In 1947, "toons" act out theatrical cartoon shorts as with live-action films; they regularly interact with real people and animals and reside in Toontown, an animated portion of Los Angeles. Private detective Eddie Valiant and his brother, Teddy, once worked closely with the toons on several famous cases, but after Teddy was killed by a toon, Eddie lapsed into alcoholism and vowed never to work for toons again. One day, R.K. Maroon, head of Maroon Cartoon Studios, is concerned about the recent poor acting performances of one of his biggest stars, Roger Rabbit. Maroon hires Valiant to investigate rumors about Roger's voluptuous toon wife Jessica being romantically involved with businessman and gadgets inventor, Marvin Acme, owner of both Acme Corporation and Toontown. After watching Jessica perform at the underground Ink & Paint Club, Valiant secretly takes photographs of her and Acme playing patty-cake in her dressing room, which he shows to Roger. Maroon suggests to Roger that he should leave Jessica, but a drunken Roger refuses and flees.
The next morning, Acme is discovered dead at his factory with a safe dropped on his head, and evidence points to Roger being responsible. While investigating, Valiant meets Judge Doom, Toontown's Superior Court judge, who has created a substance capable of killing a toon: a toxic chemical known as "The Dip". Valiant runs into Roger's toon co-star, Baby Herman, who believes Roger is innocent and that Acme's missing will, which will give the toons ownership of Toontown, may be the key to his murder. He then finds Roger hiding in his office, who begs him to help exonerate him. Valiant reluctantly hides Roger in a local bar where his ex-girlfriend, Dolores, works. Later, Jessica approaches Valiant and says that Maroon had forced her to pose for the photographs so that he could blackmail Acme.
Doom and his toon-weasel henchmen discover Roger, but he and Valiant escape with Benny, an anthropomorphic toon cab. They flee to a theater, where Valiant tells Roger about Teddy's death. As they leave with Dolores, Valiant sees a newsreel detailing the sale of Maroon Cartoons to Cloverleaf, a mysterious corporation that bought the city's trolley network shortly before Acme's murder. Valiant goes to the studio to confront Maroon, leaving Roger to guard outside, but Jessica knocks him out and puts him in the trunk. Maroon tells Valiant that he blackmailed Acme into selling his company so that he could then sell the studio, but is shot dead before he can explain the consequences of the missing will. Valiant spots Jessica fleeing the scene and, assuming she is the culprit, follows her into Toontown. Jessica reveals that Doom killed Acme and Maroon, and that the former had given her his will for safe-keeping, but she discovered that the will was blank. She and Valiant are then captured by Doom and the weasels.
At the Acme factory, Doom reveals his plot to destroy Toontown with a giant machine loaded with Dip to build a freeway, the only way past Toontown since Cloverleaf (which Doom owns) has bought out Los Angeles' tram system. Roger unsuccessfully attempts to save Jessica, and the couple is tied onto a hook in front of the machine's hose. Valiant then performs a comedic vaudeville act, causing the weasels to die of laughter; Valiant kicks their leader, Smart Ass, into the machine's Dip vat. Valiant then fights Doom, who is eventually flattened by a steamroller, but survives. Eddie is shocked when Doom reveals that he is a toon in disguiseâthe same toon who killed Teddy. Valiant uses a toon mallet with a spring-loaded boxing glove, and fires it at a switch that causes the machine to empty its Dip onto Doom, killing him. The empty machine crashes through the wall into Toontown, where it is destroyed by a train. Numerous toons run in to regard Doom's remains, and Roger discovers that he inadvertently wrote his love letter for Jessica on Acme's will, which was written in disappearing-reappearing ink. Roger then shocks Valiant with a joy buzzer, and Valiant gives him a kiss, having regained his sense of humor. Valiant happily enters Toontown with Dolores, and Roger with Jessica, followed by the other toons.

Question: How does Eddie defeat Doom?

He uses a toon hammer and hits the button on the dip machine, dumping dip all over him.

he uses a toon mallet with a spring-loaded boxing glove and fires it at a switch on the giant machine which empties Dip onto Doom


The novel is set in Paris in the upper-middle class environment of the leading journalists of the newspaper La Vie Française and their friends. It tells the story of Georges Duroy, who has spent three years in military service in Algeria. After working for six months as a clerk in Paris, an encounter with his former comrade, Forestier, enables him to start a career as a journalist. From a reporter of minor events and soft news, he gradually climbs his way up to chief editor. Duroy initially owes his success to Forestier’s wife, Madeleine, who helps him write his first articles and, when he later starts writing lead articles, she adds an edge and poignancy to them. At the same time, she uses her connections among leading politicians to provide him with behind the scenes information which allows him to become actively involved in politics. Duroy is also introduced to many politicians in Madame Forestier’s drawing-room. Duroy becomes the lover of Forestiers' friend Mme de Marelle, another influential woman. Duroy later tries to seduce Madeleine Forestier to get even with her husband, but she repulses Duroy’s sexual advances and offers that they become true friends without ulterior motives.
In a few months, Charles Forestier’s health deteriorates and he travels to the south of France to regain it. Soon afterwards, Duroy receives a letter from Madeleine imploring him to join her and help her bear the last moments of her husband’s life. When Forestier dies, Duroy asks Madeleine to marry him. After a few weeks to consider, she agrees. Georges now signs his articles Du Roy (an aristocratic style of French name) in order to add prestige to his name. The married couple travels to Normandy, the region of Georges’s childhood, and meets his peasant parents. Finding the reality different from her romantic expectations, Madeleine feels very uncomfortable with his parents and so their stay with them is short. In the newspaper office, Duroy is ridiculed for having his articles written by his wife, just as the late Forestier had his articles written by her. His newspaper colleagues call him ‘Forestier’, which drives Georges mad and he becomes heavily jealous of Madeleine, insisting that she admit having been unfaithful to Forestier, but she never does.
In order to suppress the stings of jealousy, Duroy starts an affair with Mme Walter, the wife of the owner of the newspaper. He especially enjoys the conquest as he is her first extramarital lover. Later on, however, he regrets the decision, for he cannot get rid of her when he does not want her. Duroy’s relations with his wife become estranged; at one point, he takes a police superintendent and three other police officers to a flat in which his wife is meeting Monsieur Laroche-Mathieu, her lover. They catch the two in the act of adultery, which was then a crime punishable under the law. Duroy used the police as witnesses of his wife's adultery to facilitate their divorce. He did not have her or her lover arrested although the police gave him the option to do so.
In the last two chapters, Duroy's ascent to power continues. Duroy, now a single man, makes use of his chief’s daughter's infatuation with him, and arranges an elopement with her. The parents then have no other choice but to grant their assent to the marriage. The last chapter shows Duroy savouring his success at the wedding ceremony at which 'all those who figured prominently in society' are present. His thoughts, however, chiefly belong to Mme de Marelle who, when wishing him all the best, indicates that she has forgiven him for his new marriage and that their intimate meetings can be taken up again.

Question: What is the name of the woman Duroy has an affair with?


The first story, "The Blonde Lady", opens with the purchase of an antique desk by a mathematics professor. The desk is subsequently stolen, as it turns out, by ArsĂ¨ne Lupin. Later, both Lupin and the professor realize that a lottery ticket, left inadvertently in the desk, is the winning ticket, and Lupin proceeds to ensure he obtains half of the winnings while executing a near-impossible escape with a blonde lady. After the theft of the Blue Diamond, again by a blonde lady, Ganimard made the connection to Lupin and an appeal was made to Herlock Sholmes to match wits with Lupin. Inadvertently, Lupin and his biographer met with the newly arrived Sholmes and his assistant, Wilson, in a Parisian restaurant, and they shared a cautious dĂŠtente before Lupin sets off to lay his traps. Despite Lupin's efforts, Sholmes is able to unveil the identity of the blonde lady and Lupin's involvement in the crimes linked to her. Lupin succeeded in trapping Sholmes, however, and sends him off to Southampton in a boat, but Sholmes manages to escape back to Paris and engineer the arrest of Lupin. After Sholmes leaves, however, Lupin outfoxes his French captors and manages to bid farewell to Sholmes and Wilson at the Gare du Nord.
"The Jewish Lamp" opens with another appeal to Herlock Sholmes for help in recovering a Jewish lamp. After reading the appeal, Sholmes is shocked to read a second letter, this time by Lupin and arriving on the same day's post, which warns him not to intervene. Sholmes is outraged by Lupin's audacity and resolves to go to Paris. At the Gare du Nord, Sholmes is accosted by a young lady, who again warns him not to intervene, and finds that the Echo de France, Lupin's mouthpiece newspaper, is proclaiming his arrival. Sholmes proceeds to investigate the crime and finds out the true reason for Lupin's appeal not to intervene.

Question: Where does Lupin send Sholmes when he captures him?


The story begins 10 years after the conclusion of the previous novel, which places it about 1923. Tarzan (John Clayton) would be about 34 and his son, Jack, around 11. During the past decade, Alexis Paulvitch, who had escaped Tarzan at the end of the last novel, has lived a hideous life of abuse and disease among tribal people in Africa. Now he is discovered by a European ship and taken aboard. In the months that followed, Paulvitch encounters the ape, Akut, (whom Tarzan had befriended in that previous story) at one of the ship's stops. Because of Akut's interactions with Tarzan, he was unafraid of white men, and Paulvitch, unaware of the previous relationship, saw an opportunity to make some money. He took Akut to London and began displaying him publicly.
After the trauma of the kidnappings ten years earlier, Jane had refused to return to Africa or to allow Jack to know anything about his father's past for fear that he might somehow try to relive it. Perhaps she instinctively knew that Jack was somehow very connected to Tarzan's old life, for Jack did have an avid interest in wildlife and he was extremely athletic. When the Claytons heard about the displayed ape, John decided to take Jack to see him. Tarzan was surprised to find the ape was his old friend, Akut, and began conversing with him. Jack was amazed to see that his father could do so. John then told Jack of his life as Tarzan.
Jack started sneaking away to see Akut and began learning the language of the apes. Jack began to form a plan to take Akut back to the jungle. Paulvitch saw an opportunity for revenge, and agreed to help Jack. They escape to an African port where Paulvitch attacks Jack. Jack (probably now 12), like his father, was man-sized as a teen. Paulvitch is killed, and Jack, terrified, escapes into the jungle with Akut, thinking he will have to run for the rest of his life.
Like Tarzan before him, Jack learns survival in the jungle and encounters the Mongani apes, who he can speak with because of his dialogue with Akut. The nearest they can manage of his name "Jack" in the ape tounge is "Korak". This means "killer" which seems appropriate since Jack has proven himself to be such.
By around the age of 13 Jack finds an abused girl of about 11 named Meriem and rescues her. He begins teaching her to survive the jungle and they begin a sibling type relationship and live adventurously in the jungle for several years.
In the interim, Tarzan and Jane have begun living at their Wahiri estate in Africa again, not having any idea what became of their son. After about six years Tarzan and Jane encounter Korak (now about 18) and Meriem (now 16) and reunite with them and are returned to London and married. Arguably, the book is as much about Meriem as it is about Tarzan's son.

