Please provide a critical appreciation of William Blake's poem, "On Another's Sorrow."

The poem "On Another's Sorrow" by William Blake deals with empathy and compassion for others. This poem tackles an interesting psychological question and answers it through religious content. It opens by questioning how one could not feel troubled when seeing another person in pain. What is it about sadness that is so infectious? Why do we feel the troubles of others so deeply? Blake considers the compassion he has for others in general and goes on to employ the very powerful examples of mothers and fathers feeling the pain of their children. Blake even mentions the sorrows of little wrens and how God feels their pain, too.

The poem expresses that human empathy is an extension of God's empathy. God has compassion for all beings, from little birds to babies to grown men. God has made us (the living beings) and so he feels our joys and sorrows. Humans share in this compassion for one another and for other living beings, especially those we are related to. Compassion is a Godly feeling and is evidence of God's presence within us and nearby us.

The AABB rhyme scheme of the poem establishes a pattern which encourages us to read further. We are drawn on by the language and rhythm of the poem until we conclude with the ninth stanza. Much of the poem is phrased in a questioning nature--is it possible to feel another's sorrow? Does God not feel the sorrow of even the tiniest creature? The ninth stanza establishes a coda, reaffirming the earlier content of the poem--that God has empathy for all and we share in this empathy. Most importantly, the poem concludes with God's empathy for us as the readers. We are assured that even when we are in troubled times, it is not without the empathy of God and those around us.

How can I learn to paint in the style of realism?

Painting people and/or landscapes that look real is no easy task and cannot be learned in just a few days. Learning to paint realistically takes a lot of time, effort, and practice. Much of the process consists of trial and error but here are a few elements you can focus on to help you improve: 

• 
  Perspective 
  - Perspective is so important when it comes to both painting and drawing. It's what's going to make your creation look like a 3D image despite the fact that it's painted on a 2D canvas. 


• 
  Scaling and Proportion 
  - Focusing on scaling and proportion is absolutely crucial when painting realistic images because, no matter how well you can perfect intricate details, your painting's going to look strange if your subject's head is too small compared to the rest of their body. So pay attention to scaling; you can even use a pencil to lightly sketch a grid on your canvas beforehand. 


• 
  Color 
  - Color exists on a spectrum. There are tons of different shades and hues for each primary color you can name. You should be blending colors if you want your painting to look lifelike because, in reality, almost nothing is the exact shade of color you'll find in a tube of paint. Mix and blend without regret!


• 
  Shadowing 
  - Shadows aren't just blocks of black space. Surprisingly enough, they're actually made up of many different shades and they should be viewed as extremely subtle shifts in color. Although shadows can be tricky at first, with lots of practice, they become second-nature. Keep in mind you should be adding shadows to your painting while you compose the entire thing, not after.

I've added several hyperlinks to "how-to" sites in each category, so feel free to reference those. Good luck with your painting and remember to have fun!

What are some quotes demonstrating rivalry in Romeo and Juliet?

The main rivalry in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is that between the Montagues and Capulets. Shakespeare never gives a reason for the feud but we know, from the very beginning that there is a great deal of hatred involved. It sometimes spills over into the streets, as in Act I and Act III. There are several quotes in each Act that demonstrate the intensity of the rivalry.

The opening lines of the Prologue announce the rivalry between the two wealthy families of Verona:

Two households, both alike in dignity
(In fair Verona, where we lay our scene),
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

In Act I, Scene 1 this dispute erupts in the streets as men of the house of Capulet, Gregory and Sampson, confront the Montague men by "biting their thumb" at them, which is an insult. Sampson says,

Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at
them, which is disgrace to them if they bear it.

When Benvolio, a Montague and Romeo's cousin, arrives on the scene, he tries to calm down the furor but is then interrupted by Tybalt who threatens him:

What, drawn and talk of peace? I hate the word
As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee.
Have at thee, coward!

When the brawl is broken up by the Prince's men the Prince comments on the bitter feud and the violence which is part of it:

Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace,
Profaners of this neighbor-stainèd steel—
Will they not hear?—What ho! You men, you beasts,
That quench the fire of your pernicious rage
With purple fountains issuing from your veins

An excellent summation of the feud comes from Romeo as he enters the scene after the violence. He says that each side continues the feud simply because they love fighting:

O me! What fray was here?
Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all.
Here’s much to do with hate, but more with love.

Later in Act I when Tybalt discovers Romeo at Capulet's party he is angered and wants to challenge the Montague. The fuming Tybalt is dissuaded by Capulet from fighting, but his indignation is apparent and he says he will do something about it later:

Patience perforce with willful choler meeting
Makes my flesh tremble in their different greeting.
I will withdraw, but this intrusion shall,
Now seeming sweet, convert to bitt’rest gall.

At the end of Act I Juliet also feels the sting of the rivalry as she finds out that Romeo is a Montague and laments falling in love with an enemy of her family. She says,

My only love sprung from my only hate!
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
Prodigious birth of love it is to me
That I must love a loathèd enemy.

Benvolio's words at the beginning of Act III again demonstrate the bitterness of the feud as he warns Mercutio to get off the street before the Capulets come along:

I pray thee, good Mercutio, let’s retire.
The day is hot, the Capels are abroad,
And if we meet we shall not ’scape a brawl,
For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring.

When Tybalt comes on the scene he challenges Romeo. In a case of dramatic irony, because Romeo has already married Tybalt's cousin, Romeo backs down. Tybalt is not to be put off and he says,

Romeo, the love I bear thee can afford
No better term than this: thou art a villain.

There are numerous more quotes that demonstrate the ferocity of the rivalry throughout other Acts of the play as well.

How does Irving's portrayal of Dame Van Winkle enhance Rip's character?

Irving's depiction of Dame van Winkle serves to make Rip a more sympathetic character.

A tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use.

This is how Dame van Winkle is described. She is a "termagant wife" who turns her husband out of the house with her scolding. But, when Rip sits idly at the inn, exchanging gossip and discussing the news of the prior month after an old newspaper has come into the hands of one of the idlers, this virago comes to rout him from his seat. Angrily, she accuses the patriarch of the village, Nicholas Vedder himself, with encouraging Rip in his habit of idleness. 
It is then that some feel that it is his scold of a wife who motivates Rip to take to the woods. There he often stops for a lunch and shares part of it with his dog named "Wolf."

It is Dame van Winkle, too, who also prefigures the bustling and loudness of the new world to which Rip will awaken. For, when he returns to the inn after sleeping for twenty years, Rip finds the portrait of someone else is painted where the king's portrait has been. He wonders about the new portrait and all the strange faces of such disputatious people. But, it is with relief that he learns that Dame van Winkle will no longer interfere with his resuming of his place on the bench of the inn, even if it is noisy with arguments. 

How does Andrew Marvell use language to seduce in "To His Coy Mistress"?

Marvell's narrator uses hyperbole, metaphor and imagery to seduce his coy (shy) mistress. The first stanza is filled with hyperbole or exaggeration as he describes how he would woo her if there were only endless time and space. He would praise her eyes for a hundred years and each breast for two hundred years and spend 30,000 years praising the rest of her body. He would then take her to India, at the time an extremely long journey (comparable to offering to take someone to Mars today) to woo her by the Ganges river and find her rubies. However, as he notes, they don't have that kind of time. In one of the most famous couplets of the 17th century, he tells her:

But at my back I always hear/Time's winged chariot hurrying near.

Here, he's used the metaphor of time as a winged chariot--a 17th century version of an airplane--to convey to her how fast time travels. He wants her to feel the very fast speed at which times passes. He wants her to seize the day.

He moves from the chariot image of time speeding to pivot into images of death, describing how, if they wait, they might end up dying. He uses images of "worms," "ashes," "dust" and graves to reinforce the message. If they don't seize the moment now, he warns, they may have missed it, and have all eternity as dust before them. 

Therefore, he says, they should "roll" their strength and sweetness "into one ball," while they can, and force the sun to rush to catch up with them. In painting such vivid scenes of the time they don't have, of death, and of the pleasures they could have together now, he hopes to persuade her not to wait. 

Who are the main characters in Open City? How are they depicted?

Open City is a character study of one character: a Nigerian-American male doctor named Julius. He is the only true main character in the book. All of the other characters are thus seen from his point of view, and through the lens of his opinions about them.

Julius is in his early thirties, and is completing a residency in psychiatry in New York City. He is quiet, introspective, and has a great deal of empathy for and interest in other human beings. The most prominent relationships he has in the novel are with Nadege, his girlfriend, and Professor Saito, a retired teacher of literature.

Nadege is a black woman of about Julius's age. She is kind and assertive. She has just moved to San Francisco as the novel begins, and Julius slowly realizes their relationship is over.

Professor Saito is one of Julius's old teachers. He is a peaceful and mellow elderly man. His death saddens Julius greatly.

Does Macbeth's reaction to Duncan's murder convince the thanes that Macbeth is as shocked as they are?

Yes and no. Some of the thanes seem persuaded, but others are not. The text makes it clear who is and who is not persuaded.

When Macduff comes upon the horrifically gruesome scene, he passionately cries out in utter shock and disbelief:

O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart
Cannot conceive nor name thee!

Confusion now hath made his masterpiece!
Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope
The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence
The life o' the building!

At this point, Macbeth obviously feigns ignorance and innocently enquires:

What is 't you say? the life?

It is obvious from the text that out of all the thanes, Macduff is the one most affected by his liege's death for he speaks with genuine passion when he speaks about his terrifying discovery and later imparts the same to Lady Macbeth. At this pont, Macbeth and Lennox have headed to the king's chamber.

When the two return, Macbeth confesses that he had, in a moment of blind and passionate fury, killed Duncan's two guards who were steeped in the blood of their slain king and were still in possession of their murder weapons. 

It is Macduff who clearly shows his skepticism and suspicion of Macbeth when he asks:

Wherefore did you so?

