Wednesday, November 27, 2019

How Homeschooled Students Should Prep for the ACT

How Homeschooled Students Should Prep for the ACT SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Do you receive your education at home or outside the formal setting of a public or private school? If you're a homeschooled student aiming to go to a 4-year college, then you're probably planning to take the ACT (or its equivalent, the SAT). This guide will go over how you can prep for the ACT as a homeschooled student, come up with a solid test plan, and be strategic in your approach to taking this important test. The first step is asking yourself about your strengths and weaknesses as a student. Assess Your Strengths and Weaknesses Is your imagination carried away when you read fiction, but scientific charts and graphs make you feel stuck? Do you love the challenge of word problems, but feel scared of the big blank page when it comes time to write an essay? Maybe you find something interesting in all your subjects, but you struggle to answer questions under strict time limits. Taking the time to honestly assess your strengths and weaknesses as a student will help you prep for the ACT. Rather than studying every section and question type equally, you should focus your energies on those areas where you need the most improvement. If time management is tough for you, for example, then you should learn and try time-saving strategies, along with timing yourself while you take practice tests. Through targeting and drilling your weaknesses, you can enhance your skills, gain confidence, and improve your overall scores. As a homeschooled student, you might be especially aware of your strengths, interests, and challenges as a student. Self-Reflection and ACT Prep Many home educators follow a philosophy of "natural learning" or "autonomous learning" that gives students more independence and input into shaping their learning by following their passions. If this sounds like your experience, then you likely have more practice with cultivating self-awareness than your peers who went through a traditional school system. As mentioned above, students who really improve their ACT scores don't just get to know the test really well, they also get to know themselves really well. Rather than wastingtime repeating what youalready know, you canstrategically approach test prep with a plan to identify and drill yourweak spots. Any areas of difficulty can be improved with training, just like you get better at layups by practicing them or at playing piano by repeatingscales and songs. Distributing your effort where it can make the most difference will make your test prep most effective. Plus you might present an even stronger case to your teacher(s) for adding some ACT prep toyour daily classes or homework assignments. Give Input Into Your Curriculum Do you get any say in what you're learning? If your educators are open to your contributing to the curriculum - which is often the case within home education - perhaps you can incorporate ACTprep into your day. Share your goal of getting into a 4-year college, and articulate how important scoring well on the ACT is to meeting that goal. If you can integrate ACT science, math, English, Reading, and essay questions into your classroom learning, then you can ground your learning in the context of the test and apply your understanding to practice problems. It will be a two-way street where your classroom learning can complement your ACT prep, and vice versa. If you're studying geometry, for instance, find some official ACT practice questions and include them as practice or a test. To practice stating and supporting your point of view in a 5-paragraph essay, bring in ACT essay questions (bonus points if you can time them for 30 minutes). Lee Binz of HomeScholar says it's "helpful to have your teen choose curriculum - ESPECIALLY in their weak areas. As your teens progress, try to engage them in curriculum choosing." This applies to ACT prep as much as any of your learning. Hopefully you can share your post-secondary goals, integrate ACT prep into class and homework, and incorporate more time limits to get used to the strict timing of the ACT. Of course, in order to effectively design a study plan on your own and as part of your curriculum, you must gain a clear understanding of exactly what's on the ACT. Can you give some input into your curriculum? Understand the Content of the ACT What's the difference between the Reading and English section of the ACT? How many math classes should you take to do well on the math section? Is the Science sectionabout straight recall or interpretation of experiment results? How many questions are in each section, anyway? The first step whenpreparing for the ACT should be thoroughly understanding what's on the Reading, English, Math, and Science sections (and don't forget about the essay, if you're taking the ACT Plus Writing!). With all the information on the test out there, you shouldn't have any surprises on test day. After reviewing the content of the test, you should try taking a diagnostic practice test. Official ACT practice tests are best, and you cansimulate testing conditions by sitting in a quiet place and timing each section. Then you can score your test and figure out which areas were easy and which were challenging. Analyzing your mistakes, along with reflecting on your general strengths and weaknesses as I talked about above, will give you a good launchingpoint. Once you know where you're starting and where you'd like to arrive, you can design astudy plan that will take you there. Design a Study Plan It's helpful to know where you're starting out from and the target scores you want to achieve. Apart from integrating test prep into your classes, you'll benefit from putting in the time and effort to study on your own. The following is an estimate of how many hours of prep you should devote in order to improve your composite score. These are rough estimates that could vary depending on your individual learning style and rate of growth. ACT Composite Point Improvement 0-1 points - 10 hours1-2 points - 20 hours2-4 points - 40 hours4-6 points - 80 hours6-9 points - 150 hours+ Before freaking out about the 150 hours+, think about how much time you could accumulate if you start studying early. If you took the ACT in the fall of junior year, the spring of junior year, and again in the fall of senior year, you'd have a whole year to improve from your first test (plus all the studying you did the summer before junior year). Let's think about this year between your first and final ACT test.There are about 48 weeks in 12 months, so studying for just 2 to 3 hours a week already adds up to 96 to 144 hours. If you could set aside just a few hours each week, then you could put in lots of prep time and see a significant score improvement. Plus you probably want to ramp up your study time in the couple of months before your test date. Besides reinforcing the concepts you need to know for the ACT, you also want to learn about and try out