text:
CHAPTER 1

“Caw!”  The crow screamed from his perch on a nearby tree.  I looked up lazily from the trail I was following.  Beady black eyes stared coldly back at me.  His friends joined in on the cawing, as if taunting me.  It didn’t bother me, though, and I continued on my way with my catch in my mouth.  Stupid birds.  They had nothing useful to say so they just shouted angrily to seem imposing.  Once I was safely back at my home, I packed away the mouse I had caught for dinner and stretched out contentedly.  I would eat it later.  I always felt like getting a little exercise before meals to build up an appetite.

My hole was buried deep under a short oak tree.  It was hidden and well protected by exposed roots - an ideal home for a fox.  I poked my head back out of my burrow tentatively, sniffing around.  A new smell had attracted me earlier and I was dying to find its source and I had made up my mind to seek it out today.  Also, lately a lot of new animals had been appearing in our forest and I was really excited to see what new creatures turned up.  The other foxes all laughed at my curiosity.  They said it would lead to my death.  I didn’t see it that way.  The forest had a thousand different ways to kill me at any given moment and I had only made it this far on my own by always knowing my surroundings.  If there were changes to my hunting grounds, whether it be climate, new game, or a new predator, I wanted to be aware of it.

I sniffed around and started heading back the way I came.  The forest was very lively, which was surprising at this time of day.  The warm summer weather must have proved too tempting for everyone and I found myself in the company of many small woodland animals.  Squirrels were chatting in their trees, a pack of voles was out walking single file, and birds were singing songs on every tree.  I barked loudly a few times to let the animals nearby know it was safe to be around me right now.  It was a rule of the forest that if a carnivore was openly making his presence known, that he was not hunting and meant no harm to other animals nearby.  This law was sacred and I had never seen it broken, at least not in the few mile stretch of land that I stayed in.

After a few meters I caught on to the scent again.  Thrilled, I chased after it at full speed, barking occasionally to let everyone know I meant no harm.  Seeking out new sounds and smells always excited me and on top of that, it was my favorite time of day.  I could see the last glimmer of orange and pink and gold in the sky fading out between the trees to my west.  A strong wind brushed through my fur and I soaked in all the different sensations around me.  All the sights, sounds, and smells hit me and I sighed contentedly.  It was a warm summer night.  This time of day, just as the sky started to darken and the wind began to pick up, was my favorite time to go for a trip through the forest.  Delighted, I let out one powerful, proud bark and charged full speed ahead towards the new smell I was chasing.

Soon enough, evening turned into night and the sky became a dazzling black and purple ocean full of jewels.  I began doubting that I would reach my destination before it became too dark to see but the smell had grown much stronger and I knew I must be close by so I kept going.  I had never gone this far north before and was worried about getting lost as well.  By now I was able to distinguish two unique scents coming from the same direction.  One was completely new to me but the other seemed familiar, although I could not recall it.  I didn’t think too hard about it because I was too caught up in my own thoughts about the day and everything I had done earlier.  Besides the troublesome crows that had moved into the trees nearby, I had a run-in with some of the black foxes while I was hunting.  I was still absorbed in my thoughts when something caught my attention.

 Up ahead I heard a branch snap on the floor and instantly I was on my guard.  The forest is a loud place in general but every once in a while a sound would seem out of place and my gut would tell me something was wrong.  Fear sunk in as I looked around cautiously, trying to identify the cause of the noise.  For a while everything was silent and I became completely still as I crouched down and waited for a potential predator to make its move.  I was very large for a fox but I was still only a slightly more challenging kill than usual for the owls and hawks that would hunt at this time.  Minutes passed and there was absolutely no noise except for the chirping of various bugs.  I started thinking I was being paranoid and decided to move on but every instinct in me warned my body to sit absolutely still.  I willed myself to lift my front paw and take one step forward and, in a split second, the area surrounding me turned into a storm of violent action.  A giant rat came darting straight for me hissing at the top of her lungs.  She wasn’t speaking.  She didn’t want to talk and she wasn’t simply making me aware of her presence.  This was a battle cry.  This was her trying to scare me before she attacked.  Surprised as I was that a rat would charge at a fox, I reacted quickly and lunged straight at her, but another animal reacted much quicker.  I saw a flash of grey light and a powerful gust of wind knocked me off balance.  It took me a moment to collect myself and understand the scene before me.  A great grey owl had appeared seemingly from thin air and was mauling the rat in a flurry of talons and beaks.  I was terrified but also completely mesmerized by this act of extreme savagery.  I backed away slowly to not draw attention but I could not look away from the bizarre sight.  It was over in a few seconds.  Slowly the owl stood up straight with his back to me while still looking at the dead rat near his talons.  Fear crept in and I could not move.  I didn’t want to do anything to attract his attention.  Owls did not eat foxes but they were prone to random acts of violence and never needed a reason to kill.

“You do not need fear me, fox.”  He spoke in a high pitched yet booming voice that did not seem to suit him.  “I was never interested in you to begin with.  Well, not as food, anyways.”  He added.  He sounded pleased.  Hoping this meant I was safe, I cautiously stepped towards the giant owl even though I was so afraid I was shaking.

“Hello.  I am Ragvilus.  You helped me earlier.  I think the rat was going to attack me,” I began, not sure what to say to this owl.

“Aaah, I found that amusing.”  He laughed, ruffling his feathers happily as he turned to face me.  “Maybe she thought an injured fox would be more appealing to me than a large rat.”

“Would it have been?” I asked.  Despite my best efforts to stay calm my voice quivered noticeably as I spoke.

The owl turned his head completely around and hooted.  He stared at me with vertical eyes that looked both completely insane yet infinitely intelligent.  After a few moments he answered with a simple, “Yes.”  Then he slowly began turning back towards his kill.  “Where are you going, Ragvilus the red fox?” he continued as he spread open his wings and revealed his enormous wingspan.

“Just a few meters north of here.”  I answered truthfully.

“Do you seek the other foxes up ahead?”  He asked.  This caught me off guard.   I had no idea other foxes were nearby. I considered lying to the owl and saying they were my friends to seem like I had a pack with me.  In the end I decided against it because it occurred to me that an owl would not be intimidated by foxes and that if he wanted me dead I would already be dead by now.

“No.  I noticed a new smell today and wanted to investigate it.”  At this, the owl froze.  He folded his wings completely and turned his head slightly so he could see me from the corner of his eye.

“Strange new animals have been entering our forest.  Isn’t it exciting?”  He asked.  For some reason his voice became very grave.  “But sometimes it does not pay to be so inquisitive.  Red foxes are so very rare.”  His ominous words once again put me on edge.  Without thinking I began backing away but it was unnecessary.  The owl picked up his prey and began lifting himself up into the air.  With two flaps of his enormous wings he was already a few feet in the air.  “Do you know why this area has been especially crowded lately?”  He continued.  I had heard bits and pieces of it but as a predator and an outcast amongst the foxes, I did not have very many chances to find out.  “The cold northern forest was lit completely ablaze.  A fire like this has not been seen in my lifetime or in many lifetimes before.”  By now the owl had disappeared amongst the treetops and his voice began to fade.  “Many new animals.  So very exciting.  But look out young fox.  There are many monsters that lived in the cold northern forests and even monsters fear fire.”  A fire in the north?  I was confused by the ominous threats left by the strange bird.

Shaken up, I turned around and looked at the trail I was following.  Maybe it was time to give up on this.  Maybe this was a sign that my curiosity was finally a bad thing.  I took one more deep breath and thought about what my strange new smells could be.  Then it hit me.  I recognized one of the scents.  It was the smell of smoke and ash.  I have no idea why but a sense of urgency set in at this and my gut told me I had to get to the source of the smell and get there fast.  I had no logical reason to do so but my gut had never steered me wrong before.  I took one last longing look at the trail behind me then sprinted towards the new smell.

title: [RF] Fox - written from an animal's perspective

question: Summarize the Ragvilus's movements throughout the story.

answer: Ragvilus is following a trail. They arrive back at home--a hole under a short oak tree. After picking up a strange scent, the fox heads back the way they came. They reach a part of the forest where they encounter a rat and an owl. When they realize that the strange smell belongs to ash, they sprint toward the source of it.

question: What does the story say about the source of the fire?


split: test

text:
Ms. Johnson, I remember watching your baby everyday while you and your husband went out to work.
I remember having my red hair in a low ponytail.
I remember me wearing white clothing on with my brown sandals.
I remember everything up until now…
And now we both have lost everything because of you.

