How many years was the Old Stone Age—before the transition to the Middle Stone Age?

It is generally agreed by historians that the Old Stone Age—also known as the Paleolithic period—ranged from about 2,600,000 BC to 12,000 BC, when it was replaced by what we now know as the Mesolithic period (i.e., the Middle Stone Age). The Middle Stone Age lasted for approximately 3,000 years until the dawn of agriculture.
As the name implies, the Stone Age was characterized—mainly, but not exclusively—by its use of stone implements. Because the Stone Age is named after technological developments rather than actual date ranges, its length varies in different parts of the world.
Much the same could be said of the ending of the Middle Stone Age, as agriculture developed at different times in different places throughout the world. During the Mesolithic era, the earth's temperature increased dramatically, leading to the large-scale melting of ice sheets as well as a rise in sea-levels. Across the globe, the shape of land masses also experienced enormous change, with the Japanese islands breaking free from mainland Asia and what is now Great Britain separating from the European continent.
The flooding of vast swathes of territory—caused by rising sea-levels—resulted in major changes in land-use worldwide, leading to the development of agriculture. This development then heralded the end of the Middle Stone Age.

Why was Vermont not one of the original thirteen colonies?

Vermont claimed independence from the thirteen colonies during the Revolutionary War. Though opposed to this unilateral declaration, the other colonies were not in a position to do anything about it while they were busy fighting the British. Nonetheless, the Continental Congress was still able to refuse to recognize Vermont as a separate colony.
It would take another fourteen years before Vermont would finally enter the Union as a state. Such a long delay was largely down to territorial disputes with other states. The state of New York vehemently opposed Vermont's entry into the Union because it claimed that some of Vermont's lands rightly belonged to them. As New York was such a powerful player in national politics, the state was able to get the Continental Congress to refuse to even discuss the case for Vermont's entry as a member of the Union. It was only when Vermont agreed to pay New York the then substantial sum of $30,000 that it was finally able to begin the formal process of becoming the fourteenth state.

Who are the characters in the short story "The Machine That Won the War"?

"The Machine That Won the War" is a short science fiction story written by Isaac Asimov. It revolves around a computer called Multivac that is credited with winning the war. The story takes place after the war, when the three main characters meet after a successful war against the Denebians.
Lamar Swift, whose official title is "Executive Director of the Solar Federation," is the oldest of the three characters and comes across as being a patient and understanding man. He admits that his decisions were not solely based on the data given by Multivac. Swift's use of an older computer and the flipping of a coin played a more significant role in making decisions, as revealed to Henderson and Jablonsky at the end of the story.
John Henderson is the Chief Programmer of Multivac, the computer that is being credited with winning the war. As time passed, he also became aware of the unreliability of Multivac and created data to feed to the machine.
Max Jablonsky worked intimately with Multivac; his official title was "Chief Interpreter of Science's Oracle." He is a smoker who also does not fully trust Multivac. He admits to altering the data produced by Multivac.

How do I write neater?

Focus on what you are doing is quite often the most effective way to improve any skill. Take a moment to do a simple exercise:
1. Write this sentence that you are reading right now without looking at your paper more than once every three or four words.
2. Write this sentence that you are reading right now but slow down and look at the words you are writing.
This may sound too simplistic but you should see a distinct difference in your sentences. Visually focusing on the action of writing each letter and number will allow you to work on your hand and eye coordination. I have changed my writing style and signature numerous times. Sometimes I have gone for fat, rounded letters and other times I have focused on small, boxy letters. Pick a simple font that you like and go for it! Consistent, focused practice will have you writing beautifully faster than you think!

The most important tip I can give you to make your writing neater, as with improving any skill, is to practice. Nowadays it's so easy to write down almost everything on a phone or computer. To practice, carry a pad of paper and a pen with you and manually write down any lists, reminders, or memos instead of typing them into your phone.
It's also easier to write neatly by using a thicker tip pen (try a 0.5 tip). Using thin ballpoint pens can make your writing look scratchy and less neat.
If you have some free time, practice writing out this sentence: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." This sentence contains all the letters of the alphabet and will help you practice all your letters, but it won't seem as repetitive as simply writing out the alphabet. You could alternate between lower case letters, upper case letters, and even cursive if you are also learning cursive.
Writing and calligraphy are dying arts, but nowadays writing is still very necessary in school. Keep all your progress in a notebook so you can go back through the first pages and see how much you've improved! Good luck!

How did the English deal with the Native Americans?

English relations with the Native Americans were complex and could swing between extremes within the various colonies. In Virginia the relationship started off amicably. Without Native America aid, the colonists would not have survived the first two years in Jamestown. However, failure to return the Powhatan hospitality and the refusal to intermarry combined with the English intention to retain their new properties. This led to hostility and the proliferation of skirmishes between the settlers and Native Americans. In other areas, such as the New England colonies, the English had hostile relationships with some tribes and neutral relationships with other tribes; however, most colonists were not well equipped to identify the tribal affiliation of most Native Americans, which ultimately led to hostile relationships with most tribes.
Interestingly, some of the hostility between colonists and Native Americans in the later colonial period may have been driven by anti-Native American propaganda in the earlier period. This propaganda was mostly for the purpose of preventing colonists from leaving settlements and joining Native American tribes. This was an attractive prospect for many colonists, especially men. The early settlements often had difficulty feeding the settlers in the first few years of settlement. Establishing the settlement required a substantial amount of work, and often, the colonists would be under strict control of the colonial leaders. These hardships combined with the relative lack of women in the early colonies led a number of colonists to join tribes in order to have an easier life and potentially a wife.

Contrast the methods of the Chinese Nationalist government under Jiang and the Communists under Mao Zedong to rebuild China after war with Japan and analyze why the efforts of the former failed. Examine the efforts of the US and the USSR to create peace and stability in China and analyze why these efforts failed.

This is a complex and controversial subject, and I have to admit that an attempt at a definitive answer may simply ignite additional controversy. Though he was an ally of the United States, the unfortunate thing about Jiang is that his authority as leader of China was never fully recognized by his own people. Few Americans were aware of the ruthlessness with which he consolidated power in 1928 and defeated his rivals, both the warlords and the Communists. When war began with Japan, an uneasy alliance was made within China for the purpose of expelling the Japanese. But the moment peace was declared and Japan was defeated, the warlords immediately resumed their hostility toward Jiang and reinitiated the shooting war that had been suspended when the far greater problem of the Japanese invasion had to be dealt with. Needless to say, the Communists went on the offensive as well.
The Americans could not maintain a permanent military presence in China. Even during the war, it was clear that the alliance between the United States and Jiang's Kuomintang was not entirely comfortable, as one can see from reading Gen. Stilwell's journals. With World War II over, Jiang's position was vulnerable: he had inadequate popular support and could not overcome the opposition of both the warlords and the Communists.
Though some historians would claim that Mao was successful in unifying the country because he had genuine popular support, I would argue that the more significant reason for his victory was that the Communists were simply better organized and even more ruthless than anyone else. Those factors—organization and unrestricted cruelty—were what had similarly enabled the Bolshevik takeover of Russia thirty years earlier. Among mass murdering regimes, we know that, for instance, Hitler killed at least six million people, and Stalin killed at least twenty million. But the scale of killing in China under Mao was probably much greater, to the extent that no one even knows the actual number. Mao eliminated everyone in his way and revamped Chinese society in a decades-long process culminating in the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, when the last vestiges of the old Chinese bourgeois society were destroyed.

Jiang, more often known as Chiang Kai Shek in the west, was more often described as a fascist, though his party was named Nationalist. Chiang had his own Blue Shirt Society, modeled on Mussolini's fascist Blackshirts, that dressed in blue, swore personal loyalty to Chiang, and were his enforcers in the dictatorship. The lowest estimates are that the Nationalists killed 6 million Chinese. The highest estimate is that they killed 18 million.
Chiang, in his efforts to defeat the Communists, ordered campaigns of mass repression that killed 300,000, man-made famines that killed up to 2.5 million in order to weaken areas of Communist sympathy, and a man-made flood that killed up to 900,000 in order to slow a Communist military advance.
The Nationalists were also notoriously corrupt and incompetent. American money sent to build airbases to fight the Japanese and then American gold given to fight the Communists was mostly embezzled. Chiang remained close friends with Japanese officers and even had Japanese staffing his military even while Japan invaded and conquered with great brutality.
By contrast, Mao's Communists took care to win over workers and peasants, with strict rules not to brutalize or steal from them. Communist repression killed easily as many as Chiang's, but it was almost all after they came to power.

After Japan surrendered in 1945, both the Nationalists and Communists sought to control China politically. Because attempts at negotiation and compromise failed, control of China was ultimately decided on the battlefield.
Prior to Japan's surrender, the Communists and Nationalists fought together against Japan in a United Front. Their cooperation, however, disintegrated as soon as Japan lost. The Communists had gained popularity during the war while the Nationalists were relatively ineffective and corrupt.
In December 1945, the United States sent George C. Marshall to China to mediate a peace settlement. But the Communists did not trust the pro-Nationalist U.S. and fighting broke out in many parts of China. After almost a year of trying, Marshall gave up and returned to the U.S.
By 1947, the Communists were winning. They enjoyed support in the countryside, and the Nationalists were on the defensive. The Nationalists' battlefield defeats were exacerbated by inflation and corruption in the areas under their control. The Communists' momentum was inexorable and they took almost all of China by 1949. The Nationalists fled to Taiwan and created a government on that island.
Why did the Communist win? First, they gained more popular support, especially among peasants. Second, they had better leadership. Mao Zedong, the Communist leader, was better than Chiang Kai-shek, head of the Nationalists.

What two observations does Clarisse make about Montag’s conversational mannerisms?

The two observations that Clarisse makes about Montag's conversational mannerisms are as follows:

"You laugh when I haven't been funny and you answer right off. You never stop to think what I've asked you."

