Who rows the boat for Dante and Virgil?

In Dante's epic poem Inferno, Dante and Virgil are ferried across a river called Styx by Phlegyas. The river has a marsh-like environment that acts as a prison for the damned, particularly the spirits who are morose and wrathful. The river is part of Hell's Circle of Anger, which is part of the 9 Circles of Hell. The ferryman, Phlegyas, is the ancestor of the Phlegyans and is the son of Ares and Chryse.
There is another ferryman, Charon, in Dante's Inferno. However, Charon is the ferryman of Acheron—one of the five rivers within the mythological underworld, known as the "river of woes." Charon's eternal duty is to ferry damned souls across the river and into the realm of Limbo.

The "Ice Bucket Challenge" was a social media sensation in the summer of 2014. It raised close to $100 million for ALS research (up from $2.6 million the year before). About 33,000 North Americans get ALS each year. (1) On average, North Americans donate about 2% of their income to charities each year. What is the likely effect of the Ice Bucket Challenge on other charities like the Red Cross or the Heart Foundation? (2) There are currently about 6 million North Americans with Alzheimer's disease and about 30 million with diabetes. 800,000 North Americans die of heart disease every year. Given the number of ALS cases and your answer to the first question, is it likely that the Ice Bucket Challenge will improve overall health? (3) The proponents of solar energy often remark at the exceptionally low marginal costs of production. In sunny climates, solar costs about $0.03 per kilowatt hour, whereas natural gas, coal, and nuclear power cost about $0.10 per kilowatt hour. However, very few places (even the sunniest) have adopted solar power. What does this suggest about the cost function of solar energy?

What is the likely effect of the Ice Bucket Challenge on other charities like the Red Cross or the Heart Foundation?
Interesting question! In 2014, there were several criticisms about the amount of money raised by the Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS. As you mentioned, Americans suffer comparatively more from diabetes, heart disease, and Alzheimer's disease than from ALS. Detractors feared that people who donated extensively to the ALS effort would have fewer funds to call upon for charities associated with Alzheimer's, diabetes, cancer, or heart disease.
Meanwhile, others took issue with the sensationalist nature of the Ice Bucket Challenge. Celebrities joined in the fundraising efforts, which then spurred greater participation by the populace. Detractors later voiced their concerns that other charities wouldn't be able to duplicate this element of the Ice Bucket Challenge: the ability to inspire celebrities from all branches of the media to participate in a charity effort.
So, were the fears pertaining to the Ice Bucket Challenge realistic? For the answer, let's examine how much Americans donated to charity in 2014. According to GivingUSA, Americans donated more than $350 billion dollars to charity in 2014, the highest total in 60 years in the history of GivingUSA. You can read the article by clicking on the link. Therefore, the idea that the Ice Bucket Challenge channeled money away from other charity efforts simply isn't true.
As for concerns about duplicating the viral nature of the Ice Bucket Challenge, this holds true for any organization. It's a challenge to create viral content or even a viral effort. Creating it takes patience, courage, creativity, and imagination, regardless of the organization or charitable cause.
Given the number of ALS cases and your answer to first question, is it likely that the Ice Bucket Challenge will improve overall health?
Although the number of people who suffer from ALS is comparatively lower than the number of people with other diseases, ALS did recently see some significant scientific breakthroughs. You can read about it by following the links below. For example, a new gene (NEK1) that contributes to ALS was discovered. Additionally, scientists discovered that mutated forms of the protein TDP-43 protein could be responsible for diseases such as ALS, Alzheimer's, and muscular dystrophy. This discovery proves that important research like this could lead to breakthroughs in more than one disease research field (such as ALS) in the near future. Basically, the Ice Bucket Challenge led to important scientific discoveries, which could potentially benefit people with diseases other than ALS.
The proponents of solar energy often remark at the exceptionally low marginal costs of production. In sunny climates, solar costs about $0.03 per kilowatt hour, whereas natural gas, coal, and nuclear power cost about $0.10 per kilowatt hour. However, very few places (even the sunniest) have adopted solar power. What does this suggest about the cost function of solar energy?
In economics, the cost function refers to the cost of producing a certain amount of a particular product. To determine the cost function, we combine both fixed and variable costs to arrive at the total production cost. From the total production cost, we'll be able to estimate how costs will vary from month to month, depending on output levels. For example, if an organization wants to produce more of a product in March than February, it will incur higher variable costs (raw materials, labor, utilities, etc.).
Basically, the cost function lets us figure out how costs will vary based on output levels (how much of the product we want to produce).
In your example, it would appear that the total production cost for solar energy would be lower in warmer climates. The Northeast would likely see higher production costs for solar energy compared to the South, for instance.
Of course, there are other factors affecting the cost function over time. For example, new technologies have increased solar panel efficiency, and this can effect total production cost levels, as well. You can read about it here.
https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/scientists-say-ice-bucket-challenge-enabled-als-research-breakthrough

https://www.myaccountingcourse.com/accounting-dictionary/cost-function

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ice-bucket-challenge-credited-with-als-breakthrough/?redirect=1&error=cookies_not_supported&code=7489cb17-952a-4e61-a34d-4529843f5d06

Give examples of how Alec and Angel badly treat women (can be Tess, but ideally some other instances involving other women).

Of the two men, Alec d'Urberville is obviously the worse one in his treatment of and general attitude toward women. He rapes Tess and later makes no apology or attempt to help her with their child. As in most nineteenth-century fiction, the actual events are presented ambiguously. English and American writers of that period were far too reticent to describe explicitly a man forcing himself upon a woman. It's clear that Alec blames his own behavior on Tess, as in the later episode when he forces her to swear that she will never "tempt him again." Though Hardy is generally considered a liberal and progressive writer, one cannot be sure if it is his view as well that Tess has caused her own misfortune. Probably, as with others of his time, he is simply reporting the manner in which society treats women, without necessarily judging this situation one way or another.
Angel Clare, unlike Alec, seems to be depicted as a basically virtuous man (as the symbolism of his name indicates). But to a modern reader, his double-standard attitude to Tess makes him come off almost as badly. Instead of trying to understand and sympathize with Tess when she makes her revelation to him, he coldly dismisses her—in spite of his own admission of a past relationship. Again, it's not clear if Hardy intends this to be seen as a monumental instance of hypocrisy, or if he's just telling it like it is, so to speak: society at that time (and unfortunately still today to some extent) has established one standard for men's conduct, and another for women's. It of course doesn't help that what occurs between Alec and Tess is never described explicitly, and that Tess herself can't tell Angel that she was forced into an affair with Alec. But in any case, both Alec and Angel, even by nineteenth-century standards, are cruel in their behavior toward women.

What is the setting of The Palm-Wine Drinkard?

The Palm-Wine Drinkard was written by Amos Tutuola. It is a story about a young man from a rich family. The wealthy son drinks as much as he pleases because he has a palm-wine tapster for his own personal use; the tapster gets large amounts of palm-wine for the rich son. One day, the tapster falls from a palm tree and is killed in a horrible incident. Consequently, the narrator is not able to get his palm-wine, and his friends who he drinks with abandon him. To reclaim all the palm-wine he wants, he decides to go to Dead's Town to find the tapster.
The son's journey leads him from his own sanctuary to various places where all sorts of creatures exist. He has many adventures. The narrator eventually even finds a suitable partner and marries her in her town. In Unreturnable Heaven's Town, they encounter people who call themselves the enemies of God. They escape from that awful town and continue on their journey. As they move by a large white tree, two hands emerge from an opening in the tree and draw them inside. This happens in the land of the Faithful Mother, whose only responsibility is to care for those who have experienced hardships and challenges in the world.
In Red-Town, everything and everyone in it is red because of a mistake the Red-King had made years ago. After passing through the town of the Wise-King, the narrator and his wife reach Dead's Town and find the tapster. They get a marvelous egg from the tapster, and they return to the narrator's town—where his journey began. They use the egg to feed people during a famine.
There are various settings in multiple locations along the narrator's journey. All the settings create wild circumstances and crazy adventures for the characters.

Was the American Revolution really started in the North, fought in the South, and won by the French?

The American Revolution (1775–83) was a long and complex war. Your statement contains three assertions and is, in large part, true.
The war did indeed start in the North. Boston had always been the center of anti-British sentiment, so this was not too surprising. The war's first battle, an American victory, was at Lexington and Concord. Then the British won a costly victory at Bunker Hill. Next, the Americans forced the British to evacuate Boston by placing cannons on nearby Dorchester Heights. Canada was also the scene of fighting as Americans tried to capture parts of it.
In 1778, the British decided to focus on the South. They believed there were many Loyalists in that region who would help them. Savannah and Charleston fell to the British in 1778 and 1780, respectively. British control of the South was contested only by American guerrillas.
In 1781, France helped win the decisive victory. The British were surrounded in Yorktown. The French Navy prevented escape by sea. The French Army bolstered George Washington's Continental Army. The British were trapped and had to surrender.

Why do the doctors blackmail the handmaids?

The reason is never explicitly stated; however, we are told on page 205, “Sometimes they blackmail." We are also told that this is how Janine (Ofwaren) was able to have her baby and that her commander's wife was aware of the arrangement.
On one occasion Offred visits the doctor for her regular exam, and the doctor offers to impregnate her, stating that most of the commanders are too old or sterile to produce a child. Offred politely refuses his offer while thinking,

He could fake the tests, report me for cancer, for infertility, have me shipped off to the Colonies, with the Unwomen. None of this has been said, but the knowledge of his power hangs nevertheless in the air as he pats my thigh, withdrew himself behind the hanging sheet.

So, with this textual evidence in mind, we can infer that the doctors have blackmailed in the past or are capable of doing it in the future because of the power that they have. They would do this in order to be able to have relations with the handmaids, which does not necessarily mean that they are sympathetic to the women's problems, but instead, they are willing to abuse the power of their position.

Who killed Bob Ewell? Why is Heck Tate willing to cover this up?

