The film features a narrative set in an alternative reality in which there is no such thing as lying and everything said is the absolute truth. In this world people make blunt, often unintentionally offensive statements. Physicians are brutally honest with patients. They show no warmth and offer no hope. Not being able to lie has resulted in an absence of religion in this alternative reality. Because there is no fiction, the movie industry is limited to dry, lecture-style historical readings and product advertisements are bluntly truthful.
Mark Bellison (Ricky Gervais) is an average Joe lecture-film writer who is assigned to write about the 14th century, a "very boring" era. One night he goes out on a date with the beautiful, kind-hearted and wealthy Anna McDoogles (Jennifer Garner). She tells Mark she is not attracted to him, because of his looks and failing financial situation, but is going out with him to satisfy her extremely prejudiced mother and as a favour to Mark's best friend Greg Kleinschmidt (Louis C.K.).
The next day Mark is fired from his job because of the lack of interest in his films, and his landlord threatens to evict him for not paying his rent. Depressed, he goes to the bank to close his account. The teller informs him that the computers are down, and asks him how much money he has in his account. Mark is about to tell her when a strange reaction occurs in his brain, as he remembers how much money his landlord said he owed ($800). He has an epiphany that enables him to tell the world's first lie, to the effect that he has $800 in his account. The computer comes back online and shows his balance is $300. The teller gives him the full $800 noting that the computer has made a mistake.
Mark then lies in a variety of other circumstances, including, preventing a police officer (Edward Norton) from arresting his friend Greg for drunk driving, getting money from a casino, and stopping his neighbour Frank Fawcett (Jonah Hill) from committing suicide. He realises that lying can be used for better purposes than just for personal gain by doing this. He then writes a screenplay about the world being invaded by aliens in the 14th century, in which it is claimed that the memories of all humans were erased. He becomes wealthy from the success of the film which he names The Black Plague.
Mark convinces Anna to go out with him again, hoping she will see past his looks now that he is financially secure. On their date Anna congratulates Mark for his success and admits that he would be a good husband and father. She is still not attracted to him, saying that, if they ever have children, Mark would contribute half of the heredity to their children, resulting in "fat kids with snub noses". Mark then gets a call that his mother has had a heart attack and rushes to the hospital. There, the doctor (Jason Bateman) tells him that his mother is going to die. She is scared of death, believing that it will bring an eternity of nothingness. Mark, through tears, tells her that death instead brings a joyful afterlife, introducing the concept of a Heaven to her, and she dies happy while the doctors and nurses appear astonished by what he has said.
Mark soon receives worldwide attention for his supposed new information about death. Under pressure from Anna, he tells them, through "ten rules", that he talks to a "Man In The Sky" who controls everything and promises great rewards in the good place after you die, as long as you do no more than three "bad things". Some time later Anna and Mark are together in a park and Anna asks him, if they marry, would his now being rich and famous make their children more physically attractive. Mark wants to lie but does not because of his strong feelings for Anna.
Meanwhile, Mark's enemy Brad Kessler (Rob Lowe) pursues Anna romantically, motivated by Mark's success. However, Brad's arrogant, spiteful manner makes Anna uncomfortable, though she continues dating him; they become engaged. Anna invites Mark to the wedding. Mark tries to discourage her from marrying Brad, but fails. Anna goes to the park she first went to with Mark and sees a slightly overweight child with an ice cream being bullied by thinner children. She shouts at them and they run away. She approaches the boy and wipes away his tears while asking his name. He replies 'Short Fat Brian' to which she tells him: 'You are so much more than just that.'
Before the wedding Mark's friend Greg shows up and tries to convince him that he has not missed his chance with Anna. Mark reluctantly attends Anna and Brad's wedding, where he objects to the marriage, but the officiant informs him that only the Man in the Sky can stop the wedding. Brad and Anna both ask Mark to ask the Man in the Sky what Anna should do but Mark refuses to say anything and leaves, wanting Anna to choose for herself. Anna walks out and Mark confesses his ability to lie and tells her that the Man In The Sky was made up. Anna struggles to comprehend the concept and asks why he did not lie to convince her to marry him; Mark states that it "wouldn't count". Anna confesses that she loves him.
Some time later, the now-pregnant Anna and Mark are shown happily married with a son, who appears (by his actions) to have inherited his father's ability to lie.

Question: Who is Mark's best friend?


Manhattan press agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) has been unable to gain mentions for his clients in J.J. Hunsecker's (Burt Lancaster) influential, nationally syndicated newspaper column of late because of Falco's failure to make good on a promise to break up the romance between Hunsecker's younger sister Susan (Susan Harrison) and musician Steve Dallas (Martin Milner), an up-and-coming jazz guitarist.
Falco is losing money and clients. Given one last chance by the bullying, intimidating Hunsecker, he schemes to plant a false rumor in a rival column that Dallas is a dope-smoking Communist, then encourages Hunsecker to rescue Dallas's reputation, certain that the headstrong boyfriend will reject Hunsecker's favor and end up looking bad to Susan.
The plan works, in a wayâDallas can't resist insulting Hunsecker's methods, and, forced to choose between them, the timid Susan breaks up with Dallas in order to protect him from her brother. Hunsecker, however, is enraged by Dallas's insults to him after a brief confrontation. He decides to ruin the boy after all (against Falco's advice) and wants to have marijuana planted on the musician, then have him arrested and roughed up by corrupt police Lt. Harry Kello (Emile Meyer).
It is such a dirty trick that even Falco wants no part of it, at least until Hunsecker promises to take a long vacation from his powerful column and turn it over to Falco in his absence. At a nightclub, Falco slips the marijuana cigarettes into a pocket of a coat belonging to Dallas, who is accosted by Kello outside the club.
Falco is summoned to Hunsecker's penthouse apartment, only to find Susan there by herself and about to attempt suicide. He grabs her just as her brother walks in, but Hunsecker, encouraged by Susan's silence, accuses Falco of trying to assault Susan and begins beating the physically weaker Falco. Falco pleads that he only came to the apartment at Hunsecker's request, prompting Hunsecker to tell Falco that he never called him. As Susan stops Hunsecker from further harming him, Falco realizes that Susan placed the call in order to bring the men to blows.
In a climactic confrontation, Falco reveals to Susan that it was her brother who ordered him to destroy Dallas's reputation and their relationship. Hunsecker makes a call to Kello to come after Falco, who tries to flee but is caught in Times Square by the brutal cop.
Back in the penthouse, Susan, her bags packed, acknowledges to her brother that she attempted suicide, considering death preferable to living with him. She walks out on him, saying that she will go to Dallas and tells Hunsecker that she pities rather than hates him. A mortified J.J. looks at his sister from his apartment, as she walks out into the daylight.

Question: Who asked Falco to come to Hunsecker's penthouse?


Madeleine Lee, the daughter of an eminent clergyman, is a 30-year-old widow of independent means living in New York City. Five years ago she lost, in quick succession, her husband and her baby. She used to be "a rather fast New York girl" before her marriage but now is virtually unable to get over the great loss she has suffered.
Bored stiff by New York society, Madeleine Lee decides to go to Washington to be close to the hub of politics. Together with her sister Sybil Ross, she arrives in the capital, and in no time her salon becomes the meeting place of important people in the city. Although she has no intention whatsoever of becoming romantically involved, two men eventually emerge from the group gathering around her both of whom would very much like to marry her: John Carrington, who is truly and deeply in love with her; and Silas P. Ratcliffe, whose marriage to Madeleine Lee would help him advance his political career.
Over the months, Madeleine Lee gets more and more insight into the machinations at the center of political life. Seeing his chances fade, Ratcliffe devises a sophisticated scheme to get rid of John Carrington: he secures a post abroad for his rival, whoâas the job is rather well-paid and his family has little moneyâcannot but accept the offer. Step by step, Ratcliffe manoeuvres Madeleine Lee into a difficult position in which he thinks the only choice left to her will be to marry him. Carrington, however, has left behind a sealed letter in which he accuses Ratcliffe of being corrupt. In particular, he accuses him of having taken graft during the election campaign eight years ago. All evidence, Carrington adds, has been destroyed, so it is his word against Ratcliffe's. The latter of course denies all allegations, but Madeleine Lee is so shocked at the revelation that she turns down Ratcliffe's proposal of marriage. Furious, Ratcliffe leaves Madeleine's house, only to be accosted and ridiculed by his arch-enemy Baron Jacobi, the Bulgarian minister. There even ensues a brief scene of physical violence between the two, but at the very last moment Ratcliffe, whose career would be ruined otherwise, is able to keep his wrath in check.
Disillusioned by politics, Madeleine Lee now wants to go abroad, preferably to Egypt. Sybil, who has become Carrington's confidante, writes him a letter in which she tells him he should try again to win her sister's heart once they have returned from their tour.

Question: Of the two men romantically interested in Madeleine what is the name of the man truly and deeply inlove with her?


