"That's Glenn Miller," my father said. "But it can't be." He had the back of the hospital bed cranked upright, the lower lid of his left eye creeping up in a warning signal I'd learned to recognize as a child. My older sister Ann had settled deep in the recliner, and she glared at me too, blaming me for winding him up. The jam box sat on the rolling tray table and my father was working the remote as he talked, backing up my newly burned CD and letting it spin forward to play a few seconds of low fidelity trombone solo. "You know the tune, of course," he said. "'King Porter Stomp.'" Those childhood years of listening to him play Glenn Miller on the console phonograph were finally paying off. "He muffed the notes the same way on the Victor version." "So why can't it be Miller?" I asked. "He wouldn't have played with a rabble like that." The backup musicians teetered on the edge of chaos, playing with an abandon somewhere between Dixieland and bebop. "They sound drunk." My father had a major emotional investment in Miller. He and my mother had danced to the Miller band at Glen Island Casino on Long Island Sound in the summer of 1942, when they were both sixteen. That signature sound of clarinet and four saxes was forever tied up for him with first love and the early, idealistic months of the war. But there was a better reason why it couldn't have been Miller playing that solo. If the date on the original recording was correct, he was supposed to have died three days earlier. The date was in India ink on a piece of surgical tape, stuck to the top of a spool of recording wire. The handwritten numerals had the hooks and day-first order of Europe: 18/12/44. I'd won it on eBay the week before as part of a lot that included a wire recorder and a stack of 78s by French pop stars like Charles Trenent and Edith Piaf. Question: Who is played the trombone if Miller did not? Options: - Someone from India - Another band member - A drunk, bebop musician. - not enough information === The correct answer is
not enough information

Though hooded and cloaked, Nicolette trembled. The chill of the January afternoon pierced her through, but it was fear, more than the cold, that made her limbs shake. Having just crossed over to the Left Bank, she glanced back over her shoulder and saw the towers and spires of the royal palace across the Seine. She felt as if hidden eyes there were watching her. Could anyone on the palace wall have seen her walk over the Petit-Pont? Not Amalric. He was still in the south, the King having just appointed him seneschal for Beziers and the surrounding country. But he had so many agents in Paris and allies at court. Except for Agnes, all the servants in the Gobignon town house were loyal to him. His aunt, Queen Blanche, was forever praising him to all who would listen. If Nicolette were involved in scandal, the White Queen would be furious, and would see to it that word reached Amalric. And if indeed he found out about her meeting the troubadour? Just a message, a song, let alone a meeting like this one, could mean death for her and Orlando. I should turn around right now, cross this bridge, and run back to the palace. The streets of the Latin Quarter were crawling with ruffians and criminals - it was insane for her to be walking here alone after sunset. The sight of the small knife she carried under her cloak might deter an attacker, but then she would be discovered. If I screamed for help, the whole palace would find out. Blanche would demand to know why I was here. No, she thought, her blood turning to ice, she would know why. But those eyes of his? to look into them again, was that not worth any risk? She stood, vacillating, in the shadows by a wooden house that overhung the Rue Saint-Jacques. I must see Orlando, she thought. Over a year now, and I have not been able to forget him. She longed just to be alone with him and have him take her in his arms. Question: Why would Queen Blanche be angry? Options: - The palace was across from the Seine - not enough information - Nicolette left the palace - The Latin Quarter was full of criminals === The correct answer is
Nicolette left the palace

President Donald Trump's approval rating has headed into unfamiliar territory in recent weeks upward. Trump's approval hit 43 percent in the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, with 52 percent disapproving. That represents a 3 percent improvement from last month in the same survey. Several other new surveys also show Trump at or slightly above 40 percent. The RealClearPolitics polling average puts the president's approval rating at 41 percent, a noticeable bump from August, when the rating was often in the mid-30s. For much of the second half of August, Trump's approval rating in the Gallup Daily Tracking poll was either 34 percent or 35 percent, historically a low mark for a new president. On Thursday, Gallup had Trump at 37 percent. The previous day, Trump hit 39 percent, his highest mark since late July. Trump's recent outreach to Democrats on budget issues and, possibly, immigration has boosted his poll numbers, as has his administration's response to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. The NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found that 71 percent of those surveyed approved of Trump's deal with Democrats to fund the government until December and raise the debt ceiling, while 8 percent disapproved. The question is whether Trump has turned a political corner, or is merely seeing a temporary respite from the low poll ratings that have plagued him since the beginning of his presidency. That could depend on whether working with Democrats is a long-range goal or a passing fad, and experts said that making a forecast on that could turn out to be foolish. "When it comes to President Trump, I have gotten out of the prediction business," said Brookings Institution scholar Bill Galston. "For now, this is a significant shift of strategy and tactics. There is no way of knowing whether it will last." It looks as though bipartisan cooperation will not extend to health care, where Senate Republicans are making one last attempt to replace Obamacare. The effort is being led by Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy and South Carolina's... Question: why has trumps approval gone down Options: - polls were skewed - information is wrong - people stopped liking - not enough information === The correct answer is
people stopped liking