How does Angus Tuck react when he meets Winnie Foster in Tuck Everlasting?

Tuck is thrilled to see Winnie because he hasn’t seen a child in a long time.

The Tuck family is immortal.  They do not get many visitors, because they try to keep hidden.  If someone found out that they were immortal, it would be terrible. People would ask too many questions, and want to know where the spring of immortality was.  The Tucks will do anything to avoid others facing their fate.

When Winnie sees Jesse drinking from the spring and wants to drink, Mae and Jesse can think of nothing else to do other than kidnap her.  They want to have time to explain the situation.  They take her to Angus Tuck, Mae’s husband. 

He straightened and peered down at her, and Winnie, looking back into his face, saw an expression there that made her feel like an unexpected present, wrapped in pretty paper and tied with ribbons, in spite of Mae's blue hat, which still enveloped her head. (Ch. 9)

Angus says that seeing Winnie is the best thing that has happened to him in eighteen years.  He is thrilled to see a child.  Mae explains to Winnie that the Tucks only have each other, and their children Miles and Jesse do not come home often.  Ma and Pa Tuck have each other.

The boys, now, they go their separate ways. They're some different, don't always get on too good. 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. (Ch. 10)

Miles had a family, but his wife left him when she found out he didn’t age.  Jesse never married because he became immortal too young.  The boys wander around, coming home every once in a while, but Ma and Pa miss them.  They station themselves in a house for a decade or so and then move to another one before people get suspicious.

Why did the colonies want to break away from Great Britain?

First, we should realize that not all the colonists wanted to break away from Great Britain. There were many who wanted to remain loyal to what they viewed as the mother country, and even many ardent patriots did not think of the Revolution as a movement for independence until the war itself. But to look for the reasons the colonists wanted independence, we can look at the Declaration of Independence itself. It asserted the colonists' claims that the British had violated their natural rights which in some cases coincided with their rights as British subjects. This included the policy of taxing the colonists without their consent, quartering troops among them, dissolving colonial legislatures, establishing courts outside the colonies to try violators of certain laws, and other offenses. There were also other, more pragmatic reasons for declaring independence not mentioned in this document. The colonists were, after all, at war with Great Britain, and they needed the support of France and other European powers. They could not get this help without declaring independence. They also needed to establish state governments since the royal governors had fled the colonies with the outbreak of the revolution, another issue that couldn't be addressed without declaring independence. Finally, more than a year of war had alienated the colonists and the British to the point where reconciliation seemed impossible. So in the words of Thomas Paine, it was "common sense" that the colonists should become independent.

In Romeo and Juliet, when Sampson says he will not "carry coals" (Act 1, Scene 1), what does he mean? What literary technique is being used in this...

“To carry coals” is an old English idiom meaning to be insulted, or to be the butt of jokes.  This stems from the status of coal carriers – or colliers, as Gregory makes mention of in the next line – in society.   It was a dirty and undesirable job, and so was deemed unfit for the better members of society.  For this reason colliers were looked down upon and often insulted, and hence the phrase.  So, when Samson says “Gregory, o’ my word, we’ll not carry coals,” he means that they will not stand to be treated like the basest members of society, i.e. insulted.  We can assume from this that from the very beginning the Capulets were roaming the streets gunning for a fight with the Montagues. 

The silly turns of phrase that Samson and Gregory bandy with relation to coal are good examples of puns, a type of wordplay that Shakespeare utilizes to great effect in his plays.  Here, Samson is using “to carry coals” in a figurative sense, and yet Gregory responds with the literal meaning of the phrase – if they were to carry coals, well then they would be colliers.  Samson then spins off the word collier, stating that “I mean, an we be in choler, we’ll draw.”  Here he plays off the similarity between the words collier and choler.  And Gregory then makes good use of the fact that choler and collar are homophones, and uses again Samson’s word draw when he says “Ay, while you live, draw your neck out o’ the collar.” 

The irony here of course is that Gregory offhandedly insults Samson throughout their entire exchange, even though the latter swore at the beginning that he would not tolerate it.  This further goes to show that their beef is purely with the Montagues; or at the very least that Samson is not very bright.

How do the rules of the community in The Giver affect the characters in the story?

There are so many rules and regulation in the society of The Giver that the citizens of the town don't question the rules. For example, Jonas' father is a Nurturer who works with newborn babies. In our society, someone who works with newborn babies would want to do everything they could to save the baby. We later learn that the Nurturer will sometimes have to "release" a baby, which means to kill the baby through a lethal injection. The rules of community state that certain newborn babies need to be released—and this makes it okay in the eyes of the Nurturer. Since the rules dictate that, no one will think they are doing harm.

Everything inside the society is regulated. Citizens' careers, the weather, and even feelings are all regulated to such an extent that one cannot even fathom choosing their own career or alterations in the weather. This affects how people will think and act.

The characters become used to that society and cannot think of anything else. When Jonas starts receiving emotions and memories from The Giver, he is now different than everyone else. Jonas feels alone because he knows true emotion while everyone else does not. 

As The Giver is the only one who has memories and feelings, The Elders must come to The Giver for advice. When a whole society lacks emotions and memories, it is hard to make the best decisions.

Write the summary in simple form about "Richard Cory."

When Edward Arlington Robinson wrote his poem "Richard Cory" in the 1890s, the United States had been in an economic depression. Most people were poor. The main character of the poem, Cory, is extremely wealthy and the people are very envious of him. He is "richer than a king"; the people on the pavement looked at him. In other words, they are walking and he is in a fine carriage. The poor people "went without the meat, and cursed the bread", while Cory "glittered when he walked." Cory is a gentleman, and he seemingly has everything. But the people do not really know him; they look at him from afar. No doubt due to his loneliness, despite and perhaps because of his wealth, Cory kills himself.

So on we worked, and waited for the light, And went without the meat, and cursed the bread; And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,  Went home and put a bullet through his head.

Simon and Garfunkel wrote a very popular song based on Robinson's poem; it is attached below as the third link.

How does Calpurnia grow up in To Kill a Mockingbird?

During a conversation about Calpurnia's educational background, Scout and Jem find out that the older woman was originally from Finch's Landing.  Finch's Landing is the longtime family estate of the Finch family.  It was where their father grew up.  It was also, as they discover, where Calpurnia grew up.

Finch's Landing is located on the river, not far from Maycomb, Alabama.  In her younger years, Calpurnia "grew up down there between the Buford Place and the Landin'" (To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 12).  Calpurnia spent nearly her whole life working for either the Finch family or the Buford family.  Miss Buford was the person who had taught Calpurnia how to read.  Miss Buford was the aunt of Miss Maudie Atkinson.  Calpurnia lived at Finch's Landing even before Atticus, because she is older than him.  She only left when Atticus got married and he and his wife moved to Maycomb.  Calpurnia also moved to work for them.

What is a compound microscope?

A compound microscope is the simplest type of microscope that we usually encounter and use in our school laboratories. It is used for magnifying smaller objects and features. It can provide a total magnification of up to 1000x (or 1000 times). The compound microscope has two lenses: an eyepiece and objective. The eyepiece is the lens through which we look at the object and is close to our eyes (and hence the name). It can have a magnification of up to 10x. There can be one or two eyepiece lenses. The objective is the lens close to the object and can have a magnification of up to 100x. The most commonly used objective lenses have magnifications of 10x, 20x, 40x, 60x and 100x, thus providing us with the flexibility of viewing the sample at increasingly higher magnifications. There is a light source at the base of the compound microscope. This is the reason why such microscopes are also known as compound light microscopes.

Hope this helps. 

Who are the main characters in "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty?"

There are only two main characters in "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," a middle-aged man and his wife. Walter Mitty himself is the most important character because the story is all about his "secret" fantasies. James Thurber introduces Mrs. Mitty in the opening scenes in order to characterize her, but Mitty drops her off at the beauty parlor in Waterbury, Connecticut, and is alone for much of the story. At the end, his wife reappears and is the same domineering, critical woman she was in the car when she interrupted one of her husband's fantasies by nearly shrieking

“Not so fast! You’re driving too fast!” said Mrs. Mitty. “What are you driving so fast for?”

She is a bossy woman who tends to repeat everything. A moment later she says

“You were up to fifty-five,” she said. “You know I don’t like to go more than forty. You were up to fifty-five.” 

In his fantasy, Mitty must have already gotten the hydroplane up to a hundred miles an hour and was unconsciously pressing harder on the car's accelerator pedal as he forced more speed out of his imaginary hydroplane.

Mrs. Mitty is a realist. Mitty is an idealist. She is an extrovert. He is an introvert. They are entirely different types, but they seem to have a stable marriage because they have adjusted to their incompatibility. She does all the thinking and planning. He obeys orders and keeps his thoughts to himself.

