What is a loose, balanced, periodic, and cumulative sentence? And what are some examples?

Those sentence types are common terms from the AP English Language and English Literature exams.  So, if you can master not only analyzing them but also writing them now, you will be in good shape as a writer.

1. Loose or cumulative sentence: These two sentences rely on the same technique; they begin with the main independent clause and then pile on information in phrases and dependent clauses.  If you were to place a period after the initial independent clause, it would be correctly punctuated as a sentence.  Below is an example from writer Terry Tempest Williams.

"The women moved through the street as winged messengers, twirling around each other in slow motion, peeking inside homes and watching the easy sleep of men and women."

Notice that the bold part could stand by itself as a sentence, but the rest of the phrases could not.

2. Periodic sentence: A periodic sentence is just the opposite of a loose/cumulative sentences.  It begins with phrases or dependent clauses and holds off on incorporating the main independent clause until the end.  It cannot grammatically end correctly before the period. Below is an example from Ralph Waldo Emerson.

"Crossing a bare common, in snow puddles, at twilight, under a clouded sky, without having in my thoughts any occurrence of good fortune, I have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration."

You can see the difference between the periodic sentence above (notice the bold independent clause at the end) and the loose sentence structure.  If you were to leave off the bold portion of the above sentence, it would be a fragment.

3. Balanced sentence: A balanced sentence is essentially parallelism, but sometimes it is more specifically a sentence that has at least two clauses which are similar in length and word order.  Here's an example about characters from Of Mice and Men.

George is mentally keen and small in body; Lennie is mentally simple and large in body.

I have an assigment where I have to choose a biome and and pretend that I am making a resort in this biome.so which biome shall i choose and please...

Major biomes: freshwater, tundra, grassland, marine, desert, and forest.

I would choose freshwater which includes areas with lakes, ponds, streams, rivers, and wetlands. These biomes are located all over the world so to make it easy I will choose a place right here in the US, Minnesota.

The climate is very nice, warm summers but cold winters. The resort we are going to build will be a place that people will want to visit in the summer.

The resort will be located on a large lake. We can build a resort that includes various types of rooms for people to choose from. It can have a pool and a restaurant. There can also be cottages located on the lake so people have access to various activities such as fishing, swimming, boating, bird watching and water sports. People will need to bring clothes for swimming as well as rugged outdoor clothing if they are going to partake in fishing activities or more rugged activities.

This resort will be environmentally friendly by participating in recycling and promoting ecotourism. It will also promote the economy by encouraging people to vacation within the US.

Why does Jonas have to start taking pills? What happens to children who are released?

Jonas has to start taking pills because he is experiencing "stirrings."  What this means is that he is becoming sexually mature and starting to have sexual thoughts and desires.  No one in the community is allowed to have these because it would disrupt the Sameness that is imposed on all members of the community.

Children who are released (anyone who is released, actually) are killed.  Release is just a euphemism for killing.  We see a video of Jonas's dad killing an infant with a lethal injection and dumping it down a garbage chute.  This is what really makes Jonas decide to leave the community.

In Hamlet, how does Claudius respond to the death of Polonius? Does he understand the implications of what happened?

Yes, in Shakespeare's Hamlet, Claudius certainly understands the implications of Hamlet's killing Polonius, as well as the implications of the situation as a whole.  When he first hears the news that Hamlet has slain Polonius, he tells Gertrude:

His liberty is full of threats to all--

To you yourself, to us, to everyone. (Act IV:1)

Later, he adds:

How dangerous it is that this man goes loose!  (IV:3)

Claudius is preparing Gertrude for what he is about to do to counter Hamlet's threat to the king's thrown and life.  Yet, he also understands that he must be careful concerning what he does to Hamlet, due to his popularity with the Danish people:

Yet must not we put the strong law on him.

He's loved of the distracted multitude,... (IV:3)

Publicly, then, Claudius orders Hamlet sent to England (even though at the beginning of the play he wanted him to stay in Elsinore so that he could keep an eye on him).  Secretly, he arranges for Hamlet to be put to death upon his arrival in England. 

Remember, this is after the performance by the players, and thus after Claudius knows that Hamlet knows about the death of Hamlet's father.  Claudius knows what's going on, and takes steps to counter the threat.  He is a formidable adversary.  Polonious is an idiot and a blowhard, but Claudius is no fool.

In The Invisible Man, where does the yam seller guess the narrator is from?

Than yam vendor knows the Inivisible Man is from the South, as the yam is a symbol of Southern soul food.  The narrator is in New York (Harlem, cold and bitter.  After he bites into the ham, he has an epiphany: he realizes he's been victimized by Dr. Bledsoe and he realizes he misses home (the South).

He embraces his cultural heritage as he bites into the good yam, "They're my birthmark...I yam what I am!" (266). A birthmark, here, is both a mark of distinctive identity and a blemish on one's body. In other words, a yam is a proud symbol and a negative stereotype of his Black Southern heritage. He, wrongfully following the lead of Dr. Bledsoe, had shame-facedly associated soul food with “field niggerism” (265), adopting instead to savor the more sophisticated delicacies of the house Negro (who caters for the white slave master) in order to escape the stereotype.

Since he has awakened, however, the narrator "no longer [feels] ashamed by things I had always loved" (266); he is no longer ashamed of his birthright, a poor black man from the Deep South. He continues, "But what of those things which you actually didn't like, not because to dislike them was considered a mark of refinement and education--but because you actually found them distasteful?...It involved a problem of choice" (266). It is a problem, according to Sartre, of authenticity. So, has he not liked yams because whites didn't think he should? Or because other blacks (namely house Negros) didn't think he should? Or because he (as a repressed field Negro) didn't think he should? To love yams to spite the whites would be inauthentic. To hate the yams to spite his blackness would be inauthentic. The narrator is caught in an existential dilemma.

After he takes a bite of the second yam, anticipating another sweet relic of home, it is frostbitten, leaving a bad taste in his mouth. Although he naively loved the yams of home, the yams handed to him in his newfound freedom of the North are at first sweet, and then foul. He is in the process of reinventing himself, casting off both the house and field Negro stereotypes. His authenticity then is not defined by being inauthentic to any ascribed stereotype, but by relishing what he wants to relish, regardless of stereotype. His existence as a yam lover or yam hater precedes his essence, which may hold that eating yams is shameful.

What is Luchresi's role in the story? And also, what preparations had Montressor made for his revenge?

Luchesi is the trump card, the ace up the sleeve that Montresor uses to dupe Fortunato into the catacombs beneath his home. Luchesi is a second rate rival of Fortunato's in wine expertise. Montresor has bought a keg of Amontillado, a rare and pricey wine, which Luchesi assures him is the real thing. Appealing to Fortunato's pride in wine connoisseurship, Montresor asks for a second opinion. Fortunato's pride is stung by Montresor asking Luchesi's opinion first.

The rocks and mortar were already in the cellar, as were the chains. Montresor carries a trowel hidden in his cloak. Getting Fortunato drunk, exposing him to the niter on the walls, which made him cough, renders his resistance weak. The surprise of the attack seals Fortunato's fate.

How did Pearl answer the question about who had made her in The Scarlet Letter?

Pearl and Hester are called to the Governor's Hall before a group of men who want to remove Pearl from her mother's care.  They fear for the girl's salvation as she is being raised by a woman tarnished by her sin of adultery.   Pearl is a mere child who demonstrates the characteristics of a mischievous child.  She sees roses before she goes in to talk with the men and focuses her attention and demands on getting one.  Hester tries to stop her from crying, but Pearl continues to cry for a rose.  Pearl is very angry at her mother trying to calm her.  She lets out a loud scream and is silent. 

Shortly after her tantrum Hester and Pearl meet with the Governor, Reverend Dimmsdale, Mr. Wilson, and Roger Chillingsworth.  The men begin to question who Pearl is to the child.  She adamantly tells them she is her mother's child.   They are a bit shocked when they realize that Pearl is Hester's child, the child whose future lies in question. 

Mr. Wilson asks Pearl:

"Canst thou tell me, my child, who made thee?"

Pearl knew of her Heavenly Father because her mother had told her of him.  She was only three years old. 

  "her three years of a lifetime"

She tells them that she had not been made at all but had been:

 "plucked by her mother off the bush of wild roses that grew by the prison door."

Pearl had behaved like a young child feeling nervous and insecure but at the same time in recall of the very thing her mother had denied her. 

Miss gates says,"over here we dont believe in persecuting anybody.persecution comes from people who are predudiced." Why is it ironic?

In To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, Ms. Gates is Scout's school teacher.  This line is taken from the scene where she is teaching the class about Hitler and the persecution of the Jews.  It is ironic because Scout overheard her coming out of the courthouse after the verdict was over.  Ms. Gates had turned to Miss Stephanie Crawford and commented how it was about time someone taught the blacks in the community a lesson.  Here she is, trying to teach her students about how horrible discrimination and prejudice are, but she is no better than the people of whom she speaks.  Even though she is very young, Scout realizes how hypocritical Ms. Gates is, and even comments about it to her brother, Jem.  Jem becomes very upset with Scout and demands that she never discusses the trial again.

What would be the influences in a child's development?

In the child's development in the novel Wuthering Heights I will refer to Heathcliff's development.

-Heathcliff is a young child who is abandoned after his mother's death.  -He is a Roma/Gypsy which is a despised population. (These two prevailing conditions already affect his self-worth and self-esteem)

-Mr. Earnshaw brings him home to be part of his family.  Heathcliff is relocated from the city to a rural area.  He has to adjust to a new family and their values and lifestyle and school.

-Heathcliff is unwanted by the step-brother, Hindley.  He finds comfort and acceptance through Catherine Earnshaw.

-Heathcliff and Catherine are allowed to run freely through the countryside.  They attend school at home because the adjustment is too hard for Heathcliff because others mock him.  Hindley is sent away to school.  This provides Heathcliff with a sense of security in the household.

-Mr. Earnshaw dies leaving Heathcliff abandoned once again.  Although he is able to live at the estate, he is reduced to stable hand by Hindley who inherits everything.

-Catherine begins to find that she likes the lifestyle at the Linton Estate.  Heathcliff can not offer her any type of financial security and lives in a state of poverty.

