question: CHAPTER XXIII.

AGAIN AT CROKER'S HALL.

About three o'clock on that day Mr Whittlestaff came home. The pony-carriage had gone to meet him, but Mary remained purposely out of the way. She could not rush out to greet him, as she would have done had his absence been occasioned by any other cause. But he had no sooner taken his place in the library than he sent for her. He had been thinking about it all the way down from London, and had in some sort prepared his words. During the next half hour he did promise himself some pleasure, after that his life was to be altogether a blank to him. He would go. To that only had he made up his mind. He would tell Mary that she should be happy. He would make Mrs Baggett understand that for the sake of his property she must remain at Croker's Hall for some period to which he would decline to name an end. And then he would go.

"Well, Mary," he said, smiling, "so I have got back safe."

"Yes; I see you have got back."

"I saw a friend of yours when I was up in London."

"I have had a letter, you know, from Mr Gordon."

"He has written, has he? Then he has been very sudden."

"He said he had your leave to write."

"That is true. He had. I thought that, perhaps, he would have taken more time to think about it."

"I suppose he knew what he had to say," said Mary. And then she blushed, as though fearing that she had appeared to have been quite sure that her lover would not have been so dull.
1. what time did the man arrive?
2. what was his name?
3. where had he been?
4. was he met on his arrival?
5. did Mary greet him on his return home?
6. who did?
7. did he send for mary?
8. where was he when he did that?
9. did mary get a letter?
10. from who?
****
answer: 1. About three o'clock
2. Mr Whittlestaff
3. in London
4. yes
5. no
6. The pony-carriage
7. yes
8. in the library
9. yes
10. Mr Gordon

CHAPTER XXXI

THIRLWELL'S REWARD

Winter was nearly over when, one evening, George and Scott arrived at the Farnam homestead where Agatha was a guest. The house was centrally heated, and when the party gathered in Mrs. Farnam's pretty, warm room, Agatha wondered what Thirlwell was doing in the frozen North. Farnam had invested some money in the mine, and Agatha knew George had come to talk about the company's business.

"Things are not going well with us," he said presently. "Our money's nearly spent and Thirlwell has not been able to get out much ore. I think I told you he suspected Stormont sent the men who staked the claims behind our block, and the fellow's now getting on our track. He's been to see Gardner, Leeson, and one or two others."

"It would be awkward if they turned us down," Farnam remarked.

Agatha waited. She knew Gardner and Leeson held a number of the shares, but she did not understand the matter yet.

"Very awkward," George agreed. "I went to Leeson, and although he didn't say much, I reckon Stormont wants to buy his stock. He allowed that he and Gardner were not satisfied about our prospects, and I couldn't give him much ground for holding on. Then I went to Hill, who said he'd got an offer for his stock and meant to sell, but wouldn't name the buyer. I suspected Stormont again, but we won't know until we get the transfer form."

"One could head him off by bidding higher for the shares," Farnam suggested. "Still I suppose it's impossible. Anyhow, I have no more money." What are the answers to this following set of questions: 1. Where did George and Scott arrive?
2. Who was a guest there?
3. Which season was it?
4. Was Winter just beginning?
5. How far along?
6. Where did the party gather?
7. What was the temperature like in the room?
8. What had Farnam invested in ?
9. What did Farnam wish to discuss?
10. Were things going well for the company?
11. Why?
12. Who was suspected of staking claims behind their block?
13. Had he been to see anyone else?
14. Who?
15. Did they have any shares?
16. How many?
17. Did Agatha have a good understanding of the matter?
18. Whose stock does Stormont want to buy?
19. Does Hill mean to sell?
20. How much money does Farnam have left?
Answer: 1. at the Farnam homestead
2. Agatha
3. Winter
4. No
5. Nearly over
6. Mrs. Farnam's room
7. Warm
8. in the mine
9. unknown
10. No
11. The money was nearly spent they hadn't gotten much ore
12. Stormont
13. Yes
14. Gardner, Leeson, and one or two others
15. Yes
16. unknown
17. No
18. Leeson's and Hill's
19. Yes
20. None

input: Make use of the article to answer the questions. (CNN) -- Long before Chen Guangcheng became internationally known as a human rights crusader, villagers near his home knew him as the man to go to when they had trouble with local authorities.

Despite having little formal legal education, Chen began advocating on behalf of villagers in 1996 at the age of 25, according to China Human Rights Defenders, a China-based human rights group.

Chen has been at the center of a burgeoning international impasse since his dramatic escape last week from the guards who kept him under house arrest in a small village in eastern China. He was confined to his home after serving four years in prison, apparently over his legal advocacy for what he called victims of abusive practices such as forced abortions by China's family planning officials.

Fellow activists say he made his way to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, where he remains as the United States and China try to sort out the future for Chen, who has sought to call attention to the practice of forced abortions and sterilizations in China.

Yet he never sought out to be a rabble-rouser, said New York University law professor Jerome Cohen, who first met Chen when the activist traveled to the United States as part of a State Department program in 2004.

"You got the feeling you were in the presence of some Chinese equivalent of Gandhi or something," Cohen said. "He had this gentle but steely moral force."

Chen was born in 1971 in Dongshigu, a small farming village in eastern Shandong province, more than 400 kilometers (248 miles) from Beijing. 1. Who escaped?
2. From where?
3. What kind of punishment was he serving?
4. Was he guarded?
5. Had he already served prison time?
6. How much?
7. Why was he originally in trouble?
8. Where did he escape to?
9. In what city?
10. What issues is he concerned with?
11. When did he began advocating?
12. How old was he then?
13. Where was he born?
14. In China?
15. In what year?
16. How far is Donshigu from Beijing?
17. Was it a large town?
18. What is Jerome Cohen's profession?
19. At which university?
20. Had he met Chen before?
21. When?
22. Where did they meet?
23. Who did he compare Chen to?
numbered_answers:
1. Chen
2. a small village in eastern China.
3. house arrest
4. yes
5. yes
6. four years
7. legal advocacy
8. the U.S. Embassy
9. Beijing
10. forced abortions and sterilizations
11. 1996
12. 25
13. Dongshigu
14. yes
15. 1971
16. more than 248 miles
17. no
18. law professor
19. New York University
20. yes
21. 2004
22. in the United States
23. Gandhi