Clarisse's two comments reveal truths about both herself and Montag. They show, first, that Clarisse really listens to and notices how Montag responds. He has her full attention, which makes her interaction with him much different from the distracted conversations he and Mildred share.
Clarisse's observations also suggest that Montag is ill-at-ease because he laughs inappropriately at comments that aren't funny. The particular comment he laughs at is her idea, which he immediately dismisses as false, that firemen once put out fires. His response to this idea also shows that he is answering her mechanically, because, as she says, he doesn't stop to think about what she is asking. Both observations indicate that Montag is not used to real conversation that challenges him to think. He has been living in a rote, empty way, a subject he will ponder when Clarisse has left.

Clarisse makes a number of observations during separate conversations with Montag. In the first one, she asks him if it's true that firemen once used to put out fires instead of start them. Montag, laughing, says no. Clarisse wants to know why Montag is laughing even though she hasn't said anything remotely amusing. She also observes that he answered her question without hesitation. This indicates not just his blind acceptance of the prevailing ideology—it most certainly is true that firemen used to put out fires instead of start them—but also Montag's initial nervousness in Clarisse's presence.
In a later conversation, Clarisse observes that Montag is considerably more relaxed. Now when he laughs, it sounds a lot nicer than it used to. Montag no longer laughs out of nervousness, but because he genuinely seems to enjoy being in Clarisse's company.

Why did Orwell choose a farm as the novel Animal Farm's setting?

In his 1947 preface to the Ukrainian edition of Animal Farm, Orwell provided some background on what led him to the farm setting of the story. He was distressed at the way many people in England misunderstood the severity and cruelty of what was then occurring in the Soviet Union under Stalin. Orwell did not think that Stalin's brutal totalitarian regime should be confused with true socialism. The problem of how to communicate the reality of what was going on in Russia plagued Orwell. He recounts:

[F]or the past ten years I have been convinced that the destruction of the Soviet myth [the myth that it was socialist state and not a dictatorship] was essential if we wanted a revival of the Socialist movement.
On my return from Spain I thought of exposing the Soviet myth in a story that could be easily understood by almost anyone and which could be easily translated into other languages. However, the actual details of the story did not come to me for some time until one day (I was then living in a small village) I saw a little boy, perhaps ten years old, driving a huge cart-horse along a narrow path, whipping it whenever it tried to turn. It struck me that if only such animals became aware of their strength, we should have no power over them, and that men exploit animals in much the same way as the rich exploit the proletariat.

This gave Orwell the idea of setting his story on a farm, among animals.
A farm is simpler to describe than an entire nation state and so made Orwell's story easier to tell. Animals provide enough distance from the human experience that we can understand Orwell's main points more easily. He wanted to show how easily the ideals of a revolution can be corrupted by the misuse of language and by violence. The farm, with its various types of animals, gave him a simple stage on which to place his ideas about the mechanisms through which one group or individual twists ideals and turns them to evil.

Was Barbara Mr. Slade's and Mrs. Ansley's?

The answer to your question is yes. Barbara is Mr. Slade's and Mrs. Ansley's daughter.
The author doesn't reveal this fact until the last line of the story. It certainly makes for a dramatic ending. Additionally, it also puts a dent in Mrs. Slade's (Alida's) smug attitude. The text reveals that Alida envied Mrs. Ansley's (Grace's) beauty and engaging way with men during their youth. Alida feared that she would lose her fiancé, Delphin, to Grace. So, she masqueraded as Delphin and wrote a letter inviting Grace to join Delphin at the Colosseum late one evening.

You do understand? I'd found out and I hated you, hated you. I knew you were in love with Delphin and I was afraid; afraid of you, of your quiet ways, your sweetness . . . your . . . well, I wanted you out of the way, that's all. Just for a few weeks; just till I was sure of him . . .

Of course, Alida's purpose was a diabolical one. Knowing that her friend had a delicate constitution, Alida hoped that Grace would take ill from the Roman fever. With Grace failing, Alida would have Delphin to herself.
However, the author makes a dramatic revelation toward the end of the story. Although Alida wrote the letter, Grace did meet with Delphin that night. The result of that one-night stand is, of course, Barbara. So, although Alida was married to Dephin for twenty-five years, she could not prevent Delphin from having an affair with Grace. The proof for her failure is Barbara, who is the daughter of Grace and Delphin. The revelation must have been a devastating one for Alida, who for twenty-five years believed that she had outsmarted her rival.

What are some historically important veto overrides?

Andrew Johnson, an opponent of civil rights, was the president who had the most important vetoes overridden. There have been other presidents with a higher number of vetoes, and a higher number or proportion overridden. But these were almost all about budget disagreements. By contrast, Johnson's veto overrides were almost entirely to do with civil rights and his determination to prevent blacks from getting them.
At the top of the list is Johnson's veto of the first civil rights bill in US history. The bill was aimed at protecting blacks from white supremacist terrorist organizations like the KKK, Redshirts, and White League. For example, the law barred killing someone to prevent them from exercising civil rights like the right to vote. Congress was able to override this veto, and the law was enacted in 1866.
Johnson also vetoed (and was later overridden) admitting non-southern states into the Union that likely would vote Republican. At that time, the Republican party was more supportive of civil rights, while Democrats were considered "the White Man's Party"—as they had been since the days of Andrew Jackson. He also vetoed the admission of former Confederate states in rebellion. Johnson was a proponent of "soft Reconstruction," which meant that states need not approve of the new constitutional amendments protecting blacks' and others' civil rights. Soft reconstruction would have also required a lower number of the state population swearing loyalty to the US.
Johnson's racism, expressed through his vetoes and other actions to maintain white supremacy during Reconstruction, is one of the reasons he is regarded by many today as one of the worst presidents in US history. The damage that he did would take at least a century to repair, starting with the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s.

What are the most important chapters in part 2 of To Kill a Mockingbird?

I would agree that chapters 20 and chapters 28 are the most important in part two of the novel, but I would also add chapter 29.
Although we are told from the start that Tom Robinson will never be acquitted of raping Mayella Ewell, Atticus mounts a strong and convincing defense, so persuasive that we can even hold out hope that the jury will do the right thing. When they don't and instead convict Robinson in chapter 20, despite all the evidence in his favor, it is a defining moment in the novel.
Chapter 28 is also a defining moment, for Bob Ewell's attack on the children brings us back to chapter one and Jem's broken arm—the beginning that set the story in motion. Now we find out why Jem has a badly broken arm, as well as about the knife attack on Scout.
Chapter 29 is also important because it is there that Scout identifies Boo as the one who saved her from Bob Ewell, saying, as she points at him in the corner,

Why there he is, Mr. Tate, he can tell you his name.

One could argue that chapters 19, 20, 24, and 28 are the four most important in Part Two of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird.
In chapter 19, Tom Robinson takes the witness stand and tells the truth about the events that took place on the evening of November 21st. Tom testifies that Mayella made sexual advances towards him and that he desperately fled the Ewell home when he heard Bob yell through the window. During the cross-examination, the racist prosecutor speaks down to Tom and treats him disrespectfully. Tom ends up making a costly mistake by saying that he felt sorry for Mayella. The racist jury and crowd does not like Tom's answer and he is aware of his drastic mistake.
In chapter 20, Tom's guilty verdict is read. Tom's conviction is an important moment in the novel, and this is when the children lose their childhood innocence.
In chapter 24, Scout depicts her maturity and increased perspective on life by noticing the hypocrisy of the local women at her aunt's missionary circle.
In chapter 28, Jem and Scout walk home from the Maycomb Halloween festival and are viciously attacked by Bob Ewell, who attempts to kill them. Fortunately, Boo Radley comes to their aid and intervenes in the struggle. Boo Radley ends up saving the children's lives by killing Bob Ewell, and he then carries Jem home.

Who is the Knight of Mirrors in Don Quixote?

The Knight of Mirrors is revealed to be Sansón Carrasco—an educated and slightly arrogant man who likes to mock others. He dresses up as various knights (The Knight of Mirrors, The Knight of the Spangles, and the Knight of the White Moon) to try and cure Don Quixote of his "madness" and put an end to his knighthood. When he loses in a sword fight against Don Quixote, he swears that he won't leave until he gets his revenge. Similar to many of Cervantes' characters, Carrasco is presented as neither good nor entirely bad; however, he can still be considered the main antagonist of the novel. Despite this, he is still capable of recognizing and learning from his past mistakes and ends up helping Don Quixote after he finally beats him in a fight.

How is Reverend Parris immoral?

In the first act, it is notable that Mrs. Putnam confesses to Reverend Parris that she sent her daughter, Ruth, to Parris's slave, Tituba, to conjure the the spirits of Mrs. Putnam's dead children. She believes that witchcraft is the cause of her children's deaths, and so she essentially encourages her daughter to engage in witchcraft in order to find out who the murderous witches are. Parris is shocked, and he even tells her, "Goody Ann, it is a formidable sin to conjure up the dead!" Yet, when the court comes to Salem, Parris never once mentions this important detail to the magistrates because the Putnams are powerful, and they are his allies. Further, he tries to hide the fact that he saw the girls dancing in the woods prior to Ruth and Betty becoming sick; John Proctor reveals this truth to the court and Danforth is "astonished." Parris also tries to malign Proctor's character as well. He conceals and embellishes wherever he wants, wherever it will most benefit him, and -- especially when people's lives are in danger -- this is an incredibly immoral way to act.

Reverend Parris is portrayed as a selfish, callous man, who is primarily concerned with maintaining his position of authority and reaping the benefits of being Salem's spiritual leader. At the beginning of the play, Reverend Parris shows more concern about losing his position as reverend to a rival faction than he does his daughter's health after Abigail admits that she danced in the forest with the other girls. Reverend Parris also displays his greedy, materialistic nature by complaining about his salary, demanding the deed to his house, and insisting that he have golden candlesticks at his altar. John Proctor mentions that he does not see the light of God in Reverend Parris and even Rebecca Nurse admits that he speaks too frequently on hellfire and damnation. Despite the complaints from Proctor, Corey, and Nurse, Reverend Parris insists that they are "stiff-necked" people, who must obey his authority and remain silent. As the proceedings get underway, Reverend Parris reveals that he is not concerned with discovering the truth and attempts to silence any citizen bringing evidence against the court. He is depicted as a completely callous, debased individual, who is willing to let innocent citizens die in order to protect his position of authority. Even after Abigail flees with his life savings, Parris is only focused on losing his money and worried about his well-being instead of feeling guilty that innocent people are going to hang. Overall, Reverend Parris is an immoral, materialistic man, who is extremely selfish and unsympathetic throughout the course of the play.

