text:
BY SUMANT SINHA
This year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting at Davos, Switzerland, that will take place during January 23-26 comes with a very different background from the last few years. For one, 2017 turned out to be a much better year for the global economy than had been anticipated.

Global growth was a healthy 3.5% and well distributed across the world. Stock markets were on a tear, including here in India, clocking returns not seen since the halcyon pre-financial crisis days. While there has been a lot of talk about ‘economic nationalism’, nothing fundamentally changed in the global order.

The conversation at Davos is likely to be more optimistic than it has been in the last few years. This year’s theme is ‘Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World’.

The first subagenda, the ‘Global Agenda’, seeks to support efforts to improve global governance mechanisms and advance major multilateral processes, such as the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. The ‘Geopolitical Agenda’ seeks to improve the adaptation to change by global leaders. The ‘Economic Agenda’ will focus on supporting sustainable and inclusive economic development, while the ‘Regional Agenda’ will examine the social and economic transformations occurring across the world.

In the ‘Industry and Business Agenda’, participants will contribute to the shaping of new industry ecosystems and help industry and government leaders prepare for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Finally, in the ‘Future Agenda’, attendees will share ideas, innovations and discoveries that will have a global impact.

About 3,000 business leaders, 350 high-ranking officials, including 60 Heads of State and Government, will participate in the four-day forum. The presence of US President Donald Trump has created unprecedented media attention. There will also be French President Emmanuel Macron.

For India, this year will be even more important due to the participation of the Indian PM after 20 years. For Prime Minister Narendra Modi, there are two clear agenda points. The first is to continue to aggressively promote India as an investment destination. We need much more investment, and what better forum than Davos with its high concentration of global CEOs, investors and influencers to make a pitch.

The ‘Make in India’ campaign needs to be re-energised for better results. There is much for the PM to tout as far as his economic track record is concerned, not least of which is the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the sound macro fundamentals, the resolution of non-performing assets (NPAs), the structural reforms of specific sectors, and the positive outlook for faster growth. India continues to be the fastest growing large economy in the world with increasing consumer demand.

The PM will need to nudge foreign investors further in that direction. At Davos, he has to be India’s marketing chief. The second agenda for Modi will be to lay out India’s position in this ever-changing world, and his personal views as the prime representative of a sixth of humanity. Are we willing to shelve the shibboleths of the past – India’s ‘socialist’ orientation, the vestiges of our ‘non-alignment’, our aloofness from global trade and investment, and our ‘difficulties’ in doing business -- and boldly take the lead, especially as the US vacates leadership space and China rushes in to fill the vacuum?

In such a context, the world will be comparing and contrasting the positions of Xi Jinping from last year’s forum -- where the Chinese premier appeared willing to take on leadership for an open global order and made quite a splash in doing so -- with the vision that Modi will present.

The PM is likely to use the Davos platform to state India’s views on this emerging new world order. India has also taken a strong domestic position on climate change. But combating climate change needs constant leadership and the world needs to be shepherded along in that direction. India can take the lead in this area and Modi can put his weight behind it. So this year, Davos will move the global agenda forward.

_THE WRITER IS CHAIRMAN-CEO, RENEW POWER AND WILL BE AT DAVOS 2018_

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of www.economictimes.com.)

question:
Answer the following question based on the above passage:

What does the text say about the World Economic Forum?

answer: The World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting at Davos, Switzerland, that took place during January 23-26 in 2017 kicked off with a better global economy than anticipated. The theme of the forum that year was Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World.

text: This should be written in the present tense.

refinement: The World Economic Forum (WEF) is meeting in Davos, Switzerland, during January 23-26 in 2017. The meeting is kicking off with a better global economy than anticipated. The theme of the forum is Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World.

text: The second sentence is irrelevant to the question.

refinement: The World Economic Forum (WEF) is meeting in Davos, Switzerland, during January 23-26 in 2017. The theme of the forum is Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World.

text: The stats about attendees should be included.

refinement: The World Economic Forum (WEF) is meeting in Davos, Switzerland, during January 23-26 in 2017. Approximately 3,00 business leaders and 350 officials, including 60 heads of state and government are anticipated as attendees. The theme of the forum is Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World.

answer: The World Economic Forum meeting is to take place at Davos, Switzerland between January 23-26. It will be attended by 3,000 business leaders, 350 high ranking officials including 60 Heads of State and Government. The theme of the meeting this year is "Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World".

answer: The World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting at Davos, Switzerland, that took place during January 23-26 in 2017 kicked off with a better global economy than anticipated. The theme of the forum that year was Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World. The agenda of the forum includes the Global Agenda, the Geopolitical Agenda, the Economic Agenda, the Regional Agenda, the Industry and Business Agenda, and the Future Agenda.

question:
Answer the following question based on the above passage:

What does the text say about the Forum in 2016?

answer: In 2016, the theme for the WEF in Davos, Switzerland was "Mastering the Fourth Industrial Revolution." It is likely that due to the terrible year for most economies, the theme means focusing on change and preparing for it, regardless of the type. The fact that very few changes were made to the global economy in 2016 after the financial crisis shows that the implementation of better change is not working.

text: The text doesn't say anything about it.

answer: No answer

answer: In 2016, the theme for the WEF in Davos, Switzerland was "Mastering the Fourth Industrial Revolution." It is likely that due to the terrible year for most economies, the theme means focusing on change and preparing for it, regardless of the type. The fact that very few changes were made to the global economy in 2016 after the financial crisis shows that the implementation of better change is not working.


split: test

text:
Click.

It is the sound of a Cherry MX Blue--arguably the best keyswitch for typing. Arguable because maybe you don't need the whole house to know that you're typing. Best because there is a little tiny gavel in each one that--no matter how gingerly you caress the key--hammers down with the force of 2.4*10^-19 atomic bombs. "I'm not sure whether the key actually got pressed," said nobody ever while typing on Cherry MX Blues.

Despite being absolutely, positively, the sound that a Cherry MX Blue would make--a sound whose whole point is to have no duration, to mark a single moment and only that moment--the scientists assure us that it is still happening. Not like the "click click click click," which is what is coming from the keys at my fingertips as I type this, but like "clicccccccc....." on for ever. Except that there never really was a "cli..." and maybe there will never really be a "..k."

The whole click is there in the signal, but the front and back of it, they say, are "non-local". Usually, when they say this, they are pointing at a pair of graphs, one of whose axes appears to be approaching a vertical asymtote according to the other. They make about as much sense of it as they ever do.

Apparently, if you're on a finite timeline, and you have a deadline tomorrow, you can just hang a left. Your new time axis runs parallel to the deadline, so they never intersect, and you never have to go to work again. The math all checks out, we're told--it's just that nobody has figured out how to actually do this. Not even the guy that pressed the big omnipresent MX Blue in the sky--he's non-local too. Whatever happened when he pressed that key, it may have set our clocks on a path where they would never see his deadline, but there's no reason to believe that it will save him.

What is he writing?

Some say that he had been up all night writing the laws of physics into a computer program, and that the click that we're hearing is the enter key that God pressed to start the universe running. This is, unsuprisingly, the position of the scientists who discovered the signal. Newton would have been one of these, had he live at the right time--Plato too. Little has changed for them, they're still bickering with the mathematicians about which language the universe is written in, and whether we'd notice if the program halted.

Others think it's a work of fiction. Well, fiction for him at least. The more optimistic of these think it's his first keystroke--a shift key to make the 'O' in "Once upon a time..." Whether it's a story about them, and whether they turn out to be a hero or a villain, comes down to how hero-worthy or villain-worthy their life turns out to be.

Hundreds of variations of the "which key?" story have emerged. Each, like these, comes equipped with its own particular philosophical--and ultimately political--overtones. Fractures appeared among even the most cohesive societies: The debate over whether the pope had the right to chose the church's favored key has bumbled on awkwardly for years now. It has become apparent that the two-party system is unstabe in a universe that thinks it was created on a 105-key keyboard. The last thing we all needed was yet another thing for schoolchildren to form cliques over.

Three years ago, the largest sensor array on the planet was completed and powered on--we needed to know. It was theorized that despite the non-locality of the click as we hear it, there would be other objects in the author's world that it was local to. If there was any delay at all when our world forked off orthognally to the author's timeline, the sound should have reflected off of the neighboring keys. With a good enough sampling of the signal, we might be able to build a map.

Almost immediately they ruled out the possibility of the click having come from a spacebar--but nobody was suprised by this, spacebars sound much different than other keys due to their shape. Since then, the facility has remained silent--aware of the societal impact of an announcement, they have promised to keep quiet until they were absolutely sure.