Bob is patriarch of the notorious Ewell clan. Everyone in town hates the Ewells for being dirty, no-good "white trash." Bob's easily the worst of the bunch—a lazy, work-shy racist who regularly abuses his daughter Mayella. He puts Mayella up to making the false claim that she was raped and beaten by Tom Robinson. As Tom's a black man, virtually everyone in Maycomb assumes that he's automatically guilty, and so the court's formal verdict of guilty, when it comes, is depressingly predictable.
Bob Ewell sees the trial of Tom Robinson as an opportunity to be somebody—to pose as a fine, upstanding citizen who's only trying to protect his daughter's honor from a dangerous sex predator. However, Bob's attempts at making himself out to be some kind of hero fail miserably. Tom's defense lawyer, Atticus Finch, humiliates him on the witness stand, making him look like the ignorant, stupid liar he really is.
Bob vows revenge on Atticus and angrily confronts him in the street, spitting right into his face. Later on, as Scout and Jem are returning home from a Halloween party, Bob suddenly leaps out and attacks them. Being both lazy and a coward, Bob clearly has figured it would be easier to gain revenge on Atticus by getting to him through his kids. Fortunately, Boo Radley is on hand to save the day. Seemingly from out of nowhere, he stabs Bob to death with a knife and saves the Finch children from his evil clutches.
Atticus is convinced that Jem has killed Bob and starts preparing his defense. But Sheriff Tate knows what really happened. He knows that Boo killed Bob, but he decides to pretend that Bob's death was just an accident. In covering up the crime, the sheriff is trying to protect Boo. If the case went to court, then Boo would almost certainly be acquitted. As everyone in town hated Bob Ewell, his killer would be hailed as some kind of hero. (Ironically, this is the same status that Bob craved for himself.) Sheriff Tate knows that the gentle, quiet, and reclusive Boo simply wouldn't want the ensuing publicity, so he drops the matter. The official version of what happened that night will be that Bob Ewell accidentally stabbed himself when he fell over while carrying a knife.

Compare and contrast the challenges that Ray from Shoeless Joe and Santiago from The Old Man and the Sea face. What do these challenges reveal about each character?

The hero’s journeys at the heart of Shoeless Joe and The Old Man and the Sea have several strong parallels, despite more obvious differences. In both works, the author uses one apparent central theme, the human versus nature conflict, as a way to approach the actual core theme: the human versus themself. While Santiago is an old man who spends much of the novel alone and Ray is a young man who is often surrounded by family, each man embarks on a physical and spiritual journey that brings him back into touch with his own values. And, in different ways, each journey allows that man to make a contribution to his community.
Santiago and Ray both succeed in part because of their serious dedication to the task at hand. Santiago knows the sea, and in the past has been a renowned angler. His disappointment at not making a catch is accompanied by patience and respect, as he trusts that the sea will provide for him. Ray is also tightly bound to nature, as he has embarked on the daunting task of running a farm and then sets out to build the ideal ball field. To build it, he must apply himself to learning about grass and irrigation, deeply absorbing the lessons of nature. Santiago’s period of learning about the sea and his own inner resources is largely behind him, while Ray is just embarking on this dual journey to understand both nature and himself.
Santiago sets out to fish largely to provide sustenance for himself. He endures a period of failure before he reaches an enviable success. After 84 days of not catching any fish, on day 85, he lands a spectacular catch—really, the catch of a lifetime. Santiago respects the sea and understands that the giant fish is in one way the sea’s gift, and in another way is his reward for respectful interaction both with the sea and with the fish in particular.
Ray devotes himself to building the field both to bring his father and the White Sox to Iowa and to bring J. D. Salinger to him as a mission of healing for the author’s pain. He seems impractical where Santiago was practical, as he goes out on a limb to try something new and apparently foolhardy rather than just focusing on his farming. In the end, however, the men seem more alike than different.
For part of the story, Santiago has a companion, the young Manolin. After the boy’s father sends him to another boat, Santiago is alone on his mission. In this respect, Santiago’s story might be seen as diverging radically from that of Ray, who is surrounded by his family and is rarely alone. A likely parallel, however, exists between Manolin’s emotional support and provision of food and bait and J. D. Salinger’s support of Ray. Although Santiago is physically alone, he understands that Manolin is with him emotionally; Ray must persuade Salinger to go with him, but ultimately it is Salinger’s enthusiasm and insight that helps Ray achieve his goal.
Santiago spends much of his free time reflecting on memories, as he is already an old man, while Ray has his head in the clouds, and his visions may be real, or only seem real—he embarks on his quests because of the voices he hears. Santiago ultimately returns home without the fish, as it was all eaten by sharks. Ray succeeds at creating his dream ball park, so he might be considered successful where Santiago failed. Because Santiago has no family of his own, however, his emotional bond to Manolin is currently the strongest in his life, and he chooses to make him a gift of the fish’s sword. For Ray, the motivation he has to make his deceased father proud gives way to his realization that it is his relationship with his brother that matters. In both cases, the protagonists' achievements create closer bonds to significant people in their communities.

How have conditions and events in the Dominican Republic shaped the characters' lives in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao?

Since many of the characters in Junot Diaz's Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao are themselves Dominican, they and the narrator often reference life, culture, and history on the island. Diaz expects his readers to have little knowledge of the Dominican Republic and will frequently go into very great detail throughout the footnotes (which are unusual in a work of fiction).
Perhaps the most frequently mentioned name in the book, besides that of Oscar himself, is that of the dictator Rafael Trujillo, who controlled the DR with an iron fist from 1930 to 1961. Trujillo controlled the media, the police, and the military: Diaz often compares him to twentieth-century dictators like Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Josef Stalin to impress upon the reader how great an impact Trujillo had on the DR. While Oscar's story takes place decades after Trujillo's death, the characters and the narrator often refer to Trujillo—as a specter, as a reminder of their past, or simply to strike fear into naughty children. Trujillo imprisoned and tortured Oscar's grandfather, as he did so many thousands of other Dominicans, directly linking the history of the DR with Oscar himself. Throughout the story we hear Trujillo's name mentioned casually and mentioned in fear. A reader will also learn many anecdotes about his misrule, including the fact that the mass deforestation in Haiti did not occur in the DR, because Trujillo made the forests his personal property and refused to let outsiders in.
Other tidbits about Dominican culture are peppered throughout the novel. For example, the footnote on page 87 tells the story of Maria Montez, a Dominican actress who became famous in American golden-age cinema. The footnote on page 215 tells the story of Oscar's family at the time of the 1937 massacres against Haitians living on the border. Spanish slang terms, many of which are impolite, are littered throughout the story.
Oscar himself returns to the Dominican towards the end of the story and finds that he cannot connect to the culture: he cannot dance salsa, he has no machismo confidence, and he feels that he cannot fit in with his extended family. He falls in love with a prostitute, only to be killed by her boyfriend and his band of thugs.

Why is the BFG excited about the first dream he catches?

The BFG and Sophie are in Dream Country catching dreams. The BFG catches dreams which he then shoots into children's rooms at night. He's always on the lookout for really good dreams, or "phizzwizards," as he calls them. At the same time, the BFG is looking to trap "trogglehumpers," which are the worst kind of nightmares. On this particular occasion, the BFG ends up catching both kinds of dream.
First of all, he catches a real phizzwizard and is understandably excited, as it's the best dream he's ever caught—a golden one, no less. Then, a few moments later, he catches a particularly nasty trogglehumper. When the BFG catches such nightmares, he always locks them away in a jar so that they can't harm anyone. Sophie can tell that this particular trogglehumper's especially horrible as it's a weird blob shape that thrashes around angrily inside the jar.

How is the afterword in Bud, not Buddy connected to the rest of the book?

The afterword of this story is the author's explanation of how Bud's story is an example of historical fiction. Curtis says that Bud and the events of his life are completely fabricated; however, the afterword explains that the novel's characters and Bud's story are based on real people and real events. For example, Curtis's grandfathers are the base models for the characters of Lefty Lewis and Herman E. Calloway. Lewis was an actual "redcap" who worked at the railway stations. Curtis didn't invent that character or that job—they were real, and that allows Curtis to position Bud in and around real historical events and happenings. The afterword is an important piece to this book because it lets readers know that Bud's story, while fictional, is quite a realistic showing of the zeitgeist of that era.

How does George end up beating Dr. Buzzard at poke and what is Dr. Buzzard's response?

George ends up beating Dr. Buzzard at poker by using the latter's cheating against him. First, George tries to ascertain how Dr. Buzzard is cheating by looking out for characteristic "tells." In poker, "tells" are a set of betting strategies or behaviors which show how strong or weak someone's hand is.
Examples of poker tells that indicate someone has a strong hand include:
being protective of hole cards
rapid breathing and barely repressed excitement
unblinking eyes
relaxed, almost euphoric smile
Although relying on "tells" isn't an exact science, many poker players swear by them. To read more about "tells" that signify whether someone has a weak or strong hand, please refer to the link below.
Once George discovers Dr. Buzzard's "tells," he devises a strategy to maximize his advantage. Prior to observing the older man's tells, George played by using conventional strategies based on game theory. He relates how he learned game theory during a mathematics course at Columbia University.
During his student days, George learned to isolate common strategic features from a number of conflict situations. He then used those common features to craft winning strategies.
During the game between him, Dr. Buzzard, Parris, Junior Lee, and Rickshaw, George finds that his conventional ways of playing are useless. This is because Dr. Buzzard is actively cheating. The other men suspect it but are helpless to counteract Dr. Buzzard.
For his part, George determines that Dr. Buzzard has somehow marked the cards. To counteract the other man's advantage, George proceeds to mark the cards as well (in order to confuse Dr. Buzzard). What ends up happening is that all of the players become confused. Previously, the men adjusted their strategies to account for Dr. Buzzard's cheating. Now that George has marked the cards as well, confusion sets upon the whole party.
Dr. Buzzard responds by dealing a new set of cards. However, George continues his close observation. He notices Dr. Buzzard extracting the seven of hearts. So, he adjusts his strategy to account for a 51-card game with the seven of hearts in no one else's hand but Dr. Buzzard's. This is how George wins the poker game.
In response to George winning, Dr. Buzzard begins to clap. He is soon joined by the other men. Next, Dr. Buzzard takes off his feathered hat and bone necklace. Then, he empties his pockets, takes off his shoes, and stands on his hands.
Meanwhile, the other men ply George with moonshine, and he drinks it, becoming very drunk as a result.
http://www.pokerology.com/lessons/poker-tells/

What is an entry in The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales and Fairy Tales by Donald Haase that could be useful in a "Cinderella" research paper? How would I create a works cited page that includes the entry and write an annotated bibliography for the entry?

An entry that could be useful in a research paper on "Cinderella" is the entry on "Baba Yaga" on page 93 of The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales and Fairy Tales. "Baba Yaga" is the archetypal Slavic witch who can be either good or evil, and she is the type on which witches, such as Cinderella's evil stepmother, might be based. To cite this entry in MLA format, you would use the following format:

Last, First M., and First M. Last. "Article Title." Encyclopedia Name. City: Publisher, Year Published. Page(s). Print. (see the source from Easy Bib below; all lines after the first line should be indented).

