How is the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act of 2002 relevant to the Abortion Debate?

The question asked how the
law is relevant but the first answer simply asserts that it
is not relevant.  I am therefore adding an answer that I
think is more responsive to the question's assumption.

I
think that you can argue (especially if you are pro-choice) that the bill is intended to
further the argument that a fetus is a fully human life.  True, it does not actually say
this.  But have a look at this statement by a pro-life group from
2002

The law
guarantees that every infant born alive enjoys full legal rights under federal law,
regardless of his or her stage of development or whether
the live birth occurred during an abortion.

“This important
legislation ensures that every infant born alive -- including an infant who survives an
abortion procedure -- is considered a person under federal law,” the President said
before signing the bill. He added, “Today, through sonograms and other technology,
we can see clearly that unborn children are members of the human
family, as
well.

(I added the bold face
to parts that I thought are important...)

In Roe v. Wade,
the Supreme Court put forth the argument that fetuses in the first (and to some extent
the second) trimester are not really viable outside the mother and that states may not
regulate abortions in those trimesters as much as they regulate abortions of fetuses
deemed to be viable.

This law, especially given the
statements above, is arguably a move towards the idea that any fetus, at any stage of
development, is part of the "human family" and should therefore not be
aborted.

How is suspense built in chapter 4 of To Kill a Mockingbird?

This chapter features a greater role for Boo Radley and
his house, as Jem and Scout focus more and more on his house and mysteries emerge. The
first of these is when Scout one day returning from school finds some gum in the tree
near the Radley home. Although Scout wants to eat it, she is at first
suspicious:

readability="10">

My first impulse was to get it into my mouth as
quickly as possible, but I remembered where I was. I ran home, and on our front porch I
examined my loot. The gum looked fresh. I sniffed it and it smelled all right. I licked
it and waited for a while. When I did not die I crammed it into my mouth: Wrigley's
Double-Mint.

The childish
suspicion is quite amusing, as is Jem's anger at Scout for eating it when he
returns.

Of course, suspense is built when Jem pushes Scout
in the tire all the way to the front of the Radley house. When she hears the boys
scream, Scout realises where she is too, and runs away as quickly as she can. Lastly,
the kids create the Boo Radley game where they dramatise the story of Boo Radley from
the bits and pieces of information they have gleaned from others. All this of course
serves to heighten suspense as we focus more and more on the mystery of Boo Radley and
his household becomes a place of fear and terror for the
children.

In "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," what is the central irony in Mitty's life?

Let us recall that the definition of irony is the gap
between appearance and reality. Clearly, therefore, Walter Mitty with his repeated day
dreams that occur throughout the story and then his real, hum-drum life where he is
constantly nagged by his annoying wife, represent opposite poles of the kind of life
Walter Mitty would like to live and the actual life he has to
live.

Let us just briefly examine the daydreams that Walter
Mitty has. In each, he is a charismatic, vibrant man who is daring, brave and
courageous. He is able to inspire the confidence of those around him. In the first
daydream, for example, when the commander Mitty heads the plane straight into the storm
(a suicidal move, pure action hero nonsense), the crew of the plane have absolute
confidence in Mitty:

readability="11">

The crew, bending to their various tasks in the
huge, hurtling eight-engined navy hyroplane, looked at each other and grinned. "The Old
Man'll get us through," they said to one another. "The Old Man ain't afraid of
Hell!"...

The key word for
these daydreams is significant. Through this escape, Walter Mitty becomes a significant
individual. This is of course in sharp contrast to his actual day to day existence.
Consider how his wife treats him and also how Mitty thinks of their
relationship:

readability="11">

He looked at his wife, in the seat beside him,
with shocked astonishment. She seemed grossly unfamiliar, like a strange woman who had
yelled at him in a crowd. "You were up to fifty-five," she said. "You know I don't like
to go more than forty. You were up to
fifty-five."

