What does “I came to the conclusion that people were just peculiar, I withdrew from them, and never thought about them until I was forced to" mean and how does it pertain to To Kill a Mockingbird?

With the controversial Tom Robinson trial over, Scout tries to settle back into everyday life. She starts the third grade. Scout walks by the Radley house each day, hoping to catch a glimpse of Boo.
Despite the normalcy in life, Scout feels "the events of the summer [hang] over [them] like smoke in a closed room" (To Kill a Mockingbird, chapter 26). She senses people in Maycomb still disapprove of Atticus for defending Tom Robinson. She senses her peers are being polite to her and Jem because their parents order them to do so. She feels like parents pity Jem and her because they cannot help who their father is. They cannot help their father defended a black man against a white woman.
There is much disapproval in the town toward Atticus, but the citizens still re-elect him to serve in the state legislature. Scout finds this strange. People are suspicious of Atticus for defending Tom Robinson, but they trust still him to help pass laws for the state. She reflects on this:

I came to the conclusion that people were just peculiar, I withdrew from them, and never thought about them until I was forced to.

Scout does not understand why people do and say certain things. For example, her teacher strongly dislikes Hitler and his treatment of Jews, but is openly prejudiced against the black people in Maycomb. Scout observes hypocrisy, and she distances herself from it. It confuses her, and she chooses not to think about it unless necessary.

How was the Natchez Trace used in Eudora Welty's writings?

The Natchez Trace is an old trail in Mississippi that was used for the transportation of slaves, and it was also used for trade and commerce. Many of Welty's stories take place along the almost-five-hundred-mile Natchez Trace from Natchez to Nashville. Welty used the Natchez Trace in her 1940 short story "The Worn Path." In this story, an elderly black woman named Phoenix Jackson travels along the Natchez Trace to Natchez, Mississippi to get medicine to cure her grandson from the effects of lye poisoning. In this story, the Natchez Trail stands for hope, the hope the grandmother has of saving her grandson.
Another example is "A Still Moment," in which Welty imagines a meeting between Lorenzo Dow (an intolerant preacher during the Second Great Awakening), John Murrell (a bandit), and James Audubon (a naturalist) along the Natchez Trace. The lives of the three men converge as they regard a snowy heron in their path. Welty writes:

What each of them had wanted was simply all. To save all souls, to destroy all men, to see and to record all life that filled this world—all, all—but now a single frail yearning seemed to go out of the three of them for a moment and to stretch toward this one snowy, shy bird in the marshes. It was as if three whirlwinds had drawn together at some center, to find there feeding in peace a snowy heron. Its own slow spiral of flight could take it away in its own time, but for a little it held them still, it laid quiet over them, and they stood for a moment unburdened

In this story, the trace stands for life itself. As each character journeys along the trace, he wants to live out his destiny but is instead confronted with an unexpected moment of grace. The trace presents the characters with the unexpected, much as life does.

How do we determine the isotopic atomic mass of U-235?

Depends on if you want to do it the math way or experimental way.
Mathematically, you can simply add the masses of each part of the atom. Uranium 235 is an isotope with 92 protons, 92 electrons, and 235-92 neutrons. Taking the masses of these particles together will give you the mass of the whole atom.
In this case, a proton is 1.672*10^-27 kg, an electron is 9.109*10^-31 kg, and a neutron is 1.674*10^-27 kg. This adds to 235.04 u.
Experimentally, you can run your isotope through a mass spectrometer to determine it's mass. These machines can ionize a sample, and using a magnetic field give the particles a certain energy. As the particle flies through the machine, heavier particles will land closer, like the difference in how far baseballs and bowling balls will go when struck by a bat. Using force equations, you can find the mass of your particle.
https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/isotopes-and-atomic-mass/latest/isotopes-and-atomic-mass_en.html

Intermediate Algebra, Chapter 5, 5.2, Section 5.2, Problem 60

Subtract: $(2d + 7) - (3d - 1)$


Multiply $-1$ by each term inside the parentheses.

$2d+7+1-3d $


Since $2d$ and $-3d$ are like terms, add $-3d$ to $2d$ to get $-d$.

$-d+7+1$


Add 1 to 7 to get 8.

$-d+8 $


Reorder the polynomial $-d+8$ alphabetically from left to right, starting with the highest order term

$8-d$

Compare and contrast the characters of Volumnia and Virgilia with regards to gender stereotypes and what it means to be a woman in Rome.

While Volumnia cherishes the masculine thirst for combat in her maternal breast, her daughter-in-law, Virgilia, typifies the traditional Roman wife. In the play, Virgilia is quiet and unassuming; she says very little (as befits a good Roman wife) and often capitulates to the whims of her domineering mother-in-law.
Shakespearean critics have often commented on the seeming discrepancy between how a Roman wife was expected to act in her time (as characterized by Virgilia) and how a woman like Volumnia managed to transcend the expectations of her time. Certainly, Volumnia is no typical Roman mother. She is the main power and inspiration behind Coriolanus' war exploits, and she definitely dominates both her son and daughter-in-law in the domestic sphere as well.
In ancient Rome, women were expected to derive their greatest satisfaction from the home; mothers especially were viewed as the preservers of Roman civilization and culture. Youthful marriages were encouraged, with girls being married off as young as fourteen years of age. Additionally, chastity was the prime feminine virtue; virgin wives were said to ensure the purity of paternal heritage. At the same time, Roman society tolerated extra-marital flings by husbands. Men could consort with prostitutes, but women were generally labelled promiscuous for engaging in similar acts.
Women were also differentiated by the manner of their dress. Respectable women wore stolas (long dresses), while prostitutes wore togas.  A man could have a wife or a concubine, but not both. The concubine was considered one step below a wife and a step above a prostitute.
As a rule, women were given no roles in the public sphere: they were largely prohibited from participating in any sort of political activity. For example, Roman women could not vote, speak, or campaign at political assemblies; certainly, all business, financial, and law interests required the intervention of male representation and input. Informally, a woman could influence her husband or male lover privately, but that was the extent of female power.
In that sense, Volumnia characterizes the unconventional in terms of Roman femininity. She wields power expertly through manipulating Coriolanus' emotional dependence on her. As the presiding matriarch of the family, it is Volumnia who decides when Coriolanus goes to war and when he forebears (as is the case when he withdraws from attacking Rome with Aufidius). Volumnia represents the many Roman women who chose non-traditional paths after their husbands and/sons died in battle. These women owned and managed their family businesses quietly; they labored courageously on behalf of their children despite the challenges they faced in the midst of personal tragedy.
So, through Volumnia and Virgilia, Shakespeare skilfully juxtaposes the two prevailing conventions of femininity during his time. For more, please refer to the two links below.
 
 
http://www.womenintheancientworld.com/women_in_ancient_rome.htm

https://www.ancient.eu/article/659/the-role-of-women-in-the-roman-world/

explain the strange ending of the story the snow of Kilimanjaro? english literature

"The Snows of Kilimanjaro" is the story of a few days in the life of Harry, a would-be writer on safari in Africa with his wife, Helen.
The couple's safari has been cut short because Harry has an infected cut on his leg which has turned gangrenous. Helen has sent the guides to get a plane so that Harry can be flown to a hospital. Harry doesn't think this is worthwhile, and bickers incessantly with Helen, despite her best efforts to keep him comfortable. He feels that these efforts of hers have ruined his potential as a writer; making him too comfortable to achieve anything. He resents her, "[...] this rich bitch, this kindly caretaker and destroyer of his talent."
But even as Harry thinks this thought, he acknowledges its falsity:

Nonsense. He had destroyed his talent himself. Why should he blame this woman because she kept him well? He had destroyed his talent by not using it, by betrayals of himself and what he believed in, by drinking so much that he blunted the edge of his perceptions, by laziness, by sloth, and by snobbery, by pride and by prejudice, by hook and by crook.

Harry has always wanted to be a writer, but has found it easier to "make his living with something else instead of a pen or a pencil," namely by marrying wealthy women.

It was strange, too, wasn't it, that when he fell in love with another woman, that woman should always have more money than the last one?

Harry hates himself for wasting his life this way, but now that he is lying here on a cot in Africa, sickened with gangrene, he can't bring himself to care very much. When Helen is not with him, he slips in and out of reveries, considering the many events in his life. He has always wanted to write down these stories, but somehow never found the time or inclination.

Now he would never write the things that he had saved to write until he knew enough to write them well. Well, he would not have to fail at trying to write them either. Maybe you could never write them, and that was why you put them off and delayed the starting. Well he would never know, now.

As the story progresses, Helen tries to stay hopeful that help will arrive soon, while Harry keeps insisting that he's going to die regardless. It gradually becomes apparent that Harry wants to die, if only to release himself from the terrible ennui that pervades his life.

No, he thought, [...] everything you do, you do too long, and do too late [...]
I'm getting as bored with dying as with everything else, he thought.

Harry starts to drift into delirium, and when a hyena approaches the campsite, he feels it as if it is the spirit of death:

It came with a rush; not as a rush of water nor of wind; but of a sudden, evil-smelling emptiness and the odd thing was that the hyena slipped lightly along the edge of it.

He speaks to Helen and the feeling fades, but it returns shortly afterwards, more strongly:

This time there was no rush. It was a puff, as of a wind that makes a candle flicker and the flame go tall.

He tells Helen he is going to die tonight, but she shushes him and soothes him and he slips into delirium again, dreaming of years he spent in Paris, in Constantinople, in the American West, and in the First World War, thinking of all the people he has known and the stories he has collected but will never, now, write down. He sleeps.
Throughout the story, the physical fact of Harry's creeping infection can be seen as an analogue for the spiritual gangrene that has crippled him his whole life. He has never achieved what he wanted to achieve, or been the person he hoped to become. He has been too comfortable to move, which parallels his odd experience of the infection itself:

Since the gangrene started in his right leg he had no pain and with the pain the horror had gone and all he felt now was a great tiredness and anger that this was the end of it.

The sicker he becomes, the less pain he feels, and the infection started because he was careless. Helen asks:

"I don't see why that had to happen to your leg. What have we done to have that happen to us?"
"I suppose what I did was to forget to put iodine on it when I first scratched it. Then I didn't pay any attention to it because I never infect. Then, later, when it got bad, it was probably using that weak carbolic solution when the other antiseptics ran out that paralyzed the minute blood vessels and started the gangrene."

