cool things

first, an optical illusion. People at non-cons liked it, so I thought I'd post it--I hadn't realized the wearing-out-cones inverted-color thing could have a context in which it's surprising.
Then, something that is NOT a one-word story but looks like one, because my Arabic teacher crammed as many vocabulary words (pseudo-underlined) into the paragraph we had to translate as possible.

The _rebellious_ _poet_ and the _young_woman_ were found at a gas _station_ saying in one _voice_: "We _revolt_against_ the _traditional_ _position_ which says that a _young_woman_ is _ignorant_ because of her _gender_. We do not _agree_ that a _young_woman_ be _forbidden_ from choosing her husband." _By_degrees_, they aimed to _modify_ the _events_ that had caused _severe_ _sorrow_ betwee them twain in terms of their _forbidden_ _union_. Despite the fact that they weren't married yet, it seemed that they were _divorced_ because of her parents' _nationalism_ and because he was not a _citizen_ of their homeland, _even_though_ he was _educated_ and he used to _exert_himself_ day and night in his _fields_of_study_. But her parents weren't _convinced_ that he was _equal_ to the _members_ of their society and they _called_for_ a lack of _activity_ between them. So he _suggested_ to her to _explain_ to them that their _stance_ was a _shock_ to her, that she was _amazed_ at their _nationalistic_ demands. This _suggestion_ did not _amend_ anything and, afterward, she married a doctor who didn't practice what he preached in a _large_hall_ and the _poet_ married that _young foreign woman_ with a beautiful _face_ whom he met at a _conference_.