Was Madame Forestier angry when Matilde blamed her for her misfortune?

In “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant, Madame Forestier seems more astonished than angry at Madame Loisel's revelation.

 Many years after the incident with the necklace, the women meet each other as they walk along the Champs-Elysees. Madame Forestier does not recognize her friend who has changed immensely due to her years of poverty and manual labor. Madame Loisel decides to tell her former friend the true story of the necklace. At this point, Madame Forestier seems taken back by what she hears and attempts to walk away. When she realizes the truth, she stops and shows Madame Loisel empathy for the misunderstanding.

Madame Forestier, deeply moved, took her two hands. "Oh, my poor Mathilde! But mine was imitation. It was worth at the very most five hundred francs! . . . "

Who was the president of the United States during World War I?

Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) was president of the United States from 1912-1920, so he would have been president during WWI.  A Democratic Progressive, he said that it would be terrible if his administration was remembered more for its foreign than domestic policies; however, this is exactly what happened to him.  When war broke out in 1914 after the assassination of the Austrian Archduke and the ensuing war between Central and Allied powers, Wilson pledged neutrality.  Germany claimed that Wilson's neutrality was a farce, however, as America sold weapons and made loans to Britain, France and Russia.  The Wilson administration claimed that Germany had the same right to these things, but due to Britain controlling the seas, it was a moot point.  Wilson twice during the war urged Germany to stop unrestricted submarine warfare in the waters off Britain, the first time after the Lusitania was sunk and the second time after Germany renewed the policy in 1917.  Wilson finally asked Congress to declare war in April 1917 when it was apparent that all foreign ships were fair game if they were approaching the British Isles.  Wilson sold the war to the American people as a war to "end all wars" and "preserve democracy." Wilson urged that America was an "associated power," meaning that it was not in the war for territorial gain, but rather to end it and promote world peace.  Domestically, Wilson ordered a draft and passed executive orders arresting anyone who spoke out against the war.  After the war, Wilson drafted the Fourteen Points which guaranteed freedom of the seas, a reduction in the size of the world's armies, and self-rule for ethnic minorities in Europe.  This was all lost at the Versailles table, and Wilson was not known as a man to compromise when he thought he was right.  Wilson wanted his greatest postwar legacy to be the League of Nations, a forerunner to the current United Nations; however, a debilitating stroke and a hostile Republican congress did not allow America to join the international body, and Wilson's dreams of world peace ended.  

How would you characterize the relationships of the pairs in Of Mice and Men: George and Lennie, Candy and his dog, and Curley and his wife? ...

These relationships are all co-dependent to a certain extent.  That means that both parties to the relationship need each other.

George and Lennie travel together.  Lennie needs George, because he has developmental delays.  George also needs Lennie, though, because he likes the company and he likes having someone to work with. 

"Sure," said George. "We kinda look after each other." He indicated Lennie with his thumb. "He ain't bright. Hell of a good worker, though. Hell of a nice fella, but he ain't bright. I've knew him for a long time." (Ch. 2) 

George and Lennie traveling together is pretty unusual for migrant farm workers.  Slim is impressed by their dedication to one another.  George looks after Lennie and protects him from himself, since Lennie has no impulse control and would not be able to keep a job without him.  George likes telling Lennie about his dream of owning land someday. 

Just as George relies on Lennie for company, Candy relies on his dog.  The dog is old, and smells.  Most of the men want him to put it out of its misery.  Candy loves the old dog though, and can’t bear to see it go. 

The old man squirmed uncomfortably. "Well- hell! I had him so long. Had him since he was a pup. I herded sheep with him." He said proudly, "You wouldn't think it to look at him now, but he was the best damn sheep dog I ever seen." (Ch. 3) 

The men tell Candy he can just replace his dog with another dog, but that would not be the same for him.  Candy’s dog depends on him to take care of it.  Another dog just would not be the same.  The dog is his companion. 

Finally, Curley and his wife have a strangely co-dependent relationship because she is extremely lonely and has no one but him to talk to, and he needs her because he is terribly jealous. 

“… Ever' time the guys is around she shows up. She's lookin' for Curley, or she thought she lef' somethin' layin' around and she's lookin' for it. Seems like she can't keep away from guys. An' Curley's pants is just crawlin' with ants, but they ain't nothing come of it yet." (Ch. 3) 

Curley is always afraid that something is going to happen between his wife and one of the other guys.  She, on the other hand, is considered trouble.  The guys do not mess with her, because they do not want to mess with Curley.  Throughout the book, she is always looking for him and he is always looking for her.

What are the cobra's physical features in Rikki-Tikki-Tavi?

There are two cobras that Rikki-tikki faces off against.  Nag is the male cobra and Nagaina is the female cobra.  The first snake that Rikki-tikki sees is Nag, and he is a rather imposing figure.

Then inch by inch out of the grass rose up the head and spread hood of Nag, the big black cobra, and he was five feet long from tongue to tail. … he looked at Rikki-tikki with the wicked snake's eyes that never change their expression, whatever the snake may be thinking of.

Nag raises himself up and shows off his great hood.  On his hood there is a “spectacle-mark on the back of it that looks exactly like the eye part of a hook-and-eye fastening.”  Rikki-tikki is only intimidated for a moment, and is not tricked when Nagaina tries to come up behind him.