Therefore, the citation for this article would be as follows:

Pilinovsky, Helen. "Baba Yaga." The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales and Fairy Tales. Ed. Donald Haase. Vol. 1. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2007. 93-94. Print.

(All lines after the first line should be indented.)
An annotated bibliography can serve different purposes, including evaluating or summarizing a source or explaining why a source is relevant to a research project (see the source from Purdue OWL below for more about annotated bibliographies). Following the citation of the source, you might have three paragraphs. The first would summarize the source, the second would evaluate the source, and the third would explain the relevance to your project.
For example, for the entry on "Baba Yaga," you might include something along the following lines:

This entry explains the origins of the "Baba Yaga," a witch character in Slavic folktales. The entry goes on to explain Baba Yaga's salient characteristics, including her role as the aunt of all witches and her connection to other witches in literature, such as Hecate. The author explains Baba Yaga's connection to dragons and death and her physical characteristics. The author traces Baba Yaga's appearance in Slavic literature and the different translations of her name.

This source is a thorough explanation of the long existence of Baba Yaga in Slavic literature. The author examines the different sides and qualities of Baba Yaga and notes that she has both positive and negative qualities and can be either a friend or foe. In addition, the author cites scholars and compares this folkloric character to other characters in folklore.
In the final paragraph, you should explain the relevance of this entry to your project. How does reading about a witch in Slavic folklore help you explore and understand more about the history of witches in literature and about the stepmother figure in "Cinderella"? In this paragraph, you should explain why reading this entry expands your knowledge of "Cinderella."
http://www.easybib.com/reference/guide/mla/encyclopedia

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/common_writing_assignments/annotated_bibliographies/annotated_bibliography_samples.html

"Engaging texts represent human experiences in powerful ways." How does 1984 explore this statement, particularly in reference to the theme of language?

George Orwell’s 1984 is especially concerned with the power of language. Winston Smith is aware of this power through his work at the Ministry of Truth. Winston spends his entire workday rewriting information to make it fit whatever new truth becomes current that particular day, or even that hour. The Party’s slogans employ paradoxes that are supposed to make people think, but as all the slogans are so contradictory, no one ever analyzes their illogical construction. Oceania is constantly at war, so the key slogan “War is peace” is especially relevant in the society Orwell invented.
The other slogans similarly post that opposites are equal: “Freedom is slavery” and “Ignorance is strength.” When Winston questions his work and the imposition of these absurd statements, he awakens to the power of language and simultaneously to his power as an individual person who can effect change. Even when he is not communicating with others about his awakening, however, the power of language is connected to his downfall. In Oceania, even to formulate a negative idea is not allowed but is considered “thoughtcrime.”

Who is the character of Demoke in A Dance of the Forests?

A Dance of the Forests is a play by Wole Soyinka presented at the 1960 Nigerian Independence celebrations. In this work, Soyinka gives a warning to the people of his country that they must not, in the fervor of independence, repeat the injustices and wrongs of the past. He has stated,

History teaches us to beware of the excitation of the liberated and the injustices that often accompany their righteous thirst for justice.

The playwright's admonition takes on the form of an allegorical play, or "dance." This dance is designed by the Forest Father, the supreme judge of all humans and lesser gods in the Yoruba pantheon, in which a procession of highly symbolic characters present their stories.
One such character is Demoke, who symbolizes the influence and potent force of the artist within society. Demoke is a former poet in an ancient court and a carver whose apprentice, Oremole, met a tragic end when he fell (or was pushed) from an araba tree that the two were carving in honor of the celebration for which the play was written. Demoke is called upon to examine his conscience and to come to terms with the reality that he did, in fact, push his apprentice to his death. His remorse brings about his own redemption and ensures a new hope for society.

In "The Doll's House," why did Kezia show the Kelveys the dollhouse? Did she have different motivations than Isabel did when she showed the house? Why or why not?

As the younger Burnell child, Kezia knows how it feels to be excluded from decisions and acceptance. While the older Isabel is allowed to determine all the rules governing the display of the dollhouse to the girls at school, Kezia and her sister Lottie are left to follow helplessly because "Isabel was bossy, but she was always right, and Lottie and Kezia knew too well the powers that went with being eldest."
It is Kezia who sees the Kelvey girls always being excluded from the other girls at school. It is Kezia who asks their mother if they can invite the Kelvey girls to see the dollhouse as well. And it is Kezia who doesn't follow her sisters on the afternoon when she invites the Kelveys to see their magnificent dollhouse; perhaps she knew that Lil and Else would be passing their way and had plotted a means for them to enjoy the house as well.
While Isabel desires the fame and adoration of all the girls at school and uses the dollhouse to secure a prominent social standing among them, Kezia sees two girls who are excluded from the rest of the group and seeks to include them. She wishes for them to experience the same grandeur, even if for a moment, as everyone else. She takes them to the house in private, ignoring both her mother and sister's wishes in excluding the Kelveys.
Isabel's motives are self-serving, but Kezia's motives are genuine and focused on helping others.

A new element was discovered. Using your knowledge of chemistry, explain how you would decide if the element belonged in group 1 or group 7.

Group 1 elements are metals and are known as alkali metals. They are so called because they form alkalis (basic compounds) when dissolved in water. For example, sodium (Na) is a group 1 element and forms sodium hydroxide (NaOH) when dissolved in water. Similarly, potassium (K) forms potassium hydroxide (KOH).
Group 7 elements are known as halogens and are non-metals. When dissolved in water, they form acidic solutions. For example, chlorine gas (Cl₂) when bubbled through water will form hydrogen chloride (HCl). Similarly, bromine gas (Br₂) slowly mixes with water, forming hydrogen bromide (HBr), and the resulting solution is acidic.
Thus, by making use of basic chemistry and the litmus test, we can identify if the element belongs to group 1 or group 7. Dissolve the element in water, and if it turns blue litmus to red, it belongs to group 7. On the other hand, if the resulting solution turns red litmus to blue, then the new element belongs to Group 1.
Hope this helps.

What is one key difference between Bret Harte's Roaring Camp with that of Angel's camp described by Mark Twain?

It looks like you are asking about the difference between how the camps are described in the stories.
If we refer to the texts, Twain describes Angel's Camp as "an ancient mining camp." Meanwhile, Roaring Camp in Bret Harte's story is described as an operational camp. Essentially, the key difference between the two camps is that one of them is no longer operational or active. That would be Twain's Angel's Camp, which he calls "an ancient mining camp."
There isn't much beyond Twain's terse description of Angel's Camp in "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras." However, Bret Harte's "The Luck of Roaring Camp" provides more details about the camp in the story.
For example, we learn that the camp settlement consists of about one hundred men. At the beginning of the story, these men congregate outside of "Cherokee Sal's" cabin. Sal is having a baby and is alone in the cabin. There are no women with her, as she is apparently the only female inhabitant at Roaring Camp. Harte tells us that Sal is a woman of ill repute and hints that she was known to the men at Roaring Camp.
According to the text, Sal dies in childbirth. The child, a baby boy, survives. The men name him Tommy Luck and adopt him as their own. They fix up Tommy Luck's cabin and even hold a christening for him. In short, the once rude, coarse characters of Roaring Camp become model citizens for Tommy's sake.
Bret Harte tells us that Tommy brings good luck to the camp.

Such was the golden summer of Roaring Camp. They were “flush times,”—and the Luck was with them. The claims had yielded enormously.

So, the key difference between Roaring Camp and Angel's Camp is that the latter is no longer operational.

Who is Mrs. Joe Gargery?

Mrs. Joe Gargery is Pip's older sister and only surviving kin. From the beginning, she is an unpleasant woman who abuses both her husband and her brother. She comes off as bitter about her station in life. It is clear her marriage came about due to need for financial security rather than love. She is enthusiastic about corporeal punishment, often subjecting poor Pip to her angry abuses when she believes he's misbehaved.
What keeps Mrs. Joe from being totally evil is how hard she's had things. Her parents are dead and left her with a baby brother to take care of even though they were all very poor. However, this does not excuse her behavior, and her lack of love towards her family is part of why Pip grows up so insecure.

Mrs. Joe Gargery is Pip's older sister in Great Expectations. Also called "Mrs. Joe," she raises Pip after his parents die. While Joe is a sympathetic and caring man, Mrs. Joe is an abusive person who hits Pip and treats him with contempt. She often beats Pip with her cane (called "Tickler"), and she is generally bitter about her lot in life, as she suffered the loss of her parents and five brothers at a young age.
Joe bears her abuse of him with good cheer, and he does his best to protect Pip. Mrs. Joe is not savvy about the ways of the world, and she believes the outrageous lies that Pip tells her about Miss Havisham's house. Later, Mrs. Joe is attacked by Orlick, who works with Joe in his blacksmith shop, and she is maimed.

Pip's sister, who raised him "by hand," is immediately introduced in Chapter 2 as a termagant, explosive, shrewish woman who abuses poor Pip verbally and physically. Dickens tries to make every chapter dramatic, and in order to have drama there must be conflict. Creating such a contentious, chronically dissatisfied character as Mrs. Joe assured Dickens that he could invent plenty of conflict up until the time she is nearly killed by a mysterious intruder. Some sort of conflict develops every time Mrs. Joe appears in the book. She has conflicts with Pip, Orlick, and her husband. It turns out that her quarrels with Orlick motivated that ill-tempered, vindictive man to try to murder her. (Orlick himself may have been created because such a man was bound to create scenes of conflict to enliven some of the chapters.) Dickens evidently planned to have Mrs. Joe die off somewhere in the novel so that the kindly, long-suffering blacksmith would be able to marry Biddy and finally have some well-deserved peace, love, and contentment in his life. There is a sharp contrast between Mrs. Joe and Biddy, which makes the modest, patient Biddy seem all the more charming. She is, in fact, one of the most likable characters in the book. It might be said that Pip's sister brings her own death upon herself with her bad temper. She makes Orlick hate her so much that he tries to kill her. She is permanently incapacitated by the assault and eventually dies as a result of the injuries received. Her condition as an invalid explains the need for Biddy to come and live in the Gargery household, and this is what ultimately leads to Joe and Biddy falling in love and getting married.

