In "The Chrysanthemums" by John Steinbeck, who says the line, "Looks like a quick puff of colored smoke?"

These words are the inquiry of the tinker who speaks with
Elisa Allan in John Steinbeck's "The Chrysanthemums."  After Elisa tells him that she
has nothing for him to repair, the tinker looks at the chrysanthemum bed where Elisa has
been working.  He asks what kind of plant they are.  Delighted that someone shows
interest in her flowers, Elisa replies that they are chrysanthemums that she raises
every year.  Then the tinker asks,

readability="5">

"Kind of a long-stemmed flower?  Looks like a
quick puff of colored
smoke!"

With this simile,
Elisa is delighted by the figurative language and the man's imagination in contrast to
her husband's literal and pratical language.  When the tinker expresses a desire to have
some of the chrysanthemums' seeds, Elisa eagerly replies that she can put some in damp
sand for him to carry with him.  The excitement of Elisa as she pots some of the flowers
for the tinker indicates how starved she has been for "a quick puff of colored smoke" of
imagination.

Insects have 6 legs but do they have other appendages?

Insects are Arthropods, which means "jointed appendages". 
Besides the six legs, insects have other appendages which enable them to be the highly
adapted organisms they truly are. Antennae, located on the head, between the eyes, are
movable segmented appendages that serve a sensory function. They are used to perceive
chemical stimuli. Various external mouthparts are used for chewing and grinding the
food, eventually performing the function of ingestion. Two pairs of wings are outgrowths
of the body wall and can be manipulated by muscles for flight. Wings are located on the
thorax region. Appendages on the abdomen are for mating, such as the ovipositor. There
are cerci, non--reproductive appendages for tactile sensations. 

What are some similarities in characterization between Tchichikov in Dead Souls and Bazarov in Turgenev's Father and Sons?

While there are more differences between Turgenev's
Bazarov and Gogol's Tchitchikoff, there are certainly similarities, especially in the
social ramifications of their behavior. Both Bazarov and Tchitchikoff manipulate other
people for their own purposes, though their purposes are unalike. Bazarov manipulates
the ideas and allegiances of younger students, who look up to him, in order to feel
superior and accumulate nihilistic followers. Tchitchikoff manipulates landowners--serfs
in Russia were always attached to the land, so landowners were by definition serf
owners--in order to increase his wealth by his serf purchase scheme. Each callously left
behind a trail of victims of their manipulations; neither set of manipulated people
necessarily felt the manipulation while it was on
going.

Both men were visitors imposing upon hosts'
hospitality and neither could find legitimate sincere attachment from a beloved. Bazarov
was rejected and Tchitchikoff was perpetrating fraud. Both lived determinedly by their
own codes instead of by society's code of behavior. As a result of these things, both
Bazarov and Tchitchikoff alienated other people. Finally, both were punished in the end
for the attitudes they held toward society, toward the worthiness of other people, and
their role in society. Bazarov accidentally infected himself with typhus and died.
Tchitchikoff was discovered in his attempt at fraud and
imprisoned.

How was the American Reconstruction Period considered a success?

Overall it was considered a failure, but that didn't mean
there weren't parts of it that were successful.

For one
thing, the Reconstruction Era from 1865-1877 successfully amended the Constitution not
once, but three times.  Slavery was permanently and formally ended, freed slaves were
given citizenship and black males over 21 the right to vote.  This could never be
legally taken away, although it was delayed and discouraged for a long
time.

The Freedman's Bureau constructed schools for freed
slaves and send 1500 volunteer teachers into the South to run them.  Over the course of
six and a half years, the Freedman's Bureau taught over 200,000 freed slaves to basic
literacy.  While most were still left untaught, that is a staggering number to be
accomplished in such a short time.

Lastly, they did come up
with a way to legally get the southern states back in the Union, and in a way they would
agree to, when they adopted Lincoln's 10% Plan.  This made it very easy for them to
reapply for statehood and to send Senators and Representatives to Congress once
again.

In the Crucible, how do Proctor's motivations affect other characters in the play?

I would say that Proctor's main motivation is protecting
his family and his name.  He and his wife know he is guilty of adultery, though no one
else does.  He hopes the whole hysteria will blow over and he can keep his awful secret,
and in waiting so long, the accusations get out of hand.  More people are accused, in
other words, in part because of his motivation to keep his sin
secret.

Later he decides to come forward and put a stop to
the madness, or try to, and so this pits him against Abigail.  In his desire to save his
friends and especially his wife who also stands accused, he confesses, and this
threatens Abigail's own life as well, along with that of the girls who went along with
her.  This makes her more aggressive, defensive and she defiantly sticks to her
story.

Why did most Northerners tend to oppose the Mexican-American War while most Southerners tended to support it?

The simple answer here is slavery.  The Northerners
thought that this was a war to expand slavery and the South liked the war because they
thought it would give them a chance to expand slavery.

I
should say that it's not that the North really wanted to end slavery.  They just didn't
want it to spread and they didn't want the South to get more political power.  They
thought that taking a bunch of land from Mexico would let slavery expand and would make
a bunch of new states that would have slaves and, thereby, would give the South more
political power.

Malcolm describes Cawdor's last moments before execution, what is Duncan's reply?

The answer you are looking for can be found at the start
of Act I, Scene 4.

In that scene, Malcolm tells Duncan that
the Thane of Cawdor died well.  He begged for the king's forgiveness and apologized for
what he had done (he became a traitor and helped the enemy in the battle that had just
finished).

When Duncan hears this, he is not really all
that impressed.  Basically, he just says there's just now way to know what a person is
really like by looking at them.  He says he trusted Cawdor and that Cawdor's actions
proved he was wrong to do that.

Here's the
quote:

There's
no art
To find the mind's construction in the face:
He was a
gentleman on whom I built 290
An absolute
trust.

Ironically, enough,
Duncan then turns around and puts his trust in Macbeth, making him Thane of Cawdor. 
That doesn't turn out so well for Duncan
either...

Does the mother portray a realistic parent?

The mother is, along with Emily, a major character who
like most parents is vulnerable to doubt about the way she has raised her child. In the
story the mother cites many occasions of regret—the separations, illnesses, instances of
negligence and even neglect, and fears. Her narrative is laced with poignant memories of
pain and helplessness (see paragraphs (24, 29, 30, and 35). It is these which make plain
that the conflict in the story is the ideal vs. the actual upbringing of Emily, the
daughter, with the complementary conflict being that the expected negative results do
not occur but rather that Emily grows up to be a vital, talented young woman. The
affirmative paragraphs near the end (paragraphs 46–50) are not totally negated by the
moderately pessimistic conclusion (paragraphs 54, 55), for these last two may be
considered a function of the anguish and self-doubt that never leave a caring parent.
The mother, in this respect, is real.

Chapter 12: "Lightning rods guarding graves of dead who rested uneasily" - what does this mean? Meant to be ironic, humorous, actual, serious?

Here is the quote to which you are
referring:

A
few graves in the cemetery were marked with crumbling tombstones; newer ones were
outlined with brightly colored glass and broken Coca-Cola
bottles.

Lightning rods guarding some graves denoted dead
who rested uneasily; stumps of burned-out candles stood at the heads of infant graves.
It was a happy cemetery.

In
this chapter, Calpurnia takes Scout and Jem to her church, The First Purchase Church (a
Black church). The children notice right away how different it is from their own church.
There is a cemetary out back. Some of the graves in the cemetary are marked with
lightning rods. A lightning rod is a metal pole that is supposed to deflect lightning or
ground it, so that it will not destroy a structure.

The
irony here is that the graves marked by lightning rods must contain people who are not
resting easily because why would a dead person have to worry about getting struck by
lightning? There really is no logical reason for a grave to have a lightning rod - what
is being protected? The corpse? The author is implying that some of the graves probably
contain people who died while not at peace, or who died violently, or who died without
salvation (since this is a church cemetary).

In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, is there a noticeable difference between the character of Octavius and those of Antony, Cassius, and Brutus?

The most striking difference in the character of Octavius
compared to those of Antony, Cassius, and Brutus is attributable to the difference in
their ages. When they meet on the battlefield at Philippi for a parley in Act V, Scene
1, Casssius calls Octavius

readability="7">

A peevish schoolboy, worthless of such
honor,
Joined with a masquer and a
reveler!

Octavius is a whole
generation younger than the other three men. He has never been in a battle and doesn't
realize the horrors that are in store. Antony has been a professional soldier for much
of his life and has no illusions about the glory of warfare. Earlier when addressing
Caesar's dead body in Act III, Scene 1, he speaks of war as he has experienced
it:

A curse
shall light upon the limbs of men;
Domestic fury and fierce civil
strife
Shall cumber all the parts of Italy;
Blood and destruction
shall be so in use,
And dreadful objects so familiar,
That mothers
shall but smile when they behold
Their infants quartered with the hands of
war,
All pity choked with custom of fell deeds;
And Caesar's spirit,
ranging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall
in these confines with a monarch's voice
Cry "havoc!" and let slip the dogs of
war,
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion
men, groaning for
burial.

