Problem: (CNN) -- Noah Baumbach is emerging as an emotionally acute, not to say eviscerating, observer of the middle-class intelligentsia, the kind of people who write letters to "The New York Times" and might plausibly pop up in a Woody Allen movie.

Unlike the Woodman, Baumbach doesn't show his face on screen, but his films are no less personal for that: "The Squid and the Whale" was a sometimes wincingly autobiographical account of two boys torn between their divorcing parents, and he's not one to deflect an insight with a wisecrack. The cracks just cut deeper. I've rarely experienced an audience recoil from a character as passionately as they did to Nicole Kidman's toxically self-absorbed writer in "Margot at the Wedding" (maybe her best performance, incidentally). These are comedies in the sense that the characters are painfully ridiculous -- and all too recognizably real -- but Baumbach sure doesn't make it easy for himself, or us.

Roger Greenberg (Ben Stiller) is another neurotic narcissist, a middle-aged loner who comes back to Los Angeles to house-sit while his brother enjoys a long vacation in the Far East. Greenberg (only his brother calls him Roger) can feed the family dog, but the truth is that he desperately needs to regroup and recharge after a spell in a mental hospital.

He has one friend, Ivan (Rhys Ifans), who still has time for him and a wider circle of former friends who don't. We soon learn that Greenberg used to front a band, but it fell apart after he turned down a recording deal, and he's been in New York ever since, under-achieving on a permanent basis.
1. Who is an observer of middle class intelligentsia?
2. Does he appear on screen?
3. What was the film about two boys?
4. Was it about their loving parents?
5. Who was in Margot at the Wedding?
6. Are these movies thrillers?
7. Who played Roger Greenberg?
8. What city does the character come back to?
9. To do what?
10. For whom?
11. Where was his brother going/
12. What does Greenburg do for the dog?
Answer: 1. Noah Baumbach
2. No
3. "The Squid and the Whale"
4. No
5. Nicole Kidman
6. No
7. Ben Stiller
8. Los Angeles
9. House-sit
10. His brother
11. Far East
12. Feed the family dog

Problem: CHAPTER XVI Old Man Coyote is Very Crafty.

Coyote has a crafty brain; His wits are sharp his ends to gain.

There is nothing in the world more true than that. Old Man Coyote has the craftiest brain of all the little people of the Green Forest or the Green Meadows. Sharp as are the wits of old Granny Fox, they are not quite so sharp as the wits of Old Man Coyote. If you want to fool him, you will have to get up very early in the morning, and then it is more than likely that you will be the one fooled, not he. There is very little going on around him that he doesn't know about. But once in a while something escapes him. The coming of Paddy the Beaver to the Green Forest was one of these things. He didn't know a thing about Paddy until Paddy had finished his dam and his house, and was cutting his supply of food for the winter.

You see, it was this way: When the Merry Little Breezes of Old Mother West Wind first heard what was going on in the Green Forest and hurried around over the Green Meadows and through the Green Forest to spread the news, as is their way, they took the greatest pains not to even hint it to Old Man Coyote because they were afraid that he would make trouble and perhaps drive Paddy away. The place that Paddy had chosen to build his dam was so deep in the Green Forest that Old Man Coyote seldom went that way. So it was that he knew nothing about Paddy, and Paddy knew nothing about him for some time.
1. What is the name of this chapter?
2. what kind of brain does he have
3. how are his wits?
4. is there anything more true?
Answer: 1. Old Man Coyote is Very Crafty
2. a crafty brain
3. sharp
4. His wits are sharp his ends to gain

Problem: Believe it or not but it is true. There are people who lose the ability to understand or use words due to brain damage. But they become extremely good at something else. They become experts at spotting liars. The condition in which people lose their power to understand or use words due to brain damage are called aphasia . A study conducted in Massachusetts, U.S., has clearly proved that aphasics make good lie detectors .

In the last 100 years, many doctors studying the brain have mentioned examples of this amazing power of patients suffering from aphasia. Recently, scientists conducted tests to see if all that was said about aphasics was true. They studied the powers of a mixed group of people. Some were normal; others were aphasic. And it was proved clearly that the normal volunteers still got fooled by words. The aphasics were far ahead of them in recognizing false speech. The results of the study were reported in the magazine Nature.

'Fourteen years ago, famous American doctor, Dr. Oliver Sacks, wrote about his experiences with aphasic patients in a book. He remembered a particular incident in a hospital. Patients from the aphasia room were watching TV. Their president, Ronald Reagan, was giving a speech. He was trying to put feelings into each and every word of his speech. But his speech had an opposite effect on the patients. They were not impressed. On the contrary, the whole room shook with their laughter. The aphasics knew that he did not mean a word of what he was saying.

Dr. Sacks saw aphasics as more gifted than normal people. Normal people "get carried away" by words. An aphasic cannot understand words. But he or she can still understand what is being said. He said most of the aphasics had this superior understanding. So, while normal people think of aphasic patients as brain damaged, they actually seem to understand human expressions better.
1. where was the study conducted?
2. what is the condition called?
3. what does it do?
4. why?
5. how long have doctors studied it?
6. who wrote about them?
7. when?
8. did the study involve all aphasics?
9. then who?
10. are aphasics considered normal?
11. what are they considered?
12. what do they understand?
13. how do normal humans look at them?
14. who did the aphasics laugh at?
15. what was he doing?
16. why did they laugh?
17. how?
18. what do the patients lose?
19. what do they gain?
20. which magazine was the study featured?
Answer:
1. Massachusetts, U.S.,
2. aphasia
3. people lose their power to understand or use words
4. brain damage
5. 100 years
6. Dr. Oliver Sacks
7. 14 years ago
8. No
9. Some were normal; others were aphasic.
10. no
11. as more gifted
12. human expressions
13. as brain damaged
14. Ronald Reagan,
15. giving a speech
16. They knew that he did not mean a word of what he was saying.
17. his speech had an opposite effect on them
18. the ability to understand or use words due
19. recognizing false speech
20. Nature