It is clear that
Mitty's wife has him under her thumb, and her manner of repeating herself and her
complaints twice makes her particularly
irritating.

Clearly, then, there is massive irony in
Mitty's character. His monotonous existence forces him to live the life he thinks he
would like to lead in his daydreams - and here  lies the central irony, for in some
ways, his reality is less real than his daydreams.

I have to write about the influences for change has been incremental including women activist since the colonial period - can you help me

This is fairly broad.  Leaving the Colonial period, I
think that there are many examples from which you can choose.  Women like Sojourner
Truth, Lucretia Mott, as well as Elizabeth Cady Stanton or Susan B. Anthony would be
excellent examples of women who laid down influences for activism on the level of
gender.  I think that you need to be a bit more specific as to what kind of women
activist for whom you are searching.  I think that being able to explore the different
types of activism would be a start.  What type of activism are you looking for in your
research?  There are many, such as political, economic, social, or psychological forms
of active resistance, to name a couple.  I think that being able to identify what type
of woman activist you seek might be a good starting point in assessing your needs for
this work and such a topic.

What is the role of domestic space and ritual in "The House on Mango Street"In what ways does the author define gender roles in Latino culture? ...

The young speaker in“The House on Mango Street” is for the
most part acutely aware of her situation and its larger implications. She knows that the
new house represents both a pause from, though not necessarily an end of, the
rootlessness (and its consequent insecurity) that she and her family have previously
experienced; it also represents freedom from the restrictions that she and her family
have previously had to endure, restrictions that are focused in large part on the lack
of privacy—having to be careful not to make too much noise, having to hear about it when
too much noise is made, being unable to keep one’s private business to oneself, even
somethingso private as taking a bath. And even worse is the sense of what such a
lifestyle means in the eyes of others, as is vividly portrayed in paragraphs 6through
10: when the nun from the narrator’s school passes by the flat on Loomisand says “You
live there?,” the narrator’s internal reaction is: “The way she said it made me feel
like nothing.”

Yet, brief as “The House on Mango Street”
is, it does much more in its eleven paragraphs than celebrate such things as striving,
upward mobility, and the fulfillmentof the American dream. The dream that the narrator’s
mother has spunand clung to is a dream of a very different house from the small, cramped
one onMango Street, and so is the house that her father talked about whenever he bought
a lottery ticket. Although they recognize that “the house on Mango Streetisn’t it,” both
parents seem to see the house—whether truly so in their own mindsor simply in an attempt
to keep their children’s hopes alive—as a way station in the fulfillment of their
dreams, not as the end of the line, the outer limit of their real-life possibilities.
But the narrator seems to have been around enough blocks—Loomis, Keeler, Paulina, and
others that she can no longer remember—to have already grasped a sense of the limits of
the American dream for Latinos,   people like her and her family, people who don’t win
lotteries and whose dreams are destined to remain merely dreams: “I know how these
things go.”

How is the rise of the Middle Class depicted in Canterbury Tales?When Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales the age of chivalry was disappearing and...

We get a glimpse of the rising middle class from their
brief description in The Prologue.  Just the fact that these "working class" people have
the money and can afford the time away from their work to go on a religious pilgrimage
shows the change in their status and financial stabilty.  On this trip we learn that a
haberdasher, a dyer, a carpenter, a weaver, and a carpet-maker, along with their wives
are on the trip.  As we get a collective description of the group we learn that they are
all wearing new clothes and their knives are made of fine silver, not lowly brass. They
are wealthy enough to bring their own cook.   They carry themselves in a manner that
made them seem worthy of being town leaders -- they have the "capital and revenue" to 
even be made aldermen.  The women in particular seem to be fond of their new status. 
The narrator says, "Besides their wives declared it was their due, And if they did not
think so, then they ought; to be called madam is a glorious
thought."  The people of this class are gaining status that previous generations would
have been reserved for at least the landed gentry or lesser
nobles.

