# article

date: 24 Oct 2019
level: 4
question:
  QUESTION

  1. A no-deal Brexit will harm UK.

  ANSWER

  1. F

text:
  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson walks towards a voting station during the Brexit referendum in Britain, June 23, 2016. (Photo: EPA-EFE)

  LONDON – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Thursday he will likely ask Parliament to approve an election as part of an effort to break a Brexit deadlock.

  It is not clear if the vote, which Johnson wants to hold on Dec. 12, will take place as opposition lawmakers must also back the move.

  They are expected to vote on the measure on Monday. 

  Johnson's announcement comes ahead of an expected decision Friday from the European Union over whether to delay Britain's exit from the bloc for three months. 

  Britain's leader has been steadfastly opposed to any extension to the nation's scheduled Oct. 31 departure date from the EU, although in a letter to the leader of the opposition Labour Party this week he said he would accept a short technical postponement, "say to 15 or 30 November," to allow lawmakers to implement an EU withdrawal bill. 

  Johnson's decision to offer to call an election follows lawmakers' rejection of his plan to rush through an EU exit bill that runs to hundreds of pages in just three days. They want more time to scrutinize the legislation and to make sure it does not leave the door open to a possible "no-deal" Brexit during future exit negotiations with the EU that will run through next year. A "no-deal" Brexit could dramatically harm Britain's economy. 

  The prime minister was forced to ask for an extension to Britain's EU departure date after Britain's Parliament passed a law to ward off the threat of a "no-deal" Brexit.

  Johnson has repeatedly pledged to finalize the first stage, a transition deal, of Britain's EU divorce battle by Oct. 31. A second stage will involve negotiating its future relationship with the EU on trade, security and other salient issues.

source:
  https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2019/10/24/brexit-boris-johnson-eu-extension-withdrawal-deal/4084970002/


source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-cabinet-meeting-15/
date: 21 Oct 2019
level: 3
question:
  QUESTION

  1. Who did Trump ask to do the honors?

text:
  Thank you very much.  We have a Cabinet meeting.  We’ll have a few questions after grace.  And, if you would, Ben, please do the honors.

  THE PRESIDENT:  All right, thank you, Ben.  That was a great job.  Appreciate it.

  The economy is doing fantastically well.  It’s getting very close to another record.  We’ve had many records since we won office.  We’re getting very close to another record.  I don’t know if anybody saw it: The household median income for eight years of President Bush, it rose $400.  For eight years of President Obama, it rose $975.  And for two and half years of President Trump — they have it down as two and a half years — it rose $5,000, not including $2,000 for taxes.  So it rose, let’s say, $7,000.  So in two and a half years, we’re up $7,000, compared to $1,000, compared to $400.  And that’s for eight years and eight years.

  That’s a number that just came out, but that’s a number that I don’t know how there could be any dispute or any — I’ve never heard a number like that, meaning the economy is doing fantastically well.

  We need — for our farmers, our manufacturers, for, frankly, unions and non-unions, we need USMCA to be voted on.  If it’s voted on, it’ll pass.  It’s up to Nancy Pelosi to put it up.  If she puts it up, it’s going to pass.  It’s going to be very bipartisan.  It’s something that’s very much needed.  It’ll be hundreds of thousands of jobs.


date: 21 Oct 2019
level: 3
question:
  ANSWER

  1. Washington D.C.

text:
  And to all the extraordinary leaders and innovators gathered here from all across America and all around the world — men and women who are share — who share our vision for human exploration, for American and worldwide innovation, carrying us back to the vast expanse of space: It is my great honor to welcome all of you to this incredible gathering, celebrating the power of the past and the promise of the future, the Opening Ceremony of the 70th International Astronautical Congress.  Welcome to Washington, D.C.  (Applause.)

source:
  https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-vice-president-pence-2019-international-astronautical-congress-opening-ceremony/


source: Liana Mahoney
date: 27 Oct 2019
level: 2
text:
  Hitchhikers in the Bathroom

  Imagine this. You step up to the sink, wet your toothbrush, and
  begin cleaning your pearly whites. Out of the corner of your eye,
  you see something moving on the wall.  Suddenly, you realize
  you’re not alone in the bathroom. Your heart pounding, you turn
  toward the tiny intruder to get a better look.

  You’re horrified to see that it has eight legs, and a pair of
  oversized pincers on its front end. Is it some kind of miniature
  octopus, or a bizarre crab? Is it going to sting you?

  Actually, it’s a bug, and it’s no more harmful to you than a
  housefly. This tiny bathroom bug is called a
  pseudoscorpion (SOO-doh- SCOR-pee-uhn). But don’t be fooled by
  its name. It’s not really a scorpion; it’s just a relative. The
  pseudoscorpion is a kind of arachnid (uh-RAK-nid), which means it
  is closely related to spiders, scorpions, and mites. Like
  scorpions, pseudoscorpions have a segmented body and two enormous
  pincers. But pseudoscorpions lack the curved stinger that all
  true scorpions have.

  Pseudoscorpions usually live outside in mulch, under tree bark,
  and in leaf litter.  So how do they end up in the bathroom?  They
  use those pincer- like claws to hitch a ride on other bugs, such
  as flies and beetles. When these insects come in, so do the
  pseudoscorpions - attached to their legs!

  These tiny arachnids prefer moist places.  Since the bathroom
  tends to be humid after bathing and showering, it’s a likely
  place to find them. But they are easily overlooked.  Most
  pseudoscorpions are only about two to eight millimeters long.

  Pseudoscorpions don’t bite or sting humans, and they can even be
  helpful. These bugs feed on common household pests, such as
  carpet beetle larvae, ants, mites, and small flies. Welcoming
  this hitchhiker into your home may mean there are fewer household
  pests to “bug” you!

question:
  QUESTION

  1. If you wanted to find a  pseudoscorpion outdoors, where would you look?

  2. How can pseudoscorpions be helpful to humans?

  ANSWER

  None provided.


source: https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/25/pentagon-microsoft-cloud-trump-058083
date: 27 Oct 2019
level: 4
question:
  QUESTION

  ANSWER

text:
  Pentagon taps Microsoft for $10B cloud contract after Trump's slams on Amazon

  The Pentagon on Friday chose Microsoft over Amazon to provide
  cloud computing services potentially worth $10 billion after
  President Donald Trump and members of Congress complained the
  competition was stacked in Amazon's favor.

  The decision on the lucrative contract — which is likely to
  remain a flash point if the loser protests the decision with the
  government or considers mounting a legal battle — comes just days
  after Defense Secretary Mark Esper recused himself from the
  decision-making process because his son works for one of the
  previous competitors.

  "The acquisition process was conducted in accordance with
  applicable laws and regulations. The process cleared reviews by
  the GAO and Court of Federal Claims," the Pentagon said in a
  statement Friday night announcing the award. "All offerors were
  treated fairly and evaluated consistently with the solicitation's
  stated evaluation criteria. Prior to the award, the department
  conferred with the DOD Inspector General, which informed the
  decision to proceed."

  Amazon said it was "surprised" by the decision, but declined to
  say if it would be filing a protest.

  "[Amazon Web Services] is the clear leader in cloud computing,
  and a detailed assessment purely on the comparative offerings
  clearly lead to a different conclusion," a spokesperson for the
  company said in a statement. "We remain deeply committed to
  continuing to innovate for the new digital battlefield where
  security, efficiency, resiliency, and scalability of resources
  can be the difference between success and failure.”

  Microsoft did not immediately have a statement to provide.

  It's unclear what impact President Donald Trump's criticism of
  Amazon and its founder Jeff Bezos had on the final contract
  decision. Trump allegedly told former Defense Secretary Jim
  Mattis that he wanted to "screw" Amazon by denying them the
  contract, according to a book by former Mattis aide Guy Snodgrass
  that is set to be released next week.

  Whether Amazon protests will depend on what the company hears
  when it receives a briefing from the Pentagon on the agency's
  decision making on why it selected Microsoft, according to Andrew
  Hunter, a former Defense Department acquisition aide and current
  senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International
  Studies.

  "If it wasn’t close, then Amazon may not protest. If it was
  close, I think they are pretty likely to protest given all the
  unusual activity on this procurement," Hunter told POLITICO. "My
  guess is that this competition came down to price."

  The winner-take-all project is intended to establish a common
  computing and data storage system that will allow the military to
  achieve some of its most advanced technology objectives,
  including integrating onto the battlefield more artificial
  intelligence capabilities, which require massive amounts of
  processing power and storage that are provided by a sophisticated
  cloud. The program will also allow for secure information sharing
  across the Defense Department, so warfighting intelligence can be
  seamless shared among different platforms like drones, aircraft
  or ships.

  The Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure program, better known
  as JEDI, could be extended for 10 years and be worth up to $10
  billion if all contract options are exercised.

  But it is almost certain that Microsoft's selection will not be
  the final word for a program that has been politically fraught
  and the target of a series of court challenges and other formal
  protests.

  “There is really no downside to protesting, except perhaps the
  ill will it might generate by causing additional delay,” said Tom
  Spoehr, the director of the Heritage Foundation’s Center for
  National Defense. “Given all the effort that the companies have
  put into their bids, a protest would not be surprising.”

  The competition went through several phases before Amazon and
  Microsoft emerged as finalists over Oracle and IBM Corp., which
  were among the initial bidders.

  Oracle took the Pentagon to court in December after it was cut
  from the competition, alleging that the Defense Department
  unfairly limited competition by tailoring the JEDI requirements
  to Amazon's proposed solution.

  Oracle also claimed in its lawsuit that Deap Ubhi, a former
  Pentagon employee who worked for Amazon, unfairly influenced the
  competition. In July, however, a federal judge ruled in favor of
  the Pentagon and also concluded that Oracle's initial proposal
  did not meet the contract requirements. Oracle announced in
  August that it would appeal that ruling to the U.S. Court of
  Appeals for the Federal Circuit, but has not yet formally filed
  the appeal.

