What primary difference distinguishes organisms in the kingdoms Arachaebacteria and Eubacteria from organisms in other kingdoms? Explain.

Bacteria are prokaryotic cells which lack membrane bound
organelles. Eukaryotic cells, which comprise the other Kingdoms: Animalia, Plantae,
Fungi and Protista, on the other hand, contain specialized organelles like a nucleus,
mitochondria, ribosomes, etc. which are surrounded by membranes. Bacterial cells are
about 1/10 the size of eukaryotic cells. Archaea inhabit many harsh environments on
Earth, like in hot springs, or deep below the surface of the ocean on the sea floor.
Eubacteria can be found on or in living things and all over the biosphere. It is thought
that most bacteria haven't yet been identified. There are more bacterial cells in a
human body, then human cells. They are very successful life forms that date back to the
beginning of life on Earth.

What do we learn from Gertrude's farewell to Ophelia (5.1.227-230)? Would Polonius have been surprised if he had heard this?

After Ophelia goes mad and the inner-turmoil begins,
Gertrude is saddened by what has happened to Ophelia.  Ophelia loved and respected her
father, Polonius.  Polonius was a good father to her but asked her not to trust or to be
involved with Prince Hamlet.  Ophelia was upset at first because it was obvious how much
she loved Prince Hamlet.  Polonius felt that Prince Hamlet couldn't be trusted and
forbid Ophelia to see or speak to Prince Hamlet.  Ophelia is hurt by this decision, and
decides to obey her father's wishes.  Ophelia is also asked by Laertes to stay away from
Prince Hamlet.  Opelia loves and respects her father and brother, so she decides to obey
both of their requests. 

At the same time, Prince Hamlet
learns that his uncle Claudius has killed his father. He sees his father's ghost appear
and wants revenge.  Prince Hamlet begins to feel uneasy about the Kingdom of Denmark and
about everyone in the kingdom. He begins to act differently and begins to figure out
what revenge will be had on the new King Claudius.  Prince Hamlet goes to attempt to
confide in Ophelia but he senses somethign isn't right with her.  Prince Hamlete doesn't
know that Ophelia is forbidden to speak to him and she's not acting herself either. 
Prince Hamlet senses this and also senses that they are not alone and treats her
disrepsectful and not with love.  Polonius sees this and goes to King Claudius and Queen
Gertrude with his observations.  The King and Queen are surprised but notice he has been
acting strange.  Queen Gertrude says that his strangeness is because of the death of his
father (her deceased husband) and because of her re-marriage in a quick time to King
Claudius (Prince Hamlet's uncle) and that all of these changes are causing him to be in
grief.  Polonius disagrees and asks for them to take a second
look. 

The King, Queen, and Polonius decide to have Ophelia
meet with Prince Hamlet.  They will be spying on their conservationa and meeting to see
if Prince Hamlet has gone mad like Polonius accusses him of.  They will be watching
Prince Hamlet's moves and actions.  Little do they know that Prince Hamlet is watching
everyone else's moves and actions because he doesn't know who he can trust
anymore. 

Prince Hamlet and Ophelia run into each other and
Ophelia is kind and warm to him.  Prince Hamlet senses that they are not alone and that
she is lying so acts out on her.  Prince Hamlet yells and curses at her leaving her
shocked.  King Claudius and Queen Gertrude see this and believe that Prince Hamlet
indeed has gone mad and that Polonius is right.

Ophelia is
upset that Prince Hamlet spoke to her like this and Prince Hamlet was proving his point
to the rest. Prince Hamlet is in love with Ophelia but he never gets a chance to tell
her until he sees her funeral.

Queen Gertrude saw herself
in young Ophelia and wanted her to be Queen oneday.  Queen Gertrude wanted Ophelia and
Prince Hamlet to share the love of oneanother and
Denmark.

Polonius would be surprised to know that Queen
Gertrude went along with spying on Prince Hamlet and putting Ophelia in a difficult
situation.  Queen Gertrude should have stuck up for her son and for Ophelia because she
knew their love was real, instead she was misguided and lead by her new and evil
husband, King Claudius. 

How does Hawthorne present the complexity of identity in the Scarlet Letter?I'm trying to write an oral presentation explaining how Hawthorne...

I don't have a hard copy of the book, but here are some
ideas that I would run with. Hopefully, this will be enough to get you
started:

• Internal vs. External
  identity. By this I mean who these characters really are vs. how they
  display themselves to others. Dimmsdale is supposed to be someone who displays spiritual
  leadership and fortitude in the community, but who is he really?
  


• Spiritual Identity vs. Natural
  Identity. The Puritans were a community that wanted people to focus on
  becoming enlightened and disciplined Christians rather than people who gave into
  temptation (i.e., their desires, particularly those of a sexual nature).
  


• Individual vs. Group. How
  does the Puritan community manipulate the identity of individuals within the group? How
  is it encouraged and/or reinforced? What are the consequences?
  

Hope this helps, good
luck.

Calculate the second order linear derivatives fxy, fyx for the given function f(x,y)=x^3+8xy

We'll begin with fxy.

fxy =
d^2f/dydx = [d(df/dx)]/dy

We'll differentiate with respect
to x:

fxy =
d[d(x^3+8xy)/dx]/dy

fxy = d(3x^2 +
8y)/dy

We'll differentiate with respect to
x:

fxy = 8

We'll calculate
fyx:

fyx = d^2f/dxdy =
[d(df/dy)]/dx

fyx =
d[d(x^3+8xy)/dy]/dx

fyx =
d[d(8x)]/dx

fyx =
8

So, the second order linear derivatives
are: fxy = 8 ; fyx = 8.

What is the theme of "And Of Clay Are We Created"? What was the main point of the story?

Like most stories, this story seems to have many different
and varying themes. Clearly one of the key topics of the story concerns the relationship
between Azucena and Rolf Carle, and the way in which this experience enables Rolf to
face certain memories of his past and childhood. If you are interested, these are
featured in Isabel Allende's novel, Eva Luna. The traumatic
experience of watching Azucena slowly die breaks down the barriers within Rolf
Carle:

That
night, imperceptibly, the unyielding floodgates that had contained Rolf Carle's past for
so many years began to open, and the torrent of all that had lain hidden in the deepest
and most secret layers of memory poured out, leveling before it the obstacles that had
blocked his consciousness for so
long.

The connection between
them and the intimacy which they are forced into means that Rolf recognises how his past
resembles Azucena's present:

readability="7">

He was Azucena; he was buried in the clay mud;
his terror was not the distant emotion of an almost forgotten childhood, it was a claw
sunk in his throat.

As Rolf
says to Azucena after this night of revelation, he is not crying for Azucena, but for
himself, for he hurts all over.

The title seems to suggest
that for individuals like Rolf, tragedies such as that of Azucena confront us with our
own fragility - we are made of clay - a breakable, fragile substance, even though so
often we try to live our lives as if we are unbreakable and stronger. We finish reading
this story, therefore, wiser if not sadder about our own
fragility.

list three benefits of fluid power systems. please

I'm going to assume you mean fluid (oil or liquid) powered
machinery rather than fluid power generating systems such as water
dams.

There are many benefits to a hydraulic system
compared to other power systems.

In a pneumatic (air)
powered system there are only two states, pressurized or depressurized. With hydraulics
you can control the flow of the fluid and therefore control position and force quite
easily.

With electrically powered system such as a motor
powering a drivetrain, the motor must be at high revolutions per minute in order to
provide sustainable torque. Hydraulic systems can generate high amounts of torque at low
rpm. Depending on the sytem design they can also take up less
space.

One hydraulic pump can also power a large variety of
systems within a shop or machine via manifolds and valves. Electric systems often
require one motor and gear box for every sytem. This helps to reduce cost and
maintenance issues.

In "A Pair of Silk Stockings," how would you describe the character of Mrs. Sommers?

Central to understanding this excellent story is the way
that Mrs. Sommers is described as a character who has formerly enjoyed better times but
now has been used to poverty for a long period. Note how this is introduced in the first
paragraph of the story:

readability="8">

Little Mrs. Sommers one day found herself the
unexpected possessor of fifteen dollars. It seemed to her a very large amount of money,
and the way in which it stuffed and bulged her worn old
porte-monnaie gave her a feeling of importance such as she had not
enjoyed for years.

Note the
way that the money changes the way she feels about herself and also the details we are
given about her purse, which is "worn" and "old." The way that money is of such
importance to her is emphasised by the precise way in which she plans to use the money.
She is absorbed in "speculation and calculation." She literally spends hours carefully
considering how to best use it for her family. It is clear that she is a woman whose
every energy is focussed on making it through each day. Although she had enjoyed "better
days," now the needs of her faily take up all her
time:

She
herself indulged in no such morbid retrospection. She had no time--no second of time to
devote to the past. The needs of the present absorbed her every faculty. A vision of the
future like some dim, gaunt monster sometimes appalled her, but luckily tomorrow never
comes.

