What is the character or personality of the narrator in the story "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas"?

The narration in "The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas" is given in the first person using a written voice that is very commanding and present. Where many first person narratives are designed to draw the reader into the story, the narrator in this story is herself external to the story, observing, commenting, and examining. 

LeGuin employs a very dry, ironic voice for this piece, demanding the reader question all the elments she offers up. Her narrator is ironic, even cynical, constantly breaking the fourth-wall, addressing the reader directly, casting doubts on the very things being told. The narrator has a sense of humor, but leans more toward wit than belly-laughs.

The narrator presents "facts": a culture dependent on the suffering of a single child scapegoat. But through the narrator's own cynical questioning the reader is forced to ask if the survival of the culture is worth the suffering of the sacrifice--and even more, if that need is real, or imagined.

The narrator of the story fits LeGuin's goals. It is deceptive in its open quality, making it easy to ignore how powerfully the narrator guides the eye and mind of the reader, demanding questions and inisting on evaluations of everything--including the nature of the narrator.

How are the Romantic notions of nature, individualism, imagination, and emotion expressed in "Thanatopsis?"

William Cullen Bryant's "Thanatopsis," or "Meditation on Death" is written in the contemplative tone of the Romantic poet. This poem reflects the notions of individualism, nature, imagination, and emotion in the following ways:

• Individualism

Nature speaks in different and various ways to each person:

To him who in the love of Nature holds
                                    ...she speaks
A various language

However, when one dies, this individualism is "surrender[ed] up to Nature as the person will then "mix forever with the elements."

•  Nature 

Nature begins to speak to the reader in line 17: "Comes a still voice--" In lines 22-23, and 25-26 as it expresses the idea that man is reclaimed by the Earth where he mixes with the elements. 

Earth, that nourished thee, shall claim
Thy growth, to be resolved to earth again....
To mix forever with the elements,
To be a brother to the insensible rock...

• Imagination

With personification, Bryant gives life to "the venerable woods," and "Old Ocean" and in lines 37-45, Bryant creates the metaphor of "the great tomb of man"; that is, he compares the earth to a tomb. 
In fact, the entire poem is imaginative as there is much figurative language throughout the verses. Nature is personified as a female who speaks to man in the verses, and there are many sensory images of light and dark and color, and feelings, and sounds throughout.

"Thanatopsis" evokes a sense of melancholy mystery with images and diction. For instance in lines 12-14, the poet writes,

And breathless darkness, and the narrow house,
Make thee to shudder, and grow sick at heart;--
Go forth, under the open sky,...

In lines 55-82, there is the sense of fear, but it is followed by the consolation that Nature will be there:

...the dead reign there alone.
So shalt thou rest,...

                    ....but, sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave,
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.

What will happen to the narrator after the story in "The Pit and the Pendulum"?

There is no real "correct" answer to this question, unfortunately, but there are some things that can be speculated upon. For instance, at the end of the story, the narrator is saved from his death in the pit by the Frenchman General Lasalle. The narrator tells us that General Lasalle was a part of the French army, and that army had taken over his prison, the city of Toledo, and apparently the Inquisition (of course, by saying “The Inquisition was in the hands of its enemies”, the narrator could just mean the branch of the Inquisition in that particular city, or he could mean the Inquisition in its entirety—either way, it is not historically accurate). But considering he was saved from his death initially, it is more than likely that he is saved from death permanently, so the narrator was probably questioned about his time in the prison and then allowed to return home.

Of course, as I said, nothing is certain—this is all merely speculation.

The temperature of the Moon varies between 110 degrees C and - 170 degrees C. What can be the reason for this?

The extreme temperatures on Moon are due to the lack of atmosphere. Moon has an average daytime temperature of about 100 degrees C and a night time temperature, as low as -173 degrees C. The lack of atmosphere means that there are no gases and clouds to hold the heat and spread it to the colder regions. There are also no oceans to hold the heat and loss the heat by evaporation, thus, maintaining the surface temperature. Due to all these factors, Moon surface warms up quickly when it faces the Sun and loses all this heat when it is shaded from the Sun.

To compare, Earth is also about the same distance from Sun. Yet, our temperatures are more moderate, since the atmosphere traps some heat and distributes it. Our oceans also help in storing the heat and losing heat by evaporation of water, thus maintaining a more hospitable temperature range, as compared to the Moon.

Hope this helps.  

How did the Constitution fix representation from the Articles of Confederation?

Under the plan of government created by the Articles of Confederation, each state had one vote in Congress. The large states believed this practice was unfair because each voting representative represented far more people in the large states than each voting representative represented in the small states. When the Founding Fathers met to discuss a new plan of government, the large states wanted this to change.

There was significant discussion about representation among the Founding Fathers. The Virginia Plan proposed that representation in the legislative branch should be based on the population of a state. This plan would give the large states more representatives than the small states. The New Jersey Plan wanted there to be equal representation in the legislative branch. Each state would have the same number of representatives.

Roger Sherman proposed a compromise. This compromise was known as the Great Compromise. There would be two houses of Congress. In the House of Representatives, representation would be based on the population of the state. The large states would have more representatives than the small states. In the Senate, there would be equal representation. Each state would have two senators.

Once this compromise was reached, the Founding Fathers could move forward in resolving other issues that needed to be discussed during the Constitutional Convention.

What are the main features of the modern periodic table?

Groups and Periods:

The modern periodic table is arranged in rows and columns. The rows are called periods and the columns are called groups.

• 
  Periods: The periods (rows) of the periodic table contain elements with the same number of electron shells. A number is usually written to the left of each period. This number is called the period number and is an indication of the number of electron shells in each period's elements.

Sections of periods six and seven are often pulled out of the main periodic table and placed at the bottom. Elements in these sections are collectively called the Inner Transition Elements. The section of elements that are pulled from period six are classified as the Lanthanide Series elements. The section of elements that are pulled from period 7 are classified as the Actinide Series elements.

• 
  Groups: The groups (columns) of the periodic table contain elements with similiar physical and chemical properties. The groups of the periodic table are often labeled with a Roman numeral followed by the letter "A" or the letter "B". The elements in the groups that are labeled with the letter "A", are called the Main Group elements. The elements in the groups that are labeled with the letter "B, are called the Transition Elements.

Four groups have been given special family names: Group IA elements are called the Alkali Metals. Group IIA elements are called Alkaline Earth Metals. Group VIIA elements are called the Halogens. Group VIIIA elements are called the Noble Gases.

Element Squares:

Each row and column is composed of small squares. Each square contains information about a different element. The information contained in each square includes:

• 
  Element Symbol: The element symbol for each element is composed of one or two letters. When the element symbol is composed of one letter, the letter is capitalized. When the element symbol is composed of two letters, the first letter is capitalized and the second letter is written in lower case. 

• 
  Element Name: The name of each element is usually written in each box.

• 
  Atomic Number: Each element has a different atomic number. The atomic number is equal to the number of protons in each element. If an atom is neutral (not charged), the atomic number is also equal to the number of electrons in each element. The elements on the periodic table are arranged by increasing atomic number.

• 
  Atomic Mass: The atomic mass is the average weighted mass of all of the isotopes of an element. Isotopes are different forms of an element which contain different numbers of neutrons. The term "weighted mass" indicates that the mass has been calculated using both the mass of each isotope and its percent abundance. The atomic mass can be used to approximate the sum of the protons and neutrons in a particular type of atom.

Metals, Metalloids, and Nonmetals:

The periodic table can also be used to determine if an element is a metal, metalloid, or nonmetal. Most periodic tables show a zigzag line on the right side of the periodic table. Elements that are located along the zigzag line are usually classified as metalloids. Metalloids have properties of both metals and nonmetals. The elements located to the right of the metalloids are classified as nonmetals. The elements located to the left of the metalloids (excluding hydrogen) are classified as metals. Hydrogen is classified as a nonmetal despite being located with the metals. 

What happens to magma when it reaches the surface of a volcano?

Magma is nothing but molten rocks that travel from the interior of a planet to its surface. When this magma reaches the surface of a volcano, it is known as lava. The magma may cause violent volcanic eruption (in which the lava is violently thrown upwards and ultimately outwards) or may simply pour out slowly. When the magma is thick, violent volcanic eruption may happen. Nonviscous magma, on the other hand, generally results in a nonviolent outpouring of magma onto the planet's surface. Violent eruptions may cause part of the volcano to be destroyed. A great example of this is Mount St. Helens in Washington, USA, which lost a major portion of the volcano during its 1980 eruption. Ultimately, the lava cools down and solidifies and forms new rocks and surface layers. 