Likewise in Harry's life, he didn't realize the moment of the first "infection" of laziness and self-indulgence, and when he began to recognize his weaknesses, he only took minimal steps to help himself. Now it's too late, and he's sickening unto death as the result of a minor wound that he never tended.
In the morning, help arrives in the person of Compton, who will fly Harry to a hospital. Harry is loaded carefully into the plane, and as they ascend, he watches the world below get smaller and smaller, until they bank to the east and suddenly, through the clouds, Compton points out the summit of a mountain:

[...] there, ahead, all he could see, as wide as all the world, great, high, and unbelievably white in the sun, was the square top of Kilimanjaro.

But the reader discovers in the following sentences that this was all a dream; no plane has arrived, and Harry has died in his sleep.
So what does his final delirium mean? When Compton appears in Harry's death-dream, Harry doesn't much care that help has arrived, but when the plane lifts off from the ground, he begins to feel excitement and wonder at the beauty of the world spread out beneath him. The landscape changes from plains to forests to mountains, and they fly into a storm, and then suddenly the storm is behind them and Kilimanjaro stands gleaming in the sunlight.
The story opens with a curious paragraph:

Kilimanjaro is ... said to be the highest mountain in Africa. Its western summit is called the Masai "Ngaje Ngai," the House of God.

When Harry and Compton break through the clouds and he sees the mountaintop, "he knew that there was where he was going." If the top of the mountain is "the House of God," perhaps Harry is returning to his Creator, finding purpose and meaning in his life just at the moment of his death.

What did Leper escape?

At the end of chapter nine, Gene receives a telegram at Devon from Leper. His telegram only says that:

I have escaped and need help. I am at Christmas location. You understand. No need to risk address here. My safety depends on you coming at once.

Gene travels to Leper's family home in Vermont to find out what is going on with Leper. On the way there, he convinces himself that Leper, who is in the army, has escaped from spies. When he sees Leper, however, he learns that Leper has deserted from the army.
Gene is shocked. He becomes even more shocked and sickened when Leper tells him that the army was making him "psycho," a word that Gene finds harsh and clinical. Leper goes on to inform him that the army was going to give him a Section Eight discharge. He explains to Gene that a Section Eight is for "the psychos, the Funny Farm candidates."
Leper believes that this is worse than a dishonorable discharge and that it will bar him forever from any chance of getting a job. Therefore, he "escapes" or deserts from the army before that fate can befall him. As Gene tells his friends when he returns to Devon:

As a matter of fact Leper is "Absent Without Leave," he just took off by himself.

Calculus of a Single Variable, Chapter 3, 3.4, Section 3.4, Problem 30

Find the inflection points and discuss the concavity for the function f(x)=x+2cos(x) on the interval [o,2pi]:
Inflection points are found when the second derivative is zero (and has changed sign.)
f'(x)=1-2sin(x)
f''(x)=-2cos(x)
-2cos(x)=0 ==> x=pi/2 and 3pi/2
The second derivative is:
negative for 0---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are an inflection points at x=pi/2 and x=3pi/2. The function is concave down on (0,pi/2), concave up on (pi/2,3pi/2), and concave down on (3pi/2,2pi)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The graph:

What are some quotes about the value of hospitality in the Odyssey?

It is obvious to us that the ancient Greeks valued hospitality because of how crucial it is in The Odyssey. When Odysseus and his men land on the island where the Cyclopes live, he wants to remain in Polyphemus's cave to see if the Cyclops "might offer gifts": giving a guest-gift was a common practice of those who offered such hospitality to strangers. However, the monster does not make such an offer and, instead, actually eats several of Odysseus's crew. When Odysseus has his remaining men escape, he shouts back,

"It was also destined your bad deeds should find you out, audacious wretch, who did not hesitate to eat the guests within your house! For this did Zeus chastise you, Zeus and the other gods."

The Greeks believed that Zeus protected travelers, and so offering hospitality became a sort of religious imperative to them; to serve Zeus, you help travelers. Here, Odysseus claims that Zeus allowed Odysseus to blind the Cyclops and escape his island because the monster failed to offer hospitality.
We can also see the importance of hospitality in Alcinous's treatment of Odysseus. The king and queen welcome him into their home, feeding and clothing him, even giving him a place to sleep for the night, before they even ask his name. It is only after quite some time spent feasting, listening to music, and so forth, that Alcinous finally says,

"And do not you, with wily purpose, longer hide what I shall ask; plain speech is better. Tell me the name by which at home your father and mother call you . . ."

It's not as though they know it is Odysseus, the great war hero. They only know that he is a stranger in need, and so they meet those needs and then some. We see, then, how important hospitality is to this culture.

Explain the consequences that led to the outbreak of french revolution.

One may argue that there were a few causes of the French Revolution, all of which are connected. The leadership of France was more-or-less nonexistent as King Louis XIV was more concerned with the upkeep of Versailles and his family rather than the well-being of his people. Because of this, and the funding of various wars, France was in extreme debt.
Normally when a country is faced with a deficit, taxes must be raised and other expenses must be cut. The problem with France in the 1700s was that the First and Second Estates, the wealthiest members of society, were not required to pay any taxes. This burden then fell on the Third Estate. The Third Estate made up approximately 98% of the population, and 90% were peasants.
Due to poor harvests, the price of food skyrocketed and much of the Third Estate could not afford to feed their families. In addition to struggling to feed their families, members of the Third Estate were now faced with the burden of paying higher taxes to save the country's economy. The wealthy First and Second Estates refused to pay taxes since they were not required to previously, and again forced the responsibility on the Third Estate. Consequently, the members of the Third Estate gathered and stormed the Bastille on July 14 1789, thus sparking a revolution.

Arguably the biggest single cause was financial. Put simply, France was broke. The French government needed substantial sums of money to maintain itself, yet without a sufficient supply of revenue was unable to do so. The system of taxation in pre-Revolutionary France was a confusing mess. Many regions of the country, as well as towns and cities, enjoyed ancient privileges that meant they weren't required to pay tax. Even more seriously, the wealthy Church—the so-called First Estate, and the aristocracy—the Second Estate—didn't pay taxes either.
Not only did this mean that the French state was chronically short of money, it also meant that the burden of taxation fell unfairly upon the shoulders of the Third Estate, or the commoners. Members of the Third Estate were especially aggrieved as, unlike the other two Estates of the realm, they lacked political power. They became increasingly resentful of the fact that, like the American colonists, they had taxation without representation. No wonder it was the men of the Third Estate who were the driving force behind the Revolution.
Various efforts were made to reform the state's finances, but they always met with fierce resistance from the First and Second Estates. In the meantime, a succession of failed harvests caused food prices to skyrocket, leading to hunger and discontent among the poorer sections of society. Taking all these factors into consideration, it's not a question of why the French Revolution happened, but why it didn't happen much sooner.

What is the relationship of classical mythology with literature and arts?

Classical mythology has been a fertile source of artistic inspiration in the West for thousands of years. This is not surprising when one considers that Greek and Roman antiquity together provide one of the main foundations of Western civilization. Though the significance of ancient mythology has undergone considerable change across several millennia, it has always retained a certain universality, allowing it to remain relevant to myriad cultural traditions. And although classical mythology may speak to us somewhat differently today than it once did, the fact that it still speaks to us at all is a testament to its enduring relevance within Western culture and civilization.
Mythology formed the basis of much of the creative output of both Greek and Roman culture. Myths were a way for Greeks and Romans alike to tell stories about themselves to each other. In no sense were they thought of as being simple fairy-tales or boyish adventure stories, written purely for pleasure. On the contrary, they were a vitally important means for the ancients to examine and criticize certain elements of themselves, their societies, and political systems. Myths served as moral lessons, encouraging appropriate behavior, both in respect to other people and also the gods.
Works of literature substantially interwoven with myth such as Virgil's Aeneid could indeed be enjoyed as simply cracking good stories. But of far greater import was the didactic function of such works. Virgil's employment of myth in his monumental epic lends the founding of Rome a truly timeless perspective, one that transcends the immanent human world and ascends to the level of the eternal. The founding of Rome wasn't just an historical event; it was pre-ordained by the gods themselves.
As mythology was such a great inspiration for creative works of art and literature, so the myths themselves were creatively interpreted to relate them to human, earthly concerns. Take Ovid's Metamorphoses, for instance. Though certain tales from the Metamorphoses undoubtedly have more than a hint of didacticism about them (the tale of Pyramus and Thisbe springs to mind), it's the stylistic, narrative continuity of the various myths rather than their content that is most immediately apparent.
Nevertheless, in terms of their content, it's noticeable that whichever myths are being illustrated by Ovid, the subject remains the same: humans and their myriad foibles. Characters in various myths do not always act as moral exemplars for us to follow; in many cases their folly enables us to reflect upon our own moral shortcomings, the better to change our conduct as we go through life.
From the Middle Ages onwards the cultural treasures of antiquity became more widely disseminated throughout Europe. The powerful and hugely influential synthesis of Christian theology and Aristotelian philosophy effected by Thomas Aquinas contributed greatly to the spread of classical learning across the whole of Western Europe. In turn, this led to the incorporation of classical mythology into the creative horizons of countless writers, painters and sculptors. Some theologians continued to condemn the wisdom of antiquity, seeing it as a threat, or at the very least, a direct contradiction of Christian teaching. Yet most educated Christians came to see not just pagan learning, but classical mythology, as supplementing the Word of God as they understood it.
This more open attitude manifested itself in the Renaissance, in which classical models of just about every human endeavor were eagerly copied and emulated. In the fine arts, classical mythology provided a seemingly endless source of inspiration for artists and sculptors alike. The didactic messages often contained within ancient myths were, for the most part, entirely compatible with the dictates of Christian morality. Pagan myths could be successfully Christianized, turned into powerful visual methods of moral instruction for a largely illiterate population.
The Christian message of love's triumph over all, for example, finds exuberant expression in "The Loves of the Gods," by the Carracci brothers. This is a massive fresco cycle adorning the ceiling of the Gallery of the Farnese Palace in Rome. A variety of mythological figures are used to convey love's triumph, yet it is clear that such love trancends its depiction in the figure of pagan deities, aspiring rather to a higher, more celestial plane, Dante's love that moves the suns and the other stars.
So long as classical mythology remained a key component of Renaissance humanism and its artistic offshoots, it could continue to form an important thematic element in literature and art. Examples would include the multiple references to classical myths in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. The utilization of myth was a useful way for Shakespeare to develop the story and the characters. Many in the audience will have been familiar with classical mythology and so will have been more readily able to identify with the characters on stage and their actions.
But the end of Christendom in the wake of the Reformation led to the long, slow demise of classical mythology as a source of artistic inspiration in Western Europe. Many Protestants, most notable Calvinists, were extremely hostile to anything that smacked remotely of idolatory. The lavish depictions of scenes from antiquity in the many churches and palaces of Rome were seen as symbolic of the greed, worldliness and rampant corruption of the Catholic Church.
Nevertheless, classical mythology continued to exert some influence over the artistic life of Western Europe, mainly in the 18th century. Although the nature of this influence was somewhat different than in previous ages. Ancient myths were no longer seen as a handmaid to Christian morality, but as embodiments of timeless truths, eternal verities discovered by our pagan forebears and handed down to us as part of a noble bequest. To many leading members of the Enlightenment, the pagan myths expressed an ancient wisdom that had been distorted by what they saw as Christian obscurantism. The Renaissance synthesis of pagan and Christian learning was finally broken asunder, with classical ideals being followed and valued purely on their own terms.
In today's world, classical mythology tends to be regarded as a source of entertainment rather than as a repository of ancient wisdom. Countless books, comics, TV shows and movies remind us that, irrespective of their cultural significance, these myths were great stories full of memorable characters and exciting action. Any moral messages we continue to derive from ancient myths tend to be a by-product of their representation as narrative. The lessons are still there; it's just that they can often get lost beneath the lust, the magic, and the gore. Nevertheless, so long as human beings continue to tell stories, in whichever medium they choose to tell them, classical mythology will undoubtedly live on, providing us with an insight into who and what we are. And it will also provide us with a little fun and enjoyment along the way.
https://www.theoi.com/

