text:
Something Bad

“We’re leaving. We’re going somewhere where our talents will be appreciated.”

The Healer, Jazhira, looked at the members of her party, arms crossed and a frown prominent upon her face.

The other defector, the Supporter, whose name was Gavin, nodded in silent agreement.

“We didn’t want to do this, but you’ve really left us no choice,” He rumbled quietly.

These two were the most ignored, belittled, and insulted in the whole group, and as many chances as they’d given their comrades, none had really been used.

“Oh, come on. You can’t be serious. This has to be a joke,” The Captain of the party said, a dark warrior elf, sheathing his blade and walking over to his horse.

“Now, if you two are done horsing around, we have a mission to get back to.”

“We’re serious, Matthias,” Jazhira replied, her mouth mashed into a tight white line. “We’re joining another party.”

“Oh yeah?” Matthias replied. “Which one?”

For his part, he was unbothered; this was probably a bluff to get him and the rest of the party feeling bad about how they were treated.

“The Carrion Crows.”

There was a brief, pregnant silence, thick with tension.

“You mean the dark party that everyone is afraid of, across the Empire? You must be joking.” Matthias scoffed, and there were a few titters of disbelief.

Why would The Carrion Crows, of all people, take their weakest party members?

“We set out for their headquarters in the morning,” Gavin rumbled, shrugging. “This will be our last night with you lot, and good riddance.”

\*\*

When the dawn came, Jazhira and Gavin were gone; they’d left nothing behind. It was as if they’d never been.

But as the day went on, Matthias and the others kept receiving correspondence: The Carrion Crows had two new members, and they were powerful. The Healer had become a bringer of darkness and death, with people becoming fatally ill in droves. Gavin, their barbarian orc warrior, had his own quickly climbing body count, destroying towns and ports.

It appeared that Matthias and his friends were going to have to help clean up this mess they’d made.

\*\*

When Matthias and the others finally made it to the site of the carnage, it was nothing less than an utter massacre.

Jazhira stood at the center of the town, in the square, orchestrating the chaos like a conductor leads a symphony.

She was glorious and terrifying, her long chestnut hair waving in the magical wind she’d created like a banner, her fingers glowing a bright, sickly green. A dark, miasmic fog had settled over the town like a thick wool blanket, and all around her, people were dropping like flies. Her wild, manic laughter reached the group, music from a nightmare, and Matthias gripped his horse’s mane in his hands.

Underestimating them had been an awful, irrevocable mistake they could not take back.

Gavin, however, was deep in the thick of it. The Empire’s soldiers had surrounded him in a clump, but he swung his club at them like he was having the time of his life; there were screams, and the sound of rending flesh, skulls being crushed. He, too, was laughing.

“Why did we stay with those saps again?” He called over the din to Jazhira, and she grinned at him, raising her arms.

“This is so much fun!” She hollered back in agreement.

Then she caught the sight of her old friends.

“Look who showed up to stop us, Gavin?” She asked, her bright eyes aglow with glee.

“Let them try!” Gavin roared, a savage grin on his lips. “Their bodies will join the others. Enjoy your afterlives, old pals!”

\*\*

title: (FN) Something Bad

question: What does the story say about why Jazhira and Gavin turned evil?

answer: No answer

critique: The response misses to mention that Jazhira and Gavin joined the Carrion Crows, a dark party that is feared across the Empire.

critique: The response misses to mention that the reason Jazhira and Gavin left their party was due to the fact that they were the most ignored, belittled, and insulted members of the group.

critique: The story does answer the question. The two joined a dark party that appealed to them for their talents will be appreciated, and it turns out they were right.

critique: Instead of repeating the answer, it should be made clear that the story doesn't touch on this.

critique: There is insufficient information in the text to answer the question.

question: What does the story say about the quality of merch and being humble?

answer: No answer

critique: There is no answer because the story doesn't mention anything about being humble.

critique: No answer is given, but a comment can be made.

critique: The response misses to provide an answer for the question.


split: test

text:
Gary left the house at six am on Wednesday; headed out to endure another long workday. After he walked through the yard to the driveway, he made sure to latch the gate securely, because that’s what Sarah liked. He smiled as he did so, and thought of how earlier, he had closed the shower curtain all the way (another Sarah preference), and gently lowered the toilet seat. Twenty four hours earlier, they had been feuding; and he deliberately did none of these things; just to piss her off!  As he climbed into his car for his daily sucky commute up Route 128 to Route 93; into Boston, he was filled with regret and chuckled at the pettiness of his previous day’s actions. After all; how hard was it to accommodate several very minor quirks of his wife of fifteen years?

That morning, he had been awakened by Sarah gently kissing around his ear, nuzzling against his back, softly stroking his shoulders. This was in stark contrast to the previous three nights; when she had seemed to build an invisible wall between them. Sarah was an expert at staying on her “side”. No inadvertent touching during the night; not even a slight brush of the leg or a stray rollover. Her version of a cold shoulder was more like a frozen cadaver.

Her affections this morning, were surely a signal that an olive branch had been extended; and a peace treaty had been declared. The latest “war of the Floyds”; a seventy two hour skirmish; had ended.

The latest battle had been initiated on Saturday night; a dinner outing with their best friends. After several before and after cocktails;  Sarah, in response to what Gary felt was a very innocuous comment about Sarah’s weight gain over the past ten years, had flipped Gary “the bird”.  While Gary waited in traffic to access the on ramp to 128, he conjured up the incident in his brain. He mused about the fury that could be unleashed by a simple injudicious observation; but he also felt ashamed of his immature pouting and anger in response to such a mundane gesture as a raised middle finger.

Sarah and Gary were complete opposites. Sarah loved to go to the mall and shop for hours. Gary detested the thought of entering even one store. Sarah hated watching sports, Gary loved all sports. Sarah was fastidious, she cleaned and scrubbed meticulously. Gary was a slob; who would often ask Sarah to “give it a break, the house is clean enough”; (especially when she vacuumed the living room while he was watching a football game).

Gary inched onto Route 93 South, and switched from sports talk to a Sirius 70s radio station. The subscription to Sirius had been a birthday gift from Sarah. Gary had told her that it was an unnecessary expense; there were plenty of free radio stations, but Sarah insisted. Gary had come to love the non-stop oldies from the 60s and 70s. Steppenwolf blasted from the speakers, and he howled in unison when they belted out the refrain; “Born to be Willlllllllllllllllld”, and for a moment. envisioned himself a single dude; no wife, no twelve year old son (Steven), no boring nine-to-five job, no responsibilities, no hassles!

He clicked the stereo radio control on the steering wheel and jumped back to the 60s station, ironically, to The Monkees’ sweet ballad, “I Want to be Free”.  This only reinforced his thirst for liberation and his distaste for married life. He was sick of the petty arguments and all the compromises that he made for family. Hell, his weekly night out with the guys had been reduced lately to monthly night out!

All day long, while Gary answered EMails, juggled spreadsheets, and performed his daily office tasks, a yearning stirred within him to be rid of all the shackles that he had placed upon himself. He daydreamed about quitting his well paying but stressful job and become a full-time bartender; hang out all day drinking beer and watching sporting events.  As this lovely picture played out in his mind, the phone on his desk beeped; and the caller ID readout revealed that Sarah was on the line.

Gary picked up the receiver, and told Sarah, “We need to talk”.

“Yes”, Sarah replied softly.

Before he could say anything else, Sarah apologized for the three day freezeout. She also informed Gary that she had arranged a sleepover that night at the neighbor’s for Steven; and that she would be making Gary’s favorite dinner: fresh sliced fries and baked filet mignon with butter, mushrooms, and onion ring.  Dessert was to be decided upon later, by Gary!

For the balance of the day; Gary’s fantasies swerved in a different direction. His aspiration to live the single life dissipated. and the longing that he previously experienced was replaced by a sense of appreciation for Sarah’s humility, caring and tenderness. His thoughts about separation reverted to anticipation of their approaching union. He regretted the joking remark he made that had kicked off their most recent tiff. He knew his wife was super-sensitive about her body image, and would not be pleased with his attempt at humor.

The drive home featured unusually clear sailing on the highways. As Gary rounded the corner and turned onto his street, one of his favorite Bob Seger songs came on the radio: “Beautiful Loser”. He chortled at the lyrics:

“He wants his home and security ………… He wants to live like a sailor at sea”.

As he mulled the sentiment, a rueful smile came upon his face. He reached for the kitchen doorknob, but Sarah swung it open before he had a chance to push. She jumped into his arms.

“How was your day, baby?”

