Their main achievement was that they submitted documents to the United Nations, formally joining the Paris climate agreement. And on the occasion President Obama said that some day we may see this as the moment that we finally decided to save our planet. President Xi Jinping, meanwhile, called on other countries to follow their example. Now, a lot more countries still have to formally join this agreement for it to take effect. But the U. S.  and China submitted their documents ahead of schedule, and this just means that the commitments that these countries made in Paris can be put into action that much sooner.

This is the first time China has hosted this summit. Does it have a goal in mind as to why it's doing it?

Well, first of all, you know, by hosting this for the first time, to many Chinese it really marks the first time that they've had an equal seat at the rulemaking table since World War II. They feel that they're now the world's second-largest economy, and they want a say that's commensurate with that status. So far, a lot of the rules have been made by the Group of Seven or Group of Eight industrialized nations. China has not been a part of that, and they want a more equitable system represented by the G-20 that does a better job of taking into account the needs of developing nations like itself.

Do we know what's on the agenda?

turn 2 : "... it really marks the first time that they've had an equal seat at the rulemaking table since World War II." This turn has a figurative meaning, as it suggests that China sees itself as an equal player in global decision-making and wants to have a greater say in international affairs, rather than literally referring to a physical table.

How does turn 2 suggest China's position in global decision-making?

Answer: Equality


Thank you.

So, first off, what is criminalistics?

Criminalistics is the application of the physical sciences to matters of law and science. The physical sciences being biology, chemistry and physics, and any question that might become of interest to not only law enforcement but the legal system in general, whether it's criminal or civil law. Questions of science can be answered and aid in the assignment of responsibility and guilt or innocence in certain types of situations.

Duane, why don't you describe to us some of the work that you did with actual cases when you were at the California Department of Justice?I mean, what was your job, literally and physically?

turn 0 : you imply that something is the case you imply that something is the case

Which turn implies that someone is expressing gratitude?

Answer: 0


It occurred on August 1st, in the late hours of the morning. One Serbian fell, and another (unintelligible) porter fell as well trying to rescue him, and that was the beginning of the fatalities. However, the serac fall, which stranded most of the climbers, didn't occur until quite late in the evening on August 1st.

A serac is a big column of ice, a big sheet of ice. And it fell off the mountain, and that complicated things for a lot of people. What were conditions like?

The weather was completely calm, very cold and clear, which is normal. No wind and as the day began to - as the sun began to rise, the weather was actually better than we could have hoped for. But, of course, things changed. The wind began to pick up the next day as people were stranded, and that complicated the rescue effort.

You were attempting to summit on that day, weren't you?

turn 1 : "And it complicated things for a lot of people." - The implied meaning here is that the serac fall caused significant problems and challenges, rather than just making things more difficult.

How did the serac fall affect the climbers?

Answer: Problems


The government said the first round of elections didn't produce a majority. That meant a runoff, but since the runoff plan was announced, locals have died or been beaten in election-related violence. International reporters and diplomats have been detained or expelled, food aid for malnourished people has reportedly been confiscated by the government, and Tsvangirai has faced threats and government detention during his campaigning. In fact, Tsvangirai was just released hours ago from yet another detention. We spoke with the Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, shortly before his latest detention. He shared his perspective on the election, and told us about the work he is doing with the American-based media outlet MTVU.

You have stood for election, seen that the government says that you did not win a majority, been detained, waited for a runoff. What was the moment when you most despaired during this process of the election and the post-election?

I think the most despairing moment was the waiting for the results, when we knew that we had won the election, and that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission was not announcing the result. I think it was the worst moment, of waiting.

How do you think the MDC supporters are doing right now?Have people - there have been widespread beatings, detentions. Do you think that people are still willing whenever the runoff actually happens, to go out and vote?Or are some people going to be too afraid?

turn 0 : The government rigged the election and caused violence.

Answer: Rigging


Power went out, so hopefully it will come back out soon.

So, power is already out.

Yeah.

I understand that Johnny White's is a good gathering spot. But what are you going to do for food and water and all that kind of stuff?

turn 1 : A is stating the obvious about the power being out

Answer: Power


. . . a day. And. . .

. . . capsized on this catamaran. He's there with this guy called Rene Wassing, the Dutch anthropologist, and his last words are: I think I can make it.

I think I can make it. And he dove in and swam to shore, and was never seen again.

Now, you went to Asmat yourself. You are a writer who's worked in many countries, but you say this is 10,000 square miles of maybe one of the wildest places on earth.

Yeah. It's the southwest coast of what's now Indonesian Papua, was then Dutch New Guinea; and it is a swamp.

turn 3 : (4) A says that Asmat is "maybe one of the wildest places on earth", but the actual meaning is that Asmat is an extremely remote and dangerous place, rather than simply "wild" in the sense of being untamed or full of wildlife.

What is the actual meaning of Asmat being described as "one of the wildest places on earth"?

Answer: Remote


Good to talk to you.

How important an event was this that Mr.  Kim missed?

It was a very important event. It's an event in a mausoleum where his father, previously ruler of North Korea is buried, interred, and so is his grandfather, the founding leader of North Korea. So it was a big deal. Kim Jong Un has not been seen since September 3, when he attended a concert in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, with his wife.

Before that, he'd been seen frequently, but always waddling with a really bad limp. He was clearly in discomfort, and finally the North Korean authorities said he is in physical discomfort. So there's something up. We don't quite know what. The speculation is he's had surgery, he's ill, ranging right through to there's been a coup, and he's lost power or certainly being shunted away from power. That's the speculation.

Now, we're talking about somebody who - as my recollection is - he's on television every two minutes. So this must be a tremendous vacuum in the lives of North Koreans.

turn 3 :  implies that Kim Jong Un is either ill or has lost power,

How would you describe Kim Jong Un's current status?

Answer: Ill/Lost-power


Give us a call, our number 1-800-989-8255. You can also tweet us @scifri. Gerald Crabtree is the David Korn Professor of Pathology and Developmental Biology at Stanford School of Medicine. He's also an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Welcome to SCIENCE FRIDAY.

Good morning, Ira.

Good morning to you. What evidence do you cite?What evidence is there that human intelligence is slowly declining?

Well, you know, there are a few things I'd like to say I guess at the onset, and you referred to them in your introduction, and that is any genetically based decay in intelligence is extremely slow. And so we should never be able to detect it by comparisons to people within generations existing right now on the Earth.

turn 3 : Genetically-based intelligence decline is so slow that it cannot be detected within existing generations

What is the speed of genetically-based intelligence decline?

Answer: Slow


Does an event like this and forecast like that have the effect of concentrating the mind of not just financial planners. . .

. . . but people in Congress making these decisions. And I hear a little laugh.

You would think it would. And in the past, it has. I mean, as they gotten closer to the deadline, enough fear spread that they could pass something or do something or kick the can or whatever. But this time, one of the things that makes this time feel different is that there really are a lot of House Republicans who say, ah, let it default. It'll just shrink the government, will be all good. And it is an act of - I don't even know how to describe it. It's insanity.

Yeah. Well, Austan Goolsbee, I believe, used that word. Quick last question, if we could. So, October 17th is a real deadline but you think some of the effects, potentially, will be down the road.

turn 0 : The phrase "concentrating the mind" is a figurative expression meaning that the event and forecast are likely to focus the attention of not just financial planners, but also people in Congress making decisions.

How does the phrase "concentrating the mind" apply to financial planners and members of Congress in the dialogue?

Answer: Focus


I'm Farai Chideya, and this is News & Notes. It seems that wherever the Olympics go, politics follow. And the 1960 summer Olympics in Rome brought all sorts of culture clashes to the fore. Journalist David Maraniss has written the book "Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World. "David, welcome.

Thanks Farai. Great to be with you.

So this was the first nationally televised Olympics. And several African countries were fighting for independence, but no black African had won a gold medal thus far in the Olympics. That was about to change dramatically. So tell us about who changed that.

Who changed that was Abebe Bikila, a marathoner from Ethiopia. You're right, there had been no black African gold medalists before him. The summer of 1960 was a summer of enormous transformation in Africa. Fourteen nations got their independence that summer, throwing off the yoke of colonialism. And Abebe Bikila from Ethiopia sort of is the first of the great African runners.

turn 3 : Abebe Bikila is the first of the great African runners

Which Ethiopian marathoner is mentioned in the dialogue as the first of the great African runners?

Answer: Abebe-Bikila


Thanks to everyone who wrote in.

And best of luck to all of you out there who, like us, are trying to reinvent yourselves.

And thanks to our senior producer, Steve Proffitt. Steve, thank you. I don't know; what shall call you now from now on, if you're going to reinvent yourself?

How about Steve?

turn 1 : They wished luck to people that are trying to make changes in their lives that make them act different or live different than they did before.

What did PersonA wish to the people who are trying to reinvent themselves?

Answer: Luck


And those two factors - genetic variation and large populations - are perfect recipes for Darwinian evolution. So RNA viruses evolve very quickly. They adapt very quickly. If they pass from one species of host into another - for instance, from a bat, or a monkey or a rodent, into humans - they seem to have a better chance of flourishing, of adapting to the new host and finding ways to transmit onward. So the RNA viruses, the single-stranded RNA viruses, are particularly on the watch list for the disease scientists who study this field.

I'm Flora Lichtman, and this is SCIENCE FRIDAY from NPR, talking with David Quammen about his book "Spillover. "Are we reservoir hosts for viruses that have caused pandemics in other animals?

