What factors are required by plants for making food?

A green plant is an autotroph capable of manufacturing organic nutrients from inorganic molecules. In order to do so, specific requirements must be met.

The plant must have a sufficient supply of water which it gets through absorption via its root system. It is then transported by xylem cells which are a type of vascular tissue specialized for conducting water up from the roots to the leaves where most food-making occurs in a green plant.

Next, the plant requires a supply of carbon dioxide gas. This will enter the leaves through tiny pores known as stomata. As carbon dioxide gas enters, it travels to the air spaces in the center of the leaf and will enter different leaf cells by the process of diffusion. 

Light energy is another requirement for the food-making process in plants. Inside leaf cells are chloroplasts--organelles where photosynthesis actually occurs. The green pigment chlorophyll is contained within chloroplasts and is able to absorb visible light thus it is another requirement plants must have for photosynthesis to occur.

The energy from the sun is used during the light reaction of photosynthesis to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. The oxygen is a waste products that exits the stomata. Some of the light energy is converted to chemical energy in the form of the molecules ATP and NADPH which are later used in the light-independent reaction.

In the light-independent reaction, the carbon dioxide and hydrogen combine to form glucose sugar (food) and more water. This glucose can be used by the plant for energy, or stored as a larger carbohydrate like starch as an energy reserve.

In conclusion, plants require light energy, carbon dioxide, water and chlorophyll in order to produce food energy in the form of glucose.

Describe how each of the two sides of the Cold War (U.S./capitalism versus Soviet/communism) tried to meet its needs from 1943-1951.

Both the Soviet Union with its system of communism and the United States with its system of capitalism tried various actions to meet their needs between 1943-1951. The Soviet Union worked to spread the communist system to various countries. The goal of the communist system was to spread it throughout the world. The Soviet Union helped to create communist governments in Eastern European countries such as in Poland and Romania. They also tried to spread communism to Asia, including Korea. There were attempts to try to spread it to Western Europe also.

The United States tried to prevent communism from spreading. We developed a policy called containment that was designed to try to keep communism from spreading. We provided aid to countries to help keep them noncommunist. We believed that a strong economy would deter the spread of communism. We provided economic aid to various countries, including Greece and Turkey, to help to keep them from becoming communist.

Both countries also developed military alliances and helped with military actions to help them meet their needs. We formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949 while the Soviet Union created the Warsaw Pact in 1955. Both countries also aided countries that were on their side. We helped South Korea in the Korean War while the Soviet Union aided North Korea in that conflict. We also helped the non-communists in the Chinese Civil War while the Soviet Union helped the communists. When the Soviet Union tried to force the Allies out of West Berlin, we developed the Berlin Airlift to fly supplies into West Berlin. The Berlin Airlift worked as the Soviet Union eventually removed the blockade.

Both sides were determined to accomplish their goals. They took various actions to try to meet their needs during this time period.

A 500-turn armature (a rotating solenoid) with a cross-sectional area of 9 cm2 rotates at 120 rpm in a 4.00 T magnetic field. What is the average...

When the armature rotates in the magnetic field, there will be induced electromotive force, or potential, due to the fact that the magnetic flux through the armature will be changing as the armature rotates. According to the Faraday's Law, the changing magnetic flux through a wire loop (or several loops, such as a solenoid), produced electric potential.

The flux through the solenoid can be found as

, where N = 500 is the number of turns, B = 4 T is the magnetic field, A = 9 cm^2 = is the cross-sectional area of the solenoid, and is the angle between the axis of the solenoid (or normal to the cross-section of the solenoid) and the magnetic field vector.

As the armature rotates, the angle will change, and this is what causing the change in the flux and thus the electric potential. This angle will depend on time as

, where rpm (revolutions per minute), or radians per minute.

So the flux is the cosine function of time. Then the electromotive force, or potential, is

, which will be the derivative of cosine, or sine function of time.

In this problem, however, we asked not to find the potential at each moment of time, but the average potential during the rotation of the armature between 0 degrees (when the axis is parallel to the field) and 90 degrees (when the axis is perpendicular to the field.) The average electromotive force can be found as

: the change of flux divided by the time interval during which the change took place.

: when the cross-section of the solenoid is perpendicular to the field, the flux is maximum.

: when the cross-section of the solenoid is parallel to the field, there is no flux.

The time interval during which the solenoid rotates by 90 degrees is the 1/4 of the period of the rotation. Since the frequency is 120 rpm, or 120/60 = 2 revolutions per second, the period is

Now we can plug in everything and calculate the average potential:

The average potential generated as the armature rotates through 90 degrees in the magnetic field is 14.4 Volts.

What was the first time that Matt got to see the Indian village?

Matt sees the Indian village for the first time after he and Attean manage to kill a bear together. He is invited for a feast of the bear meat at Attean's village.

The invitation might not have been forthcoming had it not been for Matt's part in slaying the bear. Killing the bear together brought Matt and Attean closer. Not only do they now share the connection of having killed the bear, but Attean has gained a newfound respect for Matt.

At the time of the slaying, the boys had been hunting. Matt had successfully killed a rabbit with his bow and arrow. While Matt was pleased that Attean witnessed his rabbit kill and felt that he had earned Attean's respect, what occurred next reinforced that even more. When the mother bear approached the boys, Matt threw his rabbit at the bear, distracting her long enough for Attean to shoot her with an arrow, then kill her with his knife. Matt's actions, Attean said, were the quick thinking and acting of a real Indian.

How did The Giver transmit memories to Jonas?

The Giver transmits memories to Jonas through his Capacity to See Beyond.

We do not know exactly how the memories work.  We know that they are stored in people with the Capacity to See Beyond, and that they can also be transmitted to people who have that ability.  A Receiver of Memory also needs other traits, including intelligence, integrity and courage.  These traits help the Receiver deal with the memories and use them to the community’s advantage.

When The Giver transmits a memory to Jonas, all he does is touch him and think about a memory.  Then the memory is transmitted to Jonas, and he loses it himself.  The memory passes from one person to another.

The Giver tells Jonas to lie face down and remove his tunic.  Then he puts his hands on his back and transmits the memory.

"I am going to transmit the memory of snow," the old man said, and placed his hands on Jonas's bare back. (Ch. 10)

The Giver tells Jonas that just transmitting one memory lightens his load.  He continues to give Jonas a variety of memories, both positive and negative.  Jonas develops emotions, and learns to see and identify colors.  His life completely changes.

Jonas discovers that he has the ability to transmit memories as well as receive them when he accidentally sends a memory to Gabriel.

Still patting rhythmically, Jonas began to remember the wonderful sail that The Giver had given him not long before: a bright, breezy day on a clear turquoise lake, and above him the white sail of the boat billowing as he moved along in the brisk wind. (Ch. 14)

Jonas is not even aware that he is giving Gabe the memory, but the baby calms.  Like Jonas, Gabriel’s pale eyes indicate that he has the Capacity to See Beyond.

The Giver has all of the communities memories, given to him by his Giver.  His job is to advise the community based on the past, because the community has chosen to ignore the past except for the memories.  The Receiver of Memory protects the community from any strong emotions.  Only he or she knows pain, love, or fear.

What do they mean with "who has the most hope" on page 45?

When Mr. P, Junior's geometry teacher, tells him that the further he (Junior) gets from the reservation, the more hope he will encounter, Junior can't wait to get some real answers from his own parents.

He asks them the question, 'Who has the most hope?'

Junior asks this question because he wants know how he can have the hope that his teacher is referring to; this is the hope for better economic opportunities and a better life, far out of the reach of most of the people on Junior's reservation. Of course, the first step towards finding this hope is to find out who possesses the most hope and how he, Junior, can have the same type of hope. If you recall, Mr. P tells Junior that most of Junior's people have already given up striving and hoping for a better future. He doesn't want Junior sharing the same fate, hence his advice to Junior to leave.

Junior's parents answer as he thinks they will. Both emphatically state that white people have the most hope. When he hears this, Junior immediately informs his parents that he wants to transfer from his present school. His parents think that he wants to move to one of the other two schools on the reservation. However, Junior rejects their suppositions. Both of these schools have poor Indian students and even poorer white students. Junior knows that these students will never find hope for a better life if they continue in their present state.

He tells his parents that he wants to be transferred to the school in Reardan, a 'rich, white farm town...' Reardan has one of the best schools in the state, and Junior knows that the school comes equipped with a computer room, a drama club, a huge chemistry lab, and two basketball gyms. He also thinks that the kids at Reardan are the 'smartest and most athletic kids anywhere.'

So, Junior wants to know who possesses the most hope so that he can travel to where he can acquire this hope. This hope represents opportunities for a better life, the kind of life he sees white people living. Although Junior's mother warns that he will encounter anger and suspicion from their Indian neighbors, Junior is determined to fulfill his dreams.

Can someone help me create an editorial title for the Boston Massacre?

There could be a variety of editorial titles you could use in reference to the Boston Massacre. While it is clear the British soldiers fired at the colonists and killed five of them, the colonists had some role causing the events at the Custom House to occur that evening. The colonists were pressing closer to the soldiers guarding the building. They were throwing snowballs at the soldiers as well as yelling insults at them. Thus, both the British soldiers and the colonists share in some of the blame for the events that evening.

Your editorial title will depend on what side your editorial is supporting. If you are writing in support of the colonists, your title might read “Massacre in Boston Means its Time for a Change” or “There Is No Looking Back After the Bloody Massacre.” You might even say “Bloody Murder Is Now A Turning Point.” Then you would write an editorial in support of the colonists.

If you are supporting the British, your title will look very different. You title might read “Mob Action Forces The British Hand” or “Wild Colonists Must Be Tamed.” You might even write an editorial with a title of  “Unruly Colonists Cause Violent Confrontation.” You then would go ahead and write an editorial supporting the British government and the British soldiers.

