Why did Wiesel give his knife away?

During a selection in Buna, Elie’s father thought he had passed the selection, however, he was asked to stay back at the blocks together with other inmates who failed the selection. When he realized the turn of events, he tried to communicate his last words to his son before the inevitable happened. He thought he was going to die, so he gave Elie his spoon and knife and asked him not to sell the items.

Elie tried to console his father, but soon after he had to leave for the depot leaving his father behind. Elie was in no mood to work on that particular day because he was worried about what was going to happen to his father. He was given lighter duties while Yossi and Tibi tried to reassure him. On arrival back at camp, Elie ran to his father’s block and found him there. His father had passed the second selection, so Elie gave him back his knife and spoon.

is honors biology hard? What does it cover? I am going to be a freshman in HS in 2016-17. Will it be better to take honors courses and get B's...

The University of California website states that one of the factors considered in admission is “UC-approved” honors, AP and IB courses and that extra weight is assigned to grades received in honors courses. You should check with the counselor of the high school you’ll be attending to find out if the honors biology course meets this requirement. UC also considers “academic performance related to opportunities available in your high school" which suggests that taking advantage of rigorous courses will improve your standing.

You will also need to ask a counselor about enrolling in honors courses as a 10th grader if you don’t do so in 9th grade. However, I think that starting out in honors courses will be beneficial if you plan to enroll at some point in high school. Students in their second year of honors courses will have already learned the expectations and adjusted to the rigor.

Biology is the study of life. You’ll likely be learning about plants, animals, cells, genetics and ecology. It’s likely that the curriculum for honors biology is similar to or the same as the regular biology curriculum. An honors section of a course usually involves learning concepts in more depth. You’ll probably be expected to spend more time outside of class on assignments for honors biology. Honors courses are designed to help prepare students for college, so some independence and self-motivation will be expected. Does your high school have an orientation day for freshmen in advance of registration? If so, this would be a good opportunity to meet the biology teachers and talk to them about the courses offered.

The benefit of taking honors courses in high school extends beyond college admission. You’ll be better prepared for the rigor of college coursework if you challenge yourself in high school. You’ll have the opportunity to learn study skills and time management. Do you know any college students who are graduates of your high school? If so, contact one and ask about his or her high school experience. Students who take challenging courses in high school usually have an easier time in college and are appreciative, although belatedly, of the hard work that was required of them in high school.

I know this doesn’t directly answer your question as I can’t speak for colleges, but I hope it gives you some direction in making your decision. Don’t forget to talk to your parents about your opportunities and choices.

How is Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Ozymandias" a response to political change in Europe?

"Ozymandias" offers a keen insight into Shelley’s political ideologies. An advocate of political and religious freedom, he expressed his hatred for monarchy through his poems and other writings. Queen Mab, The Masque of Anarchy and Prometheus Unbound are some of his longer poems that demonstrate Shelley’s political thoughts and revolutionary spirit.

A few years before the first publication of "Ozymandias" in The Examiner in 1818, France under Napoleon had startled the world with his territorial conquests. Napoleon had taken control of France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, most of Western Germany and northern Italy. However, he was captured by the forces of the Sixth Coalition (that included the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden, Spain, Austria, Prussia and a number of German States) in 1815. Napoleon finally died miserably in exile on St. Helena.

The poem may be read as an expression of Shelley’s hatred against tyrannical rulers. He was opposed to any kind of oppression—political, religious or intellectual.

During Shelley’s lifetime, Roman Catholics were facing oppression in a number of ways. The English parliament had passed the Act of Uniformity, the Test Acts and the Penal laws. These imposed severe restrictions on Roman Catholics and Nonconformists for not accepting the Anglican Church established by the English state.

What the government of England and the Church of England were doing was considered religious and intellectual oppression by Shelley. "Ozymandias" can also be read as his response to such injustice.

The ruler Ozymandias, also known as Ramses II, was believed to be a mighty and tyrannical ruler who used to erect his statues across the Egyptian Empire. The words written on the pedestal reveal his self-obsession and vanity:

“My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!”

Drunk with self-pride and arrogance, he busied himself erecting his mammoth statues instead of caring for his subjects.

The poem presents biting satire of the vainglorious king by revealing the present ruined state of his statue.

“Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.” 

The great city and its big structures built by Ozymandias have all vanished and a barren desert has replaced them. The broken statue of the conceited king is the only remnant of his rule.

Here, the poet’s response rings clear as a bell. In his poem, Shelley presents a strongly worded warning against the growing political intolerance and religious hegemony.

It may also be read as his strong indictment of one country’s forceful occupation of another country, as well as the Anglican Church’s imposition of restrictions on Roman Catholics.

According to the poet, if a political government continues to remain intolerant, self-centered and indifferent to the issue of social justice, its end would be inevitable and like the derelict statue of Ozymandias it would be forgotten by posterity.

What changes can be made to make "The Bet" by Anton Chekhov more interesting?

