(Question)
Job offer many years ago. I had two, one for staff accountant and the other was as accounting manager for a holistic health clinic. The clinic job paid about 40% more and came with a "manager" title. I believed in myself and all that, but who offers someone just out of school with only 2 years of internship and no specialty in field manager level? That kept bugging me. Something just wasn't right. Acting on instinct, I took the other job. Good thing! A few months later, I read that the owner of the clinic (an MD) and his two partners (his wife and the CFO) had all been indicted for numerous counts of fraud. They were cheating the state, they were cheating the church they were affiliated with, they were cheating Medicare and private insurance companies. The IRS was after them it was supposed to be not-for-profit but it turns out they were living large. Not only that, but they hadn't been sending in w/h tax for non-church member paid employees. Then there was the allegation that they were abusing mentally handicapped workers who were related to church members. The church itself tried to distance themselves, but three elders were also on the clinic's Board of Directors. It was nasty and the entire management team ended up with at least some jail time. There was no way anyone who had any access to the records (medical or financial) could have claimed innocence. My job would have included filing false budget and financial statements with the Board, IRS and other agencies. I would have also probably known that they were withholding but not remitting tax from employee checks. Fact is, the poor kid who took the job got 2 years, so I found out. Those in on the medical fraud got even worse and the three principals all got 2-digit sentences. Question: Why did the health clinic close after a few months? Options: A. They were a not-for profit organization. B. not enough information C. They were affiliated with a church. D. They were at fault for multiple cases of fraud by the IRS. === The correct answer is
(Answer)
D

(Question)
I've been to Key West several times, but for some inexplicable reason 1, I never visited the Hemingway House (or the Truman Little White House 2 for that matter but that's a topic for a different post). As expected, it was about 1,000 degrees there (Celsius or Fahrenheit, you pick either way, that's way too hot). Welcome to Florida in July. 😀 We would have melted completely but fortunately, the house was air conditioned and they had some fans outside. I really wanted to see a few of the polydactyl cats 3 who live there and sure enough, there are plenty roaming around the place and by "roaming", I mean laying around sleeping as cats do. Cats normally have 4 toes on their back feet and 5 on the front but these polydactyl cats mostly have 5 on the back and 6 on the front, thanks to a genetic mutation. Their front paws are noticeably larger and look like they have mittens on. In addition to extra toes, they also have cat condos, complete with shutters on the windows for decorative purposes to match the main house and there are tiny cat houses scattered around the property for shelter and privacy. And if that's not enough, they have free reign over the main house too and clearly don't read the signs that say not to sit or lay on the furniture. These cats have a good deal. Hemingway bought this enormous home sitting on prime real estate for a whopping $8,000 back in the early 1930s in the middle of the Great Depression. At 16 feet above sea level, it sits on the second-highest point on the island and was the first house to have indoor plumbing and a swimming pool. Today, it serves as a historical site, tourist attraction, and most ironically, a wedding venue. It's a gorgeous piece of property but I'm not sure that getting married at the home of a serial philanderer who had 4 marriages and 3 divorces is exactly a good omen. Question: How does the author probably feel about the price Hemingway bought the house for? Options: A. It was a fair price B. It was far too expensive C. not enough information D. It was a great deal === The correct answer is
(Answer)
D

(Question)
When I was writing the manuscript for Florentine, I enlisted the help of an army of recipe testers about 80 people from all over the world to test every recipe thoroughly. Only one came back to me consistently with problems. From Minnesota to Melbourne, three testers wrote to me that their very first attempt at making Tuscan gnudi (ricotta and spinach balls that, rather than be encased in pasta like for ravioli, are simply dusted in flour) resulted in a pot of simmering water with "dissolved" gnudi. It reminded me of Pellegrino Artusi's potato gnocchi recipe in his famous cookbook from 1891, where he interrupts the recipe instructions to mention a signora who, upon attempting to stir the gnocchi cooking in the pot, finds they have disappeared O dove'erano andati? "Where did they go?" In the case of the gnocchi, there was too little flour used, according to Artusi. But in the case of the gnudi, I already had a hunch. I grilled all three testers on a number of various factors was the water just simmering, not on a rolling boil (which can destroy delicate gnudi), did they drain the spinach very well, and equally the ricotta (one said she even drained it overnight)? Did they use "proper" ricotta? Aha. "Proper" ricotta. The kind that was only made a day or so earlier, the leftovers of the cheese-making process, the real deal. The kind that you can see in a deli counter, standing on its own, that gets cut into a big wedge and weighed when you order it. Not the kind you buy at the supermarket, in a tub, that so often is grainy, more like the consistency of yogurt, has no structure, and is full of unnecessary gums or additives. All my recipe testers had used the second kind to be fair, some were new to the idea of buying ricotta and in their neighbourhood only had access to this. In that case, it would have probably been better to make your own, or choose another recipe. Question: Which state or country probably didn't have access to 'proper' ricotta? Options: A. Minnesota B. Melbourne C. Italy D. not enough information === The correct answer is
(Answer)
D