I have sold 2/3 of my pencils for $ 0.15 each . If i have 8 pencils left how much money did i collect for the pencils i sold.

We don't know the total number of pencils, therefore we'll
put the total number of pencils as x.

If you've sold
(2/3)*x, you've had (1/3)*x left.

We know, from enunciation
that the amount of left pencils is 8.

We'll put (1/3)*x =
8.

We'll cross multiply and we'll
get:

x = 8*3

x = 24
pencils

Now, we'll found the amount of sold pencils, namely
2x/3.

We'll substitute x by 24 and we'll
get:

2*24/3 = 2*8 = 16 pencils
sold

To compute the cash earned for sold
pencils, we'll multiply 16 by
$0.15.

16*0.15 =
$2.40

When Dimmesdale and Chillingworth are talking in chapter ten, what is the meaning of this conversation?The conversation involves a dark leaf, a...

In order to answer this question, you have to keep in mind
some key details pertaining to each character.  Dimmesdale, as you should know by now,
is the father of Hester's baby.  Chillingworth, is of course, Hester's long lost husband
(Mr. Prynn).  And most importantly, Hester is the only character who is fully aware of
all of these things.

Chillingworth
suspects Dimmesdale is Pearl's father from the very beginning.  In
order to bring this secret to light, he has attached himself to the minister as a doctor
(or "leech").  He spends every day in close contact with this man, who is growing ever
weaker as a result of his guilty conscious and outward hypocrisy.  Chillingworth plays
into both by making constant but casual reference to scientific and spiritual matters of
secrecy.

This conversation in chapter 10, is one such
reference.  Dimmesdale, outside one day, questions Chillingworth about a strange looking
plant.  Chillingworth explains that the dark leaves of this plant growing on an unmarked
tombstone are the sign of the buried's unconfessed sins.  He is suggesting here, that
even if a person goes to the grave, unconfessed sins will find a way to show
themselves.  Whether the story is true or not, Chillingworth here is making direct
reference to his suspicion that Dimmesdale has an unconfessed sin.  He is attempting to
scare or warn the minister into confession.

What does the story have to do with alcoholism?

The story suggests that Poe was greatly interested in the
causes of evil, for his analysis of his nameless narrator’s motivation is almost equal
to the story itself, particularly in the opening pages. Poe offers two major
explanations for the narrator’s “alteration for the worse” (paragraph 6). The first is
alcoholism. The second, and the more interesting, is what Poe calls “perverseness.” A
similar concern with such evil may also be found in famous works like Browning’s
“Porphyria’s Lover” and Stevenson’s “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” both of which demonstrate
that evil and good are sometimes inseparable. Perhaps it is the alcoholism side of the
person doing the acting. Poe’s story overweights his analysis, however, but this most
interesting story is one in which the narrative blends with moral and psychological
concerns.

In chapter 6, they do an "overhaul" of the bayonets. Why? I can't figure out the answer.

In order to figure out the answer, just keep reading a bit
past where the word "overhaul" actually occurs.  Basically what is going on here is that
the soldiers are changing their bayonets to take off the saws (serrated edges) that some
of them have on their blunt sides.  They are doing this because they believe that the
enemy will kill them (and probably in a particularly nasty way) if they catch them with
the bayonets that have saws on them.

The idea here is that
the bayonets with saws are seen as a nasty weapon.  Because of this, the enemy has been
killing people caught with those bayonets instead of taking them captive.  Soldiers
don't want this to happen to them and so they "overhaul" their
bayonets.

Whats Camus' reason for making the Arab a murderer?

Camus makes the Arab a murderer to influence the reader's
response to the dilemma Daru faces in the story, based upon Camus' political concerns at
that time between Algiers and France.

The reader expects
Daru to find the Arab repugnant so that when Daru is "ordered" to take him to jail, we
expect that Daru would follow directions without a second thought.  First, because the
Arab has committed a terrible crime (murder), rather than just assault or thievery.
 Second, Camus makes the prisoner an Arab because at the time he wrote the story, the
Arab's predicament would not have elicited much sympathy, as Arabs were not generally
accepted or respected, so if Daru was mean to him, few would have cared, but might even
expect it.  Camus makes a strong personal statement in treating the Arab like a "guest"
in light of this.

Centrally, Daru's refusal to take up any
kind of gun against the Arab shows Daru's refusal to take sides in the conflict between
the French and Arabs.  This is Camus speaking to his personal refusal to choose sides in
the problems between the Algerians and the
French.

Ironically, Daru cares more for the Arab than the
Arab's own people: Daru cares for him in his home, and offers him the chance to escape,
even though the Arab does not take the opportunity.  All the Arab's friends do is
threaten Daru, blaming him, instead, for the Arab's
incarceration.

How does wireless LAN system work?There could be many such brodcasters in a given area so how does the right information reach the right person

WiFi is a quite straightforward concept really.  You pick
up a wireless network just like you pick up a radio station - radio waves.  A wireless
adapter translates data into a radio signal to transmit it via an antenna.  A router
then receives this signal and decodes it.  This information gets form the router to the
internet via a wired Ethernet connection.

This can be
paralleled with how radio's work.  A radio station is like the computer that is
translating data (music etc.) to radio waves, and broadcasting these waves a certain
radius from the station defining its range.  Your radio acts like a router by picking up
this signal and decoding it.

What differs between wireless
radio waves and other kinds of radio waves like radio stations, cell phones, TVs, etc.
is that the frequencies used by WiFi are quite high in comparison allowing these waves
to carry a lot more data.

Why does Gene cry when he speaks to the doctor in A Separate Peace?

When Gene speaks to the doctor following the surgery, the
doctor tells him that Finny's leg had sustained "a messy break," and that although he
will walk again, he will never be able to play sports as he used to. Gene reacts by
bursting into tears, crying

readability="7">

"...for Phineas and for (him)self and for this
doctor who believed in facing things. Most of all (Gene) cried because of kindness,
which (he) had not
expected."

Phineas had been
naturally gifted with a flowing athleticism; sports had been as much a part of his life
as breathing. Gene knows that to suddenly be rendered incapable of participating in
sports would be especially devastating to Finny. He cries for Phineas because of the
magnitude of his loss.

Gene cries for himself because of
his complicity in causing the accident that has maimed Finny. Finny looks at Gene as his
best friend, and in a moment of confused and hidden resentment, Gene has betrayed that
friendship and inflicted a serious injury on one who has no ill-will towards him, and
values him the most.

Dr. Stanpole is a skilled and
sensitive man who sees a lot of pain and suffering, but he is practical, and insists on
looking at things realistically and making the best of bad situations. I believe Gene
cries for the doctor because his stoic acceptance of the destruction he sees everyday
has a certain poignancy. He is a man of feeling who faces life head-on and takes things
as they come. Somewhere deep within himself, Gene understands that, because of the war,
Finny's injury is only the beginning of the pain and suffering the doctor will have to
witness, and accept with a stiff upper lip.

Gene cries
because of the unexpected kindness with which the doctor speaks to him. Because of the
knowledge of his own guilt, he does not feel that he deserves it. In addition, when a
person is trying to control huge and heartfelt emotions, kindness has a tendency to
penetrate his defenses and cause him to lose that control, allowing feelings to burst
forth in an avalanche of tears (Chapter 5).

Explain how the setting, plot, character, theme, and tone make The Deerslayer a romantic novel.

It is important to understand the key elements of American
romantic literature in order to analyze The Deerslayer by these
standards.

By nature, the romantic novel in American
literature focuses on an exploration of new frontiers, wilderness, the West. 
The Deerslayer takes place in such a wilderness.  The plot revolves
largely around a lake (Glimmerglass) and the woods.

The
other prominent characteristic of romantic literature is the "romantic hero."  The
characterists possessed by the romantic hero can also be looked at as common
themes of the literature
itself.

• rugged, wild, uncivilized,
  unsophisticated


• virtue was in American
  innocence


• sense of honor based on a higher principle
  rather than society’s rules


• knowledge of people/life
  based on experience rather than books or formal
  learning


• loves nature, avoids town
  life


• quest for higher truth in the natural
  world

Consider how Natty Bummpo (Deerslayer)
coincides with these characteristics, and I think you will have the full answer to your
question.

What is the significance of the hobo saying "this aint so bad'?Thank you thank you this is urgent!!

The hobo's comment is designed to show that suffering is
relative. The hobo is older than the soliers who are locked with him in the box car, and
this gives him more things to compare their situation
with.

For example, the young people in the car may feel
hungry after not having eaten for a few hours, but the hobo may have not eaten for
several days. He can, thus, see the young people's situation as a relatively cheerful
one.

Also, please note that in this scene the condition of
the soliers in the box car is about to get much
worse.

Furthermore, German soldiers are writing on boxcars
that will probaby take many nearby Jewish passengers to death
camps.

