How was much money stolen the night of Karen's and Anethe's murder?

I will assume this question pertains to the so-called Smuttynose Murders, which took place on Smuttynose Island (off the coast of New Hampshire) in 1973.
On this evening, three women—Maren Hontvet, Karen Christensen (who were sisters), and their sister-in-law Anethe Christensen—were staying alone in a house while their husbands were out fishing. It was a cold evening in March, and the alleged murderer arrived in a rowboat stolen from the harbor in Portsmouth.
The evidence points to one Louis Wagner, who had worked in the service of the Hontvets, who themselves came from Norway in 1866 (Wagner helped work on Mathew Hontvet’s fishing boat in exchange for room and board).
On the evening of the murder, Karen was sleeping in the kitchen for the night—as she normally lived on a neighboring island where she was employed. It was Karen who was first accosted by the intruder who beat her with a chair in the kitchen. Maren saw this, and tried to save Anethe by hiding her behind a bolted door; however, the murderer broke the door down and killed Anethe with an axe. Maren, unable to help a crippled Karen, escaped by jumping out of a window and hiding behind a rock until the following dawn. The intruder then strangled Karen.

The circumstantial evidence incriminating Wagner was quite complicated; he had been asked by Mathew Hontvet and his family members to help them pick up fishing bait in Portsmouth on the day of the murder, and, when this shipment was delayed, Wagner would therefore have known that the women would be home alone.

Additionally, Karen’s purse with $15 in it was never recovered from the house, and, having returned to Portsmouth the following day (where Wagner lived and had supposedly stolen the rowboat), Wagner reportedly made purchases totaling $15. The household money was not stolen, though Wagner likely knew where it was kept.

Did Jefferson expand the empire for liberty?

The Louisiana Purchase was an enormous expansion of the territory of the United States. It was ironic that Jefferson, a man who believed in limited government, took the action of acquiring this land from France. There are two possible answers to your question regarding liberty.
First, we can, as with the results of the Mexican war forty-five years later, conclude that "liberty" was favored by the acquisition of territory for the U.S., given our democratic system of government--which did not exist in France and French territories at that time. Obviously, the larger the U.S., the more people eventually would have the opportunity to live under a democratic government.
The second possible answer, however, is a negative one. Unfortunately and tragically, much of the Louisiana territory was added to the U.S. as slave states. It is even possible that this was Jefferson's intention. And obviously, the Native Americans were adversely affected by the huge westward wave of settlers who eventually populated this territory.
Throughout his entire career, Jefferson spoke and wrote against slavery, but remained a practitioner of it. His entire persona was one of self-contradiction, not only with regard to the slavery issue but the general concept of liberty. During the French Revolution he resisted accepting that the movement had deteriorated into a tyranny, despite the reports coming to him from his envoy in Paris, William Short. As Secretary of State, Jefferson was part of Washington's first-term administration, but took steps to undermine Washington's policies. Jefferson's heritage for the U.S. is a mixed one. On the positive side, he was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and, along with others, in the creation of the Virginia state government he spearheaded the elements that eventually were central to the Constitution of the U.S. But on the issues of race and slavery, he was not in the forefront of enlightened thought, to say the least, and these contradictions are relevant to our evaluation of Jefferson's enlargement of U.S. territory. Additionally, though Jefferson expressed sympathy for the indigenous Americans, his policies as President did nothing to prevent the encroachment of their land by settlers, which was accelerated by the acquisition of the Louisiana Territory.

What can you tell about Kreb's goals and aspirations from the way he spends his time?

While Krebs was abroad serving in WW1, his previous childhood experiences and days at a Methodist college were swept away by violence and horror. His indifference to goals and aspirations reflect his emotional and spiritual numbness. Meanwhile, the world he left has barely changed, or only changed superficially, and Krebs can't gain traction in trying to fit in -- if he even cares to. His lethargy is considered unproductive and immoral by his mother, who just wants him to get a job and wed. He declines. He lacks physical and emotional energy to pursue employment or love. Krebs has worn out his welcome with friends and family, who have heard all his inflated war stories and expect him to get along. Now he hardly speaks to anyone. Today's readers may consider that Krebs suffers from PTSD or is shell- shocked. But his inertia is far more complex.

As the story opens, the narrator describes Krebs' routine:

...he was sleeping late in bed, getting up to walk down town to the library to get a book, eating lunch at home, reading on the front porch until he became bored and then walking down through the town to spend the hottest hours of the day in the cool dark of the pool room.

On a day-to-day basis, it is fair to say that Krebs' existence consists of killing time. He is not being productive, nor is he attempting to reintegrate into small town, Oklahoma society. His goals and aspirations might be to simply avoid challenging himself physically, intellectually, or socially. Hemingway's narrator implies that Krebs has been so psychologically damaged by his war experiences that he is now adrift, rejecting the beliefs and values of the people who surround him.
However, Krebs enjoys reading books about the war. It seems that he wants to understand the political forces that created it and the big picture of how it was fought, something that he could not concern himself with while on the front. His goal might then be to come to terms with what WWI meant to the world and the meaning his own role carried.

What is the tone for chapter 28?

There are actually twenty-four chapters in the book. And in the final chapter—which I assume is the one you're referring to—the general mood is one of hope and optimism. After what seems like an eternity, Malala has finally been reunited with her parents. It's an emotional reunion, where the joy of Malala's parents is mixed with sadness at the sight of her facial injuries. Despite all the intensive surgery and physiotherapy she's received, Malala still lacks complete mobility in her face, making her unable to smile properly. But the note of optimism is never far away. The Taliban may have taken away Malala's smile, but they have not taken away her life or her soul. She's still the same person she always was, only this time stronger and more determined.
As the book ends, Malala is making great progress in her recovery and is already looking forward to the day when she can return to her native Pakistan. She gives thanks to God for all that he's given her, and for giving strength to the medical staff who worked so tirelessly to save her life and restore her back to health. Malala knows that there are many great challenges ahead, but she's more confident than ever that she can meet them. What hasn't killed her has made her stronger.

Discuss the Mormon trail 1840–1860.

What became known as the Mormon Trail is a route that travelers west took from Illinois to modem Utah. This migration contributed to the growth of Salt Lake City.
The association of the route with Mormons begins after 1844, when Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was killed. As their Nauvoo, Illinois location seemed dangerous, they decided to relocate. Led by Brigham Young, who succeeded Smith, they began the move in 1846.
Ultimately, thousands of Mormons used the route along established trails, setting up winter camps along the way. The route went through Iowa, Nebraska, and Wyoming, where it largely followed the primary route, the Oregon Trail. Splitting to turn south, it continued to the outpost on the Great Salt Lake.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mormon-Trail

Can the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution be removed?

Amendments to the United States Constitution cannot be removed, but they can be repealed by adding another amendment. However, it is a difficult process to get a new amendment added, especially when the proposed amendment repeals something that many Americans care passionately about.
There are two ways that an amendment can be added to the Constitution. One is to have Congress propose it, but they need to have at least two-thirds majority vote in the House and in the Senate. A second way is for the two-thirds of state legislatures to convene for a constitutional convention. This would require 34 states. After either one of these occurs, three-quarters of the states, which equates to thirty-eight states, would have to approve the amendment.
To show how difficult this is, a constitutional convention has never approved a new amendment, and only 27 amendments have been added since the Constitution was ratified over 230 years ago. The only amendment that was ever repealed was the 18th amendment, which prohibited the making, transporting, and sale of alcohol.

What does Anne Sullivan do to improve Helen's reading skills in The Story of My Life?

Helen Keller devotes an entire chapter in her memoir—chapter 7—to learning to read.
She explains that Miss Sullivan first gave her word cards. Each card had a word on it in raised letters. Helen would connect the word to an object and then string the words together to make sentences. She would also place the correct object on or by the card with the word printed on it. For example, if she was writing a sentence with the word doll, she would place a doll by the card printed with the word doll. This helped to reinforce her learning—and she enjoyed the process.
After learning enough words, Helen began with a simple book called Reader for Beginners. At this point, she loved both reading and reading games, and all of it was more like play than work to her. If Helen liked something, such as peaches, Miss Sullivan would find a story or poem about it. The chief way Miss Sullivan helped Helen improve her reading was to make it joyful for her.
Helen particularly loved to learn outdoors, so Miss Sullivan would often take her reading lessons and books outside, which is where she also learned about science and geography.

Before Helen could learn to read, Anne Sullivan first had to teach her the concept of language and letters. She did this by spelling into the child's hand the letters of words, and then putting Helen in contact with whatever the word represented, be it "doll" or "water." Once Helen had become adept at communicating in this fashion, she began to realize that she, too, could spell out words back into Miss Sullivan's hand.
As soon as Helen began to do this, Miss Sullivan began to teach her to read. She would do this by giving Helen pieces of cardboard with words printed on them in raised letters. These letters matched the letters that were spelled into her hand, and Helen would place the pieces of cardboard onto the things they represented. Miss Sullivan made this game more interesting by taking Helen outdoors to learn the names of things there. After this, it was easier for Helen to transition to reading books with raised letters.

Karl Marx and modern communism is a topic I am writing on, and so far this is what I have for a thesis: Marx's views and arguments that capitalism exploits working people, when re-examined in today society, do not account for the high standard of living enjoyed by a great many workers around the world, one can say economic development is best explained only by Marx labour theory of value or David Ricardo's Theory of Comparative Advantage I think it is both and thirdly, in our current time communism could never work globally but can be successful in one country. Is my thesis solid for an essay? And what could be counterarguments for each of the three arguments listed in my thesis?

