Analyzing the major challenges i faced as a member of a writing Essay

Analyzing the major challenges i faced as a member of a writing community (IMPORTANT worth 20% of my grade) - Essay Example Despite the advantages associated with excellent writing skills, international students face challenges in development of effective writing skills. The challenge is adverse when the English is not the student’s first language. Students from Arabic and French speaking African countries face massive challenges because they must study English as a language before developing the necessary writing skills. Language learning is the process that requires time. For instance, early introduction to language leads to a better understanding of the language. For this case, students study English language at an old stage when in college. Such late introduction to a new language will adversely affect the writing skills of the students. For my case I started studying language in high school and despite the aggressive learning approach, I have not reached a satisfactory level. Therefore, the main challenge is to understand the language and developing the necessary skills with the focus being on the writing skills and style (Briggs 56). The introduction of the various languages at the infant stage of life may be beneficial for the students compared to the current college approach employed. The main challenge in international writing is the understanding of the Standard English for academic use, which affects article or publication quality. Language understanding and proficiency is vital in the development of the necessary writing skills and can be improved through practice and writing. In addition, there are five domains, which an international student can experience difficulties when developing academic writing skills (Briggs 20). The first challenge is the difference in culture. Difference in culture leads to culturally coined problems. The assumed and actual differences in the concepts of academic writing between the country of origin and host country can affect the writing significantly. In fact, it is a considerable challenge for international students because of the difference in understanding and perception. Some words may be translated to give a different meaning to the whole situation. The use of slang within the college causes a challenge because it affects understanding and meaning of words for international student. Academic writing approach between the different nations illustrates the difference in writing concepts which will be evident in the writings. According to Briggs, the observation by teachers indicates that the problems related to cultural adjustment, language and learning are products of cultural differences. The main challenge with culture is the difference in the learning style between country of origin and study country. For instance, the Middle Eastern culture does not encourage male and females interacting freely in the learning environment (Briggs 56). Therefore, the students may face the challenge when studying in the western countries which have no gender related restriction. Such changes will affect the international student and in turn reduce or lead to poor academic success. Culture is a vital issue in learning for international students because it affects perception and understanding. The international students are faced with general-linguistic problems, which result from linguistic knowledge or competency of the student. These are problems that cannot be accounted for by the students because of the second language deficiency (Briggs 23). Additionally, the ability of the student to

His fiend-Like Queen is Malcolms View of Lady Macbeth at the End of the Play Essay Example for Free