	It was a beautiful Friday morning, no one was home except for myself and the baby. After cleaning up in the kitchen, I remember hearing a cough coming from the basement. My initial thought was to get the baby and leave but strangely enough I did not. However, I did continue with whatever needed to be done with the house.
	For the next few days, this has continued until I spoke with your husband. Yes, this may seem strange and very disrespectful but your husband had deep secrets. He told me that a close friend of his was staying over for awhile until he gets a new place. The guy name is Riley. He’s a yellow skinned man, with high cheekbones, black curly hair, with dark brown eyes. Also, he smoked these skinny, black cigarettes. Although I was skeptical at first, I still decided that it was okay.
	But as days passed, I felt as if there were more eyes on me than usual. Paranoia has stricken me while being in that house. Unfortunately, it did not stop me from sleeping when being there. It was a Saturday afternoon, the house was silent. While I was on the couch, my mind was telling me something. As if it it knew something bad was going to happen. But I brushed the idea off and drifted off into sleep.
	Two hours later… I jumped from my sleep and saw two men standing before me. They both were wearing all black and they were both prepared for whatever was to come. The man on my left, was running full force ahead of me. My immediate reaction was to kick him dead in the nuts, then pick up the vase that is sitting on the coffee table and knock it upside his head. Quickly enough, I took a piece of the broke vase and proceeded to stab him in the right eye with it. Slowly enough, took his eyeball out of his socket. That is when I noticed that the other guy disappeared. I only had a few seconds to get the baby and get up out of there.
	I sprinted up them stairs, ran into the baby’s bedroom. I grabbed his baby bag that is always prepared in case of emergency and the baby. Popped opened that window, stepped out onto the balcony and jumped.
Luckily, we survived the jump and I was able to get up and run down the street. This run felt like eternity when in reality it was only two minutes that passed. One of my biggest regrets was looking back. Within a blink of an eye, a different man in all black tackled us onto the ground. The man on top of me and the baby had pinned us down to the ground. He turned around and signaled his men to come over. With that, I was able to raise my upper body up to see the baby. Although his eyes were closed he had this beautiful smile on him.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!” I quietly screamed out. Suddenly, he opened his eyes and laughed. I started to tear up because I really thought I lost him. Nevertheless, when something good happens there is always the worst to come.
So, the man that chased us brought to this old 1970 black camaro. On the car it that had a bright orange spray paint mark on the passenger side door, and the car had these fresh rims. When first upon entering into the car, there was this light skinned, bald headed man who seemed to be his in late forties on the driver side of the seat. The only words he told me was, “buck up sweetheart it’s gonna be long a ride.”
Thank you Mr. Johnson, for bringing misery to us.

title: [NF] RUNAWAY PART ONE

question: Summarize the main source of conflict.

answer: The narrator is suspicious of Riley, a close friend of the husband of Ms. Johnson. The narrator wakes up in their sleep to find two men standing before them. After a scuffle, the narrator tries to escape with the Ms. Johnson's baby. They are overtaken by the assailants and brought to a black camero along with the baby.

question: What does the story say about what it takes to be a good babysitter?

question: Summarize everything relating to negative emotions.

answer: The narrator begins to feel paranoia while in the Johnsons' house. The narrator screams out when they think the baby has died. They start to tear up, thinking they've lost the baby.

question: Summarize everything relating to violence.

answer: When the narrator awakes to find two men standing before them, they kick one in the testicles and smash a vase over his head. They then stab him in the eye with a piece of the broken vase. Once they are outside, a different man tackles them to the ground.


text:
[Herd of Cows]

 Flickr / Marc Dalmulder
-   IN FEBRUARY 2018, THE US CATTLEMEN’S ASSOCIATION (USCA) FILED A PETITION TO THE USDA ARGUING THAT LAB-GROWN AND PLANT-BASED MEAT STARTUPS SHOULD NOT BE ABLE TO CALL THEIR PRODUCTS "MEAT," SINCE THEY DO NOT COME FROM SLAUGHTERED ANIMALS.
-   THE STARTUPS SAY THEY ARE NOT BACKING DOWN.
-   WHILE LAB-GROWN MEAT PRODUCTS ARE NOT AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC YET, A NUMBER OF STARTUPS ARE ATTEMPTING TO MAKE IT MORE COMMERCIALLY FEASIBLE. PLANT-BASED MEAT COMPANIES, LIKE IMPOSSIBLE FOODS AND BEYOND MEAT, ALREADY SELL THEIR ITEMS AT SUPERMARKETS AND RESTAURANTS.
-   THE DEBATE WILL LIKELY INTENSIFY.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

For the first time, a major part of the US beef industry is taking aim at tech startups creating meat — without animals — that tastes like the real thing. (These startups fall into two major buckets: companies that make meat from plants, and others that are growing real meat using animal cells in labs.)

In February, the US Cattlemen’s Association (USCA) filed a 15-page petition to the USDA asking the agency to strictly define "meat" and "beef" as animals raised and slaughtered. The group argues that displaying plant-based meat products next to traditional meat items could confuse customers, especially when they're labeled as chicken or beef.

Plant-based and lab-grown meat startups are refuting that argument.

Ethan Brown, the CEO of the plant-based foods company Beyond Meat, believes that its burgers serve the same purpose as traditional beef.

"Why can't we call it a piece of meat? It has the same things in it, it presents the same way, and it performs the same function," he told Capital Public Radio. "A lot like we call the mobile phone a phone, and we don’t call it a fake landline."

Josh Tetrick, CEO of the food-tech startup Just (formerly called Hampton Creek), told Business Insider that tech companies and the beef industry should work together on creating the future of meat. Just produces plant-based foods, like eggless mayonnaise, and it's also working on a cultured — or lab-grown — meat product.

"I understand better than most the nuances and challenges of product naming," said Tetrick, who won a similar battle over labeling Just's eggless mayo as mayo in 2015. "My biggest takeaway is this: The leaders of the national and global meat industry want to feed the world animal protein in a sustainable way. That’s a shared interest that should be celebrated."

Big Beef is divided on how to fight fake meat startups

By filing an official motion, the country's ranchers are showing cultured and plant-based meat startups that they are prepared to fight for the definition of meat.

"[The government] should require that any product labeled as 'beef' come from cattle that have been born, raised, and harvested in the traditional manner, rather than coming from alternative sources such as a synthetic product from plant, insects, or other non-animal components and any product grown in labs from animal cells," the USCA wrote.

[]

An Impossible Foods employee works at the company's headquarters in Redwood City, California.
 Melia Robinson
But not every group within the beef industry agrees on how to challenge these startups.

In April, the more-powerful National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) sent a letter to the USDA, arguing for the opposite ruling as the USCA.

The NCBA's position may seem counterintuitive, but as Quartz notes, the move is likely part of a larger strategy to fight fake meat startups. By putting their products under the oversight of the USDA, lab-grown and plant-based meat companies would need to adhere to the USDA's existing regulations on meat, which could hamper research and development.

Fake meat startups — attracting hundreds of millions in venture capital — say that they're not backing down

In the petition, the USCA mentions Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat, companies that are each backed by millions in VC funding. The group also calls out Memphis Meats, Just, and Mosa Meats — three startups that are racing to bring lab-grown meat to market.

Recent venture-capital investments could make that more commercially feasible.

In January, Tyson Foods announced that it had invested in Memphis Meats, joining the startup's list of prominent backers including Bill Gates, the food giant Cargill, and Richard Branson.

Plant-based meat companies have also caught the attention of VCs. In 2016, Tyson also bought a 5% stake in Beyond Meat, a company that sells plant-based burgers, chicken, and sausage in grocery stores. Meanwhile, Impossible Foods has chosen to sell its burgers exclusively in restaurants. Until recently, Impossible's patties were only available at select food establishments for over $10. But in April, the company debuted $2 sliders at 140 White Castle locations across New York, New Jersey, and Illinois.

Just could be the first cultured food startup to get its meat to stores. Last year, the company said it plans to do so by the end of this year. Memphis Meats and Mosa Meats say they will start offering their products to the public in 2021.

"We have made progress in all areas that needed improvements — creating fat tissue, creating color, moving towards serum-free culturing — but we’re not there yet," Mosa Meats CEO Peter Verstrate previously told Business Insider.

Proponents of meat-mimicking food argue that it's more environmentally friendly than raising traditional livestock.

This month, a group of scientists from the University of Oxford published the most comprehensive analysis to date of the damage farming does to the planet. The new research suggests that without dairy and meat consumption, global farmland use could be reduced by over 75% — an area equivalent to the US, China, European Union, and Australia combined — and still feed the world. Globally, traditional animal farming accounts for about 18% of all greenhouse emissions, uses 47,000 square miles of land annually, and exhausts 70% of the world's water.

As startups improve their meat alternatives, the debate over what can legally be considered meat will likely intensify.

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question: What does the text say about the USCA?

answer: The US Cattlemen's Association (USCA) filed a 15-page petition to the USDA asking the agency to strictly define "meat" and "beef" as animals raised and slaughtered. In the petition, the organization explicitly named Impossible Foods, Beyond Meat, Memphis Meats, Just, and Mosa Meats. The USCA is arguing that displaying plant-based meat products next to traditional meat items could confuse customers.

question: What does the text say about the NCBA?

answer: The National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) is more powerful that the USCA and recently sent a letter to the USDA asking them to classify plant-based and lab-grown meats as meat. Quartz notes that the move is likely part of a larger strategy to fight fake meat startups. By putting their products under the oversight of the USDA, lab-grown and plant-based meat companies would need to adhere to the USDA's existing regulations on meat, which could hamper research and development.

question: What does the text say about reasons for supporting development of meat-mimicking food?

answer: Some proponents of meat-mimicking food argue that it's more environmentally friendly than raising traditional livestock. New research suggests that without dairy and meat consumption, global farmland use could be reduced by over 75% and still feed the world. In addition, globally, traditional animal farming accounts for about 18% of all greenhouse gas emissions, and exhausts 70% of the world's clean water.

question: What does the text say about public opinion of meat-mimicking food?


text:
[Free VPN Service With New PornHub App]

Pornhub wants you to keep your porn viewing activities private, and it is ready to help you out with its all-new safety and privacy free VPN service.

Yes, you heard that right.

Adult entertainment giant Pornhub that allows porn videos download has launched its very own free VPN service today with "unlimited bandwidth" to help you keep prying eyes away from your browsing activity.

Dubbed VPNhub, the VPN service by Porn Hub and developed by AppAtomic, is available for both mobile as well as desktop platform, including Android, iOS, MacOS, and Windows.

VPN, or Virtual Private Network, hides IP address, allows users to transmit data anonymously, avoids ISP-level website blocking or tracking and keeps your internet connections ans browsing activity private by encrypting your data, even when you are on public Wi-Fi connections.

Isn't it the great reason to use a VPN? Of course, Yes.

Pornhub App Launches Fast VPN Service

Like Hotspot shield and others, Pornhub's new VPN services will also allow users a secure way to mask their online activity and also packs all the most important security features that a VPN app should.