Well, certainly we've caused disease. It does go the other way. It can go either direction whenever there's fairly close contact. For instance, Jane Goodall's chimps in Gombe in Tanzania, in the late '60s, suffered what seems to have been a little epidemic of polio. A number of the Gombe chimps died.

And that polio virus is thought to be non-zoonotic. It's thought to be a virus that only affects humans, but it's capable of passing from humans into chimps. So it seems to have made those chimps sick and killed some of them.

turn 3 : The polio virus can pass from humans to chimpanzees.

What virus can affect both humans and chimpanzees?

Answer: Polio


Here's what used to happen in the old days. People would only put 100,000 dollars in Broadway because they knew that was the maximum FDIC insurance. They put a million dollars in Bank of America. They figured, well, I only - because Bank of America only has the same insurance as we do, only a 100,000. So they left 900,000 dollars uninsured because they said, well, that's Bank of America. I'm only worried about Broadway. I'm not worried about Bank of America.

Hudson says the idea of a smaller bank, where you can actually talk face-to-face with the CEO, is starting to have a lot more appeal. As I sat in Paul Hudson's bank, where quotes by Langston Hughes and Frederick Douglass are painted on the walls, where there is no bulletproof glass, it made a lot of sense to me.

Most people have no relationship with their bank. It's the most impersonal relationship they have. I think that's probably why people are so stressed out about what's going on because it's almost like their world order has been disrupted. The way they thought the world rolled is not the way. So now, they're saying, well, if Merrill Lynch isn't safe, what is safe?You know, is anything safe?

Broadway Federal Bank's Paul Hudson says his bank may not have ATMs in every corner of the country, but what he can offer customers is the security of knowing they won't be needing a bailout anytime soon.

turn 2 : The current financial situation has disrupted people's sense of security.

Which bank CEO offers customers security from bailout?

Answer: PaulHudson


So we've now been looking at harmless bacteria, so - and we've been using that as a model system. So there's, I think, two major interests. One is a biological one, a microbiological one, is understanding bacteria better. And so it turns out there's also a number of pathogens that wear these coats, and so we would really like to look at what they look like and how they're able to interact with the host. And another interest is that because they are these highly ordered structures - and really the proteins, they assemble themselves, and that's a property that material sciences are interested in. So it's those -both those aspects that are interesting.

If the bacteria have this chainmail that surrounds them, how do nutrients and things get in and out of them?

So it - there you can really compare it like a chainmail. A chainmail is also not just like the armor that we probably know. It is little rings sitting next to each other, and they have holes. The nutrients get across those holes.

And does - do - does the chainmail look the same on all different kinds of bacteria, or are there distinctive patterns on some?Could you say, oh, I recognize that one?

turn 2 :  "So it - there you can really compare it like a chainmail.A chainmail is also not just like the armor that we probably know.It is little rings sitting next to each other, and they have holes.The nutrients get across those holes." - The actual meaning is that the chainmail-like structure of the bacteria's protein coats allows nutrients to pass through, not that the bacteria are literally wearing chainmail armor.

How does the chainmail-like structure allow nutrients to pass through?

Answer: Holes


We don't know what, if anything, he has told the investigators thus far. But we do know, as we suggested earlier, a lot of the questions. For example, where did the guns come from?Where did the explosives come from?And where did the money for those things come from?

Well, first of all, if he is coming in and out of consciousness - which is what we understand is going on right now, in the hospital room - they really can't question him. He has to be sort of sitting up and reasonably aware of what's going on. Now, this had happened in the Abdulmutallab case, in 2009. That's the young man from Nigeria who was on Flight 253, going over Detroit, and he was wearing an underwear bomb.

And for the first 50 minutes - five, zero minutes - that he was in custody, they questioned him without Mirandizing him because they wanted to know if this is part of a broader plot. But then they Mirandized him. . .

Were there other bombs on other planes?Yes.

turn 2 : 1. B implies that they know more than what they have revealed about the investigation so far. 2. A implies that there was a delay in Mirandizing the suspect in the Abdulmutallab case because they wanted to gather more information.  B implies that there were other bombs on other planes.

Which case had a delay in Mirandizing the suspect?

Answer: Abdulmutallab


And you do say us. You believe that you've been complicit in some small ways, too.

Of course. I believe that everybody has. I tell a story in the piece about a former colleague of mine who did not harass me but who I saw harass other people. And at a later job, that colleague, I was told, was going to be brought on. And I made this stand. No, I will not work with him. But I was on a leave at the time. And I was told - OK, it'll just be temporary. By the time you get back from your leave, he'll be gone. And he was.

However, when I got back from that leave, there were younger employees who came to me afterwards and told me that he had messaged them inappropriately. So you know, here I was thinking, actually, that I was, you know, doing the right thing by raising my voice in concern. But in fact, in doing it only, in some ways, on my own behalf, I failed to protect the others - younger women - from that kind of behavior.

Some of the allegations against prominent men - and be they Harvey Weinstein or Roy Moore or James Toback or President Trump or Al Franken - are 10, 20, even 30 years old. Should some of the women who defended President Bill Clinton from allegations of sexual misconduct in the '80s and '90s reassess the support they gave him now?

turn 1 : (2) The literal meaning of this turn is that A made a stand against the colleague, but the actual meaning is that A had the power to stand up for others but didn't.

Which colleague did PersonA make a stand against?

Answer: Colleague


You know, I initially wasn't sure if I was going to go back after Katrina. But I think that I was so - you know, I realized, you know, that there's that whole song, "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?"I didn't get it until I left after the storm and I was evacuated in Atlanta for a period of about six months. And it just started setting in that, you know, New Orleans is truly a special place. I felt like I could have a better impact if I were back in the city trying to help people. And so that drew me back to the city. I mean, it truly is an amazing place, and as far as whether or not I'll go back now, definitely. I can't see leaving New Orleans at this point. And I know some people don't understand that. They might think that's sort of silly, but it truly is a unique city. And the people are amazing. The culture is amazing, and so it's just such a hard place to stay away from.

Do you ever wonder, why us twice now?

You know, yeah, what are the chances?And it's so crazy because the anniversary of Katrina was just on August 29th, and that was - I remember evacuating on a Sunday, the storm hit on a Monday, and the same thing has kind of happened now, though I evacuated Saturday, the storm hit on Monday. So it's just very unusual.

Thena, thank you so much for sharing your story with us. Good luck to you also.

turn 0 : The speaker feels a strong emotional connection to New Orlean

How does the speaker describe New Orleans?

Answer: Unique


They found an interested buyer.

Because, you know, there's no question that there are some assets out there that are probably undervalued. But there are not private sector entities at this point, apparently, that have the capacity to buy and hold and take that risk. That's one of the things we want to explore. Are there entities other than the federal government that can do that?

Well, what are the risks there, that you would be stuck with carrying a bunch of bad debt?

The risk is that the taxpayer would lose some money.

turn 2 : bunch of bad debt implies owing too many debts or inability to pay a lot of debts owed

How does "bunch of bad debt" relate to the dialogue? (Answer: "owing" or "inability")

Answer: owing


Hey. How you doing, Lulu?

I'm very well. For people who haven't been to Richmond, can you describe Monument Avenue for us?What statues are there?

The tennis champion, Arthur Ashe.

turn 2 : "Monument Avenue is one of the most beautiful stretches of street in the United States of America. I mean, it's tree-lined. It's on the national historic registry. There are statues to Robert E. Lee. There's a statue to Jeb Stuart, to, you know, Stonewall Jackson. And there's a lonely statue of Arthur Ashe, which I call the only true champion on that stretch of street." - The actual meaning is the speaker is expressing their opinion about Monument Avenue and the statues on it, highlighting the controversial nature of the Confederate statues and elevating Arthur Ashe as a true hero, rather than just providing factual information.

How does the speaker describe Arthur Ashe's statue on Monument Avenue?

Answer: Champion


That's a good one. Any others we should know about?

Yeah. Another example - Clinton Redding - his obituary was published by the Neptune Society. Clint was a professional machine mechanic, and if something was broken, he could fix it. He'd be glad to know that any and everyone who reads this would cast their vote to keep Hillary Clinton out of office. That was the last thing he wanted to fix.

Oh, my word. Are people including more personal information in their obituaries now?Are families doing that?

They absolutely are. It's a trend we've seen. You know, I've been with Legacy for 14 years. And when I first started at Legacy, many of the obituaries were very stoic, very fact-focused. What we're seeing now is that obituaries are really more personal.

turn 3 : "It's a trend we've seen" is a statement about a trend, not a literal description of what the speaker has seen.

How would you describe the statement made by the speaker in turn 3?

Answer: Trend


Well, that's the thing. Three areas we've looked at - covering about 55 square miles of the jungle - target one, target two and target three. And the first one was target one, and we found these all these archeological features. They covered hundreds of acres, maybe even thousands of acres, and this is gigantic. And then they moved on to target two, and they marked that, and then they moved on to target three. And target three showed even more striking features.

And we've - an archaeologist has been looking at them and a guy named Chris Fisher, who is an archaeologist at the Colorado State University, who's an expert on LIDAR, and he tells us that there is a city in T3 that is comparable in area to the city of Copan. It's absolutely enormous. The track is two square - five square kilometers.

And if these valleys are so remote, how did these civilizations develop in this unforgiving area?