  Oracle separately filed a protest in August 2018 with the
  Government Accountability Office, which also concluded that the
  Pentagon’s procurement process was fair.

  While Oracle has been the most vocal critic of the program, IBM
  Corp. also filed a protest with the Government Accountability
  Office in October 2018 arguing that the Pentagon should select
  multiple winners instead of structuring the competition as
  winner-takes-all.

  "IBM has long raised serious concerns about the structure of the
  JEDI procurement," IBM spokesperson Adam Pratt said in July. "We
  continue to believe that the Department of Defense and our men
  and women in uniform would be best served by a multicloud
  strategy."

  President Trump, who has been engaged in a public spat with
  Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, accusing the billionaire of using his
  ownership of The Washington Post to attack him, took a personal
  interest in the JEDI competition ahead of the contract being
  awarded.

  In July he asked officials to review the contracting process
  after both members of Congress and companies themselves
  complained to the president that the bidding process was not open
  and competitive.

  “I’m getting tremendous complaints about the contract with the
  Pentagon and with Amazon,” Trump said on July 18. “Some of the
  greatest companies in the world are complaining about it, having
  to do with Amazon and the Department of Defense, and I will be
  asking them to look at it very closely to see what’s going on.”


  The public spat between Trump and Bezos extends beyond this
  defense procurement. Trump has attacked the billionaire on
  Twitter for paying too little in taxes and ripping off the
  U.S. Postal Service.

  Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle also urged the president to
  get involved to ensure the competition was fair and the Pentagon
  would be getting the best deal possible. For example, about a
  dozen members of the House GOP caucus, who are not members of the
  House Armed Services Committee, sent a letter in July asking the
  president to delay the program until the Pentagon had finished
  investigating the fairness of the competition.

  Those who serve on the committees that oversee the military,
  however, tend to disagree. Two Democrats — Sen. Mark
  Warner (D-Va.) and Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member
  Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) — wrote a similar letter to the Pentagon
  in August asking Defense Secretary Mark Esper to protect the
  program from political pressure and keep it moving forward. Four
  Republican members of the House Armed Services Committee,
  including ranking member Mac Thornberry, also sent a letter to
  Trump in July asking the president to allow the program to
  continue without interference.

  “While it is understandable that some of the companies competing
  for the contract are disappointed at not being selected as one of
  the finalists, further unnecessary delays will only damage our
  security and increase the cost of the contract,” the GOP
  lawmakers wrote in the letter.

  In response, Defense Secretary Mark Esper announced shortly after
  taking over the Pentagon’s top job that he was personally
  reviewing the program, saying that he wanted to get up to speed
  on the major procurement through a series of learning sessions
  with Defense officials. During a series of listening sessions,
  Esper realized how contentious the program truly was and removed
  himself from the decision-making process because his son worked
  for IBM. Instead, he delegated the authority to Deputy Defense
  Secretary David Norquist.

  For good measure, the Pentagon's inspector general also conducted
  its own review, which began in August. The Pentagon said it had
  consulted with the inspector general before issuing the award and
  was told it could move forward.


source: https://www.wired.com/story/microsoft-surprise-winner-dollar10b-pentagon-contract/
date: 27 Oct 2019
level: 4
question:
  QUESTION

  ANSWER

text:
  Microsoft Is the Surprise Winner of a $10B Pentagon Contract

  Amazon had long been considered the favorite for JEDI, a project to use cloud computing to modernize warfare.


source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191017141052.htm
date: 27 Oct 2019
level: 3
question:
  QUESTION

  ANSWER

text:
  Ancient stars shed light on Earth's similarities to other planets
  New method used to study planets' geochemistry implies that Earth is not unique

  Date:
      October 17, 2019
  Source:
      University of California - Los Angeles
  Summary:
      Earth-like planets may be common in the universe, a new study implies. The team of astrophysicists and geochemists presents new evidence that the Earth is not unique.


  Earth-like planets may be common in the universe, a new UCLA study implies. The team of astrophysicists and geochemists presents new evidence that the Earth is not unique. The study was published in the journal Science on Oct. 18.

  "We have just raised the probability that many rocky planets are like the Earth, and there's a very large number of rocky planets in the universe," said co-author Edward Young, UCLA professor of geochemistry and cosmochemistry.

  The scientists, led by Alexandra Doyle, a UCLA graduate student of geochemistry and astrochemistry, developed a new method to analyze in detail the geochemistry of planets outside of our solar system. Doyle did so by analyzing the elements in rocks from asteroids or rocky planet fragments that orbited six white dwarf stars.

  "We're studying geochemistry in rocks from other stars, which is almost unheard of," Young said.

  "Learning the composition of planets outside our solar system is very difficult," said co-author Hilke Schlichting, UCLA associate professor of astrophysics and planetary science. "We used the only method possible -- a method we pioneered -- to determine the geochemistry of rocks outside of the solar system."

  White dwarf stars are dense, burned-out remnants of normal stars. Their strong gravitational pull causes heavy elements like carbon, oxygen and nitrogen to sink rapidly into their interiors, where the heavy elements cannot be detected by telescopes. The closest white dwarf star Doyle studied is about 200 light-years from Earth and the farthest is 665 light-years away.

  "By observing these white dwarfs and the elements present in their atmosphere, we are observing the elements that are in the body that orbited the white dwarf," Doyle said. The white dwarf's large gravitational pull shreds the asteroid or planet fragment that is orbiting it, and the material falls onto the white dwarf, she said. "Observing a white dwarf is like doing an autopsy on the contents of what it has gobbled in its solar system."

  The data Doyle analyzed were collected by telescopes, mostly from the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, that space scientists had previously collected for other scientific purposes.

  "If I were to just look at a white dwarf star, I would expect to see hydrogen and helium," Doyle said. "But in these data, I also see other materials, such as silicon, magnesium, carbon and oxygen -- material that accreted onto the white dwarfs from bodies that were orbiting them."

  When iron is oxidized, it shares its electrons with oxygen, forming a chemical bond between them, Young said. "This is called oxidation, and you can see it when metal turns into rust," he said. "Oxygen steals electrons from iron, producing iron oxide rather than iron metal. We measured the amount of iron that got oxidized in these rocks that hit the white dwarf. We studied how much the metal rusts."

  Rocks from the Earth, Mars and elsewhere in our solar system are similar in their chemical composition and contain a surprisingly high level of oxidized iron, Young said. "We measured the amount of iron that got oxidized in these rocks that hit the white dwarf," he said.

  The sun is made mostly of hydrogen, which does the opposite of oxidizing -- hydrogen adds electrons.

  The researchers said the oxidation of a rocky planet has a significant effect on its atmosphere, its core and the kind of rocks it makes on its surface. "All the chemistry that happens on the surface of the Earth can ultimately be traced back to the oxidation state of the planet," Young said. "The fact that we have oceans and all the ingredients necessary for life can be traced back to the planet being oxidized as it is. The rocks control the chemistry."

  Until now, scientists have not known in any detail whether the chemistry of rocky exoplanets is similar to or very different from that of the Earth.

  How similar are the rocks the UCLA team analyzed to rocks from the Earth and Mars?

  "Very similar," Doyle said. "They are Earth-like and Mars-like in terms of their oxidized iron. We're finding that rocks are rocks everywhere, with very similar geophysics and geochemistry."

  "It's always been a mystery why the rocks in our solar system are so oxidized," Young said. "It's not what you expect. A question was whether this would also be true around other stars. Our study says yes. That bodes really well for looking for Earth-like planets in the universe."

  White dwarf stars are a rare environment for scientists to analyze.

  The researchers studied the six most common elements in rock: iron, oxygen, silicon, magnesium, calcium and aluminum. They used mathematical calculations and formulas because scientists are unable to study actual rocks from white dwarfs. "We can determine the geochemistry of these rocks mathematically and compare these calculations with rocks that we do have from Earth and Mars," said Doyle, whose background is in geology and mathematics. "Understanding the rocks is crucial because they reveal the geochemistry and geophysics of the planet."

  "If extraterrestrial rocks have a similar quantity of oxidation as the Earth has, then you can conclude the planet has similar plate tectonics and similar potential for magnetic fields as the Earth, which are widely believed to be key ingredients for life," Schlichting said. "This study is a leap forward in being able to make these inferences for bodies outside our own solar system and indicates it's very likely there are truly Earth analogs."

  Young said his department has both astrophysicists and geochemists working together.

  "The result," he said, "is we are doing real geochemistry on rocks from outside our solar system. Most astrophysicists wouldn't think to do this, and most geochemists wouldn't think to ever apply this to a white dwarf."

  The research was funded by NASA.


source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191021111826.htm
date: 27 Oct 2019
level: 2
question: QUESTION
text:
  'Artificial leaf' successfully produces clean gas

  Date:
      October 21, 2019
  Source:
      University of Cambridge
  Summary:
      A widely-used gas that is currently produced from fossil fuels can instead be made by an 'artificial leaf' that uses only sunlight, carbon dioxide and water, and which could eventually be used to develop a sustainable liquid fuel alternative to gasoline. 


source: Source: product package
date: 29 Oct 2019
level: 3
question:
  QUESTION

  1. What product is the above description for?

  ANSWER

  1. Coffee

text:
  VALVE PACKED FOR FRESHNESS

  TESCO
  /////

  ITALIAN
  FRESH GROUND COFFEE

  RAINFOREST ALLIANCE
  CERTIFIED
  Minimum 30% Certified Coffee

  This coffee has been blended and roasted to produce a rich, full
  bodied Italian style coffee, for thoese for like a stronger after
  dinner coffee.