No doubt Walter Mitty was a somewhat exaggerated picture of Thurber himself. He was an eccentric man, and he used his eccentricities in his stories, essays and cartoons. Male characters very similar to Walter Mitty appear in "The Catbird Seat" and "The Unicorn in the Garden." In both of these stories there is a female character who is not too much different from Mrs. Mitty in being demanding, controlling, and insensitive. 

The Mittys may be psychologically incompatible, but they remain married because they are dependent on each other. For example, she apparently doesn't know how to drive a car. They must be New Yorkers who, like so many others, have moved out into the suburbs. Many people who live in Manhattan don't drive cars because the traffic is maddening and there are many other ways of getting around the city. She depends on her husband to drive her into town, and he depends on her to do the planning for both of them. No doubt she tells her husband what suit to wear and what tie to go with it. They would be lost without each other. James Thurber writes about a lonely single man in what his editor Harold Ross called "a mood-type thing" titled "One is a Wanderer." The piece was reprinted in The Thurber Carnival, which is the best collection of his stories, essays, cartoons, and "casuals."

When Mrs. Mitty reappears at the end of the story, her husband is waiting for her in a hotel lobby where he has become lost in his fantasies again. 

“I’ve been looking all over this hotel for you,” said Mrs. Mitty. “Why do you have to hide in this old chair? How did you expect me to find you?” 

What strategies did the Americans use in fighting the Battle of Bunker Hill? Why was it considered a “bitter” victory for the British?

The American strategy at the Battle of Bunker Hill was one of trying to use the advantage of being on top of the hill to control the British advance up the hill. The colonists knew they were in a good position militarily. They had control of the hill. If the British were going to take the hill, they would have to run straight into the American attack. There would be no sneaking up on the Americans in this battle. The Americans waited until the British were very close before they fired upon the British soldiers. The British failed in their first two attempts to capture the hill. They succeeded on their third attempt only because the colonists ran out of ammunition.

This was a bittersweet victory for the British for a few reasons. One reason was it was much harder to take the hill than the British thought it would be. This gave the Americans confidence they could hang in there when they fought the British. It also suggested to the British that the fight for the colonies wouldn’t be an easy one, contrary to what some British believed. The British also suffered significant casualties in this battle. As a result, this victory was bittersweet for the British.

How does Jerry learn about the tunnel in the short story "Through the Tunnel"? How does he prepare himself to meet the challenge of swimming...

Jerry is the eleven-year old protagonist of Doris Lessing's short story "Through the Tunnel." It is a coming of age story as the boy challenges himself physically. He's an English boy who is on vacation with his mother, probably in Spain. The reader can assume he's not in England because the boys he encounters in the bay are speaking a foreign language. When he sees them diving from one section of the rocks and emerging on the other side, his interest is stimulated. They are obviously using an underwater tunnel to swim from one side to the other.

He makes it his goal to swim through the tunnel during his short vacation. He watches the boys and counts to himself to see how long it takes them. He counts to 160, which Jerry believes to be about two minutes. Everyday he goes to the bay and practices holding his breath. Even though he fears what might happen to him if he makes the underwater swim, he is obsessive about his training. He submerges himself with a large stone and attempts to sit on the bottom of the bay a little longer each time. On his first attempt he can only get to 50 and then experiences a bad nose bleed. He is persistent, however, and practices relentlessly until he knows he only has a few days left in his vacation.

He ultimately succeeds in his quest to swim the tunnel despite almost losing consciousness and again bleeding from his nose. 

Name 3 major things that Franklin Roosevelt did to help end the depression?

The Great Depression began in America on October 29 1929 when the stock market crashed, plunging the country into economic crisis. By the time Franklin D. Roosevelt took presidential office in 1933, the vast majority of Americans were suffering from chronic unemployment and high rates of poverty. Roosevelt thus implemented a series of reforms to relieve this situation, known as the New Deal. Here are three of the most important:

1. The Works Progress Administration, or WPA was a program which gave government jobs to the unemployed. The WPA employed more than 8.5 million in all manner of jobs, from building bridges to bookbinding. 


2. The Social Security Act of 1935 provided welfare to the elderly and enabled states to make better provision for its citizens in need.


3. In 1933, the federal government passed the 21st Amendment and brought Prohibition to an end. The government did this to provide extra tax money which could boost the economy, through taxing the manufacture and sale of alcohol. 

What were the causes and effects of the Japanese-Americans' internment during World War Two?

During World War II, the United States government forced Japanese-Americans that were living on or near the west coast to be relocated to internment camps at various sites in the country. The main reason given for this was that the government considered them to be a threat to our war effort. They were afraid these people would help Japan and would sabotage American military efforts against Japan. Another factor that played into this was the discrimination that existed toward Japanese-Americans. Some Americans were jealous of the economic success of the Japanese-Americans and feared they were taking jobs away from other Americans.

As a result of this forced relocation, Japanese-Americans were affected in many ways. Many Japanese-Americans had to sell everything they had, including their homes and businesses. They had no idea what would happen to their homes and businesses while they were gone. The conditions in the camps were not good. Overcrowding and disease were common. Some people died in the camps. In 1988, the government formally apologized to the Japanese-Americans and awarded each living survivor $20,000. The Japanese-Americans were loyal to our country and aided the war effort of the United States. The internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II is one example of how the United States has poorly treated people from different countries at various times throughout our history.

What is lifespan development?

Lifespan development is a term describing the changes and stages of life humans go through as we age. The term also accounts for any "developments" in mental or physical processes which contribute to the next stage of life. For example, infancy is a stage of life, during which humans gain basic motor and social skills. Without basic skills in speech ("baby talk,") mobility (crawling or walking,) and self-care (feeding oneself,) the next phase of life is very difficult. Later in life, development or lack thereof of more fine-tuned mental and physical processes can really "make or break" certain aspects of someone's life.

Let's turn to the famous example of Genie, who was raised in extreme isolation in her family's home. Even though she was raised through interaction with her parents, she was considered a feral child. Her father suffered mental instability and was abusive to Genie, her mother, and her brother. He forbade anyone from speaking around Genie or from releasing her from a potty-chair, to which she was strapped during the day. Because of her lack of social engagement or freedom to develop motor skills, Genie suffered some challenges later in life. After being freed at thirteen, she required near constant care and therapy as she could not speak, walk, or perform basic self-care actions. Genie missed out on a lot of learning and development that typically takes place within the first several years of life, and because of this, she didn't really have a foundation to progress beyond early childhood capabilities.

Studying lifespan development can help us evaluate various milestones for human development and how their presence or absence impacts later developments. As a branch of psychology, lifespan development primarily focuses on the mental and emotional capacities of people at various ages.

What is the meaning of lines 1-10 of Pope's The Rape of the Lock?

The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope is a mock-epic poem, composed and published anonymously in 1712 and revised and republished under Pope's own name in 1714. A third version was published in 1717. It is based on an actual incident in which Lord Petre (the Baron in the poem) cut off a lock of Arabella Fermor’s (Belinda in the poem) hair.

The poem as a whole, including the first 10 lines, is written in heroic couplets, i.e. iambic pentameter lines rhymed AA BB CC, etc. the metrical and rhyme scheme are both fairly regular, with limited use of substitutions and elision.

As a mock epic, The Rape of the Lock follows many epic conventions but in a humorous manner. The first six couplets or 12 lines take the form of an invocation to the Muses, which was the typical opening of actual ancient epic such as that of Virgil or Homer. The poet sets out the themes of the story, the motives of the Baron in stealing the lock and Belinda in rejecting the Baron's attempts to seduce her, and asks the Muse for help in searching for answers. The opening two lines, which emphasize the triviality of the subject, cue the reader from the start that this is a mock, not serious, epic on the theme of love

What dire Offence from am'rous Causes springs,

What mighty Contests rise from trivial Things ...

As you work on your assignment, you should emphasize the elements of humor and satire in the lines, showing how they make fun of both the triviality of the aristocrats portrayed and the pomposity of much epic writing. 

How is indoctrination present in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas?

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is centered on the friendship that develops between Bruno and Shmuel. The boys build their friendship on their similarities not their differences although the undertones reveal to the reader that Bruno himself has been indoctrinated. As the narrator, Bruno's indoctrination is most effective and affects his perception, and therefore, the way he tells the story.

Bruno accepts the unreasonable situation at "Out-With" and although he knows that it cannot be right that so many people are forced to live separately and initially does try to question it, he blindly and obediently accepts his father's explanation that "those people...well they're not people at all" (chapter 5) even though his father's words do not make sense to him. Bruno must accept what his father says regardless of its merits and without passing judgment. It is expected that a child will not question his or her father and so laying down and enforcing such an objectionable standpoint is indoctrination. Bruno's understanding of the Nazi salute is also very revealing as Bruno thinks that "Heil Hitler" might mean "Goodbye for now. Have a pleasant afternoon" (chapter 5).   