His fiend-Like Queen is Malcolms View of Lady Macbeth at the End of the Play Essay Act 1 Scene 5 is the first scene where you see Lady Macbeth. In this scene we are told a lot about Lady Macbeths character and her relationship with husband, Macbeth. The scene opens with Lady Macbeth reading a letter from Macbeth, which brings our attention to two main points. Firstly, Lady Macbeth is literate, which was very unusual at the time and tells us that she may be a well-educated character. Secondly, it shows us that she is very close to her husband; it wasnt a common thing to write to your wife from the battlefield because many generals didnt have the time, but Macbeth has made the time to do this. The content of the letter also shows us a lot; Macbeth tells his wife everything that happened to him in his encounter of the witches, which shows us that he is able to trust his wife. In the letter Macbeth tells his wife that the witches said, Hail King that shalt be! When Lady Macbeth reads this her thoughts, just like Macbeths, jump straight to murder: that which rather thou dost fear to do/Than wishest should be done. Lady Macbeth is determined that Macbeth shall be king and never actually mentions what she will gain from this, Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be/What thou art promised. Lady Macbeth appears to know her husband well, yet do I fear thy nature, /It is too full o th milk of human kindness. This also tells us a lot about Lady Macbeth herself; even after Macbeth has been on the battlefield killing hundreds, most people would see the fact that he could come home and be kind as a great thing, but Lady Macbeth sees this as his weakness. This is thinking very much like the witches foul is fair, and fair is foul. Lady Macbeths character has many attributes, which may be associated with evil and which is, in turn, part of the witches characters. The first of these is the fact that Lady Macbeth is very manipulative: That I may pour my spirits in thine ear. She speaks of the Raven which is a bird associated with death. When she hears that Duncan will be coming to the castle she immediately thinks that this is the perfect opportunity to kill him, she refers to the fatal entrance of Duncan. She calls to the spirits for help: Come you spirits / That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here. make thick my blood, / Stop up th access and passage to remorse. Come to my womans breast/And take my milk for gall, In this speech she is asking the spirits to take her womanly tendencies away from her so that she is able to kill Duncan without feeling remorse and without those feminine feelings or attributes that may weaken her. In Shakespeares time witches were linked with the devil and gave away their femininity when they linked themselves to him, therefore when Lady Macbeth willingly asks for her feminine characteristics to be taken from her own body, she links herself to the supernatural, and therefore the witches. The speech also tells us that Lady Macbeth doesnt believe that she is normally able to kill someone; she thinks that this is the only way she will be able to do it and is trying to convince herself that she is evil throughout the scene. What is said in this speech is very similar to the one Macbeth makes, when he asks himself to not think about the treason and murder he is committing. This makes another link between Macbeth and his wife when Lady Macbeth says: Come thick night/And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell. This line shows us a lot, first that it reflects Macbeths, Let not light see my black and deep desires. The fact that she speaks of night links her to the witches, since night is the witches element. This line also links her subtly to the main dark themes of the play. Lady Macbeth has a very strong character and is very controlling, which was a characteristic uncommon at the time: and you shall put/This nights great business into my dispatch. She is taking everything into her own hands and seeing all the opportunities she has at that moment, but is failing to see further than that, to the consequences that may come about from her actions. In this scene Lady Macbeth does come across as having an evil nature. She is manipulative and is able to think about killing someone without much second thought, as well as able to link herself to the supernatural and destroy her feminine body in search of a greater power. In scene 6 Duncan arrives at Macbeths castle in Inverness. In this scene the first thing the reader realises once you have read it is the dramatic irony in it; Duncan says The air / Nimbly and Sweetly recommends itself/Unto our gentle senses and is talking about how nice the castle is when he is in fact very unsafe at Macbeths castle. This scene is also a very good example of Lady Macbeths deceiving abilities; she is sweet-talking Duncan and being kind, All our service, /In every point twice done then doubled and To make their audit at your Highness pleasure: she is being the perfect hostess. She is almost over doing the acting in the way she is flattering him so much, Still to return your own. Lady Macbeth is very two faced and hypocritical in this scene We rest your Hermits. She is taking up Duncans reference to prayer, How you shall bid God ild us for your pains, and this is hypocritical because of the prayers that she made to the spirits/That tend on mortal thoughts about taking away her womanly aspects. Scene 7 opens with Macbeth contemplating the plan to murder Duncan. He comes up with three strong reasons why he shouldnt kill him: First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, /Strong both against the deed; then, as his host, but there is still a present desire to be King. Lady Macbeth then comes into the scene and does not like what Macbeth is saying. She starts by putting him on the back foot by answering his questions with more questions: Macbeth: How now? What news? Lady Macbeth: He has almost supped. Why have you left the chamber? Macbeth: Hath he asked for me? Lady Macbeth: Know you not he has? This is where Macbeth tries to take charge and tells lady Macbeth [They] will proceed no further in this business and he tells her that he is happy, I have bought/ Golden opinions from all sorts of people. She doesnt take this into account and starts attacking. She starts by emotionally black mailing him, questioning his love for her, Such I account thy love, asking that, if he says that he wishes to be King and then take it back, how can she trust that he really does love her when he says it. She then attacks his ego, suggesting he is a coward even after he has come back from killing thousands of people on the battlefield: Wouldst thou have that/Which thou esteemst the ornament of life, /And live a coward in thine own esteem. She compares him to the cat, which would never go for the fish, Like the poor cat Ithage? She is asking him a rhetorical question, putting the thought into his head that he has the desire but not the guts to seize his dreams. She then attacks his manhood: What beast wast then? That made you break this enterprise to me? When you durst do it, then you were a man; / And to be more then what you were, you would be so much more the man. Then to prove her point further, and show us the length she is forcing herself mentally to convince herself she is truly evil, she presents this horrible image: How tendertis to love the babe that milks me-I would while it was smiling in my face Have plucked my nipple from its boneless gums, and dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you have done. After this Lady Macbeth manages to sway Macbeth back to the murder with her certainty: Macbeth: If we should fail? Lady Macbeth: We fail? But screw your courage to the sticking-place, And well not fail. She is almost mocking him with the we fail? making him feel small with the suggestion of it. Then she asserts her control over him again with And well not fail. She then shows us how she is a practical by explaining her plan to Macbeth; His spongy officers, who shall bar the guilt / Of our great quell? This speech really convinces Macbeth to go through with the murder and proves once again that, at this point, Lady Macbeth really does have control over Macbeth. This scene shows that Lady Macbeth has many evil traits; she is manipulative and controlling. She is also a very practical woman with her plan. Act 2 Scene 2 opens up with a short soliloquy from Lady Macbeth and the content of this soliloquy is quite contradictory; whereas in Act 1 where Lady Macbeth comes across as very confident, here she says What hath quenched them hath given me fire suggesting that maybe she isnt a naturally confident person and is trying to be. She comes across as being nervous and jumpy, Hark! Peace! It was the owl that shrieked. She lacks confidence in her husband: Th attempt and not the deed Confounds us. Just from hearing Macbeth say, Whos there? What ho! she jumps to the conclusion they have failed in plan. Next we see a whole new side to Lady Macbeth Had he not resembled My father as he slept, I had donet. This is proof that maybe Lady Macbeth has a heart and is not the cold heartless person she tries to make herself out to be. This is also an example of her stupidity; she doesnt make the connection between what she says and what she does. Lady Macbeth isnt a very understanding woman, another sign that she isnt very clever: when Macbeth comes in he is traumatized by what he has just done, instead of Lady Macbeth being caring and understanding she gets angry at him, Why did you bring these daggers from the place? They must lie there. Go carry them, and smear / The sleepy grooms with blood. When Macbeth looks at his bloody hands and says, This is a sorry sight. Lady Macbeth replies with A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight. That is also a sign of her practicality she is trying to get Macbeth to not dwell on his thoughts. Then there is also another sign of nervousness between them both with the short exchanges when they first meet: Macbeth: When? Lady Macbeth: Now. Macbeth: As I descended? Lady Macbeth: Ay. Lady Macbeth isnt very understanding at all of what her husband is going through and tells him, Consider it not so deeply. In act 2 scene 3 we see examples of Lady Macbeths practicality and ability to act. The scene opens with Macduff and Lennox entering, wishing to see the King and then finding him dead. Lady Macbeth enters and we see how her acting abilities are still strong, with her pretending she has no idea what has happened Whats the business, and it comes across that she genuinely doesnt seem to have an idea about what is going on. There is the irony of Macduff calling her, O gentle lady, when earlier we are given these horrible images by her, And dashed the brains out. She then manages to keep up the charade by coming across as horrified by the death of the King, Woe, alas! / What, in our house? Macbeth then enters and starts to give these flowery speeches: The wine of life is drawn, and his gashed stabs looked like a breach in nature: when these are compared to the initial reaction of Macduff, O horror, horror, horror! they appear to be prepared. Lady Macbeth can see this and sees how this is getting her husband into deeper trouble and she faints, drawing the attention away from her husband, another example of Lady Macbeths practicality and affection for her husband, she wishes to protect him. It is also possible that the vivid descriptions her husband has given, His silver skin laced with his golden blood, has really shown to her what they have done and the shock of this may have caused her to faint. It may have also been due to shock in the change of her husband, before this he was a wreck at the thought of what he had done: I am afraid to think what I have done. now he is able to lie with apparent ease, talking about the man he murdered so highly, and the guards he murdered while they were still sleeping. She scared at what her husband has become. By the end of act 2 we have seen cracks in Lady Macbeths visage, she is not as strong as she believes she is and she lacks the imagination to see this. In Act 3 Macbeth is now King and Lady Macbeth is the queen. The scene opens with Banquos soliloquy, then the full royal court entering and Lady Macbeth greets Banquo with great gusto, If he had been forgotten, / It had been as a gap in our great feast. After there has been much chatter between Macbeth and Banquo, Banquo leaves and Macbeth dismisses everyone including his Dearest love: before he was always with her and needed her opinion on decision and she was very much in control. Is this a suggestion that Macbeth doesnt feel he needs her guidance now or is he trying to be the man Lady Macbeth tried to suggest he wasnt? She must being feeling rather insignificant now and most probably hurt that after what they had just done that he could dismiss her like that. Act 3 scene 2 opens with Lady Macbeth asking permission to see her husband, Say to the King, I would attend his leisure / For a few words. This is very strange because before Lady Macbeth would never have had to ask to see her husband. Does this mean she has lost the power she had over her husband and isnt in control like she use to be? We then see that Lady Macbeth isnt the evil person she made herself out to be; we see she is hurting from what has happened: Tis safer to be that which we destroy, / Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy. Macbeth then enters and Lady Macbeth forgets about her worries and starts trying to comfort Macbeth, whats done is done. But she isnt taking her own advice, she is, without content. Macbeth then talks about his torment and uses this vivid imagery, O full of scorpions is my mind, Macbeth then drops hints that something is going to happen, there shall be done / A deed of dreadful note. In this same speech Macbeths also uses the imagery of creatures associated with evil and death: The shard-borne beetle so we can assume he is talking about the plan to kill Banquo. Lady Macbeth is properly feeling very confused at this point, before Macbeth included her in all the discussions and now she has no idea what he is talking about, Whats to be done? So by the end of this scene we have truly seen the soft and feminine side to Lady Macbeth: we have also seen the first signs of her coming collapse. We have seen examples of her love for Macbeth by casting aside her own worries to try to look after him. The first key point about Act 3 scene 4 is the notable change in Lady Macbeths behaviour. In Act 1 she was very welcoming and talkative with her guests coming across as being a strong character but is this scene she has lost this strong visage, she has to be prompted to welcome her guests, Our hostess keeps her state, but in best time / We will require her welcome. After this though we are able to see some of Lady Macbeths old characteristics, when Macbeth is distracted with talking to the Murderers, Lady Macbeth notes that he is away too long and reminds him he is holding a dinner, You do not give the cheer, an example of her practicality. Soon after Macbeth he rejoins the dinner he mental state deteriorates, when he sees Banquos ghost. Lady Macbeth steps in here with her practicality and tries to bring her husband back while passing off his madness as having some sort of fit: My lord is often thus, / And hath been from his youth She is finally able to bring him back by attacking his ego again by repeating the line, Are you a man? She is then fairly harsh to Macbeth mocking what he said earlier in the play, This is the air-drawn dagger which you said / Led you to Duncan. We see her lack of imagination, You look but on a stool. She is still unable to understand why Macbeth is suffering. Lady Macbeth is then able to bring Macbeth back to reality, where he starts acting normal but then mentions Banquo again, this sets Macbeth off again as the ghost reappears and he goes mad. Lady Macbeth steps in once again with her practicality and gets rid of the court so she can attend to her husband and before he is able to say to much about the murders, Stand not upon the order of your going. / But go at once. When the rest of the court has left, Lady Macbeth changes: her answers become short. At some point she must have realised what Macbeth had been seeing, changing how she was. Is her quietness a response to what Macbeth has become? She believed that this would only take one murder, and now Macbeth has murdered four times. She must be feeling scared, before she was very much in charge and now Macbeth is fully in control and not asking her opinions. There is already the idea of another murder in his head: Strange things I have in head, That will to hand; / Which must be acted ere they may be scanned. By the end of this act you can see Lady Macbeth is scared and she has lost the control she had over her husband. She isnt the strong character she was in Acts 1 and 2 only her practicality is left. Act 5 scene 1 is when Lady Macbeth has finally gone mad. Shakespeare gives little indication of time in the play, but from what we can gather a fair amount of time has passed, and over this time we can tell that he mental state has deteriorated. The scene starts off by telling us that Lady Macbeth has been sleeping walking and going through the routine of writing a letter, then reading it. I believe this refers to the letter she received from Macbeth about the witches; the letter which started the whole affair off. I think that subconsciously she is wishing for everything to go back to that moment so none of this ever happened. She enters sleep walking carrying a candle and the gentlewoman says that Lady Macbeth has, light by her / continually, tis her command. This is ironic because earlier in the play Lady Macbeth says, pall thee in thy dunnest smoke of hell. So after wishing not to see the light she cant bare to be without it. There is then more irony in this scene, Out damned spot, out I say! she is unable to wash the blood from her hands and to Macbeth earlier she says: A little water will clear us of this deed. She almost repeats Macbeths, Will all great Neptunes ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hands?: with the smell of the blood still; all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. We can see now that she always did understand what her husband was saying, but on a subconscious level: she lacked the imagination to understand when conscious. Earlier in Macbeth Lady Macbeth asked: Come thick night / and pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, and now she says, Hell is Murky. It appears that she is now in her own hell and it is terrifying. Throughout the scene there is more imagery of blood, we have Lady Macbeth mocking Macbeth about being upset about killing Duncan, now she is saying: Who would have thought the man has so much blood in him. At first she acted as if she was fine and didnt have a conscience, we now see that everything had built up and has been affecting her: The Thane of Fife had a wife; where is she now? What, will these hands neer be clean? She is even suffering for the murders she had nothing to do with. After reading Macbeth and carefully analysing Lady Macbeths actions throughout I think we are able to feel some pity for Lady Macbeth. I think she can be blamed partly for the Tragedy of Macbeth because she did push her husband to commit the murder, but we do not fully see what her motivation for this was. My view is that she was mainly doing what she thought her husband deserved because it is obvious through the play that she is deeply in love with Macbeth. Also taking into consideration the time the play is set was it not Macbeths place to stick with what he originally felt and tell her that they would not murder the King? I think pity grows towards her as the play goes on; as the reader you can see a change in her character, which quite clearly shows us that she never intended for Macbeth to become theevil tyrant he did become. Another reason for her to be pitied is that you can see she is in pain and suffering but she ignores this to try and comfort her husband who is more open about his suffering. This drives Lady Macbeth crazy in the end, and the idea that she died because of her love for her husband is tragic. This is why I think Malcolms view of lady Macbeth, His fiend-Like Queen is unfair towards her and that it was Macbeths place to have put a stop to the murder which eventually led to both of their deaths.

Good vs. Evil in Macbeth :: Macbeth essays

Good vs. Evil in Macbeth The good characters in Macbeth are less interesting than the evil ones. Everybody has an 'evil seed' planted in them. Only the really evil person acts on them and commits something morally wrong. Like Macbeth. When Macbeth first received the prophecies, he actually considered them. " Two truths are told,...but what is not" (line 137-152, Pg 27-29). We see him arguing with himself and feeling disgusted that he even thought that. That was interesting because we get the feeling that something out of the ordinary is coming up and our anticipation gets into the story straightaway. At the end, we didn't expect that a murderer like Macbeth would have a dramatic and poetic imagination "To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,...And then is heard no more: it is a tale" (line 21-28, Pg 233), or that he would, even in defeat, display conscience and bravery. "I will not yield to kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet,...And damn'd be him that first cries 'Hold, enough!'" (line 32-39, Pg 249 ). We are surprised, and astonished because we see Macbeth in a different light and for that reason, he is interesting. While Banquo (the good character) on the other hand, was sceptical and quickly dismissed the idea of the prophecies, saying it was just their imagination. " Were such thing here as we do speak about? ...That takes the reason prisoner?" (line 86-89, Pg 27). That response was so predictable. There was no excitement at all. Lady Macbeth. When she got the letter from Macbeth about the prophecies, she immediately thinks of murder and we saw how evil she really was. " The raven himself is hoarse,...To cry, 'Hold, hold!'" (line 41-57, Pg 41). Here we see her summon evil spirits to thicken her blood and to turn her milk into bitter gall and then calls on them to prevent her from feeling remorse and to remove her femineity. This is very intriguing. We didn't even expect that an apparently strong, practical, and determined woman would act in such contradiction to her womanliness. We also see her as a selfish woman when Macbeth had second thoughts about murdering King Duncan. "Was the hope drunk...Like the poor cat I' the adage?" (line 38-48, Pg 59), "What beast was't then...As you have done to this" (line 52-64, Pg 59). She then attacks his manhood to persuade him to kill Duncan.