Hope this helps. 

Analyze the quote "Your father does not know how to teach" from To Kill a Mockingbird.

Miss Caroline was Scout's first schoolteacher. The young woman was new to Maycomb, and not prepared for the way of life there. She had fresh ideas about teaching. When Miss Caroline found out Scout already knew how to read, she was shocked and displeased. Miss Caroline believes children should not be able to read before they start school. Miss Caroline gave Scout specific instructions to give her father:

"Now you tell your father not to teach you any more. It's best to begin reading with a fresh mind. You tell him I’ll take over from here and try to undo the damage. . . Your father does not know how to teach" (Chapter 2).

Miss Caroline thought it was damaging to Scout for her to read with her father. She insisted that Atticus was not a teacher, and therefore would not know and keep up with the various strategies for teaching reading. Scout could not even recall her father specifically teaching her. Instead, reading had seemed to come naturally to young Scout. She read well for someone her age, and reading was an activity she enjoyed.

In Romeo and Juliet, why is Nurse looking for Romeo?

In Act II, Scene IV of William Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Juliet, Nurse has come looking for Romeo and wishes to speak to him. Juliet has sent Nurse on the task of finding Romeo to pass on some message of love and perhaps arrange another secret meeting, but Nurse has her priorities! She tells Romeo that she wont pass on Juliet's message to him, and that she wants to be sure that he is true to her. She warns him that if he is "dealing [Juliet] double" or playing with her heart, it would be a weak and cowardly thing for him to do. Romeo protests and assures Nurse that he has no such intentions to break Juliet's heart or lead her astray. In fact, he asks Nurse to arrange for Juliet to come to confession at Friar Laurence's cell, where the two will be married. 

The rate of the reaction: 2NO + O2 -> 2NO2 is doubled when the concentration of is doubled, but increases by a factor of 8 when the...

For the given chemical reaction: 

The rate of reaction is given as the product of concentrations of the reactants, raised to the power by their respective coefficients. Thus the rate of this reaction is given as:

Rate of reaction =

where the order of reaction with respect to NO is 2 (exponent to the concentration terms of NO) and with respect to oxygen is 1. And the overall order of reaction is 2 + 1 = 3.

Let us verify this result. If we increase the concentration of oxygen by a factor of 2, using the equation, we can see that the rate of reaction will also increase by 2, since the exponent of oxygen concentration is only 1. In comparison, if we double of concentration of both NO and oxygen, the overall rate of equation is be (2)^2 x (2) = 4 x 2 = 8 times the original rate. These results are in accordance with the given information.

Thus, the overall order of reaction is 3, consisting of order of reaction 1 with respect to oxygen and 2 with respect to NO.

Hope this helps.

In Chapter 7 of To Kill a Mockingbird, what have Jem and Scout found in the knothole?

In Chapter 7, Jem and Scout find several items in the knot-hole of the Radley tree. The first item they find is a ball of twine. At first, the children think one of their classmates is using the knot-hole as a hiding place. Later on, Jem and Scout find two small images carved out of soap. The figures resemble Scout and Jem, and the children begin to wonder who made them. In the following weeks, the children find a whole pack of chewing gum and a tarnished spelling bee medal. Four days after finding the medal, Jem and Scout find a pocket watch on a chain with an aluminum knife. Scout and Jem decide to write a thank you letter to the person who is leaving gifts for them in the knot-hole. On the day Jem attempts to leave the thank you letter in the knot-hole, he finds out that it has been filled in with cement. Jem and Scout are both devasted. Jem asks Nathan Radley why he filled the knot-hole with cement. Nathan claims that the tree was dying, but in reality, he just wanted to stop Boo from communicating with the children.

What are 6 important facts from the story?

If I understand this question correctly, it is asking for any six facts that the reader is given through the entire play of The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare.  

Fact number one:  The play begins in a Sicilian palace.  

Fact number two: Polixenes is the King of Bohemia.

Fact number three: Leontes is the King of Sicilly.

Fact number four: Polixenes and Leontes are long time friends of each other. Polixenes is visiting his friend Leontes, and has been there for about nine months.  

Fact number five: Leontes is married.  He is married to Hermione. Hermione is also very pregnant.  She has been pregnant for about nine months.  

Fact number six: Polixenes flees Sicily with a man named Camillo.   

Extra fact: Leontes throws his own pregnant wife in jail where she gives birth to a daughter. 

What is the result of heating washing soda (Na2CO3) ?

Na2CO3 is sodium carbonate. Like most metal carbonates it undergoes thermal decomposition to produce carbon dioxide. Here's the equation:

Sodium carbonate absorbs water to form a decahydrate, meaning that each molecule is associated with 10 water molecules. As it's heated it begins to dehydrate, or lose water molecules to form the anhydrous compound. The anhydride begins to gradually decompose to CO2 and Na2O at a temperature near its melting point of 851ºC. However, it can be melted. Molten sodium carbonate is used as flux in glass production.

The pattern for the thermal decomposition of carbonates is the production of CO2 and an oxide of the metal. Baking soda, a similar compound, is less stable and decomposes at a lower temperature to produce CO2, Na2O and water. Calcium carbonate is heated to produce the calcium oxide used in cement through a similar chemical reaction.

What is the amount of energy required to convert one gram of mercury into gold?

The actual answer is that it would take an unbelievable amount of energy to convert one gram of mercury into gold.  It would be such a large amount that I'm not even sure that it could be accurately calculated.  Let me explain why below.

The only way to change one atom into a different atom is through nuclear chemistry.  Because the atomic number of an atom (the number of protons in the nucleus) is what defines the identity of that atom, you have to either add to or subtract from the number of protons in that atom and the only way to do that is through nuclear chemistry.  Since mercury (Hg) and gold (Au) sit right next to each other on the periodic table, it is possible to take an atom of mercury (atomic number = 80) and remove one of its protons to convert it into an atom of gold (atomic number = 79).  Bombarding certain isotopes of mercury with neutrons will accomplish this nuclear conversion but it requires a lot of energy and can only produce a few atoms at a time.  To actually produce one gram of gold by this method would require an enormous amount of time and energy and would cost much, much more that the current price of a gram of gold.

How did the Enlightenment affect people's ideas about government?

The Enlightenment affected people’s attitudes about government in two main ways.  It changed what they thought about who should govern them and it changed what they thought about the purpose of government.

Before the Enlightenment, essentially everyone agreed that countries should be governed by monarchs.  They believed that God had appointed certain people to rule over others.  This seemed to them like the logical way to run a country. With the Enlightenment, however, people came to think that this did not make sense.  They started to think that the people should be able to choose their own rulers.  This led them towards believing in democracy.

When monarchs ruled countries, it was pretty well understood that they ruled for their own benefit first.  They were the embodiment of their country and so it was right for them to do things that would benefit themselves.  This changed during the Enlightenment.  People started to think that the people were more important.  They started to think that government was supposed to help the people, not the rulers.  They came to believe that the government was supposed to protect the rights of the people.

In these ways, the Enlightenment changed many people’s beliefs about who should govern and what the purpose of the government should be.

Using pages 1-19 of Fahrenheit 451, give a summary of the world in which Montag lives.

In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, the main character, Guy Montag, is experiencing a realization about his life that went heretofore unnoticed. In the first few pages, the reader is immersed in a strange world where people don't talk to one another or care about their surroundings.

The world in which Montag lives is futuristic in the sense that it represents a world where reading books is illegal and anyone who is found to own books runs the risk of having their house burned down. Firemen start fires in Montag's world rather than put them out.

Clarisse McClellan, (the girl who points out discrepancies in reality for Montag), questions him about a time when things were different: "Is it true that long ago firemen put fires out instead of going to start them?" (6). However, Montag admonishes Clarisse for this question because he doesn't know of another time, "No. Houses have always been fireproof, take my word for it," (6).

Clarisse informs Montag about things he never knew of or had since forgotten about: things like dew on the morning grass, the "man in the moon," and the taste of rain. She points out that people are always moving so quickly that they no longer notice the world around them. "I sometimes think drivers don't know what grass is, or flowers, because they never see them slowly," (6). She also intrigues him by talking about her family and the way they talk to one another. Judging from Montag's reaction to this, Clarisse realizes this is an uncommon circumstance; "It's like being a pedestrian, only rarer...Oh, we're most peculiar," (7).