Question: Why does Jane not tell Jack about his father's past?

She's afraid he may try to somehow relive it.

She did not want their son to relive his father's past.


During halftime of a televised professional football game, L.A. Stallions star running back Billy Cole (Billy Blanks) receives a phone call from someone named Milo (Taylor Negron), warning him to win the game at all costs, or "he's history". Cole ingests PCP and, in a drug-induced rage, brings a gun onto the field, shooting three opposing players to make it to the end zone. Cole then shoots himself in the head.
Private investigator Joe Hallenbeck (Bruce Willis), a disgraced former Secret Service agent who at one time was a national hero for saving the President from an assassination attempt, discovers that his wife Sarah (Chelsea Field) is having an affair with his best friend and sometime business partner, Mike Matthews (Bruce McGill). Hallenbeck's indifference frustrates his wife, who only did it to get his attention. Outside Joe's house, Mike is killed by a car bomb, after giving Joe an assignment to act as bodyguard for a stripper named Cory (Halle Berry).
At the bar where Cory works, Joe is approached by her boyfriend, former L.A. Stallions star quarterback James "Jimmy" Alexander Dix (Damon Wayans), who was banned from the league on gambling charges and allegations of drug abuse. After an argument where Joe and Jimmy scuffle, an annoyed Jimmy takes Cory from the stage while she is performing. Joe decides to wait outside, where he is knocked out by hitmen. Jimmy and Cory leave the bar in separate cars while Joe is escorted into an alley by one of the hitmen, who laughs at his jokes which enables Joe to kill him and escape. When Cory is hit from behind and stops to confront the other driver, she is shot dead by hitmen in the car. Jimmy is fired upon and pinned down, but is saved by Joe.
The next day at Cory's house, Jimmy and Joe find evidence of a phone conversation between the chairman of a Senate committee investigating gambling in sports, Sen. Calvin Baynard (Chelcie Ross), and L.A. Stallions team owner Sheldon "Shelly" Marcone (Noble Willingham). When the recorded evidence is ruined in Joe's faulty car stereo, Jimmy realizes that Cory tried using the evidence as leverage against Marcone to get his job back on the team, prompting Marcone to send the hitmen. Jimmy leaves to drive home in Cory's other car, but Joe correctly assumes Marcone had her other car wired to explode. Two hitmen arrive wanting the evidence Cory had, and Joe tricks them into blowing up the car, killing themselves, but also destroying the rest of the evidence. Joe reveals to Jimmy that when he was in the Secret Service, he was assigned to the Senator's protective detail. One night on duty he witnessed Baynard torturing a woman in a hotel room and assaulted Baynard to stop him, knocking out four of Baynard's teeth. Baynard would later have Joe kicked out of the Secret Service for refusing to cover up the incident. Joe and Jimmy then form an alliance to bring down Marcone.
Joe takes Jimmy home, where Jimmy meets Joe's abrasive daughter Darian (Danielle Harris). When Joe catches Jimmy attempting to use illegal painkillers in the bathroom, Joe kicks him out. As Jimmy leaves, Darian asks him to sign a football trading card. As he signs, she reveals that Joe had been a fan of his before he got busted, and ever since he was banned from the league, Joe has never watched another football game. He leaves her with the signed card, "To the daughter of the last Boy Scout."
The next morning the police, having learned of Mike's affair with Sarah, decide Joe must have killed Mike for revenge and move to arrest him. But Milo, Marcone's top henchman, captures Joe first, then shoots the cop who had come to arrest him using Joe's gun. Marcone explains to Joe that he intends to legalize sports gambling by buying votes and that Baynard holds the deciding vote in the matter. When Marcone also tried to buy his vote for this purpose, Baynard blackmailed Marcone, demanding $6 million or he would go to the police. Explaining it would be cheaper to kill the Senator, aware of Joe's history with him, Marcone informs Joe of his intention to frame him for Baynard's murder.
Joe is taken to a wooded area where he is photographed handing a briefcase containing money to Baynard's bodyguards. The money is then switched in the trunk with a wired briefcase. Joe is rescued by Jimmy and Darian and they manage to acquire both briefcases after running the bodyguards and Milo off the road; however, Milo survives and kidnaps Darian after Joe leaves her to wait for the police.
Heading to Marcone's stadium office to save Darian, they are caught and brought to Marcone's office, but Jimmy creates a diversion, allowing them to fight their way free. Knowing Milo will attempt to shoot Baynard, Joe goes after Milo while sending Jimmy to warn Baynard. Grabbing the game ball, Jimmy throws it at Baynard, knocking him down just as Milo starts shooting. Joe knocks Milo to the edge of the stadium light platform, where police shoot him several times, causing him to fall into the blades of a circling helicopter.
The suitcase of money is recovered and the fleeing Marcone, having escaped with the rigged briefcase, is killed when he opens it. The next day Joe and Sarah reconcile, and Joe and Jimmy decide to become partners. It is implied Baynard is finished.

Question: What does Cole ingest at the football game?


Clara Amedroz is the only surviving child of the elderly squire of Belton Castle in Somersetshire. At twenty-five, she is old for an unmarried woman. Her father's income and savings have been dissipated to pay for the extravagances of her brother, who subsequently committed suicide. Since her father has no living sons, his estate, which is entailed, will pass upon his death to a distant cousin, Will Belton.
Despite her poor prospects, she has two eligible suitors. Within four days of making her acquaintance, Will Belton proposes marriage to her. Belton is warm-hearted, kind, and generous, and these qualities make a strong impression on Clara. However, she believes herself in love with Captain Frederic Aylmer, although he has given no clear signs of feeling that way toward her. Aylmer is impeccable in his manners, smooth, urbane, well-read, and a member of Parliament; compared to him, Belton is awkward and unpolished.
Clara rejects Belton's offer, urging him to regard her as a sister. Not long thereafter, Aylmer proposes to her, and she eagerly accepts. However, her happiness is short-lived. Her new fiancĂŠ proves shallow and cold, more concerned with his own comfort than with her happiness. Moreover, he expects her to subject herself to his domineering mother.
Mr. Amedroz dies; and although Belton offers to allow Clara to remain at Belton Castle, she goes to live with the Aylmer family in Yorkshire. Lady Aylmer, who wants her son to marry money or a title, exerts herself to make Clara miserable there; and Captain Aylmer offers no support to his betrothed.
For Clara, the final straw comes when Lady Aylmer demands that she sever her ties with a friend. Mrs. Askerton, Lady Aylmer has learned, left an abusive drunken husband in India and lived with Colonel Askerton for several years before the death of her husband freed her to marry him. Clara is duly appalled by her friend's past immorality, but cannot bring herself to cast off someone who has come to depend on her friendship. Pressed relentlessly on the subject by Lady Aylmer, she declares an end to her engagement and returns to Somersetshire, where she accepts the hospitality of the Askertons.
Will Belton has never ceased to show his love for Clara, and she realises that he is worthy of her love. However, she believes that it would be wrong to transfer her affection from one man to another. Only after Mrs. Askerton and Will's sister Mary Belton persuade her that it would be unjust to withhold her affection from Will can she bring herself to put aside her scruples and accept him. Marital bliss ensues.

Question: Why does the estate pass Clara and instead go to Will Belton?

Because her father has no more sons, and it cannot go to a daughter.


Jean des Esseintes is the last member of a powerful and once proud noble family. He has lived an extremely decadent life in Paris, which has left him disgusted with human society. Without telling anyone, he retreats to a house in the countryside.
He fills the house with his eclectic art collection (which notably consists of reprints of paintings of Gustave Moreau). Drawing from the theme of Gustave Flaubert's Bouvard et Pécuchet, Des Esseintes decides to spend the rest of his life in intellectual and aesthetic contemplation. Throughout his intellectual experiments, he recalls various debauched events and love affairs of his past in Paris.
He conducts a survey of French and Latin literature, rejecting the works approved by the mainstream critics of his day. Among French authors, he shows nothing but contempt for the Romantics but adores the poetry of Baudelaire and that of the nascent Symbolist movement of Paul Verlaine, Tristan Corbière and Stéphane Mallarmé, as well as the decadent fiction of the unorthodox Catholic writers Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam and Barbey d'Aurevilly. He rejects the academically respectable Latin authors of the "Golden Age" such as Virgil and Cicero, preferring later "Silver Age" writers such as Petronius and Apuleius as well as works of early Christian literature, whose style was usually dismissed as the "barbarous" product of the Dark Ages. Schopenhauer, he exclaims, has seen the truth, and he clearly expressed it in his philosophy. He studies Moreau's paintings, he tries his hand at inventing perfumes, and he creates a garden of poisonous flowers. In one of the book's most surrealistic episodes, he has gemstones set in the shell of a tortoise. The extra weight on the creature's back causes its death. In another episode, he decides to visit London after reading the novels of Dickens. He dines at an English restaurant in Paris while waiting for his train and is delighted by the resemblance of the people to his notions derived from literature. He then cancels his trip and returns home, convinced that only disillusion would await him if he were to follow through with his plans.
Eventually, his late nights and idiosyncratic diet take their toll on his health, requiring him to return to Paris or to forfeit his life. In the last lines of the book, he compares his return to human society to that of a non-believer trying to embrace religion.

Question: Where does he put gemstones?

On the shell of a tortoise.
A tortoise's shell.