That is, until today. The world is scrambling to make sense of the result. Apparently, it's a backspace. The talking heads are still working at adjusting their worldviews so that they can have been right all along. It will probably only take a few hours. But until that happens, the world is quiet except for a small handful.

105 keys, 9 billion people--somebody was bound to be right. According to them, everything to the left of the cursor is unchangeable to us. There it is written that the speed of light is about three hundred mega-meters per second, and pointed out that farts are funny. Moments before the backspace happened, there was also text describing what we were all going to do next. Perhaps not for the rest of eternity, but long enough that we would have no choice but carry it out for the time being.

When the author backspaced over that text, he freed us from his plans. We are the potentiality that he decided against--and at the moment of deletion the burden of experiencing us transfered from his mind, to ours. Our reality, according to the backspacers, is where that particular fiction went because it failed to stick to the page.

I probably should give this more time to sink in, maybe sleep on it, but I'm delerious with the concept. In a certain sense it has always been known that you could create a universe in your mind and then capture it on the page, but to think that all of the alternative worlds--worlds created by every edit, every time you forgot to save--would continue on without you... It's fantastic.

Now, it might be nothing, but there is a rumor that began circulating a week before the announcement. The rumor correctly predicted both the timing of the announcement and the announced key. According to the rumor, they found something more. Supposedly there's a second signal, and "it looks like text."

Now, I have a deadline coming up, and I don't know how to make the kind of left turn that avoids the arrival of tomorrow. Not for myself at least. Before I get to work, I'm going to backspace over this entire story. If it shows up in your cosmic background, I'll have no way of knowing, but you'll know that I went to work so that you could keep on being a dream.

And if you feel like it, write me into some unfinished fiction of your own, even if only for a moment. With a bit of luck, we'll build an even bigger sensor and discover your story written on our sky.

title: Click [SF]

question:
Answer the following question based on the above passage:

Summarize the role of the keyboard in this story.

answer: The user of the keyboard is non-local, which means their actions are not directly causing the click and because of that, the science can be delayed indefinitely. The keyboard is part of a computer program.

text: The role of the keyboard is far more complex than the response would suggest - it ignores the existential philosophy entirely.

refinement: They keyboard is used to describe how a universe could come into existence - the idea that the click of a keyboard is the signal that started the universe and other universes as we know them are the main role of the keyboard in the story.

answer: There is a Cherry MX Blue keyboard with 105 keys, which the author likes to describe as the best keyswitch for typing because of its click sounds. Initially, the click is a non-local sound, which means that it does not have a duration and that it marks only a single moment. The events in this story started with a backspace key on the keyboard being pressed.

text: The role of the keyboard is far more complex than the response would suggest - it ignores the existential philosophy entirely.

refinement: They keyboard is used to describe how a universe could come into existence - the idea that the click of a keyboard is the signal that started the universe and other universes as we know them are the main role of the keyboard in the story.

answer: The user of the keyboard is non-local, which means their actions are not directly causing the click and because of that, the science can be delayed indefinitely. The keyboard is part of a computer program. The clicks that the keyboard would have imprinted are sound waves that create a fingerprint of history.

question:
Answer the following question based on the above passage:

Summarize what types of keyboards there are that accommodate different types of work.

answer: No answer

answer: The article is about Cherry MX Blue, which is a keyboard that is best for typing.

text: There isnät more than one keyboard mentioned in the story si it would be better to say there is no answer to the question.


text:
_Battlefield V_’s decision to prominently feature women in combat as part of its World War II setting may have angered some gamers online — who responded to the inclusion of female soldiers with the #NotMyBattlefield hashtag — but developers at Electronic Arts and DICE remain unmoved by the reaction.

In an interview with __ _Gamasutra_, EA chief creative officer Patrick Söderlund says that the developer is uninterested in taking flak for diversifying the gaming space. “We stand up for the cause, because I think those people who don’t understand it, well, you have two choices: either accept it or don’t buy the game,” he says. “I’m fine with either or.” According to Söderlund, the dev team itself also pushed for women in _Battlefield V._

In an interview with _The Verge_ this week, lead designer Lars Gustavsson says that he was surprised by the negative reaction to the inclusion of women, particularly because he had heard so many fans ask for it. “If I got a dollar for every interview I’ve been in through the years, where people challenged us about not having female soldiers, I would be a rich man,” he says. “So to finally be involved with this decision, it’s actually quite mindblowing.”

Many of those who used the #NotMyBattlefield hashtag complained that the inclusion of women was “historically inaccurate,” despite women playing a variety of roles during WWII as everything from fighter pilots to snipers. Söderlund found the response to be both ignorant and beside the point. ”These are people who are uneducated — they don’t understand that this is a plausible scenario, and listen: this is a game,” he says.

Executive producer Aleksander Grøndal also pushed back against the hashtag, saying the developer “will always put fun over authentic.” Nor is this a new development for the series. As general manager Oskar Gabrielson explained on Twitter, “the _Battlefield_ sandbox has always been about playing the way you want.” This sometimes means offering fantastical experiences that are neither realistic nor historically accurate, “like attempting to fit three players on a galloping horse, with flamethrowers. With _BFV_ you also get the chance to play as who you want. This is #everyonesbattlefield.”

EA’s dogged response to this debacle marks another instance of creators standing up against toxic fan bases who seek to rail against diversity and what they view as “PC politics.” When creators speak out against bad actors — whether they’re addressing Comicsgate, _Rick and Morty_, or harassment from _Star Wars_ fans — they’re sending a powerful message about how abusive and exclusionary behavior will not be tolerated.

Gaming today is more gender-diverse than it’s ever been, Söderlund says, and there are “a lot of female people who want to play, and male players who want to play as a badass [woman].” In trying to explain the so-called controversy to his own 13-year-old daughter, Söderlund says he came to realize how ridiculous the conceit of the online backlash was. “I’m like, okay, as a parent, how the hell am I gonna respond to this? And I just said, ‘You know what? You’re right,’” says Söderlund. “‘This is not okay.’”

_CORRECTION: A quote from Lars Gustavsson was originally attributed to Oskar Gabrielson. We have corrected our story and regret the error._

question:
Answer the following question based on the above passage:

What does the article say about gamers?

answer: The article says that gamers are uneducated and ignorant. They don't understand that the inclusion of women in Battlefield V is a plausible scenario.

text: The response should clarify that this is what the game developer said in response to a specific group of gamers.

refinement: The article cites EA CCO Patrick Söderland as saying that the gamers protesting the inclusion of women are uneducated and ignorant, that they don't understand that the inclusion of women in Battlefield V is a plausible scenario.

answer: The article says that gamers are uneducated and ignorant. They don't understand that the inclusion of women in Battlefield V is a plausible scenario. They are also against the inclusion of women in the game.

answer: Gamers are not happy about the inclusion of women in Battlefield V. Some of them are using the hashtag #NotMyBattlefield to express their anger.

question:
Answer the following question based on the above passage:

What does the article say about the gaming performance of RGB LEDs?

answer: No answer

answer: The article doesn't mention anything about RGB LEDs.


text:
Heyoo everyone. This is a story I wrote for my intro to creative writing class. I'm thinking about double majoring of maybe minoring in the subject. If you could let me know what you think of the story that'd be very nice of you. Thanks.
p.s.--brutal honesty is encouraged

Baby Ray
Raymond was my little brother. We called him Baby Ray until he was old enough to tell us to shut up, and after that we just called him Ray. The same year Ray was born my parents got us a dog. A huge Bernese mountain dog named Theodore.

Theodore was the coolest dog ever. He grew to mammoth proportions, but when he was a puppy people used to think he was a stuffed animal. Without a doubt, that dog was the motherfuckin’ bee’s-knees. He was the smartest dog I ever met. I know everyone thinks that their dog is the best, but Theodore really was. Ray used to ride atop him like he was a horse, pulling his ears like they were reigns and screaming with laughter. I swear he understood English perfectly. We would ask him, “Where’s Mom?” and he’d lead us right to her. It even seemed like he understood the jokes we made, howling along with my brother and I as we laughed at whatever stupid joke the other had made.

Walking Theodore was considered to be a “chore”, but my brother and I both enjoyed the activity. We’d switch off days of the week for who got to walk him. It was my favorite part of the day. Just me and Theodore, walking down the street. Straight chillin’. When Ray and I got older we would roll up little joints and walk Theodore to the woods. Once we were there, we’d smoke and take him off the leash. While we lazily strolled around the woods, Theodore would run ahead. He never went far though, always waiting for us and staying within eyesight. Whenever we got a bit too baked and got lost, he always could smell his way back to the car. That dog was awesome, and we loved him like he was a long, lost third brother.