Macbeth, in an overly accentuated and florid response, using the grandest of metaphors, replies:

Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious,
loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man:
The expedition my violent love
Outrun the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan,
His silver skin laced with his golden blood;
And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature
For ruin's wasteful entrance: there, the murderers,
Steep'd in the colours of their trade, their daggers
Unmannerly breech'd with gore: who could refrain,
That had a heart to love, and in that heart
Courage to make 's love known?

Lady Macbeth, seeing the danger in Macduff's attitude, seemingly has a faint, distracting attention from her husband. This works, since Macduff immediately turns to her and asks that she be attended to. When Macbeth then states that: 

... I stand; and thence
Against the undivulged pretence I fight
of treasonous malice.

Macduff concurs: 'And so do I.' This strong affirmation by Macduff is essentially a direct challenge to Macbeth, who is probably well aware at this point, of Macduff's suspicion. When Macbeth suggests that the thanes all

briefly put on manly readiness,
And meet i' the hall together.

they all agree and leave for the main hall to discuss further plans. At this point, Macduff is still playing along and being dutiful.

Later in the play, Macduff does not attend Macbeth's coronation. His submission later that their 'old robes' might 'sit better than the new' suggests that he prefers Duncan's rule to Macbeth's, further emphasising his cynicism. 

I have three questions about the novel Animal Farm. First, how according to Old Major are the animals exploited by man? Second, who in Russian...

George Orwell's novel Animal Farm is an allegory about the Russian Revolution and the evils of communism. The animals are like the Russian workers and Farmer Jones is representative of the ruling class of Russia, specifically Czar Nicholas II, who was overthrown by the communists in 1917. The aging boar, Old Major, is the German philosopher Karl Marx who recounted the exploitation of the working class and the revolution that promised to cure their ills in his book The Communist Manifesto.

In his speech at the beginning of the book Old Major explains that while the animals do all the work the farmer is the one who benefits. The cows give milk, the chickens lay eggs, and the horses plow the fields, yet their lives are still miserable. According to Old Major only one thing will change the animals' plight and that is rebellion. By overthrowing the farmer, Old Major promises, the animals' problems will be solved and they will be both free and rich.

Unfortunately the revolution never quite delivers the freedom the animals want. The pigs, led by Napoleon and Snowball, eventually become similar in their repression to Farmer Jones. Napoleon is the Bolshevik leader Lenin, and Snowball, who is ousted from the farm, is Leon Trotsky, who was exiled from Russia and later murdered in Mexico. Squealer represents the communist propaganda machine and the dogs are representative of the communist secret police, the KGB.

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Miss Caroline sent Burris Ewell home because he had lice. What effect did her instructions have on him?

Miss Caroline was about twenty-one years old and from North Winston County.  She was unaccustomed to the children who were raised in Maycomb.  When she saw lice in Burris Ewell’s hair, she screamed.  The children as a whole did not find it unusual and did not react to it.  They were concerned that she had been frightened, but they were not concerned that he had lice.  Miss Caroline told him,

“Well, Burris, …..I think we’d better excuse you for the rest of the afternoon.  I want you to go home and wash your hair.” (pg 26)

She then opened a book and told Burris that he should wash his hair with lye soap.  Lye soap is a very harsh soap but it was the cure for lice in those days.   He was to treat his scalp with kerosene afterwards. Burris didn’t understand.  Scout says,

"He was the filthiest human I had ever seen. His neck was dark gray, the backs of his hands were rusty, and his fingernails were black deep into the quick. “ (pg 27)

She then asked him to bathe himself before he returned the next day.  Burris laughs at this.  The Ewells never attended school for more than one day a year. The children tell her,

“They come the first day every year and then leave.  The truant lady gets ‘em here ‘cause she threatens ‘em with the sheriff, but she’s give up tryin’ to hold ‘em.”  (pg 27)

So when Miss Caroline tells him to wash his hair and his body, Burris just laughs.   He tells her,

“You ain’t sendin’ me home, missus.  I was on the verge of leavin’ ---- I done my time for this year.”

Provide some quotes as evidence to prove that Simon is a static character in Lord of the Flies.

A static character, in literary terms, is one who undergoes little or no inner change. It is a character who does not grow or develop.

Simon is anything but a static character. He is actually the one who gains new insight and comes to understand our inner fears and innate barbarity. He is the character who concludes that we have nothing to fear but ourselves and it is this fear and our inbred savage nature that makes us turn against each other instead of resolving our inner conflict.

Simon draws attention from the outset. He is the boy that faints at the beginning and who, apparently, had been consistently doing so even during the boys' flight. In spite of the fact that he is small and frail, Ralph chooses him to accompany Jack and himself to further explore the island, instead of one of the bigger boys. He is the one who conscientiously helps Ralph in building the shelters and who supports his leadership telling Ralph that he is the leader and that he should tell the other boys off for not assisting.

It is also Simon who suggests that the beastie or snake thing was not real and mentioned that the littluns acted as if it were. Simon, of all the others, is the one who fearlessly goes deeper into the island where he finds himself in a secluded spot. It is here where he essentially becomes one with his surroundings, one with nature, as suggested in the following extract:

When he was secure in the middle he was in a little cabin screened off from the open space by a few leaves. He squatted down, parted the leaves and looked out into the clearing. Nothing moved but a pair of gaudy butterflies that danced round each other in the hot air. Holding his breath he cocked a critical ear at the sounds of the island.

We also see that Simon is, more than any of the other boys, prepared to share and help. He does this with the littluns when he helps them get fruit and he gives Piggy his share of the meat when Jack refuses to give him any. It is also Simon who recognises the inner beast in all of us but when he tries to share this insight with the others, they cannot understand.

“What I mean is. . . maybe it’s only us.”
“Nuts!”
That was from Piggy, shocked out of decorum. Simon went on. “We could be sort of. . . ”
Simon became inarticulate in his effort to express mankind’s essential illness. Inspiration came to him.
“What’s the dirtiest thing there is?”

The response was Jack uttering a crude, disgusting word which created uproarious laughter and Simon was forgotten. Simon's insight is constantly displayed such as:

However Simon thought of the beast, there rose before his inward sight the picture of a human at once heroic and sick.

Simon is the one who encounters the Lord of the Flies which is a pig's head on a stick and here realises the truth about their fear.

...in front of Simon, the Lord of the Flies hung on his stick and grinned. At last Simon gave up and looked back; saw the white teeth and dim eyes, the blood—and his gaze was held by that ancient, inescapable recognition. In Simon’s right temple, a pulse began to beat on the brain.

During this incident, Simon hallucinated and then fainted. He then ventured further up the mountain since he believed that that would be the only way to discover the truth about the beast and found the dead parachutist's body, surrounded by flies. He realised that that was what Sam and Eric had seen. He released the body from its trappings and decided to go down to the beach to inform the others of his discovery. This was to be his final act, one which he had foreseen during his hallucination.

When Simon reaches the beach, just as a storm came up, he cries out what he had seen. The other boys, thinking that he is their worst fear come to life, attack him in a frenzy. Ralph and Piggy join in and Simon is killed. His body is later washed out to sea. Simon had become a victim of the other boys' deepest and most profound fear.

Why did Jeffrey do what he did at Finsterwald's place in Maniac Magee?

Maniac does not care know about the local legend and he just wants to help the kid.

Jeffrey “Maniac” Magee is new in town.  He went on the run when he was orphaned and did not like the relatives he got stuck with.  Being new in town, he is not aware of all of the local legends, including the fact that no kid goes anywhere near Finsterwald's place.

What Maniac saw was a bunch of older kids bulling Arnold.  He helped Arnold, or at least tried to.

[Maniac] stuck the book between his teeth, crouched down, hoisted Arnold Jones's limp carcass over his shoulder, and hauled him out of there like a sack of flour. Unfortunately, he chose to put Arnold down at the one spot in town as bad as Finsterwald's backyard -- namely, Finsterwald's front steps. (Ch. 5)

Maniac was not afraid of anything.  He wasn’t afraid of a group of older, bigger kids, and he wasn’t afraid of Finsterwald's house.  It seemed as good a place as any to stop and rest, so he sat there and read his book.  This pretty much ensured no one would mess with Arnold anymore.  They were too surprised.

As the stupefied high-schoolers were leaving the scene, they looked back. They saw the kid, cool times ten, stretch out on the forbidden steps and open his book to read. (Ch. 5)

Maniac was “cool times ten” there on the porch reading a book.  And of course, this is how legends start.  Maniac was a pretty ordinary kid except for the fact that he was fearless and openhearted.  He demonstrates both of these traits in the story of Arnold at the Finsterwald's.

Although Jeffrey  repeatedly gets himself into situations that build the legend of Maniac Magee, he never seeks them out.  He is just a kid looking for some place to belong.  The fact that he does not back down from any challenge and faces life with a positive attitude just makes the legend grow.

What do you feel should be some of the objectives of Operations Management and how would you measure the progress of achieving these objectives?

Some of the objectives of Operations Management (to ensure efficient and profitable business operations) should be the following:

1. Production Scheduling

To make sure that the right amount of product is produced at the right times, an Operations Manager must design a suitable production schedule. This would include having the proper number of employees scheduled to ensure the required amount of product is produced to satisfy customer orders. This production schedule would have to include the right number of shifts (days/afternoons/night shifts) and hours of work to meet the production demands.

2. Maintenance

 

Successful Operations Management demands that an entity’s equipment and machinery is performing optimally to ensure there is no production “down time”. Therefore, a good manager will have a preventative maintenance schedule in place to ensure everything is always working properly to satisfy the production demands of the department.

