In Cry, the Beloved Country, how do the conditions of the hills of Natal contrast with the conditions of the valley below?

The contrast between the hills, where Jarvis lives at High Place, and the valley, where Stephen lives in Ndotsheni, is both stark and symbolic. The hills are lush and green, well nourished and watered naturally by life-giving rains. Here Jarvis lives, surrounded by bounty, a white man of wealth and power. Stephen's valley, however, is dry and barren. No rains replenish the earth; no crops can be grown. The land cannot support Stephen's people, and the young must leave their homes. Thus, "the tribe is broken," and the poverty of Ndotsheni is exchanged for the poverty of Johannesburg. The lushness of Jarvis' hills and the barren state of Stephen's valley symbolize the great divisions in South Africa: economic, cultural, and racial.

How is marijuana used for health purposes?

There are three types of marijuana, Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica and Cannabis ruderensis.  Marijuana was the most used medicine in history until the 1930s, when it was replaced by aspirin (after Beyer Pharmaceuticals discovered an inexpensive way to mass produce aspirin).  It is currently used most often as an anti-nausea treatment with chemotherapy for cancers and hepatic problems.  A multi-year research program in Great Britain by the Lancet (journal of the British Medical Association) has proven near-miraculous results with muscular paralysis patients.  It has been used successfully as a treatment for problems with the kidneys, the liver and the lungs.  Research indicates it slows or stops the growth of most lung cancers.  There has been a great deal of medical research in Britain, Germany, Spain and India, and it has been shown to be an effective treatment for Hepatitis C.  A 1997 survey of multiple sclerosis patients by Doctors Pertwee, Cosroe and others found that patients who smoked marijuana found significant relief for symptoms ranging from spasticity to anorexia, fatigue, balance problems, bowel problems and memory loss.

Although it does cause temporary problems (while "stoned") with short-term memory, neurological research has shown that long-term use of marijuana causes a massive increase in neurons in the pre-frontal lobe of the brain, where long-term memory, higher mathematical skills, and higher brain functions such as ordination and pattern analysis occur.  This does not prove it will make you smarter, but it will certainly not make you dumber.  Unfortunately, the artificial versions of the cannibinoids and higher THC isomers simply do not work nearly as well in clinical trials as the real thing.

The only real negative is that, after smoking a joint, heavy exercise is slightly more stressful on the heart than after a cigarette.  On the other hand, the marijuana effect goes away after 45 minutes, while the cigarette effect takes 48 hours to dissipate.  Wearing underwear causes a lower sperm count than smoking "pot."  There is no credible scientific evidence which indicates marijuana causes mental problems, although if you tend toward such getting stoned on anything is a bad idea.

The link below should help you find out more.  There are better sites, but some advocate smoking marijuana, which is illegal at the moment in the US.

How did Daisy and Mr. Gatsby meet?

With autobiographical overtones to F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby comes from another part of the country to Camp Taylor near St. Louis, Missouri. While stationed there he met Daisy when he joined other officers who went to her luxurious house.

Amazed by her house and wealth, Jay Gatsby took Daisy under false pretenses because he led her to believe that he, too, came from a wealthy family. Nevertheless, "he felt married to her, that was all." He sacrificed his visionary dream to material acquisition as he was so impressed by Daisy's wealth. In Chapter Eight, Gatsby tells Nick,

"Well, there I was, way off my ambitions, getting deeper in love every minute, and all of a sudden I didn't care. What was the use of doing great things if I could have a better time telling her what I was going to do?"

It was then that Daisy became Gatsby's "grail." Thenceforth, all that he did was designed for the attainment of this grail. Having led her to believe that he was wealthy, Gatsby set out to become rich. Five years later, his dream reduced to material gain, Gatsby returns to recapture Daisy. but, while he has been gone, she has found a substitute for Gatsby in Tom Buchanan, who has proposed with a $350,000 pearl necklace. Now, he must re-win Daisy.

What is the difference between metaphor and allegory in William Golding's Lord of the Flies?

Metaphor and allegory, as the answer above indicates, are similar; both of them make comparisons, but the primary difference between them is the depth of the comparison. William Golding's Lord of the Flies is a highly symbolic novel, and he uses both metaphor and allegory to make his point. 

