What were three events in the book Hatchet?

Three of the most important events from the book are the crashing of the plane, the finding of food, and the finding of the survival pack.

The plane crash is pretty obvious, but it is important because nothing else in the book could have happened without it. Brian is on his way to see his father because his parents have recently divorced after his mother’s affair. His father is in Canada. Brian takes a small plane, and it is just him and the pilot. The plane crashes in the wilderness when the pilot has a heart attack. 

But between the seventeenth and eighteenth radio transmissions, without a warning, the engine coughed, roared violently for a second and died. There was sudden silence, cut only by the sound of the wind milling propeller and the wind past the cockpit. (Ch. 2) 

Once the plane crashes, Brian is on his own. He has no way of calling for help and no one knows where he is. He must find his own sources of food and shelter. At first, he finds some berries. He eventually calls them gut cherries because they make him so sick. Brian eventually figures out how to use a bow and arrow to fish.

With his bow, with an arrow fashioned by his own hands he had done food, had found a way to live. The bow had given him this way and he exulted in it, in the bow, in the arrow, in the fish, in the hatchet, in the sky. (Ch. 13) 

Brian is able to eat better once he can fish, and not live off of berries. It is not enough, though. He wants the survival kit. The survival kit is in the plane, which is half in the lake. Getting it is a feat. Once he does, it is like winning the lottery.

TREASURE.

Unbelievable riches. He could not believe the contents of the survival pack.

The night before he was so numb with exhaustion he couldn't do anything but sleep. . . . But with false gray dawn he had awakened, instantly, and began to dig in the pack—to find amazing, wonderful things. (Ch. 19)

Once he finds the survival pack, the tide turns for Brian. It has many handy survival tools, of course, including food, a gun, and cooking pans. What it also has is an emergency radio that sends out a signal. Until then, no one was even looking for Brian anymore. They had given up.

Why does Brutus choose to commit suicide at Philippi in Julius Caesar?

Choice A is the correct answer: To ancient Romans, suicide was an honorable way to die if it helped one avoid defeat and humiliation.    

 In Ancient Rome, suicide was considered an honorable alternative to being humiliated by the enemy.  Brutus and Cassius did not want to be captured by Antony and Octavius and marched in triumph through Rome.  A triumph was a military parade where the victor showed off his spoils and his captives.  It would have been the ultimate defeat for Brutus and Cassius. 

Before the battle, Brutus and Cassius discuss their plans if things go wrong.  They do not plan to be Antony’s captives.  This is a civil war.  To be marched in their own city as captives is unthinkable. 

CASSIUS

Then, if we lose this battle,
You are contented to be led in triumph
Thorough the streets of Rome?

BRUTUS

No, Cassius, no: think not, thou noble Roman,
That ever Brutus will go bound to Rome;
He bears too great a mind.  … (Act 5, Scene 1) 

What do you do then?  If victory is out of grasp and it looks like there is a certain defeat, Brutus and Cassius agree that they will kill themselves.  In fact, each of them do.  Cassius thinks that he sees his enemies surrounding his men, when in fact it is a victory celebration he sees. He commits suicide prematurely, on his birthday. 

Brutus commits suicide later, when he knows that all is lost. 

… Countrymen,
My heart doth joy that yet in all my life
I found no man but he was true to me.
I shall have glory by this losing day
More than Octavius and Mark Antony
By this vile conquest shall attain unto.
So fare you well at once; for Brutus' tongue
Hath almost ended his life's history … (Act 5, Scene 5) 

Antony later calls Brutus the noblest Roman of them all.  He believes that unlike some of the other members of the conspiracy, Brutus was not involved for fame or power. He really was doing what he thought was best for Rome.

Who is the protagonist in "The Machine That Won the War" by Isaac Asimov?

That is a good question.  After thinking about it for a bit and going back through the story, I do not believe that the story has a single protagonist.  I believe that "The Machine That Won the War" has three protagonists.  They are Lamar Swift, Max Jablonski, and John Henderson. The three men get just about equal page time and speaking parts, and the story focuses on the three men talking about their involvement in the war effort against the Denebians.  As they discuss Multivac, and its problems, the men discover that all three of them were more involved in winning the war than they initially thought.  All three men didn't fully trust Multivac, so each man manipulated either the input, output, or final decision of Multivac by his own intuition.  Consequently, the reader realizes that a machine didn't win the war.  The decisions made by all three of these men together won the war.  Because each man is equally important to the final outcome, I feel that each character deserves the label of protagonist.       

Discuss how Holden Caulfield from The Catcher In the Rye and Ivan Ilyich from The Death of Ivan Ilyich share a similar struggle to face the truth...

Both Holden and Ivan Ilyich must find a way of dealing with the fact that people do not behave as they ought.  People are dishonest, and they treat other people poorly.  For both of them, it is the presence of death that forces them to look at these things.  

Dishonesty. Both characters come up a name for when people do not tell the truth about themselves, life, and death.  Holden calls it "phoniness" and reviles it mostly in other people.  (Though Holden tells us that he too is a liar, about some things he is more honest than most people.)  Ivan Ilyich calls it "not the real thing," and he has to confront it mostly in himself:

It occurred to him that what had seemed utterly inconceivable before—that he had not lived the kind of life he should have—might in fact be true.  ...  His official duties, his manner of life, his family, the values adhered to by people in society and in his profession—all these might not have been the real thing. 

Treating others poorly. One main reason people are dishonest is to cover up their own selfishness and their bad treatment of others.  

Holden is very sensitive to anyone being treated in a dehumanizing manner: a principal humiliating a teacher, boys excluding another boy from a fraternity, men objectifying women, bullying.  For all his faults, Holden cannot bring himself to dehumanize others.  

Ivan Ilyich, on the other hand, has spent his life dehumanizing other people.  As a magistrate, he enjoyed knowing that he held absolute power over everyone.  He and his wife were social climbers who excluded poorer relatives from their home.  Even within his home, he saw as an inconvenience his wife' emotional needs caused by pregnancy and miscarriages, and he dealt with her neediness by spending as much time as possible away from home and by cultivating distance within their marriage. So when Ivan Ilyich finally realizes the problem of man's inhumanity to man, he finds it primarily in himself and the thing he has to do is repent.

Death.  For both characters, it is the looming reality of death that makes them aware of the dishonesty and inhumanity in the world.  This is easier to see with Ivan Ilyich.  He goes through life usually getting his way, untouched by tragedy.  (Two of his children die, but to his hard heart, this more irritates than shakes him.)  It is not until it becomes obvious that his illness is not going away, and that he is going to die, that Ivan Ilyich begins to think seriously about his life.  Before his illness, he did not really believe that he, personally, would ever die.  He has to face this first, then he has to face that his life has not been what it should be.

Holden has already been touched by death before his story begins.  He lost his beloved brother Allie and was so devastated that he had a breakdown.  He has also witnessed the death of James Castle, the boy who was bullied to death in Holden's old school.  So Holden steps on stage knowing very well that he will die.  For Holden, death is linked to the basic injustice in the world.  It is the endpoint of people not treating each other with humanity.  Although Holden feels suicidal, he does not commit suicide.  His stated reason is that he doesn't want people to see him splattered on the sidewalk (death = indignity), but there are hints that he also refrains because he knows how much his death would hurt the people he loves, especially his sister Phoebe. 

The link between death and a serious moral examination of life is much more clear and explicit in The Death of Ivan Ilyich, but it is definitely present in Catcher in the Rye as well. 

What would be a stylistic analysis of "The Cloud" by Percy Bysshe Shelley?

It makes most sense to read this poem in iambic feet with each line of tetrameter (four feet) followed by a line of trimeter (three feet). Sometimes the trimeter lines use the trochee instead of the iamb, but that is to fit the rhythm. This causes the poem to have a singsong quality. Consider these first two lines with the stressed syllables in bold: 

I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers, 

From the seas and streams; 

This repetition suggests movement rather than redundancy. The singsong rhythm moves the poem along, giving the image of a cloud's fluid transience from one thing to another. 