Well, that's the thing. We're only now starting to realize that this so-called virgin or impenetrable jungle in prehistoric times was anything but. It was very heavily settled. There were many thousands of people living in these areas, and it wasn't virgin jungle. It was more like a tended garden. They cleared huge areas for farming. They terraced. They built irrigation canals. They built roads. They built enormous pyramids and structures.

turn 1 : There is a city in T3 that is enormous and comparable in area to the city of Copan.

What is the size of the city in T3 compared to Copan?

Answer: Comparable


We tried for about two and half years. And I had this fear that with every step we took, we would learn something that it would confirm my fear that I couldn't have a baby.

She struggled with anxiety, but eventually she got pregnant through IVF.

Tell me about that moment when you first saw your daughter Hazel for the first time. I mean, how did that feel?

Oh, my gosh. It was - it was incredible. I mean, first of all, I was in labor for 24 hours.

turn 1 : The turn (2) "She struggled with anxiety, but eventually she got pregnant through IVF" has a figurative meaning, as it implies that the process of getting pregnant through in vitro fertilization (IVF) was a difficult and challenging one. The use of the word "struggled" connotes a sense of hardship or adversity, which is not necessarily part of the literal meaning of the statement.

How did PersonA feel when she saw her daughter Hazel for the first time?

Answer: incredible


Well, what keeps you up at night?What do you worry about?

Well, I'm worried that this process is getting chaotic. Two and a half years ago, Great Britain had a referendum, decided to leave the European Union. But it did not decide what kind of future relationship it wanted with the 27 member states.

And because this was all about free trade, you have to know that half of the trade of Great Britain is with the other 27 EU member states, and the other half is with other countries in the world, foremost among them, the U. S.  and China. We're one year and four months into the negotiation process. And here, finally, is the proposal of Great Britain - what future relations should be. That's a bit late in the process. This particular proposal should have been there on day one.

Now, at the moment, there are 3 million EU citizens living in Great Britain, and about 1. 2 million British live in EU countries. Their rights are undefined, so it's not clear what they can do. And as you get closer to the deadline, these people are really worried. And by the way, there are industries in which there are quite a few foreigners, so if you take them out all at once, you may also have a problem keeping it going.

In the Netherlands, we know we have 30,000 businesses, mostly small and medium enterprises, that export only to EU countries, Great Britain included. That means that they've never seen a Customs and Excise control officer. They will have to get used to go through Customs and Excise.

turn 1 : Great Britain's process of leaving the EU is chaotic

Which country is going through a chaotic process of leaving the EU?

Answer: GreatBritain


Thanks for having me.

So why have all these Democrats decided just to go ahead and run for president and not even bother with trying to win a Senate seat?

(Laughter) I do think that there is quite a lot of enthusiasm in the party about the idea of taking on Donald Trump. But I do think that, you know, the Senate is always an appealing option. And as we've seen in past cycles that have hotly contested presidential races - 2016 being the most recent example - you know, you do have Senate candidates that get into the race, like Marco Rubio in 2016, right up until the last minute. I think you're going to see a lot of really smart, good candidates running up and down the ticket next year.

There were a number of Republican and Democratic senators over the past couple of years who've declined to run for reelection and on their way out the door said, look; it's just not the job it used to be. It's intensely partisan. And we haven't gotten a lot accomplished. Wouldn't that have the effect of also discouraging people for running for that job?

turn 1 : run for president means to campaign for presidency

How do some Senate candidates get into the race during hotly contested presidential races?

Answer: Running


Well, to me, in my personal opinion, all superhero comics are somewhat escapist. The modern stuff is a little more based in reality, a little more about personal narratives. Just the fact that he's into superhero comics as opposed to, you know, Robert Crumb or somebody, that says something. He's not into the subculture.

Yeah, he's not into the really out there stuff.

Right.

Spider Man, though, I mean, he's an outlier, right?

turn 3 : Spider Man is different from other superheroes in some way.

What makes Spider Man unique among superheroes?

Answer: outlier


No. And it's hard one wisdom that is a positive thing, you know?What would we be if we didn't learn from where we've been?And I think the more effort you spend pushing things away so that you don't have to feel them, see them, experience them, the more exhausted you become. And it's just inevitable that your arms go down and you have to go through them. And so that's what I think of as what's happened here with this record.

Mary Chapin Carpenter, who's on tour here in St.  Louis in support of her new album, "Ashes and Roses. "You're listening to TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News. We have time for another song.

We do?

And magically, you've changed guitars silently.

turn 0 : Pushing away emotions and experiences only leads to exhaustion and they must be faced.

How does avoiding emotions and experiences affect a person?

Answer: Exhaustion


Well, the justification I think is a good one for nonprofit organizations like Scholarly Societies that really do operate on pretty much a cost recovery model. The commercial ventures, though, that have the profit margins in the 30 and 40 percent range, there really is no justification. They're profit-maximizing businesses, which is fine. The question is, should such businesses be built around information that's vital to the public's good and the public's health?

When these scholars do articles, who gets - do they get any of that money?

They're unpaid. The authors of these articles traditionally contribute the work of writing the articles, the work of reviewing and verifying the information, and they're not paid.

I can see why universities might feel that they were paying too much.

turn 0 : The speaker discusses the justification for nonprofit organizations and questions whether profit-maximizing businesses should be based on important information for the public's good and health. Implied Meaning: The speaker is criticizing profit-maximizing businesses that rely on vital public information, suggesting that there is no valid justification for their high profit margins.

How is the PersonA's attitude towards profit-maximizing businesses that rely on vital public information in turn 0?

Answer: Critical


How quickly would we see a border closing impact the U. S.  auto industry?

Well, really, we would start to see manufacturing facilities impacted almost immediately. Most of the industry follows a just-in-time inventory strategy, which means that the parts that are needed for the vehicle are shipped to the plant as they are needed and on a continual basis. They don't maintain inventory levels at the assembly plant. So we would see a number of factories start to shut down almost immediately because they wouldn't have inventory available to keep going.

Is it possible for you to paint a picture of this for us using a specific car part, for example?

You know, there's a couple interesting ones. One, wire harnesses - these are the wires that are - that go into a vehicle. There's probably miles of these copper wires in a vehicle, very labor-intensive to put these wire harnesses together. The vast majority are made in Mexico that are used in U. S.  manufacturing. And so that's something that would be very important for a vehicle because it goes on early in the process.

turn 1 : A's response has an implied meaning that is different from its literal meaning. While A's response appears to answer B's question about the impact of a border closing on the U.S. auto industry, it also suggests that the industry's reliance on just-in-time inventory strategy makes it vulnerable to supply chain disruptions. This implies that the auto industry needs to have a continuous flow of parts to maintain production, and any disruption to this flow could lead to plant shutdowns.

Which industry strategy makes the auto industry vulnerable to supply chain disruptions?

Answer: Just-in-time


I thought that our spin was slowing down.

We are slowing down. We're slowing down but only because we're transferring it to the moon, and so the - if you count both of these bodies today, that spin should be remained constant throughout the course of solar system history.

And what they're suggesting is that you can lose spin from the Earth-moon system and transfer it to the sun-Earth system. And it's a very complex calculation. I mean, it's not just trivial that it took 30, 40 years to figure this out. But once that is on the table, and you say hey, I can start with an Earth that's spinning with a period of two hours, now you have an Earth, that if you were to look at this - and you can download the simulations from Science magazine - and you can see that - or from Harvard - and you can see that this Earth looks kind of like a muffin.

It's spinning so fast, it's got kind of a two-to-one axis ratio. And so their solution is hey, I can make the moon out of Earth's mantle, I'll just sort of hit it with a tiny projectile - you know, not tiny but much smaller than we thought previously - so Theia becomes smaller.

turn 1 : We're slowing down but transferring spin to the moon.

Answer: Spin


Right. And the second issue is the Steele dossier itself. The Republicans charged the FBI was politically motivated and relied on this unverified information from Christopher Steele and that his work can't be trusted because it was ultimately funded by the Democrats. The Democrats now say that the FBI disclosed this in its application to the surveillance court, which was approved by four Republican-appointed judges.

Yes. So OK. So this is the really interesting part of the debate, right?So now what's become clear is the FBI did tell the FISA court that they got this information from a source who was working with a U. S.  political sort of entity that was looking to - that the FBI speculated was looking to discredit a campaign - one - which in this case - the campaign of President Trump. And so now we know what the facts are. So the question is should they had been very clear and say it was the Hillary Clinton campaign that paid for this memo?

That's really the only debate now - was, should they have used the words Hillary Clinton campaign paid for or Democrats paid for it?And so that's a debate. And I think - look. I think that from the context, it will be clear to the FISA court that it was politically motivated, or at least the FBI believed that there was political motivation behind the paying for the dossier or whatever the information that they used the facts from. And so did they have to go that next step?And that's really all the debate is about today. And we're sort of almost - it's like angels dancing on the head of the pin at this point.

(Laughter).

turn 1 : The FBI intentionally avoided revealing that the Hillary Clinton campaign paid for the Steele dossier.

Which campaign paid for the Steele dossier?

Answer: Democrats


Yeah - African-American mayor from Tallahassee.

Yes. So this is sort of a test of whether real progressive candidates can win in these sort of purplish states. And so that's going to be a really - you have a Trump ally there in Ron DeSantis. It's going to be, I think, a really close race still. Next door in Georgia, another woman trying to make history - Stacey Abrams would be the first African-American woman ever elected governor.

Right.

