Question: Adult contemporary music (AC) is a style of music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, rhythm and blues, quiet storm, and rock influence. Adult contemporary is rather a continuation of the easy listening and soft rock style that became popular in the 1960s and 1970s with some adjustments that reflect the evolution of pop/rock music. 

Adult contemporary tends to have lush, soothing and highly polished qualities where emphasis on melody and harmonies is accentuated. It is usually melodic enough to get a listener's attention, and is inoffensive and pleasurable enough to work well as background music. Like most of pop music, its songs tend to be written in a basic format employing a verse–chorus structure. 

Adult contemporary is heavy on romantic sentimental ballads which mostly use acoustic instruments (though bass guitar is usually used) such as acoustic guitars, pianos, saxophones, and sometimes an orchestral set. The electric guitars are normally faint and high-pitched. However, recent adult contemporary music may usually feature synthesizers (and other electronics, such as drum machines). 1. What type is the article about?
2. How can it be abbreviated?
3. What kinds of instruments does it use?
4. With what characteristics?
5. What is it based on?
6. From what years?
7. Is it hard to listen to? Provide a numbered list of answers.
****
A numbered of answers: 1. Adult contemporary music
2. AC
3. acoustic instruments
4. verse–chorus structure.
5. easy listening and soft rock
6. 1960s and 1970s
7. no

Q: The Dupont Circle park in Washington DC is a busy, crowded place. Popular restaurants and businesses around the circle attract many city residents and visitors. But few people know about the old streetcar station below the street. Braulio Agnese is the Managing Director of an organization called Dupont Underground. The group wants to change the old station into a place for the arts."We see everything from site-specific art work, which fills the space in different ways, light and sound or appliances. Or it can be used like a traditional gallery. But also as a curved space, it offers a chance for new kinds of performance. DC has quite a few experimental theater groups that would like to work in an unusual space and do different kinds of production." 

The system of tunnels was built in the late 1940s. But the streetcars only ran for a short time. They stopped running in the 1960s. Mr. Agnese says the station could become a symbol of how quickly Washington is changing."Changes in the last five or ten years have been tremendous. The restaurant scene is changing, new development, new opportunities. We think there is an opportunity to create something here that helps the city to move forward." 

Dupont Underground is just one example of the trend toward giving a new purpose to unused industrial sites. In New York, builders want to make a forgotten street car garage into a park below the street. And New York already has the popular High Line Park. It was once an old railroad path. The question is -- can Dupont Underground be as successful? 

Bill McLeod is Executive Director of Historic DuPont Circle Main Streets. The group helps small businesses in the DuPont Circle area. Mr. McLeod says the underground will fill a need in the area."I think there is definitely need for art space, or event space, in DuPont. And I think that will be the perfect space to activate because it's very large - it's 75 thousand square feet. Very cool, right?" 

Another organization tried to open a group of eating places in the space 15 years ago. That food court project failed. Mr. McLeod says the group leading the new effort has a better understanding of the project. He says the group knows it will take a lot of time and money and is successfully seeking financial support. Braulio Agnese and his co-workers hope to open the underground station to the public in the next few months.

1. in Washington DC
2. restaurants and businesses
3. the old streetcar station
4. Dupont Underground
5. the arts
6. in the late 1940s
7. up until the 1960s
8. giving a new purpose to unused industrial sites
9. builders want to make a forgotten street car garage into a park
10. High Line Park
11. yes
12. no

Numbered questions:
1. Where is Dupont Circle?
2. What is located there?
3. What is there that not many know about?
4. What is the name of the group who would like to see it utilized?
5. For what?
6. When were the under ground roads created?
7. When were the street cars used?
8. What trend are they gravitating toward?
9. What is happening in the Big Apple?
10. What other park have they already created?
11. Has anyone in DC ever tried anything like this before?
12. Did they succeed?

input: Washington (CNN) -- A late evening meeting between President Barack Obama and the leaders of the House and Senate failed to reach agreement Wednesday on a spending plan to avert a government shutdown, but all the participants said progress was made and talks would continue. 

If there is no deal by midnight Friday, when the current spending authorization measure expires, parts of the government will close down. 

Obama called the 90-minute talks with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, "constructive" and he said they narrowed and clarified the outstanding issues. 

"I remain confident that if we're serious about getting something done, we should be able to complete a deal and get it passed and avert a shutdown," Obama said in brief remarks to reporters. "But it's going to require a sufficient sense of urgency from all parties involved" to prevent a shutdown that "could have real effects on everyday Americans." 

Both Reid and Boehner told reporters in their own brief comments that the meeting made progress in narrowing their differences, and that their staffs would work through the night to try to reach further consensus. 

"I have confidence we can get this done," said Reid, who criticized Boehner and Republicans earlier in the day for intransigence. "We're not there yet." 

Boehner, standing next to Reid, said "we do have some honest differences," and he emphasized there was no agreement on either a specific figure for spending cuts for the rest of the current fiscal year or on policy issues that the Republicans want included in the measure, such as specifically prohibiting funding for abortions.  1. Was an agreement reached? Return numbered answers in your output.

output:
1. failed to reach agreement