question: In 50 years of traveling, Colin McCorpuodale has visited every country in the world except three. And everywhere he goes, he sends himself a postcard. He always chooses a postcard with beautiful scenery . Usually he writes just a short message to himself. However, he wrote an interesting story on his latest one, from the Malians Island. Mr. McCorpuodale lives in London. On one of the walls in his room, you can see a large map of the world. There are hundreds of little red pins stuck in it. "These pins mean a lot to me." says Mr. McCorpuodale, "I follow the rule. I'm allowed to stick one in only if I've been in a place for more than 24 hours." Naturally, Mr. McCorpuodale has his favorite places. New Zealand, he describes as "a wonderful country". About China, he says, "This is the country in the world which is completely different. There is no European influence." Wherever he goes, Mr. McCorpuodale takes with him a photo of his wife, a candle, a shirt with a secret pocket and a pen. So why does he do it? For the postcards or the travels? Mr. McCorpuodale laughs, "Neither. Only for the meaningful life."
1. Which islands did Colin visit recently?
2. where does he live?
3. how many years has he been traveling?
4. what is on the wall of his room?
5. how many countries has he yet to visit?
6. what does he send himself after visiting each place?
7. what is stuck in the map?
8. how long does he have to visit a country before he can mark it with a pin?
9. what is pictured on the postcards?
10. does he write short messages or long ones usually?
11. did he write a short or long one this time?
12. what does he think of New Zealand?
13. what does Colin take with him everywhere he goes?
14. does he think China is influenced by Europe?
****
answer: 1. Malians
2. London
3. 50
4. a map
5. three
6. a postcard
7. little red pins
8. 24 hours
9. beautiful scenery
10. short
11. an interesting one
12. it's wonderful
13. a photo of his wife, a candle, a shirt and a pen
14. not at all


question: UniProt is a freely accessible database of protein sequence and functional information, many entries being derived from genome sequencing projects. It contains a large amount of information about the biological function of proteins derived from the research literature. 

The UniProt consortium comprises the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB), and the Protein Information Resource (PIR). EBI, located at the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus in Hinxton, UK, hosts a large resource of bioinformatics databases and services. SIB, located in Geneva, Switzerland, maintains the ExPASy (Expert Protein Analysis System) servers that are a central resource for proteomics tools and databases. PIR, hosted by the National Biomedical Research Foundation (NBRF) at the Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, DC, USA, is heir to the oldest protein sequence database, Margaret Dayhoff's Atlas of Protein Sequence and Structure, first published in 1965. In 2002, EBI, SIB, and PIR joined forces as the UniProt consortium. 

Each consortium member is heavily involved in protein database maintenance and annotation. Until recently, EBI and SIB together produced the Swiss-Prot and TrEMBL databases, while PIR produced the Protein Sequence Database (PIR-PSD). These databases coexisted with differing protein sequence coverage and annotation priorities. 

Swiss-Prot was created in 1986 by Amos Bairoch during his PhD and developed by the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics and subsequently developed by Rolf Apweiler at the European Bioinformatics Institute. Swiss-Prot aimed to provide reliable protein sequences associated with a high level of annotation (such as the description of the function of a protein, its domain structure, post-translational modifications, variants, etc.), a minimal level of redundancy and high level of integration with other databases. Recognizing that sequence data were being generated at a pace exceeding Swiss-Prot's ability to keep up, TrEMBL (Translated EMBL Nucleotide Sequence Data Library) was created to provide automated annotations for those proteins not in Swiss-Prot. Meanwhile, PIR maintained the PIR-PSD and related databases, including iProClass, a database of protein sequences and curated families.
1. When was Swiss-Prot developed?
2. By whom?
3. Was he working on a dissertation at the time?
4. Was he working on his PhD?
5. Which entity helped Amos in the development?
6. Did someone later work on its development?
7. Who?
8. And his entity?
9. What is the use of UniProt?
10. What is the NBRF?
11. From which institution?
****
answer: 1. 1986
2. Amos Bairoch
3. unknown
4. Yes
5. Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics
6. Yes
7. Rolf Apweiler
8. European Bioinformatics Institute
9. database of protein sequence and functional information
10. National Biomedical Research Foundation
11. Georgetown University Medical Center


question: CHAPTER XXVII 

THE COLLISION IN THE FOG 

"Hullo! Mumps isn't keeping this flag of truce very good," remarked Sam, as the seashell dropped at his feet. 

"There is something inside of the shell," said Tom. "A bit of paper. Perhaps it's a message?" 

"I'll soon see," returned his younger brother, and ran to where he could not be seen from the other yacht. 

He pulled from the seashell a small, square of paper, upon which had been hastily scrawled the following in lead pencil: 

"I will help you all I can and hope you won't prosecute me. I will see that Dora S. gets something to eat, even if I give her my share. They intend to go to Sand Haven if they can give you the slip." 

"Good for Mumps! He's coming to his senses," cried Sam, and showed the others the message. Dick read the words with much satisfaction. 

"I hope he does stand by Dora," he said. "If so, I'll shield him all I can when the crowd is brought up for trial." 

"If he tells the truth we may as well put into harbor and make for Sand Haven," said Martin Harris, who had now resumed the chase once more. 

"Yes; but he may not be telling the truth," was Sergeant Brown's comment. "The whole thing may be a trick to get us to go to Sand Haven while that crowd goes somewhere else." 

"I think they are tired of carrying the girl around," said Carter. "To give her up to us would have been no hardship." 
1. who sent the message about Dora?
2. who thought it might be a trick?
3. where did he think it was trying to get them to go?
4. what was in the shell?
5. what was on the paper?
6. written in what?
7. who offered to give Dora their food?
8. where did he say they were going?
9. who did carter think they had grown tired of carrying?
10. was the paper in the shape of a circle?
11. what shape was it?
12. was the writing neat?
13. how did Mumps message make Dick feel?
14. who did Sam show it to?
****
answer:
1. Mumps
2. Sergeant Brown
3. Sand Haven
4. A bit of pape
5. a message
6. lead penci
7. Mumps
8. Sand Haven
9. Dora
10. no
11. square
12. no
13. satisfied
14. the others