I have semester finals coming up and I need help finding small examples of suspense to write in my study guide. What are some small examples of...

Without knowing which literature works that your teacher has assigned to be read throughout the semester, this is a tough question.  I'll attempt to answer it by using some fairly common works and authors.  

Pick just about any short story by Edgar Allen Poe.  They are loaded with suspense.  Will the narrator in "The Pit and Pendulum" die?  How will he die?  Why is he there?  What torture will be next?  All of those questions add suspense for the reader.  That's mainly what suspense is too.  Suspense needs the reader to worry and question what is happening and what will happen to liked characters.  

Stephen Benet's "By the Waters of Babylon" works too.  Why has so much knowledge been lost.  Why is metal dangerous?  John isn't supposed to go to the "Place of the Gods," but he does anyway.  Something bad is likely to happen.  And he does indeed get attacked a few times by wild animals.  

Huck and Jim's multiple encounters with seedy characters are all suspenseful.  1984's rat torture scene was crazy suspenseful.  The undead sailors on the ship in "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" are quite creepy and suspenseful.  Macbeth's murder of Duncan is a good choice too, especially since moments before Macbeth said that he wouldn't do it. Simon's death and Piggy's death from Lord of the Flies are both fingernail bitingly intense as well.  What makes those scenes even worse is that the well liked characters are the ones that die.  

What factors led to the Civil War?

There were several factors that led to the Civil War. The South wanted slavery to spread while the North opposed this. There was fighting over the spread of slavery. When the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed, it allowed the people to decide if there would be slavery in these territories. There was fighting and killing in Kansas over the spread of slavery. When Lincoln got elected President, the South was convinced President Lincoln was going to end slavery. Even though President Lincoln said he wouldn’t end slavery, the South was convinced slavery would end. President Lincoln, however, didn’t want slavery to spread beyond where it already existed. Lincoln’s election pushed some southern states to secede.

Another factor leading to the Civil War was the North and the South were very different regions economically. The North was mainly industrial while the South was mainly agricultural. Thus, the regions had different views on economic issues. The North wanted protective tariffs. The South was against these tariffs. The North wanted internal improvements. The South opposed these projects if they raised taxes.

There were differences of opinion over the power of the federal government. The North wanted the federal government to have a lot of power. They believed federal laws were supreme. The South wanted the state governments to have more power. The South believed states could nullify federal laws. There were several factors that led to the start of the Civil War.

What do Senators and Representatives do to get elected?

Both Senators and members of the House of Representatives are directly elected by the populations of the various states. The Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution guaranteed the direct election of Senators while the Constitution originally provided for the direct election of representatives of the House. To become a Congressman, a person must be nominated by their party through the primary election process in the spring. The winners of the primaries will face off in the general election in November.

Members of the House are up for election every even year while Senators serve for six-year terms. One-third of the Senate is up for election every even year. The entire state will vote for Senators, but only the citizens from each Congressional district will vote for members of the House of Representatives. According to the Constitution, a person must be 30-years old to be elected a Senator. Members of the House of Representatives must be 25-years old to run.

What was the Middle Passage and how did it affect the world?

The Middle Passage refers to the slave trade route which slave traders used to transport slaves from Africa to the New World. It is referred to as the "Middle Passage" because it formed the second stage in what was known as "Triangular Trade." First, Europeans sailed down to Africa, where they traded manufactured goods to African warlords in exchange for African slaves. Then, the Europeans transported the slaves across the Middle Passage to the New World. Finally, the slave traders sold the slaves and returned the profits to Europe, which they used to produce or purchase more manufactured goods to take to Africa.

As many as 12 million Africans were transported across the Middle Passage, and an estimated 2 million died during or as a result of the journey. Ultimately, the Middle Passage affected the world by incentivizing racism and slavery and allowing Europeans to reap profits by oppressing fellow humans.

Explain the usage of "of us all" in the poem "To the doctor who treated the raped baby and felt such despair."

In the poem, the phrase in question, 'of us all,' can be found in the first line. It refers to those who are interested in the baby's fate and those who are thankful that there is a doctor in their midst who will tend to the brutalized infant.

Through the use of enjambment, the poet cleverly paints an accurate portrait of the dichotomies of life. While the process of living continues normally for most people, the existence of horrific aberrations in the fabric of life cannot be ignored. Enjambment is a poetic device that is used to highlight a sense of continuity in a poem; non-existent pauses at the end of each line lend an immediacy and urgency to the poem. As we read, each line melds into the next in a rhythmic symphony, reinforcing the notion that the aberrations of life will always co-exist with the mundane.

While the doctor works furiously to save the life of the baby, life must continue normally for other children. The phrase 'of us all' also suggests a sense of collaboration: concerned citizens must rely on the doctor to restore a measure of normalcy to the life of a brutalized infant while they strive to preserve security in the lives of other innocents. So, in a sense, all concerned parties must labor for the security of all.

And for the rest of us, we all slept in trust
that you would do what you did,
that you could do what you did.
We slept in trust that you lived.

In the novel Lord of the Flies, what is a quote that depicts how Jack attempts to take power through acts of savagery or violence?

In Chapter 5, Ralph calls an assembly to discuss how the boys are not following through with his decisions. Ralph mentions that the boys need to decide on what to do about the identity of the beast. Jack takes the conch and tells the boys that if there were a beast, he would have seen it while he was hunting. Piggy says he agrees with Jack and does not believe in the beast either. Then, a littlun named Percival claims he saw a creature come out of the sea, and Simon attempts to explain the true identity of the beast. It is suggested that Percival saw a ghost. Ralph finally grabs the conch and decides to hold a vote as to whether ghosts exist on the island. Piggy rips the conch from his hands and claims that he didn't vote for ghosts on the island. Jack becomes aggressive and tells Piggy to shut up. Ralph yells at Jack for speaking without the conch and Jack says,

"Bollocks to the rules! We're strong---we hunt! If there's a beast, we'll hunt it down! We'll close in and beat and beat and beat----!" (Golding 91)

Then, Jack begins to lead the group of hunters in a ceremonial tribal dance along the beach. As Jack leads his hunters away, Ralph resists from blowing the conch.

Jack openly defies Ralph and comments on his abilities to violently hunt the beast. He is successful in taking power from Ralph by leading the boys away from the assembly and ignoring the rules of the conch. Jack rallies support by appealing to violence and savagery.

What would you consider to be the important elements or remarkable points in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart?

There are several important elements to keep in mind when approaching Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. First, it should be noted that the novel is among the most important postcolonial texts to come from Nigeria. Nigeria has a rich literary heritage that includes such artists as Chimamanda Adichie and Wole Soyinka, but Achebe is widely considered to be the father of the African novel. Things Fall Apart has been hugely influential to subsequent writers who grapple with postcolonial issues.

Next, this text is notable because it is among the first to give Western readers a glimpse into the culture and traditions of Igbo tribes. Achebe depicts the customs and rituals of the Umuofian tribe with vivid detail. This kind of story stands in stark contrast to the Eurocentric tales found in the Western imagination. Achebe provides three-dimensional portrayals to distinctly Nigerian characters. These are characters that would traditionally be disregarded, marginalized, or else dehumanized in works by Western authors, much like they are in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and other such texts. Achebe presents an authentic Nigerian voice blended with elements of notable Greek tragedies to combat the reductive portrayals found throughout Western literature.

Finally, I find Achebe’s critique of violent masculinity to be a fascinating motif. Okonkwo prides himself on being masculine and eschewing all things that he associates with “femininity” and weakness. However, his rigidity and emphasis on violent manliness ultimately leads to his downfall. Achebe’s evaluation of masculinity is one of the most compelling aspects of the novel.

Achebe’s masterpiece continues to be an influential novel, and the reasons I have provided are just some of the aspects that have lead to the novel remaining an important landmark in the literary canon.

How is Blake's "A Poison Tree" a parable?

A parable is a short symbolic story that teaches a moral lesson. Blake's "A Poison Tree" is a parable about the dangers of suppressing anger. The poet explains the point he is trying to make in the first stanza, in which he says:

I was angry with my friend;
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.

In other words, when he became angry with his friend, he told him about why he was angry and he soon felt better, but

I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.

When he became angry with someone he disliked, he kept it a secret and  became more and more angry. The rest of the poem describes, using symbolic language, the consequences of not telling his "foe" of his anger:

And it grew both day and night.
Till it bore an apple bright.

His anger has become a tree that bears an "apple bright," like the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden. Suddenly the "anger" that started all this has become very serious, a kind of original sin. The poet, like the serpent in the Bible, tempts his foe with the apple, and his foe is too easily fooled:

In the morning glad I see;
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.

That is, his foe has eaten of the fruit of his anger, and is poisoned by it. The moral of this parable is that suppressing anger can make things much, much worse.

Is the Queen aware of her son's guilt or is she convinced that Hamlet killed Polonius in a fit of insanity?

At the end of Scene 2 in Act 3, Hamlet speaks the following lines:

Soft! now to my mother!
O heart, lose not thy nature; let not ever
The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom.
Let me be cruel, not unnatural;
I will speak daggers to her, but use none.
My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites
How in my words soever she be shent,
To give them seals never, my soul, consent!

