Answer the questions at the end based on the text.

Science Fiction

The science fiction type of entertainment is considered by most to be fathered by Jules Verne (A Journey to the Center of the Earth and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea) and H. G. Wells (The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds). Sci-Fi, as it is commonly shortened, is a fictional story in which science and technology have a significant influence on the characters and plot. Many such works are guesswork about what the future holds and how scientific findings and technological advances will shape humankind.

Writing in the late 1800s, Jules Verne was remarkably successful in his 10 guesses about future technologies of air conditioning, automobiles, the Internet, television, and underwater, air, and space travel. Unbelievably, of all places from which to choose, Jules Verne guessed Tampa, Florida, USA as the launching site of the first project to the Moon, which was only 200 kilometers away from the actual 1969 location at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

One of the best-known science fiction books is Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. Published in 1949, it was not meant as a prediction, but as a warning: Orwell was describing what he saw as the outcome of the ideas, trends, and emerging technologies of his time. Many invented terms from this novel have become common in everyday use, such as "big brother" and "doublethink". Even the author's name has been made into an adjective--Orwellian--and has become a warning descriptor for situations where privacy is lost and the individual becomes sacrifice under a totalitarian government. Nineteen Eighty-Four was translated into sixty-five languages within five years of its publication, setting a record that still stands.

What helps bring science fiction into being is usually a new discovery or innovation. The author creates an analysis of the potential influence and consequences and then wraps it in a pleasant story. For example, the beginning of space exploration was followed a few years later by the Star Trek television program and movie series. Advances in genetics cause fantasies of the end of disease, horrors of eugenics , and thrillers where creatures disappearing long ago are brought back to life. The science fiction author's self-determined role is that of field glasses for humanity--searching the world of future possibilities upon the road which we are traveling.

1. Are there considered to be three fathers of science fiction?
2. How many are there?
3. Who are they?
4. Which one wrote in the 1800's?
5. Was he successful in 12 assumptions about the future?
6. How many was he successful in?
7. Such as?
8. What is this genre's nickname?
9. Are many of the stories certain about what the future will be like?
10. Is there another famous writer of this genre mentioned?
11. Who?
12. What's his most famous book?
13. Was it put out in 1947?
14. When was it put out?
15. Is it only in English?

Numbered answers:

A: 1. no
2. Most consider there are 2
3. Jules Verne and H. G. Wells
4. Jules Verne
5. no
6. 10
7. air conditioning, automobiles, the Internet, television, and underwater, air, and space travel
8. unknown
9. no
10. yes
11. George Orwell
12. Nineteen Eighty-Four
13. no
14. 1949
15. no

Answer the questions at the end based on the text.

(CNN) -- A thin girl with caramel skin and a yellow silk blouse walks alone through a barren landscape of rubble.

Nway prepares for her new job, selling vegetables from her aunt's garden.

Her legs are marked by cuts. Her face is smeared with white streaks of powder. And her eyes are blank as she sifts through the debris of what used to be her home before Cyclone Nargis slammed into Myanmar one night and swept her parents away.

Her name is Nway, and that's how she looked when aid workers found her after Nargis destroyed her isolated village. She refused to talk about the cyclone, pretending it never took place. She became, according to a CNN story, the "girl who refuses to remember."

A year later, an aid worker returned to the village to see how Nway was doing. She found Nway living in a tidy, bamboo house flanked by palm trees. The 8-year-old greeted her visitor with a big smile. Then she asked whether she could play with her visitor's hair.

Pam Sitko, the aid worker, said Nway -- like thousands of people in Myanmar -- is slowly recovering one year after Nargis demolished their country.

"After all of her pain and loss, she really is a spunky girl," said Sitko, who works with World Vision International, a humanitarian group. "She wasn't shy about reaching out to touch my blonde hair."

The night everything changed

Nway's resilience is shared by many in Myanmar, aid workers say.

Last year's cyclone was catastrophic. It killed at least 140,000 people and left at least 2 million people without homes, according to the United Nations World Food Programme.

1. What's the name of the storm that hit?
2. In which country?
3. How many individuals died?
4. And how many lost their houses?
5. Which agency made those calculations?
6. What's the girl's name?
7. Was she obese?
8. What does she do for work?
9. Who owns the vegetable patch?
10. Do they also sell fruit?

Numbered answers:

A: 1. Cyclone Nargis
2. Myanmar
3. 140,000 people
4. 2 million people
5. United Nations World Food Programme.
6. Nway
7. No
8. selling vegetables
9. Her aunt
10. unknown

Answer the questions at the end based on the text.

Perhaps the most famous clothing brand name in the world is Levi's.Levi Strauss & Co.is the producer of blue denim jeans.Here's how it happened. In the mid 1800s many people went to California to look for gold.A young German named Levi Strauss traveled to San Francisco to help his brother on business.He sold canvas to the workers for tents.But the workers said they needed pants more,because their pants were easy to wear out.Instead of selling his canvas for tent-making,he turned it into pants.These kinds of pants were very popular with workers.He was very happy and named the kind of pants"denims".And in 1853 he founded Levi Strauss & Co. Twenty years later the company began using a design with pockets.During the working,Strauss _ the process for putting metal rivets in the eans for strength. On May 20,1873,they received the U.S.Patent No.139,121 for the process and that date is now considered the official birthday of"blue jeans". Today the company still has its factories in San Francisco,California.Over 11,000 people work in them and bring in over $4 billion a year.

1. What nationality is Levi Strauss?
2. Where did he travel to?
3. Why?
4. How did he help?
5. Did that inspire him to start a business?
6. Howso?
7. Why did they need pants?
8. What did Levi craft his pants out of?
9. What did he call them?
10. Did they have pockets at that time?
11. When were they added?
12. Approximately when did Levi start making pants?
13. When did he found the company?
14. Is the design patented?
15. When did they get that?
16. What do they refer to that date as now?
17. What patent number did it get?
18. Where are the factories currently located?
19. How many people work there?
20. Is it the most famous clothing braND?

Numbered answers:

A:
1. German
2. San Francisco
3. to help his brother's business
4. sold canvas for tents
5. yes
6. he workers needed pants
7. theirs were wearing out too quickly
8. tent canvas
9. denims
10. no
11. Twenty years later
12. mid 1800s
13. 1853
14. yes
15. May 20,1873
16. the birthday of blue jeans
17. 139,121
18. SanFrancisco
19. more than 11,000 people
20. perhaps