During the Renaissance, which two powerful American empires were defeated by the Spanish?

The two empires that were eventually defeated by the Spanish were the Incan Empire, which occupied what is now Peru, and the Aztec Empire, which comprised much of what is now Mexico. I would not include the Mayan Empire here because, by the time the Spanish arrived, the civilization had already been in decline. Formerly great cities were, by then, buried under rain forest.

The Spanish assumed control over their colonial subjects with a combination of guns and germs. Their weaponry, wielded by relatively small armies, allowed them to take over cities. Their "germs," including small pox, influenza, and yellow fever, decimated native populations. 

Hernan Cortes sailed into Mexico in 1519 with eleven ships, a little more than 500 soldiers, and 100 sailors. He also brought horses, which were introduced into the New World by the Spanish.

Cortes's decisive victory over the Aztecs occurred in the famous city of Tenochtitlan. In his first battle there with the Aztecs, the Spanish lost. However, Cortes returned in December 1520 and conquered the capital city street by street. As a result, by 1521, the Aztec Empire had fallen. Cortes then went on to Central America, particularly the Honduras, to seek new territories for Spain.

Francisco Pizarro conquered the Incan Empire. He, too, brought horses, but far fewer men -- only 180. He also only had one ship. On the other hand, the Incan emperor had an army of 30,000 men. 

After a period of imprisonment, imposed as a result of his demand that the emperor and his subjects accept Christianity, Pizarro ordered an attack on the nation, later seized the emperor Atahuallpa himself, and had him killed by strangulation. The Incan army retreated, probably intimidated by Pizarro's artillery, allowing the Spanish to seize the empire in 1533.

After returning to Peru from a disappointing trip to Chile, which he had intended for future conquest, Pizarro was re-imprisoned -- this time by his brother, Hernando -- and executed.

What are the conflicts in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twin?

There are a number of the different types of conflicts in the novel.

Man vs. Man:

Tom has adversarial relationships with a number of different characters throughout the novel. The big man vs. man conflict of the novel is between Tom and Injun Joe, since Tom knows about Injun Joe's role in the murder and testifies against him. However, Tom can also be at odds with Becky and Aunt Polly at times in the novel, such as when he and Becky are trying to make each other jealous or when Aunt Polly is punishing him for one of his many exploits. 

Man vs. Nature:

As a kid who roams free through nature during a lot of his childhood, it is to be expected that nature sometimes causes conflict. A major example of this is when Tom is trapped in the caves. Another is the storm on Jackson Island, when a tree is knock right into the boys' camp. 

Man vs. Society:

This conflict is common for Tom, who often scorns what he needs to do to be "respectable," such as wearing shoes and going to church. The conflict is even more important for Huck, though, whom the Widow Douglas attempts to civilize at the end of the book. This is torment for Huck, who is accustomed to living in a wild and free way that makes him an outcast. Though he doesn't like being mistreated, he struggles to act in a way that society can accept.  

In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, why is Jay glancing into some of the rooms?

The reference to Jay Gatsby glancing into his rooms is found at the beginning of Chapter 5. Nick had seen Gatsby's mansion ablaze with light, creating the impression that it was on fire. When he got out of his taxi and it departed , he saw Jay walking towards him. He then commented that the house looked like the World's Fair and Jay told him that he had been glancing into some of the rooms.

The most likely reason for Jay doing this stems from the fact that he had asked Jordan Baker to approach Nick with the request that he arrange a meeting with him and Daisy at Nick's house. Nick was Daisy's cousin and he lived right next to Jay. The pretense would be that it would be a social call and that Jay would then meet Daisy as if by accident. It is more than likely that Jordan had already told Jay that Nick had agreed to the request.

Jay was obviously excited about seeing Daisy, his lost love, after five long years and he obviously would want to show her what a success he had made of his  life and of himself. He was proud of his achievements and wanted to ensure that if she should visit his mansion, that everything would be just perfect. Everything had to be in place. His grand dream of finally being with her once again could not be spoilt by anything out of place. He had worked so hard to put himself in a position where he could be an equal to Tom Buchanan, who had essentially stolen her from him, and he wanted her back.

It is for this reason that he had had all the lights, from top to bottom, switched on so that he could scrutinise everything. All of Jay's actions were deliberate. His entire focus was on winning Daisy back and he would not allow anything to jeopardize his dream. His glancing into the rooms also foreshadows his actions later, when he takes Daisy and Nick practically through the entire house to witness its grandeur, after they their meeting at Nick's tea party, as indicated in the following excerpts:

...we wandered through Marie Antoinette music-rooms and Restoration salons...

...Gatsby closed the door of “the Merton College Library.”

We went up-stairs, through period bedrooms swathed in rose and lavender silk and vivid with new flowers, through dressing-rooms and poolrooms, and bathrooms with sunken baths — intruding into one chamber...

Finally we came to Gatsby’s own apartment, a bedroom and a bath, and an Adam study,...

Jay's actions were, therefore, a deliberate attempt to impress Daisy. He succeeded admirably, for her pleasure is symbolized in her comment about Jay's huge collection of beautiful shirts:

“They’re such beautiful shirts,” she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. “It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such — such beautiful shirts before.”

At the end of the chapter, Nick is forgotten and Jay and Daisy have eyes only for each other, as Nick somewhat drily comments:

They had forgotten me, but Daisy glanced up and held out her hand; Gatsby didn’t know me now at all. I looked once more at them and they looked back at me, remotely, possessed by intense life. Then I went out of the room and down the marble steps into the rain, leaving them there together.

What might be discussed in a brief essay on local food vs non-local food?

A brief essay on local versus non-local food could explore the advantages and disadvantages of each. For example, local food is likely to be fresher and generally in better condition since it has not traveled as far, and is less likely to have been frozen and thawed or subject to less-than-ideal temperature conditions, as non-local food is prone to be. On the other hand, non-local food might very well be less costly than locally produced food. This is because a local farm may be smaller and not able to reap the benefits of the economies of scale. If you have an acre or two of strawberries, as opposed to thousands of acres of strawberries, your overhead is probably far higher per acre than that of the larger farm. Even figuring in the cost of transportation, non-local food can be lower in cost. Another aspect of this is that if we consume only local food, we are missing a great deal. Where I live, bananas, pineapples, mangoes, and oranges are not local food, and I would really hate to give those up!

Other than the black box in Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," what way can deconstructionist theory be applied to the story?

"The Lottery" almost could have been written to explicate aspects of deconstruction. Someone like Derrida would probably object to using the word "applied" to his thought, as if it were a set of rules that could be plunked down on a text, but leaving that aside, let's look at several directions this could take.

What immediately jumps to mind is Derrida's essay "Plato's Pharmacy," in which the word "pharmakon" means both poison and cure. "The Lottery" fits the paradigm of ancient sacrifice discussed both by Plato and Derrida: is the lottery the town's poison, cure, or both? 

Deconstruction looks at silences in a text: what is assumed but not spoken because it is so normative in a culture that it doesn't have to be said? What assumptions in the "langue" (or larger sign system) run so deep that they don't have to be articulated in the "parole" of a particular story? One that leaps out of "The Lottery" is patriarchy: we never once are told explicitly that this a patriarchal society, but that clearly underlies everything that happens: men run the lottery, men control the box. Women aren't even named until the eighth paragraph: the early emphasis is on men and male children. You could take all of this and run with it: what is the connection between patriarchy and violence and domination unspoken in this text?

In the same vein, "The Lottery" almost perfectly fits Rene Girard's "mimesis of envy" theory that says society needs a scapegoat, originally in the form of a human sacrifice, to purify itself of a build-up of aggressions and not tear itself apart. You might discuss what is "silent" in this text as this very envy—people all desiring the same thing—and the aggression underlying this seemingly very placid culture. 

Deconstruction, and here I think of de Man, reads "against the grain." Reading "with" the grain, we are supposed to understand the lottery as governed by random chance, but is it really random that a woman ends up as the sacrifice? How random is this male-controlled lottery? Beyond that, Tessie is the transgressive female voice in this story: she arrives late, having "clean" [think about that word in terms of the pharmakon as poison/purifying] forgotten. She is the one who repeatedly says what nobody else will: the lottery is unfair. What if we see the choice of a woman—and this particular woman—as a symbol of who must sacrifice in patriarchal society, not as a random gender choice?

In the first paragraph, Vonnegut uses the words "unceasing vigilance." What does these words mean? What implications do they have in the text?

