Q: Dell was listed at number 51 in the Fortune 500 list, until 2014. After going private in 2013, the newly confidential nature of its financial information prevents the company from being ranked by Fortune. In 2014 it was the third largest PC vendor in the world after Lenovo and HP. Dell is currently the #1 shipper of PC monitors in the world. Dell is the sixth largest company in Texas by total revenue, according to Fortune magazine. It is the second largest non-oil company in Texas behind AT&T and the largest company in the Greater Austin area. It was a publicly traded company (NASDAQ: DELL), as well as a component of the NASDAQ-100 and S&P 500, until it was taken private in a leveraged buyout which closed on October 30, 2013.

Originally, Dell did not emphasize the consumer market, due to the higher costs and unacceptably low profit margins in selling to individuals and households; this changed when the company's Internet site took off in 1996 and 1997. While the industry's average selling price to individuals was going down, Dell's was going up, as second- and third-time computer buyers who wanted powerful computers with multiple features and did not need much technical support were choosing Dell. Dell found an opportunity among PC-savvy individuals who liked the convenience of buying direct, customizing their PC to their means, and having it delivered in days. In early 1997, Dell created an internal sales and marketing group dedicated to serving the home market and introduced a product line designed especially for individual users.

1. Dell
2. no
3. 51
4. 2014
5. Two
6. HP
7. Lennovo
8. no
9. 2013
10. no
11. 1996-97
12. the company's internet site
13. Two
14. higher costs and lower margins
15. no
16. 2nd and 3rd time buyers
17. yes
18. unknown

Numbered questions:
1. Who is the #1 shipper of PC monitors in the world?
2. Were they 52 on the Fortune 500 list?
3. What rank were they?
4. Until when?
5. How many other competitors were above them in personal computing sales?
6. What's one of them?
7. What's the other?
8. Is it still available for shares of stocks to be bought by the public?
9. What year did that stop?
10. Did it always place emphasis on the everyday buyer side of things?
11. When did that start to change?
12. With what new technology?
13. How many reasons did they not place emphasis on those types of customers at first?
14. What were they?
15. Did they do well with first time consumers?
16. What sort of consumers did they do well with?
17. Did they make a new series of products for them?
18. What was it called?

Q: CHAPTER XV.--The Mark of Cain.

Next morning Barton entered his sitting-room in very high spirits, and took up his letters. He had written to Maitland the night before, saying little but, "Come home at once. Margaret is found. She is going to be my wife. You can't come too quickly, if you wish to hear of something very much to your advantage." A load was off his mind, and he felt as _Romeo_ did just before the bad news about _Juliet_ reached him.

In this buoyant disposition, Barton opened his letters. The first was in a hand he knew very well--that of a man who had been his fellow-student in Paris and Vienna, and who was now a prosperous young physician. The epistle ran thus:

"Dear Barton.--I'm off to the West of Ireland, for a fortnight People are pretty fit, as the season has not run far. Most of my patients have not yet systematically overeaten themselves. I want you to do something for me. Martin & Wright, the lawyers, have a queer little bit of medical jurisprudence, about which young Wright, who was at Oriel in our time, asked my opinion. I recommended him to see you, as it is more in your line; and _my_ line will presently be attached to that eminent general practitioner, 'The Blue Doctor.' May he prosper with the Galway salmon!

"Thine,

"Alfred Franks."

"Lucky beggar!" thought Barton to himself, but he was too happy to envy even a man who had a fortnight of salmon-fishing before him.

1. Alfred Franks
2. Yes
3. his fellow-student
4. Paris and Vienna
5. a physician
6. West of Ireland
7. No
8. have not yet systematically overeaten themselves
9. are pretty fit
10. Martin & Wright
11. young Wright
12. Yes
13. Maitland
14. Come home at once
15. Yes
16. Margaret
17. She is going to be his wife
18. Yes
19. Yes
20. Romeo and Juliet

Numbered questions:
1. who was the letter from?
2. did Barton recognize the handwriting?
3. how did he know him?
4. where?
5. and what was he now?
6. where is Alfred going to?
7. are his patients fat?
8. what does he say they haven't done?
9. what does he say they are?
10. who has he asked to visit Barton?
11. who was at Oriel?
12. Was Barton happy that morning?
13. who had he sent a letter to?
14. what did he ask him to do immedietly?
15. had he found someone?
16. who?
17. what was his relationship with her?
18. did he have other news for Maitland?
19. was that going to be helpful for maitland?
20. who did Barton feel like?

Q: The Crimean War was a military conflict fought between October 1853 March 1856 in which Russia lost to an alliance of France, the United Kingdom, the Ottoman Empire, and Sardinia. The immediate cause involved the rights of Christian minorities in the Holy Land, which was controlled by the Ottoman Empire. The French promoted the rights of Catholics, while Russia promoted those of the Eastern Orthodox Christians. The longer-term causes involved the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the unwillingness of the United Kingdom and France to allow Russia to gain territory and power at Ottoman expense. It has widely been noted that the causes, in one case involving an argument over a key, have never revealed a "greater confusion of purpose", yet led to a war noted for its "notoriously incompetent international butchery."

While the churches eventually worked out their differences and came to an initial agreement, both Nicholas I of Russia and Napoleon III refused to back down. Nicholas issued an ultimatum that the Orthodox subjects of the Empire be placed under his protection. Britain attempted to mediate, and arranged a compromise that Nicholas agreed to. When the Ottomans demanded changes, Nicholas refused and prepared for war. Having obtained promises of support from France and Britain, the Ottomans officially declared war on Russia in October 1853.

1. yes
2. Nicholas I of Russia and Napoleon III
3. issued an ultimatum
4. Britain attempted to mediate
5. a compromise
6. Nicholas prepared for war
7. France and Britain
8. the Ottomans
9. Russia
10. October 1853
11. March 1856

Numbered questions:
1. Did the churches finally work out their differences?
2. What two people didn't?
3. What did Nicholas do?
4. What was Britain's response?
5. What did they propose?
6. What did Nicolas do in response to the Ottomans?
7. Who agreed to help the Ottomans?
8. who declared war?
9. on which country?
10. When did the crimean War begin?
11. till when?