Q: Washington (CNN) -- Mexican drug cartels have used cash and sexual favors as tools to corrupt U.S. border and customs agents, an inspector general investigation has found.

In exchange, agents allow contraband or unauthorized immigrants through inspection lanes, protect or escort traffickers or leak sensitive information, said Charles Edwards, acting inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security.

Testifying before a Senate subcommittee, Edwards cited the Zetas drug cartel as one of the leaders "involved increasingly in systematic corruption."

He did not elaborate on how non-cash methods of corruption, like sexual favors, have been used to corrupt agents.

Since October 2004, 127 Customs and Border Protection employees have been arrested or indicted for acts of corruption, said agency Commissioner Alan Bersin, speaking at the same hearing of the Senate Subcommittee on Disaster Recovery and Intergovernmental Affairs.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon's offensive against the drug cartels, combined with a surge in the hiring of border agents in recent years, have multiplied the risks of corruption, Bersin said.

Today, the Border Patrol counts more than 20,700 agents, more than double its size in 2004. Bersin implied that the rapid hiring spree may have come at the cost of hiring less qualified agents.

"The accelerated hiring pace under which we operated between 2006 and 2008 -- and, frankly, mistakes from which we are learning -- exposed critical organizational and individual vulnerabilities within CBP," he said.

To face this challenge, the commissioner touted the passage of the Anti-Border Corruption Act of 2010, which requires that by 2013, all the agency's law enforcement applicants must receive a polygraph test before being hired. It also calls for periodic reinvestigations into the background of its agents.

1. Felipe Calderon
2. more than 20,700 agents,
3. no
4. 127
5. between 2006 and 2008
6. Charles Edwards,
7. Department of Homeland Security.
8. yes
9. yes
10. sexual favors
11. Zetas drug cartel
12. U.S. border and customs agents,
13. a polygraph test
14. by 2013
15. he Anti-Border Corruption Act of 2010,
16. Alan Bersin
17. a hearing of the Senate Subcommittee on Disaster Recovery and Intergovernmental Affairs.
18. yes
19. allow contraband or unauthorized immigrants through inspection lanes,
20. systematic corruption.

Numbered questions:
1. who is the president of Mexico?
2. How many are working for border patrol today?
3. Is this the same as in 2004?
4. How many employees have been arrested?
5. Between what years was the higher hiring rate?
6. who is the acting inspector general mentioned?
7. what organization does he work for?
8. Is cash used for corruption?
9. what about non-cash?
10. what is the non-cash example used?
11. what drug cartel is mentioned?
12. who is being corrupted?
13. what tests are the agents supposed to receive?
14. by when?
15. according to what act?
16. who is the commissioner mentioned?
17. where was he speaking?
18. Do agents leak private information?
19. What else do they do?
20. What did Edwards call the corruption?

Q: At 10 years old, Flynn Mc Garry became sick of the meals his mother cooked for him. So the Los Angeles native took matters into his own hands and started making his own dinners. One of his specialties? Trout with braised leeks .

Now 13, the young chef is being praised as a "food prodigy ". He will spend his summer apprenticing with some of the best chefs at LA's famous restaurants, MSNBC Nightly New reports.

Mc Garry began making a name for himself in the culinary world when John Sedlar, owner of the trendy Playa Restaurant, let Mc Garry take over the kitchen for a special nine-course meal. The meal sold out almost instantly.

"Flynn is a very unusual young man, and he's very, very passionate," owner John Sedlar told MSNBC.

By usual teenage boy standards, it's true. So strong is his passion for cooking that the young man has turned his bedroom into an experimental kitchen laboratory.

Instead of video game consoles, baseball trophies and movie posters, Mc Garry's room is lined with mixers, pots and pans, cutting boards and a stainless steel worktable. It's where Mc Garry cooks his monthly pop-up dinners, which are served from his family's dining room, a monthly supper club he calls Eureka.