Shakespeare wants to make it clear to the audience that Hamlet has no intention of harming his mother. This fact will be important in Act 3, Scene 4, because Gertrude gets the false idea that Hamlet intends to murder her. She cries for help, and Polonius, who can't see anything from where he is hiding, echoes her cries, believing, as Gertrude does, that she is in mortal danger. Gertrude believes her son is insane from the time he first enters her room. This leads to a mixup and then to tragedy. Hamlet is being impertinent. When she asks, "Have you forgot me?" he replies:

No, by the rood, not so!
You are the Queen, your husband's brother's wife,
And—would it were not so—you are my mother.

This angers Gertrude. She says:

Nay, then, I'll set those to you that can speak.

Hamlet has come there with the intention of having it out with his mother. He wants to tell her how he feels about her marrying Claudius and especially doing it so soon after his father's death. He is not at all sure that she was not in collusion with Claudius in her husband's murder, or at least that she didn't have some kind of illicit relationship with Claudius before her husband was found dead. Hamlet probably grabs her by the wrist when he says:

Come, come, and sit you down. You shall not budge.
You go not till I set you up a glass
Where you may see the inmost part of you.

This results in an unusual mix-up. Hamlet is speaking metaphorically, but his mother, who thinks he is insane, takes him literally! He simply means that he intends to use words to make her look at herself and see her own improper behavior. But she gets the idea he intends to set up a mirror and then use his sword to cut her open and make her look at her own intestines as she is bleeding to death. That is why she says:

What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murder me?
Help, help, ho!

Hamlet hadn't the slightest intention of hurting his mother. He cannot understand why she is crying for help. She is crying for help because she thinks her son is completely crazy and intends to kill her in a horrible and bizarre fashion. Then Polonius, who is behind Hamlet and in hiding, starts crying for help too.

What, ho! Help, help, help!

Now Hamlet thinks he has walked into a trap. He thinks his mother has sent for him because she was planning to call the guards and have her son apprehended. This would mean that she is in collusion with the king and that he could get thrown into a dungeon, where he might remain for years or be murdered. He would never have a chance to get his revenge against Claudius. In fact, it might be Claudius who is hiding behind the arras. So in self-defense Hamlet draws his sword and stabs the hidden man who is echoing Gertrude's cries for help from the palace guards.

Now that Hamlet is holding a bloody sword, Gertrude is really petrified. She thinks she is about to be killed by a lunatic. She has stopped calling for the guards because she saw what happened to Polonius for doing that. She offers no further resistance. Hamlet can now make her sit down and can give her the scathing tongue-lashing which is the outstanding feature of this marvelous scene. It includes these inspired lines:

HAMLET
Nay, but to live
In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed,
Stew'd in corruption, honeying and making love
Over the nasty sty!

QUEEN
O, speak to me no more!
These words like daggers enter in mine ears.
No more, sweet Hamlet!

HAMLET
A murderer and a villain!
A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe
Of your precedent lord; a vice of kings;
A cutpurse of the empire and the rule,
That from a shelf the precious diadem stole
And put it in his pocket!

By the time this turbulent confrontation between mother and son is over, she no longer believes he is insane, and he no longer suspects that she knows anything about how his father really died. Later she will tell Claudius that Hamlet is:

Mad as the sea and wind, when both contend
Which is the mightier.

But she no longer believes that. She is keeping Hamlet's secret and protecting him from punishment for killing Polonius by asserting that her son is totally insane.

What are some occupations that involve math from Chapters 6 through 10 of The Giver?

Occupations requiring use of math are Instructor, Engineer, and Doctor. 

A community cannot function without math.  Math is required to design buildings, distribute supplies, and for all aspects of technology.  We know that technology is important in Jonas's community, and we can assume that high level math is as well.

The Instructor of Elevens is one occupation that requires math.  One of the reasons we can tell this is because the calculator is so important to Elevens that they actually have special clothing for it.  The boys are given trousers “with a specially shaped pocket for the small calculator that they would use this year in school” (Ch. 6).  It does not say where the girls keep their calculators.  Nonetheless, someone has to teach them how to use them. 

Another occupation that requires math is Engineer.  While waiting for the ceremony to begin, Asher shares a story about a supposed former Eleven’s assignment. 

"I heard about a guy who was absolutely certain he was going to be assigned Engineer," Asher muttered as they ate, "and instead they gave him Sanitation Laborer. He went out the next day, jumped into the river, swam across, and joined the next community he came to. Nobody ever saw him again." (Ch. 6) 

Jonas tells him it is just a story, but you can see how children would be frightened by it.  An Eleven with an affinity for math might expect to be an Engineer, and would be disappointed to end up with a less prestigious occupation like Sanitation Laborer.  Engineer is probably a very valued job, requiring mathematical ability. 

During the ceremony, a few other assignments are mentioned that require math, including Doctor and, once again, Engineer. 

Jonas knew that each one was thinking about the training that lay ahead. For some--one studious male had been selected as Doctor, a female as Engineer, and another for Law and Justice--it would be years of hard work and study. (Ch. 7) 

There are likely other occupations that require the use of math.  It is hard to tell, because we are not told what all of the assignments are.  Many jobs require math, in small ways or large ones.  For instance, Fiona might use math as a Caretaker of the Old if she has to determine medical doses or nutrition intake.

What did Faber give to Montag before he left his apartment?

Before leaving Faber's apartment, Montag is given a "small green-metal object," no larger than a ".22 bullet." This electronic device is one of Faber's inventions and it consists of two parts: one part which goes inside Montag's ear and another part which goes inside Faber's ear. Using this device, the men can communicate, regardless of the distance between them.

Faber gives this device to Montag to aid him in the fight against Captain Beatty. Montag worries that without Faber's guidance, he will be easily manipulated by Beatty's enthusiasm for the fireman system. The device provides Montag with invaluable support, as Faber says,

Go to the firehouse when it's time. I'll be with you. Let's listen to this Captain Beatty together.

Faber believes this device is proof of his "cowardice" because Montag is leaving the apartment to face Captain Beatty while he stays at home. In reality, this device marks the beginning of their rebellion against the fireman system. 

Describe the battlefield in Macbeth.

There are two battlefields in Macbeth. The first is in Act One, where the Sergeant describes Macbeth's bloody valor on the field, and the second is at the end, where Macbeth meets his fate at the hands of Macduff. There is little in the way of description of either field, however. We do learn that the first battlefield, where Macbeth defeated the rebel Macdonwald, was very bloody, another "Golgotha," according to the Sergeant. Macbeth describes the battle as a day both "fair and foul," suggesting that in spite of the victory, there was much death. As for the second battle, it takes place on a field, in front of Macbeth's castle at Dunsinane. We know that there is a forest nearby known as Birnam Wood, since Malcolm's forces hold up boughs of wood to disguise their movements (thus fulfilling the witches' prophecy that Macbeth cannot be killed until Birnam Wood marches on Dunsinane.) This battle is also extremely bloody, with the title character killing men left and right before finally encountering Macduff. 

When Grayson discovers Maniac, his condition could be described as what?

When Grayson found Maniac Magee at the zoo, he thought that "the kid looked terrible."  Maniac had been living homeless for so long that his clothes were "rags" and his body was "was bony and dirty and scratched."  Maniac was not only horribly dirty, but he was also incredibly weak and hungry.  Grayson took him to the equipment room in the bandshell.  The older man fed Maniac soup, which was all he had with him.  Maniac told Grayson that his body had gotten scratched up on "'some picker bush.'"

Grayson found out that Maniac Magee was still hungry after only eating soup, so he went out and brought him back a sub sandwich and a large box of snack cakes.  Maniac was covered with dirt after living at the zoo and he took a shower for an hour in order to get himself clean.

In Chapter 12 of The Giver, The Giver revealed that he agreed with Jonas about sameness. Which statement in the chapter shows his dislike of it?...

Jonas learns that the community once had colors, and The Giver explains to him that they gave up too much for Sameness.

The Giver teaches Jonas about the Capacity to See Beyond, which means in his case that he can see the color red.  Color was one of the things the community gave up in the switch to Sameness.

The Giver chuckled, suddenly. "We've never completely mastered Sameness. I suppose the genetic scientists are still hard at work trying to work the kinks out. Hair like Fiona's must drive them crazy." (Ch. 12)

The community does not allow anyone to be different.  People have the same skin tone, and the same hair color.  They even have the same eye color. Everyone in the community has the same dark eyes, but Jonas’s are light-colored.  The Giver and baby Gabe also have these light eyes.

The Giver shows Jonas the memory of the sled again, which is the color red.  Jonas says that the color red he saw was beautiful, and The Giver agrees.  He tells Jonas that getting rid of colors was part of the choice to go to Sameness, which meant gaining control, but also giving up a lot.

"Our people made that choice, the choice to go to Sameness. Before my time, before the previous time, back and back and back. We relinquished color when we relinquished sunshine and did away with differences." He thought for a moment. "We gained control of many things. But we had to let go of others." (Ch. 12)

It is clear that The Giver does not completely agree with the choice the community has made.  Sameness meant everyone feeling comfortable all of the time, but it also meant giving away beautiful things and pleasant things along with the terrible and unpleasant ones.  He explains to Jonas that it took him years to come to the same conclusion Jonas did, that Sameness was not all it was cracked up to be.

