Q: Imagine what you could do with a machine that could make things disappear.

For inspiration, you could read some books. In the books of J.R.R. Tolkein, Bilbo Baggins finds a ring that can make him disappear. Of course, there's also poor Harry Potter, who used his invisibility cloak to hide from danger.

Now that you've got some ideas, it's time for the hard part: building the cloak. To do that, you have to give up science fiction and turn to real science. An invisibility cloak has to cheat anything or anyone who might be watching. In order to understand how something can be seen, it's important to understand how we see.

Human beings can only see objects that reflect light waves. These waves enter the eye and are then processed by the brain. However, if an object doesn't reflect light, then the waves don't enter the eye, and the brain doesn't process. So building an invisibility cloak is building something that doesn't reflect light.

Cummer was part of a team of scientists from Duke University, including David Smith and David Schurig, who built the world's first version of an invisibility cloak. They had been inspired by the work of a British physicist, John Pendry. He in May said that an invisibility cloak was possible and Pendry was not the only one thinking about a disappearing act. At the same time, a Scottish physicist, UIf Leonhardt published a paper on building invisibility equipment.

"It wasn't easy," says Cummer. "As often happens in science and research, it didn't work very well the first time. That first cloak didn't work like Harry Potter's --- the scientists didn't actually see anything disappear. So the research is still under way. "

1. an invisibility cloak
2. a team of scientists from Duke
3. Three
4. Yes
5. David Smith and David Schurig
6. Harry Potter
7. J.R.R. Tolkein
8. Bilbo Baggins
9. A ring
10. make him disappear

Numbered questions:
1. what are people trying to build?
2. who tried to build the first one?
3. how many in the group?
4. were they named in the story?
5. what are the names of two of them?
6. who's work served as the inspiration for their project?
7. what novelist is mentioned?
8. what is the name of one of his characters?
9. what did he find?
10. did it do anything?

Q: CHAPTER X

MARSTON USES HIS POWER

Soon after Don Felix was buried two strangers visited the schooner. One was white but so burned by the sun and worn by the climate that he looked like a native. Peters was agent for a Hamburg merchant house with a factory on a neighboring lagoon, and told Wyndham he had come because he seldom met a white man. The other was a government officer and stated, apologetically, that his business was to make a few inquiries about Don Felix's death. His skin was nearly white, but his coarse lips and short, curling hair indicated a strain of negro blood.

Marston knew something about the officials who held small posts on the Caribbean coast. For the most part, they were mulattos, paid low wages and willing to augment the latter by presents and bribes. As a rule, he had found them good-humored and indolent, and he imagined Don Ramon Larrinaga would be satisfied with a few particulars and a little money. There was, he thought, no use in trying to put him on the track of the unknown poisoner. He let Wyndham take the man to the cabin and sat under the awning on deck with Peters, for whom he opened a bottle of vermouth.

Peters knew much about the country and told him some rather curious stories. He looked shriveled and desiccated, but his glance was keen and Marston imagined he was very shrewd. Marston, however, did not study him much; it was enough that he was an amusing companion while Wyndham was occupied. By-and-by the latter opened the cabin scuttle and beckoned.

1. Don Felix
2. Yes
3. the schooner
4. two strangers
5. One was white
6. Yes
7. No
8. Yes
9. Marston
10. Peters
11. Yes

Numbered questions:
1. Who had died?
2. Had he been buried yet?
3. How did he die?
4. Who visited the schooner?
5. What race were both of them?
6. Was the other completely white?
7. Did the officials get paid well?
8. Did they tend to accept extra money?
9. Who opened a bottle?
10. For who?
11. Did he know a lot about the area?

Q: By-elections also spelled bye-election (known as special elections in the United States, and bypolls in India) are used to fill elected offices that have become vacant between general elections.

In most cases these elections occur after the incumbent dies or resigns, but they also occur when the incumbent becomes ineligible to continue in office (because of a recall, ennoblement, criminal conviction, or failure to maintain a minimum attendance). Less commonly, these elections have been called when a constituency election is invalidated by voting irregularities.

In the United States, these contests have been called "special elections" because they do not always occur on Election Day like regular congressional elections. A 2016 study of special elections to the United States House of Representatives found "that while candidate characteristics affect special election outcomes, presidential approval is predictive of special election outcomes as well. Furthermore, we find that the effect of presidential approval on special election outcomes has increased in magnitude from 1995 to 2014, with the 2002 midterm representing an important juncture in the nationalization of special elections."

The procedure for filling a vacant seat in the House of Commons of England was developed during the Reformation Parliament of the 16th century by Thomas Cromwell; previously a seat had remained empty upon the death of a member. Cromwell devised a new election that would be called by the king at a time of the king's choosing. This made it a simple matter to ensure the seat rewarded an ally of the crown.

1. By-elections
2. do not always occur on Election Day
3. candidate characteristics
4. presidential approval
5. increased in magnitude
6. 2016
7. specific
8. United States House of Representatives
9. Yes
10. 2002

Numbered questions:
1. What is the term used for special elections?
2. Why are they special?
3. What sways these elections?
4. What is the main thing?
5. How do you know? What was done?
6. When was the study done?
7. On all elections or specific ones?
8. On what offices?
9. Is it having more of an impact over time?
10. What year was the turning point?