What role does ethics play in social science research? What are some examples of research that presented ethical dilemmas for the researcher?

In considering this question, it is important to first consider the types of research commonly used in social science research: qualitative and quantitative research.

Qualitative research is exploratory. It investigates the reasons that things happen, the interactions between forces, the motivations between actors, and similar phenomena in order to develop hypotheses regarding the problems in society and possible solutions. Quantitative, on the other hand, relies on statistics and data to make determinations about these issues.

As these research methods require different research processes, they evoke unique ethical issues: qualitative research deals with the ethical treatment of subjects while quantitative research raises issues of the ethical treatment of data. I have briefly outlined the issues and provided sources for further information below:

In qualitative research, researchers have direct contact with human subjects and their stories. This raises issues of confidentiality as well as the manner in which the researcher interacts with the subjects. For more information, please refer to Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods by Michael Patton. For a more in depth analysis of the ethics of qualitative research, particularly the lines to draw in immersing oneself in their research and related issues, please refer to Every Twelve Seconds by Timothy Pachairat.

In quantitative research, researchers handle raw data in order to make determinations about the subject. In doing so, they frequently have the opportunity to mislead using seemingly concrete data. The researcher has a responsibility to only use data to illustrate the truth. For more information, refer to The Handbook of Social Research Ethics by Donna Mertens and Pauline Ginsberg.

For more information about ethics impacting both qualitative and quantitative research ethics including the ethical design of studies, please refer to Research Design by John Creswell.

Why is Duncan so happy with Macbeth and so unhappy with Macdonwald?

In Act I, Scene 2, Duncan learns from his son Malcolm and a wounded sergeant that Macbeth has performed loyally and courageously in battle. In hand-to-hand combat, Macbeth fought his way to Macdonwald, leader of rebel forces, and slashed him to death. Just after this battle, the King of Norway sent fresh troops against them, but Macbeth (and Banquo) fought valiantly through another battle and prevailed. As King of Scotland, Duncan is deeply displeased that some of his own thanes (including Macdonwald) joined a rebellion. His satisfaction over the death of the traitorous Macdonwald is tempered by the news that Ross delivers: the Thane of Cawdor, too, has turned against Scotland and allied himself with the King of Norway. Duncan orders the Thane of Cawdor's execution and gives that title to Macbeth.

What is the significance of the opening of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451?

In the opening scene of Fahrenheit 451, we are introduced to Montag as he carries out his duties as a fireman. This scene provides an essential introduction to Montag's world, a dark and brutal place in which books are banned and burned by the firemen. Bradbury uses words like "blackened," "venomous" and "charcoal" to support this idea and to evoke an image in the reader's mind of a dark and dystopian society.

In addition, the opening is significant because it provides an example of situational irony. Through this description of Montag, for instance, we expect that the story will develop along the same lines: that Montag will continue to find "pleasure" in burning and will continue to wear the "fiery smile" of all firemen. Ironically, however, Fahrenheit 451 tells the story of Montag's transformation from contented fireman to free-thinker.

Why does the crowd kill Cinna the Poet in Act III of Julius Caesar? What is Shakespeare saying about the Roman public?

The crowd mistakes Cinna the poet for Cinna the conspirator, which shows the Romans are whipped into a frenzy and not really paying attention to details at that point.

There was a conspirator named Cinna. Unfortunately, poor Cinna the poet is mistaken for this other Cinna after Mark Antony turns the Roman citizens into an angry mob with his funeral speech. He stirs up anger and resentment toward the conspirators. By calling Brutus and the conspirators honorable men in one breath and calling them murderers in another, Antony tells the crowd he does not want mutiny while basically telling them to mutiny.

Show you sweet Caesar's wounds, poor poor dumb mouths,
And bid them speak for me: but were I Brutus,
And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony
Would ruffle up your spirits and put a tongue
In every wound of Caesar that should move
The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny (Act III, Scene 2).

After the speech, a group accosts Cinna the poet on the street and begins to interrogate him. He is confused because he was just innocently walking along. They ask him his name and where he is going. Although he tells them he is not a conspirator, they decide to kill him anyway.

CINNA THE POET

Truly, my name is Cinna.

First Citizen

Tear him to pieces; he's a conspirator.

CINNA THE POET

I am Cinna the poet, I am Cinna the poet.

Fourth Citizen

Tear him for his bad verses, tear him for his bad verses (Act III, Scene 3).

They want to kill Cinna when they think he is a conspirator. When they find out he is not, they want to kill him anyway; they are in such a frenzy that they just want an excuse to kill anyone. There is no reason to kill a poet for bad poetry. This crowd probably hasn’t even read his poetry. They are just out for blood.

Shakespeare's point about the people of Ancient Rome is that they are so stirred up by this point that they are bloodthirsty. This is why they kill an innocent man. They are a weapon and Antony loaded and pointed them. He understands that the people of Ancient Rome are a little wild sometimes.

How have low oil prices affected the Malaysian economy?

Not well. Unlike most other countries in Asia, Malaysia has for a long time been a net oil exporter. Actually, it very recently became a net oil importer like most countries, and if that persists it will help Malaysia bear the shock.

Oil is a relatively inelastic good in the short run, which means that a 1% drop in oil prices leads to less than a 1% increase in demand, and so as prices fall, total revenues from oil fall. (This is not true of all goods; apples are relatively elastic, for example, so a fall in apple prices could actually bring more revenue to apple producers.)

Thus, when the price of oil drops, Malaysia's export revenues fall. With lower export revenues comes a higher trade deficit and a weaker currency. Unless the weaker currency brings in enough more export revenue to compensate, this will mean a lower standard of living for people in Malaysia, as their imported goods are now more expensive. (Imported oil will also be cheaper, however, which could offset this effect.)

Malaysia's government also directly uses oil revenue as part of its funding (a policy that is very much a mixed bag; it works well in Norway but not so much in Venezuela), so the loss in oil revenue means a loss in government revenue and therefore a higher budget deficit. Malaysia is a medium-sized country, so they are not so small that they have no power to control the value of their own currency; but they don't have nearly as much as a very large country like the US or China. While for the US a high budget deficit is practically just an accounting mechanism (nobody is worried about the stability of the US dollar; indeed, people are accepting negative interest rates to use it), in Malaysia it could become a real problem, and they might be forced to raise taxes or cut spending.

Yet, as we know from macroeconomics, such a policy would be contractionary---it would hurt the rest of the economy, and could push Malaysia into recession. Their best bet is to find ways of reducing the budget deficit that don't involve cutting useful spending or raising taxes; one thing that might help would be to cut subsidies to oil companies, which would raise the price of oil for Malaysian customers, but not any higher than it was before the global price plummet. Expansionary monetary policy is also a good idea; inflation shouldn't be a big problem since oil is such a big part of most prices (actually deflation might be, and printing money would fix that), and the potential for weakening the currency would hopefully be offset by the restored economic stability.

In the long run, Malaysia should diversify; it's never a good idea for a country to base its whole economy around a single commodity. They should invest in new industries so that in the future, bad news for one industry doesn't mean bad news for the country as a whole.

In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, how old are Juliet's parents, Capulet and Lady Capulet?

No specific mention is made of how old Juliet's parents are in Romeo and Juliet.  However, when Juliet and Lady Capulet are talking in Act I, Scene III, Lady Capulet does say "By my count / I was your mother much upon these years / That you are now a maid," meaning that Lady Capulet had already given birth to Juliet at age thirteen, the age that Juliet currently is (77-79).  This would make Lady Capulet roughly twenty-six years old.