Therefore we can say
that Mrs. Sommers is a very brave woman, having enjoyed wealth but now having to make do
with poorer circumstances. She however does not give in to despair but rises to the
challenge and gives her all to coping with these circumstances. However, the exhaustion
and the toil of such poverty tempts her into indulging herself with the money she
has.

What is the narrative technique used in Wuthering Heights?

Much has been written about the narrative technique of
this outstanding novel, and in particular the Gothic characteristics that it employs.
Firstly, let us note that a framing narrative is used, where the main story, that of
Heathcliff and Catherine, is framed by another story, which is Lockwood's sojourn in the
Yorkshire moors. Let us also realise that the main narrator, Lockwood, is one that is
shown to be completely unreliable from almost his opening words. Note the way he
misinterprets Heathcliff as a character:

readability="13">

A perfect misanthropist's heaven: and Mr.
Heathcliff and I are such a suitable pair to divide the desolation between us. A capital
fellow! He little imagined how my heart warmed towards him when I beheld his black eyes
withdraw so suspiciously under their brows, as I rode up, and when his fingers sheltered
themselves, with a jealous resolution, still further in his waistcoat, when I announced
my name.

As we go on to
discover, Heathcliff is anything but a "capital fellow," and thus the vague
indistinctness of this Gothic narrative is established, as not only are we narrated the
tale overall by an unreliable narrator who does not come from Yorkshire and knows
nothing of the manners and culture of the place, but the story also involves multiple
narrators, creating different layers of narrative that add to the nebulous nature of the
narrative. We have Lockwood telling us what Nelly tells him, but at times, Nelly only
reports what others tell her, such as when Isabella flees Wuthering Heights. We need to
penetrate through three or so layers of narration to try and discern the "truth" of what
happened.

What kind of man is Reverend Hale when he first arrives in Salem? to what extent is he a changed man in Act four?

When he gets to Salem for the first time, Rev. Hale is
sort of an arrogant man.  He has a lot of learning and he thinks he knows how to find
evidence of Satan's influence in the community.  He shows this by grilling the Proctors
about stuff like how often they go to church and whether they know the
Commandments.

By the time Act IV comes around, he has
gotten a lot more humble.  He no longer thinks that he knows everything.  Instead, he
thinks that the court has gone to far and needs to pull back.

What are the themes of the play Arsenic and Old Lace?

A delightful combination of the sinister with the
farcical, Jonathan Kesselring's play was so often performed by senior classes in high
school's across the country in the 1950s and 1960s. 

THE
THEATER

The main theme that so often delighted the
audiences at the high schools is the theme of the conventions of the theater. 
Kesselring's presentation implies that the theater reflects life only in absurd
situations.  Mortimer, for instance, claims that drama does not reflect reality; it only
provides entertainment.  Kesselring's play certainly provides entertainment in a most
absurd manner.  In an especially farcical scene, Mortimer describes how a character in a
play he has just seen dies when a murderer captures the hero.  In so doing, he provides
his brother the perfect way to murder
him.

INSANITY

Mortimer's aunts
and Uncle Teddy are all mentally ill.  While the uncle charges up the stairs in the
delusion that he is Teddy Roosevelt, the aunts calmly tell Mortimer to just pretend that
he has not found a dead gentleman.  They say that they hidden the body because it would
not have been nice to have the Reverend Harper to have seen it; besides, they have a
right to their own secrets.  And, they believe that they are doing a service to the
lonely men by giving them arsenic.

Not only is Uncle Teddy
insane, but his grandfather was, as well; for he created some medicines that he tested
on people, to their detriment.  Of course, Jonathan is cursed, also, as he has killed
twelve men.

ALTRUISM

While the
aunts seem charitable as they open their home to people, giving toys to the poor
children, offering lodging for strangers, and providing tea and snacks for the
policemen, they also are killing people in this farce.  But, they are only "good"
Christian Americans as the sisters do not want foreigners in their home, not their
murderous nephew Jonathan whom they have forbidden to come to their house.  It is on
this "charitable" work that the satire lies.

Why haven't male wasps evolved to recognize that the flowers of an orchid are not female wasps?

When a species evolves, due to natural selection
characteristics that hinder reproduction are eliminated and the characteristics that aid
the process of reproduction are enhanced in future
generations.

Male wasps are able to recognize female wasps
by their appearance but are attracted to them primarily by chemicals called pheromones
that are released by the females and to which the males are extremely sensitive to. A
tiny amount of this chemical released by female wasps when they are ready to mate can
attract males in the range of hundreds of
kilometers.

Orchids do not have nectar to attract insects
which help in the process of pollination, instead they use other means of deception. The
flowers have a fair amount of similarity in shape to female wasps, but the most
important tool to attract male wasps is the release of chemicals similar to pheromones
that are released by the female wasps.

Orchids also have
several mechanisms to alter these chemicals to attract the right kind of wasps. The
sensitivity to pheromones is essential for wasps to be able to find females, if they
were to lose this trait reproduction would become very difficult. This is one of the
reasons why there has been no evolution to prevent the wasps from pollinating
orchids.

In addition, there is no harm caused to wasps when
they visit the orchid flowers and pollinate them, this removes the incentive for them to
be able to differentiate orchids from females from a distance. As far as energy spent in
visiting the orchids goes, it is miniscule compared to the large distances that wasps
anyway have to travel in search of food and mate.

How did the United States gain the control over the Panama Canal? What really happened in the negotiations between the U.S and the Colombian...

First of all, please note that when the US and the
Colombian government were negotiating, the canal did not exist.  The US got access to
Panama through the negotiations and then it was the US that built the
canal.

In 1903, the US and Colombia concluded a treaty that
would have given the US the right to build a canal through the Isthmus of Panama (this
was part of Colombia at the time).  But the Colombian Senate rejected the treaty.  This
made Pres. Theodore Roosevelt very unhappy and so he helped Panama stage a rebellion
against Colombia.  The US Navy prevented Colombian troops from crushing the rebellion
and Panama became independent.

After that happened, the US
signed a treaty with the Prime Minister of Panama (who was actually a Frenchman who was
part of a company that wanted to make money off the canal).  The treaty gave the US the
canal zone.  After that, America built the canal, completing it in 1914 after 10 years
of work.

Why do most psychologists believe that the polygragh is not dependable in detecting liars?

The difficulty that psychologists, and most of the
scientific community, have with the polygraph test is its inability to accurately detect
if someone is truly being deceitful.

The polygraph is
designed to measure physiological responses that are supposed to indicate concern on the
part of the person being tested; the premise is that people cannot alter their
physiological responses.

readability="12">

A polygraph (popularly referred to as a lie
detector) is an instrument that measures and records several physiological indices such
as blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and skin conductivity while the subject is asked
and answers a series of questions, in the belief that deceptive answers will produce
physiological responses that can be differentiated from those associated with
non-deceptive
answers.

However, the
difficulty is that the tests are not accurate; in fact, studies indicate that the
polygraph is only 61% effective.

For example, some
spies—even murder suspects—have been tested and passed the test, only for [government]
officials to discover much later that the individuals in question were lying. Innocent
people suspected of committing serious crimes have also been shown
to be lying—the presentation of conclusive evidence has often been the only thing to
remove suspicion from them.

The erroneous results are
called "false positives," providing inaccurate feedback and, therefore, no reliable,
conclusive results for the tests. A "false positive" can show innocence where there is
guilt, and guilt where there is innocence.

This form of
screening is still used by some government agencies (FBI, CIA), and by employers as part
of their hiring process. Many foreign countries still use the lie detector (polygraph).
However, it would seem, based on one report, that being rested and calm, while
establishing a good rapport with the tester, allows the person being tested to pass
without any indication of deceit, or criminal activity or
intent.

It is for these many reasons that the scientific
community, in general, frowns upon the use and reliability of this form of
testing.

What is the main theme of Jane Eyre?

Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre has
several important themes. One of the most important themes may be the injustice of a
rigid class structure. Because Jane is an orphan, her life choices are far more limited
than those of many of her relatives and peers, even though she is mostly more
intelligent, capable and hard- working than they are. This becomes especially clear when
she and Rochester fall in love. They clearly share an authentic intimacy that should
have been celebrated from its inception, but Jane is reluctant to express her feelings
or let others know about their bond because of the difference in their social
status.