Single Variable Calculus, Chapter 1, 1.2, Section 1.2, Problem 24

According to the study conducted by the US office of Science and Technology in 1972, the cost has been estimated to reduce automobile emissions by certain percentages: Find a model that captures the "diminishing returns" trend of these data.


$
\begin{array}{|c|c|c|c|}
\hline
\text{Reduction in} & \text{Cost per} & \text{Reduction in} & \text{Cost per}\\
\text{emission (%)} & \text{car (in \$)} & \text{emission (%)} & \text{car (in \$)}\\
\hline
50 &45 &75 &90\\
55 &55 &80 &100\\
60 &62 &85 &200\\
65 &70 &90 &375\\
70 &80 &95 &600\\
\hline
\end{array}
$





The diminishing return's trend resemble an exponential model.

Why did so many African American leaders reject Marcus Garvey?

Simply put, Marcus Garvey was seen as being too radical. Most political leaders within the African American community were committed to a strategy of cooperation with whites. But to Garvey, any form of compromise with the dominant race was anathema. He advocated a complete separation of the races. If African Americans could not physically leave the United States, they could at least establish a separate cultural identity, one built upon a sense of radical difference with white America.
In large sections of the African American community, there was also widespread mistrust toward the almost messianic fervor with which Garvey articulated his radical message. Mainstream African American activists were focused on more practical considerations, such as dismantling the Jim Crow laws. To them, Garvey's political ideology was wholly unrealistic, unable to deliver tangible benefits to African Americans desperate for legal and political equality.

If the witches told Macbeth that no one born from a woman will harm him, why did he try to kill Macduff (considering that he didn't know that Macduff wasn't woman born until the last play)?

You ask a good question. If Macbeth now believes himself to be invulnerable, then why would he feel the need to kill anyone? And yet, when the second apparition tells him to be bold because no man born of woman will be able to harm him, he says, 

Then live, Macduff; what need I fear of thee?But yet I'll make assurance double sureAnd take a bond of fate. Thou shalt not live,That I may tell pale-hearted fear it lies,And sleep in spite of thunder (4.1.93-97)

At first, then, he says that he doesn't need to kill Macduff because there is no reason to fear him. But then, Macbeth thinks again and determines to be extra sure to remove any obstacles in order to guarantee his fate. 
He now vows that he will, in fact, kill Macduff, and then he will have no more reason to fear, and he'll also be able to sleep easy at night (despite whatever else is going on around him). After all, the first apparition did say, "Beware the Thane of Fife" (4.1.82). Thus, there is the implication that Macduff, the Thane of Fife, could pose some kind of threat to him. By killing him, Macbeth covers his bases and removes any cause for concern.

What were the poet's intentions in Meeting At Night?

It's tough for a reader to know what a poet's intentions were by reading a poem they wrote; we can only really assess what the poet actually achieves, whether or not that is what they meant to achieve. It's possible, though, that Browning was attempting to do more with this poem that to just tell us another love story. It is interesting to note that he uses figurative language to describe "waves" as "fiery" in the first stanza, and then he uses figurative language to describe a "lighted match" as a "blue spurt," which sounds very much like water ("spurt" especially seems to describe a liquid) in the second part. Twice, then, he combines fire with water in the poem, and this is so interesting because water quenches fire; water puts fire out. We often associate fire with passionate romance, don't we? We might talk of a fiery passion or burning love without really giving thought to the figures of speech we're using. If this poem is really just about romance, then why would Browning employ not just one, but two, of these fire/water images?
The poem seems to me to address the early stages of a love. These aren't two old people in a fifty-year relationship, right? They seem to be meeting in secret, late at night, and the level of anticipation and passion seems to betray a newness to this love. Browning's fire/water figures, then, make me wonder if he's actually making a statement about what happens to this fire that we see in the early stages of a romance. Is it eventually quenched by familiarity, by time, by waning passion? Does it become something else? If so, then the fire/water figures would seem to foreshadow the death of this early passion. This is not the most romantic interpretation of the poem, but it is curious that Browning would employ this kind of figure twice in such a short work.

In "Meeting At Night" Browning is seeking to convey the excitement and intensity of a clandestine love affair. He does this most effectively by making us wait for the much-anticipated assignation between the two lovers; building up the intensity as he lushly describes the moonlit landscape. The love between the two beating hearts is perfectly at one with its natural surroundings, rendered in fine romantic detail.
Though a short poem, "Meeting At Night" describes quite a long and arduous journey that the narrator must undertake before he can, at long last, be with his lover. First he needs to row across the sea by moonlight; then he walks a mile along the sand; finally, he hikes across no fewer than three fields before arriving at the farm where his true love awaits his passionate embrace. The length and arduousness of the journey leave us in no doubt that the narrator really is head over heels in love with his paramour and will do anything to be with her.

What is the symbolic significance of clothing in Mansfield's "Miss Brill"?

The most important symbolic piece of clothing Miss Brill wears is her fox fur. It has been preserved with fake eyes and a fake nose, so that it looks as if Miss Brill is wearing a fox around her neck.
As we realize by the end of the story, the fox fur is a symbol of Miss Brill herself. Like Miss Brill, it is old and outdated. Like Miss Brill, it spends much of its time packed away in a box. Miss Brill is not literally packed in a box, but she spends much of her life in the tiny room in Paris where she lives.
Miss Brill's changed attitude toward the fox fur symbolizes her epiphany or sudden stroke of insight about how old, strange, and sad she has become, living and working in poverty and without friends in France.
As the story opens, Miss Brill can still convince herself, with some effort, that everything is all right. She is pleased with the way she brushes and shines up the old fur. She speaks of it teasingly and with affection:

Little rogue biting its tail just by her left ear.

By the end of the story, when she has overheard the boy with his girlfriend criticize her angrily, wondering why she comes to the park when she's not wanted—and after the girl makes fun of the fur, Miss Brill no longer can pretend to feel happy about her outing. She no longer calls her fox a little rogue. Instead, at home she

unclasped the necklet quickly; quickly, without looking, laid it inside. But when she put the lid on she thought she heard something crying.

The fur is not crying: it is Miss Brill crying as she realizes she is old and strange, worn-out, poor, and alone.

In Katherine Mansfield's slice of life story entitled "Miss Brill," clothing is reflective of social class and age, thus symbolizing an era. Interestingly, the descriptions and symbolism of the clothing of others are not unlike those of Miss Brill's.
As Miss Brill eagerly anticipates attending the concert at the Jardins Publiques (Public Gardens), she fondly pulls out "her fur." When she touches it, Miss Brill thinks fondly, "Dear little thing." She has pulled it from the box in which she has it stored and given it a good brushing; she has "rubbed the life back into the dim little eyes" of the creature from which it has been made. Miss Brill calls it "Little rogue," suggesting an animal that is driven away by other animals and must live alone as she does.
After Miss Brill arrives at the Gardens, she is disappointed to find an older man wearing a "dreadful Panama hat" while the wife wears "button boots." To Miss Brill's dismay, they are sitting in her "special seat." Ironically, Miss Brill does not recognize how much this couple and others that she views are reflective of her own personality:

[The man and woman] were odd, silent...and from the way they stared, they looked as though they'd just come from dark little rooms or even--even cupboards!

On this Sunday, "an ermine toque and a gentleman in gray " meet just in front of her. The gentleman is tall and dignified. The woman whose eyes, hair, and face match the "ermine toque she'd bought when she was young," is delighted to see the gentleman, having hoped to meet him this afternoon. However, the man shakes his head, lights a cigarette, and tosses the match away even as the woman is still talking. "The ermine toque was alone." Miss Brill wonders what this woman with the yellowing, out-dated ermine piece will do now. This situation foreshadows what later occurs with Miss Brill as she, too, feels rejected when the young man and his girlfriend sit on the bench near her. "They were beautifully dressed; they were in love." When the well-to-do young man demonstrates his physical affection, the girl rebuffs him. He asks her if she acts this way because of "that stupid old thing at the end there," and the girl giggles as she replies, "It's her fu-fur which is so funny...It's exactly like a fried whiting."
After having her little fur of which she is so fond identified by the girl as resembling a fried fish, Miss Brill returns to her single, dark room ("her room like a cupboard") and sits for a long time. Without looking at her fur, she quickly returns it to the box, imagining that she hears something crying as she does so. Like the old fur, she too has become outdated and rejected.

How is physical beauty represented in The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison?