Significantly, early in the boys' friendship, Bruno tells Shmuel "we're superior" (chapter 10), meaning that Germans are superior to other nationalities, not even stopping to think about how hurtful that comment could be. To him, it is simply fact. In chapter 12, he is unable to recognize the difference between the importance of the swastika on his father's uniform and the star which the Jews are forced to wear and which Shmuel reminds him is not worn out of choice. He defends his father when Shmuel suggests that soldiers are "bad." It is tragic and ironic and Bruno's disbelief at what Shmuel tells him about packed trains and door-less carriages further contributes to Bruno's distorted beliefs.

In chapter 7, Bruno will hear his mother lie about her involvement in patching his injured knee; he will observe Kotler's behavior when he calls Pavel unacceptable names and will feel "ashamed," and later he will deny that he knows Shmuel because he senses that it would not be wise to acknowledge their friendship. These all reveal the extent of his indoctrination as life continues as if the situation is normal and acceptable despite so many anomalies.   

Even Bruno's tutor. Herr Liszt will teach Bruno and Gretel about "The Fatherland," and "the great wrongs that have been done to you" (chapter 9). Herr Liszt uses propaganda, perhaps without even realizing the extent of his own indoctrination, giving a biased account, not necessarily based on fact but only on perception- apparently more like brainwashing than history. Herr Listz also tells Bruno "I think, Bruno, if you ever found a nice Jew, you would be the best explorer in the world," clearly suggesting that such a person does not exist.  

As well as Bruno's indoctrination, there are other examples, and despite being a fictional story of an unlikely friendship, they all reveal the tragic reality of the Nazi regime. 

In the novel Lord of the Flies, how does Ralph feel about the deteriorating conditions on the island?

Ralph is vexed when he thinks about the deteriorating conditions on the island. At the beginning of the novel, Ralph is rather optimistic about the boys' chances of survival and rescue. As the novel progresses, Ralph's inexperience as a leader becomes evident, and he soon loses the support from the boys. In Chapter 4, the boys miss out on a chance for rescue after Samneric leave the fire unattended for an opportunity to hunt with Jack. This is a critical moment in the novel because Ralph begins his feud with Jack and tensions rise. In Chapter 5, Ralph holds an assembly and laments about the boys not helping build huts, help fetch water, or maintain the signal fire. This assembly illuminates the difficulties Ralph has been facing as the boys' leader. At the end of the assembly, Jack says, "Bollocks to the rules!" and leads the group of boys on another hunt. (Golding 91) Ralph tells Piggy that he might as well give up and doesn't want to be the leader anymore. The boys wish that grownups were around because grownups are civil and have answers to problems. Later on in the novel, Ralph notices that the majority of the boys choose to follow Jack and live like savages. He sinks further into depression and realizes that their chances of rescue have virtually disappeared because there are not enough boys willing to maintain the signal fire. Ralph views the way Jack and his band of hunters smear paint on their faces and compares them to savages. When he notices his own filth and the fact that his hair has grown down past his eyes, he becomes disgusted with the deteriorating conditions on the island. Ralph realizes that it will not be long before Jack and his followers begin to hunt him.

What events argue that the automated house in "There Will Come Soft Rains" could represent the dangers of technology?

The house symbolizes the destructiveness of technology because the humans are all dead and the house continues on.

It is clear that whatever happened to the people was some kind of technological disaster.  Nothing in nature turns a family into spots of paint.  The entire wall of the house is blackened, everything living is dead, and the dog crawls to its death.  There was likely some kind of nuclear blast that destroyed the population. 

The five spots of paint—the man, the woman, the children, the ball—remained. The rest was a thin charcoaled layer.

The house itself continues to be alive, because it only mimics life.  It is not susceptible to the radiation.  The house survives and goes about its business without realizing that the people are not there.  It has no appreciation for life, as evidenced by its cleaning up the dog's body like so much garbage.

Two o'clock, sang a voice. Delicately sensing decay at last, the regiments of mice hummed out as softly as blown grey leaves in an electrical wind. Two-fifteen. The dog was gone.

The dog is swept up and incinerated, and that is that.  The house cannot distinguish between it and the garbage.  It was the only living thing that remained, but it meant nothing to the house.

The house would have continued indefinitely if it had not been destroyed by the fire.  The fire was an accident.  A tree branch knocked over a can of solvent.  If a person had been there, he or she would have realized what was going on and put out the fire before it burned down the house.  The house itself was incapable of logic.  It tried to put out the fire and failed.

Ironically, the tree's death is undoubtedly linked to the atomic incident that incinerated the family.  The house died for the same reason the people and the dog did, at least indirectly.  Technology killed the house too.

Bradbury is trying to tell us with this story that while it may be nice to have technology help us, it can hurt us too.  If you allow everything to be automated and rely on machines to help you live your life, you run the risk of being disconnected from what really is life.  Something happened to the living in this story.  We do not know exactly what, but we do know that technology is to blame.

How is Meg's relationship with Charles Wallace important for her ability to free him?

As the novel establishes from the very beginning, and as Meg says, she's the one who is closest to Charles Wallace, and while she doesn't fully understand him, he understands her. Her father has been gone for so long that he doesn't know Charles Wallace well, and their friend Calvin has just barely gotten to know him. At the core, what saves Charles Wallace is love: Meg loves Charles Wallace very deeply, and this love is what is needed to free Charles from IT. As Meg expresses her love for him, calling him her treasure, her darling and her dear, she is able to break the grip of IT over his mind and together they can flee, landing back on earth in the Murry vegetable garden for a happy ending. 

`a_1 = 0.375, a_(n + 1) = a_n + 0.25` Write the first 5 terms of the sequence defined recursively.

`a_1=0.375`

`a_(n+1)=a_n+0.25`

`a_(1+1)=a_2=a_1+0.25=0.375+0.25=.625`

`a_(2+1)=a_3=a_2+0.25=6.25+0.25=.875`

`a_(3+1)=a_4=a_3+0.25=.875+0.25=1.125`

`a_4+1=a_5=a_4+0.25=1.125+0.25=1.375`

The first 5 terms of the sequence are: 0.375, 0.625, 0.875, 1.125, 1.375.

What is the most important allusion in A Separate Peace?

An allusion is a literary device used to make a connection between the story or characters to someone or something else known by the reader. Characters can also be aware of the allusion, as is the narrator, Gene Forrester. The most important allusion in A Separate Peace is the one associated with World War II; that is to say, the war is referenced continually throughout the story, so it is the allusion.

The senior class of 1942 at Devon all face being drafted into the war after graduation. The characters know it; they discuss it; and they think about it all through the story. Readers would also know about the history of World War II, and, judging from the story's time period, they would be able to connect with the characters through their own knowledge of the war. This connection helps readers to feel empathy for the boys as they progress towards graduation.

The next part of the allusion is in the title itself--A Separate Peace. The boys are separated from the war and seem to experience a peace separate from world events. The setting outside is peaceful, the school runs on a schedule, and all the boys really need to worry about is school work and graduating.

Ironically, however, there is a war waging inside each of them. Leper must fight the inner conflict with himself, which is the fact that he seems not to fit in anywhere. Phineas fights a physical and mental war after he breaks his leg. For example, Finny must struggle to find his place in life and the war without the strong, invincible body that he was used to. And Gene, the protagonist, fights a war within himself over feelings of jealousy and anger towards his best friend, Gene, and Gene must win his personal battles before he can move on after graduation as well. Hence, the allusion applies to World War II, but also, through the related discussion of peace, connects the characters with the war inside themselves.

Gene eventually remarks about the connection between World War II and the war within himself by the end of the book by saying the following:

"I never killed anybody and I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there" (204).

Again, Gene is alluding to World War II by making a war reference to his own experiences. And as mentioned above, all of the boys seem to wage an inner war within themselves throughout the novel; so, the on-going reference to World War II is the most important allusion in A Separate Peace.

How does Macbeth becoming king affect Lady Macbeth? Why does she want him to become king so badly and what is she going to gain from this happening?