How does Graham Greene portray Scobie’s character as contradictory in the division between his good intentions and sinful actions? How are pity and responsibility the cause of this conflict?

The character of Henry Scobie emerges as deeply conflicted in The Heart of the Matter. His devotion to his wife, Louise, is challenged by his passion for Helen, a young woman who pops up randomly in his life. Any true affection he feels for either of them, however, is tempered by his sense of pity—an emotion that emerges from a selfishly superior attitude. His sense of responsibility, no matter how much he rationalizes his behavior, becomes an excuse for immoral and ethical actions.
Scobie’s commitment to helping Louise achieve her goal of moving away leads to his involvement with illegal financial dealings. The more he contrives to find a way to reconcile these contradictions, the deeper the hole he digs for himself. Not just committing adultery but also confessing without any intention to repent are considered sins in Scobie’s Catholicism. The crisis of faith, which has been brewing for a while without his acknowledging it, overwhelms him when he opts for suicide.

What is an analysis of Kamau Brathwaite's Middle Passages?

In Middle Passages, Barbadian author Kamau Brathwaite presents a collection of layered and nuanced poems featuring vernacular language and word play, jazz rhythms, and references to the cultures and histories of African and Caribbean nations. Brathwaite’s poetry examines colonial and post-colonial experiences, providing reclamation of Afro-Caribbean identity as a response to the colonizing European paradigm. The collection’s title refers to the term for the transport of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic and the ensuing legacy of slavery and struggle for freedom and Civil Rights.
The opening poem “Word Making Man” celebrates the works and life of Cuban poet and activist Nicolás Guillén. (Brathwaite’s title references a collection of Guillén’s poetry entitled “Man-Making Words.”) The poem invokes Cuban music and people and events in the history of independence movements and Civil Rights such as the Little Rock Nine and Patrice Lumumba. In the poem’s middle section, Brathwaite notes that “Amerika laughs” at the Caribbean while still caught in fantasies of exploitation: “it turns to the wall in its creaking bed of dollars,” wanting an unlimited West Indies in contrast to Guillén’s protest against imperialism in his work West Indies Ltd. However, Brathwaite believes in the stronger connections among Cuba, Jamaica, and Barbados, independent countries with inhabitants who are “owners herein of all there is to see / owners herein of what we must believe / of what our hands encompass as we dream.”
Middle Passages showcases Brathwaite’s work toward developing his “sycorax video style” that combines computer typography with musical rhythm and intricate linguistics. In Shakespeare’s play The Tempest, Sycorax the witch was the symbolic rival to the shipwrecked magician Prospero and the mother of Caliban, the island’s inhabitant. In “Letter Sycorax” (with a dedication that references Queen Ana Nzinga who fought against Portuguese colonization in Angola), a version of Caliban writes a letter in vernacular language to his mother on a computer.
Caliban references historical figures such as Jackie Robinson and science-fiction characters like robots and aliens, thus linking them with indigenous people under colonial oppression. With this poem, Brathwaite creates a parallel between Sycorax and computers, as witchcraft and magic could be seen as early forms of technology. Using a computer with its quick, magical ability to place text and graphics anywhere thus frees Caliban as a thinker and writer. Sycorax as a computer gives voices back to colonized indigenous peoples, enabling them to tell their side of history.
In the closing poem, “Irae,” which presents a strong political statement, the poet envisions those who died in events like Wounded Knee and the massacres at Sharpville and My Lai are called up by Louis Armstrong with his trumpet. He prays to God as the “head savior of the broken herd,” one who looks after the African Diaspora, asking “grant me patience with thy plenty / grant me vengeance with thy word.” He ends the poem with a computer-generated graphic symbolizing the ocean waves between Africa and the Caribbean, the Middle Passage.
Brathwaite often groups his poetry collections as trilogies and Middle Passages can be read with Black + Blues and Third World Poems (published in 1976 and 1983).
http://core.ecu.edu/engl/deenas/caribbean/brathwaite.htm

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/kamau-brathwaite

Discuss why some suffragettes, such as Elizabeth Caddy Stanton, did not support the Fifteen Amendment.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) is sometimes credited with launching the American women's rights movement through the organization of the Seneca Falls Convention (1848) and the publication of her "Declaration of Sentiments." At the end of the American Civil War (1861-1865), there was an effort to link the cause of women's equality with the popular cause of black equality and voting rights. Then, in 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution granted equal rights before the law to all men born in the country, including freed slaves, but not to women. Many prominent abolitionist men who supported the cause of women's rights, including Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), favored giving first priority to the cause of the emancipation of black Americans. The Fifteenth Amendment (1870), which allowed African American men the right to vote, and not women, constituted yet another defeat of women's equality for Cady Stanton and those suffragists allied with her. She had devoted her life to women's emancipation and, while she was the daughter of an abolitionist and an active supporter of abolitionism herself, the extension of suffrage to African American men emphasized the failure of the government to grant women's suffrage. Women's right to vote in the United States was not granted until much later, eighteen years after Cady Stanton's death, with the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920.
https://guides.loc.gov/15th-amendment

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Elizabeth-Cady-Stanton

In what way is Willie Weaver a hero?

During the two years that the novel covers, Willie Weaver shows his heroism in several ways. Initially he takes his physical gifts for granted and focuses on winning at sports. This narrow emphasis has largely resulted from the influence of his father, a former star college athlete. Willie becomes a universally acclaimed hero in his small Montana town by winning a big baseball game.
Through a series of unfortunate incidents, the teenager ends up estranged from his parents, severely injured, and living with a criminal in California. At his new high school, he learns that a physical disability caused by an accident was temporary. He is not only able to do manual labor, but he rescues a young man from a fire—overcoming his dislike, as it seems that he was the arsonist.
Although he shows poor judgment in not communicating with his parents, Willie demonstrates these positive heroic traits.

What is an analysis of Cotton Mather's "The Wonders of the Invisible Word"?

Cotton Mather, a colonial Massachusetts Puritan preacher and writer on theology, did not actually attend the witchcraft trials in Salem. Nevertheless, about a year after they concluded, he felt morally compelled to defend both the accusations and the trials in writing. He believed that there was a real danger that witchcraft, if left unchecked, “would probably blow up and pull down all the churches in the country.”
To Christian people of the time, the devil was very real, and, in the different forms he assumed, he would convince people to do his bidding: “demons might impose the shapes of innocent persons in their spectral exhibitions upon the sufferers.” Thus, the people who confessed to witchcraft had been led astray by the devil to aid him “in his hellish design of bewitching and ruining our land.” Mather believed that the varied manifestations of Satan constituted “an army of devils . . . [that had] horribly broke in upon” Salem.
Mather wanted people to realize that the situation had been dire and that the prosecutors had had no choice but to kill the people infected in order to extirpate the evil. He uses vivid language to impress dreadful images on the reader.

[T]he houses of the good people there [Salem] are filled with the doleful shrieks of their children and servants, tormented by invisible hands, with tortures altogether preternatural. After the mischiefs there endeavored, and since in part conquered, the terrible plague of evil angels has made its progress into some other places . . .

In warning them that the “terrible plague” has already spread to other places, Mather sets the stage for the continued prosecution of witches wherever they might be detected, as a Christian duty that no one should shirk.
Mather was well aware that critics had accused the prosecutors of going too far, and he recommended caution, but only to a certain point. It would be inevitable that some innocents might be ensnared, he said, for that was the devil’s doing, but to refrain from catching and punishing the witches would be even worse and would endanger the public at large.

Have there been faults on any side fallen into? Surely, they have at worst been but the faults of a well-meaning Ignorance. On every side then, why should not we endeavour with amicable Correspondencies, to help one another out of the Snares wherein the Devil would involve us? To wrangle the Devil out of the Country, will be truly a New Experiment.
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=59

Published in 1693, The Wonders of the Invisible World is Cotton Mather’s understandings of the Salem Witch Trials. Ultimately, the writing defends his position and the dangers he believes that witches pose to the colonies. Mather often cites Saducismus Triumphatus by Joseph Glanvill as evidence of the existence and threat of witches. Mather writes with a certain amount of Puritanical paranoia. He expresses great fear that witches are everywhere and that they have a direct connection to the devil. He fears that the settlers are at risk of being overthrown by witches. While Mather attempts to position himself as an unbiased observer of the trials, it is clear throughout that he believes witches are a direct threat. In every trial he records in the book, he provides no defense of the presumed witches. This was common of the time, as often those on trial were given no opportunity to defend themselves.

While the Salem Witch Trials may be the ones most people have at least some familiarity with, in actuality, “witches” had been condemned for hundred of years. Thousands of people thought to be in cahoots with the devil were executed in Europe. Although men were sometimes found guilty, most of those who died were women, and the majority of those women were elderly. (It has been argued that these women were targeted because they were a drain on resources, as it was up to the community to provide for them, as most were either widowed or unmarried.)
Sadly, it was not just a few crazy people who believed in witches and witchcraft. The truth is that most early modern people believed in both. The way people became witches (or warlocks), the thinking went, was to sign a pact with the devil.
What makes Salem unique is the kind of “proof” that was admissible in court. For the first time in trials of this kind, it was permissible (even encouraged) to provide “spectral” evidence. Spectral evidence came from witnesses for the prosecution who claimed that the defendants tortured them in their dreams or in waking visions. In addition, torturing the accused to obtain a confession was also given sanction.
Another reason for the travesty of the Salem Witch Trials is due to the type of government, a theocracy, in Massachusetts at the time. A “theocracy” is a government that claims to operate under a divine rule. However, while many governments might say they are theocracies, what truly makes a government of this type is when its leaders actually believe that they are ruled and instructed by a divinity.
It was under these conditions that Cotton Mather, the popular and influential Puritan preacher, penned one of his most famous works, “The Wonders of the Invisible Word.”
Through this work, the preacher seeks to justify the outcome of the trials. Mather writes: “I can do no other than shortly relate the chief Matters of Fact, which occurr'd in the Tryals of some that were Executed, in an Abridgment Collected out of the Court-Papers on this occasion put into my hands”
Stylistically, Mather employs plain language (words anyone could understand). There are very few artistic flourishes here. For Mather, it was the “facts” and just the facts: no flowery language, no embellishment. “I report matters not as an advocate, but as an historian,” the preacher argues. The problem, as is painfully evident in Mather’s “truthful” account, is the complete lack of transcripts from the defenses of the accused; what the reader of these accounts is left with is solely the prosecutorial side of the evidence.
Aside from his assertion that he is simply the recorder of the facts of the trials, Mather had an additional reason for penning “The Wonders of the Invisible World” -- to absolve himself from liability in the gruesome proceedings. He makes it clear to the audience that while he does not disagree with the court’s rulings, “I was not present at any of them; not ever had I any personal prejudice at the persons those brought to the stage.”
Regardless of his lack of personal involvement, Mather honestly appears to feel witchcraft to be a true threat to the community: “An army of devils is horribly broke in upon the place which is the center, and after a sort, the first-born of our English settlements,” he warns. Further, Mather argues that Satan’s ultimate goal is to “overturn this poor plantation, the Puritan colony.” He seems to have sincerely believed that punishing witches would secure God’s grace.