How does the setting influence the mood of the story 'The Cask of Amontillado'?

You are right in identifying that Poe uses the setting in
part to create the mood. The mood in this story is one that is sinister, threatening and
disturbing as we move ever further down into the catacombs of Montresor's family home
and we move ever closer to the grim revenge that he has planned against Fortunato. It is
important to focus on how the description of the setting is used to create and sustain
this mood. Consider the following quote:

readability="12">

We continued our route in search of the
amontillado. We passed through a range of low arches, descended, passed on, and,
descending again, arrived at a deep crypt in which the foulness of the air causes our
flambeaux rather to glow than
flame.

Note the repetition of
the word "descended" - we are walking ever further deeper into the dark catacombs, so
much so that we are disorientated and we have no idea of where we are. What is clear is
that we have arrived at a crypt, where dead people are buried, and that the air is so
foul that even the torches are subdued. Clearly Poe is trying to set the mood for the
shocking events that are about to unfold.

I think another
key passage that helps create the mood of horror is when Montresor finally shackles
Fortunato into the alcove from which he will never
leave:

In an
instant he had reached the extremity of the niche, and finding his progress arrested by
the rock, stood stupidly bewildered. A moment more and I had fettered him to the
granite. In its surface were two iron staples, distant from each other about two feet
horizontally. From one of these depended a short chain, from the other a padlock.
Throwing the links about his waist, it was but the work of a few seconds to secure it.
He was too much astounded to
resist.

What strikes me about
this passage is the way that Montresor is able to describe the chains and their location
with cool, calm, precision, even while he is planning a most heinous crime and a
terrible death. The tone he takes adds to the mood of horror that dominates this
excellent but terrifying work of short fiction where the setting is essential to the
overall effect.

How does Prospero change from the vengeance at the beginning of The Tempest to forgiveness? Include direct quotes for a better understanding.

It seems that you are assuming that Prospero is acting in
service to revenge or vengeance at the opening of the play, which isn't necessarily
true.  If vengeance is his motive, why doesn't he just sink the ship and drown the
passengers and be done with it?  Instead, once Propsero confirms from Ariel that the
tempest has wrecked the ship as he intended, he asks:

readability="7">

Prospero

But
are they, Ariel,
safe?

Ariel

Not
a hair perished...

...Safely in
harbour

Is the King's
ship...

Prospero

Ariel,
thy charge

Exactly is
performed.

So, Shakespeare
goes to some trouble here to let the audience know, from the very beginning, that even
though he has cause to retaliate and revenge, he is concerned for the safety of those on
board the ship.

Prospero does not, as many of Shakespeare's
characters do, fill the audience in on his plans and schemes by way of soliloquies, but
he does seem to be acting all along by a premeditated scheme.  He says, when Ferdinand
and Miranda fall in love at first sight in Act I, scene
ii:

It goes on, I
see,

As my soul prompts
it.

Which indicates his power
over the events of the play.  There is no moment that Prospero does not have ultimate
control over, so, when he gives his forgiveness and requests to be re-instated to his
Dukedom at the end, we can only assume that this forgiveness and reconciliation was his
plan all along.

He does put Alonso, Antonio, Sebastian and
Gonzalo through some hardship before the final reconciliation at the end, but, since
Gonzalo has only ever been his friend, it is hard to see the motive for this as
vengeance.  He stops the killing of Alonso, and once his major scheme, the uniting of
Ferdinand and Miranda, is complete, he quickly reunites all parties for the final
moments of the play.

As I read the play, this forgiveness
showered upon Prospero's brother and Alonso is not some change of heart that happens
through the course of the play, but has been Prospero's plan from the opening scene of
The Tempest.

Can we consider the weather is a part from the setting?