Pornhub promises never to store, collect, sell, or share your personal information with any third parties for their marketing, advertising or research purposes.

However, in its privacy policy under the heading, "How We Use Your Information," the company says it can sell "aggregate or non-personally identifiable information with non-affiliated third parties for advertising, marketing or research purposes."

Since some government, including that of the United Kingdom, are regulating adult content online, launching a VPN service by videos download website Pornhub makes sense.

Pornhub's VPN service is available in countries across the globe except for Burma/Myanmar, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria, due to the ban imposed by the U.S. government.

While mobile users (both iOS and Android) can download and use the VPNhub pornhub app for free, desktop users (MacOS and Windows) have to purchase a premium account.

Free Pornhub users can only connect to a server in Los Angeles, but Premium users have access to VPN servers located in 13 countries around the world.

To get started, you have to download the Pornhub app on your mobile device and then tap setup. You can then open your browser of choice and surf the Web securely.

You can also upgrade your free account to a premium subscription for $13 a month or $90 for a full year, which eliminates ads, provides faster connection speeds, and opens up "servers from a wide range of countries."

We detected no IP leaks when testing the app. Instead of using Pornhub proxy, you can also give Pornhub VPNhub a try with its 7-day free trial.

Pornhub also supports cryptocurrencies, allowing users to easily make anonymous payments to the service and soon adding more features.

If you are looking for an excellent, secure, but cheap VPN service to start with, we have featured some best deals on our store as well, offering lifetime access to best VPN services at highly discounted prices.

Found this article interesting? Follow THN on Facebook, Twitter __ and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post.

question: How has Pornhub planned to keep your viewing activities private?

answer: By using its all-new safety and privacy-free VPN service.

question: What is a VPN?

answer: A Virtual Private Network (VPN), hides IP addresses and allows users to transmit data anonymously. It avoids ISP-level website blocking or tracking and keeps your internet connections and browsing activity private by encrypting your data, even while on public Wi-Fi connections.

question: Who is the VPN developed by?

answer: The VPN is developed by AppAtomic.

question: What is the VPN named?

answer: VPNhub.

question: Write a ~4 sentence summary.

answer:
Adult entertainment website Pornhub has launched its own free VPN service, VPNhub.  The service is developed by AppAtomic and is available for both mobiles as well as desktops.

Pornhub promises to not store, collect or share your personal information with any third parties, although, their privacy policy states that they can sell "aggregate or non-personally identifiable information."

Mobile users can download and use the app for free, while desktop users have to purchase a premium account.


text:
Two Houses.

Picture two houses across the street from one another. They looked perfectly normal and sturdy on the outside, but on the inside they were run down and falling apart. Inside of one lived a quiet and peaceful man, and in the other lived a beautiful and cheerful woman. Neither of them, however, liked being outside the confines of their own house.

One day, the peaceful man ventured across the street to the other house and was invited inside. The two strangers visited, shared laughs, told stories, and enjoyed the others company. At the end of the day, the man returned to his house.

The next day he visited again, but instead of talking, he started to slowly repair the inside of the run down house. When one of his repairs would break, he would immediately come over to fix the damage with a smile on his face. The two housekeepers became used to seeing one another each day, and eventually, the woman would come over to the man's house to visit. The woman noticed that his house looked much worse on the inside than hers, and started to sneak inside at night while he was asleep to make repairs. When the man would try to fix something himself, or repair damages to his own house, he would fail, and sometimes even make things worse. But the next morning,  he would notice that things would be fixed. This puzzled the man and he decided to ask the woman about it the next time she came over.

The next evening they spent together, he asked and she informed the man of what she had been doing, and the man asked why. She replied,
"Because people who show a caring and wholesome heart deserve to receive the same treatment they give to others." The man became confused.
          "But I am a shut in. Nobody gives to me, and I don't give to them. Why does somebody like me deserve somebody as wonderful as you?"

The woman put her hand on the man's shoulder and looked into his dark brown eyes. She noticed a hurt that had always seemed to hide beneath his smile, a sorrow that hadn't been revealed in a very long time. She said in a soft and gentle voice: "Somebody that prefers to be alone does not always prefer being lonely. There is always somebody who will care."

The two embraced, and the man sobbed and became limp in the woman's arms. Once he had calmed down, the woman kissed him on the cheek and returned to her house without saying a word.

The following morning, he noticed another man performing landscaping on her lawn, painting the outside of her house, and cleaning her patio. Each day the house would look more and more beautiful. He became sad that the woman had found somebody else to do her work, and started to loathe the landscaper that would beautify her house all the time.

The woman remained indoors all day, trying to make the interior of her house look as pleasant as the exterior. However, most of her attempts at repairs or renovation were disasters. The person she hired was no help, and was only after her money. She began to miss her neighbors company, along with his sturdy repairs and his gentle smile. As days went by, the man and woman thought about each other more and more, but never saw each other.

One afternoon, the woman heard her doorbell ring. Knowing it wasn't the landscaper she hired, she curiously approached the peephole of the door. Seeing that nobody was outside, she opened the door and looked for pranksters. Looking down, she saw a small, dirty looking tin with a bow neatly placed on top of it.

The interior of the unkempt tin was extravagantly decorated with soft velvet from top to bottom, and in the center laid a simple necklace with a key on it, resting on top of a small note. Putting the necklace on, she unfolded the small note and noticed little droplets of water on the page.

"You are the only one that can make it feel less empty. Please take care of it for me while I'm gone. I must go, but I will return one day."

After reading it the woman dropped to her knees, and tears started to form in her tightly shut eyes. For what seemed like years, she spent the next few months wishing the man would come back and going into his house to take care of it while he was gone. She noticed that every little thing she had done to the house remained unchanged, as if he never tried to correct the small mistakes she had made.

Eventually, the man returned. The woman was thrilled and filled with happiness, but also saddened by the fact that the man no longer came across the street to visit her. A few days after his return, she noticed he was packing his belongings into boxes. Fearing that he might move away, the woman mustered up the courage to go talk to the man.

"Why are you putting everything into boxes?" The woman asked.
    "Because," the man replied solemnly, "I am looking to create new memories and find a fresh start." The woman said nothing and returned to her house, slamming the door and fighting back tears.

The next morning, the man was loading his belongings into a moving truck when he saw a pile of boxes bigger than his own sitting in the woman's lawn. He walked across the street to the pile, and saw a note taped to one of the boxes.

"I will always love you, and I promise that I will always be next to you. No matter where we go."

The man's face turned into a broad smile, and he looked up to see the woman on her front patio, looking right back at him, the necklace glistening in the sunlight. She ran into his arms and they kissed for what felt like an eternity. The pair continued to load all of their belongings into the one moving truck, and left that very evening. Holding hands with his true love, the man looked into the rear view mirror to see the sun setting on the old, abandoned houses for the last time, and felt what was truly a pure happiness. An odd and relieving sensation washed over him like a tide, as he realized that he would never have to search for anything in his life, as long as he lived.

title: Some OC for you all to enjoy

question: Summarize what the story has to say about loneliness.

answer: In the beginning, the woman tells the man that someone who prefers being alone doesn't necessary prefer being lonely. This is distinguishing between a state and a feeling. Loneliness can also be temporary, can can be resolved in simply knowing the other person exists-that seems to be what the man did in going on a sojourn without her, to return to her.

question: Summarize the surprise in the conclusion of the story.

answer: The man seems as if he is setting off without the woman again. There was a build-up when he was gone, and then he returned. As it becomes clear that he is once again leaving, he delivers a speech about he wants to create new memories. Instead of sobbing and remaining behind, the woman opts to go with him, and to always be with him.

question: Summarize the source of tension in the story.

answer: The tension arises from the theme of loneliness versus solitude. Each character demonstrates how tasks are done on a solo basis to embetter and enhance the vessels in which we live-but how we, as humans, are transient. However, love is not transient, and the same care given to the vessels that provide for us can be converted and shared with another human being. The tension lifts when the two characters understand the difference between being alone and being lonely.

question: Explain the relationship between the occupants prior to this story.


text:
By

Updated April 02, 2015 at 12:00 PM EDT

[]

We knew she was coming, and now we know when: Dahlia will make her present-day New Orleans debut in the April 13 episode of _The Originals_, and we’ve got an exclusive first look at her arrival.

Played by Claudia Black, the big bad aunt, who’s fittingly dressed in all black, will surely have her sights set on Baby Hope, and according to Joseph Morgan, she’s just as terrifying as you want her to be.

“It’s just so exciting that they got the casting so right because I was so worried,” Morgan said. “We built up Dahlia for a long time—if someone comes in and is terrible or really isn’t frightening in any way or something, that’s the season ruined. But Claudia Black is just wonderful. First of all, she’s a veteran at sci-fi and fantasy. She knows what she’s doing, so she’s really able to handle the intensity of those speeches about curses and witches and wolves and vampires and all of that stuff, which is a whole other skill set to teach at drama school.”

As for what Dahlia’s arrival in New Orleans means for Klaus, Morgan hinted that those references to similarities between Klaus and Dahlia won’t go unrecognized. “They’re definitely of the same blood,” he teased.

[]

Credit: Tina Rowden/The CW

_The Originals_ returns Monday, April 6, at 8 p.m. on The CW.