“I love you, Sarah.”

title: [HM] - Gary & Sarah

question: Summarize how Gary feels about his life.

answer: Gary feels like he is stuck in a rut. He feels like he is stuck in a marriage with a woman he doesn't love, and he feels like he is stuck in a job he doesn't like. He feels like he is stuck in a life he doesn't want.

critique: The model failed to connect with Gary's desires and misinterpret his look-at-the-bright-side statement at the end. Gary's desires are mostly for his current life to just be less overwhelming, complicated, and exhausting.

critique: The response contains inaccurate information.

critique: It is omitted that Gary feels like he is stuck in a life he doesn't want.

critique: The answer should mention that Gary is also stuck in a boring commute.

critique: The answer should mention that Gary's fantasies about being a single guy again are fleeting.

critique: "He feels like he is stuck in a marriage with a woman he doesn't love" - is inaccurate. Gary loves Sarah.

question: What does the text say about Gary's job?

answer: Gary has a nine to five desk job, Monday through Friday. His paycheck is good, so he doesn't have any immediate plans to leave his job, but he resents the fact that he can't live his preferred lifestyle. Due to his job, his night out with the guys has been reduced to monthly, which also causes tension in the marriage.

critique: The response includes extraneous information not useful for the task.

text: Gary's reduction in nights out with the boys has nothing to do with his job.

category: accuracy

question: Summarize why Gary and Sarah fought.

answer: Sarah "flipped Gary the bird" when Gary said that Sarah looked like she had gained some weight.

critique: It is omitted that Gary had made a joke about Sarah's weight.

question: Summarize why Gary and Sarah got married.

answer: No answer

critique: The answer should mention that the story does not mention why they got married.


text:
Champagne, chardonnay and second-rate vodka. The descent into Vanity Heights was a perfect contradiction. Darcy’s den was full of promises. The promises of allure, freedom, revelry. The promises of power and powder, regret, addiction. But the promise that Vanity Heights fulfilled best was not Darcy’s own. It was the promise flashed upon the television, upon the computer screen, canonised on the glossed pages of magazines. The expectations of how teenager life should be; the expectations, up until this night, crushed by education and responsibility. This was the promise that led Darcy’s guests down the stairs. Down the stairs into Vanity Heights.

The house had transformed into a delinquent ballroom. The girls dropped as low as their heels would allow; their men watched through the haze. Darcy was a dragon. A pink dragon, breathing about the toxic smoke of his habit. He was perched upon his barstool throne, positioned strategically in the centre of the room, when she arrived.
“Celeste!” he exclaimed, prancing over to her, a stick of addiction in one hand and a glass of hobby in the other. She gave a long hug, a short conversation and an expected question. With a customary smile, Darcy gave to her an expected bottle of answer.

The party raved on, yet the revelry was muted by the brick wall that barricaded Celeste from the action. The rhythmic dripping of the basin tap was the only music Celeste had, yet she chose to reapply her face instead of dancing. She wanted to dance, though, and she knew Darcy would be waiting for her, so she rushed through her routine. She clasped onto her 50mL glass friend, already thrice-used, even though she had been in the bathroom only five minutes.
        The drink was downed within seconds of being poured; the liquid sunk to her stomach. She could feel the warm tendrils, cooing words of friendship, branching through her chest, her stomach and finally, finally, back up to drown her mind; pulling her further from the world and closer to her weekend friends.
        Six doses later, to finish the bottle, and she was ready to join them.

No one ever really knew why she was there. Good school, great grades, aspirations of business and law. Nevertheless, she was soon jiving and twisting and dropping on the floor, with Darcy and other men: around them and in their laps; their hands hoping to get in hers.  Her beholder lay seemingly dormant in her stomach; though its dark tendrils were tightening, strengthening their grip on Celeste, controlling her like a puppet with tangled strings. She thought the overseer a friend, a protector, but her body knew better.

Celeste mapped her escape as soon as she felt it. Up the stairs, out of Vanity Heights, past the kitchen, into the garden bed just by the backdoor. She pushed through the crowd. Darcy saw her leave; he knew why, but he didn’t follow.  He never did. By the time she reached the stairs, the beast had revealed itself. A kraken, furious as red, limbs thrashing about inside of her, fighting desperately for an escape. Tentacles of fear, doubt, regret, disappointment.
‘No,’ she thought once more, ‘I shouldn’t be disappointed.’ She knew she wasn't wasting her life; she was just having a little to drink. She wasn’t reckless and irresponsible; she was just a normal teenager. She was just having fun, she has earned it, she would stop after tonight, leave her alone. Her stomach was having none of that, though. She made a mistake by trying to fly the stairs two at a time. Her feet tangled and she fell, the first wave of expel surging from her, onto the steps above.

Whilst the beast had once been considered friend, it had no more. It escaped her again, covering her hair, clothes, face. She tried to pull herself further up the stairs, but the sickly purple tentacles constricted about her and dragged her down; down, down, down, back into Vanity Heights.
‘Vile guardian’, she cried, ‘noxious saviour, foul beast, nefarious raper; first friend, now foe. Always, foe’.
The stench accompanying her disgrace engulfed her wholly, yet the contents of her stomach continued to emerge, again and again, onto the step where her head now resigned to lay.
‘Never again,’ she sobbed, she promised to herself, her parents, her schoolwork.
‘Never again,’ she promised, but Celeste’s promises were made to be broken and it was already too late. She lay shattered upon the stair case, empress turned peasant; her knight in glass armour had left her and once more she had nothing. The world around her spun, and sank, and faded to black.

title: Vanity Heights

question: What does the story say about what happened to Celeste after she passed out?

answer: The story ends with Celeste lying on the stairs, having passed out. Her friends left her there and never came back. She had promised to never drink again, but she was already too late. Her stomach had already expelled everything and her head resigned to lay on the step. Her knight in glass armor had left her, and she had nothing. She sank and passed out.

critique: The response contains extraneous information not useful for the task.

critique: The answer is a summary of the story and not a description of what happened to Celeste after she passed out.

question: What does the story say about Darcy's parties?

answer: Darcy's parties are full of all kinds of intoxicating substances. The guests are so high they don't even remember what they did the next day. Darcy is a "pink dragon" who breathes about the toxic smoke of his habit. He is perched upon his barstool throne, positioned strategically in the center of the room when Celeste arrives. Darcy's parties are the perfect contradiction. They promise allure, freedom, and revelry, but in reality, they are full of regret, addiction, and disappointment.

critique: The response is missing a few details about Darcy's parties.

critique: "The guests are so high they don't even remember what they did the next day." - this is not in the story and should be removed.

critique: The answer should mention that Celeste is the only one who leaves the party.

critique: The story doesn't mention anything relating to the next day. The story doesn't say another morning has ever come. Remove the last sentence of the answer.

critique: The response contains inaccurate information.

critique: The answer should mention that Darcy's parties are full of people who are drunk and high.

critique: "The guests are so high they don't even remember what they did the next day." - this is incorrect because the story never mentions what happens the next day. It also doesn't mention that the guests are high. This should be removed.

question: What does the story say about Celeste's relationship with the drugs and alcohol she took?

answer: Celeste is a very bright and intelligent teenager who is a perfectionist about her schoolwork and aspires to be a lawyer or a businesswoman. Because of her high grades and good reputation, she was invited to a party by her friend, Darcy, who is a drug addict. She knew she shouldn't be there, but since everyone else was doing it, she decided to join them. She's a social drinker and a light drug user, who only used drugs and alcohol during the weekends. She fell into her weekend friends' trap and became an addict.

critique: The highlighted text is not accurate. It is not stated that she's a perfectionist about her schoolwork and aspires to be a lawyer or a businesswoman.

critique: The answer is written as a summary of the story instead of an explanation of Celeste's relationship with the drugs and alcohol.


text:
GIOVANNI BATTISTA SALUCCI (born 1 July 1769 in Florence; died 18 July 1845 in Florence) was an Italian architect.

Life and work

In 1783 Giovanni Salucci began studying architecture at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence. He received his first commissions during study trips to Rome and the Veneto.

In 1797, during a stay in Bologna, he moved in political circles close to the ideas of the French Revolution. Salucci thereby aroused the mistrust of the government of the Habsburg Grand Duchy of Tuscany and was sentenced to death in absentia in 1798. Thereupon he joined the French Italian Army.

In 1801 he was employed as topographer for the Cisalpine Republic, a daughter republic under Napoleon in northern Italy, and in 1802 he worked on the fortifications of Alessandria, Mantua, and Verona.

Afterwards he took part in the French invasion of Russia. He survived and managed to escape to Danzig. After the Battle of Waterloo he fell into English captivity, from which he was released in 1816.

After his release, he initially worked for the Geneva banker Jean Gabriel Eynard, from whom he received a recommendation for King Wilhelm I of Württemberg. The latter appointed him court architect in 1818.

In Württemberg, the Royal Pavilion in Weil near Esslingen was initially built in collaboration with the Queen Catherine of Württemberg, who was a passionate lover of architecture. In 1819, after her death, he built her Württemberg Mausoleum. From 1823 to 1829 the Schloss Rosenstein was built according to the plans of Salucci. Other buildings designed by him are the Wilhelmspalais and the Alte Reithalle (royal riding hall), both in Stuttgart.

Since the planned costs for the Royal Pavilion in Weil were exceeded, he soon had to have everything approved by the Building and Garden Directorate. In 1828, after a dispute with a superior, he applied for his dismissal. Four days later, however, he asked to be reinstated. In 1839 dry rot was discovered in Rosenstein Castle, for which Salucci was made responsible; this led to his final dismissal.

In 1840 Salucci returned to Florence almost penniless. He died there in 1845 and was buried in the cloister of the St Mark’s, Florence.

Gallery

File:Esslingen am Neckar Weil Koeniglicher Pavillon.jpg|Royal pavilion in Esslingen-Weil File:S-wilhelmspalais.jpg|Wilhelmspalais at Charlottenplatz in Stuttgart File:Schloss Rosenstein südwestliche Hauptfassade.jpg|Castle Rosenstein in Stuttgart File:Grabkapelle Württemberg Eingang (2009).jpg|Württemberg Mausoleum in Stuttgart

Works in Public Collections

-   Salucci's estate, consisting of 142 drafts of buildings, is located in the Stuttgart University Library (Inv. No. Salu001-Salu142) and in the Digital Collections of the Stuttgart University Library.
-   Photographic collection “Giovanni Salucci's classicist buildings in Württemberg” by Rotraud Harling in the Map and Plan Collection of the Stuttgart University Library: Map and Plan Collection.