The values of nature and weather are endorsed in the
novel’s first half. Wuthering Heights is a real farmhouse set on the wild moors, and
they are the natural habitat of Catherine and Heathcliff. The civilized and cultured
world of Isabella and Edgar Linton, Thrushcross Grange, is removed from nature.
Heathcliff’s name suggests his association with nature, while Edgar and Isabella’s names
suggest a level of refinement that cuts them off from direct contract with the natural
world. Emily’s book is fiercer than anything else we will read in this course. It
depicts a world that is so primitive as to be primeval, thereby making everything we
have read seem almost prim and proper by contrast. Here, emotion is the wellspring of
being, allied to the natural elements themselves. Indeed, the novel makes a mockery of
our notion of civilization, which seems to bear little relation to the organic, fierce,
dark forces that roil in both the world and the human subject.

In Hamlet, what is a quote that defines Ophelia?I need a quote from Hamlet that really shows who Ophelia is in a nut shell.

Ah, Ophelia.  She is an enigma.  We know that Ophelia
affects other characters profoundly, but during the entire play, Ophelia has only one
soliloquy, so we are not privy to her thoughts.  We see her mainly as others see her,
and she becomes the victim of the corruption within in the court.  Her death by water
rather than poison is perhaps indicative of her innocent
nature.

But if I had to choose one quote to some her up, I
would look at her one soliloquy:

readability="6">

O woe is me

T'have
seen what I have seen, see what I
see!

Caught between obedience
to her father and her love for Hamlet, Ophelia chooses her father.   In so doing, she
witnesses Hamlet's pretend insanity and later his intense anger toward her.  His
frustration with her choice and with his situation in general causes him to lash out at
her, repeatedly telling her to "Get thee to a nunnery."

As
if the change in Hamlet is not enough, Ophelia learns that the man she once loved killed
her father.  It is a tragic event that she cannot handle.  It completely breaks
her.

Even Claudius feels remorse when he sees the mad
Ophelia,

When
sorrows come they come not in single spies, but in
battalions.

Ophelia witnesses
her transformed lover turn into a madman and her father murdered at his hands.  It is no
wonder that she goes mad and slips into the brook and submits to its current.  Her death
is a passive acceptance of the currents that are much too strong for her.  I think even
Hamlet recognizes that Ophelia could not withstand the corrupted currents of the court
when he advised her to go to a nunnery.  But by Act 4, Ophelia becomes the victim of the
struggles of others:  she has witnessed too much and what she has seen literally and
figuratively drowns her.

In Susan Glaspell's one-act play, Trifles, how does the setting of this play help us understand Mrs. Wright's deed?

The setting is tri-partite as it involves time of the
year, place in the home, and time in history. Although Trifles was published in 1916,
the setting is placed at the second half of the 1800's which is a time in which men
dominated society and women were treated nearly as second class
citizens.

The time of the year is important because it was
in the winter, and the coldness was such that Minnie's compotes in the kitchen burst
open, and the kitchen was in complete disarray. The place of the woman as manager of the
family's nurturing was the kitchen- imagine the shock of finding a woman's kitchen
unattended and made into a mess!

Finally, the situation
with the open and messed birdcage and the subsequent finding of the dead canary shows
that the situation in the home was chaotic, that this woman had snapped, and that
regardless of her crime, her husband was the source, and the cause, of the entire
chaos.

For what values of x is the following inequation valid : 2x^2 + x - 3

We are given the following inequation to solve 2x^2 + x -
3 < 0

2x^2 + x - 3 <
0

=> 2x^2 + 3x -2x -3 <
0

=> x ( 2x +3) -1 (2x + 3)
<0

=> (x - 1)(2x + 3)
<0

Now as ( x - 1)(2x + 3) is less than 0, either
 (x - 1) < 0 and (2x + 3) >0 or (x - 1) > 0 and (2x + 3) <
0.

For the first case:

(x - 1)
< 0 and (2x + 3) >0

=> x < 1
and x > -3/2

Therefore x takes values less than 1
and greater than -3/2 , or x lies in (-3/2 , 1)

For the
second case:

(x - 1) > 0 and (2x + 3) <
0

=> x > 1 and x <
-3/2

This implies x has to be simultaneously greater than 1
and less than -3/2, which is not possible.