Episode Recaps

-   []

    S5 E13 Recap

    _The Originals_ series finale recap: A Mikaelson farewell

    By Samantha Highfill

-   []

    S5 E12 Recap

    _The Originals_ recap: A trip to Mystic Falls has potentially deadly consequences

    By Samantha Highfill

-   []

    S5 E11 Recap

    _The Originals_ recap: Time for a Mikaelson wedding

    By Samantha Highfill

-   []

    S5 E10 Recap

    _The Originals_ recap: A shocking death leads to a heartwarming reunion

    By Samantha Highfill

-   []

    S5 E9 Recap

    _The Originals_ recap: The death count rises

    By Lincee Ray

-   []

    S5 E8 Recap

    _The Originals_ recap: Elijah gets his memories back

    By Samantha Highfill

-   []

    S5 E7 Recap

    _The Originals_ recap: Hayley gets a proper goodbye

    By Samantha Highfill

-   []

    S5 E6 Recap

    _The Originals_ recap: The search for Hayley results in a major death

    By Samantha Highfill

-   []

    S5 E5 Recap

    _The Originals_ recap: There's a new bad guy in town

    By Lincee Ray

-   []

    S5 E4 Recap

    _The Originals_ recap: The hunt for Hayley

    By Samantha Highfill

-   []

    S5 E3 Recap

    _The Originals_ recap: 'Ne Me Quitte Pas'

    By Samantha Highfill

-   []

    S5 E2 Recap

    _The Originals_ recap: 'One Wrong Turn on Bourbon'

    By Samantha Highfill

-   []

    S5 E1 Recap

    _The Originals_ premiere recap: 'Where You Left Your Heart'

    By Samantha Highfill

-   []

    S4 E13 Recap

    _The Originals_ finale recap: 'The Feast of All Sinners'

    By Lincee Ray

-   []

    S4 E12 Recap

    _The Originals_ recap: 'Voodoo Child'

    By Lincee Ray

-   []

    S4 E11 Recap

    _The Originals_ recap: 'A Spirit Here That Won't Be Broken'

    By Lincee Ray

-   []

    S4 E10 Recap

    _The Originals_ recap: 'Phantomesque'

    By Lincee Ray

-   []

    S4 E9 Recap

    _The Originals_ recap: 'Queen Death'

    By Lincee Ray

-   []

    S4 E8 Recap

    _The Originals_ recap: 'Voodoo in My Blood'

    By Lincee Ray

-   []

    S4 E7 Recap

    _The Originals_ recap: 'High Water and a Devil's Daughter'

    By Lincee Ray

-   []

    S4 E6 Recap

    _The Originals_ recap: 'Bag of Cobras'

    By Amanda Bell

-   []

    S4 E5 Recap

    _The Originals_ recap: 'I Hear You Knocking'

    By Lincee Ray

-   []

    S4 E4 Recap

    _The Originals_ recap: 'Keepers of the House'

    By Lincee Ray

[]

The Originals

Joseph Morgan and Daniel Gillies star as Klaus and Elijah Mikaelson in this Vampire Dairies spin-off about the first family of vampires, their life in New Orleans, and the witches and werewolves who live there.

+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| type                              | -   TV Show                       |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| seasons                           | -   5                             |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| rating                            | -   TV-14                         |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| network                           | -   The CW                        |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| stream service                    | -   Amazon                        |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+

question: Why is Claudia Black a good fit for the role of Dahlia?

answer: Claudia Black is a veteran of sci-fi and fantasy. She knows how to handle the speeches about curses, witches, wolves and vampires, which is, according to Joseph Morgan, a whole other skillset to teach at drama school. In addition, she is capable of being terrifying and playing the character well.


text:
Note:  I previously posted this story in /r/writingprompts, but that subreddit is geared more toward reading than feedback.  I'd be glad to hear what you all think!

After dinner, the old man sat across from me on the porch, pipe in hand.  When was the last time you saw someone smoke a pipe?  I couldn’t recall. He sat and rocked and smoked, and then he looked at me, and spoke the question that he had been waiting to ask.  With slow gravity and spry curiosity, he dropped one eyelid, and cocked his head to the side, and said, “What makes you think this girl is the one?”

I sat back in my own rocker, facing him across the porch, and thought about what I would say.  What really made me think so?  It was a good question.

My mind went back to the day we met.  I remember walking into the little room where the other guys were sitting, waiting on the next task of the day to begin, and shooting the breeze.  They were laughing as I came in, and talking—about the weekend, about cars, about football and basketball and what did you do this weekend, and of course, about girls.  Always about girls.  Did it matter that some of the guys were married?  Of course not.  It’s man talk.  It’s no harm, no foul, and on we go.  Then someone mentioned the new girl up in the office, and I, well, I put my foot in my mouth and asked who they were talking about.   *You kidding me, right?  Boy, this is the finest-looking woman to ever walk this place and man, she is HOT*.  I laughed it off, thinking, no, I know this place, and that’s gotta be exaggeration.  Then she came walking by at lunch time, and smiled, and said *hey, how are you*?  And every talking mouth in that room went silent.  She was that gorgeous.

My dad used to tell me that a pretty face was nice, but it won’t keep you warm at night.  I felt warm enough that spring, though, watching her walk one way and another, and generally not saying anything more than “um” and “ah” and, when it was just the guys, a whispered “damn!”  I thought that was all it would ever be, and I was ready for that, even if I found it hard to push aside the occasional memory of that long blonde hair.  Halfway through the summer, though, I came in one morning and walked to my new station, newly reassigned…and she came out of the next room.  I suppose that it was in the back of my mind somewhere that she worked in that building, but it truly wasn’t for that reason that I sought the transfer; I just wanted off the night shift, where I and the other guys had recently landed.  But then she came out of that door, and gave me that thousand-megawatt smile that I’ve learned to love...well, is it any wonder that everything went out of my head?

She told me later, one long and intimate night, that I was the quietest man she’d ever met, back then.  She said that she made it her mission, right then and there, to get me to open up, no matter what it took.  I asked her, don’t you realize that you’re the reason I couldn’t speak?  She laughed it off, but I saw in her eyes that she was touched.

I remember reading once that men form their friendships through common endurance.  It’s the band of brothers, the fellow POWs, the ones who have endured hell together—they’re the ones who hold together through the years.  She was certainly no man, but I thought of that imagery often that year all the same.  I thought of it when the clouds started to gather at the edges of my attenuated life…I thought of it when they broke over my head.  I remember long evenings, sitting in coffee shops and in the quiet rooms of our offices, talking things out.  I remember arguments and anger, sadness and determination, hope and despair.  I remember saying that the details don’t matter, but knowing in my heart that they did.

I remember, most of all, knowing it couldn’t be.  She belonged to someone else, and so did I.  It’s funny…we each knew that the other’s marriage was failing, and we each knew that it was because of the other partners.  Neither of us could see that it was happening to ourselves.

I remember the night I knew what I wanted with her…and I remember choosing to leave.

The last time we were together, I sat across from her, and told her that she was the one thing I would miss the most.  Any other woman would have belittled it, would have told me that I would forget her and move on.  She did none of that.  She simply looked into my eyes, and hugged me, and said that she would miss me too.

The days that followed, and the weeks, and the months, I had my own problems, and they were all I could handle.  Down the road, I would regret that self-centered focus.  It was much later that I discovered that, while I was rebuilding my world (only to watch it fall apart once more), hers was crumbling.  I would come to hate myself for missing it.  When I called her, she was distant; in messages, she was vague.  I thought she was forgetting me, and with a heavy heart, I decided that it was probably for the best.

I saw her again, once or twice, but she hid it so well—the circles under her eyes, covered in makeup; the cuts on her arms, covered with sleeves.  I think sometimes, if only I had known…but she didn’t want me to know.  She admitted that her marriage had broken up; that her husband, whom she had loved so much, had found someone else, had broken her heart into shards.  She hid the truth:  that she had taken those shards and cut herself with them.

I never knew exactly how it happened, that she came back into my life.  It was slow, and yet so quick.  One day, we were old acquaintances, chatting over the internet, and the next we were friends again.  It couldn’t have come at a better time, because that summer, my life fell apart again.  My own marriage, limping along for so long, dissolved in a fury of ash and fire; my family was torn apart.

I know what people would say, but they’d be wrong.  It wasn’t because of her.  We were still distant, friends or not.  We had to be.  But all that long fall and longer winter, when things were burning to the ground around me, she stayed.  Too far away to hold my hand through those times, she listened instead.  And slowly, yet so surely, she pulled me up out of that pit.  Coming out of it was like stepping back into the sunlight; and suddenly I could see her clearly.
I saw all the things I had missed.  I saw the fear in her eyes, and the hesitation, every time she thought of trying again.  I saw how much he had hurt her, and how far she had fallen, and how she had lost her trust.  And yet, in every instance, I saw that she was hurt, but not broken; damaged, but not destroyed.  I made it my mission to pick her up from the dust, and bring her back.  After all, she had done it for me.

Day after day, conversation after conversation, I reached out to her, and told her the simple truth—about herself, about the past, about the future, about what I saw when I looked at her.  I told her that she was beautiful, and so much more.  And in her dark moments, when it seemed to her that everything was doomed to failure, and she came close to forgetting who she was, I reminded her.  I reminded her of who she was to me, and not only to me, but to so many others out there—everyone for whom she had tried to do good, all the years I had known her.  Slowly, I watched the light return to her eyes, and I watched her open up, and embrace life—and the world—again.

And he wants to know how I know she’s the one?

I gave a laugh, and I looked at him.  He looked at me with brows wrinkled in puzzled curiosity.  And I laughed again, because I knew that what I was thinking would make no sense to him.  I knew he wouldn’t understand if I said it—that I didn’t have to know.  I didn’t have to know she was the one, because she already had been, all along.  We’d been through hell and back, and survived it, and through everything, she had been the one.  He may have asked it, but for me, there really was no question.

He was still waiting for an answer.  I leaned forward and clapped a hand on his knee, and gave him a smile.  “I don’t,” I said, and stood up.  “But I think it will be alright anyway.”