Miles Raymond is an aspiring – but unsuccessful – writer, a wine aficionado and a divorced, depressed, borderline alcoholic middle-aged English teacher living in San Diego, who takes his soon-to-be-married actor friend and former college roommate, Jack Cole, on a road trip through Santa Ynez Valley wine country. Though still recognized on occasion, Jack's acting career appears to have peaked years ago, when he had a role in a popular TV soap but now does commercial voice-overs and plans to enter his future father-in-law's successful real estate business after he's married. Miles wants to spend the week relaxing, golfing, enjoying good food and wine; however, much to Miles' consternation, Jack is on the prowl and wants one last sexual fling before settling into domestic life.
In the wine country, the pair visit Miles' favorite restaurant, The Hitching Post II, and meet Maya, an attractive, intelligent waitress with whom Miles is casually acquainted. Jack senses that Maya is interested in Miles, who downplays his friend's intuition, and tells Jack that Maya is married. He tells Maya that Miles' manuscript has been accepted for publication, even though it is only being considered. Later, at a tasting in a local winery, they meet an attractive wine pourer named Stephanie, who is also acquainted with Maya. Jack is immediately attracted to Stephanie and arranges a double date, to include Miles and Maya, and tells Miles that he learned Maya is no longer married ("sans rock", as he describes it). During the date, Miles gets drunk and telephones Vicki, his ex-wife, after learning from Jack earlier that day that she has remarried. They return to Stephanie's home, where Jack and Stephanie immediately adjourn to her bedroom for sex, while Miles and Maya connect through their mutual interest in wine. Maya tells Miles that she is finishing her master's degree so she can leave serving and work in the horticulture industry. Miles tells Maya about his book and gives her a copy of his manuscript. As the week progresses, Jack's affair with Stephanie continues, to the point where he believes he's falling in love with her; he bonds with her daughter and makes the suggestion to Miles that they move there for him to be closer to Stephanie. After spending the day together, Miles and Maya return to her apartment and have sex. The next day, Miles lets it slip that Jack is to be married. Disgusted with the dishonesty, Maya dumps Miles and tells Stephanie who, furious and devastated to learn she's been used, breaks Jack's nose using her motorcycle helmet and hits him repeatedly.
On finding out his manuscript has been rejected again, Miles drinks heavily and causes a scene during a wine tasting when the server cuts him off, and ends up trying to drink from the spit bucket. That night, with Stephanie gone, Jack hooks up with another waitress named Cammi, who recognized him from his acting career. Hours later, Jack shows up back at the motel room he shares with Miles – naked and confessing that Cammi's husband came home early while she and Jack were having sex. Jack explains he was forced to flee without his clothes and wallet (which contains a pair of irreplaceable wedding rings). Jack convinces Miles to drive him back to Cammi's house and sneak inside, where he discovers Cammi and her husband having sex. Miles spies Jack's wallet, grabs it and runs from the house, barely escaping Cammi's irate husband, who pursues him in the nude. To explain the broken nose and cover up the infidelity to his fiancée, Jack runs Miles' convertible into a tree, giving the appearance they had been in an accident. The pair return to the home of Jack's fiancée, where he is welcomed with open arms, and Miles drives away in his battered car.
Following the wedding ceremony, Miles runs into his ex-wife Vicki and meets her new husband. After learning that she is also pregnant, Miles accepts that he will never get Vicki back. Alone, he drinks his prized wine, a 1961 Château Cheval Blanc, from a disposable coffee cup at a fast-food restaurant and falls into an even deeper depression. After some time passes, Miles returns to the routine of teaching school; coming home one afternoon, he receives a voice-mail from Maya, who says she enjoyed his manuscript and invites him to visit. Ultimately, Miles is seen driving back to Santa Ynez and knocking on Maya's door.

Question: What year was Mile's prized wine from?


While out walking, a crab finds a rice ball. A sly monkey persuades the crab to trade the rice ball for a persimmon seed. The crab is at first upset, but when she plants and tends the seed a tree grows that supplies abundant fruit. The monkey agrees to climb the tree to pick the fruit for the crab, but gorges himself on the fruit rather than sharing it with the crab. When the crab protests, the monkey hurls hard, unripe fruit at her. The shock of being attacked causes the crab to give birth just before she dies.
The crab's children seek revenge on the monkey. With the help of several alliesâa chestnut, an usu, a bee, and a cow pieâthey go to the monkey's house. The chestnut hides himself on the monkey's hearth, the bee in the water pail, the cow pie on the dirt floor, and the usu on the roof. When the monkey returns home he tries to warm himself on the hearth, but the chestnut strikes the monkey so that he burns himself. When the monkey tries to cool his burns at the water bucket, the bee stings him. When the startled monkey tries to run out of the house, the cow pie moves and trips him and the usu falls from the roof, killing the monkey.

Question: What does the monkey do when he climbs the persimmon tree to pick the fruit?

He gorges himself on the fruit.
eats all the fruit


London Hospital surgeon Frederick Treves finds John Merrick in a Victorian freak show in London's East End, where he is kept by a Mr. Bytes. His head is kept hooded, and his "owner," who views him as retarded, is paid by Treves to bring him to the hospital for exams. Treves presents Merrick to his colleagues and highlights his monstrous skull, which forces him to sleep with his head on his knees, since if he were to lie down, he would asphyxiate. On Merrick’s return he is beaten so badly by Bytes that he has to call Treves for medical help. Treves brings him back to the hospital.
John is tended to by Mrs. Mothershead, the formidable matron, as the other nurses are too frightened of Merrick. Mr. Carr-Gomm, the hospital’s Governor, is against housing Merrick, as the hospital does not accept “incurables”. To prove that Merrick can make progress, Treves trains him to say a few conversational sentences. Carr-Gomm sees through this ruse, but as he is leaving, Merrick begins to recite the 23rd Psalm, which Treves did not teach him. Merrick tells the doctors that he knows how to read, and has memorized the 23rd Psalm because it is his favorite. Carr-Gomm permits him to stay, and Merrick spends his time practicing conversation with Treves and building a model of a cathedral he sees from his window.
Merrick has tea with Treves and his wife, and is so overwhelmed by their kindness that he shows them his mother’s picture. He believes he must have been a "disappointment" to his mother, but hopes she would be proud to see him with his “lovely friends”. Merrick begins to take guests in his rooms, including the actress Madge Kendal, who introduces him to Shakespeare. Merrick quickly becomes an object of curiosity to high society, and Mrs. Mothershead expresses concerns that he is still being put on display as a freak. Treves begins to question the morality of his actions. Meanwhile, a night porter named Jim starts selling tickets to locals, who come at night to gawk at the "Elephant Man".
The issue of Merrick's residence is challenged at a hospital council meeting, but he is guaranteed permanent residence by command of the hospital’s royal patron, Queen Victoria, who sends word with her daughter-in-law Alexandra. However, Merrick is shortly kidnapped by Mr. Bytes during one of Jim's raucous late night showings. Mr. Bytes leaves England and takes Merrick on the road as a circus attraction once again. Treves confronts Jim about what he has done, and Mrs. Mothershead fires him.
Merrick escapes from Bytes with the help of his fellow freakshow attractions. Upon returning to London, he is harassed through Liverpool Street station by several young boys and accidentally knocks down a young girl. Merrick is chased, unmasked, and cornered by an angry mob. He cries, “I am not an elephant! I am not an animal! I am a human being! I ... am ... a ... man!” before collapsing. Policemen return Merrick to the hospital and Treves. He recovers some of his health, but is dying of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Treves and Mrs. Mothershead take Merrick to see one of Madge Kendal's shows at the theatre, and afterwards, Kendal dedicates the performance to him. A proud Merrick receives a standing ovation from the audience. Back at the hospital, Merrick thanks Treves for all he has done, and completes his church model. He lies down on his back in bed, imitating a sleeping child in a picture on his wall, and dies in his sleep. Merrick is consoled by a vision of his mother, who quotes Lord Tennyson’s “Nothing Will Die”.

Question: Who ensures that John Merrick will be able to reside at hospital even againt hospital council concerns.?


In 1914, aliens known as Mondoshawans arrive at an ancient Egyptian temple to collect, for safekeeping, the only weapon capable of defeating a great evil that appears every 5,000 years. The weapon consists of four stones, representing the four classical elements, and a sarcophagus containing a fifth element in the form of a human, which combines the power of the other four elements into a divine light capable of defeating the evil. The Mondoshawans promise their human contact, a priest from a secret order, that they will come back with the element stones in time to stop the great evil when it returns.
In 2263, the great evil appears in deep space in the form of a giant ball of black fire, and destroys an attacking Earth spaceship. The Mondoshawans' current contact on Earth, priest Vito Cornelius (Ian Holm), informs the President of the Federated Territories (Tom Lister Jr.) of the history of the great evil and the weapon that can stop it. As the Mondoshawans return to Earth they are ambushed by Mangalores, a race hired by the industrialist Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg (Gary Oldman), who has been instructed by the great evil to acquire the stones.
The Mondoshawans' spacecraft is destroyed, though the stones are not on board; the only item recovered is a hand of The Fifth Element. Scientists take it to a New York City laboratory and use it to reconstruct a powerful humanoid woman who takes the name Leeloo (Milla Jovovich). Terrified of the unfamiliar surroundings, she breaks out of confinement and jumps off a high ledge, crashing into the flying taxicab of Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis), a former major in the special forces.
Dallas delivers Leeloo to Cornelius and his apprentice, David (Charlie Creed-Miles), whereupon Cornelius learns that the Mondoshawans entrusted the four element stones to the alien Diva Plavalaguna (Ma誰wenn Le Besco), an opera singer. Zorg kills many of the Mangalores because of their failure to obtain the stones, but their compatriots determine to seize the artifacts for themselves. Upon learning from the Mondoshawans that the stones are in Plavalaguna's possession, General Munro (Brion James), Dallas' former superior, recommissions Dallas and orders him to travel undercover to meet Plavalaguna on a luxury intergalactic cruise; Dallas takes Leeloo with him. Meanwhile, Cornelius instructs David to prepare the ancient temple designed to house the stones, then stows away on the space plane transporting Dallas to the cruise liner.
Plavalaguna is killed when the Mangalores attack the ship, but Dallas succeeds in retrieving the stones from the Diva. During his struggle with the Mangalores he kills their leader. Meanwhile, Zorg shoots and seriously wounds Leeloo, before finding a carrying case that he presumes contains the stones and takes it back to his spacecraft, leaving behind a time bomb that forces the liner's occupants to evacuate. Discovering the case to be empty, Zorg returns to the ship and deactivates his bomb, but a dying Mangalore sets off his own device, destroying the ship and killing Zorg. Dallas, Cornelius, Leeloo, and talk-show host Ruby Rhod (Chris Tucker) escape with the stones aboard Zorg's spacecraft.
The four join up with David at the weapon chamber in the Egyptian temple as the great evil approaches. They arrange the stones and are able to activate them with their corresponding elements, but having witnessed and studied so much violence, Leeloo has become disenchanted with humanity and refuses to cooperate. Dallas confesses his love for Leeloo and kisses her. In response, Leeloo combines the power of the stones and releases the divine light on the great evil and destroying its power, causing the planet to be proclaimed dead by Earth scientists as it becomes another moon in Earth orbit.