Literature

-   Georg Leisten: _Das zeitlos Schöne überlebt. Ausstellung: Die Stuttgarter Fotografin Rotraud Harling huldigt dem Werk des Architekten Giovanni Salucci._ In: _Stuttgarter Zeitung_ Nr. 289, 13. December 2013, page 29.
-   Giuseppe Ponsi: _Memorie della vita e delle opere di Giovanni Salucci Fiorentino / Erinnerungen, Leben und Werk des Giovanni Salucci Fiorentino._ Florence 1850.
-   Giuseppe Ponsi; Bruno Zoratto (editor): _Giovanni Salucci in den Beschreibungen eines Freundes / Giovanni Salucci nelle descrizioni di un amico._ Stuttgart 1998. Reprint of Ponsi 1850.

title: Giovanni Salucci

question: Why was Salucci often persecuted in his life?

answer: He spent a long time in contact with political activists and people inside circles who gave a more radical idea of life, and these ideas didn't mesh well with a conservative system of governance.

critique: The answer does not make clear that Salucci was persecuted because he was involved in the French Revolution.

critique: The answer omits Salucci's political activities.

critique: "He spent a long time in contact with political activists and people inside circles who gave a more radical idea of life, and these ideas didn't mesh well with a conservative system of governance." - this is inaccurate. The reason why Salucci was persecuted was because he was sentenced to death in absentia in 1798 for moving in political circles close to the ideas of the French Revolution.

critique: "He spent a long time in contact with political activists and people inside circles who gave a more radical idea of life, and these ideas didn't mesh well with a conservative system of governance." - this is inaccurate. Salucci did not spend a long time in contact with political activists and people inside circles who gave a more radical idea of life. He was sentenced to death in absentia because of his association with the French Revolution.

critique: "He spent a long time in contact with political activists and people inside circles who gave a more radical idea of life, and these ideas didn't mesh well with a conservative system of governance." - this should be outsourced to the "Life and work" section and then preserved there without being reprinted here.

text: This is inaccurate. Rather than being persecuted often, he aroused the mistrust of the government for moving in political circles close to the ideas of the French Revolution and was sentenced to death in absentia.

refinement: He spent a long time in contact with political activists and people inside circles who gave a more radical idea of life, and these ideas didn't mesh well with a conservative system of governance.

question: What were Salucci's twenty years as court architect of Wurttemberg like?

answer: During this time he designed buildings and experienced political and historic difficulties. William I dissolved the chamber of representatives and dissolved the constitution. He put Salucci to blame for the castle's decay, with Salucui was blamed for miscalculating the load the castle would hold. Salucci was dismissed in 1839 and returned to Florence penniless.

critique: The response contains inaccurate information.

critique: The response inaccurately mentions that William I dissolved the chamber of representatives and dissolved the constitution.

critique:
-the article doesn't specifically indicate that the castle decay was due to miscalculating the load.
-the English translation of the text implies that the buildings were not built according to Salucci's designs due to the excessive cost for the Royal Pavilion in Weil.

No answer.

critique: "He put Salucci to blame for the castle's decay, with Salucui was blamed for miscalculating the load the castle would hold. Salucci was dismissed in 1839 and returned to Florence penniless." - this is incorrect. The castle's decay was discovered in 1839 and Salucci was dismissed in 1828.

critique: "He put Salucci to blame for the castle's decay, with Salucui was blamed for miscalculating the load the castle would hold. Salucci was dismissed in 1839 and returned to Florence penniless." - this is inaccurate. Salucci was not blamed for miscalculating the load the castle would hold.


text:
“Where were you last night?” Max peered over my Economics textbook. He had a look of anticipation, as if he was waiting for some pain relieving gossip.

“I was home,” I responded innocently before he rolled his eyes at me. “Now, don’t bother me, I’m trying to focus.” Although normally I would use anything to distract me from school, I wasn’t about to involve Max in last night’s mess.

“Are you expecting me to believe you weren’t at Nina’s party?” He raised his eyebrows at me. I didn’t know what I was expecting. Frankly, no expectation in the world would have prepared me well enough. But I wanted to be there for Nina like she had for me. Perhaps I couldn’t fix her parent’s divorce, but I could at least attend her house party. Especially after her break up with Todd, the leather jacket douche that called her “babe” so much I would wonder if he knew her real name.

“I promise you’ll have a great time,” Nina had told me. And at first, I really did. There is something comforting about the stagnant smell of beer penetrating every fiber of clothing and hair follicle. Something nostalgic about repetitive rap songs preaching about the wonders of big asses.

Everything seemed normal at first. The music was pounding loudly and the dim lights carried shadows across the cramped living room. I could feel the air thickening.

Minutes before terror, I was standing unnoticed next to a group of girls I recognized.

“Someone told me her dad was abusive,” I heard one say with wide eyes.

“Yeah, apparently the neighbors called the cops on them,” another responded.

“Well, I wouldn’t point fingers just yet. Nina’s mom’s a bitch. Maybe she deserved it,” a brunette shrugged and took a sip of her drink right before our eyes met. Her face flared red as she realized her words had been overhead. I clenched my fists in rage.

“How about you all mind your own–”. My response was cut short by a piercing scream. I quickly stood up in alert. The room became still. The music stopped and those still standing looked at one another with puzzled looks. The source was nowhere to be seen. It came again, this time along with a cry. I recognized Nina immediately. I pushed my way across the living room and ran up the stairs before barging into Nina’s bedroom.

I noticed him first. His leather jacket shimmered in the moonlight as he stood tall and angry. A millisecond later, I spotted Nina on the floor. Hands covering her face in defense. The lack of light in the room didn’t stop the fierceness of her blood as it dripped down her temple and into her hair.

I stood still. My brain called in fear but my body made no response. Not even when Todd walked passed me, into the hallway and shut the door behind him.

Nina remained on the floor. She held herself and rocked back and forth, letting silent cries out into the thick air.

“Don’t tell anyone.” She whispered.

&#x200B;

&#x200B;

“Hello?” Max snapped at me. “Are you going to tell me or not?” I stared at him blankly as the vivid flashbacks flew through my head. My heart stung in bitterness as I recognized that all I wanted to do was say it. To write it out in sharpie on all student lockers.

Nina’s bloody face burned in my head. “There’s nothing to tell.”

title: [RF] Last Night Leftovers

question: What does the passage say about Todd?

answer: Todd is Nina's ex-boyfriend. After months of immersing himself in his relationship with Nina, he left her the day before he landed her a nice, solid punch to the face.

critique: The response is inaccurate. Todd did not punch Nina.

critique: Todd is not Nina's ex-boyfriend. He is her ex-boyfriend.

critique: Heroine Nina's full name, Todd's punching reflex, or the fact that he left Nina prior to the ex would be better mentions.

question: What does the passage say about Nina's parents?

answer: Nina was having a party after her parents' divorce. Nina's father is abusive and he got in a fight with the police once.

critique: Nina's father is never mentioned as abusive.

critique: The response inaccurately mentions that Nina's father got in a fight with the police.

critique: This is not likely and should be omitted.

critique: The response contains inaccurate information.

question: What does the passage say about domestic abuse?

answer: No answer

critique: The answer should mention the gossip about Nina's family.

critique: The response misses to mention that the story mentions domestic abuse.

question: What does the passage say about prom?

answer: No answer

critique: There is no mention of prom in the text.


text:
’MARTEINN EINARSSON (died 7 October 1576) was bishop of Skálholt from 1548 to 1556. He was the second Lutheran bishop and was directly involved in the Icelandic Reformation.

Early life

Marteinn was born in Staðarstaður on the Snæfellsnes peninsula to the poet Einar Ölduhryggjarskáld and Ingiríður Jónsdóttir. Marteinn's family had a tradition of serving as priests. His father, Einar, was a priest in Staðarstaður from about 1500 until his death in 1538, and Ingiríður's brother, , had served as bishop of Skálholt from 1491 to 1518. Marteinn's siblings included the sheriffs and Brandur Einarsson, known as Gleraugna-Pétur and Moldar-Brandur respectively, as well as a sister, Guðrún, the wife of the magistrate Daði Guðmundsson.

Marteinn spent nine years studying in England, where another of his sisters lived after marrying an Englishman, before returning to Iceland to work as a merchant in Grindavík.

Bishop

In 1533, Marteinn became a priest, serving in Staðarstaður after his father's death. He was an early supporter of the Reformation, and in 1548, Marteinn was elected bishop of Skálholt after the death of Gissur Einarsson, the first Lutheran bishop in Iceland. [1] Despite an effort by the Catholic bishop Jón Arason, the primary opponent of the spread of Protestantism in Iceland, to have named bishop instead, Marteinn was consecrated in Denmark as bishop of Skálholt on 7 April 1549.[2]

Upon his return to Iceland that summer, Marteinn was arrested by Jón's sons, Ara and Björn Jónsson, who detained him at Ara's farm at Möðrufell. Marteinn remained detained until after the Battle of Sauðafell in 1550, where Daði Guðmundsson defeated Jón Arason, ending organized Catholic resistance to the Reformation, at which time he formally took control of the bishopric of Skálholt.[3]

In 1555, Marteinn published the first Icelandic hymnal, _Lítið Psálmakver_.[4] Marteinn served as bishop until 1557, when he resigned in protest of claims by the king decision to appropriate church tithes.[5] He returned to Staðarstaður where he served as a priest until his retirement in 1569.

