text: [Themes: ghost, mathematics, adventure]
  
  > Look around
  Right. The library.
  
  The library is a great place to study - or so you've been told. You hadn't seen the inside of it until today.
  
  (You've also been told it's a good place to sleep. Well, you can vouch for that now.)
  
  On the study table in front of you are your math book and an empty yogurt cup.
  
  The librarian spots you and begins walking in your direction. Oh, no.
  
  You might have time to look up one more topic in your math book. Newton, maybe. He'll probably show up on the final tomorrow. Or maybe Professor Glasser will expect you to wax philosophical about mathematics in general. You could LOOK UP NEWTON or LOOK UP MATH.
  
  > look up the MATH
  (in your math book)
  There is considerable debate as to the exact definition of mathematics. Is it the study of numbers? Shapes? Is it discovered, or is it invented? Aristotle called mathematics "the science of quantity," but some modern areas of mathematics like topology don't really fit that definition. Bertrand Russell said that mathematics can be reduced to logic, but his own efforts in that area were punctured by Gödel's incompleteness theorems. Most modern mathematicians take a "I know it when I see it" view, when they bother to think about the definition of mathematics at all.
  
  Regardless of its definition, since the 1600s mathematics has proven to be particularly useful to science. For example, Isaac Newton's second law of motion, F = ma, or force equals mass times
  acceleration, single-handedly reduced a wide variety of problems in physics to a simple equation. Modern physics, engineering, chemistry, economics, computers, and even large parts of biology and the social sciences would not be possible without mathematics. Galileo even went so far as to claim that mathematics is the language with which God has written the universe.
  
  Is mathematics art or science? Science owes much to mathematics, and Gauss called mathematics "the queen of the sciences." But some mathematicians sound more like artists when describing their work. Russell, in the following quote, makes that comparison explicit:
  
  "Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty - a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture, without appeal to any part of our weaker nature, without the gorgeous trappings of painting or music, yet sublimely pure, and capable of a stern perfection such as only the greatest art can show. The true spirit of delight, the exaltation, the sense of being more than Man, which is the touchstone of the highest excellence, is to be found in mathematics as surely as poetry."
  
  Wow. That's a lot to digest. You're never going to remember all of this for tomorrow.
  
  The librarian is getting closer. You probably should take the initiative and GREET HER. Maybe if you're friendly she'll let you stay a little longer.
  
  > greet the LIBRARIAN
  "Hello!" you say brightly.
  
  "Hello," the librarian responds. "I'm afraid it's time for you to leave."
  
  It looks like you might need more than friendliness here. Let's go for pathos. Try TELL LIBRARIAN ABOUT FINAL.
  
  > tell the libririan about final
  (to the librarian)
  "Um, I have my final exam in conceptual mathematics tomorrow," you say in your best respectful-of-authority voice. "I really need to do some more studying. May I please, please stay here for just a little longer?"
  
  "No," she replies. "I'm sorry, but I have to close up the library now."
  
  Well, that didn't work. She's probably heard it all before.
  
  You might as well just head back to your dorm room. You'll need to pick up your things first, though. Try GET BOOK AND CUP.
  
  > get the book and the cup
  your math book: You pick up your math book.
  empty yogurt cup: You pick up the yogurt cup.
  
  (Notice that you can GET more than one object at a time.)
  
  "I hope you're not planning to remove any library books," the librarian says. "The borrowing period for this academic year has ended."
  
  You should check your inventory to show her. Try INVENTORY, or just I for short.
  
  > check what you're carrying
  You are carrying:
  an empty yogurt cup
  your math book
  
  "Good," says the librarian. Then her eyes focus on the yogurt cup. She frowns. "I'll take that," she says.
  
  Try GIVE CUP TO LIBRARIAN.
  
  > give the cup to the LIBRARIAN
  You give the empty yogurt cup to the librarian.
  
  "Thank you," the librarian says. "Next time, please try to follow the rules about food in the library.
  
  "Good luck on your final," she adds, pointedly indicating the exit to the south.
  
  There's really nothing left to do but head back to your dorm room.
  Try SOUTH, or just S.
  
  > go south
  You walk out, flashing the librarian a weak smile as you go. She closes and locks the doors behind you.
  
  Then you trudge back to your dorm room, thinking about how you got here...
  This ends the tutorial.
  