With suggested titles like these, you should now be able to write an editorial supporting one side or the other.

Why do some liquids evaporate faster than others?

Evaportion is the change in state of liquid molecules to gas at the surface of a liquid. It occurs at a temperature below the boiling point of the substance. Each molecule that evaporates must have enough energy to overcome the the surface tension or cohesion of molecules at the surface. 

The rate of evaportion depends on several factors, one of which is the nature of the liquid. A liquid with weaker intermolecular attractions will evaporate faster. Intermolecular attractions make liquids more cohesive so that individual molecules must have more energy to escape. Acetone, which is sold as fingernail polish remover, evaporates faster than water. Water has hydrogen bonding, a strong attraction between individual molecules. Because of this water has a higher surface tension and more energy is required for water molecules to escape the liquid phase. Acetone doens't have hydrogen bonding. Its molecules are less attracted to each other.

Evaporation of a liquid occurs faster at higher temperatures, when there's wind, when the surface area of the liquid is larger and when the air above the liquid contains less vapor from the evaporated liquid. The rate of evaporation of water decreases as relative humidity increases. 

How do people get the largest return by selling their service to the what bidder?

In theory, people get the largest return by selling their service to the highest bidder.  This is because auctions are supposed to allow people to state what they would actually pay for your services, rather than having you set a price that might be lower than they are willing to pay.

Let us imagine that you are selling some kind of service.  You place an ad saying that you will provide your service for $40 per hour.  You get a number of people who buy your service, but you do not know how many of those people would have bought your service if the price had been higher.  If you have an auction where you sell to the highest bidder, you avoid this problem.   In an auction, people have to bid for your services.  They have to compete for your service, so they have to think about how much it is really worth to them.  They will set a value on it and bid up to that value.  When this happens, you get a better return than you would if you had just set your price and sold to whoever was willing to buy at that price.

Why was the Battle of Lexington and Concord the most important battle?

While Lexington and Concord were important battles, it would be hard to support the statement that they were the most important battles. The battles at Lexington and at Concord took place before the Revolutionary War started. These battles made it very clear that a peaceful solution was most likely not going to happen. It became clear that war with Great Britain was inevitable.

The Battle of Saratoga would be an important battle. The British tried to cut off New England from the rest of the colonies. When the British lost the battle at Saratoga, it allowed France and Spain to decide to help us fight against the British. An American victory would be a blow to Britain. Spain and France were rivals of the British.

Clearly the battle at Yorktown was critical because it ended the Revolutionary War. When the British were surrounded at Yorktown, they surrendered. This led to the peace treaty that gave us our independence. This would be viewed as a very important battle, if not as the most important battle.

Thus, while the battles at Lexington and at Concord were significant, it would be difficult to say they were the most important battles we fought against the British.

Since this text is all over the place, I need help in answering this: "Explain the main question or problem that motivated this piece or research."

When you are speaking about “the main question or problem” about this work, you are speaking about the prominent theme. Also keep in mind the full title of the work: Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding. It assumes that the theory of evolution (specifically our origination from apes) is true and goes beyond that theory. In short, this is a book about evolution of emotion (as opposed to evolution of physical traits).

The book begins by explaining how our evolution of emotion actually began in Africa. At one point, millions of years ago, a group of apes began teaching their babies differently than the apes before. As a result, new understanding was reached. These new understandings were the beginnings of humanity and has kept us alive as the dominant species. Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding gives its evidence in the interesting amount of “childhood” humans are given. Babies in the human world are taken care of for a long period of time (and sometimes for life) by extended family. The author argues, then, that this is where we got our ability to understand others and teach us to intuitively ascertain who will care for us. There are interestingly accurate descriptions of all kinds of mothers: marmoset mothers, ape mothers, chimpanzee mothers, wolf mothers, lion mothers, human mother, etc. Ideas are given as to why human men who function as hunter-gatherers are always hunting together (and not alone or with women).

In conclusion, Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding is a research text that deals with emotional evolution, especially in regards to motherhood. It is an interesting additional idea that “it takes a village” to raise children. This book absolutely supports that argument in saying that “villages” of our primordial ancestors took care of the young. It is built into our emotional upbringing.

How can the temperatures of sand and water affect climate?

Climate is defined as the weather conditions within a given area over a period of time. The climates of coastal regions that are near water are moderate compared to the climates of inland areas that are surrounded by sand. Thus, the presence of sand and water do have an effect on an area’s climate.

The differing heat capacities of sand and water can be used to explain their effects on an area’s climate. Heat capacity is defined as the amount of energy required to increase the temperature of a substance by one degree Celsius without changing the phase of the substance. Water has a much greater heat capacity than sand. Thus, it takes a lot more energy for water’s temperature to either increase or decrease than it does for sand’s temperature to change. Therefore, water heats up and cools down much more slowly than sand’s temperature. Hence, coastal regions that are near the water experience less drastic temperature ranges in their climates than do inland areas that contain larger amounts of sand.

How does moral education work and why is it valuable in the society?

Moral education in a public school is quite tricky, since so much of morality is religion-based, and religion has no place in public education unless it is being studied as a phenomenon of culture or as part of the underpinnings of literature.  In the United States, there are many religions, and none should be able to dominate in a school for the purposes of moral training.  Just one example shows this quite clearly.  In Judaism, the prohibition is "Do not do unto others what you do not want done to you," while in Christianity, there is an active prescription to "Do unto others what you would have done unto you." There is a world of difference in these approaches. The former tells you what not to do, leaving the individual to make the choice what to do, while the second tells you what you should do.  Besides, the fact that you want something done to you does not mean that someone else would find that to be a desirable or pleasurable experience. It is as though you were buying a birthday gift for someone because it is what you wanted.  The point is that religions differ in their approaches to morality, sometimes in very subtle ways, and trying to inculcate students in a public school with some sort of watered down compromise is ineffective.  Moral education should be in the home and in the house of worship. 

Why is my urine flow intermittent? I have got my psa levels checked, and I suspected I had some urinary tract infection, but I have taken meds and...

I want to give a large disclaimer on this answer.  I am not a medical professional.  If you have serious concerns, you need to see a doctor.  I am a health teacher, so I am not unfamiliar with some possible causes to your situation.  

What you are experiencing is called intermittent decreased urine stream.  Intermittent decreased urine stream is a diminished, reduced or less forceful steam of urine that occurs on and off.

Some possible causes are listed below.  

• urinary tract infection -- this is the most likely cause.  It's fairly common, and you have already stated that the drugs have helped.  It's likely you need to give the drugs more time.  Again, ask a doctor for confirmation


• Parkinson's disease


• herniated disc


• multiple sclerosis


• spina bifida


• urethral stricture -- this is the abnormal narrowing of the urethra, which is the tube that allows urine to pass out of the body. It could be caused by inflammation or injury.  An injury might cause scar tissue to build up and narrow the passageway.  


• Bladder stones

The above list is not exhaustive, and some of the items listed are quite low in possibility.  A medical professional is your best bet. 

How could Montresor be described as dramatic, and what are some quotes that would help prove that claim?

In Edgar Allan Poe's short story "Cask of Amontillado" Montresor is nothing if not dramatic. His diabolical plot to kill Fortunato is worthy of any Shakespearean villain. 

From the beginning Montresor announces his plan for the man who "insulted" him with definite melodramatic flair. He says he must punish Fortunato without getting caught and he must make it clear to the victim just who his murderer is. Montresor says,

At length I would be avenged; this was a point definitely, settled-but the very definitiveness with which it was resolved precluded the idea of risk. 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.

While we know what Montresor intends to do, we are not sure how he will go about it. Poe creates suspense as Montresor dramatically lures his victim into the catacombs below his estate. Montresor is the consummate dramatic actor as he pretends concern for Fortunato's health:

"Come," I said, with decision, "we will go back; your health is precious. You are rich, respected, admired, beloved; you are happy, as once I was. You are a man to be missed. For me it is no matter. We will go back; you will be ill, and I cannot be responsible.

Montresor plays on Fotunato's arrogance, much as the Shakespearean villain Iago exploits the same trait in Othello. Montresor tells him that he can always go to another expert to judge the Amontillado. All the while Montresor is using reverse psychology on his victim and acting as though Fortunato's opinion is of the utmost importance in evaluating the vintage spirit.

Montresor shows more of his dramatic side as he actually shows the mason's trowel to Fortunato. The trowel will be the ultimate tool in Fortunato's demise as Montresor entombs him into the walls of the catacomb.

Finally, the devious Montresor leads us to think he has some remorse when he says, "My heart grew sick..." but then extinguishes that emotion as he continues by saying, "it was the dampness of the catacombs that made it so." 

How does the author introduce Malcolm X’s father?

In the autobiography transcribed by Alex Haley, Malcolm X's father, Earl Little, is introduced within terrorizing, yet auspicious, circumstances:

When my mother was pregnant with me, she told me later, a party of hooded Ku Klux Klan riders galloped up to our home in Omaha, Nebraska, one night. Surrounding the house, brandishing their shotguns and rifles, they shouted for my father to come out. My mother went to the front door and opened it. Standing where they could see her pregnant condition, she told them that she was alone with her three children, and that my father was away, preaching, in Milwaukee. The Klansmen shouted threats and warnings at her that we had better get out of town because 'the good Christian white people' were not going to stand for my father's 'spreading trouble' among the 'good' Negroes of Omaha with the 'back to Africa' preachings of Marcus Garvey (3).

This is the first paragraph of the autobiography. Here, Malcolm X establishes his position, not only within his family narrative, but also—from the womb—within the politics of resistance, as well as contentions with white supremacy. 

