2016.1.6 - Week 17

A. Vocabularies to Know
1) fatality: a death caused by an accident or by violence, or someone who has died in either of these ways
2) parallel:  If two or more lines, streets, etc. are parallel, the distance between them is the same all along their length
2-1) parachute: a piece of equipment made of a large piece of special cloth which is fastened to someone or something that is dropped from an aircraft, in order to make them fall slowly and safely to the ground
2-2) paragraph: a short part of a text, consisting of at least one sentence and beginning on a new line. It usually deals with a single event, description, idea, etc.      parapara平行並立
3) allegory:  a story, play, poem, picture or other work in which the characters and events represent particular qualities or ideas, related to morals, religion or politics
4) passover: a Jewish celebration in March or April every year to remember the escape of the Jews from Egypt

B. Samson and Delilah
He then falls in love with a woman, Delilah, at the Brook of Sorek. The Philistines approach Delilah and induce her (with 1,100 silver coins) to try to find the secret of Samson's strength so they can get rid of it and capture their enemy. Samson, refuses to reveal the secret, teases her, telling her that he will lose his strength should he be bound with fresh bowstrings. She does so while he sleeps, but when he wakes up he snaps the strings. She persists, and he tells her he can be bound with new ropes. She ties him up with new ropes while he sleeps, and he snaps them, too. She asks again, and he says he can be bound if his locks are woven together. She weaves them together, but he undoes them when he wakes. Eventually after much nagging from Delilah, Samson tells Delilah that he will lose his strength with the loss of his hair. Delilah calls for a servant to shave Samson's seven locks. Since that breaks the Nazirite oath, God leaves him, and Samson is captured by the Philistines, who blind him by gouging out his eyes. After being blinded, Samson is brought to Gaza, imprisoned, and put to work grinding grain and making milk by turning a large millstone.

C. Dante Alighieri

Durante degli Alighieri , simply called Dante, was a major Italian poet of the late Middle Ages. His Divine Comedy, originally called Comedìa and later christened Divina by Boccaccio, is widely considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature.
Dante has been called "the Father of the Italian language". In Italy, Dante is often referred to as il Sommo Poeta ("the Supreme Poet") and il Poeta; he, Petrarch, and Boccaccio are also called "the three fountains" or "the three crowns".
D. Purgatori

Purgatori is a fictional comic book character, created by writer Brian Pulido and artist Steven Hughes. A crimson-skinned, winged vampire goddess, she first appeared in Evil Ernie: Revenge #1 (October 1994), published by Chaos! Comics. She has since appeared in books published by Devil's Due Publishing (2005-2006). The intellectual property (IP) for future works was bought by Dynamite Entertainment in May 2010 and in March 2011, Dynamite Entertainment President Nick Barrucci stated in 2012 they will publish new series of both Purgatori and Lady Demon, but expressed a desire to not want to rush the roll-out of these Chaos! Comics revamps.

E. Dan Brown

Daniel "Dan" Brown (born June 22, 1964) is an American author of thriller fiction who is best known for the 2003 bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code. Brown's novels are treasure hunts set in a 24-hour period, and feature the recurring themes of cryptography, keys, symbols, codes, and conspiracy theories. His books have been translated into 52 languages, and as of 2012, sold over 200 million copies. Three of them, Angels & Demons (2000), The Da Vinci Code (2003), and Inferno (2013), have been/are being adapted into films.

F. Plagues of Egypt

The Plagues of Egypt , also called the ten biblical plagues, were ten calamities that, according to the biblical Book of Exodus, the God of Israel inflicted upon Egypt to persuade the Pharaoh to release the ill-treated Israelites from slavery. Pharaoh capitulated after the tenth plague, triggering the Exodus of the Hebrew people. The plagues served to contrast the power of the God of Israel with the Egyptian gods, invalidating them. Some commentators have associated several of the plagues with judgment on specific gods associated with the Nile, fertility and natural phenomena. According to Exodus 12:12, all the gods of Egypt would be judged through the tenth and final plague: "On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD."

G. Fable

Fable is a literary genre: a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, mythical creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized (given human qualities, such as verbal communication) and that illustrates or leads to an interpretation of a moral lesson (a "moral"), which may at the end be added explicitly as a pithy maxim.

A fable differs from a parable in that the latter excludes animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature as actors that assume speech or other powers of humankind.

Usage has not always been so clearly distinguished. In the King James Version of the New Testament, "μῦθος" ("mythos") was rendered by the translators as "fable"[1] in the First Epistle to Timothy, the Second Epistle to Timothy, the Epistle to Titus and the First Epistle of Peter.