Instead of talking to one another, the people in Montag's world get lost in their own heads while listening to Seashells (thimble radios they wear in their ears), and attempt suicide often. After a failed attempt by Mildred, the men who are sent from the emergency hospital are through pumping Mildred's stomach and replacing her blood when they confide in Montag that it's a regular occurrence, "We get these cases nine or ten a night. Got so many, starting a few years ago, we had these special machines built," (13).

This may be due to the fact that there is no camaraderie, no loyalty, and no connections to others in Montag's world. However, the first 19 pages pique the reader's interest and offer hope of change for the better.

In Fahrenheit 451, why was the city bombed?

In Fahrenheit 451, there is some sort of war going on between two factions (Montag’s society and another), and the reader knows very little about why they are fighting.  There are only a few mentions of the war in the novel.  Some examples of where we see the impact of the war is a radio report that war can be declared any day; jets going over the city every day and making the firehouse “tremble”; and finally, at the end of the novel when Montag’s city is bombed and Montag sees the jets from the hobo camp he has joined.

Bradbury keeps the reason for the war secret perhaps in an attempt to let us see just how far this society has fallen.  People in this society seem very unconcerned about the war; it appears to be just another thing they put up with and don’t even notice.  In addition, the novel was published in 1953 during the Cold War.  Nuclear war was a real threat to people in the United States, and perhaps Bradbury is proposing that we don’t be complacent in its seriousness. 

I’ve always imagined that the war is being fought between Montag’s dystopian society and those who want to change it back to a society of individuality and freedom.  However, there’s no evidence to this in the novel, but it would have been a great idea for a second book about Montag.

Discuss the humor of the aunt in Swann's Way: "Combray" by Marcel Proust

Marcel Proust offers, in vivid detail, a narrative of his childhood in the first section of Swann's Way, titled "Combray". Throughout his story, he offers poignant facts about secondary characters in his life, such as his aunt Léonie, in a way that demonstrates that, even those peripheral personalities, are equally important in the formation of the strange, unique and complex man that Proust becomes. 

Aunt Léonie is, indeed, a comical character. Proust does not directly mock her with any purpose to humiliate her, but he does point out her extremely quirky nature: her obsession with death, the wild youth that her family would never acknowledge, her hypochondria, and her penchant for dipping a madeleine cookie in her tea.

And suddenly the memory returns. The taste was that of the little crumb of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray [..]

This latter habit was one (of several) which Proust would grow up doing for Aunt Léonie, and which he would later on adopt it as a habit of his own. He would call this "the whole world in a cup". 

While "Combray" is the only time in the novel where Aunt Léonie will appear, her characteristics are strong enough to be learned by Proust for life.

My aunt had by degrees erased every other visitor’s name from her list, because they all committed the fatal error, in her eyes, of falling into one or other of the two categories of people she most detested.

As the reader will later realize, Proust's own quirky behaviors are nothing but a repetition of those of his aunt's. 

The reader may be able to relate to the relationship between Leonie and Proust at many different levels. We all have had, at some point, a family member who is considered "odd", "off" or "different" by members of the same family. Like Prousts's criticism of his aunt, his aim is not to show rejection, but to acknowledge her strange uniqueness while, subtlety, admitting that many of her flaws are also shared by him. 

In all, Proust gives us a candid, almost loving, description of someone in his family which is meant to be described as a very difficult individual. Instead of pointing at her quirky ways in a negative way, he just tells us about it the same way that one would tell funny stories about some interesting family members. Nevertheless, from snooping out of windows, to feigning illnesses, to making "people lists", to having her specific way of having tea, there is no dull moment with Aunt Léonie. It is no surprise that Proust sort of perpetuated her rare traits in his own personality. 

An earthquake occurs in the gulf of Alaska, 3600 km from Hawaii. The quake's seismic waves travel at about 560 kilometers per minute. The quake...

Seismic waves have to travel a distance of 3600 km and the speed of seismic waves is 560 km/min. Hence the seismic waves will reach Hawaii in :

time = distance/speed = 3600 km/560 km/min = 6.43 minutes.

The tsunami travels at a speed of 640 km/hr and will reach Hawaai in:

time of tsunami travel = 3600 km/640 km/hr = 5.625 hours or 337.5 minutes.

Thus, Hawaii will receive the earthquake, about 331 minutes (= 337.5 - 6.43) or 5.52 hours before it will be hit by the tsunami.

Thus, the islands of Hawaii will have an advance warning of about 5.52 hours of impending arrival of a possible tsunami. And that is the time available for preparing for the possible damages caused by the tsunami and clearing out the beaches and other coastal regions, etc.

Hope this helps. 

When was "Rip Van Winkle" written or published?

Rip Van Winkle was a short story written by Washington Irving under a pen name.  It was supposedly written when Irving was staying in England in the summer of 1818.  He had earlier in the day been reflecting on life back along the Hudson River Valley.  He mixed his real life experiences with an imaginative tale to create the story.  It was first published in 1819 in a work called The Sketch-Book.  This was a collection of short stories, including Rip Van Winkle.  Washington Irving published The Sketch-Book under the pen name Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.  The Sketch-Book became critically acclaimed during a time when there was little great American literature.  It was this publication that made Irving famous and launched him into a career as a renowned American writer.  

What was the importance of the battle of Britain?

The importance of the Battle of Britain was that Great Britain was able to hold out against a relentless aerial bombardment and inflict heavy losses on the German air force, thus denying Germany an opportunity to launch an invasion that probably would have knocked the British out of the war before the United States entered. Had this occurred, the war could have developed far differently, and the Germans would have been very difficult to dislodge from Western Europe, if indeed the United States and Germany went to war at all. The battle also pointed to the direction that World War II would take. Unlike World War I, strategic air strength would be the most important aspect of the war, and the side that could gain air superiority would have a huge advantage. Massive bombing campaigns against urban areas like the London Blitz of September would become a feature of the wars in Europe and Japan. The Battle of Britain also drew the United States closer to the war by forcing its hand, as it were. Fears that Great Britain would be unable to hold out against the Nazi war machine contributed to the passage of the Lend-Lease Act, which provided loans, military equipment, and other necessities to the British after it was approved in 1941. So the Battle of Britain was, along with Stalingrad, D-Day, and the Battle of the Bulge, one of the most significant turning points in the European theater of war. 

I am a new Computer Science student. Please tell me how you got to your conclusion so I can learn from it. I want to have an in depth understanding...

The advantage of a large memory cell is that you can store much larger numbers (and all data is, ultimately, numbers) in one cell, which generally improves the speed and reliability of data access.

The disadvantage is that you use up a larger portion of whatever data storage medium you are using on each word of data, and as a result can store less data overall.

You can think of it as sort of like carrying fruit in baskets, but with a rule that you're only allowed to put one fruit in each basket. If you have really large baskets, you can carry really big fruit in each one, but fewer fruit overall. So the optimal basket size will depend on whether you're carrying cherries or watermelons. For cherries you want lots of tiny baskets; for watermelons, you want a handful of huge baskets.

Using sign/magnitude notation, the largest 64-bit integers are +-2^63, which is 9,223,372,036,854,775,808.

That's... a really huge number. If you can find a way to encode a lot of data in individual numbers, this 64-bit integer might make sense. Otherwise, you're using 64 bits to store each number when you probably could have done with 8 or 16.

The largest 8-bit integers would be only +-2^7, which is 128. It's not hard to see why that might not be enough. But go up to 16-bit and you can already get as high as +-2^15, which is 32,768. YouTube appears to use unsigned 32-bit integers, because they once had a video get so many views that it had an overflow at 2^32, which is 4,294,967,296. (That's just about 4.3 billion; the world population is about 7.3 billion.)

If you store long ints that take up two 64-bit cells, you can go even bigger, and store signed integers as large as +-2^127, which is the even more ridiculous number 170,141,183,460,469,231,731,687,303,715,884,105,728. I can't think of a lot of situations where you'd actually need to go that large.

Remember that if you have huge numbers you can always switch to floating point and store numbers like 4.237428241e974; this particular example still only takes up 32 bits for the mantissa and 10 for the exponent. You lose precision that way, but how often do you need both hundreds of digits and perfect precision?

Evaluate the integral

Let's first evaluate the indefinite integral using the method of substitution,

Substitute 

 

substitute back  and add constant C to the solution,

Now let's evaluate the definite integral,

 

In Macbeth, Lady Macbeth says, "But screw your courage to the sticking place,/ And we’ll not fail." In your own words, explain what this means.

Lady Macbeth is telling Macbeth that as long as he is not afraid, their plan to kill Duncan will not fail.