3. Inventory Control

 

Inventory control is vital to a successful business. An Operations Manager must get a handle on inventory so that enough is produced to satisfy customer demand, without the company’s warehouse being overstocked with goods that may sit there for months or years. Too much stock tied up in a warehouse is actually money tied up. That money, sitting as inventory that may not move out for quite a while, could have been better spent in some other area of the business, such as advertising and promotion, or product innovation initiatives.

 

4. Process Evaluation

 

To be successful, a company must regularly check their processes. This is vitally important to a manufacturing entity. This is to make sure that they are not wasting time and resources in unproductive activities. A firm that has a complex assembly line to produce its goods should check that process on a regular basis to see if they can eliminate wasteful steps and unnecessary man-hours to save costs.

5. Quality Control

 

Quality control can make or break a company’s reputation. Therefore, it’s important that a good quality control system is in place to ensure top-notch products get to market. Faulty products that do not perform as promised will sour customers on a company, especially if the company is lax in addressing the problem. A company’s objective should be to continually lessen their “defect rate” of the goods it produces.

I would measure the progress of achieving these objectives by:

1. Production Scheduling – having a meeting with all involved with production to see if the production schedule goals achieved the results desired. Did the production schedule result in enough quality product produced? Or, does the production schedule have to be tweaked to ensure enough hours and employees are scheduled to meet production demands. Therefore, it is the measurement of actual results against the original production schedule that will help an Operations Manager make better production schedules.

2. Maintenance – having a maintenance report written up and scrutinized. As a result, a manager will be able to read what was repaired, why, when, and how, and what the costs were for maintenance. He or she can then decide, based on the report, the appropriate course of action to ensure maintenance expenses do not get out of hand.

 

3. Inventory Control – having a look at stock levels in the company’s warehouse and recording these stock levels and recording sales activity. Then it would be measuring the stock turnover ratio (inventory turns) for the company to see if it is suitable when compared to the stock turnover ratio (inventory turns) for its specific industry. If it is not turning its stock quickly enough, then adjustments will have to be made.

4. Process Evaluation – through running tests on an assembly line for example, to look for bottlenecks that mean inefficiency. Inefficiency means wasting labor hours and other resources, which can cut into a firm’s profits. Therefore, testing a process helps a company make the process more streamlined, which can result in greater production at less cost.

5. Quality Control – having product tested at all steps in the manufacturing process. This would mean setting up an inspection schedule. This schedule would ensure product is being checked along the entire production chain, not just at the end. This can help a company quickly spot defective products and get them out of the system before too much handling of it takes place, which is a waste of human resources and money. A company can then implement better production protocols to ensure higher quality product is produced.

 

What is " y - 3 = 3(x + 6) " in standard form?

The standard form of a line is in the form `Ax + By = C` where `A` is a positive integer, and `B` , and `C` are integers.

First we need to get rid of brackets.

`y-3=3x+18`

Now we put `x` and `y` variables on the left side and numbers to the right side.

`-3x+y=3+18`

`-3x+y=21`

Now we multiply the whole equation by `-1` because we want parameter `A` to be positive.

`3x-y=-21` <-- Standard form                         

What is a brief summary of "Berry" by Langston Hughes?

As the story opens, an employment office in Jersey City has sent a worker, Milberry Jones, to a large home near the beach that houses disabled children for the summer. It's run in part by Mrs. Osborn, the housekeeper. She's surprised to see that the new worker is black, and his race creates problems for her because the other servants might not like it. She has him wash dishes, and then, trying to figure out where he can sleep that night (because the other servants won't want him near them), she walks over to Dr. Renfield's house.

This Dr. Renfield is the one who owns the whole facility. But he's not at home at his cottage at the moment; his wife answers the door, and it's a bit awkward because Mrs. Osborn has a crush on Dr. Renfield.

He stops by Mrs. Osborn's office later and finds out from her what's going on. (She refers to Milberry as a "Negro," and Dr. Renfield refers to him as "the darkie.") They decide that Milberry will sleep alone in the attic and that, because he's black, he'll earn $8 a week instead of $10.

Milberry is described as uneducated but quick-witted, grateful for his new job, but a little annoyed that the employers are working him to death because he's "just" a black kid. He senses something "phoney" about the whole facility, though: all the adults complain and gossip a lot, and the disabled kids aren't treated very well.

The kids love Milberry, though, and he enjoys playing, singing, and talking with them. They offer him warmth and affection and call him "Berry."

One August day, Berry is helping a child in a wheelchair head down to the beach, when the child leans out and falls, and the wheelchair breaks. Even though the child isn't really hurt, and even though he clings to Berry for comfort, Dr. Renfield and Mrs. Osborn blame Berry for the accident and make it a huge deal. Not only do they fire Berry, they also deduct his last week of pay to make up for the broken wheelchair. He has to go back to Jersey City.

What are the symbols in "The Scarlet Ibis?"

The opening paragraph is filled with symbols of death and decay. Summer is "dead" and with autumn approaching, the plants and trees are losing leaves, wilting, and birds have left their nests or migrated for the winter. Having read the entire story, the image that stands out in this first paragraph is of the empty nest: 

. . . but the oriole nest in the elm was untenanted and rocked back and forth like an empty cradle. 

This empty nest suggests the absence of baby birds. To be sure, this could mean the birds have grown and flown away. But the emptiness in the context of this dying season seems more suggestive of death. When Doodle is born frail and crippled, he is given little chance of living. His father has a casket made and this empty casket is clearly a symbol of death. The interesting combination of the empty nest and the empty casket illustrates the process of life but the small casket clearly suggests a short life. (The foreboding symbolism of the bird's nest and the Ibis, later in the story, are poetic ways of describing Doodle.) 

When Brother shows Doodle the casket, it is covered with "Paris green" which is  poison designed to kill rats and bugs. Brother names him "Doodle" because he would crawl like a bug. The casket is covered with material poisonous to bugs, showing that even the idea of the casket is (emotionally as well as physically) poisonous to Doodle. 

The symbolism of birds is important in this story. Doodle has a story about a boy who has a pet peacock. The bird would enfold the boy when he went to sleep like a protective covering. 

When Doodle sees the Ibis, he relates to it as well. When the bird dies, Doodle is sad and refuses to eat. He determines to bury the bird. The Ibis is the most overt symbol in the story. It is a bird that comes from a different place. It can not survive in its new environment. Likewise, Doodle can never fit in or live up to Brother's expectations. The red color of the Ibis parallels Doodle's own blood in the end. The "bleeding tree" is also symbolic of Doodle's death. 

What are the associated conflicts? Provide two in the story and elaborate.

In this story, an Indian woman named Shaila Bhave loses her sons and husband when a bomb explodes the plane on which they are flying. As Shaila copes with her loss, she is forced to deal with the culture clash in two directions, creating an associated conflict: neither fully Indian any more nor fully Canadian, she finds herself torn between the two cultures. She clashes with Western culture, but she also is not at home in India. 

Western culture is represented in Judith Templeton, a young social worker with blond hair and blue eyes who comes to offer grief counseling to the many Indians who have lost family members on the plane. She admits she doesn't know how to cope with a disaster of this magnitude, and has, as she says, no experience with the "complications of culture, language, and customs." She asks Shaila for help because Shaila has been described as calm and strong, "a pillar."  Shaila, however, has a negative reaction to Judith labeling some of the wives who have lost husbands "hysterical." Shaila knows that the good behavior Judith sees in Shaila through the lens of Western culture would be seen as strange through the lens of Indian culture, and that what Judith sees as "hysterical" would be seen as normal grieving in India  "I am a freak," Shaila says, because she is not reacting to death as an Indian ought to. Later, Shaila perceives that her family surrounds her in spirit, as in an 'epic.' Judith has no way to grasp this aspect of Indian culture in which the spirits of the dead commune with the living, and Shaila has no way to communicate to Judith that she is fine--that her life is "thrilling"--as Judith worries because Shaila is not working.

But just as Shaila has had to deal with the culture clash with the West, as represented by Judith, when she returns to India for the funeral she experiences a different kind of culture clash. Her parents want her to stay in India, not return to Canada:

 "I am trapped between two modes of knowledge," Shaila thinks. "I am too old to start over and to young to give up. Like my husband's spirit, I flutter between worlds."

Indian culture offers her both her parents' extreme rationalism and its "Vedic rituals." Shaila is not wholly at home with either one. The Indian men who have become widowers from the plane's destruction also have to cope with culture shock as their families arrange marriages for them: "In a month they will have buried one family and returned to Canada with a new bride and partial family." 

While Shaila makes her "offering of flowers and sweetmeats" to an animist god in Himalaya, her husband appears to her in spirit. She asks him if should stay in India and he tells her, before disappearing, that she should finish what they had begun. Her parents don't believe in spirits, but since she does, she returns to Canada.

Caught between two cultures, Shaila continues to commune with the spirits of her dead family while living in Canada. Her moment of truth comes when she refuses to be a bridge between Western culture and Indian culture for Judith. She won't continue to visit grieving families and try to "translate" between them and Judith, as she realizes it is impossible. As Shaila accepts that she is part of two cultures that can't really speak to each other, she gains self acceptance. She is neither fully Indian, nor fully Western. She is her own person. When she embraces this identity, the spirits of her family leave her and she can move on, finishing the work she and her husband began of forging new lives. 

In the novel Monster, did Steve Harmon receive a fair trial?

Yes. I believe that Steve Harmon received a fair trial throughout the novel Monster by Walter Dean Myers. The testimonies of both Richard "Bobo" Evans and Osvaldo Cruz were unreliable, and the jury took into account that both witnesses benefited from testifying against James King and Steve Harmon. Although the prosecuting attorney mentions that Steve collaborated with James King about the robbery, Petrocelli does not state that Steve was ever in the store. The State's other witness, Lorelle Henry, did not testify to seeing Steve in the store before the robbery. Also, Steve did not give a signal to Evans or King, and did not receive any payment following the robbery. The only evidence to suggest that Steve was involved in the crime was simply hearsay from James King, Bobo Evans, and Osvaldo Cruz. Without substantial evidence to prove that Steve Harmon was a co-conspirator, the jury made a just decision to rule Steve not guilty in the murder of Aguinaldo Nesbitt.