"Carrion men groaning
for burial" is a marvelous description of the landscape after a major battle.

The three older, more experienced soldiers are willing to
stand and converse before giving the signal to start the bloodshed. Brutus obviously
would like to talk about a truce. He begins the parley by
saying:

Words
before blows: is it so,
countrymen?

He is reminding
them that they are all fellow Romans. But Octavius is young, reckless, and hotheaded,
anxious to prove himself as a warrior and a leader. He
responds:

Not
that we love words better, as you
do.

Still hoping for a truce,
Brutus replies:

readability="6">

Good words are better than bad strokes,
Octavius.

But Antony is not
to be won over with friendly words. If he could have been persuaded to join the men of
his generation in arranging a truce, young Octavius would have had to go along with it,
since he is still dependent on Antony's guidance. But Antony sees the necessity of
having a showdown. He perceives Brutus' conciliatory attitude as a sign of weakness. He
also feels obliged to side with Octavius because his own future is tied to that of
Caesar's young heir. Antony replies:

readability="10">

In your bad strokes, Brutus, you give good
words.
Witness the hole you made in Caesar's heart,
Crying "Long
live, hail Caesar!"

Then
Cassius speaks up:

readability="9">

Antony,
The posture of your blows are
yet unknown;
But for your words, they rob the Hybla bees,
And leave
them honeyless.

This is
outrageous flattery coming from an enemy on the battlefield between their assembled
armies. Cassius, too, would obviously love to settle this conflict peacefully. He is
even more motivated to do so because he has repeatedly expressed doubts about the
advisability of fighting Antony and Octavius at
Philippi.

Octavius is a whole generation younger. He is
young, inexperienced, hotheaded, enthusiastic, full of dreams of glory, needing to prove
himself; whereas Antony, Cassius, and Brutus have no illusions about war or about life
in general. Octavius will  end up becoming emperor of Rome, while Cassius and Brutus
will kill themselves at Philippi and years later Antony will commit suicide in Egypt
after being defeated in battle by his former friend and protege Octavius
Caesar.

How do bees find the source of food in the following situation.At a park one day, you see a bee flying around an open can of soda. A few minutes...

I was wondering if the answer posted above is entirely
correct.

It is true that scout bees locate and communicate
the source of quality and abundant food to other bees in the colony by means of dance as
explained in the post above. But there are two aspects of the answer which need to be
examined more closely. First the dance of the scout bee indicates source of food in
terms of general location like a patch of land having many flowers containing good
quality nectar. The dance of the scout bees is not able to indicate location of each
flower or can of soda that can provide the bees with food. The bees must go the patch of
land indicated by scout bees and then find the exact source of food in that patch.It is
important that scout bees are able to communicate location of sources of food that are
several kilometres away. It is not possible for them to indicate a location as specific
as a can of soda from a distance of more than than, say, fifty meters
away.

This brings us the second question left unexplained.
How do the scout bees locate the source of food in the first place. It It is my guess
that ones the scout bees, or other ordinary bees, are in the vicinity of an area having
suitable source of food, must employ some means to locate that source very precisely. I
really do not know how bees do it. But it will be interesting to
know.

What is the radius of a geostationary satellite?

A satellite in a geostationary orbit moves directly above
the Earth’s radius and takes exactly one day to complete one revolution. There, looking
at them from the ground it appears as if they are
stationary.

Now to calculate the distance of a
geostationary orbit, we have to consider the force of gravity of the Earth that attracts
the satellite. This is equal to G*Ms*Me*/R^2, where Ms is the mass of the satellite, Me
is the mass of the Earth, R is the distance of the satellite from the Earth and G is the
universal gravitational constant and the centripetal force. The centripetal force in
terms of the angular speed of the satellite is Ms*w^2*R, where w is the angular speed
and R is the orbital radius.

Now for a geostationary
satellite, the orbital speed is 2*pi / 86164 rad/s. [Note: here we use the duration of 1
sidereal day, which is equal to 86164 s]

So substituting
this, and equating the equations we have on top:

G*Me*/R^2
= w^2*R = (2*pi / 86164) ^2 * R

=> R^3 = G*Me/
w^2

=> R = [G*Me/w^2] ^
(1/3)

Simplifying this using the mass of the
Earth, the universal gravitational constant and the angular speed we get R is
approximately equal to 35786 km.

Find imagery to describe Hawthorne's attitude towards the characters in the conclusion of The Scarlet Letter.

In Chapter XXIV, Hawthorne
writes,

And
Hester Prynne had returned, and taken up her long-forsaken shame!  But where was little
Pearl?....But, through the remainder of Hester's life, there were indications that the
recluse of the scarlet letter was the object of love and interest with some inhaitant of
another land.  Letters came, with armorial seals upon them, though of bearings unknown
to English heraldry.

These
letters are from Hester's daughter, who has married.  She sends lovingly little
ornaments, and beautiful things that have been sewn by hand, indicating that Pearl has
learned the art of needlework from her mother. 

Other
imagery comes in this chapter from the resumption of wearing the scarlet letter by
Hester Prynne.  However, Hawthorne writes that the meaning of this symbol has been
altered to

a
type of something to be sorrowed after and looked upon with awe, yet with reverence,
too.

Hester has weathered the
scorn and shame placed upon her by the strict Puritanical code.  She has redeemed
herself through her good works; for, on her grave, there appears "the semblance of an
engrave escutcheon." Albeit sombre, and in shadow, the scarlet A
now adorns the grave much like a coat of arms.  Hester Prynne has earned
respect; she has, at last, earned a place in her community as  Hawthorne points to the
idea of redemption from sin through good works, a concept counter to that of
Puritanism.

Solve for x : 4sinx - 3cosx = 0

We'll solve the problem using 2
methods

First method:

4 sin x
= 3 cos x

sin x =( 3/4) cos
x

We'll divide by cos
x:

sinx/cosx = 3/4

But the
ratio sinx/cosx = tan x

tan x=
3/4

x = arctan (3/4) +
k*pi

The second
method:

We know that in a right triangle, due to
Pythagorean theorem,

sin^2 x + cos^2 x =
1

sin x = sqrt[1 - cos^2
(x)]

But, from hypothesis, sin x = (3/4)cos
x,so

(3/4)cos (x) = sqrt[1 - cos^2
(x)]

We'll square raise both
sides:

[(3/4)cos (x)]^2 = {sqrt[1 - cos^2
(x)]}^2

(9/16)cos^2 (x)= 1 - cos^2
(x)

(9/16)cos^2 (x )+ cos^2 (x) =
1

The least common denominator is 16, so we'll multiply
with 16, cos^2 (x) and the result will be:

(25/16)cos^2 (x)
= 1

cos^2 (x) = 16/25

cos x =
4/5

x = arccos (4/5) +
2*k*pi

Describe the nature of water and chemical reactions and the special characteristic of carbon.

Water is often referred to as H two O meaning it has two
atoms of oxygen combined with one atom of hydrogen with a chemical formula of H2O (the 2
should be a subscript when normally written).

One of the
basic rules of chemistry is that matter is never created or destroyed during a chemical
reaction. This is called the law of conservation of mass. This means that in a chemical
reaction between elements, or elements and compounds, some chemical bonds are broken and
new ones are formed.

In reference to your second question,
atoms with electrical charges - called ions - are sometimes neutralized during certain
types of chemical reactions but the atoms themselves are not neutralized but are
definitely rearranged.

Carbon is unique because it can form
multiple bonds with itself and with everyone of the non-metal elements on the periodic
table. The result is that there are more compounds containing carbon than all the other
compounds formed from all of the other elements combined.

Describe what the Greek poleis had in common.

Greek poleis (the plural of polis) had several
characteristics in common.  Physically, most poleis were small, with Athens and Sparta
being the exceptions.  Most had a place for citizens to assemble and a center in which
religious worship was performed.  These areas were usually on high, defensible ground
and were used as a place of refuge during an attack.  This place was usually called an
acropolis, which means “high polis”.  Most poleis had an agora, or marketplace, that was
the center of communal life.  In each polis there was usually a temple dedicated to the
god or gods who protected the city. 

Though there were a
great variety of political structures found in the various poleis, there were more or
less similar political characteristics when it came to citizenship and participation in
public life of citizens. To be a citizen in a Greek polis was extremely important. 
There was a strong bond between the polis and its citizens, and the polis was the center
of a citizen’s life.  Citizenship usually was given to adult men and landowners and was
descendant; that is, citizens needed to show descent from at least one parent who was a
citizen, and in some cases, both parents. Of all the residents of a polis, citizens had
the most rights, which included voting, owning land, holding public office and speaking
for themselves in court. But, along with these rights came responsibilities.  Citizens
were expected to provide military service in time of war and to actively participate in
the government of the polis.