Are Moss, Aaronow, and Levene desperate?

In Glengarry Glen Ross some of the salesmen are becoming demoralized because they aren't "closing." They may not realize it, but their problem is that the general public is getting wise to the scams that are being perpetrated all over the United States. The typical scam was to buy a large section of very cheap land in a place like Hawaii, Florida, or Arizona, and then subdivide it into lots. This was sometimes hard to do because the developer had to get authorization from the state's real estate commissioner, and the commissioner should have known that the land in question was in a swamp, or on the side of an active volcano, or out in the middle of a desert full of rattlesnakes and coyotes where the temperature could go as high as 120 degrees in the summer. The salesmen would be given "leads" obtained from coupons mailed in by people responding to specious ads in newspapers and magazines; and they would also be given brochures showing what the development was supposed to look like when it was fully completed. They would have shopping, restaurants, golf courses, club houses, fountains, artificial lakes, and other amenities. Most of the people who bought the lots were starting to think about their future retirement. It was not typical for most buyers to invest large sums of money, as they do in Mamet's play, because most of them didn't have that kind of money. It was fairly common practice for a salesman to collect a very small down payment, as little as $100, and then get the buyers to sign a contract to make small monthly payments for many years until the price was paid in full, with interest. A lot might be sold for as little as $2500. The salesman got to keep part or all of the down payment for his commission. The buyers were not given deeds to the property as a rule but were buying on what was called a "land contract," which is not much different from the way people buy cars, furniture, and jewelry. The buyers forfeited everything they had paid if they failed to make one or two payments. If they finally paid off the entire purchase price, they would then get the title deed. Many buyers defaulted on the payments after they had taken a good look at the lots they had bought sight-unseen. The developer would then sell the lots to other gullible people. But word got around that many of the lots were worthless. Nobody was actually living on any of them, except perhaps for a few hermit-types living in house trailers. There must have been a lot of high-level collusion. The developer was doing nothing to develop the land except bulldozing a few dirt roads and driving little stakes with strips of colored cloth attached to them to indicate the locations of the various lots.
Dave Moss, George Aaronow, and Shelly Levene are getting old and desperate. One of the main themes of David Mamet's play is that desperate men will do desperate deeds. Robbing the office for the Glengarry leads is symbolic of what men will do when they have families to support, when they are heavily in debt, and when they are running out of money. When the real estate bubble burst around 2007, it was largely because men just like Moss, Aaronow and Levene were arranging mortgage loans for people who were almost certain to default. These loans were then "packaged" and sold to investors, who probably expected a certain number of foreclosures but could not foresee that most of the loans were based on utterly false credit information--or no information at all! It was often referred to ironically as "creative financing" or "mickeymousing." A lot of the packages of mortgaged loans must have been bought by foreign investors, especially in the oil-rich Middle East, who were looking for high interest on their ever-growing billions and assumed that any land in America must be as good as gold.
Ricky Roma and John Williamson are crooked too. Roma is deliberately trying to stall his buyer James Lingk by telling him his check hasn't been cashed yet, and Williamson thinks he is helping out by saying that he sent the check in and it had been cashed. Aaronow is perhaps the most honest of all the men in the office, but he was obviously considering going along with Moss's idea of faking a burglary and stealing the new Glengarry leads to sell to Jerry Graff, who is guilty of receiving stolen property. It might not have been Aaronow who backed out of the deal but Moss who changed his mind and took Levene as a partner instead. Levene was probably not hard to persuade because he is the most desperate of all.
Moss, Aaronow, and Levene are like passengers on a sinking ship. They are desperate--and their desperation doesn't help them in "closing" deals, because prospects sense their anxiety and neediness. Such feelings are subtle but can be sensed and even transferred to the prospects themselves.

At the Tasty Freeze, what did Randy tell Ponyboy as they sat in the Mustang?

When Pony and Two-Bit arrive at the Tasty Freeze, Randy Anderson pulls up in his blue Mustang and requests to speak with Pony. Two-Bit reminds Pony "no jazz" before the rumble and Pony agrees to speak with the Soc member in his car. Randy begins the conversation by telling Pony that he was astonished that Pony entered the burning building and saved those children. Randy then says that he could never do such a thing before telling Pony that he refuses to participate in the big rumble. Randy goes on to tell Pony that he is sick of everything and laments about his deceased friend, Bob Sheldon. Randy explains Bob's background to Pony and says that Bob's parents enabled him to turn into a violent, reckless teenager. Randy then tells Pony that fighting is useless and will solve nothing. He says that no matter the outcome of the rumble, the Socs will still be privileged while the Greasers will still be blamed for everything. Randy ends the conversation by telling Pony that he plans on taking all his money and skipping town in order to avoid being ridiculed and shunned by the Socs. Pony responds by saying that he would help Randy if he could and the two boys end the conversation on good terms.

Why does Melinda say her room belongs to an alien?

Melinda feels isolated from her room. The bedroom represents her younger self, who she was back in fifth grade. She does not relate to the surroundings in her room. Melinda notes that she used to love roses and the color pink, which surround her room; however, she cannot relate with them anymore. By noting that her room belongs to an alien, Melinda reveals that she does not associate herself with who she was in the past. Therefore, Melinda’s statement represents her coming of age because she is growing up and going through many changes. She feels like the room belongs to someone else. Moreover, Melinda’s feelings of alienation are driven by the fact that she no longer has friends at school and that her best friend will not talk to her.

Melinda's description of her room serves as an illustration of her isolation, one of the main themes of the book. Wherever she goes, and whatever she does, Melinda feels like an alien, like she doesn't belong anywhere. Even her own bedroom feels completely strange to her. For most people, a bedroom is a haven of comfort, peace, and security. And that's how it used to be for Melinda. But that was then, this is now.
The bedroom is a snapshot of who she was in the fifth grade before she was sexually assaulted. It's a symbol of a more innocent time in Melinda's life, a time when she thought that roses should cover everything and that pink was a great color. Since her terrible ordeal, Melinda has changed; profoundly so. But the decor of her bedroom hasn't and so she feels alienated from her immediate surroundings. Melinda is as isolated from her old self—as represented by her bedroom—as she is from everyone else in her life.

Who are the antagonists in the book To All the Boys I've Loved Before?

An antagonist is a character that causes challenges for the protagonist, or main character.
In To All the Boys I've Loved Before, Lara Jean is the protagonist, as she is the central character. This means that we must consider who "opposes" her most.
In a roundabout way, Kitty is an antagonist. Although Lara Jean doesn't know it until the end of the book, Kitty causes the main conflict by mailing Lara Jean's hatbox full of letters. This propels the entire plot and causes the most problems for Lara Jean. Kitty isn't exactly a typical antagonist, however, because she indirectly causes the various conflicts and is not consistently malicious towards Lara Jean.
Another option is Genevieve. Although she doesn't catalyze the entire conflict of the story, she directly opposes Lara Jean by spreading the rumor about her and Peter in the hot tub. This paints her as more of a classic antagonist, particularly in a book set in a high school.

Convert the given numbers of things into moles of things: 16 oranges - how many moles of oranges? 27^14 bananas - how many moles of persons?

One mole of anything is Avogadro’s number of that thing. If we know the number we have of something, we can find out how many moles we have by dividing by the number in a mole—that is, by Avogadro’s number.
In chemistry, many of us like to set the problem up in a way that is mathematically equivalent but which emphasizes that we are talking about the same quantity expressed two different ways, in units and in number(s) of moles. We begin with an equation expressing that 1 mole of anything is equal to Avogadro’s number of that thing:

1 mol = 6.02 x 10^23

We note that since the two sides of the equation are equal, if we divide one side by the other side, we get 1. Thus

(1 mol)/(6.02 x 10^23) = 1

We can multiply anything by 1 without changing its value. We call this a “conversion factor” because it converts the units while leaving the value unchanged. We will start with the quantity we are given, and multiply by this conversion factor to express the same quantity in moles. We are given 16 oranges, so

(16 oranges) x ((1 mol)/(6.02x10^23)) = 2.66 x 10^-23 mol oranges

Now you can convert units, as long as you are talking about the same things on both sides. We can convert oranges to moles of oranges, but we cannot convert bananas to moles of persons. If you wanted to know how many moles of bananas you had, you would evaluate that very large number, then convert (as with the oranges), or else divide by Avogadro’s number to get moles.
27^14 bananas = 1.09 x 10^20 bananas. If you divide this by Avogadro’s number, you get 1.82x 10^-4 moles of bananas. Again, no mathematical operation will take you from bananas to humans.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” In light of this first sentence of Pride and Prejudice, discuss the situation, attitudes, and actions of the following four men, with regard to courtship and marriage: Mr. Darcy, Mr. Bingley, Mr. Collins, and Mr. Wickham. What are these men “in want of” when it comes to marriage? You should consider the two possible meanings of “want”—to positively desire a wife and to be in need of a wife. What is the thinking of these men about marriage, if any? What is their situation with regard to their “fortune,” their social position? You should concentrate on the most interesting cases, as you see them, but make sure you refer to all four of these characters, if only for the sake of comparison and contrast. Make sure your essay has a clear thesis and a title that indicates the focus of your discussion. Are there any secondary male characters, besides these four, who are relevant to your discussion?