Personally, I think famous writer Anton Chekhov did a fine job at making his story "The Bet" interesting, and I doubt there is anything any of us could do to make it better. However, if you want to rewrite his story in a different way, you might do it in real time instead of as a flashback. That would probably turn it into a very long book, but that way, you would be able to know each characters' thoughts as the years go by. Or, maybe you could, instead, just choose a couple of instances during each of the fifteen years, where the readers might gain insight into each character's thoughts and feelings and/or answer the questions some of us might have. For example, why did the lawyer stop playing music and then take it up again? What books did he read that had the biggest impact on him and why? How did he survive the loneliness of all those years? These are questions that aren't answered in the story as it is. 

Or, you could just change the ending. Have a big knock down, drag out fight after the lawyer wakes up while the banker is trying to kill him. The banker somehow ends up dead instead, and the lawyer is taken off to a real prison, where he has to spend the rest of his life in solitary confinement. Personally, I like Anton Chekhov's version better!

Explain the different action of a lymphocyte and phagocyte in destroying a pathogen?

A pathogen is something that enters the body and can cause a disease by killing body cells, releasing substances that are harmful known as toxins or by interrupting homeostasis by upsetting the proper functioning of the body.

When a pathogen like a bacteria, virus, fungus or parasite enters the body, the immune system will begin to defend the body. First, nonspecific defenses like unbroken skin, saliva, tears, mucus try to trap or block the entry of pathogens. Next, the inflammatory response occurs if tissue is injured. This involves extra blood flow to the area along with raising the body temperature to produce a fever, another defense against pathogens.

The next line of defense are cells that will engulf and "eat" foreign cells. Phagocytes are important white blood cells that can kill invading pathogens by detecting foreign cells, then binding to them and eventually surrounding and engulfing them. Phagocytes can creep about the body and surround and engulf foreign proteins that are not recognized as "self" and don't belong in the body.  Enzymes inside the phagocyte are used to break down and kill the pathogen. Remains of the pathogen are kept by the phagocyte to flag other immune cells to help recognize and fight that pathogen.

If all the nonspecific responses fail, specific defenses are launched against the invader in what is known as the immune response. Lymphocytes are white blood cells that include B cells and killer T cells. B cells produce antibodies that attack pathogens in the blood. The antibodies are proteins that recognize a specific pathogen-- (antigen or foreign protein)  which they then bind to. Then, T cells, another white blood cell, track down and destroy the germ. Memory cells  made by B or T cells after they have fought a pathogen remain in the body in the event the same pathogen returns. In that case, the body will have the ability to quickly respond--this is what is known as building active immunity.

Both phagocytes and lymphocytes are types of white blood cells whose different functions help to contribute to keeping the body safe from invading pathogens.

Literary devices in Macbeth? What literary devices are used in this extract of text and why are they used? "Wisdom? To leave his wife, to leave his...

In this excerpt from Macbeth, Lady Macduff tries to explain her husband's (Macduff's) sudden flight from their castle to their young son. Macduff has left his wife and children in the castle (with servants, presumably, but basically unprotected) so he can join Malcolm in England to plan the war to take the crown from Macbeth and restore it to Malcolm, the rightful heir. 

Here, we see Lady Macduff using an analogy, or more specifically, a metaphor, to compare Macduff's actions to those of a protective mother wren. She begins her comparison by saying that Macduff "wants the natural touch," meaning that what he has done is unnatural and that he has acted in a way that is different from the way parents act in nature or, more specifically, in the animal kingdom. She goes on to explain that even the weakest bird, here "the poor wren," will defend its young against even much stronger birds (the owl). Next, she returns to Macduff when she says "All is the fear and nothing is the love." Macduff's flight is in contrast to the actions of the wren. His actions,  according to his wife, are ruled by fear and not by love,  and the implication is that the wren will fight the owl because her love for her young is more important than her fear of the owl. She concludes by saying that Macduff's flight defies reason to compound her idea that it was also unnatural. 

Compare and contrast Gulliver's life in Lilliput and Brobdingnag.

In Lilliput, Gulliver begins as a prisoner but really only because he agrees to be confined; he could easily break his bonds if he wanted to. He is released from confinement once the emperor of Lilliput comes to understand what an incredible weapon he can be against Blefuscu. His strength and size are then exploited by the emperor to debilitate the Blefuscudian naval fleet; however, when Gulliver refuses orders to completely decimate the Blefuscudian people, the emperor turns on him and he is accused of treason. He escapes to Blefuscu, and these people actually help him to build a boat and stock it with sufficient supplies to return home.

In Brobdingnag, Gulliver is initially exploited as well, but this time as an entertainer. He is too small to be anything but a curiosity, but the man he first lives with makes a tidy profit by forcing him to put on shows for everyone who comes to see him. However, this man and his exploitative motives are an aberration in Brobdingnag, where most people—including the king and Gulliver's little nurse, Glumdalclitch—attempt to protect him. To be sure, he is a source of entertainment for many, but after the king purchases him from the man who found him, Gulliver is never endangered or controlled the way the Lilliputians tried to do. The king eventually comes to look down on him as a result of the intelligence he shares about his fellow Englishmen and their penchant for starting wars and making weapons; this was something admired by the Lilliputians.