I'm here in Dubrovnik, Croatia for a team meetup. Sadly, the weather has been pretty gray and rainy so far in fact the forecast has it cloudy and rainy every day until after we leave. So I was pleasantly surprised to be awakened by the sun peeking around the edges of the curtain in my room, especially after the weather yesterday in which the wind gusted 35-40 mph hard enough to blow the patio furniture around on my balcony (and at one point, catching a chair and flipping it against the rail so hard that if the rail had been just a bit shorter, it might have gone over). Our group all agreed that we should take advantage of the nice weather and head to the old city walls and St. Lawrence Fort (Lovrijenac). We spent several hours walking the walls and climbing up and down stairs. The sun sparkled off the Adriatic Sea and cast a warm glow on the orange and red tiled roofs in old city. It was such a change from the gray and foggy gloom of the last couple of days and it created a completely different mood, at least for me. From foreboding and dark to welcoming and bright. The clouds eventually rolled back in again, but the sunshine was nice while it lasted. We walked over to the fort and I took these shots of the city wall and from across the small cove between them. If you look closely in a few shots, you'll see a stone pier, which is just between the Pile Gate (pronounced "peel-ay") at the city walls and the fort. Although I'm one of the few people in the developed world who does not watch Game of Thrones, my co-workers tell me this was one of the locations used for a scene in the show. Question: What is probably true of the writer and her group? Options: - They preferred sunshine to rain. - not enough information - They liked the Game of Thrones - They enjoyed gloomy weather. === The correct answer is
They preferred sunshine to rain.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's choice to lead the Department of Homeland Security, retired Marine General John Kelly, is one of the U.S. military's longest-serving commanders and the most senior officer since 9/11 to lose a child in combat. Blunt-spoken and popular with military personnel, Kelly, 66, was born and raised in Boston. He initially enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1970, and was discharged from active duty as a sergeant in 1972. He returned to the Marine Corps after graduation from the University of Massachusetts Boston in 1976. Kelly rose through the ranks to serve as the commanding general of the Multi-National Force West in Iraq from February 2008 to February 2009, and as the commander of Marine Forces Reserve and Marine Forces North in October 2009. He succeeded General Douglas Fraser as commander of U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) on Nov. 19, 2012. As the head of USSOUTHCOM, Kelly was in charge of the military jail at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and also was exposed to immigration, drug trafficking and other cross-border problems over a sprawling area that encompasses 32 countries in the Caribbean, Central America and South America. Kelly took a tough tone on border security, warning Congress last year about the risks of smuggling rings in Mexico and Central America that spirited "tens of thousands of people," including unaccompanied children, "to our nation's doorstep." He also clashed with the Obama administration over plans to close Guantanamo and the Pentagon's order that opened all jobs in combat units to women, including the most elite forces like the Navy SEALs. In 2010, Kelly became the highest ranking U.S. military officer to lose a child in combat operations in Southwest Asia. His youngest son, 1st Lieutenant Robert Michael Kelly, was killed in action in Afghanistan on Nov. 9, 2010. The younger Kelly was a Marine and was on his third combat tour, but on his first combat tour as a Marine Corps infantry officer. Since his son's death, Kelly has talked in stark terms about the... Question: What happened to Kelly in 2010? Options: - he was born in Boston - his son died in war - he became head of GITMO - not enough information === The correct answer is
his son died in war

When she's in the mood to push my buttons, my significant other, the delightful and charming Ms. D, frequently alludes to the questionable timeline concerning my birth date. She derives much mirth from the fact that I was born something less than nine or ten months after my parents wed and hints that this indicates a certain amount of premarital hanky-panky. Standing on my dignity ('cause it's higher than the coffee table), my reply is that I have it on good authority that I owe my early entry into the world to Tabusintac Hill. Said hill was once considered to be an abomination of the first water. The Tabusintac, like all hills, had an up and a down. In this case, the up and down were distinguished from each other by a sharp curve at the bottom. The main North/South New Brunswick highway slavishly followed the hill's contours. If you were heading north, the road led you into a ravine and you were faced with a steep uphill incline that, in winter presented a challenge to at least half the vehicles trying to climb it. In true snow country fashion, steep, icy hills were conquered by getting a running start, building up a lot of speed and praying that Mr. Newton's rules concerning inertia would work in your favour. Headed south, the problem became keeping your car under control so that you didn't go shooting into the trees when the road curved to the left. My parents were taking a trip to the Miramachi in December of '56 and were driving a Pontiac borrowed from one of my father's friends. My mother was pregnant with a bundle of bad attitude and misery that would turn out to be me. I assume that my father was driving with that mix of panache and insouciance that my mother tended to describe as reckless behaviour. In any case, as he rounded the corner at the top of the hill, the road was apparently free of snow and ice and there was no reason to slowdown. Until the moose stepped out onto the road just ahead of them. Question: the author's wife thinks Options: - that the author was born right on time - not enough information - there was premarital relations - the author was conceived after marriage === The correct answer is
there was premarital relations