The cloud discusses all of its functions. The constant movement implies continual change. This is a theme Shelley uses often. The cyclic nature of the cloud's functions suggests impermanence. This, in turn, is a parallel to human life, which is also characterized by continual change. 

Using "I," Shelley personifies the cloud. Since the cloud discusses its own movement and change, the poet personifies change itself. Of course, the use of personification can also be used to suggest a parallel with human lives. Reading "I" as the cloud, the reader could just as easily interpret the poem as a metaphor for human life. As much as "The Cloud" is about change in general, it is perhaps a sentiment of comfort for anyone who might fear change and/or death with lines such as "I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores; / I change, but cannot die."

Why does Jimmy Valentine go to Mike Dolan's cafe in "A Retrieved Reformation"?

Jimmy’s safe-cracking tools are stored in a room in the café.

After Jimmy Valentine gets out of prison, he goes to the café of Jimmy Dolan, where he has a room “at the back of the house.” Here the proprietor has been keeping his tools safe for him. He returned to get them back.

Mike Dolan was alone there. After shaking hands he said, “I’m sorry we couldn’t do it sooner, Jimmy my boy. But there was that safe in Springfield, too. It wasn’t easy. Feeling all right?”

Jimmy finds a small hole in the wall that doesn’t look like it is there. It is from this hidden hiding place that he produces a “dust-covered bag.” This is the bag that has his safe-cracking tools. They are valuable and he is clearly happy to see them.

He opened this and looked lovingly at the tools for breaking open a safe. No finer tools could be found any place. They were complete; everything needed was here. They had been made of a special material, in the necessary sizes and shapes.

Jimmy convinced the prison that he was reformed, but Ben Price, the police officer, was not convinced. He believed that Jimmy Valentine would return to his life of crime, and go back to cracking safes. He kept a careful lookout to make sure that he would be aware of any of this sort of activity as soon as it happened.

Jimmy kept his tools, and might have gone back to a life of crime. He had not lost his touch. He was able to open the safe to save the little girl. The irony is that he used his criminal skills for a good purpose. Ben Price decided to look the other way, feeling that Jimmy was a good person after all.

What is a common them in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird and Edgar Allan Poe's short story "William Wilson"?

Edgar Allan Poe's "William Wilson" is an allegorical short story about the struggle between mankind's dual nature, the moral conscience and the evil instinctive nature. Similarly, in To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee juxtaposes the moral conscience with the instinctive evil nature. Hence, both works present stories concerning the battle between right and wrong.

Poe opens his story of mankind's dual nature, 'William Wilson," by having his narrator describe himself as having developed an archenemy in his childhood, and his battles with the archenemy continue into his adulthood. The narrator, calling himself William Wilson, describes his archenemy as looking exactly like him, dressing exactly like him, and as having his exact same name, birth date, and school enrollment date. The only difference between the narrator Wilson and the archenemy Wilson is that the latter speaks in a "very low whisper." The allegory becomes obvious when, as the narrator goes about his life, each time he performs or is about to perform a corrupt and evil deed, the archenemy Wilson mysteriously appears and either whispers words of admonishment or exposes his deed. By the end of the story, the narrator Wilson kills his archenemy Wilson, a deed that likewise makes the narrator "dead to the World, to Heaven and to Hope," showing us that it is really his conscience that the narrator has killed, and killing his conscience bars him from Heaven.

Similarly, in Lee's story, it can be said that Atticus and his sister Alexandra are character foils that often represent the will of the conscience and its antithesis. Atticus represents the will of the conscience because he is always doing as his conscience tells him to do, such as defending Tom Robinson, despite what his racially prejudiced society thinks he should do. In contrast, his sister Alexandra is very representative of the views of the Old South. Contrary to Atticus, Alexandra scorns those she thinks are beneath the Finches, such as the Cunninghams, and has very racially prejudiced views. She even openly opposes Atticus's decision to defend Robinson, saying that, according to her grandson Francis, Atticus's actions are "ruinin' the family" (Ch. 9). Hence, it can be said that, together, Atticus and Alexandra represent both sides of mankind's dual nature, just like in Poe's short story; Atticus represents the moral conscience, whereas Alexandra represents mankind's evil instinctive nature.

In The Merchant of Venice, what does Antonio's friend say about the possible reason for his sadness?

In Act 1, Scene 1, Antonio confesses his sadness to two of his friends, Salerio and Solanio. He adds that he has no idea "how I caught it, found it, or came by it,/What stuff 'tis made of, [or] whereof it is born."

Salerio and Solanio advance three guesses about the cause of Antonio's sadness.  None of their guesses rings quite true.

Their first guess is that Antonio is worried about the fate of his ships, into which he has sunk a lot of money, and which are all out on trade missions to various parts of the world.  Salerio goes into some detail about how, if he were in Antonio's position, every little thing would remind him of his ships.  He adds a vivid word picture of "dangerous rocks,/Which touching but my gentle vessel's side/Would scatter all her spices on the stream." 

Antonio denies that he is worried about his ships.  Not all his wealth is sunk into one fleet, he says, nor is his whole "estate" depending on the outcome of this year's venture.

Solanio then guesses that Antonio is in love.  Antonio dismisses this idea with a "Fie, fie!"

Solanio then advances the third guess, which is that

you are sad/because you are not merry; and 'twere as easy/For you to laugh and leap, and say you are merry/Because you are not sad.

In other words, Solanio describes a creeping malaise or boredom that is not exactly sadness, just a lack of zest or enjoyment in life (very similar to some manifestations of depression).  Antonio does not get a chance to confirm or deny this, because some other characters enter at this point.

Though none of the three explanations seem to fit perfectly, the one about the ships does several things.  It gives us critical background information about Antonio's ships.  It shows us Antonio's overconfident attitude about his money, which will get him into trouble later.  And it suggests a possible fourth explanation for Antonio's sadness: Though he is not consciously worried about the ships, perhaps the fact that they will all sink later, is causing him some foreboding now.  This would then be a case of "future events cast backward shadows." 

What are some fantastical elements in "All Summer in a Day" by Ray Bradbury other than them living on Venus?

The children’s living on Venus is a fantastical element, because we do not know much about Venus but we do not believe at this time that it can sustain human life.  In this story, not only do the people live on Venus, but it rains all of the time there.  The idea of it raining on a planet for seven years is a fantastical element.  Venus is a version of Earth, but Bradbury wants to make it seem bizarre.  He uses Venus instead of Earth because it could not rain for seven years straight on Earth.

Besides the idea of Earth-like rain for so long on Venus, another fantastical element is the ease of going back and forth between Venus and Earth.  We currently do not have the technology to travel easily to a planet so far away.  If we did, it would take a very long time to get there.  Bradbury implies that Margot and her family might go back to Earth.  It is an expensive proposition, but not an impossible one.

There was talk that her father and mother were taking her back to Earth next year; it seemed vital to her that they do so, though it would mean the loss of thousands of dollars to her family. And so, the children hated her for all these reasons of big and little consequence.

It is apparently inexpensive enough in this story that the family will only lose a few thousand dollars for leaving Venus and going back to Earth.  It takes billions, not thousands, of dollars to travel in space for us now.  Such inexpensive space travel is science fiction and fantastical.

There is a non-science fiction fantastical element too.  The story’s actions only work because the teacher seems to be largely absent.  This is not realistic, because in most cases people do not leave groups of nine year olds alone for long periods of time.  In this story, not only does the teacher seem barely aware of the bullying and conflict in the group of children, but she also leaves them alone long enough for them to lock Margot in the closet.  I find it unlikely that on a day as important as this, when the sun is finally coming out, the teacher would leave the children alone and not notice one is missing for the whole time the sun comes out.

How is Liesel's stealing of a second book a pivotal point in what is to come in The Book Thief by Markus Zusak?

The section entitled "A Girl Made of Darkness" is found in Part Two of Zusak's The Book Thief. It gives an explanation of events that occur after Liesel steals her second book at the Furor's birthday bonfire. Two major events happen as a result of Liesel's thievery: the mayor's wife, Ilsa Hermann, witnesses the crime; and when Hans Hubermann discovers the stolen book, he gets an idea that will help to save a Jew's life. The narrator explains it as follows:

The act of stealing it triggered the crux of what was to come. It would provide her (Liesel) with a venue for continued book thievery. It would inspire Hans Hubermann to come up with a plan to help the Jewish fist fighter. And it would show me, once again, that one opportunity leads directly to another (83).

