QUES: In 1976, a group of Italian American professors at City University of New York asked to be added as an affirmative action category for promotion and hiring. Italian Americans are usually considered white in the US and would not be covered under affirmative action policies, but the professors believed they were underrepresented. Libertarian economist Thomas Sowell wrote in his book, Affirmative Action Around the World: An Empirical Study, that affirmative action policies encourage non-preferred groups to designate themselves as members of preferred groups [i.e., primary beneficiaries of affirmative action] to take advantage of group preference policies.
What was the title of the book written by Thomas Sowell?

ANS: Affirmative Action Around the World: An Empirical Study

QUES: Delicate sounds and fine overtones were mostly lost, because it took a lot of sound energy to vibrate the recording horn diaphragm and cutting mechanism. There were acoustic limitations due to mechanical resonances in both the recording and playback system. Some pictures of acoustic recording sessions show horns wrapped with tape to help mute these resonances. Even an acoustic recording played back electrically on modern equipment sounds like it was recorded through a horn, notwithstanding a reduction in distortion because of the modern playback. Toward the end of the acoustic era, there were many fine examples of recordings made with horns.
How would a record recorded with a horn sound played through modern equipment?

ANS: like it was recorded through a horn

QUES: As of 2013, the American Idol alumni in their post-Idol careers have amassed over 59 million albums and 120 million singles and digital track downloads in the United States alone.
How many albums have been sold by American Idol contestants up until 2013?

ANS: 59 million

QUES: In a June 2008 speech, President and CEO of the New York Federal Reserve Bank Timothy Geithnerwho in 2009 became Secretary of the United States Treasuryplaced significant blame for the freezing of credit markets on a "run" on the entities in the "parallel" banking system, also called the shadow banking system. These entities became critical to the credit markets underpinning the financial system, but were not subject to the same regulatory controls. Further, these entities were vulnerable because of maturity mismatch, meaning that they borrowed short-term in liquid markets to purchase long-term, illiquid and risky assets. This meant that disruptions in credit markets would make them subject to rapid deleveraging, selling their long-term assets at depressed prices. He described the significance of these entities:
What is the "parallel" banking system also called?

ANS:
shadow banking system