In "the not-too-distant future", eugenics is common. A genetic registry database uses biometrics to classify those so created as "valids" while those conceived by traditional means and more susceptible to genetic disorders are known as "in-valids". Genetic discrimination is illegal, but in practice genotype profiling is used to identify valids to qualify for professional employment while in-valids are relegated to menial jobs.
Vincent Freeman is conceived without the aid of genetic selection; his genetics indicate a high probability of several disorders and an estimated life span of 30.2 years. His parents, regretting their decision, use genetic selection to give birth to their next child, Anton. Growing up, the two brothers often play a game of "chicken" by swimming out to sea with the first one returning to shore considered the loser; Vincent always loses. Vincent dreams of a career in space travel but is reminded of his genetic inferiority. One day Vincent challenges Anton to a game of chicken and bests him before Anton starts to drown. Vincent saves Anton and then leaves home.
Vincent works as an in-valid, cleaning office spaces including that of Gattaca Aerospace Corporation, a space-flight conglomerate. He gets a chance to pose as a valid by using hair, skin, blood and urine samples from a donor, Jerome Eugene Morrow, who is a former swimming star paralyzed due to a car accident. With Jerome's genetic makeup, Vincent gains employment at Gattaca, and is assigned to be navigator for an upcoming trip to Saturn's moon Titan. To keep his identity hidden, Vincent must meticulously groom and scrub down daily to remove his own genetic material, and pass daily DNA scanning and urine tests using Jerome's samples.
Gattaca becomes embroiled in controversy when one of its administrators is murdered a week before the flight. The police find a fallen eyelash of Vincent's at the scene. An investigation is launched to find the murderer, Vincent being the top suspect. Through this, Vincent becomes close to a co-worker, Irene Cassini, and falls in love with her. Though a valid, Irene has a higher risk of heart failure that will prevent her from joining any deep space Gattaca mission. Vincent also learns that Jerome's paralysis is by his own hand; after coming in second place in a swim meet, Jerome threw himself in front of a car. Jerome maintains that he was designed to be the best, yet wasn't, and that is the source of his suffering.
Vincent repeatedly evades scrutiny from the investigation, and it is revealed that Gattaca's mission director was the killer, as the administrator was threatening to cancel the mission. Vincent learns the identity of the detective who closed the case, his brother Anton, who has become aware of Vincent's presence. The brothers meet, and Anton warns Vincent that what he is doing is illegal, but Vincent asserts that he has gotten to this position on his own merits. Anton challenges Vincent to one more game of chicken. As the two swim out in the dead of night, Anton is surprised at Vincent's stamina, and Vincent reveals that his trick to winning was not saving energy for the swim back. Anton turns back and begins to drown, but Vincent rescues him and swims them both back to shore using celestial navigation.
On the day of the launch, Jerome reveals that he has stored enough DNA samples for Vincent to last two lifetimes upon his return, and gives him an envelope to open once in flight. After saying goodbye to Irene, Vincent prepares to board but discovers there is a final genetic test, and he currently lacks any of Jerome's samples. He is surprised when Dr. Lamar, the person in charge of background checks, reveals that he knows Vincent has been posing as a valid. Lamar admits that his son looks up to Vincent and wonders whether his son, genetically selected but "not all that they promised", could break the limits just as Vincent has. He passes Vincent as a valid. As the rocket launches, Jerome dons his swimming medal and immolates himself in his home's incinerator; Vincent opens the note from Jerome to find only a lock of Jerome's hair attached to it. Vincent muses on this, stating "For someone who was never meant for this world, I must confess, Iâm suddenly having a hard time leaving it. Of course, they say every atom in our bodies was once a part of a star. Maybe I'm not leaving; maybe I'm going home."

Question: How does Vincent always win at chicken?

he doesn't save energy for the swim back


Sam Wheat (Patrick Swayze), a banker, and Molly Jensen (Demi Moore), a potter, are a couple who renovate and move into an apartment in New York City with the help of Sam's friend and co-worker Carl Bruner (Tony Goldwyn). One afternoon, Sam discovers unusually high balances in obscure bank accounts, but despite Carl's offer to help investigate, Sam decides to investigate on his own. That night while walking home together Sam and Molly are mugged by a street thug who pulls a gun and demand's Sam's wallet. Sam struggles with the attacker and is shot. After pursuing the street thug, Sam runs back to Molly and—seeing her crying over his dead body—discovers that he has died from the gunshot and has become a ghost. Sam stays by the distraught Molly, trying to come to grips with his new condition, when Carl comes over and suggests Molly take a walk with him. Sam cannot bring himself to follow.
Moments later, the mugger enters the empty apartment and commences searching for something. When Molly returns, Sam scares their cat into attacking the thug, who flees. Sam follows the mugger to his apartment in Brooklyn and learns that the man's name is Willie Lopez and that Willie intends to return later to continue the search.
While walking back to the apartment, Sam happens upon the parlor of Oda Mae Brown (Whoopi Goldberg), a con artist posing as a medium. But when she can hear Sam, she realizes she has an actual gift. He convinces her of the danger that Molly is in and that Oda must warn her. Molly is skeptical about Oda until Oda relays information that only Sam could know.
After Molly tells Carl about Oda Mae, Carl—unaware that Sam is following—then goes to Willie's apartment. There, to Sam's surprise, he finds that Carl and Willie are working together, that Carl had a hand in Sam's death, and that he had needed to obtain Sam's book of passwords in order to access and launder the excess money from the bank accounts. Under instructions relayed from Sam to Oda Mae, Molly goes to the police with Willie's name and address, but they find no criminal record of him—instead they show her Oda Mae's record and convince her that she's a con artist.
Meeting a violent poltergeist in their ghostly realm, Sam learns from him how to manipulate physical objects from within the spirit realm. Sam then approaches Oda Mae and asks her not only to withdraw the money in the fake name that Carl had set up but then to give that $4 million to charity. Sam tries to scare Carl away from Molly but she reveals to Carl that Oda Mae was at the bank withdrawing the money. Sam then prevents Oda Mae from being attacked by Willie, terrorizing the thug and then sending him into oncoming traffic where Willie is hit by a car and killed. As Willie's ghost is grabbed by creatures from the shadows that drag him to Hell, Sam and Oda Mae return to the apartment where—by levitating a penny into Molly's hand—he convinces Molly that Oda Mae is telling the truth about him.
Oda Mae allows Sam to possess her body so he and Molly can share a slow dance, but Carl interrupts them and Molly and Oda Mae flee onto the fire escape. Carl chases the women to a loft under construction and catches Oda Mae. When Molly comes to save her, she is grabbed and held hostage. Sam disarms Carl and chases him toward a window. He throws a suspended hook at Sam; it misses, swings back, and shatters the glass. As Carl tries to climb through the window, a sharp shard of broken glass falls, impaling him in the stomach. Carl's ghost rises from his body and, as Willie had been, he is grabbed by the creatures from the shadows and is carried to Hell.
Sam asks if the women are all right. Miraculously, Molly can now hear him. A heavenly light shines in the room, illuminating Sam in sight of both of them. Realizing that it is his time to go, he and Molly share tearful goodbyes. Oda Mae tells him that he is being called home, and he thanks her for her help.
Sam then walks into the light and onward to Heaven.

Question: Where do the shadow creatures take Willie's soul?


Crusoe (the family name corrupted from the German name "Kreutznaer") sets sail from the Queen's Dock in Hull on a sea voyage in August 1651, against the wishes of his parents, who want him to pursue a career, possibly in law. After a tumultuous journey where his ship is wrecked in a storm, his lust for the sea remains so strong that he sets out to sea again. This journey, too, ends in disaster, as the ship is taken over by Salé pirates (the Salé Rovers) and Crusoe is enslaved by a Moor. Two years later, he escapes in a boat with a boy named Xury; a captain of a Portuguese ship off the west coast of Africa rescues him. The ship is en route to Brazil. Crusoe sells Xury to the captain. With the captain's help, Crusoe procures a plantation.
Years later, Crusoe joins an expedition to bring slaves from Africa, but he is shipwrecked in a storm about forty miles out to sea on an island (which he calls the Island of Despair) near the mouth of the Orinoco river on 30 September 1659. The details of Crusoe's island were probably based on the Caribbean island of Tobago, since that island lies a short distance north of the Venezuelan coast near the mouth of the Orinoco river, in sight of Trinidad. He observes the latitude as 9 degrees and 22 minutes north. He sees penguins and seals on his island. (However, seals and penguins live together in the Northern Hemisphere only around the Galápagos Islands.) As for his arrival there, only he and three animals, the captain's dog and two cats, survive the shipwreck. Overcoming his despair, he fetches arms, tools and other supplies from the ship before it breaks apart and sinks. He builds a fenced-in habitat near a cave which he excavates. By making marks in a wooden cross, he creates a calendar. By using tools salvaged from the ship, and some he makes himself from "ironwood", he hunts, grows barley and rice, dries grapes to make raisins, learns to make pottery and raises goats. He also adopts a small parrot. He reads the Bible and becomes religious, thanking God for his fate in which nothing is missing but human society.
More years pass and Crusoe discovers native cannibals, who occasionally visit the island to kill and eat prisoners. At first he plans to kill them for committing an abomination but later realizes he has no right to do so, as the cannibals do not knowingly commit a crime. He dreams of obtaining one or two servants by freeing some prisoners; when a prisoner escapes, Crusoe helps him, naming his new companion "Friday" after the day of the week he appeared. Crusoe then teaches him English and converts him to Christianity.
After more natives arrive to partake in a cannibal feast, Crusoe and Friday kill most of the natives and save two prisoners. One is Friday's father and the other is a Spaniard, who informs Crusoe about other Spaniards shipwrecked on the mainland. A plan is devised wherein the Spaniard would return to the mainland with Friday's father and bring back the others, build a ship, and sail to a Spanish port.
Before the Spaniards return, an English ship appears; mutineers have commandeered the vessel and intend to maroon their captain on the island. Crusoe and the ship's captain strike a deal in which Crusoe helps the captain and the loyal sailors retake the ship and leave the worst mutineers on the island. Before embarking for England, Crusoe shows the mutineers how he survived on the island and states that there will be more men coming. Crusoe leaves the island 19 December 1686 and arrives in England on 11 June 1687. He learns that his family believed him dead; as a result, he was left nothing in his father's will. Crusoe departs for Lisbon to reclaim the profits of his estate in Brazil, which has granted him much wealth. In conclusion, he transports his wealth overland to England to avoid travelling by sea. Friday accompanies him and, en route, they endure one last adventure together as they fight off famished wolves while crossing the Pyrenees.

Question: What career does Robinson Crusoe's parent's want him to pursue?