Mc Garry is deft and confident in the kitchen, with skills he's been practicing since he was a child. What started out as a means of self-preservation from his mom's unsatisfactory cooking has turned into a passion that the teen hopes to develop into a career.

"My goal? Michelin three stars, a restaurant in the top 50 list," he told MSNBC. "Hopefully the top five." Meanwhile, Mc Garry's 13-year-old resume is already richer and more impressive than most cooks many times his age.

Mc Garry isn't the only talented young prodigy to surprise experts in his field in recent years. At just 17 years old, physicist Taylor Wilson is already teaching graduate-level courses in physics and has built a functioning nuclear reactor.

1. Playa Restaurant
2. MSNBC
3. Cooking
4. 13
5. 10
6. cook
7. a monthly supper club
8. Eureka
9. Yes
10. Michelin three stars
11. a restaurant in the top 50
12. physics
13. 17
14. yes
15. nuclear reactor
16. Yes

Numbered questions:
1. what restaurant does John Sedlar own?
2. what publication interviewed him?
3. what does Mc Garry like better than baseball?
4. how old is he?
5. how old was he when he got interested in cooking?
6. what is he going to do this summer?
7. with who?
8. what is the club called?
9. does he like cooking better than video games?
10. what is goal?
11. what else?
12. what does Taylor Wilson teach?
13. how old is he?
14. did he build something?
15. what did he build?
16. were experts surprised?

Q: CHAPTER VIII. 'LE BROUILON'

But never more the same two sister pearls Ran down the silken thread to kiss each other. --Tennyson

Berenger was obliged to crave permission from the King to spend some hours in riding with Osbert to the first hostel on their way, to make arrangements for the relay of horses that was to meet them there, and for the reception of Veronique, Eustacie's maid, who was to be sent off very early in the morning on a pillion behind Osbert, taking with her the articles of dress that would be wanted to change her mistress from the huntress maid of honour to the English dame.

It was not long after he had been gone that a sound of wheels and trampling horses was heard in one of the forest drives. Charles, who was amusing himself with shooting at a mark together with Sidney and Teligny, handed his weapon to an attendant, and came up with looks of restless anxiety to his Queen, who was placed in her chair under the tree, with the Admiral and her ladies round her, as judges of the prize.

'Here is _le brouillon_,' he muttered. 'I thought we had been left in peace too long.'

Elisabeth, who Brantome says was water, while her husband was fire, tried to murmur some hopeful suggestion; and poor little Eustacie, clasping her hands, could scarcely refrain from uttering the cry, 'Oh, it is my uncle! Do not let him take me!'

The next minute there appeared four horses greatly heated and jaded, drawing one of the court coaches; and as it stopped at the castle gate, two ladies became visible within it--the portly form of Queen Catherine, and on the back seat the graceful figure of Diane de Ribaumont.

1. water
2. her husband
3. Tennyson
4. A hostel
5. relay of horses
6. Veronique
7. Eustacie's maid
8. articles of dress
9. No
10. English dame
11. No
12. the King
13. Osbert
14. Charles
15. the Queen
16. shooting at a mark
17. No
18. placed in her chair under the tree as a judge
19. No
20. Oh, it is my uncle! Do not let him take me!'

Numbered questions:
1. What does Brantome compare Elisabeth to?
2. Who was fire?
3. Who was the author of the opening quote?
4. Where was Berenger hoping to go?
5. What was he hoping to get there?
6. Who would meet him there?
7. Who is that?
8. What would Veronique have with her?
9. Would these be her mistress' normal clothes?
10. What type of clothing would they be?
11. Could Berenger make this decision on his own?
12. Who did he have to ask?
13. Who else would be going with him?
14. Who else was in the forest?
15. Was anyone else important there?
16. What was Charles doing?
17. By himself?
18. What was the Queen doing?
19. Was Eustacie happy to hear the horses coming?
20. Why not?