This is a good start but focus on one specific point. Marxist theory is a lengthy body of thought, so don’t try to discuss all of it (or even most of it). A narrow but well-argued thesis is better than a broad one that touches on a lot of topics but can’t back up its claims.
Try selecting one aspect of Marxist theory and describe why it is not realistic. It could be Marx’s deterministic view of history, or how he describes humanity in very general terms without accounting for cultural differences between people. You can use real world examples to support your claim.
You could also select one successful communist country and discuss how its communist system aligns or deviates from Marx’s theories. It is possible that a form of communism works well but not necessarily as Marx imagined it. Alternatively, you might find one common theme in a selected group of “failed” or “failing” communist countries. Your argument would then be about a specific aspect of communism and you’d support it using those countries as examples. Some possible themes might be human rights abuses or the comparatively slower rate of technological advances. Again, remember to stick to one aspect of Marxism and use a few powerful examples rather than several weak ones.
It seems like you are also defining “success” solely according to workers’ standard of living. Your essay will need to explain why that definition of success is valid on its own (even if it seems obvious to you). One of the objections to your definition is that an increased standard of living does not necessarily mean that workers are engaged in the political process. It may mean workers have enough to eat or can purchase luxuries like a nice car, but both Marx and later Marxist thinkers such as Althusser and Gramsci would argue that these are simply distractions that allow a capitalist elite to maintain real power.
Finally, make sure to proofread your writing. This thesis statement had some grammatical errors that will only lessen the impact of your statements.

For a single essay, it is usually recommended to have a relatively narrow scope. Karl Marx was an expansive thinker and a prolific writer, so it might be useful to identify the specific works and theories from them that you plan to explore.
Similarly, specifying the time period you wish to consider will be important. Even if you limit the modern period you wish to investigate to the post-Soviet breakup, or about a thirty-year period, you will see numerous variations among nations that identify as Marxist-oriented. Even within a single country, such as Cuba, you will find numerous changes in policy and practice.
Global-scale theorizing, especially when it involves a negative proposition, is challenging to support with evidence. For an essay, two main points probably would suffice. The argument that communism could never work globally would be the most difficult to support of the three mentioned. It might be more useful to save it for a different essay and work with your refined version of the first two parts.
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/world/americas/castro-thanks-us-but-affirms-cubas-communist-rule.html

https://www.ushistory.org/gov/13b.asp

From which point of view is this story told?

The story of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea is told in the first person point of view, and also from a retrospective point of view. The narrator is a professor and a naturalist called Pierre Aronnax, and he is narrating a story which has already taken place. You can see that this is the point of view at the beginning of chapter two:

"At the period when these events took place, I had just returned from a scientific research in the disagreeable territory of Nebraska, in the United States."

Jules Verne chose for the story to be narrated from the point of view of a naturalist so that the reader would trust his account of events as reliable. He is, after all, an expert in matters of the sea. Having a retrospective narrator (a narrator telling a story that has already happened) allows Verne to build suspense. Arronax can tell us, in hindsight, that the story he is about to tell is wonderful and strange, which is a good way of hooking a reader into a story.

What is the language and style of the play The Way of the World by William Congreve?

The Way of the World by William Congreve is classified as a comedic play and features a great deal of satirical humor.
Even though the play discusses "the way of the world," featuring the horrible nature of some of the world's richest, the play's language is often whimsical and good-natured.
The play focuses on the differences in social classes in a world where people may exchange their morals and manners for riches and fame.
The comedy may be funny at times, but the topics are serious and a sad mirror of how life could be in Congreve's era and how it can sometimes still be today. From the various characters devising plots against others to the ongoing gossip that occurs between some of the richer characters and the use of terms such as "country bumpkins" and "fops" to describe certain characters, the humorous nature of the play should be easy to see.

What motivated the Spanish to conquer and colonize the Americas?

Why did the Spanish conquer and colonize the Americas? Young students are typically taught that "Gold, Glory, and God" led to the Spanish empire. But the real answer is probably more complex than that.
A prerequisite for Spanish exploration was the Renaissance. The Renaissance brought Europe out of the Middle Ages and into the modern era. Intellectual pursuits, including the study of geography, were valued. The Renaissance inculcated the Spanish with a curiosity of distant places. The Chinese, on the other hand, chose to eschew voyages of exploration as the Spanish made rapid strides.
Another factor that enabled Spain to establish an empire was its national unity. The Spanish kingdoms of Castile and Aragon were united in 1469. In 1492, the last Muslims on the Iberian Peninsula were subjugated. Because foreign voyages of exploration were so expensive, only a united kingdom could undertake them. By the end of the fifteenth century, a unified Spain was ready.
Trade was an extremely important motivation. East Asian trade had become valuable, and spices from that region were coveted by Europeans. Portugal and Spain sought sea routes to east Asia because overland trails were dominated by hostile Muslims. While Portugal gradually sailed around Africa, Spain decided to reach the East by going West; Christopher Columbus tried to reach Asia by sailing West.
The Spanish reached the Americas, not Asia. It took them years to realize this. In the meantime, they conquered the Aztec and Inca empires and stole huge amounts of gold and silver from the Indians. They killed, enslaved, or converted the Native Americans and built an empire which lasted for centuries.

Spain had three major motivations to conquer and colonize the New World of the Americas. These included the accumulation of wealth, winning the competition with other European powers for global dominance, and the conversion of Native Americans to Christianity.
By the late 15th century, it had become extremely difficult to travel overland to the lands of the East for lucrative trade. The Silk Road had become arduous and dangerous, with plentiful robbers and middlemen demanding taxes. The water route involved a long journey sailing south around southern Africa. Christopher Columbus proposed sailing due west to reach the lands of the East, shortening the distance and expense of the journey. Once the Spanish royalty realized that Columbus had set foot on entirely new lands, they sent mercenaries known as conquistadors who ruthlessly searched for and appropriated gold and other precious substances.
At this same time, Spain was in competition, especially with Portugal, to colonize newly discovered lands. The Portuguese empire spread to western Africa, western India, and eventually Brazil and some of the islands of the Caribbean. Spain, in turn, hastened to explore and colonize the Americas to claim as much territory as it could for its own empire.
The Spanish Crown was intensely interested in converting Native American populations to Catholicism and sent priests to the New World along with the conquistadors and colonists. However, native populations were usually subjugated and often enslaved. Although these priests witnessed and reported these atrocities, little was done to stop them. One priest in particular, Bartolome de Las Casas, wrote extensively about the treatment of Native Americans in the New World and criticized the encomienda system, which bound Native Americans to certain landowners. His protests and those of others had little effect in alleviating the misery of Native Americans oppressed by their Spanish conquerors.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/tudors/conquistadors_01.shtml

https://www.history.com/topics/exploration/christopher-columbus

https://www.legendsofamerica.com/spanish-explore/

The Spanish conquistadors were primarily motivated by three factors commonly referred to as the "3 G's." The three G's were gold, God, and glory.
First, we examine gold. The Spanish hoped that through conquest of the Americas they would greatly expand their wealth. Wealth through acquisition of gold would not only signify power to other European powers of the time (England, France, Portugal, etc.), but it would also serve to further strengthen Spain by providing them with the financial resources necessary to build up their military and fund future colonization ventures.
The second "G" would be God. The Spanish, and the other European powers of the time, felt it was necessary to spread Christianity to those who did not practice it. They believed that Christianity was a trait of civilized society. Their ethnocentric views regarding religion led them to believe that the natives in the Americas were not a complex and developed civilization, but rather a savage society in need of saving. The belief existed among the Spanish that it was a duty of theirs to convert the natives to Christianity. Conquering and converting the natives to Christianity was a central factor in encouraging Spanish conquest of the Americas, and in a way, it provided justification to them for everything that they would do in the process.
The last "G" is glory. At the time of Spanish conquest it was a desire of many men to be heroic military leaders. Military success could lead to rewards from the Spanish royalty and could lead to a greater status in society. By conquering the Americas, many of the Spanish conquistadors hoped that they would be rewarded and would be remembered as great warriors and heroes.
When looking at the motivations for the Spanish to conquer the Americas we notice that many of their motivations are similar to motivations of individuals and groups today. People today often undertake certain tasks or jobs for wealth (gold), religious or spiritual reasons (God), or fame/status (glory). It is interesting to make this comparison and realize that many of our motivations today are not far removed from those of the Spanish conquistadors of the 1500s.

In "The Fight" the focus is on Alice and Isaac. Describe their predicament.

Alice Greenwood and Isaac Jackson are a married couple. They play important roles in Dana’s time-travel quest to intervene for her ancestors; she meets Alice in more than one time period, as a child and as an adult. In the portion of “The Fight” when Dana enters the action, Isaac is fighting with Rufus, who has apparently raped Alice. Isaac, knowing he will be punished for beating a white man, has few options. He has already been in danger of being sold.
Alice has been a free woman of color, but Isaac is a slave. Dana promises not to reveal any information, sensing their plan to run away together, and offers to forge a safe-conduct pass. They do not accept this option, and later they are caught. Isaac is severely punished: his ears are cut off, causing him great pain and marking him for life. Alice loses her freedom, and Rufus buys her as his slave.

Why is it significant that the poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" is set in the winter on the darkest evening of the year?

By “the darkest evening of the year,” it is most likely that the speaker refers to the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year on which the evening would begin early. When it is snowing heavily, however, the moon and stars will be hidden, so it could be a different night.
Riding in the dark, the speaker will not easily see the path and the woods beyond also are not lighted; in addition to being “dark and deep,” they seem lovely to the speaker. The snow both obscures any light from the sky and provides the only apparent light through its white or downy flakes. The speaker stops briefly to watch the woods “fill up” with this whiteness. Metaphorically, this phrase is often likened to despair or a spiritual “dark night of the soul”; the snow, by extension, would be hope or salvation.

What is the reaction after Elizabeth goes to Netherfield?

Elizabeth Bennett sets off to Netherfield Park in chapter 7 of Jane Austen's classic Pride and Prejudice, after receiving a letter from her older sister and closest companion, Jane. Jane tells Elizabeth that she has caught a cold and is laid up there. She went to Netherfield the day before to visit Mr. Bingley (her suitor and the house's owner), his sister Caroline, his brother-in-law and sister, Mr. and Mrs. Hurst, and his friend Mr. Darcy. Her matchmaking mother insisted that she ride horseback through the rain to get there so that she'd have an excuse to stay the night. It was being exposed to the rain that made Jane unwell and incited Lizzie's trip to Netherfield. She makes this trip by foot through the mud left from the prior day's rain.
Because of this, she arrives at Netherfield "with weary ankles, dirty stockings, and a face glowing with the warmth of exercise." She is already of a lower class than any of the inhabitants of the house, none of whom would ever have dreamed of walking through the mud, so her appearance is shocking to all of them.

