Problem: Article: Investing in precious metals can be a good way to shield your investment portfolio from the effects of inflation. Monetary policy employed to combat recent recessions has often involved the inflation of currencies. Lack of faith in the dollar has resulted in the devaluation of cash assets and the rise of commodity prices. Price volatility is always a concern for precious metals investors. The discovery and sale of large precious metal reserves can increase the supply overnight, leading to sharp drops in price. Additionally, if you invest in physical metal such as gold coins or bullion, you need to protect them in a bank vault or safe. Although gold is the best-known precious metal, there are a few other metals that are often used for investment.   Gold is a globally recognized symbol of wealth. Gold was commonly used as currency prior to the development of paper money and state currencies. Currently gold is crucial to the electronics industry. It is used in many components due to its properties of electrical conduction, corrosion resistance, and chemical stability.  Silver is commonly thought of as gold's more affordable cousin. Silver is valuable to the electronics industry because it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal.  Platinum is often part of medical equipment, automotive parts, and computers.  Palladium is key to the production of catalytic converters because of its ability to withstand extreme temperatures and oxidation. It is also used in a variety of other industrial applications such as water purification and the refining of oil and natural gas.
Summary: Understand the benefits. Understand the disadvantages. Do your research.

INPUT ARTICLE: Article: If you walk into a room and your dog sits, then your job is half done.  Reward your dog when it sits, even if you don’t issue the command to sit.  Give your dog a treat when it sits in front of you. After a few days of rewarding the dog for sitting naturally, begin issuing the “sit” command before giving a treat.  Get on the dog’s level and hold a doggie treat enclosed in your hand a few inches from his nose.  Bring it up and toward him slowly.  Your dog will lower itself back onto its butt.  When its butt hits the floor, reward your dog with a treat. A clicker is a small device which makes a clicking sound when pressed. Click  when your dog sits (when his butt hits the ground). The clicker tells the dog he has completed the behavior you asked for correctly. Reward about five seconds after you clicked. This will allow the dog to make the connection between the click and the reward, but not with the motion of your hand toward the treat or another movement. The dog will quickly learn that the clicker sound means he has completed a behavior correctly, and can expect a reward.  If your dog has already been trained with the clicker to engage in a different behavior, you might confuse the dog if you try to retrain it to sit instead of engage in its original behavior. If the door is open, or about to be opened, getting your dog to remain seated can be a challenge.  Incorporate an open-door phase into your training sessions.  Teach your dog to stay seated as you back away towards the door.  Put your dog far away from (but within eyesight of) the door.  If your dog starts moving after being seated, put your hand up and say sharply “Stop!”  Re-seat your dog in its original spot and repeat the exercise. If your dog has difficulty remaining seated, get a friend to help your dog stay seated while you can open and close the door. When your dog is able to remain seated despite you opening and closing the door, give it a treat (even if it took help to keep him stationary).  Get in the habit of giving your dog a treat each time it is able to remain seated when the door opens. To prevent your dog from running out when you come home, repeat this exercise but enlist aid from a helper who opens the door from the outside.  This way, your dog will know to stay seated when you come in. Practice for 10-15 minutes in at least three different sessions each day for about two weeks.  Different dogs learn at different rates.  Do not be discouraged if your dog seems to be slow to learn how sitting works.  On the other hand, do not be quick to assume that your dog has mastered sitting just because in one session he or she seemed to sit with every command during that session.  Stick with it and stay positive.  Your dog will eventually learn to sit. Like people, dogs can’t stay focused for periods which are excessively long.  If your dog loses interest during the training session, your training may have gone on for too long.  Let your dog go out before you begin the training so that he won’t have to relieve himself during the training.  Do not train your dog in the presence of guests or other distractions. Issue the command to sit every time you or someone in the house opens the door. Give your dog a treat when it sits. Even after training, keep an eye on your dog.  Sometimes the excitement of an open door or a new person can inspire him or her to dash outside.  When entering your home, open the door slowly and come in quickly, staying alert for potential dog movement.

SUMMARY: Look for and reward natural sitting behavior. Begin issuing the “sit” command. Reinforce sitting behavior with a clicker. Train your dog to sit or stay when the door is open. Be patient when training your dog. Keep your dog focused.

In one sentence, describe what the following article is about: If the values for all the denominators in the equation are the same, only add or subtract the numerators. Rewrite the equation so the numerators are added or subtracted in parentheses over the denominator. Solve for the numerator and simplify the fraction if you’re able to.  For example, if you wanted to solve 3/5 + 1/5, rewrite the equation as (3+1)/5 = 4/5. If you want to solve 5/6 - 2/6, write it as (5-2)/6 = 3/6. Both the numerator and denominator are divisible by 3, so you can simplify the fraction to 1/2. If you have mixed numbers, remember to change them to improper fractions first. For example, if you want to solve 2 ⅓ + 1 ⅓, change the mixed numbers so the problem reads 7/3 + 4/3. Rewrite the equation like (7 + 4)/3 = 11/3. Then convert it back to a mixed number, which would be 3 ⅔. Many times, you’ll encounter problems where the denominators are different. In order to solve the problem, the denominators need to be the same or else you’ll do your math incorrectly. List the multiples of each denominator until you find one that the numbers have in common. If you still can’t find a common multiple, then multiply the denominators together to find a common multiple.  For example, if you want to solve 1/6 + 2/4, list the multiples of 6 and 4. Multiples of 6: 0, 6, 12, 18… Multiples of 4: 0, 4, 8, 12, 16… The least common multiple of 6 and 4 is 12. Multiply the numerator and denominator of the first fraction in the equation by the multiple needed so the denominator equals the common multiple. Then do the same for the second fraction in the equation with the factor that makes its denominator is the common multiple.  In the example 1/6 + 2/4, multiply the numerator and denominator of 1/6 by 2 to get 2/12. Then multiply both numbers of 2/4 by 3 to equal 6/12. Rewrite the equation as 2/12 + 6/12. Once you have the denominators at the same value, add the numerators together as you normally would to get your result. If you can simplify the fraction, then reduce it to its lowest terms.  For example, rewrite 2/12 +6/12 as (2+6)/12 = 8/12. Simplify your answer by dividing the numerator and denominator by 4 to get a final answer of ⅔.
Summary:
Add or subtract just the numerators if the denominators are the same. Find a common multiple for the denominators if they’re different. Make equivalent fractions so the denominators are the same. Solve the equation as you normally would.