(CNN)"A long, long, time ago..." 

Those five words, when uttered or sung, makes baby boomers immediately think of Don McLean's pop masterpiece "American Pie." It's hard to believe that his phenomenal 8½ minute allegory, which millions of Americans know by heart, is 44 years old. All sorts of historical cross-currents play off each other in this timeless song, brilliantly gilded with the unforgettable chorus, which starts as "Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie." There is no real way to categorize McLean's "American Pie" for its hybrid of modern poetry and folk ballad, beer-hall chant and high-art rock. 

On Tuesday, Christie's sold the 16-page handwritten manuscript of the song's lyrics for $1.2 million to an unnamed buyer. 

McLean was a paperboy when, on February 3, 1959, he saw that Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson had been tragically killed in an airplane crash in Clear Lake, Iowa. "The next day I went to school in shock and guess what?" McLean recalled. "Nobody cared. Rock 'n' roll in those days was sort of like hula hoops and Buddy hadn't had a big hit on the charts since '57." By cathartically writing "American Pie," McLean has guaranteed that the memory of those great musicians lives forever. 

Having recorded his first album, "Tapestry," in 1969, in Berkeley, California, during the student riots, McLean, a native New Yorker, became a kind of weather vane for what he called the "generation lost in space." When his cultural anthem "American Pie" was released in November 1971, it replaced Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A Changin" as the Peoples Almanac of the new decade. It's important to think of "American Pie" as one would of Henry Longfellow's "Evangeline" or Johnny Mercer's "Moon River" -- an essential Americana poem emanating wistful recollection, blues valentine, and youthful protest rolled into one. There is magic brewing in the music and words of "American Pie," for McLean's lyrics and melody frame a cosmic dream, like those Jack Kerouac tried to conjure in his poetry-infused novel "On the Road."  What are the answers to this following set of questions: 1. Where is Don McLean from?
2. Where did he attend college?
3. What was his job when Buddy Holly died?
4. How did Buddy Holly die?
5. Was anyone else famous on that plane?
6. Who?
7. Where did the plane crash?
8. What song did that accident inspire McLean to write?
9. When was it released?
10. What was the name of the album?
11. What was going on during that album release in California?
12. What was the song of the decade before American Pie?
13. Who sang that?
14. How long is American Pie?
15. How old is it?
16. How does the chorus start?
17. How does the tune start?
18. Do many people know the words to it?
19. Can it be categorized easily?
20. How much did the handwritten lyrics sell for?
Answer: 1. New York.
2. Berkeley, California.
3. A paperboy.
4. Airplane crash.
5. Yes.
6. Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson.
7. Clear Lake, Iowa.
8. American Pie.
9. November 1971.
10. Tapestry,.
11. Student riots.
12. The Times They Are A Changin'.
13. Bob Dylan.
14. 8½ minutes.
15. 44 years old.
16. Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie.
17. A long, long, time ago.
18. Yes.
19. No.
20. $1.2 million.

question: CHAPTER III 

On the third day after Nina's visit to her aunt, Ziska Zamenoy came across to the Kleinseite on a visit to old Balatka. In the mean time Nina had told the story of her love to her father, and the effect on Balatka had simply been that he had not got out of his bed since. For himself he would have cared, perhaps, but little as to the Jewish marriage, had he not known that those belonging to him would have cared so much. He had no strong religious prejudice of his own, nor indeed had he strong feeling of any kind. He loved his daughter, and wished her well; but even for her he had been unable to exert himself in his younger days, and now simply expected from her hands all the comfort which remained to him in this world. The priest he knew would attack him, and to the priest he would be able to make no answer. But to Trendellsohn, Jew as he was, he would trust in worldly matters, rather than to the Zamenoys; and were it not that he feared the Zamenoys, and could not escape from his close connection with them, he would have been half inclined to let the girl marry the Jew. Souchey, indeed, had frightened him on the subject when it had first been mentioned to him; and Nina, coming with her own assurance so quickly after Souchey's suspicion, had upset him; but his feeling in regard to Nina had none of that bitter anger, no touch of that abhorrence which animated the breast of his sister-in-law. When Ziska came to him he was alone in his bedroom. Ziska had heard the news, as had all the household in the Windberg-gasse, and had come over to his uncle's house to see what he could do, by his own diplomacy, to put an end to an engagement which was to him doubly calamitous. "Uncle Josef," he said, sitting by the old man's bed, "have you heard what Nina is doing?" 
1. who had Nina visited?
2. who is her dad?
3. did he love his daughter?
4. Did the News Nina give him have a positive effect?
5. what happened?
6. where did Ziska go?
7. who would attack Balatka?
8. would he be able to explain things to the priest?
9. what was the person Nina wanted to marry?
10. who was it because of that he greed to the relationship?
11. what did they do to him?
12. was he able to leave them?
13. who had warned him about the marriage before Nina?
14. was he with anyone when Ziska came?
15. what Balatka expect from Nina?
16. did everybody know what was going on?
17. where was the household?
18. what did he call his uncle?
19. what did he want to help with?
20. why?
****
answer:
1. her aunt,
2. Balatka
3. yes
4. no
5. he had not got out of his bed since.
6. Kleinseite
7. The priest he knew
8. no
9. Jewish
10. the Zamenoys
11. he feared them
12. no
13. Souchey,
14. no
15. all the comfort which remained to him
16. Ziska had heard the news, as had all the household
17. Windberg-gasse,
18. Josef
19. put an end to an engagement
20. it was doubly calamitous to him.