I was 16 the day that Theodore died. I was playing my favorite video game, Crash Bandicoot, on PlayStation, when I heard a scream coming from the front yard. My mom was out there gardening, and I knew there was nothing in the yard that could make her scream like that. I jumped off the couch and ran outside. Theodore was lying dead in the middle of the street. Apparently a car had whipped around the corner too fast and had hit him right in front of our house. He died right away.

I was kneeling in the road next to his body before I realized that my mom was doing the same thing. Except she was kneeling next to my little brother, a pool of blood gathering around his head, Theodore’s leash still gripped in his hand.

The way I felt about Theodore was pretty similar to the way I felt about Ray. Just the way Theodore was the best dog in the world, Ray was the best little brother in the world. He was a hilarious little kid, and was oddly wise for his young age. Even though I was two years older than him, I often found myself going to him for advice. He was one of my best friends.

That all changed after the accident. Ray had suffered brain damage and entered what the doctors called a “vegetative state”. This turned out to be permanent.

Years went by. Ray made no improvements. He was a vegetable, in a coma. He responded to nothing. No blinking, no head movement—nothing at all. I couldn’t stand to see my little brother like that. The kid who had once schooled me at Super Smash Bro’s, who I had taught to shoot a basketball, was now breathing only with the help of machines. He would never walk again, or laugh, or do any of the cool shit we had always said we would.

One day, about 3 years after the accident, the doctors came in the room to discuss something with my mom. This was weird, and signified to us that something important was afoot. My brother had a whole slew of doctors that attended to him, but never had they all been together in the room at the same time. My mother and I were sitting next to my brother’s bed when they walked in, reading the newspaper to him. My mom believed that he could hear what was going on around him, and that he especially enjoyed the paper. When he woke up, she reasoned, he would want to be up on current events.

“Excuse us,” the most senior looking doctor said. “Could we have a moment?” The doctors asked me to leave the room so they could speak to my mother, and obviously, I refused. If there was something they had to say about Ray, then they could damn well say it in front of me. My mom agreed. “He can stay,” she told them, although they clearly weren’t happy about it, judging from the looks they shot each other. They kept it short and sweet. “Ray’s been with us for three years now, and he hasn’t shown any sign of improvement. He is in a permanent vegetative state, and will be that way for the rest of his life. You may want to consider taking him off life support.”

 My mom took this a lot better than I thought she would. It was because she fully held onto hope that my brother would one day wake up totally fine, as if he were simply waking up from a really long nap. Every morning she started her day thinking, knowing, that that would be the day my brother was sitting up in his bed waiting for her when she walked into his room.

Every morning, my mom woke up at 6am and got ready for the day, which consisted of sitting at the hospital. Every single day, she sat in that uncomfortable plastic chair next to Ray’s bed. Reading, talking, and praying for her empty shell of a son. Her life had turned into a constant observance of my brother’s horrible state. She was trapped in her refusal to accept the truth—that her baby Ray was gone. I had come to terms with the fact that my brother was basically dead, and I knew he would have accepted and agreed with that fact. I knew he would have hated what his “life” had become, and would not want to exist in such a way. I was able to move on with my life because of this. My mom couldn’t.

That’s why I decided to pull the plug.

title: Read==>Feedback==>Thanks.

question:
Answer the following question based on the above passage:

What does the story have to say about Theodore?

answer: The narrator didn't just love their dog, they were very close to them, as siblings are. They loved Theodore just as a friend at that young brother was to them.

text: Coverage and clarity is lacking in this answer - there's a lot more that the story say about the dog.

refinement: Theodore was an enormous Bernese mountain dog that the narrator's parents acquired the same year their younger brother Ray was born. The narrator didn't just love their dog, they were very close to them, as siblings are. They loved Theodore just as a friend at that young brother was to them. The dog was highly intelligent and appeared to understand the narrator and Ray. The narrator and Ray enjoyed taking Theodore on walks and he would help them find their way back to their car when they were too stoned. When the narrator was 16, Theodore was killed by a car.

text: Needs amending for clarity and to remove repetition.

refinement: Theodore was an enormous Bernese mountain dog that the narrator's parents acquired the same year their younger brother Ray was born. The narrator and Ray didn't just love Theodore but treated him as a sibling. The dog was highly intelligent and appeared to understand the narrator and Ray. The narrator and Ray enjoyed taking Theodore on walks and he would help them find their way back to their car when they were too stoned. When the narrator was 16, Theodore was killed by a car.

answer: The dog was huge and incredibly smart. The narrator and his brother performed many activities with the dog such as smoking marijuana and taking him for long walks in the woods. After Theodore died, the narrator's little brother Ray suffered brain damage and became a "vegetable".

text: Additional detail about the dog could be included.

refinement: Theodore the dog was huge and incredibly smart, and was acquired the same year the narrator's little brother Ray was born. The narrator and his brother performed many activities with the dog such as smoking marijuana and taking him for long walks in the woods. When the narrator was 16, Theodore was hit and killed by a car. After Theodore died, the narrator's little brother Ray suffered brain damage and became a "vegetable".

text: Removal of information that is not relevant to answering the question.

refinement: Theodore the dog was huge and incredibly smart, and was acquired the same year the narrator's little brother Ray was born. The narrator and his brother performed many activities with the dog such as smoking marijuana and taking him for long walks in the woods. When the narrator was 16, Theodore was hit and killed by a car.

text: Amended the highlighted sentence for clarity - as it is currently written, it sounds like the narrator, their brother and the dog smoked marijuana together.

refinement: Theodore the dog was huge and incredibly smart, and was acquired the same year the narrator's little brother Ray was born. The narrator and his brother would take the dog for long walks in the woods. When the narrator was 16, Theodore was hit and killed by a car.

answer: The story celebrates Theodore's friendship and loyalty, affectionate interaction with both main characters, and intelligence. Theodore ultimately dies when he is hit by a car, which deeply upsets the main character. The story ultimately describes Theodore as an amazing dog with a profound impact on the characters of the story.

text: The last sentence merely reiterates what has been stated before, and can be removed.

refinement: The story celebrates Theodore's friendship and loyalty, affectionate interaction with both main characters, and intelligence. Theodore ultimately dies when he is hit by a car, which deeply upsets the main character.

text: Could include more detail about Theodore

refinement: The story celebrates Theodore's friendship and loyalty, affectionate interaction with both main characters, and intelligence. Theodore was a huge dog that the main characters acquired the same year that Ray was born, and they enjoyed playing with and walking him. Theodore ultimately dies when he is hit by a car, which deeply upsets the main character.

answer: The story portrays Theodore as a loyal, intelligent creature with a keen understanding of human emotions and the ability to navigate a complicated world. He was a source of great joy for both Raymond and the narrator. The dog's death through accident is a huge loss for both brothers. Theodore is remembered fondly for his joyful spirit and intelligence.

text: The last sentence is somewhat repetitive and not wholly relevant.

refinement: The story portrays Theodore as a loyal, intelligent creature with a keen understanding of human emotions and the ability to navigate a complicated world. He was a source of great joy for both Raymond and the narrator. The dog's death through accident is a huge loss for both brothers.

text: It's not clear that the dog's death is a huge loss for Ray, as he is in a vegetative state and almost certainly unaware of the dog's passing.

refinement: The story portrays Theodore as a loyal, intelligent creature with a keen understanding of human emotions and the ability to navigate a complicated world. He was a source of great joy for both Raymond and the narrator. The dog's death through accident is a huge loss for the narrator.

answer: Theodore was the narrator's family dog, a Bernese mountain dog, that they received around the same time the narrator's brother Ray was born. The narrator describes Theodore as the best, smartest, and coolest dog ever. He and his brother used to walk Theodore as a "chore", but he and Ray both loved to walk him. Theodore's life ended when Ray was walking him and both were hit by a car.

question:
Answer the following question based on the above passage:

Summarize the story's main event.

answer: The main event in this story is when Ray sustains serious brain damage after being hit by a car, which places him in a permanent vegetative state. This prompts the doctors to suggest taking him off of life support, and the main character decides to go through with this measure.

answer: Ray's dog, Theodore, is tragically hit by a car, which leads to Ray suffering brain damage. He enters a permanent vegetative state, and the doctors eventually tell the narrator's mother that Ray should be taken off life support

text: The answer omits the narrator's key decision to take Ray off life support.

