Q: Simply by analyzing a drop of blood, a doctor will be able to diagnose a birth defect or even cancer when it is in the early stage; using new technology, a material lighter but much stronger than steel can be produced.

These may sound like dreams at present. But the dreams may soon come true as research findings in laboratories are being turned into products more rapidly in the new century, according to experts participating in the fourth Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Technomart, a technology exhibition and trade fair in Suzhou.

"Most people think nano-technology is too far-fetched to be real. But in fact nano-technology has been applied in a wide range of fields, such as medicine. It is coming into our daily life," said Cheng Jiachong from a Hong Kong-based nano-technology firm.

Nano-technology based on the nanometer, the unit of which is a billionth of a meter, enables scientists to have new concepts of disease diagnosis and treatment on a molecular and atomic scale, Cheng said.

By using nanometer particles, a doctor can separate the fetus cells from the blood of a pregnant woman to see if the development of the fetus is normal. This method is also being used in the early diagnosis of cancer and heart disease, he said.

One of the most significant impacts of nano-technology is at the bio-inorganic materials interface, according to Greg Tegart, executive advisor of the APEC Center for Technology Foresight.

"By combining enzymes and silicon chips we can produce biosensors. These could be implanted in humans or animals to monitor health and to deliver corrective doses of drugs," he told the participants a technology forum during the exhibition.

"Nano-technology could affect the production of nearly every man-made object, from automobiles, tires and computer circuits , to advanced medicines and tissue replacement, and lead to the invention of objects yet to be imagined," said David Minns, a special advisor to the National Research Council of Canada.

It has been shown that carbon nano-tubes are ten times as strong as steel, with one sixth of the weight, and nano-scale systems have the potential to make supersonic transport cost- effective and to increase computer efficiency by millions of times, he said.

The experts agreed that the APEC technology exhibition and trade fair provided many chances for exchanges of innovative ideas and products.

1. Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
2. technology exhibition and trade fair
3. Suzhou
4. China
5. nano-technology firm
6. Hong Kong
7. unit which is a billionth of a meter
8. separate the fetus cells from the blood of a pregnant woman
9. to see if the development of the fetus is normal
10. early diagnosis of cancer and heart disease
11. executive advisor
12. APEC Center
13. By combining enzymes and silicon chips
14. implanted in humans or animals
15. to monitor health
16. deliver corrective doses of drugs
17. yes
18. special advisor
19. National Research Council of Canada
20. no

Numbered questions:
1. What is APEC?
2. What is that?
3. Where is it held?
4. what country?
5. Where does Jiachong work?
6. Where?
7. What is a nanometer?
8. What can doctors do with nanometer particles?
9. Why is this important?
10. What is this method being used for?
11. Who is Tegart?
12. For who?
13. How are biosensors created?
14. What can be done with them?
15. For what purpose?
16. Anothing else?
17. Does nano-technology have other uses?
18. Who is Minns?
19. To who?
20. Is steel stronger than carbon nano-tubes?

Q: CHAPTER VIII

IN WHICH MICHAEL FINSBURY ENJOYS A HOLIDAY

Punctually at eight o'clock next morning the lawyer rattled (according to previous appointment) on the studio door. He found the artist sadly altered for the worse--bleached, bloodshot, and chalky--a man upon wires, the tail of his haggard eye still wandering to the closet. Nor was the professor of drawing less inclined to wonder at his friend. Michael was usually attired in the height of fashion, with a certain mercantile brilliancy best described perhaps as stylish; nor could anything be said against him, as a rule, but that he looked a trifle too like a wedding guest to be quite a gentleman. To-day he had fallen altogether from these heights. He wore a flannel shirt of washed-out shepherd's tartan, and a suit of reddish tweeds, of the colour known to tailors as "heather mixture"; his neckcloth was black, and tied loosely in a sailor's knot; a rusty ulster partly concealed these advantages; and his feet were shod with rough walking boots. His hat was an old soft felt, which he removed with a flourish as he entered.

"Here I am, William Dent!" he cried, and drawing from his pocket two little wisps of reddish hair, he held them to his cheeks like side-whiskers and danced about the studio with the filmy graces of a ballet-girl.

Pitman laughed sadly. "I should never have known you," said he.

"Nor were you intended to," returned Michael, replacing his false whiskers in his pocket. "Now we must overhaul you and your wardrobe, and disguise you up to the nines."

1. the lawyer
2. at eight o'clock
3. the artist
4. sadly altered for the worse
5. bleached, bloodshot, and chalky
6. attired in the height of fashion
7. a flannel shirt
8. washed-out shepherd's tartan
9. reddish
10. tweed
11. walking boots
12. no
13. rough
14. an old soft felt one
15. no

Numbered questions:
1. who knocked on the door?
2. when?
3. who did he find?
4. in what state?
5. how so?
6. what was he usually like?
7. what was he wearing?
8. what pattern?
9. what color was his suit?
10. what fabric?
11. what shoes did he wear?
12. were they new?
13. how did they look?
14. what kind of hat?
15. Did he leave it on?

Q: (CNN) -- Newman, Jerry Seinfeld's diabolical nemesis and United States postal worker, was denied his dream transfer to Hawaii when the Post Office discovered he hadn't been delivering a lot of the mail he was supposed to be.

Unfortunately for Brent Morse, life isn't a Hollywood sitcom.

The former Kentucky postal worker was sentenced to six months in federal prison for "destroying, hiding and delaying the delivery of at least 44,900 pieces of mail," according to David J. Hale, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Kentucky.

Morse, a mail carrier for five years, stored the nearly 45,000 pieces of undelivered mail at his deceased mother's home and, just like Newman, at rented storage facilities near his home and mail route in western Kentucky.

The majority of the mail was meant for around 250 homes in the community of Dawson Springs, and it was meant to be delivered between March 2011 and March 2013, Hale said.

Adel Valdes, a U.S. Postal Inspector in Louisville, said Morse's motive was: "He wanted to pick up his kids from school every day at a certain time."

Valdes said the owner of one of the storage centers noticed a large amount of mail and USPS equipment when Morse failed to properly shut his unit's door, so he called authorities.

Morse, 34, was not charged with stealing the contents of the undelivered mail, according to Hale, but he was ordered to pay nearly $15,000 in restitution for losses incurred by two businesses that mail commercial circulars.

1. Newman
2. yes
3. Hawaii
4. he wasn't delivering the mail
5. no
6. sitcom character
7. Seinfeld
8. Brent Morse
9. yes
10. delayed, destroyed, and hid mail
11. at least 44,900 pieces
12. yes
13. his mother's home and storage facilities
14. Dawson Springs
15. between March 2011 and March 2013
16. five years
17. He needed to pick up his kids
18. school
19. yes
20. nearly $15,000

Numbered questions:
1. Who hopes to move to a tropical location?
2. Does he have a job there waiting?
3. Where is he hoping to go?
4. What did his employer find out?
5. Is he a real person?
6. What is he?
7. On what show?
8. Who is a real employee of the USPS?
9. Did he do anything similar to the sitcom character?
10. What did he do?
11. How much of it?
12. Did he hide any?
13. Where?
14. People in which town were expecting the stolen mail?
15. When should it have arrived?
16. How long had he been delivering the mail?
17. Why did he do what he did?
18. From where?
19. Did he get fined for what he did?
20. How much?