And that's a state that is changing. Has it changed enough?That's a really big question. And then there's sort of a handful of surprising opportunities for Democrats in the Midwest and in the Sun Belt. Nevada and Ohio - those were always sort of toss-ups. But then Democrats have real chances to flip some places - really ruby-red territory - like Kansas, South Dakota, maybe even Oklahoma.

turn 3 : Ruby-red states re not literally colored. They vote nearly always for Republicans, who are "red" in American political parlance.

Which political term describes states that vote for Republicans, as mentioned in the dialogue?

Answer: Incorporating


And it was remarkable to find these little details that people had. Oh, yes, when he was in college, you know, he belonged to this - some society. I'm forgetting the name right now. But the idea of it was to perfect one's dancing and etiquette. And the next door neighbor said he was always very interested in, you know, in correct speech and in, sort of, you know, elegantly holding himself out and that this was something that just went back, back, back, back, back.

Alan Feuer tells Alan Feuer's story in two articles in The New York Times, the most recent, "The Secret Life of a Society Maven. "You could find a link to that on our website. Go to npr. org, click on TALK OF THE NATION. And, Alan Feuer, thank you so much for sharing your story.

Oh, my pleasure.

Alan Feuer is a reporter for The New York Times. Tomorrow, after a gun battle outside the prime minister's house in Tripoli, we'll talk about progress and pitfalls and the ripples of revolution in Libya. Join for us that. It's the TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News. I'm Neal Conan in Washington.

turn 1 : "The Secret Life of a Society Maven" - The phrase "The Secret Life of a Society Maven" does not refer to the secret life of someone who is an expert or connoisseur in a particular area, as the literal meaning of the word "maven" suggests. It refers to the secret life of someone who is a member of a particular society.

Which word describes the type of person the phrase "The Secret Life of a Society Maven" refers to?

Answer: Member


We didn't finish, and he died before it could finish, but we got 30, 34 hours of tapes, something like that. And one thing that became clear in those tapes and all the time that I spent with him is that he would never speak ill of another human being. He always went out of his way to find the good in people who are adamantly apposed to his entire agenda.

I mention this because I think one of the things that tended to dismay him toward the end of his life, at least in my experience of talking to him, was how divided we were in our politics. That people fought - that people that disagreed with them weren't just opponents, but enemies. That somehow condemnation, the politics of hatred, the politics even of mocking people, as opposed to sitting down and talking to them, never made any sense to him.

To Thurgood Marshall, politics was the art of the possible. The idea was to sit down and get things done, not to get applause by mocking your opposition. I really learned a lot from the time I spent with him, and that's perhaps the strongest lesson that I learned. And I think applying it to today's world, while I think he'd be very proud to see a black man with a chance to be elected to the presidency, he'd be very sad to see how the supporters on both sides spend so much time mocking and hating the candidate on the other side.

Well, Stephen Carter, thank you.

turn 0 : Despite differences, he saw the good in all people.

How did the person mentioned in turn 0 view other individuals?

Answer: Positive


Well, so certainly President-elect Trump has issued a few statements on cybersecurity, including a campaign platform. Those are pretty thin on details. And some of his statements - it's been difficult to understand whether or not he - how literally to take those particular recommendations. Of his national security hires that have been announced at this point, none are known for having particularly strong cybersecurity backgrounds. So as we see more and more people coming into the administration, we might be able to start getting a sense of what exactly this administration's cybersecurity policy might look like.

Surely when you become the administration, you have a vested interest in national cybersecurity that maybe you lacked before, don't you?

Absolutely. I think while many of his statements during the campaign did not necessarily evince well-developed policy thoughts - he's going to have to come up with more specific ideas. One thing that Donald Trump might run up against is the existence of current laws. So, for example, he's indicated a number of times that he intends to transfer a lot of the cybersecurity mission to the Department of Defense to come up with a plan for defending critical infrastructure. And there are potentially rather serious consequences to sort of the militarization of civilian cyber defense. I think that they might find themselves coming up against an existing framework that doesn't necessarily square with the broad instinct towards wanting to turn towards the military to solve this problem.

I thought the Obama administration was pretty clear in saying, after they asserted that Russian attempts to meddle in the elections had been ongoing, that the United States was going to reply in kind. Can we assume those efforts are going on now?

turn 2 : talking about the potential consequences of "militarization of civilian cyber defense"

Which policy approach might the Trump administration find challenging due to the existence of current laws?

Answer: Framework


Basically, in the art markets. I'm not sure how many of them are exactly for sale at this point. I think there are a number of artifacts that are almost too well-known to sell or to sell to anyone, you know, like an - you know, a prominent museum. For instance, the Nimrud Ivories are unlikely to be, you know, publicly available for sale.

What are the Nimrud Ivories?

The Nimrud Ivories, it's a series of these very small beautifully carved ivories from the 9th century B. C. , from the sites of Nimrud. Probably the most famous is something called the lioness attacking, I guess, it's a young man. They were gilded or leafed with gold leaf and in many cases painted. They're just beautiful pieces.

So they're in private hands somewhere?

turn 3 : They are not literally in someone’s private hands.

What is the actual location of the Nimrud Ivories?

Answer: Museum


Well, she isn't calling Israel evil, but she is still using language that is anti-Semitic. The impact that it has is devastating. It's inflammatory. And unfortunately, I think it just causes more conflict. It makes it harder to have the kinds of policy conversations that she claims she wants to have on these difficult and fraught topics.

I'm sorry if this sounds naive, but why is a phrase like it's all about the Benjamins, baby, offensive to many Jews?

Well, it feeds into the classic stereotype of Jews controlling the world with our money, working behind the scenes to buy control over politicians and government policies. Part of it was the way in which she communicated it, too. It was a provocative and glib way of doing it, and it would have been much, I think, far more acceptable to say we need to have a conversation about the influence generally of money in politics, the influence of lobbyists and politics. And let's have a conversation without using the inflammatory language about these things.

So when Representative Omar tweeted anti-Semitism is real and I'm grateful for Jewish allies and colleagues who are educating me on the painful history of anti-Semitic tropes, how do you react to that?

turn 0 : A believes that the language used is anti-Semitic, but not the person.

How does PersonA describe the language used?

Answer: Inflammatory.


Well, we've had a number of things at home, and the one work, when I go through our front door, what I love is Jeff Koon's Bunny. It's polished stainless steel made to look like a blown up balloon bunny. That makes me smile.

You've set out this challenge for MOCA. You've said, here, I'll help you with this money, but you've got to make some changes. What advice would you give to the rest of this country - other failing business out there right now?

I think everyone has to recognize that we're in a different era. It means budgets have to be cut. We've got to have contingency plans, and we're got to ride it out. But I must say, this is the worst situation since the Great Depression, without any doubt in my mind.

Is there a silver lining in this?Have you seen any difference in prices - prices dropping?Has that helped you maybe acquire things that you wanted to acquire.

turn 3 : A silver lining means, something that is good that comes out of something that is not good

How would you describe the meaning of "silver lining"?

Answer: A


Our concern is that the technology, regardless of where you buy it from, is just not ready for that. It will lead to bias. It will lead to false identifications. People will be put in the back of police cars when they've done nothing wrong. It seemed to us to be a step too far.

Now, on the other hand, Microsoft has provided the technology to a prison. Microsoft researchers have worked with a Chinese military-run university on AI research that some people fear could be used against China's minorities. So to you, where is the line when it comes to helping governments gain and use these kinds of tools?

We need to look constantly at the technology that's at issue and how it's going to be used. We were comfortable providing facial recognition within a prison because the sample size of people involved is actually relatively small. We could be confident that people would be identified correctly. And there was a societally beneficial goal, namely to actually help keep prisoners safe by knowing who was where and at what time.

More broadly, we've supported basic research, advances in the fundamental frontiers of knowledge. You know, we're not working, for example, with authorities in China to deploy facial recognition services for surveillance. But when you get to the bottom foundation for all artificial intelligence, advances in machine learning and the like, we believe that that's where there are real benefits for people able to work on advancing scientific knowledge more generally.

turn 0 : The use of facial recognition technology can lead to bias, false identifications, and wrongful arrests, which is a serious concern.

How might facial recognition technology lead to wrongful arrests?

Answer: Bias


Think of it this way. So, I mean, if you had a bucket of rice, right?

Yeah.

And they're mostly white grains of rice. But in there, there are a few ones that are brown, and you know that a certain country tends to produce that mixture. Well, then you'd say I have some confidence this rice came from that country. It's like that, except that the ones that are a different color, they're not that easy to tell. You have to actually look into their genome along the many, many, many chemical letters, and you'll find a slight, slight difference. So it's very difficult.

So what is it that these scientists were doing?What were they creating along the way to try to solve the mystery of who had perpetrated this crime?

turn 2 : The turn (3) by speaker B is an example of a statement whose actual meaning is different from its literal meaning.  In this turn, speaker B uses a metaphor of a bucket of rice to explain the concept of DNA analysis and how it can be used to identify the origin of a sample. The actual meaning of the turn is that DNA analysis can reveal subtle differences in the genetic makeup of individuals, which can be used to identify their origin or other characteristics. However, the literal meaning of the turn is about a bucket of rice and the difficulty of identifying a few brown grains of rice in a sea of white grains.

What is the metaphor used by speaker PersonB to explain the concept of DNPersonA analysis?

Answer: Bucket


. . . back in the - I think the big telescopes like Hubble and other ground-based telescopes will be used to observe the impact site if any debris appears. In fact, back in 2009, there was an impact of a much larger asteroid on Jupiter that caused a really - a debris cloud on Jupiter that was about as big as the Pacific Ocean.