Heathcliff has experienced many social delays caused by his abandonment’s. Just as he can feel some sense of security the man who provided it dies.  Heathcliff has low self-esteem and no real chance of gaining any financial gain in his circumstances at Wuthering Heights.  He ends up with anti-social personality disorder.  He is socially isolated from other with the exception of being manipulative and deceptive.

How does Benedick and Beatrice's behaviour challenge gender roles? Does the answer change according to whether we are thinking about Shakespeare's...

Beatrice's behaviour challenges gender roles, particularly for a Jacobean audience, from the very start of the play. Her outspokenness and witty banter with the messenger in 1.1 is contrasted with Hero's quiet submissiveness in this male world. At the start of 2.1, Leonato warns Beatrice that she will not get herself a husband if she 'is so shrewish [of her] tongue.'

Benedick challenges gender roles must less obviously in the first half of the play. He sees himself as attractive to women, but is resolutely a bachelor, a soldier and a 'lad'. He changes, though, as he's tricked into discovering his love for Beatrice. In the failed wedding scene, 4.1, he and the Friar are alone among the men in not condemning Hero. Hero is subjected to a torrent of misogynistic abuse, by Claudio, Don Pedro and, horrifyingly, by her own father. Benedick builds on the friar's suggestion that there is 'some misprision in the princes', and looks to Don John as its author.

Later, alone with Beatrice, Benedick must confront the stark choice that she has presented him: if he loves her, he must 'kill Claudio'. She in turn has railed against gender roles, wishing herself a man, that she might 'eat his heart in the market-place.' Initially, Benedick is horrified, but on hearing Beatrice confirm that she thinks 'in her soul that Count Claudio has wronged Hero', he accepts the truth of her instinctive, unshakeable and feminine faith in Hero and goes to challenge him.

What would be a good attention-getter for an Animal Farm essay about how Socialism can easily be turned into Totalitarianism?My thesis is: Animal...

Sometimes a good way to make a point and do so humorously is by opening with an anecdote. In the case of your particular topic, you might want to provide a hypothetical example of how socialism can turn into totalitarianism. You might use a classroom setting in which everyone is a socialist and then show the reader details that make clear the slippery slope to totalitarianism.  It is easy to show how quickly socialism will deteriorate!  Other possible settings for a vignette might be an office, a family, or a summer camp.  I don't know if you watch The Office, but if I were writing this paper, I would be tempted to use that setting and those characters to show how socialism works when it is put into practice and is not just an idea on paper.  It would be fun to give them a situation in which totalitarianism would reign after about five minutes. 

What symbolic elements can be found in "The Storm" by Kate Chopin and how does it relate to the characters?I've noticed that the storm holds a...

Even though it is a pretty short story, "The Storm" by Kate Chopin is packed with symbolism.  As you mentioned in your question, the storm itself is a symbol of the coming change that occurs in the lives of the characters, as a result of Alcee's affair with Calixta.  The story itself starts with a storm brewing, seeming to foreshadow great harm or chaos; in reality, it ushers in what Chopin makes out to be a very positive change in the life of all of the characters.  The affair, instead of tearing their lives apart like a storm would, instead frees Calixta and helps her to release some of her frustrations, and settle more happily into her station in life.  So, the storm is a symbol of something that normally would be considered bad, tumultuous or dangerous actually being something that is good and fulfilling.  That description applies to both the storm itself and to the affair's impact on the characters' lives.

Other symbolism can include Chopin's use of colors.  The bedroom is white, symbolizing how she feels their affair is a sanctified and pure act, rather than a sinful one, as society felt.  Calixta's lips are red and hair is shining gold, symbolizing her appeal to Alcee.  So, take a look at the colors that are used also, as they hold symbolic value.  Then you have little things throughout the story, like the chinaberry tree being struck by lightning, symbolizing or foreshadowing a great change about to occur, the shrimps that Bobinot buys for his wife, as a symbol of his desire to please her, and his fear of her disapproval.  The mud on the shoes that he and his son track into the house, as a symbol of the displeasure of Calixta in her station as a housewife, that is associated with her husband and son....if you look closely, you can use many things as symbols.

I hope that those thoughts helped; good luck!

What does Holden want to talk to Carl Luce about in "The Catcher in the Rye"?Carl calls it "a typical Holden Caulfield conversation."

In the conversation with Luce, Holden reveals much sexual confusion.

Here's the scene's major points:

• Luce is an older, college student who goes to Columbia; he's similar to Stradlater from earlier chapters; Holden is secretly jealous of these men


• Luce used to talk about famous "flits" (homosexuals)


• Holden suspects that Luce was gay


• Luce is currently dating an older, Asian woman


• Luce says he prefers the Eastern view of sex over the Western one: the former values a spiritual and physical connection, while the latter stresses the physical too much.


• Luce tells Holden to go see a psychoanalyst; Luce himself gives him psychoanalytic advice.


• Holden has previously rejected psychoanalysis: "my lousy childhood" and "that David Copperfield crap"


• Holden is drunk and feeling sexy.


• Holden is "I'm so lonely I could die," which echoes Huck Finn's "I'm so lonesome I could die"


• Luce leaves Holden because the conversation is beneath him: Holden looks physically old, but he is still mentally immature.

What has Hermia done for which she asks Theseus's pardon? (line 60)

What she has done is to talk back to Theseus who is, after all, the ruler.  She is arguing with him over whether she should do what her dad says she has to do (marry Demetrius).

In the part before she asks his pardon, Theseus tells Hermia that her father should be like a god to her -- that she should do whatever he says.  Besides, says Theseus, Demetrius is a "worthy gentleman"

At that point, Hermia starts talking back.  She says Lysander is as good as Demetrius and that she wishes that her dad would see things through her eyes.  Then she asks Theseus' pardon and finds out from him what will happen if she disobeys.

How is Victor able to justify to himself his early treatment of the monster?this refernces to the end of Frankenstein novel

On Chapter 24, (part three) Victor explains his behavior with the monster.

Basically he explains that he has taken the time to go back tp analyze his actions, and that he feels partially responsible for them, although he was acting "under a fit of enthusiastic madness" that led him to try for an ambition that was too big even for him. He even claims that he would have done anything to assure the creature's "happiness and fulfillment" , but that since the creature ended up being so evil and killling all that Victori loved, now he wante to avenge it.

Furthermore, Victor even plays himself as a good guy by saying that, out of this same feelings, he refused to create a partner for the creature. Hence, he was almost saying that it was his god kidness what saved the world from a culture of monsters, and it was all out of scientific ambition and good plans for the creature that he embarked on his experiments. We know that such thngs were all lies.

The quote is below:

During these last days I have been occupied in examining my past conduct; nor do I find it blamable. In a fit of enthusiastic madness I created a rational creature, and was bound towards him, to assure, as far as was in my power, his happiness and well-being. This was my duty; but there was another still paramount to that. My duties towards the beings of my own species had greater claims to my attention, because they included a greater proportion of happiness or misery. Urged by this view, I refused, and I did right in refusing, to create a companion for the first creature. He showed unparalleled malignity and selfishness, in evil: he destroyed my friends; he devoted to destruction beings who possessed exquisite sensations, happiness, and wisdom; nor do I know where this thirst for vengeance may end. Miserable himself, that he may render no other wretched he ought to die. The task of his destruction was mine, but I have failed. When actuated by selfish and vicious motives I asked you to undertake my unfinished work; and I renew this request now when I am only induced by reason and virtue.

Why do Prince Prospero and his friends lock themselves in a secured castle?

In "The Masque of Red Death" Prince Prospero and his friends lock themselves in a secured castle to avoid becoming in contact with "The Red Death", which is an epidemic that is killing everyone in town.  The disease is described much like consumption, in that the last stages of it, blood will be everywhere, hence the name of the illness.

Please describe the forbidding secrets in To Kill a Mockingbird.

The forbidden secrets may include: the alleged rape, which really involved a white woman making inappropriate overtures to a black man; domestic violence with a father beating his daughter; mental illness in a family. In a small Southern town in this time period, a family's reputation was all important. In a time of segregation, any interracial "romance" would be taboo. In these times, the black man would always be suspect and public hostilities would run high. The mob mentality at the jail was diffused only when Atticus could personally relate to individuals he had helped in the past or by making polite social connections on a familial level. That mob mentality of black vs white could also be a forbidden secret.

What is the role of the fool in King Lear?Comment upon the social and historical aspects of the fool in the Elizabethan period.

The Fool is Lear's own stand-up comedian, sure, but more interestingly, he's the only guy that Lear allows to criticize him. (Remember, when Kent lips off, Lear boots him out of the kingdom and when Lear doesn't like what Cordelia has to say, Lear disowns her altogether.)

As in many of Shakespeare's plays, the Fool is actually really smart – and the only person who tells it like it is. Compare Lear's Fool, for example, to Feste in Twelfth Night – neither one of them are afraid to call their misguided masters "foolish" and they both function as characters that provide a lot of social commentary. At the same time, the Fool is more than just a funny and brutally honest guy; he's also loyal. Along with Kent/Caius, the Fool braves the elements (which at times consist of rain, thunder, and lightning) with his master.

But the Fool is also a big mystery: what happens to him? He disappears after Act 3, Scene 6, and nobody ever explains where he's gone. The only possible reference to the Fool after that is in the final scene, when King Lear says "And my poor fool is hanged" (5.3.17). This could mean a couple of things: 1) Lear might be referring to Cordelia with a pet name, "fool," since Cordelia has just been hanged by Edmund's goons. 2) Lear could be literally talking about his Fool – perhaps the Fool was also hanged by Edmund's henchmen or, perhaps he hung himself out of despair. It's hard to say what really happens to the Fool. Some literary critics even speculate that the Fool and Cordelia were played by the same actor. They never appear onstage together, so some scholars hypothesized that the part was double cast, and that the Fool had to disappear when Cordelia came back into the play.

Who is Miss Kinnian and how does she treat Charlie?

In the book Flowers for Algernon Miss Kinnian is the teacher where Charlie attends school at the college in a program for adults with disabilities.  She is also the one who recommends him for the experimental program based on his personality and his desire to learn.  Charlie has a lot of trust in his teacher and takes her advice.

After Charlie becomes more intelligent the two become attracted to one another.  Charlie would like to have a sexual relationship with her and the possibility arises but Charlie carries too much guilt from when he was mentally retarded and had been shamed about the idea of sexual feelings.  He shuts down his interactions with Miss Kinnian. 