Demise of the Permian- Triassic Period Essay examples -- Exploratory E

Demise of the Permian- Triassic Period It is well known that there was a mass extinction killing the dinosaurs. However 185 million years before their demise, almost all life on earth was destroyed.1[1] There has long been theories that meteorites are the cause the of the mass extinctions and professor Asish Basu believes he may have found clues that point to space as the cause of the extinction in the Permian- Triassic period.2[2] The Triassic period is during a time when the earth was divided in a giant land mass: pangea, and water. Here there was no separation of continents. The Triassic is when the dinosaurs first started to appear, but long before the notorious Tyrannosaurus Rex dominated the terrain. At this time the dinosaurs were just a small part of the many animals that wandered the earth and were by no means, the large dominant, creatures that come to ones mind today. However the marker of this period is an extinction of the animals in the Permian period. The Permian period is known for the abundance of flora and the major changes in landscape including the formation of the Appalachian Mountains.3[3] Most notably is the giant fern: glossopteris. However at the end of the period, during the time of the extinction, it too disappeared.4[4] Professor Basu and his colleagues found fragments of chondritic minerals with mineral compositions that do not occur on earth, in Antarictica. These minerals have very similar chemical composition to minerals found in Meishan China. Because such similar extra-terrestrial minerals have been discovered in two geographically distant places, there is evidence that a meteor struck the earth and the dust that covered the land was significant enough to co... ... If it was a meteor it could give new insight to what kind of meteor it was and how it killed almost an entire planet’s living organisms. Either way, this evidence should not be taken lightly and is a crucial to the world of science. Notes: 1[1] Basu, Asish; Petaev, Michail I.; Poreda, Robert J.; Jacobsen, Stein B.; Becker, Luann, Science: â€Å"Chondritic Meteorite Fragments Associated with the Permian-Triassic Boundary in Antarctica†, Vol 302, Issue 5649, 1388-1392 , 21 November 2003 2[2] Basu 3[3] Encyclopedia. http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/section/Permianp_HistoricalGeologyofthePeriod.asp 4[4] Associate Press. CNN: â€Å"Ancient Meteorite Wiped Out Life† Washington, Nov. 20, 2003 5[5] Basu, 6[6] Associated Press 7[7] Basu, 8[8] Britt, Robert Roy, Science: â€Å"Controversial New Claim in Death-by-Meteor Case†, 20 November 2003 9[9] Britt 10[10] Britt

Compare and Contrast Seabiscuit vs Secretariat

Seabiscuit vs. Secretariat Impossible. A word the average English speaking individual fears. It is defined as: incapable of being done. In 2010 Walt Disney released Secretariat, a movie that tells the impossible true story of possibly, the greatest racehorse ever. Universal Studios DreamWorks released Seabiscuit several years prior. Similarly, the movie Seabiscuit provides its audience with a portal back in time to tell yet another seemingly impossible true story. Except this movie tales the journey of three men and one very special horses’ rise to success and fame.While both films recount inspirational and seemingly impossible true stories, Seabiscuit edges out Secretariat at the wire through the use of a more historically accurate plot, first-class acting and far more believable cinematography. The sheer amount of historical accuracy maintained throughout Seabiscuit far outweighs Walt Disney’s portrayal of Secretariat. In Seabiscuit, each of the main character’ s personal struggles is told throughout the first part of the film.These struggles show how the characters came together in real life, provides the audience with an adequate understanding of the effect of the Great Depression on them and allows the viewers to connect emotionally to them as well. In Secretariat, many of the people who were major parts of his journey were completely omitted. The overall feel of the film is very Disney like; in the essence of follow your dreams and they will come true. Ultimately, Walt Disney turned Secretariat into just another dramatic fairy tale.Too many actual events and characters were left out of the film, which in turn, took away from the real drama of Secretariat’s story. Seabiscuit incorporates a narration of the times and also includes historic photos and footage that capture the era. Unlike Secretariat, Seabiscuit manages to not only maintain historical integrity but is quite entertaining as well. Thus making Seabiscuit the clear winn er. The first-class acting in Seabiscuit undoubtedly surpasses the acting in Secretariat. Toby Maguire stars in Seabiscuit as Seabiscuit’s jockey John â€Å"Red† Pollard.First off, Maguire had to dramatically change his physical appearance in order to fit the part of a skinny impoverished jockey. His character â€Å"Red† faced the Great Depression head on, forced to leave his family at the mere age of fifteen. The movie follows Pollard from this point on and lets the audience see the adversity he faced throughout his life. Maguire delivers an award-winning performance by capturing and delivering the sheer emotion that fueled Red Pollard through his life and eventually onto the back of Seabiscuit.His stellar acting was a quintessential part of the movie’s success. On the other hand, in Secretariat the main character Penny Chennery played by Diane Lane was not as fulfilling. Her character felt very forced and dramatized for the big screen. Throughout the mo vie the audience is able to predict her every move, her character feels like just another typical Hollywood role; nothing compared to the woman she actually was. The loss of her actual prowess takes away from the overall movie. When compared to Maguire’s performance, Lane failed to cross the finish line.While both Seabiscuit and Secretariat are true stories based on phenomenal racehorses, Seabiscuit has a much more coherent flow. For example, both movies originate from very distinguished eras; Seabiscuit however, makes it very clear to the audience that the story took place during the Great Depression. The use of actual photos and video footage from the time allows the audience to actually understand the tribulations of the times. The camera angles used during racing scenes literally places you in the saddle, allowing viewers to take their very own ride down the home stretch.Overall, Seabiscuit feels real. The transitions from scene to scene are smooth and are never predictab le. On the contrary, Secretariat feels forced. Walt Disney in a sense destroyed the movie by adding too much drama. Many scenes are obviously fabricated to a point where the audience loses sight of the true story behind the movie. Furthermore, Seabiscuit yet again edges out Secretariat by staying true to the seemingly impossible story that was already complete for Hollywood.In conclusion, like many movies based on a true story Secretariat and Seabiscuit are both very informative. However, Seabiscuit managed to maintain historical integrity through first-class acting and believable cinematography. Seabiscuit and Secretariat’s story of overcoming the impossible was already perfect for Hollywood. Walt Disney fell short by not sticking to the real script and adding too much drama to Secretariat. All in all Seabiscuit raced into the heart of its viewers and never looked back.

Learn About the Many Varieties of Quartz

Learn About the Many Varieties of Quartz Quartz  is an old German word that originally meant something like hard or tough. It is the most common mineral in the continental crust, and the one with the simplest chemical formula: silicon dioxide or SiO2. Quartz is so common in crustal rocks that its more notable when quartz is missing than when its present.   How to Identify Quartz Quartz comes in many colors and shapes. Once you start studying minerals, though, quartz becomes easy to tell at a glance. You can recognize it by these identifiers: A glassy lusterHardness 7 on the Mohs scale, scratching ordinary glass and all types of steelIt breaks into curved shards rather than flat-faced cleavage fragments, meaning it exhibits conchoidal fracture.Almost always clear or whiteAlmost always present in light-colored rocks and in sandstonesIf found in crystals, quartz always has a hexagonal cross-section like that of a common pencil. Most examples of quartz are clear, frosted, or found as milky-white grains of small size that dont display crystal faces. Clear quartz may appear dark if its in a rock with a lot of dark minerals. Special Quartz Varieties The pretty crystals and vivid colors youll see in jewelry and in rock shops are scarce. Here are some of those precious varieties: Clear, colorless quartz is called rock crystal.Translucent white quartz is called milky quartz.Milky pink quartz is called rose quartz. Its color is thought to be due to various impurities (titanium, iron, manganese) or microscopic inclusions of other minerals.Purple quartz is called amethyst. Its color is due to holes of missing electrons in the crystal in combination with iron impurities.Yellow quartz is called citrine. Its color is due to iron impurities.Green quartz is called praseolite. Iron impurities account for its color, too.Gray quartz is called smoky quartz. Its color is due to holes of missing electrons in combination with aluminum impurities.Brown smoky quartz is called cairngorm and black smoky quartz is called morion.The Herkimer diamond is a form of natural quartz crystal with two pointed ends. Quartz also occurs in a microcrystalline form called chalcedony. Together, both minerals are also referred to as silica. Where Quartz Is Found Quartz is perhaps the most common mineral on our planet. In fact, one test of a meteorite (if you think youve found one)  is to be sure it doesnt have any quartz. Quartz is found in most geologic settings, but it most typically forms sedimentary rocks like sandstone. This is no surprise when you consider that nearly all the sand on Earth is made almost exclusively from grains of quartz. Under mild heat and pressure conditions, geodes can form in sedimentary rocks that are lined with crusts of quartz crystals deposited from underground fluids. In igneous rocks, quartz is the defining mineral of granite. When granitic rocks crystallize deep underground, quartz is generally the last mineral to form and usually has no room to form crystals. But in pegmatites quartz can sometimes form very large crystals, as long as a meter. Crystals also occur in veins associated with hydrothermal (super-heated water) activity in the shallow crust. In metamorphic rocks such as gneiss, quartz becomes concentrated in bands and veins. In this setting, its grains do not take their typical crystal form. Sandstone, too, turns into a massive quartz rock called quartzite. Geological Significance of Quartz Among the common minerals, quartz is the toughest and most inert. It makes up the backbone of good soil, providing mechanical strength and holding open pore space between its grains. Its superior hardness and resistance to dissolution are what make sandstone and granite endure. Thus you could say that quartz holds up the mountains. Prospectors are always alert to veins of quartz because these are signs of hydrothermal activity and the possibility of ore deposits. To the geologist, the amount of silica in a rock is a basic and important bit of geochemical knowledge. Quartz is a ready sign of high silica, for example in rhyolite lava. Quartz is hard, stable, and low in density. When found in abundance, quartz always points to a continental rock because the tectonic processes that have built the Earths continents favor quartz.  As it moves through the tectonic cycle of erosion, deposition, subduction, and magmatism, quartz lingers in the uppermost crust and always comes out on top.