Lady Macbeth wants Macbeth to become king because she is very ambitious and power-hungry.  When he arrives home after she reads his letter, she addresses him by saying, "Great Glamis, worthy Cawdor, / Greater than both by the all-hail hereafter!" (1.5.62-63).  If Macbeth becomes "greater," then so shall she, as his wife.  Just as he will be king, she will be queen.  Further, it is possible that she hopes to rule through him, as her immediate response to his letter (and their subsequent conversations in Act One show that she is -- at least initially -- the dominant partner in this relationship.  She wants him to

Hie thee hither,
That [she] may pour [her] spirits in [his] ear
And chastise with the valor of [her] tongue
All that impedes [him] from the golden round [...]. (1.5.28-31)

She plans to murder Duncan in order to smooth Macbeth's path to the throne because she is afraid that Macbeth is too compassionate and loyal to do it himself.  Further, Macbeth loves her and seems like the kind of king who would trust his wife as his closest adviser.  He does call her his "dearest partner of greatness" and his "dearest love" (1.5.11, 67).  Thus, she has many reasons to think that her own power will be monumentally increased, her own ambition satisfied, by Macbeth's becoming king.

Once Macbeth does become king, however, she doesn't seem nearly as pleased as she expected to be.  She says, 

Naught's had, all's spent,
Where our desire is got without content.
'Tis safer to be that which we destroy
Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy. (3.2.6-9)

In other words, they have gotten what they wanted (to become king and queen) but they are not happy.  She thinks it is better to be dead than to live unhappily as they do.  Further, Macbeth no longer seems to be consulting her in important matters; he orders the murders of Banquo and Fleance without her input and purposely keeps her in the dark about it.  He even goes so far as to give her instructions about how to treat Banquo at their dinner party (a party he knows Banquo will not be alive to attend).

By Act Five, Lady Macbeth seems to realize that she has created a monster in Macbeth.  He now murders innocents indiscriminately, and she feels all the guilt of goading him into that first kill.  Now, she sleepwalks and cries, "who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him? [....]  The Thane of Fife had a wife.  Where is she now?  What, will these hands ne'er be clean?" (5.1.41-45).  She clearly feels very guilty about the murder of Duncan as she imagines that she still cannot clean his blood from her fingers; moreover, she laments the deaths of Macduff's wife and children, murders ordered by Macbeth that were nothing but spiteful and cruel.  He has become a tyrant, and she is sorry for it.  The fact that she later takes her own life also seems to convey her guilt and disappointment.

What was the role of African-Americans during WWI?

Approximately 40,000 African-Americans served in combat roles during WWI, fighting mainly with the French army.  The 92nd and 93rd Divisions fought bravely in the final Allied offensive of the war.  Henry Johnson and Needham Roberts were the first Americans to receive the Croix de Guerre.  One regiment from the 93rd division was also the first American unit to reach the Rhine River in Germany following the Armistice.

Most African-Americans were treated poorly during the war.  They were often put in support units guarding supply depots or as stevedores unloading dangerous explosives from supply ships.  The Army segregated units by race at this time, and African-Americans were banned from higher leadership roles.  The French Army and population typically treated the African-Americans better than their American counterparts, and many African-Americans returned to the U.S. after the war with a desire of pushing for greater equality, especially since this was a war to "save democracy."   

What are some examples of poetic devices in "Acquainted with the Night"?

This poem by Robert Frost is a sonnet: 14 lines of iambic pentameter. It uses rhyme and rhythm, sound devices, figurative language, and ambiguity in intriguing ways. 

First, although it is a sonnet, it uses a rhyme scheme that is not typical of the form. It consists of four tercets (three-line stanzas) followed by a rhyming couplet. The rhymes are interlocking: The end rhyme of the second line of each stanza becomes the rhyme of the first line of the following stanza. In this way, each successive stanza turns the poem back on itself in a revolving pattern, matching the way the poem's speaker "walked out in rain -- and back in rain." Ending the poem with the same line as it starts with uses repetition to bring the poem full circle, just as the poem's speaker has made a round-trip journey in the rain.

Although the rhythm is theoretically iambic (an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable), in actuality one reads the lines that begin with "I have" with a stress on the "I." This creates a faltering rhythm consistent with the tentative spirit of the poem where things seem "neither wrong nor right."

The sound devices used include alliteration and consonance. The most prominent examples of alliteration (repetition of initial consonant sounds) are: "stood still and stopped the sound of feet," "saddest city," and "neither wrong nor right." The most obvious example of consonance (repeated internal or end consonant sounds) is the liberal use of the "t" sounds throughout the poem, including: acquainted, night, walked, outwalked, city, light, looked, saddest, passed, beat, dropped, still, stopped, feet, interrupted, street, still, height, against, time, right. Other oft-repeated soft consonants like the "s," "l," and "w" sounds give the poem a hushed tone consistent with the quiet, rainy evening the poet describes.

Line 12 contains a metaphor: "One luminary clock against the sky" compares the moon to a clock.

Ambiguity permeates the poem, creating an air of mystery and uncertainty. The cry the speaker hears is "not to call me back or say good-bye," but we are not told what it is. We know the time is "neither wrong nor right," but for what, we wonder. We do not know why the speaker has walked out at this time of night, nor do we know why he would drop his eyes and not want to explain his trek to the night watchman. 

The rhyme and rhythm, sound devices, figurative language, and ambiguity of this poem make it both soothing and haunting.

What is the poem implying about who lives in the house in the poem "The Listeners," by Walter de la Mare?

The poem is implying that the people in the house are dead and thus ghosts or that only ghostly presences remain from prior inhabitants.  We have some clues to this in the text of the poem.  We are told that when the traveler knocks there were,

But only a host of phantom listeners   

    That dwelt in the lone house then (lines 13-14)

We know that these phantoms actually did listen, "to the voice from the world of men" (line 16).  So these listeners are not humans, certainly. The traveler felt "their strangeness" (line 21), and while he could not see them, he felt this in his heart.   He believes that whatever is in the house will hear his message, that he had come as promised, had kept his word. 

This poem is so mysterious, left to the reader's imagination to make meaning of the scene, the traveler arriving to find only ghosts or phantoms, too late to have helped in some way that had been expected of him.  The inhabitants may have deserted the house, or they may all have starved or been slaughtered.  We sense how upset he is as he bangs loudly on the door, pounding and crying out his anguish at what seems to have been his failure to come when needed. 

What are some of Juliet Capulet's character traits?

One of Juliet's most obvious character traits is courage. For a girl of only 13 she displays a rare ability to be brave in the face of overwhelming obstacles. Despite the fact she knows her family will object, she is courageous enough to pursue what she truly wants. She falls madly in love with Romeo and will not be dissuaded from this love by the reality of the feud. Her real courage, however, comes later and she displays it in three different scenes.

In Act III, Scene 5 Juliet has the courage to stand up to her father and refuse the marriage pact with Count Paris. She overcomes her father's angry onslaught and displays fearlessness in the face of a difficult dilemma. She shows tenacious loyalty toward Romeo even after the Nurse advises her to forget him and marry the Count.

In Act IV, Scene 1 she is determined to do whatever it takes to stay loyal to Romeo, even if it involves some frightening or dangerous task. She tells Friar Lawrence,

O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,
From off the battlements of any tower,
Or walk in thievish ways, or bid me lurk
Where serpents are. Chain me with roaring bears,
Or hide me nightly in a charnel house,
O’ercovered quite with dead men’s rattling bones,
With reeky shanks and yellow chapless skulls.

The Friar's "remedy" is for Juliet to fake her own death and the girl agrees. She shows tremendous courage to embark on such a drastic course of action. Her fears almost get the most of her in Act IV, Scene 2, but she eventually summons the will to drink the Friar's potion.

In the final scene, she again demonstrates her dauntless personality in the face of catastrophe. When she awakens to find Romeo dead of poison, she could have just gone with the Friar, but she didn't want to live without her love so she stabs herself with a dagger. Some may say she was the victim of fate or impatience or simply naive youth, but the audience has to admire Juliet's courage. 

Other possible character traits that may be identified with Juliet could include spirited, willful, dynamic (in that she changes over the course of the play from an immature girl to a mature woman who follows her heart), genuine, heroic, idealistic, passionate and adventurous.

Who was Hitler?

Adolf Hitler was the leader of Germany during World War II. Hitler wanted to avenge the alleged mistreatment of the Germans by the terms of the Versailles Treaty that punished Germany harshly. He believed the treaty was unfair to Germany. In his attempt to build up German nationalism, he said nobody should mistreat the Germany people.

In the 1930s, Hitler began to take aggressive actions in Europe. He built up his military, which was in violation of the Versailles Treaty. He moved his military into the Rhineland, which also violated the Versailles Treaty. He took over Austria and wanted part of Czechoslovakia. He got the Sudetenland portion of Czechoslovakia as a result of the Munich Pact. He broke his promise that he made in the Munich Pact by taking the rest of Czechoslovakia in 1939. After he invaded Poland, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany that led to the start of World War II.

During World War II, Hitler conquered almost all of Western Europe. However, he was unable to conquer Great Britain. He also made a fatal mistake by invading the Soviet Union, which broke the non-aggression pact he had made with them. Eventually, Germany began to lose battles in World War II and was defeated in May 1945. Hitler’s death came right at the end of the war.

