How has Rabindranath Tagore poignantly described the bonding of friendship as well as heartbreak in "Kabuliwala?"

Tagore describes the heartbreak of bonding and separating as the result of time's passage.

Time plays a significant role in the emotional dynamics of the Kabuliwala and Mini's friendship. As they interact daily, their bond strengthens. Familiarity plants the seeds of friendship in the form of inside jokes, such as the one about when Mini will go visit her "father-in-law." When the Kabuliwala is sent away to prison, time takes its toll. Mini changes.

Time passed away, and he was not remembered . . . Even my light-hearted Mini, I am ashamed to say, forgot her old friend. New companions filled her life. As she grew older, she spent more of her time with girls. So much time indeed did she spend with them that she came no more, as she used to do, to her father's room. I was scarcely on speaking terms with her.

Years had passed away. It was once more autumn and we had made arrangements for our Mini's marriage.

Time's passing has an effect on the relationship between the Kabuliwala and Mini. She forgets about him. She values different ideas and the qualities she used to have are no longer there. Tagore shows time's effect on their relationship in a poignant way. It is sad to read about the Kabuliwala's deep pain. He does not feel the simple pain of a memory passing. Rather, it is something more, and deeper in the fact that time has passed without caring for his feelings. We get what the Kabuliwala is feeling because we all know the experience of seeing a deep relationship that time has forever altered. This poignance is enhanced through the Kabuliwala's ache of being unable to go back to what once was.

The Kabuliwala is overcome when he sees Mini after eight years. He has to take in seeing her all grown up. He also has to grasp how time has buried their friendship. Additionally, Tagore recognizes that time has also transformed the Kabuliwala's connection with his own daughter:

When she [Mini] had gone, Rahmun heaved a deep sigh, and sat down on the floor. The idea had suddenly come to him that his daughter too must have grown in this long time, and that he would have to make friends with her anew. Assuredly he would not find her, as he used to know her. And besides, what might not have happened to her in these eight years?

By detailing time's effect on relationships, Tagore is able to poignantly depict the creation and rupturing of bonds. He links the Kabuliwala's pain and hurt to an experience we can understand. In doing so, Tagore is able to enhance the sadness intrinsic to many relationships.

What is the significant difference of events in the lives of the two young characters of "The Flower" by Alice Walker and "A&P" by John...

The main difference between what occurs in the two young lives of the protagonists of Walker's and Updike's stories is that the loss of a romantic notion of life is forced upon Myop while Sammy brings his crash into reality upon himself.

That Myop dwells in a childish world of her own is evinced in the opening lines of "The Flowers":

It seemed to Myop as she skipped lightly from hen house to pigpen to smoke house that the days had never been as beautiful as there.

For, even though her parents and she are obviously poor sharecroppers and their lowly cabin has "rusty boards," Myop is not affected by such humble surroundings because these are all she knows in her innocence. With pigs and chickens and crops, the family probably has enough to eat, as well. Besides, she has the beauty of nature around her in which she delights. So, it is only when her innocent notions of life collide with the reality of man's inhumanity to man that the romantic cloud under which she dwells is harshly removed from Myop.

Similarly, Sammy's view of life is clouded by his youth in which he, too, has not yet been confronted by harsh realities. While he is critical of the middle-aged women--"houseslaves"--with their curlers and "varicose veins mapping their legs," Sammy is completely smitten when the girl he names Queenie enters the grocery store in her swim wear. He describes her in desirous tones, and concludes that she is "more than pretty." Then, when the store manager Mr. Lengel approaches Queenie and her two friends, telling them that they must leave because policy does not allow anyone to enter the store with their shoulders uncovered, Sammy acts according to his romanticized perceptions. He decides that he must rebelliously be their heroic defender.

That's policy for you. Policy is what the kingpins want. What the others want is juvenile delinquency.

Believing that he will impress the girls, particularly Queenie,  Sammy decides upon the chivalrous gesture of quitting his job in order to put on display for the girls his disapproval of the rules.

However, Sammy's romantic notions are destroyed once he is outside the store. For, his act goes unnoticed by the girls who are "gone, of course," as Sammy notes. Alone outside, Sammy looks back into the store and suddenly realizes the rashness of his romantic and voluntary act:

...my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be for me hereafter. 

Certainly, an examination of the two stories reveals that the cultural differences of the two characters is apparent in the limitations of life. For those like Myop's people, poverty and cruelty are often imposed upon them, whereas for people like Sammy and the three girls there is more freedom to act. 

What are some racist quotes that are found throughout the novel Monster by Walter Dean Myers?

In the scene where James, Steve, Johnny, and Peaches are sitting on some steps discussing who they could rob and not get caught, Johnny makes a racist comment. After Peaches suggests that they rob a bank, Johnny says that banks are too serious. He says,

"You need to find a getover where nobody don’t care—you know what I mean. You cop from somebody with a green don’t even report it" (Myers 56).

Johnny's comment would be considered racist because he believes that the authorities would not care about an immigrant. He views immigrants as easy targets and believes that there would be no repercussions for stealing from them.

Another scene that depicts racism takes place when Steve asks O'Brien how she thinks the trial is going. She mentions that nothing speaks to Steve's innocence and says,

"Half of those jurors, no matter what they said when we questioned them when we picked the jury, believed you were guilty the moment they laid eyes on you. You're young, you're Black, and you're on trial" (Myers 83).

O'Brien's comments display the prejudice of each jury member who judges Steve by the color of his skin. The jurors believe that Steve is guilty for the simple fact that he is a young black male on trial.

Can schools educate?

The primary purpose of school is to educate those who attend. Especially where children are concerned, there are secondary purposes of offering care for students during the day and ensuring some degree of health and fitness. For the most part, schools do educate students, but sometimes this is easier said than done.

In general, I believe the answer to your question is yes. Schools offer the explicit teachings of mathematics, language, literature, and science, as well as the implicit teachings of social life. Sometimes it can seem like the learning process is slow or barely moving at all. A student might feel, at the end of the day, like they spent all day in class and didn't learn a thing. Slowly but surely, students do learn! 

Some factors can hinder a child's ability to learn, even in a good school with an adept teacher. Children who are undernourished often struggle with cognitive development. Similarly, emotional and mental distress can inhibit one's ability to learn. Children who come from low socioeconomic households are more likely to experience both familial and emotional stress and be undernourished, which hits hard in their ability to learn in school. As has previously been done with developmental disabilities, teachers and school staff can implement programs or therapies to help reduce those obstacles which hinder a child's ability to learn. 

`3(5^(x-1)) = 86` Solve the equation accurate to three decimal places

Problem:`3(5^(x-1))=86`

` `

To simplify, we divide both sides by 3:

`(3(5^(x-1)))/3=(86)/3`

`5^(x-1)=(86)/3`

` `

` `

Take the "log" on both sides to apply the logarithm property: `log(x^y)=y*log(x)` .

Applying on the given problem: 

`log(5^(x-1))=log((86)/3)`  ` ` 

` `

`(x-1)log(5)=log((86)/3)`

Divide both sides by` log(5)`  ` ` to isolate`(x-1)` :

` `

` `

Add 1 on both sides to solve x:

`x-1=(log((86)/3))/(log(5))`

` `

 +1                                  +1

------------------------------------------

`x=(log((86)/3))/(log(5))+1`

` `

`x~~3.085`

To check, plug-in`x=3.085` in  ` ` :

`3(5^(3.085-1))=?86`

`3*5^2.085=?86`

`3*28.66503386=?86`

`85.99510157~~86`   TRUE.

 Conclusion:  x= 3.085 as the real solution

`y = 1-x^2/4 , 0

To find the area of this surface, we rotate the function `y = 1 - x^2/4 ` about the y-axis (not the x-axis!) and this way create a surface of revolution. It is a finite area, since we are looking only at a section of the x-axis and hence y-axis.

The range of the x-axis we are interested in is  ` ``0 <= x <=2 `  and hence the range of the y-axis we are interested in is `0 <=y <=1 `

It is easiest to swap the roles of `x ` and `y `, essentially turning the page so that we can use the standard formulae that are usually written in terms of `x ` (ie, that usually refer to the x-axis).

The formula for a surface of revolution A is given by (interchanging the roles of x and y)

  `A = int_a^b (2pi x) sqrt(1 + (frac(dx)(dy))^2) dy`

Evidently, we need the function `y = 1 - x^2/4 ` written as `x ` in terms of `y ` rather than `y ` in terms of `x ` . So we have

`x = pm2sqrt(1 - y) `

This describes a parabola, which is two mirror image sqrt curves when considered in terms of the y-axis. But we need only one half, the positive or the negative, to rotate the graph about the y-axis because the other half will be part of the resulting roatated object anyway. Without loss of generality (wlog for short) we can take the function to rotate about the y-axis as

`x = 2sqrt(1-y) `

To obtain the area required by integration, we are effectively adding together tiny rings (of circumference `2pi x ` at a point `y ` on the y-axis) where each ring takes up length `dy ` on the y-axis. The distance from the circular edge to circular edge of each ring is `sqrt(1 + (frac(dx)(dy))^2) dy`

This is the arc length of the function `x = f(y) ` in a segment of the y-axis `dy ` in length, which is the hypotenuse of a tiny triangle with width `dy ` and height `dx `. These distances from edge to edge of the tiny rings are then multiplied by the circumference of the surface at that point, `2pi x `, to give the surface area of each ring. The tiny sloped rings are added up to give the full sloped surface area of revolution.

We have for this function, `x = 2sqrt(1-y) `, that

`frac(dx)(dy) = -1/sqrt(1-y)`

and since the range (in `y `) over which to take the integral is `[0,1] ` we have `a=0 ` and `b=1 `.

Therefore, the area required, A, is given by

`A = int_0^1 4pi sqrt(1-y)sqrt(1 + 1/((1-y))) dy `

` `This can be simplified to give

`A = 4pi int_0^1 sqrt((1-y) + 1) \quad dy`

`= 4pi int_0^1 sqrt(2-y) \quad dy = - frac(8)(3) pi (2-y)^(3/2)|_0^1` 

So that the surface area of rotation A is given by

`A = -8/3 pi (1 - 2sqrt(2)) `

To what extent is Macbeth evil?