Later, after Charlie ahs lost his intelligence and has returned to his normal IQ, he visits Miss Kinnian's classroom.  She is very sad to see the changes from the intellectual Charlie back to Charlie with an IQ of 68.

To what does Napoleon change the name of Animal Farm? Why is this ironic? (Chapter 10)

I think a further irony of this name change back to Manor Farm is that it seems, just as in Russia during the reign of Communism, times were getting even worse than they were during the end of the Romanov family's reign. Just before the revolution in 1917, Russia had indeed gained a Duma (Parliment), a Constitution, and serfdom had been abolished for quite some time. Things were getting better. With the onset of Communism, things were allegedly supposed to get better and better but got worse and worse.

This is the same case for Animal Farm. At least when Jones was in control, they ate most of the time. Only at one point did we see him completely neglect the animals.

The entire irony of the book is to show how the start of a new order fixed nothing, in fact the exaggerations are to demonstrate that it made things worse.

Who are the Van Daans in The Diary of Anne Frank?Describe each member of this family.

Herman Van Daan is a friend and business associate of Otto Frank. He and his family--wife Petronella and son Peter--are invited to join the Franks in their secret hideaway. The husband and wife argue constantly, creating tension in the cramped living quarters. Selfish and temperamental, Mrs. Van Daan henpecks her husband; he is a stubborn man who nonetheless contributes his share of duties. Their son is 16 years old and, though closer to Margot Frank in age, he becomes intimate with Anne, who is 13 when they go into hiding. Peter is more withdrawn and quieter than Anne, who eventually becomes discontented with Peter, particularly over the uncertain plans he has for the future. After the group is captured by the Germans, Peter and Anne remain friendly at the Westerbork concentration camp. They were eventually separated at Auschwitz. Mr. Van Daan died in the gas chambers there; Mr. Frank witnessed him being led to the chamber. Mrs. Van Daan also died at Auschwitz, though it is unknown if she died of natural causes or was gassed. Peter died during a prisoner march from Auschwitz.

From what rules was Jonas exempted?

The one page of directions Jonas receives when he is named as The Receiver of Memories gives some indications of the huge changes in Jonas's life and manner of relating to others that he is facing.

Jonas is now exempted from the rule against being rude; he may ask anything of anyone at any time and expect to receive an answer. Jonas is

so completely, so thoroughly accustomed to courtesy within the community...the thought of asking another citizen an intimate question, calling someone's attention to an area of awkwardness, [is] unnerving.

Jonas no longer has to tell about his dreams or discuss his daily activities or training for his assignment with his family unit. He may not request medication for any condition related to his training, which is disturbing because he has been told that his training will involve pain beyond the imagining of anyone else in the community. Jonas is not allowed to apply for release.

Possibly most disturbing of all, Jonas no longer has to abide by the rule that forbids lying. This is radically different from the pattern and expectation he has known to this point; it immediately raises questions in his mind about the truthfulness of statements made by others around him.

A Streetcar Named Desire can be described as an elegy,mourning,for an old south that died in the first part of the 20th c.Expand on this description

A Streetcar Named Desire is an elegy to an old South that died in the first part of the 20th century and such elegy is mostly represented in the characters of Blanche and Stella.

The Old south, with its glamour, its historical validity, was a place where kin, family names, traditions, and style was as dominant as it would have been in 18th century Versailles. The cotillions, the gentlemen callers, the Southern Belles, the sumptuous plantations, they all came together as a form of aristocracy.

The early 20th century with its industrial shifts and new ways of dispensing needs without the use of farm hands began to see a delicline in the need of Plantations and southern estates, and the loss of Belle Reve  signifies that change in times which left many Southern economies in shambles.

Blanche is a product of both the good and the bad: She was enjoyed the Old South aristocratic living, but she also was a victim of excess and pre-self destructive behaviors probably long before they lost it all. Yet, she kept the qualifiers that would keep her acting and thinking as if she were still back in her hey day-  but she is not.

When she comes to see Stella, who is also a star fallen from a formerly glamorous Southern sky, she sees the lowered state of living she is leading with her husband, contrasting it to the live at Belle Reve.

This is why both sisters represent the mourning and elegy to what once was good and plenty and now is dirty and loud and ugly. The question that the story will answer eventually is: Which of the two would pass the survival of the fittest?

What are the dependent, independent & extraneous variables? Explain with suitable examples.Posted question is related with - Research Methodology

In research, a variable is defined as any factor that can be manipulated and measured. In a research variables take on different values which are observed and measured to draw conclusion about the subject under study.

Variables are grouped in many different types and according to their nature. One of the ways of classifying the variable is depending upon the way these take on different values during a research or experiment and the nature of influence they have on the research outcomes. As per this classification variables are classified as dependent, independent and extraneous variables.

Independent variables are isolated and controlled by the researcher during the experiment or the research study. The dependent variable changes as a result of, or in response to, the variations in the dependent variable. Extraneous variable are neither manipulated by the researcher nor change in response to changes in independent variables, but which may have some influence on the outcome of an experiment including the values of the dependent variables. Therefore researchers try to ensure that there is no changes in the values taken by the extraneous variable during an experiment.

To understand these term better let us take the example of impact of a particular nutrient, say calcium, on increase in weight of rats. A researcher can study this by feeding different quantities of calcium to different rats and observing the increase in their weight. In this case the quantity of calcium in the diet of a rat is the independent variable, and the increase in weight of the mouse is dependent variable. However, increase in weight of rats also depends on other variables such as other nutrients in their diet, their original weight, and living conditions of mice. These are the extraneous variable. The researcher can eliminate the impact of these extraneous variable by ensuring that all the rats used in the experiment have comparable age and weight at the start of experiment and live under similar condition during the experiment. Also he or she will ensure that diet fed to all the rats is identical except for the quantity of calcium.

If GDP goes up, does that mean there are more employed people?People say there is growth in the economy when GDP rises, but what does that mean?...

GDP refers to the total value of economic or commercial goods and services produced in an economy. Chances are that when when the total production economic production in an economy goes up significantly the total number of people employed or engaged in commercial activities including in manufacturing, trade, profession, and agriculture is also most likely to go up. However, the increase or decrease in employment usually not in direct proportion to the changes in GDP.

There are several reasons for this mismatch between GDP and employment. First, the production of a particular firm in the economy goes up or down, the firm does not increase or decrease its employee strength in exact proportion to the increase or decrease in its production. Usually there is a lag between changes in production and employment. Many times it is necessary to maintain the same employee strength in spite of reduced output. For example if in a school even if the average number of students in a class reduces by ten percent, the number of teachers required to teach in the class will remain same.

Second, the economic output may depend heavily on factors other than the amount of production efforts put in. For example agricultural production is heavily influenced by the weather condition.

Finally there may be changes in productivity. Same number of people may be able to produce more by improving their working methods or putting in more sincere efforts. One major contributor to increase in manpower productivity is use of technology. Use of automated machines and other technological devices of transportation and communication allows firms and individual to increase their output many fold for the same amount of manpower efforts put in.

Othello is too stupid to be described as a tragic hero - agree or disagree and why?

I would like to add a few other ideas about Othello's intelligence.  First of all, Iago is able to dupe or manipulate many other charactes in the play:  Roderigo, Cassio, Montano, Brabantio, Emilia, and to some extent Desdemona.  So, the fact that Othello falls to his persuasion is not that surprising--he is only one of many.  Further, Iago works on Othello for an entire act and part of another (Act 3 and Act 4, scene 1).  It takes longer for Othello to fall under Iago's spell than any other character.  Look at the persuasive techniques that Iago uses with Othello in Act 3, scene 3, and compare these to the ones he uses with Roderigo in Act 1 or Cassio in Act 2.  With Roderigo, Iago only has to repeat himself:  "Put money in thy purse."  With Cassio, Iago only uses sympathy, reassurances, and deceptive advice.  With Othello, Iago must pull out all the stops:  inference, reverse psychology, imagery, deceit, ethos.   Othello has known Iago much longer than he has known Desmona.  As a general, Othello has trust in his men.  He has no reason to doubt Iago. And Iago's seeming reluctance to tell Othello his thoughts is a powerful hook that I think almost anyone would fall for.  You must remember that Othello is not privy to Iago's thoughts as we are.

Other than Othello's trust in him, Iago's most potent weapon is Othello's latent insecurity.  When Iago delicately mentions his race, Othello begins to doubt Desdemona's faithfulness. Othello compares himself to Cassio with the phrases "Haply, for I am black" and "I am declined into the vale of years and have not those soft parts of conversation that chamberers have." Othello sees himself as black, older, and crude.  When Othello views himself this way, he jumps to the conclusion that of course Desdemona loves Cassio: how could she possibly love Othello? Cassio is white, young, handsome, well-spoken, charming. Othello is black, older, and lacks courtly speech.

This type of doubt  plagues many relationships and is most probably the root of most jealousy.  It is our own insecurities that make us jealous.  It is when we compare ourselves to others and find ourselves coming up short that we begin to doubt whether or not we can be truly loved by another.  This mindset has nothing to do with intelligence; it has everything to do with our estimate of ourselves.

Othello's leap to murder his wife seems extreme to us, and probably foolish.  But Othello, a soldier, is a man of action. In his mind, Desdemona and Cassio have committed treason, a crime punishable by death.   When Othello looks within, he sees a man who is inferior to Cassio, and he is convinced that Desdemona is lost, and that she must be executed.  Even then, he feels the need to question her (although that does no good since he has already judged her) and to spy on Cassio, who he believes confesses to an affair with his wife. In a military state such as Cyprus, Othello, as the acting head, has the authority to execute these transgressors--in the name of justice.  He is wrong; he is not stupid.

In Hamlet, how does Hamlet get revenge for his father's death?

The simple answer to the question is that he kills Claudius (his uncle, who had killed his father).  However, this doesn't happen until the very end of the play, and only after Hamlet spends most of the play procrastinating that very action.  Specifically, he is in a swordfight with Laertes, who Claudius has conspired with to kill Hamlet.  Laertes has poisoned the tip of his sword so that when it cuts Hamlet it is a guranteed kill.  Claudius, however, has also poisoned some wine, that he plans on giving Hamlet in a toast.  So, Hamlet is being attacked from multiple directions.  Unfortunately, Gertrude (Hamlet's mother), drinks from the poisoned wine and dies; Hamlet realizes what happened, and stabs Claudius, finally.  Hamlet, Laertes, Claudius and Gertrude all die in that final battle--classic Shakespearian tragedy.