Figuring out Capulet's age is a little more difficult.  It is clear that he is considerably older than his wife, but as with Lady Capulet, there is no specific mention of his exact age.  The best scene to use in trying to figure out his age is Act I, Scene V.  As the family prepares for the masquerade party, Capulet says "I have seen the day / That I have worn a visor and could tell / A whispering tale in a fair lady's ear, / Such as would please.  'Tis gone, 'tis gone, 'tis gone," meaning that he is no longer of the age to flirt with or court the young ladies at the party (25-28).  Shortly afterward, he tells his cousin that they should sit, stating "[f]or you and I are past our dancing days" (36).  Immediately following, he asks his cousin how long it has been since they wore masks at a party, and his cousin replies that it has been "thirty years" (39).  This shocks Capulet, and they argue about it.  Capulet claims they both wore masks at Lucentio's wedding, which was twenty-five years before, but his cousin replies that Lucentio's son is already thirty years old (41, 45).  In other words, it has been at least thirty years.  If the normal age for wearing masks/courting is late teens through late twenties, as is the case with Romeo and Paris, then this would make Capulet between about forty-eight and fifty-eight.  

How are the loss of innocence and growing older reflected and developed in the story "Two kinds" by Amy Tan?

As the story "Two Kinds" opens, the narrator, Jing-mei, recalls herself as a very young child at the mercy of her mother's desires for her to become a child prodigy. At first, Jing-mei, in her innocence, complies with her mother's aspirations for her and even believes in them herself. The Peter Pan haircut she gets actually makes her "look forward to [her] future fame." She was even more excited than her mother envisioning the type of prodigy she might be, whether a ballerina or Cinderella. With the naive confidence of a child, she believed she would become "perfect" as she grew older. 

However, as Jing-mei grew older and her fame and perfection did not arrive, and as her mother demanded more effort from her to become a prodigy, Jing-mei began to lose her innocent compliance and belief in her potential. When she is unable to display a photographic type memory, seeing her mother's disappointment, "something inside of [her] began to die." That something was her innocence--her blind trust in her mother's plans for her. She cries and scratches at herself looking into the mirror, and she sees an "angry, powerful" girl staring back at her. That girl is no longer an innocent little girl, but she is a willful girl who is growing up to know what she wants for herself. At that point, she promises herself she won't be what she is not. 

From then on, Jing-mei grows more and more defiant and even rebellious toward her mother, culminating in the day she refuses to practice piano anymore and lashes out at her mother with hurtful words. Growing up and asserting her own will seems to her "like worms and toads and slimy things crawling out of [her] chest," reflecting her awareness that she is no longer an innocent child. Yet there is something that feels good about it--she is growing up into her own person. As Jing-mei went through high school and college, she continued to disappoint her mother, but she was being true to herself, and she did not regret her choices.

In "Two Kinds," Amy Tan portrays growing up as a necessary loss of innocence. Jing-mei could never have become herself if she stayed naively bound to her mother's aspirations. Although she didn't choose the kindest way to assert her independence, if she was to grow to be her own person, she had to be willing to defy her mother's standards, losing her innocence. 

What is court testimony?

Court testimony is words spoken by someone who is a witness in a legal proceeding, in court, in response to questions from an attorney for a party in the proceeding or questions from the judge. Court testimony is always given under oath, meaning that the person swears to tell the truth.  Court testimony is always taken down by a court reporter and transcribed so that it becomes part of the official record of the proceeding.  If a person is hearing impaired and uses American Sign Language, an interpreter accompanies the person so that the testimony can still be written down.  Very occasionally, when someone has died or is completely unable to be in court for a legitimate reason, a deposition (testimony taken under oath, but not in court) of that person's testimony will be admitted to the record to stand in as court testimony.  This is quite unusual, though, since court testimony is always supposed to be subject to cross-examination, and it is impossible to cross-examine a transcript. 

A tourist in France wants to visit 5 different cities. If the route is randomly selected, what is the probability that she will visit the cities in...

In order to answer this question, let's take a look at the reasoning behind it! There are many different kinds of probability problems, but this one relates to the Factorial Rule, which is:

n! = n x (n-1)!

In other words, "the factorial of any number is that number times the factorial of (1 smaller than that number)." 

So, if a tourist in France is visiting five different cities, and we want to know the probability that she will visit the cities in alphabetical order:

5! = 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 120

In other words, there are 120 different routes she could take. Since there is only one way to do this visit in alphabetical order, the probability will, thus, be:

`1/120`

Is there any conflict between a desire to be as profitable as possible and a desire to pay employees a living wage?

In some businesses, there clearly can be a conflict between an owner’s desire to pay employees a “living wage” and the owner's desire to profit as much as possible—or even profit at all. Not all employees in all industries are productive enough that their employers can afford to pay them a living wage.

In order for a business owner to pay an employee a given amount of money, the employee has to produce more revenue than that amount. For example, if a fast food employee wants to make $15 per hour, they have to produce more than $15 of revenue each hour. They need to produce more than $15 to pay for “their” share of the overhead costs and to provide some profit for the owner. In businesses like fast food, stores are often not able to generate enough revenue each hour to be able to pay at least a “living wage” (however that is defined) to each employee. These businesses are unable to charge high enough prices for their products to bring in enough revenue to pay such a wage.

In some industries, it is easy to pay everyone a living wage.  There are many lines of work, however, in which employees simply do not contribute that much to the firm’s overall revenue. If a business owner pays a living wage to such an employee, the employer is essentially giving them money the employee has not earned. It is difficult for a business to be successful while paying people more than they are worth. For this reason, I do see at least a potential conflict between the desire to pay a living wage and the desire/ need to be profitable.

Why was the term "stirrings" chosen by the committee used to describe the wanting and sexual desires that Jonas felt in the dream, this state of...

In The Giver (Lowry), the Elders use euphemisms to deal with the aspects of life that they seek to control.  Death becomes "release," for instance, and sexual desire becomes "stirrings." The Elders do not want the people in the community to have sex, and so they rename it and repress desire with drugs.  We think that if we do not call something by its proper name, we can somehow make it go away or at least ignore its implications. This is the reason we refer to white meat and dark meat on a turkey, because people did not want to refer to a breast or a thigh.  This is the reason some people think that sex education for young people is a bad idea.  To call a healthy and natural part of human life "stirrings" is to disguise it, to trivialize its power, and to control it better.  This effort on the part of the Elders is quite successful. There is no indication in the story that anyone ever has sex, and babies are produced in some way that avoids this, perhaps with Birthmothers' eggs fertilized and implanted back in them. This is speculation, though, since the book is never clear on how those babies do get produced. 

A solution is prepared by dissolving 10.8 g ammonium sulfate in enough water to make 100.0 mL stock solution. A 10.00-mL sample of this stock...

Ammonium sulfate has a chemical formula of `(NH_4)_2 SO_4`  and molecular mass of 132.14 g. The molarity of a solution is the ratio of number of moles of solute to the volume of solution in liters. 

Here, we have 10.8 g of ammonium sulfate and hence the number of moles of solute are:

number of moles = mass / molecular mass = 10.8 g / 132.14 g/mol = 0.082 moles

Volume of solution = 100 mL = 0.1 L

Thus, molarity of ammonium solution = 0.082 moles / 0.1 l = 0.82 M

Now, this solution is diluted by taking 10 ml of this solution and adding 40 ml water to it. We can use the following relationship

C1V1 = C2V2

where C1 and C2 are the concentrations of solutions before and after dilution and V1 and V2 are the volumes of solutions before and after the dilution.

Thus, 0.82 M x 10 ml = C2 x 50 ml

or, C2 = 0.164 M

Thus, the resulting solution has a concentration of 0.164 M.

Hope this helps.

What were the negative effects of the Columbian Exchange?

The negative effects of the Columbian Exchange were experienced almost exclusively by the indigenous peoples of the Americas. By far the most dramatic, and tragic, consequence of the exchange were the epidemics that raged across the Americas as Native peoples came in contact with European diseases (typhus, smallpox, mumps, plague, influenza and many others) to which they had no immunity whatsoever. Some demographic historians have estimated that the death toll of these epidemics may have risen to ninety percent of the pre-contact Native American population. This catastrophe was made even worse by the fact that it facilitated the conquest of Indian peoples and the settlement of the continent by Europeans. Another part of the Columbian Exchange was the introduction of Eurasian flora and fauna into the Americas. Hogs in particular were devastating to Native crops, destroying the corn, beans, and squash that were staples in the American Southeast and Central America. Other crops (e.g., certain strains of tobacco and sugar) that flourished in the Americas brought more Europeans, who sought to grow them as cash crops. They increased the demand for lands that were held by Native Americans. These developments, which proceeded directly from the Columbian Exchange, were devastating for Native Americans. 