Question: Who is the reconstructed woman made from the hand of the fifth element?


Kevin Flynn is a software engineer, formerly employed by the computer corporation ENCOM, who now runs a video arcade called Flynn's. He wrote several video games, but Ed Dillinger, another ENCOM engineer, stole them and passed them off as his own, earning himself a series of promotions until reaching Senior Executive VP. Having left the company, Flynn attempts to obtain evidence of Dillinger's actions by hacking the ENCOM mainframe, but is repeatedly stopped by the Master Control Program - MCP for short - an artificial intelligence written by Dillinger. However, since its inception, the MCP has become power-hungry, illegally appropriating business and even government programs and absorbing them to increase its own capabilities; it informs Dillinger of its plans to subjugate the Pentagon and the Kremlin, and expresses interest in China with its request for Chinese-translation programs, blackmailing Dillinger into compliance with records of his theft of the games.
Flynn's ex-girlfriend Lora Baines and fellow ENCOM engineer Alan Bradley warn Flynn that Dillinger knows about his hacking attempts and has tightened security. Flynn persuades them to sneak him inside ENCOM where he forges a higher security clearance for Alan's recently developed security program called "Tron". In response, the MCP uses an experimental laser to digitize and download Flynn into the ENCOM mainframe cyberspace called the Grid, where programs are living entities appearing in the likeness of the human "users" who created them.
Flynn quickly learns that the MCP and its second-in-command, Sark, rule over programs and coerce them to renounce their belief in the Users. Those who resist the MCP's tyrannical power over the Grid are forced to play in martial games in which the losers are destroyed. Flynn is forced to fight other programs and meets Tron and Ram between matches. The three escape into the mainframe during a Light Cycle match, but shortly afterwards Flynn and Ram are separated from Tron by an MCP pursuit party. When Ram is mortally wounded and dies, Flynn, learns that as a User he can manipulate energy and matter inside the Grid, effectively allowing him to influence the environment and reality of the realm. He uses his abilities to make a destroyed pursuit ship piece itself together, effectively repairing it. He disguises himself as one of Sark's men with his powers and meets Tron again.
Tron reunites with his love, Yori, and at an input/output junction receives instructions from Alan about how to destroy the MCP. Tron, Flynn and Yori board a "solar sailor simulation" to reach the MCP's core, but Sark's command ship destroys the sailor, capturing Flynn and Yori. Sark leaves the command ship and orders its destruction, but Flynn keeps it intact with his powers while Sark reaches the MCP's core on a shuttle carrying captured programs.
While the MCP attempts to consume the captive programs, Tron confronts Sark and critically damages him, prompting the MCP to transfer its powers to him, thereby transforming him into a giant. Tron attempts to break through the shield protecting the MCP's core while Flynn leaps into the MCP, distracting it long enough to reveal a gap in its shield. Tron throws his disc through the gap and destroys the MCP and Sark, ending the MCP's tyrannical rule.
As programs all over the system begin to communicate with their users, Flynn is sent back to the real world, quickly reconstructed at his terminal. A nearby printer produces the evidence that Dillinger had plagiarized his creations. The next morning, Dillinger enters his office and finds the MCP deactivated, and the proof of his theft publicized. He slumps at his desk, elated that he is no longer at the Master Control Program's mercy, and yet defeated in that he is no longer under its protection either.
Flynn takes his rightful place as ENCOM's new CEO and is greeted by Alan and Lora on his first day.

Question: What is MCP's second-in-command?


Recent graduates of Georgetown University Alec, girlfriend Leslie, Kevin, Jules, and Kirby are waiting to hear about the conditions of their friends Wendy, a sweet-natured girl devoted to helping others, and Billy, a former frat boy and now reluctant husband and father, after a car accident. At the hospital, Kirby sees a medical student named Dale, with whom he has been infatuated since college.
The group gathers at their favorite college hangout, St. Elmo’s Bar. Billy has been fired from the job Alec helped him secure and his marriage is unstable. At their apartment, Alec pressures Leslie to marry him, but she is convinced they are not ready. Kirby is telling Kevin of his love for Dale when Billy shows up, asking to spend the night as he cannot deal with his wife.
Kevin worries about his romantic life when Jules accuses him of being gay and loving Alec. When he visits Alec and Leslie for dinner, Alec confesses to Kevin that while buying lingerie for Leslie he had sexual intercourse with the saleswoman.
Billy and Wendy get drunk together and Wendy reveals that she is a virgin. She and Billy kiss but Wendy insists they just remain friends, especially since she realizes Billy is taking advantage of her crush on him.
During Halloween at St. Elmo’s Bar, Jules reveals to a disapproving Leslie that she is having an affair with her married boss. Billy sees his wife with another man in the crowd and attacks him. Billy is thrown out of the bar but reconciles with his wife. The girls confront Jules about the affair and her reckless spending but she insists that everything is under control.
Kirby takes a job working for Mr. Kim, a wealthy Korean businessman, and invites Dale to a party he is holding at Mr. Kim’s house. Wendy arrives with Howie, a boy her parents set her up with. Alec announces that he and Leslie are engaged, upsetting Leslie. She confronts him about her suspicions of his infidelity and the two break up. Alec is also angry with Kevin, who he believes confessed everything to Leslie. After the party, Jules gives Billy a ride home. As she is about to confide in him, Billy makes a pass at her. Furious, Jules throws him out of her car.
Still pursuing Dale, Kirby drives to the ski lodge where she is staying but learns she has a boyfriend. His borrowed car becomes stuck in the snow and Dale and her boyfriend invites him to come inside. The next morning, as Kirby prepares to leave Dale’s cottage, Dale tells him she is flattered by his affections. He kisses her, and she does not resist. Kirby then takes a photo with Dale and departs the lodge, happy.
Leslie goes to Kevin’s place to stay the night after the breakup and discovers photographs of her. Kevin confesses his love for her, and the two sleep together but the next morning, Alec comes by to apologize to Kevin for attacking him the night before. Alec is shocked to find Leslie there and the two argue over his infidelity.
Wendy meets her father at a café and announces she wants to be independent from her family and move into her own place. Jules has been fired from her job and fallen behind on her credit card payments; as a result, her possessions have been seized. Jules locks herself in her apartment and opens the windows, intending to freeze to death. The friends attempt to coax her out, but she is unresponsive. Kirby fetches Billy, who landed a job at a gas station courtesy of Kevin, to calm Jules down. Billy convinces Jules to come back out.
Wendy moves into her own place, where Billy visits and informs her that he is getting a divorce and moving to New York City. The two make love as a going away present. At the bus station, the group gathers once more to say goodbye to Billy. Billy urges Alec to make up with Leslie but Leslie declares that she does not want to date anyone for a while. Alec and Kevin make up and the group decides to get brunch. However, they decide not to go to St. Elmo's bar and instead choose Houlihan's because there are "not so many kids" there.

Question: What does Wendy reveal to Billy when they get drunk together?


The three-character play is set in the drawing room of a flat located on Cromwell Road in London. Shaw describes Henry Apjohn as "a very beautiful youth, moving as in a dream, walking as on air," while Aurora Bompas has "an air of being a young and beautiful woman but as a matter of hard fact, she is, dress and pretensions apart, a very ordinary South Kensington female of about 37, hopelessly inferior in physical and spiritual distinction to the beautiful youth." The third character is Aurora's husband Teddy, "a robust, thicknecked, well groomed city man, with a strong chin but a blithering eye and credulous mouth."
Aurora is distressed because she has misplaced some poems, in which she is identified by name, written for her with declarations of love by the impetuous Henry. She suspects her sister-in-law Georgina stole them from her workbox and is concerned she will read them to Aurora's husband Teddy.
Henry suggests they confront Teddy with the truth, "quietly, hand in hand" and depart - "without concealment and subterfuge, freely and honestly, in full honor and self-respect" - for their planned evening at the theatre. (Henry has purchased tickets for Candida - the popular Shaw comedy which Henry and Aurora's situation closely resembles - because Lohengrin was sold out.) The two engage in a discussion about the merits of revealing their affair until Teddy arrives and confronts Henry with his poetry.
The young man tries to convince him they were inspired by Aurora, the goddess of dawn, rather than his wife, and assures him he has no interest in the woman Teddy married . . . which the cuckolded man finds so insulting he demands Henry admit how desirable Aurora is. Henry finally confesses his love for Aurora, which pleases Teddy so much he proposes he have the poems published on "the finest paper, sumptuous binding, everything first class" as a tribute to his wife. "What shall we call the volume?," Teddy asks. "To Aurora, or something like that, eh?," to which Henry replies, "I should call it How He Lied to Her Husband."

Question: Who is Aurora's husband?


Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood) is a cantankerous, retired Polish American assembly line worker and Korean War veteran, who has recently been widowed after 50 years of marriage, causing him to be a lapsed Catholic. His Highland Park, Michigan neighborhood in the Detroit area, formerly populated by working class white families, is now dominated by poor Asian immigrants, and gang violence is commonplace. Adding to his isolation and detachment are his feelings towards his married sons and their families.
He rejects a suggestion from one of his sons to move to a retirement community (sensing that they want his home and possessions), and lives alone with his elderly dog. A longtime cigarette smoker, Walt suffers from coughing fits, occasionally coughing up blood, but conceals this from his family. Roman Catholic priest Father Janovich (Christopher Carley) tries to comfort him, but Walt disdains the young, inexperienced man. Eventually, Walt opens up to the priest, revealing that he is still haunted by memories of the war.
The Hmong Vang Lor family reside next door to Walt. Initially, he wants nothing to do with his new neighbors, particularly after he catches Thao (Bee Vang) attempting to steal his 1972 Ford Gran Torino as a coerced initiation into a Hmong gang run by Thao's cousin, Fong, whose nickname is "Spider". The gang is infuriated by Thao's failure and they attack him, but Walt confronts them with an M1 Garand rifle and chases them off, earning the respect of the Hmong community.
As penance, Thao's mother makes him work for Walt, who has him do odd jobs around the neighborhood, and the two form a grudging mutual respect. Thao's sister Sue (Ahney Her) introduces Walt to Hmong culture and helps him bond with the Hmong community, who soon become more like family to Walt than his actual family and he, in turn, becomes a better man to them than their own father was. Walt helps Thao get a job and gives him dating advice. Walt eventually visits a doctor regarding his coughing fits, where it is implied that he doesn't have very long to live.
Spider's gang continues to pressure Thao, assaulting him on his way home from work. After he sees Thao's injuries, Walt visits the gang's house, where he attacks a gang member as a warning. In retaliation, the gang performs a drive-by shooting on the Vang Lor home, injuring Thao. They also kidnap and rape Thao's sister Sue. There are no other witnesses, while the community members, including the victims, refuse to assist the police to incriminate the assaulters.
The next day, Thao seeks Walt's help to exact revenge, whereas Walt tells him to return later in the afternoon. In the meantime, Walt makes personal preparations: he buys a suit, gets a haircut, and makes a confession to Father Janovich, who had pressured him to make it at the behest of his late wife. When Thao returns, Walt takes him to the basement, gives him his Silver Star medal, and tells him of his haunting memory of having killed a surrendering enemy soldier. He then locks Thao in his basement, until the revenge is over, to make sure the boy will never be haunted by killing someone, with his life ahead of him.
That night Walt goes to the gang members' house, where they draw their weapons on him. He loudly berates them and enumerates their crimes, drawing the attention of the neighbors. Putting a cigarette in his mouth, he asks for a light, then puts his hand in his jacket and provocatively pulls it out as if he were holding a gun, causing the gang members to shoot and kill him. As he falls to the ground, his hand opens to reveal the Zippo cigarette lighter with the 1st Cavalry insignia that he had used throughout the film, revealing that he was unarmed. Sue, following Walt's directions earlier, frees Thao, and they drive to the scene in Walt's Gran Torino. One of the police officers tells them that all gang members have been placed under arrest for the murder, a crime which the family and the entire community come forward to witness this time.
Walt's funeral Mass is celebrated by Father Janovich and attended by his family and many of the Hmong community, many of whom are wearing traditional attire; their presence visibly puzzles Walt's family. Later, his last will and testament is read. To the surprise of his family, Walt leaves them nothing: his house goes to the church and his cherished Gran Torino goes to Thao, with the condition that he won't modify the vehicle. As the film ends, Thao is seen driving the car along Jefferson Avenue with Walt's dog.

Question: What does Walt leave behind to Thao?

His Gran Tarino, provided Thao does no modifications to the vehicle.


Henry Handel Richardson was the pseudonym of Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson, a writer who was born in 1870 to a reasonably well-off family which later fell on hard times. The author's family lived in various Victorian towns and from the age of 13 to 17 Richardson attended boarding school at the Presbyterian Ladies' College in Melbourne, Victoria. It's this experience that feeds directly into The Getting of Wisdom.
Laura Tweedle Rambotham, the main character, is the eldest child of a country family. She is a clever and highly imaginative child, given to inventing romantic stories for the entertainment of her younger siblings, and an avid reader. She is also both proud and sensitive and her mother finds her difficult to handle. Her mother is the widow of a barrister who supports her family in genteel poverty on her earnings from embroidery. At the age of twelve Laura is sent off to boarding school in Melbourne. Her experiences at school shock and humiliate the unworldly Laura. The girls at the school are generally from rather wealthy families and those, like Laura, who come from less fortunate backgrounds learn very early not to divulge their circumstances for fear of ridicule. From time to time Laura lets little snippets of information about her family slip out, and she suffers for it.
In fact, these seem to be the main forces controlling the action of this book: fear of the judgements of one's peers, the desire to "fit in", embarrassment about one's familyâit is shameful to have a mother who works for a livingâand the desire to "better" oneself by belittling others. None of the girls in the school, nor the teachers for that matter, come across as anything but self-serving and boorish. Even Laura, who starts out so young and strong and idealistic, surrenders to the role expected of her. Essentially, this is a story about the destruction of innocence.
Laura undergoes a form of redemption at the end of the book, convincing herself that cheating in an exam is actually God's will, and then later deciding that while she was wrong to do so, she got away with it and therefore God had no actual hand in the matter or else he would have punished her for the sin. A neat case of self-delusion. At the end, when Laura is walking away from the school for the last time, she is overcome with a desire to run, and the last we see of her is a rapidly diminishing form disappearing through a park. She is free at last: free of the overwhelming constrictions of the school, the teachers' expectations and the other schoolgirls' callous disregard.

Question: How can we characterize Laura as a child?

She is clever, idealistic and strong minded.


The story begins before the three-quarters wolf-dog hybrid is born, with two men and their sled dog team on a journey to deliver a coffin to a remote town named Fort McGurry in the higher area of the Yukon Territory, Canada. The men, Bill and Henry, are stalked by a large pack of starving wolves over the course of several days. Finally, after all of their dogs and Bill have been eaten, four more teams find Henry trying to escape from the wolves; the wolf pack scatters when they hear the large group of people coming.
The story then follows the pack, which has been robbed of its last prey. When the pack finally brings down a moose, the famine is ended; they eventually split up, and the story now follows a she-wolf and her mate, One Eye. The she-wolf gives birth to a litter of five cubs by the Mackenzie River, and all but one die from hunger. One Eye is killed by a lynx while trying to rob her den for food for the she-wolf and her cub; his mate later discovers his remains near the lynx's den. The surviving cub and the she-wolf are left to fend for themselves. Shortly afterward (possibly as revenge), the she-wolf kills all the lynx's kittens to feed her cub, prompting the lynx to track her down, and a vicious fight breaks out. The she-wolf eventually kills the lynx but suffers severe injury; the lynx carcass is devoured over a period of seven days as the she-wolf recovers from her injuries.
The cub comes across five Native Americans one day, and the she-wolf comes to his rescue. One man, Grey Beaver, recognizes the she-wolf as Kiche, his brother's wolfdog, who left during a famine. Grey Beaver's brother is dead, so he takes Kiche and her cub and christens the cub White Fang. White Fang has a harsh life in the Indian camp; the current puppy pack, seeing him as a wolf, immediately attacks him. The Indians save him, but the pups never accept him, and the leader, Lip-lip, singles him out for persecution. White Fang grows to become a savage, callous, morose, solitary, and deadly fighter, "the enemy of his kind".
It is at this time that White Fang is separated from his mother who is sold off to another Indian Camp. He realizes how hard life in the wild is when he runs away from camp and earns the respect of Gray Beaver when he saves his son Mit-Sah from a gang of bullies. When a famine occurs, he runs away into the woods and reunites with his mother Kiche, only for her to chase him away for she has a new litter of Cubs. He also encounters Lip-Lip whom he fights and kills before returning to the camp.
When White Fang is five years old, he is taken to Fort Yukon so that Grey Beaver can trade with the gold-hunters. There, he is bought with several bottles of whiskey by a dog-fighter, Beauty Smith, who gets Grey Beaver addicted to alcohol. White Fang defeats all opponents pitted against him, including several wolves and a lynx, until a bulldog called Cherokee is brought in to fight him. Cherokee has the upper hand in the fight when he grips the skin and fur of White Fang's neck and begins to throttle him. White Fang nearly suffocates but is rescued when a rich, young gold hunter, Weedon Scott, stops the fight and forcefully buys White Fang from Beauty Smith.
Scott attempts to tame White Fang, and after a long, patient effort, he succeeds. When Scott attempts to return to California alone, White Fang pursues him, and Scott decides to take the dog with him back home. In Sierra Vista, White Fang must adjust to the laws of the estate. At the end of the book, a murderous criminal, Jim Hall, tries to kill Scott's father, Judge Scott, for sentencing him to prison, not knowing that Hall was "railroaded". White Fang kills Hall and is nearly killed himself but survives. As a result, the women of Scott's estate name him "The Blessed Wolf." The story ends with White Fang relaxing in the sun with the puppies he has fathered with the sheep-dog Collie.

Question: Who rescues white fang?


In 2805, Earth is abandoned and largely contaminated with garbage, with its people evacuating with megacorporation Buy-N-Large's starliners. In place, BnL leaves WALL-E compactors to clean up, however only one survives and gains sentience. One day, WALL-E discovers a healthy seedling. Later, a spaceship deploys an EVE probe from the starliner Axiom to scan Earth. WALL-E is infatuated with the initially hostile EVE, who gradually befriends him. When WALL-E brings EVE to his trailer and shows her the plant, she standbys and encapsulates the plant. WALL-E, confused, unsuccessfully tries to reactivate her. The ship then collects EVE, with WALL-E clinging on, and travels to the nebula-concealed Axiom.
Onboard, the ship's passengers have become obese due to microgravity and reliance on automated crew and hoverchairs. The ship's current captain, McCrea, leaves primary controls under the robotic autopilot, AUTO. WALL-E follows EVE to the captain's bridge, where McCrea learns that by placing the plant in the Holo-Detector to verify, the Axiom will hyperjump back to Earth so the passengers can recolonize it. However, AUTO orders McCrea's robotic assistant GO-4 to steal the plant as part of his own no-return directive A113, which was issued to BnL autopilots after the corporation concluded in 2110 that the planet could not be saved.
EVE is considered faulty and taken to Diagnostics, along with WALL-E for cleaning, mistaking the procedure as torture and accidentally freeing malfunctioning robots. Sentinels target the duo, while EVE evades them and takes WALL-E an escape pod to send him home for safety. However, GO-4 is revealed to have the plant, placing it inside a self-destruct pod, jettisoning it as WALL-E enters. WALL-E escapes with the plant before self-destruction and uses a fire extinguisher to propel himself, where he and EVE reconcile and dance in space.
When the plant is brought to the captain, EVE's recordings of Earth are analyzed and McCrea concludes that they must restore it. However, AUTO reveals his directive and mutinies, severely tasering WALL-E and shutting down EVE but destroying GO-4 accidentally. McCrea activates the ship's Holo-Detector, but AUTO crushes WALL-E by closing it before McCrea, forced to walk, disables him and EVE activates the hyperjump.
Having arrived back on Earth, EVE repairs and reactivates him, with his memory erased and defaulted. Heartbroken, EVE gives WALL-E an electrical farewell kiss, restoring his memory and personality. WALL-E and EVE reunite as the humans and robots of the Axiom restore Earth and its environment.

Question: What is the condition of Earth in 2085?

Abandoned and largely contaminated by garbage.