MASH TV Show Premiers

MASH TV Show Premiers MASH was an extremely popular TV series, which first aired on CBS on September 17, 1972. Based on the real experiences of a surgeon in the Korean War, the series centered upon the interrelationships, stresses, and trauma involved in being in a MASH unit. MASHs final episode, which aired on February 28, 1983, had the largest audience of any single TV episode in U.S. history. The Book and Movie The concept of the MASH storyline was thought up by Dr. Richard Hornberger. Under the pseudonym Richard Hooker, Dr. Hornberger wrote the book MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors (1968), which was based on his own experiences as a surgeon in the Korean War. In 1970, the book was turned into a movie, also called MASH, which was directed by Robert Altman and starred Donald Sutherland as Hawkeye Pierce and Elliot Gould as Trapper John McIntyre. The MASH TV Show With nearly an entirely new cast, the same MASH characters from the book and movie first appeared on television screens in 1972. This time, Alan Alda played Hawkeye Pierce and Wayne Rogers played Trapper John McIntyre. Rogers, however, didnt like playing a sidekick and left the show at the end of season three. Viewers found out about this change in episode one of season four, when Hawkeye comes back from RR only to discover that Trapper was discharged while he was away; Hawkeye just misses being able to say goodbye. Season four through eleven presented Hawkeye and B.J. Hunnicut (played by Mike Farrell) as being close friends. Another surprising character change also occurred at the end of season three. Lt. Col. Henry Blake (played by McLean Stevenson), who was the head of the MASH unit, gets discharged. After saying a tearful goodbye to the other characters, Blake climbs into a helicopter and flies off. Then, in a surprising turn of events, Radar reports that Blake was shot down over the Sea of Japan. At the beginning of season four, Col. Sherman Potter (played by Harry Morgan) replaced Blake as head of the unit. Other memorable characters included Margaret Hot Lips Houlihan (Loretta Swit), Maxwell Q. Klinger (Jamie Farr), Charles Emerson Winchester III (David Ogden Stiers), Father Mulcahy (William Christopher), and Walter Radar OReilly (Gary Burghoff). The Plot The general plot of MASH revolves around army doctors who are stationed at the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) of the United States Army, located in the village of Uijeongbu, just north of Seoul in South Korea, during the Korean War. Most of the episodes of the MASH television series ran for half an hour and had multiple story lines, often with one being humorous and another being serious. The Final MASH Show Although the real Korean War ran only three years (1950-1953), the MASH series ran for eleven (1972-1983). The MASH show ended at the end of its eleventh season.  Goodbye, Farewell and Amen, the 256th episode aired on February 28, 1983,  showcasing the last days of the Korean War with all the characters going their separate ways. The night it aired, 77 percent of American TV viewers watched the two-and-a-half-hour special, which was the largest audience to ever watch a single episode of a television show. AfterMASH Not wanting  MASH  to end, the three actors who played Colonel Potter, Sergeant Klinger, and Father Mulcahy created a spinoff called  AfterMASH. First airing on September 26, 1983, this half-hour spinoff television show featured these three MASH  characters reuniting after the Korean War at a veterans hospital. Despite starting off strong in its first season,  AfterMASHs  popularity dumped after being  moved to a different time slot during its second season, airing opposite the very popular show  The A-Team. The show was ultimately cancelled just nine episodes into its second season. A spinoff for Radar called  W*A*L*T*E*R  was also considered in July 1984 but was never picked up for a series.

Convert Pascals to Atmospheres Unit Conversion Problem

Convert Pascals to Atmospheres Unit Conversion Problem This example problem demonstrates how to convert the pressure units pascals (Pa) to atmospheres (atm). Pascal is a SI pressure unit that refers to newtons per square meter. Atmosphere originally was a unit related to the air pressure at sea level. It was later defined as 1.01325 x 105 Pa. Pa to Atm Problem The air pressure outside a cruising jet liner is approximately 2.3 x 104 Pa. What is this pressure in atmospheres?Solution:1 atm 1.01325 x 105 PaSet up the conversion so the desired unit will be cancelled out. In this case, we want Pa to be the remaining unit.pressure in atm (pressure in Pa) x (1 atm/1.01325 x 105 Pa)pressure in atm (2.3 x 104/1.01325 x 105) Papressure in atm 0.203 atmAnswer:The air pressure at cruising altitude is 0.203 atm. Check Your Work One quick check you should do to make sure your answer is reasonable is to compare the answer in atmospheres to the value in pascals. The atm value should be about 10,000 times smaller than the number in pascals.

Chinese history--- Is Modernizing the Ancient Possible Essay

Chinese history--- Is Modernizing the Ancient Possible - Essay Example China stuck to the Confucian teaching of humanity and avoided by all means any technical skill acquisition or professional training. This no doubt led to its backwardness. As history would tell, China’s economic and political stagnation during the 20th century can be said to be their own folly. It is interesting to note that China was a giant of trade especially in the East, with all the resources that would be a pre-requisite for steering any growth and development of any country yet economically it was crippled (Wright 3). This could be explained through a number of factors. For instance, its response to the west when it (the West) widely opened its arms for trade with them. The Chinese rebelled against them seeing them not as potential economic partners but as enemies, coming to frustrate their culture and their way of life. This kind of reasoning is based on the fact that the Chinese were fully obsessed with their culture and the need to maintain the status quo that any foreign interference would be met with resistance. They were therefore not linked by a program which could foster the country’s growth but by their search for what th ey termed as spiritual values and critique of the West and their influence (BBC 1). The Confucians view morality as a key ingredient for the cultivation of social relations with the essence of government being nothing short of good morals. Things however began to change with the collapse of the Han dynasty causing a stiff religious competition with Taoism aimed at cultivation of meditation as a form of internal discipline. The reform that took place through the interaction with the outside world aftermath reshaped Buddhism as the neo-Confucians, giving it a new look on the self mindset and a philosophical evaluation of the world. This change was in itself not easy since China thwarted every attempt for change, especially one that they viewed as being imposed on them by foreigners. Even though the

Business communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Business communication - Essay Example Culture alludes to the learned and imparted examples in a general public. Individuals exhibit their culture through values, plans, disposition and their methodology to communication. While it would be nearly impossible to retain an arrangement of cultural contrasts among nations (Shwom, and Snyder 17)viable communicators approach their errands with an open personality and are prepared to adjust to different cultural needs. A few cultures, in the same way as the Chinese, are more formal than others. Chinese businessmen take after an endorsed set of principles about how to show admiration to managers and other senior associates. Individuals from different cultures, in the same way as Germans, are all the more concerned with dependability, and may be irritated on the off chance that somebody touches base at a gathering 10 minutes late. (Shwom, and Snyder 17). By expanding our consciousness of cultural contrasts and keeping an open dialogue with our associates, we can adjust our conduct as required. The following scenarios focus on two communication challenges between a British and Chinese company doing business together. The challenges arise from one key difference between Chinese and British business cultures: Chinese businesses are very hierarchical, while British businesses are more egalitarian or democratic. (Shwom, and Snyder 17) That means in china, senior members of the company are accorded special respect and treated differently than their employees .by contrast in Britain everyone is accorded equal respect. An organization from Great Britain contracted a Chinese firm to go about as the deals representative for its items in China. The British provincial administrator accountable for Asia Pacific deals made an email dispersion rundown to communicate effectively with the entire assemble in China. The head of offers in China was offended at being included in the schedule with lesser associates. This strategy

Measuring Business Performance Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 2

Measuring Business Performance - Coursework Example According to Chary (2009: 19.7) efficiency is defined as the ability of a business to produce a desired effect, service or a product with a minimum amount of effort. While effectiveness is defined as the degree or extent to which objectives are achieved, it is being successful in realizing or achieving what is required. Wharton (2012) defines effectiveness as the total output that is generated while efficiency refers to the economy in the utilization or use of resources to perform a task. Assume a lathe operator assigned to make bushes, makes 500 bushes per shift using 25 kilogram of steel rod. The effectiveness is that the operator makes 500 bushes per shift while the efficiency is that the operator produces 25 bushes per kilogram of steel rod. i) Higher levels of effectiveness and efficiency contribute to better results. They enable the company to increase their productivity by producing lower cost goods and services than competitors. This therefore makes the company to make higher profit for each unit sold or offer lower price than competitors to the customers (Wharton (2012: 24). ii) The company is able to develop a competitive advantage over its competitors. Higher levels of efficiency and effectiveness enable organizations to produce high quality goods and services. The organization is able to utilize their resources optimally to achieve desired output thus being ahead of their competitors (Chary, 2009: 19.8). iii) Finally, achieving higher levels of effectiveness and efficiency enables businesses to learn how to energize their workforce to focus on common goals. It helps the organization to manage and direct their human capital towards goal achievement and mission fulfillment. The organization is therefore able to create better communication, leadership, interaction, direction, adaptability as well as positive environment (Chary,