Wow.

And the newly repaired Hubble was used to observe that impact, and a lot was learned about that impact from Hubble observation.

So folks are really tweaking it up now. I mean, and having a good weekend, you just need a nice clear sky, and you too might discover something.

turn 3 : A clear sky is all you need to make discoveries.

Which element is needed for making discoveries according to turn 3?

Answer: Clear


You know, between the flooding issues and river issues and then the trade war and the tariff war with China and also the renegotiation during the old NAFTA, we had a number of trade issues that were kind of tossed up in the air, and we're waiting for the puzzle pieces to fall back down in place.

I mean, I think in the Midwest and agriculture in general, you know, supported the president early on in improving trade relations with China. But unfortunately those in the livestock industry and soybean producers are taking the brunt of the hit.

Well, what would you like to see specifically from this trade deal, if they ever reach a deal?

We'd definitely like to have our full trade ratio, I guess you'd say. The amount of trade we were doing with China back a year ago - we'd love to see that back.

turn 1 :  "taking the brunt of the hit" - This is an idiomatic expression that means bearing the majority of the negative consequences of something. In this case, it means that the livestock industry and soybean producers are suffering the most from the negative effects of the trade war with China.

Which industry is suffering the most from the negative effects of the trade war with China?

Answer: Livestock


And again, art is predicated. Art lives off of, you know, making a lot of errors. And I certainly now feel like I've got, like, you know, a ton of space in which to kind of screw up and from that screw-up hopefully do something really nice.

Do you think you'll still be in that same world that you've written about in your other books, or will you - you don't know yet.

Yeah, I mean, I don't want to for this next book. This next book, I'm trying to make kind of more of a science-fictiony type book. But you never know until the book is finished what in the world it's going to be. I have dreams for my books, but it's like having dreams for your kids. You know, you want your kids to be this serious engineer or doctor, and they turn around, and they're kind of a crazy left-wing artist, and you're like darn, how did that turn out?

You know, you're known for taking a long time to finish your books, as well, I think.

turn 0 : Artists need to make mistakes to create something great.

Which attribute of art does turn 0 emphasize?

Answer: Errors


We're talking with Stephen Sestanovich, George F.  Kennan senior fellow for Russian and Eurasian studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. You're listening to TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News. And Russia also faces some serious demographic issues, a dwindling population. The future does not look as rosy as it might have.

The demographic issue has been one that's preoccupied the Russian leadership for some years. There are moments where they seem to think that they - there's been an upturn in the birth rate. But broadly speaking, they're looking at a decline in the population of, you know, starting a decade or so ago, the population has dropped seven or eight million since the Soviet Union collapsed.

And we talked about the future with Vladimir Putin. What about the forgotten man, if you will, the interregnum president, Dmitry Medvedev?

Well, he is an interesting figure in Russian politics. A lot of people joke about him now. He's, well, humiliated really by what Putin did to him in taking his job away and saying, you know, let me drive now. The question is whether Medvedev, who is now going to be given the job of prime minister, will have any real clout in the ability to pursue the agenda that he has tried to make his own over the past four years, which is modernization, reform, ending corruption, reducing the role of the economy - of the state in the economy. Will he stick with those issues?Will he be able to push them through or will he just be a flunky of Putin?

turn 1 : Russia's population has been decreasing since the Soviet Union collapsed.

What issue has preoccupied the Russian leadership for some years?

Answer: Demographic


And why did it bother you that so many church leaders didn't mention the obvious, that the Pulse was a gay nightclub?

Well, it seemed a real failure to try to understand that community. One of my theology professors said that in the Gospels, for Jesus, sin is often a failure to bother to love. And it seemed to me a failure to bother to love this particular community in their real moment of grief.

You quote with approval the words of an Australian bishop who says quote, "we cannot talk about the integrity of creation, the universal and inclusive love of God, while at the same time colluding with the forces of oppression and the ill-treatment of racial minorities, women and homosexual persons. "

Why is that statement even remotely controversial to some?

turn 2 : You quote with approval the words of an Australian bishop who says quote, "we cannot talk about the integrity of creation, the universal and inclusive love of God, while at the same time colluding with the forces of oppression and the ill-treatment of racial minorities, women, and homosexual persons."

Which group of people does the Australian bishop mention as being subject to ill-treatment?

Answer: Racial


This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon. Secretary of State John Kerry has joined world diplomats in Geneva today in hopes of reaching an initial agreement to freeze Iran's nuclear program. His arrival suggests a deal may be within reach this weekend, but it's still not there yet. NPR's Peter Kenyon is in Geneva and joins us now. Peter, thanks so much for being with us.

Hi, Scott.

So, how do we read the tea leaves on this?The talks were supposed to finish yesterday, but now the secretary of state has flown all the way across the Atlantic to join them.

Well, it should be a positive sign, although the very latest comments from British Foreign Secretary William Hague are along the lines, well, the gaps are narrow but they're important and not easy to resolve. So, I think your point that we're not there yet is still very much in play. But I think there's also a high-level presence, which means there's a growing sense of urgency about wrapping up these talks. I mean, this is supposed to be the easy part - a six-month deal that's entirely reversible in just about every respect if something doesn't go right. So, hammering out a lasting comprehensive deal is going to be much harder than this. And if this one takes too long to negotiate, there's a fear the whole diplomatic enterprise could just collapse under pressure. We've already heard from both parties in Congress that more sanctions may come up next month if these talks fail. So, I'd say there is a feeling of some kind of a deadline. Maybe not this weekend but soon.

turn 2 : In turn (3), the phrase "read the tea leaves" is an idiomatic expression meaning to interpret or analyze a situation for signs or indications of what might happen. It implies trying to understand the current state of affairs or predict the outcome of the situation.

Which phrase in turn (3) suggests that there is a feeling of some kind of a deadline?

Answer: Deadline


Right.

How do you think the election changed the political landscape in this country, or do you?

Well, it's changed the landscape entirely. All of the talk of the time of Bush's presidency from 2002, when we started, all the way up until Obama's election, things got more and more depressing as time went on. Even though Bush got actually elected in 2004 as oppose to the disputed election in 2000 - still, most of the news was bad news, and we had a steady diet of bad news and flubs in this, and worries about war and worries about domestic policy and civil liberties and civil rights, and it was just bad news. It was like everything was downhill. And the country was depressed, psychologically. And Bush, now that he's gone, you got a breath of fresh air. Everybody is waiting expectantly. People have been happy. They've celebrated. And now the news is always about, you know, what is going now and how is it going to play out, and with most people hoping that it will play out positively after so much depression.

Are you surprised at the level of engagement of what I would arguably say is the black community at large in the political arena, both as voters, as viewers, as readers and particularly, as political pundits.

turn 2 : Everything was becoming negative in their respective areas. People got a change when the new president was elected. The news is about what is happening and what will happen.

What was the general mood of the country during Bush's presidency?

Answer: Downhill


Republicans are now working on a tax plan. If they're able to pass that, would you reconsider some of your some of your disdain for the. . .

Yes, absolutely. But going back to the other thing, you know, I think Steve Bannon has backed a lot of people that I am supportive of, like Hawley in Missouri, like Marsha Blackburn, like potentially what he's looking to do in Wyoming. In several other races, I think he's backing very strong candidates that have a great chance of winning. And I think the Arizona race is, at the very least, a toss-up right now. So - sorry, I - that's my completion to the earlier question. So your. . .

Yeah.

Your last question was, you know, will I come back into the fold and support McConnell if he gets tax reform done?I think there's a really good chance. I think the country needs tax reform. I think it's been a long time. And I think, to some extent, McConnell and his team can put the toothpaste back in the tube if they win. You know, my analogy for this whole thing is college football.

turn 3 :  (4) - This turn implies that A will support McConnell if he succeeds in passing the tax plan, and that the Republicans still have a chance to win.

How will PersonA change their stance if McConnell passes the tax plan?

Answer: Support


I am. I am. Otherwise I would've been scared to go fishing at the fishing places I was going to. Or I would've been scared to go hang out with my friends at the end of this road in the field, like, you know I'm saying?I didn't think - I didn't have to think about those things. I just got to be me and form my own opinions.

(Singing) See, I'm black. I'm not white, but I'm that. No. No. I'm this, right?I'm one drop of three-fifths, right?

Toward the end, you're questioning. You're like, wait, I'm this?No. I'm that?No. I'm one drop of three-fifths?And it struck me as unusual for you - an unusual way to deliver a song. Do you have questions about your identity?Are there things that, for you, are still not answered?

Well, to me, growing up, I was just an oddity no matter where I went. It was like - you feel me?

turn 1 : The speaker is expressing frustration with the limitations imposed on them by their identity.

How is the speaker feeling about their identity?

Answer: Frustrated


Oh boy, so much has changed. The club scenes, radio, the entire industry as a whole has changed dramatically. Even back then - I mean, I'm not really in clubs right now, but back then, the music that they were playing was different. The accessibility through music and the clubs, and then transitioning into radio was different.

Because that's really how "Hey Mister DJ" became such a big hit. A couple of DJs in the clubs loved it, started playing it, and then the next thing you know it was on the radio. And I remember because the label at that time was not really interested in promoting the song. So that's really how it got to mainstream radio, and it just would build and build from there. So it's changed so much now. Regulations and everything has changed. So it's just not as easy to kind of get in those doors.

