Inferencing · Level 3

The two students stood side by side, scanning the library shelves.

"Here's the novel I've been looking for," said Rose eventually. "It's about three sisters who get separated when they're young and live in different countries. Then they meet up when they're older."

Vanessa glanced sideways at the cover of the book then looked back at the shelves. "I need to find information on East Africa for my assignment but there's nothing here."

At high tide the Rattlesnake might have made it through the shallow passage. Now making slow headway and listing badly, it was only a matter of time before the water pouring into her hull dragged her below the waves.

Barnaby loved going to the art gallery. It stood, oasis-like, amidst evergreen trees on top of a low hill, overlooking, yet removed from the noisy, busy city. Even though he and his family lived in a small provincial town, two hours drive from the city, they had never let it be an obstacle to broadening their knowledge of the arts and other cultures. When a new exhibition was advertised, they would eagerly look forward to seeing it.

Barnaby had been to see the work of contemporary artists and sculptors from all over the world. Occasionally there were exhibitions of art from past centuries. The family had been particularly intrigued by the hologram exhibition. Barnaby was familiar already with holograms on credit cards, and as illustrations in one or two books, but the gallery's compilation of advanced holograms had completely overshadowed anything he could have ever imagined.

He had marvelled over the brilliant creativity of a photographer who presented his photos, as huge abstract collages, forcing the gallery goers to stop and ponder as they interpreted the scenes before them.

Barnaby's all time favourite, though, was the terracotta army that had been buried, its very existence unsuspected, for just over two thousand years. Only a few examples of the six thousand strong army of life-sized warriors and their mounts had been shipped to the gallery. Barnaby had been transfixed as he stood before them, gazing into their unseeing eyes, still intent on their eternal mission of guarding the great Emperor Shihuangdi in whose tomb they had been discovered. They were a once in a lifetime, never to be forgotten, experience.