Q: The United States Postal Service (USPS; also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service) is an independent agency of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the United States. It is one of the few government agencies explicitly authorized by the United States Constitution.

The U.S. Mail traces its roots to 1775 during the Second Continental Congress, when Benjamin Franklin was appointed the first postmaster general. The Post Office Department was created in 1792 from Franklin's operation, elevated to a cabinet-level department in 1872, and transformed in 1971 into the U.S. Postal Service as an agency of the U.S. government.

The USPS as of February 2015 has 617,254 active employees and operated 211,264 vehicles in 2014. The USPS is the operator of the largest civilian vehicle fleet in the world. The USPS is legally obligated to serve all Americans, regardless of geography, at uniform price and quality. The USPS still has exclusive access to letter boxes marked "U.S. Mail" and personal letterboxes in the United States, but now has to compete against private package delivery services, such as United Parcel Service and FedEx.

Since the early 1980s, many of the direct tax subsidies to the Post Office (with the exception of subsidies for costs associated with the disabled and overseas voters) have been reduced or eliminated in favor of indirect subsidies, in addition to the advantages associated with a government-enforced monopoly on the delivery of first-class mail. Since the 2006 all-time peak mail volume, after which Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (which mandated $5.5 billion per year to be paid into an account to fully prefund employee retirement health benefits, a requirement exceeding that of other government and private organizations), revenue dropped sharply due to recession-influenced declining mail volume, prompting the postal service to look to other sources of revenue while cutting costs to reduce its budget deficit. The USPS lost $5.5 billion in fiscal year 2014 and $5.1 billion in 2015, and its revenue was $67.8 billion in 2014 and $68.9 billion in 2015.

Answer the following questions:
1. Does the USPS have any competition?
2. Who?
3. Does the USPS change prices based on location?
4. What allows the USPS to exist?
5. Does it offer retirement benefits?
6. Do they make a profit?
7. How can they afford to offer their employees these benefits?
8. What caused customers' uses of their services to drop?
9. When was shipping at its busiest?
10. What physical thing do they have exclusive access to?
11. What service do they have exclusive access to?
12. Who was the first head of the organization?
13. Did they use his work for future iterations?
A: 1. Yes
2. United Parcel Service
3. No
4. United States Constitution.
5. Yes
6. No
7. Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act
8. recession-influenced declining mail volume
9. 2006
10. letter boxes marked "U.S. Mail"
11. first-class mail
12. Benjamin Franklin
13. Yes

Answer the questions at the end based on the text.

European Union law is a body of treaties and legislation, such as Regulations and Directives, which have direct effect or indirect effect on the laws of European Union member states. The three sources of European Union law are primary law, secondary law and supplementary law. The main sources of primary law are the Treaties establishing the European Union. Secondary sources include regulations and directives which are based on the Treaties. The legislature of the European Union is principally composed of the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, which under the Treaties may establish secondary law to pursue the objective set out in the Treaties.

European Union law is applied by the courts of member states and the Court of Justice of the European Union. Where the laws of member states provide for lesser rights European Union law can be enforced by the courts of member states. In case of European Union law which should have been transposed into the laws of member states, such as Directives, the European Commission can take proceedings against the member state under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. The European Court of Justice is the highest court able to interpret European Union law. Supplementary sources of European Union law include case law by the Court of Justice, international law and general principles of European Union law.

1. Is the European Union law a body?
2. of what?
3. How many sources of EU law are there?
4. What is one?
5. Any others?
6. What is another one?
7. What is primary law?
8. What are secondary sources?
9. Does the EU have a legislature?
10. How many bodies make up the legislature?
11. What are these?
12. Do they establish secondary law?
13. Is the law applied by courts?
14. What are Directives?
15. Is there a highest court?
16. What do they do?
17. What is an example of a supplementary source of EU law?
18. Any others?
19. What is one?
20. What is another?

Numbered answers:

A: 1. yes
2. of treaties and legislation
3. Three
4. primary law
5. yes
6. secondary law
7. the Treaties establishing the European Union.
8. regulations and directives
9. yes
10. Two
11. the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union,
12. yes
13. yes
14. law which should have been transposed into the laws of member states,
15. he European Court of Justice
16. interprets European Union law
17. case law by the Court of Justice,
18. yes
19. international law
20. general principles of European Union law.

Answer the questions at the end based on the text.

That median is the value separating the higher half of a data sample, a population, or a probability distribution, from the lower half. For a data set, it may be thought of as the "middle" value. For example, in the data set {1, 3, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9}, the median is 6, the fourth largest, and also the fourth smallest, number in the sample. For a continuous probability distribution, the median is the value such that a number is equally likely to fall above or below it.

The median is a commonly used measure of the properties of a data set in statistics and probability theory. The basic advantage of the median in describing data compared to the mean (often simply described as the "average") is that it is not skewed so much by extremely large or small values, and so it may give a better idea of a "typical" value. For example, in understanding statistics like household income or assets which vary greatly, a mean may be skewed by a small number of extremely high or low values. Median income, for example, may be a better way to suggest what a "typical" income is.

Because of this, the median is of central importance in robust statistics, as it is the most resistant statistic, having a breakdown point of 50%: so long as no more than half the data are contaminated, the median will not give an arbitrarily large or small result.

1. What is of great importance in robust statistics?
2. The median is a measure of what?
3. A data set within what?
4. What is the advantage of the median?
5. Skewed so much as what?
6. What other helpful measure does it give?
7. What can skew a mean?
8. In robust statistics, is the median is the most resistant statistic?
9. For a continuous probability distribution, how do you explain a median?
10. For a data set, how could you describe the median?
11. In robust statistics, the median has a breakdown point of what?
12. And can't have more than half the data, what?
13. Then what will happen?

Numbered answers:

A:
1. The median.
2. The properties of a data set.
3. Statistics and probability theory.
4. It is not skewed so much.
5. Extremely large or small values.
6. It may give a better idea of a "typical" value.
7. By a small number of extremely high or low values.
8. Yes.
9. The value such that a number is equally likely to fall above or below it.
10. The "middle" value.
11. 50%:
12. Contaminated.
13. The median will not give an arbitrarily large or small result.