  You've just seen several of the most useful commands in the game: EXAMINE object (or X object)
  LOOK (or L)
  LOOK UP topic (in your math book)
  GREET character
  TELL character ABOUT topic
  GET an object (more than one if you want)
  GIVE object TO character
  INVENTORY (or I)
  SOUTH (or S. The other seven compass directions - and their abbreviations - are allowed, too, plus UP and DOWN).
  
  You can review these commands and many others by typing HELP at any time. In-game HINTS are available as well.
  
  Professor Glasser's survey course in conceptual mathematics seemed like a good idea at the start of the term - no graded homework, no midterm exams - just an oral final at the end. As the semester progressed, cutting a few classes didn't really seem to matter. Neither did skipping a reading assignment - or a homework set - here and there. But "a few, here and there" slowly turned into "several," which turned into "most." Eventually you were too embarrassed to show up to class anymore, and for the better part of the second half of the term you did an impressive job of forgetting about the final exam.
  
  Until this morning.
  
  Cramming has never worked for you, but what choice did you have? You already made your choices, you suppose - repeatedly, throughout the semester.
  
  Blaming yourself now isn't going to do any good, though. You can blame yourself all you want after tomorrow. Focus on the final.
  Focus on the final.
  
  How, though? It's late. You need more sleep. But you're not sure you remember much (anything?) from today's library cram session.
  
  You've got to pass that final because you've got to pass the class. What will happen to your scholarship if you don't?
  
  With these pleasant thoughts running through your head as you walk across campus, you finally return to...
  Your Dorm Room
  Apparently your roommate moved out today. The room looks pretty bare with only your stuff left in it...not that you had much to begin with. The only decorations that remain are a few of your posters hanging on the walls.
  
  You hear loud noises coming from the hallway to the south. It sounds like your hallmates have begun celebrating the end of the academic year.
  
  You can see your bed and your desk (on which are a medicine bottle and a note) here.
  
  > read the note
  It's from your roommate. "Good luck on your final! I've left you the last of my study pills. I promise you they are perfectly safe, all-natural, and organic - although they may not work exactly like you expect."
  
  > examine the pills
  Your roommate claims these pills are good for your memory, but you've always been skeptical.
  
  > look at the bed
  Your bedsheets feature characters from one of your favorite childhood shows. Particularly prominent is a purple puppet vampire, who is endearing rather than scary. You don't care that your friends occasionally make fun of you for these sheets.
  
  > examine bottle
  These study pills are ones that your roommate picked up at that sketchy health-food store downtown. Your roommate swears by them, but you've always been skeptical. The bottle is closed, and there is something written on it.
  
  > read the bottle
  On the bottle is written "Blorple Pills: Explore a nearby object's mystic energy field via the power of dreams!"
  
  Mystic energy field? Power of dreams?! You thought these were supposed to be study pills.
  
  > open the bottle
  You push down on the bottle's cap, twist it, and pull... and the bottle opens easily. Whew! Sometimes these "childproof" medicine bottles are really hard to open. There is one pill left in the bottle.
  
  > take the pill
  A bit hesitantly, you swallow the pill. Hopefully this will help with your studying.
  
  > get on the bed
  You get onto your bed.
  
  > Sleep
  You curl up with the math book. Whether by exhaustion or the effects of the pill (or both), you quickly fall asleep.
  
  Your dreams are strange. Images from today's cramfest run through your mind in rapid succession, combining, reforming, and producing new images, each of which sinks into your unconscious. Eventually your thoughts slow down, and as they do you can feel your mind empty. Your dream coalesces into...
  Point
  You find yourself in a deep dark blue - almost black - expanse of space that extends as far as you can see in all three dimensions. The only thing that breaks up this space is the white disk floating in mid-air that you are standing on. While the disk doesn't appear to be supported by anything, there is a hole in the middle of it.
  
  [Your understanding of Arithmetic has increased. You estimate
  that your score on tomorrow's final has just gone up by two
  points.]
  
  > examine the disk
  The disk is pure white and has a diameter of about 8 feet. There is a hole in the middle of it, large enough for you to enter.
  
  > enter the disk
  You clamber down the hole.
  
  This is more of an abstract space than a physical place, but it gives you a sense of unity, wholeness, and beginnings. A hole leads back up. You sense another exit, too - one in a deeper, "downward" direction from this space.