Physical beauty is presented in the book as an unattainable ideal established by white society. Pecola spends her whole time trying to live up to this ideal in the hope that it will make her more accepted. This is her way of dealing with racial prejudice as well as the feelings of low self-esteem induced by years of physical and sexual abuse.
The fictitious blue eyes she obsessively stares at in the mirror symbolize an ultimately futile quest for an ideal of beauty that's been imposed upon her by society. For Pecola, this chimera initially offers a brief respite from the horrors of daily life. In due course, however, this symbol will come to provide her with a permanent escape from the everyday world, precipitating her descent into insanity. On this reading, the pursuit of idealized beauty is a metaphor for the self-loathing which afflicts too many African Americans in a deeply racist and prejudiced society, inducing a kind of collective madness.

Physical beauty is a key theme in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye. Throughout the book, Morrison makes it clear that the black characters see themselves as less beautiful because of their race. Morrison does this through the detailed descriptions of how characters view themselves and others. One of the clearest examples of this is in the title itself; Pecola thinks that all she needs is to have blue eyes like a white person and she will be loved. She ignores factors like her abusive family, instead blaming her problems on her own lack of beauty. Additionally, the "closer to white" a character is, the more power this seems to give them. Maureen Peal is a light-skinned black girl, and her lighter complexion gives her power over the bullies at school. Readers can clearly see how symbols of white beauty are glorified throughout the book: early on, the young girls (Pecola and Frieda) talk of their love for the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Shirley Temple, and later Mrs. Breedlove pines over the white actresses in movies. For the characters in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, their problems in life can be tied back to their blackness and assumed lack of beauty.

What are the differences and similarities between Stanley and Zero in Louis Sachar's Holes?

Stanley "Caveman" Yelnats and Zero are first and foremost bound by the crime for which Stanley is doing time at Camp Green Lake. Stanley is wrongfully accused of stealing a pair of sneakers—shoes which, in reality, Zero had stolen out of desperation. The intersection of their personal and family histories both happened to land them at the same juvenile detention center. Once there, it is clear that both Stanley and Zero possess personal grit and resilience, a distaste for injustice, and a desire to see the wrongs of the world righted. Together, they learn to embrace their courage and fight the system which is oppressing them.
Their differences lie in their environments of origin and their upbringing. Zero is extremely uneducated and comes from a place of poverty (having been left homeless after his mother abandoned him), whereas Stanley has attended school, possesses a family, and is comfortable enough, although not by any means rich. Zero is the best digger at the camp despite his small stature, whereas Stanley possesses more intellectual acumen.

Most of the similarities between Zero and Stanley are based on their personalities. For example, both are adventurous. Zero and Stanley both run away from the camp into the desert, with no water or food. They both also have a sense of justice. They run away to escape the camp's unfair conditions. Their pasts also intersect. Zero is the descendant of Madame Zeroni, while Stanley is the descendant of a man who was supposed to carry Madame Zeroni up a mountain to ensure his future success.
The differences between Zero and Stanley stem mostly from their upbringings. Stanley grew up with two parents and a grandparent, and they all live together. Stanley knows how to read. Zero, on the other hand, does not know where his parents are, and never learned to read.

Why do you think this novel was banned by the South African government?

The novel was banned because it represents a savage indictment of South Africa under apartheid. This was a policy which established the clear separation of the races, and ensured that the country's white minority remained fully in charge, both politically and economically. A Dry White Season is a challenge to apartheid, and as the action of the book makes clear, South Africa at that time was not prepared to tolerate any opposition to the state's racial policy.
What was particularly dangerous about the book from the authorities' point of view was that the protagonist of the story, Ben Du Toit, is a white man, a member of South Africa's racial elite. If opposition to apartheid were restricted simply to the country's black majority, then the government could more effectively contain it. However, white opponents of apartheid such as Ben Du Toit were considered even more dangerous by the authorities, because once the system of white domination started to be undermined from within the racial elite, then it would only be a matter of time before it collapsed completely. The character of Ben Du Toit could not be allowed to serve as some kind of heroic example for other white South Africans to follow. As far as the authorities were concerned, then, it was imperative for the book to be banned.

Does Socrates give a convincing account of justice in the first four books of "The Republic"?

This is a very interesting question! The answer will depend upon whether you agree with Socrates' definition of justice in the first four books. Then, you will have to decide whether he adequately addresses the necessity for justice. First, let's explore his main points in all four books.
In Book One, Socrates tries to define justice. In this book, three definitions of justice are discussed. The first one (voiced by Cephalus) is the traditional Greek concept of justice: honesty in all transactions and diligence in paying off one's debts. The second definition of justice (voiced by Cephalus' son, Polemarchus) involves giving to everyone his/her just due. Thus, the enemy is owed retribution, while the friend is owed loyalty and protection.
Here, Thrasymachus chimes in and argues that these two definitions of justice are lacking. He proposes a third definition of justice that takes into account the advantage dominant individuals have over others. Thrasymachus sees the conventional definitions of justice as limiting and unnatural; he believes that true justice allows the dominant man to claim what is rightfully his. Thus, Thrasymachus proposes justice as a "might makes right" concept. Meanwhile, Socrates argues in support of the just life in the conventional sense.
In Book Two, Glaucon and Adeimantus argue that justice is sought for its benefits and that, if justice offered no practical benefits of any consequence, no one would seek it. They challenge Socrates to prove that justice should be sought for itself. So, Socrates must defend his belief that people are happier being just than unjust. He proceeds to show how a just city can be used as an analogy to describe the benefits of being a just individual. In Socrates' fictionalized just city, every individual knows his/her place. In order to protect this "good" society, warriors must be stationed around it. These soldiers are to be carefully chosen and carefully taught the rudiments of being good warriors. They must be gentle with the innocent and absolutely ruthless with the enemy.
In Book Three, Socrates maintains that these soldiers or "auxiliaries" must be well-educated in order to preside over and to protect a just city. The auxiliaries themselves must be just; they must read only poetry or works that promote self-discipline, humility, honesty, and obedience. Above all, they must receive adequate training in the arts of war. Socrates also proposes that the rulers or "guardians" of the just city should be chosen from the auxiliary class. Ultimately, Socrates' point is that a just society is made up of just individuals.
In Book Four, Socrates continues to argue that a just life is a happy life, regardless of whether it brings about practical or material benefits. In this book, Socrates proposes that a just city is ruled by three important elements: wisdom, courage, and self-discipline. Thus,  for a city to be just, wisdom must rest in its ruling (guardian) class, courage must rest in its warrior (auxiliary) class, and self-restraint must rest in its citizen (producer) class. Justice is thus rendered when each class performs its prescribed functions to perfection.
Socrates then equates the just city to the just individual, wherein resides the three concepts of wisdom, courage, and self-discipline in harmony. To Socrates, a just soul is a balanced soul (and also a happy one).
So, there you have it! Now, you must decide whether Socrates gives a convincing account of justice. Do you agree with his hypothesis that justice should be sought for itself rather than for its practical benefits? Essentially, do you agree with Socrates' argument that a just soul is a happy soul, regardless of time, place, or circumstance? Your answer to these two questions will decide your response to your original question.
 
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/justice-virtue/

Calculus of a Single Variable, Chapter 3, 3.3, Section 3.3, Problem 22

Given: f(x)=x^3-6x^2+15
Find the critical values for x by setting the first derivative of the function equal to zero and solving for the x value(s).
f'(x)=3x^2-12x=0
3x(x-4)=0
x=0,x=4
The critical value for the first derivative are x=0 and x=4.
If f'(x)>0, the function is increasing in the interval.
If f'(x)<0, the function is decreasing in the interval.
Choose a value for x that is less than 0.
f'(-1)=15 Since f'(-1)>0 the graph of the function is increasing in the interval (-oo,0).
Choose a value for x that is between 0 and 4.
f'(1)=-9 Since f'(1)<0 the graph of the function is decreasing in the interval
(0, 4).
Choose a value for x that is greater than 4.
f'(5)=15 Since f'(5)>0 the graph of the function is increasing in the interval
(4, oo).
Because the function changed direction from increasing to decreasing there will be a relative maximum at x=0. The relative maximum occurs at (0, 15).
Also, because the function changed direction from decreasing to increasing there will be a relative minimum at x=4. The relative minimum occurs at
(4, -17).

How did the Spanish succeed in fulfilling their goals of conquest and colonization in the Caribbean and California? How did they fail?

Following Columbus's initial voyage to the New World in 1492, Spain began to colonize the Caribbean, Latin America, and parts of North America. Their goal was initially to extract as much gold as possible, and they did so, constructing mines in Latin America that produced much of the world's gold supply. At that time, gold was used as the international currency, and Spain gained a great advantage in trade with other European countries. Eventually, however, wars with other European nations such as the English and Dutch left Spain in debt. In addition, colonists in Spanish territories began trading with other European powers, such as the English and Dutch, leading to Spain's decline as a world economic and imperial power.
In addition, Spain sought to found plantation systems called encomiendas through which conquistadores enslaved Native Americans in return for Christianizing them. The planting of sugarcane, a very valuable commodity, led to the eventual use of slaves imported from Africa. The enslavement of native people and Africans was brutal, and this brutality was an unfortunate consequence of Spanish colonization, as was the death of millions of Native Americans from Spanish violence and from the diseases the Spanish brought from Europe (to which the natives were not immune). Intermarriage among Spanish people, Native Americans, and slaves produced the mestizo culture, a rich culture that eventually sought independence from Spain. By 1824, most of the Spanish colonies (save a few in the Caribbean, such as Cuba and Puerto Rico) had fought and won wars of independence against Spain. In addition, California, in which Spain established missions along the coast, became part of Mexico. Therefore, the Spanish conquest did not last in most of its conquered lands.

College Algebra, Chapter 7, 7.4, Section 7.4, Problem 30

Find the determinant of the matrix $\displaystyle A = \left| \begin{array}{cccc}
2 & -1 & 6 & 4 \\
7 & 2 & -2 & 5 \\
4 & -2 & 10 & 8 \\
6 & 1 & 1 & 4
\end{array} \right|$, using row/column operations.

