Mary loved walking through the woods with her dog, Max. Max and Mary would go on all sorts of adventures together. They really loved looking for blueberries together and then falling asleep next to each other in the tall grass. One day, as Mary was picking the blueberries, she turned around to find that Max was not there. She became worried and ran off to look for her dog. She looked in all of their favorite spots...next to the stream, in their secret hiding place behind the raspberry bushes, and even inside the old cabin that sat in the woods. But poor Max was nowhere to be found. Nonetheless, Mary would not give up. She kept looking and she found him not very far away. He had seen a squirrel and run to chase it. When Mary called Max's name he left the squirrel and happily returned to Mary, wagging his tail as he went.

Question: "Who saw a squirrel?"

OPTIONS:
- no
- yes

Answer: "Max"

Response: yes

Befitting a lush, tropical island stranded in the middle of the ocean, Madeira's origins are shrouded in mystery and fanciful legend. Some claim that the archipelago is what remains of Plato's lost Atlantis, or part of a landmass that once fused the continents of Europe and America. The Portuguese Step Ashore: Recorded history of the volcanic archipelago begins in relatively recent times: 1418, just as the golden age of Portuguese discovery was erupting. Under the leadership of Henry the Navigator, caravels set out from the westernmost point of the Algarve, in southern Portugal, in search of foreign lands, fame, and wealth. Joao Goncalves Zarco, sailing in the service of Prince Henry, made the first of many famous Portuguese discoveries, which would culminate a century later in Magellan's historic circumnavigation of the globe. Zarco happened upon a small volcanic archipelago 1,000 km from Lisbon. Perhaps Zarco knew precisely where he was heading, having learned of the existence of Madeira from a Castilian source. After all, the waters of the Canary Islands, only 445 km (275 miles) to the south, had occupied busy shipping lanes for very nearly a century, and Genovese maps from the mid-14th century depict both Madeira and Porto Santo. More likely, Zarco was heading for Guinea and storms forced him onto the beach of Porto Santo. If so, then he was extremely fortunate, for he managed to land on the only large, sandy beach for hundreds of miles around. Little wonder he subsequently named it Porto Santo (Holy Port). The following year Zarco returned to claim the larger island he had seen from Porto Santo, and with him went Tristao Vaz Teixeira and Bartolomeu Perestrelo. They officially became the first men to set foot on the heavily forested island, naming it Ilha da Madeira, "Island of Timber. " The Portuguese Crown, delighted with its first important discovery, immediately embarked on a program of colonization. Zarco and Teixeira were appointed co-governors of Madeira, while Perestrelo was awarded Porto Santo.

Question: "According to legend, the lost civilization of Atlantis was located on or near what archipelago?"

Response: "Porto Santo"
OPTIONS:
- no
- yes

A: no

Problem: The inhabited history of the Las Vegas Valley stretches to 23,000 b.c. , when much of the area was covered by a prehistoric lake. During this period, the indigenous people lived in caves, hunting the mammals that gathered at the shoreline. The landscape of the valley changed dramatically over the next 200 centuries. The glaciers feeding the lake melted away and the lake evaporated. Fossils tell an obscure story of man's slow and sporadic development. Around 3000 b.c. , native Archaic Indians began to develop a lasting hunting and gathering culture. By this time, the valley was in much the same geographic state as it exists in today, with one exceptionthe presence of artesian springs that bubbled to the surface in several areas. These springs fed a network of streams draining through the Las Vegas Wash to the Colorado River. The areas surrounding the springs were desert oases: sprawling collections of grasses, trees, and wildlife. Many springs lay in areas that would eventually become the center of the modern Las Vegas metropolis. For about 4000 years, the Archaics thrived in a culture that included many signs of early civilization. Signs of even more advancement appeared halfway through the first millennium a.d. , when the Anasazi Indians inhabited the valley. Far more progressive than the Archaics, the Anasazi utilized such formal agricultural techniques as irrigation to assist their harvest. This permitted the Anasazi to achieve a benchmark of advanced societythe ability to live in permanent shelters year-round without need to follow wildlife. Mysteriously, the Anasazi vanished from the valley around a.d.

Question: "What permitted the Anasazi to achieve a benchmark of advanced society?"

Answer: "The use of tipis year round"

OPTIONS:
- no
- yes
Answer: no

Question:
Rock layers extend laterally, or out to the sides. They may cover very large areas. This is especially true if they formed at the bottom of ancient seas. Seas are very large areas of water. Over time, sediment builds up on the seabed. They will be covered with the same types of material. As rocks form out of this sediment it will all be the same type. The rocks may be forced up above the water as Earths plates move. Rivers may eventually run across this area. The river will cut into the rock and erode it away. The layers of exposed rock on either side of the river will still match up. Look at the Grand Canyon in Figure 2.27. Its a good example of lateral continuity. You can clearly see the same rock layers on opposite sides of the canyon. The matching rock layers were deposited at the same time. They are the same age. After reading the above, is "seas" the correct answer to the question "What is the Grand Canyon a good example of?"? OPTIONS:
- no
- yes

Answer:
no

Chinese Influences: The Japanese were forced out of the Korean peninsula in the sixth century, but not before the Koreans had bequeathed to the Yamato court copies of the sacred images and scriptures of Chinese Buddhism. Just as Christianity introduced Mediterranean culture into northern Europe, so Buddhism brought Chinese culture into Japanese society. Throughout the seventh and eighth centuries numerous Japanese monks, scholars, and artists made the perilous trip west across the Sea of Japan to study Chinese religion, history, music, literature, and paintinglater to be brought back for further development in Japan. An outstanding figure of this time was Prince Shotoku, who in 604 developed the "Seventeen-Article Constitution," outlining a code of human conduct and the ideals of state as a basic law for the nation. He also established relations with the Sui dynasty in China. Through him, the Japanese imperial court developed Chinese patterns of centralized government, with its formal bureaucracy of eight court ranks. The Chinese calendar was used to calculate the year of Japan's foundation by counting back the 1,260 years of the Chinese cosmological cycle. Thus, 660 b.c. is still the official date celebrated nationwide. At this early stage in its history Japan was already (for the most part) only nominally ruled by the emperor. De facto power was exercised by the militarily and economically strongest family. The Sogas had promoted Buddhism as an imperially sanctioned counterweight to the native Shinto religion, along with the new Chinese customs, to weaken the influence of their more conservative rivals. But they in turn were ousted in a.d. 645 by Nakatomi Kamatari, founder of the great Fujiwara clan, which was to rule Japanese affairs for hundreds of years and provide prominent advisers to the emperor even up to the 19th century.

Question: "Who helped the Japanese imperial court develop Chinese patterns of centralized government?"

OPTIONS:
- no
- yes

Answer: "Prince Shotoku"

Response:
yes