UIL - University Interscholastic League

UIL Current Issues and Events Contest

Tom Ray, State Contest Director

Elements of the Contest

The Current Issues and Events contest consists of a 40 question multiple choice test and one essay. The essay is intended to assess the competitor's ability to synthesize and evaluate information and present it in an informed manner.

Current Issues & Events Video:

Topics

The multiple choice test and the essay will cover important domestic and international issues, events, and personalities. Topics tend to (but do not always) fall in to the following categories:

  • War & Conflict
  • International
  • Domestic
  • Economics
  • Science / Technology / Environment
  • Education / Awards / Honors / Media / Deaths
  • Texas

Questions will be drawn from events occurring in the following date ranges:

Invitational: Sept 1 - Jan 1
District: Sept 1 - Feb 1
Region: Nov 1 - March 15
State: Dec 1 - April 15

Scoring

The multiple choice test is worth 40 points total; the essay is worth 10 points total. The competitor with highest combined score (multiple choice + essay) will be the winner. For a more specific discussion of the scoring, please see the Constitution and Contest Rules.

Helpful Links

Recommended Sites / Sources:

UIL Regional and State Qualifiers

Remember, if your team or any individual cannot advance for any reason, it is your responsibility to notify the contest officials of the next higher meet as well as the alternate school of your inability to advance.

The Essay

Since essay writing is at the heart of primary and secondary composition curriculum, this manual will not detail in depth this particular form of discourse. Hundreds of textbooks are available that can outline and describe it far better than we can here.

However, it is important to be reminded that the purpose of the essay is to communicate information. The essay should be clear and to the point, generally constructed as a topic sentence, followed by supporting detail, followed by a concluding sentence that expands the original reference. Padding an answer with needless repetition, pretentious wording or irrelevant detail will hurt more than help.

The essay may analyze and interpret, but should not editorialize. The nature of expository writing requires the writer to enhance the reader's understanding of a subject by analyzing its parts and interpreting its meaning. It's one thing to know that an election was held in Iraq. It's another thing to understand what the election means.

Because you will not be allowed to bring research material into the room, your essays will not be as detailed as they might otherwise be. However, we expect you to be able to recite basic blocks of information.

Consider the following prompt:

Jeremy Bowen, Middle East editor for the BBC, wrote, “The Americans are discovering that the problem with democracy is that it can produce results that you don't like.” Explain how this truth has vexed and continues to vex the Bush administration.

Okay, now think of all the countries whose elections have produced governments not necessarily friendly to the United States. Here are a few: Iran, Palestine, Venezuela, Bolivia, Jordan, Egypt, even Afghanistan.

Now, think. Do you understand the prompt? What does it mean that these democratic elections have produced governments unfriendly to the U.S.? What are the implications? Spend at least five minutes outlining your essay and thinking it through. This will add substance and focus and eliminate redundancy.

Now, begin writing. Open with a declarative statement. Don't regurgitate the prompt. Support the opening with specific examples. Work on transitional or directional words. The essay should have a clear, organized, logical order, and information should flow from one idea to the next.

No fancy words. No “out of the blue” quotes. No weird allusions or metaphors. No tortured sentence structures. Strive for clarity and depth.

Here's an excellent essay:

In the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq and the failure to find weapons of mass destruction, the Bush administration has justified the enormous financial, human and diplomatic costs by saying it is spreading secular, liberal, Western-style democracy to people who deserve it and have been denied it.
No doubt, democracy is rare in the Middle East, and if democratic principles can take root in Iraq, the implications for the rest of the region are profound. At the same time, free elections in the region and elsewhere in the world can mean more headaches — not fewer — for Washington and the West. For example, free elections in Bolivia and Venezuela have produced leaders generally seen as anti-American.
Of course, the most obvious examples exist in the Middle East. First and foremost: Palestine. Hamas, which the U.S. government views as a terrorist organization, defeated Yassar Arafat's Fatah Party in the Palestinian parliamentary elections, illustrating the trend in the Middle East of radical Islamists gaining legitimacy through democratic means. But they were voted into office not to wage war with Israel but to end Fatah corruption, extend social welfare to the poorest Palestinians and achieve basic goals of peace and prosperity.
In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood scored massive electoral gains, pointing out that free elections anywhere in the Middle East will most likely result in Islamist governments, although not necessarily fundamentalist theocracies. In Jordan and Morocco, Islamic parties have scored significant political elections. In Afghanistan, former Taliban members won numerous seats in the newly-created Parliament.
And it's worth mentioning that Iran's elections, although tightly controlled by the Ayatollahs, resulted in the election of a president who has called for the destruction of Israel and the U.S. and seems determined to join the world's nuclear powers and create a Middle East missile crisis.
It's still to early to tell what might happen in Iraq, but the great fear is that free elections will divide the country along sectarian lines rather than unite the country, and it will descend into civil war.
Finally, some question whether in the long run democracy in the region is worth the perils. The Bush administration must worry that once radical Islamic groups gain power, they will abandon democracy and impose a fundamentalist Muslim theocracy.
Certainly, it has happened before. At the same time, the U.S. and the Western democracies can hope that free elections will moderate otherwise radical Islamists, that once they are responsible for bread-and-butter issues like jobs, government transparency, police protection, health care, education and the like, they'll be too busy collecting the garbage and running day-care centers to wage war or attempting to impose their fundamentalists views of Islam.

Let's look at another prompt:

Essay Question: Ross K. Baker of USA Today wrote, "Republicans in the White House and Congress who are facing a host of legal and ethical problems resemble a patient suffering from multiple, but unrelated, ailments who might be able to fight off one affliction but is ultimately killed by the debilitating effects of all of them." Explain the various "afflictions" now troubling the GOP.

Okay, outline the points you want to make in your essay. Basically, they fall into three groups:

  1. The war in Iraq
  2. Katrina
  3. Corruption and cronyism

Next, let's flesh out each category.

Iraq

The Bush administration has had to defend itself against charges that it misled the U.S. into the war. Weapons of mass destruction have not been found, nor has credible evidence linking Saddam to 9/11 or al-Qaeda. In the meantime, the death toll has surpassed 2,500, sectarian violence has increased, and Iraq has become a magnet for jihadists across the region. Furthermore, allegations of torture and prisoner abuse have damaged U.S. image worldwide.

The war on terror has also been sidetracked by reports of Bush-ordered domestic spying by the National Security Administration without court warrants.

Katrina

The federal response to Hurricane Katrina was seen as indifferent and incompetent, and Bush appeared particularly detached from the reality on the ground. His "you're doing a heck of a job, Brownie," made him seem particularly out of touch with the disaster taking place in New Orleans, especially among poor people of color. The response opened old wounds regarding race and class in America.

Corruption and Cronyism

Tom DeLay is indicted of criminal conspiracy and resigns. Lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleads guilty to fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials. GOP Congressman Randy ‘Duke’ Cunningham resigns from the House and pleads guilty to conspiring to take bribes. Vice presidential aide ‘Scooter’ Libby is indicted for his role in the outing of a CIA agent, Valerie Plame, whose husband was a vocal critic of the Bush administration's decision to go to war in Iraq.

Other Factors
  • soaring costs and bureaucratic bungling of the Medicare prescription drug plan
  • rising fuel costs and Exxon-Mobil record profits for 2005
  • botched nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme court
  • failure to pass meaningful Social Security reform
  • federal budget deficit and pork barrel spending by GOP-controlled Congress

Okay, we have no shortage of material. Let's just stick with the top three: Iraq, Katrina, corruption.

Now, it's time to write. Open with a statement that declares something, that goes beyond the prompt. Again, don't rewrite the prompt. Don't write, “Republicans in the White House and Congress are facing a host of legal and ethical problems. These problems resemble a patient suffering from multiple, but unrelated, ailments who might be able to fight off one affliction but is ultimately killed by the debilitating effects of all of them.”