If we add 4 times column 2 to column 4, we get

$\displaystyle \left| \begin{array}{cccc}
2 & -1 & 6 & 0 \\
7 & 2 & -2 & 13 \\
4 & -2 & 10 & 0 \\
6 & 1 & 1 & 8
\end{array} \right|$

So,

$\displaystyle \det (A) = 13 \left| \begin{array}{ccc}
2 & -1 & 6 \\
4 & -2 & 10 \\
6 & 1 & 1
\end{array} \right| - 8 \left| \begin{array}{ccc}
2 & -1 & 6 \\
7 & 2 & -2 \\
4 & -2 & 10
\end{array} \right|$

Now, we add $\displaystyle \frac{-1}{2}$ times row 2 to row 1 in the first matrix and add 2 times column 2 to column 1. This gives us


$
\begin{equation}
\begin{aligned}

\det (A) =& 13 \left| \begin{array}{ccc}
0 & 0 & 1 \\
4 & -2 & 10 \\
6 & 1 & 1
\end{array} \right| - 8 \left| \begin{array}{ccc}
0 & -1 & 6 \\
11 & 2 & -2 \\
0 & -2 & 10
\end{array} \right|
\qquad \text{Expand}
\\
\\
=& 13 (1) \left| \begin{array}{cc}
4 & -2 \\
6 & 1
\end{array} \right|
-8 (11) \left| \begin{array}{cc}
-1 & 6 \\
-2 & 10
\end{array} \right|
\\
\\
=& 13(1) \left[ 4 \cdot 1 - (-2) \cdot 6 \right] - 8(11) \left[ (-1) \cdot 10 - 6 \cdot (-2) \right]
\\
\\
=& 208 - 176
\\
\\
=& 32


\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
$

How has Quebec influenced the development of Canadian culture?

The most obvious way in which Quebec has influenced Canadian culture is through its contribution to linguistic diversity in Canada. Because Quebec (like New Brunswick) is Francophone, Canada has two national languages, and every student in Canada must learn both languages. This means that Canadians are familiar with both English and French traditions, something that may perhaps underlie Canada's traditions of multiculturalism and pluralism.
In religion, Quebec had the effect of bringing religious diversity to Canada, in that many of the French settlers were Roman Catholic, as opposed to the Scottish and English settlers of anglophone Canada who were predominantly Protestant. Paradoxically, though, Quebec also has been a bastion of secularism as modeled on post-revolutionary France, with a strong commitment to laïcité.
Politically, Quebec has embraced many progressive values and in some ways moved Canada to the left, especially on social issues. It has also contributed to Canadian literary and artistic culture, as well as cuisine.

What are the main themes of "The Village Saint"?

The two most prominent themes of "The Village Saint" are the social façades that people wear and power and control.
The author lays out the first theme in the first few lines of the text. The opening of the story says, "People were never fooled by façades. They would look quietly and humorously behind the façade at the real person . . . and not their heads in a certain way until destiny caught up with the decrepit one" (Head 285). The main subject of the story, Mma-Mompati is thought to be perfect by her village for 26 years. She is married to an important man and she is known as a great lady of the town. She prays for everyone, arranges all the funerals, visits the sick, and is generally thought to be the town saint. Even after her husband leaves her, the village continues to think well of her due to her speech in the divorce court about how greatly she has been wronged. However, the narrator tells the reader that her care and attention was really only the "professional smile of the highborn who don't really give a damn about people or anything" (Head, 286). The village discovers her true character after her son marries, and she begins to mistreat her daughter-in-law. She makes the daughter-in-law give her all of her money, and she makes her go all the way to the town water tap for water, even when her house already has a water tap. The daughter-in-law tells the village people her troubles, and Mma-Mompati's image is ruined.
Mma-Mompati is also obsessed with power and control. Although her husband leaves her, she controls the narrative by going to the divorce court and turning the town against him. When her son gets married, she feels that "she need[s] to dominate and shove the wretch around" (Head 288). However, all of Mma-Mompati's power comes from her status and reputation. Therefore, when it is discovered that she has been mistreating her daughter-in-law, her reputation is ruined and all of her power is lost.
http://ayapasuprep.weebly.com/uploads/2/1/9/6/21967966/head-thevillagesaint.pdf

What do we know about the baby in "The Yellow Wallpaper"?

As the other answer indicated, we know that the narrator is separated from her baby, who is being taken care of by another woman, possibly a nurse:

It is fortunate Mary is so good with the baby. Such a dear baby!

However, it sounds as if she might like to see him, but is repeating what she has been told:

And yet I cannot be with him, it makes me so nervous.

We also learn that the baby would have been put in the nursery with the yellow wallpaper if the narrator had not been placed there instead:

If we had not used it, that blessed child would have! What a fortunate escape! Why, I wouldn't have a child of mine, an impressionable little thing, live in such a room for worlds. I never thought of it before, but it is lucky that John kept me here after all, I can stand it so much easier than a baby, you see.

We see in the passage above that the narrator wants to keep the baby safe. We don't learn much about the baby himself, but we do know he is separated from his mother, that he is being cared for, and that the narrator has protective instincts towards him.
Beyond that, the baby doesn't seem to have much reality to the mother. She doesn't describe him in terms that would differentiate him from any other baby.

Readers find out relatively little about the baby in "The Yellow Wallpaper". As we're dealing with an unreliable narrator—someone we can't fully trust due to them being misguided, confused, or straight-out lying—one could argue we really don't know anything about the baby at all.
If we do go by the words of the narrator, most of what we can tell about the child is how he makes her feel. That, in turn, actually says a bit more about the mother. The passages that refer to the baby hint that unlike his mother, the boy is happy and healthy:

There's one comfort, the baby is well and happy and does not have to occupy this nursery with the horrid wallpaper.

This brings out something that the short story refers to often at the beginning of the tale: the narrator, while she regrets being weak and ill, is glad the child is not with her. Her feelings are conflicting. On the one hand, she can't bear to see him or be with him much, yet she also misses him and wants to be better. But she definitely makes no attempt to have the boy brought to her, into the terrible room. So in a way, she shows protectiveness over her son. The narrator continues, explaining how she can bear the mood of the room so much better than her infant child would be able to.
In bits and pieces, everything we find out about the baby is therefore pretty expected. Both his parents are trying to do what's best for him, however misguided these actions may be (in the case of his father). He is well taken care of, loved by his parents and in good health—other than that, he is simply a newborn boy.

The narrator of the story says relatively little about her baby. She does, at one point, say,

It is fortunate that Mary is so good with the baby. Such a dear baby! And yet I cannot be with him, it makes me so nervous.

From this reference, we can glean a few pieces of information. First, the baby is a boy. Second, the narrator does not spend much, if any, time with the baby because being around him makes her too nervous. Third, the baby has a governess or nanny named Mary, someone who takes care of him in his mother's absence. Fourth, this description of how the baby makes her feel, in addition to a few other descriptions of her "nervous condition," helps us to understand that she is likely suffering from what we'd now call postpartum depression, for which there was no name then. What we know now as postpartum depression was simply lumped under the catchall diagnosis of hysteria, which is one of the words the narrator uses when she describes her physician husband's opinion of her illness.

Why does Madame Loisel begin to cry after she reads the invitation?

In “The Necklace,” Madame Loisel is a woman whose beauty and charm seem to surpass her social class. Her marriage to a clerk does not allow her to have the nicer things she dreams about and feels she is entitled to have. She is quite angry about her situation. One day, her husband brings home an invitation to a fancy affair and presents it to his wife in the hopes that she will be excited. To his dismay, she is not happy about the invitation. Instead, she throws it on the table. Surprised about his wife's reaction, he explains what a great opportunity it would be for them to attend. She begins to cry and explains to her husband that he should give the invitation to someone whose wife would have something more appropriate to wear. She is upset because she feels she has nothing suitable to wear.

In the story Unwanted written by Rabindranath Tagore, what did Nilkanta do before he was shipwrecked?

Rabindranath Tagore's "Unwanted" tells the story of Sharat, Kiran, and Nilkanta. Sharat and Kiran found Nilkanta after he was shipwrecked. The story of his life prior to the shipwreck is not told of outright. Yet, one could surmise a few things which were possible of Nilkanta's existence prior to the shipwreck. One thing readers are told is that he used to be in an acting troupe, yet no one knew what had happened to the others in the acting troupe as the result of the shipwreck. Nilkanta was the only survivor.

Nilkanta was often subjected to cuffs and boxes on the ears from Sharat, but used as he was from birth to even harsher methods of discipline he didn't feel either hurt or dishonoured.

Here, one could infer that Nilkanta had been abused. The fact that he did not react to being hit by Sharat states he was used to this type of punishment or discipline. He had been abused so much that it did not affect him any longer.
Nilkanta's age is unknown, yet the text describes him as being somewhere between 14 and 18. The question of his age is further examined in the following:

Whether from smoking tobacco, or from using language ill-suited to his years, his lips had an adult curl to them; but his eyes, with their large pupils, were simple and childish.

This speaks to the idea that Nilkanta has some knowledge about the world around him. He has lived a life which gives him the knowledge of an adult which does not match his childish looks.
The text also states that he lived a "yatra-life." This could mean a traveling life or a life of pilgrimage. While he does not seem to have a religious nature (pilgrimage), one could assume that since he was part of an acting troupe that he traveled a lot.

College Algebra, Chapter 2, Review Exercises, Section Review Exercises, Problem 44

Find the equation of the line that has slope $\displaystyle -\frac{1}{2}$ and passes through the point $(6,-3)$ in...
a.) Slope intercept form.
b.) General form.

a.) Slope intercept form,

$
\begin{equation}
\begin{aligned}
y &= mx + b \\
\\
y &= -\frac{1}{2}x + b
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
$

Solving for $b$ at point $(b,-3)$,

$
\begin{equation}
\begin{aligned}
-3 &= -\frac{1}{2} (6) + b\\
\\
-3 &= -3 + b\\
\\
b &= 0
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
$

Thus the equation of the line is...
$\displaystyle y = -\frac{1}{2}x$

b.) General form,

$
\begin{equation}
\begin{aligned}
Ax + By + C &= 0 \\
\\
y &= - \frac{1}{2}x && \text{Multiply by } 2\\
\\
2y &= -x && \text{Add } x\\
\\
x + 2y &= 0
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
$

What is the central conflict? Is it internal or external?

