Q: What is the answer for the question: What has thorn-like branches which pierce the fragile body? from the following article ?  The focal point of the scene is the "Tree-Man", whose cavernous torso is supported by what could be contorted arms or rotting tree trunks. His head supports a disk populated by demons and victims parading around a huge set of bagpipes—often used as a dual sexual symbol—reminiscent of human scrotum and penis. The tree-man's torso is formed from a broken eggshell, and the supporting trunk has thorn-like branches which pierce the fragile body. A grey figure in a hood bearing an arrow jammed between his buttocks climbs a ladder into the tree-man's central cavity, where nude men sit in a tavern-like setting. The tree-man gazes outwards beyond the viewer, his conspiratorial expression a mix of wistfulness and resignation. Belting wondered if the tree-man's face is a self-portrait, citing the figure's "expression of irony and the slightly sideways gaze [which would] then constitute the signature of an artist who claimed a bizarre pictorial world for his own personal imagination".Many elements in the panel incorporate earlier iconographical conventions depicting hell. However, Bosch is innovative in that he describes hell not as a fantastical space, but as a realistic world containing many elements from day-to-day human life. Animals are shown punishing humans, subjecting them to nightmarish torments that may symbolise the seven deadly sins, matching the torment to the sin. Sitting on an object that may be a toilet or a throne, the panel's centerpiece is a gigantic bird-headed monster feasting on human corpses, which he excretes through a cavity below him, into the transparent chamber pot on which he sits. The monster is sometimes referred to as the "Prince of Hell", a name derived from the cauldron he wears on his head, perhaps representing a debased crown. To his feet a female has her face reflected on the buttocks of a demon. Further to the left, next to a hare-headed demon, a group of naked persons around a toppled gambling table are being massacred with swords and knives. Other brutal violence is shown by a...
A: Tree-Man

Q: What is the answer for the question: What is the nickname of the person that Lovely Lou is in love with? from the following article ?  Broadway, New Year's Eve, 1928. A muckraking reporter, Waldo Winchester, frames four major stories during the wild New Year's Eve of 1928. We meet the players in a diner. The Brain, a gangster with multiple girlfriends, is accompanied by a gambler named Regret (after the only horse he ever placed a winning bet) and an outsider who (with his bloodhounds) is being treated to a meal. Feet Samuels (so named because of his big feet) is in love with a showgirl named Hortense Hathaway, who is tossed out of the diner because of an unsavory reputation. Feet plans to have one wild night before committing suicide, having sold his body in advance to a medical doctor. Harriet MacKyle, a sheltered but friendly socialite, makes arrangements with a smooth-talking fixer for a big party that night at her estate, where many of the players will later attend. She has an interest in the exciting but dangerous criminal element. A girl selling flowers comes in after Feet makes a full payment of a debt to the Brain, so the Brain offers $5 for a 5-cent flower, telling her to keep the change. But before he can leave, a hitman for the Brooklyn Mob stabs him.  The wounded Brain tells his men to take him "home." Unfortunately, his many girlfriends refuse to allow him in for various reasons. Feet gets involved in a high-stakes craps game. With considerable luck, he wins a massive payoff of money and jewelry.  Regret suggests they find another game, but Feet reveals his plan to kill himself.  Regret tries to talk him out of it, but Feet, sworn to see his last promise fulfilled, is adamant. Regret dials up the reporter, who is now at MacKyle's party, and asks him to talk to Hortense (his niece) and get her to realize Feet is smitten with her. Hortense must try to persuade Feet that she wants to quit her life as a lounge singer, move to New Jersey and raise a family. Regret, meanwhile, continues to be the world's unluckiest gambler, but showgirl Lovey Lou is in love with him anyway.
A: Regret

Q: What is the answer for the question: What was the most damaging loss to the British and the standing of their empire? from the following article ?  Britain's declaration of war against Nazi Germany in September 1939 included the Crown colonies and India but did not automatically commit the Dominions of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Newfoundland and South Africa. All soon declared war on Germany, but Ireland chose to remain legally neutral throughout the war.After the Fall of France in June 1940, Britain and the empire stood alone against Germany, until the German invasion of Greece on 7 April 1941. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill successfully lobbied President Franklin D. Roosevelt for military aid from the United States, but Roosevelt was not yet ready to ask Congress to commit the country to war. In August 1941, Churchill and Roosevelt met and signed the Atlantic Charter, which included the statement that "the rights of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they live" should be respected. This wording was ambiguous as to whether it referred to European countries invaded by Germany and Italy, or the peoples colonised by European nations, and would later be interpreted differently by the British, Americans, and nationalist movements.In December 1941, Japan launched, in quick succession, attacks on British Malaya, the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, and Hong Kong. Churchill's reaction to the entry of the United States into the war was that Britain was now assured of victory and the future of the empire was safe, but the manner in which British forces were rapidly defeated in the Far East irreversibly harmed Britain's standing and prestige as an imperial power. Most damaging of all was the Fall of Singapore, which had previously been hailed as an impregnable fortress and the eastern equivalent of Gibraltar. The realisation that Britain could not defend its entire empire pushed Australia and New Zealand, which now appeared threatened by Japanese forces, into closer ties with the United States. This resulted in the 1951 ANZUS Pact between Australia, New Zealand and the United States of America.
A:
Fall of Singapore