by Lois Lowry
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7
1 Assorted Gold Gift Box, 105 pieces, $150.00. Worth every penny.
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1 Gargoyles, which are meant to divert water, have been around for a long time. In the twelfth century, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux didn’t like the gargoyles on his monastery. “What is the meaning of these unclean monkeys, these strange savage lions, and monsters? To what purpose are here placed these creatures, half beast, half man, or these spotted tigers?” he wrote.
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9
1 U.S. Embassy, Sulgeneckstrasse 19, 3007 Bern, Switzerland. Go there if you lose your passport. Or become defrosted unexpectedly.
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2 She had recovered it, finally, from the wet snow, but it had been thoroughly soaked. Now, days later, the leather remained weighted and damp and was beginning to smell of mold.
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3 This is unusual but not unheard of. The famous boxer George Foreman had five sons and named them all George.
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10
1 C’mon. You know what a Tesla is, even if they don’t. It’s an electric car. The first one appeared in 2008.
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2 Teddy bears, dried flowers, and antique baby clothes are also frequently part of B-and-B décor. But the Poores didn’t have those.
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11
1 A little geography lesson: Mineral Creek is a ten-mile-long creek flowing out of the Chugach Mountains from Mineral Creek Glacier, down a narrow valley in southwest Alaska.
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12
1 West Germany won the 1990 FIFA World Cup, 1–0 over Argentina. Shortly thereafter, Germany was reunited into a single country and West Germany ceased to exist.
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2 Jane had grown up to be a professor of feminist studies in San Francisco. The twins, who lived in the Midwest, had changed their names to Bill and Joe. Tim, of course, was— Well, we know where Tim is. He’s in the mansion. Tim is Richie’s father, remember?
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13
1 In 1966 President Lyndon Johnson proclaimed the third Sunday in June as a day to honor fathers. Father’s Day became a permanent national holiday when Richard Nixon signed it into law in 1972.
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2 Fathers and Sons, by Ivan Turgenev. The Father Brown Mysteries by G. K. Chesterton. And Just Me and My Dad by Mercer Mayer.
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3 Oh Henry! has been a popular candy bar, with chocolate and peanuts. For a while it was so popular that whenever the major-league ballplayer Henry Rodriguez hit a home run, his fans tossed Oh Henry! bars onto the field.
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15
1 Hans Holbein the Younger, a sixteenth-century German painter. He is called the Younger because—surprise!—there was also a Hans Holbein the Elder.
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16
1 Flamingos typically stand on one leg, with the other leg tucked up. There are various theories about why they do this. But the truth is, scientists simply don’t know. (Maybe they have a blister on the other foot, like Mrs. Willoughby? Ha ha.)
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1 They are, actually, chicken cooked with wine, and beef cooked with wine. French people like to cook that way.
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2 The first written account of rhododendrons goes back to the fourth century BC in Greece, when ten thousand soldiers were poisoned by honey of Rhododendron luteum. And lily of the valley? It contains about twenty poisonous glycosides, including convalatoxin, convalarin, convalamarin, and saponins.
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1 Mushroom experts are called mycologists. And the deadliest mushrooms are called Amanita. Do not ever taste one.
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1 Kicking the dog in Akron, Ohio, was number 345. He kept a list. Smoking a cigarette when he was thirteen was number 106.
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24
1 Do not under any circumstances try any of this at home.
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2 Pathology is the study of changes in tissue produced by diseases. Pathologists spend a lot of time peering into microscopes.
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28
1 Blood pressure cuff. Don’t you love learning new words?
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36
1 Wouldn’t this be a great title—The Unfortunate Salad? I’d buy it if I saw it in a bookstore.
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1 We don’t exactly know where they live. But I’m guessing northeast USA. Maybe Hartford, Connecticut?
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40
1 You don’t know what a cummerbund is, do you? Better find out before prom time.
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