When Macbeth tells his wife that three witches prophesized that he would be king, she is excited. However, Duncan does not name Macbeth as his heir. That means that the only way Macbeth will become king is by killing Duncan and getting rid of the king’s two sons. She fears that Macbeth doesn’t have it in him.

Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be
What thou art promised: yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o' the milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great;
Art not without ambition, but without
The illness should attend it … (Act 1, Scene 5)

Lady Macbeth knows her husband. He is not really the type to follow through on such a vicious plan. She points out that while he is ambitious, he will not do what needs to be done.  She doesn’t think he can kill Duncan.

Macbeth does indeed lose his nerve. Lady Macbeth makes a plan to kill Duncan and tells him all he has to do is follow it. When he still worries that they will fail, she tells him to be a man and do it.

What beast was't, then,
That made you break this enterprise to me?
When you durst do it, then you were a man;
And, to be more than what you were, you would
Be so much more the man. (Act 1, Scene 7)

Literally, the “sticking place” refers to a crossbow. A soldier would adjust the cross-bow and arrow to the proper place to make a shot. It is a metaphor for Macbeth adjusting his mindset to the point where he is brave enough to follow through with killing Duncan.

Lady Macbeth is successful in getting her husband to act, and even chides him when he doesn’t leave the knives behind in Duncan’s room to frame the guards they killed.  Malcolm and Donalbain both flee, afraid they are next.  Macbeth becomes king. The plan worked like a charm.

Although Macbeth asks the stars to hide their fire and seems really gung-ho about killing Duncan in the beginning of the play, he appears to be a man whose bark is worse than his bite. He might be ambitious, but he is also careful. His wife, on the other hand, gets things done. She does not care what the consequences of killing Duncan might be. She just wants Macbeth as king.

What are some quotes that show Lennie is mentally challenged in Of Mice and Men?

In Steinbeck's novella the writer uses irony when he gives one of his main characters the last name Small. Lennie is not small. He is a very large and strong man. Steinbeck describes him in contrast to George, the other main character:

Behind him walked his opposite, a huge man, shapeless of face, with large, pale eyes, and wide, sloping shoulders; and he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws. 

But even though Lennie is very large the name fits him because he has a child like mind. Today he would be considered mentally challenged. In the novel, however, he is described as a crazy bastard, crazy as a wedge, nuts and a cuckoo.

Lennie's personality is mostly described through indirect characterization. In his narration, Steinbeck never outwardly says Lennie is intellectually disabled. Rather, what Lennie says and how the other character's describe him in their dialogue reveals his character. In chapter one, George goes into a tirade about how Lennie's behavior and his obsession with soft things:

“You crazy son-of-a-bitch. You keep me in hot water all the time.” He took on the elaborate manner of little girls when they are mimicking one another. “Jus’ wanted to feel that girl’s dress—jus’ wanted to pet it like it was a mouse—Well, how the hell did she know you jus’ wanted to feel her dress? She jerks back and you hold on like it was a mouse. She yells and we got to hide in a irrigation ditch all day with guys lookin’ for us, and we got to sneak out in the dark and get outa the country. All the time somethin’ like that—all the time. I wisht I could put you in a cage with about a million mice an’ let you have fun.” 

In chapter three when George is talking to Slim he explains how he used to play tricks on Lennie because the big man wasn't smart. He also praises Lennie for being a good worker. He says,

“Jus’ tell Lennie what to do an’ he’ll do it if it don’t take no figuring. He can’t think of nothing to do himself, but he sure can take orders.” 

Later in the book when Lennie goes into Crooks' room the black man exploits Lennie's handicap when he suggests the big man doesn't remember anything he's told. Crooks says,

“A guy can talk to you an’ be sure you won’t go blabbin’. Couple of weeks an’ them pups’ll be all right. George knows what he’s about. Jus’ talks, an’ you don’t understand nothing.” 

In chapter five Curley's wife also comments on Lennie's intelligence but also compliments him when they are talking about petting soft things:

“You’re nuts,” she said. “But you’re a kinda nice fella. Jus’ like a big baby. But a person can see kinda what you mean. When I’m doin’ my hair sometimes I jus’ set an’ stroke it ‘cause it’s so soft.” 

Of course, Curley's wife tempts Lennie too much and the big man ends up breaking her neck when she begins screaming.

What is George's birthday in Of Mice and Men?

This is a good question, but the fact is that there is nothing in the story that tells us George's birthday.  In fact, the birthday of no one is mentioned or celebrated.  This point is significant. 

When it comes to George and Lennie, or other migrant workers, they have very little.  So, within this world, there is no talk of birthdays. In fact, people are so closed to each other and alienated, no one experiences community.  Lennie and George are the sole exceptions.  The reason for this is that the men live in a adverse environment, and so their goal is just to survive, which is no easy task. 

The only information that we have about George and his birth is that he, like Lennie, were born in Auburn.  Here is the text:

"Him and me was both born in Auburn. I knowed his Aunt Clara. She took him when he was a baby and raised him up. When his Aunt Clara died, Lennie just come along with me out workin’. Got kinda used to each other after a little while.”

Who were the main generals of World War 1?

Albrecht, Duke of Wurttemberg was a German General, who achieved military success in different engagements against the opposition. He led the First Battle of Marne and the Battle of Ypres.

Arthur Aitken was a British General, who led the first war with the Germans in East Africa. He was confident of a win in the Battle of Tanga. He, however, failed miserably, and details of his defeat were withheld by British authorities for months.

Sir Edwin Alderson was a Canadian General. He participated in the Second Ypres attack which also saw the first use of gas. His division ceded ground to the advancing German troops to as far as Hill 60.

Duke Emmanuel Philibert Aosta served as a General on the Italian side. He played a significant role in the success of Italy at the Battle of Gorizia. He, however, suffered one of his major setbacks at Caporetto. He was in charge of the Italian Third Army.

Francois Paul Anthoine served as a General in the French forces. He participated in the Third Battle of Ypres, supporting the British.

Moriz von Auffenberg-Komarow served as an Austrian General. He led the Austrian Fourth Army in Galicia. He succeeded in capturing Komarow before his attention was diverted to aid the Austrian Third Army.

The Von Belows served as German Generals. They were both competent commanders who became popularly known for their military achievements.

Robert Lee Bullard “Counter-attack Bullard” served as a U.S General. He led the first major offensive by the United States at Cantigny. He also participated in the Second battle of the Marne.

Sir Douglas Haig served in as a British General. Although portrayed as incompetent, Douglas Haig was a specialist in military training and battlefield strategies. He was successful at Somme, Third Battle of Ypres and Amiens.

There were many other notable Generals who participated in WW1. They played different roles, achieved varied successes and suffered losses in the field.

At a certain height, air cools to the dew point and __________ begins.

As the warm air rises up, the temperature falls down (that is, the air cools down) and reaches the dew point. At this stage (when the air temperature is equal to the dew point), condensation starts. Condensation is the process by which water converts from gas phase to liquid phase, that is, from water vapor to liquid water. An example of condensation is what happens to the outside surface of a glass of cold water, when left out in the open (we see small water droplets on the glass surface). 

Condensation of warm air results in formation of clouds, which will ultimately cause precipitation. This process is a key component of the hydrologic cycle or the water cycle. After precipitation, water comes back to the surface of Earth and will evaporate at some point to time and thus, will complete the cycle. 

Hope this helps. 

What is the importance of Taoism in China? Why is Confucianism more famous than Taoism at home and abroad?

Confucius is so famous because the Chinese social order itself was based off his philosophy. There are five relationships (ruler - subject, husband - wife, father - son, friend - friend, elder brother - younger brother) that created a hierarchical understanding of where one would fit into the patriarchy. So while Confucius is better known due to his influence on the Chinese social stratum, it can be argued that Daoism plays a much more subtle role in shaping the very way that the Chinese people think.

A Chinese philosopher active during the 3rd century BC named Laozi was attributed with the writing of Daoism’s most influential text, the Dao De Jing, “The Way and Its Power,” which states that “the Dao is constant in non-action, yet there is nothing it does not do.” Here Laozi is referring to the pervasive nature of the Dao, or way, as the intention of a personified Heaven that sets the world in motion; from here scholars divide Daoism into Religious and Philosophical Daoism. Philosophical Daoism took a scholastic approach to understanding the Dao through Yin-Yang, the Five Elements (Water, Fire, Wood, Metal, and Earth), and the I-Jing, “The Book of Changes.” It was not until around the 2nd century AD that Daoism turned from philosophy to practice. Religious Daoism concerns itself with rituals and deity worship to maintain the favor of heaven and practicing self-cultivation to transform the individual into an immortal who has mastered the Dao. Daoism remains a key component of Chinese thought to the point where one cannot separate Daoism from the Chinese identity – this is most commonly seen in ancestor worship, local festivals, and other folk practices that have become traditions practiced even today.