This is a big question, but I will try to answer it in brief to get you started.
Mr. Darcy wants (desires) a wife of some beauty who will stand up to him and be an intellectual equal. In other words, he wants/desires Elizabeth. However, he has been taught to be proud and to want (to feel he needs) a wife of a higher social class than Elizabeth. He is in a quite enviable position as to fortune, being a lord with a large estate and 10,000 pounds a year in income.
Mr. Bingley desires Jane, and she is also everything he perceives he needs in a wife. He has a large fortune based on his father's success in trade and can easily support a woman like Jane who has no dowry. His stumbling block is that Darcy persuades him against pursuing Jane: otherwise, there are no obstacles.
Mr. Collins wants/desires to please Lady Catherine, and for that he wants/needs a wife of sufficient social status to pass as a lady. He really could care less who he marries as long as Lady Catherine approves. He takes the first woman who will have him. He has an ample living as a clergyman and will inherit the Bennet estate, which will leave him quite financially comfortable. He can easily marry Charlotte even though she has no dowry.
Wickham is the hardest one to understand for certain. It appears he would want/desire to marry Elizabeth, but he wants/needs to marry for money, as he doesn't have any. It is hard to understand why he runs off with Lydia, who also has no money, except to imagine that he planned to love her and leave until he was paid off to marry her.

Who is Núñez?

Núñez, the protagonist of H. G. Wells’s story, is a man from Bogotá, Colombia who gets lost while hiking in the Ecuadorian Andes. The story presents him as a singular figure, a stranger who arrives in an isolated community and tries to make people think the way he thinks—in this case, literally to open their eyes. He comes across as an anti-hero; even as he is a rugged individual who resists social conformity, his vanity and self-importance also keep him from acknowledging the rights of others to live according to their chosen rules.
Working as a guide for a group of hikers, he takes a wrong turn during the night. Núñez literally stumbles into a settlement that he had dismissed as a myth. The community is inaccessible to outsiders; only the random tumble down a long, steep incline took him there. His natural curiosity is piqued when he realizes that he has reached is the legendary Country of the Blind. Everyone who lives inside its walls is sightless, to his way of thinking. Núñez is distressed by what he considers a disability with absolutely no advantages. He tries in vain to convince the people there that sight is superior. This is virtually impossible to do, however: because the people do not have any words for the concepts of vision or its lack. Núñez struggles in vain to understand how they cannot consider themselves to be blind or to understand the condition as a drawback. Touching his eyes, the local people find them abnormal, and also doubt his story and his sanity.
Núñez finds it difficult to conform to the community’s rules, and after breaking them by straying off the designated paths. The people ostracize him, but finally relent and, after punishing him by whipping, allow him to return in exchange for doing menial tasks. During his stay, the stranger becomes interested in a local woman, Medina-Sarote, the daughter of the family with whom he is living. When he states his wish to marry her, other community members oppose the match. Because he is generally viewed as mentally challenged, they worry about the couple’s future children.
Ultimately Medina gives him a choice: If he has his eyes surgically removed, she will marry him and he can stay. Refusing this choice, he leaves the community. The reader is left to wonder if he will ever make his way all the way back to his own people.

From the initial stage directions, how do we know that the Birlings have an affluent lifestyle?

The play opens in the dining room of the Birlings's home, which the initial stage directions explain belongs to "a prosperous family." When performed on stage, the audience, of course, will not have the benefit of this stage direction, but the director of the play will be left in no doubt that the opening scene should clearly indicate the affluence of the family. This affluence is, after all, vital to one of the play's main moral messages, which, broadly, is that the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few is not conducive to a fair or moral society for the many.
The initial stage directions offer several ways in which the affluence of the Birling family might be indicated to an audience. The furniture, for example, should be "a good solid furniture of the period," and on the dining room table, there should be "champagne glasses" and a "decanter of port." The characters are also described as wearing "evening dress," with the men "in tails and white ties." These are not the clothes that a working or even middle class family would be wearing. The initial stage directions also introduce Edna, "the parlormaid," which again is a clear indication of a wealthy household. Altogether, the combination of the furniture, the clothes that the characters are wearing, and the presence of a parlormaid should leave an audience in no doubt that this is a very affluent, upper-class family.
The dining table and chairs are also, tellingly, described in the stage directions as being "center downstage." This dining table, of "good solid furniture," with its "champagne glasses," "decanter of port," and "dessert plates," is the symbol of upper class affluence. Priestley deliberately indicates that it should be placed at the front of the stage so that this symbol is very much in the foreground and the centre of attention. He also indicates, in the same stage directions, that the table should be "upstage" during act three, which is when the Birlingss' wealth is no longer the defining characteristic of the family but is replaced by their morality, or lack thereof. Accordingly, in act three, the dining table, the symbol of their wealth, is moved from the foreground to the background.

The stage directions at the opening of act 1 really couldn't be clearer in telling us about the Birlings' wealth and high social status. The Burlings live in a "large suburban house" belonging to a prosperous manufacturer. But there's nothing cozy or inviting about this place; it's substantial and heavily comfortable. One gets the impression that the Birling residence is designed more to impress other people than to provide a warm, homely living environment.
Additional evidence of the Birlings' affluence is provided by the stage directions. The family has a parlor maid, something that only the very wealthy would've been able to afford at that time. There are also champagne glasses on the table, a sure sign of the lavish lifestyle to which the Burlings have become accustomed. And to top it all off, everyone is wearing evening dress, with the gentlemen wearing white tails and ties.

What similarities and/or differences do you see between the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh and the Hebrew Bible? What might these similarities suggest about the people and circumstances of the region? Back up your claim with examples.

Since the Epic of Gilgamesh has so much content, I will narrow my comments to one story. The closest parallel between the Epic of Gilgamesh and Genesis is the story of Utnapishtim and Noah. In the story of Utnapishtim, the Sumerian water God, Enki comes to tell Utnapishtim that there will be a huge flood. So, he begins to build a ship to save himself, his family, and other living things from the coming floods. The rain finally does come (for 12 days), and the ship comes to a rest.
This story is very close to the story of Noah in the book of Genesis (chapters 7-10). Here God comes to him and tells him to build an ark to save himself and his family. Noah, by faith, makes the ark, and the rains come (40 days). He becomes a new “head” of humanity, like a new Adam. Even the language in this narrative resembles Genesis 1-2.
When it comes to differences, there is one enormous one. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the god, Enlil, is very angry because of the noise of men. People are building a city called Shurrupak, and Enlil says that the noise is so loud that he cannot sleep. So, he will about the kill them all through a flood. In the biblical account, God is not angry on account of noise, but he is angry about the immorality of men. It starts with Lamech who commits adultery and kills another man. After this, the sons of God take the daughter of men (probably referring to dynastic kings making harems for themselves). When God see this immorality, he brings judgment. The difference is the divinity of Genesis cares about the morality of people more. The rest of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament will follow this trajectory.

What is the theme for chapter 8

The main theme in chapter eight of Percy Jackson is edification. It is evident from the chapter that Percy is on a road to self-discovery and learning. The first activity that Percy undertook at the camp was to learn ancient Greek as depicted in the statement below;

Each morning I took Ancient Greek from Annabeth, and we talked about the gods and goddesses in the present tense, which was kind of weird . . . Ancient Greek wasn't that hard for me to read. At least, no harder than English. After a couple of mornings, I could stumble through a few lines of Homer without too much headache.

Archery is another art that Percy was taught at the camp. Chiron tries to teach Percy archery despite the fact that the latter is not good at it.

Chiron tried to teach me archery, but we found out pretty quick I wasn't any good with a bow and arrow.

Additionally, Percy tried to learn wrestling and foot racing but eventually realized that he was not good at both activities. Learning at the camp was unending for Percy who also undertook sword-fighting lessons from Luke as evident in the statement below;

Thursday afternoon, three days after I'd arrived at Camp Half-Blood, I had my first sword-fighting lesson. Everybody from cabin eleven gathered in the big circular arena, where Luke would be our instructor. We started with basic stabbing and slashing, using some straw-stuffed dummies in Greek armor.

However, all this time Percy was even more eager to learn who his father was. Not even the other campers knew who his father was and they were all as eager to find out as evident in the statement below;

I knew the senior campers and counselors were watching me, trying to decide who my dad was, but they weren't having an easy time of it.

Eventually, at the end of the chapter, Percy is able to learn that Poseidon was his father. Percy and the other campers are able to establish this after a hologram of green light and a trident occur in the sky above them at the end of the games;

By the time I looked up, the sign was already fading, but I could still make out the hologram of green light, spinning and gleaming. A three-tipped spear: a trident.

Chiron describes the sign as that of “Poseidon . . . the Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God.” Thus, from these words, Percy is able to learn his true identity and establish Poseidon as his father. Thus, Percy is able to learn new things in his life making edification a key theme in the chapter.

Why won't Sister Rita let Frank talk to Patricia?

At that time in Ireland, hospitals were run by the Catholic Church, which had a huge influence on all aspects of society. Although the primary purpose of a hospital is supposed to be make sick people better, the nuns in charge are keen to make sure that their rigid interpretation of Catholic dogma is still strictly adhered to at all times. In laying down the law, Sister Rita makes it perfectly clear that there must be no fraternization between the sexes, so Frank and Patricia must not be allowed to talk to each other under any circumstances. Sister Rita is clearly worried that some kind of sexual impropriety might follow if the two are allowed to converse.
There are good clinical reasons to prevent the passing of items between the typhoid ward—where Frank is staying—and Patricia's diphtheria ward; deadly germs could so easily be transmitted. But Sister Rita's ban on any talking between Frank and Rita has more to do with upholding her narrow interpretation of the Church's moral teaching than preventing the spread of infection.

When Rainsford reaches the island, where does he go?

After Sanger Rainsford accidentally falls off the yacht, he yells for help as the boat sails away and begins swimming in the direction of Ship-Trap Island, which is where he had heard gunshots. Rainford swims toward the island, where he is forced to climb jagged boulders onto dry land before he falls asleep at the edge of the dense jungle. Rainsford wakes up in the late afternoon the next day and begins to walk along the shore. Close to the edge of the jungle, Rainsford discovers an empty .22 cartridge and begins to follow the footprints of hunting boots that travel along the cliff. As nightfall descends on the island, Rainsford sees lights coming from the edge of a high bluff near the sea and discovers that he is looking at a palatial chateau. Rainsford initially believes that he sees a mirage and begins to walk toward the chateau. Upon entering the gate, Rainsford knocks on the door and discovers that two men inhabit the chateau on Ship-Trap Island. Rainsford is then invited inside, where he meets the maniacal General Zaroff.

When Sanger Rainsford goes overboard, as he swims toward land, he hears shots and the scream of a hunted animal in anguish and terror. When he reaches the rocky shore of the island, he climbs on top of a cliff. He falls asleep at the edge of the jungle and wakes up disoriented.
Following the shore, he sees evidence that an animal disturbed the underbrush and then finds a shell cartridge. Next he sees boot prints and follows those. Soon, walking farther, he was astonished to see a structure:

[A]ll the lights were in one enormous building—a lofty structure with pointed towers plunging upward into the gloom. His eyes made out the shadowy outlines of a palatial chateau [...].

