1. In an arithmetic series with a common
difference of d, what will be the difference between the Nth
term and the 1st term?
A. d
B. (N – 1) * d
C. N * d
D. (N + 1) * d
2. If a savings account compounds its interest
monthly and the equation that relates the value of the account to
the month is an exponential equation with a growth factor of 1.01,
what is the account's effective annual interest rate?
A. 1.0%
B. 12.0%
C. 12.7%
D. 112.0%
3. A rectangle with a length of 10 units and a
width of 8 units is bisected by one of its diagonals. The two
triangles that are formed each a have a perimeter of ___________.
A. 24 units
B. 18 + 2√41 units
C. 36 units
D. 18 + 3√38 units
4. A circle with a radius of 5 units is divided
into 5 identical sectors, and one sector is removed. What is the
perimeter of the remaining shape?
A. 10 + 2π units
B. 10π units
C. 10 + 8π units
D. 20π units
Based on the article titled “Spacecraft’s
telescope fails, hobbling hunt for planets” on page A2 of the
Thursday, May 16th, Seattle Times
5.Kepler was launched in March of 2009
and had a planned mission lifespan of 3 years at a cost of $600
million. Last year it was decided that Kepler should be kept
operational, at a cost of $20 million per year. Which of the
following equations express the total cost for the Kepler mission in
millions of dollars, Y, if it continues for another X months from
now?
A. Y = 600X+ 20
B. Y = 1.67X + 577
C. Y = 20(X + 1) + 600
D. Y = 1.67X + 623
6. Kepler detects planets by noting the
decrease in light that occurs when an object passes in front of a
star. Though there are 150,000 stars in Kepler's field of view, only
2/3rds of them are main-sequence stars and thus likely to have
surviving planets. The mission assumes that only 0.5% of the
star systems will have planets in orbits properly aligned so that
the planets will pass between their star and Kepler. The mission
planners expect that there are an average of 1.5 planets in each
star system's habitable zone, at a suitable distance from their
stars that water could exist in liquid state. How many planets in
habitable zones do the mission planners expect that Kepler would be
able to find, given enough time?
A. 333 plants
B. 500 planets
C. 750 planets
D. 1688 planets
7. Though, both follow roughly the same 585
million mile elliptical path around the sun, Kepler is orbiting
slightly slower than the Earth. Four years after its launch, Kepler
is 40 million miles behind Earth in their orbit. How many days does
it take for Kepler to make one full orbit of the sun?
A. 359 days
B. 362 days
C. 365 days
D. 372 days
Based on the article titled “Dirty beaches
make sick oceans, says group” on page A18 of the Sunday, May 19th,
Seattle Times
8.The Ocean's Conservancy's annual
cleanup organized 550,000 people worldwide in an effort to clean up
the coastlines of the world. 10 million pounds of trash were picked
up from 17,719 miles of coast. On average, how many feet of
coastline had to be cleaned up in order to collect 1 ton of trash?
A. 3.5 feet
B. 1,490 feet
C. 7,808 feet
D. 18,711 feet
9. Examine the table titled "That's a lot of
trash" on page A18. If you added Virginia to the states listed then
the mean amount of trash collected per state would rise to 241,436
pounds. Approximately how many pounds of trash were collected in
Virginia?
A. 214,000
B. 250,000
C. 455,000
D. 492,000
10. In Washington state, 534 volunteers picked
up trash and debris. They gathered it from along 13.7 miles of
coastline. If the volunteers typically worked in teams of 2, then
what was the average number of feet of coastline that each team
covered?
A. 135 feet
B. 271 feet
C. 415 feet
D. 542 feet
Based on the article titled “Payday lenders
skirt military law” on page D1 of the Sunday, May 19th,
Seattle Times
11.Levon Tyler borrowed $1,600 for 32
months under a repayment plan that would have cost him a total of
$17,228. If Tyler's title loan had followed the spirit of the law
and charged a maximum of 36% annul interest after fees, how much in
interest would Levon Tyler have paid after six months if he had only
been paying the interest accrued each month? (Assume that the
interest is compounded monthly.)
Exponential equation: AT = A0
* (1 + R/12)T; Where A0 = amount at time 0, AT
= amount after T months, R = annual interest rate, T = months
A. $310
B. $576
C. $1,910
D. $8,524
12. Tyler had an option to pay back his
loan in just 1 month under a "Summer Fun" plan. The effective annual
interest would then have been 110%. How much would Tyler have had to
pay back in 1 month to take advantage of the "Summer Fun" option?
A. $147
B. $1,747
C. $1,760
D. $3,360
13. Tyler's loan was for 32 months and
if he'd made the maximum payment each month on time it would have
charged him an effective annual interest rate of 192%. Monthly loan
payments, M, can be calculated using the formula: M = P * eq \f
(R(1 + R)N, (1 + R)N - 1) , where P is the
initial amount of the loan, R is the monthly interest rate, and N is
the number of months of the loan. After 32 months, what was the
total amount that Tyler would have paid on his loan at this interest
rate?
A. $258.24
B. $8,263.68
C. $9,111.51
D. $184,831.35
14. Another soldier took out an
installment loan of $2,475 for 14 months at a nominal annual
interest rate of 43%, but the loan required him to purchase
insurance. The insurance costs raised the effective annual interest
rate to 80%. After 14 months, what was the total cost of adding
insurance to the loan?
A. $278
B. $695
C. $1,157
D. $3,886
Sum Up the News is posted to the Web on Tuesdays. Please share the NIE program with other teachers. To sign-up for the electronic edition of
the newspaper please call 206/652-6290 or toll-free 1-888/775-2655.