In “Araby,” Joyce describes the setting of the story in great detail. Please help me to understand how the setting of the story reflects the...

The word "blind" plays a particularly strong role here. The narrator grows up on a street that is "blind" on one end (a dead-end) and often describes himself as sitting in the dark and looking through the "blinds." This word "blind" is symbolic of the narrator's emotional condition in this story. This blindness motif continues through the end of the story when the narrator reaches his climactic epiphany regarding Mangan's sister:

"Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger."

Throughout the story, the narrator is driven by a burning desire for Mangan's sister. In fact, the desire with which the narrator has for this girl reads somewhat like a romance novel as he watched her as "Her dress swung as she moved her body and the soft rope of her hair tossed from side to side." Whenever someone mentions her name, it feels "like a summons to all my foolish blood." This desire evolves into a feeling of helplessness as the narrator describes his body as a harp "and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires." 

This desire, almost awe, for Mangan's sister drives the narrator into hiding. He sits in a darkened room listening to the rain and "was thankful that I could see so little. All my senses seemed to desire to veil themselves and, feeling that I was about to slip from them, I pressed the palms of my hands together until they trembled, murmuring: 'O love! O love!' many times." In addition, this isolation continues as he sits in his house not playing with his friends outside instead imagining Mangan's sister seeing "nothing but the brown-clad figure cast by my imagination, touched discreetly by the lamplight at the curved neck, at the hand upon the railings and at the border below the dress."

The story's final setting, the Araby bazaar is also filled in darkness as nearly all the stalls were closed. The boy, in this bazaar, realizes his errors in undertaking this quest for Mangan's sister and despairs and leaves with tears in his eyes. 

What do the townspeople say about the veil in The Minister's Black Veil?

The townspeople definitely do not like the black veil that hangs in front of Hooper's face.  Some think it is a gimmick or a way to protect his eyes from the sun.

Others said there was no mystery at all, but only that the minister’s eyes were weak and needed to be shaded from the light.

But on the whole, the townspeople find it gives the minister a creepy and sinister vibe.  Some of the people even get the feeling that the veil gives the minister some kind of supernatural ability to see each of their hidden sins.  

Every listener, even the most innocent, felt that the preacher had crept up on them and discovered their hidden sins.

The best quote that shows the general feeling about the veil from the congregation comes very early in the story.  Paragraph three specifically.  

“I don’t like it,” muttered an old woman. “He has changed himself into something awful by hiding his face.”

The rest of the townspeople agree with that statement and feel that the mask has somehow turned their beloved minister into something dark.  A great detail left by Hawthorne about the effects of the veil comes a few paragraphs later.  He tells readers that the veil so upset some people during the church service that they had to leave.  That is something that was practically unheard of during that time.  Everybody went to church, and people simply did not walk out during the service. 

In Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, what are the internal conflicts that Guy Montag struggles with and how does he deal with them?

Guy Montag didn't know he had any internal conflicts until a young 16-year-old girl asked him to think about the world differently. The question that really sets off his internal conflict, though, is when Clarisse asks him if he is truly happy. This gets him analyzing his life compared to her own and he realizes that his life is void of true beauty, laughter and a deep connection with another person. In an effort to discover exactly what his life is missing, he questions if the answers to life's questions lie in the books that he destroys on a daily basis.

Montag goes to his wife Mildred to discuss these questions, but he finds her without empathy. All Mildred says to him is to leave her alone about the subject. He responds as follows:

"Let you alone! That's all very well, but how can I leave myself alone? We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in awhile. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?" (52).

The passage above shows Montag struggling with what he questions inside compared to what society allows him to think or feel. He soon discovers that his wife is the epitome of what their society wants people to be--numb.

Another example of Montag's internal struggle is discussed when he speaks to the old man Faber. Faber says that "Nobody listens any more" because people are either watching TV or listening to music all of the time. People are so distracted with entertainment that they do not pay attention to others in their lives or to the deeper ideas that fuel good human existence. Montag elaborates as follows:

"I don't know. We have everything we need to be happy, but we aren't happy. Something's missing. I looked around. The only thing I positively knew was gone was the books I'd burned in ten or twelve years. So I thought books might help" (82).

This passage shows Montag using his deductive reasoning skills to figure out what might be the key to solving what he feels that he lacks in life. While still on the path to solving his inner conflict, Montag loses it when he watches his wife and her friends mindlessly talk and watch TV one evening. It's as if he sees everything wrong with his society in those three superficial women. Finally, after reading them some poetry and the women rejecting it, Montag yells at them to go home; but, while he's yelling, he spells out everything that is wrong with one of them because of society:

"Go home and think of your first husband divorced and your second husband killed in a jet and your third husband blowing his brains out, go home and think of a dozen abortions you've had, go home and think of that and your damn Caesarian sections, too, and your children who hate your guts! Go home and think how it all happened and what did you ever do to stop it? Go home, go home!" (101).

It's as if Montag can't hold in everything he's struggling with anymore and he spills it all out on these women. He sees that the people in his world are missing the mark in life. He sees that they are made up of no more than selfish desire. No one lives for the love of life, for the love of others, or the love of fulfilling their potential. Everything in this world of his is without substance and that is the basis for his internal struggle.

In the story, "The Black Cat" by Edgar Allan Poe, how does the narrator feel about what he did to the cat?

The narrator makes it plain that he loves animals and had wonderful relationships with the many that he kept as pets until alcohol and his addiction began to destroy his life. He grows increasingly annoyed at Pluto, who had previously been his dearest pet. At one point, he grabs the cat in a fit of demonic rage (encouraged by drink) and cuts out one of the cat's eyes. He is completely broken up over the incident and notes that he "burned" and "shuddered" when he remembered the "atrocity."

He felt so guilty that he eventually hung Pluto so that he might place his soul "beyond the reach of the infinite mercy" of God. His remorse was so great that he felt he ought to damn himself.

Why did France and Britain fight in the French and Indian War?

Let's focus our discussion on the French and Indian War.

The French and the British were involved in a worldwide conflict from 1756-1763. This conflict was known as the Seven Years War. The part of the Seven Years War that was fought in North America was called the French and Indian War. The French and many Native American tribes fought against Great Britain.

The French and Indian War was fought for a few reasons. One reason was for control of the lucrative fur trade in the Ohio Valley. The French had established a firm control over this trade with the Native Americans. As the British began to expand their settlements in North America, the French became concerned that the British were going to try to take away or reduce the fur trade that France had with the Native Americans.

Another reason was for control of land. Both Great Britain and France were rivals. If one country could win the war, they would become stronger at the expense of their rival. The winner of this war would likely get land from the country that lost the war. After the French and Indian war ended, the British got much land from France. Great Britain got all of France’s land east of the Mississippi River except for New Orleans. As a result, France was out of North America, which was a positive development for France’s rivals, Britain and Spain.

Discuss the concept of bullying, prejudice or class-based discrimination in chapter one of Lord of the Flies

While we often think of bullying as being physical attacks on a person, this is not the only way to bully a person.  Bullying can take the form of a physical attack, a verbal attack, or intentionally excluding someone from a group.  In chapter one of Lord of the Flies, Jack exhibits bullying behavior towards Piggy. When the boys all assemble on the beach when they hear Ralph blow the conch, they are trying to establish who is present and who is in charge.  When Piggy tries to get the names of the children who have arrived to the assembly, Jack interrupts, '“You’re talking too much,” said Jack Merridew. “Shut up, Fatty."'  This is when Ralph corrects Jack and tells him that his real name is Piggy. Ralph's motivation can be interpreted to be purely benevolent; an attempt to protect Piggy.  However, his motivation could also be interpreted malevolently as an attempt to impress Jack by also degrading Piggy.  With the latter interpretation, Piggy is a victim of bullying from not just Jack, but Ralph as well.

One defining feature of bullying is that it involves a "real or perceived power imbalance" (stopbulying.gov). This is definitely the case with Piggy.  Due to his lack of physical strength, his appearance, and his self-proclaimed weaknesses of poor vision and asthma, the boys have identified him as the weakest boy in the group and that puts them in a superior position to him.  This power imbalance is what changes the boys' teasing from good-natured to bullying.