strategies to learn which ones work best for you. Get Strategic While you can't know exactly what questions you'll get on test day, you can have a pretty clear idea. Since the ACT is a standardized test given nationwide (and internationally, too), the testmakers must use a similar template for their questions test after test. By really examining the types of math, reading, English, and science questions, you can have a sense of what the questions are getting at and how they are generally reformulations of the same types of questions. Besides looking strategically at the questions, you can use strategies to save time. By glancing over the passage-based questions and skimming the passages for the main points, for instance, you'll save a lot more time than if you did a close read the first time. By using process of elimination on the questions, you can see what "tricks" the ACT is using to distract you from the correct answer. Read about strategies, learn to recognize the common "distractor" answer choices, and utilize the approach that helps you avoid the common pitfalls and save time. Part of this, as I talked about above, is timing yourself as you prep to learn how to work quickly and efficiently. Ready...set...go! Use a Stopwatch Have an iPhone or Android? Use the stopwatch feature to time yourself as you take practice tests. Or kick it old school and use an actual stopwatch, like the shiny one above.Hereis how much time you get foreach section: English: 45 minutesMath: 60 minutesReading: 35 minutesScience: 35 minutesEssay: +30 minutes Taking your time to deeply understand the concepts is fine, but once you are taking practice tests, you should really set the same conditions that you'll experience on test day. If you can't demonstrate your knowledge in a short amount of time, then you unfortunately won't be able to hit the ACT scores you deserve. Studying concepts, applying strategies, and taking practice tests takes sustained focus and effort, and I'm definitely not trying to suggest that studying for the ACT is your only focus in high school. You have other classes, activities, plus the other parts of the college process to think about. But if you really want to perform well on the ACT, then you should make time to improve your scores through studying. So how can you balance ACT prep with everything else? (Hint: the answer is not to cut out sleeping at night.) Strike a Balance with Test Prep and Everything Else That last tip about starting early is really helpful for finding balance and making time for test prep in your busy schedule. Write down a schedule for yourself, and try to make a routine of it (things might come up, but try to keep this routine as regularas possible). If you start early, then you won't be struck with the anxiety of an approaching test date and no time (anxiety gets in the way of focusing and retaining information, too - no fun for anybody). Perhaps you're motivated by the last minute study rush, which is fine. Everyone has different study styles. But withoutlearning about the ACT and taking the diagnostic test, you won't know how much time you need. You won't know what you don't know, if that makes sense. So take the time to figure that out with months or a year to spare, and then design your optimal study plan from there, whether it's spread out equally or staggered to ramp up right before your test. Another important consideration when designing your schedule is what your other commitments are. Are you playing on a varsity sports team junior year? Are you designing an app, or have you convinced your parents to take you on a cross-country road trip in the name of college visits? Figure out what your competing commitments are so you won't find yourself overwhelmed by ACT prep. This mindset will help you find balance with your study plan and when choosing your test dates. Be Thoughtful About Your Test Dates I briefly touched on the typical schedule and prep hours for students. A lot of students take the real ACT for the first time in the fall of junior year, then again in the spring, and then for the final time in the fall of senior year if they still see room for improvement. This gives you three test dates, but you might want more to take the pressure off, get more real test experience, or build your scores up section by section. Plus if you're super busy junior year, then you can move prep ahead and get your test scores all finished and done with well ahead of your college deadlines. Even if you haven't studied some concepts extensively in school yet, like geometry or trigonometry, you can reinforce what you do know and get a headstart on new concepts.There are a lot of considerations when choosing your test dates, and by being thoughtful about each one you can devise a schedule customized to you. To keep all this straight, I can't emphasize enough the importance of writing everything down. Not you! Keep Track of Everything As a homeschooled student, you might nothave the same college-bound peer group or guidance counselors to be by your side and keep you updatedthroughout the college process (though you can make an appointment with a counselor at your local high school). That's why you might have some extra responsibilities when it comes to keeping track of your test dates, prep, deadlines, and application materials. Make sure you research your colleges' policies about standardized testing, expectations for scores, and any ACT-based scholarships they offer. Create a system of organization, whether you use binders or online tools like Google Calendar and Google Docs, to write everything down, create and stick to your schedule, and remember all those passwords you'll be creating for sites like the ACT and The Common Application. As a homeschooled student, you've probably developed a great deal of independence in your learning and organization, and you can draw on this strength as you work towards your post-high school goals. Not only will this help you geta strong ACT score and admission to your dream school, but these skills will help you be a successful and self-directed college student capable of achieving great things. What's Next? The best ACT practice questions come straight from the testmakers. Download official ACT practice tests with questions from previously administered tests here. Are you not sure when you should sign up for your first ACT? Should you take one just for the experience, or wait until you've put in some serious studying? Learn when to take your first official ACT here. Wondering what kind of science you need to study for the ACT Science section? Read about the only actual science you need to know(and how this section is more like the Reading section than you might think). Want to improve your ACT score by 4 points?We have the industry's leading ACT prep program. Built by Harvard grads and ACT full scorers, the program learns your strengths and weaknesses through advanced statistics, then customizes your prep program to you so you get the most effective prep possible. Check out our 5-day free trial today:

Saturday, November 23, 2019

john Lennons imagine essays

john Lennons imagine essays John Lennons song Imagine is by all means a classic which will endure in the hearts of many, as long as it is still around. With that in mind, I believe that it should live on by being placed in the UTD time capsule. It has many aspects that make it the ideal song for such a project, from its musical quality, to its imperative message of peace. Lennons melodic style conveys a poignant innocence, which complements the theme of the song perfectly. The music stays simple and seems to grasp the lyrics without a seam. It is the type of song that will appeal to almost anyone who hears it because of its rythmic, almost hypnotic sound. I dont know what the music of the future will sound like, but I believe a song like this is one that can be enjoyed by all generations to come. It isnt the music of our generation today; not rock with heavy distortion, or rap with deafening bass, nor is it the synthesised RnB many of us choose to listen to. It is the type of song that touches a persons heart, the kind of music we listen to because we can feel it. This selection is a more instrumental rock that is set apart from all other genres, deserving of the reverance received in the decades past, and for those to come. This song is trully a tribute to great music, and has been likened to the twentieth centuries answer to Beethovens Moonlight Sonata and Bachs Fantasia. In that regard, this song is seen as one the greatest songs of our century, and isnt that the type of musical merit we should consider when selecting the one song to represent us in the capsule? The song itself is asking that we see the world consciously, and dont just coast by on what others have established as right. It wants you to invoke thought upon life as your own person to decide what it is you believe in. The idea of this song is one that coul...