The "venue for continued book thievery" refers to Ilsa Hermann's private library. Because Frau Hermann sees Liesel steal a book from the bonfire, she later invites the girl to visit her library and read her books. Unfortunately, after Frau Hermann stops employing Liesel's mother to wash her laundry, Liesel screams at her and eventually resorts to stealing books from the Hermanns' library. The relationship between Frau Hermann and Liesel doesn't end there, though. If Frau Hermann had not seen Liesel take the book that day, then she never would have invited her to her house to read. If Liesel had never read in Frau Hermann's library, she might not have developed a relationship with her. Because Frau Hermann and Liesel develop a relationship in the library, the mayor's wife eventually takes Liesel into her home after the Hubermanns die.

As far as Hans Hubermann's "plan to help the Jewish fist fighter" is concerned, the stolen book from the bonfire gives him the idea that Max Vandenburg would probably be able to travel to Himmel Street undetected as a Jew if he were always found by people reading Mein Kampf—Hitler's autobiography. This book was required reading material for Nazi supporters; therefore, if Max were found reading the book while he traveled to the Hubermann's house, then he might just make it there alive. The plan works, and Liesel is blessed to enjoy Max's company and to build a loving friendship with him that continues after the war.

How would you explain the seventh stanza of "The Inchcape Rock" by Robert Southey?

In the seventh stanza, we learn that Sir Ralph the Rover "felt the cheering power of spring." The good weather improves his mood, and he's happy to enjoy a sunny day on the seas. In fact, the spring weather makes Sir Ralph so happy that he's inspired to whistle and to sing.

In the next two lines, we learn that Sir Ralph's heart is "mirthful to excess." This just means that he is overwhelmed with happiness in his present condition. However, we are warned that this mirth is of a wicked quality. The line "the Rover's mirth was wickedness" possibly refers to the diabolical plans Sir Ralph has in mind. In other words, Sir Ralph is only extraordinarily happy when he's planning some wicked action; his chief purpose in life seems to be to bring suffering and sorrow on all he meets.

The eighth and ninth stanzas support this interpretation because we see that Sir Ralph's chief aim is to "plague the Abbot of Aberbrothok" and to cause the deaths of unsuspecting sailors. To support his fiendish goals, he's more than happy to cut the bell off the Inchcape Float so that no one will suspect they've crashed into the Inchcape Rock until it's too late.

What company did Bill Gates start?

Bill Gates started Microsoft with Paul Allen in 1975 when a company called Altair (makers of micro-computers) became interested in some software the two college students were writing. Originally Micro-Soft, the name was inspired by this first project, creating SOFTware for MICRO-computers. 

Before Microsoft, Gates and Allen had already created a successful software used to analyze traffic patterns in Seattle. They would have started a company together then, but Gates' parents wanted him to finish school first.

Microsoft is now the leading provider of personal computer operating systems (Windows), as well as programs that do word processing (Word), manage email (Outlook), and create spreadsheets (Excel), presentations (PowerPoint), and databases (Access). The company has also branched out to games and gaming systems (Xbox), Smartwatches (Band), computer accessories, mobile devices, and more.

The company generates billions of dollars in revenue and is a household name in the United States.

People who are involved in a zero waste lifestyle says they are doing this to save the planet. Is this a practical lifestyle, and are there likely...

One of the biggest problems that comes up in the course of answering this question is defining a "Zero Waste Lifestyle;" this isn't a prescribed set of criteria in the way something like the Atkins Diet or epilepsy are. The definition of waste itself is uncertain, and what one person considers to be "zero waste" is likely not to meet another's terms, in the same way that there isn't some sort of regulatory body overseeing veganism. More to the point, my own research suggests Wikipedia is the highest-authority source for information on the zero waste concept, and Wikipedia isn't the most reliable resource. I've linked the website of a zero-waste advocacy group as a source below, but keep their bias in mind. 

Zero waste, as a lifestyle, seems to be a fairly straightfoward concept; the individual generates no trash, or, more specifically, nothing that is a part of their lifestyle ends up in a landfill or incinerator. This immediately calls into question whether many of our typical behaviors are compatible; for example, biodegradable or reusable packaging is still relatively rare, and so this would eliminate things like plastic milk cartons or frozen dinners from the things a zero-waster would be able to conscientiously purchase. In this sense, it seems likely that a zero-waster would be obliged to either grow their own food, including animals, or would have to adopt a vegan or near-vegan lifestyle in order to avoid all packaged products, including packaging for meat.

Practically speaking, this would also strongly influence almost any other choice the zero-waster is able to purchase as well, since nearly everything has some kind of non-biodegradable packaging. In terms of a modern lifestyle, this would include things like mobile phones, computers, printer cartridges and cars (the maintenance, for example, would require oil, which comes in plastic containers). A significant degree of the modern lifestyle would be unavailable to the zero-waster unless they were willing to compromise their terms, such as by taking their car to an auto mechanic so that the "waste" was not "theirs," but the mechanic's. This would also call into question how any zero-waster is able to communicate on the internet without violating their principles by owning and accessing a device made with fossil fuels, powered by electricity produced by fossil fuels. Perhaps in these cases the zero-wasters considers it to be a "once, then never again" exception whose value outweighs the moral contradiction.

Furthermore, if the zero-waster lives in a developed country and makes use of its advantages, such as public transport, electricity, medical care, and public education, they should be considered to be de facto participants in any and all waste generation that society engages in. This doesn't diminish the value of any zero-waste choices over which they have direct authority, but they cannot claim moral superiority or exemption from participation in polluting activities.

In terms of this being a "practical" lifestyle, I think it would depend entirely upon what you're willing to give up in exchange for it. Considering that there is no immediate reward, it seems much more likely that the average person would consider it inconvenient at best, or impossible at worst. Its feasibility would depend strongly upon the availability and affordability of fresh, unpackaged food, a consideration that is likely to play out very differently for single educated people compared to families or those who live far from a grocery store.

What is the significance of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens?

For Charles Dickens, Great Expectations was significant because it was semi-autobiographical. It was his revision of his earlier semi-autobiographical novel David Copperfield. Besides the fact that both books are about young boys who have rough upbringings, they are pretty different. David Copperfield is idealized. Great Expectations is darker. Also, Great Expectations takes place in and around Rochester, where Dickens grew up. The places are based on his childhood haunts.

An example of this is the graveyard from the beginning of the book. This is actually based on a real graveyard outside a castle in Rochester which has the same headstones Dickens describes as being Pip’s siblings’ headstones. Dickens grew up looking at them, and incorporated them into Pip’s life.

To five little stone lozenges, each about a foot and a half long, which were arranged in a neat row beside their grave, and were sacred to the memory of five little brothers of mine,—who gave up trying to get a living, exceedingly early in that universal struggle,—I am indebted for a belief I religiously entertained that they had all been born on their backs with their hands in their trousers-pockets, and had never taken them out in this state of existence (Chapter 1).

Dickens even based Satis House on a real house, which you can still visit today. When he was a child, Dickens was enamored with another house called Gad’s Hill Place, and he returned to buy it once he was famous and could afford the house. He was creating his own arc, similar to, but different from, Pip’s. Unlike Pip, Dickens made his own success.

Some of Great Expectations's themes could definitely apply to Dickens's life. Dickens had trouble with relationships, especially when it came to love. He married, but fell out of love with his wife. He loved children and had many, but he was an exacting father. He had high expectations, and often as a result had rocky relationships with his own children. Life didn't turn out to be a fairy tale for Charles Dickens.

How do we know that the reaper's song had a lasting effect on the poet ?

