Q: Every time Lionel Messi breaks a record, it seems appropriate to compare him to the legends that came before him.

In 2012, he rewrote soccer history on multiple occasions, and his latest record came when he scored his 86th goal of the calendar year, breaking Gerd Muller's previous mark, before wrapping up the year with 91 goals.

All statistics indicate that Messi is currently the best player in the world, and that he will go down in history as the top footballer of his generation. But when he is judged against all-time greats like Pele and Diego Maradona, he still has work to do.

We don't know whether the Barcelona striker will have another year in which he records more than 90 goals, but he must still sustain a similar level of production for the next several seasons.

Messi has already taken part in three of Barcelona's victorious Champions League campaigns, and he played an important role in two of them. In order to firmly establish himself as the greatest club football player in history, he must win the tournament a few more times.

Most importantly, the Argentine needs to win on the international stage. Regardless of what Messi does for Barcelona, his legacy will be incomplete if he cannot win the World Cup with Argentina.

Both Pele and Maradona led their countries to the top of international soccer during their careers, and Messi's performances for his country have been severely disappointing.

While he was still a teenager in 2006 --and his lackluster showing is excusable due to his youth--he cannot brush off the disappointment that characterized Argentina's performance in 2010.

But the 4-0 loss to Germany in the 2010 World Cup Quarter Final seems to have sparked Messi. He scored 12 times for Argentina last year, and the next World Cup could finally be Messi's breakout performance in blue and white stripes.

Due to all of his accomplishments, it is easy to forget that the extraordinary footballer is just 25 years old. If he can avoid injury or lengthy slumps until his speed and skills start to decline due to age, he may continue to break records and win trophies.

Answer the following questions:
1. who is the story about?
2. what is his nationality?
3. what is his profession?
4. is he good at it?
5. in what decade was he in his teens?
6. who does he play for?
7. what is his position?
8. in what year did her score 91 points?
9. who is he compared to?
10. what is his current worldwide ranking?
11. how old is he?
A: 1. Lionel Messi
2. Spanish
3. soccer player
4. Yes
5. 2000s
6. Barcelona
7. striker
8. In 2012
9. Pele and Diego Maradona
10. Messi is currently the best player in the world
11. 25
Q: A historian is a person who researches, studies, and writes about the past, and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is concerned with events preceding written history, the individual is an historian of prehistory. Although "historian" can be used to describe amateur and professional historians alike, it is reserved more recently for those who have acquired graduate degrees in the discipline. Some historians, though, are recognized by publications or training and experience. "Historian" became a professional occupation in the late nineteenth century as research universities were emerging in Germany and elsewhere.

During the "Irving v Penguin Books and Lipstadt" trial, it became evident that the court needed to identify what was an "objective historian" in the same vein as the reasonable person, and reminiscent of the standard traditionally used in English law of "the man on the Clapham omnibus". This was necessary so that there would be a legal bench mark to compare and contrast the scholarship of an objective historian against the methods employed by David Irving, as before the "Irving v Penguin Books and Lipstadt" trial, there was no legal precedent for what constituted an objective historian.

Answer the following questions:
1. when did historian become a professional occupation?
2. where?
3. what trial is mentioned?
4. what did the court need?
5. for what?
6. can historians study pre-history?
7. what are they specifically called?
8. what do you need to have now to regarded as a historian these days?
9. can amateurs be referred to as historians?
10. was there legal precedent before the Irving V Pengquin Books and Lipstadt trial?
A: 1. late nineteenth century
2. Germany and elsewhere
3. "Irving v Penguin Books and Lipstadt"
4. legal precedent
5. constituted an objective historian
6. Yes
7. historian of prehistory
8. graduate degrees
9. Yes
10. No
Q: CHAPTER IX: A PAINFUL TIME

When Ned was left alone he rolled himself up in the blankets, placed a pillow which Polly had brought him under his head, and lay and looked at the fire; but it was not until the flames had died down, and the last red glow had faded into blackness that he fell off to sleep.

His thoughts were bitter in the extreme. He pictured to himself the change which would take place in his home life with Mulready the manufacturer, the tyrant of the workmen, ruling over it. For himself he doubted not that he would be able to hold his own.

"He had better not try on his games with me," he muttered savagely. "Though I am only sixteen he won't find it easy to bully me; but of course Charlie and Lucy can't defend themselves. However, I will take care of them. Just let him be unkind to them, and see what comes of it! As to mother, she must take what she gets, at least she deserves to. Only to think of it! only to think of it! Oh, how bitterly she will come to repent! How could she do it!

"And with father only dead a year! But I must stand by her, too. I promised father to be kind to her, though he could never have guessed how she would need it. He meant that I would only put up, without losing my temper, with her way of always pretending to be ill, and never doing anything but lie on the sofa and read poetry. Still, of course, it meant I was to be kind anyhow, whatever happened, and I will try to be so, though it is hard when she has brought such trouble upon us all.

Answer the following questions:
1. How old was Fred?
2. Did Ned have family?
3. Who?
4. Where is his father?
5. Did he have siblings?
6. Were they older or younger?
7. Did he feel as if he had to protect them?
8. How did he feel about his mother?
9. Why?
10. What had Ted promised his father?
11. Was he bitter?
12. When did he finally fall asleep?
13. Did he have a blanket?
14. Who was he thinking about?
15. Who was that?
16. Was he known to be a tyrant?
17. What did his mother like to read?
18. Where would she do that?
19. Was she dating Mulready?
20. Was Mulready in control of their home?
A:
1. sixteen
2. yes
3. a mother
4. dead
5. yes
6. unknown
7. yes
8. she must take what she gets
9. she deserves to
10. to be kind to her
11. no
12. when the flames had died dow
13. yes
14. Mulready
15. the manufacturer,
16. yes
17. poetry
18. on the sofa
19. unknown
20. yes