What is the male hormone?

Male hormones are known as androgens. A very important one is called testosterone. 

Males have a pair of sex chromosomes known as XY. The sex of a male is determined at fertilization when a sperm containing a Y chromosome and an egg containing an X chromosome unite. The gonadal sex—what makes someone visually appear to be male—is determined later on, due to the expression of a gene known as SRY.

This gene is located on the Y chromosome and causes undifferentiated gonads to develop along a male plan to form testes. That is because the male hormone testosterone controls the development of male reproductive organs both internally and externally.

The hormone testosterone causes a male at puberty to develop the phenotype associated with males—deeper voice, musculature, body hair, further development of the sex organs—as well as having an effect on the sex drive.

Where is Mai in the first chapter of "Monkey Bridge" by Lan Cao?

In the first chapter of Monkey Bridge, Mai is at Arlington Hospital in Virginia, three years after leaving Saigon. The year is 1978, and Mai's mother, Thanh, is recuperating from a stroke; Thanh is a patient at the hospital.

The stroke has left Thanh with a blood clot in her brain, and she often experiences nightmares and hallucinations due to the hemorrhaging that she suffered. In the chapter, Mai and her best friend, Bobbie, are visiting with Thanh. Although Thanh is making a slow but steady recovery, Mai is distressed that her mother often calls out for her father, Baba Quan, in her sleep.

Thanh and Baba Quan were supposed to meet at a rendezvous point on the 30th of April in 1975, where a car was to take them to an American plane. However, Baba Quan never appeared, and Thanh had been forced to leave for America without him. Mai knows that her mother still grieves for the father she left behind, so she resolves that she and Bobbie won't rest until they find a way to bring her grandfather to America.

In "The Princess of Cleves" by Marie-Madeleine Pioche de la Vergne, the Dauphine observes that the princess is not like other women. In what ways...

In the context of 16th century court life under the rule of Henry II of France, political agendas, machinations, and the pursuit of prohibited desires guided the behavior and actions of the nobility. One of the primary ways for a woman to gain upward social mobility or maintain an already elevated social standing was to marry well, so love was often a practical, not a romantic, concern. In this light, it is no wonder so many courtiers had affairs out of wedlock; illicit romances were a primary way of satisfying passions that too often were not fulfilled by a spouse.

The Princess of Cleves is markedly different from her female peers at court principally because she has an innate, uncompromising sense of virtue and loyalty in love. After a 'marriage of convenience' to the Prince of Cleves, the young Princess determines to be dutiful and obedient to her husband even though she doesn't love him. However, when she meets the Duke de Nemours, they experience love at first sight, and the Princess grapples with her heart and conscience to resist the temptation of an affair. This sets her apart from other women of her era, who would have unhesitatingly followed through on a whim of passion. Although the Princess is resolute in never having a physical relationship with the Duke, she is unable to purge her feelings for him, which feels like a betrayal of her husband. This prompts her to reveal a further, uncharacteristic behavior for women of her time: total honesty. She admits to her husband that she loves another man and asks to be sent into seclusion to avoid seeing the Duke in court. Her commitment to battling her heart and body for the sake of duty is admirable -- and also tragic, as it causes her own and her husband's death from heartache and unfulfilled longing.  

Why were the French and British troops relieved when the Americans arrived in the western front?

The question “Why were the French and British troops relieved when the Americans arrived on the Western front?” is assumed to relate to the First World War.

The generic and obvious answer is that one would expect any fighting force to feel at least a sense of hope and enthusiasm at the arrival of substantial help. Relief, on the other hand, presumes that the French and British were anticipating a negative outcome which the arrival of the Americans was likely to change. In broad terms, the arrival of American troops in the Western Front during World War I signaled a material change in the balance of forces allied against the German led Central Powers, ultimately ensuring that they would be defeated.

More specifically, the arrival of American troops on French soil in 1917 promised that desperately needed manpower would soon be on the way to replace the horrible casualties suffered by the French and British during the two primary battles of 1916, namely the Somme and Verdun. Additionally, in 1917 Russia plunged into civil war as a result of the Communist revolution there, an event which ultimately led to the withdrawal of Russia from combat with the Germans. This meant that Germany could redeploy substantial numbers of seasoned troops to the Western Front for a final push to defeat France and Britain there. Campaigning in 1917 was inconclusive, and by the early 1918 only 85,000 US troops had arrived, but the resources of the US were massive and needed only time to be brought to bear. By the time of the final battles and the end of the war in November, 1918, over 1.2 million US troops had arrived to participate.

For my speech class, I have to pretend I told a person I work with about some things I did in college in confidence, but they told everyone at work...

As there is no way an educator could know your individual feelings or circumstances, or what sort of information was being disclosed, the most helpful advice I can provide has to do with how you should approach and structure your speech.

The introduction should give the audience a sense of the purpose of the speech. In other words, you should think about why your audience would be interested in hearing about this. You should think also about whether there is a moral lesson you are attempting to convey, and whether the point of your speech is that it is bad to betray confidences or that it is imprudent to over-share personal information at work. The main purpose of the introduction is to capture the attention and sympathy of your audience. 

The second section of your speech is what in classical rhetoric is called the "narratio," or "narration." This should consist of a simple and factual recital of the major events that occurred, including the type of information shared and the degree to which you made explicit your desire that the information remain confidential. You should also mention why you wanted this information to stay confidential.

Next you should describe the moment when you first discovered the information had been shared at work. A good way of organizing this part of the speech would be by the individuals with whom the information was shared. In other words, you might state, "When I arrived at work the next morning, the [security guard or receptionist?] mentioned..." Then you could describe how that made you feel and why. You could talk about how this new, shared information affected your relationships. You might continue in a similar way to discuss interactions with several other people at work including managers and friends. You might conclude this section with a discussion of your first meeting with the person who betrayed your confidence after you found out about the betrayal.

Your conclusion might reflect back on what you would have done differently.

How would you argue against American imperialism in the 1900s?

There are many different arguments to make against American imperialism during this period, many of which were made by anti-imperialists themselves at the time. Most (but not all) anti-imperialists had primarily moral objections to imperialism, and this is perhaps the most cogent argument possible. The United States was a nation founded on resistance to empire—the original thirteen states, were colonies that fought to gain their independence from Great Britain. For such a nation to then use its power to deny independence and self-governance to peoples around the world, one might argue, is contrary to founding principles. Moreover, imperialism always carries the risk of war, either against colonial peoples seeking independence (as actually happened in the Philippines) or against other powerful nations competing for colonies. One could argue these wars, are not only immoral, expensive, and bloody, but contrary to the interests of the United States, which had managed to stay out of such conflicts for the better part of a century. Perhaps the best way to argue against imperialism in this period is to look at the critique raised by leading anti-imperialist Mark Twain, who said of American annexation of the Philippines:

It should, it seems to me, be our pleasure and duty to make those people free, and let them deal with their own domestic questions in their own way. And so I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land.

How did railroads help the growth of business in the early 1900s?

If we are talking only about the early 1900s, railroads helped business grow by providing a wide network of relatively easy transportation.  This network helped businesses get raw materials and distribute their finished goods.

Before the early 1900s, railroads helped businesses grow in other ways as well.   When the railroads were expanding rapidly, they helped to drive industrialization.  They created a huge demand for steel for rails and rolling stock.  This was instrumental in allowing the United States to industrialize.