Starting in Vicksburg, Mississippi preceding the abolition of slavery, The Yellow Chief begins on the plantation of the Blackadder family. Blount Blackadder, the 18-year-old son of the plantation owner Squire Blackadder, punishes a mulatto slave, Blue Dick, out of revenge over a girl, a quadroon named Sylvia. The ‘punishment of the pump’, a frequent act at the Blackadder plantation, consists of placing the victims head directly under the painfully cold stream of a water pump. Daughter Clara Blackadder watches the shameful punishment, only daydreaming about the Irishmen Edward O’Neil, who her father forbids her from marrying. Whilst murdering Sylvia in the woods in the process, Blue Dick proceeds to escape the plantation, never to return.
After experiencing bankruptcy five years later, the Blackadders sell their plantation and travel west in covered wagons to start a new life in California. A Choctaw Indian named Woboga guides them through the journey, and later turns out to be a spy for the antagonist Cheyenne Indian group led by Yellow Chief, who wants secret revenge against the Blackadder family. Through Woboga, Yellow Chief and his men find the ex-Mississippi planters corralled in an enclosed gorge in the Rocky Mountains by Bijou Creek of the South Platte River. They attack with gunfire, killing Squire Blackadder in the process, and capture the rest of the group as prisoners.
Meanwhile, Edward O’Neil, who has since left Mississippi to the Colorado mountains to escape his heartbreak over Clara Blackadder, travels as a fur trapper with his experienced, older companion, ‘Lije Orton. The two trappers overhear Yellow Chief’s attack of the corralled emigrants and decide to receive help from the mountain men of Fort Saint Vrain. O’Neil sees that Clara is of those imprisoned and becomes determined to save her.
Yellow Chief’s men create a wooden cross to emulate crucifixion for their white captives. As the Yellow Chief first administers a “dose” of cold water onto the “crucified” Blount Blackadder, the plantation emigrants begin to feel suspicious. It isn’t until Mr. Snively sees the Yellow Chief wash off his war paint in a waterfall, revealing his mulatto “yellow” skin, that the Yellow Chief’s true identity as Blue Dick is revealed. Another secret reveals itself when the Yellow Chief threatens Clara Blackadder to the “punishment of the pump.” Old Nan, an elder of the Blackadder slaves, comes forth to inform Blue Dick (the Yellow Chief) that he and Clara are blood siblings through master-slave relations. Squire Blackadder’s relation to Blue Dick only maddens him even more, as Blue Dick threatens to make Clara his slave.
After much strategic planning, ‘Lije Orton, Edward O’Neil, and mountain man Black Harris track down Yellow Chief and his Cheyenne troupe and manage to kill them all with little difficulty. The emigrants continue their journey to California, leaving Clara behind to start a life on the east coast with O’Neil. Together they raise children and are often visited by ‘Lije to be updated on the mountain life.Many 19th century pulp western authors, Mayne Reid included, often returned to the same set trope of plot, characters, and conclusions in their novels. Mayne Reid was most noted for marrying off all his characters at the end of his stories. The Yellow Chief also features a common plot theme of Mayne Reid, in which a heroine's "weak brother" becomes caught in the clutches of a villain seeking revenge.
Although The Yellow Chief was a dime novel, the cliff hangers throughout the plot seem to occur in the tradition of serial novels of 19th century literature. Many unrealistic coincidences and plot twists are presented to the reader, such as Blue Dick, the Blackadders, and O'Neil ending up in the same area of the Rocky Mountains. As a very short read, only 168 pages long, the different developments of action don't have much build-up. The plot of the novel, although maybe suspenseful for a 19th-century reader, comes across as frivolous and implausible to the contemporary reader.

Question: What is the name of the Blackadders' guide on their journey to California?


Hedda, the daughter of an aristocratic and enigmatic general, has just returned to her villa in Kristiania (now Oslo) from her honeymoon. Her husband is George Tesman, a young, aspiring, and reliable (but not brilliant) academic who continued his research during their honeymoon. It becomes clear in the course of the play that she has never loved him but married him because she thinks her years of youthful abandon are over. It is also suggested that she may be pregnant.
The reappearance of George's academic rival, Eilert LĂ¸vborg, throws their lives into disarray. Eilert, a writer, is also a recovered alcoholic who has wasted his talent until now. Thanks to a relationship with Hedda's old schoolmate, Thea Elvsted (who has left her husband for him), Eilert shows signs of rehabilitation and has just published a bestseller in the same field as George. When Hedda and Eilert talk privately together, it becomes apparent that they are former lovers.
The critical success of his recently published work makes Eilert a threat to George, as Eilert is now a competitor for the university professorship George had been counting on. George and Hedda are financially overstretched, and George tells Hedda that he will not be able to finance the regular entertaining or luxurious housekeeping that she had been expecting. Upon meeting Eilert, however, the couple discover that he has no intention of competing for the professorship, but rather has spent the last few years labouring with Thea over what he considers to be his masterpiece, the "sequel" to his recently published work.
Apparently jealous of Thea's influence over Eilert, Hedda hopes to come between them. Despite his drinking problem, she encourages Eilert to accompany George and his associate, Judge Brack, to a party. George returns home from the party and reveals that he found the complete manuscript of Eilert's great work, which the latter lost while drunk. When Eilert next sees Hedda, he confesses to her, despairingly, that he has lost the manuscript. Instead of telling him that the manuscript has been found, Hedda encourages him to commit suicide, giving him a pistol. She then burns the manuscript and tells George she has destroyed it to secure their future.
When the news comes that Eilert has indeed killed himself, George and Thea are determined to try to reconstruct his book from Eilert's notes, which Thea has kept. Hedda is shocked to discover from Judge Brack that Eilert's death, in a brothel, was messy and probably accidental; this "ridiculous and vile" death contrasts with the "beautiful and free" one that Hedda had imagined for him. Worse, Brack knows the origins of the pistol. He tells Hedda that if he reveals what he knows, a scandal will likely arise around her. Hedda realizes that this places Brack in a position of power over her. Leaving the others, she goes into her smaller room and shoots herself in the head. The others in the room assume that Hedda is simply firing shots, and they follow the sound to investigate. The play ends with George, Brack, and Thea discovering her body.

Question: What type of relationship does Hedda have with Tesman's rival?


“A lady and gentleman are making love to one another in the drawing room of a flat in Ashley Gardens in the Victoria district of London.”
The lady is a young widow, Grace Tranfield, in love with the man, Leonard Charteris, who is the ‘philanderer’ of the title. Grace is shocked and disconcerted to find that Charteris, on his own light‐hearted admission, has been in a similar position with Julia Craven and others. The affair with Julia, in fact, has never been broken off. He maintains that it is not his fault that half the women he speaks to fall in love with him; and he is in full flight of cajolery when Julia Craven herself erupts on to the scene, attacks Grace, and announces her intention of staying until Charteris has given her up.
Charteris gets Grace out of the room and unsuccessfully reminds Julia of her supposedly advanced views on marriage. She changes from belligerence to pleading tears, without effect, and, to the consternation of both, the fathers of Grace and Julia enter together. Colonel Craven is suffering from a liver complaint, and much to Charteris’ impatience "has fully made up his mind not to survive next Easter", just to oblige the doctors. Cuthbertson, Grace’s father, is a dramatic critic and theatrically shocked to discover something of the Charteris‐Grace‐Julia triangle; but Charteris explains it is Grace whom he wants to marry.
The scene changes to the Ibsen Club, of which most of the characters are members. A fashionable physician, Dr. Paramore, says he has made a discovery concerning Col. Craven’s fatal complaint, but horrifies Craven’s younger daughter Sylvia by his practice of vivisection. Craven turns up at Cuthbertson’s invitation, and Charteris outrages both men by admitting he had lied to them last night: the truth is, both young women want to marry him, but he does not want to marry either.
Julia enters the Club with Paramore dancing attendance, and manages to trap Charteris alone. She is, however, forced to retire by Sylvia, who delights Charteris by saying Dr. Paramore is in love with Julia. Charteris attempts to flirt with Grace again but is repulsed, and attention is diverted by the distraught Dr. Paramore who has learnt in the British Medical Journal that his ‘discovery,’ Craven’s liver complaint, is a disease which doesn’t exist. He complains of lack of animals for experiment, and resents Craven’s delight at learning he is not to die. Charteris, to cheer him, suggests that Julia is fascinated by him, but it is Grace who comes in first and retires with the doctor privately. Changing tactics, Charteris points them out to Julia, arousing her jealousy. The result is another quarrel between Julia and Grace, who threatens to have Julia expelled from the Club. Julia hurries after Dr. Paramore, to enlist him as a witness in her favor, and Charteris tries to prevent the others following, in order to give the doctor time to propose to her.
This Paramore does, at his house, and Julia, dubious but flattered, accepts him before the others arrive. Charteris is delighted, and Julia and Grace, reconciled, congratulate each other on having escaped him. Nevertheless, Julia bitterly regrets not being brave enough to kill Charteris.
An alternate, and in fact Shaw's original, ending was preserved in manuscript, though not performed until the 1990s. In it the scene at Paramore's house takes place four years later, after his marriage to Julia, when Paramore has tired of Julia and she of marriage. Paramore has fallen in love with Grace and asks Charteris's advice. Eventually, Craven, Cuthbertson and Julia join them and Cuthbertson is persuaded to suggest a solution - divorce, though difficult to obtain in Victorian England without scandal and deceit, is quite easily obtained in South Dakota. Grace joins them, and after a new row between her and Julia, all is agreed. Julia and Charteris are left alone, she presses him to marry her once she is free, but he refuses on the grounds of being a philanderer and no fit husband, and they agree to return to their former ways.

Question: Who invites Colonel Craven to the Isben Club?