Given what you know about the historical context of the Gettysburg Address, define the "unfinished work" left for the living to complete. Pretend...

The "unfinished work" that the dead at Gettysburg had "thus far so nobly advanced" was described less than a sentence later as "the great task remaining before us." In the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln framed the Civil War as a conflict over what we might today call the "workability" of a republic, a government "of the people, by the people, for the people." The Civil War, he said, was a "test" of whether such a government could survive, and the soldiers at Gettysburg had died, in part, to prove that it could. But the speech was given in the midst of the war, just months after the Battle of Gettysburg in July of 1863. While two major Union victories had been won in that year, at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, there was still much bloody work to be done, and the contest was far from decided. Lincoln, by referencing "unfinished work," sought to underline this point. He was both attempting to provide a higher meaning to the conflict and to warn that it was far from over.

How much heat is required to melt an ice cube of mass 2.0 g that is at a temperature of -4.0°C? (Specific heat capacity of ice =...

The total heat required is the sum of the heat needed to raise the ice to its freezing point, 0ºC, and the heat needed to melt it. It's calculated as follows:

Heat needed to warm ice to 0ºC:

q1 = mc `Delta` T (c = specific heat capacity)

q1 = (2.0g)(2.0x10^3J/kg-ºC)(1 kg/1000 g)(4ºC) = 16 J

Heat needed to melt ice:

q2 = (m)(heat of fusion)

q2 = (2.0g)(3.34x10^4 J/kg)(1 kg/1000g) = 668 J

q(total) = q1 + q2 = 16 J + 668 J = 684 J

Since the two constants are stated per kilogram and the mass of ice is in grams, the additional term (1 kg/1000 g) was used to convert to consistent units.

The specific heat capacity of ice was stated in terms of Kelvin temperature, but is consistent with a  `Delta` T in ºC. The size of the Celsius degree and Kelvin are the same so the  `Delta` T is the same in both units.

`A = 24.3^@, C = 54.6^@, c = 2.68` Use the law of sines to solve the triangle. (Find missing sides/angles) Round answers to 2 decimal places.

Given: `A=24.3^@, C=54.6^@, c=2.68`

The Law of Sines:  `a/sin(A)=b/sin(B)=c/sin(C)`

`B=180-24.3-54.6=101.1^@`

`a/sin(24.3)=b/sin(101.1)=2.68/sin(54.6)`

`a/sin(24.3)=2.68/sin(54.6)`

`a=[2.68sin(24.3)]/sin(54.6)`

`a=1.35`

`b/sin(101.1)=2.68/sin(54.6)`

` ` `b=[2.68sin(101.1)]/sin(54.6)`

`b=3.23 `

``

In The Brothers by Terence, what is happening in this scene?

In this scene, Micio is attempting to inspire certain actions from his adopted son, Aeschinus; he's hoping that Aeschinus will admit to his relationship with Pamphila and be transparent about his motives in seeking out the young woman.

Just prior to the scene, we see Aeschinus lamenting the delicacy of his situation. Although he has been faithful to Pamphila (who has borne his child), rumor has it that he is having an affair with the music-girl he has carried off from Sannio's home. Aeschinus, being a faithful brother, does not want to tarnish his brother, Ctesipho's good name. However, Ctesipho is the one who is in love with the music-girl, and Aeschinus has just abducted her for Ctesipho' sake. Meanwhile, Aeschinus thinks to approach Pamphila and her mother, Sostrata, to explain the truth of the matter. He laments his own weakness at keeping his predicament a secret from his father, Micio, and thinks that he has lost his best chance to marry Pamphila.

As Aeschinus knocks on the door of Pamphila's home, out comes Micio, his father. Apparently, Micio has been apprised of the truth just recently and has been explaining the whole situation to Pamphila and Sostrata. However, Micio pretends that he doesn't know anything when Aeschinus bumps into him at the front door of Pamphila's home.

This is where your conversation comes in. Micio pretends that he is at Pamphila's home to represent the interests of a particular suitor for Pamphila's hand. He tells Aeschinus how impoverished the women are and that he has a friend who is Pamphila's next of kin. Micio slyly tells Aeschinus that this near relative of Pamphila's is interested in marrying her. Aeschinus responds, as an aside, that he is 'undone.' At this point, Aeschinus feels as if his future has been compromised and that his best chance for marrying the woman he loves has been lost.

Seeing his discomposure, Micio asks Aeschinus whether anything is the matter. You can see that Micio is trying to draw Aeschinus out, but the young man isn't ready to confess everything yet. So, Micio resorts to a masterful touch: he tells Aeschinus that this eager suitor is planning to take Pamphila back to his own home in Miletus. Aeschinus is dumbfounded and outwardly indignant when he hears this. Micio just replies that 'such is the act,' meaning that this is the state of affairs or that this is what's going to happen.

Micio goes on to say that the women don't have much choice since some unnamed rascal impregnated Pamphila without recognizing his obligations to Pamphila and the child. Aeschinus counters Micio's reasoning by drawing his father's attention to the feelings of the first suitor (in this case, he is referring to himself). He says that no one seems to have considered the feelings of the first man. Furthermore, he questions how anyone can expect a young woman like Pamphila to not fall in love until some relative comes to claim her for his wife. Sorely distressed, Aeschinus soon breaks down into tears.

Seeing this, Micio kindly explains that he knows everything. He admonishes his son to consider his actions in the light of having 'debauched a virgin' and to fulfill his responsibilities in such a circumstance. He also scolds Aeschinus for his lack of courage and his negligence; he says that Aeschinus' ambivalence has put the lives of Pamphila and his child in limbo for the last ten months. After scolding his son for keeping the matter from him, Micio gives Aeschinus permission to make good on his promise to Pamphila and to marry her.

How long ago and in what part of the year did Mae Tuck ride to the wood?

Mae Tuck and her husband, Angus Tuck, return to the sleepy village of Treegap every ten years.  The couple always heads back toward Treegap during the summer.  Specifically, Mae and Angus head back on August first.  

And so, at dawn, that day in the first week of August, Mae Tuck woke up and lay for a while beaming at the cobwebs on the ceiling. . . "Anyways, it's ten years since I went to Treegap. No one'll remember me. I'll ride in at sunset, just to the wood. I won't go into the village. But, even if someone did see me, they won't remember. They never did before, now, did they?"

It's possible that the above quote is not enough proof, since a reader might think that it might be ten years this time around.  But the text mentions several times that the Tuck family gets together at the spring in Treegap, during the first week of August, every ten years.  

"But they come home whenever the spirit moves, and every ten years, first week of August, they meet at the spring and come home together so's we can be a family again for a little while."

The above quote is spoken by Mae and the "they" that she is talking about is Miles and Jesse Tuck, her two sons.  It has been 87 years since the Tuck family drank from the magic spring water that gave them immortality.  The family had to separate themselves and move away in order to avoid suspicion, but every 10 years during the first week of August, they get back together for a family reunion. 

A shopping cart is pushed 15.6 meters west across a parking lot in 5.2 seconds. What is the velocity of the shopping cart?

Velocity of an object is defined as the ratio of displacement to the time taken. In other words, 

velocity = displacement of the object / time taken for the displacement

In this case, the shopping cart (object) has a displacement of 15.6 m during its motion across the parking lot. The time taken for this displacement is 5.2 seconds. Thus, the velocity of the shopping cart can be estimated by the above mentioned relation as,

velocity of shopping cart = 15.6 m / 5.2 s = 3 m/s.

Thus, the shopping cart had a velocity of 3 m/s as it moved across the parking lot. 

Another similar term, that is often confused with velocity, is speed. But, while speed is scalar, velocity is a vector quantity. However, in this case, since distance traveled and displacement are the same, velocity is the same as speed.

Hope this helps. 

How does the time period affect the literature in "The Minister's Black Veil" and how does the literature affect the time period?

During the time in which Hawthorne wrote "The Minister's Black Veil" (the late 1830s), most people looked back on the Puritans with a mixture of horror and shame.  The Salem Witch Trials had tarnished Puritanism in America promptly and permanently.  Thus, Hawthorne's contemporaries tended to judge their Puritan forebears pretty harshly.  This story reflects that judgment because only poor Mr. Hooper, the town minister, is willing to face up to the truth about humanity: that we all harbor secret sins which we feel compelled to conceal from the world, and, as a result of this deceptive concealment, none of us can ever be truly known by or know another person.  We are all sinners, and all but Mr. Hooper are liars.  His congregation recognizes the truth of his sermons and the symbolism of his veil, but they refuse to acknowledge their understanding of this truth because to admit that they get it would also mean that it is, indeed, true, that they are all secret sinners.  Mr. Hooper, then, is ostracized for the entirety of his life because the sight of his veil and all it symbolizes is too horrible for them to bear.  This does not paint the Puritans in a very good light.

However, the truth that only Mr. Hooper is brave enough to tell doesn't just apply to his contemporaries, but to Hawthorne's as well.  Hawthorne's peers are no more exempt from the truth of the black veil than Mr. Hooper's congregation had been.  Although they might prefer to think of themselves as better than the Puritans, more truly pious, they are not.  They are as guilty as their ancestors because the story addresses human nature, not Puritan nature, and humans are sinful.  Instead of simply holding up a mirror to the Puritans, Hawthorne might wish his contemporaries to hold up that same mirror to see the truth about themselves. 

Discuss how "development" and "underdevelopment" are two terms that are intertwined.

In order to decide whether a country is "underdeveloped", we need some sort of metric for what it means to be properly "developed". We don't have any real absolute standard to compare against; we compare countries with other countries. We don't actually know what the limits of economic growth are, but we can say with some confidence that if one country can grow at a given rate, others probably can as well.