What are Chaucer's motives behind his peculiar shifts in narration in The Canterbury Tales?

Chaucer's motive was most likely just his own will to be a
dynamic story teller. Chaucer is frequently regarded as the Father of English
literature. The Canterbury Tales were presented in a brand new
format never before seen in English literature. Boccaccio's
Decameron does however resemble The Canterbury
Tales, as they both have a frame that connects their multiple stories, but
Chaucer's work is much more full and polished. In Chaucer's time, the norm was to only
base your stories after stories previously created, Geoffrey Chaucer had no problem
breaking free of that norm, as evidenced through the tales. He encompasses nearly every
aspect of medieval England, starting with nobility, see the Knight and the Squire,
followed by the clergy, see the Monk and the Prioress, and finally the middle class, see
the Wife of Bath, the Miller, and all the rest.

Chaucer was
well positioned and well favored in his time, and his home was strategically located in
an area where he would have gotten a very in depth look at the lives of all these types
of people. His decision to take on the tone of each character, and his reflection of
their own personality's within the actual stories was
ingenious. 

His transitions between the individual stories
are also very interesting, every prologue sets up a certain dynamic among the pilgrims,
allowing individual relationships to form, making the stories themselves more
interesting. Chaucer could just have easily decided to do an anthology of stories about
these characters that had no connection whatsoever to each other, but instead he builds
the reader's interest by exposing character flaws and poking fun of the corruption of
the time. 

What is the central message of 'No Men are Foreign?"

The central message of the poem is to emphasize a sense of
community and brotherhood.  In a world where wars are waged against an "other," the poem
stresses that the common nature and bonds we all share should preclude any external
identification.  The idea that we are breathe, feel pain, and experience the same
emotions in a different ways is of critical importance.  The poem seeks to broaden
emotional frames of reference so that division on grounds of nation or ideology are not
as embraced.  The central message is one where the transcendent ideas of understanding
and compassion are brought out to the reader who might be in a setting that fosters
division and hatred.  Kirkup's poem is an idealized vision of the global community and
all of its aspirations.

What is the value of traditional literature in its contribution to children's literature?

"Traditional" literature can be defined in many ways, and
each of them makes a contribution to children's literature.  If "traditional" refers to
folk tales and legends, children's literature has derived all kinds of elements from
it.  The earliest folk tales and legends were not necessarily written for children but
easily lend themselves to that genre--think Paul Bunyan and Johnny Appleseed.  If
"traditional" means "classic," children's literature relies heavily on the themes from
classic story lines, such as The Hobbit and Great
Expectations.  If "traditional" means "historical," children's literature is
full of Harriet Tubman, Abe Lincoln, and Paul Revere kinds of characters. If
"traditional" refers to literature which is moral and even spiritual, certainly those
influences can be seen in children's lit, as well.  Ironically, of course, some
literature written for children (such as many of the fairy tales by the Brothers
Grimm) is anything but moral. 

What is an acute angle?

When two rays AO and BO meet at a common point  (or OA and
OB start drom a common point O), then there are two angles AOB at O: Smaller angle AOB
(or BOA) and larger angle AOB( or BOA) at O.

An angle is
the measure of the inclination of two rays with a common  point both
rays..

The angle between the opposite rays is 180 degrees 
or pi radians, or 2right angles.

If a ray stands on another
ray , then there are two angles adding to two right angles(or 180 degrees , or pi
radians).

A ray is said to make  right angles when it
stands on another ray if the the two angles it makes on the other ray are equal in
measure.

If the measure of angle between the two rays
meeting at a common point or starting from a common point is less than the right angle
(90 degrees, or pi/2 radians), then the angle is said to be
acute.

In "Ode to My Socks," by Pablo Neruda, what is the setting? What are 3 important images? What is the theme?

Setting: Neruda gives only a
few clues about the setting of this poem.

In the beginning
of the poem, the speaker tells us that a friend gave him a pair of socks that she had
"knitted herself /with her sheepherder's hands."  This could indicate that the poem is
set in Neruda's homeland of Chile, S.A., where sheepherding is an important
industry.

At the end of the poem, the speaker praises the
value of "two socks / made of wool in winter."  So, we know that the action of the poem
takes place in the
winter.

Images:  

The
most important image is, of course, the socks themselves.   They are described
as:

"soft as
rabbits";

"heavenly";

"handsome"; 

"glowing";

"magnificent."

The
speaker uses several images to explain that he does not want to store away the socks
like a museum piece:

He does not want to "save them
somewhere as schoolboys / keep fireflies, / as learned men collect sacred texts."  In
both these images, a precious object is kept for observation but is not really
used, the way the speaker wants to use his
socks.

Theme:  To me, the
theme of the poem is that a thing of beauty can be best appreciated by using it.  The
poem concludes:

readability="6">

  beauty is twice beauty
and what is
good is doubly good
when it is a matter of two socks
made of wool in
winter.

The speaker seems to
be saying that the socks--when used properly, as coverings for the feet--have a double
beauty: their beauty as something to be observed, and their beauty as something to be
used.

Explain Ratan's quest and love towards the postmaster in Tagore's "The Postmaster."

href="http://beautifulmind-sam.blogspot.com/2008/07/postmaster-by-rabindranath-tagore.html">The
Postmaster by Rabindranath Tagore

I've
figured that it always helps people studying literature, when there is a comprehensive
set of ideas they can start from. I've always loved studying literature and spending
detailed, organized time analyzing my readings. It helps! The insights it gathers and
presents to a person is invaluable.

In the
small village of Ulapur, an Englishman who owns an indigo factory near it manages to get
a post office established. A postmaster from Calcutta gets separated from his family and
transferred to this village. From the noise of the city, he comes to a deserted village
with just scattered glimpses of people.

Tagore, a lover of
nature, uses it to describe the surroundings. The postmaster’s office has a green, slimy
pond, surrounded by dense vegetation. The way he describes this shows that postmaster is
not in a position to appreciate his closeness to nature.

What is Abigail taught by all the "Christian women and their covenanted men" in The Crucible?

Abigail makes this statement in The
Crucible when she is being cast aside once again by the man she loves (or at
least wants), John Proctor.  Early in Act I, John and Abigail share a moment virtually
alone (Betty is unresponsive in her bed) in which Abigail confesses the girls had been
"sportin'" in the forest last night.  This is the cause of all the uproar today, and
John recognizes Abigail's trouble-making ways for what they are, something about which
they both laugh.  Soon, though, the conversation turns personal, and Abigail claims she
knows he still wants to be with her. 

Proctor speaks
earnestly and forcefully, telling her:

readability="8">

Abby, I may think of you softly from time to
time.  But I will cut off my hand before I ever reach for you again.  Wipe it out of
mind.  We never touched,
Abby.

This, of course,
infuriates the young woman who lashes out at him in her hurt.  She begins by denigrating
his wife, Elizabeth, and ends with this satiric condemnation against all the "pure" men
and women of Salem:

readability="9">

John Proctor...took me from my sleep and put
knowledge in my heart!  I never knew what pretense Salem was, I never knew the lying
lessons I was taught by all these Christian women and their covenanted men!  And now you
bid me tear the light out of my eyes?  I will not, I
cannot!

One can almost hear
her spitting out those words "Christian" and "covenanted."  She is clearly incensed and
hurt and is now lashing out at the hypocrisy she sees in the people around her.  The
great irony, of course, is that she is an exceptionally good liar, which is clearly a
sin (as his her adultery) and which condemns almost two dozen people to die.  Miller's
stage direction for Abigail says she has "an endless capacity for dissembling"--in other
words, she is a magnificent liar.  She has learned, she says, that the flawed, sinful
men and women of the town are not what they appear.  If that is true, it seems she is
now one of them.

How does Augustus show himself to be a merciful leader? Augustus Achievementsfollowing link is about Emperor Augustus report of his achievements...

This is a good question, especially in light of your past
questions. It is important to realize that not all people are purely good or bad. All
people have both good and bad qualities.

If we believe in
Augustus' words, then he was very merciful and generous. Let me give you a few examples.
First, he was merciful to his enemies and pardon anyone who asked for it. Look at
section three of the RES GESTAE. He also states that he always preferred to preserve
foreign people, rather than destroy them (same section).

He
was also merciful to the people by restoring public buildings at his own expense. He
also gave tons of money to men, soldiers and towns, again at this own expense. See
sections 15-18.

Finally, he creates peace in a time of
civil war and gives to the people restoration. See section 34.

