Q: When I was a little girl I lived in a place with no winter. It was always warm there. It never got cold. It never snowed. Sometimes it rained. Sometimes there was wind. But there was no snow on the trees or on the ground. There was no snow falling on our heads. There was no snow to make a snowman.

My teacher's name was Mrs. Scott. One day in December, Mrs. Scott told us that we were going to make a snowman. We were excited! We wanted to see a snowman. We knew how a snowman looked. We knew a snowman was made of three snowballs. A snowman had to have a carrot nose and black eyes and buttons. A snowman had a hat and a scarf. We knew all these things.

Mrs. Scott asked us to bring everything we needed to our classroom to make a snowman. Jimmy said, "I can bring the hat and the scarf." Anita said, "I can bring a carrot for the nose." Selma said, "I can cut out some black circles for the eyes and the buttons." Ricky asked, "But who can bring the snow?"

Mrs. Scott said, "I know what to do."

The next day all the children brought the things for the snowman. We did not know where Mrs. Scott would get the snow. Then she showed us. Our snowman is made of three bushes! Three bushes painted white! We put all the things on the bushes and it looked like a real snowman.

1. a snowman
2. Mrs. Scott
3. December
4. snowballs
5. the students
6. Jimmy
7. Anita
8. there was no winter
9. warm
10. Sometimes
11. rain

Numbered questions:
1. What did the teacher say the class would build?
2. what was her name?
3. and in what month was this?
4. what was the snowman made out of?
5. Who was bringing the accessories for it?
6. Who brought items for the head?
7. And what about for the face?
8. Why was there no white powder to use?
9. what was the temperature like?
10. was there any sort of precipitation?
11. what kind?

Q: Limit the use of private cars, improve public transport and encourage the use of bicycles to control traffic congestion during the 2008 Olympics, experts from foreign countries advised Beijing on Friday. Professor Nigel Wilson, of the civil and environmental engineering department of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said he was "supportive to the limiting of private cars during the Olympic Games", saying that in foreign countries, the method is also adopted during big events, but he was unsure about the approach. The government planned to keep an average of more than one million cars off the roads to improve traffic flow during the Olympics, said Liu Xiaoming, deputy director of the Beijing Traffic Committee, at the China Planning Network First Urban Transportation Congress. Sharing Wilson's view, Dr. Yoshitsugu Hayashi, dean of the Graduate School of Environmental Studies of Nagoya University, believed the reduction in car use should be achieved not by banning, but through _ . "Drivers who don't use their private cars could be given points," he said, "and the points could be exchanged for goods from online shopping." Wetzel stressed limiting the use of company cars. "Governmental officials should also be encouraged to use public transportation or ride bicycles," he said, adding that he himself is a bicycle-rider in London. Matthew Martimo, director of Traffic Engineering with Citilabs, said the bicycle was China's advantage. "Limiting private cars is an idea worth trying but it is just a temporary solution," he said. "The real cause of congestion is high density of people in Beijing and many have cars." Beijing, with a population of 15 million, is home to more than three million automobiles, and the number is rising by 1,000 a day. Professor Wilson said the Olympic Games was a great opportunity for Beijing to think about traffic problems and develop transportation, adding that the city had already been making public transport more efficient. Beijing has promised to stretch its 114-kilometer city railway to 200 kilometers before the opening of the Olympic Games. "We are looking forward to borrowing Beijing's experiences and drawing from its lessons in preparation for the 2012 Olympics," said Wetzel.

1. one million
2. Drivers who don't use their private cars could be given points
3. public transportation or ride bicycles
4. the 2008 Olympics
5. Professor Nigel Wilson
6. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
7. environmental engineering
8. foreign countries
9. big events
10. no
11. drivers who comply given points
12. goods from online shopping
13. high density of people in Beijing
14. yes
15. 15 million
16. three million
17. expand it
18. 114-kilometer
19. 200 kilometers
20. before the opening of the Olympic Games

Numbered questions:
1. how many cars did they want to keep off the road during the Olympics?
2. How were they going to achieve that?
3. what were they encouraging people to use?
4. which olympics were these?
5. who advised Beijing?
6. where was he from?
7. which department?
8. where else is that method used?
9. during what time?
10. Did they think cars should be banned?
11. what did they propose instead?
12. what can they use points for?
13. what is the real cause of traffic problems?
14. Do most of them have cars?
15. how many people live there?
16. how many of them have vehicles?
17. what were they going to do with the railway?
18. what was it before expansion?
19. what would they expand it to?
20. when?

Q: CHAPTER XXX

FERN Mullins rushed into the house on a Saturday morning early in September and shrieked at Carol, "School starts next Tuesday. I've got to have one more spree before I'm arrested. Let's get up a picnic down the lake for this afternoon. Won't you come, Mrs. Kennicott, and the doctor? Cy Bogart wants to go--he's a brat but he's lively."

"I don't think the doctor can go," sedately. "He said something about having to make a country call this afternoon. But I'd love to."

"That's dandy! Who can we get?"

"Mrs. Dyer might be chaperon. She's been so nice. And maybe Dave, if he could get away from the store."

"How about Erik Valborg? I think he's got lots more style than these town boys. You like him all right, don't you?"

So the picnic of Carol, Fern, Erik, Cy Bogart, and the Dyers was not only moral but inevitable.

They drove to the birch grove on the south shore of Lake Minniemashie. Dave Dyer was his most clownish self. He yelped, jigged, wore Carol's hat, dropped an ant down Fern's back, and when they went swimming (the women modestly changing in the car with the side curtains up, the men undressing behind the bushes, constantly repeating, "Gee, hope we don't run into poison ivy"), Dave splashed water on them and dived to clutch his wife's ankle. He infected the others. Erik gave an imitation of the Greek dancers he had seen in vaudeville, and when they sat down to picnic supper spread on a lap-robe on the grass, Cy climbed a tree to throw acorns at them.

1. next Tuesday
2. September
3. a picnic
4. the lake
5. No
6. this afternoon
7. Four
8. Dave
9. Yes
10. Minniemashie
11. Erik
12. Dave Dyer
13. climbed a tree
14. throw acorns
15. behind the bushes
16. the car
17. with the side curtains up
18. south shore
19. Yes
20. Mrs. Dyer

Numbered questions:
1. When does school begin?
2. What month?
3. What did Fern want to plan?
4. Where?
5. Was it for tomorrow?
6. When?
7. How many people were invited?
8. Who might need to stay at the store?
9. Did he end up being able to go?
10. Which lake did they go to?
11. Who acted like a dancer?
12. Who acted like a clown?
13. What did the brat do?
14. Did he do anything there?
15. Where did the men change?
16. What about the ladies?
17. How?
18. What part of the lake did they go to?
19. Was there a chaperone?
20. Who?