffs with a startling blend of flashy theatrics and unabashed feminism has made her the most controversial opera director of her generation...her productions stir the soul and leave an ineradicable mark on the memory."

--MORE-- "HE SAID, SHE SAID" Identify the source of each remark made during Kenneth Starr's investigations.

1. "[Starr's office] can indict my dog, they can indict my cat, but I'm not going to lie about the President, I'm not going to lie about the First Lady or anyone else." (a) Susan McDougal (b) Webb Hubbell (c) Al Gore (d) James Carville

2. "There is no excuse for perjury. Never, never, never." (a) Rep. Newt Gingrich (b) Oliver North (c) Bob Dole (d) Kenneth Starr

3. "Who am I? I'm you--an average American." (a) Paula Jones (b) Linda Tripp (c) Ted Kaczynski (d) Mike McCurry

4. "The leaking from your office has reached an intolerable point." (a) David Kendall (b) Susan Webber Wright (c) Norma Holloway Johnson (d) Kenneth Starr

5. "I forgive [President Clinton] because I know the frailty of human nature. He has such a tremendous personality that I think the ladies just go wild over him." (a) Bob Packwood (b) Paula Jones (c) Billy Graham (d) Hillary Clinton

6. "If you were judging on personal behavior and not policies, then Richard Nixon should have been elected in 1960, not John Kennedy." (a) Doris Kearns Goodwin (b) Gerald Ford (c) John F. Kennedy Jr. (d) Bill Clinton

7. "Mr. Starr, you're the expert at unfair questions." (a) David Kendall (b) Rep. Barney Frank (c) Susan McDougal (d) Webb Hubbell

8. "The beauty of [the affair] is it has stayed internal, and it will never taint you down the road..." (a) Vernon Jordan (b) Lucianne Goldberg (c) Linda Tripp (d) Harry Thomason

9. "I want my life back." (a) Hillary Clinton (b) Chelsea Clinton (c) Bill Clinton (d) Monica Lewinsky

10. "God, I'd like to forget all of this." (a) Rep. Newt Gingrich (b) Rep. Henry Hyde (c) Monica Lewinsky (d) Bill Clinton NATION AND THE WORLD Select the correct answer.

1. In a sexual-misconduct case, a military jury found former Sergeant Major of the Army Gene McKinney guilty of (a) sexual harassment (b) obstructing justice (c) rape (d) sodomy

2. The nation that is dealing with its economic crisis by withdrawing from the global economy and sealing off its currency from outside trade is (a) Thailand (b) Malaysia (c) Russia (d) Japan

3. While President Clinton called for a five-year moratorium in this area, 19 European nations have signed a treaty banning (a) manufacture of handguns (b) whaling (c) trade with Iraq (d) human cloning

4. Phyllis Klingebiel of New Jersey sued her son over his failure to (a) leave home (b) donate a kidney (c) support her (d) share lottery winnings

5. After Canadian snowboarder Ross Rebagliati won an Olympic gold medal, he was temporarily disqualified when blood tests revealed the presence of (a) steroids (b) marijuana (c) Twinkies (d) amphetamines

6. Which of the following have caused the most damage to New Orleans over the past decade? (a) floods (b) tornadoes (c) bourbon (d) termites

7. The mayor of this city drew cheers as well as guffaws when he started a civility campaign in (a) Los Angeles (b) Washington (c) Brazzaville (d) New York

8. Many phone companies may be adding new charges to long-distance residential bills in order to pay for a federal program mandating (a) Internet access for schools (b) new communications satellites (c) Internet encryption (d) telemarketing

9. After 10 years of work, a Vatican commission released a 14-page report on the Roman Catholic Church and (a) the fall of communism (b) birth control (c) education (d) the Holocaust

10. Two schoolboys, ages 11 and 13, killed five people and wounded 15 at a school in (a) Pearl, Miss. (b) Jonesboro, Ark. (c) West Paducah, Ky. (d) Stamps, Ark.

11. A ferocious class war erupted in Vermont over (a) construction of low-cost housing (b) equalization of public school funding (c) layoffs at maple-syrup factories (d) a hike in mass-transit fares

12. The percentage of Americans in a recent poll who favored stricter gun-control laws was (a) 46% (b) 56% (c) 66% (d) 76%

13. In August U.S. relations with North Korea soured again over (a) restrictions on imports (b) the launching of a new missile (c) refusal to issue film permits (d) treatment of political dissidents

14. The murder weapon and other key evidence in the trial of the killer of Bill Cosby's son Ennis were unearthed with the help of (a) specially trained police dogs (b) psychics (c) the National Enquirer (d) FBI forensics experts

15. History's costliest ecoterrorist strike was carried out on behalf of the (a) spotted owl (b) lynx (c) snail darter (d) grizzly bear

16. Which of the following authors is among the only six ever to reach the No. 1 spot on both the New York Times's fiction and nonfiction best-seller lists? (a) Tom Wolfe (b) Jimmy Buffett (c) John Grisham (d) Truman Capote

17. The haredim, whose impact on politics in Israel is increasing, are (a) radical Palestinians (b) ultra-Orthodox Jews (c) secular Jews (d) conservative Palestinians

18. Grand Princess is the name of the (a) hottest London restaurant (b) newest Las Vegas hotel (c) high-tech cell phone (d) world's largest cruise ship

19. The company that, according to the EPA, leads the nation in the release of toxic chemicals into the environment is (a) Exxon (b) Borden Chemicals & Plastics (c) Monsanto (d) Magnesium Corp. of America

20. The 1998 midterm elections resulted in (a) a net gain of five Democratic House seats (b) no change in the distribution of Senate seats (c) California's first Democratic Governor in 16 years (d) all of the above