Just as the witch hunt in Salem reveals the strength and courage of some characters in the drama, it also reveals the greed and cowardice in others, especially in Reverend Samuel Parris. From the moment witchcraft is mentioned as a possible cause of the children’s strange behavior, Parris views every subsequent event and circumstance in terms of its impact on his reputation and personal finances. At no time does he demonstrate concern for anyone but himself as the hysteria grows in Salem. John Proctor recognized the moral deficiencies in Reverend Parris long before Salem is consumed by the witch hunt. In explaining why the Proctors’ third child had not been baptized, John says, “I like it not that Mr. Parris should lay his hand upon my baby. I see no light of God in that man.” In Parris’s actions as the leader of the church in Salem, Proctor finds no love, humility, compassion, or dedication in serving God; he sees instead Parris’s selfishness and greed.
Before becoming the head of the church in Salem, Parris had lived in Barbados where he made his living in commercial trade. In accepting the position in Salem, he had been driven by worldly rather than spiritual concerns, especially in regard to money and what it can buy. He negotiated his services to the church, no doubt, as he had once negotiated deals in his “thrifty business” in Barbados. The Reverend had demanded a contract under which he would be paid sixty-six pounds annually and be provided with a house and firewood; once employed, he demanded a deed to the house. Moreover, Parris had been displeased with the simple trappings of the little church in Salem, insisting that the congregation buy candlesticks made of gold to replace the pewter candlesticks on the altar. “I think, sometimes, the man dreams of cathedrals, not clapboard meetin’ houses,” Proctor says of the Reverend.
Parris views his position in Salem as a career, not a calling, which is made evident in how he reacts when witchcraft is mentioned in regard to the children’s strange behavior. “I am certain there be no element of witchcraft here,” he reassures Goody Putnam. He then begs her husband, “I pray you, leap not to witchcraft …. They will howl me out of Salem for such corruption in my house.” In a time when many believed in the power of witches to act in concert with the devil in taking human souls, Parris refuses to entertain the possibility that the children are afflicted by evil spirits. He fears even the mention of “so disastrous a charge,” viewing it as a dire threat to his personal wellbeing. That the children’s souls might be at risk is of no concern to him, but he is very concerned about losing his job.
Despite Parris’s attempts to stifle the discussion of witchcraft in Salem, the community is soon overwhelmed with the hunt for witches and the establishment of Judge Danforth’s court. Throughout the trials, Parris aligns himself with the court and its proceedings; unlike Reverend Hale, a man guided by conscience, Parris does not question the workings of the court, even though he has good reason to question the veracity of Abigail Williams as the chief accuser of the innocent, nor is he affected by the tragedy occurring in his congregation. It is only when Abigail breaks into Parris’s strongbox and runs away with his money that the Reverend responds with heartfelt emotion. “Thirty-one pound is gone. I am penniless,” he exclaims to Judge Hathorne. Parris then “covers his face and sobs.” Reverend Parris has no tears for innocent lives destroyed, but in his greed and cowardice, he has a great deal of pity for himself.

What happens in Canto XIV of Dante's Inferno?

Canto XIV
Before Dante and Virgil take leave of the Florentine who has committed suicide and, as punishment, has been transformed into a thorny bush, Dante takes pity on the shade. He gathers up all the broken branches he is able to find and gently places them back on the tangle of twigs.
As they walk, the poets begin to see the forest thinning. Here, there is no foliage of any kind. Planes of sand stretch out before them. The sand is unbearably hot. Dante peers closer and see hundreds of naked, condemned souls writhing and crying out in misery. He notices that those able to move about somewhat are less vocal than those buried in its depths:

“...naked souls beheld I many herds,
Who all were weeping very miserably,
And over them seemed set a law diverse.
Supine upon the ground some folk were lying;
And some were sitting all drawn up together,
And others went about continually.
Those who were going round were far the more,
And those were less who lay down to their torment,
But had their tongues more loosed to lamentation.”

Dante looks up and notices that not only does the burning ground torment the sinners, but so too do flakes of fire falling from the sky. The glowing ash sears whatever flesh is exposed. Those who are able to move can periodically avoid the falling flames, but those trapped in the sand, many buried from the waist down, suffer the ignition of the sand around them the flakes land. They frantically try to beat out the fire, and to Dante, it looks like a macabre dance.
Watching their horror, Dante notices one shade in particular. His eye is drawn to the enormous physical size of the former man as well as the giant’s loud complaints against God. Dante asks Virgil who the shade had been in life, but before Virgil can reply, the giant himself responds, but not with his name. Rather, he continues his vocal denouncement of God (whom he calls “Jove”) and, despite his predicament, claims that God will never will never be able to take revenge against him. The giant is committing the worst sin… blasphemy. He shouts to the travelers:

"Such as I was living, am I, dead.
If Jove should weary out his smith, from whom
He seized in anger the sharp thunderbolt,
Wherewith upon the last day I was smitten,
And if he wearied out by turns the others
In Mongibello at the swarthy forge,
Vociferating, 'Help, good Vulcan, help!'
Even as he did there at the fight of Phlegra,
And shot his bolts at me with all his might,
He would not have thereby a joyous vengeance."

Virgil knows who this blasphemous shade is. The man’s name is Capaneus; he had been one of the seven kings who fought against Thebes. The poets leave the howling giant and walk on; Virgil tells his charge to stay as close as possible to the outer edge of the sand, which is cooler.
The come to a small stream which is red with blood. It reminds Dante of a hot spring in Florence called the Bulicame, in which the local prostitutes bathed. Virgil tells him his stream is an offshoot the Phlegethon, the large river of blood that they crossed in Circle Six, just on the other side of the City of Dis.
Virgil, at Dante’s request, tells him more about the creation of the river. The origins of the rivers of Hell come from a weeping statue in the Crete. It faces Rome and its back is toward Egypt. The left leg is constructed of gold and silver, while the right leg is constructed of clay, each leg, perhaps, representing the strength of Rome and the decline of the Church, respectively. The entire statue is covered in cracks, from which leaks spring. The mysterious tears eventually seep through the earth and form the four rivers of Hell: the Acheron, the Styx, the Phlegethon, and the Cocytus.
Dante recalls a fifth river, the Lethe, and asks Virgil why he has not mentioned its presence in Hell. Virgil replies that the Lethe flows not in Hell proper, but in Purgatory, the plane that exists between Heaven and Hell. “Lethe” means forgetfulness. After having their sins purged in Purgatory, the sinners’ memories are wiped clean of their past transgressions so that they can enter Heaven with joy.
The poets move on, deeper into this torturous circle.

What happens in Canto XVIII of Dante's Inferno?

Canto XVIII
The monster Geryon has flown away, leaving his passengers at the top of the Eighth Circle of Hell. The sight, perhaps unsurprisingly, is simultaneously dreary and terrifying. Nude sinners march through the dim fortress; their unprotected bodies are relentlessly whipped by demons who herd them continuously along. Dante describes the scene as he and Virgil move forward:

"There is a place in Hell called Malebolge,
Wholly of stone and of an iron colour,
As is the circle that around it turns.
Right in the middle of the field malign
There yawns a well exceeding wide and deep,
Of which its place the structure will recount.
Round, then, is that enclosure which remains
Between the well and foot of the high, hard bank,
And has distinct in valleys ten its bottom.
…
Upon my right hand I beheld new anguish,
New torments, and new wielders of the lash,
Wherewith the foremost Bolgia was replete.
Down at the bottom were the sinners naked;
…
Beheld I horned demons with great scourges,
Who cruelly were beating them behind.
Ah me! how they did make them lift their legs
At the first blows!’

As Dante watches the grim procession, he is reminded of his nemesis, Pope Boniface VIII and the year of the first Jubilee, which began on February 22, 1300. On this day, the pontiff declared that the king was subordinate to the pope, in matters both spiritual and secular. Furthermore, Boniface arranged for the selling of indulgences during the year-long run of the Jubilee; anyone who visited a Roman Catholic church and made an “offering” was forgiven of their sins by the clergy. The response from the parishioners was overwhelming; so many streamed into Rome that soldiers were required to keep the crowds orderly and two lines moving steadily in and out of St. Peter’s Cathedral.
Dante watches as the tormented souls pass him; one of their number makes eye contact with the poet. Dante immediately recognizes the shade as Venedico Caccianemico, and asks the man what he has done to bring this torment upon himself.
Caccianemico reluctantly confesses that in life, he had sold his sister into sexual slavery:

"Unwillingly I tell it;
But forces me thine utterance distinct,
Which makes me recollect the ancient world.
I was the one who the fair Ghisola
Induced to grant the wishes of the Marquis,
Howe'er the shameless story may be told.”

For some reason, Caccianemico thinks that claiming others are guilty of his sin lessens his own culpability, so he tells other that others from his area, Bologna, are also perpetrators, ones who have said “sipa” (“yes”):

“Not the sole Bolognese am I who weeps here;
Nay, rather is this place so full of them,
That not so many tongues to-day are taught
'Twixt Reno and Savena to say 'sipa;'
And if thereof thou wishest pledge or proof,
Bring to thy mind our avaricious heart."

Dante cannot answer Caccianemico, however, because a demon viciously whips the sinner and the man is forced to move along. The demon shouts,

"Get thee gone
Pander, there are no women here for coin."

Dante and Virgil watch the line of sinners march, come to a rocky ridge, and then turn around, travelling toward the poets and back from whence they had come. Among their number, Virgil points out one man in particular: Jason of the Argonauts:

“See that tall one who is coming,
And for his pain seems not to shed a tear;
Still what a royal aspect he retains!
That Jason is, who by his heart and cunning
The Colchians of the Ram made destitute.
He by the isle of Lemnos passed along
After the daring women pitiless
Had unto death devoted all their males.
There with his tokens and with ornate words
Did he deceive Hypsipyle, the maiden
Who first, herself, had all the rest deceived.
There did he leave her pregnant and forlorn;
Such sin unto such punishment condemns him,
And also for Medea is vengeance done.
With him go those who in such wise deceive;
And this sufficient be of the first valley
To know, and those that in its jaws it holds."