Now, what made you decide you wanted to go record again?

You know, well, during that time, that seven year hiatus that I took, another life change that I had was really just kind of recommitting my life to God, and my husband and I both grew up in church. And you know, you kind of do your thing when you go to college, and you got your freedom, you do whatever you want to do, which is also a growing period.

turn 0 : The music industry has changed dramatically over time, including accessibility through music, the transition to radio and regulations.

What aspects of the music industry have changed according to turn 0?

Answer: Accessibility


Well, one of the first things you do when you find out somebody who shares your name is say, oh, where's your family from?So I told him my family was Romanian and many had come over after World War II. And he told me when I asked him that his family was indeed descended from a sort of aristocratic Austrian family and that he was clearly not wealthy now. There had once been a family fortune, but as he put it, mother lived too long.

Mother lived too long.

Mother lived too long.

And so this acquaintance blossomed over the years, and so you got to know him a little bit.

turn 1 : would be that a mother was still alive and living for a long time, while the actual meaning is that due to her long life, the family fortune had been depleted.

What caused the depletion of the family fortune?

Answer: Longevity


Absolutely. So what the defense may try to do is say, what we're dealing with here is a criminal, a dishonest individual from start to finish. He is being sponsored - his testimony is being sponsored by the government. But you can't trust him. After all, look at all the things he's done. He's stolen, in fact, not only from others but from his own business associate, Mr.  Manafort.

And he gets some kind of consideration for testifying - immunity, right?

Well, what he gets is. . .

Maybe not absolute immunity, but OK, go ahead.

turn 0 : The witness is unreliable because he's a criminal and has stolen. The government is giving him some kind of benefit in exchange for his testimony.

How did the witness benefit from testifying?

Answer: Benefit


Obviously there's some niche that the starfish occupy. Should we be worried if - what we might do to the ecosystem if we get rid of these starfish?

You know, I think it would only be in the dreams of a few people that they might possibly be able to get rid of all of them. What they're trying to do is cut back on the numbers. So they're going to remove as many as they can, but you're still going to have some out there.

And these sea stars are out there on a lot of reefs in the Pacific in low numbers. You can see little trails of white, dead corals that they've left behind as they've gone along feeding, and that will continue to happen. They're not going to get rid of every last one of them.

But the increase in numbers, I mean, you're talking about going onto reefs and having hundreds to thousands times as many starfish on a reef as you normally would see, and that's a big difference.

turn 3 : The significant increase in the number of starfish is a cause for concern

Which factor is causing concern according to the statement in turn 3?

Answer: Numbers


So what I've heard today is that the attack that was feared has begun. The Kurds are already moving people to try to defend their positions against the Turkish tankers. And that raises the problem that worries me most, which is that the ISIS prisoners who are being held are - about 11,000 of them, I'm told - could begin to escape, posing a whole new security problem for the U. S.  and all of its allies.

I'm going to talk about the implications of that in a bit. But first, I want to walk through some of the various players in this conflict and their objectives. First, Turkey - what do they hope to gain from this move?

Turkey has said for many months now that it wants a security corridor in northern Syria. It has deep animosity toward the Syrian Kurdish group known as the YPG, which it says is part of the PKK. Forgive all the initials. But these are - they're Kurdish nationalist groups, and the Turks claim that they're terrorists, that they've attacked and killed Turks. So they want the security corridor.

The problem is that the Turks, in trying to take the zone, risk destabilizing an area where security was won at great cost by the Syrian Kurdish militia known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, aided by U. S.  Special Forces. So there's fear that this area will just descend into chaos quickly as the Turkish troops come in.

turn 1 : People are not playing a game but taking part in a military conflict.

How are the Kurds preparing for the Turkish tankers?

Answer: Crowding


Well, it's a little more complicated than that. They have to then process the signals that they receive back from the ground. As you say, most of them come back from leaves. And I think, what, they handed you the disc and you flew it out and gave it to the computer guy.

Well, that's right. And in fact, it is very complicated. The LIDAR machine has inside it a highly classified thing called an IMU, an Inertial Measurement Unit that was developed for the military for use in guided missiles. And in order to get an export permit for the plane, the State Department required that the plane be guarded by armed soldiers at all times when it was on the ground because this is a very highly classified piece of equipment. Because it's important to locate the plane in the air in three dimensions as it's flying to within an accuracy of about a centimeter. I mean, that's incredible.

Mm-hmm. So you rushed this data off to the computer guy and he did his magic. How did you - what did you - when did you actually see the picture?

Well, I brought it back from that evening on the island of Roatan, and he processed it. He had to crunch the data. There was also data that had to come from Houston that had been collected by them, and all those had to be combined to make this map. And he was working till the wee hours of the morning making these maps. And then the Internet connection was down so he went to bed. His name is Michael Sartori, by the way. He was a really fascinating guy.

turn 2 : his magic implies he performed so skilfully and amazingly

Which process did the computer guy perform?

Answer: Crunch


We're going to set our clock here in our studio for a minute, OK?Please begin, Mr.  MacLeod, in three, two, one. . .

Which country and western singer has the worst hearing?Dolly Pardon. Which country and western singer will let you stay at the house?Kenny Lodgers. I spent a whole year trying to get into classical music. It took the Four Seasons. What's the best way to break up a tractor?A John Deere-alator. What do you call a woman with jam on her head?Marge. Doctor, doctor, I can't stop stealing your furniture. Please, take a seat. My new racehorse can only run in the dark. It's a nightmare. Went to Pete Sampras' restaurant yesterday. Served very quickly. I didn't last long walking on hot coals with the Kings of Leon. My salt's on fire. I heard a sad story about dropping a wedding cake. It ended in tiers. I hoped to complete my new spice rack this morning but I couldn't find the thyme. What did Aladdin have with his cup of tea?Jafar cakes. I went to an earthquake restaurant for lunch. The waiters keep moving your plates. Doctor, doctor, my invisibility meds is wearing off. I'll see you shortly. What do you call a man surrounded by beef stock?Stew. Where's the best play in New York to do multiplication?Times Squared.

Oh. All right. We let you go a little bit over a minute. Sixteen jokes by my count. Some of them were pretty funny.

They're all original jokes, I have to say. I don't think they're particularly good, but they don't have to be good. They only have to be quick.

turn 3 : Mr. MacLeod is expected to tell a series of jokes quickly.

Which person is expected to tell jokes quickly?

Answer: Mr.MacLeod


We're back with Donna Brazile and we're talking about superdelegates and how they can shape the Democratic nominee for president. Donna is a superdelegate, she's also a Democrat, and she's uniquely qualified to speak on those issues for that reason. Donna, welcome back.

Thank you so much for having me.

So I understand that you told the New York Times that basically your niece, among nine million other people, has been lobbying you. What does it feel like to get that — first of all, how did your niece call up?And, you know, did she know that you were a superdelegate. And what about all the other people who were calling you up?What do you say to them?

Well, first of all, I'm flattered by the amount of attention that we all are getting, not just the superdelegates but those who are out there running for pledge delegate today across the country. Look, Democrats are hungry of a victory. They want change. They are tired of George Bush and they don't want to see four more years of Bush/Cheney.

turn 3 : "Democrats are hungry for a victory" - This turn has a figurative meaning as the word "hungry" is used metaphorically to convey the strong desire for success, rather than a physical hunger for food.

How does the turn in statement 3 describe the desire of Democrats?

Answer: Victory


Shawn Levy, an accomplished biographer and film critic, joins us now. Shawn, thanks so much for being with us.

Thank you.

How does the chateau both fit into and stand above the Hollywood landscape?

Well, physically, it actually stands above the Sunset Strip. It's right on the eastern edge of the strip on a rise, and it's situated at a curve. So if you come toward it from the east - from Hollywood into West Hollywood - it kind of disappears. The road takes you away from it before you quite register it.

turn 3 : The chateau doesn't actually disappear, it just is no longer visible at some point.

Which feature of the Chateau's location on the Sunset Strip is described in turn 3?

Answer: Rise


So, Bill, what do you make of the president's remarks?

Every time I hear President Bush talk about billions, I start thinking about Carl Sagan and talking about billions of stars and billions of this. Part of the problem when I listen to and consider what President Bush is talking about is more what he doesn't talk about, that U. S.  aid to Africa is significant in terms of dollar amounts that are mentioned, but as a percentage of what the United States does offers internationally, it's actually not all that significant.

A couple of years ago, I did a little research on this and discovered that U. S.  aid to Africa, if you withdraw Egypt, is less than Israel. That is - that the total aid is less than the aid to one country, a key ally of the United States. So that figure told me a little bit about the priorities of the United States.

The second thing is that there are regularly strings attached to U. S.  aids. So whether it's the assistance to combat HIV and AIDS, there are these strings around the issue of abstinence, abstinence only, as a condition for significant amounts of aid to combat that disease. A second issue is that whereas the United Nations has had a internationally recognized program combating AIDS/HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, the Bush administration has refused to give full funding to that U. N.  program and instead was more interested in setting up its own bureaucracy to offer assistance, which seems to be run contrary all of the rhetoric about a, you know, that conservatives often offer about eliminating costs.

turn 1 : Every time I hear President Bush talk about billions, I start thinking about Carl Sagan and talking about billions of stars and billions of this. - Implied meaning: A is critical of President Bush's remarks, particularly regarding U.S. aid to Africa and his failure to discuss its significance in terms of international aid offered by the United States.

How does PersonA feel about President Bush's remarks on billions?