This is actually quite important to keep in mind, as the standard of living for many people even in many "underdeveloped" nations is much higher than it was a century ago, which in turn was higher than a millennium ago. The most abject poverty---the $1.25 per day UN extreme poverty level---is most likely comparable to the standard of living that most human beings had when we lived as hunter-gatherers before the invention of agriculture. Moreover, the standard of living of a typical person in India today is comparable to the level of a typical person in the United States in the 1870s.

During most of the 20th century, rich countries grew faster than poor countries, making it seem like "underdevelopment" was worse by comparison; but in fact most poor countries did grow during this period, and people are better off now in most Third World countries today than they were in 1900.

So, when we talk about "underdevelopment", we really mean that countries such as India or Nicaragua are not growing as much as they could be, or as much as other countries are. They often are in fact growing.

There are some who argue in fact that "development" is the problem---that our standards for what constitutes a developed country are skewed too high and we expect an unreasonable amount of wealth. The biggest piece of evidence for this is fossil fuels---they have given us a huge boon to economic growth, but they are not inexhaustible. We will need to replace them soon, and if we can't, then even the 2% annual growth that First World countries have come to expect may no longer be possible.

Make of that what you will, but personally I'm quite strongly in the opposite camp; I believe that "underdeveloped" countries truly are underdeveloped, that the example set by First World countries is one that the entire world could meet if we all worked together to find a way. This is not to say that it will be easy, or quick; but I believe it can and will happen.

How is The Help (movie) related to the book To Kill a Mockingbird character-wise?

One of the great characters in TKAMB is Atticus's housekeeper, Calpurnia. Calpurnia's story is not at the center of novel, but we see bits and pieces of it around the edges. There is, for example, the part where Calpurnia takes Scout and Jem to her chuch on a Sunday whe Atticus is away. In this brief scene, we get a sense for what the black community is really like -- it is a detour into the lives of people at the margins of the book, like a look backstage, or a glimpse into a forbidden world. It is true that when Calpurnia shows up at First Purchase AME church, there is some trouble. Lula confronts Calpurnia:

“I wants to know why you bringin‘ white chillun to nigger church.”

“They’s my comp’ny,” said Calpurnia. Again I thought her voice strange: she was talking like the rest of them.

“Yeah, an‘ I reckon you’s comp’ny at the Finch house durin’ the week.”

Calpurnia is in a hard place. She has transgressed, in a way: her feelings for the Finch children (which she calls "hers" when she is dressing them) blur the boundaries between family member and servant, or, even, white and black. She is letting Jem and Scout in on the "secret" world of black folk, showing them a side of her that is new and strange. She is showing them, in short, that she is a person, just like them.

In the film The Help, we have similar themes. Like Calpurnia, Viola Davis' character Abilene is in effect the mother of her employer's children; also a bit like Calpurnia, Octavia Spencer's Minny is in effect the equal or "friend" of her employer. Much of the conflict in the film comes from negotiating the shifting boundaries of white and black, employer and employee, or servant and friend. Like TKAMB, The Help illustrates the inherent racism and double standards blacks must endure. Another similarity to the church episode in TKAMB is that the film is about the "hidden" lives of the maids, and the webs of personal relationships and rivalries that motivate the characters. Far from just being "the help," the maids in The Help, like Calpurnia, are powerful individuals in their own right.

`h(x) = cos^4(x) sin(x), [0, pi]` Find the average value of the function on the given interval.

The average value is the integral of a function over an interval divided by the length of an interval. The length here is `pi,` found the integral.

Find the indefinite integral first, for this make a substitution `u=cos(x),` then `du = -sin(x) dx.`

`int cos^4(x)sin(x) dx = -int u^4 du = -1/5 u^5 +C = -1/5 cos^5(x) +C.`

So the definite integral is

`-1/5 cos^5(x)|_(x=0)^pi = -1/5(-1-1)= 2/5.`

And the average value is `2/(5pi) approx 0.127.`

How is the God of the poem in Johnson's "The Creation" like a poet? What kind of things make good poets and draw people to them?

The God in the poem and the poet are both creators. They share traits that make them good creators and these traits draw people to them. 

First, God enjoys the creative process. We see God "smile" as he creates light and, as he makes more and more things, he says "That good!" repeatedly with evident relish.

Second, a good poet thinks. After God has created the earth and the creatures, which he loves, he is still lonely, so he "thought and thought  ... [and] thought ... ." The three repetitions of thought in the stanza indicate how important thought is, and after thinking hard, God makes "man."

Third, God, like the good poet, gets his hands dirty: God physically engages in the creative process. He looks, he sees, he walks. The word "looked" is repeated multiple times in the poem. God walks around the world he has created and looks and looks and looks, just as a poet looks and looks at the poem he has created. He is intimately involved in his creation. In other words, God, like a good poet, doesn't just dream up ideas while off in a room or an ivory tower. God "stepped over" to the world's edge and "spat" out the seven seas and "clapped" his hands to make thunder, only to be rained on. He is involved.

God, like the good poet, can be commanding--"he lit" the sun and "flung" the stars, both acts of creative grandeur--but he also is humble. When he makes man, we are told twice that he "kneeled" in the clay and the dust. Like a good poet, he "toiled" over this very special creation. Also like a good poet, he nurtured his creation, "like a mammy bending over her baby." 

Like a good poet, through delight, through toil, through both a sense of grandeur and humility, through love and involvement and nurture, God creates a soul. We are drawn to the good poet, the poem implies, because he too, like God creating the universe, has invested so much of himself into the poem.

In the final analysis, how and why did the parents, the child, and the doctor use force in "Use Of Force"?

In Williams' story "The Use of Force," a worried family pays for a doctor to make a house call to examine their young daughter. They are a poor rural family, for whom even the doctor's modest fee is a major financial strain. It is obvious that they genuinely care for their daughter and are worried about her. The doctor is also portrayed as an essentially decent man, sympathetic to his patients and their families. The child is scared, ill, and hysterical. 

In the narrative, the child does not want her throat to be examined, and physically struggles to prevent it, and thus uses force. Similarly, the doctor, with the aid of the parents, holds the girl down and forces her mouth open so that he can examine her throat to see if she has diphtheria. This is necessary because diphtheria can badly harm or even kill children if not treated promptly. 

The most important element of the story is the doctor's reflections and emotions. He is not just uncomfortable with the need to use force, but even more uncomfortable with the way in which he and the parents become increasingly frustrated and angry. While intellectually, they know that they are doing this for the child's own good, using force starts a cycle of irrational anger, a visceral feeling for which the doctor eventually feels shame when it recedes.

What are some key musical features of the Baroque era?

Baroque music is characterized by a number of common elements—rigidity of style, elaborate ornamentation in playing, the creation of tonality and the expansion of range and complexity in musical techniques.

Among the notable Baroque composers are Bach, Handel and Vivaldi. The Baroque period created such established musical forms as opera, cantata, oratorio, concerto, and sonata.

Baroque is largely accepted as first being an architectural term, though references to it exist which predate the architectural movement. However, even today, the word baroque is most often associated with European buildings.

Chamber music is considered to be one of the high points of the Baroque style, which is still widely enjoyed today. The reign of Louis XIV perhaps best exemplifies the Baroque style, in both its ornate beauty and its artifice.

Many Americans regularly drive their own cars to work rather than use public transportation or form a car pool. (a) How do you know that each...

A discussion of this requires that we look at who exactly is determining the parameters of efficiency and for what purpose.  We might be examining the efficient use of time. Or we might be examining the efficient use of energy.   And there are individual efficiencies at issue as well as collective efficiencies.

People who are driving their own cars on the road might be viewing efficiency from a  completely individual perspective. Or they might be viewing efficiency only from a temporal perspective. For example, if I have an appointment that will require my car in the afternoon, it may not be efficient for me to take a bus to work, take a bus home, and then get in my car and drive somewhere, depending on where I live and where that somewhere is.  I am using my car so that I can be efficient in my use of time.  A manager might have to inspect three different production plants on a given day. To use public transportation to do so might be highly inefficient in terms of time and money, since the manager might be paid at a high rate, and for the good of the entire company, not just the manager, it is most efficient to have him or her use the car.

Alternatively, if many people use public transportation, there is a more efficient use of fuel and space on the roads, from a societal perspective.  It is more efficient to get 50 people downtown on two gallons of gasoline than for each of them to get there on their individual two gallons.  It is more efficient because it reduces traffic jams, allowing everyone to get there faster. When we are looking at societal priorities in a discussion of efficiency, it is a very different matter.

I think what appears to be a conflict is the result only of how one defines efficiency, for which particular resource or resources, and for whom the efficiency is being defined. It's a question of which resources are being used efficiently and one's perspective, individual or collective.

How does Washington Irving depict life in New York?

Two of Washington Irving's most famous short stories, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle," take place in rural New York near the Hudson River.  "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" takes place in Sleepy Hollow, New York, next to Tarrytown. Both towns are located along the Hudson River.  The two small towns are still in existence today.  "Rip Van Winkle" takes place in an unnamed village at the foot of the Catskill Mountains, which are part of the Appalachian Mountain range.

Irving depicts rural New York as being quiet and peaceful with a sense of mystery and the supernatural.  The villages in his stories are full of friendly people who enjoy tradition.  Many of these people are Dutch or of Dutch ancestry.  

The natural landscapes in Irving's stories are idyllic, whether they are the looming Catskill Mountains or the winding Hudson River.  In "Rip Van Winkle," Irving describes the village near the mountains:

At the foot of these fairy mountains, the voyager may have descried the light smoke curling up from a village, whose shingle-roofs gleam among the trees, just where the blue tints of the upland melt away into the fresh green of the nearer landscape.