Compare and contrast Atticus's view of Maycomb to that of Mr. Dolphus Reymond. Use two examples for each view and explain what this shows about the...

Atticus Finch is a lawyer who believes that everyone has good inside them and that everyone does the best with what they have. He's not one to cast stones first because he's a nonjudgmental person. That doesn't mean that he doesn't tell it like it is sometimes, though. When he is teaching his kids about Maycomb, he is kind, but also honest about their community. For example, when Atticus tries to explain Mr. Walter Cunningham as a person to his son, he says the following:

"Mr. Cunningham's basically a good man. . . he just has his blind spots along with the rest of us. . . A mob's always made up of people, no matter what. Mr. Cunningham was part of a mob last night, but he was still a man. Every mob in every little Southern town is always made up of people you know--doesn't say much for them, does it?" (157).

Mr. Cunningham is a lot like other people in Maycomb. Atticus realizes that people in their town tend to follow the crowd sometimes. They get caught up in their "blind spots" and forget to do what's right. That "doesn't say much for them," but that doesn't mean that they are all completely evil, either.

Dolphus Raymond, on the other hand, believes that people in Maycomb live in their blind spots and that they can't understand anyone who lives a different way than they do. As a result, he explains that he won't put up with people in his life who are judgmental. He explains this to Scout and Dill as follows:

"Some folks don't--like the way I live. Now I could say the hell with 'em, I don't care if they don't like it. I do say I don't care if they don't like it, right enough--but I don't say the hell with 'em, see?" (200).

Dolphus doesn't dare say "to hell with 'em" publicly, though, because he doesn't dare do that and risk losing all connections to the community. So, in an effort to fit into the community as a misfit, he puts on a good show for the community by acting in a way that is contrary to what he really is.

"I try to give 'em a reason, you see. It helps folks if they can latch onto a reason. When I come to town, which is seldom, if I weave a little and drink out of this sack, folks can say Dolphus Raymond's in the clutches of whiskey--that's why he won't change his ways. He can't help himself, that's why he lives the way he does" (200).

As shown above, Dolphus Raymond avoids taking responsibility for his life with members of the community by blaming his behavior on alcoholism. He would rather that community members believe a lie than have to defend his choice of lifestyle to them every time he goes to town. So, Raymond chooses to live just outside of the Maycomb social circles and not participate with them at all.

Atticus chooses to live among Maycomb residents as one of them, but he also decides to be the one who stands up for what is right when no one else will. Maycomb people are prejudiced, but they also know right from wrong. The problem is that they don't want to get involved in the controversial issues because they don't want to upset their comfortable way of life. Plus, they are a very small community and they depend on each other for their livelihoods. When Atticus and Jem are talking about those who are selected for juries, Atticus explains Maycomb people as follows:

"Our stout Maycomb citizens aren't interested [in sitting on juries], in the first place. In the second place, they're afraid. . . say, Mr. Link Deas had to decide the amount of damages to award, say, Miss Maudie, when Miss Rachel ran over her with a car. Link wouldn't like the thought of losing ether lady's business at his store, would he? So he tells Judge Taylor that he can't serve on the jurty because he doesn't have anybody to keep store for him while he's gone" (221).

Dolphus Raymond is afraid, too, but Atticus is not. Both men recognize the prejudices that the member of their community have, but they approach them differently. It seems as if Raymond chooses to hide among them while Atticus chooses to work along side of them. They are just as prejudiced and judgmental as any other Southern town in 1935.

What is objectivity in history?

History, as a discipline of study, is the examination of historical documents (not only the official documents such as manifestos, constitutions, and public records -- licenses, arrest records, awards, and the like, but also public news reports, contemporary commentaries, private correspondences, and the like), to form a comprehensive and accurate description ("picture") of the period of time and place of action being examined and summarized.  This should be done as "objectively" as is possible -- that is, from a balanced and fair viewpoint, without any personal bias, omission of facts not supportive of one's point of view, not reflective of the historian's personal"feelings" about the event.  For example, when discussing the American Civil War, the historian should be objective about his/her view of slavery, or his/her view of war itself.  Objective historical commenting, then is expected by the reader and demanded by the discipline's ethics.  Exceptions are made for personal views in autobiographies, and other times, when the history writer's viewpoint is the whole point of the writing.

1. Regarding the narrator and his brother Edward: How does John seem to feel about Edward’s atheism in retrospect? 2. What accounts for...

In retrospect John seemed to feel confidently resolved about Edward’s atheism. He seems to be free of any conflict, certainly free of any animosity, about Edward's embrace of atheism. Two of the things that point to this are the fact that John keeps Edward's old baseball mitt on his desk and that he writes that he feels he has "been talking to him" his whole life.

[T]hat old glove of Edward's that I keep on my desk. No webbing at all, no pocket to speak of...

The clearest demonstration we have in the text that John seems to feel confidently resolved about Edward's spiritual condition (his atheism) is the happy time they shared playing a heated game of catch.

Edward has returned to Gilead, now the learned "Herr Doktor" and sporting an impressive mustache, having gotten his advanced degrees in ancient languages in Göttingen, Germany, a university town in Saxony. Rejected by his father's wrath over his refusal to participate in the family custom of asking a blessing before dinning, Edward and John eat a quiet meal, then walk together to Edward's hotel.

On one other day, John sought Edward out at the hotel. On a "dusty little street and a hot day" they got into vigorously throwing grounders and flies to each other. People stopped to watch the sight. Edward, with his coat off, "his collar open and his suspenders hanging down at his sides," had poured a glass of water over his head, the water running off and dripping down his mustache.

In this aspect, with water dripping, he quoted to John a portion of Psalm 133, which references brethren together in unity and precious [anointing] oil running down their beards. John lit up with recognition. He understood that Edward "knew everything [he himself] knew, every single word."

John saw Edward's knowledge two ways. As a Calvinist, he felt that since Edward knew everything, his soul was secure. He also felt that although he knew everything, his mind was not persuaded by it (the mind may not be logically persuaded but his soul may be secure through predestination). John's feelings in retrospect are the same as they were on that day: all was and would be good. 

   Behold, how good and how pleasant it is,
   For brethren to dwell together in unity!
   It is like the precious oil upon the head,
   That ran down upon the beard; ...
   Like the dew of Hermon,...
I have often thought what a splendid thing that was for him to do. I wished my father had been there, because I knew it would have made him laugh.

How do the littluns characters develop in chapter 3?

In Chapter 2 of Lord of the Flies, the littluns, the little boys who for the most part aren't given individual names by Golding, have been playing contentedly on the island. Some pitched in with gathering some sticks for firewood, but mostly they have been running free, playing on the beach and in the woods. The only child who has expressed fear is a little boy with a mulberry colored birthmark on his cheek who relates his fear of the "snake-thing" or "beastie" he has seen. When the older boys discount his fears, the littluns return to their play.

However, in Chapter 3, after the fire the boys built has destroyed part of the island and the boy with the birthmark can't be found, all the littluns become fearful. Ralph points out the change in them to Jack. He explains that the littluns dream at night and that he can hear them, meaning they are having nightmares. They talk and scream and behave "as if it wasn't a good island." This shows that the littluns have developed beyond thinking being alone on the island is a game and have become frightened. Although they focus their fears on "the beastie," it is actually just a way of objectifying the terror that they feel as the novelty of their situation wears off and the reality of it begins to sink in to their young minds.

In the short story,"The Most Dangerous Game," Rainsford uses three techniques in his struggle against Zaroff. What are they?

One of the reasons Zaroff feels that Rainsford is a worthy opponent is because Rainsford has traveled around the world and hunted in every country. He is considered an expert on the subject of hunting.  The knowledge he gained on these trips helps him to fight Zaroff.  Zaroff also has traveled extensively in his pursuit of exciting game. His knowledge will also be tested.  Zaroff is now hunting an animal that can reason and has knowledge of how he hunts.