Adolf Hitler was also responsible for the Holocaust. He planned to destroy the Jewish people by putting them in concentration camps where they would be killed. Hitler blamed the Jewish people for many of Germany’s problems. He used them as a scapegoat for the issues Germany faced. About six million Jewish people were placed in these camps. Another five million non-Jewish people were also killed in the Holocaust.

Adolf Hitler was Germany’s leader before and during World War II.

in "The Bet" by Anton Chekhov, what is the lawyer's attitude at the end?

By the end of the story, the banker's attitude has changed significantly. He is no longer motivated by the two million rubles, for example, because money holds no value nor interest for him:

"I renounce the two million of which I once dreamed as of paradise and which now I despise."

In addition, the banker no longer values books and learning. During his fifteen-year confinement, for instance, the banker read voraciously, taking up everything from the Classics to light-hearted and "sensational" novels. By the end of his confinement, however, the lawyer realizes that this knowledge is worthless because it does not create happiness nor hold any real meaning:

"And I despise your books, I despise wisdom and the blessings of this world. It is all worthless, fleeting, illusory, and deceptive, like a mirage."

Finally, the lawyer's attitude also suggests that he no longer believes solitary confinement to be a better alternative to the death penalty. As we see in his letter, death's ability to destroy everything renders life, and all of its earthly pleasures, totally meaningless:

"Death will wipe you off the face of the earth as though you were no more than mice burrowing under the floor."

Explain the character of Ozymandias with reference to Shelley's poem "Ozymandias."

Ozymandias was a king who loved himself more than his subjects. He was a self-absorbed megalomaniac with the notion of being the mightiest ruler in the whole world. Insensitive and haughty in temperament, he was self-obsessed and arrogant.

Consider the following lines describing the face of Ozymandias's ruined statue:

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,...

"Frown" is an expression of disapproval and displeasure, while "sneer" suggests contempt and disrespect for others. Being "cold" is being unaffectionate or lacking warmth of feeling or sensitivity. These expressions substantially illuminate the character traits of Ozymandias. They suggest that he was hardly concerned with the happiness and sorrow of his subjects. He derided them, and used them as his puppets.

Moreover, Ozymandias would commission his giant statues to be erected across his empire. On the pedestal of one such colossal statue, he got engraved the following lines:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

This further reveals the ruler’s personality traits. First, instead of using the royal treasury for the welfare of his people, Ozymandias would drain it away in erecting his mammoth statues. The egomaniac king derived pleasure in such futile and extravagant activities, which were carried out with the revenue collected from his citizens.

Second, it demonstrates Ozymandias’ self-love and vanity. He’s boastful of his works and takes pride in calling himself the “King of Kings.” He asks the other rulers to cringe at his great works and give up the hope of ever matching him in strength or accomplishments.

How do I consider Hamlet and identify the ways in which Shakespeare's dramaturgy shifts from the form of Aristotelian tragedy?

Shakespeare departed from the Aristotelian model in many ways, although it’s not clear that he did so consciously. We don’t know for certain that Shakespeare ever read Aristotle's “Poetics” or was aware of its principles. His ideas about tragedy may have come more from watching his contemporaries’ plays and the mystery plays and other sorts of drama that were popular at the time, which were themselves in part indebted to Aristotle. It's entirely possible that Shakespeare just wanted to write an interesting play and was not thinking about Aristotle at all.

That said, “Hamlet” does have both elements that follow Aristotle’s principles and elements that would have set Aristotle’s teeth on edge. Aristotle believed that a tragedy should be rooted in the experience of a single protagonist (which “Hamlet” is), and that the protagonist needs to have some amount of stature, often royalty, so that when they fall over the course of the play they have a long way to fall (check). He also believed that the main character should be brought low by some tragic flaw within himself, and here “Hamlet” begins to waver from Aristotle: although Hamlet is a deeply flawed character, his tragic fate doesn’t entirely hinge on some fault within him that can be easily identified. Aristotle also believed that the tragedy should take place entirely in one location (nope) and that the action of the play should contain no jumps in time: the length of the performance is exactly the amount of time that the characters experience (“Hamlet” doesn’t do this at all, though “The Comedy of Errors” and “The Tempest” both do). In a strictly Aristotelian tragedy, there is also no room for comedy; he believed that tragedies should focus on the tragic and noble characters and that laughs and lower-class characters should be confined to comedy. Shakespeare had absolutely no interest in separating tragedy and comedy: his tragedies are full of humor; his comedies are often full of very disturbing things. The gravedigger scene in “Hamlet” is completely at odds with what Aristotle thought a tragedy should be, for instance, so while Shakespeare borrows some of Aristotle's ideas it is very clear that he was not interested in all of them and in fact the ones that he followed he may have followed purely by coincidence and not out of a conscious sense of obligation to Aristotelian ideas.

Congratulations! You have just been hired to organize and manage the 2018 Gubernatorial Campaign for Jane “Bitzi” Johnson Miller. She is...

In politics, a successful candidate is one who can use every aspect of his or her identity to cull voters. Let's go over what we know about "Bitzi": She is a wealthy white woman; she descends from a political legacy; she is divorced with two children; she is an entrepreneur; she is a conservative Republican, but one who resides in Dallas, which makes her rather cosmopolitan.

First, Ms. Miller must court donors. She should start in Dallas, not only because it is the state's wealthiest city, but also because she has business contacts there. To attract these donors, she will emphasize her commitment to tax cuts and insist that she will fight any federal pressure to get Texas to raise its minimum wage. She will position herself as a free-market capitalist who wants to make Texas safe for business and resistant to "big government" interference.

In her first TV ads, she will not only depict herself as a strong, individualistic, business-savvy candidate, but also as Governor "Big Daddy" Johnson's granddaughter. She will evoke her grandfather in her ads in order to remind her conservative voters -- particularly elderly ones -- that she wishes to "take Texas back" to "a simpler time" in which everyone who was willing to work hard had a fair shot. 

On the campaign trail, Ms. Miller will work especially hard to court white, middle-aged female voters. She will get personal. She will talk to them about the difficulties of her divorce and the demands of being a working mother. However, she will also stress that she does not support abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, or a threat to the mother's life. To ensure that she remains favorable to more moderate female voters, she will say that she does support access to contraceptives and STD screening. She will frame her views on abortion within her ideas about personal responsibility and self-sacrifice. 

She will take her family-values message to Latino voters in the Rio Grande Valley. She will tell them that she will work to improve the schools in their communities so that their children can have "a fair shot." She will also emphasize her support for a "pathway to citizenship," saying that law-abiding Latino immigrants, particularly those with family in Texas, should not be denied an opportunity to be naturalized. Moreover, families -- in keeping with her values -- should not be kept apart due to a broken immigration system. She will emphasize that the broken system is the fault of the federal government and not of Texas; but, once she becomes governor, she will do all she can at the state level. 

When speaking on the issue with white voters, she will briefly touch on her support for "a pathway to citizenship," but to this audience, she will focus more on guest-worker programs and efforts to increase border security. 

She will travel to West Texas and ensure ranchers that she will keep farm subsidies in the state budget. She will also repeat her messages of low taxes and minimal government interference. However, most of her stories will be personal. She will talk about growing up on a West Texas ranch. She will talk about her mother and, particularly, her father. She will recall memories of her grandfather, and her first trip to "the big city" (Austin) to visit his office. She may even say that it was then, during one of those visits, when she decided that she, too, would one day become governor. 

She will visit conservative colleges and universities, such as Southern Methodist University, and talk about her business career -- particularly her deal to sell her company to Dell. She will talk about the importance of taking risks in life, of not being afraid of failure. 

Ms. Miller will run as a business-savvy, individualistic, fiscal conservative. She will voice support for some socially conservative ideas (e.g., no to abortion), but she will not emphasize them on the campaign trail. She will work to connect with the Latino community, as she would rightly see them as the future of the state; but she would do so in a way that would not alienate her white base. Her ideas about government will be more Libertarian-leaning: free markets, minimal federal interference. If she can solidify her message, she can attract major endorsements from a diverse group of politicians, including current governor, Greg Abbott (we will assume he is ending his gubernatorial career, maybe focusing on a presidential run) and former Congressman, Ron Paul.

She will not make much effort to court black voters. Given her background, there is little that would make her attractive to Texas's black constituency. The only effort I see her making is, perhaps, participating in a church service at a notable black Baptist church in Dallas or Houston.

What is the main idea of Aizawa Seishisai's proposal?

Aizawa Seishisai was a Japanese Confucian scholar that wrote Shinron in 1825. The thesis is a warning to the Japanese about allowing the West to get too close. The fear is that the Japanese will be exploited by Britain, France, and the United States like China had. The main idea of the writing is nationalism. Seishisai believes the West has become so powerful because of the influence of Christianity, which has allowed political leaders to expect obedience from its citizens. He believes that Japan can achieve this by rallying around the emperor and elevating his status.