The easiest way to know that the solitary reaper's song stays with the speaker of the poem is to look at the last lines of "The Solitary Reaper":

I listened, motionless and still; 

And, as I mounted up the hill, 

The music in my heart I bore, 

Long after it was heard no more. (29-32)

From these lines, we can tell that the speaker of the poem is continuing to think about the solitary reaper's song even after he walks away. The connotation here is that the song has deeply affected the speaker (who is a stand-in for the poet's own voice and thoughts and feelings), and that the song continues to move him for a long time afterwards. The song is significant to the speaker because it conjures up an infinite array of transcendent meaning, and so the suggestion is that, through the singing solitary reaper, the speaker has encountered a moment of spiritual/existential significance. The idea that one could encounter ultimate meaning in everyday life (especially everyday life that involved a setting of natural beauty) was a key Romantic ideal.

Discuss any three events in which the Canterville ghost successfully frightened people.

While the Canterville ghost fails to frighten the Otis family, he has enjoyed far greater successes during his long career. In the opening chapter of the story, for instance, Lord Canterville talks about one of the ghost's most famous hauntings: that of his aunt, the Dowager Duchess of Bolton. The ghost appeared to the Duchess by placing his "skeleton hands" on her shoulders as she was getting ready for dinner. When she saw his hands in the mirror, she was understandably "frightened into a fit."

Similarly, in Chapter Two, the Canterville ghost remembers his haunting of Madame de Tremouillac. He appeared to her as a skeleton seated in an armchair and reading her diary. She was so terrified that she suffered an "attack of brain fever" which confined her to bed for six weeks. When she recovered, she was "reconciled to the Church" and ended her "connection with that notorious sceptic, Monsieur de Voltaire."

Finally, in this same chapter, the reader learns about "the beautiful" Lady Stutfield whom the ghost tried to strangle. The ghost's fingers left burn marks on her neck, forcing the lady to always wear a "velvet band" around her neck to hide them. Later, she committed suicide by drowning herself in a pond.

As these incidents show, the Canterville ghost has committed some wicked deeds to the residents of the house. The arrival of the Otis family, however, brings this career to an abrupt halt. 

What are the two settings in the novel The Kite Runner?

There are primarily two settings: Kabul, Afghanistan, and Fremont, California, which span different time periods in the novel The Kite Runner. The beginning of the novel takes place in 1963, the same year Amir, the novel's protagonist, is born. He spends his childhood in the peaceful city of Kabul playing with his best friend, Hassan. In 1973, Russians troops invade Afghanistan and in the winter of 1975, Amir witnesses Hassan being raped. Amir is filled with extreme guilt because he did not stop Assef, and shortly after the incident, Ali and Hassan move out of Baba's home. Amir and Baba then leave for Pakistan in 1981 and arrive in Fremont, California the same year. Amir lives in America for twenty years where he becomes a successful writer and marries his wife, Soraya. The two buy a home in San Francisco. One day Amir gets a phone call from Rahim Khan. Amir learns that Rahim Khan is dying, so he leaves for Pakistan in June, 2001. Shortly after meeting with Rahim Khan and learning about Hassan's son, Sohrab, Amir travels back to Kabul, Afghanistan. In 2001, Afghanistan is utterly destroyed from years of fighting and is under Taliban rule. Amir ends up finding Sohrab and narrowly escaping to Pakistan before leaving for America in August, 2001. Sohrab begins his new life in San Francisco, and Amir attempts to form a relationship with him.

I am trying to write a 500 word essay in response to this prompt:"Why has globalization meant greater dependence of Canada on the United States?...

First, you've made a good effort to get started on your paper. There are a few more research steps you need to take. One important one is to ignore Quora results. It's not a reliable site with answers edited and vetted by experts (answers there can be written by anyone--including people who might not know a lot about the topic). Both the US and Canadian governments publish data concerning volumes of trade. This is a good starting place to get reliable numbers. 

The US government has a webpage showing trade statistics between Canada and the US since 1985. An even more valuable source is Global Affairs Canada, which has pages focused on Canada's trade with all its major global trading partners. Currently, the US takes 76 percent of Canada's merchandise exports, while China accounts for under four percent and the Asia-Pacific region about 10 percent. In terms of imports, trade is more balanced, with the US being the source of approximately half of Canadian imports and China having a 12 percent share. 

For globalization, you might want to start with definition. In general, it is contrasted with national self-sufficiency. Trade between Canada and the US, and NAFTA as a regional trade deal, are both parts of globalization. Canadian exports to the US have risen dramatically since the passage of NAFTA.

This interdependence of Canada and the United States is problematic in that it ties Canada's fortunes to that of the US economy. If the US swings towards a protectionist trade policy or goes through a major recession, Canada would suffer economic consequences. 

There are really two ways Canada can protect itself. One is to ensure that crucial strategic industries thrive in Canada rather than depending on the US. The building of the Canadian Pacific Railroad, subsidies to Air Canada, and attempts to build oil pipelines to the east and west coast are part of such defensive strategies, as are efforts to prevent selling strategic industries to foreign investors. The second way Canada can reduce dependence on the US is to make increased efforts to export to other countries. 

What were the provisions of the Simon Commission and why did the Indian people oppose it?

The Simon Commission was made up of seven members of the British Parliament who made recommendations about political reform in India. They were sent to India in 1928 and made their recommendations in 1930. The provisions of the report were that the dyarchy (also spelled diarchy) in India, which was the situation by which the government was run by two people, should be abolished. The commission also recommended that separate electorates between Hindus and Muslims remain in place until there were better relations between the two communities. Finally, the commission suggested that India be given dominion status with self-government for its internal affairs. Indian people opposed the commission because it contained no Indian members; they thought it was a violation of the principle of self-determination for British people to decide their form of government. The Indian National Congress decided to boycott the commission, as did part of the Muslim League. 

Which is better: "Rugged individualism" or the New Deal?

"Rugged individualism" is a phrase used by President Herbert Hoover to explain his idea that individual effort, rather than government intervention, would help people. He used this phrase during the penultimate speech of his presidential campaign in 1928 to convey his belief that Americans should rely on themselves rather than the government. After the Great Depression began in 1929, he started the largest public works project in the country up until that time to put people back to work, but it was not extensive enough to help most Americans. He continued to put his faith in volunteers and private organizations, rather than in the government, to help jobless Americans during the Great Depression.

It could be argued that during the Great Depression, only the New Deal could really help the U.S. economy get on track again. Under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the New Deal helped provide relief to a broad group of Americans, it helped the economy recover (to some degree), and it helped reform the economy to prevent depressions of that magnitude from reoccurring. Roosevelt started an "alphabet soup" of federal agencies, such as the NRA (National Recovery Administration), CWA (Civil Works Administration), and others to provide the relief that Americans needed and to give them hope in a desperate time. However, only the defense industry related to the outbreak of World War II pulled the U.S. out of the Great Depression by about 1940. 

What is one of the great ironies of the Civil War?

One of the greatest ironies of the Civil War is that no one died during the first battle of the war, the shelling of Fort Sumter. The fort was shelled for 34 hours and no one died on either side. The first casualty of the war was when a cannon exploded during the surrender ceremony, killing a young private. This ironic bit of history is sad when one considers that this war ultimately killed more than six hundred thousand people over four years.  

Another ironic part of the war is how many family members ended up on opposite sides. Mary Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln's wife, lost two brothers who were in the Confederate army. These family breakups were not uncommon, as people had to decide between loyalty to their state and loyalty to their nation, especially in the South.  

What is the importance of religious tolerance?

This is an important question, but I really don't like the use of the term "tolerance" in this context.  We use this word to indicate that there is something we do not like, but we are putting up with it, as I might say a teacher tolerated students' misbehavior.  What I do think we want to promote is understanding and respect for other religions.  And this is crucial to getting along in the world today if only because there are different religions, deeply held personal and societal beliefs that people should be permitted to hold in peace.  These beliefs may be similar to or different from our own, but those different can offer us new perspectives, and those similar can help us find common ground with others.  In order to live peacefully in society and to expand one's horizons, other religions should be respected.  This does not mean that we have to agree with another religion's point of view, but it does mean that we should learn about them and at the very least, agree to allow people to hold their beliefs without interference.