How does Atticus defend Calpurnia from Aunt Alexandra?

I assume that you are talking about what happens in
Chapter 14.  There, Atticus tells Aunt Alexandra a number of
things.

First, he says that Calpurnia has done a good job
raising the kids.  He says

readability="8">

If anything, she's been harder on
them in some ways than a mother would have been... she's never let them get away with
anything, she's never indulged them the way most colored nurses
do.

He also
tells Alexandra that the children love Calpurnia for how she has raised
them.

He tells Aunt Alexandra that he will never throw
Calpurnia out because she is essentially a member of the
family

readability="8">

"Alexandra, Calpurnia's not leaving
this house until she wants to. You may think otherwise, but I couldn't have got along
without her all these years. She's a faithful member of this family...

By
saying these things, he is clearly defending Calpurnia against Aunt Alexandra, who has
come in part because she does not approve of a black woman raising Scout as she gets
older.

The contemporary reader is likely to find Margaret Mitchell's handling of both race and gender problematic in Gone With the Wind. Please...

Recently, a professor at Auburn University expunged the
word "nigger" from every page that contained it in The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn.  This action exemplifies the problems that occur when one
seeks to "modernize" a work of literature that is set in a historical context.  Quite
simply, the novel loses its verisimilitude.  In Twain's novel, for instance, the n-word
is used because this is what people said, and Huck merely uses it as one would use any
common word; he has no denigration intended. In fact, as the narrative continues and
Huck begins to perceive Jim as a loving and caring friend, he decides to "go to hell"
for protecting an escaped slave, believing that slavery is wrong.  So, if Huck did not
speak of Jim as merely a n----, how would he be able to change in his perceptions, a key
theme of the novel.

Therefore, whenever people read a
novel, they must accept the verisimilitude which exists in this novel, even if they find
some words or situations offensive by modern standards.  Clearly, Margaret Mitchell
attempted a realistic portrayal of the Old South, so she used words and situations that
are realistic to the setting of pre-Civil War and post-Civil War.  Otherwise, the
narrative loses its value.  Besides, Scarlett actually cares for Mammy. And, Prissy is
meant more for comic relief than she is for racial ridicule.  Readers must not forget
that Gone With the Wind is a historical romance, so they need not
be so politically critical.  It is meant to portray the drama of the South under the
impact of the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Novels are
works of literature that often reflect the human experience of their time period.  Are
they, now, to be censored, edited, or maligned because they represent their era
realistically?  These works of literature are an important part of history, and must
remain so.

What kind of story is "Lullaby"?

"Lullaby" is an arresting and immensely sad story about
the passing of life and also the passing of the old ways of life of the Yeibechei, or
Navajo Indians. The major character, Ayah, has accepted the poverty of her existence
with her husband, Chato, but now the two are old and they can no longer keep the home in
which they have lived. There is a low moment of Ayah’s bitterness when she realizes that
the family is losing the home, where she gave birth to her many children, all of whom
have been lost to them: "The illness came after the white rancher told Chato he was too
old to work for him anymore, and Chato and his old woman should be out of the shack by
the next afternoon because the rancher had hired new people to work there. That had
satisfied her. To see how the white man repaid Chato’s years of loyalty and
work"

For what x the inequality is true 2(x-1/2)(x+2)

We'll divide both sides by
2:

Since the value is positive, teh inequality still
holds:

(x -
1/2)(x+2)<0

We'll conclude that a product is
negative if the factors are of opposite sign.

There are 2
cases of study:

1)  (x - 1/2) <
0

and

      (x+2) >
0

We'll solve the first inequality. For this reason, we'll
isolate x to the left side.

x <
1/2

We'll solve  the 2nd
inequality:

    (x+2) >
0

We'll subtract 2 both
sides:

x > -2

The
common solution of the first system of inequalities is the interval (-2 ,
1/2).

We'll solve the second system of
inequalities:

2)  (x-1/2) >
0

and

      (x+2) <
0

x-1/2 > 0

x >
1/2

     (x+2) < 0

x
< -2

Since we don't have a common interval to satisy
both inequalities, we don't have a solution for the 2nd
case.

So, the complete solution is the
solution from the first system of inequalities, namely the interval (-2 ,
1/2).

In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, according to the last two sentences of the book, what is Huck planning to do?

Great question! The story ends at a kind of strange place
because the last two sentences that you indicated clearly suggest that there is action
to come. Let us examine them:

readability="8">

But I reckon I got to light out for
the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she's going to adopt me and sivilize
me, and I can't stand it. I been there
before.

Huck clearly says
that he is thinking of running away again to escape the painful process of being
"sivilized." Let us remember that Huck's escape down the river with Jim is essentially
an escape from civilization. Huck has seen civilization in its many different forms and
found it wanting.

By ending the story with Huck talking
about civilization and his desire to avoid it, Twain seems to indicate that this novel
is primarily about a boy's desire to find his place in the world, even if his place is
not a part of the world. Huck is among the first of many protagonists in American
literature who stand against society. By the end of the novel, Twain has explored the
moral, ethical and human development of Huck, and he now urges readers to examine their
own lives and beliefs through the device of showing Huck's decision to "light out" and
escape civilization.

Compare and contrast Piaget's and Festinger's cognitive theories of motivation.

Piaget and Festinger explored (different aspects)
cognitive theory which researches the connection between an individual's mental
capacities and their ability to construct meaning from experiences, thus clarifying the
world around them. According to Piaget children develop 'schemas' a sort of building
blocks that allow children to either 'assimilate' new experiences into what is already
understood or 'accommodate' a new experience by altering an existing schema. Festinger's
theory focused on the paradoxial elements of cognition mainly in adults. Referred to as
Cognitive Dissonance Theory, Festinger suggests that although an individual has the
knowledge that what they do is not good for them, for example, someone who does harmful
drugs knowing they can die alters their belief to...but I probably
won't die to make what they do 'fit' into their cognition and behavior. For Festinger,
cognitive dissonance is the result of a psychological need, not a logical one. Piaget
would argue that in his theory the assimilation/accommodation motif support cognitive
consonance, a connectivity where as in Festinger's theory the individual desires a
disconnect.

What is the theme of "Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock"?

The poem seems to be about loneliness and regret. The
white nightgowns that "haunt" the houses refer to brides who do not inhabit these
dwellings; the descriptive colors of the absent nightgowns convey a melancholy regret at
the loss of energy and joy that might have come with marriage and partnership. The many
color combinations echo the change of the seasons, the change in fashions a man living
with a woman might recognize. It is an old fashioned set of images conveying an old
fashioned sensibility of marriage. "Disillusionment at 10 o'clock" refers quite
literally to the feeling of regret and loss that occurs each night at bedtime, when the
old sailor, drunk and asleep in his boots (with no helpmeet to assist him in dressing
for bed), realizes he is alone. The "red weather" is a sexual image, referring to the
constant presence of sexual frustration and possibly anger at being alone. Catching
"tigers" is also a sexual image, a fantasy of wild animals and distant shores filling in
for the loss of a fulfilling family life the old sailor
rejected.

What kind or resettlement process did Baba snd Amir have to endure when they came to the US? How did this affect their status & class in the US?

When Baba and Amir move to the United States, like many
immigrants, their status totally changes. While Baba was a wealthy, respected
businessman in Afghanistan, he has to work at a gas station in the United States so that
Amir can go to college. Baba's new social status affects Amir because he is no longer
the son of a wealthy businessman. Both Amir and Baba are forced to live in conditions
way below those they were accustomed to in Afghanistan, before the Taliban took over,
because they had a fancy house in a well-to-neighborhood, and now they live among their
fellow immigrants in less-than-comfortable circumstances. They live simply and they go
to flea markets to sell their things and buy cheap things they need from others.
Further, when Baba is diagnosed with lung cancer, he turns down treatment, not only
because he does not want to undergo the pain of chemo and radiation, but also because of
the cost. He sacrifices his health so that his son can have opportunities in the
U.S.

Discuss the Thomas Malthus Theory of population

To this point, at least, Malthus's theory of population
has not been accurate.  Malthus believed that the world's population would tend to grow
too rapidly to be sustainable.  He said that the poorer people would end up without
enough food and that populations would therefore crash.  In other words, he posited a
sort of situation in which populations are kept relatively low by the lack of
food.

So far, we have not reached this point.  Our
technological ability to produce more and more food has so far made it possible to
sustain a population much larger than Malthus imagined
possible.

This is not to say that he will not some day be
right.  It is possible that we will run out of technological advances and our food
production will stop growing.  However, this has not yet happened and so Malthus appears
to be incorrect.

A supervisor is contemplating whether or not to investigate labor efficiency variance in the Assembly Department.It will cost $ 6000 to undertake...