Near the end of the play, Macbeth becomes a ruthless tyrant after murdering Duncan and ordering the murders of Banquo and Macduff's family. By that point, he is evil. Shakespeare's main characters are never one-dimensional, though, and the Macbeth who appears at the beginning of the play seems a fundamentally honorable and loyal man. He fights heroically to defend King Duncan against a rebellion, and his "black and deep desires" only take hold after his encounter with the witches. Even then, his wife has to goad him into murdering Duncan, challenging his manhood and his courage in order to help him overcome what she calls the "milk of human kindness." Killing Duncan fundamentally changes Macbeth, however. Having seized the throne, he feels compelled to commit more murders to consolidate his power. He has Banquo murdered because he sees him as a threat because of the witches' prophecy that he will "get kings." He has Macduff's family murdered because he fears his power. Macbeth becomes corrupted by power and commits one horrific deed after another. By the time of his climactic battle with Macduff, he is a bloody, murderous tyrant, consumed by evil. Macbeth is not as much about an inherently evil man as it is about a man who becomes consumed by the corrupting nature of power and is manipulated by evil forces.

Why was Phillip so surprised about his developing relationship with Timothy?

Phillip has been raised to act like an entitled, privileged, and racist individual, and therefore thinks of himself as superior. Phillip thinks of black people as less worthy than he is.  Take the following quote that Phillip says to Timothy at one point.  

"You ugly black man! I won't do it! You're stupid, you can't even spell."

It's clear that Phillip believes that Timothy is incapable of teaching and helping Phillip because Timothy is black.  In Phillip's eyes, being black makes a person both dumb and ugly.  

Once on the cay, Timothy treats Phillip with respect even though Phillip doesn't do the same in return; however, Timothy doesn't grovel at Phillip's feet the way that Phillip might be used to seeing from an old, black man.  In fact, right after Phillip says the above quote, Timothy slaps Phillip for saying it.  The action shocks Phillip, and it serves as a turning point in their relationship.  Phillip is surprised at the developing relationship because, despite, the racial divide and vast age difference, Phillip begins to see Timothy as an equal.  By the end of that chapter, Phillip asks if the two of them can be friends. By the time that Timothy dies, their friendship is a strong and deep relationship.  

I didn't know what to say over the grave. I said, "thank you, Timothy," and then turned my face to the sky. I said, "Take care of him, God, he was good to me."

Can you describe Jem's room in the book To Kill a Mockingbird?

From the limited description of Jem's room in To Kill a Mockingbird, one gathers that it is a simple, functional space. To begin with, it is described as "large and square," featuring a doorway, a bed, and a fireplace (267). When everyone is gathered in Jem's room after the attack, Alexandra sits in a rocking chair that is next to the fireplace (267). Mr. Tate sits in a desk chair (268), and later Dr. Reynolds places his package on Jem's desk (273). On 267, Jem's reading light is shaded with a towel, and one can assume that, as there is no further furniture mentioned, the lamp is on Jem's desk. One may draw the conclusion that there is a window present, though one is never specifically mentioned in Jem's room, because there are windows present in Atticus' and Scout's rooms.  One may also infer that his room features high ceilings, as Calpurnia observes in the living room (68). 

How are Whitney's views on hunting different from Rainsford's?

In the beginning of Richard Connell's short story "The Most Dangerous Game," two big game hunters sit on the deck of a yacht speeding toward South America where they will hunt jaguars. After an initial discussion concerning a nearby island, their conversation turns to the plight of the animals they hunt. Whitney suggests that the animals experience feelings such as fear and pain. When Rainsford claims that the animals have no understanding of what is happening to them, Whitney says,

"Even so, I rather think they understand one thing—fear. The fear of pain and the fear of death."

Rainsford rejects this point of view, asserting the world is "made up of two classes—the hunters and the huntees." For Rainsford, it doesn't matter what the animal feels. It only matters that he is able to indulge in his favorite pastime. Whitney, however, acknowledges implicitly that hunting is cruel to the animals. Rainsford calls this nonsense and accuses Whitney of being soft and unrealistic. Ultimately, this conversation is later revealed to be ironic. In the end, Rainsford understands what it is like to be a "beast at bay" and it is likely that his hunting days are over after his encounter with General Zaroff. During the hunt he experiences the fear and pain which Whitney had expressed aboard the yacht in the beginning of the story.

Who does Brent meet in Chapter 7 of Whirligig?

In Chapter 7, Brent gets off the bus at the small town of Beale Beach in Florida. Here, he builds his third whirligig. While working, he meets a small group of about seven or eight African-American schoolchildren. When the children see Brent, they rush to his side and ask him questions about his project.

The children are enthusiastic and friendly; without reservations, they offer to help Brent build his whirligig. Realizing that the children have no ulterior motives beyond having a good time, Brent allows them to help. He lets all of them take turns hammering nails into the wood.

During breaks, Brent enjoys swimming in the ocean and learning about the natural habitat. Four of the children point out to him the lion's paw shells and terns on the beach. Eventually, with the help of the children, Brent manages to complete his project. Satisfied with his efforts and theirs, Brent takes a picture of the four children standing around the finished whirligig.

I have a specific chemistry question. I have been tasked with removing a coffee stain from denim. I used 100% cotton denim and Dunkin' Donuts...

Please understand that food and beverage products like coffee contain hundreds if not thousands of different individual chemicals in varying proportions so trying to develop a strategy based on a single chemical structure is really oversimplifying the situation.  Having said that, you've made some great observations with real logical thinking.  Cotton fibers and colored organic chemicals have a natural adhesion to each other, thus making stain removal difficult.  Oxidation is a good idea here since oxidizing different atoms in these coffee chemicals will disrupt their color properties and essentially make them become colorless.  This is why bleach is such a popular stain removing agent since it is a strong oxidizer.  But chlorine bleach will remove the denim color as well so an oxygen based bleach should be used here.  If we are talking about removing an acidic compound, then actually using a base would be best since it will neutralize the acid and possibly make the compound more water soluble.  As to your last point about polar groups, water is actually a highly polar solvent so if any of the components of the stain are naturally very soluble in polar solvent they will readily dissolve in the water.

`yy' - 2e^x = 0 , y(0) = 3` Find the particular solution that satisfies the initial condition

For the given problem:` yy'-2e^x=0` , we can evaluate this by applying variable separable differential equation in which we express it in a form of `f(y) dy = f(x)dx` .

 Then, `yy'-2e^x=0` can be rearrange into `yy'= 2e^x`

Express y'  as (dy)/(dx):

 `y(dy)/(dx)= 2e^x`

Apply direct integration in the form of  `int f(y) dy = int f(x)dx` :

`y(dy)/(dx)=2e^x`

`ydy= 2e^xdx`

`int ydy= int 2e^x dx`

For the left side, we apply Power Rule integration: `int u^n du= u^(n+1)/(n+1)` .

`int y dy= y^(1+1)/(1+1)`

             ` = y^2/2`

 For the right side, we apply basic integration property: `int c*f(x)dx= c int f(x) dx` and basic integration formula for exponential function: `int e^u du = e^u+C ` on the right side.

`int 2e^x dx= 2int e^x dx`

                  `= 2e^x+C`

Combining the results for the general solution of differential equation:

`y^2/2=2e^x+C`

`2* [y^2/2] = 2*[2e^x]+2*C `     

Let `2*C= C` . Just a constant.

`y^2= 4e^x+C`

 To find the particular solution we consider the initial condition `y(0)=3` which implies `x=0` and `y =3` .

Plug them in to  `y^2= 4e^x+C` , we get:

`3^2= 4e^0+C`

`9= 4*1+C`

`9=4+C`

Then `C=9-4=5` .

Plug-in `C=5` in`y^2= 4e^x+C` , we get the particular solution:

`y^2= 4e^x+5`

 `y = +-sqrt(4e^x+5).`

How would you compare and contrast the views held by Lakunle and Baroka regarding the role of women in society?

In regards to the role of women in society, Lakunle and Baroka initially appear to have drastically different opinions throughout the play. Lakunle favors modernity and believes that women should have increased opportunities to learn and participate in the economy. He disagrees with the Yoruba tradition of paying a bride-price and believes that women should have the option to marry who they love. Lakunle does not view women as property and is in favor of their rights. However, at the end of the play, it is revealed that Lakunle's ideas are insincere, and he only wishes to avoid paying the bride-price because he cannot afford it. In contrast, Baroka supports the tradition of buying a wife and treating women like they are possessions. He lacks respect for females and manipulates them throughout the play by continually lying and deceiving them. Baroka views women as sexual objects whose only use is satisfying his desires. He does not believe that they should have educational and economic opportunities like Lakunle initially promotes. However, both characters view women as less intelligent than men and ridicule them throughout the play. Overall, Soyinka portrays both men as shallow, selfish individuals who have less than favorable views towards women and their roles in society.

In The Great Gatsby, what does Nick tell us about Tom before we meet him?

As the narrator of The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway tells the reader Tom Buchanan was a powerful football player while at Yale and that he comes from an extremely wealthy family.

Nick says Tom, who is from the Midwest like he is, went East "in a fashion that rather took your breath away." Coming from Lake Forest, the upscale suburb of Chicago, Tom brought with him several polo ponies, among other luxury possessions. He drifts wherever people play polo and are "rich together." Even before coming to the East, Tom Buchanan and his new wife Daisy seemed to have "drifted" as they spent a year in France "for no particular reason." They now live in the very fashionable East Egg. When Daisy talks with Tom on the phone, she declares their move is permanent, but Nick doubts this is true. Instead, he feels that Tom will "drift on forever," seeking the "dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game."

Overall, Nick characterizes Tom Buchanan's as a man among the idle rich who used to play football. Tom seeks excitement to relieve his luxurious ennui.

