Why does Shakespeare use so much foreshadowing throughout Romeo and Juliet? How does the reader benefit knowing that they will die?

Shakespeare's use of foreshadowing to let readers know that Romeo and Juliet are destined, as "star-crossed lovers," to fall in love and die creates dramatic irony, increasing suspense and tension for the audience, and ultimately making the emotional catharsis upon the play's resolution that much more fulfilling.  Dramatic irony occurs when the audience knows more than the characters, and its main function is to increase tension. 

Consider the end of the play when Romeo is in Juliet's tomb, about to drink poison because he does not know that she is really alive.  However, we, the audience, do know.  This moment is so stressful for us because we know that Juliet will wake up any minute, and if Romeo would just delay a moment or talk a little longer, then she would awaken and they could be together.  Then Romeo dies, and we see Juliet wake up, not knowing that her husband is dead.  It is such a near-miss, and we see it all unfolding, knowing how it must, and this quintessential example of dramatic irony shows how this device increases audience tension, heightening the tragedy.  This also intensifies the emotional catharsis (the purging of the tension created by the irony) we feel when everything is finally revealed to the other characters.  Though the Capulets and the Montagues only just now come to understand that it was their hate that ended their children's lives, the audience has understood this from the beginning.  It is not a surprise, then, to us, which allows us to appreciate fully the surprise it is to them.

What huge achievement has Bernard accomplished in Death of a Salesman? Why does Bernard not brag?

In Act Two of Death of a Salesman, Willy comes Charley's office to borrow more money and runs into Charley's son Bernard, who is now a lawyer and on his way to Washington, D.C. As Bernard is about to leave for the train station, Charley puts his arm around his shoulder and says to Willy:

How do you like this kid? Gonna argue a case in front of the Supreme Court.

Bernard, protesting: Pop!

Willy, of course, is very impressed. Bernard had not said a word about the purpose of his trip to Washington, D.C. because he knows how Willy will be comparing him with his own son Biff, who has never amounted to anything. This surprise is particularly painful to Willy at this time because he has just been fired from his job and is here to beg yet more money from Charley.

Bernard is still characteristically modest and considerate. He knows Biff from boyhood and tried his best to get Biff to prepare himself at school for some kind of future career. But Biff was enjoying an early success as a football hero, and Willy was not encouraging his son to think about scholastic achievement. Willy was teaching both his sons to be "well liked" as the key to success. Neither Willy nor his sons had much respect for young Bernard. But Bernard's obvious success in his chosen career as a lawyer who is permitted to argue in front of the U.S. Supreme Court is proof that Willy's philosophy was wrong and his advice worthless. As Arthur Miller once wrote: 

The essence of all drama is this: The chickens come home to roost.

In Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli, what is Maniac Magee's address when he is staying with old man Grayson?

Maniac’s address with Grayson is 101 Band Shell Boulevard. 

Maniac is obsessed with having an address.  Ever since his parents died and he ran away from his aunt and uncle, he has wanted a real home.  When he lived with the Beales, he had one, briefly.  He made sure to check the address.  He had to leave the Beales because he was white and they were black.  That made him on his own again.

The zoo was comfortable enough, so Maniac found himself sleeping in the buffalo pen.  It had been a deer pen, so it may not be as strange as it sounds.  However, the buffalo pen is not a safe home and there is no address. 

Grayson, the zoo’s groundskeeper, finds Maniac and takes him in.  He is surprised that Maniac does not have a home or go to school, and also that the last place he lived was in the East End with a black family.  Grayson does not know anything about black families and is very curious about how they are similar or different.

Grayson lives at the Y, but he moves in with Maniac into the baseball room of the band shell.  Maniac feels more comfortable there, and they make themselves a happy home.  Maniac decides to give it an address.

"Fine," said Maniac. He opened the can, stirred the paint, put a jacket on, grabbed the brush and went outside. Grayson followed. He watched the kid paint on the outside of the door, in careful strokes:

101

Maniac stepped back, admiring his work. "One oh one," he proclaimed. "One oh one Band Shell Boulevard." (Ch. 29)

It is a very good Christmas, and Maniac and Grayson are happy.  Maniac has a family again.  He even teaches Grayson how to read.  The happiness is short-lived, however, as Grayson dies soon after.  Eventually, Maniac goes back to the Beales.

In Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare, what is Tybalt's physical appearance?

Tybalt's appearance is not really described. We know that he is young, and a bit of a hothead, eager to defend his family's honor and his own against perceived insults. For example, he is restrained by Lord Capulet at the family masquerade when he attempts to fight Romeo, who has showed up in costume. But the only description of Tybalt comes from Mercutio, who says he is "a very tall man." But even Mercurio is more focused on Tybalt's skills as a duellist. He describes him as a "very butcher of a silk button," and a gentle man (i.e., a skilled duellist) of the first house." Of course, Tybalt is as good as Mercutio thinks he is--he winds up killing Mercutio after Romeo initially refuses his challenge to a duel. Given his skills with a rapier, it is likely that Tybalt would have been portrayed as a tall, slender, and most important, young man. 

`f(t) = t^(3/2)log_2sqrt(t+1)` Find the derivative of the function

We shall use:

Product rule

`(u cdot v)'=u' cdot v+u cdot v'`

Chain rule

`(u(v))'=u'(v) cdot v'`

`u` and `v` are both functions of arbitrary variable over which we are differentiating. 

First we apply product rule.

`f'(t)=(t^(3/2))' log_2 sqrt(t+1)+t^(3/2)(log_2 sqrt(t+1))'=`

Now we apply the chain rule on the second term.

 `3/2 t^(1/2)log_2 sqrt(t+1)+t^(3/2) 1/(sqrt(t+1)ln 2)cdot1/(2sqrt(t+1))=`

Now we simplify the obtained derivative to get the final result.

`3/2 sqrt(t)log_2 sqrt(t+1)+t^(3/2)/(2(t+1)ln2)`                                                         

In Perry Anderson's Passages from Antiquity to Feudalism (pg. 229-264), how did feudalism in Eastern Europe differ from the Western European...

According to Anderson, feudalism arose in Eastern Europe for mainly economic reasons, without the intermediary step of what he calls "antiquity" (which included slavery and the development of urban areas). Instead of feudalism arising naturally in Eastern Europe, it was transported there from Western Europe and imposed on what was a very primitive agrarian society. Slowly, these societies produced an agricultural surplus and developed political hierarchies and urban centers. The formation of states in the East arose as a result of outside influences from Western Europe and from the Church. In several places, such as Poland, tribal and clan structures remained in existence until much later than in Western Europe. As Western Europe exercised its influence on Eastern Europe and Russia, feudalism developed in these lands in a somewhat different way than it had in the West. As Anderson states, there was at first "greater mobility and equality" (page 243). The peasants had a better status than they did in the West.

However, the crisis that struck feudalism had different effects in the East than in the West. Feudalism was imposed later in the East than in the West and was at first less structured than in the West; therefore, the crisis that struck Western feudalism, in the form of peasant revolts, struck the Eastern areas less severely, in part because the eastern areas were less populated. However, the effects of these revolts and agrarian crises were in some ways more lasting in the East than in the West, as the Eastern states resorted to instituting policies of strict and rigid serfdom that tied peasants to the land. 

In The Wednesday Wars, what are some events that happen in October?

The novel The Wednesday Wars is organized into months, spanning the whole of Holling's academic year from September to June.

In October, for the sake of his father's job, Holling behaves in a quiet, helpful manner with Mrs. Baker, keeping the chalk boards and the coat room clean. He carries trays of pastries for her up from Mrs. Bigio's kitchen, but then he accidentally lets the dust from the erasers he's cleaning float up and settle on the pastries, which ruins them. Because the chalk dust just looks like sugar, no one notices until they try to eat them, and Holling never actually gets in trouble for this incident.

Holling's sister, though, gets in trouble with her parents for trying to be a "flower child" who protests the Vietnam War, and Holling's friends get angry at him for being the only kid who got to take one of the cream puff pastries from the trays he carried. They don't realize that Holling didn't actually eat the pastry. He knew it had chalk dust on it.

Mrs. Baker decides to make Holling read Shakespeare with her instead of doing chores. But before they start, Holling has to clean the pet rats' cage--and he accidentally lets them loose and they both escape into the walls. The school staff makes Holling swear to keep the rats' escape a secret from the other students (presumably so they don't go nuts about it).

Holling and Mrs. Baker then read Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, which Holling assumes will be boring, but he actually enjoys it.