Havoc is wrought on the inhabitants of a small New England town by a troubled film production. After the leading man's penchant for underage girls gets them banished from their New Hampshire location, the crew relocates to the small town of Waterford, Vermont, to finish shooting "The Old Mill".
As its title suggests, the film depends on the presence of a genuine mill, something the town is reported to possess. Unfortunately, with only days before principal photography begins, it becomes apparent that the mill in fact burned down decades ago.
Unfazed, the film's director, Walt Price (William H. Macy), places his faith in the ability of first-time screenwriter Joseph Turner White (Philip Seymour Hoffman) to alter the script. What he doesn't count on is White's apparently bottomless reserve of angst-fueled writer's block. A local bookseller, Annie Black (Rebecca Pidgeon), tries to provide White with inspiration.
The film's leading lady (Sarah Jessica Parker) refuses to do her contracted nude scene unless she's paid an additional $800,000, while a foreign cinematographer offends the locals by messing with a historic firehouse. Meanwhile, the leading man, Bob Barrenger (Alec Baldwin), dallies with Carla (Julia Stiles), a crafty local teen.
Everything comes to a head after Barrenger and Carla are injured in a car accident, which leads White (the only witness) to another emotional quandary and into the arms of Annie. Meanwhile, a powerful movie producer (David Paymer) comes to town to help Price with the ensuing mess.

Question: Who tries to inspire White?


In Manhattan, cockroaches are spreading the deadly "Strickler's disease" that is claiming hundreds of the city's children. Entomologist Susan Tyler uses genetic engineering to create what her colleague (and husband) Peter Mann and she call the Judas breed, a large insect that releases an enzyme which causes the roaches metabolism to speed up and starve themselves to death. It successfully kills off the disease. The released population was all-female and designed with a lifespan of only a few months, so that it would only last one generation.
Three years later, a reverend is chased and dragged underground by a strange assailant. The only witness is Chuy, the "special" ward of an immigrant subway shoe-shiner named Manny. Two kids later sell a "weird bug" from the subway to Susan, which she performs test on, and realises is part of the Judas breed. Looking for more valuable specimens, the kids go down the tracks where they find a large egg sac and are then killed. Chuy also enters the church to find "Mr. Funny Shoes" and is abducted. Peter, CDC officer Josh and subway cop Leonard enter the maintenance tunnels to investigate but Peter and Leonard get separated from Josh, who is then killed trying to find his way back up. Susan is taken from the train platform by one of the creatures and brought into the tunnels. Manny also enters the tunnels in search of Chuy and comes across Susan, whom he rescues along with Peter and Leonard, before they barricade themselves in a train car.
Susan surmises that the Judas' accelerated metabolism has allowed it to reproduce and that they have evolved to mimic their human prey. The group formulates a plan to get the car moving: Peter will switch the power on, and Manny will switch the tracks. Susan projects that the Judas will spread throughout the tunnels unless they are able to kill the single fertile male. Manny finds Chuy but is killed by the male Judas, so Susan goes in search of him but finds only Chuy. Leonard's injured leg starts bleeding heavily, so he causes a distraction from the others, and is killed. Peter finds a dumbwaiter and puts Susan and Chuy in it, but stays behind to destroy the breed for good. He gets chased into a room where hundreds are nesting, and blows them all up by setting fire to a loose gas pipe, before diving underwater to safety.
The male Judas escapes the blast and goes after Chuy but is distracted by Susan, who has it chase her into the path of an oncoming train. The two make it to the surface, where they are reunited with Peter, who Susan had assumed died in the blast.

Question: What disease are cockroaches spreading in New York?


The storyline features members of one of two factions, both capable of time travel, engaged in a long-term conflict called "The Change War". Their method of battle involves changing the outcomes of events throughout history (temporal war). The two opposing groups are nicknamed the Spiders and the Snakes after their respective sponsors. The true forms or identities of the Spiders and the Snakes, how those nicknames were chosen, or whether they are in any way descriptive are all unknown.
The narrator of the novel is Greta, a young human female employed at a Recuperation Station where soldiers recover from battles. Greta is an Entertainer: part prostitute, part nurse, part psychotherapist. However, other characters narrate parts of the story in lengthy monologues about their experiences and opinions as they visit the spider-staffed facility.
New soldiers, entertainers, and medical staff are recruited by existing Change War participants from various places and times; characters include: Cretan Amazons, Roman legionnaires, eight-tentacled Lunans (natives of a civilization that thrived on Earth's moon a billion years ago), Hussars, Wehrmacht Landsers, Venusian satyrs (recruited from Venus a billion years in the future), American GIs, Space Commandos. Soldiers from the armies of Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Napoleon, and Stalin may find themselves fighting side-by-side or on opposing sides. Likewise, medical staff and entertainers are inducted into the temporal war to provide medical treatment, rest, and relaxation for injured and weary combatants.
Within the context of the story, the Universe as we know it runs on the Little Time. The Change War combatants and their facilities (places such as Field Hospitals, Express Rooms, Recuperation Stations, and Entertainment Spots), located within artificially-created bubbles of spacetime outside of the Universe, run on the Big Time. The Big time is described metaphorically by the narrator as a train traveling through the Little Time's countryside. Combat operations occur when Soldiers venture into a time and place in the Little Time on orders from their superiors.
Adding to the atmosphere of cynicism about the war's aims and causes is the revelation that one of its effects was to change history and cause an Axis victory in World War II. However devastating this development is to 20th Century humanity, now doomed to live under the world-wide oppressive and genocidal rule of Nazi Germany, in the context of the overall Spider-Snake cosmic conflict, this change was incidental and of only marginal importance.
The first few chapters establish the backstory, setting, amazing futuristic technology and characters. The main plot of the novel involves the discovery of a time bomb in the Recuperation Station, and the attempts to defuse the bomb and identify the saboteur, essentially a locked room mystery within a science fiction context.

Question: What does the war and its combatants run on?


John Carter, a Confederate veteran of the American Civil War, goes prospecting in Arizona immediately after the war's end. Having struck a rich vein of gold, he runs afoul of the Apaches. While attempting to evade pursuit by hiding in a sacred cave, he is mysteriously transported to Mars, called "Barsoom" by its inhabitants. Carter finds that he has great strength and superhuman agility in this new environment as a result of its lesser gravity and lower atmospheric pressure. He soon falls in with a nomadic tribe of Green Martians, or Tharks, as the planet's warlike, six-limbed, green-skinned inhabitants are known. Thanks to his strength and martial prowess, Carter rises to a high position in the tribe and earns the respect and eventually the friendship of Tars Tarkas, one of the Thark chiefs.
The Tharks subsequently capture Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium, a member of the humanoid red Martian race. The red Martians inhabit a loose network of city-states and control the desert planet's canals, along which its agriculture is concentrated. Carter rescues Dejah Thoris from the green men in a bid to return her to her people.
Subsequently Carter becomes embroiled in the political affairs of both the red and green Martians in his efforts to safeguard Dejah Thoris, eventually leading a horde of Tharks against the city-state of Zodanga, the historic enemy of Helium. Winning Dejah Thoris' heart, he becomes Prince of Helium, and the two live happily together for nine years. However, the sudden breakdown of the Atmosphere Plant that sustains the planet's waning air supply endangers all life on Barsoom. In a desperate attempt to save the planet's inhabitants, Carter uses a secret telepathic code to enter the factory, bringing an engineer along who can restore its functionality. Carter then succumbs to asphyxiation, only to awaken back on Earth, left to wonder what has become of Barsoom and his beloved.

Question: For how long did Carter and Dejah live happily together?


The story narrates the star-crossed love of King Perión of Gaula and Elisena of England, resulting in the secret birth of Amadís. Abandoned at birth on a barge in England, the child is raised by the knight Gandales in Scotland and investigates his origins through fantastic adventures.
He is persecuted by the wizard Arcalaús, but protected by Urganda la Desconocida (Urganda the Unknown or Unrecognized), an ambiguous priestess with magical powers and a talent for prophecy. Knighted by his father King Perión, Amadís overcomes the challenges of the enchanted Insola Firme (a sort of peninsula), including passing through the Arch of Faithful Lovers.
Despite Amadís' celebrated fidelity, his childhood sweetheart, Oriana, heiress to the throne of Great Britain, becomes jealous of a rival princess and sends a letter to chastise Amadís. The knight (later famously parodied in Don Quixote) changes his name to Beltenebros and indulges in a long period of madness on the isolated Peña Pobre.
He recovers his senses only when Oriana sends her maid to retrieve him. He then helps Oriana's father, Lisuarte, repel invaders. A short time later he and Oriana scandalously consummate their love. Their son Esplandián is the result of this one illicit meeting.
Rodríguez de Montalvo asserts that in the "original" Amadís, Esplandián eventually kills his father for this offense against his mother's honor; however, Montalvo amends this defect and resolves their conflict peaceably.
Oriana and Amadís defer their marriage for many years due to enmity between Amadís and Oriana's father Lisuarte. Amadís absents himself from Britain for at least ten years, masquerading as "The Knight of the Green Sword". He travels as far as Constantinople and secures the favor of the child-princess Leonorina, who will become Esplandián's wife. His most famous adventure during this time of exile is the battle with the giant Endriago, a monster born of incest who exhales a poisonous reek and whose body is covered in scales.
As a knight, Amadís is courteous, gentle, sensitive and a Christian who dares to defend free love. Unlike most literary heroes of his time (French and German, for example), Amadís is a handsome man who would cry if refused by his lady, but is invincible in battle and usually emerges drenched in his own and his opponent's blood.

Question: What happens when Oriana and Adamis finally make love?

they have a son Esplandian
They have a son


Clementine is a descendent of rich and noble families whose wealth has been dissipated. She married Count Laginski a Polish immigrant who is quite prosperous. They are a happy couple well set up in an attractive house. Clementine discovers that Adam has a friend who is acting as steward and general manager, a handsome young man who has kept in the background. Adam and Thaddee had served together in the army and were close friends, although Thaddee was poor, but very capable. He was devoted to Adam, and had volunteered to look after Adamâs affairs since he was worried that Adam and his wife would dissipate their fortune. Clementine insists that Thaddee join in their various social activities and finds him attractive. Thaddee falls in love with Clementine, but his devotion to his friends puts him in complete anguish. When Clementine tries to find out more about him, he invents a secret mistress who is a girl in the circus called Malaga. Having done this, he has to make the story true, and tracks down Malaga and sets her up as if he were his mistress. However he does no more apart from paying for her keep, but upsets Clementine by carrying on with her and occasionally having to borrow money. In time, Thaddee believes Clementine is capable of looking after the finances, and claims that to get Malaga out of his mind he is leaving Paris and going into the army again. Nothing more is heard of him, until one night, when an infamous rake tries to seduce Clementine, taking her away in his carriage. A figure grabs Clementine and sets her on the right track in her own carriage. It is Paz, who has never left Paris but has kept in the background looking after his friends. It is revealed that the invention of Malaga as his imaginary mistress was a ploy to discourage Clementine from taking an interest in him, thereby preserving his friendship with Adam. It is not quite clear whether Adam had had an affair with Malaga which Paz had to keep quiet.