Why were the Acropolis and the Parthenon so important to Athens?

Today we think of the Acropolis as a tourist destination and historical site, but when it was built it served much more basic functions. The Acropolis was built on the top of a hill in order to be defensible, and is essentially one gigantic fortress the size of a small city. (Its name literally means "High City.")

The Acropolis was ruined by the Persians in 480 BC, but was then rebuilt even larger; it was at that time that the Parthenon was built as a symbol of Greece's renewed strength.

In part because of its defensible location, the Acropolis also housed the seat of government of Athens during most of the Classical period, and became an important cultural and religious center as well. Most of the famous philosophers and artists of Classical Greece lived or worked in the Acropolis, and it was there that (what they called) "democracy" was first established as a lasting form of government for a major power. (It was in fact more like oligarchy or aristocracy, because very few people---all of them wealthy men---were eligible to vote; but it was still greater political representation than most cultures had at the time.)

The Acropolis is also notable for the fact that it has stood largely intact for over 2000 years, maintained or repaired by each successive generation. Thus it gives us a direct look into the art and architecture of Athens in the 5th century BC.

What are three things that Nicolaus Copernicus invented or discovered that impact our lives today?

Nicolaus Copernicus, who lived from 1473 to 1543, was quite the rebel in his day! Copernicus lived in a time when most people believed that the Earth was the center of the universe. As an astronomer who frequently watched the skies, he didn't think this theory held up. Instead, Copernicus proposed a heliocentric theory, which held that the Sun was the center of the universe and planets orbited around it. He was almost correct! Our planet (and the others in our solar system) do, in fact, orbit around the Sun. However, the Sun is not at the center of the universe. Copernicus was the first to propose this heliocentric theory, and it has lead directly to our understanding of our solar system and the universe today.

Copernicus' heliocentric theory was proposed in his book titled On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres. This book went beyond simply saying that the Sun was the center of the universe, and created and justified an entirely new system of understanding the layout of our solar system. He explained that the apparent movement of the Sun in its rise and fall is not a result of any motion of our star, but actually the result of Earth's movement. Copernicus described that we experience years as a result of Earth's revolution, and we experience days (and nights) as a result of Earth's rotation on its axis. 

Copernicus also described that the apparent motions of other planets are dependent upon Earth's own motions. When we keep track of planetary motions and find that a planet has gone into "retrograde," or appears to be moving backwards or falling behind, this is the result of our own planet overtaking another in orbit. The planets do not orbit at the same speed on their various tracks, so sometimes Earth passes by another planet from a distance, creating the illusion that the planet is moving backwards.

It may seem strange to us today that Copernicus introduced all of this as new information, because we have been taught all of this as truth! In his day, it was quite shocking information and even caused some amount of scandal among the Catholic Church. 

How does John Steinbeck depict the plight of migrant workers?

During the Great Depression, a drought struck the Great Plains region of the United States, further worsening already bad economic conditions that resulted in part from the stock market crash of 1929. Many farmers in the Oklahoma Panhandle and surrounding areas lost their farms and had to migrate to other areas in search of work. Many went to California, where their dreams of wealth and land did not usually pan out. These people, often referred to as "Okies," were the desperate people whose plight Steinbeck wrote about in Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck knew their plight firsthand, as he had interviewed and traveled with migrant workers in California as a journalist in the 1930s.

Steinbeck's novelistic portrayal of the migrant workers is sympathetic. He shows how hard they work, and how little they earn as a result. For example, Lennie and George, the protagonists in Of Mice and Men, along with the farm hands, dream of settling down on their own land, but that dream is unlikely, as they can't earn enough to make their dream a reality. Instead, they travel from farm to farm and are often treated poorly by farm owners. In The Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family is displaced from their farm in Oklahoma and travels to California in search of a better life that doesn't materialize. They also become itinerants, traveling from farm to farm and not finding work. When the characters in the novel protest against their poor working conditions, they are often persecuted. Steinbeck writes empathically about the rootless existence of a people who were used to owning their own farms and having a settled and secure life. 

If I were to make a pie chart representing the percentage of Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons in the society of Aldous Huxley's Brave...

The smallest percentage of the population in Brave New World are the Alphas. As Mond explains:

"The optimum population," said Mustapha Mond, "is modelled on the  iceberg-eight-ninths below the water line, one-ninth above."

So we know that Betas, Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons comprise eight-ninths of the population, and Alphas one-ninth.

Beyond that, we get no percentages. One might conclude that there are more Deltas and Epsilons than Betas and Gammas, as the society might need more workers as the work gets more labor intensive, but we are never told that. Circumstantial evidence--that all the castes are produced in big batches and the lack of any specific percentages despite all the detailed information we are given in the tours of the Hatcheries--would lead us to the safer surmise that Betas, Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons are produced in equal proportion. Thus a pie chart would show one-ninth of the population as Alphas, with the remainder divided equally between the other castes. 

In Questioning Collapse, the authors of individual chapters take issue with Diamond’s arguments concerning how specific societies have confronted...

In his book, Collapse, Diamond makes the arguments that societies such as the Rapa Nui of Easter Island and the Mayans changed their environments and thereby destroyed their own civilizations.  To Diamond, these serve as cautionary tales for today's civilizations not to destroy their food sources, pollute their water, or to use up their resources too quickly.  

According to Diamond, the Mayan collapse was caused by rapid population growth which caused deforestation in the Yucatan Peninsula.  The deforestation there caused more evaporation and more sporadic rainfall, which destroyed crops.  The famines resulted in governmental upheaval and ultimately the fall of the Mayans.  Diamond uses environmental data harvested from tree rings, and there is no doubt that the region did become drier in the late fourteenth century.  However, Diamond discounts one major possibility--that increased warfare and revolt might have fueled the environmental destruction and the loss of food might have been an effect of the warfare, not the cause.  Diamond discounts the fact that the Mayans had been farming for generations and they knew about preserving their environment.  Unfortunately, since no one today can read Mayan, the exact truth may never be known by anthropologists or historians.  

Diamond also speculates that the Rapa Nui of Easter Island were destroyed by their ability to deforest their island.  This population growth and collapse on this small island is why it is largely uninhabited with the exception of ceremonial statues and tourists.  Diamond's theory has been called into question as well, as radiocarbon dating shows that the Rapa Nui lived on the island much later than thought (around 1200 A.D. instead of thousands of years previously) and European visitors as late as the nineteenth century said that the island had coconut trees and bananas. The first Easter Islanders brought rats to the island, and the rats had no natural predators, other than humans.  They quickly overran the island; their numbers only collapsed when they ran out of food.  This may have affected the first Easter Island civilization.  Another possible reason would be an influx of Western explorers and settlers, who used guns to subdue the people and disease to ultimately wipe them out.  

Diamond makes good arguments, and indeed the environment does play a role in the health of a society.  However, he does not look at all of the factors and says that the environment is the cause of all of the collapses mentioned in his book.  He discounts outside factors such as disease and human conflict.  Since it is hard to point at one factor and say that this is what caused a civilization to collapse, Diamond's theories are interesting, but must be read as that--only theories.  His work serves better as a cautionary tale for residents of the developed world to take care of their surroundings.  

Edmund Burke is often regarded as the father of modern conservatism. Does this mean he is adverse to change or not? How does he understand the...

Burke has many differing ideas in his political philosophy, some that mark him as quite modern in his thinking (he died in 1792), though on the whole he was a defender of tradition.

For example, Burke supported the American Revolution, a view that brought him opprobrium among many in English society, especially monarchists and others who would be labeled conservative. Burke put forth the notion that Americans had a right to levy their own taxes and to be represented by their own officials, while arguing that peace was preferable with America, if only to keep intact the benefits of trade.

On the other hand, Burke viewed the economic, social and religious structures of England as worthy of due reverence, and inveighed against the sort of "abstract" political theories that came over from America, France and elsewhere. Burke railed against atheistic notions that threatened religious traditions and feared democracy, asserting that the upper classes were necessary to protect the rights of minorities. He said the following, a distillation of his political reasoning:

"We fear God, we look up with awe to kings; with affection to parliaments; with duty to magistrates; with reverence to priests; and with respect to nobility. Why? Because when such ideas are brought before our minds, it is natural to be so affected".

Burke's suspicion of democracy and revolution was founded in his belief that the masses of citizens were insufficiently educated to makes decisions that would affect the whole of a nation. He scoffed at the notion that Englishmen should view themselves as "citizens of the world," a favored notion among progressive intellectuals of his day; Burke desired the English to take great pride in English traditions and history, and to view the efforts of those in the past as being gifts handed down to be built upon or preserved, not obliterated and replaced with new forms of government or class structure.

For these reasons, Burke is often embraced by conservatives around the world who fear both the "excesses" of democracy and the urge to utterly replace existing social structures.

What metaphor is used to describe Mae Tuck's appearance?

Mae Tuck is compared to a potato.

A metaphor is “a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to a person, idea, or object to which it is not literally applicable” (Guide to Literary Terms).  In this case, when we are first introduced to Mae Tuck, a metaphor is used to describe her.

Mae is compared to a potato.  The figure of speech is a metaphor because the author does not say that Mae is like a potato, she says that she is a potato.

Mae sat there frowning, a great potato of a woman with a round, sensible face and calm brown eyes. "It's no use having that dream," she said. "Nothing's going to change." (Ch. 2) 

Of course, the author does not mean that Mae is literally a potato.  She just means that she shares the characteristics of a potato.  Both the potato and Mae are round and brown.  This figure of speech helps us picture Mae Tuck.  It may not seem very nice to describe someone like a potato, but the author does not do so maliciously. 

Mae Tuck might feel a little old and wary, because she has been immortal for over eighty years.  Mae does not age.  She does not even need to look at herself in the mirror, because her reflection never changes. 