Developmental Model of Health and Nursing Essay

Developmental Model of Health and Nursing - Essay Example Allen sought to introduce a strength-based model of practice in nursing. Having interest in practicing nursing to promote health within the family has influenced my choice for this model. This approach involved a transformation in the way nurses handled issues concerning health. In the context defined by Allen, health was one of the social issues, and there was great potential of socializing it within the family setting. Therefore, Allen highlighted the urgency for nurses to initiate partnerships with the patient and family (Bomar, 2004). Moreover, the new approach required nurses to shift from the traditional perspective that focused on illness, deficit, and problems. They needed to replace such thinking with a perspective that identified the strengths of the individual and his family. With the new perspective, the nurse would then concentrate on motivating families to utilize their inherent strengths, and available resources in their efforts to achieve health goals. Moyra Allen con structed frameworks that nurses needed to adhere to, in their venture to embrace the new approach of nursing (Allen, & Warner, 2002). Prior to the description of the new approach, many nurses sought to identify the problem with the patients, and then advanced to identify viable solutions to the problem (Bomar, 2004). However, the developmental model of health and nursing sought to discourage nursing from the identification of problems as the initial step towards promotion of health. According to the basics of this model, adopting an approach that centers on identifying problems introduces setbacks to promotion of health. The family embraces the problem as a stigmatizing label, and triggers the negative feeling of helplessness. With such a negative attitude,... This report stresses that Allen sought to introduce a strength-based model of practice in nursing. Having interest in practicing nursing to promote health within the family has influenced my choice for this model. This approach involved a transformation in the way nurses handled issues concerning health. In the context defined by Allen, health was one of the social issues, and there was great potential of socializing it within the family setting. Therefore, Allen highlighted the urgency for nurses to initiate partnerships with the patient and family. This paper makes a conclusion that the new approach required nurses to shift from the traditional perspective that focused on illness, deficit, and problems. They needed to replace such thinking with a perspective that identified the strengths of the individual and his family. With the new perspective, the nurse would then concentrate on motivating families to utilize their inherent strengths, and available resources in their efforts to achieve health goals. The McGill model seeks to build a rapport between the nurse and the family of the patient. Contrary to the deficit perspective that dominated the nursing field, this model highlighted the need for a strength perspective that focused on the capacity that the family possessed and that would serve the critical role of promoting health. Allen highlighted that focusing on capacities, resources and capacities of the family was the most critical step in establishing a working partnerships between the family and the nurse.

The federal budget deficit Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The federal budget deficit - Research Paper Example The US budget picture has evolved through leaps and bounds. The current federal deficit for the government went down by 37% from the previous years pictures. The decline in the fiscal deficit shows improvement in the economy. But is the decline in the deficit figure enough for the economic longevity and prosperity? What factors can help in improving the deficit picture of the country? We will conduct an analysis to comprehend the federal budget deficit situation and find answers to the above questions. The US deficit has not always been in a bad shape with the 19th century showing surplus figures and holding deficits only during wartime. Initially the deficit was very small with numbers peaking in the World War 1 and 2. During the 1960s till the 1990s there can be seen a steady increase in the deficit. The deficit crossed the ten percent GDP barrier owing to the crises that hit the economy in the year 2008. The movement of the federal deficit can be seen from the graph below: (Usgove rnmentspending.com, 2013) Now looking at the deficit scenario one needs to understand the current market implications and the forecasted figures of the federal budget deficit. ‘The federal government took in $680 billion less revenue than it spent, or about 4.1 percent of gross domestic product. In 2012, those numbers were $1.087 trillion and 6.8 percent of GDP. That means the deficit fell a whopping 37 percent in one year.’ (Irwin, 2013) The reason behind the figures for the year 2013 is the increase in the government receipts due to the high payroll taxes that are a result of the increased income. The effect of this is the decrease in expenses is terms of unemployment insurance benefits that decreased with the improving economy. The US economy has cut its fiscal tail in order to achieve the results. But one can argue that the decline in the federal deficit is very rapid. The austerity measures taken by the government has taken a deficit that was 4.5% in the first quar ter of the this fiscal year to a 3% when the figures were published at the year-end. According to many economists the drastic measures by the government cannot improve the economy in the long run. The economy needs to grow at a steady pace keeping all its factors of production in line, leading to a better and positive growth of the country. ‘Goldman's projections indicate that simply allowing the economy to grow will result in significant deficit reduction without painful spending cuts.’ (Carter, 2013) Comparing the US economy with Greece and the like shows that the position of the economy is not alarming but a fixture is required in the near future. The President has laid a budget that does not tackle the federal budget deficit in its entirety; he has set a commission in order to obtain ideas as to bridging the gap between the public revenue and expenditure in a more meaningful manner. The effects of these changes have to be long term. The economy needs more than just an yearly decrease in the federal budget deficits. The decrease in the figure is good but not enough for long-term survival of the economy. The recent shutdown of the government offices show that deep down the picture is not that simple and although the economy has recovered from the downfall and crunch much needs to be done before it is stable in terms of growth and activity. The changes in the US economy are evident with improved standard of living and better job opportunities in the country. But along with the positives

Developmental Model of Health and Nursing Essay

Developmental Model of Health and Nursing - Essay Example Allen sought to introduce a strength-based model of practice in nursing. Having interest in practicing nursing to promote health within the family has influenced my choice for this model. This approach involved a transformation in the way nurses handled issues concerning health. In the context defined by Allen, health was one of the social issues, and there was great potential of socializing it within the family setting. Therefore, Allen highlighted the urgency for nurses to initiate partnerships with the patient and family (Bomar, 2004). Moreover, the new approach required nurses to shift from the traditional perspective that focused on illness, deficit, and problems. They needed to replace such thinking with a perspective that identified the strengths of the individual and his family. With the new perspective, the nurse would then concentrate on motivating families to utilize their inherent strengths, and available resources in their efforts to achieve health goals. Moyra Allen con structed frameworks that nurses needed to adhere to, in their venture to embrace the new approach of nursing (Allen, & Warner, 2002). Prior to the description of the new approach, many nurses sought to identify the problem with the patients, and then advanced to identify viable solutions to the problem (Bomar, 2004). However, the developmental model of health and nursing sought to discourage nursing from the identification of problems as the initial step towards promotion of health. According to the basics of this model, adopting an approach that centers on identifying problems introduces setbacks to promotion of health. The family embraces the problem as a stigmatizing label, and triggers the negative feeling of helplessness. With such a negative attitude,... This report stresses that Allen sought to introduce a strength-based model of practice in nursing. Having interest in practicing nursing to promote health within the family has influenced my choice for this model. This approach involved a transformation in the way nurses handled issues concerning health. In the context defined by Allen, health was one of the social issues, and there was great potential of socializing it within the family setting. Therefore, Allen highlighted the urgency for nurses to initiate partnerships with the patient and family. This paper makes a conclusion that the new approach required nurses to shift from the traditional perspective that focused on illness, deficit, and problems. They needed to replace such thinking with a perspective that identified the strengths of the individual and his family. With the new perspective, the nurse would then concentrate on motivating families to utilize their inherent strengths, and available resources in their efforts to achieve health goals. The McGill model seeks to build a rapport between the nurse and the family of the patient. Contrary to the deficit perspective that dominated the nursing field, this model highlighted the need for a strength perspective that focused on the capacity that the family possessed and that would serve the critical role of promoting health. Allen highlighted that focusing on capacities, resources and capacities of the family was the most critical step in establishing a working partnerships between the family and the nurse.

SWOT Analysis on Chase Bank Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

SWOT Analysis on Chase Bank - Research Paper Example (Funding Universe, 2011) The merger in 2000 cemented the creation of one of the world’s biggest financial concerns. The company’s mission statement is (Company Statements and Slogans, 2011): "At JPMorgan Chase, we want to be the best financial services company in the world. Because of our great heritage and excellent platform, we believe this is within our reach." II. Strengths and Weaknesses One of the greatest strengths of the J. P. Morgan Chase banking line is the vast consumer base. J. P. Morgan Chase is the biggest bank in the United States. (Tully, 2009) The iterative mergers of banks to form this financial behemoth have meant that the infrastructure and access of the J. P. Morgan Chase enterprise is huge. The bank sports total assets of some $2 trillion while the total equity has been placed at $176 billion. (Forbes, 2011) Currently Forbes has declared J P. Morgan Chase as the world’s largest public company. (Forbes, 2011) These facts point to the bankâ₠¬â„¢s stability as a premier finance institution which ensures that it can deal with fiscal shocks in the short and long term. Currently, J. P. Morgan Chase sports branches as well as ATM facilities around the globe. Moreover, J. P. Morgan Chase is effectively present in over 60 countries globally. The number of employees is well over 200,000 globally. This ensures that the bank is connected to multiple markets. Problems in one market cannot force the bank into a corner as it has other outlets. One of the reasons that J. P. Morgan Chase fared better than the competition during the recent economic crunch was because it was present globally. Markets with internal consumption patterns helped J. P. Morgan through the worst. (J. P. Morgan Chase, 2011) On the downside, J. P. Morgan Chase has damaged its reputation over the years. A number of scandals have tarnished the bank’s reputation. In 2002 J. P. Morgan Chase had to pay the United States government some $80 million as fines fo r deceiving investors through biased market research. Similarly, the J. P. Morgan Chase hand in financing Enron caused heavy losses as well as $2 billion in compensation and legal settlements. (Market Watch, 2002) Another instance of consumer’s breach of trust occurred when J. P. Morgan Chase admitted to having overcharged military personnel’s mortgages. Families that had been overcharged and foreclosed were compensated through payments totalling $27 million in 2011. (Mui, 2011) These failures to protect the customers have been repeated over and over and may erode customer base in the longer run. J. P. Morgan Chase needs to review its policies constantly and should rely on consumer feedback extensively to judge the reputation and consequences of policies. Another weakness displayed by J. P. Morgan Chase has been their IT infrastructure. The system has proved to be inadequate to sustain business operations. The cancellation of an outsourcing agreement with IBM caused qu ite a stir. Employees were transferred to IBM’s payrolls which cause massive employee dissatisfaction. New consultants were hired to take the outsourcing bid forward but this caused additional expense and lost time. Productivity at J. P. Morgan Chase was seen to have decreased as well due to IT problems. (Kawamoto, 2004) This problem could be relieved by letting a large IT corporation such as IBM, Microsoft etc. deal

Minimum Wage Legistlation Essay Example for Free

Minimum Wage Legistlation Essay What are your thoughts about minimum wage legislation? What kind of a price-control policy is this? Who gains? Who loses? Are there alternatives to this legislation for achieving the same policy objectives? What role do demand and supply elasticities play in determining outcomes? The purpose of minimum wage legislation is to make sure employers will not under pay its workers and ensure that workers are paid fairly I think it is good for the employees, however it can be a detriment as employers cannot afford to pay the minimum wage so they must hire less employees in order to satisfy the minimum wage requirement. Especially in today’s economy workers would accept jobs at rates below min wage, however employers cannot. The government sets these price floors and it can have two effects minimum-wage laws can create unemployment among unskilled workers, but minimum wages does raise the income of poor workers who remain employed in regulated markets. The price elasticity of demand measures the sensitivity of the quantity demanded to price. The price elasticity of demand is the percentage change in quantity demanded brought by a 1 percent change in price. The value of price elasticity of demand for a normal good must always be negative, reflecting the fact that demand curves slope downward because of the inverse relationship of price and quantity. The price elasticity of supply measures the sensitivity of quantity supplied to price. The price elasticity of supply tells us the percentage change in quantity supplied for each percent change in price. The value of price elasticity of supply for a normal good must always be positive, reflecting the fact that supply curves slope upward because of the positive relationship of price and quantity.