Rip's village is depicted as being tranquil with a green landscape and the mountains in the distance.  Tranquility is also depicted in the description of the setting in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow:" 

Not far from this village, perhaps about two miles, there is a little valley or rather lap of land among high hills, which is one of the quietest places in the whole world.  A small brook glides through it, with just murmur enough to lull one to repose; and the occasional whistle of a quail or tapping of a woodpecker is almost the only sound that ever breaks in upon the uniform tranquillity.

Irving describes Sleepy Hollow as being a quiet place, nestled between hills.  The only sounds are those of the a murmuring brook and an occasional bird.

A touch of the supernatural and mystery is evident in both locations.  In the Catskill Mountains, Rip comes across the mysterious ghostly figures of men in old Dutch costume.  Sleepy Hollow is a place where people love ghost stories.  There is a special interest in the legend of the Headless Horseman.

What was the significance of Maniac's actions before he went to sleep the first night he spent at the Beales'?

For a long time, Maniac Magee had not had a home of his own. His parents died when he was young, so he went to live with his aunt and uncle. Their house was full of turmoil because of their troubled marriage, so Maniac did not really feel at home there. For a year after that, he was on his own. Maniac longed for a place to call home.

When Mr. and Mrs. Beale invited Maniac to come stay with them, he did something unusual before going to bed. He got out of bed, walked downstairs, and peeked his head outside the front door. Much to the confusion of Mr. and Mrs. Beale, Maniac "looked at the three cast-iron digits nailed to the door frame: seven two eight. He kept staring at them, smiling." Maniac's heart was filled with joy because "he finally had an address." He said good-night to Mr. and Mrs. Beale, who must have wondered about the peculiar behavior of their young houseguest. He went back upstairs, feeling satisfied.

What are the themes of The Hunger Games?

One theme from The Hunger Games is government oppression.  The country of Panem is divided up into 12 different districts run by the Capitol.  The Capitol keeps everybody in line by taking a lot and giving very little back.  It's an oppressive system.  The icing on the cake is that the Capitol holds the annual Hunger Games just to remind each district how much power each district doesn't have.  

Another theme is family.  Katniss cares deeply for her family.  It's why she goes out hunting to put food on the table.  It's why she volunteers as tribute instead of letting her sister be chosen.  In a broader understanding of family, it is obvious that Katniss thinks of Peeta as an extended family member.  Even Rue at one point is taken under Katniss's wing.  

Coinciding with the two above themes is freedom and friendship.  If one theme is oppression, it makes sense that freedom is a theme too.  If thinking of Peeta and Rue as family is not okay, then I would support the theme of friendship.  

In what month did the Cold War start?

A Cold War is a period of competitions and confrontations between countries. At the end of World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union began a prolonged period of time where there were many competitions and confrontations.

While the beginning of the Cold War is a subject of debate, one of the earliest events of the Cold War began in March 1946. During a speech given by Winston Churchill, he referred to the events in Eastern Europe by saying an “Iron Curtain” has formed over parts of Europe. This was in reference to the Soviet Union taking control of the Eastern European countries often without the people in these countries having a say in this happening.

After this speech, there were many instances where the United States worked to stop the spread of communism in Europe and in Asia.

How could I write a monologue of up to at least 250 words for Tituba in The Crucible?

If you are writing a monologue for Tituba, a character in Arthur Miller's play The Crucible, one of the most influential aspects of your monologue will be where you decide to place the monologue within the play:

• 
  As a prequel to Act One: Tituba, at the request of several of the village girls, performs a "ceremony" for them, although little detail exists about what this ceremony is. You could explain how Tituba feels about the request, explain what happens during the ceremony, or explain how Tituba is feeling after the ceremony is discovered by Reverend Parris. 


• 
  Concluding Act One: Tituba has admitted to witchcraft and accused other women -- does she feel guilty? Is it true? Is she afraid? 


• 
  Within Act Two: Tituba is stuck in prison, seeing people come in and out as they are accused of witchcraft and found guilty. Does she feel like she caused this? Does she feel like a victim? 


• 
  Within Act Three: Tituba is due to hang in Act III. How does she feel? 

Good luck!

what are arguments for and against the resurrection from "life of jesus" by Shusaku Endo? Chapter 13...

Endo comes down on the side of the resurrection being real.

But he also records the idea of some people at the time that the "resurrection" was merely that John the Baptist had been reborn in Jesus. He also notes that the disciples themselves didn't think of a Messiah in terms of a resurrection. They thought of him as a leader who would reclaim Israel, restoring it to its former independence and glory. Jesus was a "glorious person," the one who was to "liberate the territory of Israel." (172) Then, when he died, the disciples remembered him most vividly as a "companion" and he became still so real to them that he remained "very close to them." This was "no act of abstract meditation; it was a non-metaphoric, tangible realization," Endo writes (174). This could be what was meant by resurrection. 

On the other hand, Endo asks how this religious sect could have lasted without the reality of the resurrection. It had to have grown large from more than a desire for companionship. To Endo, the disciples were cowards who had betrayed Jesus. He believed they would not have been strong enough to continue to do anything more than admire Jesus as a great moral teacher if something supernatural hadn't occurred. They would not have grown into people who were unafraid of physical terror. What caused them to change was a transformative event of "electrifying intensity:" (177) the physical resurrection.   

What did Romeo learn from his experiences?

The answer to this question regarding William Shakespeare's drama Romeo and Juliet depends entirely on when in the play you ask this question. What I can do is break down the play by its acts and scenes and indicate spaces in which Romeo could have learned a lesson: 

I.i: Romeo learns that love can easily lead to heartbreak

I.ii: Romeo learns that Rosaline will be in attendance at the Capulets' party

I.iv: Romeo learns that his friends are tiring of his heartbreak, and care about his well-being, as demonstrated by Mercutio and Benvolio's efforts to cheer him.

I.v: Romeo meets Juliet and learns what "love at first sight" is

II.i: Romeo learns that Juliet loves him as well and is willing to be with him despite their families' conflict

II.iii: Romeo learns from the Nurse that Juliet does plan to escape, meet, and marry Romeo

II.v: Romeo learns how much Juliet loves him, and is counseled in patience and caution by the Friar

III.iii: Romeo learns that he has been banished and that, despite his crimes, Juliet still loves him. 

V.i: Romeo learns of Juliet's "death"

Hope this helps!

What elements or clues foreshadow the ending in the short story "After Twenty Years"?

The ending is foreshadowed by Jimmy’s deliberateness and Bob’s facial features.

O' Henry uses characterization to foreshadow the ending of the story.  The character traits of Bob and Jimmy that he introduces predict the ending.  

Jimmy and Bob were really good friends once.  They agreed to meet each other twenty years into the future.  Each managed to make the meeting.

Jimmy was a police officer.  The fact that he was unable to arrest his friend Bob is foreshadowed by the care and deliberateness to which he walked down the street.

 The policeman on the beat moved up the avenue impressively. The impressiveness was habitual and not for show, for spectators were few. The time was barely 10 o'clock at night, but chilly gusts of wind with a taste of rain in them had well nigh depeopled the streets.

Just by how Jimmy walks down the street, trying doorknobs and keeping an eye out, you can tell that he takes his job as a police officer seriously.  For Jimmy, being a cop is not just a job.  It is a way of life.  He would never break the law, even to help a friend.

While the foreshadowing of Jimmy is mostly about his personality, Bob’s role is foreshadowed through his physical features.  This is important, because it is recognizing Bob is what makes Jimmy choose.

The man in the doorway struck a match and lit his cigar. The light showed a pale, square-jawed face with keen eyes, and a little white scar near his right eyebrow. His scarfpin was a large diamond, oddly set.

Jimmy recognizes Bob as a criminal from Chicago, and that is apparent from this scene.  The fact that he recognized him and knew that he was a criminal, but told no one, foreshadows the ending scene where he has another policeman arrest him. 

When Bob says that Jimmy is a standup guy, it foreshadows the fact that he will do the right thing.  Yet he also says that they are good friends.  This fits with what happens.  Jimmy sees Bob, passes him without introducing himself, and gets another policeman to arrest him.  Bob is his friend, and Bob is a criminal.  Jimmy can’t let him go, but does not have the will to arrest him himself.  For the sake of their old friendship, he has someone else do it.

What new and different topic could I use to write a thesis in the field of English Linguistics?

A new and different topic would be that of how the prescribed standards of English Varieties (Indian English Variety, Arabian English Variety, etc) are combining or may combine to create new forms in Standard American and Standard British English in the areas of punctuation, vocabulary and syntax. There have developed and have remained differences between American English and British English, differences like these: the British "take chance" and "agree a topic" while Americans "take a chance" and "agree to/on/about a topic."

The interesting thing about communication that has changed is that, because of the flowering of the Internet, speakers of English from all over the world can write and share ideas on the same platform positioning language styles with differing prescribed standards of language next to each other. Observation shows that there is a "bleeding," a spreading, of some standards of one variety over into the standards of other varieties (and into Standard English). The question this observation calls forth is whether this combining of differing prescribed standards will impact traditional Standard American and Standard British English.

Some examples of this bleeding of standards from one variety to another and to Standard American and British English concern vocabulary and punctuation. For instance, Americans speak of doing something "while" they wait, etc, and the British speak of doing something "whilst" they wait. Americans who associate with British speakers or who read British writers on the Internet, because of linguistic accommodation of salient (dominant) phonetic variants, find their language breaking out in whilsts and even amongsts.

As another example, some English Varieties of post-colonial nations use non-Standard punctuation such as a space before line-end punctuation (e.g., "Stop !" "Will you stop ?") since, for that variety, it is the prescribed punctuation; or such as the absence of a space between a word and the parenthetical that is adjacent to it (e.g, "non-government organization(NGO)" "(1)George and Lennie"). Standard English speakers who read the writings of English Variety speakers and who might not ordinarily do so find that they've grown fond of that crowding effect and, perhaps reflexively, omit those spaces between word and parenthetical. Then there are the tortuous Standard English articles: a an the. For a Standard English speaker who reads the writing of English Variety speakers--who omit articles as prescribed by rule in their variety--long enough, the omission of those critical articles can start to make sense!

