Answer the questions at the end based on the text.

A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify or switch electronic signals and electrical power. It is composed of semiconductor material with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit. A voltage or current applied to one pair of the transistor's terminals changes the current through another pair of terminals. Because the controlled (output) power can be higher than the controlling (input) power, a transistor can amplify a signal. Today, some transistors are packaged individually, but many more are found embedded in integrated circuits.

The transistor is the fundamental building block of modern electronic devices, and is ubiquitous in modern electronic systems. First conceived by Julius Lilienfeld in 1926 and practically implemented in 1947 by American physicists John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley, the transistor revolutionized the field of electronics, and paved the way for smaller and cheaper radios, calculators, and computers, among other things. The transistor is on the list of IEEE milestones in electronics, and Bardeen, Brattain, and Shockley shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics for their achievement.

1. What is one use of a transistor?
2. What is a transistor in relation to modern electronics?
3. In what year was it conceived?
4. By whom?
5. How many years later was it implemented?
6. How many scientist were involved in implementation?
7. What field did the invention revolutionize?
8. And what two types of radios were developed after its implementation?
9. What one other item was smaller and cheaper afterwards?
10. And another?
11. What milestone List is this breakthrough in?
12. How many shared a Peace Prize?

Numbered answers:

A: 1. integrated circuits
2. the fundamental building block
3. 1926
4. Julius Lilienfeld
5. 1926 and practically implemented in 1947
6. John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley 3
7. electronics
8. cheaper
9. calculators
10. computers
11. transistor
12. Bardeen, Brattain, and Shockley

Answer the questions at the end based on the text.

Ever thought of moving to a new country? How about starting a new country? Patri Friedman is planning to do just that. He left Google years ago to set up the Seasteading Institute. And his dream is to build seasteads-----floating micro-nations in the middle of the ocean. So, what will life on a seastead be like? Probably a bit like life on a cruise liner , but much larger, with shops, gyms, swimming pools, schools and other areas. In fact, the early seasteads may actually be specially-rebuilt cruise liners. But as science advances, Friedman believes they'll become more like floating cities, with several hundred people. Seasteading raises a lot of questions. First of all, how will the new countries make money? The Seasteading Institute has suggested several money-making ideas, including ocean-based theme parks, casinos and fish farming. There's also the questions of safety. With storms, typhoons and pirates , the high seas are a dangerous place. However, the Institute says that it can stand bad weather and prevent crimes with its well-designed systems. So, is this just a day dream? Well, maybe not. One of the people behind the project is Peter Thiel. He founded PayPal and was one of the first investors in Facebook. So far, he's donated $ 500,000 to the project. And Friedman isn't wasting any time. He recently announced the creation of the Poseidon Award. This will be given to the first seastead with fifty people. Friedman is hoping to hand out the award in 2015.

1. Where did Patri used to work?
2. Why?
3. What is his dream?
4. what is that?
5. where will they be?
6. What are some suggestions for them to make money
7. Who is backing this project?
8. What is he known for?
9. Did he make any investments?
10. In what?
11. What else?
12. how much?
13. How many people will live on a seastead
14. What kind of things will they have?
15. who suggested the ways for them to make money?
16. What would be threat to them?
17. Who created the Poseidon Award?
18. What is it for?

Numbered answers:

A: 1. Google
2. to start the Seasteading Institute
3. to build seasteads
4. floating micro-nations
5. in the middle of the ocean.
6. ocean-based theme parks, casinos and fish farming.
7. Peter Thiel
8. Paypal
9. yes
10. Facebook
11. The Seasteading Institute
12. $ 500,000
13. several hundred people.
14. schools, shops, gyms. and swimming pools
15. The Seasteading Institute
16. storms, typhoons and pirates
17. Peter Thiel
18. the first seastead with fifty people

Answer the questions at the end based on the text.

Steve Flaig of Grand Rapids, Michigan, knew he'd been adopted as a baby, and when he turned 18, in 2003, he decided he'd try to track down his birth mother. The agency from which he'd been adopted gave him his mother's name: Christine Tallady. But online searches didn't turn up any results, and Flaig let it go.

In 2007, though, he searched for the name again online. This time, the search results included a home address near the Lowe's store where Flaig, then 22, worked as a deliveryman.When he mentioned the coincidence to his boss, his boss said, " You mean Chris Tallady, who works here?"

Flaig and Tallady, 45, a cashier, had said hi to each other a few times at thestore, but they'd never really talked. He hadn't even known her name. Flaig thought, " There's no possible way she's my mother."

For a few months, Flaig avoided Tallady. " I wasn't sure how to approach her," he told a local reporter. Finally, an adoption agency employee volunteered to call Tallady for him.

When Tallady realized that the nice guy she'd been waving at was her son, she _ . " I wasn't ready to be a mother at that time." She'd given him up for adoption in 1985, when she was 23. However, she'd always hoped to meet her birth son one day. Later that day, mother and son talked for almost three hours at a nearbybar.

Married with two other children, Tallady said, "I have a complete family now."

1. How long did Flaig avoid Tallady?
2. Was he sure how to approach her?
3. Whom did he tell that?
4. Who finally made the call to Tallady?
5. What Steve given up for adoption?
6. What year?
7. How old was his mother?
8. Did she hope to meet her son someday?
9. Did they talk that day?
10. For how long?
11. Where?
12. Where did Steve live?
13. Did he know he was adopted?
14. How old was he when he decided to track down his mother?
15. What year was that?
16. Did he know his mothers name?
17. What was it?
18. Did an online search in 2007 reveal an address?
19. What was it near?
20. What did Steve do there?

Numbered answers:

A:
1. For a few months.
2. No.
3. A local reporter.
4. Adoption agency employee.
5. Yes.
6. 1985.
7. 23.
8. Yes.
9. Yes.
10. Almost three hours.
11. A nearby bar.
12. Grand Rapids, Michigan.
13. Yes.
14. 18.
15. 2003
16. Yes.
17. Christine Tallady.
18. Yes.
19. Lowe's store.
20. Deliveryman.