Also, despite later accusations of sexism (see: Manning Marable's more objective biography, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention), his mother takes precedence in this narrative. She is the hero, standing firm against armed and disguised vigilantes, protecting her children and making them visible. 

The Klansmen, on the other hand, are presented as cowards, fearful of a man who questions and disrupts their position of unquestioned dominance. Malcolm would evolve into someone who would take a position similar to his father's, but would threaten white supremacy, not merely in his community, but on an international scale.

How does Dickens present a sense of joy and celebration? Describe the ways he evokes these emotions in the following passage from A Christmas...

Is there any writer in the English language who is better at evoking emotions through his dialogue and descriptions than Charles Dickens? I don't think so! This popular novel, which has been adapted into dozens of stage and screen versions, is a classic tale of hope and renewal. 

The enthusiasm of the passage heightens the emotions of joy and celebration created when the young men are asked to prepare the warehouse for the Christmas festivities. Fezziwig gets the boys excited when he urges them to hurry, and says "...'Christmas Eve Dick. Christmas, Ebenezer! Let's have the shutters up before a man can say Jack Robinson! Clear away, my lads and let's have lots of room here!'" Fezziwig's good humor also helps the boys get in the mood for the coming evening.

The next paragraph describes the boys' response, but without benefit of dialogue: "Clear away! There was nothing they wouldn't have cleared away, or couldn't have cleared away, with old Fezziwig looking on. It was done in minute." The sense of urgency lends to the young men's excitement. The warehouse is set with lamps and a fire is built, and this description lends a air of warmth to the scene. When they are finished, it is "as snug and warm and dry and bright a ball-room as you would desire to see on a winter's night." The sense of joy and celebration is palpable in this moment when the homely workplace suddenly becomes a place fit for a fancy party.

The transformation of the warehouse to a "ball-room" emphasizes the sense of magic imparted to the holiday by Fezziwig's enthusiasm, and it is no wonder Scrooge remembers him fondly, even as he grew to hate Christmas as time passed. This scene is one of many that follow that show how Scrooge's transformation from a kind and romantic youth into a bitter, mean-spirited old man is as a result of many events that befall him, but also from his own neglect: of his friendships, family relationships and his own well-being.

What is the historical importance of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre? How can the Globe Theatre relate to his play "Othello"?

The Globe Theater, as the place where a large number of Shakespeare’s plays premiered, is perhaps the most important theater in the history of English-language drama. Although it’s difficult to imagine now, there was in that theater many first-performance audiences who came to see a brand new play, called “Othello” maybe, or “King Lear”, and arrived at the theater having absolutely no idea what they were about to see and hear. The structure and arrangement of the stage and audience at the Globe has influenced the design of theaters and the approach to acting, directing, and designing Shakespeare (and even contemporary) productions for centuries. Details discovered when the original Globe was excavated and incorporated into the new Globe in London help to explain how the staging challenges may have been met: we know, for instance, that there was a rear space behind the stage’s back wall that Desdemona’s bed could have been revealed in and perhaps wheeled out from. The way the audience surrounds the action suggests that beautiful costumes were better visual storytellers than large set pieces; a stage filled with an elaborate set would potentially block the view of many spectators, and would make it difficult to present a different play every day, as we know from records that the Globe company did. It’s a hugely significant building in theater history and the rebuilt version in London is worth a visit.

In the book,"By The Waters Of Babylon," is John's settlement a civilization? If so, how?

The following is from National Geographic.

All civilizations have certain characteristics. These include: (1) large population centers; (2) monumental architecture and unique art styles; (3) written language; (4) systems for administering territories; (5) a complex division of labor; and (6) the division of people into social classes.

Using those characteristics, I'm going to have to say that John's settlement is not a civilization.  His settlement certainly has some of those characteristics, but not all of them.  This is one of those lists in which all items must apply in order for it to be true.  

"Large population centers" is a bit relative.  But even if you were to use a number as small as 15,000 people, Benet's story does not indicate that John's tribal settlement is anywhere near that number.  

John's settlement doesn't have any monumental architecture.  No pyramids, no towers, etc.  At least none that are indicated.  I would tend to agree too, because John is shocked at seeing the City of the Gods.  He doesn't understand how anything that big could have been created.  

John does receive training for how to read, but he is in the minority.  He is taught to read, because he is a priest in training.  

I was taught how to read in the old books and how to make the old writings—that was hard and took a long time.

That tells me that the rest of the people do not know how to read; therefore, no written language for the general population.  

"Systems for administering territories" sounds like rudimentary government.  It's more than that though.  You can divide places into territories, but if you don't have the infrastructure to support those territories, they fall apart and act independently.   John's tribe exists as a tribe.  Other tribes are completely separate and even avoided.  There is no rule over territories other than the immediate surrounding area.  

I do think John's settlement shows signs of the last two items.  There is a small division of labor.  John is training to be a priest.  That is a certain societal role that he will fill.  That means other people have other labor roles.

—our women spin wool on the wheel, our priests wear a white robe.

 Lastly, because John is a priest in training, he gets special privileges.  That's definitely a social class division.  

So he knew that I was truly his son and would be a priest in my time. That was when I was very young— nevertheless, my brothers would not have done it, though they are good hunters. After that, they gave me the good piece of meat and the warm corner of the fire.

Who are three famous Assyrian kings?

Three famous Assyrian kings are Sargon II, Sennacherib, and Ashurbanipal. Sargon II ruled Assyria from 722-705 BC, expanding his empire throughout Mesopotamia. Most notably, he conquered Babylon.

When Sargon II died, his son--Sennacherib--took the throne and ruled until 681. He moved the Assyrian capital to Nineveh, and some historians think he constructed the famous "Hanging Gardens." Sennacherib is most famous because he appears in the biblical account of the siege of Jerusalem (2 Kings 18-19). According to the biblical account, God intervened and protected King Hezekiah and the Jews from the Assyrians; according to Sennacherib's inscriptions, the Assyrians sacked the city.

Ashurbanipal ruled from 668-627 and was the last great Assyrian king. He is perhaps most famous for his great library, which contained more than 30,000 cuneiform tablets. Notably, his library included both the Epic of Gligamesh and the Enuma Elish.

In A Separate Peace by John Knowles, does Gene ever go to the war?

Gene Forrester, the main character in A Separate Peace, does eventually enlist in the war, but he never leaves the country or sees battle. The story focuses on the summer before his senior year, which is 1942, and rounds out the rest of that year right before he is eligible to get drafted into the war in the summer of 1943. If a boy didn't enlist right after high school, or by the time he was 18, then he would have been drafted. The war was like a deadly light at the end of the tunnel of his senior year. He tries to avoid thinking about it and focus on studying as much as possible, but the war is always in his future.

Most of what the reader discovers about Gene's war experience is at the beginning of chapter 10. Gene explains his experience as follows:

"I went into uniform at the time when our enemies began to recede so fast that there had to be a hurried telescoping of military training plans. Programs scheduled to culminate in two years became outmoded in six months, and crowds of men gathered for them in one place were dispersed to twenty others. . .The closer victory came the faster we were shuttled around America in pursuit of a role to play in a drama which suddenly, underpopulated from the first, now had too many actors. Or so it seemed" (138-39).

Basically, Gene entered the war and got shoveled around for different trainings to prepare his group for war, but they never found a niche for him to fill before the war ended. In the end of the book he says, 

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

In what ways is racial inequality portrayed in the movie The Help?

The movie version of The Help, based on Kathryn Stockett's novel, portrays the large and small injustices of racism in Mississippi in the early 1960s. For example, Hilly Holbrook, one of the town's white socialites, embarks on a campaign to have African-American maids use separate toilet facilities, as she claims they carry different germs than the white families they toil for while being paid very low wages. Skeeter, a white woman who is different from her friends in that she sees the injustice around her, chronicles the experiences of maids such as Aibileen and Minny. The African-American maids have very little control over their lives, and they are generally treated unjustly by the women they work for, even though they raise the women's children and do most of the work around the house.

The movie also exposes how prejudice has affected Constantine, Skeeter's former beloved maid and nanny, who left while Skeeter was away at college. It turns out that Constantine had a daughter she had to send north to an orphanage, as the daughter had very light skin. This situation provoked a lot of questions in Mississippi, and when the daughter returns, she refuses to enter the house of her mother's white employer through the kitchen. In order to preserve her pride in front of her white friends, Skeeter's mother fires Constantine and forces her to leave their house, despite her long years of dedicated service. The movie is set against the backdrop of other events in the Civil Rights movement, such as the murder of Civil Rights activist Medgar Evers, which also shows the injustices that African-Americans and others were fighting against at the time.

In To Kill a Mockingbird, how do Scout's morals change in Chapters 1-12?

As early as chapter three, Scout begins to learn the lesson of seeing things from another's perspective.  She learns this lesson from Atticus after a horrible day at school, where she got in trouble even though she tried her best to be helpful.  Atticus uses Scout's discouragement to teach her a lesson about understanding people.  He wants her to understand Miss Caroline. He says:

“First of all,” he said, “if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view—”

“Sir?”

“—until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."

It takes time, but by the end of chapter twelve, Scout is beginning to learn this lesson.  For example, she makes peace with Walter Cunningham. 

Another important lesson is to protect mockingbirds. In chapter ten, Scout relearns this lesson from Miss Maudie.  Miss Maudie says:

“Your father’s right,” she said. “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.”

Invent a new ending to Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.

In order to complete this task, it is important to have a thorough knowledge of the characters and how each person's life changed by the end of the book.  At the end of the novel, Meg and John Brooke have been married for many years and have twins, Daisy and Demi.  Jo and Professor Bhaer are married and start a school in Aunt March's old house.  Jo had inherited the house from her deceased aunt.  Beth March has already passed away.  Amy is married to Laurie and they have a daughter, Beth, who is sickly.  When the book ends, the family has just celebrated Marmee's 60th birthday and they are thankful for their lives.  