By the early 1900s, this era of rapid railroad growth was largely finished.  Now, the main way that railroads could help business was by providing transportation.  Before railroads (and before large trucks and freeways), it was hard to move heavy goods from place to place except where there was navigable water.  This made it so that factories had to be near to sources of raw materials.  It also meant that it was very hard to move heavy goods from a factory to the places where consumers lived.  This made it harder for businesses to get really big.  When the railroad network got to cover the entire country, it came to be much easier for businesses to grow and to provide the goods that people wanted across the country.

Much of the growth in the US economy that was due to railroads happened before 1900. However, the railroads still helped American business grow in the early 1900s by linking businesses to consumers more efficiently. 

In his acceptance speech for the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize, Martin Luther King Jr. likens his experiences in the civil rights movement to traveling on...

King uses the road metaphor in the fourth paragraph of his 1964 Nobel Prize acceptance speech.  During his presentation, he cites the brutality against civil rights marchers in Birmingham, Alabama, and Philadelphia, Mississippi.  He wonders why he is even chosen to win the award, given the violence against his movement.  King goes on to state that civil rights is part of mankind's progress and even gives it a holy goal when he states that the races will be considered equally before God.  He even states that the alternative to this journey toward civil rights is a journey to "thermonuclear destruction," which was a very real concern at the height of the Cold War.  King says that the new Civil Rights Bill (which was just signed into law in 1964) will be part of a new civil rights "superhighway" of justice in which people of all races will unite to solve their common problems.  King uses the highway metaphor sparingly, but he uses it to describe humanity's progress.  

What is the resolution of the book The Midwife's Apprentice, written by Karen Cushman?

Toward the end of the book, a woman who is about to give birth asks for Alyce instead of the normal midwife, Jane. Unfortunately for Alyce, the birth is a difficult one, and she is not able to do the job alone. Alyce is forced to have Jane come and help. Alyce is depressed and humiliated, and she runs away. She takes a job at an inn, and trades her labor for food and lodging. While there, Alyce learns to read and comes to the realization that she wants to return to her former village and once again be the midwife's apprentice. At first Jane turns Alyce down, but Alyce's resolve and determination eventually win out. Alyce is once again Jane's apprentice.  

"Jane Sharp! It is I, Alyce, your apprentice. I have come back. And if you do not let me in, I will try again and again. I can do what you tell me and take what you give me, and I know how to try and risk and fail and try again and not give up. I will not go away."

The door opened. Alyce went in. And the cat went with her.

Why would you not have Connor (from Neal Shusterman's Unwind) unwound?

I would not have Connor unwound because it is murder.  

The society Connor lives in thinks that an unwound child is still alive, but the child is alive in various pieces. That thought has become commonly accepted, and the headmaster is shocked when Risa suggests her unwinding is the equivalent of death. She tells Risa,

Please, Miss Ward. It's not dying, and I'm sure everyone here would be more comfortable if you didn't suggest something so blatantly inflammatory. The fact is, 100 percent of you will still be alive, just in a divided state.

The citizens probably believe this lie because it is stated in the "Bill of Life."

The process by which a child is both terminated and yet kept alive is called "unwinding."

Chapter one even begins with an Unwind stating he believes that he will actually get to live on after being unwound.

I was never going to amount to much anyway, but now, statistically speaking, there's a better chance that some part of me will go on to greatness somewhere in the world. I'd rather be partly great than entirely useless.

No matter what the society calls it, though, unwinding is murder. I believe that because I believe abortion is murder, and the Bill of Life states flat out that unwinding is a "retroactive abortion."  

Other than my moral stance about unwinding, I would not want Connor unwound because he is a decent person. I will admit Connor has problems with authority figures, but that doesn't mean he should be killed. Connor wants to do things his way without causing anyone else any problems. Contrast him with Roland, who will hurt and betray anyone who stands in the way of his goals. Connor is not that person. He knows right from wrong, and he values human life. His rescue of the storked baby is solid evidence of that fact.  

Connor is also an extremely skilled teenager. He might not be a college-bound student, but that doesn't mean he should die. Once he is at the Graveyard, Connor shows a natural propensity for fixing broken things. He's a great mechanic. The world needs people with those kinds of skills. Connor should not be unwound because he is more valuable to his society as whole person rather than in pieces.   

What is the setting of A Week in the Woods by Andrew Clements?

A Week in the Woods by Andrew Clements begins in Scarsdale, New York. The main protagonist of the story, Mark Robert Chelmsley, has lived there in New York for the past three years of his life.  Mark's opinion is that he lives in the greatest place in the world.  Most of the book is not set in New York, though.  Mark and his family are moving from New York to a renovated country farmhouse in rural New Hampshire.  Mark is not happy about it.  In addition to the story being set in Mark's new house, large parts of the book are set in Mark's new school.  The name of the school is Hardy Elementary.  Mark's teacher, Mr. Maxwell, is in charge of the school's "Week in the Woods" program, and the remaining setting location is at the camp in the woods where Mr. Maxwell takes his class. 

How would I write a diary entry for Julia based on Chapter 23 of The Shakespeare Stealer?

To write a diary entry for Julia's experiences, thoughts, feelings and reactions as narrated by Widge in Chapter 23, you will need to think about what you know of Julia as she is during that chapter and to think about the conventions of diary writing. For example, according to how Julia's eyes and words say differing things in Chapter 23 ("her eyes spoke of sorrow") and according to the diary convention of writing in first person about feelings and emotions, you might start an entry with: "I harbor no ill will toward Widge," following that with how she does feel or what she does experience.

The conventions of diary writing specify informal, first person entries that are reflexive, showing personal thoughts, feelings, reactions and emotions expressive of the writer's personality during key moments in life (GCSE English Prep). Each entry has a stated date, and often a time and place, at the top of the entry and is addressed to "Dear Diary," often concluding with the writer's signature. 

We know some things about Julia as she is in Chapter 23. For instance, we know that Julia makes "no complaint" against coaching Widge in his role, that she says she "was glad it was" Widge to whom she had to "surrender" the role and that she showed him a "cheerful acceptance." Yet Widge saw that her eyes "shone with tears" in her "unguarded moments" and that her "cheerful acceptance was itself a disguise."

We also know that Julia originally refused the invitation to accompany the players to Whitehall, since the invitation was on "condition that she dress as a girl," but that at the last moment she dashed out "clothed in her costume from Love's Labour's Lost, her skirts lifted so high [they] could see her ankles." She says that she changed her mind about coming dressed as a girl, choosing instead to come "along in order to meet the queen." She laughs when Widge challenges her reason with "You lie."

For Julia's diary entry, the date might be "Summer, 1601." Since she is so attached to the Globe, she might write her date designation as "Globe Theatre, Eventide. Summer, 1601." To determine a date for an entry, look at what the story tells and at what history states if the story narrative is imprecise.

• We know that the Lord Chamberlain's company performed the Thomas Dekker satire Satiromastix, aimed at Ben Jonson, in 1601.


• In the novel, the company performs Satiromastix just before leaving to go to Whitehall to perform Hamlet for Queen Elizabeth I (it is not historically certain that Hamlet was performed for Elizabeth I).


• We know that, in the story, the company had performed "Richard III" [sic] (p. 156) for the Earl of Essex "a few months" before getting their call to Whitehall to perform Hamlet; Richard II is historically confirmed as having been performed for the Earl of Essex in February of 1601.


• We know that Widge and the company had "a fortnight," or fourteen nights, to prepare for their command performance.


• This puts Widge's performance as Ophelia in Hamlet sometime around mid-summer.


• So a chapter 23 diary entry, a chapter during which Julia coaches Widge to play Ophelia, could be dated loosely as "Summer."

It's the bits of information narrated by Widge, helping us understand Julia, that you can use to determine Julia's thoughts, feelings, reactions and emotions. You can use this to reveal her personality as it is framed in the experiences of Chapter 23: you can record in a diary entry these key moments in Julia's life. Remember to stay within the conventions of diary writing, others of which are to use correct grammar and punctuation, to use varied sentence types to increase interest and to use time and sequence referencing words such as, then, during, before, after, originally, finally and following.

a ball is dropped from a height of 50 meters how far has it fallen after 2 seconds

We are asked to find the distance a ball has fallen in two seconds after it has been dropped from a height of 50 meters.