The ghost told Hamlet to enact his revenge in the opening scenes of the play; Hamlet wants to make sure that Claudius did in fact kill his father, so sets about trying to figure it out.  He also hums and haws over killing someone, and passes up numerous chances to kill Claudius throughout the play.  It isn't until the end, after he has resolved to stop "unpacking [his] heart with words," that he finally decides to act, and that is when everyone dies.  I hope that those thoughts helped; good luck!

Regarding class and social status, which of the characters from Persuasion (Admiral Croft, Anne Elliot, Mrs. Smith, or Sir Walter) fares better?

The verb 'fare' means "to perform in a specified way in a particular situation or period." The question would mean whether there is an improvement in the class and social status of the characters.

There is no change in the class or  social status of Admiral Croft. Throughout the novel he is a  respectable retired naval officer.

Anne Elliot who is a member of the landed gentry marries Captain Wentworth a rich naval officer. Although at first sight it may seem that her class  and social status are lowered because of her marriage to Wentworth in reality there is an improvement, because her father's estate would  anyway be inherited by Mr.Elliot-a person whom she had decided againgst marrying. Anne is not at all perturbed that she is marrying someone below her class and social status  on the contrary  "She (Anne) gloried in being a sailor's wife."

In Mrs. Smith's case, the only improvement is the fact that Wentworth will be able to retrieve for her some of her late husband's assets from the West Indies.

Sir Walter, a baronet from the landed gentry remains one till the end; however his extravagant lifestyle lands him in all sort of financial difficulties and he is aware that Mr. Elliot will inherit his estate after his death. So, although there is no deterioration in social or class status, he fares very badly financially.

Where does the speaker believe the raven comes from?

It seems that the speaker thinks that the raven has come to him from the land of the dead.  We can see this in the places where he refers to the bird coming from  "Night's Plutonian shore."  This is referring to Pluto, god of the land of the dead.

However, it does not appear to me that he thinks the bird come from Hell, even though he seems to think it might be a devil.  He says that both he and the raven adore God.  That implies that the bird is not really evil.

This last part is confusing, though, because he also says the bird might be sent by "the tempter" -- Satan.  So I think that overall, he is sure the bird is supernatural, but not sure if it is from God or the devil.

What are "store atmospherics," "retail salespeople," and "purchase intention?"

Well, I'll be honest with you...I see essentially three questions in what you are asking but I only understand two, so that's what I will focus on.  Perhaps if you rephrased the third it would be easier to help you with.

First, "store atmospherics" relates to the physical design of a retail store.   It has to do with attracting customers into the store and keeping them there (thus increasing the likelihood of a purchase.)  For example, have you ever been in a little shop and they have the most inappropriate music playing?  Or been to a used book store that has nowhere to sit while browsing books?  These are examples of atmospherics.  You try to design your store to be appealing to the type of customers you are trying to attract while complementing the products you are selling.

Secondly, "purchase intention."  This relates to how likely a person is to buy a particular product based on a complex set of relationships the buyer has to the item.  For example, when we look at a new product we are thinking about whether we need it or not, how the product will make us look/feel, and our perceptions about the company that makes the item.  Purchase intention can be built up through advertising, packaging, and using appropriate distribution channels (think of the "as seen on TV" products...some people love them, and some people would be embarrassed to own them.)  

Lastly, I am just not sure what you mean when you say "retail salesperson."  Simply defined, these are the individuals who work in the store and assist us in making our purchases.  Their knowledge, attitude, appearance, and accessability go a long way toward creating an atmosphere that makes people want to shop at a particular store.

Hope these helped!

What does the carrot symbolize in Waiting for Godot?

In Act I of Waiting for Godot when Estragon declares that he is hungry, Vladimir provides a carrot, most of which Estragon eats. The diversion ends as it began, Estragon announcing that they still have nothing to do.

Throughout the play, Vladimir and Estragon remain stupidly cheerful, and seek distraction in pointless activities. In doing so, they act comically, which gives the play its humorous element. Their attempts at distraction are attempts to make time pass, to draw them closer to the time when Godot will arrive and solve all their problems. This is pure wishful thinking, but this is all that they have to look forward to, even if the action is meaningless. The only alternative to this is death, which the two contemplate but lack the courage and initiative to carry through.

Carrots and turnips are in one sense just another vehicle for Vladimir and Estragon’s comedy. Like all their cyclical exchanges we were interested in their disagreement over the vegetable: "Funny," Estragon comments as he munches, "the more you eat, the worse it gets." Vladimir quickly disagrees, adding that, for him, it’ is "just the opposite." On the one hand, this could be a completely meaningless conversation – the point is simply that Vladimir is in disagreement, playing at opposites, adding to the bickering duality between them.

In Lord of the Flies, what did Jack do to make him seem the more popular choice for leader?

Jack organised a hunting party and promised the boys, in particular the young'uns food if they followed him.  Although the initial attempt at hunting a pig failed, it showed that he had strength and more importantly, that he could procure food for the group.

What was Sumerian culture like?

Sumeria established the basic definition of civilization. Its society was based upon economic surplus and was able to support priests, government officials, merchants, and artisans. The spreading irrigation systems made regional coordination vital. A clearly defined government developed. Most individuals lived in the countryside. In the emerging cities, residents amassed wealth and power; they exchanged ideas encouraging technological innovation and artistic development; they promoted specialization in trade and manufacture. The government defined state boundaries, regulated and enforced religious duties, and provided court systems for justice.

Kings were responsible for defense and warfare, and, along with priests, controlled land worked by slaves. Political stability and the use of writing allowed urban growth, and agricultural, commercial, and technological development.

The Sumerians also introduced writing to meet the needs of recording religious, commercial, and political matters. Their system of writing, called cuneiform, evolved from pictures baked on clay tablets which eventually became phonetic elements. Its complexity confined its use mostly to specialized scribes. Writing helped to produce a more elaborate culture. The world’s oldest story, the Gilgamesh epic, portrayed a hero constantly defeated by the gods. In art, statues and painted frescoes adorned temples and private homes. The Sumerians created patterns of observation and abstract thought, such as the science of astronomy and a numeric system based on units of 12, 60, and 360, still useful to many societies. Their religion, based upon a pantheon of anthropomorphic gods intervening arbitrarily in human affairs, was accompanied by fear and gloom among believers. Each city had a patron god. Priests were important because of their role in placating gods and in making astronomical calculations vital to the running of irrigation systems. Many Sumerian religious ideas influenced Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

In Act 1, what are the iambic meters/iambic pentameter and why?

Shakespeare mixes verse and prose in his writings. He uses verse mostly to express emotions, to make wise comments on the nature of man, to interject irony and when juxtaposed with prose, to focus on the action that is taking place.

For example, in Act 1, Scene 1, many characters of the house of Capulet and Montague appear in the street and have various arguments and fights, but then the prince enters, and his first speech stands out in very precise iambic pentameter. It gets your attention when you hear these words spoken because they are regular and rhythmic as opposed to the dialogue that precedes it. Remember, this is a play, intended to be viewed and listened to, not read. So the sound of the regular iambic pentameter is very important in Shakespear's plays. Language, its sounds and rhythms, were his only "sound track" so to speak.

As you read the rest of Act 1, look for examples of iambic pentameter and then ask what Shakespeare is trying to accomplish in that particular section - emotion, action, wisdom - and you will be able to answer this question for yourself. Hope this helps!

Comparative analysis of Wordsworth & Coleridge in poetry?

Wordsworth and Coleridge were also part of a larger group called the Lake Poets. Nature and redefinitions of nature are at the heart of the Romantic revival, and nature itself is, perhaps, nowhere more beautiful than in the region of England known as the lake country. According to his autobiographical poem The Prelude, William was allowed to run wild in nature, which became for him a kind of mother. Throughout his poetry, we see a pantheistic refrain: God inheres in the natural world around us. God is in nature. He tells us in The Prelude that there was much loneliness in his childhood. Wordsworth’s early circumstances rendered him extraordinarily introverted, and solitude was a vital element in his psychological makeup. Another of his most famous poems, “Daffodils,” opens with the line “I wandered lonely as a Cloud.” Loneliness and creativity are at the heart of Wordsworth’s poetry, and loneliness, for him, is a creative state. 

In 1795, he had met Samuel Taylor Coleridge, whose muse was both more philosophical and wilder than Wordsworth’s: opium and Immanuel Kant, the great German philosopher fed that imagination. First published in 1798. Lyrical Ballads may be the most influential book of poetry in English literature. 

Coleridge was also living in the Lake District at this time, close by Wordsworth. Wordsworth’s famous one-line definition of poetry is “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings from emotions recollected in tranquility.” Coleridge supplied the “spontaneous” power, while Wordsworth offered the “tranquility,” the reflection. A perfect example of Coleridge’s spontaneity is found in “Kubla Khan,” the short poem he began (but never finished) under the influence of a narcotic dream. Among Coleridge’s utopian projects was his failed “pantisocratic” community, based on free love and philosophical ideas. Coleridge, in contrast, left in his chaotic wake a collection of fragments, short works, and prolegomena. Like Wordsworth, he compiled an autobiography—prose, in his case—Biographia Literaria, the biography of a literary sensibility. The work fuses Coleridge’s towering intellect, extraordinary powers of criticism, and feeling for poetry. His greatest complete poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, was composed during his collaborative years with Wordsworth.

At its best, Wordsworth’s poetry is of stunning purity and power. One example comes from the “Lucy” poems, included in later reprints of Lyrical Ballads. Breathtakingly simple and with only eight lines, the poem nonetheless conveys compelling emotion. Coleridge’s agenda was different. In The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the first work in Lyrical Ballads, he compacts into short-lined, four-line stanzas an amazingly pregnant and mystical narrative of the condition of man in an incomprehensible natural universe. A religious order exists in this universe, but it is an order that is enigmatic, although, mysteriously, meanings may be sensed. In writing this poem, Coleridge drew on gothic fiction and an extraordinary range of reading in theology, philosophy, and travel. His descriptions of the arctic regions are almost photographic.. The narrative of The Rime is simple. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner indicates the new directions that poetry would take over the next two centuries. A revolution had taken place and, arguably, is still taking place in English literature as a result of Lyrical Ballads.