Also, don't rant and rave. “Republicans may face some legal and ethical problems, but it's nothing like the Clinton administration, which was the most corrupt in the history of the world. And most of these phony, trumped-up charges against President Bush come from Democrats, the Dixie Chicks and the liberal media, all of whom hate freedom and just want to blame America first. The President is doing the best job he can protecting us from terrorists, and everyone should shut up and let him do his job because if we don't, then you can expect to see airliners slamming into a skyscraper near you.”

Well, that was therapeutic but not very insightful. Here's a better opening paragraph:

“Since his narrow victory over John Kerry in the ‘04 presidential election, President Bush has seen his approval ratings plummet, dragged down by an increasing unpopular war in Iraq, a tepid response to Katrina, and a series of charges of corruption and cronyism in Congress and the White House.”

Now, you need to support your opening statement. Again, collect your ideas, state them briefly, then move on. Don't ramble. Don't repeat yourself. End with a brief summary that brings the essay full circle.

Here's the rest of the essay:

Though the President insists it's important to “stay the course,” Americans are expressing doubt in a war that was wrongly predicated on weapons of mass destruction and ties to al-Qaeda. With the death toll of U.S. soldiers surpassing 2,500, the war appears to be evolving into sectarian civil war. Critics claim the U.S. presence in Iraq is a magnet for terrorists and threatens to destabilize the entire Middle East. The photographs from Abu Ghraib and the revelations that Bush ordered domestic spying by the National Security Administration without court warrants have helped further erode support for the war.
Furthermore, critics claim Bush and Rumsfeld have no exit strategy, and that the war has stretched the U.S. military beyond its limits, making it difficult for America to respond to possible threats in Iran or North Korea.
Domestically, the Bush administration's response to Hurricane Katrina appeared incompetent at best, indifferent at the worst. It exposed old wounds regarding class and race.
Finally, the Republican Party is fighting a succession of legal battles. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay was indicted and resigned because of charges of criminal conspiracy. Lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials. GOP Congressman Randy ‘Duke’ Cunningham resigned from the House and pleaded guilty to conspiring to take bribes. Vice presidential aide ‘Scooter’ Libby was indicted for his role in the outing of a CIA agent, Valerie Plame, whose husband was a vocal critic of the Bush administration's decision to go to war in Iraq.
Toss in the botched nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, rising fuel costs and an exploding federal deficit, and it's no surprise that moderate Democrats are winning statewide elections, President Bush's approval ratings are in the low 30s, and the GOP is almost on life support.

Sample Multiple Choice Questions from Spring 2008

Multiple choice questions for the CI&E contest may ask who, what, where or why. They may occasionally ask how or how much. They will never ask when. Test writers occasionally ask True/False questions.

Test writers also occasionally ask “which statement IS TRUE” or “which statement IS NOT TRUE?” It is important to read questions very carefully. For example, in a question that asks “which statement is not true,” a single fact embedded in a statement that is otherwise true may cause the choice to be untrue.