We assume that we can ignore all forces except gravity (e.g. we ignore wind resistance, etc...) We use the falling object model:

On Earth, the height of an object falling due to the force of gravity is given by `h=-4.9t^2+v_0 t+h_0 ` where v nought is the initial velocity and h nought is the initial height above the ground (time in seconds and distance in meters.) Here v nought is zero (the ball is dropped, not thrown) and h nought is 50m. Thus:

` h=-4.9(2)^2+50=30.4"m" `

However, the question was not to find the height at time t=2 seconds, but how far the ball had dropped. Since the initial height was 50m and the height at time t=2 is 30.4m, the distance dropped is 19.6m.

In Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, what did Bruno's old house in Berlin look like?

Bruno's house in Berlin has four levels. The family occupies three of these. The ground level has the dining room, living room, kitchen, and father's office. The next level up is where Bruno and his sister Gretel sleep. The master bedroom is found on the floor above the children's rooms. The fourth level is not quite an attic because it seems to be more of an area of extra space. However, Bruno says that there is a window on the fourth floor that allows him to see across the city if he stands on his toes.

One of Bruno's favorite activities is to start on the top floor and slide down the banister to the lowest level. Once on the ground floor, Bruno looks up to see two large oak doors that lead to the front porch. Bruno especially likes the banister, as described in the following passage:

"And Bruno liked nothing better than to get on board the banister at the top floor and slide his way through the house, making whooshing sounds as he went" (9).

The house in Berlin is important because Bruno misses it when he moves with his family to a significantly smaller house next to the Auschwitz concentration camp. The home at Auschwitz does not have a fun banister, luxurious fixtures, spacious rooms, a large dining room, or as many levels to explore and enjoy.

What point of view is represented in Burr by Gore Vidal?

"Burr" is an iconic novel by author Gore Vidal that focuses on the true history of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America. The story is told from the point of view of a young Charles Schuyler, a twenty-five-year-old man who served as a law clerk in Aaron Burr's office. Burr was the third Vice President of the United States, serving alongside President Thomas Jefferson during his first term. The decision to tell the story of "Burr" from young Schuyler's point of view is an interesting one, as Vidal uses Schuyler's youthful naïveté and optimism to shine a light on the more scandalous aspects of Burr's service.

Through Schuyler's eyes, the reader is able to see Burr as he really was, a figure surrounded by more controversy and moral dilemmas than his relatively sanitized portrayal in the average history textbook would suggest. The story begins in 1833 and tells of Schuyler's exploits as Burr's clerk, and ends four years after the former Vice President's death. Burr's perspective is made all the more intriguing by the fact that he hopes to abandon his life of politics to become a professional writer.

Schuyler is at first enamored with the sophisticated politician and envies his worldly qualities. As "Burr" continues, his naïveté is shattered and be begins to realize that the man does not fully live up to his public reputation. Through a variety of political schemes and vices, Schuyler is indoctrinated into the world of political intrigue and the reader experiences it all through his first person perspective.

The use of first person point of view allows Vidal to inject a significant amount of humor and personality into the narration. Schuyler's voice is witty and full of enthusiasm, making "Burr" an engaging read from the first page. Observations about the other characters, such as "Shortly before midnight, July 1, 1883, Colonel Aaron Burr, aged seventy-seven, married Eliza Jumel, born Bowen fifty-eight years ago (more likely sixty-five, but remember: she is prone to litigation!)" offer humorous insights into the various ways in which their personal lives contradict the public images they project.

"Burr" is an excellent example of the use of first person point of view that lends personality to a narrative that might otherwise feel dry or forced if told from an impersonal third person point of view. Having Burr's story told from someone close to him also allows Vidal to delve into his exploits with greater honesty and sympathy than if he had written it from Burr's point of view or that of an omniscient narrator.

In reference to the poem "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost, do you believe in making choices that are acceptable and less "risky" or ones which...

In reference to the poem, there are no such adventurous, ambitious, and unconventional choices. This poem is popularly misread as advocating for choosing the "road less traveled," for making choices that are unique and adventurous; however, I would argue the poem's actual message is quite different, and quite a bit less inspirational. 

I believe the speaker tells us, essentially, that there are no unconventional choices. He says the second road is "just as fair" as the first, and though it was grassier and thus may seem a bit more pleasant, "the passing there / Had worn them really about the same."  In other words, the two roads have been traveled about the same number of times; they are "worn [...] about the same" amount because a similar number of people take each one. One is not substantially "less traveled" than the other, and they both lay "equally" on the day the speaker visits them.

In the last stanza, when the speaker says that, many years from now, he'll tell the story of taking the road "less traveled by / And that has made all the difference," he plans to lie. He is going to claim that he took the road that fewer people have taken, implying he made a unique and adventurous choice when, really, there was no such choice to be made. He will say that making such an unconventional choice has "made [...] the difference" in terms of his life's direction. Why will he lie? Because we all want to believe there are unique choices available, that we can be different and adventurous and unconventional and that our decisions are as important and momentous as we feel them to be. Ultimately, according to this poem, they are not.

In the end, then, this question about adventurous choices is unanswerable because, in reference to the poem, no such choices exist.

You want to prove that trees lower air temperature under the leaves because of the shade. You stand under a tree, hold out a thermometer under the...

The experimental set up contains the variable that you are attempting to test.  Based on the information given, it seems that the hypothesis is stating that tree shade creates lower air temperatures.  From that hypothesis, an experimenter could predict the following:  "If the thermometer is held under the trees in the shade, it will display a lower temperature than in the sunlight."  

Because the experimenter is testing the effect of shade on temperature, the shade is the variable.  That makes any measurements done in the shade part of the experimental set up.  Those measurements will be compared to temperature measurements from the control set up.  The control set up will not contain the variable being tested.  In this case, any measurements done in direct sunlight (no shade) are part of the control set up.  

What mood does the first chapter of Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities set?

The first chapter of A Tale of Two Cities begins with one of the most immortal opening phrases in English literature: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." The opening paragraph goes on to refer to an "epoch" of both faith and "incredulity," of hope and despair. The opening chapter goes on to evoke such paradoxes in order to describe an era where powerful forces that historians and social scientists would later describe as "structural" would tear the lives of the people of London and Paris apart. This was an era of extreme wealth and extreme poverty. Dickens does mention a number of differences between France and England, especially as relates to religion and criminal justice, but the social problems that plague both countries are described as very serious and pervasive, all the more so since they exist alongside wealth and privilege. In short, the first chapter strongly suggests that conflict is imminent, yet the characters in the story carry on unaware:

Thus did the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five conduct their Greatnesses, and myriads of small creatures—the creatures of this chronicle among the rest—along the roads that lay before them.

How did the seven years of rain affect the children from "All Summer in a Day"?

The children have been somewhat traumatized by the constant rain.  They desperately want the sun to come out.  You could say this made them somewhat bitter and mean, based on the way they treat Margot.

They were all nine years old, and if there had been a day, seven years ago, when the sun came out for an hour and showed its face to the stunned world, they could not recall. 

The children desperately want the sun to come out.  They are jealous of Margot because she has come more recently from Earth than they have, and she says she remembers it. For this they relentlessly bully her.

Margot does not fit in.  In addition to being an outsider and more of an Earthling, she does not relate to the other children.  She doesn't try to be one of them.

They edged away from her, they would not look at her. She felt them go away. And this was because she would play no games with them in the echoing tunnels of the underground city.

The sun coming out and the stopping and then restarting of the rain seems to do something to the children.  They lock Margot in the closet so she misses the sun's brief appearance, a particularly cruel trick that seems to make even the children realize it's terrible once they have done it.

Rain can be depressing.  There is even a name for the feeling people get when the weather makes them depressed.  It is called Seasonal Affective Disorder.  Imagine how bad this disorder would get if the seasons were seven years long.  Even when the sun comes out, it is very brief.  People need sunshine.