Jonas is told that he will acquire wisdom with the memories.  The Giver explains to him that part of that wisdom is in understanding the community’s faults.  Until now, he has done nothing but accept unquestionably the community’s rules.  As he experiences the memories, he learns that the community is not the perfect world he thought it was.

Which O. Henry story features a rich father who owns a factory? His son fell in love with his neighbor's daughter—an arrogant aristocratic woman...

Yes, I do know which story you are talking about by O. Henry.  The story in question is "Mammon and the Archer."  The father is Anthony Rockwall, and he has retired from his manufacturing business.  The business was manufacturing soap, and he is now a self made millionaire.  He's gruff and brash and believes that just about any problem can be solved with his money.  His son, Richard, doesn't have that kind of confidence in the money.  However, unlike Anthony, Richard is well educated and well mannered.  Despite all of his polish and father's wealth, the girl that he has fallen in love with is still considered "out of his league."  Anthony believes that the only thing that is needed for his son to succeed in wooing the young lady is time.  Richard needs time alone with the lady.  In order to give Richard the time that he needs to be with the young lady, Anthony orchestrates a huge traffic jam that traps the couple in a cab together for several hours.  They emerge from the cab engaged to be married, and Anthony's beliefs about the power of his money are confirmed. 

In To Kill A Mockingbird, which character comes off as more heroic to the narrator, Scout: Atticus Finch or Aunt Alexandra?

Time and time again, Scout finds her father, Atticus Finch, heroic. This is not true of Aunt Alexandra. 

Here are some incidents in which Atticus seems heroic to Scout:

• In Chapter 9 Scout overhears her father talking with his brother Jack. He says that, although he has hoped to not have such a case as Tom Robinson's, he cannot in good conscience, refuse to take it. "But do you think I could face my children otherwise?"


• In Chapter 10 when Tim Johnson becomes rabid, the sheriff bows to Atticus's ability to shoot a rifle, and Atticus fires accurately from a distance and kills the diseased dog which is a danger to the neighborhood. Unbeknownst to the children, Atticus was once the finest marksman in the county--known as "One-Shot Finch." 


• In Chapter 14 Atticus heroically defends Calpurnia as a "faithful member of this family" when Aunt Alexandria wants him to dismiss her.


• In Chapter 15 Atticus bravely stands up to the mob outside the jail where Tom Robinson is kept before the trial.


• Atticus bravely defends Tom Robinson at the trial, despite the hateful comments being made about him. In his closing arguments, in Chapter 20, he stalwartly addresses the jurors, 

"I am confident that you gentlemen will review without passion the evidence...and restore this defendant to his family. In the name of God, do your duty."

What simile in the paragraph beginning with “When they met again two days later ...” creates a suggestion about Daisy?

This section of the book recounts when Gatsby first meets Daisy, while he is stationed at Camp Taylor during World War I.  A great deal of this recounting focuses on the great class divide between them. Gatsby falls in love with her, but he is painfully aware that,

...he was at present a penniless young man without a past, and at any minute the invisible cloak of his uniform might slip from his shoulders (156).

Daisy has no idea that he is from a different world because his uniform "cloaks" the differences between them. 

When he takes leave of her, "She vanished into her rich house, into her rich, full life..." (156-57). Thus even before we get to the paragraph referenced in the question, we can see that money and class are important elements of this relationship. 

It is in this paragraph that Daisy is said to be "gleaming like silver, safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor" (157). This simile, as many other descriptions of Daisy in the novel, is meant to convey yet again the socioeconomic difference between Gatsby and Daisy.  There is a hint of an allusion, I think, to the idea that one is "born with a silver spoon in one's mouth," an expression conveying the person born into wealth, rather than attaining a wealthy status with hard work or even good luck.  This simile also reminds me that it was the servants who polished the silver in Daisy's world, the work of the poor creating the "gleaming" beauty of objects that they could not hope to own.  And Daisy herself is really a gleaming object, too, standing well above the poor, including Gatsby.

The reader already knows at this point that Daisy has elected to stay in her world, rejecting Gatsby's love and wealth, and that his inability to win her away from Tom is based on the fact that he is not from her world.  When Fitzgerald takes us back to Gatsby and Daisy's first encounters, we can see that the seeds of impossibility were sown from the very beginning.   

In "The Death of the Moth," what does Woolf see in the moth fluttering at the window?

In "The Death of the Moth," Woolf sees an ordinary day moth fluttering at her window. Despite the fact that it is a completely ordinary creature, the moth arrests Woolf's attention. He flies from one corner of the window pane to the other with an intensity that rivets her. In fact, he seems to represent life itself. As Woolf writes:

It was as if someone had taken a tiny bead of pure life and decking it as lightly as possible with down and feathers, had set it dancing and zig-zagging to show us the true nature of life. 

The moth reminds Woolf that life, no matter how insignificant, matters. As Woolf watches the moth struggle against its impending death, she recognizes it as a representation, stripped bare, of the fundamental struggle for existence that human beings share. No matter how ordinary, insignificant or forgotten our existence might be, a force throbs in us while we are living, just as in the moth. 

Woolf admires the moth's monumental struggle to stay alive. It prevails for a moment, and Woolf celebrates its "minute ... triumph" over death. In the end, however, the moth dies, and Woolf recognizes that death will take us all. At the same time, it is the struggle to stay alive, no matter how briefly, and to live life to its fullest, even if that only involves flying from one end of a windowpane to another, that is important. Woolf feels an affinity with the moth, for the moth is all of us: "He was little or nothing but life."

Why didn't Eveline go with Frank to Buenos Aires at the end of James Joyce's short story, "Eveline"?

James Joyce's "Eveline" is a compelling and strange story that offers little explanation for its own ending. Throughout most of the story, we sift through a description of Eveline's dull and miserable life, and it seems clear that she wants to escape from the tyranny of her home. It is strange, therefore, that Eveline does not go with Frank to Buenos Aires when he tries to take her with him at the end.

Many readers interpret this ending as an illustration of Eveline's imprisonment in the past, and much of the story supports this idea. Most of the narrative dwells on the young woman's past life, for instance, and there's little indication that Eveline has much of a future. As such, it's very possible that Eveline is simply incapable of leaving her home, no matter how much she dreams of a future far away from her misery. She may dream big, but, in the end, she's incapable of real action. 

This idea makes sense when considered in the broader context of Dubliners. In most of the stories, Joyce focuses on characters who are "stuck," who have gotten locked into an unfulfilling life and cannot escape. As such, it makes sense that Eveline cannot leave Dublin; like the other characters in Joyce's stories, she is trapped by a kind of figurative paralysis, and is doomed to a life of unhappiness and stagnation. 

What is a specific instance in "The Black Cat" when a character experiences remorse?

The first thing that comes to mind when looking for remorse in The Black Cat is when the narrator hangs Pluto. After he hangs the cat, he says that he experienced "a half-sentiment that seemed, but was not, remorse", but before that, during the actual description of the hanging of the cat, the narrator claims that he hung the cat with "tears streaming from [his] eyes, and with the bitterest remorse". Despite the fact that the cat had done him no wrong, that it had certainly not done anything to deserve being hung, he did it anyway. He was remorseful because he knew that the cat had once loved him and also because he knew that killing the cat was a deadly sin.

What does Holden think about himself in Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye?

Holden Caulfield is a 16-17 year-old boy who attends college preparatory schools. (Schools is plural because he's been kicked out of three of them.)He's also been through a lot in his young life, such as losing his little brother Allie to leukemia, and he's not functioning very well because of it. In an effort to cope with life, Holden lies:

"I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It's awful. If I'm on my way to the store to buy a magazine, even, and somebody asks me where I'm going, I'm liable to say I'm going to the opera. It's terrible" (16).

The above passage is so ironic because Holden is also very critical of other people who he views as phonies. Usually phonies are adults, but he points out many others throughout the book as well. What's ironic, is he never figures out that he's probably one of the greatest hypocrites, too. At least he knows he's a liar, right?

What is the density Of A 45-g block of wood that occupies 38.2cm3?

Density is mass divided by volume. The density of the block of wood is calculated as follows:

` d = m/V = (45 g)/( 38.2 cm^2) = 1.18 (g)/(cm^2)`

Density is a mathematical expression of how heavy something is for its size. It's a constant for a given material. If you have a block of the same wood that has twice the volume, then it will also have twice the mass since it has the same density as the first block of wood. 

Density must be expressed in mass units divided by volume units. Here are some other common units for density:

g/ml = one milliliter is the same volume as 1 cm^3 so this is the same as g/cm^3

kg/liter = density expressed in this unit is mathematically the same as in  g/cm^3 and g/ml, because 1 kg = 1000 g and 1 liter = 1000 ml.

What games and tricks did the twins play on the ghost in The Canterville Ghost?

The high-spirited American twins play quite a few tricks on the poor Canterville ghost, who can't cope with the Yankee spirit of can-do practicality that invades his ancestral English home with the Otis family.