Sample Questions

  1. Which statement IS NOT TRUE?
    1. The National Labor Relations Board ruled that employers may not prohibit workers from using the company's e-mail system to send out union-related messages.
    2. The nation's teen birth rate rose for the first time in 15 years, government officials reported.
    3. Since 2003, the White House has broadly attempted to control which climate scientists could speak with reporters as well as editing scientists' congressional testimony on climate science and key legal opinions, according to a report by a U.S. House committee.
    4. A genetic analysis of 25-year-old blood samples has outlined a new map of the AIDS virus' journey out of Africa, showing that today's most widespread subtype arrived in the U.S. by way of Haiti.
  2. Defying an opposition boycott, Bolivia's constitutional assembly approved a charter that would empower the nation's indigenous majority and let President ___________ run for re-election indefinitely.
    1. Evo Mora
    2. Alvaro Uribe
    3. Tabare Vazquez
    4. Duarte Frutos
  3. Which statement about the $555 billion domestic spending bill signed into law by President Bush IS NOT TRUE?
    1. President Bush criticized Congress for including almost 10,000 pet projects, called “earmarks.”
    2. The bill calls for across-the-board tax increases.
    3. The bill provides more money for veteran's benefits, college assistance and incentives for reducing carbon emissions.
    4. The bill funds U.S. troops without imposing arbitrary deadlines for withdrawal from Iraq.
  4. On Jan. 1, Fran Townsend joined a stream of senior officials to leave the Bush administration. What position did Townsend hold?
    1. assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism
    2. White House press secretary
    3. senior White House political adviser
    4. the president's top Congressional liaison
  5. For what reason did Chris Comer say she was forced to resign her position as the Texas Education Agency's director of science curriculum?
    1. She forwarded an e-mail about a talk by a distinguished professor debunking “intelligent design” and creationism as legitimate alternatives to evolution in science curriculum.
    2. She wrote an article saying that teaching abstinence remains unproven as a way to stop teen sex while programs that both discuss contraceptives and urge teens to wait have better track records.
    3. She apologized for Texas' dismal environmental record, particularly in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, at a global warming meeting in Mexico City.
    4. She was blamed for the more than 100,000 errors found in proposed science books for elementary school children and their teachers.
  6. Who was chosen to lead the Republican Governors Association?
    1. Haley Barbour of Mississippi
    2. Matt Blunt of Missouri
    3. Georgia's Sonny Purdue
    4. Rick Perry of Texas
  7. Which combination of presidential candidate/state election primary victory IS NOT CORRECT?
    1. Barack Obama / New Hampshire
    2. John McCain / Michigan
    3. Hillary Clinton / Iowa
    4. all of the above
  8. Scientists' dreams of growing new human hearts and other organs to repair or replace damaged ones received a significant boost from a University of Minnesota research team. What did the team report?
    1. The team had invented a new arterial stent that is a major medical advance for treating blockages.
    2. They developed new imaging techniques to detect cardiovascular disease.
    3. It has successfully created a beating rat heart in a laboratory.
    4. It had cloned a sheep's heart that, they said, might be transplanted into humans one day.
  9. Tens of thousands of Georgians protested the election victory of President Saakashvili, claiming fraud and demanding a recount. Why is this particularly important to the U.S. and the West?
    1. Georgia has been a prominent ally in the war against Islamic terrorism.
    2. President Saakashvili is closely allied with Russia and was strongly supported by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
    3. Georgia sits on a pipeline carrying Caspian oil to Western markets and has been a battleground for influence between Russia and the United States.
    4. all of the above
  10. Which statement IS NOT TRUE?
    1. The economic costs to the United States of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan total about $1.5 trillion, according to a congressional study.
    2. For the first time in modern history, about 60 percent of all U.S. executions took place in Texas.
    3. President Bush proposed an aid package to Mexico that would provide helicopters and planes to fight drug traffickers and would create a new security relationship between the two countries.
    4. Members of Congress accused Google of lying about its cooperation with China's government in an incident that resulted in a dissident's imprisonment.
  11. Two teams of scientists reported that they turned these types of human cells into what appear to be embryonic stem cells without having to make or destroy an embryo.
    1. brain
    2. skin
    3. blood
    4. salivary gland
  12. Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko won the re-run of this former Soviet republic's troubled presidential election. Yushchenko, the pro-Western leader, defeated Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and his pro-Russian “Blue” Party.
    1. Ukraine
    2. Georgia
    3. Belarus
    4. Bulgaria
  13. What do John Warner, Chuck Hagel, Wayne Allard, Pete Domenici and Larry Craig have in common?
    1. They are Republican U.S. senators who announced they would step down or not run for reelection.
    2. Each has been mentioned as a possible GOP vice presidential candidate.
    3. Each of the Democratic U.S. representatives signed a petition calling for the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney.
    4. In the wake of the surprise resignation of Sen. Trent Lott as the No. 2 Republican in the U.S. Senate, each announced his candidacy for the role of GOP Senate Minority Whip.
  14. Why did the U.S. Sentencing Commission vote unanimously to allow almost 20,000 federal prison inmates to seek reductions in their crack cocaine sentences?
    1. They were denied due process rights during their original trials.
    2. They were sentenced during a time when Congress required courts to treat crack cocaine cases more harshly than powder cocaine cases, even though there was no evidence to support such disparate treatment.
    3. Cocaine use has been decriminalized in more than 20 states.
    4. all of the above
  15. For the first time during the Bush presidency, the House and the Senate voted to override Bush's veto of a bill authorizing hundreds of these kinds of projects.
    1. oil and gas exploration
    2. educational
    3. environmental
    4. water