Even though the man is lauded in literature, he also committed a very terrible sin. Virgil tells Dante that Jason abandoned Hypsipyle of Lemnos, after seducing her and getting her pregnant. With Hypsipyle not in the way, Jason was free to go steal the legendary Golden Fleece from Colchis, the land of great wealth that bordered the Earth and the Heavens.
The infamous Jason is now just another of the condemned souls. He moves along without a word to the travelers, spurred on by the whip of his tormentor.
Virgil and Dante walk until they come to a fetid pool. Here, sinners are immersed in excrement. The shades fight among themselves in the mire, and their complaints become mold on their filthy bodies. Edging closer, Dante sees how tremendously deep the moat is in which they are punished; he comes close enough to see some of their smeared faces. One of the condemned espies Dante looking at him in particular and cries out:

“Wherefore art thou so eager
To look at me more than the other foul ones?"

Dante calls the man by name: Alessio Interminei of Lucca (There are few details about this man’s life other than that he was a Guelph). The shade hits himself over the head, admits that in life he had been guilty of the sin of flattery, and sinks back down into the excrement.
Virgil then points out one more sinner in the muck, a woman whom he identifies as Thais, a harlot whose sin was being gratuitously thankful to her lover for physical pleasure. Now, immersed in Malebolge, Thais relentlessly scratches at her torn flesh with her filth-encrusted nails.
Disgusted with the sight of her, Virgil stops talking and the two move wordlessly on.

In the play Magic, what does the conjurer mean when he tells Reverend Smith that he wants the Reverend to be martyred?

In this play, the conjurer, who usually does his magic act through trickery and sleight of hand, actually performs magic. However, nobody who knows him will believe him, because all they believe in is the rational world of science. They think the conjurer is lying when he says he performed real magic, because that is outside of the realm of their experience. Therefore, the conjurer says to the Reverend Smith:

I want you to be martyred. I want you to bear witness to your own creed. I say these things are supernatural. I say this was done by a spirit. The Doctor does not believe me. He is an agnostic; and he knows everything. The Duke does not believe me; he cannot believe anything so plain as a miracle. But what the devil are you for, if you don't believe in a miracle? What does your coat mean, if it doesn't mean that there is such a thing as the supernatural? What does your cursed collar mean if it doesn't mean that there is such a thing as a spirit? [Exasperated.]

The conjurer wants Smith to be martyred, to suffer and die for his faith, in the hopes that it will help convince rationalist, agnostic people like the doctor and the Duke that the spiritual realm is real. The conjurer also wants to know for his own sake that the reverend is a true Christian who believes the teaching of his church. The conjurer believes that, through the sacrifice of becoming a martyr, Smith would demonstrate that he really does believe in Christian teachings.

What are the products formed when lead nitrate solution reacts with copper sulfate?

In chemistry classes, we try to make sense of the immense variety of chemical reactions by classifying reactions into groups that have certain characteristics in common. When asked to predict the product(s) of a reaction, we can often find a definitive answer by classifying the reaction and then applying the "rules" that describe how reactions in that class typically behave. Thus, our first task is to classify the reaction; then we will review what we have studied about that type of reaction and, if necessary, use information from Chemistry Reference Tables to reach a conclusion.
We are told we have lead nitrate solution reacting with copper sulfate. By this point in your course you can probably recognize that these are two ionic compounds, each made up of a metal cation and a polyatomic anion. If you have studied nomenclature, and in particular the Stock system, you know that they are properly referred to as lead (II) nitrate and copper (II) sulfate. We are told the lead nitrate is a solution, but we are not told the state of the copper sulfate.
What kind of reaction could this be? Let's run through the possibilities. We'll get combustion out of the way first. That involves something reacting with oxygen. If your chemistry course defines combustion in terms of compounds of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, then the products are carbon dioxide and water. Clearly, this is not combustion.
A synthesis or combination reaction involves two or more reactants combining to make a single product. The question asks about products, plural, which implies there is more than one product, so this is not a synthesis reaction.
A decomposition reaction starts with a single reactant species and results in two or more products, usually requiring the input of a good deal of energy. This starts with two reactants, so it cannot be decomposition.
A single replacement reaction involves an element reacting with a compound to produce a different element and compound. This cannot be single replacement, as we are starting with two compounds.
A double replacement reaction involves two compounds reacting to produce two other compounds. It can be an acid-base neutralization reaction or a reaction between two ionic compounds in solution in which the ions change partners. Our starting compounds are not an acid and base, but they are two ionic compounds, so this could be a double replacement reaction.
Normally we consider double replacement reactions in aqueous solution, and we look for evidence of reaction in the form of a precipitate formed or a gas given off. Typically we mix two clear (although not necessarily colorless) solutions together and pay attention to whether anything precipitates. In this problem, we are not told that the copper sulfate is aqueous; however, if we were to add solid copper sulfate to a solution containing lead nitrate, it would dissolve, as you can confirm by looking it up in a table of solubilities.
In this case, here we are predicting the products rather than doing an experiment. For a double replacement reaction, we write names of potential products by pairing the cation from each reactant with the anion from the other reactant. Once we have these names, we turn to a solubility table. If either of them is insoluble, it will precipitate from solution, and we will have a definite product. At most one product will precipitate.
In this reaction we have lead (II) nitrate and copper (II) sulfate. Potential products obtained by swapping the ions are lead (II) sulfate and copper (II) nitrate. Now, different chemistry classes use different Reference Tables with slightly different information, and you should definitely get familiar with the tables used for your class and know where to find the Solubility Rules in them. Solubility Rules are deceptively simple-looking but can trip you up if you have not practiced with them.
I have included a link to the Chemistry Reference Tables I use with my classes in North Carolina. The Solubility Rules are on page 6 (just above the guidelines for identifying different classes of reactions). We look for lead (II) sulfate first. In the left-hand column, under "Soluble," it says "all Sulfates except Calcium, Strontium, Barium, Mercury, Lead (II), and Silver." All sulfates are soluble except when paired with a short list of metal cations including lead (II). That means lead (II) sulfate is insoluble. When it is formed, it will precipitate.
I said above that there will be only one precipitate, but it is always wise to check, potentially catching our mistakes. Let's look up copper (II) nitrate as well. In the first entry in the left-hand column, under "Soluble," it says, "All nitrates . . . are soluble." While copper isn't mentioned, this means any ionic compound having any cation paired with nitrate will be soluble.
Using the solubility tables, then, we have found that lead (II) sulfate, being insoluble, will precipitate. A precipitate is a solid, so one of our products is solid lead (II) sulfate. Since your instructor called it lead sulfate, I'm sure you can, too. My North Carolina Reference Tables are specific in identifying lead (II) sulfate as insoluble, so I wanted to be clear that this is what is commonly known as "lead sulfate." The other combination, copper (II) nitrate, is soluble, so it will remain in solution. Formally, this is referred to as aqueous copper (II) nitrate. Aqueous ionic compounds exist as solvated ions in solution, so depending on the emphasis in your course you might refer to this as a solution of Cu^(2+)and NO_3^- ions.
This answer is quite long, and I'm sure your instructor will accept a much shorter answer. I thought it would be helpful to demonstrate the full process of classifying the reactions and then recalling the skills you have learned for analyzing the type of reaction once it is identified. Using this approach, you can reliably answer questions of this kind; trying to use shortcuts usually results in errors.
Lead nitrate solution, by the way, is clear and colorless. Copper sulfate solution is blue (but clear, as are all solutions). The precipitate of lead sulfate is white. Copper nitrate solution is also blue.

Explain the two reasons why the aggregate supply (AS) curve is positively sloped.

Aggregate supply, also called total output, is the total supply of goods and services that is produced within an economy, both at a given overall price and during a given period. It is represented by the aggregate supply curve, which is generally drawn as an upward-rising slope from left to right. The reason for this slope is that product price and quantity supplied are directly related. That is, as the price increases, the amount of the good supplied also increases. However, the relationship depends on other things being equal. The conditions that must remain constant include the number of sellers, static or changing technology, production costs, and related products' prices. If any of these change, it will cause a corresponding shift in the supply curve. There are differences between short-run and long-run tendencies. In the short run, aggregate supply is affected by demand and prices, as higher demand requires an increase in the use of current production inputs, such as labor.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/supply-curve

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/aggregatesupply.asp

What parts of the world experienced the Industrial Revolution first?

The Industrial Revolution was a 'societal revolution' in which a number of countries changed from being farming and agriculture-based into manufacturing and industry-based societies. This took place in two waves, the First Industrial Revolution in the 1700s and the Second Industrial Revolution which occurred toward the end of the 1800s moving into the 1900s. According to historians, the First Industrial Revolution started in Great Britain which was one of the most dominate societies of the time.
From the mid-1700's through the mid-1800s Great Britain went through a great deal of economic development which changed not only that country's society but moved on to neighboring countries and throughout the world at large. Some events at the center of the Industrial Revolution were the use of steel and iron in machine construction; this made the machines more durable, effective, and capable of mass producing goods. In addition, the use of new energy sources such as coal, electricity, and steam to power these machines emerged to make the machines far more efficient. The evolution of efficient machinery allowed English society to move from traditionally home-based goods that were produced at very slow rates to goods being produced in factories at much faster speeds than before. Thus, factories first began appearing in Great Britain and no one doubts that the development of these factories were at the advent of the Industrial Revolution.

The industrial revolution began in England in the eighteenth century, in the textile industry. Whereas before the revolution, wool or other raw material had been sent out to individuals or families in cottages to be spun or hand loomed into cloth, during the industrial revolution this process was completely changed. Factories developed and used large, steam-powered equipment, such as the power loom that could produce material much more quickly than by hand. Rather than disperse raw materials to cottagers who worked in their home, workers were now required to come to work in large factories. Whereas at home, workers could fit their work around other responsibilities, regularized work schedules, for as much as sixteen hours a day, increased productivity and profits for the owners, but exhausted workers, leading to unrest until some of the early problems were worked out through labor laws.
The Industrial Revolution expanded urban populations and decreased the number of people in rural villages. It led to lower prices for clothing and other items that could be produced more rapidly than ever by machines, and thus to higher standards of living. After the Industrial Revolution had taken off in England, contributing to the country becoming the premier world power in the nineteenth century, it spread to Germany and the United States, and then to France, Italy, Holland, Belgium, and Japan.