So we cannot
obtain any values for x here.

Therefore the
possible values for x are ( -3/2 , 1)

When Othello spies Cassio with the handkerchief, what does he want to do?

Iago has Othello hide in Act IV, scene i, in order to
watch him question Cassio about his whore.  Othello believes that they are talking about
Desdemona, while Cassio believes that the conversation is about Bianca, the harlot with
whom he is having a relationship.  The use of the pronoun "she" is most convenient here
for Iago.

During the course of this, it is most fortuitous
to Iago's scheme that Bianca comes storming in with Desdemona's handkerchief
saying:

This
is some minx's token, and I must take out the work?  There!  Give it your hobby-horse,
wheresoever you had it...

And
she apparently throws the handkerchief at Cassio.

Upon
hearing this, Othello puts two and two together and arrives at the assumption that
Cassio has received the handkerchief from Desdemona and given it to his whore.  His
response when Cassio leaves and he comes out of hiding
is:

How shall
I murder him, Iago?. . .I would have him nine years a-killing. . .And let her rot and
perish and be damned to-night, for she shall not live. .
.

He more than wants to kill
both Cassio and Desdemona, he plans on it.

solve the system: 2x-5y= 3 x+ 4y = 8

We'll note the equations of the system
as:

2x-5y= 3 (1)

x+ 4y = 8
(2)

We'll solve the system using elimination method. For
this reason, we'll multiply (2) by -2:

-2x -8y = -16
(3)

Now, we'll add (3) to
(1):

 2x-5y-2x -8y=3-16

We'll
combine and eliminate like terms:

 -13y =
-13

We'll divide by -13 and we'll
get:

y =
1

We'll substitute y in
(1):

2x-5y= 3

2x =
3+5

2x = 8

We'll divide by
2:

x =
4

The solution of the system
is: {(4,1)}.

In Othello, who finds the handkerchief when Desdemona loses it?

The handkerchief in Othello is one of
the most famous props in all of Shakespeare.  So, it's comings and goings, tracked by
way of stage directions, are very important to the plot of the
play.

In Act III, scene iii, my
Arden edition of the text gives the stage direction as "She drops her
handkerchief," after Othello's line "Your napkin is too little."  Almost immediately,
Desdemona and Othello exit, and Emilia, alone onstage, picks it up.  She
says:

I am
glad I have found this napkin. . .

My wayward husband hath
a hundred times

Woo'd me to steal it. .
.

Iago enters and manages to
take it, apparently against Emilia wishes, who says:

readability="7">

Give me 't again, poor lady, she'll run
mad

When she shall lack
it.

But the deed is done. 
The handkerchief is in the hands of Iago and will become a key prop in his further
insistence to Othello that his wife is being unfaithful with
Cassio.

What role had Armenia played in the world?

Armenia has had a long history and only regained its
independence in 1991 after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Armenia had been engulfed by
the Soviet Union in 1922 and had been previously controlled by the Ottoman and Russian
Empires. Before that, Armenia had been overrun by the Mongols during the 13th century.
It enjoyed a brief time of independence after World War I before the takeover by the
Turks and then the Russians. After declaring their independence in 1991, Armenia found
itself in dire financial straits and then in a war with neighboring Azerbaijan. Turkey
joined the blockade against Armenia before Russia interceded with successful peace talks
in 1994. Aside from these two longtime enemies (Turkey and Azerbaijan), Armenia retains
good relations with the rest of the world's nations as of 2010. It's economy has
continued to grow since 1995 and the nation has made strides in modern technology and
even tourism. Armenia remains one of the predominantly Christian nations in their part
of the world, and the nation boasts a unique Armenian language and
alphabet.

Solve for x : sin4x-sin2x=0

To solve for x . sin4x -sin2x =
0.