The twins shoot peas at the ghost with their pea shooters. They stretch strings across the hallway so he will trip in the dark, and once they melt butter to make a "butter slide" on the floor so that the ghost will slip and fall. They put a water jug on the top of a door so that when he opens the door he is drenched with water. Another time they hide in a dark corner and then run at him waving their arms and shouting "BOO!" They also hang up a white sheet, which the ghost mistakes for another ghost. The trick works: the frightened real ghost runs away in fear.

All of the twins' tricks are the standard fare of summer camp or boarding school pranks, showing that the twins don't take the ghost seriously as a threat and underscoring the comic way this story inverts the normal ghost tale. 

In "The Last Leaf," why does Sue call Johnsy "white mouse"?

The term "white mouse" has two parts, "white" and "mouse." Sue is visually oriented because she is an artist. She sees Johnsy as a white mouse for two reasons, both of which can be identified in O. Henry's text.

“Tell me as soon as you have finished,” said Johnsy, closing her eyes, and lying white and still as a fallen statue...

Johnsy is as white as a marble statue because she is so sick. Sue naturally notices this paleness, and it explains the "white" in "white mouse." Sue is trying to be amusing to get some spark of interest from her patient. It is noteworthy that Sue talks to Johnsy in little jokes and even baby talk but that Johnsy does not respond in kind. Johnsy is appropriately taciturn, solemn and serious as befits a person who is dying. Then when Johnsy is on her way to recovery she uses one word of the intimate language the two girls have evolved during their time as roommates. Johnsy says:

“I've been a bad girl, Sudie,”

Sue has been using jokes and baby talk throughout the story because she has come to regard Johnsy as her sick child. Johnsy may have brought out Sue's maternal instinct. She says:

"Try to take some broth now, and let Sudie go back to her drawing, so she can sell the editor man with it, and buy port wine for her sick child, and pork chops for her greedy self.”

Getting back to the word "mouse," O. Henry tells us that Johnsy is a very small young woman.

A mite of a little woman with blood thinned by California zephyrs was hardly fair game for the red-fisted, short-breathed old duffer [i.e., Mr. Pneumonia]. 

So Sue jokingly calls Johnsy a "white mouse" because pneumonia has made the mite of a little woman deathly white. The whiteness probably scares Sue, but she is trying to keep up a brave front whenever she is with her "sick child," which is something most parents will do when they are nursing a little boy or girl who is seriously ill.

In the last stanza of "Poem for a Daughter" by Anne Stevenson, why belong to the world (not just to the children's world)? What are those "premises?"

In order to explain the last stanza, let's take a step-by-step approach.

A woman's life is her own
until it is taken away
by a first, particular cry.

Here, Stevenson is saying that a woman's life is her own until the day she hears the first cry of her newborn.

Then she is not alone
but a part of the premises
of everything there is: 
a time, a tribe, a war.

The birth of a woman's baby confers on her new responsibilities beyond the dictates of her ego; she must now adjust her worldview to take into consideration her new maternal status. Suddenly, she is compelled to take note of the larger world and to understand her part in humanity's history. She is 'not alone' anymore, but plays a part or is a factor ('premises') in earth's fate. 

Every new life continues mankind's struggle to achieve, to build, and to develop lasting and meaningful legacies. Whether she likes it or not, the new mother must contemplate her place in the larger sphere of humanity and her response to societal expectations ('tribe'), the decisions that precipitate conflict ('war') and the unique challenges of her era ('time').

When we belong to the world
we become what we are. 

In seeing herself as part of the world and in realizing the significance of her new status, the new mother begins to understand how she affects the world. Individualism is subsumed by initiative: in acting according to her best judgment and in working for the best interests of her child, she develops her sense of self. In other words, she becomes who she is by the decisions she makes as both a mother and a citizen of the world.

According to Montresor, what makes the perfect crime?

For Montresor, the perfect crime -- or, more specifically, the perfect revenge -- requires that the avenger not get caught.  He says, "I must not only punish but punish with impunity. A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong."  In other words, he must punish his enemy, Fortunato, in such a way that he cannot be caught and punished in return for it because when the revenge actually ends up hurting the person who's already been wounded, and thus needed to seek revenge, revenge has not actually be accomplished.  Further, he says the revenge is also incomplete when the one seeking revenge does not make it known to his victim that the revenge is punishment from him for some earlier slight.  So, the victim must understand who is injuring him or the revenge doesn't really count.

What kind of weathering broke the Colosseum?

Weathering is the breakdown of rocks, soil, etc. by a number of environmental factors (such as water, air, or organisms). There are different types of weathering. The weathering that has resulted in the breakdown of the world famous monument called the Colosseum is physical weathering (also known as mechanical weathering). More specifically, the freeze-thaw cycle has resulted in the weathering of the Colosseum. During cold weather, low temperatures cause water to freeze. Thus, the water that has trickled or deposited into the cracks of the walls freezes into ice. Since ice occupies more volume than liquid water, due to lower density, this freezing expands these cracks. During the day time or warmer weather, this ice thaws and converts to liquid water, which reduces the stress on the cracks. This freeze and thaw cycle repeats a number of times till the rock or wall fragments loosen up and are removed from the main structure.

Apart from physical weathering, natural disasters, plundering, and wars have also caused the disintegration of the Colosseum.

Hope this helps.  

In Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," why are the villagers in the story reluctant to upgrade the black box?

Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" explores several themes, but one of the most basic ideas it explores is the idea of tradition and what it means to follow a tradition for which the origins are unclear. The village for decades seems to follow this human sacrifice idea out of sheer tradition. Old Man Warner, the oldest character in the story, makes a vague reference to the lottery being held as a sacrifice to the crops when he says, "Used to be a saying about 'Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.'" However, he follows up this statement with "There's always been a lottery," again suggestion that tradition, not practicality, keeps this event going.

The black box in the story is symbolic of this tradition. According to the narrator:

"The black box grew shabbier each year; by now it was no longer completely black but splintered badly along one side to show the original wood color, and in some places faded or stained." 

Still, the villagers, despite chatter that they'd replace the box that year allowed the topic "to fade off without anything's being done." While the villagers continue to go through with the tradition each year, which the current box symbolizes, an improved box would give the new generation ownership of the event. As villages around this unnamed town show, the ending of this tradition might be something they desire. Perhaps the unspoken hope is that the box goes into complete disrepair and the village forgets about the gruesome tradition.

Explore some of the ways Steinbeck presents good and bad characteristics of Curley's wife in Of Mice and Men.

The only woman in Steinbeck's novella, Curley's wife in Of Mice and Men is but a genitive of her husband. As such, she is less of an individual; in fact, some critics view her as an archetypal Eve

GOOD CHARACTERISTICS

• pretty, shapely


• sociable


• young

NEGATIVE CHARACTERISTICS

• flirtatious, seductive


• apparently naïve about consequences of her presence as the only woman on the ranch, but probably aware of this


• cruel to Crooks by her racial threats


• shallow in thoughts and desires


• "jail-bait" for the workers


• a temptress


• shallow, self-absorbed


• uneducated


• selfish, self-centered; she does not love Curley


• unhappy with her life and marriage


• lonely


• without real talent


• unrealistic


• conflict creator

Starting with her introduction into the narrative, Curley's wife seems a disruptive force to the fraternity of the men. George remarks that she is "jail-bait" because she is so young. Her youth causes her to push limitations by speaking playfully and imitating movie stars with her hair in "little rolled clusters" and her red fingernails, rouged lips and heavily made up eyes. In addition, she imitates the movements of the seductress: "She smiled archly and twitched her body." 
When she does not get attention, her demeanor changes. When Crooks prohibits her from entering, saying she has no right to enter "a colored man's room," for example, Curley's wife turns on him with racial slurs and threats:

"Listen, N****r....You know what I can do to you if you open your trap?"

Because she is uneducated and without any job or hobby, Curley's wife has nothing to occupy her time and mind. Therefore, she seeks attention outside herself. Her naïveté causes her to toy with Lennie as she does not understand that although Lennie is mentally-challenged and childlike in his enjoyment of puppies and keeping mice in his pocket, he can become aroused as easily as any man. 

I need a strong thesis statment for my essay on Oedipus the King and Oedipus at Colonus.

The most unusual part of this essay project is that you are asked to deal with both plays, so your thesis should be on the character who appears in both plays. When dealing with this kind of subject, it is fruitful to compare not simply the character itself, but the supporting characters – how their relationship with the main character differs or changes from one play to the next. If Oedipus was enlightened by the first play’s events, does he demonstrate a better relationship with, for example, the Chorus in the second play? And does his physical blindness make him “see” things more clearly?

If you were casting both plays, would you cast Oedipus himself differently in both plays? So a good thesis statement might answer the question “To what degree should these plays be considered two separate creative efforts rather than a play and its sequel?” Particularly intriguing about the later play is that his daughters Antigone and Ismene (and, in offstage action reported by Ismene, his sons Eteocles and Polynices) play such important roles in not only Oedipus’ life, but in the fate of several Greek city-states – Colonus to be sure, but also Thebes and Athens.

Who is more honorable, Antigone or Creon?

The question of whether Creon or Antigone acts with greater honor is a central issue in Sophocles' tragedy. The area of disagreement between the two characters is whether Polyneices, Antigone's brother, deserves a proper burial, as Antigone maintains, or whether he should be denied burial, as Creon decrees. 

