Q: (CNN) -- There are plenty of reasons to fall in love with a staircase.

It's a home's conduit and connector. It ushers life along, makes a grand impression on visitors and serves as the backdrop for family memories.

"It's where my daughter took pictures for her first daddy-daughter dance," said Anisa Darnell, part of the Milk and Honey Home decorator team from Roswell, Georgia. Her home's staircase is also special to her because her grandfather posed with her daughter for a snapshot there before he passed away.

The back staircase in Emily A. Clark's home is significant because it's mostly used by her kids. "I've also caught them playing school on the little landing in the middle of the stairs."

Jacki Poovey and her husband designed their staircase to be a grand, welcoming part of their Cary, North Carolina home, but it's also at the heart of countless family memories. It still bears reminders of the time their puppy chewed every bit of molding from the edges of the newel post to the cap molding on the treads. "It's a lived-in home," says Poovey.

Massive undertakings, like DIY home renovations, can imbue a home's staircase with lasting impressions of the experience.

"If you paint three stories of spindles, you never forget it," Victoria Barnes said of the painstaking restoration she and her husband undertook in their 1890 Victorian home near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Barnes blogs about the "really, really, really slow" process of their work, which she calls wonderful and overwhelming.

Christine Price, from Manchester, England, can relate, having spent 250 hours stripping, sanding and painting the staircase in her Edwardian home. "The staircase is the first thing you see when you enter our home," she said. "Now that it's restored it makes such a huge difference to the whole feel of the house."

Answer the following questions:
1. What part of a house is this story mainly about?
2. According to the article, is the staircase important to the house's atmosphere?
3. What photos were taken by the stairs?
4. What team of decorators is mentioned?
5. where are they from?
6. Is Emily's staircase in the front of the house?
7. Who uses it?
8. What do they do there?
9. Is it easy to forget restoring a staircase?
10. Who owns a Victorian house?
11. When does it date from?
12. Where is it located?
13. Was her work on the house easy?
14. Was it enjoyable?
15. How long did Christine spend on her project?
16. Is her house always Victorian?
17. What style is it?
18. What work did Christine do?
19. Is Jacki's staircase pristine?
20. Why not?
A: 1. The staircase
2. Yes
3. pictures for a first daddy-daughter dance
4. the Milk and Honey Home decorator team
5. Roswell, Georgia
6. No
7. Her kids
8. Playing school
9. No
10. Victoria Barnes
11. 1890
12. near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
13. No
14. Yes
15. 250 hours
16. No
17. Edwardian
18. stripping, sanding and painting
19. No
20. It has marks from where her puppy chewed it
Q: Missouri is a state in the Midwestern United States. With over six million residents, it is the 18th most populous state. The largest urban areas are St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield, and Columbia. The capitol is in Jefferson City on the Missouri River. The state is the 21st most extensive in area. In the South are the Ozarks, a forested highland, providing timber, minerals, and recreation. The Mississippi River forms the eastern border of the state.

Humans have inhabited the land now known as Missouri for at least 12,000 years. The Mississippian culture built cities and mounds, before declining in the 1300s. When European explorers arrived in the 1600s they encountered the Osage and Missouria nations. The French established Louisiana, a part of New France, and founded Ste. Genevieve in 1735 and St. Louis in 1764. After a brief period of Spanish rule, the United States acquired the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Americans from the Upland South, including enslaved African Americans, rushed into the new Missouri Territory. Many from Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee settled in the Boonslick area of Mid-Missouri. Soon after, heavy German immigration formed the Missouri Rhineland.

Missouri played a central role in the westward expansion of the United States, as memorialized by the Gateway Arch. The Pony Express, Oregon Trail, Santa Fe Trail, and California Trail all began in Missouri. As a border state, Missouri's role in the American Civil War was complex and there were many conflicts within. After the war, both Greater St. Louis and the Kansas City metropolitan area became centers of industrialization and business. Today, the state is divided into 114 counties and the independent city of St. Louis.

Answer the following questions:
1. What did European explorers find in the 1600's?
2. Who founded Louisiana?
3. Did they claim other areas?
4. Which ones?
5. When was that?
6. What about St. Louis?
7. Who acquired the Louisiana Purchase?
8. When?
9. Who was it immediately populated by?
10. How many people live in Missouri now?
11. What is the capital?
12. Did it play a role in the Civil War?
13. How come?
14. Was it considered a border state?
15. Did it play a small or large roll in westward expansion?
16. What notable trails began in Missouri?
17. Where in the US is it located?
18. What rivers are in it?
19. Is there another?
20. How many counties are in it?
A:
1. Osage and Missouria nations.
2. The French
3. yes
4. Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis
5. Ste. Genevieve in 1735
6. 1764
7. United States
8. 1803
9. Americans from the Upland South
10. over six million
11. Jefferson City
12. yes
13. there were many conflicts within
14. yes
15. large
16. The Pony Express, Oregon Trail, Santa Fe Trail, and California Trail
17. Midwest
18. The Mississippi River
19. unknown
20. 114