Personal life

Marteinn was married to Ingibjörg, whose father's name is unknown. They had four sons and two daughters. Marteinn lived out his retirement in where he published a collection of psalms and was considered a good painter, although none of his paintings are known to survive.[6] He died in 1756.

Fiction

Marteinn appears in Ólafur Gunnarsson's 2003 historical novel _Öxin og jörðin_ (translated into English as _The Ax and the Earth_), which is set amid Jón Arason's struggle against the Icelandic Reformation.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

title: Marteinn Einarsson

question: When did Marteinn Einarsson live?

answer: He lived from 1500-1569.

critique: Marteinn Einarsson lived from 1501-1569.

critique: He lived from 1500-1569, but he died in 1576.

critique: incomplete answer. The article does provide a more specific timeline

critique: Marteinn Einarsson was born in 1510, so he lived from 1510-1569.

critique: The answer should clarify that Marteinn lived from 1500-1569.

text: The passage does no mention he lived from 1500.

question: Where did Marteinn study?

answer: England

critique: Marteinn spent nine years studying in England. Change "England" to "England"

critique: Marteinn studied in England for nine years. Include the year he studied in the answer.

critique: Marteinn studied in England for nine years.

critique: Marteinn studied for nine years in England.

critique: The answer could be phrased as a complete sentence.


text:
I sensed a change in the barometric pressure before it hit. The merciless July heat tapered off as a welcome breeze lightly caressed my cheek. If a person stood in the shade for too long, they might have mistaken it for a perfect spring day. The birds were singing. It felt fantastic to be alive but it was a saccharine moment. An ugly storm was on the horizon.

Prior to that, I’d been sipping cool lemonade on the front porch in my Adirondack chair. I heard a distant thunderclap which threatened to quash the temperate afternoon fantasy. The approaching storm drifted closer and I wondered if it was cause for alarm. Living in ‘tornado alley’, it’s always in the back of my mind. The clouds turned dark purple and then an ugly shade of gray. Only in hindsight did I learn what terror it carried within.

Not wanting to get soaked, I went inside to avoid the upcoming cloud burst. No sooner than I had closed the door, heavy droplets started pinging the rooftop. The melodic tempo was soothing at first but as the intensity increased, its gentle rhythm was lost. Not only did the rain intensify, but the atmospheric theatrics took my breath away. Angry bolts of lightning menaced the sky. I was glad to be inside.

Then the hail came. First it was mixed with rain. It would’ve been easy to mistake it for just larger raindrops. Soon however, the ice pellets were the size of golf balls. They savagely pounded the roof. Then I heard my car windshield shatter from the merciless barrage. Even my house windows were not immune. They were under attack as the wind flung the frozen projectiles sideways at them.

A look out of my picture window brought a far worse sight. In the distance was the unmistakable shape of a deadly funnel. It slowly descended to the ground and started destroying everything in its wake. I judged it to be less than two miles away and closing fast. At that distance, I couldn’t outrun it and risked fleeing directly into it’s path, if it changed direction. I had to take cover at home and hope for the best.

The storm grew so ferocious I feared my house would collapse before the tornado even arrived. The walls shook and shuddered. The rising wail of a ‘train whistle’ filled the air. I opened up the windows since they would blow out if the inside wasn’t depressurized. I prepared for the inevitable. Death was on a collision course and nothing could stop it from happening. It slithered toward me as if to wipe away my entire existence. I strongly suspected it might do just that. A thousand bittersweet memories flooded my mind. The roar of the whirling wind drowned out my screams until the maelstrom arrived at my doorstep.

In the eye of the tornado I had a moment of clarity amid the chaos. I watched as debris flew by in a blur. I fully expected to see my roof fly off and the walls shred away. Instead, a pale column of smoke began to seep in through the open window. My fear was already at the limits of human endurance. I was too distracted about the immanent devastation to worry about a strange fog swirling around my home. That is, until it began to separate into distinctively humanoid shapes!

Before my disbelieving eyes, three faceless forms hovered and drifted around the room. The unexplained ‘wraiths’ almost seemed to be assessing the situation. Were they supernatural agents of death? Was the tornado a vehicle for them; or was the storm itself their physical manifestation? Whether they were angels or demons from Hell, I didn’t know. Obviously I tried to avoid drawing any attention to myself. I couldn’t imagine things getting worse than having to deal with a mindless twister but having three spirits officiate it upped the ante.

Regardless of my stealth, they knew I was there; cowering in the corner for a completely new reason. There was a brief hesitation among them as they descended upon me. I could hear shingles being torn from the roof but my sole focus was those three uninvited guests, hovering less than ten feet away. It was positively terrifying. I’ve never been a religious man but it was impossible to deny the supernatural event unfolding in my living room. The irony is that I didn’t expect to survive long enough to share my experience.

My three visitors were stationary for the moment. I felt their somber attention upon me but with no eyes, there was nowhere to focus my view. Their faceless gaze and ashen features chilled me to the bone. I sensed that I was being judged. To what degree or for what reasons, I had no idea. I did my best to project an air of innocence, good will and benevolence. How I came to be faced with not one, but two deadly trials in a single day, I couldn’t imagine.

In perhaps the most expressive form of non-verbal communication I had ever seen, the ethereal ‘judge’ to my left slowly turned a downy shade of virgin white. The full meaning of this gesture escaped me until the middle ‘judge’ also changed its translucent hue. To my great dismay, to that of a blackened lump of coal. Of the three overseers present, it appeared I had one vote for, and one vote against me in this macabre tornado court.

It seemed like an eternity until the final judgment was rendered. Slowly, the third otherworldly spirit took on the same light coloration as the first. The symbolic message I took from the proceeding was that I had been exonerated by a narrow majority vote. The three ‘judges’ drifted back into one unified pillar of smoke and left just as ‘it’ had come.

Outside, the tornado dissipated back to nothingness. The sky above cleared back to normal in a matter of minutes. With the exception of an obvious trail of destruction leading straight to my home, I could hardly believe it even happened. It was like a bad dream. I’m eternally thankful that the three storm judges were favorable to me.

title: [FN] ‘Judgement by three’

question: According to the passage, where did the three alien beings come from?

answer: No answer

critique: The answer should mention that the passage does not answer this question.

text: The three beings came from the tornado.

category: coverage

question: Why was the narrator not surprised at the arrival and magnitude of the storm?

answer: He lives in "tornado alley" and has been through many storms.

critique: The answer should mention the other reason.

critique: The answer should mention the narrator's fear of storms.

critique: The answer should mention that the narrator is a storm chaser.

critique: The answer does not mention that the narrator is a weather enthusiast.

critique: The narrator was also expecting a storm to hit, so he was not surprised at the arrival of the storm.

critique: The answer omits that the narrator also has a barometer in his home, which has alerted him to the storm.

critique: The narrator was not expecting the storm to be as intense as it was.

critique:
The first reason is not entirely accurate. The paragraph reads that the narrator was keeping his eyes on the clouds.

The first reason is accurate, the second one should be said as a possible fact.


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: Summarize the role of the keyboard in this story.

answer: The typing of the keyboard causes a click but the backside of the click is a non-local event. The clicking is everywhere in the computer program and the story character is typing a fiction.

critique: The last sentence is incorrect and not relevant to the question.

critique: "The typing of the keyboard causes a click but the backside of the click is a non-local event." - is incorrect information. The character is typing in the real world, not a computer program. Needs to be changed.

critique: The position of the backspace key is not relevant to the question

critique: The answer is not clear and does not answer the question.

critique: The backside of the click is a non-local event.

critique: Everything after the first sentence is irrelevant.

critique: The answer is talking about more than a click. It also mentions several versions of how the world was created.

critique: The last sentence is not relevant to the question.

critique: The first sentence has no merits as it confuses first and last.

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

answer: No answer

critique: There are many keyboards that can accommodate different types of work. The author describes some of them.

critique: No answer is provided and a response needs to be generated.


text:
RICHARD “RIP” RAPSON (born March 16, 1952) is an American attorney and philanthropist serving as CEO of the Kresge Foundation. He began his career as a congressional aide to Donald M. Fraser during Fraser's last two terms in the United States House of Representatives. After attending Columbia Law School, Rapson joined the law firm of Leonard, Street & Deinard to practice law while also serving on the board of several organizations. In 1989, Fraser, who had become mayor of Minneapolis, appointed Rapson as his deputy mayor and, in 1993, Rapson unsuccessfully ran for mayor to succeed Fraser.

After leaving the Minneapolis City Hall, Rapson became a fellow at the University of Minnesota and then was appointed president of the McKnight Foundation in Minneapolis. In 2006, he moved to the Detroit area to become CEO of the Kresge Foundation. He has led the foundation in a number of philanthropic endeavors to revitalize and rescue Detroit from bankruptcy.