However, another important theme is the voice of
women. Jane is willing to express her needs and opinions in a society that values women
who are submissive and accommodating. This leads to frequent punishment in her early
life, and seems much less attractive than her childhood friend Helen's more gentle
style. In the end, though, Jane develops a strong sense of herself and continues to
rise. Her sense of independence allows her to reject school master Mr. Brocklehurst's
hypocritical self-righteousness and later, a loveless marriage to St. John Rivers. It
also makes her much more attractive to Mr. Rochester, the real love of her
life.

Other themes include spiritual authenticity vs.
self-centered piety, and of course, the transcendental power of love. Any of these
themes might be considered the “main” theme of the novel Jane Eyre,
depending on personal interpretation, values and worldview.

What are the themes of John Steinbeck's novella, Of Mice and Men?

In John Steinbeck's novella, Of Mice and
Men, there are several themes.

The story takes
place in California, during the Great Depression of the 1930s. It describes the way of
life for two men, George and Lennie, as they travel from place to place to find work.
They are also pursuing the American dream of the time: to own a piece of land they could
call their own, as opposed to moving all the time and working for someone else.
Thousands of people were in the same situation, and people came and went so quickly that
there was little time to get to know people or become attached to
them.

Themes found throughout the novel include: idealism
vs reality, alienation vs loneliness, race and racism, class conflict, mental disability
(as seen with Lennie), loyalty, and friendship.

These
themes revolve around George and Lennie who travel together, and the people they meet at
the ranch where they go to work, but Steinbeck uses these themes to impart what he
observed among migrant workers in the California area during the turbulent times after
the Great Crash of 1929.

Why does Amir resent Hassan in The Kite Runner?

The issue of a father's love or attention becomes the root
of why Amir resents Hassan.  Amir is bookish, more cerebral, and much more introverted
than Hassan, whose nature as a child is quite the opposite.  As a child, Amir does not
understand why his father demonstrates more outward affection to Hassan, and this
becomes the basis of his resentment towards him. Of course, he later understands why
this was the case.   Both are still friends, and Amir does not let his father's
attention ruin the fundamental relationship between both of them.  Yet, this issue, or
wedge, between how the father perceives both becomes the fundamental issue in reflecting
the resentment that Amir has towards Hassan.  It is also the reason why Amir does not
stand up for nor help Hassan in his time of need.  Consequently, it is the reason for
the haunting that still follows Amir even when he leaves Afghanistan, triggering his
need to return to it.

Can someone please explain: (+8) + (-15) { = -(15-8) , Correct Answer is -7 } My answer is +7, which is wrong. Need clarification.

You have (+8) + (-15) = -(15 -
8)

The result of this is -7 because you simplify the
expression as follows:

(+8) +
(-15)

remove the brackets, as the sign before (-15) is +,
eliminate it without altering -15.

=> 8 -
15

=> -7

[ If there is
a minus sign before the brackets, when the brackets are opened the sign of all the terms
in the brackets are reversed, else for a plus sign before the brackets they remain the
same. ]

Here the terms 8 and -15 are being added, the
result will be a negative number given that 15 > 8 and equal to 7 as 15 - 8 =
7.

Hope the explanation
helped.

The result of (+8) + (-15) =
-7

Which is the solution of the equation 2x-10=-3x+5?

2x - 10 = -3x + 5

First, add
3x on both sides that way " x " can be on the same side.

By
adding 3x on the same side, your equation should look
like

5x - 10 = 5 now, add 10
on both sides

By adding, your equation should look
like

5x = 15 now divide 5 on
both sides

By diving, your equation should look
like

x = 3 which is your
answer

In The Kite Runner, what were the motives behind Amir's trying to engage Hassan in a fight?

This incident occurs in Chapter Eight of this tremendous
novel. Amir is obviously completely consumed by guilt at having stood by whilst Hassan
was raped by Assef. He has found that he cannot live with the reality of what he didn't
do, and seeks to find various ways of coping with this guilt. He starts a fight with
Hassan because he wants to be punished by him for what he had done. Note what Amir
himself tells us:

readability="11">

I hit him with another pomegranate, in the
shoulder this time. The juice splattered his face. "Hit me back!" I spat. "Hit me back,
goddamn you!" I wished he would. I wished he'd give me the punishment I craved, so maybe
I'd finally sleep at night. Maybe then things could return to how they used to be
between us.

Thus we can see
that Amir wants to be hurt and beaten up so that he could have the "punishment" he knew
he deserved in the hope that this would alleviate his guilt and shame at having
abandoned Hassan to Assef.

What key questions are needed to investigate the impact of micro-finance banks on small and medium scale enterprises and the growth of an economy

If you were going to try to investigate this subject, you
would need to ask a number of questions.

• As far
  as overall growth of the economy, you could use the usual macro-level statistics like
  GDP and unemployment rates.  You could ask how those statistics have varied as levels of
  microcredit have changed.

However, just looking
at these numbers would be pretty crude as there are so many intervening variables that
could confuse the causal relation between the banks and the growth.  Therefore, you
might want to concentrate more on impacts that could be directly attributable to these
banks.

In that case, you might want to
ask:

• How many small and medium scale enterprises
  were financed by these banks?


• How much money was borrowed
  by such enterprises?


• How many of these enterprises were
  able to remain successful?  How many defaulted on their loans or went out of
  business?


• If it is possible, you might want to ask how
  many of those businesses would have been able to get financing from more traditional
  banks.


• Are there geographical clusters of businesses
  receiving this funding?  If so, did the unemployment rates or income rates of these
  areas change during the time that microcredit
  rose?

These will be some of the major questions
that you will need to address.

Describe the main character and the main conflict in the novel. State two dominate character traits. As for the setting provide evidence using quote

Main Character: Eliezer Wiesel
Conflict: the
Holocaust
Character Traits: obedience; devotion (to his faith at first, then
to his father, to survival); 
Setting: Sighet, Transylvania (sections
1&2); Concentration Camps: Birkenau (section 3), Auschwitz (section 3), Buna
(sections 4&5), Gleiwitz (sections 7&8)

Do markets create poverty?

Economists would argue that markets do not actually
cause poverty.  Instead, they
allow poverty to occur.  Economists would then argue that
markets allow greater overall wealth to exist in an economy than would exist in a
command economy.

Economists argue that poverty is caused by
various sorts of inequality.  Most typically, these are inequalities in skills.  A
person may become poor because his or her skills are insufficient to allow him/her to
compete in the market.  Alternatively, the person's skills could be a bad match for the
kinds of jobs that are available.

In either case, the
market is not creating the poverty.  The poverty is caused by the person's lack of
skills.  To use a sports analogy, saying the market causes poverty is like saying that
playing a game causes one team to lose.  Playing the game gives a team the chance to
lose, but it is other factors that actually cause the team to
lose.

Write a note on Macbeth's characterization in Shakespeare's Macbeth.

Macbeth is characterized as a greedy man who will stop at
nothing short of murder to get what he wants. Although he is greedy, he does think twice
about murdering Duncan. After his wife, Lady Macbeth, challenges his manhood, he gives
in to her manipulation and proceeds to murder
Duncan. 

Macbeth desires to be king after hearing the
witches prophesy about it. A seed is planted in him and he goes after the throne through
murderous deeds.

Of course, Banquo heard the witches
prophecy; therefore , Banquo must die according to Macbeth. Again, he is responsible for
another murder. Macbeth killed or had Macduff's family killed because the witches had
told Macbeth to beware of Macduff. He killed or had someone kill Macduff's wife and
children so Macduff would not have an heir. Again, Macbeth proves to be a cold-blooded
murderer. He is in a murdering frenzy. He is power hungry and his way of thinking is
deranged. 

Actually, he does begin to see visions and
hallucinations. It appears that Macbeth is losing his mind.     

Compare and contrast the relationship between Jem and Scout and Atticus and Aunt Alexandra in To Kill a Mockingbird.

JEM & SCOUT.  The two
main characters of the novel are not only brother and sister but best friends as
well. Except for Dill, neither of them have any close friends mentioned in the story,
and aside from the summer months when Dill visits Maycomb, Jem and Scout spend most of
their time together. Scout mentions several school friends in the story, but besides the
one visit that Walter Cunningham makes to the Finch house for lunch, no other friends or
children are mentioned as regular playmates. Scout mentions at the beginning of Chapter
12 that Jem, who had just turned 12, was becoming "difficult to live with, inconsistent,
moody." They seem to be growing apart, but no other children actually appear to come
between them in any way. Jem serves as Scout's older protector, and Scout is his loyal
follower. Both of them seem to prefer the company of other adults--Atticus, Miss Maudie,
Calpurnia--to children their own age.