  4
  Medium/Strong


  Our promise

  We are happy to refund or replace any Tesco product which falls below
  the high standard you expect.  Just ask any member of staff.  This
  does not affect your statutory rights.

  We are here to help:
  Freephone 0800 50 55 55.
  Mon-Sat, 9am-6pm.
  Shop on-line at www.tesco.com

  FRED VERBOOM HAS WORKED AS A COFFEE CONSULTANT FOR TESTCO SINCE 2003.
  HAVING SPENT ALL OF HIS WORKING LIFE IN THE INTERNATIONAL COFFEE
  INDUSTRY AS TASTER AND BLENDER, FRED'S EXPERTISE AND KNOWLEDGE IS
  INVALUABLE TO ENSURING TESCO CAN OFFER THE BEST POSSIBLE COFFEES.

  <0303 3401>


  About Rainforest Alliance Certification:

  The Rainforest Alliance Certified^TM seal guarantees that famers
  follow sound agricultural practices that protect forests, rivers,
  soils and wildlife, while being good community neighbours.  Rainforest
  Alliance Certification also ensures that workers have just wages,
  dignified living conditions and access to education and health care.

  The Rainforest Alliance engages business and consumers to conserve
  biodiversity and ensure sustainable livelihoods by transforming
  land-use practices, business practices and consumer behaviour.


  A blend of quality beans expertly roasted to produce a full bodied,
  stronger coffee.  Ideal as an after dinner coffee.  Suitable for
  cafetieres, filter machines, moka pots and percolators.

  Preparation guidelines
  How to make the perfect cup of coffee:


  Cafetiere:
  [Omitted]

  Filter machine:
  [Omitted]

  Moka pot:

  * Fill the bottom part of the unit with freshly drawn cold water.
  * Insert the filter basket, fill with coffee and level the surface (do
    not overfill and/or tap down the coffee).
  * Assemble unit and brew on a medium heat for approximately 5 minutes.
  * Pour and enjoy! (Suitable for all types of moka pots and filter
    machines. Always follow manufacturer's guidelines.)


  Roast and ground coffee.
  ------------------------
  Storage
  * The flavour and aroma of coffee deteriorates once in contact with air.
  * This pack has a one way valve which allows the coffee to be packed immediately after roasting and grinding to maintain freshness.
  * Once opened, reseal the pack by rolling down the top of the bag and secure with the tab.
  * Store in a freezer, refrigerator or cool place.
  * Use within 2 weeks of opening.

  Additional information

  * Packaged in a protective atmosphere.

  DISPOSAL

  BAG-MIXED
  MATERIAL
  Not currently recycled

  227g e

  Produce of more than one country.
  Packed in the U.K. for Tesco Stores Ltd., Cheshunt EN8 9SL, U.K.
  Copyright Tesco 2012. SC211282.

  Best before end:

  May 2018

  7142 2
  07:24


source: Source: product package
date: 29 Oct 2019
level: 2
question:
  QUESTION

  1. What product is the above description for?

  ANSWER

  1. Biscuit.

text:
  BORDER

  family Biscuitiers

  SINCE 1984

  2x

  CLASSIC RECIPES

  COLDEN OAT GRUMBLES

  30g



  Ingredients: Wheat ...
  Suitable for Vegetarians
  Store in a cool, dry place and away from direct sunlight.
  We are happy to declare that the palm oil contained within the ingredients we buy is certified as sustainable.


  [Bar Code]


  For best before information, see side of pack

  BEST BEFORE
  28 JUN 2019
  8221 18:56

  Please tell us if you loved these biscuits...
  or not.  Email sales@borderbiscuits.co.uk
  or write to the address below.
  Baked in Scotland by our skilled Biscuitiers
  at:
  Border Biscuits Ltd, South Faulds Road, Lanark, Lanarkshire, SCOTLAND, ML11 7SR.
  www.borderbiscuits.co.uk

  [Facebook] [Tweet]

  Nutritional Information/UK&EU    per 100g    per biscuit
  --------------------------------------------------------
  Energy
  Fat
  Of which saturates
  Carbohydrate
  of which sugars
  Protein
  Salt


source: Charles Darwin
date: 29 Oct 2019
level: 4
text:
  It must have struck most naturalists as a strange anomaly that, in the case of both animals and plants, species of the same family and even of the same genus, though agreeing closely with each other in almost their whole organisation, yet are not rarely, some of them hermaphrodites, and some of them unisexual. But if, in fact, all hermaphrodites do occasionally intercross with other individuals, the difference between hermaphrodites and unisexual species, as far as function is concerned, becomes very small. 

question:
  QUESTION

  1. What scientific field does the above passage most likely belong to?

  A. Biology
  B. Physics
  C. Chemistry
  D. Quantum mechanics

  ANSWER

  1. A


source: reprints.longform.org/playboy-interview-steve-jobs
date: 29 Oct 2019
level: 3
text:
  Playboy: Maybe we should pause and get your definition of what a computer is. How do they work?

  Jobs: Computers are actually pretty simple. We’re sitting here on a bench in this café [for this part of the Interview]. Let’s assume that you understood only the most rudimentary of directions and you asked how to find the rest room. I would have to describe it to you in very specific and precise instructions. I might say, “Scoot sideways two meters off the bench. Stand erect. Lift left foot. Bend left knee until it is horizontal. Extend left foot and shift weight 300 centimeters forward…” and on and on. If you could interpret all those instructions 100 times faster than any other person in this café, you would appear to be a magician: You could run over and grab a milk shake and bring it back and set it on the table and snap your fingers, and I’d think you made the milk shake appear, because it was so fast relative to my perception. That’s exactly what a computer does. It takes these very, very simple-minded instructions—“Go fetch a number, add it to this number, put the result there, perceive if it’s greater than this other number”—but executes them at a rate of, let’s say, 1,000,000 per second. At 1,000,000 per second, the results appear to be magic.

  That’s a simple explanation, and the point is that people really don’t have to understand how computers work. Most people have no concept of how an automatic transmission works, yet they know how to drive a car. You don’t have to study physics to understand the laws of motion to drive a car. You don’t have to understand any of this stuff to use Macintosh—but you asked. [laughs]

question:
  QUESTION

  1.   Steve Jobs used "grabbing milk shake" as an analogy for what?

  ANSWER

  1.  For explaining how computers work.


date: 22 Jan 2020
level: 4
question:
  QUESTION

  SARS is a type of coronaviruse. Is this statement true?

  ANSWER

  True.

text:
  Infectious Disease Expert Discusses What We Know about the New Chinese Virus

  Federal disease agency director Anthony Fauci discusses the novel pathogen that has, so far, sickened hundreds in Asia and one person in the U.S.

  By Tanya Lewis on January 22, 2020

  Infectious Disease Expert Discusses What We Know about the New Chinese Virus

  The first confirmed U.S. case of a traveler infected with the virus behind China’s continuing pneumonia outbreak has health authorities on alert to prevent it from spreading. The patient—a man in his 30s—returned from the country’s city of Wuhan (where the virus appears to have originated) to his home in Snohomish County in Washington State on January 15. He developed symptoms and sought treatment from his doctor on January 19, and a day later, a real time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) test confirmed he had the virus. The patient appears to be doing well and was being treated this week at a hospital in Everett, Wash., and placed in isolation out of an abundance of caution, said a spokesperson for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a news briefing on Tuesday afternoon.

  The virus, called 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), is known to have infected hundreds of people so far, and Chinese authorities have now reported at least 17 deaths. It was first identified in Wuhan late last year and is believed to have jumped from animals to humans at a local seafood market that also sold other wild animal meat. Authorities have since confirmed cases of human-to-human transmission. The pathogen is a coronavirus, a member of a family of viruses that include severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), which caused major outbreaks in 2003 and 2012, respectively.

  Cases of 2019-nCoV have been confirmed in several other countries, including Thailand, Japan and South Korea. Three U.S. airports—in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York City—began screening travelers from Wuhan last week. Such measures have now been expanded to two more airports—in Atlanta and Chicago—and passengers traveling to the U.S. from Wuhan will be funneled to those five locations. The risk to the U.S. public is low at this time, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But the agency says it is working closely with other health organizations to contain the virus’s spread.
  Advertisement

  National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci has been been closely following developments related to the new virus. Scientific American spoke with Fauci about 2019-nCoV’s likely mode of transmission, its similarity to other coronaviruses and the question of whether a vaccine is on the horizon.

  [An edited transcript of the conversation follows.]

  Do we know how the U.S. patient contracted the virus?

  He was not in any market where there may have been an animal reservoir, and he does not recall coming into contact with someone who was ill. That’s not surprising: often people contract respiratory infections without knowing the definite exposure source. But he was in Wuhan.

  Is the most likely source of this virus an animal market in Wuhan?
  Advertisement

  It almost certainly came from an animal—almost certainly.

  Do you suspect the virus is transmitted via a respiratory route?

  A respiratory infection is almost certainly transmitted through droplets. Respiratory spread is a very good guess. We have not definitively proved that the virus entered through the respiratory tract, but it is highly likely. When you have symptoms of fever, cough, infiltrates in the lung, and respiratory symptoms, historically, respiratory is the route.
  newsletter promo

  How similar or different is the virus from other coronaviruses such as SARS or MERS?

  First of all, it’s a coronavirus, the same family as SARS. It has some of the same molecular homology as SARS. It’s closer to SARS than it is to MERS. But it isn’t overwhelmingly close.
  Advertisement

  Do we know the mortality rate of the new virus?