This new development of accommodation of salient variants certainly presents new and different opportunities for study in English Linguistics: Will the Standard English of American and British English speakers become a blend, an amalgam, incorporating a collection of prescribed variants of many English Varieties or will this tendency to amalgamate remain an Internet phenomenon, silently battled against?      

In what movie or book does a person say their friend or another person "turns out alright" even though they die or are killed? For example, Nick...

I'm not certain there are stories with that exact phrasing, but there are plenty of stories with a similar sentiment. Nick is referring to Gatsby's moral character, not his physical state of being. In the end, despite all the temptations of East and West Egg and his dealings in criminal activities, Gatsby is able to remain essentially good at his core. He only pursues the life of excess and superficiality because of his love for Daisy. He is not taken in by the vapid culture as Daisy and Tom are. This is what Nick means when he says that Gatsby turned out alright. He even mentions that it is the people around Gatsby who are toxic.

A famous example that gets a bit silly would be Darth Vader from the Star Wars movies. He originally joins the the dark side because of his love for his wife. Eventually, this leads him to actually get caught up in bad things. Unlike Gatsby, he spends a great deal of time actually serving the dark side, but eventually he turns out alright, despite dying. Even as he dies he mentions that his son has saved him. It is in this same moral sense that Gatsby also turns out alright.

What does the narrator mean when she says she owes her mother her existence "three times" in "The Leap"?

The narrator means that her mother saved her own life or her daughter’s life three times.

The story describes a trapeze artist’s daughter. She explains the impact her mother had on her life, specifically by saving her life. The narrator feels that her mother is a very unique and interesting person, and she wishes she knew her better.

The first time her mother saved her life, she actually saved herself. In saving herself, she saved her unborn daughter.  Her mother saved her life by avoiding an accident during a big windstorm.

The first time was when she saved herself. In the town square a replica tent pole, cracked and splintered, now stands cast in concrete. It commemorates the disaster that put our town smack on the front page of the Boston and New York tabloids.

Her mother was in a trapeze accident when lightning struck while she was performing. The narrator considers this the second time her life was saved, because it was in the hospital after the accident that her mother met her father.

I owe my existence, the second time then, to the two of them and the hospital that brought them together. That is the debt we take for granted since none of us asks for life. It is only once we have it that we hang on so dearly.

If her mother had died, or had not been in the accident at all, her mother and father would not have met and the narrator would not exist. So again, while saving her own life her mother saved hers, by creating the possibility of her being born.

The third time her mother saved her life was the most spectacular. There was a fire, and the narrator was trapped inside. She was only seven years old, but there was no chance of rescue. Since the firefighters could do nothing, her mother took a literal leap of faith to save her.

I didn't see her leap through air, only heard the sudden thump and looked out my window. She was hanging by the backs of her heels from the new gutter we had put in that year, and she was smiling. I was not surprised to see her, she was so matter-of-fact.

The narrator’s mother is clearly an amazing woman. Telling this story is her way of attempting to get closer to her. Her mother faces many close calls. The narrator recounts the impact that her mother had on her life through the most spectacular events in her mother’s life.

Why does Dad decide to install the TT-700 in the Brown Bomber?

Kenny's father decides to install the True Tone AB-700, the "Ultra-Glide," in the Brown Bomber after Byron's latest episode of troublemaking. Byron's bad behavior spurs the Watsons to decide to take him to stay with his Grandma Sands for the summer (and possibly the next school year); this means a long family road trip from Flint, Michigan, to Birmingham, Alabama.

Daniel Watson puts a lot of time, energy, and money into improving the car before the trip; he eventually purchases the "cream of the crop" drive-around record player so that the family can listen to their favorite records without the needle scratching the vinyl when the car goes over bumps. This new addition impresses everyone in the family, except for Momma, who is worried about the expense. She is tremendously pleased, however, when her husband plays her special song on the Ultra-Glide: "Under the Boardwalk." The family sits in the car for two hours listening to music on the special player with its second speaker... until they finally reveal to Byron that he is being taken away to Alabama to straighten out his act. 

How does Scout become more mature after listening to Tom Robinson's testimony in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird?

The whole novel chronicles the events in Scout's life that lead her out of childhood innocence into a more understanding mind of the ways of the world. Scout's experiences with kids at school, Miss Maudie, Mrs. Dubose, and Boo Radley all teach her about the Southern world around her. Tom Robinson's trial must have been one of the most profound experiences that helped her to mature because it brings out all of the good and the bad of one little community. Not much is said about how Scout feels after she hears Tom's testimony, though. She has to take Dill outside to calm him down and misses most of the end of it. However, most of her feelings are painted by the way she parallels the death of the dog that Atticus shot with the way the verdict was delivered. Scout describes the delivery of the verdict of the trial in the following way:

"I saw something only a lawyer's child could be expected to see, could be expected to watch for, and it was like watching Atticus walk into the street, raise a rifle to his shoulder and pull the trigger, but watching all the time knowing that the gun was empty. . . A jury never looks at a defendant it has convicted, and when this jury came in, not one of them looked at Tom Robinson" (211).

Just the fact that Scout makes this parallel between Atticus shooting a dog and the guilty verdict is a mature frame of mind. She sees that when her dad was asked to kill a mad dog, he was given all the tools to accomplish the task. But when he is asked to defend a black man in the South in 1935, it was as if he didn't have a bullet to help him shoot down all the prejudice facing the trial. This realization helps her to see that life isn't as fair as she'd like it to be.

After the trial, Scout obeys adults better and she listens better. She does a very good job at one of Aunt Alexandra's missionary teas by not jumping down the company's throat when they say racist things. She follows the leads of Miss Maudie and Aunt Alexandra by wearing a dress, saying polite things, and practicing becoming a lady. 

What is a summary of "The Monkey's Paw" by W. W. Jacobs?

"The Monkey's Paw" by W. W. Jacobs is a strange tale about the White family, who make three wishes on a monkey's paw. All of their wishes come true, but not in the way one might expect. The story starts with Mr. White and his son Herbert playing chess while Mrs. White looks on. They are waiting for a visitor, who soon arrives. The visitor, Sergeant-Major Morris, brings with him tales of exotic places he has been to in his travels, and eventually the stories turn to one of a talisman he has with him, a shriveled up monkey's paw.

"'It had a spell put on it by an old fakir' said the sergeant-major, 'a very holy man. He wanted to show that fate ruled people's lives, and that those who interfered with it did so to their sorrow. He put a spell on it so that three separate men could each have three wishes from it'" (Jacobs 4).

Morris ends up leaving the paw with the Whites after telling them that he, like one man before him, had his three wishes, but he warns them that the wishes they make will likely have dire consequences.

Still, Mr. White is fascinated by the paw and sheepishly makes a wish for enough money to pay off their mortgage. The Whites laugh about it when nothing happens. However, the next day, Herbert is killed in a machine accident at work, and his employer gives Mr. and Mrs. White exactly the amount they had asked for. 

Of course the Whites are devastated and blame themselves. Mrs. White has the idea of wishing their son back, and Mr. White does it reluctantly, but then he realizes that his son will come back mangled and in pain. The Whites hear a knock at the door, and as Mrs. White runs down to answer the door, Mr. White finds the paw and makes one last wish--that Herbert will be dead and back in his grave.

"A cold wind rushed up the staircase, and a long loud wail of disappointment and misery from his wife gave him courage to run down to her side, and then to the gate beyond. The streetlamp flickering opposite shone on a quiet and deserted road" (Jacobs 17).

How does a cell obtain energy?

Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP)

ATP molecules are used for energy by cells. You can think of ATP as a molecule that stores energy in its bonds. When ATP bonds are broken, energy is released for cells to use. Cells are able to create ATP molecules for energy through the metabolism of glucose.

Origins of Glucose

• 
  Plant Cells: Plant cells can produce glucose molecules through the process of photosynthesis. During photosynthesis, plant cells are able to convert light energy from the sun into glucose molecules. The process of photosynthesis occurs in a plant cell organelle called the chloroplast.


• 
  Animal Cells: Animal cells acquire glucose through the consumption of food by the organism. 

Metabolism of Glucose into Energy Stored in ATP Molecules

1. 
   Glycolysis: Glycolysis begins the process of glucose metabolism. The process of glycolysis occurs in the cytoplasm, fluid which fills the innercellular space. During this process, each glucose molecule is converted into two molecules of pyruvate. 


2. 
   Cellular Respiration: Cellular respiration occurs in the mitochondria. During this process, oxygen from the environment is used to convert a pyruvate molecule into three molecules of carbon dioxide. The energy that is created during this process is stored in ATP molecules. There are three sub-pathways that occur during cellular respiration: pyruvate oxidation, the citric acid (Krebs) cycle, and the electron transport chain.


3. 
   Fermentation: Fermentation occurs in the cytoplasm of the cell in the absence of oxygen. During this process, a pyruvate molecule is converted to lactic acid or ethanol. These reacctions result in the production of ATP molecules. The process of fermentation is much less efficient at producing ATP molecules than the process of cellular respiration. 

Although they were raised very differently, Bernard Marx and John the Savage are both dissatisfied with the society of the new world. How?

In Aldous Huxley's dystopian novel Brave New World, both protagonists are extremely dissatisfied with the majority society and culture that dominates the planet. 

Bernard Marx, one of the two protagonists, has always lived as a part of the society in question. Unfortunately, he is an outcast; he is rejected by the other Alphas because in a society where conformity is highly prized, he looks and behaves differently from the rest of his peers. Bernard's dissatisfaction comes from the fact that he desperately wants to belong and feel like he is a part of society, but society rejects him. 