Early life and education

Richard “Rip” Rapson[1] was born on March 16, 1952,[2] in Bonn, Germany,[3] to Mary and Ralph Rapson.[4] In 1954, the family moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where Ralph became head the University of Minnesota School of Architecture[5] and a prolific architect in the city.[6] Mary said that their son was nicknamed Rip because he was “kicking and moving” even in the womb.[7] He has a younger brother, Thomas (“Toby”), who also became an architect at their father's architectural firm.[8][9]

At Marshall-University High School, Rip Rapson was a baseball pitcher, played basketball, tennis and learned to play the trumpet.[10] He chose to attend Pomona College in California which he believed had a good tennis team.[11] In 1974, he graduated magna cum laude from Pomona with a bachelor of arts degree in political science.[12]

Career

After college, Rapson was hired by Arvonne Fraser, who ran her husband Donald M. Fraser's offices in Washington, D.C., when he served as a United States Representative from Minnesota.[13] Rapson was a congressional aide from 1974 to 1978 during Fraser's last two terms in the U.S. congress.[14][15] He worked as a liaison between Fraser's Washington office and his local district office in Minneapolis as well as contributing to the writing and passage of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Act of 1978 to protect the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Minnesota.[16][17]

Rapson then graduated from Columbia Law School with a J.D.[18][19] and joined the law firm of Leonard, Street & Deinard. He became a partner at the firm[20][21] and remained there from 1981 to 1988.[22] He also served on the Library Board, the Board of Estimates and Taxation, and the boards of 13 other organizations in the city during that period.[23]

On March 14, 1989, Fraser, who had become mayor of Minneapolis, appointed Rapson as his deputy mayor, effective April 15, 1989, to succeed Jan Hively. As deputy mayor, Rapson was in charge of liasoning with the Minneapolis City Council.[24] He was also responsible for the creation of a $400 million Neighborhood Revitalization Program and chaired its implementation committee.[25][26]

Rapson ran in the 1993 Minneapolis mayoral elections against Richard Jefferson, a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives, and Sharon Sayles-Belton, president of the city council.[27][28] Rapson relied on a grassroots campaign, receiving only 4% of his funding from political action committees.[29]

After his unsuccessful bid for mayor of Minneapolis, Rapson accepted a senior fellowship at the University of Minnesota.[30] He then served for six years as president of the McKnight Foundation in Minneapolis.[31]

In 2006, Rapson was appointed CEO of the Kresge Foundation, a foundation based in Troy, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit.[32] He was responsible for a number of large grant programs made by the foundation including a $100-million grant to bring financial stability to the Detroit Institute of Arts whose art collection was owned by the city when it went bankrupt in 2013 and was being considered for sale to cover the city's debt.[33] Together with Gerald Rosen, a U.S. district court chief judge. and Darren Walker of the Ford Foundation which chipped in another $125 million,[34] Rapson helped organize a “grand bargain” as proposed by Judge Rosen,[35][36] with other contributions from a number of foundations and the state of Michigan, to keep the art collection from being liquidated and help preserve pensions for city retirees, whose retirement funds were also at risk.[37]

[Rapson at the May 2017 opening of the QLine streetcar in Detroit, Michigan] Under his leadership, the foundation contributed $150 million to the implementation of the Detroit Future City plan to revitalize the city[38][39] and also spurred the development of the QLine streetcar project in downtown Detroit.[40][41] Rapson is a founding member on the board of directors of M-1 Rail, a non-profit organization which built, owns, and operates the QLine.[42][43][44] He also serves on the Detroit board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.[45] As CEO of the Kresge Foundation, as of 2017, Rapson manages the organization's $3.8 billion in assets and 105 full-time employees.[46]

Personal life

Rapson married Gail Johnson in August 1989.[47] They have two children.[48]

Bibliography

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[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

[18]

[19]

[20]

[21]

[22]

[23]

[24]

[25]

[26]

[27]

[28]

[29]

[30]

[31]

[32]

[33]

[34]

[35]

[36]

[37]

[38]

[39]

[40]

[41]

[42]

[43]

[44]

[45]

[46]

[47]

[48]

title: Rip Rapson

question: What does the story say about Rapson's career?

answer: Rapson began his career as a congressional aide for Donald M. Fraser. He was appointed as the Deputy Mayor of Minneapolis when Fraser became Mayor. He then ran for Mayor and lost. After retiring from the city hall, he became a fellow at the University of Minnesota and was appointed president of the McKnight Foundation. In 2006, he moved to the Detroit area and became the CEO of the Kresge Foundation.

critique: The answer omits that Rapson was a partner at the law firm Leonard, Street & Deinard.

critique: It is omitted that he was appointed as the Deputy Mayor of Minneapolis when Fraser became Mayor.

critique: Rapson was appointed as the deputy mayor before he ran and lost the bid to became mayor

critique: "After retiring from the city hall" is inaccurate. He became a fellow at the University of Minnesota before being appointed president of the McKnight Foundation.

critique: The answer should mention Rapson's involvement in philanthropy.

critique: "After retiring from the city hall, he became a fellow at the University of Minnesota and was appointed president of the McKnight Foundation. In 2006, he moved to the Detroit area and became the CEO of the Kresge Foundation." - this is incorrect. Rapson became a fellow at the University of Minnesota after leaving the city hall. He was appointed president of the McKnight Foundation in Minneapolis. He moved to the Detroit area in 2006 to become the CEO of the Kresge Foundation.

critique: It is omitted that he was a partner at the law firm Leonard, Street & Deinard.

critique: The article does not say that he was appointed Deputy Mayor when Fraser became Mayor.

question: What does the story say about Rapson's education?

answer: Rapson attended Marshall-University High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Pomona College in California with a bachelor of arts degree in political science. He graduated from Columbia Law School with a J.D.

critique: It's omitted that he attended Columbia Law School after Pomona.

critique: The answer is missing Rapson's high school education.

critique: It is omitted that Rapson attended Columbia Law School.

critique: At Columbia Law School he graduated with a J.D

critique: It is omitted that he attended Columbia Law School.

critique: The answer should mention his high school.

question: What does the story say about Rapson's wife?

answer: No answer

critique: The answer should mention that Rapson married Gail Johnson in 1989.

critique: The story says that Rapson married Gail Johnson in August 1989.

critique: The answer should mention Rapson's wife.


text:
THE THIRD ARM OF KILIMANJARO

(This concept was originally developed in detail by Marshall T. Savage in his book, "The Millennial Project". By no means am I claiming his works as my own. I respect his creation and wanted to incorporate this part of it into my ongoing tale.)

A public works project had begun in Tanzania on Mt. Kilimanjaro. To the press it had been dubbed a water and energy reclamation experiment, and to the water impoverished nations of Africa they didn't question it too loudly. Why question something that would bring thousands of jobs and clean water to the stricken center of the continent, and let's not forget millions, (perhaps billions if you could really dig into the books and ferret out all the nickels and dimes) of dollars of industry? On the surface, the construct did exactly what it said. There were no lies told. The engineers had built vast sluices to harness and channel the melt from the heavy snows that had been steadily increasing at the peak of the volcano. "This increase in snowfall was an effect of the changing climate brought about by human influence on global temperatures", a few interest groups were shouting at the top of their lungs, "and we should be devoting energies to stem the changes and not just blindly take advantage of them!" They shouted, but no one was listening. Besides, the extra snowfall handled and distributed by what became known as the Kilimanjaro Resource Reclamation Project jointly managed by the central African countries, the US, and after a fashion, the UK, revitalized one of the most impoverished areas on Earth.

The three gargantuan sluices were evenly distributed around the circumference on the mountain's even-sloped rise, and from there each of the three bases branched out to smaller and smaller distribution channels like tree roots, (but moving water in the opposite direction) to the surrounding areas. Using the support pylons for the sluices as foundations, massive turbines were constructed creating wind farms, some classic propeller driven, a few using a new air-compressed turbine technology. With these farms, vast amounts of energy was produced and distributed along the water pipelines. With one well engineered stroke, the project cured much of the strife in Africa bringing water, energy, jobs, and outside interest to the nations. That outside interest being tourism of course, the universal income maker. With the violent rebellions dying down, and much of the varied countries slowly but surely working their way through peace talks and economic summits, the central African countries became a new and fresh tourist destination, bringing even more money to the table.

It was quite a generous act from the First World, again, on the surface. But, does it really matter after that? With all of the good the project had brought to millions of people, did the underlying reasons detract from the gesture? Much of the grand gestures in history had one hand giving and the other taking, and sometimes the price of what was taken was monumental and horrific. From where I sit here in the Salt Flats, I wonder.

You see, two of the sluices were just that: water collectors. They were labeled the  Kilimanjaro First and Second Arms respectively, or K1A and K2A. The third, which happened to be built directly parallel to the equator, was much larger than the other two, (and had an exponentially larger amount of security than the other two), housed a secret. There was indeed a water reclamation facility built there, (there were no overt lies spoken, remember), it just had one more pathway built into it that was never meant to be touched by water,
And just a small fraction of the energy created by the wind farms were diverted to this facility to power it. Knowing that the facility would eventually have to be revealed, the right amount of money had been exchanged to the right hands, (certain heads of the African nations, and as always, the press) to keep the project quiet, but be a loud and positive supporter when the time came for the unveiling.

Housed under this third arm was a thirty mile long set of rails. There was a subtle opening at the peak of the mountain that was the exit for the projected launch vehicle. The passage was essentially a gun, a "rail gun" apparatus first imagined by French inventor Louis Octave Fauchon-Villeplee in 1918.  It was a device that, using two parallel conductive rails that were fed an electromagnetic current in a pulse traveling the length of the barrel, could accelerate an object at extremely high velocity, no chemical propellant required.