"That she should have walked three miles so early in the day, in such dirty weather, and by herself, was almost incredible to Mrs. Hurst and Miss Bingley; and Elizabeth was convinced that they held her in contempt for it. She was received, however, very politely by them; and in their brother's manners there was something better than politeness; there was good humour and kindness. Mr. Darcy said very little, and Mr. Hurst nothing at all. The former was divided between admiration of the brilliancy which exercise had given to her complexion, and doubt as to the occasion's justifying her coming so far alone. The latter was thinking only of his breakfast."

In this passage, the reader sees each member of the household's initial reaction to Elizabeth's arrival at Netherfield. The women hold her in contempt for her decision to walk and her disheveled appearance; Mr. Bingley is his usual good-tempered self; Mr. Hurst has no opinion on the matter whatsoever; and Mr. Darcy is taken in by how flushed and bright she looks after her long walk.
In chapter 8, these reactions are expanded upon further as the reader is given a glimpse into what Elizabeth's hosts say about her behind her back: "When dinner was over, she [Elizabeth] returned directly to Jane, and Miss Bingley began abusing her as soon as she was out of the room." Miss Bingley and Mrs. Hurst indulge in catty gossip, insulting everything from Elizabeth's manners to her appearance, both expressing horror at her muddy skirts that morning and proving true Elizabeth's suspicion that they "held her in contempt." Mrs. Hurst appears to be indulging in this kind of mean behavior simply for the fun of it, but Miss Bingley is motivated by her feelings for Mr. Darcy and her jealousy at having heard him express admiration for Elizabeth in the past. Caroline tries to bring Darcy into the conversation, encouraging him to also mock Elizabeth's appearance, but he doubles down on his thoughts from before about Elizabeth looking all the more beautiful from having exerted herself:

“I am afraid, Mr. Darcy,” observed Miss Bingley in a half whisper, “that this adventure has rather affected your admiration of her fine eyes.”
“Not at all,” he replied; “they were brightened by the exercise.”

For Mr. Bingley's part, his opinion on hosting Elizabeth at his home never wavers from being happy to have her. He actively combats his sisters' cruelty, saying of Lizzie's act, "'It shows an affection for her sister that is very pleasing.'"
Thus, the reaction to Elizabeth's arrival at Netherfield is mixed and varies from person to person.

In Candide, what did Martin mean by saying, "There is something deeply broken in the world"? Which chapter can this statement be found in?

This statement (or some variation thereof, depending on which translation you are reading) can be found in chapter 20 of Candide. Throughout the interactions between Candide and Martin in part 1 of the book, the stark difference between viewpoints about the world held by Martin and by Candide are highlighted. While Candide holds an overwhelmingly positive view of the world and its people, Martin holds an exceedingly negative view of people and society. In this way, these two characters act as dramatic foils, or opposites meant to highlight differences in character, to one another.
In this statement by Martin, he indicates that he thinks there indeed is something in the world that is deeply flawed. He then gives numerous examples that to him show that the world is broken.
Martin says that he thinks the devil, or evil, seems to him to be everywhere in the world, even in himself. He indicates that he thinks that God, and the good that comes with God, in his belief, has abandoned the world and given it up to evil. His examples include his belief that all cities wish the destruction of a neighboring city and that families all wish the world were rid of some other family that is their enemy.
He says that everywhere in the world, rich and poor people detest each other, with the poor afraid of the rich and the rich treating the poor badly. He says that through wars, the people in countries of Europe steal their riches from other countries. He even says that in seemingly peaceful places, people are greedy and envy one another. He concludes by saying that he is a Manichean. This means that to him, the world is a battlefield full of conflict between good and evil. And to Martin, evil is clearly winning.
In reply to this, Candide says that, to him, even though these problems exist, there is still good in the world; Martin says that may be true, but that he has not seen the good in the world about which Candide speaks. Through this interaction between Candide and Martin, we can see how Candide sees the world as mostly full of good while Martin sees it as mostly full of evil and negativity.

I am writing an essay on Abraham Lincoln where I need to assess his successes and failures. I need to review an academic expert's opinion of Lincoln, quoting an extract that I will then analyze the value of. Any helpful information or direction to quality academic sources on Lincoln would be very helpful.

It is fairly easy to list Abraham Lincoln's successes. He led the United States through its darkest hour, the Civil War, from 1861 to 1865. This was not at all inevitable, as the country was more divided than is sometimes remembered. Many people in the North were opposed to the war, and widespread dissent was not uncommon, most famously with the draft riots that gripped New York City in 1863.
Lincoln won an election in 1864 in the midst of the tension leading up to the Civil War. Some historians even credit his election as one of the reasons for the outbreak of war. He proved an adept strategist, though he sometimes struggled to identify good military leaders to command the armies of the Union, a fact that might be considered among his failures as President. Generally, though, Lincoln's untimely assassination perhaps spared him criticism for major failures. Soon after having won the bloodiest war in American history, he died.
As for scholarship on Lincoln, there are many to choose from. Indeed, perhaps more books have been written about him than any other American (president or otherwise), and many historians specializing in the Civil War era have written one. James Macpherson's Tried By War is an excellent account of Lincoln's abilities as a commander-in-chief, while The Fiery Trial by Eric Foner is an important book about Lincoln's evolving position toward slavery. You might also consult Macpherson's masterpiece Battle Cry of Freedom for analysis of Lincoln's performance during the war.

In ΔABC, a = 7.2cm, b = 9.3cm, ∠A = 35° (6) Determine the number of possible solutions. Determine the measure of ∠B if it exists.

We are given Delta ABC,a=7.2,b=9.3 (where we assume the triangle is named in standard fashion, with capital letters signifying the vertices and corresponding lower case letters signifying the sides opposite the angles). We are asked to determine the number of possible solutions, and to find the measure of angle B if it exists.
Here we are given two side lengths and a non-included angle (SSA). Two typical methods for solving a triangle are to use the Law of Sines or the Law of Cosines. In the SSA case, either method will work.
(A) Here we will use the Law of Sines; (sinA)/a=(sinB)/b=(sinC)/c
Substituting the known values we get the proportion: (sin35^@)/7.2=(sinB)/9.3
Thus we get sinB=(9.3 sin35^@)/7.2~~.7409
Then we get B~~sin^(-1)(.7409)=47.8^@ " or " 132.2^@
(Note that when using the Law of Sines, we need to check both the acute and obtuse case when given SSA.)
Both of these yield a triangle, so there are two possible answers with angle B given as above.
(B) We could also use the Law of Cosines:a^2=b^2+c^2-2bc*cosA
7.2^2=9.3^2+c^2-2(9.3)c*cos35^@
This gives a quadratic in c:
c^2-15.236c+34.65=0
Using the quadratic formula we get:
c~~(15.236 +- 9.671)/2=12.454 " or " 2.783
So there are two possible solutions. We can use these values for c to calculate angle C and thus angle B.
(e.g. if c=2.78 then (sin35^@)/7.2=(sinC)/2.78 --> sinC=.2215 --> 12.8^@ so angle B has measure 132.2 degrees.)
See attachment for an illustration of the two possibilities.
** In any SSA case, there are three possibilities: the givens cannot be part of a triangle, exactly one triangle is formed (including the special case of a right triangle), or two triangles can be formed. Using the Law of Cosines, the number of real solutions to the quadratic reveals the number of triangles formed. Using the Law of Sines, we must investigate the possible cases.**
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/LawofCosines.html

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/LawofSines.html

How does the author help us to imagine the feelings of the people in the camp in chapter 4?

In chapter 4, Bruno and Gretel watch the prisoners in the camp. They notice that some of the prisoners stand "near the huts in quiet groups, staring at the ground as if it [is] the sort of game where they [don't] want to be spotted." There is a bit of dramatic irony here, in that the children don't quite understand what is happening. Indeed, they don't understand that these people are prisoners.
This perhaps heightens our sympathy for the prisoners because we, of course, realize that they are not players in a game at all. The fact that they all keep their heads down also helps us to understand how disconsolate and afraid they must feel. They are afraid that if they make themselves noticed for the wrong reasons, then they will be punished.
A little later in the chapter, Bruno points to a group of children who are being shouted at by a group of soldiers. Bruno and Gretel notice that "the more they [are] shouted at, the closer they huddle together." This image conveys how scared the children are. They instinctively huddle closer together because they feel that they need protection. Gretel sees that some of the children "look as if they [are] crying," which clearly points to their sadness and fear.
At the end of the chapter, Bruno thinks about the fact that all of the people at the camp are "wearing the same clothes as each other: a pair of grey striped pajamas with a grey striped cap on their heads." We can infer from this that the prisoners must feel somewhat dehumanized: they are not treated like individuals, but rather as one, homogeneous group.

Discuss three reasons why Russia withdrew from the First World War?

1). The Bolsheviks came to power. One of the biggest mistakes of the Provisional Government that took power in the February Revolution of 1917 was that it continued Russia's involvement in a war that was widely unpopular. Russia had sustained enormous losses during World War One without much in the way of territorial gain.
When the Tsar was overthrown, many Russians believed that the country would pull out of the war. That this didn't happen played into the hands of the Bolsheviks, who'd been opposed to the war from the start, seeing it as nothing more than a quarrel between the crowned heads of Europe that had nothing to do with the working classes.
After the Bolsheviks took power in October 1917, they immediately set to work disengaging Russia from the war, eventually signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which ceded vast territory to Germany in return for Russia withdrawing from the conflict.
2). The war was deeply unpopular. As we have seen, Russia didn't seem to get much out of its involvement in the war. More than most of the participants, Russia was greatly impoverished by the conflict, enduring chronic shortages on the home front for very little strategic gain. The Bolsheviks skillfully exploited the war's unpopularity, and by making themselves the most consistently anti-war party, they put themselves in a prime position to stage an armed insurrection against the Provisional Government.
3). The fall of the Romanovs. The fall of the Russian royal family, after more than 300 years on the throne, spelled the end of Russia's involvement in the war. This did not happen immediately, of course; as we've seen, the Provisional Government made the huge mistake of keeping Russia in the war. But without the autocratic system of Tsarist government in place, it was inevitable that Russia would withdraw from the war at some point.
Initial Russian involvement in World War One was based on a sense of cultural solidarity with the Serbians, who were fellow ethnic Slavs. The Tsar, like all his predecessors, saw himself as the protector of fellow Slavs, wherever they were, so Tsarist Russia didn't hesitate to join the war when it broke out.
However, once the Tsar had been deposed, that imperative no longer held. The Provisional Government had neither the inclination nor the ability to take up the mantle of pan-Slavism, so the original reason for Russia's involvement in the war was no longer valid. That the Provisional Government was unable to supply a compelling alternative justification was its undoing.