Seishisai warns against the ships coming to Japan for "fishing." He feels that missionaries could corrupt the Japanese people which would make them a target for exploitation. His distrust of Christian nations is demonstrated in the passage below.

The 
barbarians
 coming
 to
 spy 
on 
our 
Middle
 Kingdom
 during
 the
 past
 three
 hundred
 years
 arrived
 one
 after
 another
 from
 various 
nations.
Though
 their
 homelands 
differ,
 they
 all
 revere
 the
 same
 god.
 This
 means 
that 
Christianity
 has 
had 
designs
 on 
our
 Middle 
Kingdom 
for the 
past 
three 
hundred
 years.

In the following passage, Seishisai further demonstrates his distrust of the West:

Their 
ships
 can 
be
 outfitted 
for 
trading,
 or
fishing, 
or
 fighting.
 Can
 anyone 
guarantee 
that
 their
 merchant
 vessels 
and
 fishing 
boats 
of 
today
will
 not 
turn 
into
 warships 
tomorrow?

This further supports the idea that Japan needs to isolate itself from Western influence and that the Christian nations should not be trusted by the Japanese.

What punishment is Mr Oakhurst assigned for his crimes, and why is he not hanged in "The Outcasts of Poker Flat"?

The gambler, Mr. Oakhurst, is banished to the outskirts of the Poker Flat, a Californian settlement. He is not hanged because he does not cheat at cards, and those who won from Oakhurst have enough sense of fairness that overrules the vindictive losers who want to hang him so they can retrieve their money. 

Poker Flat is one of those towns that sprang up during the Gold Rush in California. 

It was experiencing a spasm of virtuous reaction, quite as lawless and ungovernable as any of the acts that had provoked it.

The ruling citizens of Poker Flat have decided that too many citizens have lost money at the hands (or other body parts) of the gambler Oakhurst, the Duchess and another "professional" woman, Mother Shipton, as well as a sluice robber and general thief called "Uncle Billy." Therefore, these unsavory citizens are escorted from the settlement, and when they are reach a certain point, "[T]he exiles were forbidden to return at the peril of their lives.

Interestingly, Mr. Oakhurst is the hero in two of Harte's stories. He is a congenial man, generous, and--as a gambler very well may be--rather insouciant when confronted with danger. Furthermore, he is a realistic character modeled after Lucky Bill, a gambler who possessed traits such as those given Oakhurst. Lucky Bill, unfortunately, did meet his end on the scaffold, hanged by a vigilance committee, not unlike those self-righteous hypocrites who expel Oakhurst and the others.

How would you summarize Sandra Cisneros' "Woman Hollering Creek?"

Sandra Cisneros’ “Woman Holler Creek” centers on Cleófilas, a young mother suffering in an isolated household from living with her abusive, abrasive husband. Cleófilas at one point had romantic aspirations for how she pictured her married life, but the harsh reality of her crass husband and her hopeless situation leave her feeling defeated. She seeks solace from two women in her neighborhood, Dolores and Soledad, but they too have their own remorseful memories of men. The abuse continues and worsens. Cleófilas considers going back to her father, but then realizes the social ramifications that would await her. In the most interesting passage of the story, she relates to La Llorona, the weeping woman who drowned her own children:

La Llorona calling to her. She is sure of it. Cleófilas sets the baby's Donald Duck blanket on the grass. Listens. The day sky turning to night. The baby pulling up fistfuls of grass and laughing. La Llorona. Wonders if something as quiet as this drives a woman to the darkness under the trees. (51)

Finally, Cleófilas’ physician sets up a way for her to escape. He contacts a woman named Felice to extract Cleófilas from her desperate situation. Cleófilas is amazed at how strong and free Felice is, and has a moment that is evocative of Hélène Cixous’ critical thoughts pertaining to feminine laughter, which appear in her seminal essay “The Laugh of the Medusa”: “It was gurgling out of her own throat, a long ribbon of laughter, like water” (56). Cleófilas is empowered by the end of the tale after witnessing Felice as a prime example of feminine strength and independence.

How does The Reluctant Fundamentalist address key ideas?

One way that Hamid's novel addresses key ideas is by incorporating the reader into the narrative.

One of the key ideas in The Reluctant Fundamentalist is its discussion of terrorism.  The question of Changez's identity haunts the novel's ending. It is not clear if Changez is a terrorist or what the resolution is between he and the American.  Hamid does not give a direct answer.  Rather, he allows the reader's imagination to guide how this key issue is resolved:

The form of the novel, with the narrator and his audience both acting as characters, allowed me to mirror the mutual suspicion with which America and Pakistan (or the Muslim world) look at one another. The Pakistani narrator wonders: Is this just a normal guy or is he a killer out to get me? The American man who is his audience wonders the same. And this allows the novel to inhabit the interior emotional world much like the exterior political world in which it will be read. The form of the novel is an invitation to the reader. If the reader accepts, then he or she will be called upon to judge the novel’s outcome and shape its ending.

In allowing an "invitation to the reader," Hamid addresses a key issue in the novel.  

Hamid accepts that the world after September 11 has infected everyone with a certain set of biases with which they view the world.  Before we can figure out the form of this world, we have to be honest about our preconceptions that guide our understanding of the world.  Changez has his constructions, America has its own, the American possesses his own, and the reader contains their own sets of prejudices.  In addressing it in this way, Hamid suggests our own understanding helps to "shape" our view of the world.  In this setting, there is no absolute truth.  Rather, truth can only be understood through our own perception.  Incorporating the reader into this issue enables the reader to "judge the novel's outcome" for themselves.

How did the Silk Road increase the spread and exchange of ideas?

The Silk Road is a term used to describe a series of trade routes that were connected throughout Asia, Africa, and Europe.  The routes were primarily in Asia.  

Harsh climates and conflicts between people groups had made many regions along what became the Silk Road difficult for travel.  A western route was developed first, followed by an eastern route.  Eventually all the routes were connected.  The Chinese were major traders along the routes, and they extended the Great Wall to offer protection for their merchants.  The Silk Road earned its name from the Chinese merchants who traded silk along the route.

Imported goods that had not been seen before in most regions were traded and made accessible because of the Silk Road.  In addition, ideas spread across the regions where the Silk Road route was located.

The religion of Buddhism spread to new regions of Asia due to the accessibility of the Silk Road.  It also spread to parts of Japan, which still practice Buddhism today.  Christianity also spread along the Silk Road.  The Nestorians, which were a sect of Christianity, were "outlawed in Europe... [and they] were driven eastwards."

Changan was the capital city of the Tang Dynasty, and it was also an important stop along the Silk Road.  Changan became "one of the largest and most cosmopolitan cities of the time" because of its location along the Silk Road.  

What does "summarize" mean?

When we summarize, we are setting forth all of the important elements in a text. We do this slightly differently for fiction and for non-fiction.  This also depends upon whether we are summarizing a chapter, an article, or an entire book and any length requirements we may be subject to for a summary assignment.  

When we summarize a fictional text, we usually provide the names of the main characters, the setting, which is time and place, and a brief overview of the plot. Generally, a plot involves some sort of conflict, so a summary should state what the conflict is and how it is resolved.  A summary is not the same as a literary analysis, since a literary analysis is meant to address topics such as the themes of a book. A summary can be helpful, though, in writing a literary analysis, just to give the reader a brief overview of the literary text before analyzing it.  Sometimes an assignment involves just a chapter summary. In that event, the method is the same, to briefly explain characters, setting, and what happens in the chapter.  Depending upon whether you are expected to write a one-paragraph summary or perhaps a one-page summary, your approach will remain the same but you could add a few more details for the latter.

To summarize a non-fiction text, you need to ascertain what the writer's main idea is, the idea he or she wants you to take away after reading the text. Then you need to understand how the writer has supported this idea. These are all you need for a non-fiction summary.  Again, you are not analyzing the text, just providing a brief overview of what the writer has to say. If the writer has provided statistics, for example, or anecdotal details, these should be explained briefly. If the writer is providing a historical account, this, too, can be explained in a summary, just hitting the high points of what the writer has written. A short article can probably be summarized in a paragraph, while a summary of a non-fiction book might take a page.

The ability to summarize is an important academic skill, as well as an important skill on the job.  When we can glean from our reading what is most important and put it in our own words, we have gained mastery of the material, which is the whole point of reading it in the first place!    

In what ways did Reconstruction, industrialization, and westward expansion influence how Americans viewed both themselves and their country?