  It’s a moving target. It’s a rough estimate. If you look at the number of cases, it’s around 300. There have been six deaths so far. [Editor’s Note: On Wednesday, several outlets reported that Chinese authorities had announced 17 deaths, and some had cited more than 540 cases.] We’re only seeing the ones who are hospitalized. If there are asymptomatic infections, the mortality rate would be much less. Among symptomatic people, the mortality rate is around 2 percent. It was 10 percent with SARS, and 30 to 35 percent with MERS. It may be less virulent than those two or it may evolve. It’s too early to know.

  Aren’t the symptoms of this viral infection similar to many other types of respiratory infection? How can you tell them apart?

  It’s a syndromic and epidemiological association. If somebody comes into an emergency room in Washington State with a respiratory illness, and they haven’t been to China, they probably have the flu or some other virus. But if they came from Wuhan, it’s likely to be the new coronavirus. The symptoms are very common to a number of viruses, though, so [the association] is based on epidemiology [and is confirmed by the rRT-PCR test].

  How are the patients with this virus being treated?

  It’s mostly symptomatic treatment. There are experimental antivirals that have been used in vitro and in vivo. If the patients need antibiotics for complicating bacterial infections, you give them antibiotics. If they need to be put on a respirator, they’re put on a respirator. Most patients in China are doing well. But a proportion of them are very ill and are on respirators.

  How long will it be before we have a vaccine for this virus?

  We’ve already started to develop a vaccine. We got the [genetic] sequence from the Chinese. We’re partnering with a company called Moderna to develop a messenger RNA–based platform for a vaccine. We will likely have a candidate in early phase I trials for safety in about three months. That doesn’t mean we will have a vaccine ready for use in three months; even in an emergency, that would take a year or more. But we’re already on it.

  How common are coronaviruses, and how often do they jump from animals to humans?

  Coronaviruses represent 10 to 30 percent of common colds. Over the past 18 years we’ve had three coronaviruses from animal reservoirs: SARS, MERS and now this. There could be several intermediary hosts, but at least with SARS and MERS, the primary host is thought to be a bat. We don’t know what the primary host is for this virus yet.


  ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)
  Tanya Lewis

  Tanya Lewis is an associate editor at Scientific American who covers health and medicine.



  All Rights Reserved.

source:
  https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/infectious-disease-expert-discusses-what-we-know-about-the-new-chinese-virus/


source: Harvard Business Review
date: 27 Jan 2020
level: 3
question:
  QUESTION

  What is consequence of multi-tasking?


  ANSWER

  Overwhelmed.

text:
  The Magic of Doing One Thing at a Time

  By Tony Schwartz

  (Tony Schwartz is the president and CEO of The Energy Project and the author of The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working. Become a fan of The Energy Project on Facebook and connect with Tony at Twitter.com/TonySchwartz and Twitter.com/Energy_Project.)

  Why is it that between 25% and 50% of people report feeling overwhelmed or burned out at work?

  It’s not just the number of hours we’re working, but also the fact that we spend too many continuous hours juggling too many things at the same time.

  What we’ve lost, above all, are stopping points, finish lines and boundaries. Technology has blurred them beyond recognition. Wherever we go, our work follows us, on our digital devices, ever insistent and intrusive. It’s like an itch we can’t resist scratching, even though scratching invariably makes it worse.

  Tell the truth: Do you answer email during conference calls (and sometimes even during calls with one other person)? Do you bring your laptop to meetings and then pretend you’re taking notes while you surf the net? Do you eat lunch at your desk? Do you make calls while you’re driving, and even send the occasional text, even though you know you shouldn’t?

  The biggest cost — assuming you don’t crash — is to your productivity. In part, that’s a simple consequence of splitting your attention, so that you’re partially engaged in multiple activities but rarely fully engaged in any one. In part, it’s because when you switch away from a primary task to do something else, you’re increasing the time it takes to finish that task by an average of 25 per cent.

  But most insidiously, it’s because if you’re always doing something, you’re relentlessly burning down your available reservoir of energy over the course of every day, so you have less available with every passing hour.

  I know this from my own experience. I get two to three times as much writing accomplished when I focus without interruption for a designated period of time and then take a real break, away from my desk. The best way for an organization to fuel higher productivity and more innovative thinking is to strongly encourage finite periods of absorbed focus, as well as shorter periods of real renewal.

  If you’re a manager, here are three policies worth promoting:

  1. Maintain meeting discipline. Schedule meetings for 45 minutes, rather than an hour or longer, so participants can stay focused, take time afterward to reflect on what’s been discussed, and recover before the next obligation. Start all meetings at a precise time, end at a precise time, and insist that all digital devices be turned off throughout the meeting.

  2. Stop demanding or expecting instant responsiveness at every moment of the day. It forces your people into reactive mode, fractures their attention, and makes it difficult for them to sustain attention on their priorities. Let them turn off their email at certain times. If it’s urgent, you can call them — but that won’t happen very often.

  3. Encourage renewal. Create at least one time during the day when you encourage your people to stop working and take a break. Offer a midafternoon class in yoga, or meditation, organize a group walk or workout, or consider creating a renewal room where people can relax, or take a nap.

  It’s also up to individuals to set their own boundaries. Consider these three behaviors for yourself:

  1. Do the most important thing first in the morning, preferably without interruption, for 60 to 90 minutes, with a clear start and stop time. If possible, work in a private space during this period, or with sound-reducing earphones. Finally, resist every impulse to distraction, knowing that you have a designated stopping point. The more absorbed you can get, the more productive you’ll be. When you’re done, take at least a few minutes to renew.

  2. Establish regular, scheduled times to think more long term, creatively, or strategically. If you don’t, you’ll constantly succumb to the tyranny of the urgent. Also, find a different environment in which to do this activity — preferably one that’s relaxed and conducive to open-ended thinking.

  3. Take real and regular vacations. Real means that when you’re off, you’re truly disconnecting from work. Regular means several times a year if possible, even if some are only two or three days added to a weekend. The research strongly suggests that you’ll be far healthier if you take all of your vacation time, and more productive overall.

  A single principle lies at the heart of all these suggestions. When you’re engaged at work, fully engage, for defined periods of time. When you’re renewing, truly renew. Make waves. Stop living your life in the gray zone.


source: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1026/1026-h/1026-h.htm
date: 26 Jun 2020
level: 3
question:
  QUESTION

  Why did the author buy three chops?


  ANSWER

  Because there were three people.

text:
  A dreadful day

  by George Grossmith

  June 7.—A dreadful annoyance.  Met Mr. Franching, who lives at Peckham, and who is a great swell in his way.  I ventured to ask him to come home to meat-tea, and take pot-luck.  I did not think he would accept such a humble invitation; but he did, saying, in a most friendly way, he would rather “peck” with us than by himself.  I said: “We had better get into this blue ’bus.”  He replied: “No blue-bussing for me.  I have had enough of the blues lately.  I lost a cool ‘thou’ over the Copper Scare.  Step in here.”

  We drove up home in style, in a hansom-cab, and I knocked three times at the front door without getting an answer.  I saw Carrie, through the panels of ground-glass (with stars), rushing upstairs.  I told Mr. Franching to wait at the door while I went round to the side.  There I saw the grocer’s boy actually picking off the paint on the door, which had formed into blisters.  No time to reprove him; so went round and effected an entrance through the kitchen window.  I let in Mr. Franching, and showed him into the drawing-room.  I went upstairs to Carrie, who was changing her dress, and told her I had persuaded Mr. Franching to come home.  She replied: “How can you do such a thing?  You know it’s Sarah’s holiday, and there’s not a thing in the house, the cold mutton having turned with the hot weather.”

  Eventually Carrie, like a good creature as she is, slipped down, washed up the teacups, and laid the cloth, and I gave Franching our views of Japan to look at while I ran round to the butcher’s to get three chops.


source: https://www.overstuffedlife.com/2015/02/why-everyone-should-use-paper-planner.html
date: 12 Jul 2020
level: 2
question:
  QUESTION

  Which type of calendar does the author prefer, digital or paper?

  ANSWER

  Paper.

text:
  Why Everyone Should Use a Paper Planner

  Okay, so maybe not exactly everyone should use a paper planner. If you are one of those people who loves your Google calendar and phone alerts then maybe paper isn't for you. Maybe I'm just tired of all the people that tell me paper planners are obsolete and I should definitely go digital, because I'm here to tell you that digital is not where it is at for me in calendars and planners.

  I would never show up anywhere. Believe me, I've tried the digital thing. Google calendar and me are not friends. At work, I try to use it, sort of. At least, I get alerts to go teach my class (set up by the department secretary), and my students will sometimes send me their calendars for scheduling. But mine hasn't been updated for several years.


source: https://lifehacker.com/why-you-learn-more-effectively-by-writing-than-by-typin-5738093
date: 12 Jul 2020
level: 3
text:
  Why Writing Works Better Than Typing

  Melanie Pinola

  There may also be a scientific basis for the pen’s superiority over the keyboard when it comes to writing development and cognitive functions. Dr. Virginia Berniger, who studies reading and writing systems and their relationship to learning processes, found that children’s writing ability was consistently better (they wrote more, faster, and more complete sentences) when they used a pen rather than a keyboard; these are, of course, subjects without a penchant for using either tool. We also previously covered the WSJ article that connected handwriting and cognitive abilities; in one of the studies cited, adults learned new symbols and graphic shapes better when they reproduced them with pen-and-paper instead of typing them.

  The difference, Berniger notes, may lie in the fact that with writing, you use your hand to form the letters (and connect them), thereby more actively engaging the brain in the process. Typing, on the other hand, involves just selecting letters by pressing identical-looking keys.

  Of course, whether the pen or the keyboard is better for you depends on your personal experience and comfort with these tools. As a compromise, perhaps we should all get stylus-friendly tablet PCs or digital pens.

question:
  QUESTION

  Pen always works better than keyboard in terms of writing ability development.  Is this statement true or false?