Is the greatest intensity of an earthquake always found at the epicenter? Explain your answer.

An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the earth' crust that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes are recorded with as seismometer, also known as a seismograph. The term epicenter refers to the point at ground level directly above the hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or underground explosion originates. In the case of earthquakes, the epicenter is directly above the point where the fault begins to rupture, and in most cases, it is the area of greatest damage. However, in larger events, the length of the fault rupture is much longer, and damage can be spread across the rupture zone.

During an earthquake seismic waves propagate spherically out from the hypocenter. Seismic shadowing occurs on the opposite side of the Earth from the earthquake epicenter because the liquid outer core refracts the longitudinal or compressional (P-waves) while it absorbs the transverse or shear waves. At the Earth's surface, earthquakes manifest themselves by shaking and sometimes displacing the ground. When a large earthquake epicenter is located offshore, the seabed sometimes suffers sufficient displacement to cause a tsunami. The shaking in earthquakes can also trigger landslides and occasionally volcanic activity.

What are seven main events in chronological order in the whole act three?

That's a full question - I'll give it a shot.

1. Puck turns Bottom's head into that of an ass.

2. Bottom's return to the other workers scares them away, and Puck gets them lost in the woods.

3. In order to prove he isn't scared, Bottom sings at the top of his voice which awakens the sleeping Titania who instantly falls in love with him.

4. Hermia is upset with Demetrius about the disappearance of Lysander (a conversation Puck and Oberon overhear) and storms away from him.  After Demetrius falls asleep, Puck puts the drops in his eyes to try and correct his previous mistake.

5. Helena and Lysander's fighting awakens Demetrius who instantly falls in love with Helena also leading to an aggresive quarrel between the two men.

6. Lysander and Demetrius decide to duel for Helena's hand and leave the two women - which leads to Hermia threatening Helena and both women running away.

7. Puck gets the four lovers tired and in the same general place in the woods where he can annoint Lysander's eyes with the drops again to make everything right.

What does the line, "Frailty thy name is woman," in Act 1 of Hamlet mean and how might it foreshadow events to come?

Renaissance thinking was that women were "hot," that is to say they were ruled by their passions (emotions) that would run amok if not kept in constant check (under constant control). 

What the phrase means is that women, to Hamlet's mind, represent all that is frail (breakable, delicate, weak) in human nature; all weakness is bound up in, epitomized in women, and Gertrude is the epitome of this womanly weakness and frailty.  So Hamlet is referring to his mother's weaknesses: morally, spiritually, and physically.  Morally she is "frail" because she betrayed her husband by marrying Claudius and had the indecency to do so a mere one month after King Hamlet's death: "and yet, within a month—". 

HAMLET. Within a month,
Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,
She married.

Spiritually she is frail because (in Hamlet's mind, as are all these judgments) she has committed an unforgivable sin by marrying Claudius.  Physically she is "frail" because she is a woman and less strong and robust than a man, though this obviously is the least of Hamlet's concerns.

If you could do some research on this Renaissance idea of women, it would help you to explain Gertrude's "frailness" and round out your paper.  I've included a link below to get you started. 

The line about frailty might be said to foreshadow coming events because, with Hamlet's emphasis on frailty, he is proved to be himself frail by his own inability to understand the nature of the Ghost (Is it his father's true ghost or a demon sent from hell to ensnare him in evil?) and his inability to understand the role of revenge regicide (king killing; Claudius is now King) in a Protestant Prince's royal role and personal choices. These inabilities preventing coming to an understanding of complex events around him is what causes his famous inaction, hesitation, indecision.

It also might be said to foreshadow the frailty shown later by Ophelia when she is dumbfounded and driven to madness by the combination of complex events around her that she is unable to understand starting with Hamlet's strange behavior and ending with Hamlet's blind-sighted murder of her father, Polonius.

In the story "Soldier's Home," why will Krebs not talk about the battles to the people at home?

Hemingway centers many of his stories novels around his personal experiences, especially those from WWI where he was wounded an ambulance driver.  He is one of the authors named "The Lost Generation." He could not cope with post-war America, and therefore he introduced a new type of character who struggles with, among other things, his surrounding post-war environment. In “Soldier’s Home,” Krebs' town does not understand the nature of war and continues to be preoccupied by things that no longer have meaning for him, because he does understand war--so thoroughly that he cannot speak about it for war is by nature “unspeakable.” This causes him to develop an attitude of “nada,” meaning “nothing.” For Hemingway, this attitude is an authentic reaction to the horror of war, and a true man recognizes this.  He also knows that to be a man he must be honest; he must not lie. Recognizing “That was all a lie,” Krebs tries to extricate himself from everything to at least be honest.  At the end, however, he succumbs to his mother, who makes him pray, and in praying, lie.  As a result, he fails as a “Hemingway hero.”  Weakening to the pressures of a woman, he loses his manhood, which he was holding onto only tenuously throughout the story. To the extent he does not lie, does not talk about the war, he maintains his integrity and manhood.

What is the difference between symbolism and allegory?

An allegory is a story told by a symbol's POV, or a highly symbollic story. An example is the character named Mercy in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. Not surprisingly, that character acts in ways which exemplify the symbolic name.

Symbol is less obvious, but is another means of representing an idea through another means. Gatsby's flashing green light has been described as symbollic of his flashy lifestyle and of his affluence...yet it can be described as symbolic of Gatsby's envy as well (as in the phrase "green with envy").

To contrast examples, Gatsby's symbolic green light adds subtle clues to our understanding of Gatsby's character; but, Bunyan's character, Mercy, is symbollically named (since mercy is not a name but does have obvious meaning) and acts out her part in the allegorical novel accordingly. We can discuss and disagree with the symbolism of Gatsby's green light, whereas we would have nothing left to say about the allegorical character, Mercy, whose name says it all.

How did the Industrial Revolution affect people in how they worked and how they conducted business?A detailed answer.

During the industrial revolution, according to Sternberg and other social psychologists, part of the problem with the collective psyche of society was a detachment from the dignity, pride, and uniqueness of their craft.

People began to view machines in a deterministic vs. instrumentalist way. This means that, as a determinist, you automatically assume that the machines and the technology is in complete control and that people are its by-product.

The reason why people viewed technology in a deterministic fashion was because, as the previous editors mentioned, the amount and lack of education of the hired hands made it nearly impossible to understand what the machines were put there to do.

In an instrumentalist view, the machines would have been embraced as tools for resource which go hand in hand with human agency. Yet, the competition of quantity versus quality left little room for analysis in those days.

Hence, we had a highly stressed, overworked and undercompensated society which suddenly became polluted, dusty, and sweaty, in times when we thought the machines would prevent us from that condition in the first place.

Please identify the elements of Socialist Realism in "The Unknown Citizen" by W.H. Auden.

To be honest, I see elements of Socialist Realism as well as what we might call Capitalist Realism. In fact, I see more of a challenge to Socialism than a satirical poem in support of socialism. (When you refer to a piece of literature as Socialist Realism, that piece of literature usually supports the idea of socialism, usually by sarcastically condemning a more open capitalist state. But here, the speaker criticizes elements of socialism just as much, if not moreso, as capitalism.)

Overall, this poem is about the disappearance of individualism: at the hands of any type of state: socialist, capitalist, democratic, etc. Auden's criticism here is about technology and social control and how they reduce the 'everyman/woman,' the common citizen to statistics: social security numbers, passwords (especially now with computers), income brackets, "appropriate" # of children (this one is in the poem).

"For in everything he did, he served the greater community" - this line seems to be, sarcastically, criticizing a socialist state; in other words, a state where there is heavy governmental control.

"And he had everything necessary to the Modern Man,/

A phonograph, a radio, a car and a fridgidaire." This line seems to be sarcastically criticizing a capitalist state; in other words, a state where there may be less governmental control, but control through other means: commodification and materialism.

In both cases, I think the speaker is criticizing the lack of individuality. In both cases, the "Unknown Citizen" conforms to the state, or he conforms to the pressures of socio-economic influence: to be happy and a good citizen, you should have a radio, phonograph, etc.

The fact that the Citizen has no name underscores his lack of individuality. In the end, I think this is more generally a Social Realist poem as opposed to just a Socialist Realist poem. There are elements of different Realisms here: but they all have to do with restoring individuality and renouncing conformity in the Modern Age.

The last two lines question whether the unknown citizen was happy, concluding that we "would have heard." Since we do not hear from the citizen himself, we'd have heard from his family/friends. We do not. They've all been relegated to statistics. The citizen has no voice. The only thing we know about him is what things he bought/owned and what the state/union had to say about his cooperation with their rules.

In "Lord of the Flies," what significant quote would be good to describe the beast that's within the boys? (chapter and page number too please)The...

As you say, the best is something that has never really existed.  It only came into being when one of the little boys talked about it and it only continues to "exist" because it is really the boys' fear.

For me, one possible quote for this idea comes at the very end of Chapter 8 -- I don't know if we have the same edition of the book so you should find the page number yourself.

Simon is in his secret place with the Lord of the Flies.  It starts talking to him (at least in his mind) and it says to him

“Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!” said
the head. For a moment or two the forest and all the other dimly appreciated
places echoed with the parody of laughter. “You knew, didn’t you?
I’m part of you?

On page 41, the Brickmaker refers Marlow as a part of the "new gang of virtue". What does he mean?

By referring to Marlow as being a part of a 'new gang of virtue', he is connecting Marlow with Kurtz.  The 'new gang of virtue' also refers to a new type of European sent out to re-analyse colonization.  They are not missionaries in the religious sense but are sent to take another look at the natives and the system in general.  That is why the Brickmaker lumps Kurtz and Marlow together as being two such men. 

The Brickmaker is suspicious of Marlow and thinks he is lying through out their whole conversation. He also indicates with this statement that the same people who sent Kurtz out to Africa in the first place, have now sent Marlow in to remove Kurtz.  The reader knows this is not the case, however it is what the Brickmaker thinks.  Marlow also does not do anything to clear up the Brickmaker's impression of him.  This connection between the two is essential to the plot as it helps the reader understand that Marlow himself not only identifies with Kurtz but others also saw 'Kurtz' in Marlow.  

How does the changing of history affect the three classes of the 1984 society? (Inner Party, Outer Party, and Proles.)