In Flannery O' Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," there are many different conflicts at play—the family is at odds with one another, the Misfit is a clear external threat to all the characters, and the grandmother experiences dilemmas with her own understanding in several instances in the book. While the external conflicts create the events of the plot, it is ultimately the internal conflict that is most central to the theme, as the grandmother's realization of her own corrupt nature is the essential climactic moment.The external conflicts set up the grandmother's character as she sits in judgement of the other characters. She is critical of her son and of her grandchildren for being unfeeling and uncivilized; however, she doesn't realize her own hypocrisy until she is faced with the truly unfeeling and uncivilized Misfit.
The internal conflict comes to a head whenever the grandmother is alone with the Misfit toward the end of the story. The Misfit admits to her that he is how he is because he doesn't know for sure about the nature of Jesus Christ, saying,




"Jesus was the only One that ever raised the dead . . . and He shouldn't have done it. He thrown everything off balance. If He did what He said, then it's nothing for you to do but throw away everything and follow Him, and if He didn't, then it's nothing for you to do but enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can—by killing somebody or burning down his house or doing some other meanness to him. No pleasure but meanness."




With this, the grandmother begins to recognize that her brand of Christianity and her critical nature were complicit in creating a world in which a man like the Misfit would come to be. He felt unable to be good, unable to be enough, and since he couldn't be sure that it was worth trying to be good, he turned to evil. The grandmother verbalizes her realization in the emphatic line

The grandmother's head cleared for an instant. . . . And she murmured, "Why you're one of my babies. You're one of my own children!"

And with this, the Misfit shoots her, claiming, "She would of been a good woman . . . if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life."
This line reveals that the woman's ability to finally equate herself with her fellow man is the real theme of the narrative, which in turn reveals the main conflict to be internal rather than external.

How is the plot advanced when Nagaina started targeting the human family?

The part when Nag and Nagaina decide to target the human family in the house furthers the plot as part of the rising action. A few hours before, Rikki-tikki proves his quickness against the cobras when he dodges their come-from-behind sneak attack. Rikki-tikki then proves his lethality when he kills Karait. At that point in the story, the cobras know that Rikki-tikki is dangerous, and he knows that they are dangerous. An uneasy truce could have been established; however, Nag and Nagaina decide to escalate the tension. The snakes believe that if the humans are eliminated, Rikki-tikki will leave of his own accord or will be easier to hunt.  

"I will go, but there is no need that we should hunt for Rikki-tikki afterward. I will kill the big man and his wife, and the child if I can, and come away quietly. Then the bungalow will be empty, and Rikki-tikki will go."

Rikki-tikki overhears the conversation between Nag and Nagaina. Rikki-tikki feels it is his duty to protect the family, so he knows that he must kill Nag to eliminate the threat. That causes a further escalation in tensions because Nagaina wants vengeance. The plot continues to rise until the climax of the story when Rikki-tikki follows Nagaina down into her snake hole.

How is Elie more courageous than his father, Shlomo, in the memoir Night?

Both Elie and Shlomo Wiesel endured a multitude of unspeakable horrors, and comparing one person's courage to that of another within the framework of the Holocaust seems a bit unfair. I will list a few examples below in which Elie demonstrates courage, as well as a few examples in which Shlomo demonstrates courage, and this should be of aid as you undertake the task of comparing the two men.
Examples in which Elie demonstrates courage:
Chooses to undertake death march from Buna to Gleiwitz with an injured foot
Risks his life to sneak his father onto the right train (toward safety) in Gleiwitz
Protects his father's food rations when Shlomo is dying of dysentery
Survives the Holocaust and writes a memoir of his painful story
Examples in which Shlomo demonstrates courage:
Instructs his son in survival and offers encouraging sentiments
Gives his knife and spoon (the only family property) to Elie when he is chosen for the death group in Buna
Endures brutal death march from Buna to Gleiwitz in a weak state
Endures beatings by Nazi officers and by fellow prisoners

Discuss the unique structure of federalism, and provide examples to support your statement. Do you support the concept of shared powers of the state and the national government under federalism?

Federalism is based on the idea that power should be shared between the center and the periphery. The thinking behind federalism is that if power is more widely dispersed it makes it harder for some kind of tyranny to develop. This was certainly the rationale behind the establishment of federalism in America, where the colonists had just fought a long, bitter war against what they perceived to be a tyrannical British government.
In the American context, federalism involves a share in power between the federal government in Washington D.C. and the governments of the fifty states. Initially, ultimate political sovereignty resided with the states as the early American colonists were loath to contemplate having a strong centralized government after their negative experience of British rule. In due course, however, this proved to be an unworkable arrangement, and ever since America prevailed in the Revolutionary War, the balance of power between the federal government and the states has shifted dramatically toward the center.
In principle, federalism is a perfectly noble concept, and certainly seems the governmental arrangement most conducive to a free society. Nevertheless, there are problems with how it often works in practice, particularly in the American context. The relative strength of state government in relation to the federal government allowed the Southern states to pursue slavery without any outside interference. Even after slavery was abolished, the system of federalism allowed the very same Southern states to smuggle slavery in by the back door, so to speak, by their introduction of legal segregation, also known as the Jim Crow laws.
What this unfortunate historical example appears to illustrate is that federalism is at its most effective when there already exists a strong, long-standing tradition of freedom for all in society. However, where such freedom is severely restricted, as it most certainly was in the Southern states, then federalism can unwittingly serve to maintain and strengthen existing power structures built on racial oppression and injustice.

The principle of federalism is that powers in a government are divided between a central government and smaller constituent governments that are more local in nature. The United States Constitution established one of the first governments based on this principle. Its structure includes a federal government which is designated as supreme by the Constitution. Federal law in the United States always trumps state and local laws, and no state, municipality, or county can pass a law that is contrary to the Constitution. The federal government is delegated certain powers, some of which are enumerated (the power to print money, to declare war, to make treaties, and so on) and some that are implied by other powers. These powers are denied to the states. On the other hand, states have several powers that are specific to them. Most licensing, for example, is done at the state level, and states are responsible for establishing and maintaining public schools. These powers are usually called "reserved" powers, and they are as important to the system of federalism as are the so-called "delegated" powers that are given to the federal government. Some powers, such as the power to tax, are shared between the states and the federal government. The concept of shared powers is perhaps the only way to govern a large territory like the United States. Indeed, most large nations feature some sort of federal system. However, the proper scope and breadth of federal power remains a hotly contested question in American politics. Issues ranging from the legalization of marijuana, so-called "sanctuary cities," and many other issues fundamentally involve federalism.
https://www.ushistory.org/gov/3.asp

How long are stingrays pregnant?

Stingrays typically breed during the early fall or winter and only have only one litter per year. Most litters contain 2–6 young stingrays; the size of the mother is directly correlated to the number of young she is able to carry. Stingrays are ovoviviparous; first the young grow inside an egg while inside their mother. The yolk provides the nourishment they need, and when this is depleted, they begin feeding off their mother's milk.
The gestation period of stingrays is not set; research has shown some pregnancies that last for 125 days and others that last for 226 days. The mean length of gestation is 175 days. This equates to about 5.5 months.
Baby stingrays are born with the ability to swim, and their mother immediately begins hunting with them.
https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Dasyatis_americana/

Stingrays are a group of carnivorous fish related to skates and sharks that commonly live in shallow coastal tropical and subtropical waters. They weigh up to 790 pounds and have a mean lifespan of about 15 to 25 years when living in the wild. They have flattened bodies that have eyes on the topside and mouths on the underside, so it is thought that their eyes do not play a part in food hunting activities. Instead, they make use of electrical sensors near their mouths that sense the electrical charges of prey. There are over 200 species of stingrays.
Stingrays are fertilized internally through sexual intercourse. Their gestation period varies from 3 to 12 months among wild populations and 9 to 12 months among captive populations. However, some warm water species can have shorter gestation periods of up to 2 weeks. The common stingray (Dasyatis pastinaca) has a gestation period of about 4 months. Stingrays are ovoviviparous, meaning that fertilized eggs remain inside the mother’s body until they are hatched. The embryo is therefore fed by the yolk of the egg rather than the mother’s body.

Why does Hamlet feel it necessary to 'test' Claudius?

Hamlet learns at the end of Act 1 that his father was murdered by his uncle when his father's ghost asks Hamlet to avenge the murder. Hamlet does not actually act upon the command until Act 5, deciding in the meantime to first "put an antic disposition on," and then to test Claudius to assure he is guilty of the crime. Hamlet takes the time to observe everyone's behavior at the court and to establish that Claudius is indeed guilty because he is not impulsive—he is a thinker who considers the consequences and effects of his actions.
In Act 2, Hamlet says, "The spirit that I have seen/May be the devil: and the devil hath power/To assume a pleasing shape." Here we have the first reason Hamlet delays and instead attempts to assess Claudius's guilt. Hamlet understands that his father's ghost may not actually be his father's ghost but instead the devil or some other demon attempting to lure him into a sinful action. Rather than accept the ghost's word, Hamlet sets out to observe Claudius and test his guilt.
The second reason Hamlet resolved to test Claudius is the gravity of the sin he must commit. Hamlet knows that murder is an offense which will send him to hell for eternity. He does not want to be damned for the murder of an innocent man. The arrival of the players gives Hamlet the perfect opportunity to confirm Claudius's guilt. He resolves, "the play's the thing Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king." Hamlet arranges for the players to perform a reenactment of his father's murder and his mother's hasty union. He tells Horatio to keep an eye on Claudius during the performance. Once Claudius's guilt overwhelms him as he watches the reenactment, he gets up and yells, "Give me some light. Away!" He runs off, confirming his guilt for Hamlet.
With the knowledge that Claudius killed his father and that the ghost spoke the truth, Hamlet is now able to clear his mind and avenge the death.

Write one paragraph about friendship. It should argue the meaning of an abstract term using the technique of definition. It may be written in the first person, must be at least one page long, and may be a single paragraph. It will not include citations.

In order to answer this question and properly use the technique of definition, we must first look at what the dictionary says about friendship. Merriam-Webster defines it as “the state of being friends” and “the quality of being friendly,” which does not help us greatly—we need to look at how “friend” is defined.
“Friendship” is an abstract noun derived directly from Anglo-Saxon, indicating that the concept of friendship has been alive for centuries. Arguably, friendship is a fundamental component of human existence. But what is a friend? Technically, “one attached to another by affection or esteem” or “one who is not hostile.”
Let us assume that the second definition refers to friendship between nations or armies. In your essay, you are going to be concerned with the first definition. This is what friendship looks like on its most superficial level. However, what does friendship mean to you? You may wish to use anecdotes to illustrate your points. Can you think of an example of a time when a friend of yours showed you great affection or esteem? If friendship involves going above and beyond what you need to do in order to help someone, can you illustrate this with a story? A story from history might even be appropriate here.
Ultimately, “friendship” is a relatively general term that can encompass everything from acquaintanceship to sworn brotherhood. In order to explain what it means to you, you will need to make your answer personal to your own experience.