Rainsford thought it was a mirage, but then decided it was real. He approached the big house, opened the iron gate, walked up the stone steps, and knocked on the massive door with a big gargoyle shaped knocker. A huge man opened the door.

How does Hemingway use the technique of telling the whole story without looking at the big picture to reveal how veterans feel about the war?

In The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway has Jake Barnes narrate a story in which people watch bullfights, travel through the South of France and Spain, and indulge themselves in ample amounts of food and drink. Superficially, none of this seems to have anything to do with the First World War and all of this activity is quite mundane. However, the key to understanding Hemingway's method of storytelling is to pay careful attention to what he does not narrate and what he does not allow his characters to say.
This latent narrative is most apparent, I think, in the final pages of the novel when Jake and Brett Ashley, the love interest with whom he can never consummate a relationship, due to his war injury, have lunch at Botin's—"one of the best restaurants in the world." Though Brett does not eat much and never does (our modern sensibility would suggest that Brett starves herself to fit the era's fashion for slimness), Jake eats "a very big meal and [drinks] three bottles of rioja alta." This insistence on enjoying life through sensory pleasures is one of Jake's positive responses to his war experience. On the other hand, his incessant drinking, and that of the other characters, is an attempt to numb the pain from the experience.
After the meal, Jake orders two more bottles of the wine and Brett implores him not to get drunk:

"Don't get drunk, Jake," she said. "You don't have to."
"How do you know?"
"Don't," she said. "You'll be all right."
"I'm not getting drunk," I said. "I'm just drinking a little wine. I like to drink wine."
"Don't get drunk," she said. "Jake, don't get drunk."

The implication is that Jake drinks to forget about his injury, which prevents him from sleeping with Brett, who has just broken up with a bullfighter (who could not satisfy her sexually but who blamed her for his inability to perform sexually):

"You know," Brett said, "he'd only been with two women before. He never cared about anything but bull-fighting."
"He's got plenty of time."
"I don't know. He thinks it was me. Not the show in general."

To get more specifically at your question, Hemingway shows us, through the lens of the relationship between Brett and Jake, how the war permanently impacted people's lives, making it difficult for them to have the relationships that they wanted. This unfulfilled desire kept them in permanent pursuit of a lust that they could never quite satisfy. They consume as much as they can (and this behavior may also explain the consumerist boom in the 1920s) to forget about the needs that they cannot satisfy.
In the end, Jake and Brett get in a taxi together and ride through Madrid, so that they can see the city. They sit close to each other and Brett says that they "could have had such a damned good time together," to which Jake responds, "Isn't it pretty to think so?" The romance they wish to have with each other can only exist in their dreams; the war destroyed their future before it could even begin.

What is the theme of The Bus by Shirley Jackson?

The Bus by Shirley Jackson is a dark tale with an ambiguous ending. The reader's interpretation of exactly what happens at the end is crucial in determining the story's theme. Is Miss Harper suffering from mind-altering effects of her sleeping pill? Did any of the subsequent events really happen, from the truck ride to the closet from her childhood? Or has Miss Harper become stuck in an endless circle of her own psychological breakdown?
It could be argued that Miss Harper has suffered from some type of break with reality from the beginning of the story. Using that as a basis for thematic development, one possible theme is that even when all sense of reality is lost, the idea of home brings comfort.
After all, Miss Harper longs from the beginning to go home. She is desperate (and angry) to get there, spilling her frustration out onto all who cross her path. She meets various characters along the way, and she treats them all pretty badly, even writing letters of complaint in her head. And she dreams of home. A warm bath. A cup of tea. Her own bed.
Yet this home isn't where she ends up. Instead, she is taken to what evolves in her mind as the home of her childhood—the place where everyone finds that fundamental, early sense of security. Her childhood doll comes to life and chats with her. (Unfortunately, the doll calls her an old lady, which horrifies her.) She can hear her father on the piano and her mother singing.
And suddenly, she's back on the bus, again being dropped off at Ricket's Landing to start the entire cycle over again.
Maybe Miss Harper is suffering from dementia. Maybe she is in her final hours of life. But her ability to connect with reality (using this interpretation) has disappeared, and in her desperation, she longs to connect with the idea of home.

Why are historical events important for new citizens to learn about?

Learning about historical events is important for new citizens because it helps them get a better understanding of their new country. Speaking on the United States, a new citizen may know that he or she is entitled to free speech, but can he or she truly understand the concept unless they know the history behind it? This simple question can be applied to an endless amount of social, political, economic, and cultural aspects of any country. Coming into a new country, assimilation—or simply a newfound respect for the new country—is hastened by a solid understanding of that country's historical significance. One may come to appreciate freedom in the US when he or she learns of each conflict the US has been involved in and the amount of lives sacrificed for it. A new citizen studying the history of a country will be able to judge what makes the individual country great and what needs to be improved.

The idea behind learning history prior to gaining citizenship in the United States is to establish a strong understanding of the Constitution. A great way to become familiar with laws and ways of life of a country is to educate yourself on why they have been put in place, to begin with. It can be difficult to respect something without knowing where it came from. A country's history tells the story of how it came to be. When a person learns that history, it gives them an idea of what it took to gain that status, what kind of struggles the people had to overcome, and why certain laws were put in place. The thought here is that a certain respect comes with knowing the work put in toward something. In the United States, it is important that citizens are law-abiding and have "good moral standing" to ensure a sense of integrity and reliability across the nation.

In William Blake’s "Infant Sorrow," what is the infant’s final reaction to his plight?

The infant narrator in "Infant Sorrow" seems to have come into the world under difficult circumstances. Besides his mother's understandably painful labor, he notes that his father weeps as he makes his entrance. And although infants are more commonly associated with angelic imagery, this one seems to identify more with being a "fiend."
Nevertheless, he finds himself born into this world and this family which seems none too excited for his arrival. He struggles against his father and against the confining swaddling bands which are typically calming to young infants.
Weary from the exhaustion of birth and from fighting in his father's arms, he finally looks to his mother for comfort; she has been his safe place for the previous nine months, and as he is otherwise helpless, she seems his best bet for rest at this moment.
This poem is typically paired with an opposing infant's experience in another of Blake's poems, "Infant Joy." Together, the two contrast varying parental experiences in bringing children into the world. Sometimes it is a cause for great celebration, and at other times, as in "Infant Sorrow," the moment is filled with pain and difficult circumstances. And regardless of which situation infants find themselves in, a mother's arms and breast provide the greatest source of comfort.

Some countries has prohibited smoking in public areas in buildings. Use the concept of private and social costs and benefits to explain this policy.

Various countries and states have adopted this policy for a variety of reasons, so working through a particular private and social cost-benefit analysis isn't necessarily going to apply to each situation.
This question also has a fairly large, unnamed variable present in the question: what is the entity being used for the private cost-benefit analysis? It could be an actual person who either is or isn't a smoker. It could be the business that smokers are no longer allowed smoking in, or it could be the entire state/country.
I think it is most appropriate to examine a particular business for this question. Let's use a restaurant for our private and social cost-benefit analysis. The restaurant's private costs are not likely to change because of the no smoking policy. The restaurant still has to pay for things like rent, wages, utilities, and the food and drink being prepared and served. Whether a customer can or can't smoke in the restaurant doesn't change those private costs.
A private benefit of eliminating smoking in the restaurant could be a reduction in cleaning. The restaurant saves money by not having to supply ash trays. The restaurant also saves money by not having to purchase and operate fan systems designed to pull smoke from the room.
A possible social benefit comes from an overall increase in air quality. Employees are no longer breathing in all that second hand smoke, so the staff is all-around healthier. This could actually contribute to a private benefit in that the business is saving on healthcare-related costs due to the fact that employees are working in a healthier environment.
https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/glossary/social-benefit/

https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/glossary/social-cost/

Who is Captain Bluntschli?

Captain Bluntschli, who climbs up on to the balcony and stumbles into Raina's room, is actually not a Serbian, but rather a Swiss mercenary who has been fighting for the Serbian army, something he reveals relatively early in the dialogue. His being a European professional soldier, of a pragmatic bourgeois country and heritage, contrasts strongly with the aristocratic Slavic ethos and traditions of the Petkoff family. He represents a pragmatic and mercantile view of war as opposed to the heroic traditions initially promulgated by the Petkoffs.

Did Charles engineer and manipulate the whole plot of Blithe Spirit to get rid of Ruth?

It is possible to regard the entire premise of Blithe Spirit as an elaborate hoax that Charles created because he was dissatisfied with his second wife, Ruth. Noël Coward does not provide any indications that this was his intention. Appreciating a work of fiction, especially when it includes fantastic or improbable elements, has often been said to depend on “the willing suspension of disbelief.” That sort of suspension is necessary to enjoy the humor in Coward’s play.
As the play progresses, the spirits of not just one but two dead wives make Charles’s life miserable, and he realizes that his house is saturated with uncontrollable psychic energy. Such developments indicate that Charles has not played a hand in engineering this situation and has become a believer in the paranormal dimensions and Madame Arcati’s gifts, at which he had scoffed.

Once at sea, how does Pi draw upon his experience with animals, and his faith, in order to survive? And, how does his success reflect the contradictions and balance in his view on life?

This question is asking more than one thing, so this answer will address the first question in the post.
Once Pi is in the lifeboat with Richard Parker, he is forced to draw on the knowledge that he obtained from being around all of those animals at the zoo. I would recommend going back and looking over chapters 13 and 14. These two chapters have Pi explaining to his readers the concept of the "alpha" in any group of animals. Pi tells readers about how a lion tamer must present himself as the alpha in the ring. That way, the lion looks with fear upon him and respects that leadership.

They are in the presence of a strongly dominant male, a super-alpha male, and they must submit to his dominance rituals. . . .
Only the trainer better make sure he always remains super alpha. He will pay dearly if he unwittingly slips to beta. . . .
It is interesting to note that the lion that is the most amenable to the circus trainer's tricks is the one with the lowest social standing in the pride, the omega animal. It has the most to gain from a close relationship with the super-alpha trainer. It is not only a matter of extra treats. A close relationship will also mean protection from the other members of the pride.