refinement: Ray's dog, Theodore, is tragically hit by a car, which leads to Ray suffering brain damage. He enters a permanent vegetative state, and the doctors eventually tell the narrator's mother that Ray should be taken off life support. Recognising that Ray will never wake up, the narrator decides to pull the plug.

text: The first sentence needs to be amended as it currently implies that Ray's brain damage is caused by, and occurs subsequent to Theodore being hit by a car; whereas in the passage Ray and Theodore are hit and injured in the same incident.

refinement: Ray's dog, Theodore, is tragically hit by a car, and in the same incident Ray is severely injured and suffers brain damage. He enters a permanent vegetative state, and the doctors eventually tell the narrator's mother that Ray should be taken off life support. Recognising that Ray will never wake up, the narrator decides to pull the plug.

answer: Raymond, the narrator's brother, is hit by a car along with his dog Theodore. This leads to Raymond being in a vegetative state for the rest of his life. Around three years later, the doctors convince Raymond's mother to take him off of life support. The narrator agrees but knows that his mom doesn't agree with his condition and how she behaves accordingly.

text: Should include the narrator's key decision in the final sentence.

refinement: Raymond, the narrator's brother, is hit by a car along with his dog Theodore. This leads to Raymond being in a vegetative state for the rest of his life. Around three years later, the doctors convince Raymond's mother to take him off of life support. The narrator agrees but knows that his mom believes that Raymond will recover; this is why the narrator decides to pull the plug.

answer: When the narrator is 16, both Theodore and Ray are hit by a car. The car kills Theodore and leaves Ray in a vegetative state. The narrator and his mother are devastated. Years go by but Ray makes no improvements.

text: Clarity needed to explain who Theodore and Ray are in relation to the narrator.

refinement: When the narrator is 16, both Theodore, their dog, and Ray, their younger brother, are hit by a car. The car kills Theodore and leaves Ray in a vegetative state. The narrator and his mother are devastated. Years go by but Ray makes no improvements.

text: The later part of the story has been omitted from this summary.

refinement: When the narrator is 16, both Theodore, their dog, and Ray, their younger brother, are hit by a car. The car kills Theodore and leaves Ray in a vegetative state. The narrator and his mother are devastated. Years go by but Ray makes no improvements. The doctors suggest that Ray might need to be taken off life support, and despite his mother's reluctance, the narrator decides to pull the plug.

answer: The main event of the story is the death of the family's dog Theodore and the subsequent vegetative state of their little brother Ray. The doctors recommend taking Ray off life support based on the fact that he will always remain in a vegetative state, and the protagonist ultimately decides to carry out this recommendation.

question:
Answer the following question based on the above passage:

What does the story have to say about the mom's feelings about Ray after the accident?

answer: She continues to sit by his bedside, hoping for the best. She lashes out at the doctors, refusing to give up the last fantasy of her son waking. Through it all, the author realizes that she can't get past this fantasy, so he helps his mom make the final decision to end Ray's life.

text: Some of the information is not relevant to answering the question.

refinement: She continues to sit by his bedside, hoping for the best. She lashes out at the doctors, refusing to give up the last fantasy of her son waking.

text: It is untrue that the mother lashes out at the doctors - in fact she takes the news about her son's permanent vegetative state well.

refinement: She continues to sit by his bedside, hoping for the best. She refuses to give up the last fantasy of her son waking.

text: Could include additional information about the mother's feelings.

refinement: She continues to sit by his bedside, hoping for the best. She refuses to give up the last fantasy of her son waking and believes that he is able to hear her when she visits him daily.

answer: After the accident, Ray's mom refuses to accept the fact that Ray might have died. She becomes a shell of a mother, totally devoted to Ray's recovery. Within her refusal to accept the truth, she traps herself in the horrid memories and loatheside of Ray's state. The story says that it's almost like Ray is still alive, being dependent on life support and ventilator.

text: It is incorrect to describe Ray's mom as 'a shell of a mother' or trapped in horrid memories. Nor it is the case that it's almost like Ray is still alive (rather, she thinks of him as still alive)

refinement: After the accident, Ray's mom refuses to accept the fact that Ray is now vegetative. She becomes totally devoted to Ray's recovery. Within her refusal to accept the truth, she treats Rays as though he is still alive.

text: Additional coverage of the mom's feelings could be included.

refinement: After the accident, Ray's mom refuses to accept the fact that Ray might have died and continues to hope that he will wake up. She becomes totally devoted to Ray's recovery. Within her refusal to accept the truth, she treats Ray as though he is still alive.

answer: The story depicts the mother's feelings as rooted in hope, even though it has been years since the accident. She can't accept that her son has become a vegetable and refuses to agree that there is no sign of improvement. The story, however, also shows that the narrator has resolved to the fact, and believes that Ray would agree with removing him from life support. The story suggests that the mother has not been able to do this, even though she has been given an understandable explanation by the doctor.

answer: The narrator's mom is devastated by the accident that leaves Ray in a vegetative coma. For three years she keeps him on life support and fully believes that he will wake up one day. Her life had become a constant observance of Ray's state. Even when the doctor tells her that Ray hasn't improved and taking him off life support should be considered, the mom remains hopeful Ray will wake up. She is trapped in her refusal to believe that Ray is gone forever, so she is unable to pull the life support plug on him herself.

answer: The mom feels great sadness and loss after her son was injured in the accident and has entered a permanent vegetative state. She refuses to accept the facts of the matter and is stuck in a state of hope, although this becomes frustrating and even painful to see as time goes on. Ultimately, the story suggests that the mom would like to end her son's life in order to end her own suffering, but she can't bring herself to do it.

text: It is not clear from the story that the mom does want to end Ray's life - in fact it suggests the opposite.

refinement: The mom feels great sadness and loss after her son was injured in the accident and has entered a permanent vegetative state. She refuses to accept the facts of the matter and is stuck in a state of hope, although this becomes frustrating and even painful to see as time goes on. Her hope that her son will wake up blinds her to the fact that he is effectively gone.


text:
An SR-25, AR-10 or LR-308 PATTERN MAGAZINE is a type of detachable firearm magazine based on the original Armalite AR-10 “waffle” magazine design introduced in the late 1950s. The design has been used on many AR-10 derivatives (generally referred to as AR-308 style rifles), for instance in the Knight's Armament SR-25 and DPMS Panther LR-308, as well as bolt action rifles such as the Mossberg MVP .308, Ruger Precision Rifle and Q FIX. Aftermarket magazines are produced by Magpul, Lancer Systems, and others.[1] Not all AR-308 rifles use magazines compatible with the SR-25 pattern. For example, HK417/MR308/MR762 uses a proprietary design. Notably, Armalite switched from their original pattern magazines to modified M14 magazines in 1996 with their new AR-10B model,[2] but reintroduced their original (SR-25 pattern) magazine design with the AR-10A model in 2012.[3]

Firearms compatible with SR-25 pattern magazines

AR-10/AR-308 type rifles

-   Armalite AR-10A
-   Bushmaster .308 ORC
-   Colt CM901-16S (.308 configuration)[4]
-   CORE Rifle Systems CORE30[5]
-   DPMS LR308
-   JP Enterprises LRP-07[6]
-   KAC SR-25
-   LaRue OBR
-   Les Baer .308[7]
-   LMT .308 MWS
-   LWRCI REPR[8]
-   M110 SASS
-   Mega Arms MATEN
-   POF P-308
-   PSA PA-10
-   Remington R-25[9]
-   Remington RSASS
-   Ruger SR-762
-   SIG716[10]
-   Smith & Wesson M&P10

Other rifles

-   Mossberg MVP
-   IWI Tavor 7[11]
-   IWI ACE (7.62 NATO version)[12]
-   POF USA ReVolt Heavy
-   Troy Pump Action Rifle (PAR)
-   Q FIX

Notable incompatible firearms

SR-25 pattern magazines are in general not compatible with rifles using Springfield Armory M1A pattern magazines, FN FAL pattern magazines, or HK41/HK91/G3 pattern magazines. As mentioned, the AR-10B variant (produced since 1996) uses proprietary modified M14 magazines, while the AR-10A variant uses standard SR-25 pattern magazines. The Noveske N6 version prior to Gen 3 used AR-10B type magazines, but with the introduction of the N6 Gen 3, however, the design was changed to utilize the more common SR25-type. Rock River Arms LAR8 uses proprietary FAL style magazines.[13] MKEK MPT-76 uses a proprietary design. As mentioned, HK417/MR308/MR762 uses a proprietary magazine. FN SCAR 17S use their own proprietary design.[14] Furhtermore, HK41/HK91/G3 and PTR-91 uses a proprietary design.