Mae Tuck didn't need a mirror, though she had one propped up on the washstand. She knew very well what she would see in it; her reflection had long since ceased to interest her. For Mae Tuck, and her husband, and Miles and Jesse, too, had all looked exactly the same for eighty-seven years. (Ch. 2) 

Mae is excited because she gets to go back to Treegap. She has not been there in ten years.  She and her husband have two sons, Miles and Jesse, and they rarely get to see them.  The boys became immortal when they were still young, and they like to travel.  Jesse was seventeen and Miles was twenty-two.  They will always be those ages.

What is the universal idea of "I Sing the Body Electric"?

I assume this question is asking about which universal themes are present in Whitman's "I Sing the Body Electric," or about how Whitman explores the universality of the body in this poem.

For some context, Whitman was a humanist, which means that he valued freedom and agency in human beings, both as individuals and as a collective. This poem (and other poems in Leaves of Grass) explores the physicality and the sacred qualities of being a human being. Whitman tells us in part 8, "If any thing is sacred the human body is sacred..." 

One universal idea in "I Sing the Body Electric" is the idea that all bodies are equal. Through his use of lists and catalogues throughout the poem, Whitman places descriptions of many different kinds of bodies side by side. In listing these different bodies, he gives them all equal value and attention. After describing the female form, Whitman writes in part 6, "The male is not less the soul nor more, he too is in his place, / He too is all qualities, he is action and power..." He also tells us in part 6, "The man’s body is sacred and the woman’s body is sacred, / No matter who it is, it is sacred...." Whitman believes that male and female bodies are equally important. Other bodies that Whitman explores are those of farmers and of slaves, as well as the speaker's own body. He repeatedly emphasizes that these bodies are equal.

Another universal idea present in the poem is the idea that human bodies refuse neat categorization or labels. In part 2, Whitman writes: "The love of the body of man or woman balks account, the body itself balks account, / That of the male is perfect, and that of the female is perfect." Thus, Whitman tells us that even though he's about to describe the physical body, he understands, and we should understand, too, that the human body resists categorization. Whitman implies that sometimes we are unable to use language to truly capture the human body in its entirety. 

According to Darwin, what evolutionary purpose did the finches' beaks serve?

The finches of the Galapagos islands are a good example of evolution by natural selection in action. According to the principle of evolution by natural selection, 1. if there is variation in the populations and 2. that variation is heritable and 3. differences in fitness (number of surviving offspring) are related to the trait for which there is variation, then the population will become adapted for the historical environment. This has been shown to have occurred with the finches.

There is variation in beak size of Galopagos finches. The beaks range from large, thick beaks to small, more fragile beaks. The beak corresponds with the food that can be consumed by the finch. Only birds with large, thick beaks can consume large, hard seeds. Finches with the smallest beaks can only eat small, thin-shelled seeds.  

During periods of drought, only large, hard seeds are produced due to the lack of water. The lack of smaller seeds during these periods of time has led to the death of most birds that lack the large, thick beaks that are capable of consuming the available seeds. Only surviving birds are able to produce offspring and it has been shown that the beak size of offspring is similar to that of the parents (the trait is heritable). Therefore, within the population the frequency of birds with large, thick beaks increased during times of drought while the frequency of birds with small, thin beaks decreased to due lack of available food. 

Describe three main actions made by Scrooge which demonstrate his development from the beginning of the story to the end.

Scrooge demonstrates that he has changed because first he refuses to celebrate Christmas with his nephew or help anyone else celebrate it, then he asks about helping the poor, and finally he sends Bob Cratchit a turkey and arranges to help his family.

The first action Scrooge takes is to not celebrate Christmas. This shows the person he starts out as.  He refuses to come to his nephew’s house for Christmas dinner.  He does not give any money to the poor.  He also complains when his clerk Bob Cratchit wants the day off on Christmas.  He is a lonely, miserly, mean old man. 

After Scrooge has been visited by the first two ghosts, you can tell that he is changing.  The Ghost of Christmas Past really got to him.  He saw his lonely childhood and his pleasant young adulthood, where he was apprenticed to Fezziwig.  Therefore, when the Ghost of Christmas Present shows him people celebrating Christmas, he is more open to it. He sees his nephew and the Cratchits, and begins to understand the importance of family

You can tell that Scrooge is changed by his reaction to Ignorance and Want.   In the beginning of the book, Scrooge said that the poor should go to prisons and workhouses.  When he sees these children, he suddenly wants to take care of them.

"Have they no refuge or resource?" cried Scrooge.

"Are there no prisons?" said the Spirit, turning on him for the last time with his own words. "Are there no workhouses?" (Stave 3)

The ghost reminds Scrooge of his words. This shows that Scrooge has changed, however.  He is no longer harsh and self-centered.  He wants to look out for others now.  His time with the spirits has been successful in altering his viewpoint.

The third event would be when Scrooge donates the turkey to Cratchit and pledges to help his family.  He has shown no interest in Cratchit before.  Now he wants to make sure his family is provided for, because he has seen them in his present and future Christmas visions.  He feels a connection to them.  Scrooge even went to Fred’s house for Christmas dinner.

Explain the title of the story "The Open Window."

The title seems to emphasize the importance of the open window in the story. It also sets a somewhat ominous tone. It suggests that something or other is going to cause trouble from the outside. Something is going to have to come in through that open window or the title wouldn't have been used for the story.

Vera takes advantage of the fact that there is a big French window standing wide open rather late on a not very warm day. The fact that Mr. Sappleton wore his white waterproof coat when he went hunting shows that the weather is overcast and threatening to rain. Vera gets Framton Nuttel's attention focused on the open window when she tells him her ghost story. The mischievous girl knows that her aunt will be sitting and looking towards the open window while she waits for her men to return for tea. 

The open window plays a prominent role in the story. It creates a reason to explain that the hunters are accustomed to leaving and departing through that window, so Framton will understand that the "ghosts" are heading straight towards him rather than entering through a side-door or backdoor in their wet clothes and muddy boots. 

The title focuses the reader's attention on the open window and gives it special and perhaps ominous significance. It dominates the setting in which the entire story takes place. Readers will remember the sight which caused Framton Nuttel to panic and flee from the house.

In the deepening twilight three figures were walking across the lawn towards the window, they all carried guns under their arms, and one of them was additionally burdened with a white coat hung over his shoulders. A tired brown spaniel kept close at their heels. Noiselessly they neared the house, and then a hoarse young voice chanted out of the dusk: "I said, Bertie, why do you bound?"

How was depression solved in The Giver?

In The Giver, people who are depressed apply for release, which means death. For example, the Receiver of Memories before Jonas, a girl named Rosemary, was given pain, loneliness, and sadness by the Giver in the process of her training. He also gave her the memory of a child who was taken from its parents. She experienced trauma, poverty, and hunger in the course of her five-week training. The Giver sensed that Rosemary was sad, and he tried to give her an experience of happiness to alleviate her pain. However, that effort came too late, and Rosemary asked the Chief Elder for release (and it was given to her). After Rosemary was released, all her painful memories flooded back into the community, overwhelming people. However, the rules Jonas are given before he begins to train make it clear that he cannot ask for release while training as a Receiver of Memories. 

In Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House, what is the importance of Torvald Helmer's character? How does Ibsen present him?

In A Doll's House, Torvald Helmer is portrayed as a hypocrite. He claims that he is firing Krogstad, not because Krogstad committed forgery but because he did not receive punishment in the court of law.

“Many a man might be able to redeem himself, if he honestly confessed his guilt and took his punishment.”

When he finds out that his wife, Nora, has also committed the same crime, he says, “The thing must be hushed up at all cost.” After Krogstad sends the IOU back to Nora, Torvald destroys all evidence of her crime in the fire.

Torvald also states that he sometimes wishes that Nora were in danger so that he "could risk everything, body and soul, for [Nora's] sake.” Moments later he finds out about her crime and rather than step forward to take the blame for her, he worries that someone might think he is an accomplice.

In addition to his hypocrisy, Torvald is important to the play due to his portrayal of masculine pride in the late 19th century. Torvald treats Nora as a child, or a doll. He controls the money, and he even has rules about what his wife can eat. In order to eat a macaroon, Nora must hide it from Torvald. Torvald's treatment of his wife as a doll, rather than as a human being, prevents Nora from developing a sense of self and ultimately leads to her decision to leave him and the their children to explore the world and achieve self-fulfillment.

In Heart of Darkness, how is Kurtz a representation of Marlow?

In Joseph Conrad's novel, it is implied that Kurtz is an example of what happens to people who live in the jungle. Though Kurtz gained fame, glory and riches through his travels into the jungle in search of ivory, his success was not long lived. Marlow, when he originally left London, wanted the same things as Kurtz. He too wished to be successful in the new ivory trade and to provide for himself with gained wealth. The parallels between Kurtz's and Marlow's intentions are clear in the beginning of the novel.

However, Kurtz went too deep into the jungle, too close to the native people, and stayed for too long - madness and death resulted from his stay! Marlow learned from Kurtz and from his death. Marlow turned back from the heart of the jungle and fought the darkness that threatened him. The characters' similarities start to disappear when Kurtz dies, for Marlow changes his goals and goes on to live a much longer life. Both men realise the great capacity for evil in the world, which is an important lesson that affects them in different ways.

How is "Digging" a memorable poem?

The memorability of a poem is always relative. However, what is striking about Seamus Heaney's poem, "Digging," is the way in which it analogizes the work of creating poetry with the work of potato farming.

Heaney's narrator, a writer, places himself within a generational lineage of diggers. He evokes this lineage by creating a sense of place in the first two stanzas, drawing himself near to the image of his father digging, as though the man were actually present:

Between my finger and my thumb

The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.

Under my window, a clean rasping sound

When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:

My father, digging. I look down... 

The "squat pen rests" "between [his] finger and [his] thumb" like a spade. However, this is not the comparison he draws; instead he writes, "snug as a gun." There is something uncomfortable about this simile, but also something correct. A pistol can rest snugly in one's hand, but a gun is not an item that creates comfort except for the one in control of it. There is also the contrast between the productivity of creating poetry and farms and the destructiveness imposed by a gun.

