Q: In South America, the rich soil of the Amazon River basin in Brazil is known as "black gold". Scientists found that the secret of this rich soil was charcoal . Local people made it from animal bones and tree branches. They mixed the charcoal with the soil about 1.500 years ago.

Now, scientists in the United States have done a modern demonstration. They say charcoal fertilization offers a revolutionary way to improve soil quality for hundreds or even thousands of years.

Mingxin Guo and his team at Delavare State University heated tree leaves, corn stalks , small pieces of wood and poultry waste into "biochar" . They reported their findings at a recent meeting of the American Chemical Society in New Orleans.

Biochar could be good news for farmers with poor soil and hungry populations to feed. Professor Guo says it could even help against global warming. Intensive farming and overuse of chemical fertilizer give out carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Biochar does the opposite, he says. It traps carbon in the ground.

The researchers planted winter wheat in containers of soil in a greenhouse -- some with biochar, some without. Professor Guo says the wheat grows much better in the pots with biochar. The soil was added two percent charcoal to. But he says even a one percent treatment will increase productivity.

The results demonstrated that biochar can increase organic matter in soil. Loss of nutrients in soil is an increasing problem worldwide as farmers try to grow more food for growing populations.

Next, the team will carry out a five-year study of biochar with spinach , green peppers and tomatoes.

Mingxin Guo says he learns about the "black gold" in Brazil from a magazine story. He explains that it was discovered in the jungle, in the area where waters flow to the Amazon, in the 1960's. But it was not until recent years that scientists began to bring public attention to it.

1. Brazil
2. the secret of this rich soil was charcoal
3. black gold
4. Local people
5. animal bones and tree branches
6. 1.500 years ago
7. United States
8. Mingxin Guo
9. Mingxin Guo and his team at Delavare State University
10. Delavare State University
11. heated tree leaves, corn stalks , small pieces of wood and poultry waste into "biochar"
12. Amazon River basin in Brazil
13. in the 1960's

Numbered questions:
1. Where is the Amazon River basin located?
2. What kind of soil if found there?
3. What is the rich soil also known as?
4. Who made the soil the way it is?
5. Using what?
6. When did they do this?
7. What country is doing modern demonstrations of this method?
8. Who is the scientist that is heading this project?
9. Does he work alone?
10. What school does he work for?
11. How did he learn about black gold?
12. Where was black gold discovered?
13. When?

Q: Ruby is a dynamic, reflective, object-oriented, general-purpose programming language. It was designed and developed in the mid-1990s by Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto in Japan.

According to its creator, Ruby was influenced by Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, and Lisp. It supports multiple programming paradigms, including functional, object-oriented, and imperative. It also has a dynamic type system and automatic memory management.

Ruby was conceived on February 24, 1993. In a 1999 post to the "ruby-talk" mailing list, Ruby author Yukihiro Matsumoto describes some of his early ideas about the language:

Matsumoto describes the design of Ruby as being like a simple Lisp language at its core, with an object system like that of Smalltalk, blocks inspired by higher-order functions, and practical utility like that of Perl.

The name "Ruby" originated during an online chat session between Matsumoto and Keiju Ishitsuka on February 24, 1993, before any code had been written for the language. Initially two names were proposed: "Coral" and "Ruby". Matsumoto chose the latter in a later e-mail to Ishitsuka. Matsumoto later noted a factor in choosing the name "Ruby" it was the birthstone of one of his colleagues.

The first public release of Ruby 0.95 was announced on Japanese domestic newsgroups on December 21, 1995. Subsequently, three more versions of Ruby were released in two days. The release coincided with the launch of the Japanese-language "ruby-list" mailing list, which was the first mailing list for the new language.

1. a programming language
2. Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto
3. Japan.
4. "Coral"
5. it was the birthstone of one of his colleagues
6. on February 24, 1993
7. on December 21, 1995
8. yes
9. "ruby-talk" mailing list
10. Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, and Lisp
11. yes
12. practical utility

Numbered questions:
1. What is Ruby?
2. who created it?
3. where is he from?
4. what other name was considered for it?
5. What made him decide on Ruby?
6. When did he first think about creating it?
7. when was it first available to the public?
8. were more versions made available?
9. what did he call the mailing list?
10. what influenced him when creating the language?
11. did it have automoatic memory management?
12. What characteristic of Perl did he want to emulate?

Q: On February 9 th,2013,Sarah Darling was walking along the street when she met a homeless man named Billy Ray Harris.She reached into her change purse,emptied out all the coins she had and gave them to the homeless man.Neither of them realized that this small generous act would change their lives. Sarah didn't realize that she had given Billy not only all her change but also her diamond ring that she had put in her change purse earlier until the following morning.She and her husband,Bill Krejci,rushed to see if they could find Billy.The homeless man was not only in the same place,he also immediately returned the ring.The grateful couple paid him back for his honesty by emptying out their pockets of all the money they had. Bill Krejci,a web designer,felt that he needed to do something more for this amazingly honest man.So on February 18th,he set up a special page to raise money for him.In just four days,Billy received over $ 85,000 and there seems to be no end yet. That is not enough.Billy is 1iving with a person who is generous instead of living in the streets.And that's not all--thanks to the news report,he got together again with his older brother,Edwin Harris who he had been unable to find for 27 years. All the good luck is just because Billy did the right thing--returning something that did not belong to him.

1. her diamond ring
2. Yes
3. Billy Ray Harris
4. On February 9 th
5. Yes
6. he is a web designer
7. he set up a special page
8. over $ 85,000 so far
9. February 18th
10. his older brother
11. 27 years
12. Edwin Harris
13. he did the right thing
14. Yes
15. all the coins she had

Numbered questions:
1. What did Sarah give the man by mistake?
2. did she get it back?
3. what was the name of the homeless man?
4. what day did she meet him?
5. was he in the same place the following day?
6. What does Bill Krejci do for work?
7. what did he set up for Billy?
8. how much did it raise?
9. on what day?
10. who was billy reunited with
11. how long were they apart?
12. what is his brother's name?
13. why did billy get all this good luck?
14. was the couple grateful?
15. what did Sarah think she gave Billy?