In sum, the situation of the young soldier, who
talks with the hobo isn't good, but in relative terms, we have to say that, it could be
much worse.

We're left feeling cheerful, but only in an
ironic sense.

Why does a diamond sparkle?

The critical angle is the largest angle at which light
rays inside a diamond can escape.
The more a material bends light, the higher
the RI Refractive index, the smaller its critical angle. Because diamond has a high RI,
it has only a small critical angle, 24.5 degrees. This is the reaon why well-cut
diamonds can be so brilliant : with smaller critical angles, there is less opportunity
for light to exit, so there is more chance that the light reflects off the diamond's
inner surfaces several times before finally exiting through its crown (where you will
see it). Most, but not all of the light leaves it like that, it depends on the angle of
incidenece and degree of polarization. Light rays that reflect back into the diamond are
called secondary rays, and they contribute to a diamond's overall brilliance, fire and
scintillation. Some don't leave the diamond but lose energy or dissipate into the
crystal's structure.
On top, diamonds are harder, so take a better polish on
their facets, so they will reflect more light also than glass (glass windows will not
reflect as much as diamonds) : luster is also better, images including light will be
reflected better.

Although she hates the Party, why can Julia be called "apolitical"?

Julia hates the Party because she sees through it to what
a corrupt fraud it is, not because of any adherence to a particular politics. She's a
materialist, interested in her own physical and psychological well-being, and she
understands that the Party blocks people from achieving either one. She understands that
the Party wants to use her energy for its own ends, and she resists that. She, rather
than Winston, perceives that the Party wants to prevent sex not only to keep people
miserable but to channel their energy into achieving Party goals. She wants her energy
for herself. She also doesn't care whether the Party changes history, and she works from
the a priori or beginning premise that the Party
lies.

Orwell leaves it an open question as to whether
Julia's pragmatic self-interest or lack of any illusions about politics is better or
worse than Winston's desire to believe in a dream of a better and more truthful world.
It's also an open question as to whether Julia is truly "apolitical": can anyone so
cynical about the state not be seen as having a political position? Certainly Big
Brother sees her as a political subversive, even if she has no coherent
politics.

What is a good thesis statement to relate American cultural and national identity to the story "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula...

In her introduction to her story "The Ones Who Walk Away
from Omelas," Ursula LeGuin wrote that her narrative was inspired by William James's
formulation of pragmatism.  She  states that her story was written as an allegory of the
scapegoat as the "dilemma of the American conscience."

In
one criticism that is cited below, the author contends that LeGuin has never stated the
problem.  So, it is left to the reader to decide.  Who or what is the scapegoat?  And,
are the people who live so comfortably while another or others suffer truly happy and
justified in how they live?

Your thesis can propose the
situation that causes such a dilemma.  For instance, the lives of many wealthy people
are comfortable because others provide the product that keeps them wealthy.  But, the
wealthy are unconcerned about the conditions under which these people work; they simply
enjoy the comfort.

What type of character do you think Beneatha is?Please give examples.

I think that Beneatha is a very modern character.  She
embodies the idea the freedom is something that is diverse and eclectic, and represents
this through her different passions and temperaments.  She is committed to her freedom
and independence and lacks any hesitation to express it.  I think that this is also
where her modernity is revealed in that she doesn't quite get the fact that modern, in
its own intrinsic condition, is not superior.  When she is put in her place by the
elders of the family, it is representative of the fact that while she does have freedom,
she also grasps that there is much for her to learn.  Finally, I think that she is
modern because she understands the different hurdles that she must overcome in her
experience of being an economically challenged woman of color.

Major theoretical, critical, and thematic perspectives in The Color Purple.Emphasize if possible on the power of narrative and voice,the power of...

The power of voice is one of the major thematic
perspectives offered by Walker's The Color Purple.  The novel's
protagonist Celie writes to God because she feels like she has no other outlet for her
thoughts and feelings.  She has been repeatedly told by authority figures in her life
that she is ugly and unimportant; and as a result, Celie feels like her life is nearly
worthless.  Her only connection of value is to her sister Nettie, and this relationship
suffers when Albert hides Nettie's letters so that Celie cannot read them.  Celie is
largely silenced at the beginning of the novel, and she begins to learn the value of her
own identity and voice when Shug Avery befriends her.  As the novel progresses, Celie
develops her voice and is finally able to stand up for herself against Albert.  The
narrative perspective taken in the novel allows for the development of Celie's voice and
shows the reader this process as it unfolds.

What do shortcomings (in business) mean? And an example please.

The term shortcoming does not have any special meaning in
the field of business or management.  It can be used in business and management to mean
any fault or shortcoming in nature or conduct of a person, organisational unit, an
organizational function, a process,  a complete organization, or any such
entity.

For example. lack of product knowledge may be
considered a shortcoming in a sales person, and an inability to maintain consistent
quality of product may be considered as a shortcoming of a manufacturing company.
Shortcoming may also be elated to a product. For example, poor safety standards may be
considered a shortcoming of a particular model of an automobile. We can use the term
shortcoming also to denote the short coming of a management tool or technique. For
example we may say that shortcoming of the classical economic order quantity formula is
that it does not take into consideration the effect of quantity
discount.

What is a summary for Stand Tall by Joan Bauer?

From the beginning
conversation with the school's administrative assistant, Mrs. Pierce, we learn that a
twelve-year-old boy named Sam, but called Tree, has two different homes and that it
causes him great pain and sorrow (and a bit of anger when brought up curtly by a school
administrative assistant verbally throwing out references to forms C and D and to
"multi-residence sheets"). Sam, the Tree, is in a terrible bind, torn between two homes,
when just last year he was happy at one home.

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"And where is home this week?"
...
   [Tree's] brain blistered.
   "Your parents didn't fill out
the multi-residence sheet ...."
   He handed her the monthlong schedule his
mother had given him--color-coordinated for each week (yellow ... [and]
blue...).
   "If your parents are co-custodians, then that's a different form.
... [And] the invoice for school trips ... can be put on this form--form C--which you
can to attach to form D."

In
a merciless environment, Tree is overwhelmed by the changes in his home-life even though
he physically overwhelms those who are around him: "[Mrs. Pierce] gazed up at him, way
up. He bent his knees to seem shorter." Given the nickname of Tree in fourth grade, now
in seventh grade, Tree is 6 feet, 3 and-a-half inches tall: His is a daunting physical
body size trapped in a daunting mental and social
situation.

In his
encounter with Mrs. Pierce, we learn that when he lives at his father's house, he also
lives with his paternal grandfather who is a veteran of the Vietnam War. After Tree
endures the verbal assault from the "school administrative assistant," he goes to his
favorite white oak (the one comfort he has for his humiliating nickname) and imitates a
tree as he has seen a pantomimist do in New York City (to make sure we know this not a
mental breakdown, neighbors come by and he entertains them with a wink, making the
little girl giggle). A neighbor-woman of his, Mrs. Clitter, leads the narrator to tell
us that Tree's grandfather has endured a lower leg amputation just two weeks prior: "You
tell [that grandfather of yours] I'm going to do everything I know to do to help him."
An important thematic message of the story is one that Grandpa teaches when he says to
Tree that to fix a thing "You've got to take a thing apart to see what it's made of."
It's Tree's sorrow that Grandpa hasn't been able to apply that motto to his parents'
marriage and fix that.

Tree took Grandpa's lesson and motto
to heart and dug into finding out all he could about trees. In this way, through
accumulated knowledge, he turned the "Tree" humiliation around and discovered that trees
are pretty great for everybody. They protect and are "strong and steady" and are endowed
with "great expectations." His personal load is lifted somewhat by this discovery, which
is good because he still has two brothers away at separate colleges to worry about who
are struggling through the divorce under their own darkening shadows: "Divorce casts so
many shadows." In addition to a harsh school administrative assistant, a suffering
grandfather, a crying mother, two brothers away from home, a dog named Bradley being
trained by benefit of photographic illustrations, Tree's muscles are aching again
indicating yet another growth spurt.

As Tree helps Grandpa
with his physical therapy, Coach Glummer causes Tree grief by stopping in front of him,
gazing way up and saying, "There's gold in you, kid," to which Tree replies that there
really is not; Tree is not talented athletically. Glummer introduces one of Tree's
ongoing conflicts, especially because of his brothers' earlier sports glories.
Nonetheless, Tree's disintegrating existence is broken up by the laughter and the antics
he and his friend, Sully, get into.

In complement to Tree
and Sully tearing Tree's dad's house apart with their "experiment," Sophie, a new girl
at school, enters Tree's life when he finds her in the cafeteria "looking at her lunch
and, it seemed to Tree, trying not to cry." It's clear at the start that Sophie has some
unusual traits as, while talking, she "was moving her head back and forth in a kind of
rocking motion." Nonetheless, it is Sophie who introduces Tree to the idea that he has
"to know what [he's] about" by having a motto to live
by.