Question: Who comes from a rich and noble family?


Act I: The play opens with Agatha being ejected from an inn when her money runs out. Too proud to beg, she is desperate. Frederick enters, sees her, and offers her money although it will mean he cannot pay for his own breakfast. She recognizes him as her son, absent for five years as a soldier. He has returned in order to find his birth certificate, necessary in order to find employment. Distraught, Agatha tells him that there is no certificate: she was seduced at the age of seventeen by Baron Wildenhaim upon promise of marriage. Despite the resulting pregnancy, the Baron broke his promise and married another, wealthier woman, and Agatha, turned out of her home, struggled to make ends meet and raise her son alone. Frederick is dismayed at the news, and to find his mother so destitute, and he arranges for her to stay with some charitable cottagers.
Act II: Frederick leaves, intending to beg for money. Not knowing her relationship to him, the cottagers tell Agatha of the recent history of Baron Wildenhaim, now widowed and with a daughter. She faints.
Meanwhile, reluctant to force her inclination as his own was forced, the Baron tries to determine whether or not his daughter, Amelia, loves the affected and foppish Count Cassel. It becomes clear to the audience that she instead loves Anhalt, a poor clergyman, and he her. It also becomes clear that the Baron regrets the misdeeds of his youth and has long sought, fruitlessly, to make amends.
Act III: Frederick, desperate as his begging has been unsuccessful, attempts to rob the Baron and the Count as they go hunting, not knowing who they are. He is arrested.
Anhalt speaks to Amelia about matrimony, at the Baron's request, but she in turn confesses her love for him and forces his own confession. They are interrupted by Verdun, a versifying butler, with the news of Frederick's attack on the Baron. The Baron enters and Amelia pleads for the life of the unknown young man, but the Baron is adamant on the grounds that an example must be made.
Act IV: Amelia takes Frederick food and he discovers who it was that he had threatened. He asks to meet the Baron privately.
Amelia reveals to her father information she learnt from Verdun about the Count's sexual immorality. The Baron confronts the Count; he replies that he is a man of the world, and reminds the Baron that many men have behaved likewise. Confused and embarrassed, the Baron dismisses him; Amelia re-enters and reveals her love for Anhalt. They are interrupted by Anhalt, who tells the Baron that Frederick is in the next room and wants a private interview. Frederick reveals their relationship to the Baron, and then leaves. The Baron is much affected.
Act V: Anhalt goes to Agatha at the cottage and explains some circumstances which mitigate the Baron's previous conduct.
Frederick, and then Anhalt, insist to the Baron that he must marry Agatha. After some agitation because of the social differences between them, he agrees, and in gratitude to Anhalt for his advice, agrees also to let him marry Amelia despite his poverty. Agatha enters the room and all are reconciled.

Question: Who reveals the news of Frederick's attack on the Baron?


Sportswriter Al Stump is hired in 1960 as ghostwriter of an authorized autobiography of baseball player Tyrus Raymond "Ty" Cobb. Now 73 and in failing health, Cobb wants an official biography to "set the record straight" before he dies.
Stump arrives at Cobb's Lake Tahoe estate to write the official life story of the first baseball player inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He finds a continually-drunken, misanthropic, bitter racist who abuses his biographer as well as everyone else he comes in contact with. Although Cobb's home is luxurious, it is without heat, power and running water due to long-running violent disputes between Cobb and utility companies. Cobb also rapidly runs through domestic workers, hiring and firing them in quick succession.
Although Cobb is seriously ill and prone to frequent physical breakdown, he retains considerable strength and also keeps several loaded firearms within easy reach at almost all times, making the outbreak of violent confrontation always an immediate possibility in his presence.
Cobb almost gets killed in an automobile accident off the Donner Pass, driving recklessly in a blizzard. Stump rescues him, but Cobb then seizes control of Stump's car until he gets into another accident. The car has to be towed to Reno.
Stump and Cobb go see a show at a Reno resort hotel featuring Keely Smith and Louis Prima, whose act Cobb rudely interrupts. A cigarette girl, Ramona, becomes interested in Stump, but when Cobb barges into the hotel room, he's in a jealous rage. He takes Ramona to another room, where he physically abuses her.
Cobb and Stump travel together cross-country by automobile to the Baseball Hall of Fame's induction weekend in Cooperstown, New York, where many star players from Cobb's era are in attendance, including Rogers Hornsby and Mickey Cochrane. Cobb is haunted by images from his violent past as he views film footage of his career.
From there, Cobb and Stump drive south to Cobb's native Georgia, where his estranged daughter continues to live. She refuses to see him. Stump, having spent months with Cobb witnessing his behavior and absorbing considerable abuse, is torn between creating the autobiography that Cobb hired him to write and writing his own book on Cobb's true self. Cobb begins to regard Stump as a friend of sorts; it is clear his conduct has driven away virtually all his legitimate friends and family.
Stump writes two books simultaneously: the one Cobb expects, and his own, sensational, merciless account which will reveal the real Cobb, warts and all. Stump plans to complete Cobb's version while the old man is still alive, guaranteeing his payment for the project, letting Cobb die happy, then issue the hard-hitting followup after Cobb is gone. After a long night of drinking when his own personal life begins to unravel, Stump passes out. Cobb discovers his notes for the no-punches-pulled version, bringing on an epic explosion.
Cobb begins to cough up blood and is taken to a hospital, where he wields a gun and treats doctors and nurses as harshly as he has everyone else. Stump gains a grudging respect for the player's legendary intensity and fearsome competitive fire, as well as an understanding that the murder of Cobb's father may have been partly responsible for his antagonistic personality. Stump is conflicted in his opinion of Cobb, and, in the end, completes the glowing autobiography Cobb hired him to write.

Question: How many biographies did the Mr. Stump write simultaneously?


Techotl pointed to a black column of ebony which stood behind the dais. Hundreds of red dots scarred its polished surface — the bright scarlet heads of heavy copper nails driven into the black wood. "Five red nails for five Xotalanca lives!" exulted Techotl, and the horrible exultation in the faces of the listeners made them inhuman.
— Robert E. Howard, "Red Nails"
"Red Nails" begins in the jungles far to the south of any known civilized or barbarian lands, where Valeria of the Red Brotherhood and Conan (her would-be lover) are set upon by a "dragon" (actually a dinosaur, though described with the characteristics of a stegosaurus and an allosaur) that mauls their horses. The pair retreat to a crag the monster cannot scale, but has no food or water. Conan recognizes some poisonous fruit growing nearby; they coat the tip of a spear with its juice, and pierce the jaws of the monster with it. Although blinded, the raging monster pursues them by their scent. Overtaken, Conan whirls to face the beast and lures it to its death.
Conan and Valeria emerge from the jungle to make their way to a walled city they spotted from the crag. Finding no grazing herds or cultivated fields around the city, they assume it is deserted. They force the rusted gates and enter a bizarre twilight world: the city is a single massive structure made of jade with traces of other materials, consists entirely of four tiers of rooms, chambers and passageways. A single great hallway runs the length of the city, but there are no other streets or open courtyards. The pair separate to search the city. Valeria encounters a man named Techotl whom she saves from his would-be killer; Conan arrives in time to save them from his comrades. Techotl invites Conan and Valeria into the stronghold of his people, the Tecuhltli, where they welcomed by the rulers, Olmec and Tascela.
In the stronghold Conan and Valeria learn that the city of Xuchotil was built long before its current inhabitants arrived. The people who created the city had used magic to resurrect "dragons" (actually the jumbled skeletons of dinosaurs) to protect the city. One day, a slave named Tolkemec betrayed his masters to guide a band led by the brothers Tecuhltli and Xotalanc into the city which slaughtered the original inhabitants. The conquerors afterwards ruled the city in peace until Tecuhltli stole the bride of his brother, leading to a feud in which most of the conquerors are killed. Tolkemec played both sides for his own purposes before he was exiled to the catacombs and assumed to have died there. Nails driven into pillar in their stronghold keeps count of how many of their enemy they have slain, and provides the title of the story.
The arrival of Conan and Valeria precipitates the final showdown in the decades-long feud. Members of the Xotalanc clan manage to break into the Tecuhltli stronghold, but they are outnumbered. With the the help of the formidable fighters Conan and Valeria, the Tecuhltli win the grim battle, and the Xotalanc are all killed. Olmec is exultant at this final victory, though sorry that none of his enemies was taken alive to be slowly tortured to death - as both sides to the conflict regularly did to prisoners. However, his gratitude to his two allies is definitely short-lived.
Having no intention of letting Conan and Valeria leave the city, Olmec secretly orders his men to kill Conan. While Olmec attempts to force himself on Valeria, he is thwarted by Tascela who imprisons him. She is revealed to be a sorceress and bride whose kidnapping started the feud. Tascela plans to use Valeria's vitality to restore her youth. After killing off his assassins, Conan returns to Tecuhltli, reluctantly frees Olmec, only to kill him when Olmec proves untrustworthy. Conan finds the chamber where Tascela has bound Valeria to an altar, but is caught in a steel trap helpless to save Valeria. At this point Tolkemec enters the chamber, having become a wild man during his exile in the catacombs, and uses a magical wand to kill Tascela's followers. Desperate for assistance, Tascela frees Conan. Conan defeats Tolkemec while Valeria frees herself and kills Tascela with a dagger thrust to the heart. With the last inhabitants of Xuchotl slain, Conan and Valeria depart the dead city.

