Question: (CNN) -- Some thought it was a bomb. Others thought it was the commuter train that runs behind their buildings jumping the tracks.

It shook upper Manhattan for blocks -- and when it was over, a five-story apartment building and its neighbor were gone.

After Wednesday morning's deadly building explosion in East Harlem, squads of firefighters dug through piles of shattered bricks and beams. Ladder trucks sprayed water into the gap where the buildings once stood. As Detective Martin Speechly, a New York police spokesman, put it: "1644 Park Avenue appears not to be there anymore."

Along with that five-story apartment building, with a Latino evangelical church on the first floor, a neighboring piano store and the four floors above it collapsed in the blast.

One nearby resident, Angelica Avila, told CNN she was trapped in her apartment down the block for a short time afterward. Her stepmother had to sneak in through the back to try and open the door for her, she said.

"My neighbors came banging on my door. I guess they were evacuating the building, and I couldn't get out -- my door was jammed," she said. "Everything off my windowsill fell, and I guess the impact of the explosion jammed the door as well."

Something similar happened to Aisha Watts, who had just returned to her apartment in one of the adjoining buildings after taking her children to school. Then the windows broke out, and "the walls came tumbling down," Watts said.

A neighbor helped her out of her apartment, because the door was stuck in its frame. And she and her neighbors will have to find someplace else to stay temporarily. 1. What building was destroyed?
2. Located at what address?
3. What did it house on its first floor?
4. How many stories did it have all together?
5. Was its adjacent building also damaged?
6. What type of store was located there?
7. What time of day did the blast occur?
8. On what day of the week/
9. What neighborhood were the buildings located in?
10. Were nearby residents trapped inside of their homes?
11. Who spoke to CNN about her experience?
12. How far was she from the blast?
13. Why couldn't she evacuate?
14. Who ultimately freed her?
15. What had Aisha Watts done that morning before she returned home?
16. Was her door also jammed shut?
17. Who helped her exit?
18. Will she and other residents be relocated?
19. Did anyone die in the explosion? Provide a numbered list of answers.
****
A numbered of answers: 1. an apartment building
2. 1644 Park Avenue
3. a Latino evangelical church
4. five
5. yes
6. a piano store
7. morning
8. Wednesday
9. East Harlem
10. yes
11. Angelica Avila
12. down the block
13. her door was jammed
14. Her stepmother
15. took her children to school
16. yes
17. A neighbor
18. yes
19. yes

Question: Solar time is a calculation of the passage of time based on the position of the Sun in the sky. The fundamental unit of solar time is the day. Two types of solar time are apparent solar time (sundial time) and mean solar time (clock time).

A tall pole vertically fixed in the ground casts a shadow on any sunny day. At one moment during the day, the shadow will point exactly north or south (or disappear when and if the Sun moves directly overhead). That instant is local apparent noon, or 12:00 local apparent time. About 24 hours later the shadow will again point north/south, the Sun seeming to have covered a 360-degree arc around the Earth's axis. When the Sun has covered exactly 15 degrees (1/24 of a circle, both angles being measured in a plane perpendicular to the Earth's axis), local apparent time is 13:00 exactly; after 15 more degrees it will be 14:00 exactly.

The problem is that in September the Sun takes less time (as measured by an accurate clock) to make an apparent revolution than it does in December; 24 "hours" of solar time can be 21 seconds less or 29 seconds more than 24 hours of clock time. As explained in the equation of time article, this is due to the eccentricity of the Earth's orbit (i.e. the Earth's orbit is not perfectly circular, meaning that the Earth-Sun distance varies throughout the year), and the fact that the Earth's axis is not perpendicular to the plane of its orbit (the so-called obliquity of the ecliptic). 1. Solar time is based on what?
2. How many kinds of it are there?
3. Can you name one of them?
4. Please name one of them
5. What's another name for that one?
6. Please name the other kind of solar time?
7. Wjat's another name for that kind?
8. Does the sun take less time to get all the way around in September than in December?
9. How many seconds more than 24 hours clock time can solar time be?
10. How many less?
11. This is because of what?
12. Does that mean the Earth's orbit is a perfect circle?
13. What does it mean?
14. Is the Earh's axis perpendicular to the plane of its orbit?
15. Is there another name for that?
16. What is it?
17. The shadow of a pole in sun points in how many possible directions?
18. Does it ever dissappear?
19. When?
20. Does the author like sun dials? Provide a numbered list of answers.
****
A numbered of answers: 1. the position of the Sun in the sky
2. Two
3. yes
4. apparent solar time
5. sundial time
6. mean solar time
7. clock time
8. yes
9. up to 29 seconds
10. up to 21 seconds less
11. the eccentricity of the Earth's orbit
12. no
13. the distance between Earth and Sun varies throughout the year
14. no
15. yes
16. obliquity of the ecliptic
17. 360
18. yes
19. when the Sun is directly overhead
20. unknown

Question: Ben lived in the same house as I did, on the same floor, his door facing mine; we often saw each other, and I knew how he lived when he was at home. And at home it was the same story: dressing-gown, nightcap, closed windows, locked doors, and -'Oh, I hope nothing bad will happen!' Vegetarian food is not good for him, yet he could not eat meat, so he ate freshwater fish with butter--not a vegetarian dish, yet one could not say that it was meat. He did not keep a female servant for fear people might think evil of him, but had as cook an old man of sixty, called Alan, who had once been an officer's servant and could cook after a fashion. This Alan was usually standing at the door with his arms folded; with a deep sigh, he would _ always the same thing: "there are plenty of them about nowadays!" 1. Where did Ben live?
2. What did he wear while at home?
3. What did he eat?
4. Did he eat meat?
5. Did he prepare the fish himself?
6. Who did?
7. Male or female?
8. What was the mans name?
9. How old was Alan?
10. Did he work anywhere before cooking for Ben?
11. Doing what? Provide a numbered list of answers.
****
A numbered of answers:
1. in the same house as I did
2. a dressing-gown
3. freshwater fish
4. no
5. no
6. a cook
7. a man
8. Alan
9. sixty
10. yes
11. as an officer's servant