When a river that "decides to flood its banks" brings a
dangerous flood to town, leaving them no time to claim belongings, Tree observes, with
Grandpa's help, the symbolic association between floods, war and family war (divorce):
"flood is like a war ... because it can take so much with it," as Grandpa sadly said.
Following the flood--which compelled Tree to start thinking of important contemporary
issues, like "hazardous waste"--the "giant oak began to bud," as did Tree, "days after
the flood."

Surviving the ravages of flood and divorce and
helping out through Grandpa's struggles, Tree found his equanimity, peace and
self-understanding with the help of challenging family, friends and a strangely
motto-driven girl named Sophie (from the Greek sophía meaning
"wisdom"). Tree finds that, in the end, a candle of hope can burn for his splintered
family, especially since his mother has his "dank and damp" father as a wet guest in her
4th floor walk-up apartment after the flood.

In what sort of light are women portrayed and treated in Titus Andronicus?

There is not much that is subtle about this play,
including the women characters.  Many scholars consider it to be a very early play of
Shakespeare's, and as such, doesn't reveal much of the deep and complex
characterizations that would people his later plays.  If you consider Lavinia and Tamora
separately, they are two cliched representations of women, but also complete
opposites.

Tamora is a masculine woman in her behavior who
has put aside her more tender, feminine aspects to "run with the boys," which is
probably necessary.  She is, after all, her people's ruler.  She matches wits with the
powerful male figures in the play and is as invested in her own revenge plot as Titus is
in his.  She does have her moments of speaking out as a loving and caring mother, but
given her actions in the play, it is hard not to read some attempt at manipulation in
these pleas.  At the end of the play, she is completely demoralized, being made to eat a
pie that contains the chopped up remains of her dead sons, and is finally overtaken by
the more powerful Titus in his thirst for revenge.

Lavinia,
on the other hand, is, at first, the model of the good, obedient daughter.  She seems
content to marry her father's choice for her, even though she is betrothed to someone
else.  Yet, there is an interesting confrontation between Lavinia and Tamora, once
Lavinia is married, that shows some spunk and life.  At the end, however, Lavinia is a
victim of the power-hungry characters around her (including Tamora).  She has her tongue
cut out, and this forced muting is a nice symbol of how little "voice" she has in what
befalls her in this society.

This is not one of
Shakespeare's more delicate or subtle plays, and in it, the female characters are nearly
cartoon-ish in their extreme rendering as either completely power-hungry and driven to
revenge (Tamora) or as a victim of circumstance, one who is prepared to assume her
required role as second class citizen to the men around her
(Lavinia).

What is the moral diversity agrument for nonobjectivism, and how do moral objectivists attempt to answer it?

Richard Boyd states that Moral Realism (Moral Objectivity)
asserts as true that:

1. Moral
   statements are the sorts of statements which are (or which express propositions which
   are) true or false (or approximately true, largely false,
   etc.);


2. The truth or falsity (approximate truth...) of
   moral statements is largely independent of our moral opinions, theories,
   etc.;


3. Ordinary canons of moral reasoning—together with
   ordinary canons of scientific and everyday factual reasoning—constitute, under many
   circumstances at least, a reliable method for obtaining and improving (approximate)
   moral
   knowledge.

(Boyd,
Richard N. (1988), "How to Be a Moral Realist", in Sayre-McCord, Geoffrey,
Essays on Moral Realism, Cornell University Press, pp. 181–228,
ISBN href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Number"/>
0-8014-2240-X)

In other words, some things are right or
wrong no matter how anyone feels about the rightness or wrongness of
them.

Non-objectivists argue that for every premise that an
objectivist asserts to be true, largely true, false, or largely false, there are others
who assert differently or oppositely.

Non objectivists
argue that the mere existence of controversy over moral issues proves that there can be
no such thing as moral facts, absolutes or truths. They point out that in similar
circumstances people with different perspectives, who come from different cultures or
who have differing degrees of ignorance on the issues involved may act in very different
ways and justly view each of these different responses to the issue as equally moral or
even more moral than another.

Objectivists or Moral
Realists counter this argument with the fact that even in the empirical realm there is
much disagreement--sometimes very deeply-held and widespread disagreement, but that does
not prove that there cannot be a single, factual
answer.

For example: evolution or the spontaneous origin of
the universe is widely and fervently disputed by creationists. While the presence of a
religious element might tempt the researcher into believing that this is a moral or
religious argument, the fact is indisputable that whoever is correct, whether
evolutionists or creationists, there can be only one factual beginning of the real
universe in which we live. Either it evolved or was created. We may never be able to
prove which one to anyone's complete satisfaction, but that does not alter the fact that
it can be only one.

So, simply because there is controversy
over a moral premise does not in any way disprove that it is possible that a moral
premise can always be either true or false regardless of
opinion.

What thoughts does the Grecian Urn arouse in the poets mind in "Ode on a Grecian Urn" by John Keats?

The poet, who serves as a critic as well - courtesy of the
last two lines, thinks of many things: time, love, desire and paradoxes:
mortality/immortality, as well as the main dichotomy - or maybe interdepdence is the
better word - of life/art. 

The images on the urn "tease"
the poet because he cannot hear their songs, the trees can never be bare.  They are
frozen in immortality, as art, these images serve as muses almost: they allow the poet
to ask questions about the figures.  He wonders what the songs sound like, the frozen
image of one chasing a lover (so, never having her -always longing).  These are everyday
things: nature, ritual, courtship and music. 

The poet is
teased by wanting to know the outcome of their songs stories, the courtship, etc. So,
the poet longs to know as those figures long (longed) to be heard. This is all set to
the idea of desire. "Thou still unravished bride of quietness."  Still meaning ongoing
as well as motionless: frozen in immortality (but in an additional sense of dead since
the images are not moving and silent).  This paradox of the immortality within art is
one thing the poet contemplates and it is analogous to the desire of an "unravished
bride" or simply the desire to know "truth, beauty" and above all, how art, poetry, the
urn (and/or life) can communicate that.  I always thought that the poet concludes that
art in general tries to represent life, but ends up creating a duality of desire in this
kind of "representational art": the poet must know and art must sort of desire to be
real, not frozen - in order to Truly represent life. 

While
truth and beauty, subject to opinion, can be immortal, they exist through these images
(and life) and the concepts they conjure.  So, running with "conjure," life conjures art
which conjures truth and beauty, all of which is contemplated by life and the cycle
continues. 

In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Puck is called a hobgoblin, yet can he be classified as a mischievous fairy?

Puck is called many things in this play.  The reference to
"Hobgoblin" comes in Act II, scene i, when Puck meets one of Titania's fairies in a spot
that both Titania and Oberon are claiming possession of.  This fairy does not seem to be
very friendly to Puck, so the words that he/she speaks against Puck are simply this one
character's opinion, but also reflect the mercurial nature of who and what, exactly,
Puck is.

Here's the text spoken by the First Fairy,
abridged to show the different names used to refer to
Puck:

Either
I mistake your shape and making quite,

Or else you are
that shrewd and knavish
sprite

Called Robin
Goodfellow. . . .

Those that
"Hobgoblin" call you, and "sweet
Puck"...

This
fairy, even though he/she is not on Oberon's team, and as Titania's fairy has no reason
to particularly like Puck, calls him "shrewd," "knavish," a "sprite," "Hobgoblin," and
"sweet Puck," all which conjure up some different
images.

Certainly Puck admits in his next speech to being
mischievous (as you describe him).  Puck says:

readability="7">

I am that merry wanderer of the
night.

I jest to Oberon and make him
smile...

Puck goes on to
describe some of the tricks he has played on unsuspecting humans.  So, yes, certainly,
among other things, Puck can be considered a mischievous
fairy.

For more about Puck and the fairy world of
Shakespeare's s day, please see the links below.

What are the ironies we find in the tragedy Macbeth?

One of the most often discussed ironies is the character
of Lady Macbeth versus the character of Macbeth.  If one was looking for traditional
male and female representations, representations that would have been usual in drama is
Shakespeare's day, what we have here (in the early scenes of the play), ironically, is
the exact opposite of traditional behaviour.

Lady Macbeth
is decisive, apparently unemotional in her decision making, and without scruples.  She
does, in Act I, scene v, ask the dark forces to "unsex" her, but she honestly seems to
be doing a good enough job on her own, "unsex"-ing herself.  She taunts Macbeth for his
more traditionally feminine concern over things like treating Duncan as a proper guest
in their home, his fear over noises and things that go bump in the night, and his
concern over behaving in the way that he "should.  She calls his behaviour un-manly and
all but tells to stop his whining and get on with the killing.  This control that Lady
Macbeth exerts would also have been much more of a traditionally
man-as-head-of-the-household behaviour--a very ironic
characterization.