The setting of Kilimanjaro had been ideal for a couple of reasons: the long slope stretching up from the flat plain was a perfect platform to build the rail, and it's closeness to the equator. The long slope allowed for minimum construction (and minimum visibility from the outside world) to set the shape of the track. The extra benefit of the height of the mountain meant that the catapulted object would make it quite a ways up in elevation before it even left the track, meaning less energy spent. The location along the equator was ideal in that anything launched would require minimal adjustments once in orbit to attain a geosynchronicity circling the planet, or to orbital trajectories further out, say. It was these outbound trajectories that were important for the second stage of the project. The third stage would change the world.

Once the rail, dubbed the Kilimanjaro Third Arm Launch Facility (or K3ALF for a slightly less unwieldy title) had been finished, there was a massive marketing push to popularize it and as always, it was easier to ask for forgiveness after the fact than for the initial permissions. After a few test runs; the brave astronautical test pilot's proud and triumphant (widely broadcast across the internet and televisions of the world) flight, not to forget his grinning mug, (also widely broadcast) telling the citizens just how beautiful their small blue world was from where he sat and that humanity should get over their petty squabbles, blah blah blah, and the usual insertion or two of new commercial satellites, (to pay for the previous' advertising), the project was much lauded for it's forward thinking and advancement of Mankind. Once the launch facility was fully operational, it was not unusual to hear the distant thunder from a bullet-shaped vehicle hitting multiple times the speed of sound and leaving nothing but a vapor contrail and a wide cloud halo around the peak of the slumbering volcano.

The third phase began with renewed landings on Earth's lonely companion, the Moon. And at the beginning of the new year, a permanent facility had been constructed in the Copernicus crater that utilized the sloping wall along with the relative flatness of it's basin, (in a slightly funhouse mirror image) to build a smaller sister version of the Kilimanjaro launch rail for the benefit of propelling craft on their return trip to Terra Firma. The public was told that the construction in Copernicus, (named the Arthur C. Clarke Platform; it wasn't in Clavius or the Tycho Crater but the name was fitting, and no one objected to honoring the famous co-author of "2001 - A Space Odyssey") would be primarily used to explore the lunar surface, research into the rocky terrain for the possibilities of future mineral prospects, and mainly; mankind's first proper foothold into space proper, where the foundation of exploration to the outer reaches of the solar system would begin.

These things were all true; proper and successful lies are always obfuscated in a web of truth. As it had been since the beginning of the massive project, there were no lies told. It was what went by unsaid that paid for all in the end. Ironically, this venture having been covered up until it was ready at K3ALF by the publics works programs was in turn a cover for the real strategy, a plan that only a handful of people outside the project were aware of.  Even the majority of the crews at the Arthur C. Clarke site were unaware of what they were a part of and if they were told, they probably wouldn't have believed it anyway.

(6/16/16)

title: [SP] The Third Arm of Kilimanjaro

question: What was the main aim of the public works (Kilimanjaro Resource Reclamation) that were set up in Tanzania?

answer: To bring water and energy to the water-poor nations of Africa.

critique: The answer should mention the other benefits of the project.

critique: Add that the project was also meant to bring jobs and outside interest to the region.

critique: The main aim was to garner international interest in the nations

critique: The answer omits the jobs and money that the project brought to the region.

critique: The answer could be phrased as a complete sentence.

text: The response should mention the real goal - the giant rail gun that propelled spacecraft to space.


text:
_"Whenever I'm about to do something, I think, 'Would an idiot do that?' And if they would, I do not do that thing."_

_- Dwight Schrute_

This LEGO Ideas project is based on the hit-comedy TV show _The Office,_ which aired from 2005-2013. As I watched the show over and over again, I began to wonder what it would be like to recreate the actual film set in LEGO form. Back in the fall of 2015, I decided to create a new LDD file and just experiment with the design of it. I originally had no intent on actually purchasing the pieces to build it, let alone submit it to LEGO Ideas. Well, over two years later here we are. Countless hours spent designing and tweaking every little detail, along with placing special orders that would take weeks to arrive. I'm excited to finally get to share this with you, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

THE MODEL:

I wanted to make this set as accurate as possible, so every little detail was important to me. The overall dimensions of this layout measure just a little over 17”x19”. In other words, this is no small-scale set, which gave me much more freedom to add the small details and make it as authentic as I could, within reasonable measures. The total piece count comes in at just under 2,500 pieces (the exact number will come in a later update). Another great feature of this set is found within the structure itself. I designed it with the ability to split apart into 3 sections (see photos above). This makes transporting the set much easier, as well as getting those clean, close-up shots with a larger camera. Although the set is geared more towards adults/young adults, playability was definitely kept in mind as well. The bottom of this set is reinforced to ensure great structure, and the modular aspect of it makes playability much more inviting.

THE MINIFIGURES:

A total of 14 minifigures are currently included with this set. Although I wanted to create every character from _The Office_, I chose the main characters that were consistently featured throughout the entirety of the show on the primary set (i.e. characters like Toby and Kelly aren’t featured YET because their desks reside in the annex). I do, however, have plans to add a couple more characters within the next few months. Below is a list of each character and the accessories that are included with them.

-   Michael Scott: “World’s Best Boss” mug, Dundie, Santa hat
-   Dwight Schrute: Beet, bobblehead, briefcase, elf hat, pumpkin head
-   Ryan Howard: Cellphone
-   Jim Halpert: Briefcase, ring
-   Pam Beesly: Teapot, paintbrush, paint pallet
-   Andy Bernard: Guitar, microphone
-   Phyllis Vance: Knitting needles
-   Stanley Hudson: Crossword, pretzel, pie
-   Oscar Martinez: Computer screen featuring “Cookie Monster Kevin”
-   Angela Martin: Brown cat, black cat, white cat
-   Kevin Malone: Cookie jar, pizza, chili
-   Meredith Palmer: Bottle, bat
-   Creed Bratton: Computer Screen with Solitaire on it, mung beans
-   Darryl Philbin: Briefcase, Dunder Mifflin boxes

I’m very excited to finally be able to share this awesome set with you, and your support is greatly appreciated!

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theoffice_lego/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NBCs-The-Office-LEGO-1762630957089197/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/theoffice_lego

question: What does the article say about the office politics of the LEGO corporation?

answer: No answer

critique: This is not a proper response or anything to do with the text so it doesn't make sense to copy and paste it exactly as it is because there is no answer.

question: What does the article say about "The Office" set modeled in LEGO?

answer: The LEGO set measures 17" by 19" in dimension and it weighs just under 2500 pieces. The set is modular, which means it is made up of 3 sections that can be separated for easier use and sharing. It is built for adults and young adults and its bottom is reinforced to ensure great structure.

critique: It's omitted that the model depict 14 characters from the show.

critique: The set is not just for adults and young adults.

critique: "and its bottom is reinforced to ensure great structure" is unnecessary information that is not relevant to the question.

critique: The answer should mention the characters included.

critique: The answer should mention the minifigures.


text:
Devyn wrapped her arms tightly around her sister’s arm while staring fearfully at the man. She pulled her sister back to try to hide her from him  but he was already staring at the two of them with narrowed eyes.

“That’s the guy who murdered that group of people! They couldn’t find evidence that found him guilty but everyone knows he did it!” She rambled on quickly while tugging on her sister’s arm who was only staring at the man curiously.

“Really? I didn’t know,” she said while tilting her head.

Her sister glared fiercely at her. “How could you not know?! It was all over the news!” She yelled before squealing and pulling her sister forcefully causing Rachel to spill some of her drink. “He’s coming this way!”

Josh and Sana raised an eyebrow from the scene Devyn was creating before they followed Rachel’s gaze.

Josh smirked and stood up but Sana scooted all the way to the wall of the building with fear in her eyes.

“There you are! Where have you been?” Josh slung an arm around the man’s shoulder who was glaring down at Rachel as she began to eat some of the mozzarella sticks nonchalantly. “Ladies, this is my best friend Pierce. You probably already know who he is.”

“We’ve met before,” Rachel spoke up as she looked up at the two men. “I didn’t know who he was at the time.”

“That would explain why you aren’t scared,” Josh snickered and Pierced visibly tensed up; his jaw clenching and he sent a glare at Rachel who was only staring at him with curiosity.

“How are you not scared?” Devyn exclaimed looking at Josh with disbelief before squeaking and hiding behind her sister when Pierce merely look at her.

Josh began to noogie Pierce’s hair that was style in a long black ponytail, grinning widely as he did. “I’ve known him since he was little! He wouldn’t do such a thing!”

Sana and Devyn stared at the two in disbelief while Rachel stared at her drink with content before a looming figure rose up behind the two men.

“You two.” The looming figure growled in a low voice as Demie slammed both of their heads together forcefully. “How many times have I told you two to stop terrorizing my new customers?” He picked them up by the collars of their jackets and glared at them with fire in his eyes.

“I wasn’t doin’ anything to them!” Josh argued back but with one glance from the bartender he swallowed his voice.

“The girl didn’t order a drink the when i first took their orders.”

Josh gave him a shaky smile as he began to sweat nervously, stammering over his words as he tried to explain the situation but Demie was already looking at Pierce.

“You need to stop making them fear for their lives, so behave yourself or I’m kicking you out,” he threatened and Pierce averted his gaze from him while nodding.

Demie dropped the two on the floor without a care before looking at the girls with a kind smile who were staring at him with a mixture of relief and fear. “As long as I’m here they won’t do anything to you. Here or outside of the bar.” He looked to Sana who had been watching Josh as he sat on the ground still shaking. “Would you like a new drink?”