John the Savage, the other protagonist, comes to the dominant society from a small minority culture that lives on an isolated reservation. His dissatisfaction with the majority society is a situation of culture clash; John was raised with a certain set of values and principles, most of which are not only rejected by shamed by the society to which Bernard belongs. He finds this society vapid, immoral, and horrible. 

What passages in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird show that Tom Robinson was blamed for crimes he did not commit?

In Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, multiple passages proving Tom Robinson's innocence can be found in the testimonies given during the trail, Chapters 17 through 19.

The most obvious and substantial passage proving Robinson's innocence is found during Mayella Ewell's testimony. During her testimony, Atticus asks Mayella to "identify the man who raped [her]" (Ch. 18). When Mayella points in the courtroom to Tom Robinson, Atticus has Robinson stand to reveal the fact that Robinson's left arm is crippled. As Scout describes in her narrative, Robinson's left arm is far shorter than his right and "hung dead at his side" (Ch. 18). His left hand is even so useless that, when it is his turn to testify, he can't get his hand to remain on the Bible long enough to be able to take the oath. As Jem phrases it, "Scout ... Scout, look! Reverend, he's crippled" (Ch. 18). The reverend further explains that Robinson's arm has been crippled ever since he was a boy and got it caught in the cotton gin of Mr. Dolphus Raymond, Robinson's employer. If Robinson's left arm is useless, then it is impossible for him to have been able to injure Mayella on the right side of her face while standing before her.

Atticus proved the importance of the culprit needing to be able to use his left arm earlier when questioning Bob Ewell. Atticus very cleverly asks Ewell to write his name before the court. When Ewell writes with his left hand, Judge Taylor asks Ewell if he is ambidextrous, to which Ewell very intelligently responds, "I most positively am not, I can use one hand good as the other" (Ch. 17). Proof that Ewell is able to use his left hand whereas Robinson cannot proves that Robinson is innocent and sheds suspicion on Ewell.

In science, what is the meaning of a safety precaution, reliability and validity?

Below, an explanation for science safety precautions, reliability, and validity are provided.

Science Safety Precautions

Science safety precautions are procedures and regulations to follow in a laboratory setting to ensure that experiments are performed in a way that will not harm the scientist(s). Here is a list of safety precautions issued by the NSTA (National Science Teacher Association).

Reliability

Reliability refers to the repeat-ability or consistency of an experiment if it were to completed with a different group of people, in a different laboratory setting, with a different batch of the same ingredients, etc. Reliability is represented by a percentage. The closer the percentage is to 100%, the more reliable the experiment.

Validity

Validity refers to how well the results of a scientific study can be applied to a broader population than the study participants themselves.

How does Esperanza distinguish herself from Nenny in the story?

Esperanza and Nenny are two sisters in The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. The vignettes in the book are narrated by Esperanza, and each little scene involves Esperanza's observations about people and personal experiences in her neighborhood. Esperanza and Nenny appear to be not very far apart from one another in age since they play together with another pair of sisters in multiple chapters of the book. Esperanza describes differences between herself and Nenny in multiple vignettes, both in terms of each girl's appearance and in the way they think.

The first mention of their differences is in the vignette "Hairs". On page 6 Esperanza says that everybody in her family has different hair. Her own "is lazy" and "never obeys barrettes or bands", while Nenny's "is slippery-- slides out of your hand". Their hair looks different not only from one another's but everyone else's in the family too.

The second time she gives a comparative clue about herself and Nenny is in the vignette "Boys & Girls". On page 8 Esperanza says, "Nenny is too young to be my friend. She's just my sister and that was not my fault". She feels that Nenny is her responsibility as the younger sibling who comes right after Esperanza. Esperanza likens this relationship between them to herself being a "balloon tied to an anchor" (9). The implied message is that the age difference between them does make a difference to Esperanza.

The third instance of comparison is in the vignette "Laughter". On page 17 Esperanza's first statement is "Nenny and I don't look like sisters... not right away". Unlike their friends Rachel and Lucy who physically look related, Esperanza and Nenny do not share similar facial features. The ways that she and Nenny are the same is in how they laugh and certain other things Esperanza says she cannot explain. For instance, they both think of Mexico when they look at a certain house that reminds Esperanza of houses she had seen there in the past.

The fourth time Esperanza mentions a difference is in the vignette "Gil's Furniture Bought & Sold". She says that Nenny asks Gil a lot of questions, while Esperanza has only talked to him once during a purchase in his store. Esperanza refers to Nenny on page 20 as "Nenny, who is stupider" when she describes Nenny asking Gil how much the music box costs. Esperanza describes herself as being quieter and having to pretend she does not care about the music box, while "Nenny who thinks she is smart" talks freely with old Gil.

A fifth comment about their differences occurs in the vignette "Hips" on page 50. Esperanza feels superior to Nenny, Lucy, and Rachel because she knows some scientific things about what hips are for. When Nenny chimes in with what Ezperanza feels is an ignorant comment, Esperanza explains that Nenny thinks this way because of her age and makes the remark "She is stupid alright, but she is my sister". In spite of feeling like she is smarter than Nenny, Esperanza nevertheless feels protective of her and hopes that neither Lucy nor Rachel will point out that Nenny's comment was stupid.

The final example of Esperanza's distinction between herself and Nenny is on page 88 in the vignette "Beautiful & Cruel". Esperanza says that she herself is an ugly daughter that nobody comes for, but that Nenny has pretty eyes and optimism that she will get to pick and choose details about her future. "It's easy to talk that way if you are pretty," remarks Esperanza. Esperanza then resolves to grow up to be beautiful and cruel so that she too will have her own power and not have to give it away to the men she has driven crazy.

To summarize, the specific differences Esperanza points out between herself and Nenny are in their hair, faces, ages/maturity, intelligence, introversion vs. extroversion, and level of physical beauty. There are a fair number of ways she says they are also similar to one another. The differences mentioned show a gradual deepening of how Esperanza thinks about their relationship. At first her observations have to do mainly with appearances, then about responsibility and protectiveness for one's sibling. As times goes by, Esperanza expresses critical thoughts about her sister's shortcomings, and eventually a seemingly resolved sort of longing to be more like her sister as they both consider what the future will hold for them.

How do Jem and Scout meet Dill, and how does Scout describe the boy in Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird?

Jem and Scout meet Dill when he comes in the summer to his Aunt Rachel's house to stay with her next door to the Finches.'

One morning, as Jem and Scout go out to the backyard to play, they hear something in Miss Rachel Haverford's collard patch. When they look over the wire fence, they notice a small boy sitting in the yard, but they wait for him to speak. He says hello and introduces himself as Charles Baker Harris, boasting that he can read.

Jem replies that his name is larger than he is, and, as for his ability to read, Scout has been reading "ever since she was born." Dill inserts that he has mentioned his ability in case they wanted anything read.

As they continue to converse, Jem teasingly asks him if he is four-and-a-half years old. Dill replies, "'Goin' on seven." Then Jem comments that he looks puny for that age. Dill asserts, "I'm little, but I'm old." Jem asks Dill how he came to have the name Charles Baker Harris. "Lord, what a name!" he adds. Dill retorts that his name is no funnier than Jem's: Jeremy Atticus Finch.

Despite his teasing, Jem invites Dill to come over to their yard. Jem and Scout learn that Dill is from Meridian, Mississippi, but his mother is originally from Maycomb County. Dill is very articulate as he tells the Finch children about his having won a Beautiful Child contest and his using the money to go to the picture shows twenty times.

Scout describes Dill as an oddity in looks and in how he is dressed:

Dill was a curiosity. He wore blue linen shorts that buttoned to his shirt, his hair was snow white and stuck to his head like duckfluff; he was a year my senior, but I towered over him....[As he talks] his blue eyes would lighten and darken; his laugh was sudden and happy; he habitually pulled at a cowlick in the center of his forehead.

Jem accepts Dill and all three plan how they will spend their summer: They will repair the tree house and run through a repertoire of dramas based upon books they have read.
Finally, after they have exhausted all sources of drama, Dill suggests that they investigate the Radley House and its occupants, as it fascinates him.

What is the scientific name for the railway gap?

I assume you are referring to the spacing provided between successive railway sections. This gap is scientifically known as an expansion joint. It is so called because it provides for the expansion of railway sections due to heat.

When metals are heated, they expand. This expansion is a property of the material and some materials may expand more than others (for the same change in temperature). At high temperatures, railway sections expand and this expansion needs to be incorporated into the design of railway lines. To allow for safe expansion of railway sections (without causing any danger to the train movement), a small gap is provided between successive sections. This gap is one of the reasons train motion is not generally smooth and also generates constant noise.

Hope this helps.

In the beginning of "Games At Twilight," why are the children so eager to go outside and play?

The children in the story "Games at Twilight" are super eager to play outside, because they have been cooped up inside all day.  On top of being imprisoned inside all day, the house that they are in is oppressively hot and stagnant feeling.  The opening line of the story tells readers that it was too hot to play outside.  That has got to be really hot.  I have three young kids of my own, and I live in Southern California.  There has never been a day that my children have told me it was too hot to play outside.  For children, the discomfort of the weather is a small price to pay for the chance to play.  And play anything.  

The story tells readers that it is hot outside, but the story also tells readers that it is hot inside the house too.  

Their faces were red and bloated with the effort, but their mother would not open the door, everything was still curtained and shuttered in a way that stifled the children, made them feel that their lungs were stuffed with cotton wool and their noses with dust and if they didn’t burst out into the light and see the sun and feel the air, they would choke.

In the minds of the kids, it's hot inside and outside.  At least outside they get to run around and have fun.  Inside the house, they have little choice other than to just sit around and think about how uncomfortable they are.  They desperately want the freedom that the outdoors will bring them.