input: CHAPTER XX

Now, what is this that haunts me like my shadow, Frisking and mumming like an elf in moonlight! --BEN JONSON.

Peveril found the master of the vessel rather less rude than those in his station of life usually are, and received from him full satisfaction concerning the fate of Fenella, upon whom the captain bestowed a hearty curse, for obliging him to lay-to until he had sent his boat ashore, and had her back again.

"I hope," said Peveril, "no violence was necessary to reconcile her to go ashore? I trust she offered no foolish resistance?"

"Resist! mein Gott," said the captain, "she did resist like a troop of horse--she did cry, you might hear her at Whitehaven--she did go up the rigging like a cat up a chimney; but dat vas ein trick of her old trade."

"What trade do you mean?" said Peveril.

"Oh," said the seaman, "I vas know more about her than you, Meinheer. I vas know that she vas a little, very little girl, and prentice to one seiltanzer, when my lady yonder had the good luck to buy her."

"A seiltanzer!" said Peveril; "what do you mean by that?"

"I mean a rope-danzer, a mountebank, a Hans pickel-harring. I vas know Adrian Brackel vell--he sell de powders dat empty men's stomach, and fill him's own purse. Not know Adrian Brackel, mein Gott! I have smoked many a pound of tabak with him."

Peveril now remembered that Fenella had been brought into the family when he and the young Earl were in England, and while the Countess was absent on an expedition to the continent. Where the Countess found her, she never communicated to the young men; but only intimated, that she had received her out of compassion, in order to relieve her from a situation of extreme distress. 1. What did he smoke?
2. Who was an Earl in England?
3. A seiltanzer?
4. Who resisted?
5. Who was less rude?
6. What did the Countess do?
7. Who bestowed the curse and upon whom?
8. Who was the rope danzer?
9. Why did the Countess receive her?
10. How did she resist?
11. Who filled his purse? Return numbered answers in your output.

output: 1. tabak
2. Adrian Brackel
3. Yes
4. Fenella
5. the master of the vessel
6. she intimated that she had received Fenella out of compassion
7. The captain, upon Fenella
8. Adrian Brackel
9. in order to relieve her from a situation of extreme distress
10. she cried and went up the rigging
11. Adrian Brackel

Question: Birmingham is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Jefferson County. The city's population was 212,237 in the 2010 United States Census. In the 2010 US Census, the Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of about 1,128,047, which is approximately one-quarter of Alabama's population.

Birmingham was founded in 1871, during the post-Civil War Reconstruction period, through the merger of three pre-existing farm towns, notably, former Elyton. It was named for Birmingham, England, the UK's second largest city and then major industrial city. The Alabama city annexed smaller neighbors and developed as an industrial and railroad transportation center, based on mining, the new iron and steel industry, and railroading. Most of the original settlers who founded Birmingham were of English ancestry. The city was developed as a place where cheap, non-unionized, and African-American labor from rural Alabama could be employed in the city's steel mills and blast furnaces, giving it a competitive advantage over unionized industrial cities in the Midwest and Northeast.

From its founding through the end of the 1960s, Birmingham was a primary industrial center of the southern United States. Its growth from 1881 through 1920 earned its nicknames as "The Magic City" and "The Pittsburgh of the South". Its major industries were iron and steel production, plus a major component of the railroading industry. Rails and railroad cars were both manufactured in Birmingham. Since the 1860s, the two primary hubs of railroading in the Deep South have been nearby Atlanta and Birmingham. The economy diversified in the latter half of the 20th century. Banking, telecommunications, transportation, electrical power transmission, medical care, college education, and insurance have become major economic activities. Birmingham ranks as one of the largest banking centers in the United States and as one of the most important business centers in the Southeast. 1. What US state is Birmingham in?
2. Are there any other places by that name?
3. Where?
4. What was important about that one?
5. How did the US city form?
6. When?
7. What was the basis of its economy then?
8. Why did businesses like it there?
9. What type of factories did they work in?
10. What nicknames did the city have during its heyday?
11. And the other?
12. Why did it get these names?
13. What did they manufacture there?
14. Why else was it important to railroad companies?
15. Are these still the basis of the city's economy?
16. WHy is the city important today?
17. WHat other business activities take place there?
18. What is the population according to a recent census?
19. Is that large for an Alabama town?
20. How does it rank among cities there? Provide a numbered list of answers.
****
A numbered of answers:
1. Alabama
2. yes
3. Birmingham, England,
4. UK's second largest city and then major industrial city. T
5. it annexed smaller neighbors
6. 1871
7. mining, the new iron and steel industry, and railroading.
8. it had cheap, non-unionized, and African-American labor
9. steel mills and blast furnaces
10. it had 2, 1 was The Magic City
11. "The Pittsburgh of the South"
12. it's growth as an industrial city
13. Its major industries were iron and steel production, plus a major component of the railroading industry.
14. 2 major railway hubs in the south are near
15. no
16. It's a major banking center in the US
17. Telecommunications, transportation, electrical power transmission, medical care, college education, and insurance
18. 1,128,047
19. yes
20. most populous