The language that Heaney uses in the following stanzas is kinesthetic:

Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds   

Bends low, comes up twenty years away   

Stooping in rhythm through potato drills   

Where he was digging. 

The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft   

Against the inside knee was levered firmly. 

He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep 

To scatter new potatoes that we picked, 

Loving their cool hardness in our hands. 

The present participles "straining" and "stooping" bring past actions into the present. The man "bends low" and "comes up twenty years away" like a perennial, yet also goes through drills -- a metaphor that, again, draws one back to physical exercise as well as to the regularity of farming.

He pauses the narrative, in wonder of his father's agility, then draws back further into his ancestry:

By God, the old man could handle a spade.   

Just like his old man. 

My grandfather cut more turf in a day 

Than any other man on Toner’s bog. 

Once I carried him milk in a bottle 

Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up 

To drink it, then fell to right away 

Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods 

Over his shoulder, going down and down 

For the good turf. Digging. 

Again, there is a distinction in verb tenses when Heaney's narrator evokes the memory of his grandfather drinking milk, then the memory of his tending to the farm. The latter is given an urgency that connects the grandfather's digging to that of the grandson. His grandfather wanted "the good turf," just as Heaney's narrator wants the good words. They are both digging through time and through materials.

Heaney's narrator must access mental memory to create the farms of his youth, whereas his father and grandfather created the actual farms. Heaney's narrator works with the intangible, while the older men worked with the tangible:

The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap 

Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge 

Through living roots awaken in my head. 

But I’ve no spade to follow men like them. 

Between my finger and my thumb 

The squat pen rests. 

I’ll dig with it.

In the last stanza, there is repetition of the first, though without the image of violence. It seems now that the speaker regards the "digging" involved in writing less as a fight and now more as an effort in patience and dedication, much like farming. He commits to the effort in the final line: "I'll dig with it [the pen]."

In Act 2 Scene 5, what creates the tremendous tension in this scene from Romeo and Juliet?

Tension in Act II, Scene 5, is created by the Nurse, who seizes the opportunity to be the center of Juliet's attention and exploits this opportunity by teasing Juliet and delaying her answer so that she can have some attention herself. 

As the scene opens, Juliet waits impatiently for the Nurse to return with Romeo's notice about their wedding plans. Since Juliet has sent the Nurse at nine o'clock and now it is twelve, she complains that the nurse is still not back and is dilatory on purpose:

But old folks, many feign as they were dead;
Unwieldy, slow, heavy and pale as lead.
O God, she comes! (2.5.16-18)

But, when she enters, Juliet is further frustrated because the Nurse, taking advantage of being the center of attention, complains that she is tired and her bones hurt. Further, Juliet entreats her, "Is thy news good, or bad?"(2.5.5), but the Nurse again does answer; instead, she needles her about Romeo, saying, 

Well, you have made a simple choice; you know not
how to choose a man: Romeo! no, not he; though his
face be better than any man's....(2.5.38-40)

The silly, loquacious Nurse then speaks circuitously and make puns on decorated shoes and "courtesy/curtsy." And, again she resumes her complaints about her aches and pains. Finally, she gives Juliet the news, but not until she teases Juliet with verbose descriptions of Romeo's handsomeness, kindness, courtesy, virtue--everything but what Juliet wants to hear.

Finally, the Nurse asks Juliet if she has permission to go to confession at the church where Friar Lawrence is now. When Juliet replies that she does, the Nurse instructs her that the priest will perform the marriage ceremony there in the church. Jubilant, Juliet exclaims, "Hie to high fortune!" and happily rushes out.

What are some quotes about the fire in the novel Lord of the Flies?

Early in the novel, Ralph comments that they must make a signal fire in order for them to be rescued. He hopes that a passing ship will notice the smoke and stop to pick them up. As soon as they successfully light their first fire, Ralph yells for the boys to grab more wood to feed the flames. Golding writes,

"Life became a race with the fire and the boys scattered through the upper forest. To keep a clean flag of flame flying on the mountain was the immediate end and no one looked further" (56).

The signal fire is a symbol of hope, rescue, and civilization throughout the novel. The boys' focus on and enthusiasm for maintaining the signal fire illustrates their initial affinity for civility.

In Chapter 5, Ralph holds a meeting to discuss how the boys are not completing the tasks agreed upon during the assemblies. After commenting on the shabby huts, lack of water in the coconuts, and the location of where the boys are relieving themselves, he says,

"The fire is the most important thing on the island. How can we ever be rescued except by luck, if we don’t keep a fire going? Is a fire too much for us to make?...Look at us! How many are we? And yet we can’t keep a fire going to make smoke. Don’t you understand? Can’t you see we ought to—ought to die before we let the fire out?" (Golding 31).

Ralph is pleading with the boys to focus on the importance of having a signal fire, but they do not share the same feelings. The inability to maintain a signal fire correlates with the boys' inability to create a civil society on the island. Their indifferent feelings about maintaining a signal fire reflect their gradual descent into savagery.

What is a quote that displays the loss of innocence and civilization following Simon's death in Lord of the Flies?

In chapter 10, the morning after Simon's murder, Ralph and Piggy have a heart-wrenching conversation about what happened. There are multiple quotes in this section that show the boys' loss of innocence and the deterioration of the boys' civilization. First, Golding allows the description to symbolize their fallen state. The two sit "gazing with impaired sight" and the "sunshine played over their befouled bodies." These descriptions suggest the internal darkness of the boys' hearts now that they have become murderers.

Next, Ralph laughs disturbingly as he caresses the conch, showing that the symbol of their civilization is now a laughingstock. Ralph states outright, "That was murder." While Piggy tries to deny it, Ralph's plaintive "Don't you understand, Piggy? The things we did--" shows how he is plagued with guilt for what the boys have become. Piggy argues that their act was justified and that they must forget it, but Ralph states, "I'm frightened. Of us. I want to go home. Oh God, I want to go home." Here Ralph acknowledges that their society has failed monumentally and that this may only be the beginning. He is now afraid, but not of "them"; he includes himself as an object of his own fear, showing that he understands he is no longer innocent.

Finally Ralph begins to bend to Piggy's persuasion to gloss over their evil--as the only way they can deal with their guilt. When Samneric arrive, they have evidently reached the same place. They deny having been present at the end of the dance. Golding writes with great irony,

"Memory of the dance that none of them had attended shook all four boys convulsively."

The boys are now all lying to themselves and each other but cannot escape what they themselves and their society have become--murderers in a debauched culture.

How is heroism portrayed in The Odyssey?

In The Odyssey, heroism is portrayed as something which men are capable of -- Penelope is cunning and clever, but she is never discussed as heroic -- and heroism is achievable by fighting external enemies (like monsters), overcoming physical challenges (like going to the Underworld) with bravery, and exhibiting good character.  Odysseus does all these things.  He goes up against monsters like Scylla and Charybdis and Polyphemus, but he also exhibits good character qualities when he refuses to hide below deck, for example, when his ship must pass Scylla.  He knows that she will likely eat six of his men, and he casts his lot with the rest of them, standing on deck and brandishing his sword against her.  Further, when he goes to blind Polyphemus so that he and his men can make their escape, he takes it upon himself to lead the most dangerous part of that mission: actually stabbing the Cyclops in the eye.  Heroism is thus presented as something that a man can achieve by taking on the evil or the monstrous as well as by putting the needs of others before his own.

How could the animals represent human society in miniature in George Orwell's Animal Farm?

The author of the novel, George Orwell, uses the animals as symbols to represent humans. This technique is used to great effect in fairy tales, fables, and other children's stories. The purpose is to either satirize or mock human behavior and, in the process, teach certain life lessons. It is a generally-known fact that fables were—and are—used to teach children morals and values, inculcate in them an appreciation of good, and make them aware of the bad. In this manner, it is believed, children will understand what to strive for and what to avoid.

Orwell purposely chose animals to represent human society. His fable is a critique of communism. More specifically, the story is a parody of the Russian Revolution and the ensuing tyranny which followed the ousting of royalty and the creation of a supposedly free and fair society in which everyone was equal and where all resources, production, and the fruit of such production, was to be shared by all.

The animals in the novel represent a microcosm of such a society and are not only a reflection on the abuse of power in communist Russia during the time of Stalin, but also inform of the atrocities in all totalitarian communities. Orwell's novel is therefore an indictment of a universal reality—that in all tyrannical systems, leaders are driven by greed and power and become even worse than their erstwhile corrupt leaders.

The author deliberately chose this format for his novel to make us aware of how naive and gullible we can be, just as children normally are. The fable brings home a message of both good and bad but, unlike a fairy tale, our story does not have a happy ending, for bad triumphs over good since those who are good and oppressed, either lack intelligence or resources, are brutally driven away or executed, violently oppressed and intimidated, too naive and loyal, or too apathetic to bring about change.

All these factors are brought to life by the actions of the animals. Napoleon, who represents Josef Stalin, is a dictator who ruthlessly gains and maintains power. He rids himself of his fiercest opponent, Snowball, who is based on Leon Trotski, who opposed Stalin's plans and had to flee Russia but was finally traced and executed in Mexico by Stalin's secret police.

All the other animals are representative of some or other figure or group. Boxer, for example, is a symbol of the hardworking and loyal proletariat, while Benjamin represents the stubborn and recalcitrant upper- and middle-classes who begrudgingly accept the tyrant's rule but do nothing about it. The sheep represent the unintelligent acolytes of such a tyrant—unquestioningly doing his bidding and almost frantic in their desire to obey their master. Each animal or class of animal is thus used to represent a section of human society.

It is in this manner that the author uses the animals to "represent human society in miniature."

How does the jet stream help move storms across North America?

The jet stream is a column of extremely fast-moving air in the middle layer of the Earth's atmosphere (specifically the tropopause); it is about 6 to 9 miles above the surface, and blows at a speed typically ranging between 120 and 250 miles per hour. Actually there are a few different jet streams, most importantly one in the north near the poles and two more at the tropics. Jet streams are driven by the difference in temperature between major air masses like the cold polar air mass and warm tropical air mass.