Let p be the probability of superwisor that investigates
the labour efficiency variance . Then the resulting cost  of investigation and
corrrection = $(6000+180000) = $24000

So the expected cost
= 24000p.

If the superwisor does not investigate the labour
efficiency variance, then the  the departmental inefficiency cost =
33000.

So the expected inefficiency cost = 33000*probabilty
that superwisor does not investigate= 33000(1-p)

Since the
question of indetermacy is when both costs are same.

24000p
= 33000(1-p)

24000p =
33000-33000p

(24000+33000)p
=33000

P =
33000/(24000+33000)

p =
33/57

p = 11/19 is the probability that superwisor
investigate.

Also the probability that the superwisor does
not investigate = 1-11/19 = 8/19

What is the beta of a stock?

Beta is one of the measures used to compare the risk-
return profile of different stocks. By definition, the beta of the stock market is
assigned a value of 1.

Now if a stock’s price volatility is
more than that of the market it is assigned a beta greater than 1. The exact value
depends on what the change in the value of the stock is for a unit change in the value
of the market. For example if the value of stock A changes by 20% for every 1% percent
change in the value of the market it is given a higher beta than a stock B which only
changes by 2% for every 1% change in the value of the
market.

Stocks with a higher beta can provide a higher
return than that provided by the market, but at the same time they are also riskier as
the loss incurred when the market falls is much more in the case of these
stocks.

A low beta stock rises and falls at approximately
the same rate as the market. Stocks with a beta less than 0, vary in price opposite to
that of the market, i.e. their value goes up when the market falls and vice
versa.

Investors, use the beta of a stocks, while choosing
between them to find those that match their risk appetite and the returns they expect to
make.

Should the U.S. help eradicate doping in sports in other countries?

There is no way to answer this question factually -- it is
simply a matter of opinion and one person's opinion is as good as any other
person's.

My opinion is that it makes some sense for us to
help stop doping in other countries if only because we want our athletes to compete on a
"level playing field."  If our athletes are not doping (that might be a big if) then we
do not want them to have to compete against athletes who are doping and are, presumably,
getting a competitive advantage.

So I think that we should
help contribute to international efforts to stop doping (like the WADA) so that everyone
can compete on an equal basis.

"The Tell-Tale Heart" is a story of madness and passion that depicts the darkness of human nature. Do you agree? Give maximum 10 reasons."The...

Madness and the dark side of human nature certainly seem
to be two of the major themes of Poe's classic short story. I've included some examples
below.

• The murderer tries to explain to the
  reader that his careful plans are not a sign of madness, but his actions suggest
  otherwise.


• The narrator claims to hear things that emit
  from unearthly sources.


• The narrator claims that he has
  no specific reason to kill the old man other than his "vulture
  eye."


• His careful preparation to kill the man in his
  sleep shows a dark side of the man's character.


• The
  dismemberment of the body is a particularly gruesome task that could only have been
  carried out by a man filled with either mental instability or pure
  evil.


• His belief that he can still hear the heart beating
  is further proof of madness. 

In "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning," line 5, how is the image of melting relevant to the poem? "So let us melt, and make no noise."

Let us remember that the speaker of this poem is telling
his wife not to mourn him when he dies, as the title suggests. The first two stanzas of
this unforgettable poem therefore urge the wife to behave with quiet dignity when they
part, just as virtuous people die without drama or display. You need to be aware that
the first stanza is a simile which offers the comparison of people parting with dignity
to show the wife how she and the speaker of the poem should
part:

As
virtuous men pass mildly away,

And whisper to their souls,
to go,

Whilst some of their sad friends do
say,

The breath goes now, and some say
no:

Like this, therefore, the
speaker encourages his wife to say goodbye to him. The image of "melting" in the poem is
thus used as a metaphor to reinforce this image - rather than spontaneously and quickly
burn, they are to express their feelings and love for each other slowly and with
respect, just as candles melt slowly and gradually - not with "tear-floods, nor
sigh-tempests move", because, as the speaker says in the second stanza, to react in this
undignified manner would actually spoil the sacredness of their love. Displaying their
feelings so openly would show a lack of reverence of the special relationship that they
had.

Where in Mockingjay is there foreshadowing?Please explain where and what it foreshadows.

Foreshadowing occurs from the very onset of Suzanne
Collins' Mockingjay in the first chapter as Katniss revisits the
bombed-out District 12. 

In her house in the Victor's
Village, Katniss Everdeen finds a "dab of white [that] peeks out of a vase of dried
flowers" (14).  On closer inspection, Katniss discovers that it is a "fresh white rose. 
Perfect. Down to the last thorn and silken petal"
(14). 

Katniss reels from the realization that the rose is
from President Snow, "a promise of revenge" (15).  Collins uses this moment in the
novel, Katniss' horrified discovery, to foreshadow the looming conflict to come between
President Snow and Katniss Everdeen.  The snow white flower is as much of a reminder for
Katniss as it is for the reader, sending the message that there is still much to come
from both of the characters.  Ultimately, Katniss and President Snow will have to deal
with their "unfinished business" (15). 

Please interpret the following quote from Paul D in Beloved."For a used-to-be slave woman to love anything that much was dangerous if was her...

The novel Beloved is a complicated
story about an escaped slave and the trauma she suffered over how her children were
treated and what she ended up having to do to them to avoid a return to
slavery.

In the historical context of the story, we have to
remember that slaves were legally property, whether they had escaped or not.  Slave
marriages had no legal status, and all the children produced by such marriages were
owned as property as well.  This meant that your spouse or your kids could, and probably
would, be sold away from you at some point.

So it was
common to see much less of a bond develop between slave mothers and children in those
days, because heartbreak, trauma and in the case of Beloved,
insanity could easily result.

What are some health effects of beryllium?

Beryllium is an element not known to be used by either
plants or animals. Beryllium dust is known to be toxic and it is corrosive to tissues.
In certain individuals, a chronic, serious condition called berylliosis can occur which
is life threatening. Beryllium is a carcinogen and long term exposure can lead to lung
cancer. For people who have been exposed to beryllium, some can develop chronic
beryllium disease or CBD, resulting in respiratory problems, night sweats, fatigue, dry
cough and weight loss, anorexia, heart disease. CBD occurs when the immune system
recognizes the small beryllium particles in the lungs and mounts an immune response.
White blood cells collect around the beryllium particles forming granulomas which
interfere with the functioning of the lungs. Therefore, it is important to minimize
exposure to beryllium dust.

Describe the religious imagery in Lord of the Flies. How does Golding’s depiction of the island compare to the Garden of Eden?

The forces of good and evil are generally divided up into
the forces within the boys.  Piggy and Ralph are trying hard to help the boys govern
themselves and to organize to help effect a rescue and to make sure people are fed and
accounted for.

Simon, who also serves as the Christ figure,
is aligned with no one, shows particular care for the little ones, and eventually has
the epiphany and understands that the evil forces are really those within the boys, the
beast is within.  Soon after this realization he is killed, of course it is also notable
that his vision comes after wandering off alone into the
wilderness.

Jack and to an even larger extent Roger
represent the evil within boys.  Particularly Roger as he reaches the point where he has
no issue with killing and does it with glee, he really represents evil by the end of the
story.

What is the Imagist movement in American poetry? Imagism

This movement resulted from a reaction to Victorian
poetry that  Imagist poets felt was too sentimental, moralizing, and too conventional is
its diction and form. Rejecting the conformity of such poetry, the Imagist poets sought
to concentrate on the precise rendering of images in free verse.  Ezra Pound and
F. S. Flint first documented the Imagist Movement in the second decade of the twentieth
century.  They called for three primary precepts:  conciseness, musical rhythm, and the
direct treatment of the 'thing,' whether it is subjective or
objective.

Between 1915-1917, American Amy Lowell edited a
volume of the anthology Some Imagist Poets.  One of her poems is
entitled "Generations."   This poem is concise, it has musical rhythm, and it treats its
subject directly.  In this poem, Lowell initially
declares,

You
are lke the stem

Of a young
beech-tree,

Straight and
swaying,

Breaking out in golden
leaves.

Just as directly,
Lowell ends her poem:

readability="8">

But I am like a great oak under a cloudy
sky,

Watching a stripling beech grow up at my
feet.

In conveying the
contrast, Lowell employs much light/dark imagery: 

readability="10">

Your shadow is no shadow, but a scattered
sunshine:

And at night you pull the sky down to
you

And hood yourself in
stars.

"Put out the light, and then put out the light." What figure of speech has been used in this statement? Explain.

A few figures of speech could fit this famous line from
Othello.  Depending on the translation (I'm assuming it's accurate)
and the stage action (the way the line is delivered on stage), it could mean any of the
following:

Aposiopesis --
Breaking off as if unable to continue: “The fire surrounds them while—I cannot
go on.” Othello is telling Desdemona to put out the light (of her candle and
*life*), but he can't bring himself to say it literally and directly, so he just repeats
himself metaphorically.