The magnitude of the orbital angular momentum L of an electron in a certain atom is equal to 3.464`barh` . Which one of the following numbers could...

I don't think your friend's method is entirely sound, but 4 is the correct answer. Here's another way of doing it. 

We know the relationship between the principal quantum number, n, and the angular quantum number l, is l = n-1. So if we find l, we just add one to find n. 

We also know that the orbital angular momentum is related to the angular quantum number through the equation L = sqrt(l(l+1)) hbar

We're given L = 3.464hbar, so the equation can be rearranged pretty easily.

3.464hbar = sqrt(l(l+1)) hbar....cancel the hbars

3.464 = sqrt(l(l+1))...square both sides

12 = l(l+1)...expand

12 = le2 + l...rearrange and solve quadratically

`l^2 + l - 12 = 0` 

`(l+4)(l-3)` ...so l can be -4 or 3. We only want positive numbers, so l is 3, and n is 4.

How would you compare the number and arrangement of chambers of the four types of vertebrate hearts?

Fish have the simplest type of vertebrate heart, a systemic circulation system which has only two chambers in the heart: an atrium that collects blood from the body, and a ventricle that pumps blood through the gills and directly to the rest of the body. This produces a gradient of oxygenated to deoxygenated blood across the whole circulatory system, which limits how much oxygen fish can use.

Amphibians have a more complex heart, a pulmonocutaneous circulation system which has three chambers in the heart, two atria and one ventricle. One atrium collects blood from the lungs, while the other collects blood from the rest of the body. Then one ventricle pumps blood back out along two paths (separated by a ridge, but not completely prevented from mixing); one sends deoxygenated blood to the lungs and skin to be oxygenated, the other sends oxygenated blood to the rest of the body.

Crocodilian reptiles have a four-chambered heart, but with some unusual properties that distinguish it from the four-chambered heart of birds and mammals. They essentially have a hybrid system where one ventricle uses pulmonary circulation and the other uses systemic circulation. The heart shunts blood from the lungs directly to organs to support long periods underwater, and a hole called the foramen of Panizza between the two ventricles allows blood to be exchanged between them when necessary.

Finally, birds and mammals have a four-chambered heart and a pulmonary circulation system, where there is a totally separate atrium-ventricle circuit going into and out of the lungs that is distinct from the atrium-ventricle circuit into and out of the body. Blood in the heart does not mix, so it is fully-deoxygenated on one side (the atrium that receives blood from the body and the ventricle that pumps it to the lungs) and fully-oxygenated on the other (the atrium that receives blood from the lungs and the ventricle that pumps it to the body). This provides the most efficient oxygenation, allowing birds and mammals to have much higher metabolisms and thereby support endothermic body temperatures.

Who was Eli Whitney?

Eli Whitney was an American-born inventor who was known for the invention of the cotton gin. The cotton gin made it easier to separate the seeds from short staple cotton. This invention had a tremendous impact on the growing of cotton and the expansion of slavery in the United States.

Before the cotton gin, it was more profitable to grow long staple cotton. It was easier to remove the seeds from long staple cotton than from short staple cotton. However, long staple could only be grown along the coast. Thus, there was a limited area where this cotton could be grown and where profits could be made. With the invention of the cotton gin, cotton could now be grown anywhere. This opened up much of the South to the growing of cotton. As more cotton was grown, more slaves were needed. Thus, slavery expanded as a result of the cotton gin. More money could also be made by growing cotton. Cotton was a major export of the South.

Eli Whitney is also connected with the concept of interchangeable parts. He believed production could be increased if identical parts could be used when manufacturing products. He used the interchangeable parts concept when he made muskets for the U.S. government.

Eli Whitney’s inventions and ideas had a significant impact on our country.

For the poem "Harlem" by Langston Hughes, what two critical analysis approaches can be used to analyze this poem? Why would I focus on different...

The Langston Hughes poem “Harlem,” also sometimes referred to as “A Dream Deferred,” is about the potentially devastating effects of oppression.

There are a number of possible critical approaches you could take to examine this poem: formal, historical, psychological, sociological, or reader-response are some that seem to lend themselves readily. If I were to pick two from that list, I would choose formal and psychological.

Formal analysis: This kind of analysis looks at how the poem is structured. “Harlem” is particularly interesting in this regard because of the way Hughes put it together. It starts with a provocative but seemingly innocuous (harmless) question: “What happens to a dream deferred?”

Then it follows with four more questions in rapid fire. These questions are similes, comparing a deferred dream to something that could “dry up,” or “fester,” or “stink,” or “crust.”

Notice that after the fourth simile, Hughes uses the manipulation of physical space to help make his point—he skips an extra line for emphasis. Then he presents another simile, but the pacing changes because this one is not phrased as a question—it is more like conjecture, as if he is finally coming to his ultimate point. Then he skips another line, switches to italics, and presents another question. But the tone of this question is different: “Or does it explode?”

After the series of similes, Hughes has changed up and used a metaphor, and not just any old metaphor. This is an implied metaphor, because it hints at its meaning without revealing it entirely. Using the word “explode” implies that a dream deferred could be a bomb just waiting to go off, as if violence could be the ultimate result, the answer to all of the questions we just read.

Also notice that after the first simile the entire poem is indented. This gives primacy to the first line, while everything else addresses the idea of the dream deferred. Hughes wants to keep you focused on that question.

Psychological analysis: To analyze a work in terms of psychology you have to look at how the poem addresses the inner life (mentally or emotionally) of the subject or speaker. For such a short little poem, Hughes certainly says a lot about what goes on inside the head of “Harlem's” speaker. The introductory question, as noted above, seems simple enough. But to show how a dream deferred can eat away at someone, causing frustration and resentment, Hughes hits the reader with the five subsequent similes, which are generally building toward the potentially violent ending. These similes get us into the mind of the speaker—how he thinks and feels about what is happening to him. 

If we were to restructure this poem in terms of its psychological message and present it as a basic prose statement, it would say something like this: What happens to the dream of someone who is denied the hope of achieving the dream? Does the dream wither away, or just weigh on the person, or does it create a building anger and frustration that may someday result in violence?

Hughes is asking us to consider how the mind is affected by a life of hopelessness and what the result of that effect might be.

When I teach this poem, I use both critical approaches. But, for the sake of teaching students about how literary devices work, I focus a bit more on the formalist analysis. I like for students to see how the use of figurative devices like similes and metaphors, as well as the physical manipulation of space and the late switch to italics, can affect a reader's perception of the poem.

Is there an extract you might think of which exemplifies the passage from the Reason of the Augustan Age to the Imagination of the Romantic Age?

I am not sure exactly what you are looking for, but my mind leapt instantly to Wordsworth's Preface to the Lyrical Ballads, the breakthrough volume of Romantic poems he and Coleridge wrote and published circa 1800. If Augustan Age poems were measured, rational and based on great men and Classical history and literature, and sometimes satiric, Romanticism valued emotion, depth of thought and feeling, nature, sincerity  and the common person. A famous extract from the Preface speaks to some of that:

"For all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: and though this be true, Poems to which any value can be attached were never produced on any variety of subjects but by a man who, being possessed of more than usual organic sensibility, had also thought long and deeply."

Augustan poets such as Alexander Pope focused on imitating Classical poets such as Horace and Virgil, and writing highly polished pieces. Wordsworth and Coleridge often polished their work, but rejected Classicism in favor of examining and describing their own experiences, including dreams and folk stories. 

I am not supposed to do your work for you, but if you are looking for extracts of poems that exemplify the imagination of the Romantic Age, you might try a poem such as Wordsworth's "The World is Too Much with Us" in which he writes that "getting and spending we waste our power." This poem expresses the Romantic belief in simplicity and the simple life. In his poem "I wondered lonely as a Cloud," Wordsworth engages in a typical Romantic praise of nature and says "wealth" comes to him when he watches thousands of daffodils waving in the breeze. A glance at his Lucy poems will show how he focuses on simple cottagers rather than high born aristocrats. I hope this helps. Essentially, the Preface to Lyrical Ballads and the poems in that volume are the place to start to document the passage to a Romantic sensibility. 