The inner party is affected the least; they are the ones that actually implement and dictate the changes that are supposed to occur.  They decide, based on resources, the mood of the public, and their own feeling of control, whether or not a history change is due.  If resources dictate a change, they make it, and make the changes thorough, in order to control the populace.  They have to maintain their reputations as trustworthy sources of truth; otherwise, the people might realize that they are frauds and rebel.  The changing of history solidifies their control.

For the Outer Party, the impact is varied.  One thing that can be said for all of them is that the changes in history keep them busy.  Think of Winston's job--it is entirely composed of changing history.  It keeps him busy, keeps him involved in a task, and the doing of that task and the staying busy itself is a form of control; at the end of the day, they are so tired that they can't do anything else.  So it's a way for the Inner Party to keep the Outer Party tired, and subservient.  The changing of history also makes some people mad--like Winston.  He realizes the falseness of it all, and is baffled and frustrated by it.  Others, however, become completely engrossed in the work of it, to the point of obsession.  Changes give them one more mind challenge to tackle, in the name of the Party.

For the proles, changing history just keeps them supplied with a constant and ever-changing source for their frustrations, and fuel to their patriotism.  If the proles have a common enemy, then they won't get mad at the party.  If they can release their frustrations with life on the evil Eurasians, for example, then they won't rise up; they won't have the energy or inclination to rebel elsewhere.  It gives the proles a fresh outlet for angst.

I hope that those thoughts helepd; good luck!

What are the poem's principal parts? Why does the Petrarchan model suit this sonnet?

Edna St. Vincent Millay in "What Lips My Lips Have Kissed," reverses the usual poetic roles of men and women, and features a female speaker reminiscing about past lovers, rather than the opposite.

In the first part of the poem, the octave (first eight lines), the speaker has forgotten her past loves, but is reminded by the rain (metaphorically, ghosts) knocking on the window pane and listening for a reply.  For those she has forgotten, she feels a quiet pain. 

The beginning of the sestet is signaled by the "Thus" of line nine.  In the second part of the poem two seasons--winter and summer--are used to symbolize her state.  In the poem's present the speaker is like a tree in winter that doesn't remember the birds that used to perch on it in the summer.  But there was a time, for a little while, like the tree in summer filled with singing birds, when summer sang in her and, metaphorically, lovers visited her.   

The Italian sonnet form is used to divide the thoughts in the poem into two parts.  The first part starts with the general "I have forgotten" and moves to the specifics of one night.  The second part takes the specific and applies it to the general.

Thus, the sestet applies the thoughts of one night to her state of existence concerning past loves, and the lack of present loves. 

What is melamine and how does it affect the human body?

Producers and consumers have been alerted that hundreds of tonnes of milk powder produced in China and used as an ingredient in the manufacture of baby milk formulas, but also as an ingredient in various food products for humans or animals contained melamine, added to falsifying chemical protein content from milk . Thus,  producers get a "quality"commodity, without costs and their profits were high.

Chemical, melamine, is used in tanning the skin and affect the reproductive and urinary sytems, even in animals, and in this case was used by the chinese company to increase protein amount that the milk powder would have to bear, to pass the quality protein tests. Because the product is the cheapest of the Chinese market, extremely poor consumers are no longer bringing food safety issues.

Six people died and more than 300,000 needed hospital treatment after poisoning with melamine. Physio-chemical characteristics of melamine  fostering the enter in the urinary system, causing obstruction and preventing the proper disposal of urine, experts explained. Thus, not only urine is not removed properly from the body, nor blood flow within the kidney is not in normal parameters.

In adults, ingestion of melamine is not as dangerous, although it is hard to do long-term predictions, just as there are no data to show how each body will react. European Union has set a maximum tolerable daily dose of 0.5 milligrams of melamine per kilogram body weight. In other words, for most adults there are no risk beyond that threshold, however, not all people react the same and it can not be said that is absolutely safe.

Explain phagocytosis with a examples.

Phagocytosis is the capture, ingestion and destruction by a cell of particles or other cells. Phagocytosis ability is characteristic of certain cells, called phagocytes, like neutrophils and macrophages cells.

By phagocytosis pathogens are destroyed  by the macrophages of immune system. Often these agents must be marked by antibodies to be recognized by phagocytes, leukocytes and lymphocytes.

Stages

1. Adherence -membrane of phagocytic cell  adheres to the membrane of particle to be ingested; this phase is due to lectins  on the surface of micro-organisms;

2. Ingestion -invagination of foreign particle ;

3. Digestion - performed by intercellular enzymes.

Phagocytosis is often accompanied by an abrupt rise in cellular oxygen consumption. Oxygenated compounds formed (H2O2, OH • radicals and O2) are in a very high concentration , where carries toxic effects for organisms ingested. Nitrogen monoxide formed leads tobacteria,parasites and fungi destroy.

Why are triangles to hard to find the angles to?

There are three angles of a triangle . Measuring the angle of a triangle is just like measuring angles between any two intersecting lines or rays, with the help of a protractor which is a semicircular graded for each degree. The angle between two lines is a measure of rotation required  bring two lines or rays to  coincide in the same postion.

In a triangle you can find the measure of angle between two lines by (i) actually measring the angle using protractor or (i) using the lengths of the sides using the relation between angles and sides or angles and area:

Depending on the type of easily measured values you could use one of the formula below to find the angle.

a/sinA =b/sinB=c/sinC

Area of the triangle = (1/2) bcsinA and similar formula or

cosC = (a^2+b^2-c^2}/(2ab)

Example: In a triangle  the sides are : a=5, b=6, c=7 what are

the angles:

We use cosA = (b^2+c^2-a^2)/(2bc) =(6^2+7^2-5^2)/(2*6*7) = 0.7143

A=arc cos (0.7143)

So A =44.42 deg

B = arc cos (5^2+7^2-6^2)/(2*5*7)

= 57.12 deg and

C= arc cos(5^2+6^2-7^2/(2*5*6)

=78.46 deg.

What is the first memory Jonas receives in The Giver?

At the end of Chapter 10 and the beginning of Chapter 11, we find out what the first memory that Jonas receives is.  We find out that the first memory the Giver gives him is the memory of snow and the sled.

At the end of Chapter 10, the Giver tells Jonas that he will give him a memory.  He tries to tell him what it will be but realizes that Jonas can't possibly understand because he doesn't know what snow is or a sled or runners or even a hill.

So at the start of Ch. 11, Jonas lies down and the Giver transmits the memory of sledding down a snowy hill.

Please help me with an analysis about KNOWLEDGE VS. IGNORANCE in "Fahrenheit 451."and i have no idea how to write analysis or what to...

Fahrenheit 451 is a literary and topical treatment of the hindering of "the right" to freedom of speech, in a nutshell - censoring people's right to know.

The word out is that "knowledge" gives you access to everything and that "ignorance" gives you access to nothing. This is in direct opposition to the belief that "ignorance is bliss."

With that thought in mind, people use the words "knowledge is power." In Fahrenheit 451, it is the application of knowledge that is shown to give people power.

The protagonist in this story soon learns that blind obedience, without knowing the reason and the source of instilled automated hatred (ignorance on his part), is not only hindering others, but may also be stifling himself from learning what he needs to know in order to be independent and to think for himself.

He discovers that he can no longer turn a "blind eye" (of ignorance) to the need to know for himself, and/or to keep others from knowing, or from having the knowledge that it will take for them to create their own existence by will and choice intead of by blind obedience to the ruling "other."

In "The Listeners" who is the traveller expecting to meet in the house?

The difficult thing about this poem is that it does not provide a lot of clear information, instead leaving most of it up to the reader to guess at what might have been going on.  While this enigmatic trait makes the poem difficult, it also lends it quite a bit of appeal, making it more intriguing, interesting and thought-provoking.  If the author had just given us all of the details, and filled in all of the gaps, then nothing would be left up to the imagination.  Instead, we are left with very little information, which injects our imaginations with all sorts of possibilities.  It makes it a much more reader-involved poem.

If we look at the text, the only information we get about who the traveller might be expecting is the fact that he went to a very particular house--it was pretty obvious that he knew that was the house he was supposed to go to.  So either he was given very specific instructions on where to go, or, he had been to the house before, and knew who owned it.  However, when he gets to the house, he doesn't go in.  He is perplexed that no one answers, but, he doesn't go in to double-check.  This implies that he was expecting someone to be there, and to answer.  If he hadn't expected and answer, he wouldn't have been bothered that no one did.  He knocks several times, expecting a response.  Then, it gets to him:

"He felt in his heart their strangeness,
Their stillness answering his cry,...
For he suddenly smote on the door, even
Louder, and lifted his head:--
'Tell them I came, and no one answered,
That I kept my word,' he said."

Here, we get more clues to his expectations.  First of all, he senses that someone is there, listening.  He then shouts his message, referring to "They."  So, he was expecting not one person, but several, and these people were important enough to inform that he had kept his word to them.

So, we don't know exactly who he expected.  We can infer that it was a group of people that he had promised something to, and to whom it was very important to deliver the message that he had remained true.  For the rest--what the promise was, what he was on a journey doing, who these mysterious people were, and who the "phantom listeners" were--is left to our imagination.  I hope that helped; good luck!

Why does Hemingway begin his story with a description of dead animals?

ismael2000,

I believe you are referring to the epigraph in Hemingway's The Snows of Kilimanjaro. The epigraph situated directly under the title of Chapter One states:

Kilimanjaro is a snow covered mountain 19,710 feet high, and it is said to be the highest mountain in Africa. Its western summit is called the Masai “Nghe Nghe”, the House of God. Close to the western summit there is the dried and frozen carcass of a leopard. No one has explained what the leopard was seeking at that altitude. (Hemingway, Kilimanjaro, 1)

The leopard is generally regarded as the symbol of sloth, somewhat defined loosely nowadays as laziness. The animal also represents instinct, and primal behavior, without emotion or feeling. Since the animal is dead; its life is now over, especially at that altitude where everything including the air is pure, fresh and clean.

The protagonist, on the other hand, is lazy, emotional, erratic, and impulsive. He represents the opposite of what the leopard represents. Except for that fact that he was lazy and never did set out to do what he wanted to accomplish. His life ends tragically unfulfilled and dies thinking back on what his life would have been like if he had not been lazy and undeterred.

What happens in Chapter 5 of In the Time of the Butterflies?

Dede' reflects on events from just after her sisters' deaths. The deaths have caused things to go out of control with respect to the attention it garners. Fela, the servant, erects a shrine and claims to communicate with their spirits. Minou gets angry with Minerva for firing Fela and goes to visit her often.