What does Okeke do when his son sends him a wedding photo?

In Chinua Achebe's short story, "Marriage is a Private Affair," when Nnaemeka's father, Okeke, receives the wedding photo from his son, he rips the picture in half. After ripping out the image of Nnaemeka's bride, Nene, he sends the photo back to his son with a terse message:

It amazes me that you could be so unfeeling as to send me your wedding picture. I would have sent it back. But on further thought I decided just to cut off your wife and send it back to you because I have nothing to do with her. How I wish that I had nothing to do with you either (para 54).

Unfortunately for Nnaemeka, Okeke had previously arranged a marriage for him as is the Ibo tradition. It was unheard of for a son to find his own bride, much less a bride from a different tribe who is a school teacher. When Nnaemeka rebels against the planned marriage and weds Nene anyway, his father is overcome with grief. Eight years later, Nene sends the father a letter imploring him to meet his two grandsons. The old man is beset with guilt caused by shutting out his son's family. At the end of the story, he hopes that it is not too late to make up the years that he lost and knows he must accept his son and his family.

When Nnaemeka sends him a wedding photo, Okeke cuts out the bride's image and sends the photo back to Nnaemeka. In his letter to his son, Okeke voices his irritation at receiving an unsolicited wedding picture from him. From the letter, we can deduce that Okeke did not attend his son's wedding.
Okeke admits that he initially planned to send the photo back whole. However, he later decided to cut out Nnaemeka's wife's picture before returning the photo. In his letter, Okeke insisted that he had no connection to Nene, Nnaemeka's wife. At the same time, Okeke did not clearly disavow his relationship with Nnaemeka. He merely voiced disappointment that he was still connected to Nnaemeka by blood ties.
The letter left a deep impression on Nene regarding Okeke's intransigence, and she shed tears because of it. Despite the hurt she experienced, Nene later wrote to Okeke about allowing his grandsons to visit. This letter greatly affected Okeke, and he was forced to admit that his hard-heartedness had been a terrible burden to bear.

In Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, what veils Mr.Wilson's dark suit and pale hair?

George Wilson lives in the area known as the valley of ashes, located between West Egg and New York City.  Here, it seems as though everything is coated with a thick layer of this ash: the landscape, the cars, the buildings, and even the people.  Wilson is no exception.  He, too, is covered with ash.  In Chapter II, Nick Carraway, the narrator, says, "A white ashen dust veiled [Wilson's] dark suit and his pale hair as it veiled everything in the vicinity -- except his wife."  The ash appears to render him even paler and more inconsequential than he already seems to be.  While his wife, Myrtle, is vivacious and somehow colorfully alive, George seems spiritless, and Nick even describes him as "anemic" at one point.  It is a rather sad existence that George leads: he is manipulated by Tom Buchanan and deceived by his own wife, and all he wants to do is get ahead, try to achieve even a small piece of the American Dream.  The ashes that cover over his person seem to foreshadow, even in the beginning of the novel, that both George and his dream cannot survive.

(16/(x-2))/(4/(x+1)+6/x) Simplify the complex fraction.

To simplify the given complex fraction (16/(x-2))/(4/(x+1)+6/x) , we may look for the LCD or least common denominator.
The denominators are (x-2) , x , and (x+1) . All are distinct factors.
Thus, we get the LCD by getting the product of the distinct factors from denominator side of each term.
LCD =(x-2)*x* (x+1)
Maintain the factored form of the LCD for easier cancellation of common factors on each term.
Multiply each term by the LCD=(x-2)*x* (x+1).
(16/(x-2)*(x-2)*x* (x+1))/(4/(x+1)*(x-2)*x* (x+1)+6/x*(x-2)*x* (x+1))
(16*x* (x+1))/(4*(x-2)*x +6*(x-2)* (x+1))
Apply distributive property.
(16x*(x+1))/((4x-8)*x +(6x-12)* (x+1))
(16x^2+16x)/((4x^2-8x) +(6x^2+6x-12x-12))
Combine possible like terms.
(16x^2+16x)/((4x^2-8x) +(6x^2-6x-12))
(16x^2+16x)/(4x^2-8x+6x^2-6x-12)
(16x^2+16x)/(10x^2-14x-12)
Factor out 2 from each side.
(2(8x^2+8x))/(2(5x^2-7x-6))
Cancel out common factor 2 .
(8x^2+8x)/(5x^2-7x-6)
 The complex fraction (16/(x-2))/(4/(x+1)+6/x) simplifies to (8x^2+8x)/(5x^2-7x-6) .

What effect does authorial intrusion yield in The Crucible?

Arthur Miller's "authorial intrusion" into the play's action provides background information on the characters and events that precede the spring of 1692 when the play begins. Miller's commentary enables readers to understand the beliefs and customs of the Puritans who populated Salem and its adjacent communities. Otherwise, modern readers might doubt that many people would believe that witchcraft and Satan's presence was a credible and constant threat to their lives. Moreover, because of Miller's commentary we understand that there are tensions among Salem's denizens and that politics are at work in their community. The church wants to maintain theocratic authority, but not everyone respects the local minister. For instance, some, like the Nurse family, would like to secede from Salem and create their own religious Utopia at Topsfield. The background Miller provides deepens readers' understanding of the characters and conflicts.

Calculus of a Single Variable, Chapter 8, 8.6, Section 8.6, Problem 17

Indefinite integral are written in the form of int f(x) dx = F(x) +C
where: f(x) as the integrand
F(x) as the anti-derivative function
C as the arbitrary constant known as constant of integration
For the given problem int xarcsec(x^2+1) dx, it has a integrand in a form of inverse secant function. The integral resembles one of the formulas from the integration as : int arcsec (u/a)du = u*arcsin(u/a) +-aln(u+sqrt(u^2-a^2))+C .
where we use: (+) if 0ltarcsec (u/a)ltpi/2
(-) if pi/2ltarcsec(u/a)ltpi
Selecting the sign between (+) and (-) will be crucial when solving for definite integral with given boundary values [a,b] .
For easier comparison, we may apply u-substitution by letting:
u =x^2+1 then du = 2x dx or (du)/2
Plug-in the values int xarcsec(x^2+1) dx , we get:
int xarcsec(x^2+1) dx=int arcsec(x^2+1) * xdx
= int arcsec(u) * (du)/2
Apply the basic properties of integration: int c*f(x) dx= c int f(x) dx .
int arcsec(u) * (du)/2= 1/2int arcsec(u) du
or 1/2 int arcsec(u/1) du
Applying the aforementioned formula from the integration table, we get:
1/2 int arcsec(u/1) du=1/2 *[u*arcsin(u/1) +-1ln(u+sqrt(u^2-1^2))]+C
=1/2 *[u*arcsin(u) +-ln(u+sqrt(u^2-1))]+C
=(u*arcsin(u))/2 +-(ln(u+sqrt(u^2-1)))/2+C
Plug-in u =x^2+1 on (u*arcsin(u))/2 +-(ln(u+sqrt(u^2-1)))/2+C , we get the indefinite integral as:
int xarcsec(x^2+1) dx=((x^2+1)*arcsin(x^2+1))/2 +-(ln(x^2+1+sqrt((x^2+1)^2-1)))/2+C
=(x^2arcsin(x^2+1))/2+arcsin(x^2+1)/2 +-ln(x^2+1+sqrt(x^4+2x^2))/2+C
=(x^2arcsin(x^2+1))/2+arcsin(x^2+1)/2 +-ln(x^2+1+sqrt(x^2(x^2+2)))/2+C
=(x^2arcsin(x^2+1))/2+arcsin(x^2+1)/2 +-ln(x^2+1+|x|sqrt(x^2+2))/2+C

What lessonn does William Shakespeare offer to the addressee of “Sonnet 73”?

Shakespeare's Sonnet 73 suggests that through aging and death, we can and should appreciate what we have. The basic idea is that because we will lose our lives and our loved ones, and the seasons will change, we should try to love what we have while we still have it. 
In the first quatrain, the speaker says,

That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.

He is comparing his own life to the changing seasons in the first line: "That time of year thou mayst in me behold." This is the time when, like autumn, the leaves change colors and drop from the trees. The birds have left. Where there was once life, there is now a lack.
 
The second quatrain continues,


In me thou see'st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.



Here, the speaker compares himself to the end of a day, instead of the end of a season. He is like the "twilight" when the day is dying out and night is coming to take over. He refers to the night as "Death's second self," making the comparison even more explicit.
 
The third quatrain reads as follows:
 

In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire,
Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by.



Here, he addresses another person directly with the use of "thou." The speaker is saying that "you" can see a similar dying process in the speaker himself, described through the metaphor of a waning fire. The very body that gave him life will soon be no more.
 
The poem ends the the couplet: 
 

This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

Because you understand that the speaker is dying, you can increase your love. The fact that the speaker will not be alive much longer makes the you the speaker addressed. The implicit lesson is that we should appreciate what we have because one day all things and people we love will be gone. 

What is the main theme in The Odyssey?

The main theme of Homer's epic poem, "The Odyssey",  is the journey of the tragic hero to return home.  The main character, Odysseus, is faced with many supernatural trials on his return from Troy. Our hero faces murderous sirens, a bloodthirsty cyclops, and even the god of the sea Posedion himsel in order to return to his kingdom. Once there he's greated by a usurper who he must also over throw.  In the end, Homer weaves a tell about the resilience of the human spirit to acheive its goals no matter the odds. 