And Shakespeare doesn't end his ironic
portrayals of these characters with these early-in-the-play twists on their gender
roles.  In the second half of the play, he transforms them again, ironically, into the
very close approximations of mirror images of how the other character behaved in the
early scenes.  Macbeth becomes a cold-blooded killing machine, one very similar to Lady
Macbeth's early demeanor.  And Lady Macbeth has been rendered sleepless and
incapacitated by her guilt over the murder of Duncan, an echo of the early
Macbeth.

Shakespeare plays upon the audience's traditional
expectations of  masculine and feminine behaviour in Macbeth to
create a man and woman who, ironically, both surprise us with their out-of-gender
behavior and then surprise us again with another ironic twist in which they seem to
switch behavior, becoming much more traditional in their
portrayals.

What is the effect of inverted sentences in brownings poem "my last duchess", and why is this significant technique significant?

Sentence inversion, sometimes called “hyperbation” is when
the normal grammatical word order is reversed. It can be a single word or a group of
words. Poets use inversion to force their poetry to rhyme, to make it fit into the
meter, to emphasize their themes, to focus attention on specific elements such as
characters or characters’ motives (as in this poem), or to interrupt the flow of the
narrative to grab the reader’s attention. There are different types of inversion or
hyperbation: anastrophe, hypallage and hysteron proteron. Examples are as
follows:

Anastrophe: “the sun brilliant shown all day”
(normal order would be “the brilliant sun shown all
day”

Hypallage: “dark walking in the slow night” (normal
order would be “slow walking in the dark night”)

Hysteron
proteron: “I conquered, I saw, I came” (normal order would be “I came, I saw, I
conquered”)

If you examine some of the inverted lines in
My Last Duchess, you will see that Browning employs many of these
devices to focus attention on various elements of the Duke’s dramatic monologue. These
manipulations of language help us discern what type of character the Duke is – an
egomaniac. For example:

readability="6">

But to myself they turned (since none
puts by
The curtain I have drawn for you, but
I)

We see here
that the Duke puts the emphasis on himself a great deal when he is talking about his
“last duchess”.

Or, in this example, we see how he treated
his wife like a belonging, because he is showing off HER picture, yet the word order
indicates that the person viewing the picture is more important than the picture of the
woman:

readability="6">

for never read
Strangers
like you that pictured
countenance,

Go
through the poem and look for other examples. You will find that the words that occur
first receive the emphasis. Then ask youself why the poet does this in this particular
case. It will help you appreciate the artistry of the poem and help you understand the
psychology of the Duke.

How would I write a letter as Pip, apologizing for leaving Joe behind and for getting caught up in a world that is unworthy of Joe's values?By the...

We can't write a letter for you. Our service is to offer
advice as to how to complete your work, not to do it for
you.

If you have to write a letter to Joe, I think it would
certainly have a tone in it that notes that Joe is right and Pip has been wrong. I think
Pip would focus on the facts that he got carried away with the idea that he could have
been destined for Estella and a finer, more luxurious lifestyle. He might have thought
this because Miss Havisham kept inviting him over as a kid, and even as he got older,
they had opportunities to get together that didn't reveal she
wasn't his benefactor.

Pip might also
write about how his choice to often stay at the Blue Boar instead of Joe's house was
really arrogant. Pip would probably use many words similar to arrogant to express the
way he has treated Joe.

Pip would likely also note that in
spite of his failure to be kind to Joe, Joe has remained kind as evidenced by him taking
care of Pip when Pip grew sick. Pip should be grateful for Joe not holding anything
against him.

When Orwell felt that he "would have to shoot the elephant after all" -- what did this teach him about the "real nature" of imperialism?in...

In my opinion, what this taught Orwell is that the people
who are supposedly in control in an imperial system (the colonizers) are not truly in
control.  They are often forced to do things that they do not think are a good idea or
even things that they do not think are morally right.  They have to do these things
simply to maintain their image and their ability to seem to be in
control.

Orwell feared that the natives would think he was
weak if he did not shoot the elephant.  If they thought he was weak, he and all English
would look bad.  This would make it harder for them to control their native
subjects.

So the point is that when you start to
imperialize, you are no longer able to act based on your own convictions and values. 
Instead, you have to act so as to keep your control over your
subjects.

When starting a sentence with "then", which punctuation is correct? "Then, discuss with the others." "Then discuss with the others."Wondering if...

Then, discuss with the
others.

 According to Hodges'
Harbace Handbook, one should use a comma to set off words such as
interjections, vocatives (words used to address someone directly), or
transitional words.  In this sentence,
then seems to be used as a transitional word of
order.

The Chicago Manual of Style
states that introductory sentences usually require a comma, but a single word
or short phrase does not except to avoid misreading. So, a comma still seems in order if
one is using then to introduce a step in a procedure. Rule: 
Whenever a pause is in order, use a comma. For
example,      

readability="7">

First, read the material that has
been distributed.  Then, discuss with the
others.

What is the feminist perspective of "Girl"?

In Kincaid's "Girl," the narrative perspective is that of
a mother giving her daughter life lessons in how to grow up to be a respectable woman. 
The lessons include a focus on domestic roles, sexuality, image, and personal identity. 
From a feminist perspective, a reader could analyze the implied gender roles that the
story suggests throughout the narrative.  Further, a reader could also explore the
definitions of respectability that are suggested by the story In the final line of the
story, the mother asks her daughter if she will really just turn out to be a woman whom
the baker won't let near the bread, implying that only women who are socially respected
will be allowed such graces. 

What are party platforms, and what are they used for?

Great posts above.  Also, in formulating a party platform,
there is a process that starts at the precinct and county level, then works up to the
state and national conventions.  Delegates present at each of these levels can vote yes
or no to each proposed "plank" or policy statement.  So you end up with 50 platforms
from the states, and these are consolidated and weeded through at the national
convention during the week until a national platform is
adopted.

I have been in on the first two levels of that
process, and it is both interesting and encouraging to see a democratic idea form at the
grass roots level.  At the national level during an election campaign, and in the modern
day of internet/tweeting/YouTube and television, parties don't need to be as clear in
their ideas as they used to be.  So platforms aren't talked about that
much.

In Chapter 19, what point is Dickens making with Mr. Trabb? Please include textual support.

In this chapter, Pip has just learned of his mysterious
benefactor, and he visits Mr. Trabb, who is a tailor, to get a proper suit of clothes
ready. When Pip enters the shop, Trabb is eating. When he sees that it is Pip, he pays
no attention to him. Pip, however, quickly tells Trabb of his good fortune, and
immediately, Trabb starts fawning over Pip:

readability="12">

“My dear sir,” said Mr. Trabb, as he
respectfully bent his body, opened his arms, and took the liberty of touching me on the
outside of each elbow, “don't hurt me by mentioning that. May congratulate you? Would
you do me the favour of stepping into the
shop?”

Pip really lets this
go to his head because he has not yet learned how a gentleman is supposed to act. It is
all new to him and he supposes that he should probably act in a manner befitting his new
station in life. He has just had a conversation with Biddy that totally surprises him
because Biddy is reacting to Pip's newfound snobbery and Pip mistakenly thinks she is
jealous.

Trabb continues to fawn over Pip, asking him to
put in a good word for him in London, hoping that Pip will continue to frequent his
tailor shop:

readability="13">

“I know, sir, that London gentlemen cannot be
expected to patronise local work, as a rule; but if you would give me a turn now and
then in the quality of a townsman, I should greatly esteem it. Good morning, sir, much
obliged.—Door!”

Also, Trabb
now refers to Pip as "sir" and Pip gets more and more puffed up the longer he is in the
tailor shop. Trabb also brings out more and more expensive fabric, and Pip chooses the
most expensive cloth for his suit. This is actually step one in Pip's rise to snobbery
on the way to his "great expectations."

What is the probability of winning a lottery game where the winning number is made up of seven digits from 0 to 9 chosen at random?

The probability of winning the lottery = the probability
of choosing all 7 digits correctly. That is:

The
probability of choosing the first digit = 1/10

The
probability of choosing the 2nd digit = 1/10

The
probability of choosing the 3rd digit= 1/10

The
proabability of choosing the 4th digit= 1/10

The
probability of choosing the 5th digit= 1/10

The probability
of choosing the 6th digit= 1/10

The probability of choosing
the 7th digit= 1/10

Thne the probability of choosing all 7
digits= 1/10*1/10*1/10*1/10*1/10*1/10*1/10= 1/10^7 =
1/10000000

Then the probability of winning  is one in a
10,000,000

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

We'll move log 2 (x+2) to the left side and we'll
get:

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

We'll use the product property of
logarithms:

log 2 [(x-1)(x+2)] =
2

 [(x-1)(x+2)] = 2^2

We'll
remove the brackets:

x^2 + 2x - x - 2 =
4

x^2 + x - 2 - 4 = 0

x^2 + x
- 6 = 0

We'll apply the quadratic
formula:

x1 = [-1+(1+24)]/2

x1
= (-1+5)/2

x1 = 2

x2 =
(-1-5)/2

x2 = -3

From the
contraints of existance of logarithms, we'll
get:

x-1>0

x>1

x+2>0

x>-2

So,
in order to respect both conditions, x has to have values in the interval
(1,+inf.).