Who is Franny?

Franny is a flat, minor character in Alice Sebold’s novel The Lovely Bones. When Susie is murdered suddenly at the hands of her neighbor Mr. Harvey, she discovers that the afterlife is much different than many believe it to be.
Because of the tragic circumstances of her death, Susie must come to terms with her mortality before she can truly be at peace. As such, Susie arrives in her own personal heaven, also known as the first heaven. Somewhat like purgatory, the first heaven allows Susie to see and even intervene in things happening on earth.
When Susie first arrives in heaven, Holly introduces her to Franny, a former therapist during her life. Franny is one part guide and one part counselor. She gives Susie all the information about how the different heavens work and how Susie can finally move on to the next one.
Franny is kind, but she’s also very straightforward. She matter-of-factly dismisses Susie’s requests, like wanting to be able to grow up. This annoys Susie at first, but as time passes, she begins to understand Franny’s wisdom.
Franny gives Susie the following sage advice:

If you stop asking why you were killed instead of someone else, stop investigating the vacuum left by your loss, stop wondering what everyone left on Earth is feeling . . . you can be free.

This quote echoes one of the novel’s themes: the nature of healing.

What happened if the Native Americans rebelled against the colonists?

Native American tribes often did rebel against European settlers. In some instances, they could do serious damage, such as when the Powhatan tribe wiped out a quarter of the entire population of Jamestown in a single day over a long-standing dispute with the colonists. In the long term, however, the advantage rested with the colonists, who had superior arms to the indigenous peoples, allowing them to subdue any native uprisings, no matter how long it took.
Over time, the colonists greatly expanded their territory at the expense of the natives, making deeper and deeper incursions into ancestral hunting lands that had formed an essential part of tribal heritage for thousands for years. This made it more and more difficult for Native-Americans to organize any kind of concerted resistance against the colonists. They were becoming too widely dispersed to be able to come together and form a unified military force.
The best that they could do under the circumstances was to form themselves into isolated raiding parties that would stage sporadic attacks against European settlements. But this did little to change the overall power dynamic. If anything, it actually consolidated the colonists' increasing hold on America, making them all the more determined to use their superior military power to hold on to and add to the vast territorial wealth they'd already taken from the native population.

What are common elements found in the poetry of Federico García Lorca?

Federico García Lorca, who was executed at age 38, was extremely prolific during his short life. He began publishing poetry in the 1920s. His early works were romantic evocations of his childhood in southern Spain. His Andalusian background provided the themes of several early collections about the traditional figure of the gypsy, such as Gypsy Ballads (Romancero gitano). He drew extensively on folklore and folk songs. While some critics disapproved of the work for reinforcing stereotypes about Spanish life, making it seem stuck in the past, other have pointed out that the figure stands for all oppressed people. Because Lorca was gay, this representation has gained further appreciation in recent years.
At the start of the Great Depression, Lorca visited New York City. His disillusion with American society, including materialism and racism, figure in his Poet in New York. He later used symbolism extensively to explore themes of identity and interior consciousness, notably in The Divan at the Tamarit. Lament for the Death of a Bullfighter (Llanto por Ignacio Sánchez Mejías), written soon before his murder in 1937, includes perhaps his most famous poem, “At Five O’Clock in the Afternoon.” The entire work both memorializes an individual matador and serves as an elegy for the contemporary Fascist threats to Spanish culture.

In the book The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein, what way can a person change the course of their life through a single action?

In the book The Art of Racing in the Rain, there are several characters: Enzo, a dog who serves as the narrator; Denny, Enzo's owner; Eve, the threat turned friend; Zoe, the child that restores purpose; and Annika, the not-so-nice plotting teen. There are other characters, but I will focus on Annika to answer the question being posed.
As the story unfolds from Enzo’s perspective, the world is seen from the view of a dog who believes a human body is his next destination. His life is a combination of observations, choices, and life-changing decisions. Enzo guides the reader through the life of his best friend and companion, Denny.
While Denny does his best to live out his life, he does not always get things right. Denny struggles to reach his goals, and things become more complicated when he ends up as the object of a young girl's desires. Annika, a teen who is attracted to Denny, is determined to get her way and manipulates events to land her in Denny's presence. When things do not go as planned, Annika makes a decision that will create an emotional storm for Denny and those around him.
Annika makes the decision to tell a deplorable lie as a form of revenge for being rejected by Denny. Perhaps her age blinds her to the full scope of the damage her choice will deliver, or perhaps the pain of rejection blurs the reality of the consequence that is to result when the last domino falls into place. For Denny, a spiteful lie turns an already complicated life into a nightmarish reality. As he enters into a custody battle of epic proportions, battling a lie will prove to be extremely tasking.
Although Annika has an opportunity to change things prior to the trial, she chooses to commit to her lie. One choice will not only alter the life of another but will alter her life as well. She will have to live with the consequences of her decision. For Denny, the truth prevails, and all ends as it should. However, it does not negate the fact that choices always affect and impact more than one person. Someone is always affected by a person's choices, even if that someone is simply the person themselves.

How does the nation’s grief for JFK parallel Elena’s grief for her foiled relationship with Eugene?

The nation's grief over the assassination of President Kennedy provides an appropriate backdrop to the crushing sense of disappointment felt by Elena after Eugene's mom puts a stop to their budding relationship. Initially, Elena was so excited by the prospect of meeting Eugene that she didn't share in the overwhelming sadness felt by her mom and by everyone else in the neighborhood over this tragic event.
But now that her relationship with Eugene effectively lies in ruins, she can begin to appreciate how other people are feeling in this hour of darkness. There are close parallels here, not just in the emotions expressed but also in the life-changing nature of the respective events that gave rise to these emotions. For Elena, as for her mom and for most of the other adults in the neighborhood, life will never be the same again.

Was Odysseus foolish?

Odysseus is depicted as cunning and wise, but in many ways he is certainly foolish. While he performs many feats of cunning—such as outwitting Polyphemus, the giant Cyclops; earning the favor of Circe; and receiving the trapped winds—he acts foolishly many other times.
Odysseus famously shouts his name back at Polyphemus after blinding him and fleeing with his stolen supplies. This is perhaps one of the biggest displays of his folly. Unbeknownst to him, Polyphemus's father is Poseidon, the god of the sea, and Poseidon proceeds to torment the sailors for the remainder of their voyage.
Additionally, Odysseus chooses to sleep with Circe and stay with her for a year—though there is potentially an aspect of coercion in that relationship due to Circe's powers as a witch-goddess.

List and explain various anticolonial visions of modern life that emerged in the first half of the twentieth century. To what extent did they reflect borrowed developments versus native traditions and ideas?

When we try to analyze the modern world today, we’ll notice that it’s going through several changes. No one is sure who will control or shape the future. The big economic powers are either strengthening their politics, as is the case with China, or are gradually falling apart, as is the case with Europe; and instead of a disastrous economic crisis, the US seems to be facing an ideological one.
However, when we try to analyze the world from a historical standpoint and put our focus on the first half of the 20th century, we’ll notice that, even though things were much harder, they were also simpler. If today is all about politics, ethics, and ideology, then the past century was all about principles and political and socio-economic stability. Thus, we’ll mention the birth and the visions of modernity which took place in the 1930s.
When capitalism successfully tore down the old traditional and religious systems of the 18th and 19th century, it successfully paved the way for the rise of a new movement which preached the modern concepts of individualism, market economy, capitalism, democracy, and personal rights and freedoms. This new movement is called "classical liberalism". To express their different political opinions, anti-democratic supporters formed the concept of authoritarianism; and as a response to both movements, anti-colonialism was born.
Unlike liberalists, authoritarian supporters believed that democracy is not the best way to run a country and instead proposed authoritarian control, a strong central government, and limited political freedoms. Anti-colonialists, on the other hand, rejected both liberal and authoritarian regimes, calling them imperialistic. Instead directly opposed colonialism, they suggested the removal of all foreign powers and politics from native lands. According to them, the only way to achieve modernity was to achieve independence first.
All of these different visions of modernity came to a clash in the First World War. The Great Depression destroyed the liberal concept; the authoritarian regime was on the rise in the majority of the countries that participated in the war, each one promising a stable society and economy run by a capable leader; and the anti-colonial movement was overshadowed by the seemingly never-ending problem about imperialism. It was, however, successful in several countries, such as Turkey.
Over time, the problems with all of these movements and their various visions of modernity became clear, and everyone began to focus on the creation of a stable capitalistic, mass-democratic political system that promised solidarity, compromise, stability, and a balanced system of values.

In "The Garden of Love," what images do the words from lines 1 and 7 evoke in the reader?

In William Blake's poem, the phrase, "Garden of Love" comes to represent something that brings forth memories of freedom, growth, and life. It is an Eden of sorts that seems to evoke in the speaker a feeling of childlike abandon and vibrancy as described in the fourth line: "Where I used to play on the green."

This evokes the same images of natural abundance and untouched beauty in the reader. As we are lent the image of a large, rigid structure—the Chapel—that's been built in the midst of this untamed garden, the picture of the "garden of love" remains fresh in our minds. This is because the Garden of Love the speaker refers to is a state of purity. It stands for the natural ideal, free from human strictures and institutions. The first utterance (in line 1) is one filled with hope, as the speaker enters with the full memory of its lushness intact. The second utterance (in line 7) is one that, having already seen the obstructive, tightly shut Chapel erected in its midst, has extended from hope to longing. It has lost its earlier innocence, and has been replaced by a deep yearning to return to a time of untouched tenderness, much like love.

What are the different types of moods in the story “After Twenty Years”?