Puns (Paronomasia)
-- A pun twists the meaning of words, often to create an ironic, humorous
effect.  "Put out the light" could mean to put out the candle and to be extinguished of
life.  He seems to direct the first half of the line to Desdemona and the second part to
himself, as if to summon up the courage to kill
her.

Diacope (also called
Epizeuxis)-- Uninterrupted repetition, or repetition with
only one or two words between each repeated phrase.  ("The horror!  The horror!")  He's
simply repeating it for memorable effect.  The anaphora (of sorts) becomes more dramatic
upon repetition.

In Night, how do the Jews in the concentration camps attempt to observe their religion in spite of the brutality they face on a daily basis?

It is clear that the Jews in the concentration camps
initially at least cling to their faith as a support and a comfort in their severe
plight. Whilst they are obviously unable to observe their religion in the same way, we
are told that they do what they are able to continue their religious practices. For
example, in the first few days of their time in Aushwitz, we are
told:

readability="9">

Evenings, as we lay on our cots, we sometimes
tried to sing a few Hasidic melodies. Akiba Drumer would break out hearts with his deep
grave, voice.

Elie goes on to
comment that the men would talk about God and what he is doing in and through the
concentration camps.

One of the most poignant of these
moments, however, is when the Jewish inmates are allowed to celebrate the end
of the Jewish year - the festival of Rosh Hashanah. We are told tha the inmates had been
allowed to gather together, and that many came. This triggers off a huge crisis of doubt
in Elie as he finds it hard to join in the prayer. Likewise, the next day, the day of
Yom Kippur, Elie chooses not to fast as a symbol of his increasing disenchantment with
his faith.

Therefore the Jews did what they could to
continue observing their faith, either officially with the permission of the camp
authorities, or unofficially, as and when they could.

How do Proctor, Francis and Giles plan to use Mary Warren's testimony to prove that "Heaven is not speaking to through the children?"

Mary Warren confesses to them that the girls are indeed
lying. Perhaps pretending is a more accurate word, in fact, Mary Warren uses the word
pretense with Proctor.

They get her to agree to testify,
and she does indeed admit the same thing that she admitted to the guys, she uses the
word "pretense" with Danforth. She turns on her friends and claims that they were
pretending too. Proctor futher contends that Warren will "swear she lied to you."
(meaning Danforth)

The manner in which they hope to do this
is also through testimony. Giles and Proctor get together and determine that they have a
common interest, the truth... oh and land. Thus, they convince Warren to remain faithful
to that testimony. Proctor even envokes a bible story to remind her to hold fast to
truth.

Giles connects this to others who on behalf of
Putnam have been crying witchcraft just to get people's land. Giles gets peoples
testimonies, has them signed and brings them to court as his own
evidence.

The men try to prove that this is not Heaven
speaking, but Thomas Putnam.

Who are the Achaeans in the Iliad?

In this epic poem, the Achaeans are the people that we
tend to think of as "the Greeks."  These are the people who have come over from what is
now Greece to fight in Asia Minor (what is now Turkey) against the Trojans.  To modern
archaeologists and historians, the term "Achaeans" is connected to a civilization that
is known as the Mycenaean civilization.

As far as
individuals go, the Achaeans were people like Achilles and Agamemnon and
Patroclos.

There are also points in the
Iliad where the Greeks are called by different names.  They are
also known as the Danaans and as the Argives.  These are the same people as the
Achaeans.

solve the system 2x + 3y = 8 x + 8y = 17

We'll solve the system of equations using the elimination
method, also:

2x+3y= 8
(1)

x+8y= 17 (2)

We'll
multiply (2) by -2:

-2x - 16y =
-34 (3)

We'll add (3) to
(1):

2x + 3y - 2x - 16y = 8 -
34

We'll combine like
terms:

-13y = -26

We'll divide
by -13 both sides:

y =
2

We'll substitute y = 2 in
(2):

x+8y= 17

x + 16 =
17

We'll subtract 16 both
sides:

x = 17 -
16

x =
1

The solution
of the given system is {(1 ,
2)}.

We
could also use the substitution method. We'll write x with respect to y, from the
equation (2).

x+8y=
17

x = 17 - 8y (3)

We'll
substitute x in (1):

2(17 - 8y)+3y=
8

We'll remove the
brackets:

34 - 16y + 3y =
8

We'll combine like
terms:

-13y = 8 - 34

-13y =
-26

We'll divide by
-13:

y =
2

We'll substitute y in
(3):

x = 17 -
16

x =
1

What is your impression of Elizabeth Proctor by the end of Act 2 of The Crucible?

Elizabeth Proctor has been seen in numerous lights by the
end of the second act of the play.  The only impressions that we get of her from the
first act are those given by other people.  Abigail obviously doesn't have a very good
impression of Elizabeth, and if we believe what she says, we will think that Elizabeth
is cold, gossipy, cruel, dishonest and unmerciful.  However, if you are a discerning
reader, you will probably recognize that Abby has ulterior motives in thinking that way
of Elizabeth, and so will postpone your judgment of her until you get to know her
yourself.  It is easy to feel a bit sorry for Elizabeth when we learn that her husband
had an affair on her; that in combination with Abby's accusations, make one at the very
least curious about her.

In act two, at first Elizabeth
comes off as demure and eager to please her husband.  She is cautious and careful in her
words.  As she accurately predicts events that come later in the act, it turns out that
she is pretty wise and discerning, especially about the nature of women and how they
feel about things.  It's easy to have sympathy for her; she is the jilted wife who has
concerns about Abby, concerns that are pretty valid.  However, it is also easy to
conclude that Elizabeth is very judgmental and has overly high expectations of those
around her.  She is a bit cold and immovable in her opinions of others, and not very
forgiving.  By the end of the act, when she quietly submits to the officers who are
arresting her, it's easy to feel bad for her, and to admire her calm fortitude in the
face of such horrible events.

I hope that those thoughts
helped; good luck!

In the poem "The White Man's Burden" by Rudyard Kipling what is the actual "burden" that white men are plagued with?

According to the poem, the actual burden that white people
are plagued with is the non-white people that they have conquered and the need to care
for these non-white, inferior peoples.

What Kipling is
saying is that when a white country colonizes, it has all these people who are "half
devil and half child."  It must, therefore, care for the those people the same way that
a parent must care for its children.

Parenting clearly
involves sacrifice and so, says Kipling, does colonization.  White people will have to
go out to all these primitive places where they have to do without civilized comforts
and work hard (in "heavy harness") to take care of all these inferior people who need to
be helped because they are not advanced enough to take care of
themselves.

In part 1, section 16 of Fahrenheit 451, when Millie can't answer the question, what does she get up to do?

Montag is still thinking about all that has happened since
the beginning of the story.  Clarisse's question to him about whether or not he is
happy, her suggestion that he might not be in love, the death of the old woman who would
not give up her books are all events that are weighing heavily upon Montag.  He asks
Millie if she can remember when and how they met ten years earlier because he cannot. 
She doesn't remember either.  Montag realizes how shallow their existence is; how devoid
of real emotion or love.  After Montag asks Millie the question, she gets up, goes to
the bathroom and Montag can hear her pouring a glass of water and then swallowing. 
He tries to count the number of swallows and wonders how many of those pills she had
taken already that night.  He knows that if she died from an overdose, he would not cry
because he doesn't really have a connection to her.  He is very saddened by the
emptiness.  Millie's actions reveal that she, too, is not happy.  She takes the pills to
avoid reality. Reality is cold and sterile in their world and that hurts, so Millie
hides behind the chemical relief of the pills.  She is like most of the people in that
society - escaping a harsh, cold reality for a less painful chemical
addiction.

What is the effectiveness of the repetition of "is" in lines 1-4 in the poem "Dover Beach"?

Arnold’s poem represents a doubt in both faith and
society, a theme common to the Victorian era. In the first and second stanzas, Arnold
describes the beachsetting in terms of poetic techniques: The rhythm and cadence of the
ocean createa mood. He remarks how Sophocles once heard in those same sounds “athought,”
as if poetic thought cannot help but arise from observations on nature.But Arnold’s
crisis of faith makes it impossible for him to see the landscape asanything but symbolic
of the loss of faith which he believes is breaking apart thesociety of his time.
The repetition of "is" allows the poem to shift from the realistic to the symbolic with
an extreme sense of subtleness. Without the repetition, the shift would be forceful, and
not what Arnold was looking for. This shift from the realistic to the symbolic allows
him to express his idea that a loss of faith is symbolic  for the world, is much more
dramatic and thought evoking.