To solve the equation we use sin2A =
2sinAcosA.

Therefore ,  sin4x = sin2(2x) =
2sin2x*cos2x.

So we substitute sin4x = 2sin2x cos2x 9n the
given equation:

2sin2x*cos2x - sin2x =
0

sin2x*(2cos2x -1) =
0..............(1).

Again  we  substitute cos2x =
1-(2sinx)^2 and sin2x = 2sinxcosx on (1):

2sinx*cosx
{2(1-2(sinx)^2) -1} = 0

2 sinx*cosx{1 - 4(sinx)^2} =
0

Equate each  non numeriacal factors to
zero:

sinx = 0, cosx = 0 , 1-4(sinx)^2 =
0

So sin x = 0 gives: x= 0 or
pi

cosx = 0 gives x = pi/2 or
3pi/2

1-4(sinx)^2 = gives: sinx = 1 or =-1. So x = pi/4,
3pi/4 , 5pi/4 or 7pi/4

The media and the public see different ethical dilemmas for police officers than the officers see for themselves. Why?

To get a good answer to this, you should tell us a bit
more about what ethical dilemmas the two "sides" see for police officers.  As it is, we
have to sort of guess at what you are talking about.

I
believe that the police see different ethical dilemmas because they are in a very
different situation than the media and the public are.  The media and public are not
dealing with the people that the police deal with.  The police deal with criminals and
possible criminals much more than most of us ever will.  They also tend to be in some
amount of physical danger much more often than most of us ever will be.  Therefore,
their vision of the ethical dilemmas inherent in their jobs will be much different than
public or media visions of those dilemmas.

Find x and y if the terms of an A. P. are x, 10, y and the terms of a G. P. are x, y, 5.

We are given that x, 10 and y are terms of an AP and x , y
and 5 are terms of a GP.

Now for an AP we know that twice
any term is the sum of the term before and after it.

So we
have x+ y = 2*10 = 20 ...(1)

Similarly for a GP we know
that the square of any term is the product of the terms before and after the
term.

So we have y^2 =
5x....(2)

From (1) and (2) we can frame y^2/ 5 + y
=20

=> y^2 + 5y =
100

=> y^2 + 5y -100 =
0

Therefore y = [-b + sqrt ( b^2 - 4ac)] / 2a and y = [-b -
sqrt ( b^2 - 4ac)] / 2a

Substituting we
get

y = [-5 + sqrt( 25 + 400) ]/ 2 and [-5 - sqrt( 25 +
400) ]/ 2

y = -5/2 + (sqrt 425)/2 adn y = -5/2 - (sqrt
425)/2

x= 20 -
y

Therefore for

y = -5/2 + (sqrt 425)/2, x=
22.5 - (sqrt 425)/2

and for y
= -5/2 - (sqrt 425)/2, x= 22.5 + (sqrt 425)/2.

Please explain the poem, especially the second stanza, line by line and word by word. Simplify it as much as you can using simple words. 1- Down...

Wilfred Owen was one of the most important poets to write
about World War I.  "Strange Meeting," like many of his poems, expresses a very negative
attitude about the horrors and futility of war.

The
narrator describes his descent into a "profound dull tunnel."  He seems to be describing
the journey of his soul into Hell after death.

He finds
there many encumbered (burdened) sleepers, meaning dead people.  These people are "too
fast" in thought or death to be stirred from their "sleep."  "Fast" in this sentence
means tightly or strongly, as in the expression "fast asleep," or as in the word
"fasten."

One man, however, jumps and stares at the
narrator as if he recognizes him.  This man lifts distressed hands as if he wants to
bless the narrator.

At the end of the poem, the narrator
comes to realize a terrible truth: this man who befriends him in Hell is the same man
that he previously killed on the battlefield.

For To Kill A Mockingbird, if my essay's topic is "Discuss the symbolism in the novel," how can I write the title properly?