Most clouds are below this altitude, but the huge cumulonimbus clouds that cause storms can reach the altitude of the jet stream. When they do, the jet stream pushes them with an enormous amount of force, making them move much more rapidly across the continent. The jet stream also moves around depending on the season and other factors, and as a result storms are pushed in different directions. The jet stream has been moving north lately, possibly due to global warming; this has caused droughts by moving rainclouds away from places they used to be and floods by moving them where they didn't used to be.

The jet stream also has an indirect effect on weather patterns by influencing prevailing winds at lower altitudes.

What is erosion?

Erosion is the wearing away of rock and soil. It is done by physical processes, such as the actions of wind, water, and ice. Bits of rock and soil are broken apart by wind, water, and ice; the pieces are then moved to a different location by these forces and eventually deposited in a new location. The effects of erosion can be as dramatic as the formation of the Grand Canyon. There, the water of the Colorado River cut into the rock over millions of years, washing the pieces downstream and eventually creating a canyon that is eighteen miles wide and up to a mile deep in some areas. Water erosion can also be seen in action in the force of the ocean waves, which change the shape of the shoreline. Erosion by wind moves sand, rock, and soil. The dust bowl of the 1930s was a result of wind erosion (aided by lack of rainfall), as are the landforms in such areas as Arches National Park. Ice, in the form of glaciers, has repeatedly cut into the Earth. When the glaciers retreat, moraines and fjords result.

Erosion is not always a negative process; in some cases, the sediment washed downstream in a river builds up into a fertile area for farming. 

How far will a rocket travel if it is launched at 1200 km/h at an angle of 50 degrees to the horizontal?

The rocket is launched at an initial speed of 1200 km/h at an angle 50 degrees to the horizontal. As the rocket travels, its movement is opposed by the gravitational force exerted by the Earth and the force of friction due to the air. As there is no information provided about the frictional force, this can be ignored.

The initial velocity of the rocket has vertical and horizontal components equal to 1200*sin 50 km/h and 1200*cos 50 km/h respectively. The deceleration due to gravity can be taken as a constant 9.8 m/s^2 in the downward direction.

As the rocket moves, the vertical component of its velocity decreases. It is equal to 0 at the halfway point. To determine the total horizontal distance traveled by the rocket, first determine the time it travels for. This is equal to 2*T where 0 = 1200*(5/18)*sin 50 - 9.8*T

T = 26.05 s

The horizontal distance traveled is D = 1200*(5/18)*cos 50*2*26.05 = 11163.07 m

The horizontal distance traveled by the rocket is 11163.07 m.

P,Q,R,S are four vectors of equal magnitude. P + Q - R = 0, where the angle between P and Q is `theta_1.` P + Q - S = 0, where the angle between...

Hello!

First, rewrite the equalities as P + Q = R and P + Q = S. We see now that R = S, so `theta_1` is the angle between P and Q, `theta_2` is the angle between P and P + Q.

P + Q is the diagonal of the parallelogram formed by P and Q. Because P and Q have the equal magnitudes, this parallelogram is a rhombus, and its diagonals bisect the angles between the sides.

Thus `theta_2` is a half of `theta_1` , and the ratio is `theta_1` : `theta_2` is 2 : 1.

If we take into account that the magnitude of P+Q is the same of P and Q, we find that `theta_2=pi/3` and `theta_1=(2 pi)/3.`

In "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" by James Thurber, how is Mitty's dream life drastically different from his real one? Why do you think he has...

Walter's daydreams in "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" show him to be a man of importance and action.  These are qualities he lacks in his daily life.  

In his day to day existence, Walter lacks power.  The people with whom he interacts have little respect for him. Policemen bark orders at him.  He fails at parking his car and the parking lot attendant has to take over. Even random people who walk past him make fun of him.  His wife patronizes him.  She refuses to treat him with any significance.  It is clear that Walter does not command respect in his daily life. 

Walter is the antithesis of his daily existence in his dreams.  He is a person of importance, the type of person that others look at with respect and gravitas. Whether he is a pilot, an expert marksman, or a skilled surgeon, Walter's dreams are similar in how he sees himself.  In his dreams, others are in awe of him because he is daring, focused, and commands immediate respect. Walter's dreams are reflective of a world where he is connected to everything that is happening.  He is the center of attention in his dreams, as opposed to his daily life where he is on the margins.

The frequency of Walter's dreams is a response to the powerlessness he experiences in his daily existence.  His insufficiencies and lack of relevance trigger his dreams. He retreats to his dreams quite often because they are so much better than his day to day life.

What is the tone and atmosphere during Act III, Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet?

The tone of a piece of literature is the attitude the author takes toward the audience, a subject or a character. The mood or atmosphere is the feeling created in the reader by the scene or passage. Act III, Scene 1 of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is considered the turning point of the play. It begins the descent toward death and suicide of five of the main characters.

The tone throughout this scene is displayed in the passion of the principal characters. Benvolio is anxious and concerned. Mercutio, on the other hand, displays his typical arrogance and biting humor. Later, he will become bitter and cursing in his tone as he dies after the fight with Tybalt. Tybalt is angry and belligerent. Romeo, who at first is cheerful (he has just married Juliet), later becomes intense and driven.

The mood or atmosphere can be found in the words of Benvolio and Mercutio. The very first lines spoken by Benvolio suggest suspense and they put the audience on the edge of their seats. His warning to Mercutio to get off the street incites a mood of anticipation:

I pray thee, good Mercutio, let’s retire.
The day is hot, the Capels are abroad,
And if we meet we shall not ’scape a brawl,
For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring.

This anticipation is suspended for a time with Mercutio's  absurd rant about Benvolio being a fighter. The mood soon turns suspenseful again as Tybalt enters the scene and he and Mercutio banter back and forth. Finally, the mood abruptly turns violent as Mercutio, enraged at Romeo's seeming cowardice, challenges Tybalt:

O calm, dishonorable, vile submission!
Alla stoccato carries it away. [He draws.]
Tybalt, you ratcatcher, will you walk?

This violent mood continues as Romeo realizes his acquiescence toward Tybalt has caused Mercutio's death. When Tybalt returns, the fighting continues and Tybalt is killed. The last part of the scene takes on a mood of tension as Lady Capulet lies about the fighting and calls for the death of Romeo. This tension, verging on more suspense, is only increased as the Prince sentences Romeo to exile. The audience is now anxious to see how the tragedy will play out.

What are some themes of the book The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao?

Junot Diaz’s 2007 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao tells the story of Oscar De León, who, like Diaz, is a Dominican growing up in New Jersey.

One theme explored in this work is the nature of masculine identity. Oscar is nerdy and overweight, not the ideal of male Dominican machismo. The character Yunior is the opposite in both appearance and values—physically strong, at times violent, sexually aggressive, and unemotional. The friends have a sort of yin-yang dynamic. Oscar sees Yunior as a guide to traditional masculinity while Yunior admires Oscar’s wit and ability to cultivate emotionally intimate relationships. This exploration of themes of gender and identity are also evident in the novel’s villain, the Dominican dictator Trujillo, who exemplifies the negative aspects of hypermasculinity.

Another important theme of the novel is the supernatural. Oscar has a preoccupation with the sci-fi and fantasy genres, and allusions to fantasy are woven throughout the novel. A prominent aspect of the supernatural in the novel is the fuku curse that haunts Oscar’s family, bringing violence and misery. The zafa works as a counterspell, the power to undo the curse. This treatment of the supernatural gives the novel an element of magical realism, blending fantasy and reality.

The novel also explores the theme of foreignness. Oscar and his family are in some ways outsiders as Dominicans living in New Jersey. However, when they return to the Dominican Republic, they still feel like visiting outsiders rather than true natives. Additionally, Oscar’s obsession with fantasy and sci-fi makes him somewhat of an outsider in his Dominican community. Diaz thus turns his attention to the many ways we distinguish the “other” and questions what it really means to belong.

Water freezing is an example of _________ .

When water freezes, it converts from liquid water to solid water (also known as ice). Thus water freezing is an example of a phase transition. Change in phase is a physical change, since the molecules remain the same and there is no change in the chemical composition of the material. Similarly, the boiling of water to produce steam is an example of a phase transition and a physical change. In comparison, a change in chemical composition indicates a chemical change.

Phase transition is either an endothermic reaction or an exothermic reaction. When water freezes, it releases some energy and hence freezing is an exothermic reaction. More specifically, 80 calories of heat is lost to the environment when 1 gram of water freezes. This is also the reason why we have to heat the ice to melt it and thus, melting is an endothermic reaction. 

Hope this helps. 

What do Atticus and Miss Maudie Atkinson say about killing a mockingbird?

Atticus did not mind if his children played with air-rifles, but he refused to teach them how to shoot the guns.  Jem and Scout thought that their father had no interest in guns.  They later found out that he had been an excellent shot in his younger years.  One day, Atticus talked to Jem about using the air-rifle:

"I'd rather you shot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you'll go after birds.  Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."  (To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 10)

Though he preferred his children not to harm any animals, Atticus remembered his own childhood.  He knew that Jem and Scout would be tempted to shoot at birds.  He urged his son not to shoot at any mockingbirds.  

Scout wondered why her father had said it was a sin.  She decided to ask Miss Maudie about it, because her neighbor was always wise and insightful.  Miss Maudie told Scout that she agreed with Atticus.  She also explained what he meant when he talked about it being a sin if someone were to kill a mockingbird:

"Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy.  They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us."

In the novel, mockingbirds represent innocence.  Miss Maudie explained the innocence of mockingbirds and how they brought joy to people and did no harm.

Who are the main characters in Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde?

The primary protagonist of Something Rotten is Thursday Next, who is the main protagonist of the series of the same name. Thursday Next is a "literary detective," solving crimes involving literature and literary heroes. In her world, the border between reality and fiction is much thinner than it is in ours, and Thursday is able to enter stories and interact with the characters in them. For example, Hamlet is also another important character in Something Rotten, although he is absent for much of the book. Thursday's family, including her parents and her young son (Friday Next), also feature heavily in the novel. Additionally, alternate versions of Thursday herself make appearances.