Scroll Down for Answer Key








Answer Key:
1:A
2:A
3:B
4:A
5:A
6:D
7:D
8:C
9:C
10:D
11:B
12:A
13:A
14:B
15:D

Essay Prompts from Spring 2008

INVITATIONAL A

After the two-day Values Voter Summit in Washington D.C., Gary L. Bauer, an influential Christian conservative leader and former Republican candidate for president in 2000, said, “I don't think the question is anywhere close to settled. I think it's going to play out over the next several months.”
Explain what “it” is, and why “it's” going to play out over the next several months.

INVITATIONAL B

Fifteen years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, “U.S.-Russia relations are clearly headed in the wrong direction.” That was the assessment of an Independent Task Force on U.S. policy toward Russia, sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations.
Brooke Leonard, executive assistant to the president of the Nixon Center, wrote, “Only a few years ago, Russia and the United States seemed to be headed towards a mutually-beneficial partnership in the common fight against terrorism. But Russia's recent behavior has left many wondering about its intentions, particularly when it comes to the United States.”
Explain the nature and cause of the recent tension between Russia and the U.S.

DISTRICT I

Writing in the Los Angeles Times, former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright stated, “In 1989, when the Berlin Wall came down, it appeared that the global debate had been settled in freedom's favor, yet almost two decades later, the struggle to define and defend self-government still rages. Indeed, a real danger exists that the world will again be split by competing ideologies: not communist versus capitalist, but democratic versus autocratic.”
Explain where existing democratic governments or emerging democracies have been threatened this year.

DISTRICT 2

Ron Moreau and Michael Hirsh of Time wrote, “Today, no other country on earth is arguably more dangerous than Pakistan.” Explain why.

REGION MEET

The short-term tactical success of the U.S. military's surge in Iraq is unquestioned. Its long-term, strategic success is another matter. Jim Lobe of the Inter Agency Press service, wrote, “Exactly one year after President George W. Bush announced that he would significantly increase the number of troops deployed to Iraq, the wisdom of his so-called 'surge' strategy remains very much in dispute.”
Ivo H. Daadler, a senior fellow of Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institute, stated, “War, as Carl von Clausewitz reminded us, is the continuation of politics by other means. The theory behind the surge was that improvements in local security would translate into national reconciliation. That hasn't happened. While less violent, Iraq is still a country at war.”
Explain the successes and failures of the surge in Iraq and their likely impact on the U.S. presidential race.

STATE MEET

Tom Baldwin of the London Times wrote, “(The) fifth anniversary of the war was marked with a collective yawn by many parts of the media, while a series of Hollywood films about Iraq have disappeared without trace at the box office. Indeed, the headlines remained dominated by the economy, which has replaced Iraq as the leading concern among voters.”
In March, a CNN/Opinion Research Poll found that 42 percent of Americans say that the ailing economy has replaced the war as the issue atop voters' priority lists.
Explain how the economy has eclipsed Iraq as the most pressing issue among voters in the 2008 presidential race. Explain what has happened with the U.S. economy and in Iraq to change the political landscape.
Also, explain how the three main presidential candidates - McCain, Obama and Clinton - are focusing on - that is, spinning - these two issues.