There are several types of moods in the story. First, we'll define the word. "Mood" refers to the atmosphere of the story and is often inspired by tone. The latter is the writer's attitude towards the subject matter or protagonist (or both). "Mood" also inspires an emotional reaction in readers, so it's quite an important story-telling element.
At the beginning of the story, the mood is pleasant, upbeat, and positive. The writer introduces us to a police officer on his rounds. Based on the diction, the writer has full confidence in the officer's abilities. The police officer is described as "strong and important." He's also a "fine-looking cop, watchful, guarding the peace." The police officer (who we later learn is named Jimmy Wells) is a figure that inspires trust.
The mood changes in the middle of the story, however. At the beginning of the story, we learn that a little wind and rain has contributed to the night chill. As the story progresses, we discover that the wind has picked up and the rain is now falling steadily. In response, people look for shelter away from the elements. So, the mood becomes more tense. We get the idea that something ominous is heading our officer's way.
And we aren't mistaken in our emotional reaction: Bob gets apprehended by a police officer masquerading as Jimmy Wells. At the end of the story, the mood is reflective as well as tragic. Instead of having a nice reunion, Bob gets arrested. Yet, we are touched by Jimmy's words in the letter. Instead of arresting his former friend, Jimmy sends someone else to do the job. In this way, Bob will never have the memory of being arrested by a former treasured friend. Jimmy's actions highlight his thoughtful character.

Initially, the mood of the story is quite mysterious. It's 10 o'clock at night on a damp, windswept street, and adding to the atmosphere of mystery, the street is eerily quiet, as the inclement weather has cleared the streets of people. This makes the lone figure of "Silky" Bob all the more conspicuous.
Yet there's an air of mystery about the man as he stands in the doorway of a hardware store. Indeed, the true nature of the relationship between Bob and the beat cop who strikes up a conversation with him won't become clear until Bob and the man he wrongly thinks is his old pal Jimmy Wells walk past a drug store on the corner and are suddenly bathed in brilliant electric light. Then, the mood changes completely; there is no more mystery, no more secrets. Jimmy Wells was the beat cop that Bob had been talking to earlier, and he tipped off his colleague to allow him to move in and arrest his old friend.

Would the Victorian reader have been expected to consider Tess's lineage significant? What theories of the day would have prompted concern with "degradation?"

Tess of the d'Ubervilles created a great deal of controversy when it was published, mostly on account of its treatment of sexuality. However, the novel’s critique of Victorian sensibilities extends to considerations of class privilege as well. It’s clear that Tess’ “noble” heritage, if not exactly a sham, is not worth much in practical terms, just as it is clear that the parson who tells her father about his lineage is playing him for a fool. Victorian readers would understand this, but I think many of them would find it more offensive perhaps than modern readers do. Hardy inverts class in the same way he inverts sexual morality: Tess is “pure” despite her sexuality, and perhaps more truly “noble” than Alex, who actually possesses the D’Urberville name.
No doubt some Victorian readers saw this inversion as a kind of “degradation.” Victorian notions of race were complex, but based on Darwinian notions of the “stages of man” and the idea that certain ethnicities were more advanced than others (Anglo-Saxons, for example, were considered higher on the evolutionary scale than the Irish). Hardy’s empathetic treatment of Tess as a woman from the lower orders was also a powerful critique of that sort of racism.

How did the First Great Awakening affect the colonies?

The First Great Awakening was a period of Christian revival that occurred in Great Britain and the Thirteen colonies in the 1730s and 1740s. The movement was largely a response to a "stale religious state" that had grown out of the Enlightenment period's focus on secular rationalism. In the colonies, the movement also developed in response to a lack of a central religious focus. The New England colonies belonged to Protestant congregational churches established by early Puritan colonists. Middle colonies were more diverse, belonging to Quaker, Anglican, Lutheran, Presbyterian, as well as Dutch Reformed and Congregational churches. The Southern colonies had officially established themselves as Anglican, however there were also Baptist, Presbyterian, and Quaker churches.
To combat this disjointed diversity, preachers influenced by evangelism began emphasizing a revival of piety and a focus on salvation. Their sermons were characterized by an intense religious fervor, in stark contrast to the existing complacency. While sermons differed based on the religious leanings of the individual preachers, they contained several of the same themes: that all people are born sinners, salvation through confession, and a direct and informal communicative relationship with God. Preachers promoted a sense of equality; that everyone could join in religious discourse and maintain an emotional connection with God regardless of class or education. The message extended to slaves, who were drawn to the concepts of equality and education, and influenced the establishment of the first black churches in the colonies. This drew a stark contrast between "old light" preachers and congregations, who looked down upon the "new light" sermons and favored intellectual discourse over demonstrative emotion.
Despite these intra-religious differences, the Great Awakening ultimately worked to unite the evangelical churches, who chose to overlook minute differences in doctrine in favor of broad-scale beliefs. This connected churches across the colonies; promoting a sense of unity in formerly distinct religions and regions, and invigorated colonial society with new ideas. The movement also led to the establishment of several evangelical educational institutions, including Princeton University and Dartmouth College. Some historians argue that the emphasis on the individual and the increased sense of unity among the colonies influenced the American Revolution, which occurred only a few decades after the First Great Awakening.

How is Ralph a complex character?

Ralph is a complex character because he reveals numerous character traits and qualities throughout the story and also experiences a significant transformation throughout the novel. Ralph symbolically represents order, civilization, and rational thought in the novel. He is the elected leader of the group of boys, he creates the rule regarding the conch, and he attempts to cultivate an organized, civil society on the island. Despite Ralph's positive qualities, his duality is revealed at various moments in the story, which exposes the darker side of his humanity. Ralph reveals that he is not confident in his abilities as a leader, he discovers his affinity for hunting during an expedition with Jack, he continually forgets about the importance of a signal fire later in the story, and even participates in Simon's brutal murder. Ralph also experiences a significant change in character from the beginning to the end of the story. At the beginning of the story, Ralph is a naive boy, who has faith that the group will be able to establish an organized, civil society on the island before being rescued. By the end of the novel, Ralph has lost his childhood innocence and mourns the death of his close friend, Piggy. Ralph's character flaws, duality, and transformation are what make him a complex character.

As the boys’ chief, Ralph relies on logic in attempting to effect their rescue from the island. He understands the critical importance of keeping the signal fire burning, despite the hard work and self-discipline required to maintain it. Ralph represents the voice of reason in civilized society, and he is unable to understand the rejection of logical thinking by the other boys.
Ralph’s character, however, is more complex than that of a sensible leader who knows how to think. He criticizes Jack Merridew’s obsession with killing pigs, but when Ralph confronts a wild boar and wounds it with a spear, he feels elated. On two other occasions, Ralph joins the boys in acts of violence, most significantly when Simon is murdered during a frenzy of dancing and chanting. For Ralph to succumb to savage behavior suggests that bloodlust lies at the heart of man’s nature, controlled but never eradicated by the constraints of civilized society. Even Ralph is not immune to the darkest impulses of humanity, nor is he immune to the instinct to survive. Hunted by the murderous Jack and his tribe, Ralph runs for his life, “screaming, snarling, bloody,” driven into an animal state by a biological imperative far more powerful than human intellect.

How do you think simplicity of "A Red, Red Rose" appeals to Burns's readers?

The red rose has long been a symbol of love. On Valentine's Day, it's customary for men to send a dozen red roses to their wives or girlfriends. In Burns's day, too, the red rose was associated with romantic love in the popular imagination. Burns wanted this poem, as with all his works, to have the widest possible audience. He wanted his poetry to be read not only by a small literary elite, but by the ordinary people, the common folk, those of a similar background to Burns himself. So in writing "A Red, Red Rose," Burns deliberately uses a symbol to which just about everyone can relate. There's no attempt here at complex symbolism; Burns wants to keep things as simple as possible without sacrificing lyrical intensity.
One should also bear in mind that, though much anthologized as a poem, the piece was originally written as a song. Burns deliberately set out to write a popular song that would be loudly sung by common folk the length and breadth of his native Scotland. And what better way to achieve popular success for a love song than by the use of a symbol that everyone can immediately understand?
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43812/a-red-red-rose

Explain the impact of the industrial revolution. How did change the way people worked and live? How did it impact technology?

Prior to the Industrial Revolution, the bulk of people worked in agriculture, usually on large estates owned by aristocrats. As the Industrial Revolution took off, factories became a chief source of employment for the lower classes. On the farm or estate, laborers worked largely out of doors. Their work followed the rhythm of the seasons, with labor peaking during the planting and harvest, then falling off in the winter.
In contrast, factory work was indoors and the rhythm of work was dictated by the non-stop nature of the factory's machines. People worked very long hours without seasonal breaks. People also increasingly congregated together in urban areas. Overcrowding was rampant. There was little to no infrastructure to handle sewage, trash pileups, or other problems caused by a mass influx of people.
Despite all the problems caused by industrialism, the standard of living rose. The production of cheap clothing meant that poor people could dress more warmly, decreasing mortality. Though food was still poor quality, people on the whole ate better and could afford to buy a few consumer goods.
The social changes caused by industrialism disrupted the mutual obligation inherent in the traditional relationship between aristocrats and peasants. The social fabric eroded as factory owners treated employees as simply another expense. Workers began to be upset by working long hours—up to 16 hours a day—for low wages with no job security or safety regulations. Concerned groups began to protest child labor. As a result of the problems caused by industrialism, from badly polluted and unsanitary cities where disease epidemics broke out due to abuse of workers, governments became more involved in social welfare. The modern welfare state arose from industrialism, as owners and workers forged a new society that offered workers protections such as minimum wage and child labor laws, and governments enacted legislation to increase education and enact building and sanitation codes that made life safer for the average person.
On the whole, the Industrial Revolution changed history by greatly improving the standard of living of most people, increasing longevity, and transforming culture from agrarian to urban based. However, this did not happen without suffering and struggle along the way.

Who suddenly appears to Scrooge on the door knocker, and what does he say to Scrooge?