In Harrison Bergeron, the phrase "unceasing vigilance" describes the work ethic of the Handicapper General agents. The word "unceasing" means "constant," and "vigilance" refers to careful watchfulness, so the phrase is meant to suggest that the agents of the Handicapper General are always keeping track of the handicaps placed upon people. It implies that the society of Harrison Bergeron is a totalitarian surveillance state in which citizens are constantly watched by their government to ensure that they are always handicapped. This vigilance is confirmed at the end of the story, when Harrison's brief rebellion against his government results very quickly in his death. Harrison only has time to remove his handicaps, and those of the ballerina he declares his Empress, and dance briefly with her before the Handicapper General herself, Dianna Moon Glampers, appears and shoots both of them. The vigilance of her workers ensures that Harrison's rebellion only lasted minutes, and that his actions are met with immediate capital punishment.

In the story "Crazy Horse Dreams" from Sherman Alexie's The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, what are the unnamed woman’s...

The story "Crazy Horse Dreams" revolves around a sort-of romance between Victor, a Native American man, and an unnamed Native American woman, who meet at a powwow. The woman approaches Victor early in the story, but is reproached by him because he says he is "too big" for her. She approaches him later, but this time sneaks up on him. She says, "You must be a rich man ... Not much of a warrior though. You keep letting me sneak up on you."

The remainder of the story becomes a bit surreal with the third-person narrator employing indirect discourse to describe the thoughts of the characters. The two go back to her Winnebago (note the use of a tribal name, not the more generic "RV") and proceed to have sex. The woman's beauty frightens Victor and he begins to tremble because "[t]here was nothing he could give her father to earn her hand." The two continue, but he asks her why she doesn't have any "scars." It's not clear whether these are literal or figurative scars, although I lean more toward figurative ones. She responds, "Why do you have so ... many?" 

Although there is one mention earlier of warriors, the final paragraphs of the story really emphasize the unnamed woman's conceptual idea of these leaders. After the discussion about the scars, Victor seems to become angry and tells her, "You're nothing important... You're just another goddamned Indian like me." She replies that she's the best kind of Indian and that she's "in bed with my father." This comment becomes clearer a paragraph later when the point-of-view shifts from Victor to her and the narrator says she believes her father was Crazy Horse, the mid-19th century Lakota warrior who led the famed Battle at Little Big Horn.

Bothered by this, Victor puts on his clothes and says, "You're nothing" to her. However, the narrator, now from Victor's point of view, says that Victor "wished he was Crazy Horse."

This idea of a warrior is important in this story because, like many of the stories in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, this story focuses on the static lives of Native Americans. They are all waiting for that warrior to lead them off the reservation, away from poverty and alcoholism. This unnamed woman wishes Victor would be her Crazy Horse, but he's not.

How can firms and governments use price elasticity of demand (PED) when making decisions?

The use of economic theory in decision-making by firms and governments is very important. Its use ensures that firms choose the quantities of goods they produce and their selling price (in the case of firms operating in imperfect competition) at a level where the profit earned is maximized.

Similarly, its use ensures that the benefits of government policies such as price controls (price floors and price ceilings) are greater than the deadweight loss experienced by the economy.

Price elasticity of demand (PED) measures the level of responsiveness of the demand for a good when there is a 1-percent change in the price of the good. When PED is less than 1, demand is inelastic. PED greater than 1 indicates that demand is elastic, and PED equal to 1 is unitary.

PED and The Firm

a) When demand is elastic, firms should choose to reduce their selling prices in order to increase their profits. This is because elastic demand is very sensitive to price changes, and according to the demand theory demand increases as price decreases. Therefore, the price reduction would be outweighed by the rise in demand, so the firm would earn increased revenue. Products with an elastic demand include luxury items, movie tickets, beverages, and food items.

b) In contrast, when demand is inelastic, firms should choose to increase their selling prices in order to increase their profits. This is because inelastic demand is not very sensitive to price changes, as such demand would decrease (due to the demand theory), but only slightly. Therefore, the price increase would outweigh the slight decrease in demand, so the firm would earn increased revenue. Products with an inelastic demand include most medications.

c) In the case of unitary demand, any price change is met with a proportional change in demand. Simply, the percentage changes in both price and demand are equal. 

PED and Governments

In some markets, such as farming and real estate, government enforces price controls. Such controls may result in excess demand or excess supply; however, the government can prevent these excesses with the use of PED knowledge.

d) When demand is inelastic, the government should set a price floor (the minimum price at which a good can be sold). This would cause firms operating in this market to increase their offering price above the original equilibrium price, which is similar to the firms' action mentioned above in part b.

e) When demand is elastic, the government should set a price ceiling (the maximum price at which a good can be sold). This would cause firms operating in this market to offer a reduced price that is below the original equilibrium price, which is similar to the firms' action in part a.

How is Orwell's attitude toward his job ambivalent?

Orwell is serving as a police officer for the British Empire in Lower Burma, and he writes that the anti-European sentiment in the country is "perplexing and upsetting." His experience makes him feel that "imperialism is an evil thing" and that he must quit his job as soon as possible. On the other hand, he is aware that he feels irrational hatred towards the people he must work with in Burma. 

When he hears that an elephant is destroying the bazaar, he approaches his task of shooting the elephant with great ambivalence. His sense of duty, weak though it is, propels him to grab his gun and go in search of the marauding elephant. Though he knows that he should not shoot the elephant, who is actually doing no harm, the crowd of people urging him on forces him to shoot the elephant to "avoid looking a fool." He feels great ambivalence in shooting the elephant because he knows it is unnecessary, and he feels great ambivalence about working for an empire that only engenders resentment in the people it attempts to control. 

How does John Steinbeck use imagery to describe the "brush" in the last scene of Of Mice and Men?

Up to this point, the "brush" has been a safe place for Lennie, a place for him to discover the small animals he loves so much. Lennie always remembers that in case of any trouble, he is supposed to go hide in the brush and wait for George to come take care of him.

As the novel comes to a close, George and Lennie meet near the brush, and of course there is trouble: Lennie has accidentally killed Curley's wife, and now an angry mob is on its way to exact revenge on Lennie. Knowing they can't escape, George is determined to end his friend's life humanely before he can suffer at the hands of the mob.

Here's how the narrator employs sensory imagery with the brush to build suspense and create realism for the scene. First, he describes blue shadows, the approach of evening, and the spooky sound of "crashing" in the brush from far away:

The shadow in the valley was bluer, and the evening came fast. On the wind the sound of crashing in the brush came to them.

We know now that the mob is on its way. And the auditory imagery of the brush intensifies, signalling how close it's coming to Lennie:

There were crashing footsteps in the brush now.

After ending his friend's life, George knows that the mob is an instant from bursting into view because he can hear it:

The brush seemed filled with cries and with the sound of running feet.

All these sensory descriptions of the brush and how it rustles, how it's "filled with cries," create a sense of encroaching pandemonium in this final scene. We hear the sounds as if we were there with George and Lennie, and as the sounds intensify, we become more and more tense, knowing that for these characters there's no escaping the violence.

What are the practical applications of evaporation and sublimation process?

The process of evaporation involves change from the liquid phase to the gas phase. Sublimation is the direct change from the solid phase to the gas phase. There are a number of applications of these processes.

Evaporation has been used for a very long time to obtain salt from sea water. Typically, the salty water of the sea is stored in large pits from where the water evaporates, leaving salt behind. Evaporation of sweat from our body helps keep our body temperature down. Clothes are typically dried by hanging them out in the open. Film deposition on a variety of surfaces (known as substrates) is done by mixing the solute in volatile solvent and allowing the solvent to evaporate, leaving behind a film of the desired material.

Sublimation is commonly used in freeze drying to preserve food products. This is the reason we find ice inside packs of frozen food. It is also used to purify chemicals.

Hope this helps. 

When does Walter show acceptance for Beneatha's dream?

Walter begins to show acceptance of Beneatha’s dream of being a doctor when he is confronted with the loss of his own dream of owning his own business. Beneatha has had several “dreams” over the years, and her family teases her about all of them. Not only does she now want to become a doctor, she wants to go to Africa with Mr. Asagai to get in touch with her African roots. Because of her constant changes, she is not taken seriously by any of her family. They also see the drawbacks of her being an African-American woman, a rarity in the medical profession at the time the play takes place.

Walter’s dream is to own a liquor store, something that his mother does not approve of. While it may be a money-making business, she sees it as shameful, living off the downfall of others. She reluctantly gives him some money from the life insurance check, which is promptly lost by another partner of Walter’s.