ATTICUS
& ALEXANDRA.  Like most siblings, the two occasionally argue. The
two don't seem to have a relationship as close as Jem and Scout, but there is little
mention of their own youth together. Alexandra shows her loyalty to Atticus when
she comes to Maycomb to take care of the family, leaving her henpecked husband, Jimmy,
behind at Finch's Landing. Alexandra is headstrong and opinionated unlike the quiet,
fair-minded Atticus; but Atticus takes control of the household when necessary (such as
when Alexandra wants to have Calpurnia fired), and Alexandra obviously has great respect
for him as a lawyer and for his humane beliefs. Although she sometimes tries, Alexandra
is not able to dominate Atticus as she does her own husband, probably because she
respects her brother much more than Jimmy..

What was the importance of the Glorious Revolution of 1688?

Although the Glorious Revolution of 1688 is often couched
in terms of retaining a Protestant Monarchy for England, it is more important in that it
was a demonstration of the right of people to change their form of government if they
believed that government no longer protected their rights and it further established the
supremacy of Parliament..

By accepting the throne at the
invitation of Parliament, William and Mary, who replaced James II at the invitation of
Parliament, implicitly recognized the supremacy of Parliament. The revolution
established the principal that sovereignty and ultimate power in the state was divided
between the monarch and Parliament and that the King and/or Queen ruled only with the
consent of the governed.

John
Locke, personal secretary and physician to Anthony Ashley Cooper, the
Earl of Shaftsbury, provided the most profound defense of the Glorious Revolution in his
Second Treatise on Civil Government. His First Treatise had
discussed the inadvisability of absolute monarchy. In the second Treatise, Locke argued
that civil governments were created by the people to protect their life, liberty and
property. Every government was charged with protecting the "natural rights" of the
people, meaning those rights held by all men because they have the ability to reason.
Any government that failed to do so or usurped power to which it was not entitled was
tyrannous. In the event of a tyrannical ruler, the people have the right to rebel
against that government.

Locke’s ideas were borrowed from
ancient Greek and Roman ideals of government that state there are natural, or
"universal," rights equally held by all people in all societies. These ideas became a
powerful influence on Enlightenment thought and were especially popular in colonial
America. By implication, they were also influential in the French
Revolution.

The Glorious Revolution was NOT a democratic
revolution; it placed sovereignty in Parliament, and Parliament only represented the
upper classes. The vast majority of English people still had no say in government.
However, it did establish a constitutional monarchy and ushered in
a period of aristocratic government which lasted until 1914.

Who is Santiago and how is he introduced in the beginning of the storyin Coelho's The Alchemist?

Santiago is the main character n the book The
Alchemist.  He is introduced in the book by his name in the first line.  The
book tells that he has a herd and he spends the night at an abandoned church.  He is a
reader because he thinks about needing to read thicker books which he also uses for a
pillow.

Santiago is awakened during the night and he lays
thinking about a reoccurring dream.  He awakens his sheep and carries a crook.  He reads
to his flock with the notion that they may understand what he reads to
them. 

Santiago is in love with a beautiful
girl.

How was the New Deal a culmination of the era of progressive reform?

The New Deal was the culmination of the Progressive Era
because it was during the New Deal that the government really took much more of a role
in steering the economy and in protecting working
people.

For example, in the New Deal, Congress passed the
Wagner Act.  This act ensured that workers would have the right to join unions and that
the unions would have the right to bargain collectively.  This was an important step in
reducing the power of big companies and enhancing the power of workers.  Reducing the
power of big companies was a major goal of progressive
reforms.

Similarly, during the New Deal, Congress passed
the Fair Labor Standards Act.  This law set minimum wages for workers and also
established maximums on how long they could be required to work.  Once again, the
government was trying to protect workers from big
companies.

In this way, the New Deal can be seen as a
culmination of the Progressive Era because the New Deal programs did various things to
reduce the power of big business and to help workers.

Please explain to me the poem the quality of mercy in The Merchant of Venice.

The speech that has these words in it is spoken by Portia
in Act IV, Scene 1 of this play.  In it, she is lecturing Shylock about
mercy.

What she is telling Shylock is that mercy is not
something that can be forced (strained).  Instead, it has to be given freely.  She says
that when you act mercifully, you help yourself and you help the person that you are
showing mercy to.  She tells Shylock that what he should strive for is not justice, but
rather mercy.

By saying these things, she is asking him not
to try to get his "pound of flesh" from Antonio.

Why did Sheila mention Eric Caswell in "The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant?"What are two examples of suspense in the story?

Sheila mentions Eric Caswell in the story because although
she is going to the dance with the narrator, it is Eric whom she is really interested
in. The fact that she talks about Eric while she is on the way to the dance with the
narrator, coupled with the indifference of her behavior in general, should have
forewarned the narrator to the reality that Sheila was just using him, but he is so
enamored by her glamorous allure that he fails to see that his brief courship can only
end in failure.

One of the first things Sheila tells the
narrator on the canoe ride to the dance is that "Eric Caswell's going to be there." She
later relates that "Eric said (she has) the figure to model;" it is clear that Eric is
much on her mind, even though she has consented to go to the dance with the narrator.
The extent to which Sheila has set her sights on Eric Caswell becomes completely evident
when she goes home with him instead of her date.

There are
many instances of suspense in the story. One of them occurs when the narrator first
hooks the bass, and realizes that "it was a bass...it was a big bass...it was the
biggest bass (he) had ever hooked...Sheila Mant must not know." The narrator struggles
to hold on to the bass without letting Sheila know what he is doing, but fortunately, it
turns out that she is too busy talking about herself to notice his preoccupation. A
second instance of suspense is when the narrator realizes that he must choose between
letting Sheila know what he is doing, and letting the bass get away. For an instant, the
narrator is "torn apart between longing," but the scales tip in Sheila's favor when he
looks at her attractive figure, and he quickly cuts the line in half, in a decision that
he will forever regret.

Let f(x)=square root(x-4) + 3 . Find the inverse of f.

To determine the inverse of the function, we'll re-write
the function, putting instead of f(x), y:

y = sqrt(x-4) +
3

We'll interchange x and y:

x
= sqrt(y-4) + 3

We'll determine y from the expression
above. We'll subtract 3 both sides:

x - 3 =
sqrt(y-4)

We'll raise to square both
sides:

(x-3)^2 = y - 4

We'll
add 4 both sides and we'll apply symmetrical property:

y =
(x-3)^2 + 4

The inverse function of f(x) is
f^-1(x) = (x-3)^2 + 4.

In The Taming of the Shrew by Willam Shakespeare, what does Kate's statement (V.ii.189) "place your hands below your husband's foot" mean literally?

This line comes from Kate's  eloquent speech at the end of
Act 5 in Taming in the Shrew.  Kate is admonishing the widow and
Bianca to place their hands under the feet of their husbands in a gesture of
servitude. 

The image evoked here is that of foot washing
that appears in the New Testament in which Jesus humbled himself to wash the feet of his
disciples.  In the bible verse (John 13), Jesus is showing that serving is a noble
act. 

Foot washing or placing one's hands below the foot of
another was traditionally done by a servant to a master, a wife to a husband, a
disciple to a mentor.  But it was not viewed as an act of humiliation, but rather an act
of respect and honor.  In this way, Kate is showing that wives (or husbands for that
matter) should not be too proud to serve their spouses or to try to make their lives
easier, more peaceful, and more harmonious.    

Why does the water content of blood need to remain within narrow limits?

While not a doctor, I can give you a general answer for
this.

About 1/2 of blood is water, and the other half is
"good goo."  The water is important to carry the "good goo" around and help carry bad
stuff away from cells.  Your body is designed to work with blood that has a very
particular make-up in the same way that a car will only go when filled with gas that's
made the right way; you can't just mess with it and expect for the car to still
go.

Anyhow, your body wants that particular blood design,
and since water is such a big part of it you need the right amount.  If you have too
much water then you have a situation some people call "water intoxication."  Basically,
when you sweat you lose salt (which is part of the "good goo.") That's okay, because we
generally don't sweat a ton and we eat plenty, so we put salt back in.  But if the salt
level goes down too much and you keep putting water into your body, the blood won't work
right.  You need the salt level to be constant in order for your nerves and muscles to
function correctly.  That's not really a problem of having "too much water" in your
blood (that's not really possible, you'd just pee out the extra water) but more a case
of having blood that is too diluted.

The opposite is a
nasty situation called "Hypovolemia."  This happens during dehydration.  In this
situation, you don't have enough water to keep the "good goo" floating well.  Your blood
doesn't transport oxygen well enough and your body re-directs the limited blood supply
to vital organs rather than the skin. This makes it harder to lose heat, which can cause
all sorts of troubles if you are exercising.

You can even
end up with blood that is TOO salty, your blood pressure will soar, and you'll end up
having a heart-attack as your blood pressure rises too
high.

So, as you can see just like you can't mess with
gasoline you can't mess with blood.  It is designed to have a very certain balance, and
if you change its composition it won't be able to do the job it is supposed to
do.