What happens when we do not have religious tolerance, much less respect? We have the Crusades.  We have the Islamic State.  We have someone knifing an imam and the beheading of Christians. We have the Holocaust.  Sadly, while these examples may seem extreme, they are the logical consequence of religious intolerance.  If we call America a Christian nation, we are lacking respect for all the Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, and others who form our country, which sets citizen against citizen and which relegates other religions to a lesser status.  When the French ban burkinis, the message they are sending is one of intolerance for religious beliefs, sadly, in response to the intolerance of a group of terrorists for the religious beliefs of others. 

Religious beliefs are not meant to be rational.  They are simply beliefs, lacking in evidence and coming from our hearts. We do not want our own religious beliefs to be attacked.  We want to be able to observe our own religions in peace.  To deny someone else the ability to worship without criticism or attack when we find it so distasteful for ourselves to be thus denied seems completely unreasonable.  To do so causes dissension. To do so causes strife. To do so causes wars and genocides.  If we seek to worship in our own ways, it is not rational to prevent others from doing so.  And that surely is the point of religious tolerance, tolerance being the least we should strive for. Even better is to learn, to understand, and to appreciate the differences, all the fascinating spiritual paths that people follow.

What is a "Renaissance man" and where does this phrase come from?

The meaning of the term "Renaissance man" is basically the same today as when it emerged in Renaissance Italy in the fifteenth century.  A term used in Italy was Uomo Universale, meaning Universal Man. The idea is that of a fully-rounded person, someone knowledgeable in many areas, including the sciences, arts, and humanities.  Leonardo da Vinci is considered to have been a Renaissance man.  In some ways, it is akin to Maslow's concept of self-actualization, the aspiration to be one's own best self, capitalizing on all that one has to offer in a satisfying way. The Renaissance was an emergence from the medieval ages when religion dominated and largely held back development in the sciences and humanities. In the Renaissance, there was a kind of breaking free of the church that allowed for more human-centered intellectual endeavors. 

Today, I still hear the term used, but it has become more difficult, I think, to find true Renaissance men or women.  Everyone is encouraged to specialize, seldom permitted the luxury to dream and explore, which is necessary to merit the title. I would say that Steven Pinker is a Renaissance man, as he is interested and learned in many areas. When I read his books, I am always amazed at the depth and breadth of his knowledge and understanding. Pinker has deep knowledge about the sciences, humanities, and arts.

As an aside, I think the education system in the United States, in its present state, makes it very difficult to nurture any aspiring Renaissance men or women. Standardized testing, minimizing arts education, and emphasizing job skills do not allow children to inquire, explore, or make connections, all requirements for the development of a Renaissance person. 

In Whirligig, why does Brent begin to forgive himself for Lea's death?

Brent begins to forgive himself for Lea's death because he realizes, first, that it's possible for someone else to truly forgive him; second, that he can still be a good person even though he did accidentally kill Lea; third, that humanity is like a giant interconnected unit and he really is a part of it; and fourth, that he has completed the whirligig project that honors Lea's memory.

This happens in the final chapter, as Brent is building the final whirligig and sharing it with the unnamed artist he befriends:

She looked at Brent. "I could be wildly wrong. But my sense of you is that you're a good person, not a bad one."

The words worked their way through Brent's brain. That he might in fact be like everyone else was a foreign idea, never considered. That he could have done what he'd done and still be good was an even more startling notion. He remembered the note from the motel maid: "No one is alone with Jesus." Jesus forgave you no matter what you'd done. But that was his business, and the priests' and ministers'. They were professional forgivers. They said "It's okay" the same way your parents said they loved you, whether they meant it or not. This, though, was different--hearing himself forgiven freely, by someone he trusted. He wasn't sure, though, that she knew enough to forgive him. He told her the story in detail. It didn't seem to change her mind.

Soon after talking with the artist, Brent heads back to his temporary lodgings, and stops along the way to join a group of dancers. This is when he realizes that people as a group form meaningful, interconnected units, and that he can still be accepted--he can still become part of a group of people and belong with them:

It was exalting to be part of the twining and twirling, and strangely thrilling to touch other hands and to feel them grasping his. He felt like a bee returning to a hive, greeted and accepted by all. [...]  It felt to Brent like his rite of reentry.

All these realizations lead Brent to begin to forgive himself for Lea's death. Having completed the entire whirligig project also helps, too, of course: it's what Lea's mother wanted him to do, and by fulfilling his promise to her, Brent feels like has made restitution for his crime. Now, even though the guilt will never truly leave him, Brent feels ready to go back to his family, to his school, and to his regular life.

What is the instrument used for broadcasting?

Transmitter is the name of the equipment used for broadcasting. A transmitter is an electronic device which generates and amplifies a carrier wave, which it mixes with the information to be disseminated and then broadcasts the resulting signal from an antenna.

Transmitters do this by first converting electric power from a battery or electrical mains into radio frequency. An electronic information signal in the form of an audio (sound) signal from a microphone or a video (image) signal from a video device such as a camera or a computer is mixed with the radio frequency generated by the transmitter through a process called modulation. The radio waves generated by the process of modulation is called the carrier signal.

The carrier signal is then transmitted from an antenna. The antenna may be enclosed in the same case as the transmitter, as in portable devices, or it may be mounted on top of a building or on a separate tower, as it is in TV or radio stations.

How can beliefs held by half or more of the population be considered deviant?

When a specific belief is held by more than half of a population, then such belief is being held by the majority of the population, which goes by the "half plus" formula, or its dictionary definition:

an amount that is greater than half of its total. 

Still, the common belief is that, if the majority believes a norm or belief, it is universally accepted as a rule to abide. This is not always the case.

The answer, therefore, is that a belief can still be considered deviant, or against the collective norm, even when the majority of the people believes in it, when a faction, or 

a group within a larger group that has different ideas and opinions than the rest of the group

is also in charge of deciding the collective social norms by which a given population will abide. 

These factions are ruled by people who are influential and powerful, whether they represent the interests and beliefs of the majority or not. They can be anybody: book editors, politicians, actors, community representatives, artists.

As long as these people hold the power to influence with what they write or say, they may APPEAR to be the majority, when in fact they are just have a greater influence than members of the majority. As such, their publications, speeches, books, and laws can appear to be "the rule." 

This is how the beliefs of the majority, or "half plus" of the population, may still be considered deviant. If the smaller group is more influential and has the power of laying down the law, they can call out the majority as "wrong" and call themselves and their agendas "correct." Sadly, the same majority that becomes disenfranchised by the influential faction also allows this to happen. 

Now, on a side note, let's be very careful with the word "deviant." A deviant is not necessarily a bad person, or someone who is rebellious or challenging. For all I know, I am a deviant because I celebrate Day of the Dead, instead of Halloween, in a country where Halloween is the second most awaited celebration. 

A deviant is simply someone who thinks or acts in a way that detours, or deviates, from the norms that those factions have established as rules. 

Again, since rules and norms are actually determined by SMALL groups, and not by the majority of the population, celebrities such as Ben and Jerry, of the ice cream fame, consider that maybe the deviants are those who make the norms, being that they are the smaller fragment of the population, in terms of numbers. That, however, is another story. Yet, it helps us see how this issue with who establishes the rules can be seen from different perspectives. 

Therefore, the issue of influence can happen with any common belief, from creationism, to the paranormal, to who would make the best US President, to who killed JFK. As long as a small, powerful group holds the reigns of public opinion and social influence, their thoughts will SEEM to be as "normative" when, in fact, they are not. As such, the beliefs of the majority will be considered deviant.

What characters are in "The Fly" by Katherine Mansfield?

"The Fly" by Katherine Mansfield is a short story that was published in 1922. It is a lonely and sad story in general, but those feelings are compounded by the story's small cast of characters.  

The story has only two major characters in it, and only one of those two characters is given a proper name.  

Mr. Woodifield is an old man in declining health, and the story begins with him visiting the office of his boss, the other main character.  

Most of the story is about Mr. Woodifield's boss. He is a financially well-off character, but an emotional wreck. The main cause of that is because his son died in World War I six years earlier. 

The remaining characters are quite minor:  

Macey is the office clerk. 

Reggie is Mr. Woodifield's dead son.

Gertrude is one of Mr. Woodifield's daughters. The other daughter is not named.  

