Standing committees exist from one Congress to the next—in other words, they are (mostly) permanent committees which continue to exist until they are affirmatively disbanded (whether through actual destruction or combination). The easiest way to remember the function of standing committees is that they “stand” on top of Congress—they never go away until Congress tells them to!

An ad hoc or select committee is a temporary committee which is created to achieve a certain goal; after the committee achieves that goal, it (normally) automatically disbands. Ad hoc is Latin for “to this,” and generally means something created, formed, or mentioned for a particular, specific, purpose (as here).

A conference committee is a joint committee (meaning, with members of both chambers) created in order for the House and Senate to fully reconcile any differences among versions of the bill. Why is this necessary? Remember: both the Senate and the House must pass the exact same version of a bill—thus a Bill that is heavily amended in the Senate after passage in the House must return to the House for a vote on the Senate amendments (or vice versa).

This question is slightly tricky. The correct answer is the Vice President of the United States of America. The Constitution mandates that the VP serve as the President of the Senate. Substantively speaking, the President of the Senate has relatively little power—the only time that the President may vote is in the event of a straight tie (50/50 split). Although this does happen, it’s not an incredibly common occurrence (Joe Biden—the VP/President of the Senate under Obama—for example, has not cast a single tie-breaking vote to date). That being said, the President of the Senate is responsible for Congressional procedure in the Senate, and a cunning Senate President can accomplish much using only the rules of procedure (for a fantastic, if somewhat inflated, example of this, watch House of Cards Season 2, Episode 3—it’s actually based off of a real event!).

This is a relatively easy question, provided that you know (or remember) what candidate- and party-centered politics are. Sometimes the most obvious answer is the correct answer, and that is indeed the case here: candidate-centered politics emphasize the role of the individual politician—in other words, the candidate seeks to run on the message of, ‘what can I do for you?’ Party-centered politics, however, emphasize the role of a particular politician’s party more so than his individuality—that is, the candidate seeks to run on the message of, ‘what can my party do for you?’  

The other two answers involving the constitution are wrong for the simple reasons that political parties are not even mentioned in the Constitution (thus, it would be impossible for a party-centered politics to be anywhere in the Constitution).

Questions dealing with procedural differences between the Senate and the House tend to be a little more difficult; they are both foreign and somewhat dull. But regardless, the answer to this question is false for the simple reason that only the House has a Rules Committee. While the Senate is the “upper” chamber, and more powerful in a few different ways, it is less strict than the House when it comes to procedure. This is reflected in the fact that it lacks a Rules Committee.

The leader of the House of Representatives is called the Speaker of the House. The most infamous Speaker of the House was Speaker Joe Cannon. He wielded nearly unlimited power in the House and generally stirred up so much trouble that the member of the House eventually revolted against his rules and instituted new procedural rules that greatly curbed the powers of the Speaker. Regardless, the Speaker is still the most powerful position within the House.

Strangely enough, while the House has both a Speaker of the House and the Majority Leader, with the former being more powerful than the latter, the Majority Leader is the most powerful position within the Senate, when it comes to day-to-day activities. Technically speaking, the Vice President presides over the Senate (and the President Pro Tem presides in the VP’s absence), but the Majority Leader wields more day-to-day power.

Sometimes the most obvious answer is also the correct one. That is the case here. The Whip (whether it be Majority or Minority) is responsible for corralling congress members to vote for (or against) a bill. Technically speaking, oftentimes the Speaker or Majority leader, or anyone else in leadership positions may help out in getting votes (by trading favors, or something similar), but it is the Whips job to do so.

UCAs are only important in the Senate. Neither the House nor the Supreme Court have anything to do with UCAs. Because the Senate does not have a Rules Committee, technically, bills are just free-for-alls when it comes to rules of consideration. That said, in order to prevent the Senate from devolving into a madhouse, the Senate operates under UCAs (Unanimous Consent Agreements) which establish rules of consideration for each bill.