NewsTracker Answers for week of Mar. 16, 2015

Q: Embroiled in bitter negotiations over bailout loans, the Greek government has threatened to seize German property as compensation for a World War II occupation that ended 70 years ago. Where is Germany?

Circle the area on this map


Q: Greece owes $479 billion to the Eurozone and wants $240 billion in war reparations from its biggest creditor Germany, according to BBC estimates. What is the Eurozone?

A. European political union

B. Nations using the euro

C. European common market

D. Military alliance


B. The Eurozone is comprised of 19 European Union members – including Greece and Germany -  which have adopted the euro as their common currency and sole legal tender. Greece's received its large bailout to protect the euro. Germany was the largest contributor and also led demands that Greece adopt severe austerity measures.


Q: Germany has an economy that is about 12 times larger than that of Greece. Germany's economy also is larger than which World War II foe?

A. France

B. Russia

C. United Kingdom

D. All of the above


D. Germany has the largest economy in Europe and fifth largest in the world. Germany ranks just behind Japan, its World War II ally which also was defeated in 1945.


Q: Germany and Greece officially have been allies 60 years as members of . . .

A. European Union

B. Eurozone

C. NATO

D. Warsaw Pact


C. West Germany became the 15th member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1955, three years after Greece joined the military alliance. The European Union and Eurozone were created later. The dispute over loans and the recent talk of war reparations have created growing antagonism between the two nations.


Q: Germany was divided into East and West Germany after World War II and was reunited at the end of which conflict?

A. Cold War

B. Berlin Crisis

C. Hungarian Revolution

D. Czechoslovakia invasion


A. The Cold War refers to an often violent rivalry with the United Sates and its NATO allies facing off against the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies. The tension began at the end of World War II and ended with the breakup of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. The Berlin Crisis, Hungarian Revolution, Czechoslovakia invasion as well as the Korean and Vietnam wars were part of the nearly 50 years of conflict.