[1] Modern AR-10 Magazines: Our Four Top Picks For Dependable, Well-Made AR-10 Magazines - Gun World Magazine

[2] The Original Retro AR-10: Armalite’s AR10B – Forgotten Weapons

[3] New from Armalite: AR-10A - The Truth About Guns

[4] DefenseReview.com - DR Exclusive: Colt CM901 7.62x51mm /.308 Win

[5] Shooter's Bible Guide to AR-15s, 2nd Edition: A Comprehensive Guide to Modern Sporting Rifled and Their Variants, by Doug Howlett and Robb Manning, November 1, 2016

[6] JP LRP-07 Long Range Precision Rifle 7.62mm with Left-Side Charging System – DefenseReview.com

[7] Les Baer .308 Ultimate Match Rifle

[8] Return of the REPR: Wringing Out LWRCI's REPR MKII Rifle

[9] American Hunter | Remington R-25

[10] GUNS Magazine SIG SAUER SIG716 Patrol - GUNS Magazine

[11] Hints of the Future: The TAVOR 7 - The Mag Life

[12] Gun Review: IWI Galil ACE in 7.62 NATO - The Truth About Guns

[13] GUNS Magazine Rock River LAR-8 - GUNS Magazine

[14] https://www.guns.com/news/2012/08/04/custom-scar-17-lower-receiver-handl-defense-sr-25-ar-10-m110-20lr-magazine Custom SCAR 17 Receiver Accepts SR-25/M110 Magazines - Guns.com]

title: SR-25 pattern magazine

question:
Answer the following question based on the above passage:

What does the text say about magazines for the Colt 1911?

answer: No answer

answer: No answer

question:
Answer the following question based on the above passage:

What does the text say about the SR-25, AR-10, or LR-308 Pattern Magazine?

answer: The SR-25, AR-10, or LR-308 Pattern Magazine is a type of detachable firearm magazine based on the original Armalite AR-10 "waffle" magazine design introduced in the late 1950s. The design has been used on many AR-10 derivatives (generally referred to as AR-308 style rifles), for instance in the Knight's Armament SR-25 and DPMS Panther LR-308, as well as bolt action rifles such as the Mossberg MVP .308, Ruger Precision Rifle, and Q FIX. Aftermarket magazines are produced by Magpul, Lancer Systems, and others. Not all AR-308 rifles use magazines compatible with the SR-25 pattern. For example, HK417/MR308/MR762 uses a proprietary design. However, the SR-25 pattern magazines are not compatible with rifles using Springfield Armory M1A pattern magazines, FN FAL pattern magazines, or HK41/HK91/G3 pattern magazines.

answer: The SR-25, AR-10, or LR-308 Pattern Magazine is a type of detachable firearm magazine based on the original Armalite AR-10 "waffle" magazine design introduced in the late 1950s. The design has been used on many AR-10 derivatives (generally referred to as AR-308 style rifles), for instance in the Knight's Armament SR-25 and DPMS Panther LR-308, as well as bolt action rifles such as the Mossberg MVP .308, Ruger Precision Rifle, and Q FIX. Aftermarket magazines are produced by Magpul, Lancer Systems, and others.

answer: The SR-25, AR-10, or LR-308 Pattern Magazine is a type of detachable firearm magazine based on the original Armalite AR-10 "waffle" magazine design introduced in the late 1950s. The design has been used on many AR-10 derivatives (generally referred to as AR-308 style rifles), for instance in the Knight's Armament SR-25 and DPMS Panther LR-308, as well as bolt action rifles such as the Mossberg MVP .308, Ruger Precision Rifle, and Q FIX. Aftermarket magazines are produced by Magpul, Lancer Systems, and others. Not all AR-308 rifles use magazines compatible with the SR-25 pattern. For example, HK417/MR308/MR762 uses a proprietary design.

question:
Answer the following question based on the above passage:

What does the text say about one of the issues with the SR-25 pattern?

answer: The SR-25 pattern is not compatible with rifles using Springfield Armory M1A pattern magazines, FN FAL pattern magazines, or HK417/MR308/MR762 pattern magazines. The AR-10B variant uses proprietary modified M14 magazines, while the AR-10A variant uses standard SR-25 pattern magazines. The Noveske N6 version prior to Gen 3 used AR-10B type magazines, but with the introduction of the N6 Gen 3, the design was changed to utilize the more common SR25-type. Rock River Arms LAR8 uses proprietary FAL style magazines.

text: The article doesn't discuss issues with the SR-25 pattern.

answer: The SR-25 pattern is not compatible with rifles using Springfield Armory M1A pattern magazines, FN FAL pattern magazines, or HK41/HK91/G3 pattern magazines. The AR-10B variant uses proprietary modified M14 magazines, while the AR-10A variant uses standard SR-25 pattern magazines. The Noveske N6 version prior to Gen 3 used AR-10B type magazines, but with the introduction of the N6 Gen 3, the design was changed to utilize the more common SR25-type. Rock River Arms LAR8 uses proprietary FAL style magazines.

answer: The SR-25 pattern is not compatible with the HK417/MR308/MR762, which uses a proprietary design.

question:
Answer the following question based on the above passage:

What does the text say about the SR-25 pattern magazines' incompatibility with notable firearms?

answer: The SR-25 pattern magazines are not considered compatible with rifles using a Springfield Armory M1A pattern magazine, FN FAL pattern magazine, or HK41/HK91/G3 pattern mag magazine. The AR-10B variant of the AR-10 usesmodified M14 magazines, while the AR-10A uses standard SR25-pattern magazines. The Noveske N6 version prior to Gen 3 used AR-10B type magazines but with the introduction of the N6 Gen 3, the design has been changed to utilize more common SR25-type. Rock River Arms LAR8 uses proprietary FAL style magazines.

answer: The SR-25 pattern magazines are not considered compatible with rifles using a Springfield Armory M1A pattern magazine, FN FAL pattern magazine, or HK41/HK91/G3 pattern mag magazine. The AR-10B variant of the AR-10 usesmodified M14 magazines, while the AR-10A uses standard SR25-pattern magazines. The Noveske N6 version prior to Gen 3 used AR-10B type magazines but with the introduction of the N6 Gen 3, the design has been changed to utilize more common SR25-type. Rock River Arms LAR8 uses proprietary FAL style magazines. The SR-25 pattern magazines are also not compatible with rifles using Springfield Armory M1A pattern magazines, FN FAL pattern magazines, or HK417/MR308/MR762, FN SCAR 17S, HK41/HK91/G3, and PTR-91.


text:
I stood in the doorway and wondered if the door would close. It didn’t, the hinges had come off. I guess I didn’t know my own strength. The staircase was right in front of me now so I descended into the living room. No one was there, not even the dogs. This house is empty. My family left me, took off to someplace distant. I suppose they had gotten tired of me.

I hadn’t had a job for months and my brain wasn’t working quite right. They noticed the lack of work but had no clue what was inside my head.

They had left everything inside the house, all the furniture, the tv, the food, almost all of their belongings except what was necessary. It was torture. It was like they could walk in at any moment and say they had gone to the grocery store. But this was not the case, they were gone and weren’t coming back. It had been awhile since I’d seen them, no warning was issued. They had finally surprised me.

I picked up the telephone and heard the empty space. When I tried to dial out it made animal noises instead of beeps. I got sick of it and plunked it back down. The electricity was still working but none of the objects that used it functioned correctly. The fridge was hot, the clock was lying, the lights made sounds; I flicked a switch and heard a man yell “get away!” The television only had one channel, and we had cable.

Something was terribly wrong so I walked outside. The small car my family owned was still there but it did not have any wheels. I took a walk down the street and looked around the town I had always lived. My neighbor was shoveling the sidewalk, but as far as I could tell there was no snow.

“What a storm, eh?” She huffed out as she scooped.

I gave her a puzzled look and moved on. As I walked away I heard her say under her breath “What a friggin storm”

As I moved along I walked past a small pizza place that had been on the corner forever. Only now it was not a pizza place, it was a clothing store titled ‘heaven’s little closet.” I looked in the window and all of the old employees were still there except now they had on fancy suits and were selling vintage clothing, not pizza.

WEIRD, strange…this is just not right.

