WHITE HOUSE A debate over patriotism and the right of free expression is continuing in the United States with President Donald Trump extending his criticism of professional athletes who decline to stand for the national anthem. The controversy was on display Tuesday afternoon on the White House South Lawn, where Trump briefly presided over a quickly reformatted celebration after his administration accused America's champion professional football team of attempting to turn the event into a "political stunt." Trump the previous day had disinvited the Philadelphia Eagles from what was to be a celebration of their Super Bowl victory. Many of the Eagles' players had indicated they would not attend in response to Trump's harsh criticism of athletes who have refused to stand during pregame performances of the national anthem even though all the Eagles stood for the anthem last season. Trump relabeled Tuesday's gathering as a "celebration of the American flag." Speaking for 3 minutes, he told flag-waving invited fans of the team that he wanted to explain why "young Americans stand for a national anthem. Maybe it's about time we understood." One attendee shouted at the president to "stop hiding behind the armed services and the national anthem." That prompted booing and the man was escorted from the event. Trump concluded by saying that the celebration turned out to be "even bigger than we anticipated" had the football players attended. Media reports said as few as five to 10 players had planned to attend Tuesday's event. "The vast majority of the Eagles team decided to abandon their fans," the White House said in a statement Tuesday. "The Eagles are the ones who tried to change their commitment at the 11th hour," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters just prior to the event. "If this wasn't a political stunt by the Eagles franchise, then they wouldn't have planned to attend the event and then backed out at the last minute." A White House statement said Trump withdrew the invitation "after... Trump's extensive discussions with the team probably lasted: A. about an hour B. not enough information C. about a week D. about a month
A

(Question)
I had something that might have been a little supernatural. So I was trying to sleep one time, and I sleep under the blankets 99% of the time. I sleep downstairs, so hearing noise is pretty normal. Also, my door doesn't lock, or even latch the door handle, so you can just push it open. So I was laying down, maybe at 60% in terms of how close I was to falling asleep, so I just had to lay down for like 5 more minutes. But there are a lot of noises, and they freak me out even though I just sorta pretend that they're definitely a cat or my dog or something. So, I'm already slightly spooked, but I'm ignoring it and going to sleep anyway. But then, I hear my door open. That isn't too weird, I do have cats, so even though by this point my fear is intense, I just sorta blow it off and keep trying to sleep. And then, something that's never happened in a situation like this, I feel something moving towards me on my bed. It feels like a cats movements, with light feet making slight reverberations on the bed. So my fear goes away entirely, and I'm like "Oh okay, it's just the cat, that's good." And I lift my blankets off my head to let my cat under with me, and because the fear seemed to make the atmosphere under there very hot and tense, and then I look at my bed and there's nothing. So I just pretend nothing happened and go to sleep, but that still sticks with me and even though it's kinda underwhelming I still think it was very strange since I wasn't at the "edge of consciousness" stage of going to sleep, so I feel like the chances I imagined it aren't too high. The narrator at the conclusion of the story likely feels A. not enough information B. scared C. confused D. disappointed
(Answer)
C

Ques: ROLAND NARROWED HIS EYES AND STARED UPWARD INTO THE DARKNESS, across the top of Mont Segur toward the Cathar fortress. Standing on a high walkway of planks behind the palisade of the crusaders' small wooden fort, he heard faraway voices and saw torches moving on the Cathar rampart. The two men on watch with him that night, a sergeant from Champagne and a young man-at-arms from Brittany, were talking in low tones about the women to be had far below, at the foot of the mountain. They seemed not to see the activity about the Cathar stronghold on the upper peak of the mountaintop opposite their own fort. But Roland, knowing Diane was in the besieged fortress, could not take his eyes from it. He knew he had to act soon. Each day the crusaders grew stronger and the Cathars weaker. Once the Cathar stronghold fell, the crusaders would slaughter all within, including Diane. The sergeant, chuckling, was offering his young companion a wineskin. The Breton never received it. From behind the Cathar wall came the sound of a huge thump, as if a giant's fist had pounded Mont Segur. Roland recognized the sound, and fought panic as he thrust his arms out, trying to push the other two men toward the ladder. But there was no time for them to climb down to safety. The thump was the counter-weight of a stone-caster, and the whistling noise that followed fast upon it was the rock it had thrown. A shape as big as a wine barrel blotted out the stars. The stone hit the parapet beside Roland, and the whole palisade shuddered. Roland caught a glimpse of the sergeant's horrified face and heard his scream as the boulder struck him, crushing him to the ground. Who is Diane to Roland? A. A good friend B. His mother C. A lover D. not enough information
Ans: D

Question: The collaborative process between me and Claire Bridge has been good so far. Upon finding out her email address we had a brief email exchange culminating in me sending her a list of potential questions for the interview. Claire quite liked a lot of the questions, but overall there were too many, so we proceeded to reduce the number of questions to six main questions. These questions would then form the basis of the artist portrait, with an attempt to limit answers to no more than a minute, so little had to be cut for the final edit. The six questions we arrived at are as follows: How would you define creativity? What does it mean to you to be an artist? Do you feel a painting or piece of art can house an energy/a feeling from the original artist? Do you feel that your own works house this energy? Change and transformation are recurrent themes in your work. What are you exploring and why do these fascinate you? And recently we saw a change in your medium too, incorporating video works and photography. You seem to draw on many influences in your work, from quantum physics, astrophysics, to environmental ecology, psychology, philosophy and metaphysics. With titles like "Dark Matter", "Touching Infinity", "We are made of Stars", "Rising tides" and "A drop in the ocean" or "Alchemy". Can you tell us something more about the convergence of these ideas and influences? What continues to motivate and inspire you as an artist? We both felt these questions addressed the initial topic of exploring creativity, explored why Claire became an artist, gives insight into Claire's work and practise and looks toward the future of Claire's practice. After refining the questions, we proceeded to organise a day to film, which will be on the 16th September. Hopefully if all goes well we will both have an artist portrait that lives up to our expectations. When did the author consult with Claire to streamline the list of questions down to six main ones? A. not enough information B. as soon as they found Claire's email address C. after working out the day for filming D. sometime after emailing an initial list of possible interview questions
Answer:
D