Unit 9 Vocabulary

Question 1

Deregulation

Answer 1

when the government reduces or eliminates industry restrictions to improve the ease of doing business and increase competition

Question 2

3. Affirmative Action

Answer 2

policy or a program that seeks to redress past discrimination through active measures to ensure equal opportunity, as in education and employment

Question 3

Camp David Accords

Answer 3

peace treaty between Israel and Egypt issuing from talks at Camp David between Egyptian President Sadat, Israeli Prime Minister Begin, and the host, U.S. President Carter: signed in 1979.

Question 4

The Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 (ERTA)

Answer 4

ERTA’ A law that lowered income tax rates and allowed for expensing of depreciable assets.also included several incentives for small business and incentives for saving; the defining economic legacy of Pres. Reagan

Question 5

AIDS aka acquired immune deficiency syndrome

Answer 5

infectious disease of the immune system caused by HIV( human immunodeficiency virus ) ; AIDS is characterized by a decrease in the number of helper T cells, which causes a severe immunodeficiency that leaves the body susceptible to a variety of potentially fatal infections.

Question 6

7. Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)

Answer 6

also known as Star Wars, was a program first initiated on March 23, 1983 under President Ronald Reagan. The intent of this program was to develop a sophisticated anti-ballistic missile system in order to prevent missile attacks from other countries, specifically the Soviet Union

Question 7

Contras

Answer 7

Nicaraguan counterrevolutionary guerrilla force from 1979 to 1990; it opposed a left-wing government, with support from the United States.

Question 8

Glasnost

Answer 8

(in the former Soviet Union) the policy or practice of more open consultative government and wider dissemination of information, initiated by leader Mikhail Gorbachev from 1985

Question 9

Perestroika

Answer 9

restructuring of the Soviet economy and bureaucracy that was promoted by Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s, originally referred to increased automation and labor efficiency, but came to entail greater awareness of economic markets and the ending of central planning; often argued to be the cause of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the revolutions of 1989 in Eastern Europe, and the end of the Cold War.

Question 10

Operation Desert Storm

Answer 10

the codename for the US-led UN operation to liberate Kuwait from Iraq (1991); international armed forces, including British and US, attacked Iraq in the Gulf War. It began on 16 January 1991 and lasted 100 days.

Question 11

Persian Gulf War

Answer 11

Persian Gulf War definition. A war between the forces of the United Nations, led by the United States, and those of Iraq that followed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein ‘s invasion of Kuwait in August 1990. The United Nations forces, called the Coalition, expelled Iraqi troops from Kuwait in March 1991.

Question 12

Gramm-Rudman
Aka Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Deficit Reduction Act of 1985.
officially the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985

Answer 12

aimed to cut the United States federal budget deficit, which at the time, in dollar term, was the largest in history; mandated automatic cuts in federal discretionary spending if the government deficit rose above stated targets

Question 13

NAFTA

Aka North American Free Trade Agreement

Answer 13

an agreement for free trade between the Us and Canada and Mexico; eliminated tariffs became effective in 1994 for ten years.

Question 14

World Trade Organization

Aka WTO

Answer 14

The only international organization dealing with the global rules of trade between nations. Its main function is to ensure that trade flows as smoothly, predictably, and freely as possible.

Question 15

16. Contract with America

Answer 15

A republican document promising legislation to be enacted by the House of Representatives within the first 100 days, if the Republicans gained a majority in 1994 election; helped Republicans win a majority in Congress for the 1st time in 40 years

Question 16

Bosnia

Now Bosnia- Herzegovina

Answer 16

country of the Balkan Peninsula in Yugoslavia

Site of the Bosnian War - a civil war between Bosnians, Croats and Serbians involving ethnic cleansing; after the UN resolution US led forces to stop the genocide

Question 18

Kosovo

Answer 18

A Serbian-dominated province of Yugoslavia, whose residents were mostly Albanian Muslims, was part of the savage civil war that erupted between Kosovo nationalists and Serbians. A week of bombing by NATO forces in May 1990 led to a ceasefire, and Serbian troops withdrew from Kosovo entirely, replaced by NATO peace keeping forces.

Question 19

Internet

Answer 19

global network connecting millions of computers. More than 190 countries are linked into exchanges of data, news and opinions.

Question 20

Silicon Valley

Answer 20

nickname for the southern portion of Northern California’s San Francisco Bay Area; It is home to many of the world’s largest high-tech corporations, as well as thousands of tech startup companies.

Question 21

World Wide Web

Answer 21

information system on the Internet that allows documents to be connected to other documents by HTML(hypertext links), enabling the user to search for information by moving from one document to another.

Question 22

Multiculturism

Answer 22

co-existence of diverse cultures, where culture includes racial, religious, or cultural groups and is manifested in customary behaviours, cultural assumptions and values, patterns of thinking, and communicative styles.

Question 23

Proposition 187

Answer 23

aka the Save Our State (SOS) initiative, was a 1994 ballot initiative to establish a state-run citizenship screening system and prohibit illegal aliens from using health care, public education, and other services in the State of California.

Question 24

Defense of Marriage Act

Aka DOMA

Answer 24

a US federal law enacted in 1996 that allows states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages granted under the laws of other states.

Question 25

Whitewater

Answer 25

scandal involving President bill clinton, and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, over a failed real estate development named Whitewater in Arkansas. After congressional investigation Some partners were found guilty of fraud, but there was not enough evidence to prove the Clintons were guilty

Question 26

9/11

Answer 26

September 11, 2001: the day on which Islamic terrorists, believed to be part of the Al-Qaeda network, hijacked four commercial airplanes and crashed two of them into the World Trade Center in New York City and a third one into the Pentagon in Virginia: the fourth plane crashed into a field in rural Pennsylvania.

Question 27

TARP program

Aka Troubled Asset Relief Program

Answer 27

A group of programs allowing the U.S. Treasury to purchase troubled companies’ assets and equity; designed to stabilize the country’s financial system, restore economic growth and prevent foreclosures in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

Question 28

Affordable Care Act (Obamacare

Answer 28

landmark health reform legislation by President Barack Obama in March 2010., designed to provide healthcare for all

Question 29

29. Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD’s)

Answer 29

chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons, and materials used in the manufacture of such weapons; designed to cause harm to large numbers of people, buildings, or the biosphere