  ANSWER

  False.


source: https://doi.org/10.1038/441574c
date: 13 Jul 2020
level: 3
text:
  Can the Internet save us from epidemics?



  David M. Eagleman 

  Nature

  Published: 31 May 2006


  Sir


  Kathleen Morrison, in News & Views (“Failure and how to avoid it” Nature 440, 752–754; 2006), notes that societies have often prevented collapse by adopting new technological strategies. In today's world, where one of the most-talked about prospects for collapse is an epidemic of infectious disease, it is worth remembering that perhaps we already have the technological strategy to avoid it — the Internet.

  Remote working, made possible by the Internet (‘telepresence’), is already a key component of national and business pandemic plans. Telepresence can inhibit viral transmission by reducing human-to-human contact. Prepared organizations can leverage telepresence to allow continued productivity and functioning of supply chains during an outbreak.

  Past societies often reacted to epidemics by bunching together, increasing density and transmission rates. In medieval Europe, for example, warring religious factions demonstrated solidarity in the face of a plague by marching together in the streets. And Native Americans expressed goodwill by gathering in the teepees of those infected with smallpox. But if we are well-prepared when an epidemic arrives, we can fluidly shift into a self-quarantined, telepresent society in which microbes fail by dint of host sparseness.

  Whatever the social ills of increased isolation in our computer age, they may bode worse for the microbes than for us.

question:
  QUESTION

  What is the tool mentioned by the author for avoiding society collpase due to epidemic?

  ANSWER

  The Internet.


source: https://cn.bing.com/search?q=rugen+island+germany&form=HPVSBS&filters=HpDate%3a%2220200806_0700%22
date: 12 Aug 2020
level: 3
text:
  Space-age style by the sea  -- Rugen Island Germany

  Featured on Bing

  August 6, 2020


  This pod-like structure near the seaside resort of Binz, on the Pomeranian coast of northeast Germany, provides a snapshot into a different era, delivered by the architect Ulrich Müther. Originally a lifeguard tower, it was constructed in 1968 in a style known as shell architecture using an innovative thin, poured-concrete material. Müther designed and built roughly 70 buildings in this manner, many of them here on the island of Rügen, where he lived. His work is regarded as some of the most outstanding examples of architecture in the region.

question:
  QUESTION

  Who is the architect of the pod-like structure on the Pomeranian coast in Germany?

  ANSWER

  Ulrich Müther.


source: http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-08/13/c_139287340.htm
date: 13 Aug 2020
level: 3
text:
  Interview: China "locomotive" for post-pandemic global recovery, says economist

  GENEVA, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- China is expected to play the role of a "locomotive" for powering global recovery in the post-pandemic era, a Swiss economist has said.

  "The Chinese market has become an important growth driver because of its size and its continuing expansion," Rudolf Minsch, chief economist at Swiss national business federation Economiesuisse, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

  Moreover, it is "absolutely crucial that China is opposing any tendency to reverse globalization," Minsch said, adding China has been keeping up the effort to "establish a market-oriented, law-based and internationalized business environment."

  "The most important part of Chinese economic policy today, in my view, is the commitment of the government to widening the door to the world, despite the difficulty arising from the coronavirus crisis," Minsch said.

  "Open markets are key to the long-term growth of China and are so to the rest of the world," he added.

  This year marks the 70th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between Switzerland and China. Since 2010, China has been Switzerland's biggest trading partner in Asia and its third largest globally after the European Union and the United States. A free trade agreement between the two countries was signed in 2013 and entered into force on July 1, 2014.

  "There are so many Swiss companies in China, collaborating with Chinese firms as customers, as suppliers or as research and development partners," Minsch noted.

  While those companies face "tough competition" in the Chinese market, they also have huge opportunities "to benefit from the very efficient and speedy way of Chinese enterprises to develop new products and services," he said.

  "In most cases, the products and services of the two countries are complementary. In parallel with the higher income of the Chinese population, the demand for Swiss products and services will rise," he added.

question:
  QUESTION

  In which year was the free trade agreement between China and Switzerland signed?

  ANSWER

  2013.


source: https://github.com/digitalocean/engineering-code-of-conduct/blob/master/introduction.md
date: 14 Aug 2020
level: 3
text:
  Introducing DigitalOcean's Engineering Code of Conduct

  A code of conduct is designed to be a framework and a guide to, as the Recurse Center eloquently phrased it, "help all of us build a pleasant, productive, and fearless community." The purpose of a code of conduct is not to burden an organization with a bunch of needless rules, or to provide a punishment mechanism for people being bad, or even to correct things that have been wrong in the past. The engineering team at DigitalOcean agreed that having a code of conduct would be a positive improvement because we strive to make our team a great group of people to work with, especially for those people who have faced more adverse working environments in the past or are member of groups that often have a harder time in the workplace.

question:
  QUESTION

  The main purpose of having a code of conduct is to punish people who violated it.  Is this statement true of false?

  ANSWER

  False.


source: http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-08/14/c_139290711.htm
date: 15 Aug 2020
level: 4
text:
  Politicizing Confucius Institute program detrimental to long-term China-U.S. ties

  BEIJING, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. administration's requirement of the Confucius Institute U.S. Center to register as a foreign mission is nothing short of sheer politicization of educational exchanges between the two countries.

  The move came after some Chinese media organizations in the United States had been designated as foreign missions earlier. Driven by a Cold-War mentality, such a detrimental step will further undermine the mutual trust and cooperation between China and the United States.

  Inaugurated in 2013, the Confucius Institute U.S. Center is a nonprofit educational institution that supports the teaching and learning of Chinese language and culture in the United States for deeper cross-cultural understanding and language development.

  All Confucius Institutes in the United States are based on voluntary participation by U.S. universities and jointly established in accordance with the principles of mutual respect, friendly consultation, equality and mutual benefit of Chinese and U.S. universities. The daily operation and management of these Confucius Institutes observe local laws and are transparent.

  In disregard of the organization's role in promoting mutual understanding between the two peoples, the U.S. administration has demonized and stigmatized the normal functioning of the Confucius Institute program and has been attempting to create an atmosphere of fear in the field of educational exchanges, only to serve U.S. strategic agenda of containing China.

  The U.S. administration has ramped up its attack on Chinese high-tech companies and trade businesses, and now it is stoking ideological confrontation in the educational and cultural sector, another perilous move to decouple the two countries.

  Narrowing the opportunities for cultural understanding and mutual learning between the two peoples will lead to the destruction of long-term bilateral relations.

  Such hysteria is a warning sign that calls for caution, as selfish and narrow-minded politicians are stealing the future of the China-U.S. relationship.

question:
  QUESTION

  Confucius Institutes are established in China universities.
  Is this statement true?

  ANSWER

  No.  It is false.  They are established in the US universities.


date: 15 Aug 2020
level: 3
text:
  Don't be afraid of mistakes and false starts.  They are part of the learning and assimilation experience.

source:
  Boehm, B. W. (1983). Seven basic principles of software engineering. Journal of Systems and Software, 3(1), 3–24.

question:
  QUESTION

  Choose a word that is closest in meaning to assimilation.

  A. Forgetting
  B. Digesting
  C. Understanding
  D. Killing


  ANSWER

  C.


source: https://www.diyphotography.net/delete-sht-trash-photos/
date: 16 Aug 2020
level: 3
text:
  DELETE YOUR SH!T: WHY YOU SHOULD TRASH MOST OF YOUR PHOTOS


  April 21, 2016 by JP Danko


  Lets start with a universal truth.

  99% of the photos that I take, that you take or that any other
  photographer takes are junk that nobody will ever see, or ever want to see.

  So in this article I am going to encourage you to trash everything except your best work – after hitting delete you’ll feel better, I promise.

  There are obviously many reasons to save your photography and I am sure that the “save everything forever” camp will explain everything in the comments.

  However, be honest with yourself – most of the reasons for permanently archiving every photo that comes off of our camera(s) are just little white lies we like to tell ourselves.

  For example:

  “I might want to re-process this shoot another way in the future.”

  “Storage is cheap so its actually easier to keep everything.”

  “I will re-process this timelapse to 4k once I get a better computer.”

  “I like all of the 299 photos I took of my kid blowing out their birthday candles on continuous high speed.”

  “I’m only going to do a quick edit now, I’ll fix the rest later.”

  “I only created one HDR from this series of 10,000 photos I took of the same thing – I will process the rest later.”

  “Clients actually prefer to receive 5000 images.”

  “I can’t fix this photo yet – but the software of the future will be able to do it.”

  “I don’t like it now, but I might like it better in a few years.”

  “I need 1000 photos to tell the story.”

  Lies, each and every one!

question:
  QUESTION

  The author believes that 99% of photos he has taken are shit and should be deleted.  Is this statement true?


  ANSWER

  True.


source: Yamaura, Tsuneo. (1998). Why Johnny Can't Test. IEEE Computer Society Press.
date: 18 Aug 2020
level: 4
question:
  QUESTION

  In which country do programmers tend to underreport their bugs?


  ANSWER

  The US.

text:
  Definition of Success

  The Japanese value project team success far more than individual accomplishment. Thus programmers honestly report the bugs they produced during all phases of software development.  Such defect data serves to create and validate software quality assurance theories, which are intrinsically statics-based and empirical.

  On the other hand, US culture values personal achievement over team success.  Since reporting "I caused this many bugs" automatically implies "I am this stupid", a programmer will likely fudge his bug statistics when submitting them to a manager.  Needless to say, this makes the application of QA theory difficult, and virtually guarantees that US companies will produce flawed software.


source: Yamaura, Tsuneo. (1998). Why Johnny Can't Test. IEEE Computer Society Press.
date: 18 Aug 2020
level: 3
question:
  QUESTION

  A person can have only one characteristic.
  Is this statement true?