Dede' talks about how she met Virgilio and how the trouble with Trujillo began.Dede' was in the store one day pondering a possible marriage to her cousin when two men come in. One of them is Virgilio. Minerva talks easily with him, and they all go to Mario's uncle's house to swim and play volleyball, where Dede' runs into her cousin.

Weeks go by, and they learn that Virgilio is a revolutionary. There is some connection going on with Minerva and Virgilio, as Dede' catches them in the bushes together. Dede' reads in the paper daily the political situation and begins to question her own political beliefs. She changes her opinion of revolutionaries, as she gets to know Virgilio. Dede' also realizes her position as a woman limits her ability to act on her beliefs.

In Shakespeare's Richard III, what strategies does Richard use to set his plots in motion? Why are they so effective?

In Richard III, Richard uses a variety of tactics to achieve his ultimate goal, the English throne.  His tactics vary primarily according to the characters with which he interacts.  Shortly after the play opens, the reader/viewer gets a clear picture of Richard's physical appearance, specifically his physical deformity.  Richard concludes that his physical appearance tends to cast him in a negative light among those in his family and at court.  Rather than fight their perception of him, he embraces his deformity, using it as a physical representation of his psychological self.  Though he reaches this conclusion, Richard presents himself as a loyal, awkwardly charming political figure; however, his real motives are far darker.  Richard turns on this charm with specific characters, if he sees that it could work to his advantage.  This is specifically the case with Anne, the woman Richard wants to marry.  It is the common perception that Richard had Anne's future husband killed.  Anne, buying this explanation, is very hostile toward Richard's advances.  Richard, rather than forcing the issue, proceeds to charm her, suggesting that the rumors are just that, rumors.  In a very real way, he tells her what she wants to hear.  He asserts his loyalty, as well as citing that he gained little from his death.

To reach his ultimate goal, Richard has to move from his position as fifth in line for the throne to the heir apparent.  Edward IV, Clarence, Edward (young prince), and Richard (young prince) stand in Richard's way to becoming king.  While Edward becomes ill and will ultimately die of natural causes, removing the three other heirs from the line of succession requires Richard's intervention.  To effect his plans, Richard manipulates those around him, specifically those who help him carry out his plans.  They work specifically to spread misinformation, a rather passive, though effective form of intervention.  At one point, Richard has Hastings spread the rumor that the two young princes, Edward and Richard, are illegitimate and therefore should be removed from the line of succession. 

When he sees this does not work, Richard moves on to his more common method - strategic murder.  While many in his family assume Richard ordered the death of the imprisoned Clarence, Richard puts his murderous instincts to more direct use regarding the two young princes.  When the rumor that they were illegitimate proves unfruitful, Richard, after being named the protector of the princes, hires three men to have the children smothered in their beds.  After the deed is done, Richard is declared king.

Richard's motives, though ruthless, are quite simple.  He essentially lies, cheats, and backstabs his way to the English throne.  By ordering the murder of Clarence and the two young princes, Richard maintains his distance from the actual deed, thereby giving him plausible deniability.  First and foremost, however, Richard manipulates the views of those at court.  He presents himself as someone who is loyal, humble, and above suspicion - though many suspect him anyways.  Doing this lets the characters' guards down.  It is the "reasonability" of what he says that allows him to be successful -- at least for the majority of the play.

What is the book Night about?

On the surface, Night is a standard Holocaust memoir, but what makes it stand out more than other Holocaust literature is Elie Wiesel's frank discussion about his loss of faith.  So, while the book can be summarized as the story of a teenager who survives several concentration camps during the Holocaust, it is truly about how someone can completely lose his or her faith.  Elie begins the memoir as a young man who is so religious that he voluntarily studies the Cabbalist form of Judaism in his spare time, but as he witnesses horrific incidents and loses almost every member of his family, he abandons his belief in a loving, merciful God and leans toward an Existentialist worldview.

Quadratic Equation word problem...A trader bought a number of articles for Rs.1200. Ten were damaged and he sold each of the rest at Rs. 2 more...

The number of articles purchased = x

Total cost of buying x number of articles = Rs.1200 (given)

Purchase price = (Total cost)/(Number of articles) = 1200/x

Number of articles spoiled = 10 (Given)

Therefore: Number of articles sold = x - 10

Selling price = Purchase price + 2 (Given)

= 1200/x + 2

Profit made = Rs.60 (Given)

Total receipts from sale = (Cost of buying) +Profit = 1200 + 60 = 1260.   ...

We can represent total receipts from sales also as:

(Number of articles sold)*(selling price) = (x - 10)*(1200/x + 2)

= 1200 - 12000/x + 2x - 20 = 2x + 1180 - 12000/x

Therefore:

1260 = 2x + 1180 - 12000/x

Taking all the terms of this equation on left hand side of equation and multiplying each term by -x/2 we get:

x^2 - 40x - 6000 = 0

This equation can be represented also as:

(x- 100)*(x + 60) = 0

Therefore x = 100 or - 60

As number of articles purchased cannot be negative, the number of articles purchase is 100.

Unit purchase price = 1200/x = 1200/100 = Rs.12

Unit sale price = (Unit purchase price) + 2 = 12 + 2 = Rs.14

In the book Treasure Island why didn't the Captain and his followers seize the ship while the crew was ashore?

The answer to this question is found in the very first paragraph of Chapter 16.  In this chapter, the doctor is the narrator.

He says that there were only six of the mutineers left on board and he and the captain and the squire could have overcome them and taken the ship back.  The only reason why they did not do this is because there was no wind.

The Hispaniola, of course, is a sailing ship.  If there's no wind, it won't go anywhere.  If they take the ship over and can't go anywhere, the other mutineers will just come right back to the ship and they (the captain and his followers) will be in trouble.

In Animal Farm, does Napoleon contribute to the new society of the farm?

At the beginning, Napoleon works with Snowball to coordinate and plan the farm events. They are usually mentioned together in a leadership role, and it is explained that the pigs are smarter than the other animals anyway. Later, however, Napoleon begins to enforce his role as a dictator instead of an equal citizen, and with the other pigs, he stops pretending to contribute. One good example of this comes after Snowball is expelled, when Napoleon authorizes the windmill project:

The plans, however, had all been prepared, down to the last detail. A special committee of pigs had been at work upon them for the past three weeks.
(Orwell, Animal Farm, msxnet.org)

This is nonsense, of course; the plans were already drawn up by Snowball, but Napoleon takes credit for them and pretends that he and the other pigs had been working hard on them all along. By taking credit for the work of others, using many more resources for himself while reducing them for others, and limiting dissent and free speech, Napoleon contributes nothing to "the common good" while allowing others to work and die for his direct benefit.

Explain the difference between welcome scene and departure scene from the poem "The Patriot" by Robert Browning.

The welcome scene and the departure scene, as you call them, are sort of mirror images of one another.  They show how the fortunes of the speaker have been turned completely around in the year that elapsed between the two scenes.

In the welcome scene, the speaker is a hero.  The people are all praising him.  They would give him anything he wants as he is paraded along.

In the departure scene, he is being paraded again.  But this time his hands are tied and he is clearly about to be executed.  This time, people are throwing rocks at him.

Over the course of the year, he went from a hero to a villain, presumably because he did not achieve the goal he set out to achieve.

How is the snowfall like the impact of war on the students in A Separate Peace?What other analogy might the narrator have used to compare nature...

The snowfall is like the impact of war on the students because of the insidious way it creeps up on them. Although the boys know that the war is coming, when it finally affects them directly, they hardly notice it. Similarly, they know that winter is coming and that with winter will come the snow, but when the change in seasons finally arrives, it is so gradual that it creates no shock at all. About this analogy, Gene says,

"Devon was...very close to the ways of peace...the war was...no more taxing to us than a day spent at harvesting in an apple orchard...Not long afterward...snow came...like noiseless invaders conquering because they took possession so gently...In the same way the war, beginning almost humorously with announcements about maids and days spent at apple-picking, commenced its invasion of the school. The early snow was commandeered as its advance guard."

Another analogy that might be used to compare nature and war that comes to mind is fog, which also creeps slowly and quietly, until it envelops everything, having come almost unnoticed.

The mood of the Summer Session is relaxed, laid back, almost idyllic. In contrast, the Fall Session is intense, busy, and ordered. Some reasons for these differences is that in the summer, the younger students such as Gene and Finny are allowed a great deal of freedom. While the focus at Devon is on the seniors, who are "practically soldiers," the younger boys, for whom the concept of war remains in the distance, are largely left alone, allowed to enjoy their waning days of childhood. The staff is also at a minimum during the summer; there is not a lot of adult supervision or structure, unlike in the fall. In addition, the Summer Session is newly established, and does not have the decades of tradition and order behind it, as does the Fall Session.

Years later, how was the Parisienne'streatment of the "natives" like the Germans' treatment of the starving jews?

This is not made clear in the novel NIGHT, but many people in Europe did not believe such atrocities occurred.  This is not due to a lack of proof, but because people were in denial that something so horrific could take place in their backyards and they did nothing to stop it.

In Paris, and in other cities, when the Jews who survived returned to their family homes, they found that others had moved in and felt little sympathy toward the survivors.  Comments like, "Hey, we thought you died in the war" were offered as excuses for why they had moved in and claimed all that was left (which wasn't already plundered by the Germans or other thieves).

Many Jews whose families were deportd and killed in the war are still trying to claim family money that was in Swiss bank accounts, paintings, silver, jewelry, and other valuables which were confiscated during the war even today.

Hope this helps you understand...Good Luck!  For more information on the subject, you might do a Google search on Holocaust issues.

What are some examples of direct and indirect characterization of George Wilson in The Great Gatsby?

Direct characterization is revealed through mainly exposition which prefaces the plot.

Indirect characterization is revealed through the action of the plot, mainly through dialogue.

Direct characterization with Wilson is problematic since Nick is not a primary witness to Wilson, either at the garage or before he murders Gatsby.  Rather, Nick only hears it second-hand through Michaelis afterwards.  We only get little pieces from Nick that border on direct characterization:

With an effort Wilson left the shade and support of the doorway and, breathing hard, unscrewed the cap of the tank. In the sunlight his face was green.