Pi takes this knowledge of the alpha and lions and immediately begins working to find ways to signal to Richard Parker that he, Pi, is the alpha in the boat.

I had to devise a training program for Richard Parker. I had to make him understand that I was the top tiger and that his territory was limited to the floor of the boat, the stern bench and the side benches as far as the middle cross bench. I had to fix in his mind that the top of the tarpaulin and the bow of the boat, bordered by the neutral territory of the middle bench, was my territory and utterly forbidden to him.

As for religion, that is what gives Pi hope and mental strength. Pi even foreshadows to readers just how important religion is to him (and how useful it will prove later in the book) when he tells a teacher just exactly what religion will do.

"Religion will save us," I said.

Readers get to see just how much faith and religion really do save Pi in chapter 53. We get a great quote that shows just how much Pi is digging into his faith reserves to give him hope each day. The quote also shows that religion and religious practices give Pi a routine to keep his mind active while on the boat.

I was giving up. I would have given up—if a voice hadn't made itself heard in my heart. The voice said, "I will not die. I refuse it. I will make it through this nightmare. I will beat the odds, as great as they are. I have survived so far, miraculously. Now I will turn miracle into routine. The amazing will be seen every day. I will put in all the hard work necessary. Yes, so long as God is with me, I will not die. Amen."

Discuss "The Caterpillar" by Anna Laetitia Barbauld in terms of a feminist viewpoint.

"The Caterpillar" by Anna Laetitia Barbauld is a poem written in the English Romantic style. However, what makes the poem unique is the fact that Barbauld, a woman from the 1700s, chose to write a politically charged poem under the guise of a nature observation.
The caterpillar is a common trope or image in poetry, especially among the Romantic poets. Barbauld used this cliche image of the transformation of a caterpillar as a socio-political message about the destructive ways of man. The poem is also philosophical in nature, as Barbauld contemplates the value of life and the effects of our seemingly inconsequential actions, as human beings, on the environment around us. Humans are responsible for destruction in many forms, including warfare, conquest, and natural exploitation.
Barbauld's vivid description of killing an entire family of caterpillars unknowingly, simply by stepping on them, shows the effects of human interaction with nature and with each other. From a feminist theory standpoint, Barbauld's poetic vision could be considered revolutionary for her time period. Firstly, female writers, called "women of letters," were rare during the 1700s. Secondly, women were expected to write cliche romantic poetry, not poems with philosophical or political subtexts.
Barbauld herself had personally experienced the violence of man. Her husband abused her and threatened to kill her at one point in their marriage. In this context, the poem could also be an analogy for her own relationships, in which she is represented by the caterpillar trying to evade the dangers of man during her journey toward transformation.
https://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/

Why do you meet five people in heaven in The Five People You Meet in Heaven?

In the novel The Five People You Meet in Heaven, once a person passes away, they are introduced to five individuals who show them how their lives are connected. Sometimes it is tangential and seems almost meaningless in this life but has meaning in the grander scheme, and other times it is a very close and intimate relationship. Each of the people you meet, according to the book, have a lesson for you to learn, a lesson that is derived from your relationship and interactions on Earth. The sum total of all five of these lessons will help you understand your purpose and the meaning of your life on Earth—you will learn what your life created and caused by talking with these people.

Why is globalization inevitable? Is globalization desirable or undesirable?

Nothing is inevitable, except death and taxes. As Hume pointed out, we live in a probabilistic universe with multiple possible outcomes. Realistically though, some outcomes are more probable than others. Long-term, civilizations around the globe are becoming more intertwined--economically, technologically, and socially. In the estate of nature, human society was local. Settlements were small and based on hunt-gathering. With the agricultural revolution, stored wealth became possible, and people specialized according to opportunity, talent, and interest. A shoe maker, for example, would trade his work for the produce of a farmer. Similarly, countries with certain specialized advantages engage in mutually beneficial trade. The Roman Empire became the first international political system. To adjudicate trade disputes between merchants from various Roman city-states, they developed a common law system (i.e. those laws in common to all governments). Their system broke down during the feudal era, resulting in more tariffs and less trade. Today, international law consists mostly of treaties, without regard to a universal theory of equity. This removes the ideal element from international law, tempting participants to vie for protection of their favored interests. Whether this results in a new Dark Ages, remains to be seen. With increased population, trade, and communication, the long-term trend is toward a global society. There are counter-reactions, as people of different cultures are exposed to foreign thoughts, which were previously less known to them. There will be setbacks on the way to an integrated global society. Further reading: Ancient Law by Sir Henry Sumner Maine. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ancient_Law

First and foremost, it is a very big claim to state that globalization is inevitable. Globalization is a social construct and is, by definition, the exchange of ideas—cultural, technological, economical, financial—between peoples and nations that have allowed individuals from all parts of the world to become more interconnected. As a social construct, globalization succumb to change and is dependent on the world's conscious choices and efforts.
Whether globalization is viewed as desirable or undesirable depends heavily on how one personally evaluates and weighs out the pros and the cons. Proponents of globalization often argue that it creates a better world for everyone financially. Free trade among countries allows for the promotion of global economic growth, increases opportunities for jobs, and drives prices down for consumers. Another pro is that globalization is beneficial for poor countries, as their adoption of technology and foreign capital may provide them the opportunity to develop economically.
In terms of cons, one of the primary complaints is that is creating a greater rift between the rich and the poor, where the rich are becoming richer and the poor are becoming poorer. Another problem globalization generates is that jobs originally offered in developed countries are now lost and being transferred to developing, lower-cost countries.
Before coming to your own decision on whether globalization is desirable or not, it is important to evaluate both sides of the argument and weigh out the benefits and the risks.
Please see link below for additional information.

How does the author contrast the life of the bird and the man in the poem "To a Skylark"?

In "To a Skylark," Percy Bysshe Shelley sets up a stark contrast between the life of a bird and the life of mankind. For the first half of the poem, the narrator focuses on the skylark itself, using simile and personification to present a sense of wonder at the sight of the bird. Midway through the poem, Shelley begins to contrast the experience of the bird with that of the narrator, saying:

Teach us, Sprite or Bird,
What sweet thoughts are thine:
I have never heard
Praise of love or wine
That panted forth a flood of rapture so divine.

Chorus Hymeneal,
Or triumphal chant,
Match'd with think would be all
But an empty vaunt,
A thing wherein we feel there is some hidden want. (61–70)

Here Shelley draws a clear distinction between the bird and man. To Shelley, the "sweet thoughts" of the bird are far more rapturous and "divine" than those of man (60). Further, even the greatest earthly choirs are "but an empty vaunt" when compared with the song of the skylark (69).
Shelley goes on to compare the double-edged sword of human experience with that of the skylark:

With thy clear keen joyance
Languor cannot be:
Shadow of annoyance
Never came near thee:
Thou lovest: but ne'er knew love's sad satiety.

Waking or asleep,
Thou of death must deem
Things more true and deep
Than we mortals dream,
Or how could thy notes flow in such a crystal stream?

We look before and after,
And pine for what is not:
Our sincerest laughter
With some pain is fraught;
Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought. (76–90)

For humans, love and laughter are always tinged with pain. Even the happiest experience will eventually be darkened by the specter of loss because of our understanding of life and death and our compulsion to "look before and after," rather than simply live in the moment (86). The speaker asserts that humans desire what they don't have; they lament the things they have lost, and human dreams are limited in their scope. However, for the skylark, love is simply love; the moment is the experience; there is no understanding of eventual loss. Because of this, their dreams are more "true and deep" that those of humans (83).Shelley ends the poem yearning for "half the gladness" that the skylark knows. The contrast between bird and human is bittersweet. While we humans have a more nuanced understanding of life, the particulars of our understanding prevent us from experiencing life as completely as the skylark.

Sophocles is widely praised for the consistency of characters within individual plays. We’ve read three plays in which several figures reappear (e.g., Oedipus, Creon, Antigone, Ismene, Tiresias). Focus on one such figure and compare/contrast their characterization and roles in at least 2 plays. How are they similar or different in each version? Can differences be explained by events within the narrative (i.e., they have evolved because of experiences)? Or do they serve a different dramatic function in each play (e.g., hero in one, villain in another)? Be sure to include at least two specific examples from each play to support your points

To answer this question, I think a great character to use would be that of the blind seer, Tiresias. Tiresias appears in both Oedipus Rex and Antigone. Tiresias is a prophet of Apollo very well known for his clairvoyance. In both plays, he appears before the king of Thebes to offer wisdom that is not heeded in either instance. Both kings realize that Tiresias is right only when it is much too late.
There are, however, some differences in the ways he is presented in these two plays. In Oedipus Rex, Tiresias seems more human in the way that he toys with Oedipus with hints and riddles. In Antigone, however, Tiresias seems to be nothing but a vessel through which the gods are speaking clearly, telling Creon very bluntly that it's his fault that "the city is sick."

What are some of the literary devices in Act I?

Romeo and Juliet is a 16th century tragedy by the English playwright William Shakespeare.
Shakespeare makes liberal use of literary devices throughout the play, and—in Act I—we see a number of examples of metaphor and simile, specifically. For example, in the second scene of act one, Benvolio—addressing Romeo—describes Rosaline's beauty as that of a crow, in comparison to the beauty of other women.

Compare her face with some that I shall show,And I will make thee think thy swan a crow.

In the next scene, the nurse invokes a metaphor with the description:

A bump as big as a young cockerel's stone

The fourth scene of the play finds Benvolio using a simile as they discuss the upcoming feast:

Scaring the ladies like a crow-keeper

In addition to liberal use of metaphor and simile, other literary devices used in Act I of Romeo and Juliet include oxymoron (as in scene 1 when Romeo cries out "O brawling love! O loving hate!"), pun, irony, and allusion.
http://shakespeare.mit.edu/romeo_juliet/full.html

What did Carlisle and Esme give Bella for her birthday?

In New Moon, Carlisle and Esme give Bella plane tickets to go visit her mother. Bella is uncomfortable with all of the attention that she receives on her eighteenth birthday, because it is the first birthday that she is officially older than the age at which Edward was turned into a vampire. Though Bella is unhappy with the fuss over her birthday, she finds this gift incredibly touching, causing Edward to wish that she had opened it in front of his adopted parents.
It is also interesting to note that Bella does not use the plane tickets until the beginning of the next book. After her birthday party, Edward leaves because he feels like he would be robbing her of her human life if he stayed. Bella's birthday forces both Bella and Edward to reflect on the significance of aging as it affects their relationship.