Explain how Poe's "Tell-Tale Heart" and Alfred Hitchcock's film Psycho use techniques to create suspense e. g. language and film techniques?

In both Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" and
Hitchcock's Psycho there is mounting suspense and a terrible sense
of foreboding.  Suspense in Poe's story is generated as the narrator of Poe's story
"cautiously--oh, so cautiously...." opens the door to the room and shines the lantern
upon the sinister vulture eye of the old man for seven days.  In
Psycho, the strange man in the uninhabited motel is accomodating to the
customer, an attractive woman; however, later, he peers through a peep hole into the
motel room where the woman who has stolen from her bank resides.  Later, he is seen by
her in the upstairs of a dark, gothic house above the motel. There are shadows that pass
before the window and even an argument between the man and what appears to be an old
woman.  Fears grow upon the woman and upon the narrator's victim in "The Tell-Tale
Heart" who springs up in bed, shouting "Who's there?"

On
the eighth day, Poe's narrator feels his powers.  He enters the room stealthily just as
the "old mother" enters the woman's motel room.  Soon both the old man and the female
victim utter groans of terror.  The beating of the heart is heard by the narrator:  "But
the beating grew louder and louder."  This beating of the woman's heart is suggested by
the sharp, staccato of the music of the movie as Norman Bates enters dressed as his
mother and stabs the woman in the shower.  In the end, both Poe's narrator and Norman
Bates completely lose their minds.

In Beloved, why does Sethe seem to "urinate endlessly" after seeing the girl on the stump?

This scene is one of intense symbolism. Beloved, the
mysterious girl sitting on the stump, provides a connection for Sethe to the older
woman's dead daughter, who she killed in an attempt to protect them from a cruel master.
Sethe, in her inner soul, believes Beloved to be a reincarnation or a ghost of that dead
daughter. In the scene, seeing Beloved sitting on the stump causes Sethe to develop a
sudden need to urinate:

readability="11">

Not since she was a baby girl... had she had an
emergency that unmanageable. She never made it to the outhouse. Rigt in front of its
door she had to lift her skirts, and the water she voided was endless... there was no
stopping water breaking from a breaking womb and there was no stopping
now.
(Morrison, Beloved, Google
Books)

The moment echoes the
breaking of amniotic sac that protects a baby during gestation. When a woman's "water
breaks," the amniotic fluid that surrounds and protects the baby begins to flow out of
the vagina; this is often misrepresented as a sudden and fast gush of fluid, but is
often a slower seepage, easily controlled. For Sethe, the sudden need to urinate is
symbolic for going into labor again; Beloved is "born" in this moment, and Sethe's body
unconsciously repeats some of the physical characteristics of labor and birth. In fact,
is is passing ordinary urine, but her mind and body associate the act and the appearance
of Beloved with birth, further connecting the two women.

What quotations in Hamlet define Claudius?

I like Hamlet's assessment of
Claudius:

readability="5">

Smile and smile and be a
villain!

Claudius is the
consummate politician.  In his ceremonial speech announcing his marriage to Gertrude, he
soothes over what might have been a sticky public relations problem: a marriage to his
dead brother's wife.  But by explaining that the marriage was necessary for the state
and by rapidly taking care of other business at hand, Claudius assumes the role of king
with apparent ease.  Yet, it must be remembered that his killing his brother is what
begins the conflict in Hamlet.  This act results in the destruction of many lives around
him and has consequences beyond what he thought possible.  So while he is happy and
content in his new role as king, other lives have been and will be
shattered.

5 log x - log x^3 = log ( 1-2x) find x

We'll impose constraints of existence of
logarithms:

x>0

1-2x>0

-2x>-1

2x<1

x<1/2

The
interval of admissible values of x is (0 , 1/2).

5 log x -
log x^3 = log ( 1-2x) 

We'll use power property of
logarithms for the first term:

5 log x = log
x^5

log x^5- log x^3 = log (
1-2x) 

We'll add log x^3 both
sides:

log x^5 = log ( 1-2x)  + log
x^3

We'll use the product property
of  logarithms:

log a + log b = log
a*b

We'll put a=( 1-2x)  and
b=x^3

log ( 1-2x)  + log x^3 = log
x^3*(1-2x) 

The equation will
become:

log x^5 = log
x^3*(1-2x) 

Since the bases are matching, we'll use one to
one property:

x^5 = 
x^3*(1-2x) 

We'll divide by
x^3:

x^2 = 1 - 2x

We'll
subtract 1-2x:

x^2 + 2x - 1 =
0

x1 = [4-sqrt(4+4)]/2

x1 =
(4-2sqrt2)/2

x1 =
2-sqrt2

x2=2+sqrt2

Since
neither of x values belong to the interval of admissible values for x, the equation has
no solutions.

Where did most of the action in The Red Badge of Courage take place?I have been looking for additional information in the web about the novel....

Most critics agree that the setting of Stephen Crane's The
Red Badge of Courage is in Virginia, and the battle that is mentioned with the
question:  The Battle of Chancellorsville, a major battle of the Civil War which took
place from April 30 to May 6 in 1863.  This battle pitted the Union Army against a
Confederate army half its size, a battle that came to be known as Lee's "perfect battle"
because of its risky but successful division of his army in the presence of such a
puissant force.

The Chancellorsville campaign began with
the crossing of the Rappahannock River by the Union Army on the morning of April 27,
1863.  Heavy fighting began on May 1 and did not end until the Union forces retreated
across the river on the nights of May 5-6.

Crane's
descriptions of the bush and thicket is suggestive of the wilderness a few miles west of
Fredericksburg, Virginia and the battle on May 1, 1963, in which Hooker ordered an
advance to strike Anderson. a battle seen by many Union commanders as a key to victory. 
Perhaps, this is the victorious battle in which Henry Fleming and his friend Wilson lead
the 304th regiment so valorously.

Give examples of Iago's two-faced behaviour. How might an actor convey this?

A major "two-faced behavior" that Iago has is his jealousy
for Othello, believed to be from a deep sexual connection he feels he shares with
Othello. He plots against Othello, while deeply longing for his love. He consequently
lies to himself and acts out of this internal
struggle. 

The dream sequence in Act III Scene III where
Iago is describing a dream that Cassio had about Desdemona is dripping with sexuality
and showcases the sexual nature of male relationships in the time of the play. Iago says
that Cassio "kiss [him] hard" and climbed on top of him, kissing him repeatedly and
moaning. Othello upon hearing this homoerotic tale does not question why Cassio and Iago
were in bed together, why Iago didn't wake him up after the first kiss, or anything or
the nature. The fact Iago freely talks about sleeping with Cassio and it is not a big
deal, nor does Othello act surprised to hear this or question what they were doing
together, illustrates that men had sexual relationships that were more than acceptable,
but common. 

So, within Iago, his motives are not
explicitly stated, but his jealousy for Othello is apparent and the reader is meant to
question why? I argue that it is all from the fact Iago wants the love Othello gives
Desdemona, and when he cannot receive it (and possibly assumes he never will), allows
his jealousy to blind him and sweep him into a plot with no turning
back.

An actor lucky enough to play Iago should relish in
the implicit sexuality the character carries himself with throughout the play. Deciding
how to express this sexual frustration, through body language or adopted word play that
emphasized his burden of love (inflections of tone when talking to Othello, showing
disdain for Desdemona), and show the audience that unlike today, homosocial relations
were also often homoerotic. Expressing Iago through his most primal, animalistic
emotions of hunger and sexual desire for Othello would surely show internal conflict,
where he disguises the truth from the world, keeping his mask on and the truth
hidden.

In Fahrenheit 451, what plan did Montag and Faber devise ?

Montag shows up at Faber's house after suffering a mini
nervous breakdown after he realizes that he is completely unhappy and lives in a pretty
messed-up society.  Faber helps him to understand exactly what he has been missing out
on, and envigorated with the knowledge, Montag suggests that they try to fight back
somehow.  He suggests that they start reprinting books again.  Faber says that woudn't
work, because the fireman structure would never allow it; they would get caught and
burnt themselves.  He says he would consider it if they could somehow get rid of the
fireman system; a way to do that would be to

readability="7">

"arrange to have books hidden in firemen's houses
all over the country, so that the seeds of suspicion would be sown among these
arsonists."

Montag picks up
on that immediately; he knows the firemen, and Faber knows old professors who could
print books.  So, that is the plan that they start with--to plant books in firemen's
houses, and call them in to be burnt.  They don't know the details, and are pretty
scared about it all, but it is a start.  For the first time in years, they feel happy
and motivated.

I hope that helps; good
luck!

List 4 symbolic meanings in tghe Myth of Atlanta.

The symbolic meanings of the various actions in the myth
may be considered as follows:

1. Atalanta’s name defines
her invincibility. This meaning suggests the power of women and the need for men to
become even more powerful if love, birth, and family—in short, society—are to be
established and maintained.