  ANSWER

  False.

text:
  Human Characteristics

  According to Shepard, a person's characteristics can span two or more types.  He called someone both A and P characteristics the Genius type because that person can come up with a great idea and be persistent enough to prove it loigcally.  Einstein epitomizes this A-P type. A type C-F person is a born manager who knows how to effectively use carrots and sticks.


source: http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-08/17/c_139297443.htm
date: 18 Aug 2020
level: 3
question:
  QUESTION

  Name a bottling partner of Coca-Cola China.


  ANSWER

  Swire Coca-Cola.

text:
  Coca-Cola continues to expand investment in China supply chain

  Source: Xinhua| 2020-08-17 22:11:14

  SHANGHAI, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- Coca-Cola China and its bottling partners will continue to expand investment in local supply chains to improve efficiency, ensure supply, and serve domestic consumers' demand.

  The beverage giant achieved good second-quarter results in the Chinese market, despite the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, and continues to set up new factories and production lines in China to meet evolving consumer needs.

  In the second half of 2020, Swire Coca-Cola, a bottler of Coca-Cola, plans to put six new production lines into operation, with a total investment of 250 million yuan (about 36 million U.S. dollars) and an additional annual output value exceeding 1.7 billion yuan.

  Swire Coca-Cola also plans to add a plastic bottle production line to its plant in central China's Hubei Province, which is expected to go operational in May 2021.


date: 20 Aug 2020
level: 3
text:
  What Makes A Great Software Engineer?

  Good software engineers are essential to the creation of good software. However, most of what we know about software-engineering expertise are vague stereotypes, such as ‘excellent communicators’ and ‘great teammates’. The lack of specificity in our understanding hinders researchers from reasoning about them, employers from identifying them, and young engineers from becoming them. Our understanding also lacks breadth: what are all the distinguishing attributes of great engineers (technical
  expertise and beyond)? We took a first step in addressing these gaps by interviewing 59 experienced engineers across 13 divisions at Microsoft, uncovering 53 attributes of great engineers. We explain the attributes and examine how the most salient of these impact projects and teams. We discuss implications of this knowledge on research and the hiring and training of engineers.

source:
  Li, P. L., Ko, A. J., & Zhu, J. (2015). What makes a great software engineer. In 2015 IEEE/ACM 37th IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering (Vol. 1, pp. 700–710).

  https://faculty.washington.edu/ajko/papers/Li2015GreatEngineers.pdf

question:
  QUESTION

  How did the authors get the distinguishing attributes  of great engineers at Microsoft?


  ANSWER

  By interviewing.


source: https://nealwhittengroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/You-Desire-Success.pdf
date: 23 Aug 2020
level: 3
text:
  Number One Reason Why Projects Fail

  By Neal Whitten

  This is a good time to share with you what I believe may be a profound
  assertion. We have all seen lists touting the top 10 reasons why
  projects fail. The usual suspects include weak requirements, scope
  creep, lack of user involvement, unreliable estimates, incomplete
  staffing, poor communications, weak senior stakeholder support and
  others.  However, from my experience, these lists miss the biggest
  reason — the number one reason — why projects fail: Because the
  project manager does not manage to his or her top three priorities on
  a daily basis.

  This is so important that I’m going to repeat it. The number one
  reason why projects fail is that the project manager does not manage
  to his or her top three priorities on a daily basis.  You might be
  wondering how come I’m so smart to get this while it appears that
  others haven’t?  Well, I’m not that smart, but I am an old guy who has
  been around a long time.  Longevity and persistence helps me pick up
  things. For example, over the years I have performed reviews on
  hundreds of projects in trouble.  When I do, I always conclude with
  identifying the top three problems — the top three priorities — that
  the project manager needs to address immediately.  When I examine
  these top three lists, the ah-ha moment presents itself.  The top
  items on the lists almost always should have been resolved not days
  earlier but weeks or months earlier — sometimes years depending on the
  duration of the project.

  The lists show that the project managers were not effectively focusing
  on their top three priorities on a daily basis; otherwise, these
  problems would have been resolved or under control. So, again, the
  number one reason why projects fail is that the project manager does
  not manage to his or her top three priorities on a daily basis. This
  is a fundamental fact that knowing and adjusting your behavior to can
  significantly increase the success of your projects — and your career.
  By the way, the article might have appeared to focus on Project
  Managers, not Business Analysts. Everything said here also applies to
  Business Analysts.

  The number one reason why Business Analysts fail is that the Business
  Analyst does not manage to his or her top three priorities on a daily
  basis.  

question:
  QUESTION

  What is the number one reason that project fail, according to the author?


  ANSWER

  The project manager does not manage to his top three priorities on a daily basis.


source: Leishman and Cook. "Requirements Risks Can Drown Software Projects." Computer (November 2001).
date: 24 Aug 2020
level: 4
question:
  QUESTION

  What material does JoAnna want for her closet?


  ANSWER

  Cedar.

text:
  Overboard

  A few years ago the movie “Overboard” was released. This is a movie about a rich woman (JoAnna) who was accustomed to having everything her own way. The movie begins with JoAnna hiring an uncouth carpenter (Dean) to remodel the closet of her luxurious yacht. Following several unpleasant encounters between the two during the remodeling project, a major confrontation occurs as the carpenter has completed work, and the yacht is preparing to leave port.

  While the carpenter is demonstrating the features of his work, the rich, arrogant, JoAnna asks what the closet is made of. In response, Dean indicates that the closet is made of oak. His response pushes JoAnna over the edge. She says that she wanted the closet to be made of cedar. The carpenter responds that if she wanted the closet to be made out of cedar, she should have asked for cedar. He tells her that he would be glad to make the closet out of cedar, but that his estimate would be more than double because he would have to redo the whole project. To which she responded, “the whole civilized world knows that closets are made of cedar!” She further indicates that she is not going to pay for “his” mistake! The confrontation escalates to the point that she pushes Dean overboard. 


date: 25 Aug 2020
level: 4
text:
  Chiding Children


  As children should very seldom be corrected by blows; so, I think, frequent, and especially, passionate chiding, of almost as ill consequence. It lessons the authority of the parents, and the respect of the child: for I bid you still remember, they distinguish early betwixt passion and reason: and as they cannot but have a reverence for what comes from the latter, so they quickly grow into a contempt of the former; or if it causes a present terrour, yet it soon wears off; and natural inclination will easily learn to slight such scare-crows, which make a noise, but are not animated by reason. Children being to be restrained by the parents only in vicious (which, in their tender years, are only a few) things, a look or nod only ought to correct them, when they do amiss: or, if words are sometimes to be used, they ought to be grave, kind, and sober, representing the ill, or unbecomingness of the faults, rather than a hasty rating of the child for it, which makes him not sufficiently distinguish whether your dislike be not more directed to him than his fault. Passionate chiding usually carries rough and ill language with it, which has this further ill effect, that it teaches and justifies it in children; and the names that their parents or preceptors give them they will not be ashamed or backward to bestow on others, having so good authority for the use of them.

source:
  The Works of John Locke in Nine Volumes, (London: Rivington, 1824 12th ed.). Vol. 8.  The Online Library of Liberty.

question:
  QUESTION

  Children cannot tell the difference between passion and reason.  Is this statement true?


  ANSWER

  False.


source: https://www.macrumors.com/2020/08/17/apple-terminate-epic-developer-accounts-august-28/
date: 25 August 2020
level: 4
text:
  Apple Threatens to Terminate Epic Games' Developer Accounts on August 28

  Monday August 17, 2020 12:02 pm PDT by Juli Clover

  Apple is planning to terminate Epic Games' entire access to its App Store and app development tools, Epic Games said today. Apple told Epic that by August 28, all access will be ended.

  That includes Epic's access to the development tools necessary to create software for the Unreal Engine that Epic offers to third-party developers for their games. In response, Epic has filed a court order asking a Northern California court to stop Apple from removing Epic's ‌App Store‌ access. 

  From the filing:"
  It told Epic that by August 28, Apple will cut off Epic's access to all development tools necessary to create software for Apple's platforms--including for the Unreal Engine Epic offers to third-party developers, which Apple has never claimed violated any Apple policy."

  Cutting off Epic's access to Mac and iOS developer tools could have a significant impact on all of the apps and games that use Epic's Unreal Engine. Apple in its letter to Epic Games letting it know about the upcoming account closures says that Epic can avoid having its access revoked by following Apple's ‌App Store‌ guidelines.

question:
  QUESTION

  Which company sued which company in the Northern California court?


  ANSWER

  Epic Games sued Apple.


date: 26 August 2020
level: 4
text:
  “Sometimes ... that’s just arduous. You really just need to grind through.” - Software Development Engineer Level 2, Server & Tools

source:
  Li, P. L., Ko, A. J., & Zhu, J. (2015). What makes a great software engineer. In 2015 IEEE/ACM 37th IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering (Vol. 1, pp. 700–710).

question:
  QUESTION

  Which one of the following words best describes the content of the above passage?

