question: Many applications of silicate glasses derive from their optical transparency, which gives rise to one of silicate glasses' primary uses as window panes. Glass will transmit, reflect and refract light; these qualities can be enhanced by cutting and polishing to make optical lenses, prisms, fine glassware, and optical fibers for high speed data transmission by light. Glass can be colored by adding metallic salts, and can also be painted and printed with vitreous enamels. These qualities have led to the extensive use of glass in the manufacture of art objects and in particular, stained glass windows. Although brittle, silicate glass is extremely durable, and many examples of glass fragments exist from early glass-making cultures. Because glass can be formed or molded into any shape, and also because it is a sterile product, it has been traditionally used for vessels: bowls, vases, bottles, jars and drinking glasses. In its most solid forms it has also been used for paperweights, marbles, and beads. When extruded as glass fiber and matted as glass wool in a way to trap air, it becomes a thermal insulating material, and when these glass fibers are embedded into an organic polymer plastic, they are a key structural reinforcement part of the composite material fiberglass. Some objects historically were so commonly made of silicate glass that they are simply called by the name of the material, such as drinking glasses and reading glasses.
1. What can give glass a color?
2. What kind of enamel can be used on it?
3. What does glass do to light?
4. How can you make these qualities better?
5. Can you do this to make lenses for glasses?
6. What kind of transparency does it have?
7. What is one of the biggest uses for glass?
8. What kind of art can be made?
9. Why has is it so common for bowls and such/
10. Is sillicate glass fragile?
11. Can it last a long time?
12. What does it become when extruded?
13. Is that made out of fibers?
14. When they mat it down does that release the air?
15. What does it do?
****
answer: 1. Metallic salts.
2. Vitreous
3. Transmit, reflect, and refract.
4. By cutting and polishing.
5. Yes.
6. Opitcal
7. Window panes.
8. Stained Glass Windows
9. It could be molded into any shape and it's sterile.
10. Yes
11. Yes
12. Thermal insulating material.
13. Yes
14. No
15. It traps the air.

question: CHAPTER IV.

Signor Andrea D'Arbino, searching vainly through the various rooms in the palace for Count Fabio d'Ascoli, and trying as a last resource, the corridor leading to the ballroom and grand staircase, discovered his friend lying on the floor in a swoon, without any living creature near him. Determining to avoid alarming the guests, if possible, D'Arbino first sought help in the antechamber. He found there the marquis's valet, assisting the Cavaliere Finello (who was just taking his departure) to put on his cloak.

While Finello and his friend carried Fabio to an open window in the antechamber, the valet procured some iced water. This simple remedy, and the change of atmosphere, proved enough to restore the fainting man to his senses, but hardly--as it seemed to his friends--to his former self. They noticed a change to blankness and stillness in his face, and when he spoke, an indescribable alteration in the tone of his voice.

"I found you in a room in the corridor," said D'Arbino. "What made you faint? Don't you remember? Was it the heat?"

Fabio waited for a moment, painfully collecting his ideas. He looked at the valet, and Finello signed to the man to withdraw.

"Was it the heat?" repeated D'Arbino.

"No," answered Fabio, in strangely hushed, steady tones. "I have seen the face that was behind the yellow mask."

"Well?"

"It was the face of my dead wife."

"Your dead wife!"

"When the mask was removed I saw her face. Not as I remember it in the pride of her youth and beauty--not even as I remember her on her sick-bed--but as I remember her in her coffin."
1. Who was searching in vain?
2. Who was he searching for?
3. Where was he searching?
4. Where did he try last?
5. Did he find him there?
6. What was he doing?
7. Who did D'Arbino go to seek help?
8. Did he find anyone there?
9. What was he doing?
10. Where did they carry Fabio to?
****
answer: 1. Signor Andrea D'Arbino
2. Count Fabio d'Ascoli
3. in the palace
4. the corridor leading to the ballroom
5. yes
6. lying on the floor
7. in the antechamber
8. the marquis's valet
9. assisting the Cavaliere Finello
10. to an open window

question: Where did that number come from? Eleven and Twelve The reason behind the change in number naming is that eleven comes from the German term ainlif, which translates to "one left". Twelve follows the same rule. It comes from twalif--"two left". Why teen is used instead of lif for 13 through 19? There is something sadly lost in history. 911 for US Emergency Calls Early phones didn't use phone numbers--the operator had to connect your call by hand--and this led to the need for an emergency code . But later phone numbers became popular, that changed. In 1967, 911 was chosen as the nationwide emergency call because it was easy to remember and could be quickly dialed on the phone. 26.2 Miles in a Marathon The story began with an ancient Greek soldier carrying message from a battlefield in Marathon to Athens. The modern marathon was born as a flagship event in the first Olympic Games, in 1896, with a distance of about 25 miles (40 km), as long as the distance from Marathon to Athens. But race organizers for the 1908 Olympic Games in London wanted to add something special. The race began at Windsor Castle and ended at White City Stadium, with runners finishing only after passing the royal box. The distance was 26.2 miles (42.1 km). And since 1924 this distance has been kept in marathon. 28 Days in February Before using the Gregorian calendar that we use today, one of the first Roman calendars had only 304 days and ten months (March through December), with six months of 30 days and four of 31 days. The second king of Rome improved the old calendar. He added 50 days for January and February. To make the new months longer, he took one day from each of the 30-day months, making 56 days to divide between January and February (or 28 days each). Later January was given one more day to add up to 355 days a year, but February still had 28 days. That's how it became the shortest month and it stayed that way ever since.
1. What is the article about?
2. What about them?
3. For example?
4. How did that come about?
5. It was 26.2 miles?
6. So how did they get to 26.2?
7. Why did they change it?
8. And that was 26.2?
9. What other numbers have a weird history?
10. Where did those come from?
11. What does that mean?
12. What about twelve?
13. Any others?
14. Why is that used?
15. Why do the numbers 13 and after end in "teen"?
16. What other numbers have a fascinating history?
17. How did that come to be?
18. When did they change it?
19. What did he do?
20. So how did they get to 28?
****
answer:
1. Numbers
2. Where did that number come from
3. 26.2 Miles in a Marathon
4. an ancient Greek soldier carrying message from a battlefield in Marathon to Athens
5. No
6. 1908 Olympic Games in London
7. The race began at Windsor Castle and ended at White City Stadium, with runners finishing only after passing the royal box
8. Yes
9. Eleven and Twelve
10. the German term ainlif,
11. "one left"
12. twalif--"two left"
13. 911 for US Emergency Calls
14. it was easy to remember and could be quickly dialed on the phone
15. There is something sadly lost in history
16. 28 Days in February
17. the first Roman calendars had only 304 days
18. The second king of Rome
19. He added 50 days for January and February
20. he took one day from each of the 30-day months, making 56 days to divide between January and February