When Scrooge puts his key into the lock, the knocker on his front door eerily turns into the face of his old business partner Jacob Marley, who has been dead for several years. The knocker does not actually speak to Scrooge (although Marley will have quite a bit to say to him later on, once Scrooge gets settled in upstairs). However, Marley’s eyes seem to be wide open, though they do not move, and his hair sort of blows softly around as though some warm breath or current of air were moving it. Perhaps this phenomenon is caused by the gusting heat coming from the fires of Hell. After all, we find out soon enough that Marley has certainly gone to a place of punishment after his death.

Does Paul possess extrasensory perception (ESP)?

In D. H. Lawrence's short story "The Rocking-Horse Winner," Paul seems to possess extrasensory perception that allows him to see into the future and accurately predict the winning horses of upcoming races. Paul is deeply troubled by his mother's desire for more money and tells her that God told him that he was lucky. The fact that Paul can hear the house say, "There must be more money!" is the first piece of evidence that suggests he has extrasensory perception. Paul then informs his mother that God spoke to him and told him that he was lucky. Paul's ability to speak to God is another piece of evidence that suggests he has some sort of extrasensory perception. Additionally, Paul's eyes blaze as he violently rides his rocking-horse, which gives him the ability to see into the future. By riding his rocking-horse, Paul is able to ascertain the winning horse in upcoming races. Paul places many bets on winning horses and gains an astonishing amount of money by accurately predicting the outcome of races. Paul's success in predicting winning horses, and his physical state while riding the rocking-horse, indicates that he does indeed possess extrasensory perception. Paul's seizure-like state and blazing eyes indicate that he is having an out-of-body experience and tapping into his extra senses in order to ascertain the winning horse.

D. H. Lawrence seems, as a prelude to describing how Paul is able to pick winning horses by riding his rocking-horse, to be suggesting that all children possess extrasensory perception. Paul and his two sisters can all hear the voices the author describes.

And so the house came to be haunted by the unspoken phrase: There must be more money! There must be more money! The children could hear it all the time, though nobody said it aloud. They heard it at Christmas, when the expensive and splendid toys filled the nursery. Behind the shining modern rocking horse, behind the smart doll's house, a voice would start whispering: "There must be more money! There must be more money!" And the children would stop playing, to listen for a moment. They would look into each other's eyes, to see if they had all heard. And each one saw in the eyes of the other two that they too had heard. "There must be more money! There must be more money!"

This is the kind of thing that many of us can remember from our childhoods. We seemed to possess some intuitive knowledge that was lost to us after a certain age. We knew that certain things were going to happen before they happened. If we can relate to these three children in their hearing the voices crying for more money, then it becomes easier to accept the notion that Paul should also be able to use that same intuitive ability to see into the future and predict the names of horses that would win races yet to be run. Paul, it would seem, is only making use of the extrasensory perception that all children bring into the world with them.
Whether or not this is literally true, it seems true enough to make us believe in D. H. Lawrence's assertions that the children can hear the voices crying, "There must be more money!" and to make us believe that Paul could actually foretell the future with the same ESP (extrasensory perception). After all, he is able to convince his uncle and Bassett the family gardener. These grown men have lost the magical powers of childhood, but are more than willing to place their money on Paul's picks. Paul's mother is more than willing to take the money and spend it.

What happens in chapter 4 of The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen?

Having gone out of his way in an attempt to help Master Fu, Prince Jen and his carriage are now stuck in mud. Because their escorts (Li Kwang and his soldiers) were instructed to stay behind, Prince Jen and Mafoo must free the carriage by themselves. When they finally get it free, they notice damage to the carriage that Master Fu insists will not stop them from making it the rest of the way to his village, Kwan-tzu. When they finally arrive in Kwan-tzu, Master Fu disappears without Prince Jen or Mafoo noticing as the villagers welcome them. Cha-wei, the "village administrator," appears and offers to repair their carriage and provide them with lodging in his own "private apartments" (31).
There, Prince Jen and Mafoo ask for an escort to get them back to where they left Li Kwang. Unfortunately, Cha-wei is unable to give them anyone that could adequately protect them, as the only "able-bodied" men were sent out to capture bandits. Instead, Cha-wei asks them to stay in the village and wait for his men to return to the town; however, they decline and ask for Cha-wei and his servants to accompany them on their journey (32).
Suddenly, one of Cha-wei's musicians, Voyaging Moon, interrupts to tell them that their plan is flawed, as it will attract the attention of Natha Yellow Scarf and his bandits. Rather than have Cha-wei go with them, she offers to guide them herself, as she is familiar with "pathways that [would] keep [them] clear of Natha and his gang" (35). As Prince Jen and Mafoo rest, Jen dreams of Voyaging Moon.
With their carriage repaired, Prince Jen, Mafoo, and Voyaging Moon set off the next morning through the "practically invisible paths and trails" of the countryside Voyaging Moon told them about (36). Having taken an interest in Voyaging Moon, Prince Jen attempts to find a way to talk to his new guide but finds himself "strangely tongue-tied" (36). When they finally return to the spot where they left Li Kwang and his soldiers, there is no one to be found, and the chapter ends on a cliffhanger.

What kind of policy did England replace salutary neglect with?

Salutary neglect was replaced with imperial regulation. Salutary neglect was the British policy toward the American colonies that looked the other way when the colonists did not obey British trade laws. For example, colonists were supposed collect duties (taxes) on goods they purchased from countries other than Britain and were not supposed to sell raw materials, such as tobacco, to countries other than Britain. What the British envisioned when they established the colonies was a completely regulated market: the colonists were expected only to sell to England and buy from England. The English would make huge profits buying raw materials cheaply and then selling back finished goods at high prices.
The British, however, made so much money from the colonies and were so concerned with European politics and consolidating themselves as a world power that they came to realize it was (seemingly) no problem to let the Americans ignore the law and trade on the side with countries such as Holland and France.
However, in hindsight, this did create a problem. The Americans got used to running their own business enterprises and living free of British interference. When George III replaced the policy of salutary neglect with that of imperial regulation, putting an emphasis on collecting taxes and overseeing the Americans, he created a vast amount of discontent and resentment on the part of the colonists.

What is the moral of the story in To All the Boys I've Loved Before?

I suppose the main moral of this story is that honesty is always the best policy. Most of the many misunderstandings that arise during the course of the book are related to a lack of honesty. For instance, Lara Jean lies about the true nature of her feelings for Peter and tells him to his face that she's dating someone else. For his part, Peter does nothing to challenge the unfounded rumor that he and Lara Jean had had sex during the school ski trip.
It's this inability and unwillingness to face up to the truth of their mutual feelings that leads both Lara Jean and Peter into all kinds of trouble later on. Thankfully, they are eventually reconciled. But this would've happened a whole lot sooner had they both been open and honest with each other from the start.

How is sexuality used in Their Eyes Were Watching God?

In Hurston's novel, sexuality is depicted as a rich, natural, and affirmative aspect of life. It's something that her heroine, Janie, enjoys when she's a young woman first learning about her desires, in the context of spring and blooming pear trees, and something that she enjoys when she is a "handsome" older woman who refuses to play the widow for the rest of her life after her husband, Joe Starks, dies. Knowing that she hasn't experienced the love that she really wanted with Joe, who treated her more as an object to be won than as an equal, she finds fulfillment with Tea Cake, who is younger, poor, and itinerant. He is the opposite of Joe, but in being open to a life with him, Janie discovers aspects of herself that she might not have known had she remained in Eatonville as "the mayor's widow." Though she loses Tea Cake, Janie remains grateful for what they shared together. Her relationships with men have enriched her life because of what they have taught her about herself.
Zora Neale Hurston published Their Eyes Were Watching God in 1937, when Black literature was mainly defined by the protest novel. At the time, Richard Wright was one of the best-known Black writers and he loathed Hurston's novel for what he considered to be its "facile sensuality." Wright, like most Black writers at the time, who were male, was more interested in frustrated sexuality and the emasculation of black men, which shows up within the protagonist of his best-known novel, Native Son, which was published in 1940.
Sexuality has everything to do with pleasure and nothing to do with brutality in Hurston's novel. Though there is a scene in which Tea Cake strikes Janie for befriending Mrs. Turner, who thinks that Tea Cake isn't good enough for Janie because he is darker-skinned, this is a moment in which Tea Cake exhibits weakness due to internalized racism. He incorrectly fears that Janie may agree with Mrs. Turner and, indeed, leave him for Mrs. Turner's son. Wright may have overlooked this scene, in which Hurston explores how racism threatens to destroy love.
In his description of the novel as "facile," he also must have overlooked how Janie's emerging sexuality arouses fear in her grandmother, who worries that Janie will become a loose woman like her mother, or will be impregnated and abandoned. These concerns are certainly as complex as any that Wright's male protagonists would have faced.
Unlike Wright, Hurston wasn't particularly interested in using sexuality as part of an overt political statement. She also wasn't interested in demonstrating "the Black condition" to white readers, which was the concern of Wright and many other Black writers since the Harlem Renaissance. She talks about this in greater length in her personal essay, "How It Feels to be Colored Me." This lack of concern for white readers, as well as the unusual focus on a black female protagonist who was neither tragic nor defined by men, but by experience, made Hurston an outlier in her era. Her unique perspective and disregard for the heavy-handed conventions of protest literature are also reasons why we continue to read her novel.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1997/02/17/a-society-of-one

What are the physical and emotional symbols of shelter for Mariam and Laila in A Thousand Splendid Suns?

Mariam
Mariam's first physical symbol of shelter is her kolba, or small cottage, that she lives in with her mother until she is fifteen. It is very humble, and initially Mariam longs to live in her father's larger home, but when her mother dies and she goes to live with her father, she realizes how cold and lonely his house is and wishes to return to the kolba.
Another symbol of shelter is Ration Day. This is the day when her stepbrothers bring rations to the kolba. Mariam is disturbed by her mother's throwing stones at her brothers, but Ration Day gives her a sense of stability, as she knows she and her mother are being provided for.
Mullah Faizulla is a symbol of comfort and compassion for Mariam. She is a source of emotional shelter because she listens intently to Mariam's longings and provides religious and personal guidance.
Laila
School is a very important shelter for Laila, both physically and emotionally. She is proud that she is allowed to go to school and be an independent woman.
Tariq and his home and family are also sources of shelter for Laila. She feels happy and loved in their home and frequently goes there when she is young. Tariq is more of a brother to her than her two real brothers ever were. Tariq shows her his gun and vows to protect her.
Mariam and Laila
Aziza is a symbol of shelter for both Mariam and Laila. In her, they find their perfect love, and she brings the two of them together. They unite through their love for this child, and they provide strength and comfort for each other.