Dealing With Challenging Behaviour Education Essay

Dealing With Challenging Behaviour Education Essay The Case of Boy A Boys A, along with his friends fight inside and outside of school, and are involved in binge drinking and other nuisance behaviour within the community. He migrates between his two separated parents. He is not given adequate boundaries or supervision. The mother has stated to the school and local community support officers that she is unable to control him. His form teacher believes that other agencies should be involved. Other teachers are threatening not to teach him. He is described as a disruptive child with behavioural problems that affect the rest of the class. His grades are below average and his attendance poor. The police are aware of him, although no charges have been brought. Residents have campaigned to have his family evicted due to his anti-social behaviour. 1.2 Introduction The local council has commissioned this report and its aim is to explore a range of strategies to better deal with challenging behaviour of the type exhibited by Boy A. Initially the report shall seek a definition of the term challenging behaviour. Then shall endeavour to meet its aims through an analysis of a range of existing efforts employed by various agencies, whilst discussing how they might be relevant to our case study, and by extension to challenging behaviour in the wider context. 1.3 Challenging Behaviour: A Definition Emerson (2001:3) has defined the term thus: Culturally abnormal behaviour of suchà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦that the physical safety of the person or others  is likely to be placed in serious jeopardy, or behaviour which  is likely to seriously limit use of, or result in the person  being denied access to, ordinary community facilities Whilst this would perhaps serve to define the behaviour of Boy A, it cannot help us explain its causes. This report shall explore the aspects of his life that may cause this behaviour, and the strategies that can challenge that behaviour. 2.1 Challenging Behaviour in a School Setting The 2005 Ofsted report, Managing Challenging Behaviour analysed anà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦account of behaviour in schools based on national evidence (Ofsted, 2005:3), the main type of which was the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦persistent, low level disruption of lessons thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ interrupts learning (Ofsted, 2005:4). Acts of verbal or physical abuse aimed at peers were found in the majority of schools, whilst abuse aimed at teachers was less common. Acts of extreme violence were very rare and mostly directed at fellow pupils. The average percentage of primary schools, where behaviour is rated as good or better stands at 85.3% for primary schools, but only 73.3% for secondary schools. A reason for this is given by Emerson, (2001:24) who states that the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦prevalence of challenging behaviour appears to increase during childhood, reaching a peak during the age range 15-34. Exclusions from all schools dropped from 11,181 in 93/94, to 9,290 by 2002/03, showing perhaps that schools are dealing with challenging behaviour in more proactive ways. However, studies have shown that some schools operate a policy of backdoor exclusions, whereby a disruptive childs parents are offered the chance to transfer that child to another school, hence keeping the schools exclusion rate artificially low (Wright Weekes, 2000). Arguably, this policy is growing in popularity, warping the figures. Boys are more likely to be disruptive than girls all through education. Often disruptive pupils joined the school late in a school year and struggle to form relationships with pupils and staff. Many are in care or from troubled families. Significant numbers have irregular attendance causing disruption to learning and the development of relationships. A third of pupils with behavioural difficulties in secondary schools have special educational needs. 2.2 Effective Strategies That Challenge Behaviour The Ofsted report highlights strategies taken by schools to tackle challenging behaviour. Behavioural policies that set out expectations consistently and fairly are more effective at challenging behaviour. McNamara Moreton (2001) further this by advocating the use of pupil devised classroom charters. These are seen by the authors to be especially beneficial to pupils with behavioural difficulties such as Boy A, arguably because they have the effect of encouraging good behaviour through peer pressure. The reinforcement of good behaviour. Behaviourists suggest that teachers should à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦identify positive behaviourà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦by the pupil and reward this behaviour (McNamara Moreton, 2001:31). This may be beneficial to pupils like Boy A, who can perhaps feel victimised by staff who constantly highlight their negative behaviour. Multi-agency approaches, involving educational welfare officers, social workers, psychologists and others if required (General Teaching Council for England, 2007) are essential. This can be achieved through Behaviour and Educational Support Teams (BESTs), where teams of professionals are given a mandate in a school to tackle challenging behaviour. A recent government report found that for schools participating with BESTs there was an increase in attendance and a decrease in fixed time exclusions (DfES, 2005). However according to the Ofsted (2005:21)report there appears to be a reluctance by schools and/or LEAs to use this multi-agency model, with only half of schools having a satisfactory relationship with key agencies such as social and health services. 3.1 Boy A: Effective Strategies Learning mentors work within schools to coordinate activities to support students with behaviourial problems (General Teaching Council For England 2007). This could arguably give Boy A the degree of supervision in his education missing from his disjointed home life, whilst improving his irregular attendance (absenteeism being within their remit). Family therapy sessions and parenting courses can equip parents with skills for improving the behaviour of their child (ibid, 2007). Boy As mother has stated that she is unable to control him, so help such as this could be an step towards challenging his behaviour through improved parenting. Taking pupils like Boy A out of the school environment and placing them into a centre where less emphasis is put on academic achievement could arguably help those such as Boy A. It could also be a way of avoiding excluding pupils, which may only serve to further label them as unmanageable. These centres, whilst still teaching the core of the curriculum, also have lessons on alcohol/drug awareness and citizenship, as well as a provision for training programmes (ibid, 2007). 4.1 The CJS Approach to Challenging or Offending Behaviour Crime and Disorder Act 1998 (CDA 1998) Established the Youth Justice Board (YJB) and Youth Offending Teams (YOTs), and measures aimed at curbing youth offending such as anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs), parenting orders and curfew orders for the under 10s. Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 (YJCEA 1999) Established the referral order, whereby offenders aged 10-17 who plead guilty to a first time offence are referred to a YOT. Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 (CJPA 2001) Further extended the remit of curfew orders to apply to under 16s, or to a specific area rather than any individual. (Crawford Newburn, 2003) These acts of legislation form the basis of the new youth justice reforms of the then Labour government, whose aim were to shift resources away from processing young offenders, to preventing them from offending in the first place (Crawford Newburn, 2003). The advent of YOTs, which a youth can be referred to if they plead guilty to a first time offence, has come in for general praise from most quarters (NACRO, 2002). Their aim is to divert youths away from the formal CJS and into a setting more focussed on behavioural intervention than punishment. Offenders are expected to participate in a program of rehabilitation featuring a strong element of reparation, that also deals with the causal risk factors of further potential offending. Other behavioural strategies such as ASBOs have been widely criticised for à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦contributing to a policy of social exclusion that disregards the rights ofà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦young people (Burnett Appleton, 2004:49). 4.2 Youth Offending Strategies within the CJS This section shall discuss the options that are theoretically open to the CJS in dealing with behaviour such as Boy As. Parenting orders can be given if a child truants, offends or is subject to an ASBO. Parents are required by law to attend guidance sessions, and fulfill any conditions attached to an order, such as attending meetings with teachers or ensuring that their child is properly supervised (Youth Justice Board, nd). This intervention could arguably help Boy A and others in his position given that he receives no meaningful supervision from his parents. Such guidance, although forced onto his parents, could potentially help them resolve the parenting problems that potentially affect their sons behaviour. These orders have been criticised by authors such as Arthur (2005), who believes that resources should be allocated earlier in lives such as Boy As to prevent them engaging in challenging/offending behaviour in the first place. Curfew orders give the authorities the power to impose a time at which under 16s should be home. Their aim is to defend communities from anti-social behaviour and to protect children (BBC online, 2001). Arguably this may help Boy A and others, if only by keeping them off the streets at inappropriate times. However it is possible that attempting to block the childs goal of going out, would only serve to frustrate him/her into further expressing challenging behaviour aimed at those around them. This would be in line with the psychologically derived drive theory (Dollard Miller et al, 1939). ASBOSs carry a civil burden of proof, and are designed to protect against à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦any aggressive, intimidating or destructive activity that damagesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ another persons quality of life (Home Office, 2010). If breached they can become a criminal matter worthy of up to five years imprisonment. They have been criticised as an unacceptable blurring of legal lines, which only serve to criminalise children for non-criminal behaviour (The Guardian website, 2009). 5.1 Theoretical Explanations of Youth Offending Behaviour It is known that Boy A migrates between his separated parents, depending on who he has fallen out with. Some theorists have concluded that conflicts such as this between parent and child contribute to the risk of offending by the affected child. Healy Bronner (1936), working under the psychoanalytical umbrella, applied the idea of sublimation (the channelling of unacceptable impulses) to offending behaviour. This is where a child suffers dissatisfaction from a failure to experience strong emotional ties with a parent, which then manifests itself in delinquency such as Boy As. Labelling theory would argue it is those who hold positions of social power (such as teachers and arguably neighbours), that determine who is labelled as nuisance/anti-social/criminal (Hollin, 1989). Gove (1975, cited in Hollin, 1989) contests a consequence of labelling is that of stigmatisation, where the public attitude of condemnation creating social exclusion of the individual. This may in turn create a modification of self-image, where a person starts to believe societys condemnation and modifies their self-image so as to match the label, thus creating further risk of offending. This may apply to those in the same position as Boy A, who when surrounded by condemnation by those in apparently superior social positions (teachers/neighbours), merely become the label. Conclusion It is this reports view that proactive behavioural strategies, that have the welfare of the child at heart offer the best chance to challenge the types of behaviour shown by those such as Boy A. Reactive policies such as ASBOs are not concerned with why a child is acting anti-socially, only that the behaviour should end. This may inevitably lead to a breach of an order and potential criminal sanctions (with all the problems such as future employability this has), as surely there is no hope for an end until the factors that lead to the ASB (Boy As tumultuous home life) are dealt with. S.2.1 shows that a childs behavioural difficulties increase the further they advance into their teenage years. It would therefore be easy to say that the majority of resources should be targeted at this age group. However it is this reports view that intervention strategies should be targeted at children as young as possible, as surely this increase in challenging behaviour exhibited by older children can be put down to a behavioural snowball effect, caused by it not being challenged early enough. This report believes that behavioural strategies that work on a broader school level (s.2.2), are desirable to the more individualistic strategies(3.1) discussed. This is because they attach no stigma to any individual child, and in some cases, such as with classroom charters can even be self-policed through the exertion of peer pressure. It is obvious that in a few cases a childs behaviour (arguably Boy As) is such, that it should be dealt with in isolation of the others. This should be done in as sensitive a manner as possible, so as to minimise both the feeling of the child being picked on by staff, or for his peers, the feeling that he is receiving extra attention. For Boy A and others, an escalation in behavioural problems would lead them into the realm of the Youth Justice System, dealt with in s.4.12. Overall, the new youth justice reforms of the previous government have had a positive impact on dealing with challenging/offending behaviour. Due to their welfarist approach to troubled youths, YOTs are particularly welcomed by this report, and may offer those like Boy A a final opportunity to reform before being passed to the more formal CJS.

