Answer the questions at the end based on the text.

(CNN) -- The way some Republicans talk about the Environmental Protection Agency, you would think it was created by a bunch of pot-smoking hippies communing at a nudist camp in northern California -- when in fact, the EPA was created by one of their own, Richard Nixon, in 1970.

Much as Republicans don't like to bring up the huge tax increases instituted by their hero, Ronald Reagan, they prefer to sidestep their role in the EPA's humble beginnings and blame it on Democrats. They characterize the whole thing as an albatross hanging around the economy's neck.

To be fair, Nixon did not ride into the White House as a conservationist, and he did veto the Clean Water Act. But he said he did so because of the price tag of the policy, not its purpose. After the Santa Barbara oil spill in 1969 -- which at the time was the largest in U.S. history -- Nixon agreed with the rest of thinking society that clean water and air were a good thing. And his fingerprints are all over such tree-hugging initiatives as the Clean Air Act.

Sadly, if he tried any of that funny business today, his own party would probably impeach him. That's how far down the oil well some in the Republican leadership have fallen.

Rep. Michelle Bachmann said she would lock the EPA's doors and turn off its lights if she were president (thankfully there's no chance of that); Newt Gingrich said he would shut down the EPA and create a replacement to work with businesses to create jobs (making it more of a lapdog than watchdog); Rick Perry asked the president to halt all regulations, adding "his EPA regulations are killing jobs all across America."

1. What organization is in the topic?
2. When they started this organizaion?
3. Who did that?
4. Who are talking about it?
5. Are they positive about it?
6. Is there any other president mentioned?
7. Who was that?
8. What he did?
9. Are the political parties pointing fingers at each other?
10. Was the earlier POTUS mentioned really positive about all these?
11. What he did?
12. Why?
13. Did he change his mind afterwards?
14. Why?
15. When did that happen?
16. What else the POTUS did?
17. How he would have been regarded today for these?

Numbered answers:

A: 1. Environmental Protection Agency
2. 1970
3. Richard Nixon
4. Republicans
5. no
6. yes
7. Ronald Reagan
8. increased taxes
9. unknown
10. No
11. veto
12. because of the price tag
13. yes
14. the Santa Barbara oil spill
15. 1969
16. helped with Clean Air Act
17. his own party would probably impeach him

Answer the questions at the end based on the text.

CHAPTER XV.

BERT COMES BACK.

One raw March evening, when the wind was roaring among the gray branches of the maples like a lion in wrath, some one knocked on the door.

"Come in!" shouted Anson, who was giving baby her regular ride on his boots.

"Come in!" added Flaxen.

Gearheart walked in slowly, closed the door behind his back, and stood devouring the cheerful scene. He was poorly dressed and wore a wide, limp hat; they did not know him till he bared his head.

"Bert!" yelled Anson, tossing the baby to his shoulder and leaping toward his chum, tramping and shaking and clapping like a madman, scaring the child.

"My gosh-all-hemlock! I'm glad to see ye! Gimme that paw again. Come to the fire. This is Flaxie" (as though he had not had his eyes on her face all the time). "Be'n sick?"

Bert's hollow cough prompted this question.

"Yes. Had some kind of a fever down in Arizony. Oh, I'm all right now," he added in reply to an anxious look from Flaxen.

"An' this is----"

"Baby--Elsie," she replied, putting a finishing touch to the little one's dress, mother-like.

"Where's he?" he asked a little later.

Anson replied with a little gesture, which silenced Bert at the same time that it explained. And when Flaxen was busy a few moments later, Anson said:

"Gone up the spout."

At the table they grew quite gay, talking over old times, and Bert's pale face grew rosier, catching a reflection of the happy faces opposite.

1. Who had a baby?
2. Who was not dressed well?
3. Was he wearing a something on his head?
4. What?
5. Did they recognize him at first?
6. At what point did they know it was him?
7. What was the baby's name?
8. And what was she wearing?
9. Was Bert's face tanned?
10. Was the mood as they spoke at the table happy?
11. Did more than one person say, "Come in" at the beginning?
12. Who said it?
13. Was the story set in the month of May?
14. What month?
15. Did Gearheart leave the door open?
16. What was Gearheart's first name?
17. Had Bert been ill?
18. How?
19. In what state?
20. Did Anson frighten the baby when he saw Bert?

Numbered answers:

A: 1. Anson
2. Gearheart
3. yes
4. wide, limp hat
5. no
6. when he bared his head
7. Elsie
8. dress
9. unknown
10. yes
11. yes
12. Anson and Flaxen
13. no
14. March
15. no
16. Bert
17. "Yes
18. Had some kind of a fever
19. Arizony
20. yes

Answer the questions at the end based on the text.

Mothers and daughters go through so much--yet when was the last time a mother and daughter sat down to write a book together about it all? Perri Klass and her mother, Sheila Solomon Klass, both gifted professional writers, prove to be ideal co-writers as they examine their decades of motherhood, daughterhood, and the wonderful ways their lives have overlapped .

Perri notes with amazement how closely her own life has mirrored her mother's: both have full-time careers; both have published books, articles, and stories; each has three children; they both love to read. They also love to travel--in fact, they often take trips together. But in truth, the harder they look at their lives, the more they acknowledge their big differences in circumstance and basic nature.

A child of the Depression , Sheila was raised in Brooklyn by parents who considered education a _ for girls. Starting with her college education, she has fought for everything she's ever accomplished. Perri, on the other hand, grew up privileged in the New Jersey suburbs of the 1960s and 1970s. For Sheila, wasting time or money is a crime, and luxury is unthinkable while Perri enjoys the occasional small luxury, but has not been successful at trying to persuade her mother into enjoying even the tiniest thing she likes.

Each writing in her own unmistakable voice, Perri and Sheila take turns exploring the joys and pains, the love and bitterness, the minor troubles and lasting respect that have always bonded them together. Sheila describes the adventure of giving birth to Perri in a tiny town in Trinidad where her husband was doing research fieldwork. Perri admits that she can't sort out all the mess in the households, even though she knows it drives her mother crazy. Together they compare thoughts on bringing up children and working, admit long-hidden sorrows, and enjoy precious memories.

Looking deep into the lives they have lived separately and together, Perri and Sheila tell their mother-daughter story with honesty, humor, enthusiasm, and admiration for each other. A written account in two voices, Every Mother Is a Daughter is a duet that produces a deep, strong sound with the experiences that all mothers and daughters will recognize.

1. what did they have published
2. did they have any kids
3. how many each?
4. what did she battle with
5. where was she raised
6. what city
7. what schooling did she have
8. where did she give birth
9. what drove her mom crazy
10. what did her and her husband do

Numbered answers:

A:
1. a book
2. yes
3. three
4. Depression
5. Brooklyn
6. New Jersey
7. college education,
8. Trinidad
9. all the mess in the households
10. research fieldwork