Like most of the women in the novel, Wilson is a flat, static character, so it is difficult to decide how Nick (or Fitzgerald) directly feels about him.  Perhaps Nick, like Tom, doesn't really care about the lower classes.

An example of indirect characterization is in chapter 2 when Nick observes the conversation between Tom and Wilson:

“Hello, Wilson, old man,” said Tom, slapping him jovially on the shoulder. “How’s business?”

“I can’t complain,” answered Wilson unconvincingly. “When are you going to sell me that car?”

“Next week; I’ve got my man working on it now.”

“Works pretty slow, don’t he?”

“No, he doesn’t,” said Tom coldly. “And if you feel that way about it, maybe I’d better sell it somewhere else after all.”

“I don’t mean that,” explained Wilson quickly. “I just meant——”

We can tell that the upper-class Tom is holding the car, and his socio-economic status, over the lower-class Wilson.  The dialogue reveals Wilson to be weak, not only in the conversation with Tom, but in his marriage and socio-economic status in society.  It is ironic that Tom, who is cheating on his wife with Wilson's wife, will treat Wilson with such contempt.

In To Kill a Mockingbird, where is there evidence of Scout being brave and naive at Tom's trial?

Page numbers will differ depending on the version of the work you have, but I can give you some chapters where Scout displays these qualities.  In chapter 17, when Bob Ewell is testifying about the supposed rape, Rev. Sykes tells Jem to take Scout home.  Jem instead orders Scout to leave, but Scout refuses telling him to 'make her'.  Jem then declares that Scout doesn't know what is going on, but Scout replies that she does even though as a reader we know she doesn't.

What talent did Hester use to support herself and Pearl?from The Scarlet Letter, Chapter 5

Hester possessed talent in the art of needlework, which she used to support herself and Pearl.  In Chapter 5, the narration says that she

"...incurred...no risk of want.  She possessed an art that sufficed, even in a land that afforded comparatively little scope for its exercise, to supply food for her thriving infant and herself.  It was the art - then, as now, almost the only one within a woman's grasp - of needlework."

The demand for her work included vestments for public ceremonies, funerals, and baby linen.  And of course, she wore at all times on her own bodice a delicately embroidered scarlet "A".

Using textual support, compare and contrast the characters of Tom and Gatsby. In what ways are they similiar? In what ways are they...

I like reading that you need textual evidence--good for your teacher for requiring that!  That's how you study literature!  Here's a good passage for you, and I hope it's not one you've already found.

Tom and Gatsby are contrasted in a way that is indicative of the entire work, in chapter 7 during the "showdown."  In my copy the passage begins on page 137 when Gatsby tells Tom that Daisy doesn't love him and never did:

"Your wife doesn't love you, said Gatsby quietly.  "She's never loved you.  She loves me."

Tom tells him he's crazy and Gatsby continues:

"She never loved you, do you hear?"  he cried.  She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me.  It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart she never loved anyone except me!"

A few paragraphs later, Gatsby hammers the point home:

...we couldn't meet.  But both of us loved each other all that time, old sport, and you didn't know.  I used to laugh sometimes--" but there was no laughter in his eyes, "to think that you didn't know."

This is all important to Gatsby.  He is an idealist, and in order for his dream to continue Daisy must have loved him and him alone since they first met and had a relationship five years earlier.  Any thing else will destroy the perfection of the relationship as Gatsby sees it. 

But Tom is not an idealist.  He doesn't care about five years ago.  He doesn't even really care that Daisy says she loved Gatsby then and loves Gatsby now, though he does defend himself.  All he cares about is that Daisy stays with him.  But what's important for your study is that his view of the situation is more accurate than Gatsby's. 

His answer to Gatsby's claim that Daisy loved Gatsby for all of the years that Tom and Daisy were married?

"Oh--that's all."  Tom tapped his thick fingers together like a clergyman and leaned back in his chair.

"You're crazy!"  he exploded.  "I can't speak about what happened five years ago because I didn't know Daisy then--and I'll be damned if I see how you got within a mile of her unless you brought the groceries to the back door.  But all the rest of that's a God Damned lie.  Daisy loved me when she married me and she loves me now."

And the fact is, Tom is correct.  He actually knows Daisy better than Gatsby does.  Gatsby is an idealist and he has put Daisy on a pedestal and idealized her and their relationship.  Tom is a pragmatist, and he knows Daisy better than Gatsby does.

The story is based on Gatsby's illusion, and he's certainly, as presented by Nick, a much more likable character than Tom.  But Gatsby is an idealist and Tom is a pragmatist, and Tom's realistic view trumps Gatsby's idealistic view in the novel.  Daisy tells Gatsby that he asks too much.  Gatsby isn't satisfied just to be loved now.  And Daisy isn't willing to say that she never loved Tom.  At least not after he mentions a memory or two of happy times they had together.

If the egg is fertilized, what stops menstruation?

Menstruation is the body's way of getting rid of the uterine lining every month. The egg is released from the fallopian tube each month. If it is not fertilized then a woman will have her period. If it is fertilized then it will implant itself within the uterus in the lining. This acts as sort of a cushion or protection for the fertilized egg. During pregnancy a hormone called HCG is released. This hormone maintains stability for the growing embryo inside the uterus. Since the woman is pregnant (remember HCG is present), the body knows not to shed the uterine lining. Doing so would extract the growing embryo. The lining within the uterus is what makes it possible to maintain a pregnancy.

What does Atticus mean when he says "Don't fool yourselves-it's all adding up and one of these days, we're going to pay the bill for it." ?Page...

I like what the previous posters have said, but I'm not sure that it's necessary to see Atticus' statement in Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird as prophetic -- or at least not anymore prophetic than it is responsive (on the part of the author) to the dramatic enactments of racial tension across the South and the border states in the 1950s, the decade before the publication of Lee's novel.

Any decent Civil Rights timeline (see, for example, the two PBS links given below) will show a number of significant events, including, for example, the Supreme court decision on Brown v. Board of Education, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and the internationally covered lynching of Emmett Till.

At least one critic has written convincingly about the parallels between the Till trial and the Robinson trial in the novel; the critic doesn't attempt to show that the real trial entirely influenced the fictional trial, but he does demonstrate how the extreme media coverage of this lynching (or perhaps a more local, less publicized but parallel case) may have inspired the author. See Chura, Patrick. "Prolepsis and Anachronism: Emmett Till and the Historicity of To Kill a Mockingbird." Southern Literary Journal. (June 2000): 1-26.

The final link given here is a solid lesson plan on the historical contexts of Lee's novel.

To me, Atticus' language -- the metaphor of the growing debt, much like his talk of the "sin" of killing a mockingbird -- seems at least a little religious in nature (in a popular Christian sense). It echoes the idea of someone writing in each person's ledger and each person having to give a full accounting in the end, only it applies not to the individual but to the society as a whole ("we").

Who were the night men in Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry?

The night men in Mildred Taylor's novel, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, were presumably white vigilantes bent on spreading terror to the local black families that lived in the area. Early in the novel, they set one man, Mr. Berry, afire. The night men paid a visit to the Logan house one evening but apparently decided they had the wrong house and left peaceably. Their constant threat to the well-being of the local African-Americans was one reason Papa Logan invited the powerful L. T. Morrison to live on the property. Although the night riders are not identified as Ku Klux Klan members, their night raids are reminiscent of past KKK activities.

What is the Norman conquest?who invaded who? why? what are the results of the conquest?

yes-man,

Upon the death of Edward the Confessor, Harold Godwinson, William of Normandy, and Norway’s Harold III all claimed the English crown. William won the throne with the Battle of Hastings in 1066. The Norman conquest brought William of Normandy to the English throne. There he found an established sovereign monarchy, a tradition of free men participating in government, and system of royal agents, or sheriffs. Preserving these government institutions but staffing them with his own followers, William ensured that all land remained under the control of the king as he introduced feudalism to the island. New accounting systems and extensive fiscal records facilitated efficiency. His Domesday Book surveyed English land holdings and wealth.

The centralized kingdom of England was the creation of the Norman Conquest of 1066. William the Conqueror retained portions of the administrative system of Anglo-Saxon England while imposing the French system of feudal vassalage. All land in England was held directly from the king. William’s successors created a central treasury system, the Exchequer and a central court. The most important legal reformer was Henry II (1154–1189). Henry successfully imposed the jurisdiction of royal courts over both aristocratic and ecclesiastical tribunals. Under King John (1199–1216) and Henry III (1216–1272), the barons of England were able to gain some voice in the government. John was forced to accept the Magna Carta, or the great charter of liberties that placed the English king under the rule of law. King Edward I (1272–1307) formalized the participation of barons in government by the creation of a parliament. As the wealth of the towns made them attractive sources of revenue, urban representatives also became customary attendees at parliament. By 1300, England and France had become the most centralized governments of western Europe. Because their governments could make more efficient use of their national resources, they were also the most powerful.

Who were The Founding Fathers?

The men who helped develop and signed the United States Constitution are considered to be America's founding fathers.  They helped to establish the principals and government that continues to exist today.  America's founding fathers ranged in age from 26 years old up to 81 years old.  Ben Franklin was 81 at the time that he signed the Constitution.  39 delegates signed the Constitution but 55 participated in its development.

 The list is extensive and includes: George Read, Gunning Bedford, Jr., John Dickenson, Richard Bassett, Jacob Broom, William Samuel Johnson, Roger Sherman, Oliver Elisworth, William Few, Abraham Baldwin, William Houston,  William Pierce, James Mc Henry, Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, Daniel Caroll, Luther Martin, John F. Mercer, Nathieniel Gorham, Rufus King, Elbridge Gerry, Caleb Strong, John Langdon, Nicholas Gilman, William Livingston, David Brearly, William Paterson (Patterson), Jonathan Dayton, William Blount, Richard. Dobbs Spaight, Hugh Williamson, William R. Davie, Alexander Martin,C. Houston, Thomas Mifflin, Robert Morris, George Clymer, Thomas Fitzsimons (FitzSimons; Fitzsimmons), Jared Ingersoll, James Wilson, Governor Morris, John Rutledge, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Charles Pinckney, Pierce Butler, John Blair, James Madison Jr., George Washington, George Mason, James McClurg, Edmund J. Randolph, George Wythe, and Benjamin Franklin.

The Delegates most often recognized in text books as the founding fathers include: James Madison Jr., George Washington, George Mason, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson, Monroe, and Adams.