Why does the narrator keep a tire iron under his seat in "Greasy Lake"?

T. C. Boyle's short story "Greasy Lake" follows the story of a group of rebellious teenagers who spend a summer evening at the titular Greasy Lake, where they can drink, smoke, and unleash their "bad boy" tendencies. When the boys arrive at their destination, they see a car parked there with a couple—who they assume to be their friend, Tony Lovett, and his girl—making out inside.

Thinking they can prank Tony, they try to sneak up on him, but discover the man within the car is not him after all. The angry man tries to attack the boys, but the narrator pulls a tire iron from his car and hits the man with it. When considering why the tire iron is stashed under the seat, the narrator simply states,

I kept [the tire iron] there because bad characters always keep tire irons under the driver's seat.

In other words, he kept it there believing it would make him seem "bad."

How would you address your colleagues at a youth club meeting you will be chairing differently than you would speak to your friends during a tea...

The core differences in your speech are determined by who your audience is and the genre of the venue. Let's start with audience. The question states that the youth group gathering is colleagues. Because the youth meeting is among colleagues, it sounds more business-related. Your word choice and non-verbal communication should reflect that. You are likely to use jargon, but not slang. Jargon is technical language that your audience will understand. Your body language will also show a more formal attitude. Likely, your body language will be much more subdued than if you were talking to friends. Next is the venue difference. You are chairing a formal business meeting, which means the majority of your remarks will have been planned before the meeting. Your job is to guide things along and keep the meeting on track. Your colleagues will talk, and you have a responsibility to hear them out without interruption. All in all, the way you address your colleagues will be much more formal than when speaking with friends.

The meeting among friends will be very different. You will likely not be able to use jargon, because the terms might draw blank stares. You will, however, be able to use slang, incomplete sentences, and animated body language. The conversation might even be subject to interruptions and teasing. Those two things likely would not happen at the other meeting. Your friends also won't expect anyone to have come to the gathering with prepared remarks.

I need to explain the importance and role of the witches and the prophecies to the outcome of the play. Did they control Macbeth and drive his...

The Weird Sisters purposely try to manipulate Macbeth, engaging his trust, and then deceiving him into believing that his ascension to the throne is all but guaranteed by fate, igniting his ambition to be king.

Duncan names Macbeth the Thane of Cawdor at the end of Act 1, Scene 3; therefore, when the Weird Sisters "predict" that he will become Thane of Cawdor, it has actually already happened -- Macbeth just doesn't know it yet.  Therefore, they appear to be telling his future when they are really just telling him some information he doesn't have yet.  Then, when Angus and Ross tell him of his new title, it appears to confirm their accuracy and honesty.  However, the fact that they seem to be good and honest to Macbeth is actually a clue that they are truly the opposite because, in the first scene, they admitted that they were going to make good things seem bad and bad things seem good when they say, "Fair is foul, and foul is fair" (1.1.12).  However, because the first of the witches' "prophecies" seems to have come true, Macbeth thinks, "If chance will have me king, why, chance may / crown me / Without my stir" (1.3.157-159).  He didn't have to do anything to make the first of the predictions come true, so he hopes that it will be the same with the second.

Later, the witches purposely deceive Macbeth, appearing to give him assurances that he will be safe from death, but these assurances turn out simply to be enigmatically-worded statements of fact.  The apparitions that the sisters conjure tell Macbeth that "none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth" and that "Macbeth shall never vanquished be until / Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill / Shall come against him" (4.1.91-92, 105-107).  It sounds as though they are saying that Macbeth is basically invulnerable since everyone is born of a woman and because the trees cannot get up and move.  However, there are some loopholes in these statements that Macbeth fails to consider (which is what the witches seemed to have hoped for).  He feels supremely confident at this point, and, as Hecate said, "you all know, security / Is mortals' chiefest enemy" (3.5.32-33).  Macbeth's confidence makes him a little careless, and he fails to consider the other ways in which the sisters' statements could come to fruition.  

In "Rules of the Game" by Amy Tan, when does Meimei first become interested in chess? Through what means does she learn to play the game?

Meimei first becomes interested in chess when her brothers receive a chess set (the board and the pieces) at a Christmas party. It's second-hand, and it's missing some pieces, but the brothers seem interested in learning the game--so, naturally, Meimei (Waverly) is interested, too. Her brothers are reluctant to let her play, but she offers some of her LifeSavers candies as substitutes for the missing pieces of the game. Meimei's mother encourages her children in this pursuit, seeing the rules of chess as a representation of the rules of American society.

The booklet that came with the set and explains the rules of the game first exposes Meimei to chess and teaches her the basics of how to play. But later, as she becomes better than her brothers and shows a more lasting interest in the game, she also learns skills and strategies for the game by playing against her much older, much more skilled neighbors outdoors in the park. Later still, when Meimei's skills surpass even those of the neighbors, she becomes a master player by learning from her competitors in championships and by studying alone at home with additional books. Meimei's mother takes exceptional pride in her daughter's mastery of chess.

Why do Prince Prospero and his followers retreat to his palace?

We can find an answer to this question in Paragraphs 1 and 2 of the story.

Prince Prospero and his followers retreat to the palace in order to hide from the "red death," the highly contagious and lethal illness that's run rampant through the rest of the country.

The prince only brings his healthy, happy friends with him, a great many of them, and they lock themselves into his "castellated abbey" to keep themselves safe from the infected citizens outside, and to amuse themselves with entertainment, food, and wine.

Although they act as if they aren't afraid, they know that outside the walls of this building is a terrible disease that causes copious bleeding, one that will kill you within thirty minutes once it's infected you.

If you're wondering why Prince Prospero is hiding and partying instead of using his vast wealth to help the suffering citizens of his country,  you'll be satisfied to read the rest of the story and see what happens to them inside that supposedly "safe" palace!

How does Gatsby act when the visiting trio comes to visit?

When the trio of Tom Buchanan, Mr. Sloane, and Mrs. Sloane drop by Gatsby's house, Gatsby's behavior is a little manic.  At first, he is anxious to offer them something to drink, and he is "uneasy," knowing somehow that they've only come for such a reason.  When Gatsby turns to Tom, he speaks a little "aggressively," asserting that he knows Tom's wife.  Gatsby is welcoming to Mr. and Mrs. Sloane, claiming that he'd love to have them all at his next party, and he eventually gets "control of himself" and urges them to stay for dinner.  When the woman invites him and Nick to supper, Tom can tell that Gatsby does not understand that Mr. Sloane doesn't really want them to come.  Nick sees it, Tom sees it, but Gatsby does not.  He sort of betrays himself as someone who cannot read the social cues of the old money.  Thus, his behavior is varied: at one moment anxious, the next aggressive, and later, self-assured when he shouldn't be. 

What suspicions does the narrator have about the signalman and why?

Early in "The Signal-Man," the narrator suspects that the signalman might be suffering from mental illness, as he comments in the text:

"I have speculated since, whether there may have been infection in his mind."

In addition, he also wonders if the signalman might, in fact, be a ghost:

"The monstrous thought came into my mind, as I perused the fixed eyes and the saturnine face, that this was a spirit, not a man."

The narrator suspects these things because of the signalman's unusual demeanour. When he first arrives at the signal box, for example, he notices something "remarkable" in the signalman's manner which has no obvious explanation. Moreover, when the pair come face-to-face, the narrator is struck by the signalman's attitude of "expectation" and "watchfulness." Once again, the narrator is unable to account for such an attitude. Finally, when the signalman directs a "most curious look" towards the red light before looking at the narrator, the narrator's suspicions reach their peak: ghost or patient, the narrator cannot decipher his new friend.