Because the second solution, x2 = -3, does not
belong to the interval (1,+inf.), the equation will have only one solution,
namely:

x =
2

tanx = 0.5 find sinx and cosx

We know from the fundamental formula of trigonometry
that:

(sin x)^2 + (cos x)^2 =
1

If we divide by (cos x)^2, both sides, we'll
get:

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

But sin x / cos x = tan
x

(tan x)^2 + 1 = 1/(cos
x)^2

But tan x = 0.5 = 50/100 =
1/2

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

5/4 = 1/(cos x)^2

We'll
cross multiply and we'll get:

4 = 5(cos
x)^2

We'll divide by 5:

4/5 =
(cos x)^2

cos x = +/-
2/sqrt5

cos x = +/-
2sqrt5/5

sin x = +/-sqrt(1 -
4/5)

sin x =
+/-sqrt5/5

Conclusion: The
values of sine and cosine have to be both positive, or both negative, in order to obtain
the positive value of tan x = 0.5

What is the effect of incorporating Spanish words into the story of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao?

What a great question!  I think that there is more than
one answer, but a few likely theories come to mind.  Aside from just a stylistic choice
(meaning that Junot Diaz maybe just liked the sound of the Spanish words mixed in with
English, and that is the sole reason he put them there) on the part of the author, the
untranslated Spanish words in an English text can serve several different
purposes.

An untranslated word, especially a repeated one,
in an English text read by a non-Spanish-literate reader creates some Spanish learning
over the course of the book.  Either the English reader can't take the suspense anymore
and looks the Spanish word up in a dictionary (or asks a Spanish-speaking friend to
translate) or, which is more likely, the English reader learns the Spanish word from
context.  This means that the situations described and the words around the Spanish word
help the reader figure out what the Spanish word means.  Things learned from context
(which is almost entirely how babies learn language, although in that case it's auditory
context) are well-remembered: when it's hard to learn something, and it takes you a
while to figure it out, often that learning stays with you.  So Diaz, a bilingual
American, is pulling the English reader into his Spanish/English-speaking world.  He's
making the English reader read Spanish -- as some of the characters in the book who
are a Spanish readers/speakers have had to read
English.

The untranslated words also add an air of mystery
that makes the story interesting.  If you don't know exactly what the word is that
people are talking about (like puta for example) they might keep
reading in part to figure out what is being talked about!  Diaz has just enough
untranslated words so that the story doesn't become obscure.  You can still follow the
story without translating the words -- but maybe you read further just because you want
to find out what the word means!

Certain words truly are
untranslatable; fuku, for example, isn't easily explained in
Spanish or English.   Learning what it means from context is perhaps the only way to get
an approximation of what fuku means for a person who is not part ofthat culture.  Diaz
does explain what it means at the beginning of the book (one of the few words he
actually does that for), but the full meaning of the word and its significance in the
story are really only revealed as the story goes on, with characters using the word
repeatedly.

Certainly there is something of the alienation
that the immigrants from the Dominican Republic felt when they came to the US imparted
to the reader by the use of Spanish words.  Everything in the US was in English for
those immigrants-- every word had to be learned and remembered.  For the reader to
experience some of this, by reading untranslated Spanish words, is to feel a small part
of this alienation and confusion. 

Diaz makes a lot of
unorthodox choices in this book (such as the non-linear storytelling, and the extensive
use of entertaining footnotes!) and the use of the Spanish words is one of them.  Think
about what you thought and felt reading them -- if you are a Spanish speaker/reader you
may have thought something very different than if you are not.  Explore your reactions
to the words and include them in your answer.

How does Fitzgerald develop the theme of hedonism and excess in chapter 3?

Please only ask one question per post, but feel free to
ask the other question in another post when you're able.  The idea of hedonism is found
throughout the entire novel, The Great Gatsby.  Hedonism is the
philosophy which celebrates pleasure as the only reality, the only important thing. 
Hedonists live to make themselves happy, generally with little or no concern for anyone
else around them.  In chapter three, we see hedonism in post-war America in all it's
glory--though it's not a pretty sight.

Gatsby is hosting
yet another of his extravagant parties, though it's the first one we've seen.  The
opening paragraphs describe all the grand food and music and clothing and transportation
which come together to create this weekly event.  The entire party is grossly
extravagant and excessive, providing grossly extravagant pleasure to Gatsby's guests. 
There are a "corps of caterers," the food is "crowded" onto gigantic buffet tables,
there is a "whole pit full" of musicians, the spread of alcohol is impressive
(especially in a time of prohibition), and the cars "are parked five deep in the
drive."

When the guests have arrived and the party begins,
the "the halls and salons and veranda are gaudy with primary colors."  The group is
shallow,  full of "introductions which are forgotten on the spot and enthusiastic
meetings between women who never knew each other's names" (presumably because they are
not the wives of the men they came to the party with and they may never see one another
again).  There is outrageous laughter which swells to outrageous levels as the party
progresses.  Wild dancing takes over the dance floor, fights break out, and guests get
more drunk and disorderly as the night progresses.  Toward the end of the chapter when
cars are leaving and one car crashes into a wall,  "a pale dangling individual stepped
out of the wreck, pawing tentatively at the ground with a large uncertain dancing
shoe."  He is so drunk he thinks he's simply out of gas and insists on trying to keep
driving, when in fact the entire wheel is gone from the
car. 

This is a night of wild and uncontrolled revelry, and
those who attend are there simply to make themselves happy.  That is evidenced by their
adulterous pairings, their outrageous behavior, and their lack of concern for anyone
else around them.  In fact, "people were not invited--they went there."  Most of them
didn't even know who Gatsby was, and those who did didn't really know
him. 

They got
into automobiles which bore them out to Long Island and somehow they ended up at
Gatsby's door. Once there they were introduced by someone who knew Gatsby and after that
they conducted themselves according to the rules of behavior associated with amusement
parks.

This is a
pleasure-seeking, hedonistic bunch.  Many of them have the money to have, on their own,
 all the things they find at these parties; but it's the atmosphere of no restrictions
or rules except for pleasure which draws them here.

It is
glorious and extravagant while it lasts; then, on Mondays, a crew shows up to repair
"the ravages" of the night before.  The five crates of lemons and oranges delivered from
the city on Friday are, on Monday, "left at his back door in a pyramid of pulpless
halves."

What is a theme of "Hope"?

The theme of the poem is hope itself. In this beautiful
poem, Lisel Mueller uses hope as an extended metaphor and personifies it to indicate how
special and inspirational it is. In each line she identifies where hope could be found -
it is present in the most mundane and in the most fundamental of places, events or
circumstances. We are surrounded by it; it is existential, pragmatic and spiritual. We
can find hope within ourselves and we can be inspired by factors outside ourselves as
well.

Mueller emphasizes that hope is
ever-present.

The most fundamental point she makes about
hope is found in lines 16 to 20:

readability="12">

It is the singular
gift

we cannot destroy in
ourselves,

the argument that refutes
death,

the genius that invents the
future,

all we know of
God.

We may attempt to, but
we can never destroy hope, not even within ourselves. Hope challenges death and can
overcome it. It is what inspires us to live for the future and it is godly and therefore
deeply spiritual. 

It is through this poem that Lisel
Mueller attempts to give hope a voice. All we need to do is listen, and we will find it.
Hope is what makes our lives meaningful and it is hope that inspires us to live beyond
our circumstances and look forward to a better tomorrow. If we struggle to find hope
anywhere, this poem is where we can find it.

Solve the quadratic. (don't use formula) 7x^2+10x+3=0

We'll have to solve the quadratic equation
7x^2+10x+3=0.

Since the request is not to apply the
quadratic formula, we'll use factorization.

We notice that
the coefficient of the middle term could be written as the sum of coefficients of the
first and the last terms.

 10 = 7 +
3

We'll multiply by x both
sides:

10x = 7x + 3x

We'll
re-write the equation:

 7x^2 + 7x + 3x + 3 =
0

We'll combine the first 2 terms and the last 2
terms:

 (7x^2 + 7x) + (3x + 3) =
0

We'll factorize by 7x the first pair of brackets and
we'll factorize by 3 the second pair of brackets.