The primary antagonist of Something Rotten is Yorrick Kaine, a previously fictional character who has entered the real world and has high ambitions of leadership. In Something Rotten, he joins forces with an evil megacorporation and plots to become the Prime Minster. Thursday must defeat Yorrick and the Goliath corporation to prevent the ultimate end of the world.

How could the introduction of a non-native species of plant affect an ecosystem?

Plants are the producers in a food chain or web. Organisms that live in a particular ecosystem are adapted to conditions of temperature, soil type, sunlight, types of available food among other factors.  

If a non-native species is introduced to an area either accidentally or on purpose, the effects can be devastating to the native species. The new species might out-compete native plants and deprive them of water, space, soil and other requirements needed for growth. Also, there might not be any herbivores that will feed upon this non-native plant which adds to their ability to take over the new environment.

An example is the purple loose-strife which is a plant that is native to Europe and Asia and was introduced to North America in the 19th century. It has since spread on the sides of roads, wetlands and marshes through most of the United States. Unfortunately, it has hurt the native species of plants like cattails which are needed by wetland organisms to use for food and shelter. 

It is believed that purple loose-strife was introduced as an ornamental plant and its seeds were able to spread to distant areas by means of transport in the currents of streams. It is not only a non-native plant--it is also considered to be an invasive species due to the damage it has done to the native species of plants and animals in wetland ecosystems across the U.S.

I have included a link to invasive plants in the United States. Further information can be obtained on each plant.

Justify the title of the story, "The Homecoming", written by Rabindranath Tagore.

As many readers must understand, titles of poems, stories and novels are never afterthoughts.  They are integral clues into the concepts in the work. This story is no exception; it defines the idea of a home and its importance.

Basically, Phatik is an boy who enjoys popularity among his friends and a vast expanse of land in which to play and grow.  He has a family and a home.   Unfortunately, Phatik does not realize what he has until it is gone.  He is rude to his mother, antagonizes his brother and continually tries to maintain his "regal dignity" among his friends.  Only when it is too late, and Phatik has been sent to live with his uncle and his family, does he realize the value of his home.

One aspect of the title refers to the physical ideal of a home.  This includes the geography, the physical structure, the family members and the culture.  Phatik, once he moves to Calcutta, understands how much he misses his rural village. He longs to return home and is promised this homecoming at the holidays.  

Tagore describes Phatik in Calcutta as "a stray dog that has lost his master."  Suddenly he is unwelcome and unloved.  He does poorly in school, has no friends, and nothing to do but dream of home.  Ironically, it is when Phatik becomes critically ill that he decides to physically go home.  However, his illness gets the better of him, and he can only suffer in his uncle's home dreaming of his own.  

At the sight of his mother from his deathbed, he utters, "Mother, the holidays have come."  This ambiguous line is significant because it represents being reunited with his mother, who obviously loves him, and it represents death - the other homecoming.

What were the major problems facing the nation in April 1865? What factors stood in the way of a solution to those problems? Provide examples.

April 1865 was a dangerous time in American history.  When the month started, there were still at least three active Confederate armies of varying degrees on strength in the field.  Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president, was urging all of them not to surrender and to fight a guerrilla war for as long as it took to ensure Southern independence.  Many men, both North and South, had gotten separated from their units either through desertion or due to the chaos of war, and they were armed, hungry, and looting the Southern countryside.  Much of the South was in shambles, and many families lost their livestock due to armies seizing draft animals.  There were also questions of how would the vanquished Confederate states be brought back into the Union.  Radical republicans wanted the South governed as a conquered territory with only the slight possibility of being brought back into the Union fully.  Lincoln, on the other hand, wanted the states restored as soon as possible.  Had Lincoln not been assassinated, there might have been fights with Congress about how to bring the nation back together.  There was also the question of how to treat the Confederate leadership.  Radicals in Congress encouraged hanging as the punishment for top Rebels, while Lincoln secretly wanted Davis to leave the country and not come back.  The most longstanding problem was the fate of thousands of newly freed slaves.  They were emancipated and in many cases taken by the army as contraband, but they were not citizens and could not vote.  Racism existed in both the North and the South, and even Lincoln encouraged their expatriation to either Central America or the Caribbean, as he thought it the only way they would be treated fairly.  All of these problems were symptoms of a larger problem--the nation had just went through a war that killed over six hundred thousand people, and the leaders did not know how both sides could be reconciled emotionally, even though the South had been defeated on the battlefield.  

What might Eveline's life be like in the future based on the narrative of James Joyce's shorty story "Eveline"?

After her moment of what Joyce calls "spiritual paralysis," Eveline's life will most likely be one of what Thoreau termed "quiet desperation." 

As Eveline experiences terror at the last moment before boarding the ship, imagining that Frank will drown her, she grabs the iron railing with both hands. "Her distress awoke a nausea in her body and she kept moving her lips in silent fervent prayer." Joyce describes her as like a "passive,...helpless animal." Eveline experiences a spiritual paralysis foreshadowed in the first paragraph of the story and she does not depart.

In the first paragraph, Eveline lays her head against the window as evening "invade[s] the avenue." The smell of cretonne in the drapes fills her nostrils. "She was tired." The simple brevity of this sentence fills the idea of it with almost infinite weariness. Then, there is dust, suggesting inaction:

She had dusted once a week for so many years, wondering where on earth all the dust came from. Perhaps she would never again see those familiar objects from which she had never dreamed of being divided.

Further, she deliberates over the wisdom of having decided to leave home, where her little brother might then become the victim of her father's abuse. She reviews her life, a hard life, but she has not found it completely undesirable. This vacillation of Eveline demonstrates her inability to act with conviction, a failing demonstrated in her subservience to her father, to Miss Gavan, her employer, and in her lack of surety about a life with Frank as she remembers her mother's cries about life--"Derevaun Seraun!" [Gaelic for "the end of pleasure is pain"] 
At the North Wall Eveline stands in the crowd, a victim of her spiritual inertia, and she cannot respond to Frank as he calls to her. She will return home and suffer a life of "quiet desperation" because she is a victim of her character, not of circumstances. 

What is the conflict between Hilly and Skeeter in The Help?

Now that Skeeter has earned her college degree and is planning on becoming a journalist, she discovers that she doesn’t have as much in common with her old female friends as she used to. Skeeter is beginning to accept the black maids as worthy individuals and equals. She doesn’t like Hilly’s “Home Help Sanitation Initiative,” which would require white households to have extra dedicated bathrooms to be used only by black employees. Hilly erroneously believes that she would get some kind of disease by sharing a bathroom with an African American. She demands that Skeeter put the text of the Initiative in the Jackson Junior League newsletter. Skeeter puts her off, probably hoping that the issue will go away. When Hilly is finally adamant about it being printed, Skeeter sabotages it by “accidentally” mixing up the text with the request for donations for the clothing drive. Hilly ends up with dozens of toilets sitting in her front yard, to her horror. This act marks the end of what was once a close friendship.

What would be 5-7 good points to elaborate on if asked to justify why Claudius' actions were not justified in Shakespeare's Hamlet?

Claudius, the antagonist in Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet, makes many decisions that lead to conflict between himself and other characters. If you are looking to identify specific actions that can contribute to an argument against any justifications for Claudius, you can easily find 6-7 options. 

First is Claudius' fratricide. While some might argue that specific circumstances can justify murder, the poisoning of King Hamlet was conducted solely from a space of a jealousy and power-seeking. 

Second is Claudius' request for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy on Hamlet. His manipulation of two such loyal friends deconstructs Hamlet's ability to trust anyone around him, further contributing to his downward spiral into madness.

Next is Claudius' decision to spy on Ophelia and Hamlet. This decision reinforces the deceit that Claudius relies on to maintain his powerful position. 

After that comes Claudius' soliloquy, in which he confesses to the audience that he regrets his actions. However, he is unwilling to give up the spoils that have been awarded to him from these sins: Gertrude and the throne. As such, the audience can conclude that he is not truly contrite. 

Then, Claudius write orders to have Hamlet assassinated upon his arrival to England. This is a decision he makes out of fear for his own well-being, not for the protection of anyone or anything else. 

Finally, you can use Claudius' manipulation of Laertes' grief for his own purposes. He takes a mourning son and turns him into a weapon, again using others to his own advantage regardless of their state of being. 

Who is stealing from the office and blaming it on Bep?

The answer to this question can be found in Anne's diary entry on Friday, April 21, 1944. The Franks and van Daans suspect that Mr. Willem van Maaren is stealing potato flour from the warehouse and blaming it on Bep.

Mr. van Maaren is the manager of the warehouse of Opekta and Gies & Co. that contains the secret annex hiding these families. No one seems to particularly like him due to his suspicious nature. Anne states in a diary entry on Thursday, September 16, 1943 that Mr. van Maaren is "known to be unreliable and to possess a high degree of curiosity. He's not one who can be put off with a flimsy excuse." Mr. van Maaren is suspected of betraying the Franks and van Daans (which led to their capture and forced detainment in concentration camps), though this claim has never been substantiated.

In her diary entry on this matter, Anne comments on the impact of Mr. van Maaren's actions and the "uproar" that they have created in the annex. She states that Bep, in particular, is "beside herself with rage" and wonders if "Mr. Kugler will finally have this shady character [van Maaren] tailed."

In "There Will Come Soft Rains," what are the sources of the voices that can be heard from time to time? What does this suggest about the type of...

The source of the voices in the house is the house itself. How many voices are speaking in the house is unknown, but I know at least two different voices are present. When the story begins, readers are told about a voice from the living room clock. Then, readers are specifically told a second voice is heard coming from the kitchen.  

"Today is August 4, 2026," said a second voice from the kitchen ceiling, "in the city of Allendale, California."