In Jane Eyre, how do Jane's values influnce the choices she makes?

The best way to answer this question is to look at how
Jane decides to resist her inner desires and follow Rochester to Europe and become his
mistress. Clearly, this is one of the crucial decisions that she needs to make in this
excellent novel, and if we examine Chapter Twenty-Seven in particular, we can see how
her values and her beliefs help her at this stage to make a wise decision and to prevent
her from becoming nothing but a powerless mistress who would never be Rochester's equal.
Even though Jane is friendless in the world and without family, she decides that her own
sense of self-worth is still something worth fighting
for:

"I care
for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more
I will respect myself. I will keep the law given by God; sanctioned by man. I will hold
to the principles received by me when I was sane, and not mad--as I am now. Laws and
principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments
as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour; stringent are they;
inviolate they shall be. If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would
be their worth?"

Note the way
that again and again Jane's own moral code and set of values are refered to. They act as
her compass at this point of her life when she is so overwhelmed by sadness and grief
and can't think straight. In times where she is "mad" as Jane herself says she is,
turning back to her set of values which she sees as being enshrined by God, provides her
with guidance so that she knows what she should do.

What was the issues of Maya Lin art design at the memorial for the Veterans of the Vietnam War?

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC has
attracted attention and contention since its
inception.

Maya Lin designed a memorial that did not, in
any way, follow the pattern of other memorials in memory of other wars in other places.
Instead of portraying a moment of action or marking the achievement of a particular
leader of the fighters, Lin's design focused on the divisive effect of the Vietnam War
upon the citizens of the United States and on the lost lives during the
conflict.

Aside from those who did not understand or
appreciate the symbolism of her design, her Asian heritage was considered by some as
being connected with the location of the events being remembered by the Memorial. This
angered those who wanted the memorial to Americans who died in Vietnam to be designed by
an American.

Please explain Dany's dreams and why does Estina talk to him in his dreams, from "Night Talkers"?

Estina speaks to Dany in his dream, the one in which he
tells her about Bienaimé’s having murdered his parents. As the moral force in Dany’s
dream, Estina’s interest is in making it possible for Dany to continue living, and to
withdraw from the cycle of violence that had previously touched the family. And so
Dany’s dream response is this: "Perhaps it was the dread of being wrong, of harming the
wrong man, of making the wrong woman a widow and the wrong child an orphan"
(

paragraph 131). His feeling about doing no
harm to Bienaimé is actually the feeling that he wishes Bienaimé had held about his
parents.

In John Steinbeck's novel, Of Mice and Men, what is the setting?

The setting of Of Mice and
Men is California during the Great
Depression.

The book starts near Salinas,
California along the central coast.  The men are headed to a ranch, after having been
run out of Weed in Northern California.

Steinbeck begins by
painstakingly describing the nature in the Salinas
valley.

A few
miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs
deep and green. (ch 1)

During
the 1930s, times were tough.  Many people were traveling from ranch to ranch trying to
find work.  George and Lennie did this.  This is why they were headed to a new ranch. 
They could never stay in one place too long.  They and other migrant farm workers had
bigger dreams, but few chances.

Interestingly enough, the
entire book takes place over only a few days.  When the story begins, it is Thursday.
 We know this because George and Lennie arrive on a Friday.  It ends on a Sunday.  It is
a compact book with a compact time frame.

What is the main climax in Pride and Prejudice?

The main climax in the novel Pride and
Prejudice, by Jane Austen, is the moment when Darcy proposes to Elizabeth.
Surely there are several moments of suspense and intensity in the novel, but a climax
can be identified as the most pivotal situation in the story and
the moment after which the rest of the action begins to fall: Secrets are often revealed
after the climax, and problems "magically" find a
solution.

The proposal is pivotal to the story because the
"brutally honest" way in which Darcy and Elizabeth speak to each other during its
delivery unveils that their mutual antipathy is a result of many
misconceptions.

This is a red flag that all of those
misconceptions are about to be resolved as a result of their being brought up during the
proposal. This confirms that the proposal is, in fact, the main climax of the
story.

To further validate this assumption, notice how the
falling action can be identified right after the proposal. First, Darcy writes to
Elizabeth a letter in which he gives her the entire truth about Wickham. Right after
this happens, Elizabeth learns that Wickham eloped with her youngest sister, which gives
validity to Darcy's words. From then on, Elizabeth begins to change, Darcy also changes,
and situations begin to find their
solution.

Conclusively,the proposal is the catalyst that
unveils most of the misconceptions expressed by the main characters, and is also the
agent that helps those misconceptions become clarified.

What were Ford's main achievements in foreign policy?

Gerald Ford was president for only a short time, a time
during which there were not many opportunities for him to distinguish himself in foreign
policy.

Ford's main accomplishment was probably the signing
of the Helsinki Agreement in 1975.  This agreement continued the policy of detente that
had been started by President Nixon.  In it, the US agreed to recognize the legitimacy
of the Soviet Union and its control over Eastern Europe.  This may be seen as an
accomplishment because it furthered the cause of peace between the two
countries.

Ford also managed to push Israel and Egypt to
work to improve their relationship.  He was much more blunt with Israel than US
presidents typically are and forced them to come to terms with Egypt on the issue of the
Sinai Peninsula.  This helped to repair relations between the two
countries.

Outside of that, Ford did not really have time
to do many things that would be seen as accomplishments.

In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, what does Elizabeth write in her letter to Victor, in Volume III, Chapter 5?

In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein,
Elizabeth's letter comes to Victor as he travels home from the horror of Henry's murder,
his own imprisonment and his subsequent illness.

First
Elizabeth speaks of her excitement that Victor and his father draw closer to home. She
worries, also, about his poor health, fearful that he may seem more poorly than he did
when left Geneva. She admits the winter has been a difficult one, waiting for him, but
hopes that he has found some tranquility in the
meantime.

The central focus of her letter, however, is her
question to Victor about their relationship. Elizabeth recalls the years they spent
together as children: playmates and great friends. She knows Victor's parents had always
assumed they would marry. However as Victor has been so preoccupied, she fears that
perhaps he does not feel the same way she does. So she asks him where his heart
is:

Do you not love
another?

Elizabeth wonders if
his need for seclusion in Ingolstadt came from a sense that he was honor-bound to marry
her. She admits that she loves him, and without him she would be miserable. However, she
explains that his happiness means everything to her.

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I confess to you, my cousin, that I love you,
and that in my airy dreams of futurity you have been my constant friend and companion.
But it is your happiness I desire as well as my own, when I declare to you, that our
marriage would render me eternally miserable, unless it were the dictate of your own
free choice.

She cautions him
not to write of this if it will make him unhappy, for she will get news of his condition
from Alphonse. However, if she sees him with a smile on his face when next they meet,
she will know his heart, and that will be all she needs.

What are the themes in the film Insomnia?

I think that one of the themes that emerges in Nolan's
film is the complexity of characters.  The depiction of characters who depict multiple
layers to them becomes one of the critical elements in the film, and also representative
of Nolan's work.  Dormer possesses many layers to his character, reflecting a level of
torment that is common in Nolan's work.  The great crime fighter contains a level of
guilt and transgression that makes him uniquely different from those around him.  Dormer
becomes this figure by the end of the film.  At the same time, Burr is faced with
constant choices that will end up defining her own reality and her identity.  One of
them is present at the end of the film when she is prepared to bury the casing evidence
that would prove Dormer's guilt.  Her willingness to do this in loyalty to Dormer, but
then her embrace of the "right path," thought it might cause damage to Dormer is another
representation of the the theme that individuals have freedom and autonomy, but must
also act in a manner whereby happiness is not the direct result of such action.  This is
another theme in the film that is brought out through the arc of character
development.

How is Atticus affected by the trial?Example mentally and socially

I am going to take the perspective of during and after the
trial, you may mean preceding the trial, but it makes more sense to me to take the
former approach.

By the end of the trial, Atticus has done
some "stripping." Scout never saw her father sweat and never saw him remove anything
before bed, not even a watch. She saw his jacket come off and buttons loosened. She also
noted his glistening face. These physical features are not only evidence of the heat,
but his uncomfortable feeling about the case.

When he
finished speaking with Mayella during the trial, Scout commented how terrible it made
him feel to have to get tough and reign questions on her. He had great compassion for
her situation, but also needed to defend his client.

After
the trial, Maudie and Alexandra comment how Atticus does so much for justice and
morality in his town but it hardly causes a ripple. This must make Atticus feel
fruitless at times.

Atticus was spat on by Bob Ewell and he
just took it. Atticus knew he destroyed Ewell's reputation and Ewell needed to feel like
he was getting back at Atticus.