Walter has confirmed his family’s distrust of his judgment. When they are confronted by the prejudice of the neighborhood in which Mama has bought a house, Walter sees reality in a different light. As he has determined to become the man of the family, despite the loss of his dream, he sees Beneatha as the hope of their future. He gains a pride in her and determines that her dream of becoming a doctor must come true.

How would sixteenth-century audiences react to the witches in Macbeth?

First, we should recognize that Macbeth was not performed until the seventeenth century. Shakespeare composed the work at around the turn of the century. Still, witch hunts were not uncommon at all, especially on the European continent, and there is no doubt that many Europeans still believed in them. England and Scotland (the setting of Macbeth) witnessed a number of witch hunts in the seventeenth century, and of course the Salem trials, which rank among the most famous witch hunts in history, occurred more than eighty years after Macbeth was first performed. So it is important to note that many of Shakespeare's audience would have believed that witches were a reality, not a fantasy conjured up for dramatic purposes. Even some who did not literally believe in witches would have identified with one of the play's central themes: the role played by supernatural forces in the lives of human beings. Sometimes, as the witches in Macbeth demonstrate, these forces could be up to no good. On the other hand, it is worth noting that it is Macbeth himself that takes the actions that lead to his downfall--the witches do not themselves indulge in bloodshed. So Macbeth might have been viewed as a meditation on the interaction between malevolent supernatural forces and the all-too-human characteristics of self-destructive ambition and lust for power.

What does Peter learn from the leadership of Adolf Hitler in Ender's Game?

The answer to your question can be found in chapter 9 ("Locke and Demosthenes") of Ender's Game.  During chapter 9, Valentine and Peter vow to be like Demosthenes and Locke respectively.  Peter wants to have more "moderate" ideas about how to truly win the war.  Further, Valentine will be his voice in writing.  First, let us look at the text to find what Peter says about Hitler:

Everybody thinks Hitler got to power because of his armies, because they were willing to kill, and that's partly true, because in the real world power is always built on the threat of death and dishonor.  But mostly he got to power on words, on the right words at the right time.

This is part of Peter's explanation to Valentine of why he needs her to be his voice in writing.  Peter admits some truths about the power in the "real world" here.  Peter uses Hitler as an example of the following truth:  power is, in fact, built on a threat of both dishonor and death.  Even though this is true, there is a hidden truth about Hitler that Peter wants to bring out for Valentine:  Hitler had the power of words behind him.  This is the power that Peter wants Valentine to have.  Just as Hitler "got to power on words, on the right words at the right time," Peter wants Valentine to put convincing words to Peter's ideas so he, too, can use the "right words at the right time" to convince the masses about strategy in battle.

In Triangle by David von Drehle, why was Charley Rose hired to beat up Clara Lemlich?

In the book, we are told that Charley Rose was hired to beat up Clara Lemlich because of her activist work: she had been guilty of leading a worker's strike at a blouse-making factory in Manhattan.

Charley Rose was a burglar by trade, but he also worked when there was money to be made. In other words, he was not averse to working as a mercenary-for-hire whenever the occasion suited him. Meanwhile, Clara Lemlich was an immigrant employee who worked at the blouse-making and shirtwaist factories of New York City. She often led demonstrations to agitate for better pay and working conditions for garment workers.

With a handful of other young women, Clara joined the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union in 1906 and subsequently set up Local 25 as a local chapter. Clara's Local 25 was largely ignored by the larger male workers' unions; many of the men viewed the female workers as competition, and they felt that the women were unreliable at best in the fight for workers' rights.

However, Clara was an indomitable young woman, despite standing less than five feet tall. She led demonstrations and was indefatigable in her efforts to agitate for better working conditions for all female garment workers. In the end, her activism made her unpopular among the factory owners. Charley Rose was hired to beat Clara up. He brought along with him William Lustig (an amateur boxer) and other shady characters from the New York underworld.

After the men were finished, Clara was left for dead with bruises and broken ribs. However, she survived and became both a socialist martyr and a catalyst for the growth of the workers' movement in New York City.

Were the gods fair to Oedipus?

It's tough to characterize a prophecy which states that one will kill one's father and marry one's mother as "fair," but Oedipus's incredible pride in thinking that he could outwit the prophecy qualifies him, certainly for the ancient Greeks, for some divine retribution. The prophecy came from the oracle of Delphi, the mouthpiece of the god Apollo. Regardless, Oedipus believes that he can avoid this fate by simply refusing to return home; this way, in his mind, he cannot somehow accidentally kill his father, Polybus, and marry his mother, Merope. The problem? These aren't his biological parents; they are his adoptive parents. In attempting to avoid his fate, he actually does the thing that enables it to come true: he moves to Thebes. He makes critical errors as a result of pride, and things never work out well for a mortal who believes that they can outwit the gods, or that their will could be more powerful than a god's will. Is it fair? To me, not particularly: Oedipus is proud, to be sure, but he isn't evil. However, such a story would have taught its original audience a key lesson about the crucial importance of humility and respect for the gods.

What was Mussolini's contribution to the outbreak of World War II?

Benito Mussolini did not play a major part in the outbreak of WWII.  In fact, Hitler started the war without consulting Mussolini.  He gave Mussolini only one week’s notice that the war was going to start, clearly treating him as something less than an equal.  Mussolini’s main role was as someone who helped pave the way for Hitler to rise to power and to believe that he could take on the French and the British.

Mussolini’s first role was help get Hitler into power.  Mussolini came to power in Italy more than a decade before Hitler took power in Germany.  His rise to power helped to inspire Hitler, and Hitler’s fascist thinking was influenced by Mussolini’s.  The existence of a fascist state in Italy helped convince Hitler and the Nazis that they could also take power in Germany someday.

Mussolini’s second main role came in foreign policy.  Mussolini helped the fascist side in the Spanish Civil War.  He also invaded Ethiopia, defying the League of Nations in his attempt to build an Italian empire.  Both of these actions emboldened Hitler.  The fascist victory in Spain, which Germany also aided, helped convince Hitler that he could defeat the French and British militarily.  Mussolini’s conquest of Ethiopia showed Hitler that the League of Nations was weak and would probably not do anything to stop him from trying to take power over more of Europe.

These are the main ways in which Mussolini contributed to the outbreak of WWII.  Hitler was truly the driving force behind the war.  All that Mussolini did was to enable Hitler, making it more likely that the Nazi leader would cause the war to begin.

Is it smart to name geographical points?

Yes, it is very wise to name geographical points, because it helps people to identify and recognize them better in everyday life. Imagine trying to talk about other people if no one had any names; life would be utter chaos! You would be restricted to talking about people in your immediate vicinity; for instance, one could say "That man I am pointing at is an excellent writer."  It would be just as difficult to live in a world where no geographic feature had a name. No one would ever be able to explain a location to anyone else, nor would they be able to understand directions.

The only plausible alternative to giving geographic points "names" would be to assign them numbers, but even numbers are a sort of name since that is what we would say when we referred to them.

27.80 grams of sodium iodide react with 5.20 grams of chlorine. When this experiment was carried out in the lab, the actual yield of sodium...

When sodium iodide (NaI) reacts with chlorine gas, the following reaction takes place:

`2NaI (aq) + Cl_2 (g) -> 2NaCl (aq) + I_2 (aq)`

The products of this reaction are sodium chloride and iodine. 

Using stoichiometry, 2 moles of sodium iodide react with 1 mole of chlorine gas to produce 2 moles of sodium chloride and 1 mole of iodine.

The molar masses of all the species are:

sodium iodide = 150 g

chlorine gas = 71 g

sodium chloride = 58.5 g

iodine = 254 g

In this question, the masses of reactants are 27.8 g sodium iodide and 5.2 g chlorine gas and the mass of sodium chloride is given as 6.55 g. Let us convert all of them to number of moles of each species.

Sodium iodide = mass/molar mass = 27.8 g / 150 g/mole = 0.1853 moles

Chlorine gas = 5.2 g / 71 g/mole = 0.0732 moles

sodium chloride = 6.55 g / 58.5 g/mole = 0.112 moles.

Using stoichiometry, 2 moles of sodium iodide produce 2 moles of sodium chloride; however, we see that sodium iodide did not produce 0.1853 moles of sodium chloride. Similarly, chlorine gas also did not produce the requisite moles of sodium chloride and hence both sodium iodide and chlorine are left over.