There was a burst of laughter through the screened window behind him, then.  We both looked, and I saw her there, with the old man’s wife, laughing and talking as they cleared the table.  I watched her being radiant, until I noticed him looking back at me again.  He nodded knowingly, and I raised a hand in a gesture that was half-wave, half salute.  “Yeah, it’ll be alright,” I said.  “But, you know, it never hurts to make sure.”  Then I nodded, and walked past him, and opened the door, and went to do just that.

title: [RO] The One

question: Explain how the married narrator ended up with his married colleague.

answer: The narrator's colleague was the new girl in the office. Every man in the building would talk about her and how gorgeous she was. The narrator was later reassigned to a new station, next to the gorgeous woman that would beautifully smile at him. She belonged to someone else and so did he, but both marriages were failing. While the narrator was trying to rebuild his marriage, hers was crumbling. They each had moved on and distance grew between them but one day they were friends again, after his own marriage had fallen apart. He confessed his feelings to her which were apparently mutual as her eyes lit up and she began to embrace life again.


text:
   The tumultuous waves crashed into the Caribbean-esque shores. With them, me. I stood up on the white sanded beach and looked out into the great blue yonder. The water was so blue and clear, I could've sworn I was in the Bahamas. A moment later, I smelled iron. "Blood" I thought. I ripped off my white cotton dress shirt and saw the the blood oozing out of the deep lacerations on my torso. Then, the smelled of something being grilled filled the air. "There's someone else on the island.
   I ran to the smell as fast as humanly possible. It was the most difficult thing I've ever done. I ran so fast my muscles started to hurt. I tripped over rocks and branches multiple times which exacerbated the lacerations. When I got to the barbecue all I saw were servants and a woman in a red dress. She was no older than me, twenty. After looking around, I collapsed.
   The next thing I remember, I was in a huge cave. Except, it didn't look like a cave. It looked like a regular home. I opened my eyes and saw the immaculate kitchen, it was like one you'd see in a five star restaurant. Annexed off the kitchen, there was a beautiful dining room. However, I got the feeling that it was just collecting dust. I was laying on a black couch big enough for two people and was snuggled up in a flannel blanket. I wanted to get up but I debated if it was worth losing the warmth. It was decided, I'd get up. As I got up, I heard a woman say "Woah, easy there".
   She was the most beautiful woman in the world. She was like something out of a Greek mythology tale. She had long dark brown hair braided to the side, warm brown eyes, and smelled like honeysuckle. She looked very Mediterranean. For example, she had olive skin and strong facial features. Her voice was soft and when she talked, it sounded like angles were singing. If I didn't know any better, I'd say she was Aphrodite.
     "What's your name," I asked.
     "I am Calypso and you are on Ogygia" she smiled. "After we eat, you can go home if you'd like".
     "Can I think about it" I said looking at the island.
     "Sure," she smiled. "Now go back to sleep, you need rest".
     A moment later, my eyes were closed.

                    *****
  When I opened my eyes, I saw her smiling over me, her teeth were pure white. How could I leave her?
  "It's time for dinner" she said playing with my hair.
   When we walked out of the cave, it was night. How long was I asleep for? The only source of light were the stars and the moon. Since there was no light pollution, you could see the faintest stars. It was beautiful. On the white beach there was a blanket and several baskets.
    "It's a beautiful out here. Is it like this every night?" I said looking up at the stars.
    "Yes it is " she smiled while looking up at the stars.
    The baskets had everything in them. Literally, you could think of food or drink and you'd have it. After dinner, we walked on the shores.
   "Will you stay with me?" She asked. I could hear a hint of nervousness in her voice.
   I thought about my life in the real world. I had no family, no friends, and no money. I had nothing. Why wouldn't I stay with her?
  "Of course I'll stay with you" I said leaning in to kiss her.

I hope this wasn't that bad. I'm pretty rusty. Please don't be to mean.

title: [FN, RO] Ogygia (Oh-gee-gee-ah)

question: Why is the protagonist running?

answer: He smells something being grilled and realizes there is someone else on the island and starts running to the smell to find out who is there.

question: Describe the woman the protagonist meets.

answer: She is beautiful, has long dark brown hair braided to the side, warm brown eyes, olive skin, and strong facial features.

question: Why does Calypso invite the protagonist to stay with her?

answer: It is not stated. She might be lonely.

question: Why did the protagonist decide to stay?

answer: He likes Calipso and the island and has no family, no friends, and no money.


text:
[Jay Bruce had a bad August and an improved September after being traded to the Mets last year. He turned to data analysis to learn why the one month was so bad.]

Credit...John Bazemore/Associated Press

-   March 21, 2017
-

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Even though he is moving toward the start of the 2017 season, Mets outfielder Jay Bruce wanted a concrete answer as to why he struggled last August. At the time, he was having what he thought was the most consistent season of his career and he had just been acquired by the Mets, who hoped he could help their injured and struggling lineup.

And yet he hit just .183 that month and was even given time off to clear his head.

Bruce bounced back in September, smashing key hits over the final two weeks that helped the Mets reach the National League wild-card game. In a sense, one good month had canceled out the one bad one and put Bruce in position to start fresh this season.

In spring training, however, Bruce found he couldn’t get last August out of his head. So last week he asked T. J. Barra, the Mets’ director of baseball research and development, to examine the advanced metrics behind his feeble showing that month.

“I wanted to say, ‘What was the biggest difference?’ because I didn’t feel that much different from the other months,” Bruce, 29, said. “But it was 180 degrees different.”

Barra emailed Bruce with his findings. The data showed that Bruce, in fact, was hitting out of character last August. He was chasing pitches on the edge of the strike zone more than before. He was hitting fewer fly balls and sending the ball more often to the opposite field.

That was not the style of hitting that made Bruce a three-time All-Star, including in 2016, and a player who now has 241 career home runs. But it was the kind of analytical input that he welcomes.

A data revolution has come to baseball. Just about everything on the field can be measured and dissected. For some players, that information can be overwhelming, but not for Bruce. Over the past three seasons, he has tried to incorporate more data into the way he plays, and especially the way he hits.

“I don’t live and die by it, but there are definitely numbers out there that tell a story,” he said. “I take those and say: ‘This is what I do. So what do I do physically to make these numbers come to life?’”

Despite his inconsistent two months in New York last season, the Mets brought Bruce back for 2017 by picking up his $13 million option. He was originally considered insurance if the star outfielder Yoenis Cespedes was not re-signed. But Cespedes returned, the Mets did not receive trade offers they liked for Bruce, and then they decided to live with a larger payroll and keep him as their right fielder.

In turn, Bruce is keeping a close eye on any analytics that might give him insight into making sure this year in New York is an improvement on last year.

“I’m a game changer offensively and I want to do that as much as I can,” said Bruce, who dealt with minor hip discomfort this past week, which he attributed to practicing at first base, where he might play should Lucas Duda suffer an injury.

Advanced metrics were not as readily available to players when Bruce, a Texas native, debuted in the major leagues in 2008 with the Cincinnati Reds, who had drafted him in the first round in 2005. The first metrics he was exposed to were line-drive rate, home run-to-fly ball ratio, and pull rate, the percentage of balls hit to the side of the field from which someone bats.

As Bruce gained an interest in these kinds of numbers, he started asking Reds officials for information beyond what they were routinely providing players. And when he was traded to the Mets, a team that uses analytics extensively, Bruce found a friendly environment for still more statistical exploration.

“We have a lot of numbers here,” he said.

While Bruce can peruse statistics himself on the many popular baseball websites that have emerged in recent years, such as Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs.com, the Mets have a proprietary database of more advanced research and a staff of people responsible for applying it. The team’s two hitting coaches, Kevin Long and his assistant, Pat Roessler, eagerly rely on such information to better focus their instruction.

“It’s great,” Roessler said. “It gives you the trends, and points you in the right direction about where a guy is heading. Is he trending up or down? Is he getting away from what was making him click a week or two before?”

Bruce is one of the Mets’ most willing recipients of this data, along with Cespedes, Long said. So that Long can spend his time focusing on hitting mechanics, he leans on Roessler to examine hitting data with players.

When they spot something in the numbers, they decide whether to approach a player with it because, as Long put it, some are not ready to digest that much information.

“We’ve pointed out just a few things to Jay, and he’s said he wants it all,” Long said.

“I appreciate information,” Bruce said. “I may not agree with it, but I at least want to know.”

All this data has helped Bruce get a more vivid sense of what type of hitter he is and how best to maximize his skills. Bruce, who is left-handed, knows he is a power hitter — he has averaged 27 home runs a year over nine seasons — and the data overwhelmingly shows that balls in the air to the pull side are the best option for him.

“And that’s what I do the most,” Bruce said. “So why wouldn’t I work on pulling the ball in the air with efficiency?”

And consider this: Since Bruce’s debut season in 2008, only David Ortiz (41.1 percent) turned more fly balls hit to the pull side into home runs than did Bruce (40.4 percent), according to FanGraphs.com. Those results happen to run counter to the hitting instruction Bruce said he received when he was younger.

He said coaches told him to hit the ball to left field, which would perhaps lead to a higher average. But advanced metrics helped Bruce understand that was not his strength.

“You have to recognize what your strong swing is,” Bruce said. “Listen, I’m not going up there trying to yank the ball into the seats. I’m trying to stay in the big part of the field. But my best swing is to right-center. So what balls can I hit to right-center?”

To do that, Bruce looks at heat maps that show how hard he hits the ball, a statistic known as exit velocity, based on the area of the strike zone the pitch is in. He studies what pitches he has most often chased out of the strike zone. He also evaluates the path of his bat, known as launch angle, to see if he is producing the right amount of lift.

“There’s absolutely nothing for you on the ground to the pull side,” he said. “That’s just death to the baseball. So what balls am I hitting there?”

The proof: Bruce, who regularly faces infield defenses shifted to the right side, has hit .168 on ground balls hit to the pull side throughout his career, according to FanGraphs.com. In contrast, he has a .512 average with 156 career home runs on fly balls hit in that direction.