In 2009, American geologist Adrian Helmsley visits astrophysicist Satnam Surtani in India and learns that neutrinos from a huge solar flare are heating Earth's core. Helmsley presents his information to White House Chief of Staff Carl Anheuser, who brings him to meet the president.
The following year, U.S. President Thomas Wilson and other world leaders begin a secret project to ensure the survival of humanity. China and the G8 nations begin building nine arks, each capable of carrying 100,000 people, in the Himalayas near Cho Ming, Tibet. Nima, a Buddhist monk, is evacuated and his brother Tenzin joins the ark project. Funding is raised by selling tickets at âŹ1Â billion per person. By 2011, articles of value are moved to the arks with the help of art expert and First Daughter Laura Wilson.
In 2012, struggling Los Angeles science-fiction writer Jackson Curtis is a chauffeur for Russian billionaire Yuri Karpov. Jackson's former wife (Kate) and their children (Noah and Lilly) live with Kate's boyfriend, plastic surgeon and pilot Gordon Silberman. Jackson takes Noah and Lilly camping in Yellowstone National Park. When they find an area fenced off by the Army, Jackson and his children climb over the fence. They are caught and brought to the geologist Adrian, who has read Jackson's books. After they are released they meet Charlie Frost, who hosts a radio show from the park. After Jackson and his children leave, Adrian learns that the Earth is about to undergo drastic changes in a few hours, realizing that it came much earlier than expected, as only three of the arks have been completed by this time.
That night, after the military evacuates Yellowstone, Jackson watches Charlie's video of Charles Hapgood's theory that polar shifts and the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar predict a 2012 phenomenon. According to Charlie, anyone who attempted to inform the public was killed. Soon after Jackson and his children return home, he delivers Yuri's sons Alec and Oleg to the airport. After the two express that "they will live and he will die", Jackson rents a plane and rushes back to his family, realizing that Charlie was right. He rescues his family as the Earth-crust displacement begins and escapes from Los Angeles by air as California sinks into the Pacific Ocean.
They fly to Yellowstone to retrieve a map from Charlie with the arks' location. As they leave, the Yellowstone Caldera erupts; Charlie is killed when he stays behind to cover the eruption. The group lands in Las Vegas to find a larger plane and meet Yuri, his twin sons Alec and Oleg, his girlfriend Tamara and their pilot Sasha, who are unable to leave because the airport is refusing to let them. Sasha an Antonov An-500 and pilots it with Gordon, and leave just as the Yellowstone ash cloud engulfs Las Vegas.
Adrian, Carl and Laura fly to the arks on Air Force One. Knowing that his daughter will survive, President Wilson remains in the capital to address the nation for the last time while millions of people die in earthquakes and megatsunamis worldwide. With the presidential line of succession gone, Carl assumes the position of acting commander-in-chief. In the Pacific Ocean, a megatsunami strikes the Genesis and kills everyone on board, including Adrian's father.
Yuri informs Jackson that he plans to stop at Hawaii to refuel, but this is cut short when they find that Hawaii has been engulfed in lava, forcing them to continue without the needed fuel, and arrive at China. Sasha continues flying the plane as the others escape on a Bentley Continental Flying Spur stored in the cargo hold. Sasha is killed when the plane crashes, and the others are spotted by Chinese Air Force helicopters. Yuri and his sons (who have tickets) are brought to the arks and the Curtis family, Tamara and Gordon are left behind. The remaining group is picked up by Nima and brought to the arks with his grandparents. With Tenzin's help they stow away on Ark 4, where the U.S. contingent is located. As a megatsunami breaches the Himalayas and approaches the site, an impact driver lodges in the ark-door gears. This keeps a boarding gate open, which prevents the ship's engines from starting. In the ensuing chaos where many people attempt to board the ships, Yuri, Tamara and Gordon are killed. Tenzin is injured, the ark begins filling with water and is set adrift. Carl wants to leave immediately, but Adrian manages to persuade the heads of state to let the people outside in. Ark 4 attempts to leave, but the lodged impact driver prevents it from doing so. Jackson and Noah dislodge the tool, and the crew of Ark 4 barely manages to regain control of the Ark before it smashes into Mount Everest. Jackson is reunited with his family and reconciles with Kate.
Twenty-seven days later, the waters are receding. The arks approach the Cape of Good Hope, where the Drakensberg (now the tallest mountain range on Earth) is emerging. Adrian and Laura begin a relationship, and Jackson and Kate rekindle their romance.

Question: Whom does Helmsley present his information to at the White House?

Chief of Staff, Carl Anheuser
The Chief of Staff, Carl Anheuser


In 1987, 16-year-old Claireece Precious Jones (Gabourey Sidibe) lives in the New York City ghetto of Harlem with her unemployed mother, Mary (Mo'Nique), who has long subjected her to physical, mental and sexual abuse. Precious has been raped by her father, Carl (Rodney "Bear" Jackson), resulting in two pregnancies. The family resides in a Section 8 tenement and survives on welfare. Her first child, "Mongo" (short for Mongoloid), has Down syndrome and is being cared for by Precious' grandmother, though Mary forces the family to pretend that Mongo lives with her and Precious so she can receive extra money from the government. When Precious' second pregnancy is discovered, her high school principal arranges for her to attend an alternative school, where she hopes Precious can change her life's direction. Precious finds a way out of her traumatic daily life by escaping into daydreams in which she is loved and appreciated.
Inspired by her new teacher, Blu Rain (Paula Patton), Precious finally learns to read and write. She meets sporadically with social worker Ms. Weiss (Mariah Carey), who learns about incest in the household when Precious reveals who fathered her children. While Precious is in the hospital giving birth to her second child, Abdul, she meets John McFadden (Lenny Kravitz), a nursing assistant who shows her kindness. Upon returning home, her mother hits her and deliberately drops 3-day-old Abdul, angrily revealing that Precious' revelation about the incest has resulted in their being cut off from welfare. Precious fights back and flees her home with Abdul. As they set out, she stops at a church window and watches the choir singing a Christmas hymn inside, imagining that she and her fantasy boyfriend are together and singing the song. Precious breaks into her school classroom because it is cold and she has nowhere to go. After Blu discovers her the next morning, she frantically calls local shelters looking for a safe place for Precious to stay. Later that night, Precious stays with Blu and her live-in girlfriend. The next morning, Blu takes her and Abdul to find assistance for them. She tells Precious that she will be able to continue her schooling while she raises Abdul in a halfway house.
Mary soon returns to inform Precious of her father's death from AIDS. Precious later learns that she is HIV-positive, though Abdul is not. Feeling dejected, she steals her case file from Ms. Weiss's office. As she shares the details of her file with her fellow students, she begins to hope for the future. Later, Precious meets with her mother at the social worker's office. Ms. Weiss confronts Mary about her abuse of Precious, pointing to specific incidents going back to when Precious was 3 years old. Mary tearfully says that it was Precious' fault that her father raped her because she "let him", and admits that she resents Precious for "stealing her man". Precious tells Mary that she finally sees her for what she is, and tells her mother that she will never see her or the children again. Mary begs Ms. Weiss to help her get Precious back, but a shaken Ms. Weiss silently brushes past her.
Precious takes custody of Mongo, and plans to complete a GED test to receive a high school diploma equivalency. She walks out into the city with both children in tow, ready to start a new life.

Question: What does Ms. Weiss do when Mary asks her to help her get Precious back?

She brushes Mary off.
She brushes past Mary.


A young Cambridge University professor, Horace Holly, is visited by a colleague, Vincey, who reveals that he will soon die. Vincey proceeds to tell Holly a fantastical tale of his family heritage. He charges Holly with the task of raising his young son, Leo (whom he has never seen) and gives Holly a locked iron box, with instructions that it is not to be opened until Leo turns 25. Holly agrees, and indeed Vincey is found dead the next day. Holly raises the boy as his own; when the box is opened on Leo's 25th birthday they discover the ancient and mysterious "Sherd of Amenartas", which seems to corroborate Leo's father's story. Holly, Leo and their servant, Job, follow instructions on the Sherd and travel to eastern Africa but are shipwrecked. They alone survive, together with their Arab captain, Mahomed; after a perilous journey into an uncharted region of the African interior, they are captured by the savage Amahagger people. The adventurers learn that the natives are ruled by a fearsome white queen, who is worshiped as Hiya or "She-who-must-be-obeyed". The Amahagger are curious about the white-skinned interlopers, having been warned of their coming by the mysterious queen.
Billali, the chief elder of one of the Amahagger tribes, takes charge of the three men, introducing them to the ways of his people. One of the Amahagger maidens, Ustane, takes a liking to Leo and, by kissing him and embracing him publicly, weds him according to Amahagger customs. Leo, likewise, grows very fond of her.
Billali tells Holly that he needs to go and report the white men's arrival to She. In his absence, some of the Amahagger become restless and seize Mahomed, intending to eat him as part of a ritual "hotpot". Realising what is about to happen, Holly shoots several of the Amahagger, killing Mahomed in the process; in the ensuing struggle Leo is gravely wounded, but Ustane saves his life by throwing herself onto his prostrate body to shield him from spears. All seems lost as the Amahagger resolve to kill Ustane along with the white men but Billali returns in the nick of time and declares that the three men are under the protection of She. Leo's condition, however, worsens and he nears death as Ustane faithfully tends to him.
They are taken to the home of the queen, which lies near the ruins of the lost city of K么r, a once mighty civilisation that predated the Egyptians. The queen and her retinue live under a dormant volcano in a series of catacombs built as tombs for the people of K么r. There, Holly is presented to the queen, a white sorceress named Ayesha. Her beauty is so great that it enchants any man who beholds it. She, who is veiled and lies behind a partition, warns Holly that the power of her splendour arouses both desire and fear, but he is dubious. When she shows herself, however, Holly is enraptured and prostrates himself before her. Ayesha reveals that she has learned the secret of immortality and that she possesses other supernatural powers including the ability to read the minds of others, a form of telegnosis and the ability to heal wounds and cure illness; she is also revealed to have a tremendous knowledge of chemistry, but is notably unable to see into the future. She tells Holly that she has lived in the realm of K么r for more than two millennia, awaiting the reincarnated return of her lover, Kallikrates (whom she had slain in a fit of jealous rage). Later, when Holly inadvertently and secretly discovers Ayesha in her hidden chamber, he learns that she may have some degree of power to reanimate the dead.
The next evening She visits Leo to heal him. But upon seeing his face, she is stunned and declares him to be the reincarnation of Kallikrates. She saves him and becomes jealous of Ustane. The latter is ordered to leave Leo and never to set her eyes on him again. Ustane refuses, however, and Ayesha eventually strikes her dead with magic. Despite the murder of their friend, Holly and Leo cannot free themselves from the power of Ayesha's beauty and Leo becomes bewitched. In explaining her history, Ayesha shows Leo the perfectly preserved body of Kallikrates, which she has kept with her, but she then dissolves the remains with a powerful acid, confident that Leo is indeed the reincarnation of her former lover.
In the climax of the novel, Ayesha takes the two men to see the Pillar of Fire, passing through the ruined city of K么r into the heart of the ancient volcano. She is determined that Leo should bathe in the fire to become immortal and remain with her forever, and that together they can become the immortal and all-powerful rulers of the world. After a perilous journey, they come to a great cavern, but at the last Leo doubts the safety of entering the flame. To allay his fears, Ayesha steps into the Spirit of Life, but with this second immersion, the life-preserving power is lost and Ayesha begins to revert to her true age. Holly speculates that it may be that a second exposure undoes the effects of the previous or the Spirit of Life spews death on occasion. Before their eyes, Ayesha withers away in the fire, and her body shrinks. The sight is so shocking that Job dies in fright. Before dying, She tells Leo, "Forget me not. I shall come again!"

Question: Where did Holly, Leo and Job travel to?