To produce 0.112 moles sodium chloride, we need 0.112 moles of sodium iodide or 16.8 g (= 0.112 moles x 150 g/mole) of sodium iodide. Hence, 11 g sodium iodide would be left over. 

Similarly, 0.058 moles of chlorine would produce 0.112 moles of sodium iodide; thus, 0.0152 moles (= 0.0732 - 0.058) of chlorine is left over. We can also say that, 1.079 g (= 0.152 moles x 71 g/mole) of chlorine is left over.

So, to produce the given amount of sodium chloride, some portion, both of sodium iodide and chlorine, is left over. 

What are the different forms of perception?

I think you are asking about the five senses: taste, touch, hearing, sight, and smell.

Taste allows you to experience the sensation of food and other substances. This sense is experienced with the tongue and is closely related to smell.

Smell allows for the sensing of aromas through the nose. The combination of taste and smell allows for the experience of flavor.

Sight allows for the experience of vision in which the eyes detect and focus on objects and environments. Sight is dependent on the amount of light and is a mental, rather than physical, experience - vision happens in the brain with the eyes as a conduit.

Hearing is a physical and mental sense that allows for the perception of sound. Physical structures in the ears send sensory signals to the brain.

Touch is a sensory-motor sense allowing for the experience of physical sensations. The experience of "feeling" something physical happens through touch and relies on variations of pressure on nerve receptors.

What is a force?

A force is a "push or pull" acting on an object. There are two main categories of forces: contact forces and action-at-a-distance forces.

Contact Forces

• Applied Force: the force applied to an object by a person or another object


• Normal Force: the force that is exerted on an object that is associated with another stable object


• Friction Force: the force exerted by a surface when an object moves across it


• Air Resistance Force: the force that acts on an object as it moves through the air


• Tension Force: the force that is exerted through a string or rope when it is pulled tight


• Spring Force: the force exerted by a compressed or stretched spring

Action-at-a-Distance Forces

• Gravitational Force: the force with which a very large object attracts another object to itself


• Electrical Force: the force exerted between charged objects


• Magnetic Force: the force exerted between charged objects due to their motion

In the poem "Vagabond" by Robert Louis Stevenson, what is the meaning of the line "give the face of earth around"?

That line appears twice, in the nearly-identical second and fourth stanzas of "Vagabond" by Robert Louis Stevenson, and it means "Let me see the ground all around me," or in other words, "Allow me to be here on the earth and see the land stretch out all around me."

You can understand that line better by backing up and looking at it in the context of the entire stanza:

Let the blow fall soon or late,
Let what will be o'er me;
Give the face of earth around
And the road before me.
Wealth I seek not, hope nor love,
Nor a friend to know me;
All I seek, the heaven above
And the road below me.

To paraphrase the stanza above, the speaker is saying, "Let whatever's going to happen, happen, including my own death. Give me the land around me and the road in front of me. I don't want to be rich or have hope or love. I don't even need a close friend. I just need the sky above me and the road under my feet." The speaker might be talking to himself, or to God, or to other people around him.

All this makes sense when you consider that the main idea of the poem is a celebration of the life of a vagabond: a wanderer, someone who goes all over the country, living outdoors, enjoying nature and freedom and life itself. The speaker is describing his joyful life of exploration and solitude, part of which includes embracing the gift and the beauty of the land that surrounds him.

What are some examples of friendship in All Quiet on the Western Front?

In the sixth chapter of All Quiet on the Western Front, specific examples of friendship can be seen in the midst of war.

Friendship is the tie that binds soldiers together. Despite the shelling, attacks, and sheer terror of war, companionship connects many of the young soldiers. This can be seen when Paul comforts his friend, Haie Westhus, in his last moments of life: "Haie Westhus drags off with a great wound in his back through which the lung pulses at every breath. I can only press his hand; 'It's all up, Paul,' he groans and he bites his arm because of the pain." The terror of the war has done much to desensitize soldiers from one another. However, Paul embodies the ethics of friendship in the midst of the war. He holds Haie's hand as he dies. This is a powerful example of friendship in the text.

Another such example is evident at the end of the chapter. After the intense shelling of the night before, the soldiers attend roll call. Paul immediately recognizes familiar faces as havens from the pain of war:

Now someone is calling the number of our company, it is, yes, the Company Commander, he has come through, then; his arm is in a sling. We go over to him and I recognise Kat and Albert, we stand together, lean against each other, and look at one another.

When they "lean against each other" and "stand together," it is clear that friendship is one of the most important elements to the soldiers in fighting off war's brutality. It represents how the soldiers need something, anything, to help them endure the unimaginable. In this way, chapter 6 of All Quiet on the Western Front displays distinct examples of friendship.

Do you admire Jimmy and Bob more from O. Henry's story "After Twenty Years"? Why?

Jimmy is the more admirable character of the two men in "After Twenty Years." Jimmy displays many admirable qualities, including intelligence, integrity, authority, and compassion. He makes Bob seem flashy and superficial. When Jimmy realizes that his old friend Bob is the man wanted by the Chicago police, he is faced with a dilemma. He doesn't want to arrest a friend who thinks so highly of him and has come so far to meet him after twenty years. On the other hand, Jimmy has a sworn duty to uphold the law, and it is obviously his responsibility to arrest Bob. He solves that problem with intelligence by ascertaining that Bob will be standing there in the doorway for about a half-hour and then turning the job of arresting him over to another officer. Jimmy shows that he experiences regret when he tells Bob in a note:

Bob: I was at the appointed place on time. When you struck the match to light your cigar I saw it was the face of the man wanted in Chicago. Somehow I couldn't do it myself, so I went around and got a plainclothesman to do the job.

Some readers may consider Jimmy's betrayal of his old friend reprehensible, but it could be countered that the friendship ended the moment Bob lit his cigar and revealed he was a wanted criminal who probably had a long record. Jimmy must have been shocked when he saw that face in the matchlight. He displayed another admirable character trait by maintaining the same facial expression and tone of voice. Jimmy acquired a lot of experience in his years as a policeman. Those old-time beat cops were admirable figures. They were expected to make their own judgments as rulers of their little microcosms within the great macrocosm of the big city. O. Henry opens the story by describing Jimmy's twirling his club. 

Trying doors as he went, twirling his club with many intricate and artful movements, turning now and then to cast his watchful eye down the pacific thoroughfare, the officer, with his stalwart form and slight swagger, made a fine picture of a guardian of the peace. 

That club was a symbol of the cop's authority. He had to make many decisions every day in enforcing the law. He made them on the spot, as a rule, without consulting his superiors. He was, as O. Henry says, "a fine picture of a guardian of the peace." Jimmy may have been a beat cop for nearly twenty years. He would have acquired a tremendous amount of practical wisdom in that time.

Bob, on the other hand, would have acquired his own store of wisdom, but it was largely crooked wisdom. He knew how to manipulate people for his own advantage. He tried to manipulate the man he took to be a uniformed cop.

In Walk Two Moons, how does Sal adjust to her new home?

She doesn’t like it much. Sal and her father John have moved from a farm in Bybanks, Kentucky, to the small city of Euclid, Ohio, now that Sal’s mother has left the family. The house is small, and Sal says she’s left things behind in Kentucky. But she’s made friends with Phoebe Winterbottom, who is in her class at school. Hanging out with Phoebe helps Sal put aside thoughts of her own mother, although these memories surface regularly. It also helps her deal with her father’s new friendship with Margaret Cadaver, the red-haired woman who lives next door to the Winterbottoms. Sal doesn’t really want to know what’s going on between them. Phoebe and Sal can keep an eye on the Cadaver house, though; and strange activities seem to go on there. Both girls have active imaginations, and this makes for plenty of adventure and shared experiences.

What is a passage in Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner that shows Amir's guilt for what he let happen to Hassan?

As the central conflict of The Kite Runner is how Amir deals with and eventually works to redeem his guilt following the assault of Hassan in Chapter 7, there are numerous passages that could serve as good examples. I will list a few and discuss briefly how they relate to the central conflict. 

1. In Chapter 8, on page 86, Amir says: 

"I watched Hassan get raped," I said to no one. Baba stirred in his sleep. Kaka Homayoun grunted. A part of me was hoping someone would wake up and hear, so I wouldn't have to live with this lie anymore. But no one woke up and in the silence that followed, I understood the nature of my new curse: I was going to get away with it.