She looked from the drink to Josh who was slowly standing up and rubbing the sore spot on his butt. She didn’t feel dizzy or sick, so at least he was respectable.

“No, I’m fine.” She gave him a smile and he nodded.

“If you need anything else, including getting rid of these two, just come up to the bar,” he offered before leaving them to themselves.

Josh cursed quietly as he slowly sat back down in his seat while Pierce dusted himself off, still standing by the booth instead of sitting or leaving.

“He doesn’t have to be so rough,” Josh grumbled as he fixed his leather jacket.

“It seems like you two cause a lot of trouble,” Sana causing Josh to smirk and give her wink making her roll her eyes.

“I am trouble.”

Pierce continued to stare at Rachel who was still eating. His stare was making Devyn’s skin crawl so much she could not bare it any longer.

“Can you move? I need to use the bathroom,” Devyn tapped Rachel on the shoulder and she nodded, standing up beside Pierce who was watching her like a hawk. Devyn quickly left the booth and rushed to the bathroom before Rachel looked at Pierce unafraid.

“Do you wan to sit with us?”

“I’m leaving,” he said shortly before walking towards the door despite Josh’s protests. He left the bar, letting the door slam loudly yet no one else in the bar seemed to notice or care except for Demie who did not want the glass to break.

“Was it something I said?” Rachel asked Josh as she sat back down but he shook his head and shrugged.

“I don’t know, but I should go after him.” He stood up and went to leave before looking back at Sana with a smirk to which she sent him an questioning look. “I don’t have a phone number anymore since I gave you mine. Can I have yours?”

She stared at him deadpanned, looking unamused on the outside but laughing happily at the cheesy pickup line on the inside. “Fine.” She gave him her phone number and he placed the napkin in his pocket before flashing her fingers guns with a wide grin.

“I’ll see you around Dollface.” He winked before leaving the bar quickly and leaving the two girls by themselves.

“He doesn’t seem that bad,” Rachel smiled at Sana who bit her lip to stop herself from smiling.

“I just hope i don’t regret giving him my number.”

title: [FN] Demie's Pt. 2

question: What does the text say about Pierce?

answer: Pierce is the man who murdered a group of people. Everyone knows he did it, but there was no evidence to convict him. He is Josh's best friend. He is also a bartender at the bar where the girls are. He is a tall, muscular man with a long black ponytail. He is also a troublemaker.

critique: The answer should mention that he is also an intimidating presence.

text: The answer should mention Josh claiming that Pierce would never murder anyone.

question: What does the story say about Rachel?

answer: Rachel was made aware of the fact that the guy she was seeing, Pierce, was the same man who murdered a group of people with no evidence found to convict him. Because she opted not to get to know him when she first saw him, she had no fear of him, and the journalist brother of Devyn hoped to make a story out of the story, even at the cost of mercilessly exposing Rachel in the public. Rachel seems to be just an average American girl who doesn't find it in her to judge others; even when she would have been within bounds to do so, she didn't.

text: There's no journalist mentioned in the story.

question: What does the story say about why Pierce acts so creepy?

answer: No answer

critique: The answer should mention that the story doesn't say anything about why Pierce acts so creepy.


text:
[]
Warriors returned from the Scattering - Heretics of Dune french edition cover art

THE SCATTERING was a major historical event that occurred in the chaotic period following the death of Leto Atreides II, the God-Emperor. Leto's death saw the eventual breakdown of his empire, severe famine on many worlds, and the introduction of Ixian no-ships. It was all part of The Golden Path, as put forward by Leto, which was triggered by a perceived need to diversify the human race and allow it to evolve.

Contents

-   1 Origin
-   2 Scattering Space
-   3 Return from the Scattering
-   4 Behind the Scenes
-   5 Appearances

Origin[edit | edit source]

Leto II's prescience allowed him to see into both the past and the future, and he believed that ten thousand years of rule by the Faufreluches had allowed the human race to become stagnant, and that drastic action on Leto's part was needed in order for the human race to survive.

Leto II was also aware that a likelihood existed that the Thinking Machines, before they were destroyed in the Butlerian Jihad, had scattered. A stagnant human race would have little chance should the machines return. The entire purpose of "Leto's Golden path" was to force the human race to abandon certainty, security, and safety as individual goals and to "scatter" not only geographically, but also to do so technologically, ideologically, and socio-politically.

As a result of this philosophy, during the reign of Leto II humanity was predominantly planet bound and ruled by an iron fist for more than 3500 years. This was in contrast to the relative freedom of expression and movement people enjoyed to a limited degree under the Faufreluches, the limits being predominantly the inherent control of feudal rule and the Spacing Guild monopoly on space travel. Indeed, Leto II exerted a level of control that was unprecedented in the Imperium, including power over the Guild and space travel, a feat that previous Emperors had been unable to accomplish. Upon Leto's death, the stalwart and long-established order of the Imperium disintegrated, as did control over freedoms and movement, and as a result, humanity rediscovered independence and nobilities on an unprecedented scale. This paved the way for humanity to "scatter" across the universe into the unknown and further evolution of the human race.

According to Leto II's plan, his death was followed by a collapse of political control and Spice supplies - as it would take generations for the Spice cycle to reassert itself on Rakis. Political order collapsed and entire worlds starved to death, in a chaotic period known as the Famine Times. The Scattering was an immediate response to the Famine Times, as refugees fled the anarchy consuming the Old Imperium.

Scattering Space[edit | edit source]

During The Scattering, many people remained within the boundaries of the Old Imperium. Many, however, did not. Countless humans departed the Old Imperium for uncharted space, never to return. For 1,500 years, humanity explored the uncharted realms of the universe beyond the boundaries of the Old Imperium. New groups and cultures evolved.

During the Scattering, vast waves of refugees spread outwards into uncharted space, so that the number of human-colonized worlds exponentially ballooned both in number and spread. The Bene Gesserit who remained in the territories of the Old Imperium could only make vague guesses at the size of "Scattering space", as it was theoretically infinite and even the Honored Matres might not know its full extent. One clue is that the Lost Ones returning from the Scattering refer to the Old Imperium as "the million worlds" or "the million planets" - implying that Scattering space is at least several multiples larger than that.

Little is also known of the exact socio-political history of what happened in Scattering space, other than that its development across 1,500 years was fairly rapid - a direct reaction to the enforced sedentary nature of Leto's Pace for 3,500 years, or the 10,000 year static structure of the Faufreluches under the Corrino empire.

What is known is that eventually, the Honored Matres developed as a fusion of Bene Gesserit and Fish Speakers (and possibly other groups) who had fled into the Scattering. An aggressive group focused on conquest and domination, the Honored Matres carved out vast swaths of territory among the worlds settled in the Scattering. One of these worlds, or perhaps a collection of worlds, was referred to as "Dur".

Another group that rose to prominence in Scattering space were the Lost Tleilaxu - no longer bound by even the pretense of following the restrictions of the Great Convention, they pushed genetic manipulation drastically farther than their Bene Tleilax forbearers in the Old Imperium ever did. Among other creations, the Lost Tleilaxu brazenly spliced together human and animal stock, creating the feline-based Futars and fish-based Phibians. The Honored Matres came into conflict with the Lost Tleilaxu, becoming their bitter enemies, in wars that spread across much of Scattering space. During this time the Tleilaxu refined the Futars, creating them for the express purpose of hunting Honored Matres. Nonetheless, the Matres managed to capture and enslaves many Futars and Phibians.

Return from the Scattering[edit | edit source]

About 1,500 years after the death of God-Emperor Leto II, many of the Lost Ones began to return from the Scattering to the space of the Old Imperium. Chief among these were the Honored Matres, who carved a path of conquest whether they went, and exterminated the Bene Tleilax and Bene Gesserit wherever they found them.

The Bene Gesserit eventually learned that the cause of this return was that the Honored Matres were fleeing an even more powerful adversary they encountered out in the Scattering, which the Honored Matres only briefly alluded to as "The Enemy" or "the Enemies of Many Faces". The Matres had managed to steal some of the powerful Obliterator weapons from this Enemy before being easily overwhelmed. While the Honored Matres were fixated on destroying the Bene Gesserit, they were also determined to learn their methods of cellular control over their own metabolism which granted them immunity to disease and poisons - a skill that had atrophied among the Matres themselves when they split off from the Bene Gesserit. From this the Bene Gesserit also deduced that the Enemy the Matres were fleeing had made extensive use of biological warfare, against which the Matres no longer had adequate defenses.

Behind the Scenes[edit | edit source]

Within the context of Frank Herbert's original novels, the Scattering occurs between the novels God Emperor of Dune and Heretics of Dune.

