Problem: We need natural resources for just about everything we do. We need them for food and clothing, for building materials and energy. We even need them to have fun. Table 2.1 gives examples of how we use natural resources. Can you think of other ways we use natural resources? Use Vehicles Resources Rubber for tires from rubber trees Steel frames and other metal parts from minerals such as iron Example iron ore Electronics Plastic cases from petroleum prod- ucts Glass screens from minerals such as lead lead ore Use Homes Resources Nails from minerals such as iron Timber from trees Example spruce timber Jewelry Gemstones such as diamonds Minerals such as silver silver ore Food Sunlight, water, and soil Minerals such as phosphorus corn seeds in soil Clothing Wool from sheep Cotton from cotton plants cotton plants Recreation Water for boating and swimming Forests for hiking and camping pine forest Some natural resources are renewable. Others are not. It depends, in part, on how we use them.

Question: "How can natural resources help us have fun?"

Answer: "Water for hiking and swimming; Forests for swiming. "

OPTIONS:
- no
- yes
Answer: no

Problem: As noted above, the 9/11 plotters spent somewhere between $400,000 and $500,000 to plan and conduct their attack. The available evidence indicates that the 19 operatives were funded by al Qaeda, either through wire transfers or cash provided by KSM, which they carried into the United States or deposited in foreign accounts and accessed from this country. Our investigation has uncovered no credible evidence that any person in the United States gave the hijackers substantial financial assistance. Similarly, we have seen no evidence that any foreign government-or foreign government official-supplied any funding. We have found no evidence that the Hamburg cell members (Atta, Shehhi, Jarrah, and Binalshibh) received funds from al Qaeda before late 1999. It appears they supported themselves. KSM, Binalshibh, and another plot facilitator, Mustafa al Hawsawi, each received money, in some cases perhaps as much as $10,000, to perform their roles in the plot. After the Hamburg recruits joined the 9/11 conspiracy, al Qaeda began giving them money. Our knowledge of the funding during this period, before the operatives entered the United States, remains murky. According to KSM, the Hamburg cell members each received $5,000 to pay for their return to Germany from Afghanistan after they had been selected to join the plot, and they received additional funds for travel from Germany to the United States. Financial transactions of the plotters are discussed in more detail in chapter 7. Requirements for a Successful Attack As some of the core operatives prepared to leave for the United States, al Qaeda's leaders could have reflected on what they needed to be able to do in order to organize and conduct a complex international terrorist operation to inflict catastrophic harm. We believe such a list of requirements would have included leaders able to evaluate, approve, and supervise the planning and direction of the operation; communications sufficient to enable planning and direction of the operatives and those who would be helping them; a personnel system that could recruit candidates, vet them, indoctrinate them, and give them necessary training; an intelligence effort to gather required information and form assessments of enemy strengths and weaknesses; the ability to move people; and the ability to raise and move the necessary money. The information we have presented about the development of the planes operation shows how, by the spring and summer of 2000, al Qaeda was able to meet these requirements. By late May 2000, two operatives assigned to the planes operation were already in the United States. Three of the four Hamburg cell members would soon arrive.

Question: "What did the investigators conclude in terms of government funding for the terror attacks?"

Answer: "No government funded for the attack"

OPTIONS:
- no
- yes
Answer: yes

Problem: From Babylon, Alexander went to Susa, one of the Achaemenid capitals, and captured its legendary treasury. He sent the bulk of his army to the Persian ceremonial capital of Persepolis via the Royal Road. Alexander himself took selected troops on the direct route to the city. He had to storm the pass of the Persian Gates (in the modern Zagros Mountains) which had been blocked by a Persian army under Ariobarzanes and then hurried to Persepolis before its garrison could loot the treasury. On entering Persepolis, Alexander allowed his troops to loot the city for several days. Alexander stayed in Persepolis for five months. During his stay a fire broke out in the eastern palace of Xerxes and spread to the rest of the city. Possible causes include a drunken accident or deliberate revenge for the burning of the Acropolis of Athens during the Second Persian War.

Question: "After Susa, which capital city did Alexander go to next?"

Answer: "Persepolis"

OPTIONS:
- no
- yes
Answer:
yes