Problem: When Paul was a boy growing up in Utah, he happened to live near a copper smelter , and the chemicals that poured out had made a wasteland out of what used to be a beautiful forest. One day a young visitor looked at this wasteland and called it an awful area. Paul knocked him down. From then on, something happened inside him.

Years later Paul was back in the area, and he went to the smelter office. He asked if they had any plans or if they would let him try to bring the trees back. The answer from that big industry was "No".

Paul then went to college to study the science of plants. Unfortunately, his teachers said there weren't any birds or squirrels to spread the seeds. It would be a waste of his life to try to do it. Everyone knew that, he was told. Even if he was knowledgeable as he had expected, he wouldn't get his idea accepted.

Paul later got married but his dream would not die. And then one night he did what he could with what he had. As Samuel Johnson wrote, "It is common to overlook what is near by keeping the eye fixed on something remote. Attainable good is often ignored by minds busied in wide ranges." Under the cover of darkness, he went secretly into the wasteland and started planting.

And every week, he made his secret journey into the wasteland and planted trees and grass. For fifteen years he did this against _ . Slowly rabbits appeared. Later, as there was legal pressure to clean up the environment, the company actually hired Paul to do what he was already doing.

Now the place is fourteen thousand acres of trees and grass and bushes, and Paul has received almost every environmental award Utah has. It took him until his hair turned white, but he managed to keep that impossible vow he made to himself as a child.
1. Who went to college?
2. Where did he grow up?
3. Was he a single man?
4. Where was his childhood residence by?
5. Was it good for the surroundings?
6. What was his dream?
7. Was he encouraged to do so?
8. What did he major in at school?
9. What did the smelter destroy?
10. What did he sneak around and do under the cover of darkness?
11. How many acres was it?
12. Did animal life start to appear?
13. Was he acknowledged for his tasks?
14. Was he a young man when he achieved it?
15. In his younger years was he ever violent?
16. What did he do?
17. why?
18. Who wrote the quote that encouraged him?
19. Did he gain employment for the cause he was trying to achieve?
20. Was the legal system every involved?
Answer: 1. Paul
2. Utah
3. Yes, in college
4. a copper smelter
5. no
6. to try to bring the trees back
7. No
8. the science of plants.
9. a beautiful forest
10. started planting
11. fourteen thousand
12. yes
13. yes
14. no
15. yes
16. he knocked someone down
17. he called the wasteland an awful area
18. Samuel Johnson
19. yes
20. yes

Problem: (CNN) -- Here's what I want for Father's Day: I want my children to develop a passion for science. I've decided to grease the wheels. I've called the best for advice.

His name is Brian Greene, professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University. He's getting kids engaged at his World Science Festival. He has even written a children's book based on relativity, "Icarus at the Edge of Time."

Icarus was the boy in the ancient Greek myth whose father crafted him wings of wax. The father warned Icarus not to fly too close to the sun. Icarus ignored him. His wax wings melted, and he died.

Greene's reincarnation of Icarus was born on a space ship -- part of a community of explorers on a 25-trillion mile search for life on another planet. He is 14, which gets my attention, because it's about the same age as my oldest daughter.

The length of the spaceship's journey means Icarus must live his whole life within the confines of that ship. "But," writes Brian Greene, the boy "had a palpable yearning for something beyond the life he'd been handed." One day the ship's captain, Icarus' father, announces: "We are making an emergency course diversion to avoid an uncharted black hole."

Icarus has built his own small spacecraft. He has done the calculations. He ignores his father's warning. He sets out to approach the black hole, to get within "a hairsbreadth above the point of no return."

He miscalculates ever so slightly and is thrust 10,000 years into the future. He is found by a new generation and is briefed on the long history he just missed, including the fact that the universe was now, as a result of the mission his father commanded, in an era of interstellar cooperation and lasting peace.
1. who is the article about?
2. what is his profession
3. where does he teach?
4. what does he want for fathers day
5. what is his festival called?
6. Has he written anything?
7. what?
8. what is it called?
9. who is Icarus?
10. how old is he in the story?
11. where is he living?
12. who is driving the ship?
13. what does his father announce?
14. Does he listen to his father?
15. what does he use?
16. did he build it?
17. does his plan work?
18. what happens?
19. how far does he travel ahead?
20. is he found?
Answer: 1. Brian Greene,
2. physics and mathematics
3. Columbia University
4. his children to develop a passion for science.
5. World Science Festival.
6. yes
7. a children's book
8. Icarus at the Edge of Time."
9. a boy
10. 14
11. a space ship
12. Icarus
13. We are making an emergency course diversion to avoid an uncharted black hole
14. no
15. his own small spacecraft.
16. yes
17. no
18. He miscalculates
19. 10,000 years into the future
20. yes

Problem: John was stuck in the middle of the ocean after his boat crashed and sank. He was worried about his friend who'd been in the boat with him. He knew that his friend has his life jacket on, so he tried not to worry too much about him. John was in a small box that fell out of the boat and kept him out of the water, floating. John had never been to sea before and one would wonder if he would ever after such a scary thing that happened to him. He sat in the box for days with no food or water, in and out of sleep. Three days later he woke up and saw land. Finally a beach was in sight, John could go home.
1. Where was Joe?
2. Why?
3. Was he alone?
4. Who was he with?
5. What did his friend have?
6. Where was JOhn?
7. Where did it come from?
8. Did it help him?
9. how?
10. Was he ever there before?
11. HOw long was he there?
12. What did he not have?
13. Did he sleep?
14. What did he see?
15. when?
16. What was in sight?
17. What could he do?
18. Did he worry about his friend?
Answer:
1. in the middle of the ocean
2. his boat crashed and sank
3. no
4. his friend
5. life jacket
6. in a small box
7. the boat
8. yes
9. by floating
10. no
11. days
12. food or water
13. In and out
14. land
15. Three days
16. a beach
17. go home
18. tried not to