One of the most recognizable metaphors Golding uses in the novel is the beast. While the term beast is used to name many actual things in the story (such as creeping vines, pigs, a parachutist), Simon recognizes the truth that they are the beast. Golding is comparing what the boys have become--out-of-control savages who have no restraints or authority which they must obey--to beasts. In his conversation with the pig's head known as Lord of the Flies, Simon discovers this truth:

“Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!” said the head. For a moment or two the forest and all the other dimly appreciated places echoed with the parody of laughter. “You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are what they are?”

That is the metaphor: the beast is them. 

Golding's use of metaphor on a larger scale becomes an allegory. These proper English schoolboys, who do know how to live in a civilized manner and obey rules, are deposited on an island on which there are no adults. The only rules they have are those they make for themselves, but those are soon ignored or broken. They live without any restraints and they eventually become what Golding calls "savages." They destroy and they kill, things they would never do in their "real" worlds.

What these boys (and remember, they really are just children) do and become over the course of the novel is a picture of unchecked human nature. Their transformation from boy to savage is the allegory Golding uses to make this point.

How can love effect man's judgement in "A Rose for Emily" ?

It appears from the beginning that Emily's father is very controlling.  However, it can be looked at as if he loves her so much that he truly believes that no one is good enough for his daughter.  This fatherly love affects her life and completely changes who she becomes because he dies, leaving her nothing, and without any man to take care of her.  His love for her clouded his judgement and she was left alone to suffer (and go crazy).

Homer, on the other hand, should have seen the signs. But she drew him in, and he fell for her.  When he was out of town, she purchased the arsenic and he could do nothing about it.  She had it planned in her mind that he'd never leave her.  He never should have told her that.  He could have easily just used her and left.  Instead, love clouded his vision as well, and he wasn't able to see her insanity.

What is the significance of Simon losing consciousness after the Lord of the Flies has spoken to him?

Simon is epileptic: the first thing that happens to him in the whole novel is that he falls to the floor in a fit:

“He’s always throwing a faint,”said Merridew. “He did in Gib.; and Addis; and at matins over the precentor.”

Golding shows us Simon's symptoms one by one as he hallucinates that the Lord of the Flies is talking to him. So in this quote, his head tilts backward, his eyes fix, and he shakes:

Simon’s head was tilted slightly up. His eyes could not break away and the Lord of the Flies hung in space before him.
“What are you doing out here all alone? Aren’t you afraid of me?”
Simon shook.

Then, Golding gives us the definite clue - that one of Simon's "times", one of his epileptic fits, was coming on:

Simon’s head wobbled. His eyes were half closed as though he were imitating the obscene thing on the stick. He knew that one of his times was coming on. The Lord of the Flies was expanding like a balloon.

Then the metaphor becomes clear. Simon is devoured by a "vast mouth", of an imaginary beast, but that mouth is a blackness, a darkness. It is, of course, no beast, but the "darkness of man's heart" which b rings about the fear and savagery on the island. Simon will indeed be devoured by it, when he comes down from the mountain.

Simon found he was looking into a vast mouth. There was blackness within, a blackness that spread.
“—Or else,” said the Lord of the Flies, “we shall do you? See? Jack and Roger and Maurice and Robert and Bill and Piggy and Ralph. Do you.
See?”
Simon was inside the mouth. He fell down and lost consciousness.

Simply - it's because he has epilepsy. Yet, figuratively, it is also a foreshadowing of Simon's eventual death at the hands of his friends.

ABC is a right triangle whose hypotenuse is BC, and AD is the altitude from A on BC. Find: 1. triangle ABC: triangle DAC 2. triangle ABC: triangle DBA

I'm not completely sure what your question is asking, but the following information should be helpful.

You know triangle ABC is a right triangle, and that angle A is the right angle (since it is opposite the hypotenuse BC). You also know that angle C is 60 degrees. So ABC is a 30-60-90 triangle (the sum of the angles has to be 180, and 180 - (90 + 60) = 30).

Since AD is the altitude from A to BC, you know by definition that the angles on either side of the altitude are right angles.

Now, let's look at the smaller triangles.

ADC is a right angle triangle (angle D of that triangle is one of the right angles made by the altitude AD). You also know angle C is 60 degrees. Again, then, this is a 30-60-90 triangle.

You can do the same analysis for small triangle DBA. D is a right angle, B is a 30 degree angle (see paragraph 2 above), and so again we have a 30-60-90 triangle.

One of the rules of similarity is that if 2 angles of a triangle are equal to 2 angles of another triangle, the triangles are similar.

ABC is similar to ADC because the right angles and angle C of both are equal. ABC is similar to DAB because the right angles and angle B of both are equal.