In 1981, when I was nine years old, my father took me to see Raiders of the Lost Ark. Although I had to squint my eyes during some of the scary scenes, I loved it – in particular because I was fairly sure that Harrison Ford’s character was based on my dad. My father was a palaeontologist at the University of Chicago, and I’d gone on several field trips with him to the Rocky Mountains, where he seemed to transform into a rock-hammer-wielding superhero. That illusion was shattered some years later when I figured out what he actually did: far from spending his time climbing dangerous cliffs and digging up dinosaurs, Jack Sepkoski spent most of his career in front of a computer, building what would become the first comprehensive database on the fossil record of life. The analysis that he and his colleagues performed revealed new understandings of phenomena such as diversification and extinction, and changed the way that palaeontologists work. But he was about as different from Indiana Jones as you can get. The intertwining tales of my father and his discipline contain lessons for the current era of algorithmic analysis and artificial intelligence (AI), and points to the value-laden way in which we “see” data. My dad was part of a group of innovators in palaeontology who identified as “palaeobiologists” – meaning that they approached their science not as a branch of geology, but rather as the study of the biology and evolution of past life. Since Charles Darwin’s time, palaeontology – especially the study of the marine invertebrates that make up most of the record – involved descriptive tasks such as classifying or correlating fossils with layers of the Earth (known as stratigraphy). Some invertebrate palaeontologists studied evolution, too, but often these studies were regarded by evolutionary biologists and geneticists as little more than “stamp collecting”. Question: What did the author go with his father to see in the movies in 1981? Options: - Star Wars   - not enough information   - Star Trek   - Raiders of the Lost Ark === The correct answer is
Raiders of the Lost Ark

U.S. President Donald Trump has blocked the release of a Democratic rebuttal to a Republican memo alleging FBI abuses of power during an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. In a letter released Friday, White House counsel Don McGahn said Trump had decided not to declassify the Democratic memo “because the memorandum contains numerous properly classified and especially sensitive passages.” The president himself expounded on that explanation Saturday on Twitter. "The Democrats sent a very political and long response memo which they knew, because of sources and methods (and more), would have to be heavily redacted, whereupon they would blame the White House for lack of transparency. Told them to re-do and send back in proper form!" Rep. Steny Hoyer, the No. 2-ranking Democrat in the House, released a statement late Friday saying, “It is deeply disturbing that President Trump has blocked the release” of the Democrat-written memo. He said that after Trump on Feb. 2 released “a one-sided, misleading memo written by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee, it is only appropriate that Americans see all the facts.” McGahn’s letter to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes asked for revisions in the document before it could be released. Nunes released a statement late Friday, saying, “I had warned that the Democratic memo contains many sources and methods ... it’s no surprise that these agencies recommended against publishing the memo without redactions.”  McGahn’s statement said because of the “public interest in transparency in these unprecedented circumstances, the president has directed that Justice Department personnel be available to give technical assistance to the committee” in its efforts to revise the document. Trump had until the end of Friday to decide whether to declassify the memo, written by Democrats on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. The president last week authorized the release of the Republican version of the memo, which... Question: How long did it take President Donald Trump to authorize the release of the Republican version of the memo? Options: - A few days   - Less than a minute   - A few weeks   - not enough information === The correct answer is
Less than a minute

Manny had Bob Marley cranking on the stereo, his van was full of passengers, and the air conditioning was working after a long week of giving him trouble. The sun beat down on the wet-looking asphalt road that ran along the harbor, next to the concrete waterfront. It curved along in front of the brightly colored Dutch Colonial warehouses of Charlotte Amalie, which were now converted restaurants and jewel shops. Tourists in day-glo shirts and daubs of sunscreen rubbed over peeling skin crowded both sides of the waterfront road. Manny slowed somewhat, keeping an eye on them. On the sidewalk by the shops a tall black man stood by a food cart. The hand-painted wooden sign hanging from the cart's side had faded letters. The man wore a grand suit with tails, like an orchestra conductor, and a top hat perched on his shaved head. A cigar burned in his mouth. For a brief second he held Manny's attention. Then the food cart's owner stepped forward and the strangely dressed man disappeared. Manny looked at the other side of the road. A white girl with oval shaped sunglasses and pink leather pants stepped off the sidewalk into the road in front of his van. He slammed on the brakes, trying to dodge her, but the van couldn't respond that fast. Her ponytail flew up towards the windshield and her head struck the star-shaped hood ornament. She bounced along the asphalt. Manny weaved the van to a stop, with swearing from the passengers in the back. He opened the door and stepped out into the heat. Get up, stand up, the radio cried out, and that was what Manny hoped would happen. He hoped that she would at least just stir and be okay. But she just lay there. Question: Why did Manny slow down? Options: - not enough information   - the food cart owner stepped forward   - the boy stepped off the sidewalk   - tourists were on the road === The correct answer is

tourists were on the road