Graeme Willy (Simon Pegg) and Clive Gollings (Nick Frost) are British comic book enthusiasts and best friends who travel to the United States to attend the annual San Diego Comic-Con International, and to take a road trip through the American Southwest to visit sites significant to UFO lore. While driving on a remote desert highway at night, after a tense situation with some rednecks in a diner, Graeme and Clive observe a car driving erratically and then crash. They stop to investigate and offer assistance to the driver, who turns out to be an alien named Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen). Clive faints, but Graeme agrees to assist Paul and gives him a ride.
Later, United States Secret Service Agent Zoil (Jason Bateman) arrives at the car crash site and informs his unseen female superior, "the Big Guy" (Sigourney Weaver), that he is closing in on Paul. She sends two inept rookies, Haggard (Bill Hader) and O'Reilly (Joe Lo Truglio), to assist Zoil.
Graeme, Clive and Paul camp at an RV park run by two Christian fundamentalists; one-eyed Ruth Buggs (Kristen Wiig) and her father, Moses. Upon Ruth discovering Paul the next day, the three are forced to take her with them. During an argument about her religion, Paul puts his hand on her forehead and shows her his collective knowledge, after which Ruth realizes that everything she was raised to believe is questionable. Paul later uses his healing powers to cure Ruth's blinded eye and convinces her to moderate her fundamentalist beliefs. The fugitives stop at a bar and Ruth tries to call Moses, but Zoil intercepts the call and she is accosted by the rednecks from the start of their journey, starting a bar fight in the process. Later, at another RV park, Ruth is questioned by Agent Zoil, but claims to know nothing about "a one-eyed girl" or "two British nerds". Released, she and Graeme retrieve Clive and Paul, who narrowly escape O'Reilly. Frustrated, Zoil orders Haggard and O'Reilly to return to base, but they insist on catching the alien on their own.
The group soon arrive at a house owned by Tara (Blythe Danner), who rescued Paul when he first crashed on Earth. As she makes tea for her visitors, Haggard, O'Reilly and Zoil surround the house. The fugitives flee, but O'Reilly shoots at them, igniting gas from Tara's stove and destroying her house. O'Reilly is apparently killed in the explosion. Haggard pursues and catches up to the RV. Due to an error in judgement, Haggard drives off a cliff and is killed. Zoil reassures the Big Guy that he will have Paul within the hour, but she is tired of waiting and informs Zoil that she has ordered a "military response".
Paul, Graeme, Clive, Ruth and Tara arrive at Devils Tower National Monument, where they set off fireworks as a signal to Paul's mothership. A helicopter suddenly arrives with agents and The Big Guy. Zoil then appears and starts a stand-off, disabling the agents, but is then wounded by The Big Guy. Secretly, Zoil is Paul's friend and attempting to aid the escape under cover of capturing Paul. Moses arrives unexpectedly and fires his shotgun with the intent on killing Paul but Graeme jumps in front of Paul and Ruth and is fatally wounded. Paul once again uses his healing powers to heal Graeme and revives him in spite of the danger to himself. Graeme sits up and kisses Ruth, but then they hear an ahem from The Big Guy. Just as The Big Guy is about to kill them, she is crushed by a suddenly arriving spaceship. Paul says goodbye to his friends before he leaves in the ship with Tara. Two years later, Graeme, Clive, Ruth, and O'Reilly (who survived the explosion) are at another Comic-Con where Graeme and Clive are promoting Paul, their best-selling novel.

Question: Why did Graeme and Clive travel to the United States?

To attended Comic-Con International.
To attend Comic-Con International.


Mary Stuart is imprisoned in England â nominally for the murder of her husband Darnley, but actually due to her claim to the throne of England held by Queen Elizabeth I. While Mary's cousin, Elizabeth, hesitates over signing Mary's death sentence, Mary hopes for a reprieve.
After Mary finds out that Mortimer (created by Schiller), the nephew of her custodian, is on her side, she entrusts her life to him. Mortimer is supposed to give Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, a letter from Mary, in which she pleads for help. This is a delicate situation, for Leicester seems to support Queen Elizabeth.
After numerous requests, Mary finally gains the opportunity to meet Queen Elizabeth (something that, in reality, never happened). This meeting ends in an acrimonious argument, caused by Mary's unwillingness to submit entirely to Elizabeth's wish. The argument leads to the inevitable suspicion that the cause of reprieve will not succeed.
To complicate matters further, Mortimer plans to free Mary from the prison by force, a dramatized version of the unsuccessful Babington Plot, but when his attempt is found out, he commits suicide.
Queen Elizabeth eventually persuades herself to sign Mary's death warrant. Elizabeth insists that her only reason for signing is the pressure from her own people to do so.
The signed warrant is handed to Queen Elizabeth's undersecretary Davison without any clear instructions on what to do with it. In the process, Elizabeth transfers the burden of responsibility to him, fully aware that he in turn will hand over the warrant to Lord Burleigh, and thus confirm Mary's death sentence.
Burleigh demands the signed document from Davison, who â despite his uncertainty â eventually hands it to him. As a result, Burleigh has Mary executed.
The play ends with Elizabeth blaming both Burleigh and Davison for Mary's death (banishing the former from court and having the latter imprisoned in the Tower), Lord Shrewsbury (who pleaded for mercy for Mary throughout the play) resigning his honors and Leicester leaving England for France. Elizabeth is left completely alone as the curtain falls.

Question: Why does Elizabeth want Mary imprisoned?

Because she has a claim to the throne that could threaten Elizabeth's power.


After enjoying the favours of Onaelia, niece to the duke of Medina, the Spanish king repudiates her and her son, Sebastian, making Paulina, daughter of the duke of Florence, his queen. On hearing this, the noble soldier Balthazar works on the conscience of the king to take back Onaelia. Despite the threat of civil war, the king refuses. Count Malatesta proposes to the queen that she pretend to be pregnant, to sound the hearts of the Spanish people. Roderigo, Lopez, and Valasco, dons of Spain, rally to the cause of their majesties against the duke of Medina's faction. Angered at her rival, the queen proposes to Balthazar the murder of Onaelia and her son, to which he pretends to acquiesce after receiving the king's command. But, loyal to Onaelia, Balthazar announces these plots to Medina, who disguises himself as a French doctor to gain access to the king.
When the disguised Medina speaks to the king, he becomes convinced of the legitimacy of the king's plot to murder his niece as well as Balthazar's loyalty. To appease the rebellious faction, the king proposes a marriage between Onaelia and Cockadillio, a courtier, an offer which is accepted. The queen and Malateste again confer, deciding to poison Onaelia. During the marriage ceremony, the king takes up the poisoned cup meant for Onaelia, to the queen's and Malateste's consternation. While the king is drinking, Malateste admits their crime and is stabbed to death by the faction. While dying, the king passes the crown to Sebastian and commands that the queen be sent back to Florence with treble dowry. Onaelia and Balthazar are appointed to protect Sebastian in his youth.

Question: Who drinks from the cup of poison meant for Onaelia ?

The king of Spain drinks from the poisoned cup meant for Onaelia.


The work outlines St. Augustine's sinful youth and his conversion to Christianity. It is widely seen as the first Western autobiography ever written, and was an influential model for Christian writers throughout the following 1,000 years, through the Middle Ages. It is not a complete autobiography, as it was written in his early 40s, and he lived long afterwards, producing another important work (City of God). It does, nonetheless, provide an unbroken record of his development of thought and is the most complete record of any single person from the 4th and 5th centuries. It is a significant theological work, featuring spiritual meditations and insights.
In the work St. Augustine writes about how much he regrets having led a sinful and immoral life. He discusses his regrets for following the Manichaean religion and believing in astrology. He writes about Nebridius's role in helping to persuade him that astrology was not only incorrect but evil, and St. Ambrose's role in his conversion to Christianity. The first nine books are autobiographical and the last four are commentary. He shows intense sorrow for his sexual sins, and writes on the importance of sexual morality. The books were written as prayers to God, thus the title, based on the Psalms of David; and it begins with "For Thou hast made us for Thyself and our hearts are restless till they rest in Thee." The work is thought to be divisible into books which symbolize various aspects of the Trinity and trinitarian belief.

Question: What is  St. Augustine writing about?

His transformation to Christianity and the regrets of a sinful and immoral life.


Equality 7-2521, writing by candlelight in a tunnel under the earth, tells the story of his life up to that point. He exclusively uses plural pronoun(s) ("we", "our", "they") to refer to himself and others. He was raised like all children in his society, away from his parents in collective homes. Later, he realized that he was born with a "curse", that makes him learn quickly and ask many questions. He excelled at the Science of Things and dreamed of becoming a Scholar. However, a Council of Vocations assigns all people to their Life Mandate, and he was assigned to be a Street Sweeper.
Equality 7-2521 accepts his street sweeping assignment as penance for his "Transgression of Preference" in secretly desiring to be a Scholar. He works with Union 5-3992 and International 4-8818, who is Equality's only friend (which is another Transgression of Preference). He found an entrance to a tunnel in their assigned work area. Despite International's protests that any exploration unauthorized by a Council is forbidden, Equality entered the tunnel and found that it contains metal tracks. Equality realized that the tunnel is from the Unmentionable Times of the distant past. He began sneaking away from his community to use the tunnel as a laboratory for scientific experiments. He stole paper and is using it to write his journal. He is now 21 years old.
While cleaning a road at the edge of the City, Equality meets Liberty 5-3000, a 17-year-old Peasant girl who works in the fields. He commits another transgression by thinking constantly of her, instead of waiting to be assigned a woman at the annual Time of Mating. She has dark eyes and golden hair, and he names her "The Golden One". When he speaks to her, he discovers that she also thinks of him. Later he reveals his secret name for her, and Liberty tells Equality she has named him "The Unconquered".
Continuing his scientific work, Equality rediscovers electricity. In the ruins of the tunnel, he finds a glass box with wires in it, that gives off light when he passes electricity through it. He decides to take his discovery to the World Council of Scholars, thinking that such a great gift to mankind will outweigh his transgressions and lead to him being made a Scholar. However, one night he loses track of time in the underground tunnel and his absence from the Home of the Street Sweepers is noticed. He is whipped and held in the Palace of Corrective Detention. The night before the World Council of Scholars is set to meet, he easily escapes; there are no guards because no one has ever attempted escape before. The next day he presents his work to the World Council of Scholars. Horrified that he has done unauthorized research, they assail him as a "wretch" and a "gutter cleaner", saying he must be punished. They say his discovery must be destroyed, lest it disrupt the plans of the World Council and the Department of Candles. Equality seizes the box and flees into the Uncharted Forest that lies outside the City.
In the Uncharted Forest, Equality sees himself as damned for having left his fellow men, but he enjoys his freedom. No one will pursue him into this forbidden place. He only misses the Golden One. On his second day of living in the forest, the Golden One appears, having followed him into the forest. They live together in the forest and try to express their love for one another, but they lack the words to express love as individuals.
They find a house from the Unmentionable Times in the mountains, and decide to live in it. While reading books from the house's library, Equality discovers the word "I" and tells the Golden One about it. Having rediscovered individuality, they give themselves new names from the books: Equality becomes "Prometheus" and Liberty becomes "Gaea". Prometheus talks about the past, wondering how men could give up their individuality, and plans a future in which they will regain it.