Throughout both the trial
and the immediate aftermath, Atticus remains fairly stable. He maintains compassion for
others, a desire for equity, a desire for truth, and he holds himself together well.
Atticus is perhaps one of the strongest characters written into all
literature.

Who were the progresives? What did they hope to accomplish? What role did women and blacks play in the progressive movement?

The progressive movement was a late nineteenth century
political movement in the United States. Most progressives saw themselves as on a moral
crusade to right the wrongs of the earlier time of political bosses, and robber barons.
They promoted social justice, honesty in government, and regulation of business. Their
mantra was the cure for the ills of democracy was more
democracy.

Progressives supported legislation to end child
labor and to protect women from dangerous working conditions. Following the Triangle
Shirt Waste fire in which many women were killed, stricter building safety codes and
workmen's compensation laws were passed. Then President Theodore Roosevelt used the
Courts to break up a number of business trusts, and following his reading of
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, he worked for the passage of the Meat
Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act.

Among the
major accomplishments of the progressive era was passage of the Seventeenth Amendment to
the Constitution which provided for popular direct election of Senators; and the
Nineteenth Amendment which gave women the right to vote. Although women benefited
greatly from Progressive Era reforms, Blacks did not share in the progress. The Supreme
Court decision of Plessy vs. Ferguson, which provided for "separate but equal"
facilities remained the law of the land.

What is a dramatic device used in Act IV, Scene 1 of The Merchant of Venice?

In Act IV, Scene 1 of The Merchant of
Venice, Shakespeare prominently uses the dramatic device of contrasts to
starkly draw the picture of the horror and bassness of Shylock's intended action.
Shylock starts a series of contrasts with his speech in which he
says:

Some men
there are love not a gaping pig;
Some, that are mad if they behold a
cat;
And others, when the bagpipe sings i' the nose, . .
.

Antonio takes up the device
of contrasts in his speech to Bassanio begging him not to try to reason with Shylock.
Antonio's contrasts start:

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You may as well go stand upon the
beach
And bid the main flood bate his usual height;
You may as well
use question with the wolf
Why he hath made the ewe bleat for the lamb; .
.

Antonio takes up the device
of contrasts again in his rejoinder to the Duke in his speech that starts: "You have
among you many a purchased slave, / Which, like your asses and your dogs and mules,  . .
.."

Shakespeare uses another dramatic device, that of
surprise when he introduces the surprise presence of Belthasar, who is Portia in
disguise. Surprise is a href="http://swift.tahoma.wednet.edu/">dramatic device used to provide an
unexpected twist in the plot. Contrast is a dramatic device used to arouse strong
emotions by painting opposition that gives emphasis or clarity.

Should a women consume alcohol during pregnancy?

The affects of drinking alcohol while pregnant have been
studied extensively.

There are two camps, one which
maintains that even small amounts of alcohol is lethal for the baby and women who would
like to get pregnant, are pregnant or are nursing a baby should completely abstain from
alcohol consumption. The most lethal affect of alcohol consumption on babies is what is
called fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) which causes damage to the body and the the brain
and adversely affects the growth and development of babies throughout their
lives.

The other set of researchers have not been able to
identify any direct link between light to moderate alcohol consumption and an increased
risk of harm to the baby. The possibility of acquiring FAS is only in cases where the
mother consumes excessive amounts of alcohol and is in a way addicted to
it.

What were the major features of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society?

The main feature of President Johnson's Great Society was
a push to eliminate poverty.

Johnson attempted to do this
in a number of ways.  He attempted to do this through education, providing Head Start
programs for disadvantaged children who were too young for school and creating the
work-study program to help college students.  He attempted to do this through job
training programs like the Job Corps.  He attempted to do this by creating the Medicaid
program that would allow poor people access to good health care.  Finally, he attempted
to do this with the Community Action Program, which gave money to poor communities to
improve themselves.

In all of these ways, Johnson was
attempting to end poverty.  This was the main feature of the Great
Society

What are some good pieces of evidence proving that Dill is the main symbol of innocence in To Kill a Mockingbird?I basically have "he's always...

I totally agree that Dill is the main symbol of child
innocence in To Kill a Mockingbird, but, I would disagree that Dill
is always happy. He is certainly not a happy boy when he runs away from home in Chapter
15. This action does give additional evidence of his lost innocence, however. At first
excited about his mother remarrying, his new father proves to be a cruel man, if you can
believe Dill's extreme exaggerations, who chains him in the basement. Dill escapes the
torture by making the long trek alone from Meridian to Maycomb. It is another example of
the abuse and unhappiness that is heaped on Dill at such a young age, and the steps he
will take to return to the one place where he is happy. Additionally, Dill has yet to
understand that Scout and Jem don't believe his tall tales, which are meant to deflect
the reality of being a child whose parents have no time for
him.

Dill's innocence can be seen again during the trial,
when he begins crying and has to leave with Scout because of the prosecutor's callous
treatment of Tom Robinson. Dolphus Raymond recognizes that Dill is still a child who, in
a few years, will no longer cry when he sees hatred perpetrated against another;
experience in a cruel world will change all of that, he
suggests. 

Previously, Dill's innocence can be seen in his
fascination with Boo Radley. Dill believes all of the stories he is told about Boo, who
he compares with a monster akin to Dracula, the movie that he has so proudly
seen.

In "The Sniper" what is the character sketch of the sniper that gets killed?

We aren't actually told very much at all about the other
sniper that the sniper who is the focus of this excellent short story has to face and
kill. We know that he is positioned on a rooftop opposite to the sniper who is the main
protagonist of the story, and that when the sniper reveals himself by shooting at the
informant and the soldiers, the other sniper then shoots him. The first time we actually
see him comes when the sniper has managed to trick his opponent into believing he is
dead, and thus his enemy stands on the rooftop opposite, "with his head clearly
silhouetted against the western sky." He is then of course shot and tumbles off the
roof, and the sniper goes over to see the face of the man that he has killed, only to
make a crushing discovery:

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Then the sniper turned over the dead body and
looked into his brother's
face.

The identity of this
other sniper then was the central character's brother, which of course highlights the
theme of the story, which is the way that civil war can divide communities and even
families themselves, with tragic results.

What is the significance of Gene's comment in A Separate Peace?In Chapter 8, Finny says if you love something, it has to love you back. Gene...

Gene's comment is an acknowledgement of Finny's unique
capacity to create his own reality, separate from the real world. The reality Finny
creates reflects the way things would be in an ideal
world.

During the summer session, Finny exhibited an
amazing ability to get away with things, talking his way glibly out of facing the
consequences of his actions when he would break the rules. An example of this is in
Chapter 2, when he is called to task for using the Devon School tie as a belt. Finny
concocts a ridiculous but earnest explanation as to why he chose to do this, and Mr.
Patch-Withers, who is ordinarily stern and dour, uncharacteristically breaks into
laughter, and allows Finny to get away with his infraction. Finny is able to get beneath
Mr. Patch-Withers' forbidding exterior because the world he lives in, a world of
innocence and wonder, is so far from the dark, drab reality of the 1940s. Finny's world
is steeped in an ingenuousness that is missing in the real world; it represents things
not the way they are, but the way that they should be.

In
Chapter 8, Finny realizes that his injury will prevent him from taking part in the
defining experience of his age - the War. He then purposefully creates an alternate
reality, where there is no war. Like his comment about love, Gene realizes that Finny's
made-up world is not real, but still, it holds a certain allure - in an ideal universe,
there would be no war. With his comment, Gene is acknowledging that he knows that
Finny's version of things is not real but that it should be. In addition, he is
admitting that Finny's world is so alluring that he, Gene, gives himself up to it,
even though he knows that it is not true (Chapter 8).

I am writing an essay on a story called "The Love of My Life." I am having trouble finding the complications.(This stroy is about two teenagers...

It sounds like you are writing about Boyle's short story
published in the New Yorker.

Short
stories typically follow a very basic storyline which starts with a
conflict (or the main problem), builds through rising
action toward the climax (highest point of action), and
ends with a resolution (the solution to the original conflict. 
Complications in a storyline are the details which arise as the
characters move toward a solution (or the resolution) for their original problem. 
Complications are the plot twists and turns which keep stories
interesting.

In order to determine the
complications of this story, you must start with the most important conflict.  China and
Jeremy are high school sweethearts.  On the day they are leaving to go to separate
colleges, China tells Jeremy she is pregnant.  Conflict: what is China going to do, both
through the pregnancy and after, with a baby?

The first
complication is actually presented before the conflict.  The parents of this baby are
young and they are not going to be together during the pregnancy (separate colleges). 
Other complications include their desire to hide the pregnancy rather than seek help,
her refusal to get an abortion, and the strain on their now distant relationship which
results in several arguments and fights.