Among fans of the book, there is some debate about the fate of the characters from the story.  Some think that Beth's early death was unnecessary.  Others think that Jo should have married Laurie rather than Professor Bhaer.  Some readers even think that Jo should have remained single and instead pursued her literary career full time.  From this information, you will have to decide what your new, invented ending will be.  Will Jo marry someone else?  Will Beth live?  There may even be other changes that you will decide to make.

In A Midsummer Night's Dream, how does Shakespeare present true love?

In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare presents love as an all encompassing emotion felt by a variety of people and expressed in diverse ways. Indeed, it could be said that the theme of love (or "true love," if you want to think of it that way) is the glue that binds the play together, and that Shakespeare is concerned with exploring the different ways in which love manifests itself in romantic relationships. Interestingly enough, Shakespeare doesn't always present love in clear-cut or idealized terms. Indeed, he shows that love is often irrational, as Lysander and Hermia persist in loving one another despite the limitations of Athenian law, while Demetrius initially refuses Helena's advances, despite the fact the she is clearly in love with him while Hermia is not. Moreover, love in Shakespeare's world can be cruel or even vengeful, as Oberon engages in a lover's quarrel with Titania by commanding Puck to play magical tricks on the fairy queen. However, even if true love is not always perfect, it seems to have power over society, as the characters within the play all bend to the demands of love and find their way into the ideal relationship. As such, though Shakespeare points out that love is often irrational and not always pleasant, he also proposes that love is an important force of order in society and cannot be easily denied. 

In Three Men in a Boat, why did George's face suddenly go from lively to severe?

This incident happens in Chapter XI of Three Men in a Boat. After the narrator takes a dip in the river, he returns to the boat to get dressed. The shirt he starts to pull on falls into the water a bit and gets wet. George laughs at him and makes fun of the situation. Then the narrator realizes that he has made a mistake. The shirt is really George’s, and not his. When he makes his friend aware of this fact, he says:

I never saw a man’s face change from lively to severe so suddenly in all my life before.

As we may expect, George’s attitude changes immediately. He calls his friend a “silly cuckoo” and now admonishes him to be more careful. The narrator still thinks the mistake is a humorous one, and he points out this fact to the shirt’s rightful owner. George remains unmoved.

Assuming the population variances are approximately equal, use the sample statistics and an alpha value of 0.05 to test whether or not there is...

l

We are performing the independent means t-test. We do a t-test because we do not actually know what the population variances are. We are only given sample information - so we cannot do a z-test

MANUAL t-TEST:

We can also perform the test manually

The null and alternative hypotheses are :

Ho : x1 = x2            ( the sample means are equal )

Ha : x1 not equal x2  ( the sample means are different)

The standard error is given by:

SE = sqrt[ (s12/n1) + (s22/n2) ]

where s1 is the standard deviation of sample 1, s2 is the standard deviation of sample 2, n1 is the size of sample 1, and n2 is the size of sample 2.

             SE = sqrt [11.05^2/22 + 12.34^2/20] = 3.63

the degrees of freedom can be approximated by the smaller of n1 - 1 and n2 - 1; So d.f =20-1 = 19

est statistic. The test statistic is a t-score (t) defined by the following equation.

t = [ (x1 - x2) - d ] / SE

where x1 is the mean of sample 1, x2 is the mean of sample 2, d is the hypothesized difference between population means, and SE is the standard error.

So test statistic  = (112.42 - 122.78)/3.63 = -2.85

t-critical score for two-tails, alpha =0.05 and d.f =19 is 2.093

Since our test statistic (ignoring sign) of 2.85 is greater than the t-critical value, our test statistic falls in the rejection region. We thus reject the null hypothesis that there is no difference in the population means. There is in fact a difference at the 95% confidence level.

What are examples of hatred and disorder in Romeo and Juliet?

There are many examples of hate and disorder throughout Romeo and Juliet. In fact, many of the ultimate failings within the play can be traced back to the themes of hate and disorder. Broadly, the Montagues and Capulets hate each other, and this is outlined right at the beginning in the prologue. This is seen in most areas of the play, but these hatreds' nuances closely articulate the disorder within the families' dynamics. 

Here are some specific examples:

GREGORY and SAMPSON in 1.1 - These two characters spar right in the beginning of the play, demonstrating to the audience the hatred articulated by the Prologue.

PRINCE in 1.1. - The Prince, who represents the state, demonstrates hatred towards both the Capulets and the Montagues, and specifically their feud. 

CAPULET in 1.5 - Capulet demonstrates hatred towards Romeo when he first sees him at the party. 

BENVOLIO in 3.1 - Benvolio is incredibly spiteful when the brawl is about to occur between the Capulets and Montagues. The hatred between the families evolves into a brutal dysfunction that Benvolio frequently discusses and admonishes. 

ROMEO in 3.3 - Romeo kills Tybalt, which is fueled by hatred, and this creates further dysfunction. Specifically, Romeo worries this hatred will cause Juliet to not be in love with him.

PRINCE in 5.3 - At the end of the play, the Prince clearly articulates that the carnage and tragedy is a result of the hatred felt by Capulets and Montagues. As he says, "See, what a scourge is laid upon your hate" (5.3.302), the reader and audience see that hatred breeds dysfunction. 

What does the overseer of Kit's grandfather's plantation do in The Witch of Blackbird Pond?

Kit's grandfather had hired an overseer named Bryant to manage the daily workings of his plantation in Barbados. At first, the overseer did not do most of the work on the plantation. Instead, Kit's grandfather managed much of the work. As Kit's grandfather grew older and was "not able to manage the plantation," he began to give "more and more [responsibility] to the overseer." Bryant oversaw the growing and harvesting of the crops on the plantation, as well as managed the slaves. The winter before Kit's arrival in Wethersfield, Bryant sold all of the crops from the recent harvest and pocketed the money. Then he disappeared from the plantation and the area. It was assumed by Kit and by others that he had returned to England with the stolen money from the crops. Because of this and other reasons, Kit's grandfather died with significant debts.

Explain the importance of Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin was important because it helped to bring on the Civil War.  President Lincoln is supposed to have said (though this is probably apocryphal) to Harriet Beecher Stowe “So you're the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.”  Even if this is not true, it shows how people believed that Stowe’s book helped to cause the Civil War.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin increased opposition to slavery in the North.  Most Northerners were not all that concerned about the plight of slaves before the book.  It is true that most Northerners wanted to keep slavery confined to the South, but most of them were not interested in abolishing slavery.  They looked at slavery more in terms of its effect on whites in the North.

With Stowe’s book, however, this changed.  Her book encouraged white people to think of slaves as real human beings and to look at the impact that the system of slavery had on them.  It encouraged them to think about whether slavery was really moral.  As people in the North came to question the morality of slavery more strongly, they became more inclined to fight to end the practice.

At the same time, the book helped make the South angrier at the North.  They felt that the book was a distortion of the truth. They felt that people who believed in the book could not possibly treat them (the Southerners) fairly.  This helped increase sectional discord and helped to cause the Civil War.

Provide evidence that shows the determination and courage of Santiago.

I think one good example that shows courage and determination in Santiago occurs when he decides to tell his father that he wants to travel the world instead of staying home with the family.  It shows courage and determination, because Santiago knows that his father won't like the decision.  Regardless Santiago faces his father and has the conversation instead of just running away like a coward or not having the conversation at all.  

The rest of the story shows Santiago's courage frequently.  His journey toward obtaining his personal legend is not an easy one.  He is frequently swindled or attacked, and he is always wrestling with the idea of just turning around and going back home.  He knows that it is safe at home, but he determines to continue despite the hardship.  That's both determination and bravery. 

Write the partial fraction decomposition of the rational expression. Check your result algebraically.

Let

comparing the coefficients of the like terms,

Plug in the value of A in the above equation,

Now let's check the above result,

RHS=

Hence it is verified.

In "The Minister's Black Veil," how does the veil separate Mr. Hooper from the people of the village? Do you think he wants this separation?

In "The Minister's Black Veil," the veil separates Mr. Hooper from his congregation in several different important ways. First off, the veil separates him physically from the rest of the village. The villagers can no longer see his eyes and therefore can no longer connect with him in the same way as before. The veil also separates him from the villagers because of the sense of dread that it causes in them. The veil has caused the villagers to find him ominous and repulsive in a way that they never have before. Finally, the veil further separates him from the rest of the village because of the whispers that circulate about his reasons for wearing it. The villagers assume that he wears it because of some feeling of guilt or shame prompted by a secret sin.

Mr. Hooper feels this separation from everyone else acutely and is greatly bothered by it. In his conversation with his fiancee Emily, he implores her not to turn her back on him as the others in the village have:

O! you know not how lonely I am, and how frightened, to be alone behind my black veil. Do not leave me in this miserable obscurity forever!

Mr. Hooper is clearly bothered by his isolation and doesn't take it lightly, however, he feels that he must wear the veil on this earth. In fact, the inevitability of isolation in spite of our desires for connection with others is one of the central themes of the story.

What is the meaning of "snorted," as used by Donne in line 4 of the first verse?

"The Good-Morrow" can be found in John Donne's Songs and Sonnets which was published in 1633.  It chronicles the thoughts of a young man upon awakening next to his beloved.

In order to grasp the full meaning of the use of the word "snorted," as used in this particular writing, you need to understand the reference to the Seven Sleepers. 

