NewsTracker Answers for week of May 30, 2016

Q: At least six people have died in flood-related incidents in southeast Texas after the region was inundated with up to 19 inches of rain, authorities said. Where is Texas?

Circle the area on this map


Q: Four flood victims were killed about 75 miles west of Texas’ largest city ...

A. Austin

B. Dallas

C. Houston

D. San Antonio


C. Evacuation orders were issued for residents along the Brazos River near Houston, which has a population of more than 2 million. Approximately 2,600 inmates from two prisons along the river also were evacuated and sent to other prisons.


Q: Searchers looking for two missing people whose vehicle was swept off a flooded roadway near the state capital found a body, but it wasn't immediately clear if it was one of the two. What is the capital of Texas?

A. Austin

B. Dallas

C. Fort Worth

D. San Antonio


A. The town of Waterloo on the Colorado River was renamed Austin in honor of Stephen F. Austin, the "Father of Texas," and officially made the capital of the Republic of Texas in 1839. It became the state capital when Texas, a former Spanish colony and Mexican territory, was admitted to the Union in 1845.


Q: Shortly after Texas became a state, the U.S. and Mexico went to war in a dispute over borders. Which of these states was NOT in the territory the U.S. took from Mexico in that war?

A. Arizona

B. California

C. Colorado

D. Idaho


D. The treaty that ended the Mexican–American War gave the U.S. undisputed control of Texas, established the U.S.-Mexican border of the Rio Grande, and ceded to the United States the present-day states of California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, most of Arizona and Colorado, and parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Wyoming.


Q: Texas isn’t the only state that was an independent nation before it was annexed by the United States. Which state was once an independent nation and, unlike Texas, was never a colony of a European country?

A. Alaska

B. Hawaii

C. Maine

D. Oregon


B. Hawaii was a kingdom recognized by the United States until a group of American businessmen and residents staged a coup in 1893 and imprisoned Hawaii’s last queen in her palace. A company of U.S. Marines invaded the islands to “protect non-combatant American lives and property.” And, Hawaii was annexed by the United States in 1898.