question: Our brains work in complex and strange ways. There are some people who can calculate the day of the week for any given date in 40,000 years, but who cannot add two plus two. Others can perform complex classical piano pieces after hearing them once, but they cannot read or write. 

Dr. J. Langdon Down first described this condition in 1887. He called these people idiot savants. An idiot savant is a person who has significant mental injury, such as in autism or retardation. At the same time, the person also exhibits some extraordinary skills, which are unusual for most people. The skills of the savant may vary from being exceptionally gifted in music or in mathematics, or having a photographic memory. 

One of the first descriptions of a human who could calculate quickly was written in 1789 by Dr. Benjamin Rush, an American doctor. His patient, Thomas Fuller, was brought to Virginia as a slave in 1724. It took Thomas only 90 seconds to work out that a man who has lived 70 years, 17 days, and 12 hours has lived 2,210,500,800 seconds. Despite this ability, he died in 1790 without ever learning to read or write. 

Another idiot savant slave became famous as a pianist in the 1860s. Blind Tom had a vocabulary of only 100 words, but he played 5,000 musical pieces beautifully. 

In the excellent movie Rain Man, made in 1988 and available on video cassette, Dustin Hoffman plays an idiot savant who amazes his brother played by Tom Cruise, with his ability to perform complex calculations very rapidly. 

Today we more clearly recognize that the idiot savant is special because of brain impairment. Yet not all brain injury leads to savant skills. Some studies have shown that people who have purposeful interruption of the left side of the brain can develop idiot savant skills. However few people wish to participate in such experiments. There are many excellent reasons for not undergoing unnecessary experimentation on one's brain. The term idiot savant is outdated and inappropriate. Virtually all savants have a high degree of intelligence and are thus not idiots.
1. What are idiot savants?
2. What type of skills?
3. Anything else?
4. And?
5. Who wrote about a human that could calculate fast?
6. What was his profession?
7. Where was he from?
8. What year did he write about this person?
9. What was his patient's name?
10. Was he a free man?
11. Was he literate?
12. Who became famous as a pianist?
13. How many words did he know?
14. How many music pieces could he play?
15. What actor played Rain Man?
16. What was his amazing skill?
17. Does all brain injury leads to savant skills?
18. Do many people wish to participate in experiments to determine idiot savant?
19. Does the author like the term idiot savant?
20. Why not?
****
answer: 1. a person who has significant mental injury but has extraordinary skills
2. gifted in music
3. mathematics
4. having a photographic memory
5. Dr. Benjamin Rush
6. doctor
7. America
8. 1789
9. Thomas Fuller
10. no
11. no
12. Blind Tom
13. 100
14. 5,000
15. Dustin Hoffman
16. he performed complex calculations very rapidly
17. no
18. No
19. no
20. savants have a high degree of intelligence and are thus not idiots


question: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (abbreviated as MGM or M-G-M, also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer or simply Metro, and for a former interval known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/United Artists, or MGM/UA) is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of feature films and television programs. 

Once the largest, most glamorous, and most revered film studio, MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer Pictures. Its headquarters are in Beverly Hills, California. It is one of the world's oldest film studios. 

In 1971, it was announced that MGM would merge with 20th Century Fox, a plan which never came into fruition. Over the next thirty-nine years, the studio was bought and sold at various points in its history until, on November 3, 2010, MGM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. MGM emerged from bankruptcy on December 20, 2010, at which time the executives of Spyglass Entertainment, Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum, became co-chairmen and co-CEOs of the holding company of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. 

As of 2017, MGM co-produces, co-finances, and co-distributes a majority of its films with Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. 

MGM Resorts International, a Las Vegas-based hotel and casino company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "MGM", is not currently affiliated with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
1. What does M G M stand for?
2. Are they an Australian based company?
3. Where?
4. What do they specialize in?
5. Where is their HQ?
6. Is it a newer group?
7. Who did they combine with?
8. When were they created?
9. Who do they work with in 2017?
10. Are they associated with any hotels?
11. Did they ever run out of money?
12. when?
13. Did they come out of that the same year?
14. Who helped?
15. Who was granted chairs among other titles in the company?
****
answer: 1. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
2. no
3. America
4. the production and distribution of feature films and television programs
5. Beverly Hills
6. no
7. no one
8. 1924
9. Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros
10. no
11. yes
12. in 2010
13. yes
14. Spyglass Entertainment
15. Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum


question: One morning, Daddy, Ethan, and I went out shopping for Mother's day gifts. First we went to buy some flowers. I found a nice big bunch of pink roses that were very pretty. Then we went and bought a card. There were a lot to choose from, some of them had pictures of kids and some of them had pictures of animals. Daddy wanted to get one with a kid hugging his mommy but Ethan wanted the one with a cat on it, and I wanted the one with a dog on it. We ended up getting all three. Then we went to buy ingredients so we could cook breakfast. On Mother's day I helped Daddy make breakfast. We made chocolate pancakes and eggs. It was very messy but a lot of fun. Mommy loved getting breakfast in bed and she liked the flowers and cards. We also went out to go to the park after breakfast. It was a beautiful day and a lot of fun. I can't wait for mother's day to come by again!
1. Who made breakfast?
2. What did they make?
3. How many things did Mommy get?
4. What were they?
5. What kind of flowers?
6. What kind of cards?
7. So how did you decide?
8. Did you go anywhere?
9. Where?
10. How many people went?
****
answer:
1. Daddy and I
2. chocolate pancakes and eggs
3. four
4. flowers and cards
5. pink roses
6. a kid hugging his mommy but Ethan wanted the one with a cat on it, and I wanted the one with a dog on it
7. Got all three
8. yes
9. the park
10. five