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Safety Not Guaranteed Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Safety Not Guaranteed - Movie Review Example However, a short description of the film will not do justice to it. The film starts when some unfamiliar classified ad on television inspires 3 cynical Seattle magazine employees and creates the urge to search for the story behind it. A furtive weird character named Kenneth along with a pleasant however suspicious supermarket clerk who is quite affirmative regarding the mystery of time travel and that he has found its solution. All these characters go on a journey which is entertaining, smart, and unexpectedly profound, revealing the understanding of how far believing can take you. However, the process of interpersonal communication between the characters resulted in different kinds of conflicts and relationships in the film. The development of friendship, the development of romantic relationships-commitment, and managing the conflicts. This paper will discuss these development concepts in reference with ‘Safety Not Guaranteed’ characters and their interpersonal communic ation. Interpersonal communication has been the basis of every film that has been produced so far (however, exceptions are always there). The plot of this film is so designed that all the characters are unfamiliar to each other does not each other. However, for one commitment which is to identify who placed the ad, all of them goes on journey and somehow become friends. Jeff, Darius, and Arnau who intends to investigate the ad and the person behind it starts to know each other. Once they find the person who placed the ad (Kenneth) Darius felt something for Kenneth and started liking him. However, this development of romantic relationship was revealed when she broke the news about the death of her mother when she was a kid (Holden, 2012). However, Kenneth wanted to back into 2001 so that he can prevent the death of his then-girlfriend who died off a car accident. This obviously had have disturbed Darius. However, Darius very efficiently managed the conflict between her and Kenneth wh en he ran into the woods at the end of the movie towards his time travelling machine which was an airboat. She clears herself out and was able to convince him that everything else was true and she liked him. Kenneth along with Darius and the airboat suddenly vanishes from the spot. However, the implementation of interpersonal development has been showcased in the film quite often; when Darius was interviewed by the government agents who thought that she might be a spy as she interviewed the government scientists (Holden, 2012). The process of interpersonal communication and its development has been very efficiently placed and implemented in this film, in my opinion. The characters were so designed and placed that they all demonstrated a well-organized setting of interpersonal communication in a series of different situations. The examples which I have quoted above, all fits in the requirements of efficient and effective interpersonal. According to the class text and a general unders tanding of interpersonal relationships in developing friendship usually involves the first step of role limited interaction with small talk information. The friendly relations are then formed if individuals find common interests. This then develops into friendship with a little self-disclosure of oneself. Similarly, all the three characters that had been exampled in this paper fits on this theory. They all were strangers and did not know each other until one common project (to find

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Equal Time Rule Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Equal Time Rule - Essay Example Discrimination on the basis of casts and sects has an overwhelming influence on the projection of events; for instance Republicans  were not at all bothered when episodes of  Law and Order  featuring Fred Thompson were run by cable networks, nor did other candidates ask for extra time after there was a parade of candidate appearances on Saturday Night Live. But a Trump declaration of a candidacy on  The  Apprentice had an immense impact (Podlas. 2009). The loosened government  Ã‚  restrictions on media ownership, and the Telecommunications Act 1996 passed by Congress  Ã‚  which allows companies to own even more media outlets  facilitates a candidate to receive more coverage than others. This media consolidation  has given birth to broadcasting monopolization allowing candidates and parties to receive more coverage than others.  Most of the nation’s newspapers are owned by the Hearst, Knight Ridder, and Gannett corporations, whereas many radio stations are possessed by Clear Channel Communications. The Walt Disney Corporation along with the Disney Channel and Viacom owns CBS, MTV, ABC and ESPN. Media consolidation limits consumers’ choices and eliminates the competitiveness due to restricted or manipulated news coverage by corporate owners. Kimberlianne Podlas. 2009. "â€Å"I’m a Politician, But I Don’t Play One on TV†: Applying the â€Å"Equal Time† Rule (Equally) to Actors-Turned-Candidates" retrieved on November 7’ 2011, retrieved from:

Friday, November 15, 2019

Lord Of The Flies - Primitive :: essays research papers

"He looked in astonishment, no longer at himself but at an awesome stranger†¦ He began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling†¦ The face of red and white and black swung through the air†¦" In the novel Lord of the Flies, an account of primitive religion is evident in the behavior of the hunting party. Initially, we will explore chant and uniform action and it’s spiritual effects on the human mind and soul. Secondly, it will be discussed how primitive peoples gain satisfaction from conducting the act of sacrifice. Moreover, this research will go into depth about the transformation into a higher being and development of a new identity through ritualistic actions. Finally, primitive society’s emphasis on fear-provoking, irrational behavior in comparison to modern society’s insistence on rationality will be addressed. In a primitive society, chanting is designed to provide a group with benefits such as the acquiring of material possessions, health, and monopoly over one’s personal circumstances or those of another person. This ritual is performed until one feels satisfied, and/or has been led into spiritual contact with another realm. Another purpose of the chant is for one to feel a powerful being emerge within one’s soul, resulting in a god-like sensation for a short amount of time. In the novel, one can perceive that the hunting party’s vigorous chant ("Kill the beast! Spill her blood!") is one of their final retrogressions into savagery. Its repetitious, invigorating verse elates them, and when the procession finally ends, they behave in a trance-like, mystified demeanor. They begin speaking immediately in excited tones, feeling amazed at the feat they had accomplished. It is written that "the boys chattered and danced", obviously enthralled with their victory. It would be wise to conclude that the boys have derived a sense of power through performing the chant, and they are satisfied with their newfound strength and uniformity. For Jack, chanting is another means of manipulating others. Like one of its benefits to primitive cultures, the chant awards him ultimate control over his entire group. The ritual of the sacrifice is a fundamental element of primitive culture. Primarily, blood sacrifice of an animal is the usual means of atonement for a primitive group. Other reasons behind this sacred ritual were to bow down to power, or to declare one’s adoration of a god or deity. The ideas behind the gift sacrifice, which existed in the early formation of religion, were thanksgiving and redemption.

