When Paul was a boy growing up in Utah, he happened to live near a copper smelter ,and the chemicals that poured out had made a wasteland out of what used to be a beautiful forest. One day a young visitor looked at this wasteland and called it an awful area. Paul knocked him down. From then on, something happened inside him.

Years later Paul was back in the area, and he went to the smelter office. He asked if they had any plans or if they would let him try to bring the trees back. The answer from that big industry was "No".

Paul then went to college to study the science of plants. Unfortunately, his teachers said there weren't any birds or squirrels to spread the seeds. It would be a waste of his life to try to do it. Everyone knew that, he was told. Even if he was knowledgeable as he had expected, he wouldn't get his idea accepted.

Paul later got married and had some kids. But his dream would not die. And then one night he did what he could with what he had. As Samuel Johnson wrote, "It is common to overlook what is near by keeping the eye fixed on something remote. Attainable good is often ignored by minds busied in wide ranges." Under the cover of darkness, he went secretly into the wasteland and started planting.

And every week, he made his secret journey into the wasteland and planted trees and grass. For fifteen years he did this against _ . Slowly rabbits appeared. Later, as there was legal pressure to clean up the environment, the company actually hired Paul to do what he was already doing.

Now the place is fourteen thousand acres of trees and grass and bushes, and Paul has received almost every environmental award Utah has. It took him until his hair turned white, but he managed to keep that impossible vow he made to himself as a child.

Now, provide a numbered list of answers to these questions:

1. Where did Paul grow up?
2. What did he live near?
3. Was this smelter environmentally friendly?
4. What did it do to the area around him?
5. What was it before it was a wasteland?
6. When he was in the area years later, what did he ask the smelter company?
7. What did they tell him?
8. What did Paul study when he continued his education?
9. Were his teachers supportive in his goal of reintroducing trees to the wasteland?
10. Why?
11. Did this kill his dream?
12. Did he begin to plant trees in an open manner? Was he doing it during broad daylight?
13. What did he do every week when we journeyed to the wasteland?
14. For how long?
15. What animal appeared?
16. Why did the company decide to clean up the environment?
17. What action did they take to clean up?
18. Did Paul ever accomplish his goal?
19. How many acres of forest does this former wasteland have now?
20. What color did Paul's hair turn?

Numbered answers:
1. Utah
2. a copper smelter
3. no
4. made it a wasteland
5. a beautiful forest
6. if they would let him try to bring the trees back
7. "No"
8. the science of plants
9. no
10. there weren't any birds or squirrels to spread the seeds and it would be a waste of his life to try to do it
11. no
12. no
13. planted trees and grass
14. for fifteen years
15. rabbits
16. there was legal pressure to clean up
17. hired Paul
18. yes
19. fourteen thousand acres
20. white