user: (Question)
That day, my mother picked me up from school, wearing the yellow sundress and shawl I remembered from our trip with Father the year before. She looked just like she did most days back then--a glamour queen, a movie star ("Just like Lena Horne," my friend Chloe had once said, "only darker--oh, sorry, Leah!"), but today her beauty somehow had a harder, more defiant edge to it. I could smell the expensive Dior perfume as soon as I opened the door, which surprised me, because my mom was usually fastidious about not getting perfume on her clothes. She was wearing her bug glasses--huge dark things with lenses that bulged out like fly eyes and reflected my face like a fun-house mirror. She had tied a yellow silk scarf around her hair and was taking deep pulls on a cigarette held between two immaculately manicured fingers. Only I knew about the nicotine stains she carefully covered with her special order "forest sable" cream each morning. Tiffany, a stupid but vicious senator's daughter who I had the misfortune of sharing a classroom with, suddenly dashed from inside the school, her face flushed. "Hello, Mrs. Wilson," she called. Before my mother could respond, she giggled and ran back to three of her friends waiting beyond the door. I could hear them laughing, but I was glad I couldn't understand their words. They were all fascinated with my mother--the black housekeeper who dressed like Katharine Hepburn and drove a Cadillac, whose daughter's "light toffee" skin indicated that she might just like her coffee with a lot of cream. Sometimes I hated those girls. "Get in the car, Leah," my mother said. Her already husky voice was pitched low, as though she'd been crying. That made me nervous. Why was she here? "Ma, Chloe was going to show me her dad's new camera. Can't I go home on the bus?" My mom pulled on the cigarette until it burned the filter, and then ground it into the car ashtray--already filled with forty or so butts. She always emptied out the ashtray each evening. What is the state of the ashtray after the end of the conversation? - half full of butts - cleaned - still full of butts - not enough information
(Answer)
still full of butts


(Question)
I recall just one case of its kind. In my first year out of high school in college, I didn’t quite get along with one vocal pipsqueak of a guy. Mid-year one afternoon post-dismissal, a small white car drove past dangerously close to me and honked as I made my way to the bus stand home. If there had actually been any malice intended, I would have been caught out totally by surprise. The next day, he wondered aloud why I did not respond or react to him flippantly wanting to ram me with his car as he drove by. To think of it, I had already taken a swipe at another guy whom I suspected of being behind the wheel less than an hour earlier. Professing some half-hearted disinterest, I thought and felt to myself that this episode wasn’t over - yet. Fast forward some 45–60 days later, this guy is suddenly absent from college for almost a week. Successive class lecturers note that it is not like him to skip classes without a valid reason. Late on the second day of absence, another lecturer asks our class about him. “His car crashed.”, I state almost flippantly, with a weak spirit of retribution shining inside my gut. But as you would realize from answering this question it later turned out to be true. While driving at quite a clip near his home, he had barreled through a residential cross-junction and broadsided a delivery van that had charged through the open junction with no regulating traffic lights. The van ended up upside down on the road shoulder and his parents-issued car was out of commission for like, three weeks. He suffered a concussion and a shattered nasal septum from the impact and police issued the van driver a ticket for dangerous driving. Basically, he had joked about striking me with his car hit-and-run and I had later joked to that lecturer and the class that he had crashed his car - and it turned out I was right. Why did the man stop showing up to class? - He dropped out. - He was in an accident - not enough information - He transferred to another school.
(Answer)
He was in an accident


(Question)
You may have read some of the scary research recently that links parabens (a preservative ingredient found in loads of health and beauty products) with breast cancer, and whilst there is no evidence yet to prove that using parabens causes breast cancer more and more people are choosing to ditch parabens in favour of something more natural. I’m gradually trying to replace all of my old skincare and bodycare products with natural alternatives so that my body comes into contact with less parabens and other nasty chemicals. One of the types of products which seems to be very late to the natural table is deodorant, there isn’t a wide variety of paraben-free products available yet but I was really pleased to see that Soft & Gentle, a well-known household brand, had brought out this new 0% Aluminium Dry Deodorant. It’s free from parabens, allergens and aluminium and uses astringent plant extracts that shrink the sweat pores to reduce perspiration whilst natural herb sage acts as a deodoriser. Available in three fragrances – Active, Floral and Care – I’ve been using the Floral Soft & Gentle 0% Aluminium Dry Deodorant for over 2 weeks and I’ve really put it through its paces as the temperature has been fairly hot and humid for the last fortnight. With a deodorant there are 2 main factors that we can look at to evaluate its success – dryness and odour control. So how did this paraben free Soft & Gentle deodorant fare? With regard to dryness I found that it kept me dry all day. I’ve been walking 2 miles or more most days and the weather has been warm, over 25 degrees some days, and I’ve been feeling generally a bit hot and sticky. But not on my underarms, they’ve been dry and I feel confident that this deodorant controls my sweat. In the first couple of days I did notice a little bit of unpleasant odour, but then I increased the amount that I was spraying under each arm and after this I’ve experienced no problems whatsoever, even after doing exercise or going on a long walk. After using Soft & Gentle's odorant, the narrator probably feel - that is not a healthy choice - that it may be a bad choice in the near future. - that is a healthy choice - not enough information
(Answer)


assistant: that is a healthy choice