How is the rage of Achilles artistically dealt with so that it organizes the major events that take place in The Iliad?

In The Iliad the rage of Achilles takes place over a considerable length of time. This means that, although Achilles is absent from the early action on the battlefield while he sulks in his tent, his brooding presence is never very far away.
Achilles is the best of the Achaean warriors, so his absence from the thick of battle has a disastrous effect on his comrades. Without Achilles fighting alongside them, they're in serious danger of losing the war. But even as his comrades suffer a series of potentially catastrophic reverses, Achilles stubbornly refuses to emerge from his tent, still boiling with anger as he is over Agamemnon's insulting behavior.
On a structural level, Achilles' implacable wrath organizes the poem; almost everything that happens after Achilles retreats to his tent is in some way related to it. We sense that Achilles will return to the fray at some point; we just don't know when or why. But in the meantime, we do know that for as long as he remains out of action, the Achaeans will continue to suffer great losses.
When Achilles finally decides to return to the fray to avenge the death of his beloved Patroclus, it's relatively late on in the poem (book 20 out of 24). This is a deliberate strategy on Homer's part to heighten tension, to make us wait for Achilles' return until we can wait no longer. Yet even when Achilles finally does set foot on the field of battle once more, his rage is still much in evidence, only this time it's directed where it should be: at the enemy Trojans, not at his fellow Achaeans.
So one could argue that The Iliad is organized thematically according to a very broad tripartite structure: the wrath of Achilles; the reaction of mortals and gods to that wrath; and the target at which that wrath is directed. Just about everything that happens in the poem can be brought under one or more of these headings.

Why study political science?

Political science is concerned with the construction of social systems in order provide sustainability and economic prosperity for a mass populace. Components used to formulate these systems include political activity and human behavior. When acknowledging the question, ‘Why study political science,’ we can appeal to an individual who is known as the father of political science; Aristotle. In his famous book, ‘Nichomachean Ethics’ Aristotle cleverly presents the proper use of political science as a means to improve peoples character and conduct, ultimately giving rise to a fundamentally good world. Political science essentially studies the relationship between human behavior and political activity so scientists can develop societal systems in a manner that allows the citizens to act ethically and morally. It is in this line of inquiry that we can see that political science is simply a means to make the world a better place. Since we have built a type of conceptual cornerstone, we can now tackle this question.
‘Why should anyone study political science?’ The answer to this question is the following: Political science should be studied in order to make the world a better place. The are those who walk the earth with a burning passion. This burning passion sets them apart from other people, for these people are a type of sacred gatekeeper. They see the destruction & suffering in the world and renounce their material desires and financial aspirations all simply for one grand goal, which is to create a better world. Now we can see, political science should be studied because our species seeks improvement from that which causes harm and suffering and we all strive to live in a beautiful world.
Further resources:
“Aristotle’s Ethics of Virtue” Radio Free Philosophy #28 [Internet Archive]
“Roger Crisp on Aristotle’s Ethics” from Interviews with Philosophers podcast [Oxford]
Koturski, Jospeh “The Ethics of Aristotle” The Teaching Company: The Great Courses
Meikle, Scott Aristotle’s Economic Thought Oxford University Press, 1997=

Studying political science can help one understand and critically analyze the world around us in relation to how humans interact with each other, other non-human animals, and the planet as a whole. Specifically, political science seeks to analyze and understand systems of governments and centralized power within human relations. Given that so much of human and non-human suffering directly stems from how power is concentrated into the hands of a few and how most people in our world are unable to have direct control of their own lives, studying these systems can be incredibly important to imagine another way of living and relating to one another.
For instance, the United States was founded on genocide, slavery, and the destruction of the environment. These acts were cemented and legalized through, originally, the colonial governments of England, Spain, and France, and then later through the American government. Through the hierarchical nature of governments and their ability to maintain power through use of violence and coercion (military and police), people without access to that hierarchical power are unable to fully control their own lives or fight their oppression without facing state repression.
This is how plantation slavery existed for so long in the United States, as the government and powerful individuals in society were able to maintain concentrated power that allowed them to enforce slavery through laws that were then enforced through state and vigilante violence (slave catchers, police, militias). As such, political science can simply be understood as the study of power and how power is concentrated and maintained by certain individuals/states. In order to imagine a world in which power is not concentrated through states or in the hands of a few individuals, one must study the current systems and thoroughly understand how they are fundamentally oppressive.
If one can study how power concentrates, then one can imagine a world in which power is not used hierarchically. Through this understanding, people can participate in resisting state oppression and can participate in building another world. For instance, the Zapatistas in Mexico have been working for 25+ years on building an alternative society that is rooted in respecting all forms of life, the planet, and Indigenous ways of relating to the Earth and one another in a non-hierarchical manner.

What does "A little more than kin, and less than kind" mean?

When Hamlet's father, King Hamlet, dies suddenly and unexpectedly, Hamlet comes home for the funeral. Close on the heels of the funeral—so close that Hamlet can darkly joke that Claudius uses leftovers from the funeral dinner for the wedding feast—Claudius and Gertrude marry. Already distressed by the shock of his father's death, Hamlet is doubly dismayed at this dizzyingly quick remarriage on his mother's part.
At this point, very early in the play, Hamlet has no idea that his uncle murdered his father. Encountering his father's ghost is the farthest thought from Hamlet's mind. He is simply appalled that his uncle is now his stepfather, in what seems to him a tastelessly hasty marriage.
Hamlet makes the comment "a little more than kin, and less than kind" as an aside when Claudius greets him as a "son." In saying this, Hamlet means that his uncle's relationship with his mother is now more than a filial or brotherly kinship.
"Kind" has two meanings: it means both "natural" and "compassionate." Shakespeare puns on both meanings: the relationship is both unnatural (it is incestuous, in that a former brother-in-law and sister-in-law are sleeping together) and lacking in compassion. He implies, in "less than kind," that perhaps Claudius pushed Gertrude into the marriage before she was ready in order to consolidate his hold on the throne. Essentially, even before meeting with the ghost, Hamlet is upset with his uncle.

Just prior to Hamlet's statement, the new king, Claudius, calls Hamlet "my cousin . . . and my son." Claudius is the brother of Hamlet's dead father, the former king, and though it has been fewer than two months since the old king's death, Claudius has married his brother's widow, Hamlet's mother, Gertrude. So, Claudius was, first, Hamlet's uncle, and he has since become Hamlet's stepfather. Aside from Hamlet's upset about the speed with which his mother remarried, he is upset at her choice of husbands (a relationship which he considers to be incestuous); according to Biblical law, Claudius became Gertrude's brother when she married his brother. Moreover, Hamlet doesn't seem to think particularly highly of Claudius anyway, and now the man is his relative, two times over: this double relation makes him "more than kin." Further, Claudius's taking of his brother's widow for his own wife seems to make him "less than kind": "kind" likely means "natural" as Shakespeare uses it in this way elsewhere. In other words, the king's behavior is unnatural, according to Biblical law, because he married his sister.

It isn't far into the second scene of Shakespeare's Hamlet that the reader will come upon one of the most famous lines not only from this play but also from all of Shakespeare's collected works. In fact, this line is one of the most common allusions to Shakespeare found in other works. Soon after Hamlet appears on stage, he looks to the side and declares with disgust, "A little more than kin, and less than kind." Hamlet is absolutely disgusted with his uncle Claudius who now, after marrying Hamlet's mother (Gertrude), has become Hamlet's "father." It is important to note the play on the words "kin" and "kind." The phrase relies on the double meanings of something being "natural" vs. something being "kind or nice." Let's take each of them in turn. Hamlet is asserting that Claudius is "more than kin." This means that where Claudius used to be a distant uncle, now he is (disgustingly) considering himself a second father to Hamlet due to Claudius's marriage to Gertrude. The irony here is that the term "more than kin" has a positive connotation, as if someone were saying you are "closer than family." However, Hamlet means the exact opposite in this case. The second aspect of this common allusion is the term "less than kind." The word "kind" can also mean family, as if we were to say "of one's own kind." Hamlet saying Claudius is "less than kind" can mean that Hamlet does not think of Claudius as part of the family and certainly not as his mother's husband. To complete the play on the word "kind," it can also mean that Claudius wasn't being nice (and certainly not kindly) when he took his brother's sister as his wife.

Please simplify u3.u3.u

I am assuming that 3 here is supposed to be an exponent of u and that the dot is supposed to represent multiplication, so the question should be to simplify
u^3*u^3*u .

Then, use the rules of exponents: when multiplying powers of the same base, you add the exponents together. Then, the result will have the same base, and the resultant exponent will be the sum of all exponents. Also, remember that if there is no exponent next to a variable, then the exponent of 1 (not zero!) is implied:
u^3*u^3*u = u^(3 + 3 + 1) = u^7
In simplified form, the given expression equals
u^7

If you take two samples of the same dirt and add enough water to one sample to make it mud, which sample will be most abrasive to metal: the mud sample or the original sample?

The mud sample will be more abrasive than the initial dirt sample. This is fairly counter-intuitive, but there are several factors to take into consideration when dealing with the abrasive properties of various media.
The dirt sample will act as a straight-forward, physically-abrasive substance: the particulate matter will abrade and corrode the surface of a metal through friction and physical contact.
A mud (or slurry), however, has several other properties beneficial in abrasion. The dissolution of the dirt particles will make them slightly more chemically reactive, which will contribute to the corrosive properties of the mixture and help to abrade or polish the metal surface. Additionally, the water solution will break the dirt into smaller pieces—which are inherently more abrasive—and the slurry will have a higher density (meaning more mass to abrade the metal surface).

How is Heart of Darkness a critique on European imperialism?