Cite similarities or differences in the ways Gustavo Gutiérrez and Pope Benedict XVI address imbalances in social justice. How does their work reflect the relationship of the good of the individual to the common good?

Gustavo Gutiérrez is known as the founder of liberation theology, a line of thinking in the Christian tradition that borrows concepts from the Marxist economic tradition. Where the Marxist tradition speaks of the necessary revolt of the lower class against a controlling system of social, political, and economic power, liberation theology synthesizes these economic metaphors with Catholic appeals to the need to support the poor and oppressed. These Catholic ideas stem from biblical antecedents in which God is said to have stated that loving and helping those who are weakest forms the ultimate criterion for admission into heaven.
Pope Benedict XVI supported Gutiérrez and sympathized with his philosophy's imperative to support the poor. However, he rejected Marxist thought as a whole, identifying more with contemporary institutional Catholicism's capitalist sentiments and conceiving of charity as sufficient for addressing the plight of the poor. Gutiérrez, meanwhile, conceived of poverty as a systemic issue that must be solved with economic interventions outside of modern capitalism.

Using Jack London's "The Law of Life", make a thesis out of how “The Law of Life” conveys a naturalistic worldview and how that contrasts with a Biblical one.

“The Law of Life” tells the story of Old Kokoosh, a grandfather and Eskimo chief that has reached the end of his life. His tribe is packing up their belongings to move on to find fresh food. Kokoosh, who is mostly blind, listens to the sounds of the tribe as they dismantle their moose-skin lodges and load their belongings on dog sleds.
As the story goes on, it becomes obvious to the reader that the tribe is planning to leave Kokoosh behind. Kokoosh is not at all upset by this – in fact he reminisces that he did the same to his own father. Kokoosh’s son, the current chief, lingers behind the tribe to say goodbye and ensure his father is okay. Kokoosh reassures his son, stating, "It is well. I am as a last year's leaf, clinging lightly to the stem. The first breath that blows, and I fall. My voice is become like an old woman's. My eyes no longer show me the way of my feet, and my feet are heavy, and I am tired. It is well."
The narrator goes on to explain that he believes this is the course of life, and Kokoosh is very aware of that. “He did not complain. It was the way of life, and it was just. He had been born close to the earth, close to the earth had he lived, and the law thereof was not new to him.” Regardless of how one lives one’s life, they die. It is simply the course of nature. “It was the same everywhere, with all things. The mosquitoes vanished with the first frost. The little tree-squirrel crawled away to die. When age settled upon the rabbit it became slow and heavy, and could no longer outfoot its enemies.”
The author gives the feeling of the end being certain and inevitable; that having lived means having served one’s purpose.
In contrast, a Biblical view of life would argue that it most certainly matters how one’s life is lived. The Bible emphasizes that faith without works is not enough (see James 2:14-26). One must not only live, but must make positive impact in the world.
At the end of “The Law of Life”, Kokoosh is circled by wolves intending to eat him, and he reflects on if he could have changed the course of his fate, but ultimately, “Koskoosh drops his head onto his knees, submitting to nature’s order with one final meditation: ‘What did it matter after all? Was it not the law of life?’”
This view is in direct contrast to the Bible, which clearly indicates that a person has control over their own fate and how their lives turn out. One can impact the trajectory of their life, and their ultimate end, by making good choices and being faithful. This can be best illustrated by the crucifixion of Christ as atonement for sins – that people need this sacrifice to bring the gap between justice and mercy (see the Book of Leviticus).

What mood did Orwell create before writing about Julia and Winston’s capture in 1984?

As the scene progress closer to the place where they are captured, the mood increases in ominous undertones.
Winston spends a great deal of time just prior to the capture reading Goldstein's book. In it, he ponders the Thought Police, his government's necessity of DOUBLETHINK, and how people are controlled by insanity.
He dozes with Julia and then wakes to a song being sung from below: "It was only an ‘opeless fancy." The hopelessness of Winston's own situation is becoming more clear. Julia awakens and discovers that the oil is out in their stove, and she is sure that she filled it. The ominous undercurrent becomes stronger as the reader realizes that this fantasy the two have created cannot last forever. The song from below picks up again: "They sye you can always forget." This line points both to the way the government erases history and foreshadows the events to come for Winston and Julia. The two embrace, Winston notes that he and Julia can never have children, and the two recall a song that they once heard together. Thinking of it, they each say, "We are the dead," which seals the mood and finalizes their futures as the walls speak to them, noting their crimes, and the house is surrounded with government workers to claim them.

How did Monet influence the world of music?

Monet belonged to a school of art known as Impressionism. Indeed, the term is named after one of Monet's paintings, the ground-breaking Impression, Sunrise. Impressionists favored a spontaneous style which sought to capture fleeting impressions of landscapes, people, and scenes from everyday life. Monet was one of the most notable members of this group of artists and was renowned in particular for his innovative use of light to bring out certain features of the natural world, such as water lilies and rose gardens.
Impressionism in art subsequently gave rise to Impressionism in music, most notably in the works of Claude Debussy. Debussy wrote music that sought to convey the kind of subjective, fleeting impressions captured by Monet in his paintings. He did this through creating mood music that attempted to focus the listener's attention on the total impression rather than any one feature. Through a combination of orchestral color, innovative chord structures, and evocative titles—such as "Footprints in the Snow"—Debussy significantly expanded the possibilities of music in much the same way that Monet had expanded the possibilities of painting.

Why does Dee think Mama and Maggie don't understand their heritage?

In "Everyday Use," Dee asks to have two quilts that were made by relatives. However, Mama explains that she plans to give the quilts to Maggie. Dee becomes upset and claims that Maggie will not "appreciate" the quilts and that Maggie will put them to "everyday use" while she plans to display them. Dee places value in the idea of things while Mama places value in the usefulness of things. For example, Dee does not want the quilts that were stitched by a machine, even though Mama says they will probably last longer. Dee has also changed her name from Dee to Wangero because she doesn't want to be named after the people who "oppress" her. Mama feels there is honor in being named after her relatives. Dee feels that Mama and Maggie do not understand their heritage. She makes this claim because Maggie and Mama do not believe as she does. Dee embraces the idea of changing her name and viewing as art those objects that her ancestors made such as the butter dish and the quilts. Mama, however, appreciates those objects because of their usefulness. In Mama's eyes, Maggie will best honor the hand-stitched quilts by using them as they are intended to be used.

What are the misconceptions about Christopher Columbus?

There are quite a few misconceptions about Christopher Columbus. A common one is that Columbus set out to prove that the earth was round. However, the ancient Greeks had already proved this roughly 2,000 years earlier. Furthermore, Columbus never actually set foot on what is now known as the United States. Columbus merely "discovered" the isle of Hispaniola, which is modern Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Columbus went to his grave thinking he had landed in east Asia. Columbus was also not likely the first European to cross the Atlantic Ocean. While historians typically attribute that achievement to Leif Erikson, who is thought to have landed in modern day Newfoundland about five centuries prior to Columbus, some believe that Celtic explorers may have landed on the shores of North America even before him.

What did Turtle do with her clues?

In chapter 7 of The Westing Game, the game is described. The sixteen players are divided into teams of two. Each partnership receives a unique set of clues. The characters begin to strategize, as they realize that not only do they need the clues given to them, they will also need the clues they were not given in order to put it all together.
It seems that part of the game will be finding out what clues were given to the others. Grace thinks she will be able to get the clues from others, such as her daughters. Flora picks up a clue that Chris dropped, and she sees one word. Sydelle tells Angela that, instead of reading their clues right away, they should observe the others as they read.
Turtle asks her partner, Flora, to memorize the clues. Once they both have the words memorized, Turtle chews and swallows the clues in order to get rid of them. Now no one else will read their clues.

What issues of the writer’s time are reflected in the work?

The events in "American History" reflect the profound changes that were affecting American society at that time. Although the United States was becoming a more multicultural and more diverse society, significant tensions still remained. The early 1960s was a time in which the civil rights movement became a more prominent feature of American political life. Although the main focus of the civil rights movement was to challenge racial oppression in the South, there were serious challenges elsewhere, as we see in "American History."
Paterson, New Jersey, was ethnically mixed. However, Elena lives in an apartment block that is effectively segregated; it consists entirely of Puerto Rican families. Despite this unofficial form of segregation, Elena has never really experienced firsthand the kind of bigotry and prejudice that we tend to associate with the South at that time. That all changes when she shows up on Eugene's doorstep, and his mother—a Southerner—will not let her through the door. Elena has experienced teasing from other children on account of her Puerto Rican heritage, but she has never encountered anything like this before.
Elena's experience, her loss of innocence on that fateful day, shows us that the problems of segregation, prejudice, and lack of mutual understanding between the races was a pervasive feature of American life irrespective of geographical location.

Was William McKinley a bad president?

McKinley's reputation has undergone many swings in opinion, and his legacy remains debated. Because his assassination in 1900 was such a shock, he was temporarily elevated to the position of great president. Unfortunately for him, however, this legacy quickly faded as he was overshadowed by the much more forceful and colorful presidency of his former vice president, Theodore Roosevelt.
Later, McKinley's reputation began a sharp dip. Many historians understood him as merely the tool of his campaign manager Hanna and other Republicans. He was also criticized for letting public opinion guide him rather than providing strong leadership. Historians questioned him for getting involved in the Spanish-American war and for allowing the United States to embark on an imperialist path. Others criticized him for his reliance on protectionism and tariffs.
The current assessment of McKinley often depends on one's political leanings. Conservative Republicans today tend to rate McKinley more highly because of his belief in limited government. Most, however, would rate McKinley as a middling, not a bad, president who acted as a bridge between the nineteenth-century presidency and the modern more powerful executive in charge of the country. In sum, he was not a bad president but not a great one either.