Question: (CNN) -- There are plenty of reasons to fall in love with a staircase.

It's a home's conduit and connector. It ushers life along, makes a grand impression on visitors and serves as the backdrop for family memories.

"It's where my daughter took pictures for her first daddy-daughter dance," said Anisa Darnell, part of the Milk and Honey Home decorator team from Roswell, Georgia. Her home's staircase is also special to her because her grandfather posed with her daughter for a snapshot there before he passed away.

The back staircase in Emily A. Clark's home is significant because it's mostly used by her kids. "I've also caught them playing school on the little landing in the middle of the stairs."

Jacki Poovey and her husband designed their staircase to be a grand, welcoming part of their Cary, North Carolina home, but it's also at the heart of countless family memories. It still bears reminders of the time their puppy chewed every bit of molding from the edges of the newel post to the cap molding on the treads. "It's a lived-in home," says Poovey.

Massive undertakings, like DIY home renovations, can imbue a home's staircase with lasting impressions of the experience.

"If you paint three stories of spindles, you never forget it," Victoria Barnes said of the painstaking restoration she and her husband undertook in their 1890 Victorian home near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Barnes blogs about the "really, really, really slow" process of their work, which she calls wonderful and overwhelming.

Christine Price, from Manchester, England, can relate, having spent 250 hours stripping, sanding and painting the staircase in her Edwardian home. "The staircase is the first thing you see when you enter our home," she said. "Now that it's restored it makes such a huge difference to the whole feel of the house." 1. What part of a house is this story mainly about?
2. According to the article, is the staircase important to the house's atmosphere?
3. What photos were taken by the stairs?
4. What team of decorators is mentioned?
5. where are they from?
6. Is Emily's staircase in the front of the house?
7. Who uses it?
8. What do they do there?
9. Is it easy to forget restoring a staircase?
10. Who owns a Victorian house?
11. When does it date from?
12. Where is it located?
13. Was her work on the house easy?
14. Was it enjoyable?
15. How long did Christine spend on her project?
16. Is her house always Victorian?
17. What style is it?
18. What work did Christine do?
19. Is Jacki's staircase pristine?
20. Why not? Provide a numbered list of answers.
****
A numbered of answers: 1. The staircase
2. Yes
3. pictures for a first daddy-daughter dance
4. the Milk and Honey Home decorator team
5. Roswell, Georgia
6. No
7. Her kids
8. Playing school
9. No
10. Victoria Barnes
11. 1890
12. near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
13. No
14. Yes
15. 250 hours
16. No
17. Edwardian
18. stripping, sanding and painting
19. No
20. It has marks from where her puppy chewed it

Question: Borneo is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and east of Sumatra.

The island is politically divided among three countries: Malaysia and Brunei in the north, and Indonesia to the south. Approximately 73% of the island is Indonesian territory. In the north, the East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak make up about 26% of the island. Additionally, the Malaysian federal territory of Labuan is situated on a small island just off the coast of Borneo. The sovereign state of Brunei, located on the north coast, comprises about 1% of Borneo's land area.

Antipodal to an area of Amazon rainforest, Borneo is itself home to one of the oldest rainforests in the world.

The island is known by many names. Internationally it is known as "Borneo", after Brunei, derived from European contact with the kingdom in the 16th century during the Age of Exploration. The name "Brunei" possibly derives from the Sanskrit word """" (), meaning either "water" or the mythological Varuna, the Hindu god of rain. Indonesian natives called it "Kalimantan," which was derived from the Sanskrit word "Kalamanthana," meaning "burning weather island" (to describe its hot and humid tropical weather). 1. Who is Borneo named after?
2. What does Brunei mean?
3. It means water in what language?
4. What do the Indonesians call it?
5. What is the origin of that word?
6. Why did they call it that?
7. What is the islands political make up?
8. How much of it does Indonesia control?
9. Where is the state of Brunei?
10. Does it rain much in Borneo?
11. What stands out about the rainforest?
12. Where is Labuan located? Provide a numbered list of answers.
****
A numbered of answers: 1. Its named after Brunei
2. It means "water" or the mythological Varuna, the Hindu god of rain
3. the Sankrit language
4. They called it Kalimantan
5. It was derived from the Sankrit word "Kalamanthana" meaning burning weather island
6. Because its hot and humid there
7. There are three and they are Malaysia and Brueni in the North, and Indonesia in the south
8. They control 73%
9. In Asia
10. Yes
11. Its one of the oldest in the world.
12. Just off the coast of Borneo

Question: CHAPTER VI

EXAMINATION DAY

It was plain that Fred and Charley had spread the news of their descent into the Pit, and of their battle with the Simpson clan and the Fishes. He heard the nine-o'clock bell with feelings of relief, and passed into the school, a mark for admiring glances from all the boys. The girls, too, looked at him in a timid and fearful way--as they might have looked at Daniel when he came out of the lions' den, Joe thought, or at David after his battle with Goliath. It made him uncomfortable and painfully self-conscious, this hero-worshiping, and he wished heartily that they would look in some other direction for a change.

Soon they did look in another direction. While big sheets of foolscap were being distributed to every desk, Miss Wilson, the teacher (an austere-looking young woman who went through the world as though it were a refrigerator, and who, even on the warmest days in the classroom, was to be found with a shawl or cape about her shoulders), arose, and on the blackboard where all could see wrote the Roman numeral "I." Every eye, and there were fifty pairs of them, hung with expectancy upon her hand, and in the pause that followed the room was quiet as the grave.

Underneath the Roman numeral "I" she wrote: "_(a) What were the laws of Draco? (b) Why did an Athenian orator say that they were written 'not in ink, but in blood'?_"

Forty-nine heads bent down and forty-nine pens scratched lustily across as many sheets of foolscap. Joe's head alone remained up, and he regarded the blackboard with so blank a stare that Miss Wilson, glancing over her shoulder after having written "II," stopped to look at him. Then she wrote: 1. Who had spread the news?
2. What was the teacher's name?
3. What were her salient qualities?
4. and?
5. Did she dress in a summery fashion?
6. What biblical story is referenced?
7. and?
8. What characterized the glances from the boys?
9. How many eyes were looking at the teacher's hand?
10. was the classroom hushed?
11. Who does she quote concerning Draconian laws?
12. Did all the children know the answer to her question? Provide a numbered list of answers.
****
A numbered of answers:
1. Fred and Charley
2. Miss Wilson
3. austere-looking
4. went through the world as though it were a refrigerator
5. No
6. David vs Goliath
7. the Simpson clan and the Fishes
8. the nine-o'clock bell
9. fifty pairs
10. Yes
11. What were the laws of Draco?
12. Yes