I thought about Hassan's dream, the one about us swimming in the lake. There is no monster, he'd said, just water. Except he'd been wrong about that. There was a monster in the lake. it had grabbed Hassan by the ankles, dragged him to the murky bottom. I was that monster. 

That was the night I became an insomniac.

This passage shows Amir wishing he could get this secret—that he witnessed the assault but did nothing to help Hassan, running away instead—off his chest to assuage his guilt. He returns to the dream Hassan told him about before the kite tournament and revises Hassan's interpretation that there was no monster. Amir's claim that he, Amir, is actually the monster dragging Hassan down is a vivid metaphor that captures the depth of Amir's guilt. He knows he has betrayed his friend and sees his inability or unwillingness to help Hassan as just as pivotal to Hassan's pain as Assef's rape of Hassan. Amir ends this passage by noting that he can no longer sleep peacefully because of the psychological burden he feels.

2. Another scene that displays Amir's guilt occurs later in Chapter 8, when Amir screams at Hassan to throw pomegranates at him. This scene takes place on pages 92-93. In the middle of the scene, Amir says, 

I wished he'd give me the punishment I craved, so maybe I'd finally sleep at night. Maybe then things could return to how they used to be between us (92).

Amir wants to be punished for his disloyalty, but Hassan cannot do this. Even if it had been consistent with his personality (it's not), Hassan's position in the household as Amir's servant and as inferior in terms of ethnic group, religion, and class, mean he cannot outwardly express anger (verbally or physically) toward Amir for Amir's betrayal. In the scene, Amir is obviously projecting his guilt onto Hassan. In response, Hassan smashes a pomegranate on his own face and asks Amir if he is "satisfied" (93). It is after this scene that Amir decides to place the watch and birthday money under Hassan's pillow to frame him for theft so Baba will send Ali and Hassan away.

3. Another scene later in the novel that captures Amir's continuing guilt is Amir's description of a dream he has after learning of Hassan's death. The dream is described in Chapter 19, pages 239-240, in a series of italicized paragraphs. Amir imagines the moment of Hassan's death as it was relayed to him by Rahim Khan in the previous chapter: Hassan is kneeling in the street and is shot in the back of the head. At the end of the dream, Amir reveals that he is "the man in the herringbone vest" who is behind Hassan and who shoots him with the rifle. In reality, someone from the Taliban shot Hassan, but after Amir has heard of all the tragedies that befell Hassan while he was still in Kabul (and Amir and Baba were in California), he feels responsible for everything, including Hassan's death. This recalls the earlier passage where Amir sees himself as the monster in Hassan's dream.

All of these passages and many others throughout the novel show Amir's guilt and also support the necessity of the journey he takes to redeem himself and atone for his sins later in his life.

`sinh(3)` Evaluate the function. If the value is not a rational number, round your answer to three decimal places.

`sinh(3)`

Take note that hyperbolic sine is defined as

• 
  `sinh(x)=(e^x-e^(-x))/2`

Applying this formula, the expression becomes

`= (e^(3)-e^(-3))/2`

`=e^3/2-e^(-3)/2`

Expressing it with positive exponent only, it turns into

`=e^3/2-1/(2e^3)`

This is the exact value of sinh(3).  

Its approximate value is

`~~10.01787492`

Rounding off to three decimal places, it becomes

`~~10.018`

Therefore, ` sinh(3) ~~ 10.018` .

Where in To Kill A Mockingbird does it show people often fear what they don't understand?

In To Kill A Mockingbird, Boo Radley is the most prominent example of the maxim, “People fear what they do not understand.”

The neighborhood, of course, fears Boo Radley. Boo Radley was once a rambunctious teenager who made one too many wrong decisions. For his friends, these misdeeds resulted in a reform school; for Boo, they resulted in a decades-long imprisonment in his home. It is likely, therefore, due to this forced confinement, that Boo developed some type of mental disorder. For example, early in his confinement, he attempted to stab his mother with scissors.

People in To Kill A Mockingbird fear Boo’s mental illness, which they do not understand.  Even now, after around eighty-five years of progress, our society does still not fully  understand mental illness or respond to it with empathy. Consequently, people with mental illnesses suffer not only from their illness but also from prejudice and mistrust. From the reactions of To Kill A Mockingbird’s characters to Boo Radley’s unique situation, we can infer that these attitudes were even more pronounced in the 1930s. For example, Boo is the subject of malicious rumors that exaggerate his situation and turn him into a villain when in actuality, he can be viewed as a victim. While the children, due to their age and inexperience, can be excused for their fear, the reactions of adult characters, such as Stephanie Crawford and the neighborhood gossips, are inexcusable.

Apart from Boo, this quote can also be applied to the characters who live in poverty. Caroline Fisher, Scout’s new teacher from out of town, fears her students because she does not understand their customs and traditions. She doesn’t understand why Walter Cunningham won’t accept lunch money and grows angry when Scout tries to teach her about the Cunninghams’ traditions. Caroline Fisher shows the warped logic behind why people continue to fear what they do not understand. They could, of course, help themselves and others out by trying to learn more. However, Miss Fisher fears being seen as ignorant, so she doesn’t acknowledge her lack of understanding.

How many people serve in the President of the United State’s Secret Service detail while he or she is away from the White House?

The President of the United States is protected by an elite branch of Homeland Security's Office of Protective Operations Department called The Secret Service. According to The Secret Service Website, there are approximately 6,500 personnel, 4,500 of whom are officers.  In addition to protecting the President, they are enlisted with investigating counterfeit currency, protecting presidential candidates, and escorting foreign dignitaries during high-profile visits to the United States.

When the President travels by vehicle, they travel in a formal configuration of protective vehicles called a motorcade.  In this configuration, the Secret Service detail travels in one halfback black sport utility vehicle immediately behind the Presidential Coach and Spare.  There are sixteen essential vehicles in the motorcade.  However, this does not include the local police vehicles, such as motorcycle escorts, who accompany the motorcade when traveling outside of Washington, D.C.

What do Dally and Two Bit want to learn in The Outsiders according to this quote on page 122: "Sixteen years on the street and you can learn a lot....

Dally and Two Bit have grown up on the streets. They have learned how to fight, use switchblades, watch for Socs, hide their emotions (especially fear), and trust no one but Greasers.

Dally and Two Bit haven't, however, learned how to live in a non-violent world. They want to learn how to live without fear in a neighborhood without gangs, relate to people, trust, and even love. They want to learn how to hold a respectable job and make a full life for themselves instead of just trying to survive.

As long as they are trapped in the world of gangs and violence, Dally and Two Bit's energy has to be given to surviving, sharpening their skills so they don't get hurt and so they can protect each other. Trust, stability, and a bright future are almost out of reach.

`y = sinx` Determine whether the function is a solution of the differential equation `xy' - 2y = x^3e^x`

First, determine the derivative of the given function:  `y'(x) = cos(x).`  Then substitute `y` and `y'` into the given equation:

`x cos(x) - 2sin(x) = x^3 e^x.`

Is this a true equality for all x? No. To prove this, divide by `x:`

`cos(x) - 2sin(x)/x = x^2 e^x.`

We know that `sin(x)/x` is a bounded function (it is obviously `lt=1` by the absolute value if `|x|gt=1` ), and `cos(x)` is also bounded, but `x^2 e^x` tends to infinity when `x->+oo.` Therefore this equality is false for all x's large enough.

What does Steinbeck tell you about migrant farm workers?

Steinbeck wanted to tell the American people that migrant farm workers were not just anonymous hoboes trudging from ranch to ranch with their belongings on their shoulders tied up in bed-rolls. They were real human beings, all with separate personal identities, and all with their feelings, hopes and dreams, some with exceptional characters and talents, such as Slim. No one before Steinbeck had paid any attention to the lives of itinerant farm workers in California. Steinbeck wanted the American public to take an interest in their plight. He was successful, and this led to improvements in living and working conditions via legislation. Farm workers had had no protection. Their working conditions were brutal.

Steinbeck dramatizes how the men in his book had to work from sunup to sundown loading 100-pound bags of barley onto wagons. They worked six days a week. When they got too old to do that kind of heavy work, they were thrown out. There was a haunting sense of fear on these ranches. Candy and Crooks expect to get fired any day because they are losing their usefulness. Middle-aged men like Carlson can see their destinies in Candy and Crooks. For men like George it is nothing but an endless grind which will gradually wear them down until they are no longer worth even the low wages and poor food they receive. 