Reconstruction, westward expansion, and industrialization impacted how Americans viewed themselves and their country. As the United States expanded westward, it had a positive impact on how most Americans viewed themselves and their country. They saw the movement westward as a sign of progress. The United States was spreading its ways and influence, and our citizens were a part of that. People seized opportunities to move to the West to get land and to start new jobs. Many of the people who moved westward became miners, ranchers, or farmers. The people realized that they were somewhat responsible for the growth of the country. Westward expansion had a positive impact on how Americans viewed themselves and the country.

Industrialization also positively impacted how Americans viewed themselves and the country. In part because of all the westward movement, industries grew. People in the West needed products, and industries provided those products. Some industries expanded their operations into the different areas of the West. Americans felt proud of the ingenuity of our people that helped make the expansion of the country and the growth of the West possible. People realized they had a role in the development of and the growth of our industries. They viewed themselves in a positive manner because of this feeling.

Reconstruction also impacted our country and our people. While many southerners resented Reconstruction, they also saw how the reconstruction process helped themselves and their country. The South became less dependent on farming as more industries grew in the South. The people were proud that they were part of this transformation. They felt a sense of accomplishment that our country was able to move beyond this difficult time in our history. It showed the people that our country’s system of democracy could solve difficult problems.

Overall, industrialization, westward expansion, and Reconstruction helped Americans view themselves and their country in a positive manner.

How would one write a summary of Andrew Clements' The Report Card?

To write a short summary of Andrew Clements' The Report Card, focus on explaining who the main characters are and what the main events are. The main events in any book will always be related to the conflict, climax, and resolution.

Andrew Clements' The Report Card is about Nora Rowley, a girl born a genius who decided the best thing to do was to hide her intelligence in order to seem like everyone else. She does so because she observes that people get jealous of others who are different from them and because, when she first discovered she wasn't normal, she felt like she was being pushed to perform her abilities, which she didn't like. After that, she very intentionally behaved in ways that made her seem like everyone else.

The conflict develops when she begins noticing her best friend Stephen is beginning to feel stupid because he felt so pressured to do well during the Connecticut Mastery Testing that he actually did very badly. After that, Nora developed a plan to show that neither bad nor good grades are true reflections of intelligence, since she intentionally earns average grades all the time but has a genius intelligence level. She carries out her plan by trying to intentionally earn all Ds on her fifth-grade report card.

The climax begins to develop as it becomes known that Nora is actually a genius who has been hiding her abilities all these years. Since her plan to expose the meaninglessness of grades was foiled once people saw her for the genius she truly is, she and Stephen develop another plan to encourage the whole class to earn nothing but zeros in order to protest against the weaknesses of the education system. In Nora's mind, the education system is weak because the lessons only encourage students to memorize, not think, while grades encourage needless competition. The climax occurs once it begins to look like Nora and Stephen will get into serious trouble for pursuing the plan.

As a resolution, Nora realizes that, though she was right to think poorly of the education and grading system, she was wrong to try and tackle changing the system all on her own. She further realizes that her actions caused more harm than good and apologizes to her classmates, encouraging them to continue to work hard.

According to Neil Gaiman, what was the purpose of Fahrenheit 451?

Gaiman opens by stating that people write books about the future for a number of reasons. Such books explore the future because it is more exciting and interesting than the past to imagine, to examine, and to speculate on. Then he says bluntly:

This is a book of warning. It is a reminder that what we have is valuable, and that sometimes we take what we value for granted. 

Gaiman adds that speculative fiction (fiction about the future) is not about predicting the future. Note the present tense of the verb "have" in the quote above. He continues by saying that speculative fiction is actually an assessment of the present. Gaiman calls Fahrenheit 451 a story based on the speculative question, "If this goes on . . ." Bradbury wrote the novel as a warning about the present and how dangerous things in that present might be harder to see in the future. This is illustrated in the novel itself. In Montag's society, most of the people have forgotten what firemen used to do and they have forgotten how valuable books had been. Therefore, it is a novel about how present behaviors could worsen to the point when people will have forgotten the value (in books) they once had. 

For Gaiman, the book was written to warn people about the danger of censorship, and the value of books and independent thinking. It was also a way to transmit thoughts from one generation to the next because, remember, it was written about Bradbury's present (1953). Gaiman concludes by saying that the book is not all about one thing. It is also about what you (the reader) find in the pages. So, it is a warning about the present dangers of censorship. It is a love letter to books. It is a message from one generation to the next. And part of that message is to inspire the next generation of readers to think for themselves and to never forget the value of books.

What are examples of Biblical allusions in "The Sieve and the Sand," and what do they mean?

An allusion is when someone (narrator or character) mentions something that has a particular reference to history, literature, politics, etc., that the reader (or another character) might understand. Rather than simply making a point explicitly, this device is used to make a point in a more interesting way. Biblical allusions, of course, are references taken from someone or something found in the Bible. Since the Bible is not only a theological resource but a work of literature, Captain Beatty alludes to it a few times in Fahrenheit 451. For example, when Montag returns to the firehouse and gives a copy of the Bible to his boss, Captain Beatty says the following:

"Well. . . the crisis is past and all is well, the sheep returns to the fold. We're all sheep who have strayed at times" (105).

The image of the sheep refers to a parable that Jesus told in which he compared himself to a shepherd and his followers to sheep. Beatty makes the allusion to make the point that, in this case, he is the shepherd and Montag is one of his sheep returning the the fold, or to the firehouse.

The next Biblical allusion that Beatty makes is when he is telling Montag about his dream. The dream shows the two men in an argument using quotes from literature to defend their positions on literature and society. At one point in his dream, Beatty says, "The Devil can cite scripture for his purpose," which refers to Biblical scripture, and to the Biblical figure of the Devil (106). This reference means that anyone, good or evil, can spout out scripture—the words don't mean anything more than how someone uses them and can twist them to suit their own agenda.

One last example of a Biblical allusion can be found when Faber is able to see and handle Montag's copy of the Bible. He makes a connection between how Christ is depicted on TV compared to how he is portrayed in the Bible. Faber says:

"Christ is one of the 'family' now. I often wonder if God recognizes His own son the way we've dressed him up, or is it dressed him down? He's a regular peppermint stick now, all sugar-crystal and saccharine when he isn't making veiled references to certain commercial products that every worshiper absolutely needs" (81).

Faber reveals to the reader how the face of Christianity has been transformed from something of spiritual or ethical value to something used for advertisements. This suggests that religion is not important anymore, and any influence Jesus has left is now manipulated in order to sell something.

Name the surfaces which have (1) high and (2) low friction?

Friction is the resistance to the relative motion between two surfaces. In other words, friction resists the relative motion between two surfaces. It is the reason why a book pushed on a table stops after moving some distance. There are a large number of other examples of friction in our day to day life. It can be of two types: static and kinetic. Static friction keeps the bodies at rest, at rest. That is, it prevents motion of a resting body. Kinetic friction resists the motion of a moving body. The friction between two surfaces can be measured by the coefficient of friction (`mu`), which is the ratio of friction force and the normal force. 

The lower the value of coefficient of friction (whether static or kinetic), the lower the friction is. Here is a list of coefficient of friction between two materials in contact:

• Teflon on Teflon: `mu_s` = 0.04; `mu_k` = 0.04


• Metal on metal (lubricated): `mu_s` = 0.0.15;  `mu_k` = 0.06


• synovial joints in human beings: `mu_s` = 0.01; `mu_k` = 0.003


• Vehicle tires on concrete: `mu_s` = 1.00; `mu_k` = 0.80


• Steel on steel: `mu_s` = 0.74; `mu_k` = 0.54


• Glass on glass: `mu_s` = 0.94; `mu_k` = 0.4 

From this list, we can see that teflon (and other plastics as well) are low friction surfaces, while the metals are high friction surface. Also note that lubrication, whether it is between metals or in our joints, reduces friction.  

Hope this helps.

`1, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4...` Determine whether the sequence is geometric. If so, find the common ratio.

You need to verify if the sequence is a geometric sequence, hence, you need to use the following property, such that:

`a_n = sqrt(a_(n-1)*a_(n+1))`

Replacing `1/2` for `a_n, 1` for `a_(n-1)` and `1/3` for `a_(n+1) ` yields:

`1/2 = sqrt(1*1/3) => 1/2 != 1/sqrt3`

Since the given sequence is not geometric, the ratio cannot be found.

In Romeo and Juliet, what is Benvolio talking about when he says, "I'll know his grievance or be much denied" (1.1.157)?