First, Rainsford builds a Malay mancatcher.  Rainsford made it from a huge dead tree that was leaning on a smaller, living one.  When Zaroff‘s foot touches one of the smaller boughs, he recognizes the trap.  He jumps back quickly just as the large dead tree comes crashing down.  It injures his shoulder, but he is still alive and still willing to hunt. He yells to Rainsford,

“Not many men know how to make a Malay mancatcher.  Luckily for me I, too, have hunted in Malacca.  You are proving interesting, Mr. Rainsford.” (pg 8)

Having failed with that technique, Rainsford heads further into the island only to end up in the swamp. Zaroff warned him about at this end of the island.  His foot gets caught in the quicksand, but he is able to extricate it.  He backs up about a dozen feet from the quicksand and begins to dig a Burmese tiger pit.  When the hole he is digging is above his shoulders, he climbs out.  He places pointed stakes in the bottom with the points sticking up.  Then he weaves a cover for the pit of weeds and branches so that it can not be seen.  When Zaroff comes in pursuit, Rainsford hides. The technique works. Rainsford hears a horrible scream.  He thinks he has killed the general, but he has only killed one of the general’s best hunting dogs.  Now Zaroff says,

“Again you score, I think, Mr. Rainsford, I’ll see what you can do against the whole pack…..Thank you for a most amusing evening.”(pg 9)

Rainsford now heads away from the swamp.  He is going to try a trick he learned in Uganda.  He found a young, supple tree and fastened his hunting knife to it with the blade pointing down the trail.  He tied the tree back so that it would spring forward when tripped.  He then runs away as quickly as possible.  He can hear the baying of the hounds as they search for him.  Suddenly, the baying stops.  Rainsford, again, thinks he has killed Zaroff, but, to his surprise, Zaroff is still standing.  The trick killed Ivan.  This time Zaroff continues the hunt.

My copy of the story comes off the internet. Therefore, my pages may not coincide with your story, but they should be close. 

What are the themes of Book VII in Homer's The Odyssey?

Book VII, "The Welcome of Alcinous," really demonstrates the importance of hospitality.  When Odysseus arrives in Phaeacia, the oldest man of their race tells Alcinous to "'raise up the stranger, seat him on a silver-studded chair, and bid the pages mix more wine, that we may also pour to Zeus, the Thunderer, who waits on worthy suppliants.'"  Echeneus calls for this visitor, who they do not realize is Odysseus, to be treated with great honor.  He also references Zeus, the most powerful god on Olympus, who also happens to be the protector of travelers.  Ancient Greeks believed that offering hospitality was a religious imperative; by honoring guests, one honored Zeus.  If one failed to honor a guest, one dishonored Zeus, and this was always inadvisable.  The treatment Odysseus receives, as a complete stranger, from the royal family might seem remarkable to us; however, for their society, it was not only appropriate but expected, and Book VII conveys this theme.

What are the outer parts of the sun?

The Sun is our star and is the source of life on Earth. It keeps Earth warm enough to sustain life and provides sunlight to plants for making food and oxygen. The sun has three layers, known as the core, radiative layer, and the convective layer. In the innermost region, the core, nuclear fusion reactions take place and power the sun. The radiative and convective layers are so named because the dominant mode of heat transfer is radiation and convection in these layers, respectively. The outer parts of the sun are the photosphere, chromosphere and the corona. The photosphere is the only portion of the sun that we can see and is the lowest layer of the sun's atmosphere. The chromosphere separates the photosphere and the corona. The corona is the hottest layer of the sun.

Hope this helps.

What are the main characters' traits, motivations, and values in Amy Tan's "Two Kinds"?

In Amy Tan's short story "Two Kinds," the mother and daughter, the two main characters, appear at first to have very different motivations and values. The mother, who lost her entire first family in China, is motivated to make life in San Francisco better for her American-born daughter. As Tan writes about the mother, "Things could get better in so many ways." The mother, Suyuan, believes her daughter, June, can do anything she wants, including becoming some kind of child prodigy. The mother is motivated to do well in the United States by living through her daughter. For example, while the mother is poor, she "had traded housecleaning services for weekly lessons and a piano for me to practice on." The mother does not let any obstacle get in her way to pursue her dreams of stardom for her daughter.

The daughter is quite different in some ways. While she at first tries to be a prodigy, she then experiences so much disappointment that her dreams begin to fade. She says, "And after seeing, once again, my mother's disappointed face, something inside me began to die. I hated the tests, the raised hopes and the failed expectations." Her mother's dreams make the daughter self-protective and even self-hating. The daughter stops even trying to achieve anything, and instead when the mother gives her tests, "I performed listlessly, my head propped on one arm. I pretended to be bored." She reacts to her mother's pressure by being motivated only to protect herself.

However, the daughter is in some ways like the mother. While she does not work hard at achieving tangible goals as her mother wants her to, she instead finds something that she is good at. She "saw what seemed to be the prodigy side of me...The girl staring back at me was angry, powerful." Her dream is now to simply disobey her mother and thwart her mother's goals. In this sense, she is as powerful and motivated as her mother. In the end, she realizes that, just like the songs she plays are "two halves of the same song," she and her mother are similar in many ways.

In Macbeth, how are the people of Scotland affected after King Duncan's murder?

Immediately after King Duncan's death, the entire castle erupts into a flurry of emotion and horror. Since these responses are personal and anecdotal, it can be difficult to discern how the death of King Duncan affects the country. In order to find out how the entire country is affected, it is helpful to look at Act 4, scene 3 and the exchanges between Malcolm and Macduff. 

In Act 4, scene 3, Macduff describes the state of the nation:

MACDUFF: Each new morn / New windows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows / Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds / As it felt with Scotland, and yelled out / Like syllable of dolor. (IV.iii.5-9)

Macduff has been shown to be a trustworthy character within the play, so his descriptions can be believed. It appears that Scotland has fallen apart with the death of King Duncan. The fighting has killed many of the men in the country and created "new orphans." Macduff describes Scotland as a soldier straddling a fallen comrade while also fighting the comrade's attackers ("Let us rather / Hold fast the mortal sword and, like good men, / Bestride our downfall'n birthdom," IV.iii.3-4). This image can be helpful when trying to imagine Scotland after Duncan's death.

Who does Max live with in the book Freak the Mighty?

Max Kane lives with his grandparents, Gram and Grim.  More specifically, Max lives in the basement of his grandparent's house.  That sounds a bit depressing, but Max seems to like it just fine.  

That summer, let's see, I'm still living in the basement, my own private down under, in the little room Grim built for me there. Glued up this cheap paneling, right? It sort of buckles away from the concrete cellar walls, a regular ripple effect, but do I complain about the crummy paneling, or the rug that smells like low tide? I do not. Because I like it in the down under, got the place all to myself and no fear of Gram - sticking her head in the door and saying Maxwell dear, what are you doing?

The reason that Max has to live with his grandparents is because his mom is dead, and his father is in jail.  Now here's the real kicker.  Max's father, Kenny Kane, is in prison for murdering his own wife.  That is horrible, and what is worse is that Max witnessed the murder of his own mother.

Max is a traumatized kid, and he suffers from low self esteem.  For those two reasons alone, it makes a lot of sense why Max Kane prefers the basement of his grandparent's house to just about anywhere else.  It is his sanctuary and his hiding place.   

How is Jerry's growth and evolving maturity reflected in his relationship with his mother?

When the story begins, Jerry is anxious for some freedom from his mother's watchful and protective eye.  However, "Contrition sent him running after her."  He felt badly for wanting this independence and doesn't leave her on this first day of vacation.  This year, he's much less interested in the "safe beach" they've always frequented in the past; he wants to go to the "wild bay," alone.  

The next day, he gets his chance, and when he looks back at her beach, he feels "relieved at being sure she was there, but all at once very lonely."  He misses her but soon becomes distracted by some older "boys -- men to Jerry" who come along and take turns diving off the rock.  They eventually amuse themselves by swimming through a tunnel in the rock, and since Jerry cannot do it, he begins to clown around to refocus their attention on him.  It doesn't work, and they leave him, crying like a child.  Cried out, he "swam out to where he could see his mother.  Yes, she was still there, a yellow spot under an orange umbrella."  He seems to want to be free of her, but -- at the same time -- he wants to know that she is nearby.

As he begins to grow more confident in the water, he feels that his old beach "now seemed a place for small children, a place where his mother might lie safe in the sun.  It was not his beach."  And next time, when he goes, he does not ask her permission first.  It is at this point that "A curious, most unchildlike persistence, a controlled impatience, made him wait" to attempt swimming through the rock yet.  His ability to delay gratification provides evidence of his growing maturity (he was unable to do so earlier when he accosted her for goggles), as does the fact that it doesn't occur to him to ask her, anymore, if he can go to the bay without her.

In the end, after his experience in the tunnel has seriously frightened him, Jerry does return to her, still a child -- at least, for a while.  He calls her "'Mummy'" and clearly wants her approbation and praise for his new ability to stay underwater for three minutes.  When he tells her this news, "It came bursting out of him."  Jerry has obviously begun the process of maturing, though it seems that one's progress toward maturity is not a straight line, and we can see that in his fluctuating relationship with his mother.