Steinbeck does not say what should be done about this problem in Of Mice and Men, although he does offer specific recommendations in his longer novel The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck obviously thought that the federal government should offer what people many called socialistic or communistic remedies for the deplorable conditions he described. The Great Depression destroyed a lot of Americans faith in the so-called American Dream and created an interest in the lives of ordinary people as opposed to those of the upper class. 

What is a character sketch of Hecate in Macbeth? What does Hecate feel strongly about? What are her goals, dreams, fears, beliefs, values, etc.?

Hecate feels strongly about being acknowledged as "the mistress of [the Weird Sisters'] charms" (3.5.6). In other words, it is because of her that the witches have any power at all, and she wants to be given her due. When they neglected to include her in their plans for Macbeth, they failed to show her the respect she believes she deserves, and she is now irritated as a result. She orders them to "make amends now" and follow her directions to the letter so that they can "show the glory of our art" (3.5.14, 3.5.9). Beyond feeling entitled to the sisters' respect, she wants the opportunity to show off her evil talents too.

Hecate's goal, at this point, is to deceive Macbeth so that he feels overly confident and "spurn[s] fate, scorn[s] death, and bear[s] / His hopes 'bove wisdom, grace, and fear" (3.5.30-31). She will make him feel absolutely secure so that he lets down his guard and leaves himself more vulnerable to attack. She says that Macbeth is "a wayward son, / Spiteful and wrathful, who, as others do, / Loves for his own ends, not for you" (3.5.11-13). She does not think very highly of Macbeth; in fact, she thinks he's kind of spoiled. Hecate seems to relish the idea of teaching him a lesson.

Is there any part of the human body that can be referred to as the Obdula Abrigada?

There is no part of the body that is normally called the Obdula Abrigada. However, I wonder if you might have misheard the name of this body part. There is a body part that is often called the medulla oblongata (it is sometimes just called the medulla). This sounds relatively similar to “obdula abrigada” so I think it is quite possible that you are thinking of the medulla oblongata.

The medulla oblongata is the part of the brain that is closest to the spinal cord. The medulla is a very important part of the brain. It is not involved in conscious thought, but it is vital for involuntary functions such as breathing, regulating blood pressure, and the digestion of food. Because it is so important to such vital body functions, any problems with the medulla oblongata can lead to very serious symptoms such as loss of sense of touch or even paralysis.

I believe, then, that you are asking about the medulla oblongata, a very important part of the brain.

Who was Anne Frank attracted to in kindergarten?

Anne was attracted to two boys, Appy and Peter Schiff. 

Anne tells her diary the story of her first love.  She met Appy when she was in kindergarten through her good friend Sally.  Appy was more interesting than Sally, but he was not interested in Anne.  Then she met Peter Schiff, who returned her affections. 

One of Sally's cousins was a good-looking, slender, dark-haired boy named Appy, who later turned out to look like a movie idol .... For a long time we went everywhere together, but aside from that, my love was unrequited until Peter crossed my path. I had an out-and-out crush on him. He liked me too, and we were inseparable for one whole summer. (FRIDAY, ]ANUARY 7, 1944) 

It seems like Anne and Peter got along well, and this is a childhood friendship.  It is not really a romance.  They separated when he went to junior high and she was still in sixth grade.  However, Anne mentions it because now she is older and she is actually thinking about boys and love.  She is upset because Peter seemed to forget about her when he decided she was childish.

This morning I realized that nothing has changed; on the contrary, as I've grown older and more mature, my love has grown along with me. I can understand now that Peter thought I was childish, and yet it still hurts to think he'd forgotten me completely. (FRIDAY, ]ANUARY 7, 1944) 

It is interesting that Anne is coming of age at a time when she really doesn’t have many options for boys.  She is locked away in the Annex.  It makes sense that she would think of her childhood romances.  Anne is frustrated by Peter van Daan at first, but the longer she is in the Annex the more she comes to like him.

Did President Franklin Delano Roosevelt express each of the following ideas in his first inaugural address? 1) We have nothing to fear but fear...

In his First Inaugural Address, Franklin D. Roosevelt definitely said that there was nothing to fear but fear itself.  This is, in fact, the most famous line in the speech.  As you can see in the link below, FDR says in the fourth sentence of the speech,

So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

What FDR is saying here is that the US had shied away from doing things that were necessary to combat the Great Depression.  He is saying that the country has been afraid to act.  Therefore, he says, we need to stop being afraid.  We need to realize that the only really bad thing out there is our fear.

In this speech, however, FDR does not say that money is the key to happiness.  In fact, he says quite the opposite.  He argues that

Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.

Here, he is saying that people need to work and achieve.  They will not be happy if they just have money given to them.  He is also saying that we need to stop focusing on getting rich and start valuing other things more than we value profit.

So, the first of these statements is in the speech, but the second is not.

Why do you think Anna Avalon did not reach out for her husband while he was falling in "The Leap"?

Anna Avalon chose life rather than death as she fell through the air.

Anna always contended that a person can think of many things as he/ she is in the act of falling. As lightning strikes the big top, Anna Avalon realizes she cannot save her tumbling husband. Instead, she turns in the air and twists her body toward the heavily braided wire, saving herself and her unborn child.

Unfortunately, Anna hemorrhages after her fall from the trapeze, and her baby is stillborn. She does regain her health, though, and her broken arm heals well, thanks to the attentive care of her physician, who falls in love with her. They marry, and their only child is the narrator, who declares that her mother's words about being able to think during the brief time that one is falling are absolutely veracious.

Louise Eldrich's narrative soars on its own as the protagonist leaps from one daring act of love to the next, proving the strength and agility of the human spirit that fortifies its existence with the love necessary to make the leap to the next challenge. For, whenever one is in the air "there is always time to think." And, with the impetus of love, there is always time to change the course of one's life.   

How does Lyddie respond to her injury in Chapter 13 of Paterson's Lyddie?

The factory where Lyddie works has been speeding up the machines in order to produce more product.  Lyddie is working several looms at the same time, and she has been successful in keeping up.  Unfortunately, the fast pace takes a long term effect on Lyddie, and she's exhausted all of the time.  Due to the pace and her near exhaustion, Lyddie gets hurt while working in Chapter 13.  She takes a shuttle to the head, gets knocked to the floor, and begins bleeding profusely from her head.  The nearby girls and Diana rush to her aid.  Diana immediately gets the wound covered with pressure and slowly works Lyddie to her feet.  At first, Lyddie tries to convince everybody that she is fine and can go back to work.  Diana insists that Lyddie go home.  Diana gets her doctor friend to come examine Lyddie, and he further treats the wound.  The injury itself happened on Friday, but Lyddie forced herself to go back to work Monday morning.  Lyddie's response to her injury is to simply work through the pain and discomfort by sheer will power alone.  

Were Romeo and Juliet infatuated? If they were, what proves this?

Some would argue that, yes, Romeo and Juliet were simply infatuated with one another and not that they were truly in love.  There are a few reasons for this.  First, the fact that Juliet, especially, is so young (she is not yet fourteen years old) leads some readers to believe that she cannot possible be really in love with Romeo because she doesn't have the emotional maturity for it. 

Second, Romeo is nursing the wounds inflicted by Rosalind and the apparently unrequited love he feels for her.  The fact that he literally seems to fall for Juliet on the same night that he is pining for Rosalind makes it seem like his feelings for either girl cannot possibly be love.  Further, perhaps Romeo only grows attached to Juliet so quickly because she returns his interest, unlike Rosalind.  He says something similar to Friar Lawrence, that his new love is better than his old because she feels likewise.

Third, the fact that the relationship between Romeo and Juliet progresses so quickly makes it seem too much like infatuation to some readers.  They meet one night, get married the next morning, sleep together that night, and take their own lives so as not to have to live without the other a day or two later.  It all goes so fast that it doesn't sound like love, which is thought to tend to build and develop somewhat more slowly.

How would you explain "A Birthday" by Christina Rossetti?

"A Birthday," for Christina Rossetti's narrator, is not a traditional birthday, but rather the day that marks her experience of first love. The effusiveness of this feeling is addressed in the first line, "My heart is like a singing bird." A bird sings to communicate. The simile expresses the sense in which the narrator is in communion with her love. 