We can use the responses of the Chorus to sort through this conflict. First Creon states that Polyneices, for his treachery against Thebes, must not receive an honorable burial. Creon asserts that if he valued his family more than the state, he would dishonor his fatherland. The Chorus acknowledges that Creon has the power to make such laws and therefore acknowledges that he acts honorably. 

After Antigone is brought in and explains that she cannot submit to a law from a mere mortal when the pre-existing laws of the gods requires otherwise, the Chorus does not agree with her. After Haemon's attempt at intercession, the Chorus attributes his arguments to his love for Antigone.

As Antigone is led forth to the tomb, the Chorus tells her that she can be praised for her reverence toward the gods, but that Creon can't be blamed for not allowing his laws to be violated. So the Chorus seems to be attributing more honor to Antigone than at first, but still gives more honor to Creon.

Then, after Teiresias comes and warns that Creon is dishonoring the gods by refusing to bury Polyneices, the Chorus changes its tune. The Leader advises Creon to bury Polyneices as quickly as possible and release Antigone to avoid the prophesied judgments. The Chorus has now swung over fully to Antigone's side. When Creon reaps the judgment of his son's death, the Chorus exclaims, "Ah me, how all too late thou seemest to see the right!" They blame Creon for not seeing "the right" earlier. The ending line from the Chorus Leader states: "Reverence towards the gods must be inviolate." This was Antigone's position from the beginning.

The Chorus in this tragedy performs the role of interpreting the action for the audience. Since the Chorus moves from first believing Creon to be in the right or more honorable, to respecting Antigone's position, to advocating for her side, we must conclude that Antigone actually displayed more honor in her beliefs and actions than did Creon.

Amanda has 4 scores recorded in math for the current nine weeks grading period. She has received the following scores: 14/15 30/35 7/10 85/100...

Hello!

Imagine that the fifth assignment is done for `n` points from the maximum 80. Then the total number of points Amanda has received is

`14+30+7+85+n=136+n.`

The maximum possible number of points is

`15+35+10+100+80=240.`

The number of points received must be greater than or equal to 85% of the total number of points, i.e.

`136+ngt=85/100 *240=85/10*24=17*12=204,`

or  `ngt=204-136=68.`

This is the answer: Amanda needs to score at least 68 points on the next project.

What is the main idea of the Enlightenment?

The Enlightenment was an intellectual and philosophical movement which originated in Europe in the 1700s. This was a very complex movement in which many different ideas came to the fore but, in my opinion, it was the questioning of traditional forms of authority which is the most important. 

Prior to the Enlightenment, many countries in Europe had absolute monarchs who ruled the nation with complete power. But the philosophical ideals of the Enlightenment completely changed this. In 1690, for example, John Locke published his Two Treatise of Government in which he argued that political authority was not divinely ordained and, in fact, grew out of a social contract between the governor and the governed. This was a very well-received and influential book.

The best example of this idea in practice is the French Revolution (1789-1799) in which France abolished its monarchy and, over a period of time, became a democratic republic, founded on the principles of democracy. 

What is a good quote about freedom in the book "The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail"?

The theme of freedom arises in various conversations that take place in this play. Naturally, some of this happens in the scenes with Henry and Bailey in the jail cell. But as a Transcendentalist and as an independent person and thinker, Thoreau tends to bring up the issue a lot. Henry repeats Ralph Waldo Emerson’s advice, “Cast conformity behind you,” on an early page. This sets the stage (so to speak) for more to come. In the first jail cell scene, Thoreau says, “Every human being has an unalienable right to snore.” Later, he hears the footsteps of someone walking outside the jail, on the street, and the sound is enough for him to launch into a small tirade about conforming to the rest of society:

I know where he’s going. He’s going where he’s supposed to go. So he can be where he’s supposed to be, at the time he’s supposed to be there. Why? So he’ll be liked. My God, a whole country of us who only want to be liked.

Thoreau believes that true freedom lies in the ability to do what you want to do, regardless of what other people will think. In the middle of Act One, he claims that he feels free in spite of being locked behind bars:

Thank you, Concord! Thank you for locking me up so I’m free to hear what I’ve never heard before. You put me behind iron bars and walls four feet thick! How do you know that I’m not the free one? The freest man in the world! And you, out there, are chained to what you have to do tomorrow morning!

He likes to re-interpret the concept of freedom. More examples appear throughout the book -- when Thoreau quits his teaching job at the town's center school instead of conforming to what the school authority man wants; when he does gardening work instead of going to church on Sunday, etc. Here, being free is more than just the opposite of being put in jail.

Explain three reasons why the character B.B. Underwood in To Kill a Mockingbird posseses courage.

Braxton Bragg Underwood is one of the few minor characters in To Kill a Mockingbird who changes during the story. He was the chief editor of the Maycomb Tribune, making him an influential man throughout Maycomb. Scout observes, “He rarely gathered news. People brought it to him.”

At the time Tom Robinson is charged with raping Mayella Ewell, Mr. Underwood is racist. Atticus says at one point, “He despises Negroes. He won’t have one near him.”  Underwood has adopted the common social viewpoint. He has even taken it to more of an extreme. Other white members of Maycomb society may tolerate African Americans near them if they are servants or segregated to different areas of the store or bus, but Underwood doesn’t want  an African American anywhere in his vicinity, as if they are somehow disgusting or dangerous.

Nevertheless, Underwood learns that his attitudes and opinions are wrong.

His first courageous act reflecting this reformation occurs when he protects Atticus during the mob scene. Atticus knows the townspeople will come to lynch Tom Robinson, and so he stations himself outside the jailhouse door.  Scout eventually unknowingly diffuses the situation, but after the crowd is gone, we discover Underwood has been hiding across the street in an upper window, a gun cocked and ready to defend Atticus and Tom Robinson from the mob. “I had you covered all the time,” he tells Atticus. He was ready to stand against the town as well to defend a man that before he would not have wanted near him.

This is actually two brave acts in one. First, he is physically present against a mob to make sure Atticus and Tom Robinson are safe. However, he also reflects the same kind of courage Atticus has: he is standing against his friends and neighbors, risking their disrespect and even wrath. However, he chooses to stand for true justice, the kind that does not differentiate based on a person’s skin color.

After the prison guards kill Tom, Underwood uses his influence as a highly respected newspaper editor to pen a scathing editorial sure to anger the townspeople. Scout sums it up this way:

“Mr. Underwood simply figured it was a sin to kill cripples, be they standing, sitting, or escaping.  He likened Tom's death to the senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children, and Maycomb felt he was trying to write an article poetical enough to be printed in The Montgomery Advertiser.” He did not care if he lost advertisers or money because of his opinion. He had the courage to speak the truth whether people wanted to hear it or not.

In The Alchemist, Santiago tells how the sheep enhance his life. What characteristics and aspects of the sheep help Santiago live a happier life?

A lot of times I think that people wear their "busyness" as a badge of honor.  They feel that if every minute of every day is filled with something, then they are somehow better off or better than a person that is less busy.  Thoreau's emphasis on "simplicity, simplicity, and simplicity" is largely missing from daily modern life I believe.  

Santiago's sheep enhance his life and allow him to live happier, because they offer simplicity.  I don't believe that being a shepherd is easy, but the sheep for the most part are predictable and do what he wants them to do.  He knows what to expect from them, and he has a great deal of control over them.  Santiago isn't even necessarily bored by them, because he admits that he "usually learns more from sheep than from books."  The sheep offer Santiago a happy life because they offer a simple, content life. 

Of course Santiago eventually grows restless and wants to leave the life of a shepherd in order to pursue his personal legend.  He goes on a fantastic adventure, but it is fraught with danger.  Santiago frequently debates giving up and just going back to the life he knows and the life that he knows allowed him to be content.  The sheep might not be glamorous like a personal legend, but I could argue that being content is equivalent to being happy.  

Analyze the factors and impacts of the Industrial Revolution in American society after the Civil War?

In the aftermath of the Civil War, the United States experienced a level of industrial expansion that was unprecedented. It impacted society in a number of different ways. Let us look at a few of them.

First, the rapid expansion of industry placed the United States among the world's leading industrial powers, rivaling Great Britain and the newly united Germany. American business interests became an important factor in world affairs, especially in the Western Hemisphere.

Second, the new capital requirements of heavy industry as well as the virtual nonexistence of regulations allowed for the expansion of large monopolies, or "trusts," as they were known in the late nineteenth century. Wealthy tycoons like Andrew Carnegie (steel), John D. Rockefeller (oil), James Buchanan Duke (tobacco) and many others each established a virtual stranglehold on their respective industries. This also had the effect of accumulating an extraordinary amount of money in the hands of a relatively small group of people. The benefits of industrial expansion, in short, were not equally distributed--the so-called "Gilded Age" featured an enormous degree of income inequality.

Third, a lack of regulation of business also allowed for very difficult, even dangerous working conditions for industrial workers. This, combined with low pay, led to the growth of a large working class, bolstered by the millions of "new" immigrants that poured into the nation from Eastern and Southern Europe. Working class people mobilized into labor unions, aimed at securing higher wages and better conditions, along with more radical reforms. The late nineteenth century was plagued by sporadic labor violence. While working class people made industrialization possible, but in many ways they found themselves worse off as a result.