Answer: Critical


There are, there are trials underway right now of an active vaccine, as well. So again, the scientists have gone back to the drawing board and said gee, when we did that study back in the early 2000s with the active vaccine, what went wrong, what could have caused this inflammatory response. So they've modified the protein now and have been able to develop one that they hope will in fact generate the immune response without the side effects.

Why doesn't Alzheimer's kick in earlier in life for those who are genetically predisposed to it?Why does it wait until you're in your 70s or 80s?

That's a good question, Ira. I mean, it's a million-dollar question as to what are the other aging factors that have to kick in, and basically we don't know the answer to that. But one issue might be, for example, that our immune systems diminish in their effectiveness and ability to perform their work as we age.

So a challenge in using an active vaccine in an older person is that the older person may not be able to generate an antibody response. So if, say, Alzheimer's disease were partly immunologically driven, it may only manifest itself when the person's aging immune system starts to fail or diminish its effectiveness. Then this blossoms. I'm not saying that's the answer, but it's that type of thing.

turn 1 : a million dollar question implies that the question is very important or difficult and requires a very good answer not referring the cost of the question is 1 million dollars

What does the turn "a million dollar question" suggest about the difficulty of the question being asked?

Answer: Difficult


. . . a guinea fowl on the treadmill.

So that's - this is like - I'm already. . .

Another day at the office.

Exactly. It's like I can tell that I'm in a special place right from the beginning, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. They have an emu and they happened to have a day-old goat. A baby goat was born the day before. It's totally bucolic.

turn 3 : In turn (4), the speaker is expressing admiration for a place they are visiting, specifically highlighting the presence of an emu and a day-old goat. The literal meaning of the turn is that the speaker finds the place charming and enjoys the presence of the animals. However, the implied meaning of the turn is that the speaker may be easily impressed or may have a naive or idealized view of rural life. The use of the word "bucolic" suggests a romanticized view of the countryside, and the excitement over the presence of relatively common animals suggests a lack of familiarity with rural environments. The turn implies that the speaker may not have a deep understanding of the realities of agricultural life and may be easily swayed by superficial or picturesque elements.

What animal did the place have that the speaker found charming?

Answer: Goat


Yeah. The embassy guards, it's kind of a, you know, a misperception. In any embassy they essentially protect the chancellery in the embassy and the ambassador's residence itself, and particularly to, you know, you get them into a safe place if there is an attack or to - and if that fails, to destroy the classified material and so forth.

They're not responsible for the overall external or internal security of the embassy compound per se. They can augment that and they have if necessary, but there is a diplomatic security mission that does that sort of thing, and then - obviously which didn't happen on this case. You're hoping that you've got a competent external protection from the host nation, which is responsible for the safety of the entire compound.

We're talking with retired Marine Colonel Gary Anderson about lessons learned from before and during the attack in Benghazi. You're listening to TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.

And any number of recommendations were made by the Pickering Mullen report. As you look at those, are they going to address the kinds of interagency communications problems that you're worried about?

turn 1 : Diplomatic security mission is responsible for the safety of the entire compound

What is responsible for the safety of the entire compound?

Answer: Safety


So a country that was bought by the United States 100 years ago - you're celebrating the centennial this year, and there are still so many other islands that are essentially controlled by European countries, as well - like the Netherlands, France and Britain - that were impacted by Irma. And we've seen a pattern in the response. How has the United States talked about it in your view?

The United States has talked about us as if we are effectively a colony, which is that we are secondary. We are perhaps secondary types of Americans. Now, we do carry American passports in the Virgin Islands, but we don't have federal representation.

We cannot vote for president for example. Our congresswoman, who - we vote for her - she cannot vote in Congress. So we really have no say. But I also think that this has to do with just the way that we are thought of in the national imagination as a place for a vacation and respite. And it's a beautiful place. The Virgin Islands is as beautiful as everybody says.

It is a gorgeous, pristine, absolutely divine place. However, it's a place where human beings also live. So, you know, when Americans travel to Europe, for example, they know that they're traveling to Europe to engage with the cultural history. When people travel to the Caribbean, they are often traveling to avoid the human beings and to just engage in the beauty of the space.

So they're in resorts. They're lying in the sun. They're drinking tropical, rum-infused drinks, but they're not necessarily there for the culture or to talk to the people who live there?

turn 1 : The United States treats the Virgin Islands as a colony.

Which territory is being referred to as a colony?

Answer: Virgin


So, you know, I like to dance, and I danced with several young ladies. And I said, your partner?I don't even know who your partner was. That's when it started. He just hauled off and hit me. And you know me. I swung back on him, and that was it. So it was a several gangs that were in the city at that time, and us being new, moving in from the county, it was just, you know, one of those territorial challenging things and because Vance was there, he's 18 months younger than me. We hung out together.

That's why we talked about it at family gatherings because we scrapped among each other because of closeness of age and being boys. But when it came to somebody bothering one of us, the other one had its back. So later on we learned that the guy I hit had his jaw wired, so it won us a lot of respect. We were going to Clifton Junior High School then, and one of the girls that had invited us, her father was an undertaker. He had a small place to march his funeral.

Very well respected.

Very well respected, yeah. They had a little rural house at that time on North Avenue. But we fought that day, and we were wearing little barracuda coats, that little trench coat that were something at that time. Like, I remember just being surrounded by guys, and you know, this is the way you want to be. My back was against the door. They pulled Vance out by his coat, and I just remember, you know, yelling to him, don't go down.

turn 0 : 1- The speaker got into a fight because someone hit him after he danced with someone else's partner. It was a territorial dispute between gangs. It was also a way to gain respect. 4- The speaker was surrounded by guys and warned his friend not to give up.

What did the speaker yell to his friend during the fight?

Answer: Don't


(Laughing) You would think, but its this weird sort of a - the more I get to know them, the more they become different objects with such different ingredients that I love them more with each passing day.

(Laughing) So I have a burrito specimen here with me in the studio. And I'm going to unwrap. . .

Is it in wax paper or tinfoil?

It is in both tinfoil and wax paper.

turn 3 : The implied meaning is that B's special person is being given the utmost care and protection.

Which material is used to wrap PersonB's burrito?

Answer: Both


I started the business as a hobby. I needed a break from the logical legal work that I was doing every day, and I decided as a creative outlet I'd like to start making spa products as a gift. I contacted a store in Canada, and they sent me some raw ingredients, taught me how to mix some things. I took them in to work, and people really liked them.

People often think of, say, Carol's Daughter, you know, and the spa-product industry being a woman's thing. But I also remember going down to cover Hurricane Katrina and there was a doctor, Dr.  Friedman, who - he and his sons would make soaps and things like that. What spoke to you about this business?Why did you want to do it?

I was looking for a sense of wellness, and I've always tried to take good care of myself. So, one of the things I would do is, I work very hard, but I also take good care of myself in a healthy way. So, one of the ways I do that is by going to spas. I've always been a fan of the product, and I was a great consumer of the product. So, in building my business, I knew exactly what I expected, as a high-end consumer, of the market.

Some people say, OK, spa items, beauty items, those are all things that people will cut in tough times. What have you seen in terms of the past year or so of your business?

turn 2 : The speaker's experience as a consumer helped in building their business.

How did the PersonA's personal experience influence their business strategy?

Answer: Consumer


Now, what about the bloggers who are, you know, in our camp. What story are they hitting?

Well, in the Democratic side, among bloggers, the Web site Blogpolls, which measure these trends, posted about Hillary Clinton outnumbered blog post about Barack Obama, leading up to last weekend, South Carolina primary. And interestingly, on January 24th, two days before the voting started in South Carolina, posts about Bill Clinton spiked and they equal the numbers of posts about Barack Obama. But after he won in South Carolina, post about Obama spiked and he's been the most blogged about candidate ever since. Now, on the Republican side, John McCain has been and is the most blogged about candidate.

What about on News and Views, our own blog?

Well, lot of issues people are talking about. They run the spectrum. They're talking about Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's text message scandal, suggesting an affair with his female chief of staff, which could lead to perjury charges. We called it textual healing on our blog.

turn 3 : The literal meaning of this turn is that the bloggers on News and Views referred to the scandal involving the Detroit mayor's text messages as "textual healing." However, the implied meaning is that the bloggers are using a humorous or ironic phrase to refer to a serious and potentially damaging scandal. The phrase "textual healing" is a play on words on the song "Sexual Healing" by Marvin Gaye and suggests that the scandal is being trivialized or made light of.

What phrase did the bloggers on News and Views use to refer to the Detroit mayor's text message scandal?

Answer: Textual


Was the jet stream actually screening out the cold air?Do I have that right?

Pretty much. The jet stream is typically the dividing line between the warm tropical air to the south and the cold, Arctic air to the north. And for the most part, it had retreated to close to the Canadian border for large parts of the winter.

Hmm. What about the "Farmers' Almanac"?I have to admit that I like picking it up and looking at it, and I sort of - I'm hesitant to even ask. Is there any science backing it up?

Well, I think the "Farmers' Almanac," they do look at some of the same things that NOAA look at, that AccuWeather looks at, as well as the Capital Weather Gang, when developing their outlooks. At the same time, they're using some more suspect features like sun spots and planetary alignments and things like that, which have never been proven to have any real predictive skill in terms of forecasting the weather in the long range.

turn 1 : The jet stream separates warm and cold air

Which weather phenomenon is mentioned as a dividing line in the dialogue?