Trajan Decius was a Roman emperor who was zealous in his persecution of Christians.  He went so far as to revive the "art form" of sacrifice during pagan worship.  The Catholics had a children's legend, Seven Sleepers, which told of the flight of seven children. These seven children were believers in Christ and as such were sought by Decius in order to be murdered. The children took refuge in a miraculous cave where they slept for hundreds of years.  As you can imagine, seven children soundly sleeping for such a long time would produce quite a bit of slumbering sounds, or snorting. In the poem, "snorting" is used as another word for snoring or loud sounds made while sleeping.  

What dominant impression does Cather create about Harvey Merrick's sister, mother, and father? What details support this impression?

Cather is able to sketch these people with just a few paragraphs. The picture that emerges is of a mother who dominates through an excess of emotion, a daughter who is withdrawn and embittered, and a husband who has had all his vitality drawn out of him by his wife and living long years in west Kansas. Even though Merrick was their son, there is little real affection there for him.

Here is Cather’s description of the mother:

There was a kind of power about her face—a kind of brutal handsomeness, even; but it was scarred and furrowed by violence, and so colored and coarsened by fiercer passions that grief seemed never to have laid a gentle finger there. The long nose was distended and knobbed at the end, and there were deep lines on either side of it; her heavy, black brows almost met across her forehead, her teeth were large and square, and set far apart—teeth that could tear. She filled the room; the men were obliterated, seemed tossed about like twigs in an angry water[.]

The mother’s personality does dominate everyone around her, especially her husband, but for all her force of character she seems impotent in the face of the men who truly control the town, who have gathered to “watch over” the coffin but really spend their time venting petty jealousies about Merrick’s success as an artist. She does nothing to defend her son, or to show that she feels any real connection to him.

The daughter is even more of a cypher, someone whose will seems to be wholly bound up in that of her mother’s. Cather says of her:

The daughter—the tall, raw-boned woman in crêpe, with a mourning comb in her hair which curiously lengthened her long face—sat stiffly upon the sofa, her hands, conspicuous for their large knuckles, folded in her lap, her mouth and eyes drawn down, solemnly awaiting the opening of the coffin.

The daughter’s silence is telling. She seems incapable of action beyond attending to her mother.

The father is also completely dominated by the mother. Enfeebled by age, when his wife summons him to look at their son’s coffin, he slowly emerges, but all his thoughts are about his wife:

"There, there, Annie, dear, don't take on," he quavered timidly, putting out a shaking hand and awkwardly patting her elbow. She turned with a cry, and sank upon his shoulder with such violence that he tottered a little. He did not even glance toward the coffin, but continued to look at her with a dull, frightened, appealing expression, as a spaniel looks at the whip. His sunken cheeks slowly reddened and burned with miserable shame.

The shame he feels is partly due to this public demonstration of his subservience to his wife, but also to a betrayal of whatever love he might have born his talented son. It is only after his wife leaves that he can begin to say what he feels:

He brushed the hair back gently from his son's forehead. "He was a good boy, Jim; always a good boy. He was ez gentle ez a child and the kindest of 'em all—only we didn't none of us ever onderstand him." The tears trickled slowly down his beard and dropped upon the sculptor's coat.

In fact, no one from the town, with the possible exception of the lawyer Jim, can understand the sensibility of Merrick, someone who, “whatever he touched, he revealed its holiest secret; liberated it from enchantment and restored it to its pristine loveliness, like the Arabian prince who fought the enchantress, spell for spell.” The problem the story poses is how it is possible for such a talent to have been nurtured in such a family, and such a place.

Who was Ella Kaye? What implication was made about her visit to Cody, and what did she do to Gatsby?

Ella Kaye was "a newspaperwoman" who ingratiated herself into the life of multi-millionaire Dan Cody, Jay Gatsby's first mentor.  It is implied that she somehow gained influence in Cody's life and acted in an advisory role similar to Madame de Maintenon, the unacknowledged wife of Louis XIV of seventeenth-century France. Cody, with Jay Gatsby as his factotum, sailed around the world on his yacht for five years until docking one night in Boston.  Ella Kaye boarded Cody's Tuolumne, and a week later, Cody was dead.  The implication is that Kaye had somehow caused, or at least hastened, Cody's death.  Dan Cody had intended for Jay Gatsby to receive $25,000 in his will, but Ella Kaye used a crafty attorney to acquire all of Cody's remaining wealth--in the millions--including the small legacy intended for Gatsby.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott.  The Great Gatsby.  Charles Scribner's Sons, 1925.

Should the needs of society (the common good, majority rule, minority rights) take precedence over rights, desires, needs and values of the...

This question is a sticky one that has occupied political theorists for centuries. Alexis de Tocqueville, John Stuart Mill, and John Rawls are just three philosophers who feared that a balance between individual rights and the good of the whole would be difficult, if not impossible, to strike. The answer to this question, really, is that it if governments are to undertake actions that are good for society as a whole, then there really is no choice--they have to act in ways that compromise on individual rights. On a theoretical level, this is because the absolute exercise of liberty by one individual will sometimes infringe on the exercise of liberties on the other individuals around them. As Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, "My right to swing my fist ends where the other man's nose begins." That said, democratic governments have the responsibility to do the following:

• carry out policies that are, in fact, best for the majority of people.


• establish legal boundaries on their own actions. In the United States, for example, a Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution to stake out certain rights.


• protect minority rights. Minority rights to participate in politics and in society is essential to democracy.


• minimize transgressions on individual liberty. It is a basic principle of democracy that individual liberties should only be restricted to the extent that is absolutely essential. 

So in short, there really is no debating that sometimes individual desires and even rights must be restricted. This, in fact, is the basis for government. But the relationship between rights and the needs of society need not be a zero sum game.

Most elements that occur in the same group on the periodic table have similar chemical characteristics. Explain why this is true?

Groups on the periodic table are the vertical columns. Sometimes groups on the periodic table are called families. Main group elements that are in the same group on the periodic table share similar chemical characteristics because they have the same number of electrons within their highest energy levels. In other words, elements that are the same group on the period table have the same number of valance electrons. In fact, the number that resides over a main group on the periodic table correlates to the number of valence electrons that the elements within that group have. For example, the first group of elements have one valence electrons. Valance electrons predict reactivity because they are the electrons that are involved in creating chemical bonds.  

Please note that there are exceptions to this rule such as the transition metals, hydrogen, and helium.

What is a thesis/argument that John Cheever makes in his short story "The Enormous Radio"?

Written by John Cheever in 1947, “The Enormous Radio” focuses on Jim and Irene Westcott. Combining elements of magical realism and the domestic gothic, the story’s thesis focuses on buried secrets. When the couple’s radio breaks, they order a new one and soon find out that it allows them to listen to their neighbors’ conversations. In listening to other people’s marital issues, the Westcotts begin to recognize the tension in their own marriage. “We’re happy, aren’t we darling? (Irene) pleads to Jim.” Of course, the Westcotts aren’t happy; they’re simply well versed in playing the part of a happy, status driven, financially secure couple. The radio is the fantastical tool that brings to light Jim and Irene’s secrets and accrued grievances. Cheever is arguing that no matter how strong a façade a married couple has, neglect, denial, and a lack of communication poisons a marriage.

Congratulations. You were elected as the head of your neighborhood beach association. Your neighborhoods are panicked because the local beach is...

Dear Coastal Neighborhood Association,

I write this letter today to communicate my concern over the decrease in the size of our beaches over the past several years. The shrinking of our beaches is due to the erosion of the sand. I write this letter in an attempt to identify some causes of the erosion and solutions towards decreasing such.

Many of us enjoy relaxing along the isolated barrier beaches along our coastline. Longshore drifts have helped in creating such barrier beaches. Longshore drifts occur when the ocean current or waves intersect the coast at an angle, instead of parallel. As a result, longshore drifts cause the sand to be carried down shore. Thus, longshore drifts are also one reason for the increased erosion. Therefore, we will be attempting to decrease such drifts in the near future. A groin may help prevent our beaches from being washed away from longshore drifts.

Erosion is not only reducing the size of our beaches, but it is also ruining our sand dunes. The primary cause of the erosion of our sand dunes is human traffic. We ask that all association members, children, and pets refrain from walking on the dunes. Additionally, beach grass will be planted in the early spring. The root system of the beach grass has been shown to hold the sand in place and prevent erosion from occurring.

Warmly,

Association Head

How does the Dinobryon eat, and what helps termites digest wood?

Dinobryon are a type of Chrysophyceae or golden brown algae that reside in freshwater--specifically temperate lakes. They have two methods of obtaining nutrients. They can ingest bacteria by phagotrophy. They are in turn eaten by copepods and Daphnia (water fleas).  By ingesting bacteria, they are able to incorporate the carbon from these bacteria into the food chain of the lake. They can also carry out phototrophy and can use light energy to obtain carbon in the production of sugar. They fill an important role as both consumer and producer in freshwater lakes and are known as a mixotroph.

Termites are consumers of wood. Because wood contains mainly ligno-cellulose fibers, the digestion of this material requires the presence of specific hydrolytic enzymes. Wood cellulose is a polysaccharide--a carbohydrate consisting of long chains of sugar molecules.

Termites can secrete some cellulose enzymes (cellulases) but they also rely on enzymes from the symbiotic microorganisms residing in their gut to assist with the digestion of their food. One method of breaking down the carbohydrates is fermentation by some of the gut microbes. Others produce methane gas as a by-product of the digestion of wood.

There are many different populations of microorganisms that are responsible for the digestion of lignin and cellulose--some are anaerobic and some aerobic. Different environmental conditions are present in the hind and mid-gut and the residents are separated according to whether they are aerobic or anaerobic. The symbionts living in the termite gut include different types of bacteria, archaea and protozoa.

I have included a link with excellent pictures of the residents inside a termite's digestive tract.

Give your reaction to the Filipino revolts.