Ironically, the
complications in this story are what lead the couple to the tragic climax.  As you know
from reading, the resolution to the original conflict is not a
happy one.  Like many stories (take "Romeo and Juliet" for example) involving youth,
love, and mature circumstances, poor decisions become the bulk of the
complications which only lead to further poor decisions and
ultimately, a tragic ending.

What is the strategy used to evaluate the trigonometric integral of the function y=sin^4x?

We notice that the integrand contains even power of
cosine, so the best strategy of evaluating the integral is to use the identity of half
angle.

(sin x)^2 = (1 - cos
2x)/2

We'll raise to square both
sides:

(sin x)^4 = (1 - cos
2x)^2/4

We'll integrate:

Int
(sin x)^4 dx = Int (1 - cos 2x)^2dx/4

We'll expand the
square:

Int (1 - cos 2x)^2dx/4 = (1/4)*Int (1 - 2cos 2x +
(cos 2x)^2)dx

Int (1 - cos 2x)^2dx/4 = x/4 - sin2x/4 +
(1/4)*Int (cos 2x)^2dx

Int (cos 2x)^2dx = Int (1+cos
4x)dx/2

Int (cos 2x)^2dx = x/2 + sin
4x/8

We'll multiply
by1/4:

(1/4)*Int (cos 2x)^2dx = x/8 + sin
4x/32

Int (sin x)^4 dx = x/4 - sin2x/4 + x/8 + sin 4x/32 +
C

Int (sin x)^4 dx = (1/4)*(3x/2 -  sin 2x +
sin 4x/8)  + C

Why did the US enter World War I?

The primary events that led to the United States
declaration of war against Germany were the Zimmerman Telegram and Germany's announced
intention to resume unrestricted submarine
warfare.

American sentiment had leaned toward the Allies
and against the Central powers for some time. Americans felt a common affinity toward
the British because of the common language. Also Woodrow Wilson made no attempt to hide
his disdain for persons of German ancestry. He once referred to German Americans as
"hyphenated Americans."  Sentiment against the Germans was also intensified after the
sinking of RMS Lusitania in 1915; however this was NOT the cause of
U.S. entry into the war. After that event President Wilson famously commented "there is
such a thing as being too proud to fight."

Following the
sinking of the Lusitania Germany had issued its Arabic
Pledge (sometimes known as the Sussex Pledge) in which
the High Command promised it would no longer sink Allied ships without first giving
appropriate warning. Several things changed this: The British often few the flags of
neutral countries on their ships, and also rammed German U-boats while pretending to
allow boarding. Then too the war was at a stalemate, and the Germans had to do something
to move the war effort. This led to their notice on January 31, 1917 that Germany would
resume unrestricted submarine warfare the next day.

On
February 25, 1917, President Wilson received an intercepted German telegram to the
German Embassy in Mexico City that offered to Mexico the "lost territory" of Arizona,
New Mexico, etc. (land lost by Mexico to the U.S. in the Mexican American War of 1848)
if Mexico would declare war on the U.S. The British had intercepted the telegram, and
delivered it to the U.S. in an obvious attempt to secure U.S. entry into the war on the
Allied side. On March 17, 1917, Germany sank five U.S. merchant vessels, and President
Wilson delivered a war message to Congress on April 2. War was declared on April 6,
1917.

How does Atticus influence Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird?This is for an essay for Language Arts.

We know that Atticus' influence over Scout continued far
beyond the ending of To Kill a Mockingbird, because on the first
page of the novel, the adult Scout mentions an argument with brother Jem. Instead of
settling it with a fistfight,

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... we consulted Atticus. Our father said we were
both right.

Atticus gave both
of his kids far more independence than most parents would allow children of that age.
They are taught to think for themselves and express themselves, but Atticus also sets
limits that he expects them to follow. They don't always follow his instructions: For
example, Atticus orders the children to leave during his confrontation with the lynch
mob at the jail. But Jem refuses, sensing that Atticus is in danger; Scout's sociable
conversation with Walter Cunningham shames the men into leaving, saving Atticus and Tom
Robinson from injury or death. Atticus teaches Scout to obey Calpurnia and Alexandra,
the two adults in the household. He teaches her that reading is an essential tool of
education, and to stick with school in spite of some of the questionable teaching
methods she encounters. He teaches her not to settle arguments with her fists, and that
using the "N" word is " 'common.' " Atticus influences Scout through his own actions as
well: She recognizes his patience, his humble nature, his belief in justice, and his
willingness to call just about everyone in town a friend. Most importantly, she heeds
his two best remembered philosophies. One concerns the need to consider a person's right
to their own point of view; the second concerns how a person should always treat others
with kindness.

• "You never really understand a
  person until you consider things from his point of view--until you climb into his skin
  and walk around in it."


• "Remember, it's a sin to kill a
  mockingbird."

In The Scarlet Letter, what is the perception of America's Puritan settlers and their vision of right and wrong?

In Chapter XXI of The Scarlet Letter,
a chapter entitled "The New England Holiday," Hawthorne writes satirically of the
Puritans' one holiday of the year:

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Into this festal season of the year—as it
already was, and continued to be during the greater part of two centuries—the Puritans
compressed whatever mirth and public joy they deemed allowable to human infirmity;
thereby so far dispelling the customary cloud, that, for the space of a single holiday,
they appeared scarcely more grave than most other communities at a period of general
affliction.

This holdiay,
Hawthorne writes, is the one day of the year in which the people do not wear "the
blackest shade of Puritanism."  In fact, Hawthorne as narrator portrays the Puritanic
gloom from the first chapter which opens with a throng that stands
in

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sad-colored garments and grey steeple-crowned
hats, intermixed with women, some wearing hoods,... assemble in front of a wooden
edifice, the door of which was heavily timbered with oak, and studded with iron
spikes.

That a prison is
necessary to enforce Puritanism points to the failings of this religion.  For, with such
severe penalties as those that are imposed upon sinners, hypocrisy arises with the
community, as clearly exemplified by Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingsworth, who
both subjugate their hearts to the intellect.  Thus subjugated, the essence of a person
"withers like an uprooted weed left in the sun," Hawthorne writes.  This is why Hester's
hair has lost its luminousness; she is compromised between independence and conformity
by her punishment. 

With Hester as silent voice to the
hypocrisy of Puritanism, she demonstrates the wrongs of such a patriarchal society that
hypocritically denies the very humanity of its members as it will admit no sin. Modeled
after Anne Hutchinson who was condemned as a religious heretic and excommunicated for
her dissent.  Likewise, in The Scarlet Letter, Hester represents
the threat of anarchy. Thus, in her public sin, Hester is the scapegoat for the
transgressions of others because she has resisted the demands of the Puritanical
culture.  Hawthorne's final exhoration, and statement of theme, is clearly against this
Puritanical hypocrisy: 

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"Be true!  Be true! Show freely to the world, if
not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be
inferred!"

For Hawthorne as a
Romantic, sin occurs when one denies one's own nature or forces someone also to conform
to a foreign code of principles or behavior.  Clearly, Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel
The Scarlet Letter is an indictment against the gloom of
Calvinistic Puritanism, as well as an expression of his ancestral
guilt.

What are some examples of figurative language in the poem "Casey at the Bat"?

In "Casey at the Bat," the poet Ernest Lawrence Thayer
uses a number of different types of figurative language and poetic devices.  Here are
some examples.

1) Alliteration: the
repetition of initial consonant sounds

a) "A
sickly silence"

b) "deep
despair"

c) "the former was a lulu
and the latter a
cake"

2) Assonance: the repetition of initial
vowel sounds

a) "if only Casey could but get
a whack at that"

b) "Flynn preceded
Casey, as did also Jimmy
Blake"

3) Metaphor: a comparison
that does not use the word "like"

or
"as"

a) "Cooney died at first" (Cooney did
not actually die; his

being thrown out at first base
is compared to
dying.

4)
Hyperbole: exaggeration

a)
"Blake...tore the cover off the ball."  It is quite unlikely thatBlake literally "tore
the cover off the ball."  This is merely an exaggerated way of saying that he hit the
ball very hard.

5)
Simile: a comparison that uses the word "like" or
"as"

a) "From the benches...there went up a
muffled roar / Like the beating of the storm-waves on a
stern and distant
shore."

(This could also be
considered an example of hyperbole; see above.)

What makes the Mona Lisa by da Vinci a cultural icon?