The fly that the boss tortures and kills is the final character. 

Do you think Belgium’s compensation structure for employee sick leave is too generous? If so, what could better compensation involve?

Belgium's employee sick leave program allows workers to take a great deal of sick leave, or even unlimited sick leave. One study, reported in "Belgians Take Lots of Sick Leave, And Why Not, They're Depressed" in the Wall Street Journal on January 9, 2009, showed that Belgian government employees in some departments had an average of 35 sick days per year (the national rate was half that). The U.S. average of sick days per year is 4.5, and the European average is 11.3 days. Sick days in Europe cause a loss of 1.3% to GDP (Gross Domestic Product). In Belgium, employers pay for sick leave for 30 days, and then, generally, government insurance pays for as long as the employees need it. While people pay for these benefits through very high taxes, it could be argued that mandated paid sick leave can leave workers less-than-motivated. 

Some of the reforms mentioned in the Wall Street Journal article include having government workers check on sick employees at home to see how they are. In this way, they can encourage workers who are functional to return to work, or they can encourage people with mental health issues to get the help they need. However, given Belgium's generous sick leave policies, it is likely that high rates of absenteeism will remain a problem unless workers are subject to more rigorous medical exams or unless their pay starts to decline a great deal after a period in which they don't work. 

What did Baudelaire mean when he wrote that modernity refers to the ephemeral, the fugitive, or the contingent?

The full quotation to which you are referring is taken from Charles Baudelaire's "The Painter of Modern Life." It reads:

By ‘modernity’ I mean the ephemeral, the fugitive, the contingent, the half of art whose other half is the eternal and immutable…

The statement describes the work of Constantin Guys, who is referenced in Baudelaire's essay simply as "Monsieur G." Guys (December 3, 1802 – December 13, 1892) was a journalist and illustrator best known for his reporting on the Crimean War. The essay, while overtly focusing on the work of Guys, also defends the work of Impressionist and Symbolist painters that Baudelaire admired.

In this essay, Baudelaire is arguing that "modern" art must move behind the classical ideals of grandeur and timelessness to capture the fleeting impressions of everyday life, even at its most squalid. Unlike the Naturalists, he is not arguing for realism so much as artistic vision, which he says is transformative, creating beauty from fleeting impressions. He is also arguing for casting off the straight jacket of artistic tradition and embracing the modern world, rather than imitating ancient models. 

Guys' work, in its simple technique and response to the details of immediate experience, represents Baudelaire's ideal of the flâneur, strolling through the city and observing its varied inhabitants. 

In Oscar Wilde's "The Canterville Ghost," what plans does the ghost make to avenge the indifference towards his presence?

The Canterville ghost develops a number of plans to avenge the indifference of the Otis family. In Chapter Three, for example, the ghost attempts to wear an antique suit of armour, an item which he is intensely proud of because he wore it in a tournament when he was alive. Unfortunately, this attempt fails to produce any fear among the members of the Otis family and causes the ghost nothing but embarrassment.

Later in this chapter, he develops another plan to frighten the family. This time, he will attack Washington Otis, who is responsible for removing the blood-stain, frighten Mrs. Otis by whispering in her ear and then appear as the character of "Dumb Daniel" before the twins. Once again, however, the ghost's plan is a failure and he instead comes face-to-face with "Ye Otis Ghost," a 'ghost' of Washington's creation.

Despite his plans, the ghost cannot overcome the indifference of the Otis family and this contributes directly to his decision to leave Canterville Chase and to rest eternally in the Garden of Death. 

Magnussen, L., Ehiri, J., and Jolly, P. (2004). Comprehensive versus Selective Primary Health Care: Lessons For Global Health Policy (Links to an...

This article looks at the movement that began in the 1970s in developing countries to provide healthcare for everyone. This model, which came out of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) at the International Conference on Primary Health Care in Alma Ata, Kazakhstan, in 1978, looked at health as more than just the absence of disease but as physical, mental, and social wellbeing. The plan was also to look at political, social, and economic causes of poor health and to examine how poverty and political instability affect health.

In retrospect, some scholars consider this initiative to have been a failure. Others acknowledge that while there were some successes in some countries such as Cuba, the model was never fully implemented. The article looks at the shortcomings of this selective primary health care model, including its unmet need to address the role of social justice and social equity in healthcare delivery. However, the model has had some successes, such as reducing infant mortality by 25% from 1980 to 1993. The authors recommend that healthcare practitioners work with local governments to improve health outcomes, that healthcare needs come from a grassroots approach, and that infrastructure in developing countries be improved. It is surprising that developing countries are still using a model that emphasizes disease eradication rather than promoting overall wellness in this day and age. 

Are there any objects, locations, or events that recur multiple times throughout Of Mice and Men? What do these repeated elements suggest about the...

John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men is a tightly-structured work; its six chapters serve as six scenes which are paired to make three acts. The pattern of these scenes is balanced and composed to support both the development of plot and themes.

There are a fairly small number of characters in Of Mice and Men, and the action takes place mostly on the ranch. Each chapter has entrances and rising action at the beginning. As the scene ends, the action falls and characters exit.

This balance of scenes occurs as the beginning and final scenes are set in the clearing outside of Soledad. Then the middle four scenes are paired with one another in sharing the same settings of the bunkhouse (Scenes 2 and 3), and the barn (Scenes 4 and 5). George and Lennie's dream to own their own land is mentioned in every chapter.

• Scenes One and Six

In both these scenes, there is an incident in which Lennie unintentionally harms a young woman. Because he risks being jailed if caught, he must flee for his own safety.

In Scene One, George and Lennie enter the clearing after fleeing their jobs in a town named Weed. They camp in the clearing for the night prior to going to work on the ranch a few miles away so they can rest one night before they begin hard labor. While they camp, George and Lennie recite their plans and dream of owning a small ranch. Also, George advises Lennie,

"Well, look. Lennie—if you jus' happen to get in trouble like you always done before, I want you to come right here an' hide in the brush."

"Hide in the brush," said Lennie slowly.

In Scene Six, Lennie does hide near the clearing where he and George camped earlier. He waits for George obediently, but is worried because he knows he has done "a bad thing."
When George arrives, the child-like Lennie asks if George is going to scold him like he has before. He repeats George's words from Scene One, during which George said if he lived alone he could do other things and have a girl. George is amazed Lennie can remember such things while still committing the same dangerous acts as though he remembers nothing.

Once more, George recites their dream for Lennie before killing him so he is not caged like an animal.

•  Scenes Two and Three

In these paired scenes, many of the conflicts introduced into the action and dialogues take place in the bunkhouse.

In Scene Two, George and Lennie arrive and George converses with the old swamper Candy, who informs him about some of the men. Then, Curley enters in a belligerent manner and appears antagonistic toward Lennie. After he leaves, George advises Lennie to stay away from Curley, but if Curley hits Lennie first, George instructs Lennie to "let 'im have it."

Shortly after this incident, Curley's wife stands seductively in the doorway and speaks in a playful manner. When Slim, the "jerkline skinner" enters, she pretends she is looking for Curley and slips away. After she departs, George warns Lennie to avoid her because she is "jail-bait."

In Scene Three, more characters are introduced. Slim, a tall man with "god-like eyes," enters the bunkhouse and talks warmly with George while they play cards. This is Slim, who invites George's confidence, prompting George to reveal a lot about himself and Lennie. Soon, a brutish Carlson enters; he offers to shoot Candy's old dog and companion, who is arthritic and smelly. As consolation, Slim offers Candy one of the puppies his dog has recently whelped. He also remarks,

"That dog ain't no good to himself. I wisht somebody'd shoot me if I got old an' a cripple."

Candy looked helplessly at him, for Slim's opinions were law. "Maybe it'd hurt him. . . I don't mind takin' care of him."

Carlson insists, though, saying one bullet will instantly and painlessly kill the dog. Looking around, Candy receives no support from any one; as a result, he must surrender his dog. This incident foreshadows what happens in Scene Six.
 
Later on, Curley returns to the bunkhouse and is confrontational with Lennie, who responds by severely damaging Curley's hand. 