Another change, among many others, was the emergence of a middle class. Massive corporations gave rise to "white collar" jobs that had never existed before, like office managers, foremen, researchers, and many others. These middle class jobs required a degree of education, and many universities, colleges, and technical schools popped up during the late nineteenth century to meet the demand. Advertisers also began marketing to these people, creating the beginnings of a new middle-class national consumer culture.

As you can see, there were very many profound changes resulting directly and indirectly from industrialization. 

In what ways do barriers to interpersonal communication interfere with development of diversity competency?

Barriers to improving diversity competency through communication may arise through multiple channels. Barriers may exist because of cultural differences, training effectiveness for all employees, lack of mentors, communication channels, jargon and slang, and not following business principles. 

In order to overcome the barriers to communicating effectively in a diverse environment, an organization should implement a communication strategy. First, an organization should identify what diversity means and what cultural differences exist in the organization. Providing too much information can sometimes hinder rather than help effective training programs. Choosing the right messenger, or mentor, for different groups of employees may also break down communication barriers. Verbal and nonverbal messages may also prevent diversity competency in an organization. Reducing jargon in company information and ensuring employees are aware that cultural competency is importance to the organization is a good start. 

Other methods of improving cultural competency include educating managers and addressing diversity concerns immediately, rather than letting them fester. 

Wha type of irony is found in the story "After Twenty Years"?

O. Henry's story "After Twenty Years" is an example of situational irony. The main ironic twist occurs at the very end. 'Silky' Bob realizes that he has traveled a thousand miles to meet his old friend Jimmy Wells, and in the meantime Jimmy Wells has become a policeman who recognizes Bob as the man wanted by the Chicago police and has him arrested. Irony is usually like a joke that would be funny if it were not painful or even tragic. In situational irony the actual event turns out to be different from what was expected. Bob expected a pleasant meeting with an old pal and ended up being taken off to jail. The reader is just as surprised by this turn of events as 'Silky' Bob. Perhaps Bob should have gotten an intuitive warning when he found that the restaurant where he and Jimmy had agreed to meet after twenty years had been torn down five years ago. This in itself is situational irony. 'Big Joe' Brady's restaurant has been turned into a hardware store. Everything changes. But the main twist of situational irony is reserved for last, when Bob realizes that the man who has him by the arm is not Jimmy Wells and that he had been speaking to Jimmy Wells without knowing it.

What are the similarities and differences between Pavlov and Skinner?

Similarities: 

• Both psychologists focused on conditioning/modifying behavior


• Both forms of conditioning are forms of associative learning 

Pavlov: 

• Classical (respondent) conditioning 


• Focused on involuntary behaviors


• Placed signals before the reflex took place


• Animal learns association between uncontrollable events

Skinner: 

• Operant (instrumental) conditioning


• Focused on voluntary behaviors


• Aimed to reinforce or punish behaviors after they occurred 


• Animal learns the consequence to a certain behavior 

A Bit More In-Depth: 
 
The difference between the way classical conditioning and operant conditioning works is pretty simple once you understand the concepts behind each. 

(Pavlov) 

As mentioned above, classical conditioning focuses on involuntary behaviors.

For example, Pavlov's most notable experiment involving classical conditioning called for ringing a bell in order to cause dogs to salivate.
 
Prior to his experiment, Pavlov noticed that dogs salivated whenever they saw food which is an involuntary response on their part. To see if he could associate that involuntary response with a certain prompt, he added a bell as a neutral stimulus. 
 
For a period of time, he rang a bell whenever he fed the dogs and, eventually, they would salivate whenever they heard the bell, even if no food was present. 
 
Therefore, Pavlov was able to prove that an involuntary behavior could be associated with a certain stimulus.
 
(Skinner) 
 
Because operant conditioning focuses on voluntary behavior, Skinner's experiment was much different than Pavlov's. 
 
Skinner placed a rat in a box that contained a lever that would produce a food pellet when pushed. As the rat ran about the box, it accidentally bumped into the lever and it was provided with a pellet of food. The rat soon associated pushing the lever with receiving food (positive reinforcement) which increased the odds of it pushing the lever again. 
 
Skinner also noted that punishment could also modify the animal's behavior.

For example, if he were to take the food pellets out of his experiment, the rat would eventually stop pressing the lever after realizing it was no longer going to receive a reward for doing so. This is an example of negative punishment or "punishment by removal."
 
Unlike Pavlov's experiment with dogs, the behavior of the rats was completely voluntary and, due to instances of both positive and negative reinforcement, Skinner proved that they could learn to associate certain behaviors with certain consequences. 

How is "A White Heron," by Sarah Orne Jewett, a work of literary realism?

An author of a work of literary realism aims to depict the everyday world in a realistic -- as opposed to idealistic -- way.  This is what Jewett attempts to do through her description of the banal, commonplace activities of life on a farm: Sylvia's nighttime, muddy search for Mistress Moolly at the story's beginning, cow-milking, berry-picking, toad-watching, and keeping company with chickens.  Nothing is idealized or romanticized; the effect of nature on Sylvia is immense, to be sure, but there are no descriptions of, for example, some blissfulness that nature imparts to the child.  Rather, Jewett simply talks about Sylvia as though she were a part of the nature she so loves, comparing her throughout the story to a flower, a bird, even a star. 

Further, the opposition Jewett establishes between Sylvia, a representative of nature, and the stranger, representative of "civilization," helps to establish the story's realism.  She depicts the steady encroachment of the city on the wild and the damage to nature that such trespass inflicts.  The stranger nearly corrupts the innocent Sylvia into betraying the heron by offering her money and gifts, by flattering and charming her.  He isn't evil, but it seems as though he does not understand the danger he, and his way of life, pose to her and her woods.  By the end, after Sylvia has decided not to tell him where the heron is, and he leaves, she thinks of "the piteous sight of thrushes and sparrows dropping silent to the ground, their songs hushed and their pretty feathers stained and wet with blood."  Such a true-to-life, matter-of-fact description of the stranger's way of appreciating nature helps to further mark this text as a work of realism.

How did the colonial borders created by the European powers help lead to the ethnic conflicts in Africa today?

The colonial powers created borders in Africa that led to ethnic conflicts. When the colonial powers established the colonial borders in Africa, they paid little to no attention to the impact these borders would have on the African people. The borders created by the Europeans were beneficial for the Europeans. They didn’t establish borders that were beneficial for the African people. As a result, people who didn’t get along ended up living in the same country. This often had deadly consequences.

An example of this deals with the Arabs and the sub-Saharan Africans. The sub-Saharan Africans, who were black, were slaves of the Arabs. However, these groups were often placed together when the Europeans set up the borders of countries including Mali and Chad. This led to conflicts between these groups. If the Europeans were really concerned about the African people, they would have considered these factors when they created the borders of these countries.

What truth is revealed at the end of the story?

The main truth revealed at the end of the story, “By the Waters of Babylon,” is that “the gods” were just men living in a more technologically advanced society than the narrator's, and that society destroys itself with nuclear war (The Great Burning).  On his journey to the Place of the Gods, John discovers an apartment building full of technological advances like appliances and an elevator.  In an apartment, John has an “out of body experience” where he sees a bustling city full of cars and people like "ants" scurrying down the sidewalks.  He realizes after seeing the body of a god in the apartment that, “I knew then that they had been men, neither gods nor demons . . . They were men—they went a dark road, but there were men.”  John also understands at the end of the story that all of the wonderful inventions he discovers in the city were produced by ordinary people.  He says because they were just men and not gods, “I had no fear after that.”  John finally understood that it was not the gods who destroyed the society, but that it was the weakness of man to not seek peace that caused the destruction of this civilization in the past.  

Why is crop rotation an effective and sustainable way to improve agricultural yields?

If the same crop is grown on a given piece of land, over time, the yield falls. This is mainly due to persistent pest and disease problems (specific to that crop), reduced soil fertility, soil erosion, or depletion in soil nitrogen content. A ready-made solution to some of these problems is the use of chemicals: pesticides for taking care of pests, extensive fertilization to maintain and improve soil fertility, etc. However, chemical addition is not a sustainable solution and can result in environmental issues, among others.

Crop rotation is a natural and sustainable remedy for this situation. When crops are grown in a cyclic fashion in a given field, they complement each other and provide remedies to the problems mentioned above. For example, including a nitrogen-fixing crop in the crop rotation cycle will ensure that there is sufficient nitrogen in the soil. Crop rotation also helps with managing pests and diseases which are particular to a crop. Since crops are being changed, these pests and diseases will not find hosts for continued survival. Deep-rooting and shallow-rooting crops can be cycled to ensure soil fertility and stability. Crop rotation also improves the physical characteristics of the soil including bulk density, water holding capacity, and porosity. 

Hope this helps. 

Mr. Dolphus Raymond once had a fiancée, but she killed herself. How and why has this happened?

The fiancée of Mr. Dolphus Raymond left her wedding rehearsal after it was over, went upstairs and killed herself by using a shotgun that was pointed at her head, having pulled the trigger with her toes. Rumor has it that she was humiliated and horrified at learning that her fiancé had a "colored woman" that he hoped to keep while he was also married.

