Problem: Southern California, often abbreviated SoCal, is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises California's southernmost 10 counties. The region is traditionally described as "eight counties", based on demographics and economic ties: Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Ventura. The more extensive 10-county definition, including Kern and San Luis Obispo counties, is also used based on historical political divisions. Southern California is a major economic center for the state of California and the United States.

The 8- and 10-county definitions are not used for the greater Southern California Megaregion, one of the 11 megaregions of the United States. The megaregion's area is more expansive, extending east into Las Vegas, Nevada, and south across the Mexican border into Tijuana.

Southern California includes the heavily built-up urban area stretching along the Pacific coast from Ventura, through the Greater Los Angeles Area and the Inland Empire, and down to Greater San Diego. Southern California's population encompasses seven metropolitan areas, or MSAs: the Los Angeles metropolitan area, consisting of Los Angeles and Orange counties; the Inland Empire, consisting of Riverside and San Bernardino counties; the San Diego metropolitan area; the OxnardThousand OaksVentura metropolitan area; the Santa Barbara metro area; the San Luis Obispo metropolitan area; and the El Centro area. Out of these, three are heavy populated areas: the Los Angeles area with over 12 million inhabitants, the Riverside-San Bernardino area with over four million inhabitants, and the San Diego area with over 3 million inhabitants. For CSA metropolitan purposes, the five counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura are all combined to make up the Greater Los Angeles Area with over 17.5 million people. With over 22 million people, southern California contains roughly 60 percent of California's population.
1. How many counties make up the focus area?
2. Name all the counties starting with a consonant.
3. Which are the two remaining?
4. SoCal's population includes how many metro areas?
5. Which is one area?
6. Which counties make up that area?
7. What is another MSA?
8. How many counties is it made up of?
9. Which is one?
10. And the other?
11. Which counties make up the Greater LA area?
12. What is the population in that area?
13. What percent of the Cali population is that?
Answer: 1. eight
2. Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Ventura.
3. Imperial and Orange
4. seven
5. the Los Angeles metropolitan area
6. Los Angeles and Orange
7. the Inland Empire
8. two
9. Riverside
10. San Bernardino
11. Los Angeles and Orange
12. over 17.5 million
13. roughly 60 percent

Problem: (CNN) -- It's a grass-roots protest movement composed of the newly politicized and people distrustful of hierarchy. So how is it possible to be an illegitimate Tea Party member?

Ask Republicans in Nevada. Some are accusing Jon Scott Ashjian, a new Tea Party candidate running for U.S. Senate, of being a fake. The allegation? He was put in the race by agents of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to siphon votes from the GOP.

"No doubt about it," says Danny Tarkanian, one of the many Republican Senate candidates hoping to challenge Reid in November.

"Nobody in the Tea Party knows who he is. He didn't know any of the principles of the Tea Party," Tarkanian tells CNN.

Tarkanian even accuses "Harry Reid's staff, campaign, whatever" of picking Ashjian because he's Armenian, as is Tarkanian. He explains, "They know the Armenians are very close, they'll vote for each other."

As for Reid, an aide dismisses the accusations. As does Reid, who says he's never met Ashjian or "anyone in his family." Reid tells CNN, "I think there are too many conspiratorialists in the world today. This is a free country."

Sue Lowden, the Republican front-runner in the Senate primary, according to recent polls, is the former Nevada Republican Party chair and seems to be the Republicans' best hope of unseating Reid in November. Or at least she did, until Ashjian got into the race.

Lowden says she's been very active with Tea Party groups in Nevada. "I am a Tea Party voter, absolutely." Which is why she says she finds it "a little strange" that Ashjian is emerging now. "I don't know who this person is. He's never been involved with anything that I'm aware of in this state."
1. Who is Jon Scott Ashjian?
2. For which party?
3. Why was he put into the race?
4. Does he know tea party ideals?
5. Who is Harry Reid?
6. What is Ashjian's nationality?
7. Who else is also?
8. Does Reid admit to pushing Ashjian into the race?
9. Who is the Republican front runner?
10. She is the former chair of what?
11. Does she participate in the Tea Party?
12. Does she recognize Ashjian?
13. Has he been active in Tea Party politics?
14. When is the election?
15. Why does Tarkanian think Reid picked Ashjian?
16. Who dismissed the allegations?
17. What does he claim there are too many of today?
18. Which news station did he speak to?
19. How many other candidates are in the race?
20. Who said they are a tea party voter?
Answer: 1. senate candidate
2. Tea Party
3. to siphon votes
4. no
5. Senate Majority Leader
6. Armenian
7. Tarkanian
8. no
9. Sue Lowden
10. Nevada Republican Party chair
11. yes
12. no
13. no
14. November
15. because Armenians are very close, they'll vote for each other."
16. Reid's aide
17. conspiratorialists
18. CNN
19. 4, that are listed in the story
20. Lowden

Problem: The Whigs were a political faction and then a political party in the parliaments of England, Scotland, Great Britain, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Between the 1680s and 1850s, they contested power with their rivals, the Tories. The Whigs' origin lay in constitutional monarchism and opposition to absolute monarchy. The Whigs played a central role in the Glorious Revolution of 1688, and were the standing enemies of the Stuart kings and pretenders, who were Roman Catholic. The Whigs took full control of the government in 1715, and remained totally dominant until King George III, coming to the throne in 1760, allowed Tories back in. The "Whig Supremacy" (17151760) was enabled by the Hanoverian succession of George I in 1714 and the failed Jacobite rising of 1715 by Tory rebels. The Whigs thoroughly purged the Tories from all major positions in government, the army, the Church of England, the legal profession, and local offices. The Party's hold on power was so strong and durable, historians call the period from roughly 1714 to 1783 the age of the "Whig Oligarchy". The first great leader of the Whigs was Robert Walpole, who maintained control of the government through the period 17211742; his protege was Henry Pelham, who led from 1743 to 1754.
1. What group is this article about?
2. When did they start?
3. Until when?
4. Who was their best leader?
5. When was he in power?
6. And who was his student?
7. And his years in power were?
8. They were part of what age?
9. Who created that label?
10. When did it start?
11. What else happened that year?
12. What house was he from?
13. What happened the year after?
14. By whom?
15. After that did Tories serve in public office?
16. Could they serve in high positions in the military?
17. Where else couldn't they work?
18. Who were the Whig's enemies?
Answer:
1. The Whigs
2. the 1680s
3. the 1850s
4. Robert Walpole
5. from 17211742
6. Henry Pelham,
7. from 1743 to 1754
8. the "Whig Oligarchy"
9. historians
10. 1714
11. the succession of George I
12. Hanoverian
13. the failed Jacobite rising
14. Tory rebels
15. no
16. no
17. the Church of England
18. the Tories