Question:
Read the text and answer the questions.
Cuba (), officially the Republic of Cuba (), is a country comprising the island of Cuba as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located in the northern Caribbean where the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Atlantic Ocean meet. It is south of both the U.S. state of Florida and the Bahamas, west of Haiti, and north of Jamaica. Havana is the largest city and capital; other major cities include Santiago de Cuba and Camaguey. Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean, with an area of , and the second-most populous after Hispaniola, with over 11 million inhabitants.

Prior to Spanish colonization in the late 15th century, Cuba was inhabited by Amerindian tribes. It remained a colony of Spain until the SpanishAmerican War of 1898, which led to nominal independence as a "de facto" United States protectorate in 1902. As a fragile republic, Cuba attempted to strengthen its democratic system, but mounting political radicalization and social strife culminated in the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1952. Further unrest and instability led to Batista's ousting in January 1959 by the July 26 Movement, which afterwards established a dictatorship under the leadership of Fidel Castro. Since 1965, the state has been governed by the Communist Party of Cuba. A point of contention during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, a nuclear war nearly broke out during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Cuba is one of the few remaining MarxistLeninist socialist states, where the role of the vanguard Communist Party is enshrined in the Constitution. Independent observers have accused the Cuban government of numerous human rights abuses, including arbitrary imprisonment.
1. What's the main topic?

Numbered answers:
1. Cuba

Question:
Read the text and answer the questions.
Steubenville, Ohio (CNN) -- One of the teens who recorded himself mocking the girl at the center of an Ohio rape case "did a really dumb thing and regrets it" but did not commit any crime, his lawyer said Monday.

The attorney, Dennis McNamara, said there was "no excuse or justification" for the jokes Michael Nodianos made, "and with some sober reflection, he is ashamed and embarrassed to hear them himself."

"He sincerely regrets his behavior and his comments and the effect that it's had on the parties involved, including his own family," McNamara told reporters in Steubenville, the small Ohio town that has become the focus of national attention because of the case. "He was not raised to act in this manner."

Two 16-year-old members of the town's powerhouse high school football team are charged with sexually assaulting a girl after a series of parties in August. They are set for trial in a juvenile court in February.

McNamara said Nodianos, 18, has been interviewed by detectives "at some length" and is not the subject of an investigation.

"Michael is a really good kid from a really good family who did a really dumb thing and regrets it," he said. "Beyond that, he has no involvement in the criminal case or in any of the underlying activity that led to the filing of the criminal charges."

Defense battles social media blizzard in Ohio rape case

The case gained national attention after The New York Times published a lengthy piece on it in December. The activist hacker group Anonymous and other critics have accused community leaders of trying to paper over rampant misconduct by football players and suggested that other students took part in the assaults or failed to do enough stop them. Anonymous helped organize a weekend protest in Steubenville that drew a crowd of hundreds to the town, a community of about 18,000 on the Ohio River across the river from West Virginia.
1. Who feels badly over something he did?
2. Who said so?
3. Who did he tell.
4. Is it a large place?

Numbered answers:
1. McNamara
2. Steubenville,
3. told reporters in Steubenville
4. no

Question:
Read the text and answer the questions.
CHAPTER XXVII

THE ADVENTURESS

Before the wheat had suffered serious damage, a few thunder showers broke upon the plain, and Harding and his neighbors took courage. The crop was not out of danger; indeed, a week's dry weather would undo the good the scanty rain had done; but ruin, which had seemed imminent, was, at least, delayed. Then Harding got news from his agent that necessitated his return to Winnipeg, and Mrs. Mowbray and Beatrice, who wished to visit the millinery stores, arranged to accompany him.

It was hot and dry when they reached the city, but Harding was of sanguine temperament and, being relieved from fear of immediate disaster, proceeded with his plans for the consolidation of Allenwood. He could not carry them far, because even if he secured an abundant harvest, which was at present doubtful, he would have some difficulty in raising capital enough to outbid his rival. Acting cautiously with Jackson's help, however, he found two men who had lent Davies money and were now frankly alarmed by the general fall in values. One, indeed, was willing to transfer his interest to Harding on certain terms which the latter could not accept.

He was thinking over these matters one morning when, to his surprise, he saw Brand crossing the street toward him. They had not met since the evening of their encounter with Davies at the Grange, and Harding was sensible of some constraint. Brand was a reserved man whom he had neither understood nor liked, but he had thought him honorable until he learned the price he had demanded for helping Mowbray.
1. Who was across the road?
2. Was he going away?
3. Then which way?
4. What time of day was it?
5. When did they last meet?
6. Was he out-going?
7. When did he become dishonorable?
8. When they arrived town how was the weather?
9. Who came to assistance?
10. Did anybody lend money?
11. Who?
12. Had the value risen?
13. Would anyone trade their share?
14. Was the trade accepted?
15. What sustained considerable ruin?
16. Why?
17. Where?
18. Who gave Harding info?
19. Where was he forced to go?
20. Who went with him?
Numbered answers:
1. Brand
2. No
3. toward him
4. morning
5. the evening of their encounter with Davies
6. No
7. he learned the price for helping Mowbray.
8. hot and dry
9. Jackson
10. Yes
11. two men
12. No
13. Yes
14. No
15. wheat
16. thunder showers
17. the plain
18. his agent
19. return to Winnipeg
20. Mrs. Mowbray and Beatrice