So as he has begun setting goals for this season, Bruce has pondered his production. In 2016, he hit .250 with 33 home runs, 99 runs batted in and a .815 on-base-plus-slugging percentage. One of the areas highlighted for improvement: “If I didn’t hit a ground ball all year, I’d be in good shape,” he said.

While Bruce knows that will be impossible, he is setting his sights high and shooting for a 50 percent fly ball rate. His career number is about 42 percent, close to his 2016 mark. His highest was 48.5 percent in 2009. An improved launch angle may help.

As Bruce explained this goal, he cited advice he received from a former Cincinnati teammate, Joey Votto, who was the 2010 National League most valuable player and who remains one of baseball’s best and most cerebral hitters.

“He told me: ‘Everyone goes into the season and they want to make all these crazy changes and they want to improve so drastically. But to get 2 or 3 percent better at something is really, really great,’” Bruce said. “So just keep chipping away.”

Bruce’s quest for self-understanding has even led him to ask Barra, the team’s baseball research director, for defensive analytics. With the advent of innovative tools to measure players’ movements on the field, like Major League Baseball’s Statcast, Bruce said he was intrigued how an improvement in defensive analytics would change the sport.

But for now, Bruce has focused more on the clear-cut statistics behind his hitting. Long said that Bruce’s swing had become more compact and that he had been using his legs more.

“That will help with all the analytical parts that he is trying to get better at,” Long said.

And now comes the season, with, no doubt, more data for Bruce to ponder.

question: According to the article, summarize the advantages of data analytics to baseball.

answer:
The kind of data analytics used in baseball can help a player figure out when he is doing something out of character. For example, Jay Bruce's statistics in August 2016 show he was struggling though the player himself felt he was doing nothing different from September 2016 when he posted good numbers.
The data can also show what a player needs to do physically to improve. Data analytics give a scout an overall picture of a trajectory a player is heading towards as well as point out the inefficiencies in their game.

question: Why do some players reject data analysis?


text:
There is not consensus and agreement in the demarkation of the _comarcas_ of the region and some of them varies largely depending on the comarcas proposal. According to La Verdad newspapers’ Region of Murcia Atlas, there are three main divisions corresponding to three different authors.

Most agreed _comarcas_

The following _comarcas_ are the most agreed in regards to its size and demarcation. They are accepted to be in a same way by most authors or their changes depending the versions are minor.

Altiplano

It is located in the north and is 1,580 km² in area. It includes the municipalities of Yecla and Jumilla. In regards to landforms, what are present mainly in the area are mountain ranges such as Sierra del Carche, Sierra del Buey, Sierra Larga and Sierra del Molar. No rivers traverse the region, but several _ramblas_ (dry stream beds but in rainy periods) occur in the _comarca_.[1][2][3][4]

Alto Guadalentín or Comarca de Lorca

This territory is located in the southeast and has an area of 2,071.8 km². The municipalities of Lorca, Águilas and Puerto Lumbreras belong to this comarca. There is a remarkable water landform in the area: Guadalentín River. Another river that is present is the Luchena River. Other notheworthy landforms that occupy Alto Guadalentín are the mountain ranges Sierra de la Almenara, Sierra de la Carrasquilla, Sierra de Cantar, Sierra de la Torrecilla, Sierra de En medio, and Sierra del Cambrón.[5][6]

Noroeste

This _comarca_ is located in the northwest of Region of Murcia, hence its name which meaning is “northwest”. The municipalities of Moratalla, Caravaca de la Cruz, and Cehegín are agreed to be included in this area in all the proposals. However, the municipalities of Calasparra and Bullas only belong to the comarca under a more limited definition. If all five municipalities were included, the territory has an area of 2,386.9 km². However, if the smaller definition is taken as true, the _comarca_ is 2,119.2 km² in area.[7][8] Some remarkable landforms in the region are a mountain range named Sierra de Moratalla, that occupies part of the north of _Noroeste_; a mountain range named Sierra de la Muela, that is also placed in the north; Revolcadores, which is montanious area that occurs in the east of _Noroeste_ and a river which name is Quípar that is present in the western half of the _comarca_.[9][10]

Cuenca de Mula

It includes the municipalities of Mula, Pliego, Albudeite and Campos del Río. According to University of Murcia proposal, Bullas would also belong to this comarca. In this region there are two rivers. Part of mountain ranges are also present in the area – the north of Sierra Espuaña occupies little part of the south of Cuenca de Mula and the east of Sierra de Cambrón occupies little part of the south east of this _comarca_.[11]

More varying _comarcas_

Bajo Guadalentín

According to its largest version, it includes five municipalities: Aledo, Lorca, Alhama de Murcia, Librilla and Mazarrón and has an area of 1,024.7 km2. If the a smaller version is adopted, the only municipality that doesn't belong to this territory is Mazarrón and has an extension of 706 km². An important landform of the _comarca_ is Guadalentín river – a stretch of it traverses the territory, hence its name. Part of Sierra Espuña, one of the most important mountain ranges in Region of Murcia, is located in the northwest of Bajo Guadalentín. If Mazarrón is considered as a part of the region, Sierra de las Moreras and Sierra del Algarrobo mountain ranges will also occur in the Bajo Guadalentín as well as Rambla de Las Moreras.[12]

Campo de Cartagena

This territory is located in the southeast of the province of Murcia. In regards to mountain reliefs, some of them are Sierra Minera Cartagena- La Unión, Sierra de la Muela. There are no water basins with a permanent water flow, but there are several _arroyos_ (creeks) or _ramblas_; the most important are Rambla del Albujón and Rambla de Benipila.[13]

There is more debate and less agreement about the nature of the comarca where Murcia is included – its size and municipalities that are included.

If we considered two proposals, there would be a _comarca_ named MAR MENOR, whose territory is part of Campo de Cartagena according to other _comarcas_ proposals. This one includes Torre-Pacheco, San Pedro del Pinatar, San Javier and Los Alcázares municipalities. An important mountain relief that occurs in this region is Cabezo Gordo.

Área Metropolitana de Murcia

The municipalities that are part of this _comarca_ are the ones that the most change the _comarca_ that they belong to according to the demarcation initiative.

The municipalities of HUERTA DE MURCIA, which is considered as another _comarca_ according to two initiatives, are part of Área Metropolitana de Murcia. These municipalities are Murcia, Alcantarilla, Santomera and Beniel. Mountain landforms that take place in the region are Cresta del Gallo, Sierra de los Villares (mountain range), Columbares and the eastern area of Sierra de Carrascoy. Two rivers traverse Huerta de Murcia: Segura and Guadalentín.[14][15]

Most municipalities of VEGA MEDIA (but Lorquí) are part of Área Metropolitana de Murcia and these are Molina de Segura, Ceutí, Alguazas and Torres de Cotillas.[16]

Comarca Oriental

Atlas Global de la Región de Murcia considers that a northern-eastern _comarca_ which includes the municipalities of Abanilla and Fortuna exists. The reasons for the statement of this comarca are topographical and geohydrographical. It covers and area of 385.1 km².[The comarcas of Region of Murcia according to Consejo Regional de Murcia]

In regards to landforms, there are seven mountain ranges and a river in this territory.[17] Some of the spots are a mountain range called Sierra de La Pila, which eastern area occupies the northwest of the _comarca_; another mountain range named Sierra de Quibas, that occurs in the noreast of the region; Sierra del Corque; and Sierra de Abanilla, that is placed in the southeastern quarter. The river is called Río Chícamo and traverses the southeast of the _comarca_.[18][19]

Comarca demarcation proposals

-   According to UNIVERSITY OF MURCIA (1968): Altiplano of Yecla and Jumilla; Campo de Lorca, the name in this proposal of Altiplano; Cuenca de Mula, which includes an additional municipality that it part of Noroeste in most proposals, Bullas; Vega Alta del Segura; Vega Media del Segura (Huerta de Murcia and Comarca Oriental); Campo de Lorca; Bajo Guadalentín and Campo de Cartagena.[20]
-   According to MINISTERIO DE AGRICULTURA (1977): Nordeste (Altiplano), Noroeste, Centro (Cuenca de Mula), Río Segura, Suroeste y Valle de Guadalentín (the more usual comarcas Alto Guadalentín and Bajo Guadalentín) and Campo de Cartagena.[21]
-   According to SUBSECRETARÍA DE PLANIFICACIÓN, Ministerio del Interior (1977): Jumilla - Yecla (whose usual name is Altiplano), Caravaca (that is corresponding to the smallest version of Nororeste), Alto Segura, Mula, Centro metropolitano de Murcia, Campo de Lorca, Valle del Guadalentín (Bajo) and Campo de Cartagena.[22]
-   According to CONSEJO REGIONAL DE MURCIA (1980): Altiplano, Noroeste, Vega Alta, Valle de Ricote, Vega Media, Comarca Oriental, Río Mula, Huerta de Murcia, Alto Guadalentín, Bajo Guadalentín, Campo de Cartagena and Mar Menor.[Comarcas demarcation according to Atlas Global de la Región de Murcia]
-   According to GONZÁLEZ ORTIZ Y SÁNCHEZ (1981): Altiplano, Noroeste in its largest version, Vega Alta, Cuenca de Mula in its smallest version, Vega Media (Huerta de Murcia and Comarca Oriental), Campo de Lorca, Bajo Guadalentín and Campo de Cartagena.[23]
-   According to ZORITA Y CALVO (1984): Altiplano, Noroeste, Vega Alta, Valle de Ricote, Vega Media, Comarca Oriental, Río Mula, Huerta de Murcia, Alto Guadalentín, Bajo Guadalentín, Campo de Cartagena and Mar Menor.[24]
-   According to the ATLAS OF REGION OF MURCIA of La Verdad newspapers: Altiplano, Noroeste, Vegas del Segura, Cuenca de Mula, Cuenca de Abanilla-Fortuna, Comarca de Lorca, Bajo Guadalentín and Campo de Cartagena.[25]