Later, there is another suggestion of George and Lennie's dream that is mentioned in Scene One when George tells Whit that he and Lennie are going to "put up a stake." After some time, Lennie asks George to repeat the dream speech and Candy overhears them. He offers to contribute $300 (his compensation for losing his hand in a machine) if George will let him join them. At this point, George begins to believe the ranch may be a real possibility.

• Scenes Four and Five

More character development occurs in these scenes. New conflicts are introduced. These conflicts underscore the theme of loneliness and alienation. Also, there is the theme of the small, powerless man in a large world, illustrated by the character of Crooks.

In Scene Four, Lennie makes another visit into the barn to pet the little puppy Slim gave him, and this time he sees Crooks in his room. Because he is black, Crooks must live alone and is not allowed in the bunkhouse. Realizing that Lennie is slow, Crooks talks to him and even teases him that George will not return. When Lennie becomes angry, Crooks fears his strength and stops his teasing. Then, he actually converses with Lennie because he is glad to have someone with whom he can talk. Lennie speaks of the dream of a ranch, but Crooks ignores his ramblings.

Soon after, Candy enters and mentions to Lennie that he has been calculating about the rabbits. Crooks asks what they are talking about. He responds to their dream cynically, but Crooks asks if he can live and work with them when Candy says the money is already in the bank. 

Curley's wife makes another entrance. Again, she causes conflict and scoffs at the men's hope for a little ranch. She figures out Lennie is the one who damaged Curley's hand. After arguments, she exits, as do Lennie and Candy.

In Scene Five, Lennie is again in the barn. This time, he sits by a packing case in which his puppy lies dead. Curley's wife enters and talks to Lennie. When she discovers the puppy is dead, she consoles Lennie by saying it was just a mutt and he can get another one. Lennie worries George will no longer let him tend the rabbits on the ranch. He also tells her he will be in trouble with George if he talks to her.

Curley's wife is so lonely that she continues to talk about her life history and her desires. Unable to follow all she says, Lennie begins to talk about the dream of owning a ranch and petting soft things. Curley's wife laughs at him and tells him he is like a child. Her impression of his childishness deceives her, however, as she forgets about his massive strength. Like the mouse of the first scene, Curley's wife has her hair petted too hard and Lennie accidentally breaks her neck when she struggles.

Soon, George and old Candy discover what Lennie has done and know the dream of a ranch is destroyed.

Shortly thereafter, Slim, Curley, and Carlson enter the barn. Carlson says he cannot find his Luger (gun). All the men hurry out quickly because Curley and Carlson want to shoot Lennie.

Why did Keller compare the climbing roses of her greenhouse with the asphodels of God's garden?

Keller was long fascinated with nature, and she found refuge in the natural world before and after the illness that made her blind and deaf as a young child. She writes that after she had a tantrum as a baby (before her illness), "I went to find comfort and to hide my hot face in the cool leaves and grass." She writes that she never found in the greenhouses of the North the beautiful kinds of climbing roses that grew in her house in Alabama. She writes, "I could not help wondering if they did not resemble the asphodels of God's garden." Homer's The Odyssey describes the afterworld as being covered in asphodel flowers. For example, Achilles's ghost walks across a field of asphodels to the afterworld. Keller's comparison implies that her roses were heavenly in appearance and scent. They are a cherished memory of the period of her childhood when she had sight.  

Sentence transformation. How can I make this sentence simpler? United we stand; divided we fall.

"United we stand; divided we fall." 

• In a simpler way: If we unite and work together, we will succeed; if we divide and act separately, we will fail.
  

The general meaning of this sentence:

If we unite, either physically or in purpose, we will be strong and safe and hold on to what we have. If we are divided in purpose or opinion, we will lose whatever advantages that we have.

______________

• Here is the history of the original sentence:

"United we stand; divided we fall" is a line from one of Aesop's Fables that is about a lion who tries to attack four oxen that graze in a certain field. These oxen are wary of the lion and whenever they see him, they turn so that from whichever direction he comes and approaches them, he will face the horns of at least one of them so they can make him run away.

Unfortunately, the oxen began to grumble among themselves and they later argue hotly. So, each ox goes off in a different direction to gaze. Then, when the lion sees them, he attacks them individually, and one by one, they are all killed.

How do the characters Claudio and Benedick compare and contrast in Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing?

In Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, one major difference between Claudio and Benedick is that Claudio is depicted as a much more typical hero. He is characterized as valiant, handsome, and as falling in love easily with Hero. In contrast, Benedick, though equally valiant in the war they have just returned from, claims to be a "professed tyrant" of women (1.1.155). He claims to despise women and objects to the idea of marriage. He continues to illustrate his claim when, in the first scene, he keeps protesting against Hero being worthy of Claudio's love, or of any man's love. He further illustrates his claim by swearing he shall forever live as a bachelor.

Yet, Benedick shares more similarities with Claudio when it comes to matters of the heart than he cares to admit. While Benedick protests against love and marriage, the reality is that he easily sees Beatrice as beautiful, even more beautiful than Hero, is easily hurt by her when at the masquerade ball she calls him the "prince's jester; a very dull fool" (2.1.122), and very quickly admits he loves her when he is led to believe she loves him. Therefore, as the play progresses, Benedick proves to be just as much of a lover as Claudio.

But one more difference between them that remains constant throughout the play is that Claudio proves to be very distrusting of others, and his distrusting nature makes him easily feel jealous. We first see him feel jealous when Don John easily tricks Claudio into believing Don Pedro is courting Hero for himself. His next and most dangerous bout of jealousy is stirred when Don John tricks him into believing Hero is not a virtuous bride. In contrast, when Claudio disgraces Hero on their wedding day, Benedick is very quick to believe that Claudio wrongly accused Hero. He is also quick to see that Don John purposefully misled Claudio into believing Hero was unfaithful. Benedick's ability to see what really happened and to challenge his dear friend saves the day.

How does a toaster work?

Before the invention of the electric toaster, people had to use fire to make their toast. They did so by holding bread near a fire using a poker, putting bread under the fire-broiler of an oven, or trapping some bread in a little cage that was put close to the fire and rotated for even toasting on both sides.

Modern, electric toasters save us some time in making toast and help to minimize burning on both the bread and ourselves! What we've lost in the process is the ability to watch our bread transform as it is toasting. So what's really going on in there?

Inside of electric toasters, electric energy is converted into thermal energy. Coils of wire or plates of metal line the inside of the toaster. Special kinds of metal with high "resistance" are used because energy passes through these more slowly, causing the wire or plate metal to heat up. As heat radiates from the electrified metal, it begins to caramelize some of the sugars in the bread. As sugars in the bread caramelize, their flavor and color changes. Caramelization is responsible for most of the flavors we find pleasing in foods, even when there's no caramel involved!

In sum, we put bread into the toaster, where it is heated up and some of the sugars contained in the wheat become caramelized! 

What was Canada's role in World War II?

Canada's role during World War II was closely tied to Britain.  Canada is part of the British Commonwealth.  At the start of the war, Canada had less than 10,000 active military forces, and about 50,000 men who served in the reserves.  The British military had over 200,000 soldiers.  In 1939, Britain was threatened due to its proximity to Germany.  Canada seemed separated because of the expanse of the Atlantic Ocean.  This eventually changed as German submarines began moving into Canadian waters as the war went on.

By the time the war was over, Canada's military had grown substantially.  Canada even served as a training location for Allied pilots.  The Nova Scotian city of Halifax was an important location for warships and military bases.  Over one million Canadians served in the military during the war, and their efforts helped the Allied powers in their fight against the Axis powers.

On the home front, manufacturing in Canada helped to provide much needed supplies to Europe.  Weaponry and war vehicles were produced and shipped overseas.

In The Reluctant Fundamentalist, is Changez anti-American or a not an anti-American?

I think that Changez is anti-American in The Reluctant Fundamentalist.

Changez feels that America is far different from the nation he initially adored.  America's direction following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 profoundly impacts him.  He is taken back with the way "that America was able to wreak such havoc in the world with so few apparent consequences at home.”  Changez feels that American identity is decidedly against people like him.  As a result of feeling culturally displaced, he begins to embrace anti-American tendencies.  As a professor in Lahore, he teaches courses that question America's role in the world and is arrested for his participation in an anti-American protest.  It is clear that his political leanings do not support America.