The first stanza uses anaphora, or repetition of the first words of each line. "My heart" is repeated and compared to aspects of nature using similes. The speaker's heart is not only a singing bird, but also "an apple-tree" and "a rainbow shell." The comparisons are connected to images of fertility and abundance:

My heart is like a singing bird

Whose nest is in a watered shoot:

My heart is like an apple-tree

Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit;

My heart is like a rainbow shell

That paddles in a halcyon sea;

"A watered shoot" signifies nourishment, while the "apple-tree / Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit" appears to be the result of that nourishment—ripeness and lush fecundity. On the other hand, "a rainbow shell" is, unlike an apple tree, something rare and elusive. It is varicolored, which complements the complex and shifting nature of love. Here, it "paddles in a halcyon sea." Its active movement indicates that it is alive, while "halcyon" indicates that light and warmth glow all around it.

The first stanza is replete with resplendent imagery. There is a springing iambic rhythm, and every second line is in perfect rhyme.

The second stanza draws us out of the natural world and into the human social world of festive celebration. Rossetti maintains the rhyme scheme, yet now each line begins with a verb in the imperative tense.

Elements of the natural world now become artifice, luxurious adornments for the dais, which symbolize her sense of being elevated or honored. She is celebrating "the birthday of [her] life," marked by the coming of her love. In other words, life does not begin until one first knows love in all its lush beauty.

Macbeth "sees" a dagger before murdering Duncan, and "hears" a voice after it. Do these details tell us anything about his attitude to murder?

They definitely do. While much attention often focuses on Macbeth's murderous rampage and subsequent demise, it's sometimes easy to forget he is initially reluctant to commit acts of of violence. This reluctance is made manifest by the fact that Macbeth's evil deeds seem to unhinge him. As you note in your question, Macbeth imagines a dagger before killing Duncan, and hears an imagined voice afterward. These strange hallucinations suggest that both the prospect of murdering an ally, along with actually following through with this act, are entirely unsavory, so Macbeth's mind is accordingly wracked with guilt. As such, based on these details in the play, we can surmise that Macbeth's attitude toward murder is one of disgust, apprehension, and dread, as his mind can't seem to handle the stress of murdering a former friend in cold blood.

How did older characters influence Romeo and Juliet in the play?

Older characters influence Romeo and Juliet in a number of ways. Firstly, the Capulets and Montagues are feuding because the heads of the respective families refuse to make peace with one another. If Romeo's father and Juliet's father were to reconcile, Romeo and Juliet would be allowed to live their lives in peace. This, however, is not the case, and the pair are forced to hide their love from the social sphere. Another older character who influences the pair is Juliet's nurse. In contrast to Juliet's idealistic vision of love, the Nurse sees love as something more pragmatic and sexually based. Though the Nurse does not quite understand Juliet's conception of love, she nevertheless facilitates the romance of Romeo and Juliet throughout the play. Similarly, Friar Lawrence also facilitates their romance, despite not fully approving of nature of their love. For Friar Lawrence, everything should be taken in moderation, even love. Despite this philosophy, he secretly weds the pair and provides Juliet with the sleeping potion that ultimately leads to her death, as well as Romeo's. In all of these cases, the older characters act according to what they deem to be the best course of action, and this results in doom for the two star crossed lovers. 

How can I analyze in detail the characters of The Caretaker and Gladly Otherwise?

Character analysis is not difficult, but it does take time. There are three main steps to character analysis that can be remembered with the acronym CID: Comprehend, Interpret, and Draw conclusions. Comprehension is a basic understanding of the characters: who are they, what are their personalities like, how do they behave? For instance, in The Caretaker, there are three main characters: Aston, who is brain-damaged and has trouble communicating; Mick, who is Aston’s quick-tempered and impatient brother and who has dreams bigger than his ambitions; and Davies, a homeless man Aston rescues from a bar fight who manufactures his life moment by moment to jibe with his perceptions of others’ expectations. But this is not an analysis, it is simple comprehension of the facts as presented by the author, so the next step is to move toward an interpretation of these facts, and we can do that by expanding the questions we ask. For example, we know that Aston is brain-damaged and that his big dream is to build a shed, so something we may ask here is why he wants to build a shed and how building that shed helps us to understand Aston. Aston also speaks very little, so we may ask how he deals with this obstacle. The answer can help us understand his personality as well as how he perceives himself and how the other characters perceive him. Davies lies about almost everything in an attempt to please or impress others, but he is also very critical of Aston and Mick, as well as the home they offer him. What we don’t necessarily know yet is why he feels the need to lie as he does and why a homeless man, instead of being grateful, is so critical, so asking ‘why’ questions may lead us to an answer. Another good interpretive question here may be, “How does Davies’s social standing affect his relationships with others?” As we can see, these more detailed questions lead us to deeper understanding of how characters’ personalities may have developed over time, as well as motivations for their behaviors. Once we have thoroughly investigated the characters, it is time to draw conclusions. For example, we can perhaps conclude that the shed Aston so badly wants to build represents the permanence and structure his life currently lacks. So to summarize, we have comprehended that Aston is brain-damaged but good-hearted (because he rescued Davies), has trouble communicating, and wants to build a shed. We have interpreted that his focus on building the shed represents something important, and we have concluded that importance is a permanence and structure for Aston that life currently lacks. All we need now is a good thesis born from that conclusion in order to flesh out the analysis with textual evidence.

We can also use the same kinds of questions to look at the characters as a whole unit rather than as separate beings. Both these plays are considered absurdist plays, so examining the characters through the lens of Theater of the Absurd conventions can lead to good analysis, too. For instance, plays considered part of the Theater of the Absurd focus on characters who are trapped in an incomprehensible world. Sometimes, like in Aston’s case, this manifests as a physical impairment; sometimes, also in Aston’s case, it is a physical confinement. The characters in absurdist plays are also often in crisis as a result of the chaotic, disordered world around them, so life has little or no meaning. Also characteristic of absurdist plays, language, which is the way our species makes meaning, is often nonsensical, which leads to characters’ inability to have meaningful, logical, or comprehensible conversation(s). One way to analyze the characters in these two plays, then, is to examine how they meet the expectations for characters written for absurdist conventions.

Whichever approach you take, if you take the time to first comprehend, then interpret, then draw conclusions based on what you have learned through the process of the first two steps, you should end with a strong character analysis.

How can I compare the short story "So Much Water So Close to Home" by Raymond Carver and the film adaptation "Jindabyne"? What are the most...

The film "Jindabyne" (d. Ray Lawrence) features several crucial differences from the short story by Raymond Carver on which it is based. The most critical of these is that the dead woman in Carver's version is white, whereas the dead woman in the movie is aboriginal. Since the central conflicts in the narrative stem from the men's relative disregard for the body, having a white corpse facilitates the short story's existential perspective on the meaningless of life that transcends cultural barriers. In contrast, Lawrence's decision to make the body aboriginal makes the story specific in time and place; Australia has a complicated history of race relations between whites and aboriginals, which the movie directly invokes to explore an ongoing political situation.

Another difference between the short story and movie concerns character perspective. In Carver's story, Claire is the narrator and the narrative flows from her first-person perspective; the story becomes about her experience of the girl's death and what it signifies for her relationship with her husband. However, "Jindabyne" is told from multiple characters' points of views, which fuels the political exploration of racial tension from a broader perspective of different characters and communities -- including the aboriginal family of the dead girl. This allows the viewer to take in a bird's eye view of the whole situation because there are so many character reactions to consider.

What were the effects of Australia's 1946 social services referendum?

The 1946 social services referendum in Australia was a vote to amend the Australian Constitution with provisions for social benefits. These benefits include allowances for pregnant women, mothers, widows, and students; additionally, it provided some aid for hospital care and pharmaceuticals, and gave basic medical and dental services to those living in poverty. Many of these programs already existed, but the laws were under attack by some legislators because the Constitution did not specifically allow for the government to provide these forms of aid. The primary effect of this amendment was to ensure that these programs were protected under the Constitution. While it expanded some forms of social services, the main effect of its passage was to legally protect already-existing benefits which were not promised by the Constitution.

Did John Kennedy institute any meaningful domestic policies?

John Kennedy did have some significant domestic policies. However, there were two factors that limited his activity in this area.

One accomplishment that President Kennedy had was the increasing of the minimum wage to $1.25 an hour. The minimum wage had been increasing since World War II ended, and it continued to rise while he was President.

President Kennedy worked to further women’s issues. He issued an executive order ending gender discrimination in civil service jobs. He also signed the Equal Pay for Women Act. He also created the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women.

When President Kennedy took office, we were in a recession. Jobs were created as the government increased spending on space exploration and for our national defense.