Joseph Conrad (1857–1924), author of the Heart of Darkness, personally spent four months sailing on the Congo River in 1890. At that time, colonists were active in Congo and elsewhere in Africa. Conrad's experience had a profound impact on him and later inspired him to write his most famous story. In 1979, it served as the inspiration for the film Apocalypse Now.
In Heart of Darkness, the protagonist is Charles Marlow. He tells the story of his journey on Congo's rivers, during which he witnesses the brutal exploitation of Africans by white colonists. As he travels, he hears about a godlike Mr. Kurtz, the manager of an ivory trading station. Kurtz is known to the outside world as a "civilizing" influence in Africa. In fact, the mysterious and tyrannical Kurtz is the personification of the greed, brutality, and exploitation of Western imperialism.
Ivory was sought by outsiders arriving in Congo in the late nineteenth century. Avaricious and ruthless men went there because elephants were still plentiful. Not only did they slaughter elephants, they also had a pernicious effect on the native societies on the region. They even kidnapped natives for nefarious purposes. For these reasons, ivory symbolizes imperialism in the Heart of Darkness.
In summary, Heart of Darkness is a powerful indictment of Western imperialism.

According to Eusebius Ecclesiastical History, what was it about Christianity that attracted Constantine?

Eusebius Pamphilus of Caesarea (d. 339 C.E.) begins his Ecclesiastical History by noting that Constantine was essentially honored by God from the very start of his life, so though he was not born a Christian, he was always predisposed to Christianity and displayed piety, virtue, and godliness even before his conversion. Eusebius compares him to Moses, painting him in a prophetic light and writing in Chapter XII (12) that he was

brought up in the very palaces and bosoms of the oppressors, and instructed in all the wisdom they possessed. And when in the course of time he had arrived at manhood, and the time was come for Divine justice to avenge the wrongs of the afflicted people, then the prophet of God, in obedience to the will of a more powerful Lord, forsook the royal household, and, estranging himself in word and deed from the tyrants by whom he had been brought up, openly acknowledging his true brethren and kinsfolk. . . . And in the midst of these, Constantine, who was shortly to become their destroyer, but at that time of tender age, and blooming with the down of early youth, dwelt, as that other servant of God had done, in the very home of the tyrants, but young as he was did not share the manner of life of the ungodly: for from that early period his noble nature, under the leading of the Divine Spirit, inclined him to piety and a life acceptable to God. A desire, moreover, to emulate the example of his father had its influence in stimulating the son to a virtuous course of conduct

In other words, despite the fact that Constantine was an elite Roman and was not born a Christian, he always behaved like a Christian, and he was always intended to destroy the Roman tyrants who oppressed Christians. You should also note that Eusebius mentions Constantine’s father. He hints that it was indeed his illustrious father and his own good treatment of Christians and good behavior that attracted Constantine to the faith. In other words, his father served as a model. This is why Eusebius devotes quite a few chapters to him as well.
Ultimately, around 312 C.E., Constantine seems to have experienced religious visions which motivated him to convert to Christianity. Eusebius addresses these episodes in chapters XXVII–XXXII (27–32). While praying for a good outcome in an upcoming battle, Eusebius notes that the shape of a cross appeared to Constantine. Later, in a dream, he was visited by Christ, who commanded him to mark his armies with the sign of the cross in order to protect and guarantee them victory. This is considered his official religious epiphany and conversion to Christianity. He was the first Roman emperor to do so.
https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/vita-constantine.asp

How does Walter Mitty's character comment on society as a whole?

Walter Mitty is absent-minded. He lives in a world of daydreams. He is not in tune with the modern world in which he actually has to live. Like most absent-minded people he is incompetent to deal with reality and frequently makes mistakes. His absent-mindedness shows itself conspicuously in one part of the story where he is trying to remember one of the things his wife told him to buy. Then when he manages to remember, he says the words out loud. They are "puppy biscuit."
Modern civilization has deprived people of exciting and dangerous lives. Instead they work in offices and bring home paychecks instead of animal carcasses. Many people lose themselves in television and alcohol. Modern man’s frustration explains the popularity of TV shows like Survivor. Walter Mitty is superior to the stereotypical couch potato because Mitty can escape into his own imagination. (There really is not that much difference between the content of his fantasies and the stories shown on television.) Mitty resembles Leopold Bloom in James Joyce's Ulysses. Throughout that novel there is a comical contrast between Bloom, the modern man, and Ulysses, the intrepid hero of Homer's epic poem The Odyssey.
Sigmund Freud dealt with the alienation of modern man in one of his best-known works.
Using the concepts of the superego, the sense of guilt, and the aggressive instinct, Freud formulated the main theme of Civilization and Its Discontents: the ineradicable antagonism between the demands of the individual’s instincts and the restrictions of civilization.

And in The Future of an Illusion, Freud writes:
every individual is virtually an enemy of civilization, though civilization is supposed to be an object of universal human interest. It is remarkable that, little as men are able to exist in isolation, they should nevertheless feel as a heavy burden the sacrifices which civilization expects of them in order to make a communal life possible.
James Thurber was an exceptionally intelligent and well-read man. His humor is more subtle and cerebral than most American humor. He was quite interested in the ideas of Sigmund Freud and other psychologists. In fact, much of Thurber’s own writings and cartoons deal with various aspects of psychopathology.

Why won’t Edward let Bella hug Jacob in the very last chapter in New Moon?

Edward and Bella spend the majority of the novel apart; Edward believed that, in order to keep Bella safe, he had to end the relationship and erase himself from her life. Toward the end of the novel, Bella prevents him from exposing himself to the sunlight while in Volterra, which would have meant certain death by the Volturi coven. After this event, they vow to never be apart, as both are incapable of being without the other.
When Edward returns to Forks, he and Jacob have a confrontation. Jacob is Bella's best friend, and he is also in love with her. Edward can read Jacob's thoughts and recognizes this. Edward is protective of Bella and their love; as he has just reunited with her.

Why did the author’s mom get so angry when he hit his sister when he was three years old in The Other Wes Moore?

In part 1, chapter 1, the author describes an incident in which his mother disciplined him for hitting his sister, Nikki, who is seven years older than he is.
To his surprise, the author’s mother, Joy, yelled at him to go to his room because she had told him not to “ever put [his] hands on a woman.” His father understood this was an inappropriate reaction for the three-year-old, but the author remarks that he would later understand why his mother became so enraged at his behavior.
Joy was married to Nikki’s father, Bill, before she met Wes’s father. Bill was a drug addict who struggled to adapt to adult, married life after college. When Nikki was just one year old, Bill and Joy had a violent confrontation during which he physically assaulted Joy after yelling at her to do the dishes.
Joy’s history in an abusive, toxic marriage influenced her emotional response to seeing her young son punch Nikki.

What motivated the abolitionists? How did they try to persuade their audience to condemn the slavery in the American south? What were their most outspoken and most controversial points that they made?

The abolitionist movement was motivated by a number of factors that largely depended on the experiences and values of the individual. In some cases, abolitionists were motivated from personal experiences in slavery, such as Frederick Douglass. Abolitionists Granville Sharp and James Ramsey were motivated by encounters they had with slaves, in which they felt the treatment of slaves was not proper. The Quakers, one of the early groups to oppose slavery, were motivated by religious reasons. Abolitionists, as you can see, had various factors that motivated them to oppose slavery.
Abolitionists also used different tactics to persuade their audience to bring an end to slavery. Frederick Douglass famously spoke and wrote about the experiences of slavery. William Lloyd Garrison created a newspaper called The Liberator, which published anti-slavery information and images. Angelina Grimké Weld appealed to Christian women and mothers in the South. She asked women if, as mothers, they would allow their own children to be enslaved. Her argument focused on the fact that if nothing was wrong with slavery, then a mother should have no qualms about allowing her own children to be enslaved. Harriet Beecher Stowe created the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, which quickly became popular in the North. Her novel included many significant scenes highlighting the horrors of slavery.
I would argue that the most "outspoken" would be those who did not merely use words, but instead used violence, in an attempt to achieve their abolitionist goals. John Brown, for example, is believed to have been involved in the murder of 5 proslavery men in the Pottawatomie Massacre. He also famously launched the Raid on Harpers Ferry. In the Raid of Harpers Ferry, Brown and his supporters captured a federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Brown hoped that slaves in the area would come to support the raid and thus launch a larger slave rebellion in Virginia, however this did not occur. Brown would be tried for treason and executed for this action.
http://abolition.e2bn.org/slavery_56.html

http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/abolitn/abesaegat.html

https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/john-brown/11731

In the January 26 journal entry in Breathing Underwater, Nick refers to himself as an “addict.” What is Nick addicted to?

Nick is addicted to Caitlyn. He describes her as both his drug of choice and his dealer. When they were together, they just couldn't get enough of each other. Each day he'd pick up her up and drop her off at school, and then later drive her home. He'd call her every day, whether or not he had football practice. She was taking over his whole life.
It seems that Caitlyn was equally infatuated with Nick. (That is, before he started hitting her). She took the locker by his at school, would sit on his friends' regular bench at Mr. Pizza, and would gladly make out with Nick in his car. All in all, it was a pretty hot and heavy relationship, driven on by a deep mutual passion. But then Nick went and blew it all by hitting Caitlyn.

A carpenter has a bag, containing 2 types of nails, which weighs 3 pounds. Finishing nails weigh 150 nails/pound. Framing nails weigh 30 nails/pound. The ratio of finishing nails to framing nails is 25:1. How many finishing nails in the bag?

We are given that a given bag containing two types of nails weighs 3 pounds. There are finishing nails that weigh 1 pound for every 150 nails, and framing nails that weigh 1 pound for every 30 nails. We are also told that the ratio of finishing nails to framing nails is 25:1. We are asked to find the number of finishing nails in the bag:
Let x be the number of finishing nails, and let y be the number of framing nails.
The total weight of finishing nails is given by x/150 while the weight of framing nails is y/30.(e.g. if there are 300 finishing nails they weigh 2lbs, etc.)
Since the weight of the bag is 3 lbs, we have x/150 + y/30 = 3.
We also know that x=25y (since they are in a ratio of 25:1). We can substitute 25y in place of x to get:
(25y)/(150)+y/30=3 or y/6+y/30=3 ==> (5y)/30+y/30=3 ==> (6y)/30=3 ==> 6y=90 ==> y=15
If y=15 then x=25y=25(15)=375
There are 375 finishing nails in the bag.
There are many other ways to approach this problem including using a guess-and-check system, graphing, etc.
Checking the answer we see that 375 finishing nails weigh 2.5 pounds while 15 framing nails weigh .5 pounds with a total weight of 3 pounds as required.
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/LinearSystemofEquations.html

What day of the week does Lina get off?

