QUES: Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-NJ), criticized the State Department investigation, saying the investigators were shown "Potemkin Villages" where residents had been intimidated into lying about the family-planning program. Dr. Nafis Sadik, former director of UNFPA said her agency had been pivotal in reversing China's coercive population control methods, but a 2005 report by Amnesty International and a separate report by the United States State Department found that coercive techniques were still regularly employed by the Chinese, casting doubt upon Sadik's statements.

Which NGO investigated the Chinese program in 2002?
What is the answer?
ANS: unanswerable
QUES: Samba Schools are large, social entities with thousands of members and a theme for their song and parade each year. In Rio Carnival, samba schoolsparade in the Sambadrome ("sambodromo" in Portuguese). Some of the most famous include GRES Estacao Primeira de Mangueira, GRES Portela, GRES Imperatriz Leopoldinense, GRES Beija-Flor de Nilopolis, GRES Mocidade Independente de Padre Miguel, and recently, Unidos da Tijuca and GRES Uniao da Ilha do Governador. Local tourists pay $500950, depending on the costume, to buy a Samba costume and dance in the parade. Blocos are small informal groups with a definite theme in their samba, usually satirizing the political situation. About 30 schools in Rio gather hundreds of thousands of participants. More than 440 blocos operate in Rio. Bandas are samba musical bands, also called "street carnival bands", usually formed within a single neighborhood or musical back-ground. The Carnival industry chain amassed in 2012 almost US$1 billion in revenues.

What's the name for small, somewhat random groups of people with a definite theme in their samba?
What is the answer?
ANS: Blocos
QUES: At the start of her reign Victoria was popular, but her reputation suffered in an 1839 court intrigue when one of her mother's ladies-in-waiting, Lady Flora Hastings, developed an abdominal growth that was widely rumoured to be an out-of-wedlock pregnancy by Sir John Conroy. Victoria believed the rumours. She hated Conroy, and despised "that odious Lady Flora", because she had conspired with Conroy and the Duchess of Kent in the Kensington System. At first, Lady Flora refused to submit to a naked medical examination, until in mid-February she eventually agreed, and was found to be a virgin. Conroy, the Hastings family and the opposition Tories organised a press campaign implicating the Queen in the spreading of false rumours about Lady Flora. When Lady Flora died in July, the post-mortem revealed a large tumour on her liver that had distended her abdomen. At public appearances, Victoria was hissed and jeered as "Mrs. Melbourne".

What lady in waiting was at the heart of a 1839 court scandal?
What is the answer?
ANS:
Lady Flora Hastings