A dog approached me and sniffed my boots. I scratched its ears and moved along once again. I got sick to my stomach and my eyes started to blur so I turned around and headed back towards my home. I  noticed a strong stench from outside of the house and as I walked inside it got worse. The hot fridge was melting all of the food inside into a boiling swamp of stink. I could hardly handle it. I looked inside and almost vomited, but I held my composure.

Nothing in this town was right anymore, I don’t know if I had changed or if it was the whole place itself but I had always hated living here so maybe it was a sign to get to someplace new. I packed a small bag of clothing and some food that wasn’t in the rotting fridge and walked outside.

I passed a small field of grass on my way and took the time to lie down. Grass hadn’t changed, it felt the very same. I must have fallen asleep because when I opened my eyes it had gotten somewhat darker. I grabbed my bag, which was now a different bag, blue instead of black, and headed toward the bus station. It was on the other side of the street from where I remembered it being. I got on and didn’t even look where it was going to. Goodbye.

title: Left Empty

question:
Answer the following question based on the above passage:

Is this man hallucinating?

answer: It is implied that he's in a delusion of sorts.

answer: That information can't be found.

text: You can hazard a guess based on the context.

refinement: It doesn't state this outright, but it seems he might be.

answer: Based on the characteristics described in the passage, it seems likely that the man is experiencing some sort of hallucinatory episode.

answer: It is possible that the man is hallucinating, as he observes strange changes around town while experiencing a sense of displacement. While this could be due to his depression, it is unclear in the passage.

answer: This seems likely since everything has changed from what he recalls and many of the changes make no sense. He has also heard voices in his head.

question:
Answer the following question based on the above passage:

How does the narrator know that his family have no idea of what is going on inside his head?

answer: The narrator is not sure, but he is sure that he hasn't worn any of them. Perhaps, they may have thought that he was lazy since he was jobless for so many months.

answer: The narrator assumes that his family have gotten tired of him for not having any work and being mentally off. He knows this based on the way that they left all their belongings in the house, including the kitchen with rotting food in it. This tells him that they had no idea of what was going on in his head.

answer: This is an assumption on his part as he can't know what his family have noticed with regard to his behaviour. Perhaps the family isn't fully aware of what is going on in his head but they may know that he isn't well.

answer: The narrator says that.

answer: The narrator knows that his family have no idea of what is going on inside his head because they left without warning, and the objects in the house either don't function or are behaving oddly. The dysfunction demonstrates that his family must not know what is happening within his head and is likely what has driven them away.

question:
Answer the following question based on the above passage:

Why is the neighbour shovelling?

answer: She is shoveling a sidewalk that has no snow on it, and she talks about a storm.

text: She is doing these things, but she insists there was a storm, and the narrator doesn't find out why she believes this when they can see nothing indicative of a storm.

refinement: She is shoveling a sidewalk that has no snow on it, but she talks about a storm, so maybe the narrator just doesn't see it.

answer: It seems weird it would be shovelling for no reason like there was never any snow.

text: I agree, and I think she might be shoveling because there is actually snow, and the narrator just isn't seeing it.

refinement: It seems weird it would be shovelling for no reason like there was never any snow.

answer: The neighbour is shovelling because there is snow on the ground, despite there being no snowstorm. Although the rest of the world has changed, the grass and the ground are the same, suggesting that everything has changed for the worse. The neighbour is just trying to adjust to this new reality.

text: I don't think this is a bad or feebly-constructed interpretation, but I think that, given the information indicating the narrator is hallucinating or something similar, we can assume maybe the narrator is wrong about their being no storm and no snow.

refinement: The neighbour is shovelling because there is snow on the ground, despite there being no snowstorm. Although the rest of the world has changed, the grass and the ground are the same, suggesting that the narrator truly believes tht everything has changed for the worse.

answer: She claims that there was a storm but according to the narrator, she's shovelling but there is no snow.

answer: The neighbour is shoveling the sidewalk because there is no snow. Something is gravely wrong with the world around them.

text: I don't think this is a bad or feebly-constructed interpretation, but I think that, given the information indicating the narrator is hallucinating or something similar, we can assume maybe the narrator is wrong about their being no storm and no snow.

refinement: The neighbour is shoveling the sidewalk because there is no snow. Something is gravely wrong with the world around the narrator, and the narrator may be imagining a lack of snow.

question:
Answer the following question based on the above passage:

How is it possible for the food to rot so quickly?

answer: The fridge must be doing something incorrectly to cause food to spoil. It is most likely a result of poor quality or faulty installation which allows heat and humidity to build up inside. Food becomes unsafe to eat in a much shorter time frame.

answer: There is something wrong with the refrigerator; it is not properly cooled or running correctly. The food is melting and producing a horrible stench. The source of the problem is either the appliance or perhaps the power is defective.

answer: It seems to be a parallel dimension. The narrator did not notice that his dog had drowned in the fridge.

answer: Perhaps the narrator has been away from the house longer than the story suggests. Perhaps he failed to notice the stench when he left as he had been immersed in it.

answer: This can be explained as the fridge was broken and not cooling the food

question: Write a ~13 sentence summary.

answer:
The narrator’s family have left. They have taken nothing but he knows that they aren’t coming back. He thinks they are probably tired of him. He hasn’t had a job for months and his brain isn’t working right.

He picks up the phone but it makes animal noises when he tries to dial. The electricity is still working but the fridge is hot, the clock lies and lights make sounds. The television has but one channel. The car has no wheels and the neighbour is shovelling snow but there is no snow.

He heads back home. The place stinks as the food in the fridge is decomposing. He thinks it’s time to get out of town. He heads to the station which is now on the opposite side of the road. He gets on the train without even checking where it is going.

answer: The protagonist stands in a home that is now abandoned by their family. With no work or stimulus in their life, they seem to have lost themselves. They can't even dial a phone anymore without animal noises coming back. The house itself is decaying, food is rotting, and the only way the protagonist can manage to escape is by packing a bag and going to the bus station. At the bus station, they realize their surroundings have changed, but they head off nonetheless.

answer:
The man around created a door sound and wondered if the door would not close. When he entered the house, no one was around. Except for the pets. Every thing was left behind in the house, even six months of writing was in one corner of the house.

The electric was ringing with lights and noises and it was making him sick to eat.

He cannot eat the old food because of its stink.

A storm is coming, he started to move to the town.

As he moved to the bus station, nothing was same and nothing seemed right.

answer:
I open the door and examine the interior of my house. My parents are gone. They've left everything behind.
As I take the first step down, my mother's voice yells "Stop!". I cringe. It was all in my head. There was no one there except me.
The door to the living room was broken and I'd ripped off one of the hinges trying to get out. The front door opens. I enter the living room and find myself completely alone. This is beyond strange.

There was no one anywhere in town. I'd left my house and walked down the street. I passed the "heaven's little closet" store. It was once a pizza place called "little pieces of heaven". The owner ignored me because on the other side of the street was the bus station and the bus I'd taken had taken me away.

text: This should be written in the third person as you're talking about the text-not as someone in the text.

refinement:
The narrator open the door and examine the interior of their house. Their parents are gone. They've left everything behind.
As they take the first step down, their mother's voice yells "Stop!". They cringe. It was all in their head. There was no one there except for them.
The door to the living room was broken and they had ripped off one of the hinges trying to get out. The front door opens. The narrator enters the living room and finds themselves completely alone. This is beyond strange.

There was no one anywhere in town. They had left my house and walked down the street. They passed the "heaven's little closet" store. It was once a pizza place called "little pieces of heaven". The owner ignored the narrator because on the other side of the street was the bus station and the bus the narrator had taken had taken the narrator away.

answer: The protagonist stands at their abandoned home. The family left unexpectedly, including their pets. The house is filled with left-behind objects which no longer function correctly. There is a strong smell of rotting food in the fridge. The town is totally changed, with a pizza place now being a vintage clothing store. The protagonist packs a bag and walks to the bus station, and does not look back.


text:
AQUAPELAGO refers to an assemblage of marine and terrestrial elements in which the aquatic spaces are key to community livelihoods and to communities’ senses of identity and belonging.[1]

Concept and Etymology

The term _aquapelago_ was introduced to the field of Island Studies in 2012 by contributors to _Shima_, an online, open-access journal of research into island and maritime cultures.[2] In its initial coinage, by Philip Hayward,[3] Etymologically, the term replaces the initial two syllables of the well-known term “archipelago” with “aqua” in order to reassert the role of marine elements in aggregations of islands that has been largely lost from contemporary usage of the term archipelago.[4] Elaborating the concept, Suwa[5] linked it to livelihood activities and to the Japanese concept of _shima_ (referring to islands and related distinct cultural landscapes). Suwa’s concept is striking in that it conceives of combined terrestrial and aquatic spaces as, effectively, neighborhoods.