What is the mood, tone and purpose of the author in Langston Hughes' poem "Life Is Fine"?

Langston Hughes's poem "Life is Fine" focuses on the struggles of a man who is dealing with heartbreak. In this poem, the man contemplates suicide by both jumping into a river and then jumping from the roof of a tall building. However, by the end of the poem, the man declares, "Life is fine! / Fine as wine!"

There is a major tonal shift in the third to last stanza in this poem. The first six stanzas focus on the speaker's despair. In the third stanza, when he's standing at the top of a building, he says, "I thought about my baby / And thought I would jump down." In addition, the speaker proclaims, "But it was / High up there! / It was high!" However, in the third to last stanza, the speaker begins with a sense of resignation, "So since I'm still here livin' / I guess I will live on." He goes on to say that life can be difficult ("Though you may see me holler, / And you may see me cry—"), but he won't give up.

The simile in the final stanza, in which the speaker says, "Life is fine! / Fine as Wine! / Life is Fine!" demonstrates the author's purpose in writing this poem. Comparing life to wine shows that life gets better as people age. Yes, heartbreak hurts and there are tons of painful moments in life, but the older you become, the easier it is to deal with.

What are two examples of figurative language in the vignettes "Alicia Who Sees Mice" and "A Rice Sandwich" from The House on Mango Street?

Figurative language is when an author uses specific tools, or devices, to help readers understand the story or connect with characters on a deeper level. A few examples of figurative language include the following: metaphors, similes, imagery, personification, symbolism, and allusions. Cisneros uses symbolism and allusions to help readers identify with people's specific daily activities in the vignettes "Alicia Who Sees Mice" and "A Rice Sandwich." First, in "Alicia Who Sees Mice," an allusion to a common saying is twisted to fit Alicia's home situation. The common expression, "A woman's place is in the home," becomes the following:

"And anyway, a woman's place is sleeping so she can wake up early with the tortilla star . . ." (31).

With this sentence, not only does the allusion imply that a woman's place is in the home, but Alicia's Latin heritage comes into play as she must rise with the "tortilla star." This star symbolizes the notion that Hispanic women should wake up early to make tortillas for their children's lunches. In Alicia's case, she wakes up early to make tortillas for her younger siblings because her mother is dead. Hence, the allusion to a popular expression is paired with a symbol from Alicia's culture which represents making tortillas early in the morning for her family. 

Then in "A Rice Sandwich," Esperanza identifies special kids who get to sit in the canteen for lunch with the keys they wear around their necks. Apparently, these kids with the dangling keys live too far away to walk home for lunch, or their mothers aren't home. Esperanza wants to be special, too, and eat in the canteen rather than walk a few blocks home for lunch each day. Esperanza says the following about the kids with keys:

"The special kids, the ones who wear keys around their necks, get to eat in the canteen. The canteen! Even the name sounds important" (43).

The symbolism of eating in the lunchroom with the students who have keys around their necks represents being important.

Another allusion used in this vignette refers to the movie 300 Spartans, which the boys at school identify with being strong. Esperanza does not feel strong; therefore, she wishes to stay at school to eat lunch rather than brave the weather during her walks home for lunch each day.

After Sister Superior tells Esperanza that she can't stay for lunch each day, the canteen suddenly loses its importance, and she says that it is "nothing special" anymore (45). It can be inferred, then, that Esperanza doesn't feel strong, special, or important because of the symbolic allusions referenced throughout the vignette that apparently do not apply to her. 

Where was Grampa buried in The Grapes of Wrath?

Grampa has a stroke when the family stops and joins with the Wilsons in Chapter 13. Sairy Wilson helps care for Grampa and Granma while they are suffering, thus the Joads and Wilson become like a family. While the Joads know that they should go into town and have Grampa buried properly, they also know that it will cost $40 just to have him buried, which is a lot of money for them. Instead, they decide to bury Grampa right near where they are camped on the side of the road along Route 66. They decide to leave a note with the body, in case someone happens to dig up his bones and think he may have been murdered. The family asks Preacher Casy to say a few words so the process feels more like a funeral than just a sad end to Grampa's life.

What is the type of irony in "The Furnished Room"?

Much of the irony in "The Furnished Room" is verbal irony. It is to be seen in the contrast between the repellent appearance of the room and the whole building, on the one hand, and the humorous way the narrator describes the place, on the other. For example:

Upon the gay-papered wall were those pictures that pursue the homeless one from house to house—The Huguenot Lovers, The First Quarrel, The Wedding Breakfast, Psyche at the Fountain. The mantel's chastely severe outline was ingloriously veiled behind some pert drapery drawn rakishly askew like the sashes of the Amazonian ballet. 

The verbal irony is also glaring in the housekeeper's description of the furnished room and its actual condition.

“This is the room,” said the housekeeper, from her furry throat. “It's a nice room. It ain't often vacant. I had some most elegant people in it last summer—no trouble at all, and paid in advance to the minute."

We can imagine what sort of "elegant people" would stay in such a room and in such a building. Evidently the housekeeper, whose name is Mrs. Purdy, has lived in this dingy, decaying building for so long that it looks relatively attractive to her.

The ending of "The Furnished Room" contains a different sort of irony. Once we learn that the girl the young lover has been searching for had committed suicide in the same room he has just rented, we see the dramatic irony of the entire story. The girl gave up trying to survive as an entertainer in the cold, cruel city of New York, and her lover gave up searching for her in the setting where her life had ended only a week before. Both committed suicide with the same gas jet in the same furnished room, a room which seems to have swallowed both of them up and forgotten them.

What are the different ranks of coal?

Coal originates from dead plant material. Plants photosynthesize by use of light energy to produce glucose they use as a food source. When these plants die, the decay process is sometimes stopped and the energy is kept within the plant debris. This is known as an organic sediment called "peat." This eventually becomes buried and subjected to pressure underground, facilitating the coalification process.

Coal has several "ranks" and is consecutively transformed from the highest to the lowest.

1. Lignite: lowest rank, peat transformed into rock, used to fuel generation of electricity


2. Sub-butiminous: metamorphosed lignite, loss of oxygen and hydrogen yielding more carbon content


3. Butiminous: metamorphosed sub-butiminous coal, most abundant (50% of coal produced in the US), higher carbon content than sub-butiminous


4. Anthracite: highest rank, highest carbon content (>87%)

Coal is considered a "nonrenewable resource" because of its difficulty to reproduce. Coal is believed to be abundant in North America, Russia, China, and India to name a few. In terms of contribution to the world's coal supply, China leads with 22% followed by the US (19%), former Soviet Union members (16%), Germany (10%) and Poland (5%).

What is the plot of "The Lady or the Tiger" by Stockton?

The plot of the story begins with a description of a king who constructed an arena where crime and virtue were punished and rewarded purely on chance. In the arena, the accused was expected to choose between two doors, which presented different fates. A marauding tiger was behind one of the doors and a lady behind the other. Selection of the door with the tiger led to death, while the door with the lady was followed by a wedding ceremony.  As the story unfolds, the king’s daughter and one of the palace’s courtiers fell in love and soon the king discovered the affair. The young man was thrown into prison to await his fate in the arena. The princess learned what each door presented. In addition, she knew the lady behind the door and suspected that she had feelings for the courtier. The princess was forced to decide whether to allow the youth to marry the lady or face the tiger. In the arena, the princess signaled the youth to open the door on the right after they exchanged glances. The plot ends after the youth opens the door on the right and the reader is left in suspense, not knowing what came forth.

How is Indian classical music different to its Western counterpart?