  A. Passionate

  B. Systamic

  C. Curious

  D. Hardworking

  ANSWER

  D.


date: 28 Aug 2020
level: 4
text:
  Section 80 -- Some Thoughts Concerning Education

  But since the occasions of punishment, especially beating, are as much to be avoided as may be, I think it should not be often brought to this point. If the awe I spoke of be once got, a look will be sufficient in most cases. Nor indeed should the same carriage, seriousness, or application be expected from young children, as from those of riper growth. They must be permitted, as I said, the foolish and childish actions, suitable to their years, without taking notice of them; inadvertency, carelessness, and gaiety, is the character of that age. I think the severity I spoke of, is not to extend itself to such unseasonable restraints; nor is that hastily to be interpreted obstinacy or wilfulness, which is the natural product of their age or temper. In such miscarriages they are to be assisted, and helped towards an amendment, as weak people under a natural infirmity; which, though they are warned of, yet every relapse must not be counted a perfect neglect, and they presently treated as obstinate. Faults of frailty, as they should never be neglected, or let pass without minding; so, unless the will mix with them, they should never be exaggerated, or very sharply reproved; but with a gentle hand set right, as time and age permit. By this means, children will come to see what is in any miscarriage, that is chiefly offensive, and so learn to avoid it. This will encourage them to keep their wills right, [69] which is the great business; when they find, that it preserves them from any great displeasure; and that in all their other failings they meet with the kind concern and help, rather than the anger and passionate reproaches of their tutor and parents.

source:
  https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/locke-the-works-vol-8-some-thoughts-concerning-education-posthumous-works-familiar-letters

question:
  QUESTION

  Parents must beat children for their foolish and childish actions.  Is this statement true?


  ANSWER

  False.


date: 29 Aug 2020
level: 4
text:
  Section 81 -- Some Thoughts Concerning Education


  It will perhaps be wondered, that I mention reasoning with children: and yet I cannot but think that the true way of dealing with them. They understand it as early as they do language; and, if I mis-observe not, they love to be treated as rational creatures, sooner than is imagined. It is a pride should be cherished in them, and, as much as can be, made the greatest instrument to turn them by.

source:
  https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/locke-the-works-vol-8-some-thoughts-concerning-education-posthumous-works-familiar-letters

question:
  QUESTION

  Children do not like to be treated as rational creatures.
  Is this statement true?


  ANSWER

  False.


source: https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/another-china-fab-project-stalled-2020-08/
date: 29 Aug 2020
level: 4
question:
  QUESTION

  Where is the location of HSMC?


  ANSWER

  Dongxihu.

text:
  Another China fab project stalled

  By David Manners

  28th August 2020


  Wuhan Hongxin Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (HSMC) has been building a $20 billion semiconductor production site in Dongxihu for two years but the local government has said that construction has been halted because the money has run out.

  HSMC intended to build a 14 nanometer logic processor production line with a  capacity of 30000 wpm and a 7nm logic process production line with a capacity of 30000 pieces per month and  a wafer level advanced packaging production line.

  The halt in construction at HSMC follows abandoned fab plans at the jv between Globalfoundries and the City of Chengdu, the discontinued DRAM fab site of Fujian JinHua and the bankruptcy of  Tacoma Nanjing Semiconductor Technology which was building a $3 billion fab backed by the government.


  There are reports of  HSMC’s contractors not being paid including one from clean-room specialist L&K Engineering which said in its half year report that it had stopped work because of delayed payments.

   When asked for a comment on the situation by the South China Morning Post, HSMC’s chairman Chiang Shang-yi – formerly of TSMC and SMIC – said he was not aware of the company’s financial problems.

  Dr Chiang was head of R&D at TSMC.


source: Source: https://ben.balter.com/2020/08/14/tools-of-the-trade/
date: 30 Aug 2020
level: 3
text:
  How you work is as important as what you work on

  The tools you choose matter. Tools are more than mere convenience. Tools force teams into particular workflows, workflows that constrain not just how software is produced, but what software is possible. It’s no coincidence then that the open source community, in order to produce the type of software it produces, adopts vastly different tools than most enterprise developers have available to them at their office.

question:
  QUESTION

  Which developers use more tools, open source developers or enterprise developers?


  ANSWER

  Open source developers.


source: Source: https://www.gadgetsnow.com/tech-news/things-go-tougher-for-huawei/articleshow/77654934.cms
date: 31 Aug 2020
level: 3
question:
  QUESTION

  Why is Huawei losing its market share outside China?


  ANSWER

  U.S. sanctions.

text:
  Things go tougher for Huawei

  AP | Aug 20, 2020, 05:19PM

  Now, Huawei Technologies Ltd. is suffering in earnest as Washington intensifies a campaign to slam the door on access to foreign markets and components in its escalating feud with Beijing over technology and security.

  European and other phone carriers that bought Huawei gear despite U.S. pressure are removing it from their networks. Huawei got a flicker of good news when it passed rivals Samsung and Apple as the No. 1 smartphone brand in the quarter ending in June thanks to sales in China, but demand abroad is plunging.

  ``Huawei is losing market share quite dramatically outside China,'' said industry analyst Paul Budde. ``Their international position is most likely going to get worse rather than better.''

  In the latest blow, the Commerce Department this week confirmed rules announced in May that will bar non-American companies from using U.S. technology to make processor chips and other components for Huawei without a government license.

  The president of Huawei's consumer business, Richard Yu, says it is running out of chips for smartphones. Yu said as of Sept. 15, contractors will be forced to stop making Kirin chips designed by Huawei's engineers and used in its most advanced handsets.

  ``This is a very big loss for us,'' Yu said Aug. 8 at an industry conference, China Info 100.


date: 2 Sep 2020
level: 4
text:
  Beating


  John Locke

  beating is the worst, and therefore the last, means to be used in the correction of children; and that only in cases of extremity, after all gentler ways have been tried, and proved unsuccessful: which, if well observed, there will be very seldom any need of blows. For, it not being to be imagined that a child will often, if ever, dispute his father’s present command in any particular instance; and the father not interposing his absolute authority, in peremptory rules, concerning either childish or indifferent actions, wherein his son is to have his liberty; or concerning his learning or improvement, wherein there is no compulsion to be used; there remains only the prohibition of some vicious actions, wherein a child is capable of obstinacy, and consequently can deserve beating: and so there will be but very few occasions of that discipline to be used by any one, who considers well, and orders his child’s education as it should be. 

  For the first seven years, what vices can a child be guilty of, but lying, or some ill-natured tricks; the repeated commission whereof, after his father’s direct command against it, shall bring him into the condemnation of obstinacy, and the chastisement of the rod? If any vicious inclination in him be, in the first appearance and instances of it, treated as it should be, first, with your wonder; and then, if returning again a second time, discountenanced with the severe brow of the father, tutor, and all about him, and a treatment suitable to the state of discredit before mentioned; and this continued till he be made sensible and ashamed of his fault; I imagine there will be no need of any other correction, nor ever any occasion to come to blows. 

  The necessity of such chastisement is usually the consequence only of former indulgences or neglects. If vicious inclinations were watched from the beginning, and the first irregularities which they caused, corrected by those gentler ways, we should seldom have to do with more than one disorder at once; which would be easily set right without any stir or noise, and not require so harsh a discipline as beating. Thus, one by one, as they appeared, they might all be weeded out, without any signs or memory that ever they had been there. But we letting their faults (by indulging and humouring our little ones) grow up, till they are sturdy and numerous, and the deformity of them makes us ashamed and uneasy; we are fain to come to the plough and the harrow; the spade and the pick-ax must go deep to come at the roots, and all the force, skill, and diligence we can use, is scarce enough to cleanse the vitiated seed-plat, overgrown with weeds, and restore us the hopes of fruits to reward our pains in its season.

source:
  Source: https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/locke-the-works-vol-8-some-thoughts-concerning-education-posthumous-works-familiar-letters

question:
  QUESTION

  Beating is the most effective method of correcting children.
  Is this statement true?


  ANSWER

  False.


date: 6 Sep 2020
level: 3
text:
  Tutor

  If a tutor can be got, that, thinking himself in his father’s place, charged with his care, and relishing these things, will at the beginning apply himself to put them in practice, he will afterwards find his work very easy: and you will, I guess, have your son in a little time a greater proficient in both learning and breeding, than perhaps you imagine. But let him by no means beat him, at any time, without your consent and direction: at least till you have experience of his discretion and temper. But yet, to keep up his authority with his pupil, besides concealing that he has not the power of the rod, you must be sure to use him with great respect yourself, and cause all your family to do so too. For you cannot expect your son should have any regard for one, whom he sees you, or his mother, or others slight. If you think him worthy of contempt, you have chosen amiss; and if you show any contempt of him, he will hardly escape it from your son: and whenever that happens, whatever worth he may have in himself, and abilities for this employment, they are all lost to your child, and can afterwards never be made useful to him.

source:
  Source: https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/locke-the-works-vol-8-some-thoughts-concerning-education-posthumous-works-familiar-letters

question:
  QUESTION

  To establish a tutor's authority while educating a child, only the father in the family needs to show great respect to the tutor.  Is this statement true?


  ANSWER

  False.


date: 14 Sep 2020
level: 4
text:
  Oxbotica’s pioneering deepfake technology brings Universal Autonomy within sight

  25th June 2020


  Oxbotica has developed and deployed a “deepfake” technology that is capable of generating thousands of photo-realistic images in minutes; helping to expose its autonomous vehicles to the near infinite variations of the same situation – without real-world testing of a location having ever taken place.

  Deepfaking, which first shot to fame when it was used to create viral internet videos, employs deep learning artificial intelligence (AI) to generate fake photo-realistic images.

  The AV software firm believes that the pioneering technology will make the vehicles of tomorrow smarter and safer, and immediately accelerate the race to autonomy.

  Sophisticated deepfake algorithms allow the autonomous vehicle software firm to reproduce the same scene in poor weather or adverse conditions, and subject its vehicles to rare occurrences.

  The technology is so advanced that it can reverse road signage or “class switch”, where one object (e.g. a tree) is replaced with another (e.g. a building). It can change the lighting of an image, to show a particular frame at a different time of the day or season of the year, all while ensuring shadows or reflections appear exactly as they should. It then uses these synthetic images to teach its software, producing thousands of accurately-labelled, true-to-life experiences and rehearsals which are not real but generated; even down to the rain drops on lenses.

source:
  Source: https://www.oxbotica.com/insight/oxboticas-pioneering-deepfake-technology-brings-universal-autonomy-within-sight/

question:
  QUESTION

  Deepfake images are not original images.  They are computer generated.  Is this statement true?


