10-13: To do this, you should know the basics of the rather absurd story of "Puss in Boots" (Der gestiefelte Kater): A miller has three sons, and when he dies, the first two inherit his fortune, and the youngest gets only a male cat (einen Kater, same as the word for a hangover). This Kateris able to talk and turns out to be very smart, and helps the son make his fortune: he asks the son for a pair of boots (Stiefel), which he soon wears (to wear: tragen). He then hunts some partridges and takes them to the king, saying they are a gift from his master, whom he refers to as a count (Graf) instead of as a miller's son. The king is happy and gives the cat (which he apparently takes for a human because of the boots) a sack of gold, which the cat gives to the miller's son. A few days later, the miller's son takes a bath in the river, and the cat hides his clothes. When the king passes by in his carriage, the cat yells for help, claiming someone stole the clothes of his master, the count (really the miller's son). The king gives the miller's son some nice clothes and invites him into his carriage. The cat runs ahead and instructs everyone to tell the king when he passes that all of this land belongs to the count (i.e. the miller's son). As a result, the king thinks the miller's son is a rich nobleman. The cat continues to run ahead of the carriage and reaches the castle of a great magician (Zauberer). The cat challenges him to transform himself into a mouse, and when he does so, the cat eats him, so that now the cat, and hence the miller's son, is the owner of the great castle. The king arrives and the cat welcomes him to the castle of his master, the count (i.e. the miller's son). Impressed by the "count's" wealth, the king lets him marry the princess, and eventually the miller's son becomes king.

10-14: Note that, except for "sagen," the verbs you are given are all strong (irregular) verbs. Note also that this story ends sadly: he loses her phone number and she waits all day for him to call, but he doesn't, because he can't.

W10-E: Note you can write much simpler sentences than in the example: Im Winter wollte ich Kakao trinken; Am Nachmittag musste ich Hausaufgaben machen; Am Wochenende durfte ich auf Partys gehen; usw.

W10-K: Use the past perfect (das Plusquamperfekt) throughout, because all the actions you are filling in took place before the other actions in the text, which are in the Narrative or Conversational Past.

W10-M: For this exercise, choose "wann" for questions about when something will happen, "als" for completed events in the past, "wenn" for events that will happen in the present or future, or for regular past events for which you could say "whenever" in English.

Also use "wenn" for the hypothetical "if." Use "ob" if and only if you could say "whether" in English. For example: (a) If I have time, I will polish my Justin Bieber dolls ==> use "wenn" for this "if": Wenn ich Zeit habe... (b) I don't know if I will have time to polish my Justin Bieber dolls ==> this "if" could be replaced by "whether" ==> use "ob": Ich weiß nicht, ob ich Zeit habe...

Here are specific explanations for the answers:

1. Rita is asking when they want to go on the trip ==> wann
2. Bruno doesn't know whether he can come along ==> ob
3. Emmy asks when Bruno's exam is ==> wann
4. Rita says, if they go in February, then the fact that Bruno has an exam in March is no problem ==> wenn
5. Emmy adds that last year, when Bruno really wanted to go on vacation and really wanted them to come along, that was no problem either. This refers to a completed event in the past ==> als
6. Rita doesn't know whether she has enough money to go to Switzerland ==> ob
7. Emmy says that if they stay in a youth hostel, it won't be too expensive ==> wenn
8. Bruno doesn't know whether he wants to ski ==> ob
9. Bruno remembers that when his brother went skiiing last year, he broke his leg. This refers to a completed event in the past ==> als
10. Rita asks one more time when exactly they will go (which week in February) ==> wann

L10-D: put check marks next to the Narrative Past verb forms you hear while you're listening to the text; then go back and write down only the infinitive forms of the verbs you checked in the second column. The grading mechanism will penalize you for writing the infinitives of the verbs not mentioned in the text.

L10-G: In each case, you should choose which of the two events/actions listed happened first (i.e. the one that is described in the past perfect tense (what had happened before the other event/action happened). The words bevor and nachdem may serve as additional clues, and of course so will the context. So, listen for verb forms like "hatte aufgeschrieben" (as opposed to "hat aufgeschrieben"), "war abgefahren" (as opposed to "ist abgefahren"), etc.