Assuming that you mean the revolt that took place soon after the Spanish-American War, the Filipino revolts were quite justified.  Emilio Aguinaldo, key leader of the island insurrection that helped the United States army with scouting and logistics during the land campaign in the war, wanted to be the ruler of the Philippines--he wanted to be the Filipino George Washington.  However, when the Americans kept putting off the transfer of power to him, he turned against his American allies, sparking a three-year war that killed many Americans and Filipino civilians and soldiers.  This war was awful, and many in the news media, most notably the New York World and other newspapers questioned the value of America's participation in this war.  Both sides committed atrocities, most notably Jacob Hurd Smith's order to kill everyone over the age of ten in a village at Samar province and to turn the area into a "howling wilderness."  While the American army did eventually capture Aguinaldo and the war ended, this was one of the first times that Americans from all walks of life questioned the value of a war.  

Of course, your reaction may be different than mine.  

What are 5 examples of solvent?

Solvents are chemical compounds that are used for dissolving something (known as solute). When a solute is mixed with a solvent, a solution is obtained. Some examples of solvents are:

1. water: is commonly considered as the universal solvent, because a large number of substances dissolve in water. Water is used for cleaning the house, mixes with a lot of other substances (and becomes polluted) such as, pesticides, insecticides, etc. It also mixed with common household beverages such as milk, etc.


2. Ethanol: is a commonly used solvent for perfumes, since it evaporates and spreads the smell.


3. TCE or tetrachloroethylene: is commonly used for dry-cleaning applications (for cleaning expensive and delicate clothes).


4. Toluene: is commonly used as paint thinner.


5. Chloroform: is commonly used in chemical/biological labs for cleaning and also for dissolving expensive solutes (such as biomolecules-saccharides, etc.)

Hope this helps. 

How could the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass be summarized? What are the most important issues Douglass addresses in his narrative?

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is Douglass's own account of his escape from slavery, written in 1845. The most important issues he addresses in his account are the horrors of slavery, the corrupting effect that slavery has on white slaveowners, and the need for slavery to be abolished. He makes the point that true Christians abhor slavery and that the Christianity practiced by slaveowners does not represent true Christianity. His book became a bestseller, though many people at first doubted that a slave could write such an eloquent work. However, Douglass's speeches proved that he was a brilliant man who was capable of writing and thinking, and he therefore did a great deal to show the potential of African-Americans. 

Douglass narrates his early childhood on a plantation in Talbot County, Maryland, including his separation from his mother at a young age and his presumption that the slave master, Captain Anthony, was his biological father. He recounts the abuses his aunt suffered from the overseer, probably because he was jealous of her relationship with another slave.

He then tells of his experience as an urban slave in Baltimore, Maryland. His slave mistress, Sophia Auld, begins to teach him to read, but then she is roundly criticized for doing so and stops. He makes the point that slavery corrupts slaveowners and makes them abusive and inhuman. He bribes local children into teaching him to read, as he always has bread in his pocket, and he realizes that reading will give him the arguments to defeat slavery. His life as an urban slave is very different from those of most slaves, who were on plantations.

In the third section, he is returned to the plantation, where he contends with a cruel slave master. In one critical passage, a fellow slave gives him a root, and though Douglass states that he does not believe in slave superstitions, the root clearly gives him the psychological strength to take on the overseer. The overseer, Mr. Covey, does not bother Douglass again. Douglass is sent to another plantation, where he teaches the other slaves to read and begins to feel like they are the family he never had. However, they are all sent to jail when their plotted escape fails.

Douglass is then sent back to Baltimore, where he learns how to caulk boats, which gives him a skill he can use when he escapes north. He has to turn all his wages over to his master, Hugh Auld, but he can at times earn his own money. Douglass faces continual harassment and intimidation from his fellow dock workers, who are white. Eventually, he escapes north from Baltimore to Philadelphia and then to New York by disguising himself as a sailor, though he declines to give many details of his escape (so that he will not endanger the route for future slaves who try to escape). He eventually became a skilled orator on the abolitionist circuit as well as a writer and reformer, and settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where there was a community of free African-Americans at the time.

What point of view is "Lamb to the Slaughter" told from and why is that important?

"Lamb to the Slaughter" is told from the point of view of Mary Maloney. The story starts off when she is all alone, so we have to be in her point of view at the start. Her husband's arrival, his mood, his behavior are all told through Mary's point of view. In fact, the story is largely based on her over-attentiveness, her close observation of her husband, her concern about his health, his state of mind, his appetite, his job, his drinking, and everything else about him. Patrick can't stand all this attention, all this scrutiny, all this mothering. This is what has made him decide that he wants a divorce. This in turn leads to Mary clobbering him over the head with a frozen leg of lamb.

It is important that the story is told from Mary's point of view because this enables the reader to understand why she acts as she does. Being in her point of view forces the reader to identify with her, in spite of the fact that she has committed a murder. We understand her fit of rage as a reaction to her extreme devotion to her husband and his cold rejection of her when she is six months pregnant. We understand that she doesn't want to be caught and punished. We understand her thought processes as she goes about concocting an alibi and getting rid of the evidence. We are, in fact, accessories after the fact.

The other characters are only minor ones except Patrick, who is not even a very important character himself. To narrate part of the story from the point of view of one of the policemen would disrupt the narrative flow. It is always disruptive when a writer switches from one point of view to another. To switch from Mary's to Patrick's point of view would not only disrupt the reader's identification and involvement, but it would probably generate some sympathy for Patrick which would detract from the reader's sympathy with Mary. And the author wants the reader to sympathize with, and to identify with, Mary from beginning to end. An example of how Roald Dahl avoids going into Patrick's point of view is the way he has Patrick tell Mary all his feelings about their marriage and his decision to get a divorce.

"This is going to be a big shock to you, I'm afraid," he said. "But I've thought about it a good deal and I've decided that the only thing to do is to tell you immediately." And he told her. It didn't take long, four or five minutes at most, and she sat still through it all, watching him with puzzled horror.

We don't hear a word of Patrick's case. We can only imagine what he is telling her from her reaction, i.e., from her point of view. 

...and she sat still through it all, watching him with puzzled horror.

Once Patrick is dead there is no feasible point of view other than Mary's. She has a dark secret. We alone know she is guilty and want to see her get away with her crime. The story proper really begins here. It is about how a woman commits a perfect crime by killing her husband with a frozen leg of lamb and then getting the investigators to eat the lamb after she cooks it. We have to know what she is feeling, thinking, and planning. And we have to believe in the dramatic change of character that took place in this passive, humble little housewife.

What are three themes found in the novel Medicine River by Thomas King?

Medicine River is a complex novel full of equally complex themes. One of those themes is the importance of identity and heritage. Will Sampson, the protagonist of the book, has several questions about his identity, the main one being who his father is. He knows and lives with his mother, Rose, a Native American Blackfoot woman, but he has yet to meet his elusive father, a white man who abandoned his family years ago. The only connection Will has to his father are letters that his mother saved from Will's father written to her. Unfortunately, Will's mother catches him reading the letters and beats him severely, so Will cannot finish reading them, and thus, he doesn't learn the truth about his father and the hole about his identity is never closed, leaving him with unresolved emotional issues.

Another prominent theme in the novel and one especially prominent in chapter 13 is the idea that stereotypes, particularly those about Native Americans, are not always true. For example, Will and his best friend Harlen are Native Americans, but like pizza, football, and play basketball, just like most Americans or Canadians. Similarly, Will is a photographer, despite the fact that some Native Americans believe photographs steal souls. In this chapter, Susan, a white women whom Will is dating, is surprised to learn that will is a photographer. Her preconceived notions of Native Americans prohibited her from entertaining that idea before meeting will, and this meeting, ultimately, opens her eyes.

Finally, an equally important theme is the fact that strong women can also have imperfections. The reader knows that Rose, Will's mother is a strong Blackfoot woman who raises her children on her own with no help from their father, but she also seems to be weak when the subject of their father is brought up. Bertha Morley is equally as strong as Rose in that she has been in abusive relationships in the past, but still has hope and takes care of herself. In chapter 13, she chooses to join a dating service which she humorously calls an "escort service." Although she is initially presented to the reader as a direct woman, she doesn't seem to have very high standards. For example, on her application she writes:

Whites are okay. Should have his own job and not be married. I’d like someone tall so I can wear heels when we go out, but short is okay, too (178).

Who is or are the actual policy maker(s) of organizations?

The actual policy maker(s) of organizations, indirectly, are the individuals and groups it seeks to serve. Any policies have to made with these end users in mind. If not, these policies will be somewhat faulty or non-producing because they will not address their issues and concerns. Therefore, these end users of products and/or services dictate the corporate policies of organizations.

Now, directly, the actual policy makers of organizations are the management individuals and teams that a company employs. This consists of Presidents, Chief Executive Officers, Chief Financial Officers, Chief Operating Officers, Human Resource Managers, mid-level managers, and Boards of Directors that various companies employ. Working and meeting together, these employees design various corporate policies, with higher management typically having the final say.

These direct policy makers study data that an organization captures to help them make informed decisions that result in a particular policy or group of policies. Consider, though, that this data is often gleaned from information provided by an entities end users, the above-mentioned individuals and groups that comprise a business’s customer base. So, again, you see here the influence of end users and why I believe they are the actual policy makers when you really study how an organization really sets its policies.

Consider a company like Whole Foods Market, a purveyor of high-quality natural, organic, and other products. One of the Company’s major policies is to provide its target market with top-notch products, at convenient locations in major markets. It has a policy of providing its customers fresh and innovative ready-to-serve meals from its prepared food counters, along with offerings from its other premium quality departments, such as its in-store bakeries.