In Chapter 16, people from the county as well as the town flock to the square outside the courthouse in order to attend the trial of a Negro accused of raping a white woman. In the midst of this activity of all types of people that resembles what Miss Maudie calls a "Roman carnival," one of the more curious and complex characters there is Mr. Raymond Dolphus. Born into a prestigious family in Maycomb, Mr. Dolphus is an anomaly because he has left his family home and lives in the "colored area with his woman and mixed children, two of which he has supposedly sent up North. Also, he has purportedly been a drunkard since the suicide of his fiancée, and he is often seen going around with a drink enclosed in a paper bag, but he is really only drinking Coca-Cola. He pretends to be a drunk so that people can reconcile his behavior with his personal "weakness," rather than his repulsion for racial bias and cruelty.

Harper Lee uses the tableau of the people around the town square as a means of presenting the attitudes of those who live in Maycomb county. The social pariah of Dolphus Raymond and his history points to how firmly entrenched the "usual disease," as Atticus terms it, is. After learning that his fiancée was so "humiliated" and emotionally devastated by his personal association with blacks that she felt she had no choice but to brutally end her life, Mr. Dolphus leaves white society and tries to keep anyone else from hating him so much that they would seek violence as an answer. He feigns being a drunkard so that they can reconcile his own behavior. In this way they believe, "He can't help himself, that's why he lives the way he does."

Can the process of gentrification help everyone? Does it tend to help only the people moving in? Gentrification is real, but is it good?

By definition, gentrification is the process of changing an area from low-income standards to middle-class standards.  To state whether it is good or bad depends on one's perspective.

Low-income neighborhoods tend to be blighted and crime-ridden.  This is not because the people themselves are "bad," but because their ability to maintain and protect themselves is compromised by the very factors that contribute to their economic status.  They are generally people with limited ability to raise themselves above the poverty level.  This may be due to a variety of reasons, including lower levels of education or health issues.

As far as the economy is concerned, gentrification is a good thing.  It changes an area of low value to one of higher value.  There is a raising of the tax base. There is the introduction of new business.  The higher class of citizens demand, and provide for, more aesthetically pleasing surroundings.  Typically, the standards of living are increased.

However, what becomes of those occupants who cannot, or have no desire to, keep up?  They become displaced.  If they are lucky, they find alternate low-income neighborhoods to inhabit.  If they are not so lucky, they become part of the growing number of homeless.

In order for gentrification to become a win/win situation, the new citizens of the neighborhood MUST be responsible for aiding those that they have displaced.  After all, they have profited by being able to "buy low" and have the opportunity to restore these blighted communities.  Their ability to do so is at the expense of the people who have served as place keepers until someone more affluent could take over. 

What happens to Charles Darnay once he arrives in France?

When Charles Darnay arrives in France, he is immediately arrested as an “émigré,” one of the nobility who abandoned their estates and went to England, hoping to find allies to put down the revolution and allow them to return. It is true that this description partly describes Darnay, yet he had no intention of returning to France to get involved in overthrowing the revolution. He has come at the request of his former servant who has been arrested for protecting the Evremonde estate. He is placed in La Force prison to await trail. He had left a letter to be delivered to Lucie after he departed. Reading it, she and her father (along with Miss Pross) immediately go to France to be with him. He faces the tribunal, which swiftly inflicts their brand of justice on those who have been arrested, without much concern for facts or the truth.

How does Maudie's house fire symbolize the closeness and courage of the community in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird?

In Chapter 8, Atticus wakes up Jem and Scout in the middle of the night because Miss Maudie's house is on fire. Jem and Scout stand in the Radley yard and watch as their neighbors attempt to save Maudie's furniture from the flames. Scout watches as Mr. Avery gets stuck in the window as he is attempting to escape Maudie's house. Mr. Avery barely makes it out alive before the house collapses. Harper Lee uses Maudie's house fire to symbolize the unity of the community throughout the novel. Maudie's neighbors fearlessly risk their lives to rescue her possessions from the flames. Scout and Jem watch their neighbors display courage by entering the burning house. They work in unison by carrying her furniture and other possessions out of the house, while they attempt to quell the flames. Despite the togetherness and courage displayed by Maycomb's community members, they hold prejudiced views towards African Americans. Later on in the novel, Jem and Scout learn an important lesson in the duality of human nature. They learn that their compassionate neighbors are also racist, and treat African Americans with contempt every day.

How can I edit this sentence to make the tone more conversational? "Never before has the black race of central Africa from the dawn of history to...

This statement is taken from an 1837 speech by John C. Calhoun. Calhoun was a Democratic United States politician from South Carolina. He served in a variety of capacities in the US government, such as representative, senator, and secretary of state. He also served as the vice-president under both John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. Although Calhoun died before the start of the Civil War, he was a huge proponent of succession and slavery.

Calhoun vehemently opposed the abolition movement, which desired both to stop the spread of slavery and to free existing slaves. This speech by Calhoun argues that slavery is a “positive good.” In this particular statement, Calhoun argues that Africans taken as slaves are better off than they ever were at any point in their history. Calhoun states that slavery has made them civilized. He also states that the institution of slavery has improved their moral and their physical condition. Calhoun implies that Africans have experienced improvement due to their enslavement that they otherwise would not have experienced.

What happens when you mix bleach with coke?

Bleach is a class of commonly used chemicals for bleaching out or removing the color (of stains from clothes) and as a disinfectant (in the kitchen or bathroom). Bleach is typically based on chlorine, such as sodium hypochlorite, calcium hypochlorite, etc. 

On reaction with coke (coca cola), bleach decolorizes it. In other words, after a few minutes of mixing, coke will lose all its color and the solution turns practically colorless. Bleach, typically, works as an oxidizing agent and breaks the bonds of molecules responsible for color (termed as chromophores) and causes discoloration. Bleach on reaction with coke may also produce some chlorine gas, which is a toxic gas and the reaction is exothermic. 

In case you decide to try this experiment at home, kindly ensure that safety measures have been taken to protect yourself against exothermic reaction and chlorine gas (produced, if any). 

Hope this helps. 

What is the importance of the setting in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?

The setting of the novel is Victorian England, an era known for its repression of sexual desire and anything considered to be "dark" or bad about human nature. Such a setting helps us to understand why Dr. Jekyll would be so driven to separate out any part of him that seems evil or bad and, thus, try to eliminate these components.  

In his "Full Statement of the Case," Jekyll says that he "stood already committed to a profound duplicity of life" and suffered from a "morbid sense of shame" due to the pleasures he found it necessary to "conceal" from those around him. Had his society not put so much pressure on him, a man of large fortune and good education, to adhere (or maintain the appearance of adhering) to such a strict moral code, perhaps he would not have felt the shame that prompted him to experiment with human nature. The Victorian era made no allowances for human error and vice. This pressure to be perfect and his attempt to eliminate the part of himself that did not fit this mold ultimately prompted Jekyll's demise.

What symbolizes Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird?

The ham costume that Scout is forced to wear during the Maycomb pageant is symbolic of several character traits. Scout looks funny in her ham costume, and it can be viewed as a symbol of her sense of humor throughout the novel. Scout's unique perspectives on certain situations and her interactions with characters are often humorous. Scout's ham costume is also cumbersome and impedes her ability to see. This can be symbolic of Scout's innocence. Throughout the novel, Scout has difficulty understanding and comprehending situations because of her naivety. Also, the ham costume serves as a protective barrier. When Scout is attacked by Bob Ewell, her ham costume deflects his knife and saves her life. Much like the ham costume, Scout's perspective on life is protected even after witnessing racial injustice and the evils of human nature. Scout is able to retain her positive outlook on life without becoming jaded.

How did mismanagement by French leaders contribute to both revolutions?

The Great French Revolution of 1789, much like the American revolution before it, has deep roots in what the people viewed as unfair taxation. France was in a great deal of debt as a result of the Seven Years' War and American Revolutionary War, and an attempt was made to ease this debt by imposing a large burden on the common people. The people were further driven against the nobility of the nation by years of poor food harvests which had created much hardship for the common people while the privileged classes remained well-fed. This situation was further exacerbated by the abolition of feudalism which had offered the lower classes some degree of protection and privilege. In response, various liberal assemblies began to arise and demand new guarantees of liberty from the government. The monarchy responded by attempting to thwart the growing liberal movement, only further driving the people to see themselves as being at odds with rulers who were no longer able to provide their subjects with an acceptable quality of life.

The Second French Revolution, also known as the July Revolution, occurred in July of 1830 and saw King Charles X dethroned and replaced by Louis Philippe I. While the coronation of Charles X was originally meet with great popular approval, he quickly lost the approval of the people as the result of two largely hated decrees. The first was the Anti-Sacrilege Act which imposed penalty of death on anyone who profaned the Eucharist, and the second was the paying of financial reparations to anyone who has stood as an enemy to the Napoleonic empire. The Chamber of Peers and Chamber of Deputies capitalized on the unpopularity of the monarch to their own ends, further driving a schism between the people and then King, culminating in March of 1830 when they passed a motion of no confidence in Charles X, who in turn dissolved parliament, delayed national elections, suspended freedoms of the press, and moved to exclude the commercial middle class from having voting rights. This infighting amongst the branches of the national government, and the harsh reactions of the King, produced an environment ripe for revolution.