Answer: Stream


And when we went to the break, you were saying that one of the advantages of storing it in DNA is once you make it, it will last a very long time.

That's right, and you gave the example in your introduction that - one of the examples that we like to use, it's quite well-known, you know, there's been these Neanderthal samples found, and they can get DNA out of there and read the DNA in technical - we call it we sequence the DNA. And those samples from Neanderthals, or another great example is wooly mammoth, they get samples routinely from 10,000- or 20,000- or 50,000-year-old mammoths.

And that's not even a carefully controlled sample. That's just, you know, a mammoth that laid down and died somewhere cold.

I'm sorry for the mammoth. So - but if you took your DNA, you would store it in a controlled environment somewhere, or does it not need that?If the mammoth is lying in the ice. . .

turn 3 : "I'm sorry for the mammoth" is a joke. The mammoth in question died a long time ago. 'B' isn't actually sad for the creature.

Answer: Joke


And this could sound obvious, and this could sound like a no-brainer. But the reality in Mexico is that whenever a journalist is killed, investigators - their first reaction is to always try to find a motive that is not related to journalistic work. So they find any other motive - economic motive or maybe a passion motive, anything except journalistic work because they don't want to admit that they have a problem of press freedom in their hands. But I think in this case it is really obvious why Javier Valdez was killed.

Yeah. This is going to sound naive. But why do you think it's important to do stories like that?I mean, drug cartels - people often prefer just to look the other way - don't they?

Well, yes. But if you don't report on them, then nobody else will. And it is not just the stories about the drug cartels. It is the stories about the consequences that they are unleashing in Mexican public life in every level. I live in a city that, for years, was the turf in a turf war between two drug cartels. And the effects of the violence that they unleashed was devastating for the city because investment never came in. Jobs were not created. Nightlife shut down. People stopped going out on the street. We all started to distrust from one another. Neighborhoods began putting up gates and fences, and so it was really disruptive.

Your newspaper was attacked, wasn't it?

turn 3 :  asking if the newspaper has been attacked in the past.

Which turn in the dialogue reveals the negative impacts of drug cartels on the society?

Answer: Devastating


Hackahmackahdolohrollocolamockahdackahmolahhackahdohkah.

(Laughter).

And yeah.

turn 0 : "About six lengths off the lead followed by Homeroom Jester and the trailer is Dolarolarorrarockadockamolahholah." This is an example of horse racing jargon, where "lengths" refers to a unit of measurement used to describe the distance between horses during a race. The names following "the trailer is" are the names of other horses in the race.

How does horse racing jargon use "lengths"?

Answer: Distance


You know, it's not fair to put the blame on the entire system. You know, we countlessly says in sexual assaults it's not a fraternity problem. It's not an alcohol problem. But we also can't be naive enough not to point out that there seems to be a theme happening where people have this groupthink and are able to hide behind a larger organization.

Can you give us any more insight as to what the conversation on your editorial board's been like?

We were shocked and disgusted when this information came out. You know, one of our first editorials was just somewhat emotional - us explaining that we are very frustrated that this has happened. We are disgusted. These actions are vile, and we, as a student newspaper, are putting our foot down. We're not going to stand for it. As more information has unfolded, specifically the anonymous interview that came out in Philadelphia magazine - that was another topic of one of our editorials.

I don't know that story.

turn 3 :  "I don't know that story" - This turn has a literal meaning, which is that the person speaking is not familiar with the story being referred to.

How did the person speaking respond to the statement made in turn 2?

Answer: Unknown


Good to be with you.

Immediate fallout would be Jeb Bush's problem. He needed a revival, and he wound up looking worse than he had in the first two debates and out on the stump as well. The memorable punches in these debates tend to be counter punches. And Bush went after his one-time protege, Marco Rubio, and Rubio came back smart, fast, tough and got a highlight moment out of it, just one of several for Rubio, by the way.

Now, at the same time, nobody's cast a single vote yet. Jeb Bush is sitting on a lot of money, and, of course, he has a name that's instantly recognizable. Is there really talk that this could be the end of his candidacy?

turn 1 : This last Republican debate may have been the most contentious, at least between the candidates and the questioners. What do you see as the immediate fallout?"  In this turn, the implied meaning is that the Republican debate was highly intense and filled with conflict, especially between the candidates and the questioners. The speaker is asking about the immediate consequences or repercussions of such a heated debate, suggesting that there might be significant outcomes or effects stemming from it. The implied meaning goes beyond a simple description of the debate's level of contention.

What was the topic of discussion during the last Republican debate?

Answer: Debate


Oh, absolutely. The lactobacillus have been around for many years, thousands of years, perhaps millions of years, and they are already, you know, well identified as being able to survive in the human body and thought to be, quote, "beneficial," unquote, bacteria.

Mm-hmm. And it's just a question of testing this out, I would imagine.

Well, yes. So the investigators did test it on human cells, like in a petri dish, where they caused them to get inflamed and then show that by giving them this bacteria, that produces the LFn that decreased that, too. So they've done it in live mice. They've done it in human cells.

Right.

turn 2 : the speaker uses the phrase "in a petri dish" which literally means a flat dish used to culture cells. However, in this context, the speaker is using it to refer to an artificial environment created in a laboratory setting. Similarly, the phrase "live mice" in this context is used to refer to real, living mice that were used in an experiment.

Which phrase is used in this context to refer to real, living mice that were used in an experiment?

Answer: Real


I think it's very important for people to unplug. Setting aside the whole question and dangers of addiction, let's assume you're not somebody who is addicted, but you are still constantly plugged in. The downsides are likely to be, first of all, no time to think, no time to just reflect on what you feel, what you think, what you've been experiencing. And wisdom really comes to us through the process of reflecting on our experience and our feelings and thoughts. So, I think people are in danger of not being able to become wise if they don't take time to think.

Plus there is this huge factor of engagement with other people. We are we're social animals. We need to be connected. There's something called limbic resonance, which is kind of an energetic resonance that gets set up between two people when they are engaged in a positive and constructive way with each other and they are able to develop the relationship. And we know that when people do not have enough of that engagement with each other, they suffer depression and they suffer in other ways. So, getting unplugged allows you to get reengaged with real people in your life that matter to you.

Let's talk a little bit about how online addiction can work in tandem with other addictions. I'm thinking about gambling. There's now all sorts of online gambling. There's also pornography.

Right.

turn 0 : Constantly being plugged in prevents people from becoming wise

How does being constantly plugged in affect wisdom?

Answer: Wisdom


He and his commission had better get it organized. Otherwise, the fury Nigerians are feeling today could spill into much worse. So they say the presidential vote and, of course, it wasn't just voting for president - also for governors, also for national assembly, also for the state assembly.

So we'll have the presidential next Saturday in another vote. But some other votes have been postponed till 9 of March. That's after the original second-round vote date of the 2 of March. So the electoral commission has got to get itself sorted out.

NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, thanks so much.

Always a pleasure.

turn 0 : If the commission doesn't organize things well, there could be violence.

How could the Nigerians react if the commission fails to organize things well?

Answer: Violence


Yeah. After the West Africa outbreak, there was this sense that, you know, we're in much better shape. We know more about it. We've got new treatment options. We've got a vaccine that's out there.

But in this one, it really has been this perfect storm. The area that this occurred in is incredibly poor, that had poor health care infrastructure beforehand. It's incredibly volatile; there's these militias that have basically been running that part of the Democratic Republic of Congo for decades. They're vying for control of minerals. And, you know, they have really undermined any governmental institutions that would be there.

And then all these health care workers show up to try to contain the Ebola treatment unit - that Ebola, you know, outbreak, and some of them were attacked, even killed. The World Health Organization yesterday was saying they've documented 198 attacks on Ebola clinics and workers over the last year. So obviously, that's an incredibly high number for attacks on a health response, you know, even in a declared war zone.

Well, I mean, yeah, it is a war zone, but why attack - specifically attack clinics that you know are treating a disease?

turn 2 : It is becoming very dangerous for workers to run Ebola clinics

How many attacks on Ebola clinics and workers were documented by the World Health Organization?

Answer: 198


This appointment would make sense from the standpoint of a president, a new president, Barack Obama, wanting to assert a kind of White House control over the intelligence community. Now, Leon Panetta is not part of the intelligence community. He has had no experience with the intelligence community except as an outside observer, critic, and as one of the authors of a 2006 report on what went wrong with respect to 9/11 and also with respect to the Iraq weapons of mass destruction intelligence.

So Leon Panetta is not of the CIA. He is coming in as kind of a total outsider but somebody who has very strong confidence among not only the Barack Obama people, but also the Clinton people who are going to be at the Department of State under Hillary Clinton.

There's also word today about a choice for the post of national intelligence director, retired Admiral Dennis Blair. What can you tell us about him?

Dennis Blair has been in the Navy and in the U. S.  government for 34 years. He also worked in the White House during his long Navy career and before he was named by Barack Obama to take over this director of national intelligence job. This will actually be Leon Panetta's boss. He is in charge of the total U. S.  intelligence community, all 16 agencies, CIA, the defense agencies, and so on.

The president elect will need to pick someone else to become commerce secretary. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson took himself out of the running because of an investigation into how some of his donors won a lucrative contract. How serious a problem is this withdrawal for the Obama transition team?

turn 0 : Leon Panetta has no experience with the intelligence community but was chosen as CIA director for political reasons.

What was the reason for choosing Leon Panetta as CIPersonA director?

Answer: Political