Appearances[edit | edit source]

-   _God Emperor of Dune_ (First mentioned)
-   _Heretics of Dune_ (Mentioned only)
-   _Chapterhouse: Dune_ (Mentioned only)

question: Summarize the origins of the Scattering.

answer: The Scattering was a major historical event that occurred in the chaotic period following the death of Leto Atreides II, the God-Emperor. Leto's death saw the eventual breakdown of his empire, severe famine on many worlds, and the introduction of Ixian no-ships. It was all part of The Golden Path, as put forward by Leto, which was triggered by a perceived need to diversify the human race and allow it to evolve.

critique: The Scattering also resulted from Leto's plan for the future that forced humanity to scatter both physically and technologically.

critique: The response includes extraneous information not useful for the task.

critique: The response is missing the part about Leto's death being followed by a collapse of political control and Spice supplies.

critique: Doesn't mention the necessity of the Scattering.

critique: The answer is not a summary but a description.

critique: The response is missing the part about Leto's death causing the Scattering.

question: What does the text say about the people who left the boundaries of the Old Imperium?

answer: Countless humans departed the Old Imperium for uncharted space, never to return. For 1,500 years, humanity explored the uncharted realms of the universe beyond the boundaries of the Old Imperium. New groups and cultures evolved. During the Scattering, vast waves of refugees spread outwards into uncharted space, so that the number of human-colonized worlds exponentially ballooned both in number and spread.

critique: The response does not mention any groups that departed the Imperium.

critique: The response misses to mention that the Honored Matres developed as a fusion of Bene Gesserit and Fish Speakers (and possibly other groups) who had fled into the Scattering. An aggressive group focused on conquest and domination, the Honored Matres carved out vast swaths of territory among the worlds settled in the Scattering. One of these worlds, or perhaps a collection of worlds, was referred to as "Dur".

critique: The response should include that the Honored Matres developed as a fusion of Bene Gesserit and Fish Speakers (and possibly other groups) who had fled into the Scattering. An aggressive group focused on conquest and domination, the Honored Matres carved out vast swaths of territory among the worlds settled in the Scattering.

critique: The response should include the Honored Matres.

critique: The answer omits mention of the Honored Matres.

critique: The response misses to mention that the Bene Gesserit who remained in the territories of the Old Imperium could only make vague guesses at the size of "Scattering space", as it was theoretically infinite and even the Honored Matres might not know its full extent. One clue is that the Lost Ones returning from the Scattering refer to the Old Imperium as "the million worlds" or "the million planets" - implying that Scattering space is at least several multiples larger than that.

critique: This is a summary of the Scattering, not the people who left the boundaries of the Old Imperium.

question: What does the text say about the Heretics of Dune novel?

answer: No answer

critique: The answer should mention the Scattering.

critique: The answer should mention the book's connection to the Scattering.

question: What did the Honored Matres want to learn from their enemies?

answer: The Honored Matres wanted to learn their enemy's methods of cellular control over metabolism.

critique: The answer is incomplete. It should mention that the Honored Matres wanted to learn their enemy's methods of cellular control over metabolism in order to gain immunity to disease and poisons.

critique: The answer should mention that this is the Bene Gesserit's deduction.

critique: The Honored Matres wanted to learn the Bene Gesserit's methods of cellular control over metabolism.

critique: The answer should mention that the Honored Matres wanted to learn this from the Bene Gesserit.

critique: The answer does not mention why the Honored Matres wanted to learn this.

critique: The Honored Matres also wanted to learn how to control their own metabolism.

critique: The Honored Matres did not encounter a human enemy; they were fleeing their feline enemies.


text:
The rules were simple, but the game itself impacts a lot thought. I have played this game with lots of people. I remember my first time. I told him, ‘here are the cards. There are five of them.’

The idea of the game is to have a card with a high number, but as you turn over a new card, you must discard the previous one. I tell him that every time I’ve showed someone else this game, they mostly make the same mistakes. I turn over the first card and reveal the very first number: [76]. When I first played even I thought, ‘is it out of a hundred?’ If it were out of a hundred, everyone would stick with the first card. But what if it were out of a thousand, or a million? It’s the uncertainty that makes people pick a second card. If they stuck with just seventy-six, and found out that the next card was in the thousands, they’d kick themselves.

Pete asked, “another card please?” Perhaps it was my long hair, but he wasn’t paying attention to me when I boldly said that almost everyone makes the same mistakes. The next card shows: [32]. The second card is about half the first value, but just below. People still think that it could possibly be out of a much larger number, and no matter what, thirty-two appears to be a scam. Without much delay, “another.”

I like to think that these cards represent opportunities in life. No one wants to look like a fool and stick with something when they don’t know its relative value. You’re offered five cards in this game, and they could hold any number, why stick with the first one? The next card reveals the number: [1]. “What? That’s horrible, I got the lowest number!” With two cards left, Pete’s next choice was predictable.

People are given first opportunities in many aspects of life. Whether it’s a job or love, people always wonder if there’s a better one out there. With no ability to compare, we are unable to decide if something is worth committing to. When Pete drew the number one, he felt bad for not sticking with either of the first two cards. Like a homeless person, he appreciates whatever he had before much more so.

Obviously the seventy-six would be most ideal, but normally if people are given the choice to go back to thirty-two or draw a new card, some would go back. “Well there’s nothing lower than one… I may as well turn over a new card. If it’s anywhere near around seventy-six I’m sticking with that.” By this point his hope for a thousand or maybe a million is gone, he now appreciates what he was given before. I turn over the new card, knowing what was coming. It’s never what people expect.

The new card shows: [0.01]. Pete’s assumption that one was the lowest number was a common mistake. Before he thought that things couldn’t be worse. While it would be nice if the next card were a million, or even just anything close to thirty, it really doesn’t matter anymore, he would accept a two. People with big dreams are unable to appreciate what they have. Why shouldn’t a child hope to be a millionaire or marry the most beautiful girl in the world? What is wrong with hoping for the best, and giving up on what you have to make room for something better? To Pete, seventy-six is now a large number, whereas before he doubted if it was even a fraction of the other cards held.

“I really should have stuck with seventy-six!” Pete laughs, as I smile. Perhaps this was all a lesson? Perhaps all it was for him to understand his mistakes, learn to appreciate what he’s given, and now he’ll be rewarded for that. Whether or not life treats him to a larger opportunity, he would walk away from this with a lesson learnt. Without waiting for him, I give him the final card. It’s blank.

I hope Pete, whoever he is, takes from this game a valuable lesson. Whether wealthy or poor, I hope he appreciates what he has. In the struggle to become better versions of ourselves, we put ourselves at risk of loss. Some would argue that, so long as we have our health it’s okay, that everything else is superficial; why not take the risk? But the fact is that we will only feel bad if we give up something we once had, not what we could have had. I tell Pete to enjoy the rest of his time at the fair, and give a bow to say goodbye.

When I looked up, he was gone. He turned over the card that had nothing on it, so as I packed them up I collected all of the other cards first. I put them face down over the fifth card to put it away in the small box they came in. But before I do, I glanced at the bottom of the fifth card. Seventy-six was written in ink.

read more: www.mostthings.net

title: [MF] Five Cards

question: Summarize the plot twist in the story.

answer: The narrator has given Pete five cards, and he has to pick one to discard. The narrator tells Pete that he has played this game with lots of people, and they all make the same mistake, which is to pick a second card when they don't know the value of the first card. The narrator turns over the first card, which is 76. The narrator thinks that if the card were out of 100, everyone would stick with the first card. However, the narrator knows that if the card were out of a million, the second card would be much better than the first card. The narrator turns over the next card, which is 32, and Pete chooses to discard the first card. The narrator turns over the third card, which is 1, and Pete chooses to discard the second card. The narrator turns over the fourth card, which is 0.01, and Pete chooses to discard the third card. The narrator turns over the fifth card, which is blank, and Pete chooses to discard the fourth card. The narrator turns over the sixth card, which is 76, and Pete chooses to discard the fifth card.

critique: The answer is a summary of the game, not the plot twist.

critique: Repeating information in the answer without any kind of justification to set it apart as important.

critique: The summary is not about the plot twist.

critique: The answer does not mention the twist in the story.

critique: The answer omits the twist, which is that the narrator is Pete the whole time.

text: The answer is incorrect - the plot twists is that the fifth card has 76 written right at the bottom, the exact same value as the first card.

question: Explain how the card turned from blank to displaying the numbers "76".

answer: The card is probably a magic card. The magician put it away with the other cards face down. Then he turned over to see that the card turned into a "76".

critique: The card is not a magic card. The narrator put the cards away with the blank card face down and then turned it over to reveal the number 76.

critique: "The magician put it away with the other cards face down. Then he turned over to see that the card turned into a "76"." - this is incorrect because it was the narrator who put the cards away. The card was blank before he put it away.

critique: The narrator did not say the card was a magic card.

critique: Grammar (the magician's decision was to put all the cards face-down so that they couldn't easily identify it) and the distribution of the evidence (the trail of evidence is hard to pin without the card to work with and he needs to place the card) could be more coherent.

question: Summarize the moral of the story.

answer: The narrator explains that the game is all about appreciating what you have and not always wanting more.

critique: The answer should mention that the narrator hopes Pete will take a lesson from the game.

critique: There is no evidence to suggest that the narrator is the one explaining the moral.

critique: The answer should mention that the narrator hopes Pete will learn this lesson.

critique: It's omitted that the narrator hopes Pete will learn to appreciate what he has.

critique: The answer should mention the moral of the story.

question: Summarize what the narrator has to say about opportunities.

answer: The narrator says that the cards represent opportunities in life. He says that people want to look like fools and stick with something when they don't know its relative value. The narrator says that people are given first opportunities in many aspects of life. He says that people always wonder if there's a better opportunity out there.

critique: The response is missing the part about the narrator saying that people with big dreams are unable to appreciate what they have.

critique: "He says that people want to look like fools and stick with something when they don't know its relative value." This is inaccurate. The narrator is trying to make the point that people want to look like fools by not sticking with what they have.

critique: The narrator doesn't say that people want to look like fools.

critique: Does not mention the uncertainty of opportunities.