7x(x+1) +
3(x+1) = 0

We'll factorize by
(x+1):

(x + 1)(7x + 3) =
0

We'll put each factor as
zero:

x+1 = 0

x1
= -1

7x + 3 =
0

7x = -3

x2 =
-3/7

The roots of the
quadratic equation are: {-1 ; -3/7}

What are Vera's main characteristics in Saki's "The Open Window"?

This short story contains an absolutely fascinating
character who is the mastermind behind the story of "The Open Window." Vera, of course,
is the storyteller without equal, who is quickly able to seize on details and weave
convincing tales to horrific effect. Note how she dominates the story - it begins with
her words and ends with them. We are told in the first sentence that she is "a very
self-possessed young lady of fifteen". It is clear that she sees in Framton Nuttel an
object for one of her stories, as she is quick to establish that he knows nobody from
the area and thus she is free to use her excellent wit and intelligence to create a
fable that will shock Framton Nuttel for her own amusement. She shows herself to be an
excellent actor as well as a storyteller. Consider how the author narrates her duping of
Framton Nuttel:

readability="6">

Here the child's voice lost its self-possessed
note and became falteringly human... She broke off with a
shudder.

She is not only
creative, but quick, intelligent and able to fool others into believing her words. This
is demonstrated yet again at the end of the tale when, nonchalantly, she creates another
tale to explain Framton Nuttel's swift escape from the house to trick her family,
telling the tale "calmly" with complete equanimity. Clearly this tale celebrates the
power that a good storyteller can have over a susceptible audience, with Vera presented
as the master storyteller, and everyone else her ignorant and naive
victims.

What was the atmosphere and moods in Maupassant's story: moonlight?

This is a great short story because of how the mood
changes. Brilliant!

In the beginning, the mood is like the
priest's heart. Angry, dried up, judgmental, prideful. He thinks that God owes HIM an
explanation for why he has created thus and such. And, he thinks God made a huge mistake
when he created women. The priest hates women because they are the opposite of what he
is -- loving. He has a niece who is demonstrative and loving, and when he learns she has
a lover, he resolves to take care of this once and for all. In anger, he strikes his
cane and breaks it. The mood for the first part of this story is brooding and almost
evil.

Ah..........but as he leaves to take care of the
situation with his niece, to surprise her and her lover, he walks out into the
moonlight...........

The moonlight is symbolic of God's
love. It transforms the priest. At first he wonders why God even wasted his time
creating the night -- no work could be done at night, no harvesting -- did God make a
mistake like he did when he created women? As he walks out, he really sees the beauty of
God's creation for the first time. The mood is totally different in this part of the
story. There is beautiful nature imagery as the priest's soul opens up to God's
wonderous purpose for the first time. He concludes that the night is for love, and that
love is wonderful. When he sees his niece walking with her lover, he has an ephiphany
and it totally changes him.

How are ribs classified?

Three classifications of ribs exist. True ribs attach to
the sternum or breastplate. These are the top seven bilaterally (on both sides). False
ribs also attach to the sternum but they do so by way of costal cartilage. These are the
lower ribs. There are also what is called floating ribs. Floating ribs are at the bottom
of the rib cage, they do not attach to anything, they "float", they help to protect the
kidneys among other structures.

The general function of all
the ribs and rib cage is protecting underlying structures. True ribs serve to protect
the lungs, heart, and great blood vessels. False ribs protect the lower lung fields and
the liver on the right side and the spleen on the left side.  

What effect can free verse have?

The idea of determining the effect of
a particular type of poem is interesting but probably also open to a rather broad
interpretation.  For me, the primary effect of free verse poetry is that of narration. 
In other words, these kinds of poems often sound as much like
storytelling of various kinds as they do poetry. 

Robert
Frost's "Home Burial" is a good example.  This free verse poem is in our textbook and we
usually read it together, but I tried an experiment one year.  I simply read it aloud to
them, without trying to either "play up" or diminish the poetry of the work. When I
finished reading, I asked for their impressions.  Almost without hesitation, several
students remarked that it "almost sounded like a poem."  So there it is.  I know this
poem is more of a narrative (story) than some other kinds of free verse, but another
Frost work--"Mending Wall"-- sounds as much like a story as a poem, despite a few more
poetic devices.

Other works, such as Whitman's
Leaves of Grass, are less obvious but also tell a story. 
(Whitman's work is more of a stream-of-consciousness narrative, another kind of
storytelling). 

You may get a few other perspectives here.
I'll be as interested as you to read them! 

In Oedipus Rex, how can the choragos refer to God--"How can God's will be accomplished best?"--when I thought the Greeks were polyatheists?

First, the Ancient Greeks weren't necessarily
polyatheists. They are better classified as polytheists with some elements of pantheism.
Keeping that in mind, the origin of Greek theatre plays a significant role in the
traditional elements found in Greek plays. The Greeks originally created theatre to pay
tribute to Dionysus--a Greek god. Thus, Greek playwrights, whether they personally
believed in a Supreme Being(s) or not, would have been obligated to include references
to god(s) in order for their plays to fit the theatre's festival spirit and
traditions.

Similarly, the Ancient Greek playwrights/bards
portray god as a moral/cultural code by which the Greeks were supposed to live rather
than depicting a specific higher power figure. In Sophocles'
Antigone, the chorus and Choragos serve as reminders to Creon of
what he should do; they are a conscience of sorts. Likewise, the
oracle and prophet Tiresias often deliver messages to characters, messagethat contain
omniscient elements or moral guidance from a godlike power. This concept from Greek
drama not only enables the playwright to pass down Greek traditions, but it also
promotes a type of absolute morality, which Aristotle later focused on in his discussion
of ethics.

Explain Fitzgerald's purpose of using the word "holocaust" in the last sentence of chapter 8?The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The word holocaust is of Greek origin
and means sacrifice by fire. Certainly, Jay Gatsby becomes the
sacrificial victim of his amoral friends' actions:

readability="9">

The touch of a cluster of leaves revolved it [the
mattress on which Jay lies] slowly, tracing, like the leg of a compass, a thin red
circle in the water.

Then,
Mr. Wilson's body is discovered as he has shot himself, also a sacrificial victim to the
fire of his wife's passions, as well as one victimized by his environment of decay and
desolation.  And, both Jay Gatsby and Mr. Wilson are the scapegoats--just as the Jews of
the Holocaust were scapegoats for the ills of Germany--for the decadent Buchanans who
have refused to take the blame in the death of Myrtle Wilson as Jay is blamed for
Myrtle's death. In addition, while Wilson is the murderer of Gatsby, he is also the
Buchanan's scapegoat because eliminates a person who could have testified against
them.

How would I go about writing a letter to my parents if i were the sniper and trying to explain to them the situation and how I shot my brother?

I think that this depends to some extent on where you
think that your parents come down in terms of their political beliefs.  Do they agree
with your side, your brother's side, or neither.  In general, though, I would emphasize
a couple of things:

• I would emphasize how and
  why I think that my side is in the right.  I would talk about why I think that helping
  my side is important.  This establishes a reason for me being out there shooting
  people.


• I would then emphasize how sad I am and how much
  I did not know that my enemy was actually my brother.  I would tell them how I never saw
  the enemy sniper until he was already dead.  I might say that I would rather have died
  than kill him, but I did not know what was going
  on.

Overall, I would make the letter sound very
sad and apologetic.

Flammability (ability to burn) is a _____________ that determines whether a substance will react or burn in the presence of oxygen. Chemical change...

Flammability or ability to burn refers to a property of a
material to combine with oxygen and form an oxide. When a substance burns it is always
accompanied with a release of energy, usually in the form of
heat.

For example when a hydrocarbon burns, the carbon in
the compound combines with oxygen to form carbon dioxide and the hydrogen combines with
oxygen to form water. The temperature at which substances burn varies and many are not
flammable as they do not require to form an oxide to achieve a lower energy
state

Flammability (ability to burn) is a
chemical property that determines whether a substance will react or burn in the presence
of oxygen.

Compare and contrast the sisters Josephine and Constatina, "The Daughters of the Late Colonel" with Elinor and Marianne, Sense and...

The sisters Elinor and Marianne from Austen's
Sense and Sensibility are very different from Josephine and
Constantina from Mansfield's "The Daughters of the Late Colonel." For one thing, they
are developed with different levels of skill and they are characters in very different
genres, both of which give an uneven playing field for comparison. Nonetheless, some
comparison can be successfully made even on this uneven playing field. To start with,
Josephine and Constantina are older spinster ladies for whom life has past by. Elinor
and Marianne are young women in the bloom of their considerable beauty and grace for
whom life is unfurling with abundant promise. Josephine and Constantina are timid,
fearful, hesitant and completely unaware of the place they may occupy in the world (if
they will but take a place). Elinor and Marianne are confident and courageous souls who
have no fear in speaking their minds and asserting their occupancy of very prominent
places in their world: Marianne does so with verve and gusto while Elinor does so with
decorum and reasonableness.