Is this a policy they made up on a whim? No. It is a policy developed by way of market research that conveyed to the Company that this is what its customers wanted and continue to demand. So, we have this particular Whole Foods Market policy, but the instigator and, in essence, maker of this policy is the firm’s end users – the customers that spend the money in their retail food stores and provide Whole Foods Market its revenues and profits and finances that result in dividends paid to its shareholders’.

In the novel "To Kill a Mockingbird," when Miss Maudie's house burns down, how does this symbolize or relate to racism?

Possibly the most significant reference to racism in the incident of Miss Maudie's burning house would be the 'morphodite' snowman.

In Chapter 8, Jem and Scout use snow from Miss Maudie's yard and soil from their own back yard to build a snowman. Jem first builds the snowman by forming the snowman's body and head with soil. When Scout protests that no one has 'ever heard of a nigger snowman' before, Jem tells her to be patient, because the snowman 'won't be black long.' Sure enough, as soon as the earthy snowman is packed with fresh, white snow, it begins to take on the look of a typical snowman. Above all else, the snowman even looks like Mr. Avery, who the children detest. As matters stand, Scout and Jem are extremely proud of their creation.

Later that night, Scout is woken up gently by Atticus: Miss Maudie's house is burning. What is most interesting about this fire is the panoramic view of the scene we get from the children's perspective; all of Maycomb seems to be fighting the fire. Men and cars throng the street where Miss Maudie's house is located. More men are pushing the old Maycomb firetruck to the scene of the fire. Meanwhile, other men are helping to retrieve and to save some of Miss Maudie's furniture from the burning house. Even Atticus is in on the action; he is seen carrying Miss Maudie's most prized possession, her oak rocking chair, out of the house.

In the meantime, Boo Radley covers Scout up with a blanket while she is entranced by the chaotic scene before her. She doesn't realize what Boo has done for her until later. As the fire recedes and the activity dies down, both Jem and Scout are sad that their snowman has also been destroyed.

As far as a symbol for racism, the fire foreshadows the trial by fire that will test the societal integrity of Maycomb in the wake of the Tom Robinson trial. Also, the destruction of the black and white snowman represents the racism that will threaten the peace and solidarity of both the black and white citizens of Maycomb.

We definitely see how racism affects everyone, both black and white, as the trial commences. For example, the children encounter racism from Lula, a member of Calpurnia's congregation, who doesn't want the children to attend the predominantly black church. Meanwhile, Aunt Alexandra thinks that Atticus should dispense with Calpurnia's service, as she thinks that Calpurnia will prove to be a bad influence on the children, particularly Scout. The most egregious case of racist behavior would have to be that displayed by Mr. Ewell.

In the end, just as some of Miss Maudie's most prized possessions were able to be saved from the fire, Maycomb manages to preserve some element of integrity and decency in the wake of the trial. For example, Boo Radley's kind gesture with the blanket foreshadows the part he plays in saving Scout and Jem from Mr. Ewell's attack later in the novel. Another example is Calpurnia's defense of the children when Lula's ugly behavior surfaces.

The message is that, although the fire destroys Miss Maudie's house, it doesn't destroy the resilience of the human spirit. Likewise, racism does not destroy the best elements of Maycomb society despite its polarizing destructiveness.

What is the main message of The Cay by Theodore Taylor?

Theodore Taylor imparts several messages in his novel The Cay, but I think the most important one is that of anti-racism. Phillip, the young boy in the book, has been raised to believe that black people are inferior to him. His mother does not like for him to go down to the docks where many Black men work, and she tells him,

"They are not the same as you, Phillip. They are different and they live differently. That's the way it must be." (Taylor 36)

When the ship Phillip and his mother are aboard is torpedoed, Phillip ends up on a raft with Timothy, a black man who worked on the ship. Almost immediately Phillip decides he does not like Timothy, and he acts like a spoiled brat, demanding water and acting as though he is better than Timothy. Eventually, though, Phillip realizes that Timothy really does have his best interest at heart. Timothy even protects Phillip with his own body when a huge storm hits the cay where they end up stranded.

By the time Timothy dies in the book, Phillip loves him like he does his own father. The message is that the color of one's skin does not define who that person is. Most children at some time in their lives are told by an adult that everyone is the same on the inside and that the color of one's skin does not matter. This book brings that message home.

In "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe, how does the story gain the reader's interest from the first sentence and continue to keep his...

"Hooks" are imperative for any type of writing. Short stories, such as Edgar Allan Poe's "A Tell-Tale Heart," are no exception to this rule. Like many of his stories, Poe uses the second person "you" as well as suspense to engage the reader.

From the first line of the story, the reader is "hooked" by the attention-grabbing first sentence: "TRUE!—NERVOUS—VERY, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?" Not only does Poe engage us with his use of an interjection in all capital letters followed by an exclamation point ("True!), but he also speaks right to us, addressing us with the universal "you." Additionally, he asks us a rhetorical question which is suspenseful in nature and peaks our interest. What on Earth did he do to give us the impression that he's crazy???

Throughout the rest of the story, his diction demands our attention by again speaking to the reader directly: "Hearken! and observe how healthily—how calmly I can tell you the whole story." We are told to listen to his story, but he continues to lead us on without giving us the clear details for his rationale:

You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded—with what caution—with what foresight—with what dissimulation I went to work!

When he finally does begin to give us details, he does so in a very drawn out process, detailing each night he enters the old man's chambers, which certainly adds to the suspenseful mood. It isn't until the eighth night of stalking his victim that he acts, and even on this night, he is very meticulous in detailing his progress. In fact, he is so patient in his act that a "watch's minute hand move(d) more quickly than did (his)." Standing in the chamber, he keeps "quite still and said nothing. For a whole hour (he) did not move a muscle." The reader is kept on his toes and feels the narrator's contained anxiety, yearning to learn his next move. 

Finally, even when he is visited by the police officers, the narrator keeps us in suspense through the use of dramatic irony. He states, "I smiled,—for what had I to fear? I bade the gentlemen welcome. " He knows what's under the floor boards. We know what's under the floor boards. BUT will the police ever find out???

What is Happy's plan for his life in Death of a Salesman?

In Act One, Happy and Biff plan to open a sporting goods business. Happy came up with the idea the last time he was in Florida. He explains it to his parents, as follows:

"We form two basketball teams, see? Two water-polo teams. We play each other. It's a million dollars' worth of publicity. Two brothers, see? The Loman Brothers. Displays in the Royal Palms -- all the hotels. And banners over the ring and the basketball court: 'Loman Brothers.' Baby, we could sell sporting goods!"

This plan is supported by both Willy and Linda, though Linda probably only supports it because the plan fits into her husband's grand expectations for their sons, particularly Biff. 

Happy's plan, as you probably notice, is not very detailed. Instead, it relies on his own sense of grandiosity -- learned from his father -- and Biff's former reputation as a great high school athlete. 

In Act Two, after Biff admits that he failed to secure a loan from Bill Oliver and that he has given up on trying to fulfill his father's expectations, Happy decides that he will continue to carry out his father's vision of being a "number-one man." First, he says that he's going to run his department (probably sales) "before the year is up." This seems highly unlikely. Happy gives his title as "assistant buyer," though Biff suspects that he is probably "one of the two assistants to the assistant."

Near the end of the play, Happy insists that he will stay on in the city and "beat this racket." He looks at Biff, with his chin set and repeats: "The Loman Brothers!" Biff rebukes this by saying, "I know who I am, kid." This exchange reveals that Happy insists on carrying out his father's dreams, or perhaps his delusions, of grandeur. Though Willy is dead, Happy will continue to try to live up to the old man's expectations. So, really, Happy has no individual plan for his life, and no individual dreams. His goal is to fulfill his father's dreams: 

"He had a good dream. It's the only dream you can have -- to come out number-one man. He fought it out here, and this is where I'm gonna win it for him."

How does Harriet Beecher Stowe portray white southerners?

Stowe portrays white Southerners, specifically slaveholders, in a variety of ways. On the one hand, there was Mr. Shelby, Uncle Tom's first owner, who sold him due to debt. Mr Shelby is a decent man, but he sells Tom out of financial need. We see in his wife's reaction to the news (she is bitterly opposed to it) some evidence that even slaveholders could be aware of the immorality of the institution of slavery. Describing slavery as a "bitter, bitter, most accursed thing," she unsuccessfully tries to change her husband's mind. Similarly, St. Clare, who purchases Tom, is a decent man who would have granted freedom to Tom had he not been murdered, and Shelby's son is equally sympathetic to Tom and other enslaved people.

But the enduring image of the book, and one that outraged readers, was that of the evil Simon Legree. Legree is a profane, brutal, wicked man who, "blinded by furious, despotic will," beats Tom to death in one of the book's final chapters. For Stowe, Legree is meant to represent slavery incarnate, and his brutal murder of Tom, a near-saintly figure, demonstrates the evil nature of the institution. For Southerners, who by the 1850s were claiming that slavery was a "positive good," one in which benevolent masters treated their slaves with paternalistic kindness, Legree represented a mockery of the image they tried to portray. The overall portrayal of slavery as brutal and dehumanizing angered Southerners even as it gave a shot in the arm to the abolitionist movement in the North.

What are examples of solutions in science?

In science, a solution is defined as a type of homogenous mixture. Examples of solutions include salt water, sugar water, and Kool Aide.

Mixtures are made up of more two or more substances. Unlike chemical reactions, no new substances are created when substances are combined within a mixture. A homogenous mixture is a mixture that has a uniform composition. This means that the substances within a mixture are uniformly dispersed and cannot be easily differentiated from one another.

A solute and a solvent are the two parts of a solution. The solute is dissolved in the solvent. The word dissolve can be traced back to the Latin word dissolvere, which means “to loosen”. The solute is thing that is dissolved. The solvent is the substance that does the dissolving.