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Mrs. Macteer and Mrs. Breedlove Essay

Parental guidance and support are key components of the foundation of a child’s growth and development. Without either, a child cannot grow and develop properly. In her novel The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison examines the effect of different mothers on their respective children through the characters of Mrs. MacTeer and Mrs. Breedlove. Throughout the novel, both characters express their thoughts and feelings through words, with Mrs. MacTeer having a few fussy soliloquies and Mrs. Breedlove having a few interior monologues to get their points across. Although Mrs. MacTeer and Mrs. Breedlove are two entirely different individuals, their respective fussy soliloquies and interior monologues greatly reflect one another. Giving to charity doesn’t always equate to getting something in return. In The Bluest Eye, Mrs. MacTeer takes in Pecola Breedlove for a bit. While Pecola is staying with the MacTeer family, she grows fixated with a Shirley Temple glass, using it every chance that she can. Subsequently, she ends up drinking a lot of the milk that Mrs. MacTeer has for the entire family. Mrs. MacTeer is not thrilled with this, as she rants, â€Å"Three quarts of milk. That’s what was in that icebox yesterday. Three whole quarts. Now they ain’t none. Not a drop. I don’t mind folks coming in and getting what they want, but three quarts of milk! What the devil does anybody need with three quarts of milk? † (Morrison 23). Initially, Mrs. MacTeer’s soliloquy seems reasonable. It seems as though she is simple a mother frustrated with the fact that her milk has been drank up and potentially wasted. However, there are hidden connotations in her speech. By rationalizing her own life situations through her fussing soliloquies and then singing, Mrs. MacTeer manages to isolate her children. They, particularly Claudia, view her singing as a demonstration of the pleasure Mrs. MacTeer takes in insulting others through her soliloquy. As Christine Spies writes in Vernacular Traditions: The Use of Music in the Novels of Toni Morrison, â€Å"the way in which the singing is described, the cathartic quality of the music becomes obvious, as for Mrs. MacTeer singing constitutes a cleansing ritual and establishes a validation of her self† (Spies 13). It is suggested that Mrs. MacTeer is unhappy with her everyday life, as well as with herself. She utilizes the soliloquies to rip apart others, a concept that is detrimental to those she fusses about, yet therapeutic to herself. Once she is satisfied with the degree in which she has ranted and raved, she begins to sing. Her songs are representative of the cleansing of herself through her rants and rambles, as well as a demonstration of her satisfaction and happiness with putting down others. Pauline Breedlove, Pecola’s mother, is fond of reflecting on the better days of her life. Oftentimes throughout The Bluest Eye, Mrs. Breedlove is found reminiscing on the days of her past, when she was a younger woman. In particular, at one point in the novel, Mrs. Breedlove reflects upon a time in which she was pregnant with her oldest child, Sammy. During this time in her life, she enjoyed going to the cinema by herself during the day. She would look at magazines and style her hair like the movie stars. To her, going to the cinema and admiring the glorious movie stars was an escape from her marriage and life with Cholly. For the length of the film, she could disappear into the movie and be amongst the stars. At one point, Mrs. Breedlove attended a film and her fantasies of blending in with the stars unraveled in front of her very eyes. She took a bite of a piece of candy, and one of her front teeth was pulled out by it, instantly altering her appearance forever. She reflected, â€Å"There I was, five months pregnant, trying to look like Jean Harlow, and a front tooth gone. Everything went then. Look like I just didn’t care no more after that. I let my hair go back, plaited it up, and settled down to just being ugly† (Morrison 123). Mrs. Breedlove tried to escape from the unhappiness of her own life by going to the cinema, and instead, the cinema caused her even more unhappiness. She simply gave up on ever feeling glamorous or happy, something that is only fueled by the growing unhappiness of her marriage. As she stated, â€Å"Cholly