After the opening fight between the Montagues and Capulets in Act I, Scene 1 Benvolio, a Montague and Romeo's cousin, is talking to Lord and Lady Montague. The subject quickly turns to Romeo when Lady Montague asks if Benvolio has seen her son. She worries that Romeo might have been in the fight. Benvolio tells her that he saw Romeo earlier, before the light of day, in a sycamore grove. Benvolio further reports that Romeo attempted to avoid him and hid among the trees. Lord Montague explains that Romeo has been depressed lately, crying and hiding away in his "chamber," shutting out the light. Lord Montague is perplexed as to why his son is acting so melancholy. He suggests that he could help Romeo if he only knew the cause of his son's sadness. When Romeo comes into the scene Benvolio tells Montague that he will find out Romeo's problem. He says,

See where he comes. So please you, step aside.
I’ll know his grievance or be much denied.

Basically, Benvolio is saying he'll find out what issue (grievance) is bothering Romeo but he'll be very disappointed (much denied) if he cannot discover Romeo's trouble.

Using five citations from Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, discuss some of the ways O'Brien both asserts and denies the power of "true" stories.

About midway through Tim O’Brien’s autobiographical, potentially-fictional memoir The Things They Carried, the author of this first-person account of his tour in Vietnam includes a chapter titled “How to Tell a True Story.” The first sentence in this chapter reads, simply, “This is true.” O’Brien’s book, like most war memoirs written by those who fought and survived, is invariably filled with instances of suffering and death, as well as with examples of young men, boys, really, torn violently from childhood and thrust into surrealistic settings far from home where thousands, or even millions, of foreign people are determined to kill him and his friends. In war, there are countless acts of nobility and sacrifice, but the endeavor is inherently tragic. Addressing the difficulty of writing a true war story with a happy ending or with a moral, he writes the following in “How to Tell a True Story”:

“A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie. There is no rectitude whatsoever. There is no virtue.”

Later in this chapter, O’Brien tells of the death of one of his fellow soldiers, Curt Lemon, killed when a foolish game played with smoke grenades goes horribly awry. “It’s all exactly true,” he writes before providing the details leading to Lemon’s death. It is the surrealism inherent in war, and Vietnam was certainly no exception, that leads to O’Brien’s tortured discussion of the often slim distinctions between true and false. As O’Brien again suggests, the more unbelievable the occurrence, the truer the description:

“In many cases a true war story cannot be believed. If you believe it, be skeptical. It's a question of credibility. Often the crazy stuff is true and the normal stuff isn't, because the normal stuff is necessary to make you believe the truly incredible craziness. In other cases you can't even tell a true war story. Sometimes it's just beyond telling.”

As this chapter progresses, O’Brien continues to relate stories of horrific deaths among members of his company. In each such story, he again emphasizes the fundamental truth of his words while reminding the reader, and himself, of the difficulty of writing a false narrative about such tragic events even though the very realism of these examples begs the reader to disbelieve. In a very brief section of his book titled “Good Form,” O’Brien again attempts to articulate the reason for his seeming indifference to the distinctions between truth and fiction. And, again, the horrors endemic in war make the most factual recitations of atrocities seem unbelievable, while fictionalized or partly fictionalized accounts allow for a greater level of believability. In “Good Form,” the author explains the banality of everyday occurrences in a war.

“It's time to be blunt. I'm forty-three years old, true, and I'm a writer now, and a long time ago I walked through Quang Ngai Province as a foot soldier. Almost everything else is invented. But it's not a game. It's a form. Right here, now, as I invent myself, I'm thinking of all I want to tell you about why this book is written as it is. For instance, I want to tell you this: twenty years ago I watched a man die on a trail near the village of My Khe. I did not kill him. But I was present, you see, and my presence was guilt enough. I remember his face, which was not a pretty face, because his jaw was in his throat, and I remember feeling the burden of responsibility and grief. I blamed myself. And rightly so, because I was present. But listen. Even that story is made up. I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth. Here is the happening-truth. I was once a soldier. There were many bodies, real bodies with real faces, but I was young then and I was afraid to look. And now, twenty years later, I'm left with faceless responsibility and faceless grief. Here is the story-truth. He was a slim, dead, almost dainty young man of about twenty. He lay in the center of a red clay trail near the village of My Khe. His jaw was in his throat. His one eye was shut, the other eye was a star-shaped hole. I killed him.”

O’Brien’s refusal to simply relate in a straightforward and honest manner his experiences and observations during his tour in Vietnam—a war defined as much by the murkiness of the battlefields, in which identifying friend from foe could prove enormously and sometimes tragically difficult, as by the opaqueness of the objectives for which men were being killed and being turned into killers—is testament to the incomprehensibility of his experiences in that divisive conflict. By blurring distinctions between fact and fiction, he is able to confess his sins and unburden his soul without fully purging himself of the weight of responsibility for his actions.

In the book’s final chapter, titled “The Lives of the Dead,” O’Brien again begins his discussion of his experiences in the war. “But this too is true,” he begins his discussion of his memories, decades after the war has ended, of the deaths of his friends, as well as of the “slim young man I killed” and of the anonymous dead he loaded into the back of a truck. O’Brien ends his book largely as he had begun. He leaves the reader entirely uncertain as to the author’s veracity. Was any of this memoir true? In a very important way, and this was Tim O’Brien’s point, the ugliness he describes, the endless tragedies of friends torn apart by bullets and shrapnel, and innocent civilians killed as what is called “collateral damage,” are essential truths of war. All of these events or incidents actually do occur in all wars; whether they occurred in Tim O’Brien’s war is immaterial. His is a book about war, and the essential underlying truths are there.

What do you think Patrick told Mary? Why do you think this?Use evidence to support your opinion.

It is quite likely Patrick told Mary that he was leaving her. However, we do not initially expect such an uncharacteristic development, as the author begins the story innocently enough.

The first inkling we receive that something may be amiss is when Patrick downs his first drink quickly and summarily refuses Mary's offer to get him another. He gets the drink himself, and we are told that it is quite a bit stronger than the previous one.

When he came back, she noticed that the new drink was dark amber with the quantity of whiskey in it.

She watched him as he began to sip the dark yellow drink, and she could see little oily swirls in the liquid because it was so strong.

Patrick continues to remain aloof from Mary, as he refuses every courtesy from her. Finally, he tells her to sit down because he has something important (presumably) to tell her. The author tells us that it didn't 'take long, four or five minutes at most,...' and that Mary was visibly horrified and shell-shocked by what she heard. The next lines are the ones we are interested in.

"So there it is," he added. "And I know it's kind of a bad time to be telling you, but there simply wasn't any other way. Of course I'll give you money and see you're looked after. But there needn't really be any fuss. I hope not anyway. It wouldn't be very good for my job."

Notice Patrick reiterates almost apologetically that it's 'kind of a bad time to be telling' Mary whatever he has just told her. Here, he is referring to giving Mary bad news while she is pregnant with their unborn child. This, taken alone, isn't enough information for readers to gauge what Patrick's bad news could possibly be. It isn't until the next line that we receive some sort of an inkling as to what Patrick is talking about.

Of course I'll give you money and see you're looked after.

At this point, the author doesn't tell us whether Patrick has found another lover, but the implication is quite clear. He tells Mary that he will provide for her and make sure that she is looked after. To all intents and purposes, Patrick is telling Mary that he is leaving her. In a short story, the author has to skilfully build up to the rising action and subsequent climax fairly quickly. Here, Roald Dahl executes his literary aims expertly. Patrick's next words provide us a more complete picture of the kind of man that he is.

But there needn't really be any fuss. I hope not anyway. It wouldn't be very good for my job.

In essence, Patrick exhibits the typically callous and self-absorbed characteristics of an unfaithful husband. He certainly treats his wife insensitively throughout their little conversation. So, by the time Mary hits her husband over the head with the frozen leg of lamb and kills him, we may find our sympathies just a little on her side than on Patrick's.

What does it mean to have integrity, and where in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird does it show integrity? (quotes and page, please)

Having integrity means being genuine, honest, and morally upright; that is, living according to what one believes is morally right and true. One example of the integrity of Atticus is in Chapter 9.

In this chapter Atticus speaks privately with his brother Jack about the upcoming trial of Tom Robinson, who is charged with rape. Since Atticus has been assigned to defend Tom, Jack asks his brother, "...how bad is this going to be?" Atticus  tells him it is a terrible situation because the case is simply based upon the accuser's word against Tom's, and the jury is not likely to take Tom Robinson's word against that of the Ewell's, even though they are trashy. 

Then, Jack asks Atticus if he cannot avoid taking this case. Atticus tells Jack that if he does that, he cannot face his children.

"You know what's going to happen as well as I do Jack, and I hope and pray I can get Jem and Scout through it without bitterness, and most of all, without catching Maycomb's usual disease." [p.93 in paperback edition]

Here the integrity of Atticus is exemplified by his refusal to take an easy way out. He feels he must take the case because of the principles that he has taught his children, principles such as the right that every person deserves justice, and every person's life is important. He must stand by these principles, and be morally upright.