The aesthetic appreciation of Da Vinci's work would make
it a cultural icon.  The portrait is a study in painting technique with its technique in
both subject display, texture, foreground, and background, as well as symmetrical
designs.  It is something that has come to be appreciated as a landmark art work.  I
think that its vaulted viewing position at the Louvre has also helped to contribute to
its cultural icon status.  People go to the Louvre, in large part, to see the
Mona Lisa.   This is only enhanced by
its staging in bulletproof glass, impermeable to the elements that could wither
paintings like it, and to ensure that individuals who view it recognize that they are
standing in the presence of something iconic.  At the same time, the wealth that the
painting could generate on the open market continues to add to its iconic status.  I
also think that the fact that so many artists have referenced or parodied it do help to
feed the idea of a status that represents iconic.  Warhol's pop culture interpretation
of Da Vinci's work is only an example of this.  I think that one can get the full effect
of Da Vinci's work's iconic stature by surveying the internet to see what a search of
the work results.  The images seen are both representative of the legacy of the painting
and how it has become iconic in so many different ways.

How is Lennie's treatment of his dead puppy typical of his character?

One of the first instances of Lennie's character occurs in
chapter 1 when we see how he treats the dead mouse. He doesn't seem to really care that
the mouse is even dead, but he cares to be able to pet soft
things. We can assume the same is true in the dress of the woman that he
was touching when they were in Weed and got chased out because of
that.

Death doesn't really register to Lennie as
significant. He doesn't even care that his puppy is gone, he cares that he's going to
get in trouble.

This shows a couple of things about
Lennie's character worth noting. First, it demonstrates that Lennie has little concept
of relationship, animal, or the significance of life - it can be snuffed out and gone in
an instant. Second, if these traits are typical, they might foreshadow the climax of the
story. In most literature, when character traits are revealed and repeated, they are
done so for a reason, watch for the coming reason of being able to identify the trait of
Lennie's facination for soft things.

What is extinction in behaviorism?

In behaviorism, extinction is what happens when a
psychologist makes a subject stop exhibiting a behavior in response to a given
stimulus.  In the famous example of Pavlov's dogs, extinction would be if the researcher
made the dogs stop salivating when they heard the bell.  When their conditioned response
to the bell was gone, extinction would have occurred.

Test
subjects can be made to respond in given ways to given stimuli.  In the case of the
dogs, they came to associate the bell with food and so they would salivate when they
heard the bell.  This is a conditioned response.  To erase the response (to cause
extinction) the psychologist must keep exposing the subject to the stimulus (the bell)
but stop reinforcing the conditioned response (stop giving the food).  After a while,
the subject stops connecting the stimulus with the response and extinction has
occurred.

In Chapter 4, what is your opinion of Curley's wife? Has your opinion changed since the beginning of novel?

In chapter four of Steinbeck's Of Mice and
Men, Curley's wife does do all of the things the previous editor states.  We
also see more of her sympathetic side in the closing pages of the work when she talks to
Lennie in the barn.

However, what she does to Crooks in
chapter four reveals such a negative, manipulative, ignorant part of her character and
her personality that it is difficult to feel any sympathy for
her.

When Crooks stands up to her, she plays, figuratively
speaking, the reverse race card.  She threatens him with her ability to get Crooks, a
black man, lynched by saying that he tried something sexual with her, a white
woman. 

She destroys his spirit and puts him back in his
place, as both her, and society for that matter, see
it. 

This is a despicable example of what Curley's wife is
like.  It's hard to feel sympathy for her after this. 

What qualities did Rahim possess that caused people to share their innermost moments with him in The Kite Runner?

From the very beginning of The Kite
Runner, we discover that Rahim Khan is a kind and introspective man. Amir
mentions a photo of him as a baby: He is pictured with Baba and Rahim, but it is Rahim's
hand that holds Amir's finger--not Baba's. When Amir presents his first short story for
Baba to read, he is unimpressed; but Rahim congratulates Amir and encourages him to
continue on his literary path. Rahim's positive outlook makes it easier for Amir to
confide in him more than Baba. Rahim also is a good listener--whether he is discussing
politics and social matters with Baba or talking with Amir. He shows his true friendship
in many ways: He remains loyal to Baba and Amir; he maintains Baba's home; he
searches for and finds Hassan out of respect for Baba; and he seeks to help Amir find
inner peace by revealing the secrets that Baba has kept from his son. Rahim's acts are
all based on helping others and not himself. 

Please identify the figures of speech in "Black Monday Lovesong," by A.S.J. Tessimond

In Tessimond's "Black Monday Lovesong," the first figure
of speech is found on the first line. It is repetition, which is the repeated use of a
word or phrase for emphasis, and in this case, the poet wants us to remember "love's
dances." This introduces the "theme" of the poem, that the nature of love is like a
dance.

In
love's dances, in love's
dances...

Repetition is also
seen in the second through the fifth lines, as each sentence begins with "One," giving
us the sense that the speaker is making a list, but we need to remember that the poem
deals with "love's dances," and we should understand that each "description" is a kind
of dance movement (metaphorically, but movement still…just like a
dance), which the speaker has observed of love.

Lines
seven/eight, nine/ten, and eleven/twelve all begin with the joining of the same two
words beginning the lines with those repeated pairs, which are "One" and "While." This
also is repetition.

In the next stanza, five of the six
lines written begin with "And," which is, again, repetition, joining all these aspects
of "troubled love;" and as the lines speed by, we might get the feeling of the couple,
locked in a lover's embrace, spinning wildly out of control as they attempt to remain in
step with one another.

There is a repetition of sounds,
which we refer to as the poem's rhyme scheme, as we look to words at the end of the
lines. Of the twenty-two lines of the poem, the first twenty are written as rhyming
couplets, or pairs of lines that rhyme with each other. The rhyme scheme is charted as
follows, with letters representing a sound. When the sound changes, so does the letter
that represents the sounds. (They are separated into stanzas, longer than the
traditional four lines.) The rhyme scheme is:

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AABBCCDDEEFF   GGHHII  
JJ.

The last two lines sound the same, but that is because they are
repeated, so repetition occurs again in these lines as
well.

The entire poem is an extended metaphor, which
compares love to a dance. What I like so much about the poem is that love is very much
like a dance, and the "movement" indicated with the words mimics
the movement of dancers: one moves forward as the other moves backward. However, in this
case, the movement is caused by the emotions experienced in the "dance of love," and the
last four lines (the poem's true stanza) reflects a "dance
interrupted."

In "A Rose for Emily," comment on what the neighbours complain about and the response of Judge Stevens.

This part of this excellent Southern Gothic tale comes in
the second section. The passage refers to the increasing isolation of Miss Emily after
her beau left her, and the way that she is left alone in her house with nobody but her
Negro servant. Thus it is that when a "smell" develops the neighbours are hardly
surprised, as they comment that a man such as her servant would never know how to keep a
kitchen properly. However, note how Judge Stevens puts off any intervention in this
matter:

"It's
probably just a snake or a rat that nigger of hers killed in the yard. I'll speak to him
about it."

What is
interesting is the way that Miss Emily constructs around herself an aura of
impenetrability and an untouchable nature that causes the society of which she is a part
to remain distant and aloof from her. This, of course, increases the mystery of the
story as we share the intense and ravenous curiousity of her neighbours as they wonder
and speculate about her character, actions and motives, but also arguably shows how the
neighbours saw her as an object of curiosity alone and not as another human being who
needed help, consolation and comfort.

In As You Like It, Shakespeare juxtaposes the corruption of the city or court with the purity of idealised country life. Justify with evidence.

In this play, one of Shakespeare's most popular, the
Forest of Arden is both an actual location and a source of rich metaphorical symbolism.
It is here that unrequited love is solidified, and where people who have been unable to
express their feelings find themselves emboldened to say what's in their hearts. One
strong theme that emphasizes the idealism of the countryside is the concept of the
pastoral: a world where daily life is steeped in the simple rhythms of nature: caring
for flocks. Silvius, Phebe, and Audrey exemplify the nature of simple country folk,
although in the case of Silvius and Phebe they aspire to a greater level of romanticism
than the more rustic and less ambitious Audrey.

Despite his
devotion to her, Phebe rejects Silvius when she meets and falls in love with Ganymede
(Rosalind in disguise), due to the latter's fine speaking and sophisticated manners. In
this way, the court does bring a form of cynical "corruption" to the forest, because if
not for Ganymede's presence, it is likely Silvius would not have had such trouble wooing
Phebe, whose initial rejection of him seems mere moodiness and
petulance.

But Ganymede defines for everyone what the noble
nature of love is, when her famous speech to Orlando on the symptoms of love emphasizes
the presence of "true lovers" in the forest. Ganymede/Rosalind responsible for reuniting
all of the suitable lovers with one another, suggesting her persona of Ganymede is
enriched by her time in the forest and acquires wisdom in matters of love, which had
eluded her when she was still merely Rosalind. By the time she reveals her true identity
to Orlando, she has come full circle, having experienced life as both genders and
understanding love from the perspective of both the lover and the one who is loved. It
was necessary for her to be apart from court and city life to acquire such wisdom and
perspective, and to achieve happiness.