Unilever :: essays research papers

Unilever's Path to Growth Strategy: Is it Working 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What are the chief elements of Unilever’s diversification strategy? Is Unilever pursuing a multicountry or a global strategy? What aspects of the strategy do you like? What aspects of the strategy are you skeptical about and why? 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Did Unilever pay too much to acquire SlimFast? Is there any reason to believe that SlimFast might be a better performer as part of Unilever than it would be a standalone enterprise? Explain. Is SlimFast a good strategic fit, given that there are no other important diet products in Unilever’s product/brand portfolio? 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What is going on at SlimFast in 2003? Why are sales nose-diving? What can be done to get things turned around? Should the SlimFast business be sold? Was the acquisition a mistake? Why did things look so good at the time of the acquisition and so dismal now? 4.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Did Unilever pay too much to acquire Ben & Jerry’s? Is there any reason to believe that Ben & Jerry’s might be a better performer as part of Unilever than it would be a standalone enterprise? What problems will Unilever be likely to encounter with its Ben & Jerry’s acquisition? 5.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Did Unilever pay too much to acquire Best Foods? Why or why not? What is your assessment of Best Foods’ recent performance and business portfolio? Is Best Foods a good strategic fit? 6.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What is your assessment of the caliber of Unilever’s lineup of businesses and brands as of late 2003? Did the acquisitions of SlimFast, Ben & Jerry’s, and Bestfoods enhance Unilever’s portfolio? Why or why not? 7.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  How does Unilever’s product/brand portfolio stack up against those of its chief competitors? 8.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What issues does Unilever management need to be concerned about? What problems do you see as of late 2003?

The Patient Griselda, by Giovanni Boccaccio Essays -- Literary Analysi

â€Å"The Patient Griselda†, by Giovanni Boccaccio, has hidden meanings to it. Domestic violence from Gualtieri to his chosen wife, Griselda is apparent. Gualtieri feels as though his is condoned to such abuse of his wife because of her low-born social class status, her non-nobility. He further oppresses his power over her by disallowing her to have control over the upbringing of their children. Gualtieri, a young Italian marquis, was pressured by his servants to marry. His subjects were in fear that there would not be an heir to maintain the stability of their state. Gualtieri agrees to marry, but makes it clear to his subjects that he will he will find his own wife. The marquis makes his people promise that they will not question him nor criticize his choice for a wife. â€Å"My friends, since you still persist in wanting me to take a wife; I am prepared to do it, not because I have any desires to marry, but rather in order to gratify your wishes. You will recall the promise you gave me, that no matter whom I should choose; you would rest content and honour her as your lady†, (Boccaccio 164). The beginning of the marriage was peaceful. Then Griselda gave birth to a daughter. It is at this time that Gualtieri begins to â€Å"test† Griselda. His tests are actually forms of emotional abuse. He begins by testing Griselda’s obedience by having the child taken away to be raised elsewhere by woman kinfolk. He told Griselda that their daughter was dead, that he had her killed by his subjects. He repeats this same test with the birth of their son a few years later. Griselda, with no words of protest, surrenders both her children to their deaths by their own father, her husband. Griselda was abused by Gualtieri from the beginnin... ...ers as you would have others do unto you†. If it had been Griselda putting her husband through these so called â€Å"tests†, the outcome would have been very different. There would not have been any kind of a â€Å"happy ending†. Works Cited Boccaccio, Giovanni. everything2.com. Tuesday November 2000. 4 August 2010 . Campbell, Emma. "Sexual Poetics and the Politics of Translation in the Tale of Griselda." (2006): 17. Damrosch, David and David L. Pike. The Longman Anthology of World Literature Second Edition. Pearson Education, Inc., 2009. Davis, Walter R. "Boccaccio's Decameron ." The Implications of Binary Form (2003): 20. Fulton, Helen. "The Performance of Social Class:." Domestic Violence in The Griselda Story (n.d.): 42. Jaster, Margaret Rose. ""Controlling clothes, manipulating mates: Petruchio's Griselda"." (2001): 13.

A Teenage Girl Essay

I chose the scenario, A teenage girl is â€Å"in love† with her 17-year-old boyfriend. He is encouraging her to have sex with him saying that he will make sure they only have â€Å"protected† sex. This actually happens often these days with youth; they have the want to experiment a lot. There are five components in which wise judgments could be used. First, there is emotional intelligence which has four components; emotional perception and expression, emotional facilitation of thought, emotional understanding, and emotional management. Emotional perception and expression is the skill to recognize your own emotions and recognizing other emotionstoo. This component involves the ability to both express positive and negative emotions correctly as well. Being a teenage girl is hard;there are so many hard decisions to make. So almost every teen girl thinks she is in love at one point in her teenage life. It is like a must to have a boyfriend when you are a teen and the fact he is 17 years old really makes you seem â€Å"it†. You are not mentally stable when you have â€Å"puppy love† feelings, you do whatever to please this guy you love and when you are young you think that guy is in love with you. Being young you really don’t know how to act on situations like this, you do what you think is right. When I was 14 years old I had a 17 year old boyfriend and wow, the way I acted was insane, I know now I was never in love. I did any and everything for him and now I look back and think, how could I let someone have so much control, but I was just so young, there were a lot of major decisions to make. On top of everything the encouragement from others is hard as well. If Emotional facilitation of thought came about in this teen girl, she could use her emotions to be more able to help with her decision-making. On the other hand, being a teen, she most likely is not emotionally mature. Emotional understanding is to have the ability to recognize emotions with words, to understand the cause and effect of the all different emotions as well have the ability to recognize the relationships between them. Understanding and sometimes have contradictory feelings and how they change over time is an important dimension of emotional intelligence. Personally this is the hardest to overcome when you are young your emotions are everywhere and your changing from a girl into a woman, the feelings and emotions are new to a young teen, I would say they are emotional and impulsive with no understanding. When you are young you think if you’re in love then sex would come next, and so on. But when you’re young you never see the consequences after your actions, they rather just act, and the consequences never come to a young ones mind. Finally, there is emotional management which is self-explanatory which is again hard for teens to achieve because all the emotions combined are overwhelming hard to take on. This makes it much easier for them to act impulsive especially when it comes to sex. The only thing that matters to a teen is what is happening now, not what they would see on the outside looking gin at themselves. The next component would be successful intelligence. Which it is known, successful intelligence you would think fine in three different ways: analytically, creatively, and practically. Creative thinking is more of a personal trait. I think the other two areas, would show one’s maturity level. This scenario is an example of how teens really are; having sex at a young age is very common. Although with the decisions they make they do not think sensible, they think physically more so. Teens have a tendency to think irrational; it is a trait most all of them have. This girl is thinking how to make this guy she thinks she is in love with, happy, so she won’t have boundaries for herself. If she loves him she will do almost anything for him because that is how teen girls think is love. The consequences aren’t ever an issue until after they act upon it. Wearing a condom does not completely protect you what so ever. Last but most definitely not least, there is wisdom itself. When being a â€Å"wise individual† one must be able to balance a variety of self-interests (intrapersonal) with the interests of other people (interpersonal) and of other aspects of the environment in which one lives (extra personal) such as one’s environment. Wisdom is more of the outcome of what decision the girl would make. Dealing with her interpersonal interest would reflect on her interest in having sex or not having sex. Also, she would be dealing with how this decision would affect others around her including her boyfriend’s interest as well; mainly dealing with the consequences could eventually affect the interest of her family and friends. It will affect her environment and/or her extra personal interest counting on what decision the girl makes whether she has sex or not. If she chooses to not have sex it will affect because the guy might not want her and it will hurt her a lot emotionally. Also, she must stay away from the influences that surround her, she will get pulled right back in. If she were to have sex I am not sure she would enjoy the outcome very much, guys tend to get what they want and girls never get what they need, if I said that right it makes really good sense. There are also factors to balance when it comes to wisdom: balancing goals and interests, balancing short- and long-term interests, balancing responses to the environment context, and acquiring and using tactic knowledge. When balancing goals and interests, this teenage girl has to reason with the consequences of every single choice she makes in a situationsuch as this one. Also, looking at how it might affect her future goals, whether it’s long-term or short-term. I would say if she were to have sex possibly the condom breaks she could get an STD or even PREGNANT, which mess everything up mentally and emotionally for the bad. There is balancing short- and long-term interests as well. Teens never think before they act, having sex being the short-term, and the STD’s being the long-term. There are so consequences that are faced with sex, it isn’t even worth it, and really till you 100% understand the concept of it. Balancing a set comeback to the environment goes back to the outcome of her choices and situation. Not having sex with this guy will probably make him not want her in which being in the environment wouldn’t be very healthy for her. Acquiring and using tactic knowledge, say she has good tactic knowledge, she would be able to have her boyfriend understand and explain the possible outcome. In which he will take in consideration, or agree with her. Now if she does not have good tactic knowledge than possibly she doesn’t have much self control, I think personally. A teenage girl is â€Å"in love† with her 17-year-old boyfriend. He is encouraging her to have sex with him saying that he will make sure they only have â€Å"protected† sex. I have personally experienced this situation although today I would have not made that say desision. If I were to step back and look from the outside in, I would of seen what the was a head of me. Being wise is a good trait to have, in which most teens are not. But a wise one analyzes a situation have the knowledge of the bad that could come out of it. Also, seeing that patients are a virtue is also being wise in my eyes personally. Don’t rush into things when you’re young that is the problem with some people today like me, you experience everything, when the real time comes it isn’t as special. Confusing ones emotions with their feelings is rather tough for teens. Don’t risk the consequences; it is so not worth it. You have one but so many major decisions, make the wise decision, and always look at what the outcome could possibly be they are usually never worth it though. Having sex there is too many risks behind it, think before one acts, I would ask for advice if I knew what I knew now a days.