In the City of Ember, children receive jobs at age twelve. They graduate from school, and on Assignment Day they receive the jobs randomly by pulling job titles out of bags. They have to keep the job assignment for three years before requesting a new position. However, they are able to trade jobs, and Lina and Doon switch positions so Lina can be a messenger and Doon can work in Pipeworks.
Lina has every Thursday off of work. All workers between the ages of twelve and fifteen have a break on the same day of the week, Thursday. We learn this in chapter five, when Lina spends her day off shopping at Garn Square market and later walking to Night Street in search of colored pencils with Poppy. Lina works the other days of the week, so their neighbor Mrs. Murdo looks out for Poppy and Granny, whose mind is slowly deteriorating.

How did the clouds float according to the poem "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" by William Wordsworth?

According to the second line of Wordsworth's poem, the cloud

floats on high o'er vales and hills

The speaker, as we can see, is comparing himself to a cloud that is floating over the valleys and hills below, looking down on them. The cloud is "lonely" because it feels distant and alienated from the landscape it sees beneath it. The cloud listlessly views what it passes over but has no feeling of kinship with it. Today, we might imagine ourselves in an airplane looking down.
However, the detached emotion of being like a distant, floating cloud only lasts for the first two lines of the poem. It serves as a sharp contrast to what next occurs. The speaker moves from feeling lonely to suddenly being stopped and startled by the glorious sight of all the daffodils waving in the breeze before a lake. If the speaker was dulled down, emotionless, and lonely, he is now joyful and alive amid the dancing daffodils. It is as if he has arrived at a crowd of cheerful people.

Why does Tuck look at the unconscious stranger with envy?

The stranger in question is the man in the yellow suit. He's unconscious because Mae Tuck's just whacked him over the head with a rifle butt after he tried to kidnap Winnie. The irony here is that it's the Tucks who are supposed to have kidnapped the little girl. But this wasn't the case at all; it was nothing more than a cynical ruse by the man in the yellow suit to get his greedy hands on the Tucks' spring of everlasting youth.
As he lies there, unconscious from his injuries, it may not seem that anyone in their right mind would envy the man in the yellow suit's situation. Yet that is precisely what Pa Tuck does. As Pa stares at the stricken stranger, Winnie notices an unmistakable look of envy on his face. Pa, like the rest of his family, is immortal, and immortality can be a bit of a pain for him at times, so much so that he often wishes he could die. That's why he's so envious of the man in the yellow suit as he hovers between life and death; he wishes he could change places with him.

Why does Merlyn focus on educating Wart instead of Kay?

Merlyn is aware that Wart, aka Arthur, is destined to be king. In some versions of the legend of King Arthur, the wizard Merlin is directly responsible for orchestrating the circumstances of Arthur's conception, making sure he is fathered by Uther Pendragon, a powerful warrior who is believed to be descended from noble ancestry that once ruled England.
Merlyn sees it as his responsibility to mentor and teach Wart about things like nature, courage, kindness and ethical behavior. Since Kay is of noble birth, he will be able to become a knight without much difficulty, and enjoy a respected position as an adult. But Wart, whose origins are more mysterious when he is younger, and before he proves himself to be the rightful king by pulling the sword from the stone, is perceived to be of lowly birth. Merlyn understands that if Wart is to become a good king, he needs to be given the opportunity to learn and be exposed to the world in his youth. He attempts to compensate for Wart's humble beginnings by giving him lessons gleaned from his own experience and wisdom, as well as his magical powers.

During Gorbachev's 1988 speech in the UN, why did he say that "force no longer can . . . be an instrument of foreign policy"? What implications did this have for the Soviet bloc?

By the time he gave his speech to the UN, Gorbachev had been carrying out his flagship policy of glasnost, or openness, for three years, and his speech reflected this theme. Gorbachev's new policy had inadvertently encouraged the growth of nationalist sentiments among the non-Russian peoples of the Soviet Union, such as Estonians and Lithuanians, as well as in Eastern Bloc countries such as Poland and Romania. Although this was an unintended consequence of glasnost, Gorbachev knew that, once the nationalist genie was out of the bottle, it would be hard if not impossible to put it back again. So he tried to accommodate nationalism within the existing Communist system.
In retrospect, Gorbachev's approach can be seen as doomed for failure; but there's no doubting his genuine belief that the Soviet Union could be kept together while he continued to pursue the policy of glasnost. In former days, Soviet leaders had readily resorted to force to maintain control, as seen by the invasions of Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. But now things were different. Gorbachev knew that, with nationalist sentiment on the rise throughout the Soviet Union and the entire Eastern Bloc, armed force would no longer be able to impose the Kremlin's will. Gorbachev's very public renunciation of force, combined with the ongoing policy of glasnost, emboldened nationalists in the Eastern Bloc, encouraging them to believe that the Soviet Union, though still a repressive, one-party state, would not use extreme measures in stifling the growing demand for national independence.

If you were in Will’s situation, would you make the choices he made at the end of Me Before You? Were you surprised by his decision?

I would love to say that I would take a moral high road and choose life, even a life of suffering, but I have never lived in a situation as desperate as Will's in Me Before You. That is the beauty and heartbreak of this story—that it takes the preconceptions about morality and life and asks you to think about the suffering that is going on. Is it really better to live a crippled life or to snuff it out?
Personally, I think I would be afraid to end my own life, and would hold out hope that my condition and life would improve to give me a modicum of happiness. That dim hope and fear of destruction would prevent me from killing myself at the end, but then again, I have never experienced pain the way Will experienced it.

What are the advantages and disadvantages to using twins to analyze genetic heritability?

Twin studies are a beneficial tool when studying genetic heritability, especially in today's world, because today these external findings can be combined with molecular genetics research. Identical twins would be best to use for this type of study, as they are monozygotic (two beings created from the same egg and sperm) and therefore share all the same genes.
DNA samples can be taken from each twin to determine if there are differences in their actual genetic makeup. Researchers can also use the DNA to determine which genes contribute to the traits that manifest.
By studying the development of the twins, a researcher can estimate which traits are most inheritable. Using the DNA samples, they can identify which particular genes are causing those traits to manifest.
One issue that arises when using twins for this type of study is that, although they are identical, each twin will often exhibit different traits. Some twin studies failed to consider that environmental factors may have a part to play in why certain features manifest. It is crucial to select twins who interact with the same people and share in the same family environment.
Even so, one twin may experience exposure to different allergens than the other. Perhaps they meet different people in social environments that cause them to react emotionally to stress factors the other may never experience. These things can trigger traits to emerge in one twin that may not have under different circumstances.
Another problem is in the genetic mechanism itself. Genes have dominant and recessive traits; a dominant trait will overpower a recessive trait, which causes the dominant feature to manifest. Some genes have an additive effect and could interact with several different genes to determine the outcome of a single trait. The dominant and recessive gene mechanisms can also influence this additive effect, so often it is difficult to determine which genes are working in conjunction.
Designing a twin study cannot depend on a set methodology. The researcher must always look for factors that could influence the results. The analysis must include external factors in the form of foreign bodies, emotional reactions, environmental conditions, and genetic interactions to determine the reasons why variations in genetic traits manifest.
In the past, these issues made studies much more difficult, but combined with molecular genetics research, it will become easier to pinpoint the specific genes that actively associate with the traits that manifest and then determine whether they do so from external triggers, genetic mechanisms, or both.

How does Bigger overcome fear in Native Son?

The tragedy of Bigger's story is that he has no outlet for overcoming his fear other than aggression and violence. In some ways, it's surprising that the first section of the book is titled "Fear" because this implies that this is the emotion governing Bigger's personality and actions. Bigger isn't afraid in a physical sense. His killing of the rat in the opening scene demonstrates this, though it's a trivial thing in itself. Bigger's fears are not physical, but psychological. At the bottom is his insecurity, a feeling of worthlessness that has been imposed upon him by the outside world for both racial and class reasons. Even among his friends, he feels a relentless need to prove himself, threatening them with his knife and slashing the baize covering of the billiard table. This is his means of distracting others from his own palpable sense of weakness and insecurity.
It would be simplistic to conclude that he overcomes fear by acting out violence. In the crucial episode in which he accidentally kills Mary, it is his fear of being discovered in the room with her that prompts him to silence her with the pillow. But Bigger's own insight later into his actions is that "he knew that in some sense the girl's death had not been accidental." Bigger realizes that his anger—both directed against others and against himself—has been expressed many times before. A sense of liberation comes to him as a result of the killing. Is it because he always has known that he's living on the outside, a cast-off of the system, and now there is a feeling of release coming from his crime? He no longer has to pretend to conform to the world's demands which have caused his state of fear to begin with.
Of course, the killing may have dispelled one kind of fear, but it created another. In spite of the ransom plan, Bigger probably realizes from the start that the police will catch up to him. The "Flight" section of the novel shows Bigger in a greater state of hopeless fear than in the relatively subdued actions that have occurred before his coming to the Dalton house results in catastrophe.

In what ways are clouds like leaves in "Ode to the West Wind" by Percy B. Shelley? Lines 15–23, stanza 2

The lines to which you refer read as follows:

Thou on whose stream, mid the steep sky's commotion,
Loose clouds like earth's decaying leaves are shed,
Shook from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean


This is the stanza which begins the second section of the poem, and, before we get to the comparison between the clouds and the leaves, it is helpful to understand the overall structure of the poem. In the first section of the poem, the speaker addresses the west wind, in an almost reverential tone, in awe of its power as it sweeps the autumn leaves "to their dark wintry bed." In the second section, the speaker, still addressing the west wind, describes how its power even extends to the heavens, as it is able to move clouds, or "Loose clouds like earth's decaying leaves." In the third section, the speaker describes how the wind is so powerful that it can even move whole oceans ("the blue Mediterranean"), meaning that it can create gigantic waves ("the Atlantic's level powers / Cleave themselves into chasms").