Nag and Nagaina know that a mongoose is very bad news for them.  As the new house mongoose, it is Rikki-tikki’s job to kill all of the snakes.  The cobras would definitely be on his hit-list, and this worries them because they have a family of new cobras waiting to hatch in the melon-bed.

Even though Riki-tikki knows it is his job to kill the cobra, the cobra is huge.  Rikki-tikki is scared when he knows that Nag has come in the house.

Rikki-tikki tingled all over with rage and hatred at this, and then Nag's head came through the sluice, and his five feet of cold body followed it. … Nag coiled himself up, raised his head, and looked into the bath-room in the dark, and Rikki could see his eyes glitter.

Despite the size and danger of the cobras, Rikki-tikki manages to kill both of them.  He has to follow Nagaina into her hole to do it, which makes it even more dangerous.  The other animals do not think he will survive, but he wins.

How is the setting of Verona, Italy important for the play Romeo and Juliet?

Renaissance Italy was full of noble families feuding with one another for honor, fame, glory, influence, and wealth! Families like the Medici, Borgia, and Pazzi used their wealth to buy favors in government, have people killed, pay off the Church to forgive or forget sins, and commission new buildings and works of art to earn public approval. This fighting was primarily carried out by trying to one-up each other in the public eye, but sometimes it spilled over into literal bloodshed. Especially where young noblemen were concerned, fights occasionally broke out in the street between members of two opposing families.

Verona, as a major city and center of wealth in Renaissance Italy, surely had its fair share of warring noble families. It is unknown whether Shakespeare ever actually visited Verona or chose this setting for some other reason, but the location provides a perfect cultural backdrop for his tale of star-crossed lovers. As we learn in the play, the Capulet and Montague families have been enemies for a long time and this conflict has experienced resurgence. Nonetheless, young Romeo and Juliet meet and fall in love, though they do not know at first that they are sworn enemies!

How would other people normally behave in Mrs. Jones's place in Langston Hughes's short story "Thank You, M'am"? What would others have done?

Human nature is very complex. Studies show that humans and animals have very compassionate natures, which means they have the ability to empathize with others--feel what others feel--and behave altruistically--behave in ways that benefit others (Seppaia, E., "The Compassionate Mind"). Yet, other studies show that most people ignore the homeless they pass on the street and refuse handouts (Figueroa, A., "Do You Ignore Homeless People?"). While Roger in Langston Hughes' short story is not necessarily homeless, he is so severely neglected that he is as good as homeless and must resort to whatever means he has to fulfill his basic needs and wants, and Mrs. Jones does not treat him in the same way many others would have treated him when faced with her same situation. Langston Hughes uses the actions of Mrs. Jones in his short story "Thank You, Ma'am" to show society what true compassion looks like and to remind us of the need for compassion.

When faced with being robbed by a homeless or near homeless person, like Mrs. Jones was robbed by Roger, most people would behave hatefully by calling the cops or taking revenge in some other way. In contrast, Mrs. Jones quickly recognizes Roger as a person in need, drags him to her rented room, makes him wash his face, shares his dinner with him, and even ends by giving him the 10 dollars he tried to steal so that he can buy his blue suede shoes. Due to the small size of her rented room, we know that she is a poor woman living off of what must be her minimum-wage income earned from her job at a "hotel beauty-shop," so we know that everything she gives him is a major sacrifice to herself. Yet, she willingly does it because, as she explains, she too was once young and in need and "wanted things [she] could not get." She further makes the following confession to him:

I have done things, too, which I would not tell you, son--neither tell God, if he didn't already know.

Her actions and her confessions show us that she is able to feel empathy for Roger, which stirs her to compassion, something many people do not feel when faced with people in Roger's situation, as statistics concerning treatment of the homeless show.

Hence, in creating Mrs. Jones, Hughes creates a character who behaves contrarily to how the rest of society would normally behave in order to remind us of the need for compassion.

What is the relationship between the terms heterogeneous and homogeneous?

One of my favorite aspects of science is the use of root words to form new terms, some of which can sound like "science jargon"  if you don't know what they mean, or you don't take the time to dissect them (and I didn't mean that as a science pun either). The terms "heterogenous" and "homogenous" are great examples because they incorporate three root words that show up frequently in science; hetero, homo and gen.

Hetero means "different,"

Homo means "the same," or "similar," and

Gen mean "origin, creation, making."

So, with a little smoothing of the metaphorical edges, the terms heterogenous and homogenous mean, respectively, "something that has been made different" and "something that has been made the same." 

Heterogeneity and homogeneity are usually used in the description of mixtures, specifically the way in which the components of those mixtures are oriented in three-dimensional space. For example, say a mixture is made of 500 red particles and 500 blue particles which are different only in color. No matter where you looked in a homogenous mixture, you would see the same number of blue and red particles in every picture. If this were a heterogenous mixture, you would see a different number of particles, or you  might just have a layer of red on top of blue, or vice versa.

The exact reasons for being heterogenous or homogenous have to do with a complicated series of interactions at the molecular level, and are also time-dependent; for example, milk can be homogenized, but will become heterogenous over time, and the same can be said for other mixtures. Some heterogenous mixtures can also be made into homogenous ones through the use of additives such as emulsifiers.