Indian music and Western music vary greatly, even to the common listener.  Two of the main differences between these styles are the tuning and scales used.  Western music traditionally uses tonal harmony.  Music is written in a specific key and utilizes notes of a scale.  Its complexity is derived from its counterpoints to harmony.  In contrast, Indian music features a single voice or instrumental melody sometimes accompanied by drone and procession.  Indian classical music’s unique sound is in its melodies and rhythms.  Furthermore, Western music relies mostly on major and minor scales.   Indian music features a variety of interval patterns which often comprise of a varied relationship between the notes.  The differences of Indian classical music create a unique sound that is exotic to the Western ear. 

How can I write a compare and contrast research paper on Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband and Lady Windermere's Fan (10 sources, 10 pages)?

It is not easy to dig into a unified whole and find the parts that comprise it, especially to compare that to another whole and especially when both are created by a master. But this type of analysis will serve you well. First, to ignite your analysis and your brainstorming, your ten sources will inform you--many sources wait for you in your school reference library in the literary criticism section (others in the book stacks)--about different opinions and perspectives, through different eras, on these plays. Your critical assessment of the opinions you read can relate to your own analysis of the plays. Such an analysis requires that you know the plays well, having read them closely. From the research you do of others' opinions, your ten sources will emerge.

Second, there are some key points of comparison and contrast that can add to the fire of your brainstorming. You can examine:

• theme


• the roles of fans


• settings


• aspects of satire


• name symbolism


• Wild's biographical elements related to places and names (e.g., Goring-on-Thames appearing as Lord Goring)


• actions of character types common to both plays (e.g., a wife leaves in each)


• unexpected appearances and mistaken identities


• characterization of husbands and wives

To illustrate a couple of these for you, let's consider some points that compare. In each play a wife leaves: Lady Chiltern in An Ideal Husband (IH) and Lady Windermere in Lady Windermere's Fan (LW). In each play there is an advocate for mercy and forgiveness: Lord Goring in IH and Mrs. Erlynne in LW. There are mistaken identities in each: Mrs. Erlynne is really Lady Windermere's mother; the woman at Lord Goring's door is really Mrs. Cheveley, not Lady Chiltern.

There are points of contrast as well. The use of fans in each has contrasts in effect and importance. The characterization of the husbands contrast: IH has a financially criminal husband; LW has a philandering husband. Themes have contrast; for example, the theme of modesty in LW contrasts with that of hypocrisy in IH. Settings have different dynamics in each play; for example, the Act I, Scene i setting of a private meeting between Lady Windermere and Lord Goring contrasts with the Act I, Scene i setting of a party gathering in IH. These ideas ought to get your brainstorming fired up, especially when you add fuel from your research reading.

What is the symbolism of "wearing white" in A.E. Housman's poem "Loveliest of Trees, the Cherry Now"?

This is not exactly symbolism but personification. The poet is suggesting that the cherry tree covered with white blossoms is like a young woman wearing a white dress for Easter. A white dress traditionally might also suggest marriage and rebirth, too—just as the cherry tree's blossoms are a herald of spring, mating, and new life.

The poem seems to be a compliment to the beauty of the cherry tree and the speaker's reflections on the joy of a season traditionally associated with youth. The girl who wears the white dress at the first sign of spring experiences spring as a young person, while the speaker of the poem contemplates the brevity of life and the beauty of nature.

What was Fitzgerald's purpose for writing The Great Gatsby?

Ultimately, we cannot determine the answer to this as it would require being able to see inside the mind of Fitzgerald and assess his inner feelings and motives, something that is not possible. 

We do know that Fitzgerald, starting as a teenager, longed for literary success, wanting both to create great works and to become well-known and well-respected. Part of this may have stemmed from his family background, which existed at the fringes of the elite society of Minneapolis; as a student a Princeton Fitzgerald also found himself on the margins of an east coast elite. He was strongly ambivalent about the elites he both wished to join and despised for their insularity, materialism, and self-centeredness. Thus to some degree we can assume that among Fitzgerald's motives was a desire to work out some of his own ambivalence to upper class society.

Finally, Fitzgerald was a professional writer who was attempting to earn a living by writing and who was motivated in part to write because it was how he supported himself and his wife Zelda.  

What criticism has Stan Lee gotten over the years?

Stan Lee is a famous cartoon artist who worked as a creative force at Marvel Comics in the 1960s and 1970s, then moved on to be a publisher. During his time at Marvel, he worked to create several of the most iconic cartoon figures of all time--The X-Men, Iron Man, Thor, Spider Man, The Avengers, and The Incredible Hulk, among others. Many credit him with creating pop-culture legends that have only grown in popularity over time. He made his heroes remarkably human, as opposed to archetypes of perfection as earlier superheroes had been, and he also introduced a colloquial way of speaking that also helped his audiences relate to his characters. He also created a shared fictional universe of comic characters and created the Black Panther, the first major black hero in comics. 

However, despite his role in creating pop-culture phenomena, according to some sources (see the link in Vulture below), there are doubts that he almost singlehandedly created these characters, as he and Marvel have claimed. There is a consensus among some scholars that he and Marvel downplayed the work of collaborators who helped to create the comic book characters Lee claims as almost his own. For example, in an article in Inc. (see the link below) published on November 1, 2009, he said "All the characters at Marvel were my ideas." He is now chairman emeritus of Marvel and has moved on to his own company, POW! 

What can cause an increase in equilibrium price and an increase in equilibrium supply?

It seems to me that there must be some mistake in this question.  The reason for this is that there is no such thing as “equilibrium supply.”  Supply is a curve, as is demand.  At the point where the supply and demand curves intersect, we have equilibrium.  At that point, there is an equilibrium price and an equilibrium quantity that is both supplied and demanded.  However, there is no equilibrium supply.  So, I believe that this question must actually be concerning what could cause both the equilibrium price and the equilibrium quantity to rise.  In that case, the answer would be that only an increase in demand can cause such a combination of effects.

When supply rises, the equilibrium quantity rises, but the equilibrium price drops.  When supply declines, the equilibrium price rises, but the equilibrium quantity drops.  When demand declines, both equilibrium price and equilibrium quantity drop as well.  However, when demand rises, equilibrium quantity goes up (because people are willing and able to buy more things) and equilibrium prices rise (because it costs more to make more things and because people who demand more are willing to pay more). 

In order to have both price and quantity rise, we need to have an increase in demand.

What human institutions are being criticized in Fahrenheit 451?

Bradbury criticizes a number of human institutions in Fahrenheit 451. Probably the most obvious is the mass media which Bradbury portrays as invasive and shallow. The parlour walls, for example, broadcast endless soap opera programmes, like the "White Clown." While they encourage audience participation, the shows are light-hearted and entertaining because they are designed to amuse and distract, not to make viewers think. Moreover, the cost of the parlour walls is high, at almost one-third of Montag's salary, which shows that the mass media is primarily concerned with the pursuit of profit.

The school system is also criticized by Bradbury in Fahrenheit 451. As Beatty explains, school has evolved to a point that it no longer educates its students (in the traditional sense):

"School is shortened, discipline relaxed, philosophies, histories, languages dropped, English and spelling gradually neglected, finally almost completely ignored."

This is reinforced by Clarisse's experience of high school in which the subjects offered reflect the influence of the mass media:

"An hour of TV class, an hour of basketball or baseball or running, another hour of transcription history or painting pictures."

The school system is, therefore, less concerned with the intellectual development of its students and focuses instead on entertaining them. 

Which one of the following is not a lymph node (thyroid, thymus, epiglottis, spleen, tonsil)?

The epiglottis is not a lymph node nor is it part of the lymphatic system. The epiglottis is a thin membrane located in the throat. Its main job is to act as the switch between the larynx and the esophagus to either let air into the lungs or food into the stomach. In the relaxed position, the membrane allows air into the lungs. It is actively engaged only when swallowing.

The thyroid, thymus, spleen and tonsils all work as part of the immune and endocrine systems to regulate body stasis. The thyroid helps to control hormone levels in the blood. The thymus is a gland which produces T cells until puberty. The spleen filters blood, stores platelets and aids in replacing old red blood cells. The tonsils are lymph nodes, positioned at the back of the throat to trap and sample bacteria entering the body through the airway.