Question: What was equality born with?


Anna Karenina is the tragic story of a married aristocrat/socialite and her affair with the affluent Count Vronsky. The story opens when she arrives in the midst of a family broken up by her brother's unbridled womanizing—something that prefigures her own later situation, though she would experience less tolerance by others.
A bachelor, Vronsky is eager to marry her if she will agree to leave her husband Karenin, a senior government official, but she is vulnerable to the pressures of Russian social norms, the moral laws of the Russian Orthodox Church, her own insecurities, and Karenin's indecision. Although Vronsky and Anna go to Italy, where they can be together, they have trouble making friends. Back in Russia, she is shunned, becoming further isolated and anxious, while Vronsky pursues his social life. Despite Vronsky's reassurances, she grows increasingly possessive and paranoid about his imagined infidelity, fearing loss of control.
A parallel story within the novel is that of Konstantin Levin, a wealthy country landowner who wants to marry Princess Kitty, sister to Dolly and sister-in-law to Anna's brother Oblonsky. Konstantin has to propose twice before Kitty accepts. The novel details Konstantin's difficulties managing his estate, his eventual marriage, and his personal issues, until the birth of his first child.
The novel explores a diverse range of topics throughout its approximately thousand pages. Some of these topics include an evaluation of the feudal system that existed in Russia at the time—politics, not only in the Russian government but also at the level of the individual characters and families, religion, morality, gender and social class.The novel is divided into eight parts. Its epigraph is Vengeance is mine, I will repay, from Romans 12:19, which in turn quotes from Deuteronomy 32:35.
The novel begins with one of its most often-quoted lines:
“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

Question: What does Anna's brother's womanizing cause?


Born in 1930 to a recently widowed Englishwoman on a homestead in rural Natal, little Peter Philip (Guy Witcher) is schooled in the ways of England by his mother and the ways of Africa by a Zulu nanny (Nomadlozi Kubheka), whose son Tonderai is also his best friend. Their easy life is forever shattered, however, when the farm's cattle are claimed by rinderpest. PK's mother succumbs to a nervous breakdown, and he is sent away to a conservative Afrikaans boarding school while she recovers.
Being the only English speaker, PK soon earns almost universal contempt from his scathing Afrikaner fellows—particularly an older student, Jaapie Botha. Botha's abuse and the inferiority complex which results strikes PK with a severe case of nocturnal enuresis, a habit which he eventually overcomes with local sangoma Dabula Manzi. In conquering his nightmares, PK is given a chicken (Mother Courage), which becomes his closest companion. Botha subsequently captures PK and Mother Courage and has them tried before a mock court while elaborating on the depth of his hatred for the British—a people he holds responsible for atrocities committed during the Second Boer War. The Afrikaans boys hang Mother Courage and kill her with a rock, but their attempts to kill PK in a similar manner are interrupted by a teacher who later oversees Botha's expulsion.
With his mother dead, PK finds himself living with his grandfather in Barberton. He eventually seeks a mentor in Karl "Doc" von Vollensteen (Armin Mueller-Stahl), a lonely German musician who lost his family in Europe. Doc warms to PK and under his guidance the latter soon becomes an excellent pianist. He is interned as an enemy alien at the onset of World War II, but PK continues to visit him regularly in prison. Doc introduces the boy to Geel Piet, a Cape Coloured inmate who takes von Vollensteen's place as PK's mentor, training him to be an excellent boxer. Piet also impresses on PK his mantra: "first with the head, then with the heart", a phrase that will see the young man through even greater hard times ahead.
A maturing PK (Simon Fenton) begins to express sympathy towards black prisoners, who are detained under appalling conditions. He works with Doc to distribute contraband among the Africans, writing their letters to home, and sharing their many sufferings. The war does not end happily for PK, as Doc is repatriated and Piet—seriously injured by a white warder—fails to survive his sentence. PK is sent away again, this time to study at the prestigious Prince of Wales School in Johannesburg. While attending a boxing championship, he is enamoured by Maria Marais, daughter of a leading National Party official. Since her strict father will not permit them to see each other openly, they begin dating in secret. On one such outing they are introduced to Gideon Duma, a prominent boxer in Alexandra, a notorious black township. Duma's passion for resisting apartheid inspires PK, and he begins teaching English at a rural African school.
Maria's father, incensed by the couple's ongoing relationship and PK's ties to a multiracial gym, leads him to request a formal investigation by one of his South African Police contacts, Colonel Breyten. Breyten and his sergeant, an embittered Jaapie Botha, place PK under surveillance for subversion. His clashes with the SAP finally come to a head when Maria is killed during a raid on a biracial church by the security forces. Maddened by grief, PK considers fleeing to England, but is consoled by his former boxing partner, who reminds him of all the good he can still do in Africa.
Botha leads a violent raid on Alexandra the following night. He threatens to shoot Elias Mlungisi, the local boxing promoter, only to be confronted by PK. They spar; PK easily bests his childhood enemy. Botha is still bent on executing the erstwhile victor, but an arriving Gideon Duma despatches the policeman with a cricket bat before he can fire. Now fugitives from the apartheid government, PK and Duma vow to continue a campaign against racial injustice. Peter's closing narration identifies meaningful voices during his life; from mother and nanny, to Doc and Dabula Manzi, Geel Piet and, finally, Maria Marais.

Question: In what year was Peter Philip born?


In the main plot, William the Conqueror falls in love with the image on the shield that the Marquess of Lubeck carries in a tournament. In disguise, William travels to the court of King Zweno of Denmark to see the original of the portrait; once there, he falls in love with Marianna, a Swedish princess held hostage at the Danish court. Marianna, however, is faithful to her suitor, Lubeck, and has no interest in William; but the king's daughter Blanche becomes infatuated with the newcomer. The ladies stage a plot, in which William absconds with the woman he thinks is Marianne; in doing so he gets in trouble with Zweno, who is under the same mistaken impression. When the woman's true identity is revealed â she is of course Blanche â William accepts her as his wife. Lubeck and Marianne are left, happily, to each other.
In the subplot, Em, the beautiful daughter of the miller of Manchester, is wooed by three suitors, Valingford, Mountney, and Manvile. Preferring Manvile, she pretends blindness to evade Valingford, and deafness to avoid Mountney. But Manvile proves unfaithful to Em. In the end, Manvile loses both of the women he pursues, and Em marries Valingford, the one of the three who has remained true to her; and it is revealed that Em is actually of the gentry â her father is Sir Thomas Goddard, and the miller of Manchester was his disguise. The two plots meet at the end, as William recognizes Goddard's banishment was unjust and revokes it. Em makes William realize that the world does contain virtuous women, which helps to reconcile him to his marriage with Blanche.

Question: What does William do for Em's father near the end of the story?

He revokes his banishment.
revokes his banishment


Martin, CEO of Tri-Oceanic Corp., hires geologist Steven Beck to supervise an undersea mining operation for six months. The crew consists of members Doc, Willie, Sixpack, Jones, DeJesus, Bowman and Cobb. While working outside their deep sea station in a pressure suit, Sixpack discovers a Soviet shipwreck, Leviathan. The crew salvage a safe from Leviathan, finding records detailing the deaths of several crew members as well as a video log from the captain. Sixpack also finds a flask of vodka which he shares with Bowman. Doc and Beck review the captain's video, which describes puzzling medical problems amongst his crew. They also discover that Leviathan was scuttled.
The following morning, Sixpack feels sick and Doc discovers lesions along his back. He dies a few hours later, but Doc and Beck keep it quiet to avoid a panic. Doc checks the crew to confirm no one else is sick, but does not have the chance to examine Bowman. While Beck and Doc confer with Martin on the surface, Bowman begins feeling ill. She finds Sixpack's corpse, which is mutating and growing. When Bowman's hair starts falling out, she realizes the same thing is happening to her. Beck and Doc request emergency evacuation, but Martin reports a severe storm on the surface that will delay evacuation for 12 hours.
Doc finds that Bowman killed herself. Her body is taken to sickbay, where it merges with Sixpack's. When the crew discovers the mutating bodies, they decide to dump both of them in the ocean. As they are about to "flush" the cadavers, the body bag begins squirming. Believing someone inside may be alive, the crew opens it. The creature inside claws Cobb before they eject it. They realize that Leviathan was experimenting on its unwitting crew with mutagens. The mutagen was mixed with the vodka that the crew, and later Sixpack and Bowman, drank. The ship was scuttled when the experiment escaped control.
A tentacle was severed when the corpses were ejected; it mutates into a lamprey-like creature that attacks DeJesus in the kitchen. Jones seals the kitchen's pressure doors and goes for help. He asks Cobb to watch the door, but when he searches for a weapon, the creature assimilates DeJesus and rips its way out of the kitchen. It then grows tentacles that attack the crew.
The creature attacks the medical bay, devouring blood and plasma from the cooler. This inspires Beck to use a pint of his blood to attract the beast, then attempt to flush it the same way they did with Sixpack and Bowman. Doc ejects the escape pods so that no one can escape and risk bringing the mutagen to the surface. Beck consults with Martin for emergency evacuation. Martin assures them that they will not be left behind, but that she cannot carry out the rescue because of a hurricane.
Cobb's injuries worsen, causing him to mutate and infect Doc. Williams escapes as Beck and Jones try trapping the creature. They escape to another part of the station. The crew tries accessing weather information through the computer, but it is blocked. Williams asks the computer for a financial report from the company and they discover that Tri-Oceanic Corporation has declared them dead, labeling it an accident.
The creature damages vital systems, causing the pressure to drop and an implosion to occur. They decide to use their dive suits to escape. The creature attacks them, but is crushed by the lift as Beck escapes. They make it to the surface, which is calm and sunny. As they are met by a Coast Guard helicopter, the mutant surfaces nearby and tries to take Jones. He keeps it from escaping at the cost of his own life, and Beck throws a demolition charge into the creature's mouth, causing it to explode.
After they are dropped off on a Tri-Oceanic oil drilling platform, the two survivors are greeted by Martin. Martin tells them she believed they would make it, smiling insincerely and asking how Beck feels. Beck punches Martin in the face, knocking her out, and then answers her question by saying "Better. A lot better."