When a solute is dissolved in a solvent, the solute particles become surrounded by solvent particles. The phrase “likes dissolve likes” implies that nonpolar substances will dissolve in other nonpolar substances. Likewise, polar substances will dissolve in other polar substances. When a polar substance is dissolved in another polar substance, opposite charges attract one another.

Define: "By all the vows that ever men have broke (In number more than ever women spoke) In that same place thou hast appointed me Tomorrow...

Hermia vows to meet Lysander and run away with him according to the plan that he's just laid out in these lines from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. There's a bit of humor here: she swears by all the vows that men have ever broken, which she claims outnumber all the vows ever spoken by women in the first place. It’s a little dig at the faithlessness of men. Maybe she’s concerned that Lysander is insincere in his claims to love her – after all, Demetrius switched his affections from Helena to Hermia almost instantaneously, and she could be worried that Lysander will one day do the same. Maybe she’s just having a little good-natured joke at his expense and they laugh together. Either is possible, it’s just one of many decisions directors and actors make when rehearsing the play.

In the novel Lord of the Flies, Golding suggests that children are innocent. To what extent do you agree with this statement?

Throughout the novel Lord of the Flies, Golding suggests that children are innocent. He makes a valid argument that, void of societal restrictions and parental influence, children's morality can sway between good and evil. He uses the littluns to portray childhood innocence. The littluns have a difficult time choosing between Ralph and Jack as their leaders and rely mostly on others for protection. They do not understand the difference between good and evil and behave according to their physical needs and desires. In my opinion, I agree with some of Golding's belief that children are born innocent. I believe that environmental influences impact a child's behavior and their ability to reason. This is a classic argument between nature vs. nurture. Nurture plays a significant role in a child's moral, physical, and intellectual development. From another perspective, many Christians subscribe to the belief that we, as humans, are all born sinners. To quote Psalm 51:5, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." Throughout the novel, it becomes evident that the littluns are attracted to barbarism, and eventually fall victim to their inherent sinful nature.

How did foreign relations and territorial expansion result in positive and negative consequences for a new republic?

Foreign relations and territorial expansion had positive and negative consequences for the United States. There were issues with other countries affecting the United States immediately after we became independent. Great Britain and Spain encouraged the Native Americans to attack us. Great Britain and Spain also interfered with our trade. Additionally, Great Britain wouldn’t leave the forts in the West. Since we didn’t have a strong enough or a big enough army to deal with these issues, military action would have been an unwise course of action. Because these events were having negative effects on us, we had to do something about them.

When Washington was President, he negotiated treaties with Great Britain and with Spain to resolve these issues. Jay’s Treaty was negotiated with Great Britain while Pinckney’s Treaty was negotiated with Spain. Jay’s Treaty resulted in Great Britain agreeing to leave the forts in the West. We also were allowed to do some trading in the West Indies. With Pinckney’s Treaty, we were able to use the Mississippi River and store products at New Orleans. The agreement also established the border with Spanish Florida. These agreements sent a message that we wouldn’t let other countries push us around.

The acquiring of territory also had positive and negative effects for our country. By acquiring territory, we were able to expand our country. When we bought the Louisiana Purchase from France, we doubled the size of our country. Unfortunately, acquiring territory also led to some problems. The Native Americans didn’t trust us and were attacking Americans as they moved to the West. This eventually led to some conflicts with the Native Americans. As a result of the Battle of Fallen Timbers, we were able to defeat the Native Americans who then had to give up land and move west.

There were positive and negative effects of our relations with other countries and with territorial expansion. Through skillful leadership, delicate negotiations, and some fighting, we were able to send a message that, as a new country, we would not be pushed around by other nations.

The details of the photo leads Thibault to believe that the girl had done what in The Lucky One?

The details of the photograph leads Thibault to believe that the girl had gone to a fair in North Carolina with someone who had been deployed to Iraq.

In the photograph, there is a banner directly behind the blonde girl which reads Hampton Fairgrounds. A German shepherd stands by her side, and there are two young men in the background standing in line to buy tickets; on the back of the photograph is a handwritten message which reads 'Keep safe! E.'

Logan Thibault found the photograph while out on one of his morning runs during his deployment in Iraq. When he returns to Colorado, he decides to search for the woman. From the photograph, he is led to believe that the girl lives in North Carolina; one of the two young men in the photograph is wearing a shirt with the words 'Davidson' on the front. An internet search turns up information about a reputable college in North Carolina named Davidson College.

When a call to the Hampton Chamber of Commerce confirms that the Hampton Fair is held every summer, Thibault thinks that he is on the right track. He resolves to find the fairgrounds so that he can confirm that the photograph was taken there. Thibault believes that this will lead him to the woman in the photograph.

In Okay for Now, what characters do some of the birds represent?

In the book, a picture of a bird begins every chapter. One of the pictures shows an Arctic Tern, and this fascinates Doug because it depicts a swiftly falling bird, "heading down into the water, about to crash, his neck yanked back because he knows he's going to smack into it." Above all, Doug notices the "terrified eye" of the bird. In thinking of the eye, Doug suddenly remembers Lucas, his older brother, who is a soldier in Vietnam.

In the story, the falling Arctic tern represents Lucas, who is injured during his service in Vietnam. When he returns home, Lucas has to deal with the aftermath of war; as a wounded warrior, his injuries are both physical and mental.

Chapter Two begins with a picture of the Red-Throated Divers. In the picture, a mother bird is flanked by two junior birds, while a baby bird nestles under her wings. Neither the junior birds nor the mother bird is looking at each other; the gazes of both parties are turned in opposite directions. Meanwhile, the baby bird, sitting securely under his mother's wings, is looking with interest towards the junior birds. Doug thinks that the baby bird looks like "maybe it wanted to swim where the other two birds were" but may be afraid to try.

As for the mother bird, Doug observes that her "neck was turned all around about as far as it could possibly go, and she was looking far away, at something a long way out from the picture. She was looking at a place she wanted to go but couldn't, because she didn't know how to get away." The picture appears to represent Doug, his mother, and his two brothers, Christopher and Lucas. We get some indication how this may be the case during a family interaction.

At dinner one night, Christopher and Doug's father both laugh at Doug because he only gets paid every other Saturday. Doug tells us that, while the two are laughing at him, his mother "turned and looked out the window, at something far away." Both Christopher and Lucas are beyond her seeming influence, but she enjoys a close relationship with Doug; the baby bird in the picture perfectly represents Doug.

Chapter Four begins with a picture of the Black-Backed Gull. Doug tells us that, in the picture, the bird appears to be dying. A large wing takes up much of the picture. The bird is bleeding, and there is "thick red blood all over the dark feathers." Doug continues to describe the bird for us:

His beak was wide open and his tongue was stretched out into a point. He was screeching while his blood ran. His head was pulled far back, like he was taking one last look at the sky that he would never fly in again. And his round eye told you he knew that everything was ruined forever.

He tells us that he would gladly have given Joe Pepitone's jacket to save this bird. Prior to seeing this picture, Doug describes the moment Christopher fails to recognize Joe Pepitone's jacket on him, as he torments Doug about his bird drawings. Later, when the police question Christopher about his possible culpability in the Tools 'n' More Hardware store robbery, Christopher is devastated. After the police officers leave, Christopher tries to tell his mother that he wasn't the one who broke into the store, but his mother doesn't believe him either.

When Doug goes into his bedroom that night, he tells us that he knows Christopher had been crying.

The covers were drawn up over his head. You know, when someone has been crying, something gets left in the air. It's not something you can see, or smell, or feel. Or draw. But it's there. It's like the screech of the Black-Backed Gull, crying out into the empty white space around him. You can't hear it when you look at the picture. But that doesn't mean it isn't there.

From the text, it would appear that the Black-Backed Gull represents Christopher. Caught in the shadows of his older brother and his abusive father, Christopher is inwardly dying, and yet no one seems to be able to help him. Like the Black-Backed Gull, he seems to be plunging downward into ruin.

How does Boo Radley demonstrate The Golden Rule in To Kill a Mockingbird?

Boo Radley practices the Golden Rule of “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (Matt. 7:12) when he sews Jem's pants, when he places gifts in the knothole of the Radley tree, and, of course, when he defends the children against the maniacal Bob Ewell.

• In Chapter 6, while the children consider Boo a "haint" who does malicious things, he, in turn, is charitable towards them. After Jem tries to peek into the window in the effort to see Boo, he runs when Mr. Nathan comes outside with a shotgun, and in so doing, he catches his pants on fencing and has to take them off in order to flee. Later, when he returns for them lest his father learn where he has been. Later, Jem tells Scout,

"When I went back, they were folded across the fence...They'd been sewed up. Not like a lady sewed'em, like somethin' I'd try to do."

• In Chapter 7, Jem and Scout have become accustomed to looking in the knothole where Boo has been leaving them little gifts. But, one day they discover two artistically carved soap figures that bear a strong resemblance to the Atticus children. This gift from the soul and heart of Boo Radley displays much more than any feeling that the children have demonstrated toward him, and Jem is very moved by this gratuitous act of love. Scout observes,

Jem stared at me so long I asked what was the matter, but got Nothing, Scout for an answer. When we went home, Jem put the dolls in his trunk.

• In Chapter 28, the recluse Boo risks his own safety as well as his life to defend Jem and Scout against the brutal attack of Bob Ewell. Obviously without concern for his own safety, Boo bravely re-enters society after years of seclusion and kills Ewell in defense of Jem and Scout, an act of love that far exceeds anything the children have offered him. "Thank you for my children, Arthur," Atticus says to Boo.
  Regarding Boo's heroic act, Sheriff Tate remarks, 

"I never heard tell that it's against the law for a citizen to do his utmost to prevent a crime from being committed, which is exactly what he did...."