  ANSWER

  True.


date: 15 Sep 2020
level: 3
question:
  QUESTION

  In which city did the driverless car operate?


  ANSWER

  London.

text:
  DRIVEN project demonstrates how driverless cars can operate safely in London


  The DRIVEN consortium celebrates today a key milestone in this 30-month government-supported project by unveiling the capabilities of a fleet of self-driving vehicles in London’s challenging and complex urban environment.
  Published on 30 September 2019

source:
  Source: https://trl.co.uk/news/news/driven-project-demonstrates-how-driverless-cars-can-operate-safely-london


source: Source: https://www.codesimplicity.com/post/how-to-learn-to-program
date: 5 Oct 2020
level: 4
question:
  QUESTION

  What is an algorithm?


  ANSWER

  A series of steps for accomplishing some task.

text:
  How to Learn to Program

  October 9, 2018


  One question that people ask me all the time is, “How do I become a programmer?” Or, “How do I learn to program?” There are a lot of possible answers to this, depending on the person and how you want to go about it. I figured that since people ask me this so often, I had better finally write an article about it.


  University
  The most commonly-taught subject that’s related to programming in universities is called “computer science.” I say that it’s related to programming because very little of what people learn in most computer science courses will actually end up being useful in their day-to-day lives as a professional, working programmer. That’s not always true—there are some fields where computer science comes very much in handy. But in general, the field we call “software engineering” or “development” is different than what universities cover as “computer science.”

  Usually, the basics of computer science that universities cover are very useful. I went to university and studied computer science, and my first two years of study were very useful to me, especially the first few classes. I got a great grounding in some of the basic concepts of software development.

  What I didn’t realize at the time, though, is that computer science is only partly a study of programming. The other part is a study of algorithms. (For those who are reading this and don’t know, an algorithm is a series of steps for accomplishing some task. That’s really all it means. Even a shopping list is a sort of algorithm.) The study of algorithms usually involves learning the most efficient way to do something. That is, figuring out how to accomplish a task like sorting a list of integers using the fewest number of steps or using the least amount of memory. There are some problems that can’t be solved by computers at all unless you know the right algorithm, and once in a while you run into a problem in programming that requires this knowledge. So it does have some use. But solving these problems of algorithms is not what you will be spending most of your time doing.

  Even for those universities that offer courses in “software engineering,” they are rarely a full experience of what the real world will be like. The reason is that most courses only take a few months at most, and make you collaborate with only a few people at best, on a codebase of a few thousand lines of code. In the real world, you will be working with a large number of people on a codebase that will last for years that is at least tens of thousands of lines of code. However, these software engineering courses are still far better than nothing.

  All this said, there are a few universities that do turn out excellent programmers, whether that be by computer science courses or software engineering courses. And there is always some value in learning to program by taking classes at a university. At the very least, being at a university provides a structure and discipline that encourages you to get through the class.


date: 20 Nov 2020
level: 4
text:
  McConnell backs Trump legal fight in election results

  10 November 2020

  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell backed the Trump campaign’s legal challenge of voting results in several battleground states on Monday in his first public comments on the floor since Election Day.

  In his remarks, McConnell, R-Ky., said, “no states have yet certified their election results” and that recounts are already expected to occur in “at least one or two states.” The longtime senator argued that President Trump is “100 percent within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities and weigh his legal options.”

  Meanwhile, Attorney General William Barr on Monday gave federal prosecutors the green light to pursue "substantial allegations" of voting irregularities before the 2020 presidential election is certified next month, even though little evidence of fraud has been put forth.

source:
  Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/live-updates-mcconnell-backs-trump-legal-fight-in-election-results

question:
  QUESTION

  The election results are official at the time of writing this news.  Is this statement true?


  ANSWER

  False.


source: Source: https://nealwhittengroup.com/articles/meet-minimum-requirements-anything-more-is-too-much/
date: 20 Nov 2020
level: 4
question:
  QUESTION

  Meeting the minimum requirements is not exciting.
  Is this statement true?

  ANSWER

  False

text:
  Meet Minimum Requirements: Anything More is Too Much

  September 1, 1998

  Commit to a project plan that only includes essential function, with a “closet plan” for nonessential function.

  by Neal Whitten, PMP, Contributing Editor

  Does this conversation between a project manager and a project outsider sound familiar? It’s a Y2K project, but it could be any project.

  Outsider: “Will your project complete on time?”
  PM: “We have no choice.”
  Outsider: “I didn’t ask if you had a choice. I asked will you complete on time?”
  PM: “This is an important project. There’s a lot riding on the success of this project. We must complete on time.”

  (Translation: “No, we won’t complete on time. Anybody with any project experience knows this.”)

  Is this a Y2K-unique problem? No—it’s common on most projects. The primary reason it’s so common on Y2K projects is that most of the project managers and other project leaders on these projects were trained on pre-Y2K projects. Let me explain.

  One of the most common problems with projects is taking on too much work—attempting to exceed requirements rather than meet minimum requirements. This contributes to a plethora of ill effects, including late deliveries, budget overruns, low morale and poor quality. Attempting to cram the proverbial 10 pounds into a 5-pound sack is a common occurrence.

  One solution is to build products that meet minimum requirements. You may be thinking that such a product would have low appeal to your client or customers, but it’s not what you think.

  “Meet minimum requirements” means give the client what he or she needs to be successful; but don’t provide unessential function. Additional function is what future releases and future business opportunities are all about. It is important to earn the reputation for being reliable in meeting customer commitments and then be trusted to continue to upgrade on a routine, predictable basis. This is good business.

  You say you always only provide essential function? For most of us, most times, that’s not true. Have you ever faced slipped delivery dates and chosen to remove some of the function originally planned? When the project began, everyone swore that all the planned function was essential. Yet, as the project progressed—and got further behind schedule—some of that essential function no longer looked so essential.

  We’ll use a Y2K project as an example, because Y2K projects are at a heightened focus these days—and, interestingly enough, the No. 2 problem with Y2K projects is that they are taking on too much work (the No. 1 problem is that too many projects are starting too late). Here’s what should occur.
  Let’s say you’ve identified 100 functions (enhancements or changes) that need to be made in your company’s programs. You know that all 100 functions are desirable, but you recognize that your limited resources won’t allow all the functions to be ready by the hoped-for date. You find that 40 functions fall within the high-priority category, 30 as medium and 30 as low. You build a project plan to implement only the 40 high priorities. Why? Because you don’t want to jeopardize the timely completion of these 40 by building a plan to include the other 60 functions—all of lesser importance and, for purposes of illustration, deemed nonessential.

  You might be thinking that you should build a plan with all 100 functions and later, if (actually, when) the project gets into trouble, you can always back out of lesser-priority function. Don’t go there! This foolish plan requires spending valuable time, dollars and resources working on other-than-the-most-important functions. Moreover, when you back out, it costs again. What needs to be done is to build a plan that significantly reduces rework. This means the original plan must be only essential function.

  What about the other 60? You carefully look these over and put work-arounds in place that, although not optimal, can get you through until more substantial actions can occur.

  But there is something else you do. You decide on the most important of the 60 functions—maybe it’s all of the 30 medium functions or some subset thereof—and you create multiple, independent small projects with any and all resources you can muster. I call these small projects collectively a “closet plan.” These small projects are managed with the same care and attention to quality as the primary project. If any of these small projects can complete by a predetermined date (e.g., system test) and the risk to the primary project is judged to be acceptable, then the completed small projects are merged in with the primary project. There are many advantages to this technique: from reducing risk to the primary project, to motivating the members of the small projects to complete by a predetermined date, to setting customer expectations that are most likely to be met or exceeded.

  Most of us have been conditioned to believe that “meets minimum requirements” is unexciting and noncompetitive. I believe it to be the opposite. Deliberately practicing meeting minimum requirements helps an organization or company to be first-to-market, earn increasing credibility from their client(s), and strongly posture their enterprise for taking on new business opportunities. Adopting the concept of meeting minimum requirements can set your organization up for exceptional performance.


date: 20 Nov 2020
level: 4
question:
  QUESTION

  Who wrote the above text?

  ANSWER

  Trump.

text:
  Text of a statement from President Donald Trump on the election result

  Nov 7, 2020 12:48 PM EST


  “We all know why Joe Biden is rushing to falsely pose as the winner, and why his media allies are trying so hard to help him: they don’t want the truth to be exposed. The simple fact is this election is far from over. Joe Biden has not been certified as the winner of any states, let alone any of the highly contested states headed for mandatory recounts, or states where our campaign has valid and legitimate legal challenges that could determine the ultimate victor. In Pennsylvania, for example, our legal observers were not permitted meaningful access to watch the counting process. Legal votes decide who is president, not the news media.

  “Beginning Monday, our campaign will start prosecuting our case in court to ensure election laws are fully upheld and the rightful winner is seated. The American People are entitled to an honest election: that means counting all legal ballots, and not counting any illegal ballots. This is the only way to ensure the public has full confidence in our election. It remains shocking that the Biden campaign refuses to agree with this basic principle and wants ballots counted even if they are fraudulent, manufactured, or cast by ineligible or deceased voters. Only a party engaged in wrongdoing would unlawfully keep observers out of the count room – and then fight in court to block their access.

  “So what is Biden hiding? I will not rest until the American People have the honest vote count they deserve and that Democracy demands.”

  The statement was issued while Trump was golfing at his club in Virginia.

source:
  Source: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/read-president-donald-trumps-full-statement-on-the-election-results-vowing-to-head-to-the-courts