Question: How does Bowman die?


Kirk Kettner (Jay Baruchel) is a twenty-something TSA officer employed at the Pittsburgh International Airport along with his friends, fellow TSA officer Stainer (T. J. Miller), airline reservations agent Devon (Nate Torrence), and baggage handler Jack (Mike Vogel). Kirk has a poor track record with dating and is hoping to reconcile with his self-centered ex-girlfriend, Marnie (Lindsay Sloane), who despite having broken up with him two years earlier, and having since found a new boyfriend Ron (Hayes MacArthur), has remained close with Kirk's parents (Debra Jo Rupp and Adam LeFevre), brother Dylan (Kyle Bornheimer), and pregnant sister-in-law-to-be Debbie (Jessica St. Clair).
At work one morning, an attractive young woman, Molly McCleish (Alice Eve), arrives at the passenger terminal to board a flight to New York City. While proceeding through the TSA security checkpoint, Molly's striking looks attract unwanted attention from several male TSA officers who try flirting with her awkwardly. Kirk is the only TSA officer to treat Molly courteously. On the airplane, she realizes that she accidentally left her cellphone in the airport security area. When she calls up her phone, Kirk answers and arranges a time to meet the following evening so that Kirk can return it.
When Devon and Kirk arrive at the Andy Warhol Museum, where Molly, a lawyer-turned-event planner, is managing an event, Kirk collides with Molly's sister, Katie (Kim Shaw) and spills his drink on the museum director. Kirk takes the blame for the incident to protect Katie, after which a grateful Molly offers Kirk tickets to a Pittsburgh Penguins hockey game at the Mellon Arena. When Kirk and Stainer meet Molly and her best friend Patty (Krysten Ritter), who develops an immediate mutual loathing with Stainer (he subsequently refers to her as "The Hamburglar"), at the game, Kirk, still convinced Molly is not interested in him, assumes Molly meant to set him up with Patty, until Patty explicitly tells him of Molly's interest.
The two begin to date after this, with Kirk confiding in her his dream of becoming a pilot someday, though Stainer predicts their relationship will fail as he deems Molly a "10" in a scale of attractiveness, and Kirk only a "5", telling him a girl he loved once broke up with him for this very reason. Patty, for her part, believes Molly had only chosen Kirk because he was a "safe" choice after being hurt by her last boyfriend, Air Force pilot Cam (Geoff Stults), who assumes Kirk is a waiter and attempts to order drinks from Kirk when they first meet, and then believing Kirk to be a homosexual friend of Molly's.
Molly then invites herself to Kirk's family lunch, where she charms his family and even Ron after highly intimidating the men of the house with her looks. Molly's attentions to Kirk stir jealousy in Marnie, who feels upstaged by Molly's attractiveness, and takes a sudden interest in Kirk again.
After returning to Molly's apartment, Kirk ejaculates prematurely in his pants when things start to heat up, just as Molly's parents (played by Eve's real-life parents, Sharon Maughan and Trevor Eve) arrive for a surprise visit. Desperate to conceal the stain on his pants, Kirk seems discourteous by avoiding to stand up and shake hands, and quickly leaves Molly's apartment. Molly grows cool to Kirk after this, believing he fled to avoid meeting her parents. At Jack's urging, Kirk admits the true reasons for his leaving, and their relationship resumes.
During a date, Kirk suggests to Molly that she throw a birthday party for Katie (with music provided by Stainer's Hall & Oates tribute band, "Adult Education"). Kirk is troubled, when Molly is intentionally vague about Kirk's line of work to her parents. To add to his troubles, Molly's macho ex-boyfriend Cam shows up and messes with Kirk by deliberately alluding to Molly having some sort of "defect".
After the party, both of them go back to Molly's apartment and make out, where Kirk discovers Molly's "defect" is slightly webbed toes, which Kirk considers so minor that he decides that she is indeed too perfect for him. Molly is upset that Kirk is so insecure that he felt he could only be with her if something was wrong with her. After telling Kirk that she and Cam had broken up because of his own insecurities, with him even cheating on her, she admits she had indeed asked Kirk out because she considered him safe and breaks up with him.
Kirk leaves and later resumes his relationship with Marnie, planning on a family trip to Branson.
Stainer and Patty realize their mistake in telling Kirk and Molly it wouldn't work out; Stainer tells Kirk that he is a "10" too. They pull Kirk off his plane as the aircraft prepares to depart to Branson as he tries to leave with his family and Marnie, while Patty brings Molly to the airport. Kirk rejects Marnie during an unorthodox airport pursuit and meets Molly in the airport where she tells him that he is out of shape and she asked him out because she thought he was safe and wouldn't hurt her. She then continues to tell him that she doesn't care what he is employed as and that she misses him and wants to be together with him. Kirk and Molly then make up and resume their relationship, even if their friends don't approve it.
Later, as a surprise, Kirk is seen walking on the airport Tarmac with Molly where he takes Molly on a trip in a small plane, with him as the pilot. The couple are last seen happily together in a small plane taking off from Pittsburgh airport.

Question: How long have Kirk and Marnie been broken up?


Rose Lorkowski (Amy Adams) is a thirty-something single mother, working full-time as a maid. Her underachieving sister Norah (Emily Blunt) lives with their father Joe (Alan Arkin), and is fired from her job as a waitress. After the school expels Rose's son Oscar for his erratic behavior, she is told she must put him on medication or send him to a private school. Unable to make enough money with her current job, Rose asks Mac (Steve Zahn), her ex-boyfriend during their high school years and her married lover, for advice. Mac recommends a crime scene cleanup job, and with his connections as a police officer, he gets Rose and Norah into the business.
At first, the sisters perform their job poorly, carelessly handling the hazardous materials by throwing them into dumpsters instead of properly disposing of them in an incinerator. Needing to operate as a more reputable service, the sisters get the necessary tools from Winston (Clifton Collins, Jr.), a one-armed storekeeper of a shop for cleanup material. The sisters name their cleanup business "Sunshine Cleaning" and start making progress as their reputation grows. They begin to find meaning in their function to "help" in some way in the aftermath of a loss or disaster, even though the job stirs up memories of their own mother's suicide. At the same time, the members of the family deal with their individual problems. Rose encounters some of her former high school classmates and is embarrassed by the state of her position in life. After an encounter with Mac's pregnant wife in a gas station, Rose realizes that Mac will never leave his marriage, and ends their relationship. Norah meets and has a relationship with Lynn, the daughter of a woman whose house they cleaned. Joe begins to sell shrimp, hoping to raise enough money to buy a pair of expensive binoculars that Oscar wants for his birthday.
One day, an insurance company calls for the services of Sunshine Cleaning, granting the sisters the potential to obtain a breakthrough reputation. Unfortunately for Rose, a baby shower is on the same day, with all her high school classmates attending. She asks Norah to clean the house alone until she can catch up. Norah's attempt to clean the house is disastrous as she accidentally burns down the house with an unattended candle. The burning of the house tarnishes the business reputation and they are forced to pay a debt of $40,000, which the sisters simply cannot afford. Sunshine Cleaning goes out of business, and Rose is forced to return to her previous job as a maid. Meanwhile, Joe's shrimp plan goes awry as all the stores and restaurants he approaches refuse to buy. Joe had not realized when he purchased the shrimp that no legitimate business would be willing to accept the health risks involved in buying food from a non-reputable source. Lynn becomes frustrated as she questions whether Norah was truly interested in her at all. At Oscar's birthday party, Norah apologizes to Rose, and despite still being mad at her, Rose forgives her. The family and Winston then celebrate Oscar's birthday.
Sometime later, Rose visits her father who says he's sold his house and explains that with the money, he has started, with Winston's help, a new cleanup business named Lorkowski Cleaning. He asks Rose to go into partnership with him and she agrees. Norah goes on a road trip to find her new self, while Rose starts working with her father at Lorkowski Cleaning. The movie ends on a positive note, with the implication that Norah has reached a positive turning point in her life and is at peace with herself and that Rose will successfully run her business while also looking after her eccentric father.

Question: What name did the sisters originally give their cleanup business?


In 1968, Frank Lucas is the right-hand man of Harlem gangster Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson. When Johnson dies of a heart attack, Lucas takes control of the Harlem crime scene.
After handing in almost $1 million that he found in a mobster's car, Newark detective Richie Roberts is ostracized in his precinct. After his exiled and addicted partner overdoses on a potent brand of heroin called "Blue Magic", Captain Lou Toback puts Roberts in charge of a task force that targets local suppliers. Lucas buys Blue Magic directly from producers in Thailand and smuggles it into the U.S. through returning Vietnam War servicemen. His low overhead allows him to eventually wholesale Blue Magic to most the dealers in the New York area. With this monopoly, Lucas expands his control to nightclubs, casinos, and prostitution. He buys a mansion for his mother and recruits his five brothers, including Huey and Turner, as lieutenants to spread his empire. During his rise to becoming Harlem's crime boss, Lucas falls in love with Eva, a Puerto Rican beauty queen.
As Lucas' business prospers, he makes a point of operating quietly and dressing with a modest conservatism both as a sign of strength and to avoid attracting police attention. Also, he stays away from the drugs to avoid making hard decisions under the influence. However, Lucas violates these principles when he attends the Fight of the Century with Eva, sporting gaudy clothes that were a present by Eva; Roberts attends the fight, notices the previously unknown Lucas with even better seats than the Italian mobsters, and investigates him. Meanwhile, Lucas needs to deal with Lucchese mafia boss Dominic Cattano, who threatens to destroy Lucas' family unless he gets in on a deal, and corrupt NYPD detectives led by Nick Trupo, who attempts to extort and blackmail him to give them a cut. Lucas must also compete with local crime figure Nicky Barnes, a young gun trying to take over Harlem who has been diluting Lucas' Blue Magic and selling it under the same brand name. After the Fall of Saigon cuts off Lucas' supply, he is forced to rely on the other crime rings.
Roberts' detectives witness Frank Lucas' cousin and driver shoot a woman and then use the threat of a long sentence to get him to wear a wire. The gathered information allows Roberts and his task force to identify and search one of the last planes carrying Lucas' stock, discovering Blue Magic in the coffins of dead returning servicemen. With this evidence they obtain a warrant to follow the drugs into Newark's projects and Lucas' heroin processing facility. In the ensuing shootout, Steve Lucas, Frank Lucas' young nephew who gave up a promising career for the New York Yankees to join Lucas' crime family, is killed. Meanwhile, Trupo, whose prized Shelby Mustang Lucas had destroyed, and his men break into Lucas' mansion to steal his emergency cash supply hidden under the doghouse, killing the dog. As Lucas gets ready to go after Trupo, his mother dissuades him from killing a cop, warning him that she and Eva will leave him if he does. Lucas is arrested after Roberts' team conducts a raid on the shops run by his brothers.
In the police station, Lucas offers to bribe Roberts, but is rebuffed. Instead, Roberts offers Lucas a chance at a shorter jail sentence if he aids his investigation of dirty cops in the NYPD and Lucas duly provides Roberts with the names. In the end, three quarters of the New York DEA are arrested and convicted, and a distraught Trupo commits suicide. Roberts, having just passed the bar exam, defends Lucas as his first client. Lucas is sentenced to 70 years in prison, of which he serves 15 years and is released in 1991.