So, when Shelley describes the clouds as "like earth's decaying leaves" he is simply referring to how they, like the leaves, are at the mercy of the wind. Clouds are, of course, much bigger than leaves, but the wind is so powerful that it can move the leaves as easily as if they were as small and light as the leaves. The wind can just as easily shake the leaves from trees in autumn as it can shake the clouds loose from "the tangled boughs of Heaven."

This idea then follows in the third section. The power of the wind is described in reference to something even bigger than clouds—namely, the oceans. Shelley, with each successive stanza, is simply increasing his scale to emphasize the power of the wind.

What is the only possible way for a good individual to lose his or her just reward?

Lady Philosophy tries to convince Boethius that goodness is its own reward. Bad things do indeed happen to good people, but they don't stop being good because of that. Likewise, good things happen to bad people, but that doesn't remove their badness either. Even amidst all the immense suffering of this world, the honesty of the good continues to shine. No amount of adversity, however great, can possibly change this simple fact. If people are given credit for virtuous acts by others, then that credit can just as easily be taken away, along with riches, fame, and reputation. But the honesty that comes from goodness is something within you and so cannot be taken away by anyone else, no matter how cruelly they treat you. You will only lack the reward that goodness confers upon you if you stop being honest.

How does Ishiguro present ideas of honor in "A Family Supper"?

In his short story "A Family Supper," Ishiguro presents traditional Japanese notions of honor in the context of a family in decline. The mother of the house has died; not only that, but her widower has been forced to leave his job after the collapse of his firm.
These deeply traumatic events, following on so quickly from each other, have left the narrator's father with little left to hang on to but an outmoded concept of honor with which to organize the fracturing components of his family life. Honor is about the only thing in his life that makes sense anymore. It is the only constant factor that can provide any semblance of meaning to his daily existence.
Nevertheless, there are limits to the father's attachment to this time-hallowed tradition. His firm failed because his former partner, Watanabe, killed himself out of a warped sense of honor. In conversation with his son, the father expresses disagreement with Watanabe's course of action, indicating that, for him, honor should be drawn upon to strengthen a family, not destroy it. And that's precisely what the father is trying to do by gathering his children together for a special meal, however difficult it may be, and however uncomfortable the silences at the dinner table.

Where on earth do you have to be to see the north celestial pole overhead?

I believe that this question means to ask about having the north celestial pole directly overhead. Any point directly above an observer's head is called the zenith. It is located 90 degrees up from that observer's horizon. It is important that this question specifically refers to the celestial pole, because that is different than Earth's magnetic pole that a compass would point toward. The celestial poles are based on Earth's celestial equator, which is an imaginary circle around Earth directly above the Earth's equator. It technically extends out into space forever. The important thing to note is that the celestial equator is based on Earth's geographic equator. This means that 90 degrees north of that is Earth's geographic North Pole. If a person stood directly on top of Earth's geographic North Pole, the north celestial pole would be directly overhead.
https://www.astronomynotes.com/nakedeye/s4.htm

Who was Laurie in Little Women?

Laurie is the March girls's neighbor. He is the "poor little rich boy" who lives with his wealthy and overprotective grandfather, Mr. Laurence. He lacks fun and companionship in his grandfather's big, empty house. He is being tutored at home by Mr. Brooke to prepare him for Harvard.
Laurie talks about watching the March sisters and mother from afar the first time Jo comes to visit. He reveals his loneliness:

"I can't help looking over at your house, you always seem to be having such good times . . . when the lamps are lighted, it's like looking at a picture to see the fire, and you all around the table with your mother . . . I haven't got any mother, you know." . . .
The solitary, hungry look in his eyes went straight to Jo's warm heart . . . Laurie was sick and lonely, and feeling how rich she was in home and happiness, she gladly tried to share it with him.

Mrs. March and the four girls embrace him as one of their own, making him almost a part of the family. They may be poor, but they offer him the joyous hi-jinks, friendship, and laughter that all his money can't buy.
Laurie is younger than Meg but older than Jo. He is dark-haired and darker-skinned, as his mother was Italian. He is high-spirited, and he falls in love with Jo, but when he tries to propose to her, she refuses to marry him. He ends up marrying Amy.

What was the role of technology in economic growth in the late nineteenth century?

Technology helped transform America in the late-nineteenth century. The changes revolutionized transportation, communication, urban life, and even recreation.
The railroads came into their own in the late-nineteenth century. They became suitable for transportation and shipping. Air brakes and sleeper and dining cars be came available. Uniform rail sizes reduced the number of stops requiring a change in trains. These improvements were a boon to commerce; however, monopolies became a problem, and the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was created to regulate railroads.
Technology also helped cities grow. The construction of skyscrapers was made possible by the use of steel in construction and the invention of elevators in the late nineteenth century. Electricity replaced candles and indoor plumbing was developed. Communication became easier with Alexander Graham Bell's telephone and the rise of the modern newspaper. Several cities started to develop public transportation systems (such as cable cars). The rise of cities enabled the nation to move from an agricultural society to an industrial one. Commerce flourished as a result.
The invention of the bicycle was also responsible for major changes in cultural and recreational habits. Women's and men's fashion changed to accommodate bicycle riding, and couples even rode bikes during courtship.
These technological advances had a profound impact on America in the late nineteenth century.

How are Kevin and Max able to be such good friends?

I think one thing that helps Max and Kevin be friends is their simple proximity to each other. They are next door neighbors, so being together and doing stuff together is easily accomplished.
A second thing that helps them be such good friends is that they share the characteristic of being socials outcasts. Both boys are looked at as strange and weird based on their looks alone. Max is huge and angry looking, and Kevin is far too small for his age and has severe mobility issues.
Finally, the two boys are able to be great friends because they accept the other person as they are. Kevin doesn't care that Max is big and has a father in jail. Kevin doesn't see all of the negatives in Max that other people see, and that is how Max sees Kevin. Max doesn't define Kevin by the disease. All Max sees is an incredibly bright, energetic, and imaginative kid that accepts Max for who he is.

What is a central theme in Novel Without a Name?

A central theme of the novel is the enormous gap between the romanticized view of war and its grim realities. Over the course of the book, Quan comes to realize that war is not an heroic struggle for freedom, as the authorities would have him believe, but a brutal, de-humanizing bloodbath which degrades and destroys.
Quan has been taught to hate Americans for what they've done to his country, but because of his experiences of war, he comes to see them in a completely different light. The American soldiers, no less than their Vietnamese opponents, have been exploited by their superiors, led into a conflict which is ultimately not in their best interests.
It may come as a surprise to find that a foot soldier in the North Vietnamese army should have the same experience of war as many of his American counterparts. Yet this only serves to underline the universality of the book's overriding theme: that no one nation or culture is immune from the temptation to glorify war and to overlook its horrifying reality.

Why does Rainsford deny the existence of feelings in the animals he hunts?

In short, Rainsford denies the existence of feelings in the animals he hunts because he is convinced that since animals allegedly have no reasoning, their lives have lesser value, and there is no guilt in hunting them.
In the first part of "The Most Dangerous Game," Whitney tells Rainsford that hunting might be sport for the hunter, but it is definitely not for the animals that get killed. Rainsford goes into defensive mode, saying, "Who cares how a jaguar feels?" When Whitney presses the matter, saying animals can at least feel fear, Rainsford dismisses his objections further by saying that some are meant to be hunters, and others, the hunted, so there's no point in worrying about it. He also genuinely believes that animals have no power of reasoning—at least not reasoning sophisticated enough for them to be upset over being the object of a hunt.
Rainsford's denial of feelings or understanding in the game he hunts links him, in a sense, with the villain, General Zaroff. Zaroff later repeats Rainsford's ethos that life is divided into two categories—hunter and hunted—only he takes this philosophy to its extreme, including humans even in the "hunted" side of the equation. When Rainsford reacts with horror, Zaroff claims he only hunts "the scum of the earth," which for him includes those who are lower-class and/or non-white. In this way, the story suggests that Rainsford's philosophy about the nature of life itself is also flawed, even dangerous. Whether or not his experience as "the hunted" changes Rainsford's mind about the animals he hunts is left ambiguous at the end.

What does it mean when Romeo drinks potion when he believes Juliet is dead?

Romeo drinks poison when Juliet appears dead because he believes he cannot live without her. Romeo has already been established as an impetuous teenage boy who makes rash decisions, so this is a continuation of such characterization. His suicide contains dramatic irony in spades: he kills himself because he thinks Juliet has died, though the audience knows she is not truly dead but merely pretending so Romeo can come and take her away to Mantua with him.
However, the fact that Romeo uses poison to kill himself is interesting thematically. On one hand, it parallels Juliet's fake death, which she triggers through use of a sleeping potion that puts her in a death-like coma.
Romeo also bought the poison through illegal means from a seller whose desperate poverty was the only thing that made him "consent" to the transaction. That Romeo gets the poison in such a manner highlights his outsider status in Verona: he is an outlaw with nowhere else to go now that he thinks he's lost his love. This element also suggests the social forces within Verona itself which force Romeo and Juliet to have to hide their relationship from their families.
Finally, the poison is itself the culmination of poison as symbolism throughout the play. Earlier, Friar Lawrence discusses how certain plants can be used to heal or hurt depending upon how they are processed. In other words, even something good can be turned to poison under the wrong circumstances and vice versa.
In this case, Romeo and Juliet's passion has become a kind of poison, not just because Romeo is impulsive but because of the social forces that made their love impossible to begin with. Fate, the feud, and oppressive social codes (such as the hyper-masculine youth culture which accuses Romeo of being unmanly if he does not continue the fight and Juliet's limited status in a patriarchal society) all turn what could have at worst been teenage infatuation and at best true love into something that kills both Romeo and Juliet.

Identify two examples of mood in "The Tell-Tale Heart," and record two quotes from the story that support your answer.

In Edgar Allan Poe's groundbreaking short story "The Tell-Tale Heart," there are two moods that are consistently present throughout the narrative: paranoia and claustrophobia.
The story is told from the perspective of a man experiencing hallucinations that stem from psychosis. He is paranoid about the world around him, especially the old man who lives with him. The narrator believes the old man possess the "evil eye" and that the narrator must kill the old man in order to eliminate the evil eye.
The evil eye itself causes a sort of claustrophobia for the narrator. In the narrator's view, the evil eye is akin to a radioactive material that causes negative effects. The fact that the possessor of the evil eye is his housemate makes the claustrophobic mood more palpable due to the close proximity of the old man.
This feeling of suffocation can be seen in this excerpt:

I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.

