Newbie Questions

[PriusGuy2004]

Hello everyone. New to the forum and new to the game, but I'm learning more and more. Yesterday was my first time playing Munchkin, and there were four others who played as well. So, a couple questions I have:

1. On page 1 of the base Munchkin game, under the section of CARD MANAGEMENT >> In Play, the rules state, "Continuing Curses and some other cards also stay on the table after you play them.". What is the difference between a Continuing Curse and other curses. Can you give an example or two of Curse cards that I can look at to see the difference?
2. During the Charity phase (phase 4) of your turn, the rules say you have to play enough cards to get cards in your hand down to a total of 5. 1) Can you play a monster during this 4th phase if you can beat it? Or, is that only during phases 1 and 2 of your turn? 2) If you play cards from your hand (such as items like swords, armor, etc.) that cannot be used by your character, can you play those cards and turn them sideways (to signify them as un-used) so that you can get down to 5 cards in your hand? In the same way, could you also play items from your hand, turn them sideways (un-used), so that you might be able to use those items later?

I may have more questions later on...but these are the two that first come to mind. Thank you, in advance, for any help you may offer.