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  What did the old lady find when she got home?

  The old lady was glad to be back at the block of flats where she lived. Her shopping had tired her and her basket ad grown heavier with every step of the way home. In the life her thoughts were on lunch and a good rest; but when she got out at her own floor, both were forgotten in her sudden di ...

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  Did the narrator find is mother’s grave?

  I stopped to let the car cool off and to study the map. I had expected to be near my objective by now, but everything still seemed alien to me. I was only five when my father had taken me abroad, and that we eighteen years ago. When my mother had died after a tragic accident, he did not quickly ...

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  Why had the neighbours left their farm?

  The river which forms the eastern boundary of our farm has always played an important part in our lives. Without it we could not make a living. There is only enough spring water to supply the needs of the houses, so we have to pump from the river for farm use. We tell river all our secrets. We ...

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  Which life forms are most likely to develop on a distant planet?

  Recent developments in astronomy have made it possible to detect planets in our won Milky Way and in other galaxies. This is a major achievement because, in relative terms, planets are very small and old not emit light. Finding planets is proving hard enough, but finding life on them will prove ...

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  Was the writer successful in protecting his peach tree? Why not?

  We have been brought up to fear insects. We regard them as unnecessary creatures that do more harm than good. We continually wage war on them, for they contaminate our food, carry diseases, or devour our crops. They sting or bite without provocation; they fly uninvited into our rooms on summer ...

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  What could not be reported in the official flees?

  The Scandinavian countries are much admired all over the world for their enlightened social policies. Sweden has evolved an excellent system for protecting the individual citizen from highhanded or incompetent public officers. The system has worked so well, that it has been adopted in other cou ...

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  Why did Harry decide to give up his little game?

  My cousin, Harry, keeps a large curiously-shaped bottle on permanent display in his study. Despite the fact that the bottle is tinted a delicate shade of green, an observant visitor would soon notice that it is filled with what looks like a thick, grayish substance. If you were to ask Harry wha ...

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  What was the ‘future’ electronic development that Leon Bagrit wasn’t able to foresee?

  Predicting the future is notoriously difficult. Who could have imagined, in the mid 1970s, for example, that by the end of the 20th century, computers would be as common in people’s homes as TV sets? In the 1970s, computers were common enough, but only in big business, government departme ...

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  What marked the end of the writer’s New Year resolutions?

  The New Year is a time for resolutions. Mentally, at least, most of us could compile formidable lists of ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’. The same old favorites recur year in year out with monotonous regularity. We resolve to get up earlier each morning, eat less, find more tim ...

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  What was the consequence of the editor’s insistence on facts and statistics?

  Editors of newspapers and magazines often go to extremes to provide their reader with unimportant facts and statistics. Last year a journalist had been instructed by a well-known magazine to write an article on the president’s palace in a new African republic. When the article arrived, th ...

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  It is a good thing

  It is a good thing my aunt Harriet died years ago. If she were alive today she would not be able to air her views on her favourite topic of conversation: domestic servants. Aunt Harriet lived in that leisurely age when servants were employed to do housework. She had a huge, rambling country house ca ...

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  Why was the village silent?

  In this much-travelled world, there are still thousands of places which are inaccessible to tourists. We always assume that villagers in remote places are friendly and hospitable. But people who are cut off not only from foreign tourists, but even from their own countrymen can be hostile to tra ...

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