Question: What creature did the people who created the city resurrect with magic?

dragons or assembled bones of dinosaurs
A dragon


After their adventures in the South Sea Islands, Jack Martin, Ralph Rover, and Peterkin Gay go their separate ways. Six years later, Ralph (again the narrator), living on his father's inheritance on England's west coast and occupying himself as a naturalist, is visited by Peterkin, whose "weather-beaten though ruddy countenance" he does not recognize. Peterkin, who has stayed in touch with Jack, has hunted and killed every animal on Earth except for the gorilla and now comes to Ralph to entice him on a new adventure. After Peterkin writes him a letter, Jack joins the two, and they leave for Africa.
The three pick up a native guide and attend an elephant hunt. All kinds of animals are shot, killed, eaten, and stuffed, and the action is interspersed with sometimes serious, sometimes jocular conversation. Ralph theorizes at length on "muffs", which he defines as boys who are too gentle and mild, and should be made to undergo physically challenging training. Trading habits in this part of Africa are discussed: trade between the jungle and the coast is done via all the intermediary tribes, a cumbersome and expensive way of doing business. The trader who explains this to Ralph is a friend of missionary efforts: when the natives are ruled by their "abominable superstitions", they become "incarnate fiends, and commit deeds of cruelty that make one's blood run cold to think of". In addition, the trader argues that missionary work and trade should join to improve the fate of Africa: "No good will ever be done in this land, to any great extent, until traders and missionaries go hand in hand into the interior, and the system of trade is entirely remodelled".
In the village of King Jambai, the hunters are well received (boiled elephant foot is served and judged delicious), but problems arise when a young woman, betrothed to Makarooroo, their English-speaking guide, is judged by the village's "fetishman" to be responsible for an illness of the king's, and she is to die. The hunters help spring her from her jail, and in the melee that accompanies their escape two natives are killed: Jack trips one who falls to an accidental death in a pit, and Makarooroo kills another. They hide the woman a few days later with Mbango, the king of another tribe. Peterkin shoots an elephant, but a further hunting adventure goes badly for Jack, who went giraffe hunting by himself but is seriously injured by a rhinoceros. To recuperate the hunters spend a few weeks in the village of another tribe, ruled by a relative of King Jambai.
The plot for the second half of the book involves a slave trader, whom the three hunters and their guide pursue for weeks to prevent the trader and his gang from taking over and enslaving Mbango's people. They are too late, and Makarooroo's fiance is among the captured. When the trader attacks Jambai's village the three organize the defenses and successfully defeat the attackers. It is a relatively bloodless affair, since Jack has ensured that the first volley from Jambai's riflemen consists of wadded paper, intended to scare off the attackers without killing them. In addition, Peterkin dresses up in a colorful outfit and stands on top of a hill, screaming and setting off fireworks. However, when Ralph attacks the trader's camp, he manages to scare off the now-liberated slaves, and another weeks-long pursuit ends with the happy reunion of Makarooroo and his fiance, who head down to the (Christianized) coast to get married. After the three take receipt of their stuffed trophies, intended for British museums and schools, they head home, with Ralph and Peterkin saying farewell:
"Farewell," said I, as we leaned over the vessel's side and gazed sadly at the receding shore --- "farewell to you, kind missionaries and faithful negro friends."
"Ay," added Peterkin, with a deep sigh, "and fare-you-well, ye monstrous apes; gorillas, fare-you-well!"

Question: Who was blamed for the illness of the king?


Charlie O'Brien, the proprietor of a small traveling circus, encounters an elderly man, Jacob Jankowski, who is separated from his nursing home group. The two strike up a conversation and Jacob reveals he had a career in the circus business and was present during one of the most infamous circus disasters of all time, the 1944 Hartford circus fire and the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus wreck.
Jankowski tells his story to O'Brien, starting in 1931 when he was a 23-year-old veterinary medicine student at Cornell. During his final exam, he is informed that his parents were killed in a car crash. His father has left huge debts, and the bank was foreclosing on Jacob's home. Feeling there is no point in returning to school, and having no home to go to, he jumps onto a passing train where he meets a man named Camel.
Jacob discovers that he jumped on the Benzini Bros. circus train. He sees a beautiful woman, Marlena Rosenbluth, and meets August, the circus's ringmaster, head animal trainer, and Marlena's husband. Jacob reveals he studied veterinary science and August hires Jacob as a vet for the circus animals after Jacob tells August that Silver has laminitis.
August instructs Jacob to fix Silver and keep him performing as long as possible. But Jacob cannot bear to see Silver's suffering and takes it upon himself to put Silver down. August is furious with Jacob's decision to euthanize Silver against orders. To show Jacob who is boss, he threatens to throw him from the moving train â telling him that an animal's suffering is nothing compared to a man's, and that Jacob must carry out all of August's future orders if he wishes to keep his job.
August eventually procures Rosie the elephant as Silver's replacement. He invites Jacob to his car for dinner and cocktails with him and Marlena. Jacob watches the married couple flirt and dance in front of him, but it becomes clear that their relationship is complicated because August is possessive, jealous and rough with Marlena.
In the next few weeks, August becomes frustrated when Rosie the elephant seems impossible to train. August is brutal with Rosie, beating her when she fails to follow orders. After a beating that August gave to Rosie when she ran away after fleeing from the event and dropping Marlena, Jacob realizes that the elephant only understands Polish commands. After that, Rosie performs beautifully and the circus enjoys a short period of success. While working together to train Rosie, Jacob and Marlena fall in love. After August discovers this, he cruelly taunts the two. Marlena discovers that August plans to throw Jacob from the train and they run away together, hiding in a local hotel. Soon after consummating their relationship, they are ambushed by August's henchmen who drag Marlena away and beat up Jacob.
Jacob returns to the circus to find Marlena. Marlena tells Jacob that his friends Walter and Camel were thrown from the train and killed. Several circus employees have become fed up with August's murderous cruelty and unleash their revenge by unlocking all the animals' cages while the big top tent is jam-packed with an audience enjoying Marlena and Rosie's performance. Jacob attempts to find Marlena in the chaos and August attacks him. When Marlena tries to stop August from beating Jacob, he turns his fury on her and chokes her, while one of August's henchmen beats Jacob. Two circus workers save Jacob and he sees Rosie hit August on the back of the head with a metal spike, killing him.
He returned to Cornell and finished his degree. He and Marlena took several of the horses and Rosie and got jobs with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus with he as a veterinarian and she continuing to perform with the animals. They married and had five children and kept Rosie until her death many years later. He took a job as a vet at the Albany Zoo and Marlena died peacefully in her bed at an old age. He convinces O'Brien to hire him in the ticket booth.

Question: Why did August  perpetrate violence against Jacob?

In retaliation for the affair between Jacob and August's wife, Marlena.


Aunt Jane's Nieces and Uncle John picks up the continuing story of the three cousins Patsy Doyle, Beth De Graf, and Louise Merrick, and their family; the plot of the book begins three days after the wedding of Louise and her fiancé Arthur Weldon, the event that concluded the fifth book in the series, Aunt Jane's Nieces in Society. The sixth novel begins, as per pattern, with the cousins' Uncle John getting an inspiration for a new adventure: in this case, the family will escape a cold New York City winter by taking a trip to southern California, the land of "sunshine and roses." Since Louise is away on her honeymoon, she is effectively left out of the story; her place is taken by Major Doyle, Patsy's father – the first time that the Major accompanies the young people on their escapades. (The Major is relieved that Uncle John has set his fancy merely on California, and not "Timbuktu or Yucatan...Ethiopia or Hindustan....")
The four travelers (accompanied by Mumbles, Patsy's new puppy) reach Denver by train; along the way, they meet an appealing teenage girl (14 or 15 years old) named Myrtle Dean. Myrtle is a poor orphan; she was injured in an automobile accident, which inhibited her ability to walk. She had been living in Chicago with an aunt, and earned her living by sewing. But now, Myrtle has been sent West by her unsympathetic aunt to find a missing uncle named Anson Jones – though neither woman knows if the uncle is still in Leadville, Colorado, his last known address, or if he will be able to care for the girl if she finds him. Patsy and Beth are shocked at her situation; it is clear to them that the aunt has abandoned Myrtle to her own inadequate resources. Uncle John telegraphs ahead, and discovers that the mysterious uncle has left Leadville for parts unknown. Patsy and Beth then adopt Myrtle as their "protégé," and take her with them on their trip. They buy her new clothes, and she shares their hotels, meals, and adventures.
(Baum cannot resist the fairy-tale viewpoint, and "Edith Van Dyne" gives a plug for the Oz books: Myrtle is "amazed and awed by the splendor of her new apparel, and could scarcely believe her good fortune. It seemed like a fairy tale to her, and she imagined herself a Cinderella with two fairy godmothers who were young and pretty girls possessing the purse of Fortunatus and the generosity of Glinda the Good.")
Uncle John buys a large, seven-passenger touring car and outfits it for camping and cross-country travel. He also hires a chauffeur, a half-Indian Québécois named Wampus. The chauffeur provides some of the comic relief in the story, though he is also presented as highly competent, courageous, and principled, a "brave and true man." (Baum employs another comic chauffeur in the final book in the series, Aunt Jane's Nieces in the Red Cross.)
The party sets off by car from Albuquerque; they visit the Grand Canyon and the Navaho and Hopi reservations. They witness a performance of the Hopi snake dance. In western Arizona they are waylaid by a riotous group of cowboys, who refuse to let them pass until the girls join them in a dance. In what grows into an ugly incident, the travelers are forced to acquiesce – at first; but Patsy and Beth, typically clever and resourceful, develop a plan to defeat their opponents and escape.
The group reaches California, none the worse for wear; they are delighted with the change of scene. They make the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego their headquarters. (This is another bit of autobiographical writing for Baum; he stayed regularly at the Coronado during trips to California.) Myrtle Dean has proved a delightful and rewarding companion; her health has already shown signs of improvement with better diet, less anxiety, and the warmth of new friendships.
Myrtle, however, has been the center of a series of curious events. At the Grand Canyon, the travelers saw a morose-looking man standing at the very lip of the canyon; Myrtle, fearing that he intended to jump, cried out to him, and the man turned away from the edge. At San Diego, they once again see the strange man, standing on a cliff over the ocean; Myrtle once again fears his suicide, and cries out to him. The man turns out to be staying at the Coronado; his name in C. B. Jones. Myrtle happens upon him a third time, and takes away the revolver he has been brooding over in his room.
After the three incidents, the man becomes emotionally attached to, if not fixated upon, Myrtle. Uncle John's inquiries reveal that the man, Collanson Jones, is the "Anson" Jones who is Myrtle's missing uncle. The two are happy at this re-unification of their sundered family, and Jones's deep melancholy is relieved (the evil aunt who sent Myrtle away had told him the girl was dead). And since Jones has made his fortune in mining, Myrtle's financial future is secured.

Question: What was the name of the puppy that accompanied the four travelers?