There were factors that limited what President Kennedy accomplished on the domestic front. He only served about 2.75 years of his four-year term due to his assassination. He also didn’t campaign very much to help Democratic members of Congress get elected to office in 1960. Thus, these elected officials weren’t willing to risk their political future on supporting a bill on civil rights that President Kennedy was supporting.

While there were domestic accomplishments during his term, there were factors that limited more actions from occurring.

What are some lessons from Helen Keller's life based on the first 12 chapters of The Story of My Life?

One of the most important lessons from Helen Keller’s life is that we should not let things hold us back. Helen Keller could not see or hear, but she still learned language and engaged with the world on a pretty normal level. Many of us face hardships and want to give up.  Helen Keller’s life is inspiring because she never did.

Even when Helen was very young, she was persistent.  She had existed in a world of darkness, but she was desperate to learn to communicate with others. She wanted to learn language!

As soon as I could spell a few words my teacher gave me slips of cardboard on which were printed words in raised letters. I quickly learned that each printed word stood for an object, an act, or a quality. (Ch. 7)

Helen goes from learning what words are to being able to make sentences, just like any other child.  She is intelligent and persistent, and she never lets anything hold her back.  Helen’s ability to learn to read and write is inspirational, because she loves learning for learning’s sake.

Another lesson from Helen’s life is her love of nature.  I guess you could call it a lesson to stop and smell the roses. She could experience nature fairly fully because it was so sensory.  Even without sight or hearing, Helen could explore the world around her and she never ceased to delight in it.

Helen describes how from a young age she learned about the “beneficence of nature” with Anne Sullivan’s help.

I learned how the sun and the rain make to grow out of the ground every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, how birds build their nests and live and thrive from land to land, how the squirrel, the deer, the lion and every other creature finds food and shelter. (Ch. 5)

Helen loves everything about nature, from climbing trees to tobogganing in the snow.  She gets frightened one day when a storm hits while she is in a tree, but she does not let this put her off tree-climbing for good.  She gets back up in trees, getting over her fear, and continues to enjoy nature.

What is Gordimer's political point of view?

Although Nadine Gordimer did not consider herself to be a particularly political person, she found that the place she lived in required her to be so. During her lifetime the Nationalist Party in South Africa came to power and enforced the system of apartheid, a political and legal regime that stripped rights from people of color and placed whites at the top of society. Gordimer asserted that no one could live in South Africa and not be involved in politics. She opposed apartheid, which was evident from her writings, including "Once upon a Time." Some of her books were banned because they exposed the injustice of the government. Before apartheid ended in 1991, Gordimer had been a secret member of the National African Congress. When Nelson Mandela was released from prison, Gordimer publicly "paid her dues in person and got a party card" (New York Times). After that, she embraced other political causes, including trying to stop the spread of AIDS in Africa and writing in opposition to the South African "secrecy law." You can read an article she wrote about the Secrecy Bill below.

In 1991 when Gordimer received the Nobel Prize in Literature, the committee noted that she didn't allow her political activism to "encroach upon her writings." So although she felt thrust into the political world, Gordimer was first and foremost a writer, not a political person.

What are the differences and similarities between Catherine and Myrtle in The Great Gatsby?

Catherine and Myrtle are sisters. Catherine is unmarried and lives in New York City and Myrtle is married but involved in an affair with Tom Buchanan. At the party in Catherine's apartment (Chapter 2), Catherine tells Nick about all the wonderful places she has visited. This scene establishes Catherine as a character who is adventurous and easily bored. Similarly, Myrtle frequently complains to anyone who will listen about her husband Wilson, a near-blind auto-mechanic who lives with Myrtle outside of the city. Therefore, Catherine is similar to Myrtle (who frequently leaves her boorish husband in order to fraternize with the more exciting Tom Buchanan) because they both are unsatisfied with their lives and are searching for something more. However, they are different because Catherine repeatedly proves to be the more conscientious of the two, for she provides the apartment in which Myrtle conducts her affair (thereby saving her sister's reputation) and rushes to Myrtle's aid after Tom breaks her nose during the fight in that same apartment. 

Please give a Marxist reading of Chapter 56 of Pride and Prejudice.

Chapter 56 of Pride and Prejudice provides fertile ground for a Marxist reading. Marxist literary critics read literature through the lens of socialism. One of socialism's emphases is class struggle, and class struggle is quite evident in this chapter.

In chapter 56, Lady Catherine de Bourgh unexpectedly arrives at Longbourn to pay Elizabeth Bennet a visit. Apparently, she had heard a rumor that her nephew, Mr. Darcy, planned to propose to Elizabeth. This threw her into a rage. The reason she was so upset is that the Bennet family was from a lower class than the de Bourgh and Darcy families.

Consequently, Lady Catherine believed Elizabeth was being what one might call "uppity;" in other words, she did not did not know her place. In fact, the indignant Catherine even declared that Elizabeth was ungrateful for all the "kindness" she had showed her when she had visited Mr. Collins. However, Elizabeth rebelled against these class conventions and refused to submit to Lady Catherine's will simply because she belong to a higher social class. 

In the book Guns, Germs, and Steel, what does living on the same latitude mean and why was it important?

Jared Diamond, in the book Guns, Germs, and Steel, attempts to explain why certain groups of people developed civilization earlier than others. He traces the dissemination of food production from nine locations in the world where plant and animal domestication happened at the earliest point of history.  He surmises that food production spread on a deliberate east-west axis along the same lines of latitude.  Moving food production technologies was more difficult when crossing lines of longitude.  The spread of crop and livestock species can spread easier across the same latitude because the days are of the same lengths. Also, the seasons are the same along the same latitude.  This makes it easier to transfer planting and agricultural knowledge than when moving north and south.  

Is Santiago a winner or a loser?

At first glance, Santiago in Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea appears to be a loser. After all, at the beginning of the story he has not caught a fish for a great deal of time, and by the end of the story he has lost the monster marlin to sharks. By any conventional standards, Santiago would seem to be a failure. However, the story is a little more complicated than such standards allow. While Santiago loses his catch and returns home with nothing but a marlin's skeleton, he still manages to valiantly fight to bring the fish home. Indeed, the epic fight to catch and keep the marlin turns into an inspiring story of struggle, hardship, and the steely resolve not to buckle under pressure. As such, though Santiago loses his marlin, his heroic struggle becomes an inspiring feat of strength and courage. In that case, I would call him a winner, rather than a loser. 

`int_(pi/2)^pi sinx/(1+cos^2x) dx` Evaluate the definite integral

We have to evaluate the integral: `\int_{\pi/2}^{\pi}\frac{sinx}{1+cos^2x}dx`

Let `cosx=u`

So, `-sinx dx=du`

When `x=\pi/2, u=0`

         `x=\pi, u=-1`

So we have,

`\int_{\pi/2}^{\pi}\frac{sinx}{1+cos^2x}dx=\int_{0}^{-1}\frac{-du}{u^2+1}`

                       `=\int_{-1}^{0}\frac{du}{u^2+1}`

                        =arctan(0)-arctan(-1)

                        =-arctan(-1)

                        =arctan(1)

                        =`pi/4`

Should a home use series or parallel circuits in their electrical wiring?

A home should use parallel connections in their electrical wiring. There are a number of disadvantages of a series connection. As the name suggests, in a series connection, all the devices have to be connected in a series. This means that either all the devices are switched on or switched off at the same time and there is no individual control of each device. At home, we need individual switches to turn on and turn off the devices as per our needs. In a series connection, there is a voltage drop associated with each individual device and this means that devices may not get the rated power supply. This will result in below-par (or less than the rated) performance of devices. 

For these reasons, we prefer parallel connections over series connections.

Hope this helps. 

When does the narrator mention Plato in the novel Fahrenheit 451?

At the beginning of Part II, Montag calls Faber and asks him how many copies of the Bible are left in the country. Faber is startled at the question and responds by saying that he doesn't know. Then, Montag asks Faber, "How many copies of Shakespeare and Plato?" (Bradbury 72). Faber angrily responds by saying that there are no copies of either books. Although Montag does not directly state whether or not he has any editions of Shakespeare or Plato, it is implied that he possesses those rare books. Montag is curious as to how rare the books are that he possesses which is why he calls Faber. Plato's Republic is a famous work of literature that discusses both philosophy and politics. The Republic has drastically influenced philosophical thought throughout history and would be considered detrimental to society in Fahrenheit 451. Plato's ideas of government drastically contrast with the authoritative regime in Bradbury's dystopian novel.