Stefan’s Diaries: Origins Chapter 7

The next week passed in a blur. I ran from fittings at Mrs. Fells's dress shop to visits with Rosalyn in the Cartwrights' stuffy parlor to the tavern with Damon. I tried to forget Katherine, leaving my shutters closed so I wouldn't be tempted to look across the lawn at the carriage house, and forcing myself to smile and wave at Damon and Katherine when they explored the gardens. Once I went up to the attic to look at the portrait of Mother. I wondered what advice she'd have for me. Love is patient, I remembered her saying in her lilting French accent during Bible study. The notion comforted me. Maybe love could come to me and Rosalyn. After that, I tried to love Rosalyn, or at least garner some kind of affection for her. I knew, behind her quietness and her dishwater blond hair, she was simply a sweet girl who'd make a doting wife and mother. Our most recent visits hadn't been awful. In fact, Rosalyn had been in remarkably good spirits. She'd gotten a new dog, a sleek black beast named Sadie, which she'd taken to carrying everywhere lest the new puppy suffer the same fate as Penny had. At one point, when Rosalyn looked up at me with adoring eyes, asking if I'd prefer lilacs or gardenias at the wedding, I almost felt fond of her. Maybe that would be enough. Father had wasted no time in planning another party to celebrate. This time, it was a barbecue at the estate, and Father had invited everyone within a twenty-mile radius. I recognized only a handful of the young men, pretty girls, and Confederate soldiers who milled around the labyrinth, acting as if they owned the estate. When I was younger, I used to love the parties at Veritas–they were always a chance to run down to the ice pond with our friends, to play hide-and-seek in the swamp, to ride horses to the Wickery Bridge, then dare each other to dive into the icy depths of Willow Creek. Now I just wished it were over, so I could be alone in my room. â€Å"Stefan, care to share a whiskey with me?† Robert called out to me from the makeshift bar set up on the portico. To judge from his lopsided grin, he was already drunk. He passed me a sweating tumbler and tipped his own to mine. â€Å"Pretty soon, there will be young Salvatores all over the place. Can you picture it?† He swept his hands expansively over the grounds as if to show me just how much room my imaginary family would have in which to grow. I swirled my whiskey miserably, unable to picture it for myself. â€Å"Well, you've made your daddy one lucky man. And Rosalyn one lucky girl,† Robert said. He lifted his glass to me one last time, then went to chat with the Lockwoods' overseer. I sighed and sat down on the porch swing, observing the merriment occurring all around me. I knew I should feel happy. I knew Father only wanted what was best for me. I knew that there was nothing wrong with Rosalyn. So why did this engagement feel like a death sentence? On the lawn, people were eating and laughing and dancing, and a makeshift band made up of my childhood friends Ethan Giffin, Brian Walsh, and Matthew Hartnett was playing a version of â€Å"The Bonnie Blue Flag.† The sky was cloudless and the weather balmy, with just a slight nip in the air to remind us that it was, indeed, fall. In the distance, schoolchildren were swinging and shrieking on the gate. To be around so much merriment–all meant for me–and not feel happy made my heart thud heavily in my chest. Standing up, I walked inside toward Father's study. I shut the door to the study and breathed a sigh of relief. Only the faintest stream of sunlight peeked through the heavy damask curtains. The room was cool and smelled of well-oiled leather and musty books. I took out a slim volume of Shakespeare's sonnets and turned to my favorite poem. Shakespeare calmed me, the words soothing my brain and reminding me that there soothing my brain and reminding me that there was love and beauty in the world. Perhaps experiencing it through art would be enough to sustain me. I settled into Father's leather club chair in the corner and absentmindedly skimmed the onionskin pages. I'm not sure how long I sat there, letting the language wash over me, but the more I read, the calmer I felt. â€Å"What are you reading?† The voice startled me, and the book slid off my lap with a clatter. Katherine stood at the study entrance, wearing a simple, white silk dress that hugged every curve of her body. All the other women at the party were wearing layers of crinoline and muslin, their skin guarded under thick fabric. But Katherine didn't seem the least bit embarrassed by her exposed white shoulders. Out of propriety, I glanced away. â€Å"Why aren't you at the party?† I asked, bending to pick up my book. Katherine stepped toward me. â€Å"Why aren't you at the party? Aren't you the guest of honor?† She perched on the arm of my chair. â€Å"Have you read Shakespeare?† I asked, gesturing to the open book on my lap. It was a lame attempt to change the conversation; I had yet to meet a girl versed in his works. Just yesterday, Rosalyn had admitted she hadn't even read a book in the past three years, ever since she had graduated from the Girls Academy. Even at that, the last volume she'd perused was merely a primer on how to be a dutiful Confederate wife. â€Å"Shakespeare,† she repeated, her accent expanding the word to three syllables. It was an odd accent, not one that I'd heard from other people from Atlanta. She swung her legs back and forth, and I could see that she wasn't wearing stockings. I tore my eyes away. â€Å"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?† she quoted. I looked up, astonished. â€Å"Thou art more lovely and more temperate,† I said, continuing the quote. My heart galloped in my chest, and my brain felt as slow as molasses, creating an unusual sensation that made me feel I was dreaming. Katherine yanked the book off my lap, closing it with a resounding clap. â€Å"No,† she said firmly. â€Å"But that's how the next line goes,† I said, annoyed that she was changing the rules of a game I thought I understood. â€Å"That's how the next line goes for Mr. Shakespeare. But I was simply asking you a question. Shall I compare you to a summer's day? Are you worthy of that comparison, Mr. Salvatore? Or do you need a book to decide?† Katherine asked, grinning as she held the volume just out of my reach. I cleared my throat, my mind racing. Damon would have said something witty in response, without even thinking about it. But when I was with Katherine, I was like a schoolboy who tries to impress a girl with a frog caught from the pond. â€Å"Well, you could compare my brother to a summer's day. Y ou've been spending a lot of time with him.† My face reddened, and instantly I wished I could take it back. I sounded so jealous and petty. â€Å"Maybe a summer's day with a few thunderstorms in the distance,† Katherine said, arching her eyebrow. â€Å"But you, Scholarly Stefan, you are different from Dark Damon. Or †¦Ã¢â‚¬  –Katherine looked away, a flicker of a grin crossing her face–â€Å"Dashing Damon.† â€Å"I can be dashing, too,† I said petulantly, before I even realized what I was saying. I shook my head, frustrated. It was as though Katherine somehow compelled me to speak without thinking. She was so lively and vivacious–talking to her, I felt as though I was in a dream, where nothing I said would have any consequence but everything I said was important. â€Å"Well, then, I must see that, Stefan,† Katherine said. She placed her icy hand on my forearm. â€Å"I've gotten to know Damon, but I barely know you. It's quite a shame, don't you think?† In the distance, the band struck up â€Å"I'm a Good Old Rebel.† I knew I needed to get back outside, to smoke a cigar with Mr. Cartwright, to twirl Rosalyn in a first waltz, to toast my place as a man of Mystic Falls. But instead I remained on the leather club seat, wishing I could stay in the library, breathing in Katherine's scent, forever. â€Å"May I make an observation?† Katherine asked, leaning toward me. An errant dark curl flopped down on her white forehead. I had to use all my strength to resist pushing it off her face. â€Å"I don't think you like what's happening right now. The barbecue, the engagement †¦Ã¢â‚¬  My heart pounded. I searched Katherine's brown eyes. For the past week, I'd been trying desperately to hide my feelings. But had she seen me pausing outside the carriage house? Had she seen me run Mezzanotte to the forest when she and Damon explored the garden, desperate to get away from their laughter? Had she somehow managed to read my thoughts? Katherine smiled ruefully. â€Å"Poor, sweet, steadfast Stefan. Haven't you learned yet that rules are made to be broken? Y can't make ou anyone happy–your father, Rosalyn, the Cartwrights–if you're not happy yourself.† I cleared my throat, aching with the realization that this woman who I'd known for a matter of weeks understood me better than my own father †¦ and my future wife †¦ ever would. Katherine slid off the chair and glanced at the volumes on Father's shelves. She took down a thick, leather-bound book, The Mysteries of Mystic Falls. It was a volume I'd never seen before. A smile lit her rose-colored lips, and she beckoned me to join her on my father's couch. I knew I shouldn't, but as if in a trance, I stood and crossed the room. I sank into the cool, cracked leather cushion next to her and just let go. After all, who knew? Perhaps a few moments in her presence would be the balm I needed to break my melancholia.