In a reflection on and expansion of his initial article on the topic, Hayward[6] identified that he envisaged the concept as a reflection on the Anthropocene and as:

Subsequent developments of the concept have analysed its applicability to topics such as ocean spaces and national rights of access to these (Fleury[7]), cultural practices in Melanesian coastal societies (Dick[8]) and career making in island communities (Alexander[9]). Writing in the (now defunct) journal _Urban Island Studies_, Hayward[10] expanded on his original analyses by addressing metropolitan locales and providing a characterisation of Manhattan as an aquapelagic city that was subsequently critiqued and modified by Ayasha Guerin.[11] While there have been critics of the concept, such as Baldacchino,[12] who regard the term as unnecessary in that archipelagic analyses can be extended to address aquatic elements, writers from various disciplines have engaged with the concept in a positive manner, such as May Joseph and Sofia Varino’s exploration of the concept with regard to water ecology themed performance works in the journal _Women’s Studies Quarterly_[13] and Barbara Hawkins in her discussion of a geopolitical aesthetic of the subterranean in the journal _Geopolitics_.[14]

Associated Concepts

One significant development of the concept of the aquapelago has concerned the notion of there being an “aquapelagic imaginary.” This idea was originally floated by Hayward in 2017,[15] and was subsequently elaborated in a theme issue of the journal _Shima_ on mermaids, mer-cultures and the aquapelagic imaginary[16] to refer to the manner in which communities’ “engagements with their aquapelagic locales” in folk-/media-loric contexts can be understood to reflect upon and transcend “perceptions of the limits of human presence in and experience of aquatic spaces.”[17] In an article analysing the creation of a modern mythic entity, the Ningen, a creature rumoured to inhabit the southern Pacific Ocean, Greenland and Hayward[18] discuss the aquapelagic imaginary as a “subset" of the "social imaginary”, which can be regarded as a historically determined “enabling but not fully explicable symbolic matrix within which a people imagine and act as world-making collective agents”.[19]

Further reading

A variety of articles on the concept of aquapelago published in the journal _Shima_ and elsewhere are anthologised online at: https://shimajournal.org/anthologies.php

[1] Hayward, Philip (2012), “Aquapelagos and Aquapelagic Assemblages” _Shima_ 6 (1), 1-11.

[2] Publication Details - Shima: The International Journal of Research into Island Cultures [ISSN: 1834-6057]

[3]

[4] There is a degree of irony here in that the term “archipelago” was derived from the Greek arkhi (chief) and pelagos (sea), referring to the Aegean.

[5] Suwa, Jun’ichiro (2012) “Shima and Aquapelagic Assemblages” _Shima_ 6 (1), 12-16.

[6] Hayward, Philip (2012), “The constitution of assemblages and the aquapelagality of Haida Gwaii” _Shima_ 6 (2), 1-14

[7] Fleury, Christian (2013) “The Island/Sea/Territory Relationship” _Shima_ 7 (1), 1-13.

[8] Dick, Thomas (2015) “Chorographing the Vanuatu Aquapelago”, _Shima_ 9 (1), 1-22.

[9] Alexander, Rosie (2015) “Career Decision Making in Island Communities”, _Shima_ 9 (1), 38-52

[10] Hayward, Philip (2015) “The Aquapelago and the Estuarine City: Reflections on Manhattan” _Urban Island Studies_ 1, 81-95.

[11] Guerin, Ayasha (2019) “Underground and at Sea: Oysters and Black Marine Entanglements in New York’s Zone A” _Shima_ 13 (2), 30-55.

[12] Baldacchino, Godfrey (2012) “Getting Wet: A response to Hayward’s concept of Aquapelagos”, _Shima_ 6 (2), 22-26.

[13] Joseph, May and Sofia Varino (2017) “Aquapelagic Assemblages: Performing Water Ecology with Harmattan Theatre” _Women’s Studies Quarterly_ 45 (1-2) 151-166.

[14] Hawkins, Barbara (2018) “A Volcanic Incident’: Towards a geopolitical aesthetics of the subterranean” _Geopolitics_ 24 (3), 1-26.

[15] Hayward, Philip (2017) _Making a Splash: Representations of Mermaids (and Mermen) in 20th and 21st Century Audiovisual Media_, Eastleigh: John Libbey and Co. pp 6-7.

[16] _Shima_ 12 (2), https://shimajournal.org/issues.php

[17] Hayward, Philip (2018) “Introduction: Mermaids, Mercultures and the Aquapelagic Imaginary”, _Shima_ 12 (2), 1-2.

[18] Greenland, Felicity and Hayward, Philip (2020) “Ningen: The context and generation of media-lore concerning a giant, sub-Antarctic, aquatic humanoid” _Shima_ 14 (1), 33-40.

[19] Gaonkar, D.P (2002) ‘Towards New Imaginaries’, _Popular Culture_ 14 (1), 1.

title: Aquapelago

question:
Answer the following question based on the above passage:

In what way has the term "aquapelago" expanded from scientific to cultural?

answer: The term "aquapelago" is a term that was originally coined in the field of Island Studies, but is now being used in other fields of study, such as Anthropology. The term is used to describe how communities' engagements with their aquapelagic locales in folkloric contexts can be understood to reflect upon and transcend perceptions of the limits of human presence in and experience of aquatic spaces. The term has also been used to describe the "aquapelagic imaginary", which is a subset of the "social imaginary".

answer: The term was initially coined to describe a scientific concept. However, it has since been used to describe a cultural phenomenon.

text: Too vague, include details from the article.

refinement: The term was initially coined to describe a scientific concept. However, it has since been used to describe a cultural phenomenon. Examples of which is in how the Japanese treat "shima" or islands, as well as the cultural practices in Melanesian coastal societies. Usage of the term has also been adapted positively by writers from various disciplines.

answer: The term "aquapelago" is a term that was originally coined in the field of Island Studies, but is now being used in other fields of study, such as Anthropology. The term is used to describe how communities' engagements with their aquapelagic locales in folkloric contexts can be understood to reflect upon and transcend perceptions of the limits of human presence in and experience of aquatic spaces.


text:
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Apple shared plenty of news today at its WWDC 2019 annual developer conference, but a few of the announcements early on are potentially its biggest in terms of what they signal about the company and its direction. Specifically, Apple unveiled a new single-sign on unified ID platform, as well as a new way it’ll operate as a go-between for security cameras that work with its HomeKit smart home services.

These didn’t come out of nowhere: Apple has been playing up its privacy game for at least a few years now, and in the Tim Cook era it’s especially come to the fore. But today’s announcements really crystallize how Apple’s approach to privacy will mesh with its transformation into becoming even more of a services company. It’s becoming a services company with a key differentiator – privacy – and it’s also extending that paradigm to third-parties, acting as an ecosystem layer that mediates between users, and anyone who would seek to monetize their info in aggregate.

Apple’s truly transforming into a privacy-as-a-service company, which shows in the way that it’s implementing both the new single sign-on account service, as well as its camera and location services updates in iOS 13. The SSO play is especially clever, because it includes a mechanism that will allow developers to still have the relevant info they need to maintain a direct relationship with their users – provided users willingly sign-up to have that relationship, but opting in to either or both name and email sharing.

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The radial decision-making that also includes an option to create a tokenized single-use email for a direct, but unique relationship is especially inspired. It means a developer or service provider can still easily talk to you directly, but also means that they can’t then trade that on for profit by selling or sharing your information with other developers and providers. It’s entirely about moving the locus of control for privacy to the user, rather than playing the classic charade of providing “control” to users in the form of long, obscure and hard to reject terms of services with onerous requirements for the user re: their data sharing by the service provider.

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Apple’s work with camera providers is also unique – providing actual on-device analysis of footage captured by third-party partners to deliver things that security device makers have typically offered as a value-add service themselves. That includes apparent identification of visitors to your home, for instance, and sending alerts when it detects people, as well as being able to differentiate that from other kinds of motion.

That’s going above and beyond simply protecting your data: It’s replacing a potential privacy-risk feature with a privacy-minded one, at a service level across an entire category of devices.

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The new location services feature similarly puts all the control with users, instead of with service providers. Making it possible to provide single-use location permissions to apps is terrific for privacy-minded users, as are updates about usage, which sound like they could be detailed about what specific apps are doing with that data in Apple’s estimation.