Late in the story, readers are told about a voice coming from the study. Whether or not that is a third voice is unclear. It could be the kitchen voice in a different room. I do think it is a third voice, though. I imagine each room has an individual voice. That way, occupants of the house can more easily tell which part of the house is speaking to them.  

The voices in the house suggest to readers that the house is a "smart home" from the future. I don't believe that the house is from a future all that far off though. Modern-day smart homes can be voice controlled. Amazon sells their "Echo" for $179. It allows you complete voice control over much of your house. Simply say "Alexa," and then tell it what you want done. If your house has electrical outlets that are WiFi capable, Alexa can turn on and off lights. Alexa can control thermostats too. You can order stuff from Amazon by speaking to the device, and then ask it to tell you the weather followed by a joke. In my own home, I have two robot vacuum cleaners. Add those to Alexa, and my home is becoming eerily similar to the home from "There Will Come Soft Rains."

What was not an effect of the New Deal?

The New Deal tried to accomplish many things. It tried to bring relief and recovery to the American People. It also tried to bring reform to our financial and economic systems. While the New Deal hoped to end the Great Depression, it was not successful in accomplishing this goal.

The New Deal programs created many jobs for the American people. The hope was that if more Americans were working, they would want to buy things, which would stimulate the economy and allow it to grow. The government went into debt trying to provide jobs to the American people and in trying to bring relief to our people.

When President Roosevelt tried to cut back the spending on federal programs in 1937, the economy slipped back into a recession. Our economy wasn’t strong enough to operate without government assistance. It took the start of World War II to help end the Great Depression. The jobs created by the war brought our economy out of the Great Depression.

The New Deal was not able to end the Great Depression.

Imagine that you are an advisor to British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, in the late 1930s. Chamberlain is deeply worried that Europe is on...

First off, since Chamberlain was infamously in favor of the policy known as appeasement, in which he and France allowed Hitler and the Nazi Germany to invade surrounding territories without consequence, and to break the terms of the Treaty of Versailles with impunity, the first policy suggestion I would make would be to adopt Winston Churchill's more aggressive stance toward Hitler instead.

Churchill advocated intervening to stop Nazi remilitarization and invasion of the Sudetenland, which Hitler claimed was rightfully German. I would suggest that the British Army and Navy convince France to join forces to push the Nazis back from the Sudetenland as soon as Chamberlin took office. 

Second, instead of turning a blind eye to Hitler and Mussolini's support of Franco's rebels in Spain, who were attempting to overthrow the legitimately elected government of that country, I would instead recommend that Chamberlin send military and economic aid to the Spanish government to repel the rebels, thereby preventing the Nazis from gaining an ally in Spain. Due to the fact that Britain formally recognized the left-leaning Spanish government, I would recommend that Britain do everything in its power to make sure that the Spanish government stayed in power and became a strong ally of the British and French, in order to act as a counterweight to Germany, and to give the Nazis another border that they would have to defend, should war break out.

Third, I would advise that Chamberlin give France full military assistance and even troops, if they wanted them, in order to defend the French border with Germany in the south and the north. This would make it clear to Hitler that both the Maginot Line, as well as France's northern border with Germany, could not be broken without incurring enormous casualties. 

These proactive and aggressive counter-measures might not have stopped Hitler from trying to invade France and England, but they certainly would have made any military offensive a lot harder and less likely to succeed.

Lyddie's roommates call Diana a radical; Diana says that she is infamous. What do these two words mean, and why do people use them to refer to...

A radical is someone who behaves very differently than most people.  To be infamous means that you have a bad reputation.  Diana is radical because she wants to organize the factory workers, and this makes her infamous because it is dangerous to try to organize. 

Lyddie is a little baffled by Diana at first.   The other girls tell her that Diana is a radical, and she should not be “taken in” by her, or in other words convinced. 

"If it's Diana Goss," Prudence said, "she's a known radical, and Amelia is concerned-"

"Ey?"

Betsy laughed. "I don't think our little country cousin is acquainted with any radicals, known or unknown." (Ch. 9) 

A radical is a person who has extreme views.  Most of the girls prefer to follow the factory rules and not make waves.  Diana is a radical because she believes that the girls should not work too many hours and should be provided with safer working conditions.  She belongs to a workers’ rights movement and helps circulate a petition for more reasonable hours for the factory girls. 

When Diana introduces herself with the word "infmaous", she does so jokingly.

“I'm Diana Goss."

She must have noted a flicker of something in Lyddie's face, because she added, "The "infamous" Diana Goss," and dimpled into her lovely smile.

Lyddie reddened.

"So you've been warned."

"Not really-" (Ch. 9) 

Being infamous is not necessarily a bad thing.  It can just mean that you are scandalous to some people.  Diana does not mind her sketchy reputation.  She has been a factory worker for a long time, and she looks out for them.  It matters more to her that she might be making a difference than that some people do not like or trust her.  

Lyddie actually does become good friends with Diana.  She avoids signing the petition at first, because she does not want to get into trouble.  She eventually does go to one of Diana’s meetings, but the petition has already failed.  Lyddie is sad when Diana has to leave the factory because she gets pregnant and the father is a married man.

What effect does the setting have on Fahrenheit 451?

Good question!

Setting affects Fahrenheit 451 in several different ways, all of which are important.

The first of these is that the novel is set in the future. This aspect of the setting is essential for the novel, since it is a warning about a possible (horrible) future, one Bradbury clearly wants readers to avoid. Many of the technological advances described in the novel were just getting started when Bradbury published his classic novel.

The second aspect of setting that affects the novel is the specific work setting of Guy Montag in the firehouse. It blends the fellowship of a friendly work environment with a traumatically alien reality: these firemen sit around playing cards waiting to burn books. They don't save lives. They kill animals there in the firehouse, for fun.

The third aspect of setting that plays a major role is domestic. The fires these men set are not in a public place, or some industrial setting, where they might seem natural, or at least acceptable. They invade people's homes in order to burn their books.

And the final aspect of setting playing a major role is nature. The smells of rain and plants Montag experiences with Clarisse are the intense opposite of the technologized home in which the Montags live.

In Act II, Sergius exclaims to Raina that she is his "lady and his saint." When she begins to respond, (saying "My lord and my-") he interrupts...

This is our first hint that Sergius isn't just disillusioned about warfare. He also has misgivings about what Raina expects of him. He is finding those expectations onerous, a sentiment he'll explore later: He doesn't like being admired for something he's not, or held to standards that he can't meet.

But for now, during this interchange, he isn't ready to confess why he falls short. He isn't ready to disavow his image as the heroic lover, or consider the possibility of terminating their engagement. He just wants Raina to tone it down, so that he doesn't feel so sharply the difference between the image and the reality.

Notice, for instance, the way he frames his request:

SERGIUS. Sh--sh! Let me be the worshipper, dear. You little know how unworthy even the best man is of a girl's pure passion!

He doesn't speak of his personal inability to live up to Raina's expectations. He speaks in generalities of what the best men are like, leaving Raina free to infer that Sergius is one of these men. And because he doesn't actually claim to be "the best man," his comment can be interpreted as admirably humble and chivalrous. In effect, he is telling Raina not to praise him because women are superior. Sergius may be incompetent in many respects, but he knows how to choose his words in ways that portray him in a flattering light.

In addition, the stage directions that follow indicate that Sergius has been speaking to Raina with the "loftiest expression," reinforcing the impression that Sergius is happy to be perceived as a great lover. So while his interruption betrays his internal conflict, that conflict hasn't yet come to climax.

What passages in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird show Scout's and Jem's moral growth?

For Scout, one of the most evident moments of moral growth occurs soon after Tom Robinson's trial in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.

Prior to the trial, Scout was significantly influenced by racial prejudices. The influence of prejudice is seen in the fact that she questions her father's rightness in accepting Robinson's case. The influence of prejudice is best seen in a conversation she has with Dill outside of the courthouse during the trial. Dill must be escorted out of the courtroom because he begins crying. When he explains to Scout he is crying because of the horrible way Mr. Gilmer, the prosecuting attorney, was treating Robinson, Scout shows she possesses racist beliefs when she responds, "Well, Dill, after all he's just a Negro," meaning that since he is only a Negro, he isn't entitled to the same amount of respect as others (Ch. 19).

However, her perspective significantly changes after the trial. In Chapter 26, Scout begins the third grade. During a class discussion on Hitler, Scout is very surprised to hear her third-grade teacher speak out so vehemently against Hitler's treatment of the Jews. She is surprised because she very clearly remembers hearing a racist remark her teacher made while exiting the courthouse after the jury's guilty verdict had been read, as she informs Jem in the following:

I heard her say it's time somebody taught 'em a lesson, they were gettin' way above themselves, an' the next thing they think they can do is marry us. Jem, how can you hate Hitler so bad an' then turn around and be ugly about folks right at home--. (Ch. 26)

Scout's comment about her teacher's ugliness shows she is well aware of the hypocrisy her teacher is guilty of. Scout's awareness of hypocrisy shows she has achieved significant moral growth since Robinson's trial.

How was American culture transformed during the 1920's?

An argument can be made that the America we know today was forged during the 1920's. The period that followed the Great War was one of great economic growth and social change. America's wealth grew because of an industrial boom and the rise of the consumer economy. Americans bought goods that were not available at an affordable rate for their parents. Automobiles and household appliances drove this consumer economy and more Americans had disposable income than at any time in history. Those that could not purchase goods charged them with consumer credit, another new development.

The 1920's also saw a great change for women. Many shunned restrictive traditional conventions of dress and behavior. They entered colleges in larger numbers and pursued careers that their mothers would never have dreamed of pursuing. Women were also granted the right to vote with the Nineteenth Amendment and were now expected to be involved in the political process. African-Americans also fought for similar opportunities during the decade of the 1920's.

The Twenties are also the decade of mass popular culture. For the first time, Americans felt a sense of community due to transportation technologies. Radio and motion picture introduced Americans to movie stars and sports icons. Jazz music was also introduced as a very popular music form. With more leisure time and expendable income, Americans treasured their pop stars and invested in entertainment.