(Question)
Once, while grating potatoes to make potato pancakes, I had a Proustian moment. I can't lay claim to much in the way of literary knowledge, but I do know that Proust's 'Remembrance of Things Past' was prompted by his biting into a pastry and feeling a sense of overwhelming pleasure with no recognizable cause. In my case, I was instantly transported back to the grandmother's kitchen as she and my mother grated potatoes in order to make 'poutine rapee', also known as 'poutines'. People will immediately flash to the Quebecker ethnic food known by the same name. However, in spite of all the Franco-culinary posturing, this is really only French Fries with gravy and, oh yeah, can I have some cheese curds on that? One etymological source indicates that 'poutine' really means 'mess'. If you come from my part of the country, the Quebecker poutine is just another entry in the long list of dishes that will cause you to keel over from a myocardial infarction while shoveling a foot of snow out of the driveway shortly after you've retired; sometimes before. Nope, poutines as I know them are a different creature entirely. They seem to be more of an Acadian thing and none of my friends had even heard of them, much less eaten a single one. Because of the work involved, my mother only made poutines for special times: Christmas, say or Easter. My mother would borrow this grater that was about two feet long and she and my grandmother would set to work. Generally, they started off with an enormous paper sack of potatoes, about 25 pounds or so (We used to buy potatoes by the cartload and store them in a wooden bin in the basement. Because we were cheap labour, the kids would be sent down to retrieve a few for the family meal. It was creepy to descend into the dank cellar, feel our way through the dim obstacle course formed by my grandfather's thousands of tools and bits of wood and locate the bin. After a time in storage, the eyes on potatoes began to sprout pale tendrils and it didn't take much imagination to visualize all kinds... Question: Who borrowed the grater? Options: A. mother B. not enough information C. myself D. grandmother === The correct answer is
(Answer)
A

(Question)
Voting is underway in the southern U.S. state of Alabama in a tightly contested Senate election between Democrat Doug Jones and Republican Roy Moore, a campaign roiled by charges from women who accused Moore of sexual misconduct four decades ago when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s. Tuesday's special election was being watched nationally, both as an indicator of how midterm congressional elections might play out next November and also as a barometer of President Donald Trump's political clout. Trump endorsed Moore, who has denied the women's allegations, and called for the defeat of Jones, whom he said would be a political "puppet" of liberal Democratic lawmakers in Washington. The election winner will serve the last three years of the seat left vacant by Jeff Sessions when he joined Trump's Cabinet as attorney general, the country's top law enforcement position. If Moore wins, Republicans will retain their 52-48 majority in the Senate, but a Jones victory would pare the margin to 51-49, possibly further complicating Trump's efforts to pass his legislative agenda. Pre-election polls at various times have shown both Moore, 70, and Jones, 63, in the lead, but the history of elections in deeply conservative Alabama runs against Jones. No Democrat has won a Senate election in the state since Richard Shelby did in 1992, and two years later he switched parties to become a Republican. Still a senator, Shelby said Sunday that he voted absentee for "a distinguished Republican" as a write-in choice, but could not bring himself to vote for Moore after one woman, now in her 50s, said Moore abused her when she was 14. Moore, twice deposed as a state Supreme Court justice for failing to follow federal court rulings, has accused journalists, Democrats and establishment Republicans in Washington of trying to undermine his campaign. Some Republican lawmakers, a number of whom said Moore should drop out of the contest after the women's allegations surfaced, said they would try to expel him from the Senate if he won. Question: Who did Trump call a political puppet? Options: A. Jones B. Moore C. Trump D. not enough information === The correct answer is
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A

(Question)
The city was gray but the buildings contrasted with dirt red. The morning settled my nerves a bit more and before long the train pulled into the station. Boston had a slower feel, much slower than New York. The air was cool and peppered with moisture. I knew I was close to the ocean. Vision blurry, I wobbled out of the train depot and thought about the fact that I had never really done anything crazy in my life. The colors meant something here. Green was the color of plants but it was also the color of money. Plants were good but money was bad. I didn't know what green meant. Blue and red were clear though. Blue was the color of ocean and sky, both good things. Red was the color of Mars and it was manly but mars meant aliens and aliens were bad so red was bad. This is how I navigated. I followed the colors. I was lost in a daze of exhaustion and moved my feet slowly. They were dead and raw with pain and blisters, and I shuffled out into the city. My eyes darted from color to color, sign to sign, connection to connection. I floated like a ghost and thought about crying. There were few people out so I found a relative ease in that but my mind still jumped around reckless. I needed to find Kim. I saw a silent pay phone with a dangling phonebook and headed towards it until I remembered that phone books don't normally list cell phones. Kim wasn't the type of girl to list herself in the phonebook either. I had no leads but I knew I could go to a library and maybe find out her number if she had listed it on Facebook, so I kept walking. Stopping at benches, I would rest until I could muster more energy. Question: Why was the air cool and prepped with moisture? Options: A. He was close to the ocean B. A storm was coming C. It just rained D. not enough information === The correct answer is
(Answer)
A