Other new features, including HomeKit firewalling of specific services and devices, are similar in tone, and likely indicate what Apple intends to do more of in the future. Combined with its existing efforts, this begins to paint a picture of where Apple plans to play in offering a comprehensive consumer services product that is substantially differentiated from similar offerings by Google and others.

It’s a bold play, and one that could end with Apple accruing a huge amount of control over consumer relationships with not only hardware, but also anything else that software providers want to do on their platform. Given Apple’s track record with privacy to date, that’s reassuring, but we should definitely watch closely to see how their business evolves if they succeed in shifting that locus of control.

question:
Answer the following question based on the above passage:

What were the biggest announcement of Apple's annual developer conference in 2019?

answer: Apple unveiled a new single sign-on unified ID platform. They also announced the new way it will operate as a go-between for security cameras that work with its HomeKit smart home services.

answer: Its new single-sign on unified ID platform, as well as a new way it'll operate as a go-between for security cameras that work with its HomeKit smart home services.

answer: The biggest announcements of Apple's annual developer conference in 2019 are the newly introduced unified ID platform and a new way for Apple to operate as a go-between for security cameras that work with its HomeKit smart home services. Both of these announcements signal Apple's direction as a privacy-as-a-service company.

answer: The biggest announcements at Apple's WWDC 2019 conference were the new single sign-on unified ID platform and a new way it is operating as a go-between for security cameras working with its HomeKit smart home services. Both announcements signal that Apple is transforming into a privacy-as-a-service company with a key differentiator: privacy. These announcements also highlight how Apple intends to offer a comprehensive consumer services product that is different from its competitors.

answer: A new single-sign-on platform and a new way Apple will operate as a go-between for security cameras.

question:
Answer the following question based on the above passage:

What is Apple's differentiator as a services company?

answer: Privacy.

answer: Privacy.

answer: Apple's differentiator as a services company is privacy. The company is transforming into a privacy-as-a-service company by implementing new single sign-on account services, as well as updates for location and camera services, in iOS 13. These efforts put the locus of control for privacy with the user instead of service providers.

answer: Apple's differentiator is its focus on privacy. This includes the company's new single sign-on account platform, updates to HomeKit, and the services related to security cameras. All of these demonstrate Apple's intent to operate as an ecosystem layer that mediates between users and companies who want to monetize the data of those users. This helps keep privacy in the hands of users rather than it being exploited by those seeking to profit from their data.

answer: Privacy.

question:
Answer the following question based on the above passage:

How does Apple act as an ecosystem layer?

answer: Apple acts as an ecosystem layer by providing privacy protections for users while also mediating between users and third-party service providers. This includes facilitating single sign-on, managing privacy permissions and usage data, and providing analysis of third-party camera footage. Ultimately, this demonstrates how Apple intends to compete with other services companies by providing more comprehensive privacy protections and control to consumers.

answer: Apple is allowing camera and security companies onto their platform. Apple provides on-device analysis of footage from third-party suppliers.

answer: Apple acts as an ecosystem layer by confidently mediating between users and third-party providers, which provides more control to the user and safeguards their privacy. This includes new services, such as a centralized SSO account and implementation of third-party security cameras, that specifically provide privacy-focused options instead of obscure or hard-to-reject terms of service. Apple also acts as an ecosystem layer by replacing consumer privacy risks with privacy-minded features in a variety of apps and services. Overall, Apple intends to differentiate their popular consumer products with a privacy-first approach.

answer: By mediating between users and anyone who would seek to monetize their info in aggregate.

answer: Apple is becoming an ecosystem layer that mediates between users and anyone who would seek to monetize their information in aggregate.

question:
Answer the following question based on the above passage:

How is the relationship between user and developed inspired?

answer: The relationship between user and developer is implemented in ways that put the user in control, rather than giving control to developers. Specifically, Apple has made it possible for developers or service providers to communicate directly with users, while simultaneously limiting the ability of those service providers to monetize user information. The new location services feature, as well as updates to camera services, follow the same theme of giving users an opportunity to control their privacy directly.

answer: Developers can talk directly to their users but won't be able to trade that for profit.

answer: The relationship between users and developers on Apple's services platform is largely motivated by the company's interest in enhancing privacy. The SSO account, location services, and HomeKit firewalling all prioritize protection of user data, and put the control in the hands of the user. This differentiates Apple from companies like Google, where user privacy is traditionally prioritized less by service providers.

answer: Developers still have the relevant info they need to maintain a direct relationship with users, provided users willingly sign-up to have that relationship, but opting to either or both name and email sharing.

answer: Through SDK that will allow developers to talk to the user directly but without trading the user's information for profit.

question:
Answer the following question based on the above passage:

Why does this radial decision making make such a big difference?

answer: Radial decision-making in terms of creating a tokenized single-use email, as well as offering access to third-party security cameras that also includes data analysis and alerts, makes such a big difference because it shifts the locus of control for privacy from the service provider to the user. Instead of simply providing vague controls about data sharing in long, hard-to-reject terms of service, users now have more agency about their private information and how another service provider will be able to get and use their data. Additionally, this allows the provider to maintain a direct relationship with the user while still putting the user in control of how their data is used. This is a move that ultimately benefits both users and service providers, ultimately increasing trust, while also helping to ensure user privacy.

answer: It means a developed or service provider can still easily talk to you directly, but also means that they can't trade that on for profit by selling or sharing your information with other developed and providers.

answer: This radial decision making puts the user in control of their own privacy and data. It removes the influence of service providers and gives the user transparency and choice in what information is being shared with which apps. This is an especially big deal because it removes the risk of data being used inappropriately. Privacy-minded consumers appreciate this feature because it means that they can be assured that their information is their own to decide how to share.

answer: It means app developers and service providers only have abilities users are giving them to use.

text: No, it helps users by not stealing their data

refinement: It means a developed or service provider can still easily talk to you directly, but also means that they can't trade that on for profit by selling or sharing your information with other developed and providers.

answer: When they offer tokens rather than an email address it prevents other companies from using it for profit by selling or sharing it.

text: No it helps users by not removing their data

refinement: It means a developed or service provider can still easily talk to you directly, but also means that they can't trade that on for profit by selling or sharing your information with other developed and providers.

question:
Answer the following question based on the above passage:

Will Apple be able to shift the locus of control?

answer: Yes, Apple seems likely to be able to change the locus of control for user privacy, both in terms of third-parties using its ecosystem and also for its own user data. The new single sign-on service, as well as the HomeKit adjustments for security cameras and location use, all indicate that Apple is intending to increasingly shift the control over privacy from providers to consumers themselves.

text: It's not clear at this stage

answer: It is unclear at this stage and will have to be closely watched to see how their business evolves.

answer: It is not a question that is answered.

answer: Apple's past track record is promising, but it is something that the users should watch.

answer: While the possibilities outlined in the passage indicate that Apple aims to be at the center of control surrounding data, it is yet to be seen whether they will be successful in achieving this. Thus, it is difficult to definitively say whether or not Apple will be able to shift the locus of control.

question: Write a ~4 sentence summary.

answer: Apple is unveiling new services that embody its privacy-first approach. Apple has been playing up its privacy game for at least a few years now. It is becoming a services company that both customers and developers alike can take advantage of for years to come. From the article we see that Apple wants to control how much information service providers have access to share with other providers.

answer: The biggest announcement from Apple's annual developer conference was a new single sign-on unified ID platform. This means that Apple wants to shift the locus of control from the developer to the user. It is a bold play. Apple is positioning themselves to provide privacy in an industry where this is scarce.

answer: At its WWDC 2019 annual developer conference, Apple unveiled a single sign-on platform, as well as new security camera and location features. These announcements signal that Apple is becoming a privacy-as-a-service company. The single sign-on involves giving developers tokenized access to name and email without sacrificing privacy, and the security camera feature includes on-device analysis to provide protection in addition to simply protecting data. The new location features focus on providing users with more control over their data. Overall, these features are indications that Apple is looking to compete in a space where privacy is a differentiating factor.

answer: At its annual developer conference, Apple announced a new unified ID platform and a new way it will operate as a go-between for security camera providers. These new announcements show how Apple is transforming into a privacy-as-a-service company. They highlight initiatives that move the locus of control around privacy to the user and replace potential privacy-risk features with privacy-minded ones.

answer:
Today, at its WWDC 2019 annual developer conference, Apple unveiled a new single-sign on unified ID platform. This came after Apple started actively playing up its privacy game for at least a few years, especially in the Tim Cook era.

The new camera and location services will further cement Apple as a privacy-oriented, ecosystem company.

Simultaneously, it is unclear who will have access to users' information.