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

[18]

[19]

[20]

[21]

[22]

[23]

[24]

[25]

title: Comarcas of Region of Murcia

question: Summarize the main features of the three divisions of comarcas of the regions of Murcia.

answer: There are three main divisions according to some authors. There is the Altiplano which is located in the north with over 1500km square in area. The area is mainly characterized by mountain ranges such as Sierra del Carche, Sierra Largo, and Sierra del Molar. The region contains no rivers. The second comarcas is Noroeste which contains munipalities of Moratalla, Caravaca de la Cruz, and Cehegin. This region is over 2000km square area and contains a lot of mountainous ranges. There is also the Alto Guadalentin territory with has around 2000km square area with municipalities like Lorca, Aguilas, and puerto Lumbreras. This particular region has a remarkable water landform which is the Guadalentin River. It has another river called Luchena River.

question: Why does the passage state that there are three main divisions yet named four?


text:
ESTHER 8 is the eighth chapter of the Book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible, The author of the book is unknown and modern scholars have established that the final stage of the Hebrew text would have been formed by the second century BCE. Chapters 3 to 8 contain the nine scenes that form the complication in the book. This chapter contains the effort to deal with the irreversible decree against the Jews now that Haman is dead and Mordecai is elevated to the position of prime minister.

Text

This chapter was originally written in the Hebrew language and since the 16th century is divided into 17 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text, which includes Codex Leningradensis (1008).

There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus (B; 𝔊B; 4th century), Codex Sinaiticus (S; BHK: 𝔊S; 4th century), and Codex Alexandrinus (A; 𝔊A; 5th century).

Esther saves the Jews (8:1–8)

The death of Haman does not change the fact that the irreversible decree to destroy the Jews, written in the king's name and sealed with his ring (), still stands. The king gave Haman's household to Esther and gave Mordecai Haman's signet ring, but he refused to regard it as his problem, even as Esther tearfully begged the king to “avert the evil design of Haman the Agagite” (). Thus, Mordecai and Esther together had to come up with a solution, after receiving the king's permission to “write whatever (they) like about the Jews” (verse 8).

Verse 1

    _On that day King Ahasuerus gave to Queen Esther the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. And Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told what he was to her._[1]

The king may see the giving of Haman's house to Esther as suitable compensation because Haman has wronged her in two ways:

1.  plotting her death, along with the death of her people
2.  attacking her person in the second banquet.

Verse 2

    _And the king took off his signet ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai._
    _And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman._[2]

The second part of verse 2 displays a shift of the focus to Esther, as she is now the one who makes decisions.

Verse 3

    _Then Esther spoke again to the king and fell down at his feet and begged him with tears to avert the evil of Haman the Agagite, and the scheme that he had devised against the Jews._[3]

The change of tone of Esther's petition before the king indicates her awareness that the gift of Haman's house to her and the signet ring to Mordecai won't do any good after the thirteenth of Adar as long as the decree to annihilate the Jews still stands. Esther only mentioned Haman as the sole enemy of the Jews (cf. ) and avoided implicating the king in this plot.[4]

Verse 6

    _For how can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people? or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?_[5]

Esther used the same two terms — 'people' and 'kindred' as she reversed the act of concealing her identity previously in , when she entered the harem.

Verse 8

    _Write ye also for the Jews, as it liketh you, in the king's name, and seal it with the king's ring: for the writing which is written in the king's name, and sealed with the king's ring, may no man reverse._[6]

-   “As it liketh you”: from Hebrew: “as is good in your eyes.”[7]

Mordecai's balancing act (8:9–17)

The narrative starts with an elaborate description of the system to dispatch the letters conveying the solutions (verses 9–10), then of the content which reveals Mordecai's ingenious ploy: a second decree without contradicting the first one but effectively annulling it by authorizing the Jews to defend themselves against those executing the first decree (verse 11). Both Jews and non-Jews throughout the empire saw the second decree as a bloodless victory for the Jewish cause and the Jews were clearly perceived to have the upper hand that many non-Jews spontaneously converted to Judaism (verse 17).

Verse 9

    _So the king’s scribes were called at that time, in the third month, which is the month of Sivan, on the twenty-third day; and it was written, according to all that Mordecai commanded, to the Jews, the satraps, the governors, and the princes of the provinces from India to Ethiopia, one hundred and twenty-seven provinces in all, to every province in its own script, to every people in their own language, and to the Jews in their own script and language._[8]

-   “The month of Sivan, on the twenty-third day”: Two months and ten days since Haman’s edict to wipe out the Jews (cf. ).[9]

Verse 11

    _By these letters the king permitted the Jews who were in every city to gather together and protect their lives—to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the forces of any people or province that would assault them, both little children and women, and to plunder their possessions,_[10]

This second edict can be compared and contrasted to the first one as recorded in :

+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| Esther 3:13                       | Esther 8:11                       |
+===================================+===================================+
| First edict                       | Second edict                      |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| _Order_ to                        | _Permission_ to                   |
| to destroy, kill, and annihilate  | to destroy, kill, and annihilate  |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| Undisguised aggression            | Self-defense                      |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| Violence against                  | Violence in response to           |
| general Jewish population         | “any armed force ...that might    |
|                                   | attack” the Jewish population     |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+

Verse 15

    _And Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal apparel of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, and with a garment of fine linen and purple: and the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad._[11]

-   “Shushan”: or “Susa”.[12]

Verse 17

    _And in every province, and in every city, whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a good day. And many of the people of the land became Jews; for the fear of the Jews fell upon them._[13]

This verse can be compared and contrasted to :

  Bible verse          Esther 3:15                            Esther 8:17
  -------------------- -------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------
  After the issue of   First edict                            Second edict
  Celebration          The king and Haman sat down to drink   The Jews had … a feast and a good day
  Confusion            The city of Susa was in uproar         Many people of the land became Jews

[1]  ESV

[2]  ESV

[3]  MEV

[4] Note [b] on Esther 8:3 in NET.

[5]  KJV

[6]  KJV

[7] Note [a] on Esther 8:8 in NKJV.

[8]  NKJV

[9] Note [b] on Esther 8:9 in NET.

[10]  NKJV

[11]  KJV

[12] Note [b] on Esther 8:15 in NKJV

[13]  KJV

title: Esther 8

question: Summarize how Esther protects the Jews.

answer: Esther makes an active effort to control the house of Haman with the help of Mordecai. And she constantly begs the king to help her as well. Ultimately, she manages to create a loophole in the law that provides the Jews with impunity, which protects them from the house of Haman -this same move also entices many to convert to Judaism.


text:
TENSION hangs over a four-storey block in Sembawang Camp in the wee hours of a Monday morning, as 74 trainees of the 40th Combat Diver Course toss fitfully in their cabin beds.

At precisely 2.30am, Second Warrant Officer (2WO) S. Rajendren strikes a handheld grenade simulator known as a thunderflash and waves it into a shallow drain.

The blinding explosion galvanises other trainers, already in position. They pound on the wooden bunk doors, screaming unabatedly while tossing unguarded rucksacks and loose footwear down the corridors, sending befuddled trainees scrambling after them.

Drugged with sleep and sagging under the weight of their olive-green packs, the young men crawl down the stairs on all fours, spilling onto the concrete parade square like a colony of evicted egg-carrying ants, to a drenching welcome with fire hoses.

On cue, several trip flares burst into life, illuminating the chaos in a bright orange glow, casting grotesque caricatures of the disoriented men onto the walls of the building - a shadow play gone awry.

From a corner, a machine gun punctuates the cacophony with a shattering staccato that reverberates in the cool night air.

Standing on a platform above the maelstrom of swirling smoke and glistening rain in his dark blue instructor's T-shirt and camouflage slacks, 2WO Rajendren is the man in charge of this mayhem.

Feared and respected in equal measure by the trainees, the training officer's drills are their first taste of the long night ahead. "On your belly, on your feet, on your backs! Push-ups, crunches, jumping jacks in position, ready!"

The bewildered trainees are out of sync, unable to keep up with the impossibly quick commands belted through the megaphone slung from his shoulder.

Hawk-eyed instructors prowl the ranks, blasting banshee-like whistles and stabbing torch beams into the sodden jumble of limbs.

Twenty minutes into the commotion, every trainee is soaked and utterly miserable.

Although every one of them knows this moment must arrive, nothing can prepare them for the actual bedlam of "Breakout" - the opening act of the combat divers' Team Building Week.

Held during the seventh week of the course, this naval diver's rite of passage is better known as Hell Week.

Five months earlier, 450 young men began this journey when they received posting orders to the Naval Underwater Medical Centre for a vocational assessment.

A battery of tests would ensure that only the finest physical specimens were selected.

Within pristine confines, orderlies measured each man's body fat and lung capacity, probed the integrity of his ear drums, wired him to an electrocardiograph to monitor his heartbeat, and then packed him into a pressure chamber sealed with double hatches to see if he could bear a simulated dive to a depth of 10m.

Still intact, each candidate then had to change into physical training attire to attempt his best scores in the standing broad jump and chin-up stations, strip to his trunks for a 25m swim, then present himself for a face-to-face interview with a senior instructor, usually a warrant officer with years of diving experience.

Here, any fears of the deep a candidate might have were put to rest, while his character and motivation were probed with questions such as: "Are you afraid of water?", "What school co-curricular activities did you take part in?" and "Do you want to be a naval diver?"