What is the contrast John Donne is making between "sublunary lovers' love" and the "refined" or heavenly love between the speaker and the audience?

In order to nail this question, you need to look at the stanza in which he actually uses the phrase. 

Dull sublunary lovers' love 

   (Whose soul is sense) cannot admit 

Absence, because it doth remove 

   Those things which elemented it. 

(Donne 13-16)

You don't have to go any further to get your answer started. These "dull, sublunary lovers" (which literally means sub-lunary, or below the moon, or terrestrial—these lovers are earthly, whereas Donne and his wife know a heavenly sort of love) cannot allow a lover to leave because their love is entirely based around the other person's presence. This is in an age long before Skype or FaceTime, so a trip or any separation between two lovers could mean months or even years without seeing the other person. These "sublunary" lovers cannot stand that. Donne and his wife, as implied by the contrast he sets up, can.

He says as much in the next stanza, when he says that he and his wife "Care less, eyes, lips, hands to miss" (Donne 20). This nonphysical love means that they love each other on an otherworldly, or spiritual, level. When Donne says "Our two souls therefore, which are one," he means it (Donne 21). Their love is not about bodies. It is about souls. Where those "dull, sublunary lovers" cannot bear to have their lover leave because they only know how to love a person's physical being, Donne and his wife can be apart for years because they love each other's souls. 

He ends the poem with a conceit about their souls acting like the type of compass one would use to draw a circle. The farther apart they are separated, the larger they grow, because they are still connected. When they are together they may not be as vast, but they are "erect" and strong and hold each other up. (Since this is Donne, be sure not to miss the fact that the word "erect" can be a sexual pun for "erection." Donne loved writing about sex.)

Basically, those "dull, sublunary lovers" only know how to love on a physical level. It takes lovers who understand each other on a divine level, like Donne and his wife, to truly experience love on a spiritual level. By doing so, one manages to grow during separation rather than split apart.

NOTE: I mention Donne and his wife because for this poem, it is academically accepted that Donne is writing this to his wife. So the audience that the question asks for is Donne's wife, and the speaker is Donne himself.

In "The Minister's Black Veil," Mr. Hooper's conversation with Elizabeth is the first time that readers learn about Mr. Hooper from his own words....

During this exchange, Mr. Hooper reveals his own secret sinfulness (without actually naming it as that).  To explain the veil, he says, 

"this veil is a type and a symbol, and I am bound to wear it every, both in light and in darkness, in solitude and before the gaze of multitudes, and as with strangers, so with my familiar friends.  No mortal eye will see it withdrawn.  This dismal shade must separate me from the world: even you, Elizabeth, can never come behind it!"

The veil, for Mr. Hooper, symbolizes the figurative veil that each of us wears, a veil that separates each of us from our fellows for as long as we're alive.  We pretend that we are sinless, never revealing the secret that we are really sinful, to one another and, thus, remain forever isolated, never to be truly known or understood by anyone.  We are all, Mr. Hooper (and, likely, Hawthorne) believes, sinful, and we all try to hide it from each other.  We even try to hide our secret sin from God, though a futile act, and this is why Mr. Hooper must wear the veil in company or alone.  It is only when we die that God casts the veil aside and our sins are finally revealed.

Mr. Hooper claims that he, "'like most other mortals, [has] sorrows dark enough to be typified by a black veil.'"  But the rumors, Elizabeth tells him, say that his sorrow is not "'innocent,'" that he "'hides [his] face under the consciousness of secret sin,'" and she begs him to put an end to the scandal these rumors are causing, especially given the nature of his employment.  He says, "'if I cover [my face] for secret sin, what mortal might not do the same?'"  At this point, both of them sit quietly.  Mr. Hooper has essentially admitted to his fiancee that he does have a secret sin and that it is not innocent; he sins knowing and willfully, just as everyone else does.  

No one speaks for several minutes, and finally, the light of understanding fills Elizabeth's eyes: "in an instant [...], a new feeling took the place of sorrow: her eyes were fixed insensibly on the black veil, when, like a sudden twilight in the air, its terrors fell around her."  He begs her to stay with him, and she asks that he show her his face once more.  He will not, and so she leaves him.  In that moment, it appears that Elizabeth has understood the symbolism of the black veil, and that -- in recognizing its significance -- she confirms that she, too, knows the truth that Mr. Hooper conveys in wearing it.  The idea that she would always be conscious of the secret sinfulness that separates them and that he is aware of her secret sins (even if he doesn't know what they are) is too much for her.

Ultimately, then, what Mr. Hooper reveals in this scene is the meaning of the veil itself, the fact that its meaning applies to himself as much as anyone else, and his knowledge that he may never directly accuse anyone of sinning in the way he knows them all to do.  As soon as Elizabeth realizes the meaning of the veil, she must realize that he knows that she has a secret sinful nature, too, and this makes her too vulnerable; she is too scared to know that someone knows her secret, just as all the congregation would be if they understood the symbolism of the veil.  Mr. Hooper is smart enough to know this, but it is a tragic knowledge because it will alienate him from humankind forever.  Despite his occupation and dedication as a minister, on some level, he can never fully do his job because the nature of humankind is, first, to sin, and second, to hoard our sin away so that no one on earth can see it.  

How does the setting have an impact on the interaction of the characters in the story "Boys and Girls" by Alice Munro?

“Boys and Girls” by Alice Munro is set on a fox farm in the early twentieth century, where a young girl lives with her parents and younger brother Laird.  On a traditional farmstead, the roles for men and women are very sharply divided, and it is before this backdrop that the narrator must discover what it means to be a “girl” in such a society.  This setting is ideal to display such a contrast, due to these fixed, gender-dependent responsibilities, and the narrator learns over the course of the story that these conventions are non-negotiable. 

At the beginning of the story the narrator is a bit of a tomboy – she much prefers helping her father outside around the farm to assisting with domestic matters inside with her mother, much to the latter’s chagrin.  Her mother is overheard complaining that “It’s not like I had a girl in the family at all.”  This statement confuses the narrator, not yet understanding that certain things are expected of her as a female, rather than a male, child.  This relationship with her mother – one of resentment and maybe even jealousy on the part of the parent, due to the fact that the daughter wants nothing to do with her domestic world – is indicative of the general atmosphere throughout the story.  Most of the other characters as well expect the narrator to behave as a girl should, a feeling which becomes more defined and universal as she and Laird get older.

At the end of the story, when Laird tells on his sister for allowing the horse Flora to escape, she is ashamed and begins to cry, and while her father is initially angry, she is soon dismissed with the casual yet loaded phrase, “she’s only a girl.”  This comment from her father, who until this moment has taken no part in the gender categorization in the story, can be seen as the final, solidifying proponent of convention.  And to a certain extent this convention is within the narrator, as well.  On a farm, where men do men’s chores and women do women’s, there is no possibility for an unevenly divided soul – the narrator can’t have her feminine nighttime fantasies and decorate her room in lace while also toiling outside with her father.  She must choose, and unfortunately for her, society has done the choosing for her.

How did the decisions of President Madison, related to protecting American ships and settlers, affect the United States?

President Madison made some decisions related to American shipping and settlers that affected our country. The United States was getting tired with the British interference with our shipping rights. As a neutral nation, we had the right to trade with any country. However, the British interfered with our trade with France as a result of the war Great British and France were fighting. The British not only interfered with our shipping, but they also impressed our sailors. They seized American crews and forced them to serve in the British navy.

At the same time, attacks by Native Americans continued. The Native American tribes were attacking our settlers in the west. Tecumseh was trying to unite the Native American tribes by attempting to form a confederation with Tecumseh as the leader.

As a result, there was growing pressure to go to war against Great Britain and the Native Americans. There were many Americans who continued to believe the British were encouraging the Native Americans to attack us. A group of young senators from the South and West got elected to Congress in 1810. They were called the War Hawks because they believed we needed to stop the Native American attacks and the interference with our shipping rights. They believed we should go to war to stop these attacks from occurring.

We attacked the Native Americans while Tecumseh was away trying to organize this confederation. As a result of the Battle of Tippecanoe, the Native Americans were defeated, ending Tecumseh’s dream of uniting them and leading this confederation. As pressure continued to grow against Great Britain, the United States went to war in 1812 in what is known as the War of 1812. While the issues we had with Great Britain eventually subsided because the war Great Britain was fighting against France ended, we did prove that we would stand up for our rights as a result of the War of 1812.

The actions by President Madison regarding trade and our settlers impacted our country with its dealings with the Native Americans and with Great Britain.