2. The golden apples symbolize
the power of men to confer home and consequent stability so that women may be confined
to their role of wife and mother.

3. The chopping off of
the heads of losing runners obviously symbolizes the idea that “only the brave deserve
the fair” (a quotation from Dryden’s poem “Alexander’s Feast”). A modern scientific and
symbolic interpretation of the destruction of the inferior suitors is that the
victorious ones win the right of maintaining the strength of the human gene pool.d. The
father’s abandoning the infant Atalanta represents an ancient way of maintaining
property (usually a woman gave her goods and titles to the man who married her) and also
a means of controlling population and inheritance through reducing the numbers of women.
That Atalanta was reared outside the home is a common element in many ancient
stories.

What is the rising action in "Miss Brill" by Katherine Mansfield?

The rising action is always important in a short story; in
Katherine Mansfield's "Miss Brill," the rising action literally sets the stage for the
tremendous crash (fall) which is to come.  We meet Miss Brill at her home, where she
puts on her funny little fur and makes her way, as always, to the park--which is where
it really all begins.  It's a beautiful Sunday, with all kinds of things happening
because it is a Sunday at the beginning of Season, when all social activities are at
their peak.  And Miss Brill notices all of it: the band playing, the
conductor

readability="6">

who scraped with his foot and flapped his arms
like a rooster about to
crow,

the two old people who
always shared the bench with her and on whom she usually eavesdropped.  Today they were
silent, though she recounts in her head a very specific conversation between a couple
she listened to last Sunday.  Then there are the children playing,
couples meandering, a beggar selling flowers, toddlers taking their wobbly steps, and
the beautiful trees with their drooping yellow leaves.  An incident occurs in which a
woman tries to exchange pleasantries (with the intent, obviously, of exchanging more
than that), and the women is left, according to Miss Brill, broken-hearted.  All of this
"living" takes place around her. 

Her mental wanderings
bring her to a place of understanding that this entire scenario is one which is played
out in front of her, week after week, much like a play--a play in which
she is an actor.  She even imagines how she will explain this 
exciting revelation to the English pupils she tutors or the old man to whom she reads
the paper.  It's a thrilling prospect for her to think that she has a role in this
weekly drama.

readability="7">

Even she had a part and came every Sunday. No
doubt somebody would have noticed if she hadn't been there; she was part of the
performance after all. How strange she'd never thought of it like that
before!

This series of images
and thoughts and even revelations--rising action--help endear us to her as we see this
sweet, quirky woman for what she really is.  She is a lonely soul, a creature of habit,
who is one of the "statues" or fixtures of this
routine. 

When a young couple join her on the bench and
force Miss Brill to face the reality of her stark existence, her world crashes.  That
kind of a fall is only possible through the effective use of details and exposition in
the rising action.

If you know only the following information can you always determine what the element is? (Yes/No).a. Number of protons (yes or no) b. Number of...

The key to this is first to understand that in a neutral
atom, the number of positive protons and negative electrons is always equal. Secondly,
the  number of protons is always the atomic number of the element and uniquely
identifies the element.

because of the existance of
isotopes for all elements, the number of neutrons will vary and cannot be used by itself
to determine the identity of the element.

That being said,
for a) the proton # identifies the element.

for b) neutrons
do not identify the element

for c) since it is neutral the
# of electrons = # of protons = atomic number = identity of the
element.

for d) since it does not specify if the substance
is neutral or not, the number of electrons cannot be used to identify the element. It
could be a cation or anion vs. a neutral ion, and could have a charge of anywhere from
+1 to +4 to -1 to -3.

Why did Rutherford conclude that an atom's nucleus has a possitive charge instead of a negative charge?

When Rutherford did his experiments the generally held
view of matter was that it contained a mixture of positive and negative particles but
that it was solid, with no space between the individual particles.  Physicists also knew
that like charges would repel and opposite charges would attract and that the closer
together the charges were the stronger the interaction between
them.

Rutherford designed an elegant experiment in which he
used alpha particles, given off in the decay of radioactive isotopes, as his bullets.  
The alpha particles were known to have a positive charge. He set up targets consisting
of thin films of various metals, primarily gold.  Around the film, opposite the "gun" he
placed a flourescent screen that would glow if hit by the alpha
particles.

When he ran his experiments he found that most
of the time the alpha particles went right through the metal film, as if there was
nothing being hit by the particles.  Occasionally the particles would deflect (bend) a
little bit, and very rarely the alpha particles would bounce off at a greater angle or
even bounce back toward the gun.  Rutherford described it as if a cannon ball hit a sail
on a ship and bounced back at the cannon that had fired the
ball.

After numerous experiments and observations he
determined that the metal films were not really solid but mostly empty space.  Because
of the behavior of the alpha particles he also concluded that something inside the film
had a strongly positive charge that was deflecting the alpha particles when they came
close. Furthermore, that positive charge was strong enough to actually stop the flight
of the alpha particle and reverse its direction.

Rutherford
contributed greatly to understanding in greater detail the structure of the
atom.

In "The Rules of the Game" what did Waverley mean when she said this quote?"My mother imparted her daily truths so she could help my older brothers...

Let us remember the context of this powerful story. The
tale concerns a migrant family who have come from China to live in the States. As such,
they have to conquer and master a number of different challenges, tasks and skills,
learning English being just one of the many. Therefore, for the children of the
migrants, they are being brought up in a country which is not strictly their home - they
do not look "American" and they come from a very different cultural background compared
to their peers at school. Not starting out with the same advantages as others would mean
a greater challenge to stand out from the crowd and do well. Thus this quote indicates
the role of the mother in helping them to "rise above" their circumstances, and not let
them be a hindrance. Waverley's mother wants her children to be a success and to do
well, and so she pours her energies into making this happen. The rest of the story shows
how she does this with Waverley and her ability to play chess very
well.

What was the title of Vincent Van Gogh's first piece?it would be great if you could help

Vincent Van Gogh's first painting is titled "The Potato
Eaters." It was painted in 1881 when Van Gogh was twenty-eight years old. It seems that
Van Gogh was bitten by a very powerful artistic bug. Over the next nine years Van Gogh
painted 900 paintings in total – at least those are the ones that have been found and
identified.

Ironically, Van Gogh's most famous paintings,
"Starry Night," Irises," and so forth were painted toward the end of his career while he
was institutionalized in Saint-Remy, France. As an aside, it has been proven that Van
Gogh was not actually mentally ill in the traditional sense, that many of his problems
were caused by physical afflictions.

For all intents and
purposes, Vincent Van Gogh's career ended in 1890.

Can someone compare and contrast "The Interlopers" by Saki and "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Ellan Poe ?

Very interesting question. Of course, both stories contain
two characters of whom at least one hates the other and wants to gain vengeance. Both
stories end in at least one death and both contain grimly ironic
humour.

But these stories are more different than the same.
Let us think about the point of view. "The Interlopers" uses omniscient point of view
whereas "The Cask of Amontillado" famously uses the first person unreliable narrator to
show us the demented mind of Montresor. "The Interlopers" depicts a feud between two
families going back through centuries but which is actually halted due to the shared
experiences of the two main characters. "The Cask of Amontillado" is about a secret
feud, of which the justification is extremely doubtful. Lastly, tragically but
ironically, the two characters in "The Interlopers" both die in a tragic twist of fate.
"The Cask of Amontillado" ends with the death of the poor unsuspecting Fortunato at the
hands of the lunatic Montresor.

Both stories deal with
revenge yet have radically different perspectives on it. For Montresor, revenge is what
consumes him against a supposed insult. He plots a criminal way of ensuring that he is
able to dispense revenge himself in a horrendous fashion. In "The Interlopers", both
characters begin consumed by revenge, but actually spending time with each other shows
them each other's humanity and ends the feud between them. However, ironically, in spite
of this, they die together at the hands of wild wolves.

What is x for (2x+3)/3 + (x-1)/2 = (-x + 3)/6?

First thing, to determine x, we'll have to calculate the
least common denominator of the 3 ratios.

LCD =
2*3

LCD = 6

Now, we'll
multiply the first ratio by 2 and the second ratio by 3. The 3rd ratio has the
denominator 6, so it won't be multiplied.

2(2x+3)/6 +
3(x-1)/6 = (-x + 3)/6

We ca re-write the expression without
denominator:

2(2x+3) + 3(x-1) = (-x +
3)

We'll remove the
brackets:

4x + 6 + 3x - 3 = -x +
3

We'll move the terms from the right side to the left
side:

4x + 6 + 3x - 3 + x - 3 =
0

We'll combine and eliminate like
terms:

8x = 0

We'll divide by
8:

x = 0

The
solution of the equation is x = 0.