A $1,000 corporate bond with 20 years to maturity pays a coupon of 7% (semi-annual) and the market required rate of return is a) 6.6% b) 13%. What...

Using the zero-arbitrage assumption, we price the bond at the net present value of the cashflows it provides.

It provides the following cashflows:

$35 (1/2 * 7% * $1000) twice a year for the next 20 years

$1000 in 20 years

The net present value then depends upon our discount rate, which is assumed to be the same as the market interest rate, given as 6.6% in part A and 13% in part B.

NPV = 1000/(1+r)^20 + 35/(1+r)^(1/2) + 35/(1+r) + 35/(1+r)^3/2 + ...

NPV = 1000/(1+r)^20 + sum_{i = 1}^{40} 35/(1+r)^(i/2)

(Note: This formula assumes that the coupons start being paid 6 months from now and there is a coupon payment at the end of the 20 year period along with the principal. There may be some adjustments you need to make to this if the coupon payments start right away, and/or if the last one isn't paid.)

We can actually compute this geometric sum as a general formula, even if we don't know r yet:

NPV = 1000/(1+r)^40 + 35 (1 - (1+r)^(-40))/r

The r we want to us is actually half the given rate of return, because we are paying coupons twice a year. There are 40 paying periods in 20 years.
Put in r = 0.066/2 for part A and we get:

NPV = 1000/(1.033^40) + 35 (1 - 1.033^(-40))/0.033
NPV = 272.89 + 35 * (1 - 0.27289)/0.033
NPV = 272.89 + 771.18
NPV = 1044.07

Now let's put in r = 0.13/2 for part B:

NPV = 1000/(1.065^40) + 35 (1 - 1.065^(-40))/0.065
NPV = 80.54 + 35 (1 - 0.08054)/0.065
NPV = 80.54 + 495.09
NPV = 575.63

Let's do a sanity check here: For higher discount rates, we expect the bond to be worth less in today's money. And that is indeed what we find. For yield rate above discount rate, we expect to find a net present value larger than the face value—also what we found.

`int y e^(0.2y) dy` Evaluate the integral

You need to use the substitution `0.2y = u` , such that:

`0.2y=  u => 0.2dy = du => dy= (du)/(0.2)`

Replacing the variable, yields:

`int y*e^(0.2y) dy = (10/2)int u/(0.2)*e^u du`

You need to use the integration by parts such that:

`int fdg = fg - int gdf`

`f = u => df = du`

`dg = e^u=> g = e^u`

2`5int u*e^u du = 25(u*e^u - int e^u du)`

`25int u*e^u du = 25u*e^u - 25e^u + c`

Replacing back the variable, yields:

`int y*e^(0.2) dy = 25((0.2y)*e^(0.2y) - e^(0.2y)) + c`

Hence, evaluating the integral, using substitution, then integration by parts, yields `int y*e^(0.2) dy = ((e^(0.2y))/9)(0.2y - 1) + c`

What are examples of personification in "A Mystery of Heroism"?

There are numerous examples of personification in Stephen Crane’s short story “A Mystery of Heroism.” Personification is a literary technique used by an author to give human qualities or emotions to non-human or inanimate objects. The objective is to provide vivid, relatable imagery to the reader.

In Stephen Crane’s war story, he uses personification to add to the sights and sounds of the battlefield. He states, “On the top of the hill a battery was arguing in tremendous roars with some other guns, and …” The battery of guns is said to be “arguing” which gives the reader the image of the back and forth nature of the loud battle.

Another instance of personification is, “For the little meadow which intervened was now suffering a terrible onslaught of shells.” Crane personifies the meadow by saying it was “suffering.” The active battle moves into the meadow which shows the wear and tear of the action. In addition, he personifies the “blades of grass,” saying, “And there was a massacre of the young blades of grass,” instead of simply saying that the grass on the battle was destroyed. This give the reader a complete image of the destruction the battle caused.

As you continue reading the story, you will find more examples of personification which will add to the reader’s experience of the battle and its surroundings.

What is the importance of the Boston tea party?

On December 16 1773, members of the protest group, Sons of Liberty, dressed themselves as Native Indians and destroyed an entire shipment of tea sent to Boston by the East India Company. In all, about 340 chests of tea were completely sabotaged and the importance of this protest should not be underestimated.

The British were furious by the Boston Tea Party and responded by passing the Intolerable Acts in 1774, a series of measures designed to punish the colonists. Under these Acts, they closed the Boston harbour until the tea manufacturers had been compensated for their loss. Only food and firewood were permitted into the port. Town meetings were banned and the authority of the royal governor was increased, in the hope that it might prevent any more protests. It also authorised the governor to place British troops in occupied dwellings, known as the Quartering Act.  

The colonists were extremely angry about the Intolerable Acts and, in the long term, they contributed to the development of the revolutionary spirit and the colonists' desire for complete independence from their British masters. 

What is painted on the ceiling of the dungeon?

When the narrator first wakes up in the dungeon, it is completely dark, and he can't see any part of his cell. This state continues for some time, and he manages to explore his room and avoid falling into the pit. After he is drugged and wakes up again, he finds himself strapped to a wooden platform. First he looks at the walls of the room and sees that they are painted with dull figures of menacing monsters and skeletons. Then, looking up, he notices 30 to 40 feet above him the ceiling, and on one of the panels is a painted image of Time personified. This figure, known either as Father Time or the Grim Reaper, is usually pictured in a black robe, not unlike the black-robed judges of the first paragraph, with a scythe (see image at link below). However, the depiction of Father Time the man sees on the ceiling does not include a scythe, but rather a pendulum, like that of a grandfather clock. When the man looks more carefully, however, he can see that the pendulum is not painted on the ceiling, but is actually a three-dimensional object, and it is ever-so-gradually descending toward him.

In the book Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, on what page does the creature say, "I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and...

This quotation is actually not from Mary Shelley's novel, but, rather, it comes from Kenneth Branagh's film adaptation of the book starring himself as Victor Frankenstein and Robert De Niro as the monster.  The movie was released in 1994, and to be frank, it is not a very good adaptation of the novel; it seems, to me, to be intended as a horror film rather than a movie adaptation of an existing work.  There are several scenes of gratuitous horror designed only to be revolting -- most especially including the "mate" Victor fashions for his creature (there is a twist here that I am loathe to reveal) and her response to realizing what she is.  

At any rate, this particular line does seem to encapsulate many of the ideas that the creature expresses to Victor during his request for a mate.  He says, in part, in Volume II, Chapter IX, 

I will revenge my injuries: if I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear; and chiefly towards you my arch-enemy, because my creator, do I swear inextinguishable hatred.

The creature has tried to be loving: to the De Laceys, to the drowning girl in the forest, and it has only ever blown up in his face.  He is met with hatred everywhere he turns.  He claims that he began life with "benevolence and generosity" (Vol. II, Ch. VII).  But now, however, having been neglected and abused and insulted in every possible way, if his creator will not give him this one chance at a loving relationship, then he will work toward Victor's destruction.  

Just as the creature identified humankind as a species that was capable of great good and great evil, we now see this dichotomy reflected in him.  This is probably the best proof we have that he is, indeed, a human being, however frightening and ugly.

Atticus tells his children it is a "sin to kill a mockingbird." Explain what he meant, how this phrase could relate to different characters in the...

One of the main themes throughout the novel is the corruption of innocence. Mockingbirds symbolize innocent characters throughout the novel who have been unfairly exploited by society. In Chapter 10, when Jem and Scout are playing with their new air-rifles, Atticus says,

"Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." (Lee 119)

Miss Maudie elaborates as to why it is a sin to kill a mockingbird by saying,

"Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." (Lee 119)

Two characters that are symbolic of mockingbirds are Tom Robinson and Arthur "Boo" Radley. They are both innocent human beings that are unfairly exploited by society. Tom Robinson, who is a black man living in Maycomb County, is wrongly convicted of a crime he did not commit. Tom is a "mockingbird" because he had nothing but good intentions of helping Mayella Ewell. Tom was an obedient, respect individual who became a victim of prejudice. Tom's conviction is similar to a person killing a "mockingbird," because he was an innocent individual who was destroyed by a corrupt society.

Boo Radley's character is a harmless, reclusive individual who turns out to be a caring, selfless neighbor. Throughout the novel, Boo Radley is the victim of rumors that portray him as a "malevolent phantom." He is wrongly viewed as a psychotic, terror who wreaks havoc on the community of Maycomb. At the end of the novel, Boo Radley saves Jem and Scout but murders Bob Ewell during the struggle. Instead of the telling the community about Boo Radley's heroic actions, Sheriff Tate decides otherwise. Boo Radley is a shy, reclusive individual who would have been forced into the limelight if the real information reached the public. When Atticus asks Scout if she understands, she says, "Well, it'd be sorta like shootin' a mockingbird, wouldn't it?" (Lee 370) Forcing Boo into the public spotlight would be harmful to him as an individual, thus paralleling the killing of innocent mockingbirds. Harper Lee uses characters such as Tom Robinson and Boo Radley to convey how society has the ability to take advantage and corrupt innocent individuals.