At the end of the novel, it is unclear if Changez is a terrorist.  However, it is clear that Changez has "changed" in his attitudes towards America.  He embraces anti-American positions, espousing beliefs against a country that he used to passionately support.  Hamid uses Changez's change to show the dangers of excluding voices.  Changez's narrative proves how American success is only possible when all voices are taken into account. When we see Changez, we understand that voices silenced today could come back to harm us tomorrow.

What, if any, laws do you think the United States should pass to protect personal information? Why? Should some personal information be more...

According to ARMA International, a professional organization for information governance workers, business and government officials have to follow increasingly complex rules to keep the data of their customers and clients safe. Personal data is compromised at alarmingly high rates. For example, according to the ARMA 2008 report "Requirements for Personal Information Protection, Part 1: U.S. Federal Law," more than 79 million records were compromised in 2007 (Identity Theft Resource Center). This report states that the "most overused" personal information is people's Social Security Number. Federal laws such as the 1974 Privacy Act state that privacy is a personal and fundamental right given in the Constitution, so this is incredibly problematic.

Given the high rate at which personal information is compromised and citizens' rights to privacy, the United States should pass additional laws to protect personal information. For example, employers or entities granting loans can access private information in credit reports. In addition, while the federal government grants citizens a right to privacy, states, with the exception of California, do not grant citizens the same rights. Therefore, state laws need to recognize an individual's right to privacy. 

Personal information related to one's health deserves particular protection because, if someone has damaging health information, it can be used against them in prejudicial ways, such as in employment, housing, loans, or education decisions. While The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) passed in 1996, this law does not always protect people's personal health information because people have to access this information with identifiers such as their Social Security Numbers. Therefore, people's health information is stored alongside other personal information. At the very least, patients should be given a new identifier to access their health information, and this data should not be stored with one's Social Security Number.

How does Act III of Romeo and Juliet structurally resemble Act I, Scene 1?

Both Act I, Scene 1, and Act III begin with a violent meeting between the Capulet and Montague families. In Act I, some low-level Capulets run into Benvolio and two other Montague men, and the Capulets purposely bait the Montagues into fighting. It's the same in Act III, when Tybalt and his cohorts go looking for Romeo so Tybalt can fight him. In both situations, Benvolio serves as a voice of reason and peace (which helps explain the "ben" root of his name, which means "good"), contrasting with Tybalt's sheer aggression and meanness (which helps to explain the similarity between his name and the word "tyrant").  In both cases, the prince intervenes and imposes punishments he hopes will prevent further violence in the community. In Act I, he makes Lords Montague and Capulet responsible for any further altercations between their families, and in Act III, he banishes Romeo after he murders Tybalt.

In what ways does the match between Titania and Bottom mock typical portrayals of romantic love?

In Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Oberon orders Puck to give Titania a love potion that will make her fall in love with the first thing she sees. Unfortunately for Titania, the first thing she sees is Bottom, who has recently been given the head of donkey. So begins a hilarious romance, with the bewitched Titania obsessing over the hideous Bottom, who basks in the (surely unexpected) attention with unconcealed glee. This match mocks stereotypical portrayals of romantic love by revealing the ridiculous nature of obsessive adoration.

To understand this idea a little better, let's compare Titania and Bottom with Romeo and Juliet. The latter couple is commonly revered as the ultimate example of romantic love, as their mutual obsession for one another is delivered in poetic, lyrical fashion. Often, audiences want to put Romeo and Juliet's obsession for one another on a pedestal, calling it the quintessential representation of romance. 

The match between Titania and Bottom invites us to reconsider our idealistic ideas about romantic love. Rather than rendering Titania and Bottom's "relationship" in lyrical terms, Shakespeare treats us to the hilarious image of a dignified fairy queen doting on a bumbling "rude mechanical" with neither good looks nor poetry at his disposal. In doing so, Shakespeare shatters the illusions regarding romantic love supported by idealistic couples like Romeo and Juliet. Romantic love, Shakespeare suggests, often has nothing to with attractive people preaching poetry to one another. Rather, it often involves a misguided obsession that fails to account for the absurd reality of the relationship.       

What do we learn about where Mrs. Jones lives in "Thank You, M'am" by Langston Hughes?

In "Thank You, M'am," we learn that Mrs. Jones's home is a modest one.

When Mrs. Jones drags Roger to her home, she is not taking him to an opulent mansion.  Hughes gives us specific details about how her home reflects a limited economic condition.  Mrs. Jones lives in a house with other "roomers."  When Roger hears them laughing, he knows that "they were not alone."  Roger notices the home's "large kitchenette furnished room at the rear of the house."  There is a day-bed where Mrs. Jones talks to Roger about her life of economic limitation.  We are struck by the intimate, modest setting that contains a "gas plate and an icebox."  Roger does not wash his face in a large bathroom, but rather at a sink.   

Mrs. Jones' home bolsters her lesson to Roger.  Mrs. Jones emphasizes how Roger should reject immorality.  His poverty does not justify such behavior.  As Mrs. Jones reprimands Roger for stealing, she is speaking from the perspective of economic challenge.  If Mrs. Jones's home were a palace that reflected vast sums of wealth, her lesson of not needing to steal to get money would ring hollow.  However, when Roger sees where she lives, it is clear that she shares some common experience with him. He knows that she knows a life of financial limitation.  As a result, he can understand her moral instruction.

What is an example of: A is a subset of B and B is a subset C, but C is not a subset of A?

Hello!

Actually, such a situation is typical. If `A` is a subset of `B` and `B` is a subset of `C,` then `A` is a subset of `C` (any element of `A` is an element of `B` and thus is an element of `C`).

Therefore for `C` to be a subset of `A,` `A` and `C` must coincide. And for `C` not to be a subset of `A` it is sufficient that `B` has at least one extra element compared to `A,` or `C`  has at least one extra element compared to `B.` This is easy to achieve.

For example, let `A = {1},` `B = {1,2}` and `C={1,2,3}.` Then all the conditions are satisfied: `A sub B sub C,`  but not `C sub A.`

Or `A = NN,` `B = ZZ,` `C = RR.`

In what way does Duke Theseus play a very crucial role in the lives of many of the characters in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, though he...

In Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Duke Theseus most significantly influences the lives of the four Athenian lovers, Hermia, Lysander, Helena, and Demetrius.

In the opening scene, Duke Theseus expresses doubt that Egeus is making the correct decision in forcing his daughter Hermia to marry Demetrius upon punishment of death or exile. He expresses this doubt in response to Lysander's protests that he is just as wealthy as Demetrius, maybe wealthier, and that Demetrius is unfaithful. We observe Lysander accuse Demetrius of unfaithfulness in the following:

Demetrius, I'll avouch it to his head,
Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena,
And won her soul; and she, sweet lady, dotes,
Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry,
Upon this spotted and inconstant man. (1.1.106-10)

Upon hearing Lysander's accusation against Demetrius of unfaithfulness, Duke Theseus expresses his doubt in the rightness of the match when he replies, "I must confess that I have heard so much, / And with Demetrius thought to have spoke thereof" (111-12).
He then takes Egeus and Demetrius aside to speak with them privately, probably to dissuade them from pursuing the match.

Therefore, by the time we reach act 4, scene 1, Duke Theseus is very willing to overrule Egeus's decision to force his daughter into marriage, and it his willingness to overrule Egeus that significantly influences the lives of the two Athenian couples. Theseus overrules Egeus's command the moment Theseus hears Demetrius explain that he is now in love with Helena, which Theseus believes is morally correct. Once he overrules Egeus's command to his daughter, he grants both couples permission to be married in the temple alongside himself and Hippolyta, as we see in the following:

Egeus, I will overbear your will;
For in the temple by and by with us
These couples shall eternally be knit. (4.1.176-78)

By permitting Hermia to marry Lysander and Demetrius to marry Helena, Theseus is significantly influencing their lives, especially by preserving the lives of Hermia and Lysander.