[]
Navy combat diver trainees endure their first "Cold Treatment" evolution, where they are submerged in 14-degree water for a minute or so all under the watchful eyes of the instructors during their five-month Combat Diver Course. PHOTO: ST FILE
The final stop of the day was a psychological assessment. The multiple-choice test involved a multitude of questions to determine if he would be able to cope with the stresses divers experience frequently on the job.

Those who cleared the selection moved on to nine weeks of Basic Military Training (BMT) modified to include pool training and an introduction to maritime culture with terms such as "port" and "starboard" replacing "left" and "right".

Now, the numbers were whittled down again, as those who failed the water confidence and physical fitness standards were posted to other units.

Of the 450 initially called up, less than a quarter entered the five-month Combat Diver Course to learn military scuba diving and push their bodies to unprecedented levels of physical endurance.

Private Nigel Tan, a member of the Ngee Ann Polytechnic Scuba Diving Club before national service, felt both privileged and nervous when he received his posting letter.

"As a leisure diver, I followed a divemaster around and looked at fish," says the 21-year-old electronic and computer engineering graduate. "Here, we have to carry heavy equipment, deal with low visibility and still complete a mission in a given timeframe."

At the start of BMT, he could manage just two chin-ups; at the end, he was doing more than 20. "My body has toned up a lot," he says.

With twin scuba tanks tipping the scales at 38kg and a rubber boat weighing twice as much, divers have plenty of heavy lifting to do. Weapons and special gear for each mission add to the load each man must carry.

To keep themselves in top shape, divers run, swim and work out up to three times a day and, unlike most other soldiers, are allowed to wear their physical training attire at all hours.

"It is the nature of the job," explains 2WO Rajendren.

"A simple thing such as swimming underwater against a current takes a lot of strength; lifting objects and diving with equipment needs plenty of fitness. You need to be strong on land in order to be strong in water."

Alongside the commandos, divers are among the fittest men in the armed forces, with nearly every one of them having earned a gold award in the SAF Individual Physical Proficiency Test (IPPT).

The IPPT holds commandos and divers to a higher standard than other soldiers, requiring full marks (5/5) in every station and a 2.4km run in less than 9min 15sec for a serviceman under the age of 25 to attain a gold award.

Other servicemen need just 4/5 points for each station and a run time of under 9min 45sec.

The result of so much exercise is that trainees end up supremely fit by the end of the Combat Diver Course, boasting perfect pectorals and a clearly defined six pack.

[]
Navy combat diver trainees doing boat tosses at a Boat PT session where a crew of eight men throw the boat into the air and catch it on the way down. PHOTO: ST FILE
"The PT sessions were my favourite part of the course," says Private Guo Jingyang, 21, who managed a count of 37 chin-ups at his best. "The instructors didn't just conduct the PT, they did it together with us, even if they were 20 or 30 years older than us."

All the physical training leads up to Hell Week. But unlike PT, where the focus is on building bodies, this week aims to train the mind by putting the trainees through extreme stress in order to identify the final list of combat divers.

"Team Building Week was definitely one of the toughest weeks I've been through," says Pte Guo, who emerged top graduate of the course. "The pain was almost unbearable at times."

Of those who started out in the 40th Combat Divers Course, only 74 are left at the start of Hell Week - the rest have dropped out along the way.

Three eight-hour shifts of instructors are needed to run the show, dishing out an intense and relentless slew of exercises called "evolutions", each calibrated to take trainees to the brink of exhaustion.

Wet and Sandy; Cold Treatment; Around the World - the men know them all by name, but each evolution varies in the way it is conducted to keep them on their toes.

The most dreaded involves a black rubber dinghy called the Inflatable Boat - Small. Weighing 76kg when empty, the boats are made heavier when instructors throw in a large tyre or a few sandbags for good measure.

Overhead boat push-ups and boat tosses - where a crew of eight men throw the boat into the air and catch it on the way down - are feats that test the coordination of even the best teams.

To hoist one of these boats overhead takes careful choreography - a slip could result in the boat crashing to the ground, and punishment for the crew.

One spectacle that heralds every meal time is the Chow Run.

This is when the Hell Week cohort can be heard thundering around the parade square holding their boats overhead, earning their right to eat by running and belting out military songs for an average distance of 2km.

"Being under that boat is really painful," recalls Private Marcus Nathan, 24, a former firefighter who was drawn to the challenge of becoming a regular combat diver during a navy exhibition.

"Your hands get tired, your shoulders become weak, your neck starts to hurt, and your legs are burning - but you have to keep going."

[]
Trainee Marcus Nathan takes his turn to cover himself in mud at a physical training session in a football field during the five-month Combat Diver Course. PHOTO: ST FILE
Only when the instructors are satisfied with the run are the trainees lined up and hosed down for the sake of hygiene, then given 30 minutes to devour a plate of rice heaped with chicken, fish and vegetables, accompanied by a bowl of steaming soup and fruit.

Snacks, such as cake, doughnuts and chocolate bars, are added to the menu to give divers a total of 4,000 calories a day - 11/2 times the dietary allowance of ordinary SAF rations, but trainees are subjected to such intense physical activity during Team Building Week that most still lose weight at the end of the five days.

Through it all, they will sleep a total of just four hours.

"At first, I was too fired up to think about sleep," recounts MID Guo. "But by the fourth day, we started to fall asleep when walking, when paddling the boat, even in the pool."

This severe test of sleep deprivation prepares the men for real-world missions when divers may have to operate continuously for several days, says 2WO Rajendren. With their bedraggled green fatigues now brown with mud and dirt, the trainees stand at attention with their wooden boat paddles as the commander of the Naval Diving Unit, Colonel Tan Hong Teck, fixes them with a steely eye, his US Navy Seal badge sitting proudly above his right chest pocket.

"40th batch!" the beefy officer roars.

"Yes, sir!" the men thunder, their voices echoing around the parade square where fellow divers from all over the camp are lining the corridors of surrounding blocks to witness the sight.

"Are you tired?" he asks, knowing the answer to his own question.

"No, sir!" they thunder.

"Then go and get Wet and Sandy!" he bellows.

As one, the men sprint for the sea, plunge into the water, emerge and thrash about on the beach, knowing this might be the last time they have to endure this evolution.

Within minutes, they are once again lined up in front of their commander, dripping wet and encrusted in sand.

"40th batch!" he booms, raising a closed fist to quiet the desperately eager trainees. "I declare Hell Week secure."

Pandemonium erupts as trip flares and machine guns go off, marking the end of the gruelling ritual. The parade-perfect contingent is now a throbbing mess of men - cheering, crying and hugging each other in their steaming, stinking, salt-marinated uniforms.

[]
Machine guns and flares go off around the parade square as the sodden and sand-covered trainees raise their wooden paddles to celebrate the end of Team Building Week during the end of their five-month journey of the Combat Diver Course. PHOTO: ST FILE
A line gradually forms as the smoke clears; senior commanders and instructors move down to shake each trainee's hand in turn.

Heading back to the barracks, the trainees are applauded by passers-by. Even those driving by stop and roll down their windows to congratulate the new "HellWeekers".

Despite having cleared the toughest week of the course, some will still fall out for medical reasons or for failing to meet the increasingly high physical fitness standards.

For Private Gabriel Ong, 22, learning that he did not pass the course was devastating.

He was just one minute over the 27 minutes cut-off for the 6km run - one of five "vetoes" a trainee must pass in order to become a diver.

"When I was told that I could not continue the course while we were rehearsing for graduation, my heart sank," he recounts. "Everything that I had trained for was shattered in that instant."

There was no doubt that Pte Ong was fit - he attained a gold award for the IPPT - but that was not good enough. "I really wanted to be a diver," he says wistfully. "It is different from the usual army life; it is fun, and it has prestige."

For the remaining trainees, several more weeks of instruction in advanced diving techniques will follow Hell Week before the end of the Combat Diver Course, when mothers, fathers and girlfriends will pin the silver professional diver badge with a dark blue felt backing on the 69 men who made it.

But graduation is just the beginning of a frogman's entry into the underwater elite.

Some full-time national servicemen who clear the course will join the navy's Clearance Diving Group, where they will keep the waters around naval bases free from mines and other obstacles, perform maintenance work on ships such as the cleaning of propellers, and dispose of live munitions, usually war relics, found on the seabed.

Others will join the Underwater Demolitions Group, whose divers scout potential beach landing sites and remove underwater obstacles so friendly troops can go ashore.

A select few will be sent to Officer Cadet School and graduate nine months later as second lieutenants, ready to lead dive teams.

"In the Combat Diver Course, the biggest challenge for trainees is fulfilling all the vetoes in water competency," says 2WO Rajendren, who has trained numerous divers in his 20-year career. "My greatest satisfaction is building up someone from nothing to becoming a fish in the water."

achern@sph.com.sg

question: Summarize the training process new Navy Divers have to go through.

answer: It starts with a battery of tests in order to ascertain a candidates suitability for service, including psychological and physical testing. The process is designed to whittle 450 men down to only those who are worthy of the position. After the initial selection, they are then sent to basic military training with some water based modifications - by the end of this the number of men left is less than a quarter. They then enter a five month course that pushes them to the brink of physical endurance. The candidates then move on to Hell Week, where they are beasted non-stop in order to push them to their limits - with extraordinary tests of physical fitness, this is the final whittling down of the men. Once a candidate has reached the end of this, they move on to several weeks of further training and then, finally, they graduate.

question: What is the relationship like between Navy Divers and shipbound officers?

question: What does the article say about the purpose of the training process?

answer: The process as described by the article, is not only to train the men into being the best Nazy Diners they can be, but also to push them to the limits of endurance - in doing so they whittle the candidates down to only those who are worthy of the mantle. This is clear from the last test, which puts the candidates through sleep deprivation, hunger, physical and mental harm in order to make sure they are truly the best of the best.