One major theme of The Odyssey concerns the beauty of home. For Odysseus, there is simply no place like home. As he says early on to King Alcinous of Phaeacia, "Nothing more sweet than home and parents can there be, however rich one's dwelling in a foreign land, cut off from parents." Odysseus misses his family terribly, especially after such an incredibly long absence of around twenty years, and he relies on the undying loyalty and love of his wife, Penelope, and son, Telemachus, to be there when he returns.
Another major theme of this epic poem regards the importance of xenia, an extreme version of hospitality that Greeks were morally obligated to offer because travelers were under the especial protection of Zeus. When Polyphemus, the Cyclops, for example, fails to offer Odysseus and his men xenia, choosing instead to imprison and eat them two-by-two, Odysseus is permitted by the gods to blind the monster. Were Odysseus not offered hospitality in many locations, like Phaeacia, it is likely that he would not have made it home to Ithaca.

Why was Scout surprised by how Calpurnia acted at First Purchase?

Because Scout has never known Calpurnia outside her home and neighborhood, she is amazed at how differently Calpurnia speaks and acts when she takes Jem and her to church in the Quarters. 
After the children and Calpurnia arrive at the First Purchase African M.E. Church in the Quarters, as the African-American section of Maycomb is called, an angry woman approaches Calpurnia. "What you up to, Miss Cal?" she demands. "I wants to know why you bringin' white chillun to n****r church?" "They's my comp'ny," Calpurnia replies. Scout is amazed when she hears Calpurnia speak this way. After the service is over, Scout asks Calpurnia why she has spoken in the manner that she has to the rest of congregation.

"Suppose you and Scout talked colored-folks' talk at home—it'd be out of place wouldn't it? Now what if I talked white-folks' talk at church, and with my neighbors? They'd think I was puttin' on airs to beat Moses." (Ch.12)

Calpurnia explains further that the congregation would resent her if she were to speak as though she knows more than they do. Calpurnia tells Scout that people must want to learn themselves; if they do not want to learn, it is better to be quiet or just "talk their language." She later reveals the reason why she speaks a level of English different from those in the Quarters. She did not grow up there as a girl; instead, she lived at Finches' Landing and Miss Buford, who was Miss Maudie's aunt, taught her to read. 

All books are divisible into two classes: books of the hour and books of all time. How can I relate this idea to Fahrenheit 451?

Ruskin said, "For all books are divisible into two classes, the books of the hour, and the books of all time." By this, he meant that some books stand the test of time and are classics, while other books are just of that moment.
In Fahrenheit 451, the books that Montag and the other firemen burn are books of all time, as their society has not produced books of the hour in some time. Montag recites to Clarisse, "Monday burn Millay, Wednesday Whitman, Friday Faulkner, burn 'em to ashes." These authors—Millay, Whitman, and Faulkner—wrote books of all time, as their works are classics that have stood the test of time. Later in the book, Montag meets a society of people that have committed books to memory, and these books are also books of all time, including Swift, Dickens, and works by great thinkers such as Einstein, Lincoln, Gandhi, Confucius, and Darwin. This secret society has thought it worthwhile only to memorize books of all time, as these are the classics that future generations should know. Fahrenheit 451 has itself become a book of all time, as it is still read many years after its initial publication in 1953 and discusses ideas that are still relevant.

What programs or laws did President Kennedy and President Johnson instill in order to combat civil rights violations? In your opinion, what was the most successful civil rights law?

Because Kennedy had limited Congressional support and a short presidency, his Civil Rights legacy centers more around combating violations rather than enacting new legislation. One of Kennedy’s first actions involved integrating Ole Miss in 1961, when the Mississippi governor tried to prevent Meredith from enrolling at the university. JFK intervened and ordered the national guard to escort Meredith onto campus, where he was still met with protests and violence. The Freedom Rides of 1961 also presented a challenge to Kennedy’s presidency. Students and civil rights workers, white and black, rode throughout the South in order to register black people to vote. Because of the violence they faced, Kennedy urged the Interstate Commerce Commission to desegregate interstate travel (travel between states). Kennedy was also successful in getting an Equal Pay Act passed in 1963, which banned unequal pay based on sex.
Unfortunately, while JFK personally supported civil rights, he was also looking ahead to the Election of 1964 and worried about pushing civil rights legislation to the point of losing the support of the Democratic Party, especially southern Democrats. He therefore delayed sending a civil rights bill to Congress at first. However, when Alabama Governor George Wallace refused to integrate the University of Alabama, and then when civil rights leader Medgar Evers was killed in Mississippi in 1963, JFK drafted and sent a civil rights bill to Congress. This bill, which would become the Civil Rights Act of 1964, called for an end to discrimination in employment, segregation in public places, and discrimination in voting (especially literacy tests in the South that prevented many black people and poor white people from voting). Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, while Congress was still heavily debating the bill.
When President Johnson came into office, he appealed to Congress to pass Kennedy’s civil rights bill in memory of the slain president. Johnson’s lobbying efforts were successful, and in July LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Included in the law were the following provisions:

prohibited discrimination in public places


mandated the integration of schools and other public facilities


made employment discrimination illegal.

The 24th Amendment was also ratified in 1964, making poll taxes illegal. Then in 1965, Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, which is perhaps one of the most significant pieces of civil rights legislation. In 1965, MLK and other civil rights leaders and groups organized a peaceful protest from Montgomery to Selma, Alabama to protest voting discrimination that persisted despite passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. State troopers brutally attacked the protesters, gaining national media attention and leading LBJ to call for voting reform. The Voting Rights Act banned the use of literacy tests and gave the federal government the ability to investigate discriminatory voting practices.
Finally, LBJ also used his Great Society legislation to attempt to reduce social and racial inequality. From 1964-1967, over 200 pieces of legislation were passed as part of Johnson’s Great Society, which addressed inequality and issues in education, poverty, and the environment. It included programs like Medicare and Medicaid, Food Stamps (SNAP), Job Corps, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and federal loans and grants for education. While the Great Society had mixed success in alleviating poverty and ending discrimination, the poverty rate declined significantly and racial gaps in education and income began closing. Overall, LBJ’s Great Society and civil rights legislation are seen as having mixed results, in some ways leading to greater equality (especially in voting and ending segregation), while also falling short of its more lofty goals (like reinvigorating the cities and closing racial wealth gaps).
https://millercenter.org/president

Why do the film versions of Frankenstein tend to view the monster as mute and inarticulate?

Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein is a frame narrative. This structure gives the reader the chance to learn about the nameless creature from his own point of view. He explains to his creator that he has learned to speak and read by watching the DeLacey family and by reading Milton's Paradise Lost. By being able to learn about his wants, desires, and dreams from his perspective, the reader develops sympathy for the monster.
Hollywood tends to omit not only the creature's ability to communicate but also any aspects of humanity he possesses. The novel is timeless as it offers questions about creation, science, and the quest for knowledge that still exist two hundred years after its original publication. Most film adaptations try to fit more into the horror film genre, and so they portray the creature as more of a monster. To fill the role of a scary movie, their monster is usually set only on revenge and lacking any ability to explain the reasons behind his anger. Without the ability to communicate, these movies are able to keep him painted as the unsympathetic antagonist of their movie versions.

Why do some people use installment loans to obtain a much needed asset?

An installment loan is technically any loan that is repaid in several installments rather than in a lump sum. The reasons that people take out installment loans are twofold: first, they may not have adequate cash on hand to buy the asset; second, they may have investments that are more profitable than the interest rate on the loan. If one will receive, for example, a 10 percent return on an investment and can obtain a loan with a 5 percent interest rate, taking out a loan and placing cash in the investment is a financially prudent move. 
Perhaps the most common type of installment loan is a home mortgage. There are several reasons why people take out mortgages to buy homes. First, they may not wish to wait to buy a home until they have saved up the full purchase price. Second, it often makes financial sense to buy rather than rent, since mortgage payments build equity and provide tax deductions, while money spent on renting does not do so. Lifestyle factors are also important, as one has far greater control over a space one owns than over a rented space. 
Another common type of installment loan is a car loan. For most people, the choice between buying a car with a loan and leasing a car is one which depends on price over the period of ownership. Especially if one intends to keep a car for 5-10 years, buying a car with a loan may be less expensive than leasing.
https://www.consumerreports.org/buying-a-car/leasing-vs-buying-a-new-car/

Why did the Waknuk people shoot Sophie?

This question is a bit misleading.  It makes it seem like the Waknuk people stood Sophie up and had her executed.  That's not quite how it happened.  Earlier in the novel, Sophie escapes the Waknuk society by going to the Fringes.  Sophie must escape because she has six toes.  That makes her a Deviant.  The Waknuks are basically okay with Sophie escaping and removing her DNA from the Waknuk gene pool; however, that is not the case when David and his fellow telepaths escape.  The Waknuk people, including David's father, begin hunting David down.  David and his group then get captured by the Fringes, which ends up leading the Waknuks to the Fringes.  A battle soon follows and "the spider-man" shoots Joseph Strorm in the chest.  Sophie is standing next to the spider-man at this point.  

Suddenly he stiffened. His bow came up like a flash, bent to its full. He loosed. The shaft took my father in the left of his chest.

He and Sophie then try to quickly flee the battle.  While fleeing, both Sophie and the spider-man are shot and killed.  

Sophie struggled to her feet and ran on by herself. An arrow pierced right through her upper arm, but she held on, with it lodged there. Then another took her in the back of the neck. She dropped in mid-stride, and her body slid along in the dust...

Perhaps they were natural casualties of the battle, or perhaps the Waknuks intentionally targeted Sophie and the spider-man for killing Joseph Strorm.  Either way, the Waknuk people don't view Sophie and the spider-man as human.  They are Deviants and deserve death.   

What is the role of an interest group in a democracy?

An interest group plays an important role in our democratic system. An interest group is a group of people who share a common view on a particular issue. They will hire lobbyists who will meet with elected officials on the local, state, and/or national level to share the viewpoint of their members on a particular issue. They will try to encourage and/or pressure the elected official to vote they way the group wants them to vote. The lobbyists might also testify at hearings to share the viewpoint of the group.
There are several types of interest groups. There are professional interest groups such as the American Bar Association or the National Education Association. There are public interest groups such as the Sierra Club, which works to advocate for issues that will help protect the environment. This group is working for what they believe is in the best interests of the public. There are also business interest groups that work to advocate for the interests of various businesses and industries.
Interest groups can be very powerful. They will contribute to the campaigns of people running for office. They will endorse candidates and encourage their members to vote for those candidates. The National Rifle Association is a very powerful and influential interest group because this group represents many Americans and is able to contribute lots of financial resources to races that are closely contested.
Interest groups play a big role in our political system.
https://www.ushistory.org/gov/5c.asp