Josephine and Constantina
depend wholly upon one another, thus embodying that old saying that if the two are put
together then they have one brain/personality/thought between them. This is symbolically
(if not literally) true for Josephine and Constantina who can't make decisions or
choices either independently or together. Elinor and Marianne have great differences in
opinion, taste, enjoyment and accomplishment. Each can and does easily make independent
decisions--Elinor even makes decisions for the family as their mother is not as
practical as it is practical for a mother to be. Elinor and Marianne can share together
the benefits of their differences (e.g., singing versus painting) while pursuing their
own independent interests.

With the death of the Colonel,
Josephine and Constantine are bewildered and overwhelmed by the choices and changes open
to them and retreat from options into the cocoon of the familiar and habitual. When
Henry Dashwood died, Elinor and Marianne (after mourning quietly or loudly) summoned up
the courage and determination to make decisions, strike out on a new life in a new
location, make new acquaintances and engage in new social activities, while also
summoning the strength to continue their old activities in a new version of their family
circle. Aside from the fact that each pair of sisters lost a father, they are in no way
similar.

What foreshadowing does the author use to let the reader know what's going to happen to the man?Jack London's "To Build a Fire"

As a Naturalist, Jack London presents human beings as
subject to natural forces beyond their control.  As is evident in London's story, "To
Build a Fire," this idea is at the center of the narrative.  In the exposition, there is
clear foreshadowing of nature's forces being in charge of the
day. 

• It is cold and gray, exceedingly cold. 
  However, the "newcomer," the chachaquo, misjudges the temperature. 
  It is a clear day, and yet

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there seemed an intangible pall over the face of
things, a subtle gloom that made the day dark, and that was due to the absence of
sun. 

• Nevertheless,
  this fact does not worry the man.  Not the grayness of the sky, the lack of sun, the
  tremendous cold, or the strangeness of it all bothered
  him.


• Because this is his first winter the man "lacks
  imagination."  He has not had to contemplate life and death.  The fifty degrees below
  zero means eighty-odd degrees of frost--that was all.  It did not impress upon him
  

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to meditate upon man's frailty in general, able
only to live within certain narrow limits of heat and
cold.

• When he
  steps outside, the man spits.  At fifty degrees below zero, spit crackles on the snow at
  fifty below, but this spit crackled in the air.  Still the man thinks, "...the
  temperature did not matter."


• The dog's instinct tells it
  a "truer tale than was told to the man by the man's judgment," London
  writes.


• The dog questions every move of the man,
  expecting him to return to the camp.  The dog had learned about fire and yearned for
  one; it does not want to go out into this
  cold. 

All the elements of nature as well as
the dog indicate the unfavorableness of going out into the brutal cold, yet "the man
held steadily on."  With much foreshadowing of the danger of his setting out, Jack
London's neophyte sets forth into the cold and ominous setting.

In the West, raising cattle has a significant cost, but in India, according to Marvin Harris, it does not. Why does he believe that to be true?

Part of the reason why Harris argues that there is a
greater cost benefit analysis to raising cows in India is because of the approach
indigenous farmers take as opposed to their Western counterparts.  Harris argues that in
America and "the West," feeding cows is an expensive endeavor. Harris quotes a Cornell
economist who suggests that  "Approximately three quarters of the arable land
in the United States is devoted to growing food for livestock." This is not
necessarily the case in India, for while land is set aside for the cows to graze and
upon which they can feast, the ability of taking cows into both rural and urban areas to
eat along the sides of roads, in metropolitan areas, and essentially where ever they
please.  It is at this point where Harris makes an important argument about cost.
 Recall that in the West, land and crops must be "specially" made for the livestock.
 This is not always nor as binding the case in India because of the cow's sacred nature.
 Wherever the cow goes, it is treated as a guest and is fed whatever can be generated by
the house.  In some homes, special meals that are consisted of left overs or byproducts
of prepared foods (banana peels, rice, washed rice water, left over pieces of coconuts,
banana leaves) are prepared for the cow that will come by and visit.  This creates
incredibly less demand on the farmer to have to set aside land for the cow, which is
incredibly helpful during the scant growth months of dryness and without rain.  This is
a moment where economic expediency meets up with spiritual devotion.  Harris points to a
1971 study that displays how Indian cows are able to live off the humanly inedible
remains of subsistence crops and how this is a sufficient food source for the cows.
 Finally, Harris discusses at length the use and harvesting of cow manure as a way to
cut down heating and energy costs, something that is being replicated in the
West.

In Macbeth, do Macbeth and Lady Macbeth exchange personalities as the play progresses?

I think this is a super question!  It can be argued, I
think, that Macbeth takes on Lady Macbeth's initial appearance of being a cold-blooded
killer as the play goes on, and Lady Macbeth becomes consumed by the guilty thoughts
that seem to plague Macbeth early on.

In the first two Acts
of the play, Lady Macbeth seems invincible.  She asks the powers of darkness to "un-sex"
her in Act I, scene v, so that she might be filled "from the crown to the toe
top-full/Of direst cruelty."  She wants to "stop up the access and passage to remorse,"
so that she not be shaken from her "fell purpose."  And she boldly marches forward,
taunting Macbeth for his hesitation as being less than a man, and finally, when he won't
return to the crime scene to return the daggers to lie by the dead king, she does it
herself.  Upon her return to Macbeth in II, ii, she exults
victoriously:

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My hands are of your colour; but I
shame

To wear a heart so
white.

Later, after the
banquet scene, she all but disappears from the play, returning in Act V, transformed
into a guilt-ridden madwoman who is unable to sleep, because she is plagued with dreams
about trying to wash the murderous blood from her
hands.

Macbeth, on the other hand, seems to develop in
exactly the opposite way throughout the play.  He begins very suspicious of the plan to
murder Duncan and seems to be very disposed to not follow this course of action.  In Act
I, scene vii, he has a very telling soliloquy in which he confronts all the reasons it's
a bad idea to kill Duncan, yet he goes forward because of his ambition.  After his
skittish performance in the murder of the king, he does wise up and employ henchmen to
do the rest of his dirty deeds for him, but he also grows with each murder, to act more
and more without conscience.

Finally, in Act V, he has
become the sort of emotionless killing machine that Lady Macbeth seemed to be in Act I. 
In one of the most famous speeches in all of Shakespeare, after he learns of the death
of Lady Macbeth, he says that life, essentially, has no meaning.  It is "full of sound
and fury" but signifies "nothing."

So, yes!  I think a case
could definitely be made for their exchange of personalities through the course of the
events of the play.  Please find more details about this topic in the essays linked
below.

When a company is acquired, what does open offer mean?

A joint stock company is acquired by acquiring the
majority shares or stocks of the company. This can be done by purchasing the shares
using normal stock exchange facilities, or private transactions between the buyer and
sellers. Another route of acquiring majority shares is to make a offer, through a public
announcement, to all existing shareholders of the company to sell their shares at a
fixed price. This offer made to the general public to buy their shares is called "open
offer".

A company or a person may make open public offer
for purchase of shares of a company to acquire controlling interest in the company, or
just to increase their holding.

Some countries have laws
that require a person or company to make public offer under certain conditions. For
example, in India a public offer for purchase of share becomes mandatory when the market
or private purchase of shares results in total holdings of purchaser crosses a threshold
level in terms of percentage of total shares of the company.

calculate log 5 (1/125) ( 5 is under the log)

log5
(1/125)

Solution:

Since 5 is
under log , we pressume  log 5  is as good as logarithm of 5 to the base
10.

Then log 5 (1/125) = log5+ log (1/125) = log5 + log
(1/5^3),  log(ab) = log a+logb , log (a/b) = log a- logb ,  logarithm
properties.

= log5+log(1) - log5^3
=

= log5 +0 -3log5, as log(1) = 0 and log a^b =
bloga.

=log5 -3log 5

=
-2log5

= - 2*0.690970004

=
-1.397940009.

If the 5 is base of logarithm, then log5
(1/125) = log5 (1/5^3) = log5 (5^(-3) ) =  -3 , as logk (k^m) = m, by definition of
logarithm.

Explain all the figures of Speech used by Tennyson in his Poem "Splendour Falls" . Tennyson has used Personification as figure of speech in...

In the  poem "The Splendour Falls," Tennyson uses a
variety of literary devices.

Alliteration is seen with
"snowy summits," "long light," and "blow, bugle, blow" (the last which might also be
repetition).

Consonance is seen with "thinner, clearer,
farther" and "falls, castle walls."

"Shakes" and "lakes"
has both assonance and consonance.

Assonance is evident
with "far...scar" (which is also
consonance).

Personification is seen in several places with
examples like "long light shakes," "cataract leaps in glory," and "purple glens
replying."