Many titles could be appropriate for such an essay. Before
you begin writing, you should pick specific examples of symbolism in the novel and talk
about those. The largest example of symbolism in this particular novel is the use of
birds (specifically, but not only, mockingbirds) to represent innocent people that are
harmed by racism in Maycomb. Tom Robinson is referred to near the end as a "songbird" as
he is a victim of racism, and Jem and Scout's last name (Finch) also indicates that they
might be victims of racism.

Once you've decided what to
write about, you can pick a more specific title if you so choose. A generic title like
"Symbolism in the Novel, To Kill a Mockingbird" would work just
fine, but you could get creative and go with "The Symbolism of the Mockingbird" or
something similar.

In The Crucible, how does Danforth's adherence and obstinateness of the laws of Salem ultimately lead to the thoecracy's failure?

To me, Danforth's actions help lead to the end of the
theocracy because they show how unthinking and unbending that theocracy is.  This shows
up particularly clearly in Act IV when Danforth will not give in and grant reprieves to
people like John Proctor and Rebecca Nurse.

By Act IV, the
people of Salem are getting to be a bit unhappy with the court.  And Parris and Hale and
others like them are worried that this will get worse if respected people like Proctor
and Nurse are executed.  But Danforth will not give in.  He is adamant that the
executions must go ahead unless the two confess.  By pushing ahead simply because he
wants to maintain his own power and influence, Danforth makes people even more unhappy
with the theocracy.

The begging bowl is an important symbol in the movie Little Buddha. Describe the uses of the bowl throughout the movie. What does the bowl...

The begging bowl is an important symbol in
Buddism.

It is a story told in this religion that says that
prior to the period of enlightment of the Buddha was undergoing a process of sacrifice
in which he was eating very little food. All of a sudden, he was offered a bowl of rice
by a woman by the name of Sujata. He partook from her offering only because he realized
that, regardless of his sacrifice, stretching it further would not make him any more
austere, in fact, it could hurt him. So he only ate what he needed. After he reached
englihtement, he threw away what was left in that bowl and made an oath of
poverty.

So, the begging bowl is the only thing the Buddah
would carry around. He will only eat whatever the people put in the bowl for him. Only
what people will share with him. This  is a way to completely renounce all material
possessions.

Yet, what this teaches is that Buddhism is not
about extremes, but about balance. There is a NEED to find a happy medium between
sacrifice and life. There is no need to detach oneself from what's neccesary for the
sake of calling it a "good deed". Instead, one must find the perfect middle for
it.

What kind of punishment does Pip expect for striking the young gentleman in Great Expectations?

To answer this question, I think that you should look at
the first few paragraphs at the start of Chapter XII.  There, you can see Pip having
these sort of fevered fantasies about what will happen to him because he has beat up the
young gentleman.  I would say, overall, that Pip does not expect some particular
punishment.  Instead, it is clear that he just expects to be punished in some fairly
serious way.

If you need to give specific examples, look at
the paragraphs I've mentioned.  He imagines everything from him being put in jail to
kids being paid to beat him up to Miss Havisham herself shooting him.  So he has all
sorts of wild imaginings as to what punishment he might incur for what he has
done.

Upon his first meeting with Jesse, Lama Norbu says "In my country we love masks". What is the significance of this and the importance of...

Masks are important for Buddhism as they often reproduce
gods and deities. They are an integral part of Buddhist culture and beliefs and are
often worn during religious dances and rituals to defeat negative forces. Buddhist masks
also recall images linked to death, the decay of our physical bodies and the consequent
spiritual transformation. The fact that Jesse, whom Norbu believes is the re-incarnation
of his teacher, is wearing a mask that he has made himself when they first meet, may be
taken as a clue to a shared cultural heritage between the Lama and the boy. The boy did
not know that Norbu was coming that day or that masks were such an important part of his
religious and cultural traditions, so he couldn't have consciously worn the
mask.