question: Surrey is a county in the South East England and is one of the home counties. It shares borders with Kent to the east, East Sussex to the south-east, West Sussex to the south, Hampshire to the west and south-west, and Berkshire to the north-west and Greater London to the north-east. The county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits outside its jurisdiction in Kingston upon Thames, a town which has been administered as part of Greater London since 1965. With a resident population of 1.1 million, Surrey is the most densely populated and third-most-populous county in the South East region.

Today, administrative Surrey is divided into eleven districts: Elmbridge, Epsom and Ewell, Guildford, Mole Valley, Reigate and Banstead, Runnymede, Spelthorne, Surrey Heath, Tandridge, Waverley, and Woking. Services such as roads, mineral extraction licensing, education, strategic waste and recycling infrastructure, birth, marriage, and death registration, and social and children's services are administered by Surrey County Council. The London boroughs of Lambeth, Southwark, Wandsworth, and parts of Lewisham and Bromley were in Surrey until 1889. The boroughs of Croydon, Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Sutton and Richmond upon Thames south of the River Thames were part of Surrey until 1965, when they too were absorbed into Greater London. In the same year, the county was extended north of the Thames by the addition of Spelthorne, as a result of the dissolution of Middlesex. Due to this expansion, modern Surrey also borders on the London boroughs of Hillingdon, Hounslow, Kingston upon Thames, Sutton, Croydon and Bromley.
1. Is Surrey a county or city?
2. Where is it located?
3. What is the Surrey county town?
4. Is the county council within the Surrey county jurisdiction?
5. Where does the county council sit?
6. What types of services does the county council administer?
7. How many districts is the county made up of?
8. Are any of London's boroughs a part of Surrey?
9. Was the county ever expanded?
10. Why?
11. Did anything happen as a result of the expansion?
12. Does Surrey border other counties?
****
answer: 1. County
2. South East England
3. Guildford
4. Yes
5. Kingston upon Thames
6. Roads, mineral extraction licensing, education, strategic waste and recycling infrastructure, birth, marriage, and death registration, and social and children's services.
7. 11
8. Yes
9. Yes
10. The dissolution of Middlesex
11. Yes
12. Yes

question: CHAPTER XIX.

ABOUT THE ROBBERY.

If Ralph had been astonished before, he was doubly so now. He looked from one to another of the men in amazement.

"Do you really think I am one of the thieves?" he gasped.

"It's mighty suspicious," responded Jack Rodman. "You were seen in the neighborhood of the post office to-night, and then this knife business is a clew."

"I don't think Ralph will run away," said Bart Haycock. "I myself think he is innocent."

"Thank you for those words," said the boy. "I am innocent."

"Then you have no objections to our making a search about here," said the constable.

"Not any objection whatever," said Ralph, promptly. "Search where you please."

"I'll help you," said Uriah to the constable.

"Hadn't you better hold me tight?" suggested Ralph, with a sarcasm which was entirely lost on the miserly storekeeper.

"Well, I dunno," hesitated Uriah.

"I will see to it that he doesn't run away," said the blacksmith. "This makes me sick, Ralph," he added, in a low tone. "I know you are as innocent as a babe. That post office was robbed by professionals."

The constable and Uriah knocked on the cottage door and Mrs. Nelson let them in. She was greatly surprised when Jack Rodman declared his errand.

"Ralph is indeed innocent!" she exclaimed. "You may search the premises all you please."

The constable and Uriah took a lamp, and the search began. Every nook and corner of the cottage was gone over, but nothing that looked like what had been taken--money and registered letters--came to light.
1. Who did Jack think was a thief?
2. Who thought he was innocent?
3. Where was Ralph seen tonight?
4. What did the constable want to do?
5. Who was going to help him?
6. What was robbed?
7. Who did the blacksmith think did it?
8. Who lived in the house to be searched?
9. Did she think he did it?
10. Who told her what they wanted to do?
11. Did she say it was ok?
12. What did they use to see by in the search?
13. Did they miss anything in their search?
14. What was taken in the robbery?
15. Did they find any of that?
****
answer: 1. Ralph
2. Bart Haycock
3. in the neighborhood of the post office
4. making a search
5. Uriah
6. post office
7. professionals
8. Mrs. Nelson
9. no
10. Jack
11. yes
12. a lamp
13. no
14. money and registered letters
15. no

question: "I don't want to write a story about girls!I don't know anything about girls."Louisa May Alcott told her publisher,Mr Niles.But she was desperate for money.She seemed to be the only one in her family who could make some money.Niles had asked her to write something she knew,instead of the romantic adventure stories she had been writing."So I plod away,"Alcott wrote,"though I don't enjoy this sort of thing."It was 1867,and the horrible Civil War was over.Now Alcott could turn her energy to making money.

Alcott wrote a simple story of life in her family,their pillow fights on Saturday nights and the amateur plays they performed."Our experiences may prove interesting,though I doubt it."("Good joke."she wrote years later.)Her book described her days growing up with four sisters in a family that had no money.She sketched a loving mother who took time to be interested in each child,and she told of the death of a beloved sister.She portrayed her family and friends in her book Little Women.Finally,in July of 1868,she finished writing.With a sigh and a headache,she sent off all 102 handwritten pages of her book.

Niles thought the book was dull,and so did Alcott.But when she received her copies of the book,Alcott thought it seemed better than expected."Not a bit sensational,"she wrote,"but simple and true.We really loved most of it."Niles asked some girls to read Little Women,and they loved it.If girls liked it,Alcott was satisfied.

In three months,all the copies of Little Women had been sold out.It was already time to print more books!Niles thought she could sell three or four hundred more copies."An honest publisher and a lucky author made a dull book into a golden egg for ugly ducking,"Alcott wrote in 1885.Later,with a great sign of relief,she was able to write,"Paid off all the debts!Now I feel that I could die in peace.If my head holds out,I'll do all I hoped to do."
1. What does Louisa May Alcott do for a living?
2. What kind of stories does she usually write?
3. Who is her publisher?
4. What does he want her to write about
5. And what was that?
6. did she want to?
7. Why did she do it?
8. What did she end up writing?
9. Was it a success?
10. How do you know?
11. Did they make more?
12. How many more was she expected to sell?
13. Did she like the book at first?
14. What did Niles think of it?
15. What did the test group of girls think?
16. When did she start writing it?
17. When did she get done?
18. What month?
19. What kind of pages did she mail away?
20. How many?
****
answer:
1. Author
2. romantic adventure stories
3. Mr Niles.
4. something she knew
5. life in her family
6. No
7. To make money
8. Little Women
9. Yes
10. In three months,all the copies of Little Women had been sold out.
11. Yes
12. 300 to 400 more copies
13. No
14. He thought the book was dull
15. They loved it
16. 1867
17. 1868
18. July
19. handwritten
20. 102