The claustrophobia and his increasing paranoia were so intense that liberation could only be attained through murder. Another excerpt that shows the narrator's paranoia is this:

They heard! – they suspected! – they knew! – they were making a mockery of my horror!

How and why did the ideas of the Enlightenment influence Americans in their debates and decisions from 1763 to 1783 in the United States?

In America, the years 1763 to 1783 encompassed the growing tension between the colonists and England, the Declaration of Independence, and the Revolutionary War.
Enlightenment was an intellectual and philosophical movement which contended that individuals are rational beings, capable of using their senses and faculties to arrive at universal truths. These abilities were self-evident and granted from a higher power, not granted through government. This theory drastically reshaped the way Americans thought about the role of government and projected a specific disdain for governments whose power was intertwined with religion.
Americans believed, as Enlightened beings, that self-government was the best way to preserve these ideals, which they codified as rights. Absolute monarchies were a threat to the preservation of these rights. In instances like the Boston Tea Party in 1773, the disdain Americans had for what they viewed as unfair and unnecessary laws manifested. This tension also came to a breaking point in 1770 with the Boston Massacre.
Colonists seeking independence used individual instances like these against the backdrop of Enlightenment to sway public opinion away from King George III, culminating in the most defiant act of the Declaration of Independence which led to the Revolutionary War. It’s important to make the distinction that without Enlightenment, a revolution still may have occurred, however Enlightenment was necessary for the implementation of a self-governed constitutional republic.

John Locke was the most important Enlightenment figure in the formation of American thought in the period from 1763 to 1783, a time period which encompasses the build-up to the American Revolution and its aftermath. Locke's Second Treatise of Government gave the colonists a theoretical framework for asserting their freedom by declaring that rulers were only legitimized by the consent of the governed. Once the governed—in this case, the American colonial elite—had withdrawn their consent, they were free to form a separate nation. It is not surprising that words from the Second Treatise, such as the rights to life and liberty, are incorporated directly into the Declaration of Independence.
Enlightenment ideas were also widely disseminated throughout the colonies in Thomas Paine's bestselling pamphlet Common Sense. The key to the popularity of this work was the plain language Paine used, which avoided philosophical jargon and sophisticated vocabulary. Paine spelled out in simple and forceful terms the need for democracy and the importance of rejecting monarchy. These concepts arose from the idea of Natural Rights, the Enlightenment concept that God bestows certain rights of liberty and self-determination on all men. (Notions of "inferior" races and gender, of course, complicate these ideas.)
These concepts became popular and useful because they provided a compelling rationale for the American upper classes to do what they wanted to do, which was to break away from British rule. They also helped influence, especially via Thomas Paine, those on the fence about whether to oppose Britain (not a universally popular idea by any means) to support, or at least not actively oppose, the American Revolution.

Very broadly, the Enlightenment, also known as the “Age of Reason,” refers to an intellectual, philosophical, and even political movement that spread through Europe during the eighteenth-century. Generally speaking, the Enlightenment period reflected a trend toward applying scientific reasoning beyond science to subjects such as religion, politics, and the arts. While the movement began in Europe, it had extreme influence over America as well. In fact, many historians refer to the time surrounding the American Revolutionary War as the “American Enlightenment” period. After all, it was enlightenment thought and ideals that helped propel the thirteen colonies forward toward declaring their independence.
Of particular influence on Americans was the movement’s emphasis on reconciling science and religion in a way that allowed for religious tolerance and freedom. American revolutionary leaders such as John Adams, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson are all considered to have been influenced by and influencers of the American Enlightenment. John Locke, a philosopher and scholar from England, was perhaps the European Enlightenment thinker who had the most influence over American thought during this time. A clear example of the effect of Locke’s writing on 1700s Americans can be seen in the US Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson and adopted in 1776. The Declaration states,

We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

While the entire sentence echoes Enlightenment thought, the latter half is nearly a direct quote from Locke.
Like Locke, another European Enlightenment thinker, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, had significant influence on Americans during the period of the Revolutionary War. In particular, Rousseau’s idea of a “social contract” is considered the inspiration for the trend toward popular sovereignty in America. The social contract theory stipulates that a government can only be good if it is freely formed by and for the people it rules. Rousseau argued that citizens and governments engage in a “social contract” by agreeing to exchanging some personal freedoms for societal safety. In part because of this belief, Rousseau was an extreme democrat, believing in direct democracy as the best form of government. While the Founding Fathers of the United States did not go so far as to establish a direct democracy in the United States, they were influenced by Rousseau’s theories, as evidenced by the fact that they created a democratic republic when forming their government.
Ultimately, there are nearly endless examples of the influence of Enlightenment philosophy on Americans during the mid- to late-1700s. After all, it was an Enlightened change in popular opinion and thought that gave the thirteen American colonies a sense of both political and social identity that was distinct from England. Years after the war, John Adams commented,

The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people… This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people was the real American Revolution.
https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/locke-the-two-treatises-of-civil-government-hollis-ed

https://www.bartleby.com/168/303.html

https://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/

I need to write an essay about what family means to me. It needs to be expository

Writing in an expository style means that you are providing the reader with information. You also need to explain and describe that information. Your essay will probably need to consist of five paragraphs—an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion.
So, when it comes to an expository essay about what family means to you, I would use the introduction to introduce the members of your family. In a stereotypical nuclear family example, this would be your parents, siblings, and perhaps some cousins.
Use the three body paragraphs to discuss what family means to you, using examples of stories involving the people you introduced in your introduction.
The conclusion needs wrap up your essay in such a way as to provide a definite answer to the question that was posed.
https://www.essaymasters.co.uk/expository-essay-sample

Why was Douglass’s heart beating anxiously as the conductor approached him?

This heart-stopping episode comes from that fateful day when Frederick Douglass hopped aboard a train bound for New York in search of freedom. A previous attempt at breaking free from slavery two years before had failed, but Douglass remained undeterred; he would do whatever it took to gain his freedom.
On the day in question, Douglass has disguised himself as a free black sailor. It's a smart move, as there are lots of sailors in Baltimore, so he won't look out of place. The only problem is Douglass's identification papers. He borrowed them from a free seaman who doesn't bear any resemblance to him. If any railroad official examines those papers carefully, then Douglass's cover will be blown completely.
No wonder, then, that he's feeling so incredibly nervous when the conductor approaches him on board the train. Though trying ever so hard to stay calm on the outside, Douglass's heart is beating away like mad inside of him, as he knows that his whole future depends upon the conductor's decision. Thankfully, the conductor doesn't examine Douglass's documents too closely; instead, he quickly glances at the large, authoritative-looking American eagle at the top of the document before moving on his way.

What is a detailed analysis of the poem "Desiderata" by Max Ehrmann?

"Desiderata" means "things wanted or needed." In the context of the poem, the speaker is sharing with his readers what he desires them to do in the form of directives such as "Go placidly amid the noise and haste" and "Avoid loud and aggressive persons." We may assume these desires for the reader are desires the speaker has for himself, in order to live a "cheerful" and "happy" life.
In order to find happiness, the speaker suggests to his readers that they stay firm in their convictions but do so in a gentle way: "Speak your truth quietly and clearly." Much of the poem focuses on not drawing a lot of attention to yourself; rather, joy can be found in being "humble" and avoiding "compar[ing] yourself with others." The speaker also urges us to put our faith in a master plan we do not understand, as "no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should."
While words of advice are given, caution is also shared, because "the world is full of trickery" and "sham, drudgery, and broken dreams." Despite these warnings, the poem ends on a positive directive, urging us to "Strive to be happy."
The poem's lacks any set rhythm or meter; instead, it is written in prose-like language that speaks directly to its audience, making it easily accessible to a wide range of readers. Because of its optimistic outlook and reminder to find quiet and solitude in a hectic world, "The Desiderata" remains a favorite among many today.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/desiderata

In a way, a person might consider this poem to be a thoughtfully and beautifully worded list of imperative statements that offer advice about how the reader can achieve contentment and even happiness in a world "With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams"; "it is still a beautiful world," according to the poem's speaker. The speaker first encourages us as readers to adopt a calm demeanor, to "be on good terms" with people as much as possible, and to listen to everyone, while still speaking our individual truths. The next stanza advises that we avoid people who are toxic and that we likewise avoid comparing ourselves to others. The third stanza suggests that we work hard in our chosen career, exercising caution in business and yet maintaining an open mind about people. Next, the speaker tells us to be true to ourselves, not to fake love or be pessimists about it, because it is "perennial" (i.e., it always returns). In the fifth stanza, we learn to listen to our elders and nurture our own spiritual strength so that we can weather misfortunes. The speaker also advises that we do not borrow trouble, so to speak, and that we treat ourselves gently. In the sixth stanza, the speaker insists that we "have a right to be here" just as the stars and trees do, and "no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should." In the penultimate stanza, the speaker again advises that we "be at peace" within and without, because, as the eighth stanza claims, the world is still beautiful despite its brokenness. We can and should still "Be cheerful" and "Strive to be happy."
This poem is empowering, in part because it seems to imply that our own happiness is a matter of choice. It does not suggest that we will not endure pain or that we will not encounter deception and wickedness, but it does suggest that we can choose to remain open and hopeful, and it is in this way that we will find some measure of beauty, joy, and peace.

"Desiderata" by Max Ehrmann is a didactic, or morally instructive, prose poem that addresses the challenges of living in a harsh world and provides practical advice for how to weather those challenges and achieve contentment. The poem stresses the importance of remaining calm, despite the barrage of outside forces that threaten to disturb our ability to feel tranquil. It also hails the power of love—particularly God’s love—to help us feel at peace with ourselves.
"Desiderata" consists of eight stanzas, each of which provides specific advice for achieving personal contentment in a harsh and unforgiving world. Ehrmann claims that by respecting others, speaking the truth, practicing tolerance, and following our passions in life and career, the ability to feel calm and content comes within our reach. Erhmann’s poem is one inspiration and optimism. It emphasizes the importance of affirming ourselves, growing from our experiences, and drawing on our inner strengths, and it confirms our ability feel tranquil.