NewsTracker Answers for week of Dec. 14, 2015

Q: Vietnam's leaders hope a U.S.-led trade deal will help the nation  reduce its dependence on China and forge closer ties with the United States. Where is Vietnam?

Circle the area on this map

Q: Vietnam runs a large and growing trade deficit with China, its biggest trading partner. Vietnam is bordered by China to the . . .

A. North

B. East

C. South

D. West

A. Vietnam is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and Malaysia across the sea to the southeast.

Q: Tensions between Vietnam and China have grown over Chinese territorial claims in which body of water east of Vietnam?

A. Coral Sea

B. Philippine Sea

C. South China Sea

D. Yellow Sea

C. The South China Sea stretches from China and Taiwan in the north to Singapore in the south and from Vietnam in the east to the Philippines in the east. China has claimed almost the entire body of water, which has large oil and gas reserves.

Q: What nation once ruled Vietnam?

A. China

B. France

C. Japan

D. All of the above

D. The Chinese empire ruled Vietnam for more than a thousand years before it rebelled in 939. France colonized the country in 1862, and Japan invaded it in 1940 during World War II. After the war, Vietnamese forces began fighting for independence from the French.

Q: Vietnam is one of the world's four remaining single-party socialist states officially espousing communism. Which of these nations is NOT one of those nations?

A. China

B. Cuba

C. Hungary

D. Laos

C. Hungary was ruled by Soviet-backed communists from 1947 until 1989 when it became a democratic parliamentary republic.