Question: How did Bumpy die?


On July 2, 1937, Amelia Earhart (Hilary Swank) and her navigator, Fred Noonan (Christopher Eccleston), are on the last leg of an around-the-world flight. Moving in vignettes from her early years when Earhart was captivated by the sight of an aircraft flying overhead on the Kansas prairie where she grew up, her life over the preceding decade gradually unfolds. As a young woman, she is recruited by publishing tycoon and eventual husband, George Putnam (Richard Gere) to become the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean, albeit as a passenger. Taking command of the flight results in a success and she is thrust into the limelight as the most famous woman pilot of her time. Putnam helps Earhart write a book chronicling the flight, much like his earlier triumph with Charles Lindbergh's We. Earhart gradually falls in love with Putnam and they eventually marry, although she enacts a "cruel" pledge as her wedding contract.
Embarrassed that her fame was not earned, Earhart commences to set myriad aviation records, and in 1932, recreates her earlier transatlantic flight, becoming the first female pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic. Throughout a decade of notoriety, Earhart falls into an awkward love affair with pilot and future Federal Aviation administrator Gene Vidal (Ewan McGregor). In a display of romantic jealousy, Putnam quietly tells Amelia that he does not want Vidal in his house. Earhart is annoyed by the seemingly endless agenda of celebrity appearances and endorsements but Putnam reminds his wife that it funds her flying. Earhart returns to her husband on the eve of her last momentous flight. Earhart's last flight was her biggest and most dangerous adventure to date. Her plan was to fly around the world. Earhart's first attempt ends in a runway crash in Hawaii, due to a collapsed landing gear, and her aircraft requires extensive repairs before the flight can be attempted again. Eventually, she takes the repaired Lockheed Model 10 Electra, sponsored by Purdue University, in a reverse direction, leaving the lengthy trans-Pacific crossing at the end of her flight.
Setting out to refuel at tiny Howland Island, radio transmissions between USCGC Itasca, a Coast Guard picket ship, and Earhart's aircraft reveal a rising crisis. Earhart radios to Itasca that the sky has become cloudy and overcast. When Itasca attempts to radio her back, however, all Earhart gets is static. For the rest of the approach, Earhart cannot hear Itasca's transmissions, although they can hear hers. The Coast Guard radio operators realize that they do not have sufficient length to provide a "fix". Itasca has a directional finder with a dead battery, and weak radio communications prevent Earhart and USCG Itasca from making contact. Running low on fuel, Earhart and Noonan continue to fly on over empty ocean, as Earhart informs the Itasca that she is on position line 157-337, running north and south. She is not heard from again. A massive search effort is unsuccessful, but solidifies Earhart as an aviation icon.

Question: What model plane did Amelia Earhart use in her attempt to fly around the world?

Lockheed Model 10 Electra
A Lockheed Model 10 Electra.


Augusta Triumphans offers suggestions for the enhancement of the city of London. It begins with two introductory paragraphs. The former is a brief reflection on “projecting heads” and the attitude of the English towards them.“Projecting heads”, that is to say individuals who create schemes for social improvement, are invited to make proposals without fearing to be ridiculed. They should exclusively focus on offering honest advice. In addition, the possible shortcomings of their projects should be forgiven in that “It is a kind of good action to mean well, and the intention ought to palliate the failure”. As for the English, they are described as the least clement nation towards such individuals. They “treat them in the vilest manner” and it is because of this reason that their country is “esteemed so bad at invention”. In the second opening paragraph, the narrator explains the reason why he has written this pamphlet. He wants to make good use of the remaining time of his life by putting innovative proposals down on paper. On the whole, this work is intended to be the “testimony of” his “good will to” his “fellow-creatures”.
Immediately after this introductory discourse, Andrew Moreton moves on to illustrate the project upon which he has reflected most. He fosters the establishment of a London university to oppose the contemporary corruption of learning and education. Subsequently, four titled sections come one after the other and present other schemes for social improvement. Section one calls for the establishment of a foundling hospital. It would prevent many mothers from freeing themselves of their illegitimate offspring through abortion or abandonment in parishes which do not offer them decent living conditions. Section two shows how a real academy of music would "prevent the expensive importation of foreign musicians, & c". Section three firstly offers advice to rescue "youths and servants" from moral corruption. Secondly, it denounces certain social evils: prostitution, gambling, and a series of dissolute manners to spend one's free time on Sunday such as alcohol misuse. Thirdly, it makes a digression on husbands's abuses of their wives and comments about contemporary private madhouses. Section four encourages the adoption of measures to stop street robbery. They include moral education and the introduction of a competent and paid body of watchmen as well as an adequate system of street lighting at night.
The final part of Augusta Triumphans is titled “Omissions”. It is a revision of two aspects of the projects which have been illustrated so far. Andrew Moreton begins with rejecting his initial idea of founding a London university composed of “only a hall or public room”. Rather, “it should be a large house or inn, in the nature of a college, with store of convenient rooms for gentlemen, not only to study separately, but wherein to lodge their books, for it would be most inconvenient to lug them backwards and forwards”. He then expands his “discourse on madhouses”, particularly by offering a suggestion to impede the unjust confinement of widows or other women who find themselves with a fortune and no male guidance. In order to prevent them from becoming victims of greedy and manipulatory “strangers”, the nearest male relative should succeed the deceased gentleman in the management of the estate.
At the end of the pamphlet is attached a letter “To Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Robinson” which is dated “Sept. 23, 1728”. Its signatory, Andrew Moreton, begins with briefly congratulating the addressee for his “election into the chamberlainship of the city of London”. He subsequently poses a series of questions to understand the purpose of “the orphan’s tax”.

Question: What is the final paragraph of Augusta Triumphans titled?


The plot opens on the royal family of Paflagonia eating breakfast together: King Valoroso, his wife, the Queen, and their daughter, Princess Angelica. Through the course of the meal it is discovered that Prince Bulbo, heir to the neighbouring kingdom of Crim Tartary, and son of King Padella is coming to visit Paflagonia. It is also discovered, after the two females have left the table, that King Valoroso stole his crown, and all his wealth, from his nephew, Prince Giglio, when the prince was an infant.
Prince Giglio and Princess Angelica have been brought up together very closely, Princess Angelica being considered the most beautiful and wisest girl in the kingdom and Giglio being much overlooked in the household. Giglio, besotted with his cousin, has given her a ring belonging to his mother, which, unknown to them, was given to her by the Fairy Blackstick and which held the power to make the wearer beautiful to everyone who beheld them. After an argument with Giglio, about the arrival of the long-awaited Prince Bulbo, Angelica throws the ring out of the window and can be seen for her own, less attractive self.
Prince Bulbo, in his turn, possesses a magic rose, with the same power as the ring and coming from the same source: the Fairy Blackstick. Upon his arrival, this causes Angelica to be madly in love with him.
Angelica's governess, Countess Gruffanuff, finds the magic ring in the garden and, whilst wearing it, convinces Giglio to sign a paper swearing to marry her. She then gives the ring to Angelica's maid, Betsinda, an orphan discovered by the family with a torn cloak in her possession. The maid, however, is actually Rosalba, the only child of the true king of Crim Tartary. When Betsinda wears the ring to take the warming pan around the bedrooms, Princes Bulbo and Giglio immediately fall in love with her, along with King Valoroso. This excites the rage of The Queen, Angelica and Gruffanuff, and causes Betsinda to be driven from the house.
In response to Giglio's rudeness, Valoroso orders him to be executed, but his Captain of the Guards, Count Kutasoff Hedzoff, takes Bulbo to the scaffold instead, where he is reprieved at the last moment by Angelica, who takes his rose, returns to her former beauty and marries him.
Giglio is forced to flee and, with some help from The Fairy Blackstick, disguises himself as a student. In the meantime Rosalba has returned to Crim Tartary and discovered her heritage by means of the torn cloak, which is reunited with its other half to make the words "Princess Rosalba". King Padella, after his offer of marriage is refused, orders Rosalba to be thrown to the lions. Giglio, upon hearing this, takes back his throne in Paflagonia and leads his army to rescue Rosalba, using the captured Bulbo as a hostage.
When Padella refuses the exchange, Giglio decides that he had better keep his word and put Bulbo to death as threatened. However, the lions set upon Rosalba happen to be exactly the same lions which she grew up with in the wild, prior to being found by Princess Angelica, and carry her on their backs to Giglio's camp, where the pair are reunited.
Giglio and Rosalba return to Paflagonia along with Bulbo, now wearing the fairy ring. When they sit down to breakfast on their wedding day, Gruffanuff produces the paper pledging Giglio to herself. Wishing to put him in his place for his earlier arrogance, the Fairy Blackstick refuses to help at first and Giglio is forced to take Gruffanuff to the church in Rosalba's place. However, when they reach the building, The Fairy Blackstick transforms the doorknocker back into Gruffanuff's real husband, long believed dead after being bewitched by the fairy herself many years before. Giglio and Rosalba are then free to marry and do so. The Fairy Blackstick then leaves, never to be heard of again.

Question: What words do the two halves of the cloak make when they are connected?