Repetition is also found in several places:
"dying and dying and dying" (found in two places in the poem), "blow...let us blow,"
"blow, bugle, blow," "soul to soul," and "forever and forever."
"

"O hark, O hear" may be considered repetition, but the
words "hark" and "hear" also include alliteration and
consonance.

All the descriptions of personification (which
are specific)  are examples of imagery, which is the general label for devices like
personification, hyperbole, similes, metaphors, etc.

The
use of Tennyson's words that create an irregular rhyming pattern give the poem a musical
quality, which adds to the mood and tone of the poem: it is bright and uplifting as it
praises nature.

WHAT IS EMILY HIDING IN A ROSE FOR EMILY?

In the story "A Rose for Emily," Miss Emily is a southern
belle antiqued by time and separated from the world by her own pride.  She had been the
pride of her father who believed no man would have ever been good enough for her to
marry.

After the death of her father she is left alone and
without funds.  She teaches porcelain painting to bring in some money, but continues to
hold her head high as if undaunted by her
circumstances.

Emily falls for a man who comes to town.  
The town anticipates that he will marry her. He disappears and is believed to have left
town.

After Miss Emily dies the townspeople go to see her
home.  She had not allowed anyone in it for years.  Inside they find the corpse of a man
with an iron gray hair on the pillow beside it.  Miss Emily hid her lover whom the story
implies that she killed so he would not leave her.

What is an example of dramatic irony ( with explanation ) in A Separate Peace?

Dramatic irony involves the reader knowing more than the
characters do.  In Chapter 4, Gene comes to the conclusion that Finny's escapades have
all been an attempt to sabotage his grades.

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I found it.  I found a single sustaining
thought.  The thought was, You and Phineas are even already.  You are even in enmity.
 You are both coldly driving ahead for yourselves alone.  You did hate him for breaking
that school swimming record, but so what?  He hated you for getting an A in every course
but one last term.

This
realization comes after the first three chapters in which Finny is presented as being
honest, charming, generous with his friends, genuinely kind and compassionate. Finny is
not jealous of Gene; he is not trying to sabotage Gene's grades.  We the readers can see
through Gene's jealousy and misjudgment of Finny, and this creates a form of dramatic
irony.   Gene projects his own feelings upon Finny, and we know that Gene's epiphany is
a false one.  Even though the novel is told from Gene's perspective, we know what Gene
does not:  his jealousy of Finny is destroying what could have been a wonderful
friendship.

Please provide an analysis of James Baldwin.

In many of his essays, Baldwin refers to his father, but
the man he speaks of as his father is really his step-father, David Baldwin, who was
born in Louisiana and came to New York City in 1919 in the large-scale emigration of
Southern blacks northward in the years following World War I. David Baldwin’s mother,
Barbara, had been born in slavery; she lived with her son’s family in Harlem until her
death in1930. He married Baldwin’s mother, Emma Berdis Jones, in 1927, three years after
Baldwin’s birth. Baldwin said that as a boy he naturally assumed that David Baldwin was
his father; he added that he did not learn the truth until he was sixteen. He never
found out anything about his biological father; his mother refused to answer any of his
questions.After high school, Baldwin worked at a number of jobs in Greenwich Village and
New Jersey. Encouraged by teachers and friends, who saw the signs in him of literary
talent, the young Baldwin turned to the writing of essays, where he first made his mark
on the American public.In 1948 Baldwin left the United States for France, seeking, like
Richard Wright,the author of "Native Son" (1940) and "Black Boy" (1945) who left for
France in 1947, to distance himself from the animosity between black and white
Americans. Baldwin remained in France, mostly in Paris, for eight years. Thereafter he
traveled back and forth between Europe and the United States.Baldwin made his first
visit to the South in 1957, and this began his participation as a writer and an activist
in the civil rights movement. The civil rights leadership was grateful for Baldwin’s
work—his writings, speeches, fund-raising successes. But the leadership was also uneasy
about Baldwin, largely because of his homosexuality. This was the reason, much to his
disappointment and anger, that Baldwin was not allowed to address the 250,000 people
gathered for the March on Washington, DC, in August 1963. From his background, he
continually searches for identity and family togetherness in his
writings.

Explain contingency in relation to Barthes camera Lucida. Photography is contingent on the real. It is a physical consequence of the...

"A photograph is invisible; it is not it that we
see." 

Barthes was not trying to analyze photography for
its social or cultural impact.  Nor was he, as Benjamin might have been, investigating
the significance of the mass reproduction of art, images or even machines and technology
in general.  Barthes was looking at the ontological nature of photography or 'a
photograph,' what it is, in and of itself; it's being.  He begins with noting that a
photograph is inextricably linked to its referent.  In other words, a photograph of a
woman in a field is 'a photograph of a woman in a field.'  That sentence just sounds
redundant.  But, the point is that the photograph itself is what I would call a 'looking
moment' of that Real woman in the field. 

Think of it this
way: the photograph is a window pane.  You look out (through) the window and see the
woman in the field.  If you could freeze that 'looking moment' for the smallest
increment of time, you would have the concept of the photograph, frozen, as it were, on
the window pane. But the window pane is transparent; it is nothing. Yet, the image that
you would freeze on the pain/photographic plate is a sign or signifier that refers to
the real woman in the field. How can a physical referrring sign, essentially - like the
window - be made of nothing?  A signifying, transparent 'nothing' can only be something
in relation to what it refers to.  Therefore, the photograph,
analogous to the window pane, is contingent on the real
woman in the field. 

The photograph, itself
(physically) is capture light, framed by the camera obscura; captured as if you were to
capture your momentary 'looking' through the window pane. The captured light
(photograph) is not the woman; it is not Her and yet it comes from her.   It is the
'event' of your looking, happens to be captured or frozen in time on the window
pane/plate.

Now, when Barthes goes on to discuss the human
experience of viewing the photograph, the viewer of the photograph is separated from the
real woman in field - through time. So, when you look at
the photograph, your relation to the real woman in the
field is thus: viewer - relation of photograph to real woman - time -
real woman.

Perhaps I am
complicating this.  Think of it like a triangle: I (A) am the viewer. I point (look) at
someone (B).  B points at the real woman in the field
(C). B is the photograph.  When I look at a photograph, I am "pointing at
a pointing!"  In other words, I am looking at a single event of looking. Now, to grasp
Barthes' idea of contingency, imagine that the person (B), representing the photograph,
is invisible. And I can't point/look at (C) because I (A)
and the real woman (C) are separated by
time.

How does Olivier’s film handle Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy? What is the effect of this version?How does Branagh handle this...

Olivier's Hamlet seems to be in a mental fog throughout
the whole speech. That's no doubt why it was filmed in fog high above an angry sea.
Moreover, he acts at least half asleep and rather depressed. The only real animation he
shows is when he delivers the line, "...perchance to dream." It is at that very moment
that, having already dreamily taken out is dagger, he acts as if he's just awakened,
startled, from his reverie. But even then, relatively awake, he is listless and
contemplative. He carelessly drops the dagger into the sea, and it disappears, as he
soon does, into the mist.

The entire sequence is played as
a dream within a dream, where nothing happens but in the mind.

Could you define context in communication?

Context is the circumstances surrounding a message. The
circumstances might include the setting, the value positions of the people, and
appropriateness of a message. This means considering your audience, the forum under
which you are speaking, the era, and accepted norms. For a Satanist to preach at a
Christian church would be out of context.

Furthermore, you
wouldn't invite someone to go out to a bar with you during a conference call with
several superiors in the business world that you just met in the middle of tense
discussion over closing on a large contract. First, you are the youngster in the crowd.
Second, that's off topic. Lastly, it would be inappropriate because there is a job that
everyone is working to achieve at the moment and you shouldn't waste
time.

Those features surrounding a piece of communication
are context.

Now, let's say you mean context in terms of
words that surround a specific phrase or word. These exterior words that add meaning or
help influence meaning are the context. Often when a word is unknown, or a message is
difficult to understand, you can use context to help discern what the word or message
means.

For example, read this next sentence. The
pestilential stench of the basement told the story of animals who had been trapped in
there for months, feces and urine permeated the air creating an aroma that evoked a
gag-reflex for all who entered. The words pestilential and permeated might be difficult
to understand. Pestilential could be many things, it actually means disease-causing. But
anyone who takes the context cluse of feces and urine smells could at least get close to
the definition with words like gross or disgusting. Permeated means to have gone through
and soaked. You should at least get the idea that it filled the air, once again, you get
at least close to an understanding by looking at what is
around.

 Context is very important. If you are a speaker
and don't understand your audience, your message will not come across with widespread
reception. If you are a recipient of a message and you cannot figure out a message
because your vocabulary is limited, you miss out on the entire meaning of a
message.