poked fun at me, and we started fighting again†¦He begin to make me madder than anything I knowed† (Morrison 123). As much as she tried, Mrs. Breedlove could no longer escape her unhappiness. It was simply escalated by the cinema. From the very beginning of Pecola’s life, her mother ingrains in her the idea that she is ugly—a concept that Mrs. Breedlove herself is viewed as due to her missing front tooth and her skin color. After her birth, she refers to Pecola as being â€Å"a right smart baby† but â€Å"a cross between a puppy and a dying man. But I knowed she was ugly. Head full of pretty hair, but Lord she was ugly† (Morrison 126). Mrs. Breedlove acknowledges that Pecola is a smart girl, but doesn’t view it as an impressive quality. Instead, she focuses on the fact that her daughter is unattractive. As Spies mentions, â€Å"even by her own mother, Pecola has been denied the slightest notion of being valuable or worthy of love† (Spies 15). By denying value and love to her daughter, Mrs. Breedlove is instilling in Pecola the same self-hatred that Cholly and society has instilled in herself. Mrs. Breedlove’s unhappiness is unquestionably the reason for Pecola’s own dissatisfaction and unhappiness. Although Mrs. MacTeer and Mrs. Breedlove are two entirely different individuals, their thoughts are eerily reminiscent of each other. Both complain about others, specifically complaining about Pecola. Mrs. MacTeer is frustrated with Pecola drinking up the milk, whereas Mrs. Breedlove is frustrated by her lack of beauty. Both women try to come off as â€Å"better† individuals than they actually are. Mrs. MacTeer rambles about Pecola and suggests that she is of a lower, varmint-like class. Mrs. Breedlove goes on about Pecola’s ugliness, when, in fact, she is not only perceived as but admittedly ugly herself. Both women are unsatisfied with their lives and places in society. They both wish to be glorious and of higher class, yet they cannot achieve these respect places due to outside factors—Mrs. MacTeer is a middle class woman, and Mrs. Breedlove is â€Å"ugly† and black. Both women enjoy prattling about their misfortunes and the misfortunes of others, yet they do so in entirely different ways. Contrarily, Mrs. Breedlove expresses herself silently through inner monologue. She is a soundless voice in society. Not only is she a black female, but she is poor and ugly as well. She could voice her opinions out loud, but she feels it is not worth it. Society rarely recognizes her presence, and when it does, it is quickly forgotten. When Mrs. Breedlove reflected on the birth of Pecola, she recalled being the only black woman in the maternity ward of the hospital. A doctor walked by to check on her with a team of residents who were learning how to be doctors, and he said that black women deliver babies like horses, quickly with no pain. Mrs. Breedlove recalls, â€Å"They never said nothing to me. Only one looked at me. Looked at my face, I mean. I looked right back at him. He dropped his eyes and turned red† (Morrison 125). The resident who looked at her is embarrassed to have acknowledged her, and he immediately tries to erase this moment of connection from existence. She is an isolated, lower class of her own in society due to not only the oppression of her individuality as a poor, ugly black woman and the reaction of society to her identities, but because she is also oppressed by her husband, Cholly. Although it is clear throughout the novel that Mrs. Breedlove fights back when it comes to arguments with her husband, she is not given a voice to do so. As Gibson states, â€Å"whatever authority Cholly possesses accrues not because it comes to him by nature, or because he is male, but because Morrison chooses to give it to him. She grants this black male a voice† (Gibson 169). Morrison does not allow Mrs. Breedlove to have a voice; rather, she allows Cholly to have one to further exploit the weaknesses and state of despair of his wife. She cannot voice her opinions out loud because she is not given the means to do so. Like Mrs. MacTeer, Mrs. Breedlove has an invisible audience. However, her audience is literally invisible—nobody listens to her thoughts but herself. She is not given a voice in society, so she feels she cannot do anything. To her, it is not worth it to try to express her thoughts to anyone but herself. By keeping to herself, she is only trapped in her unhappiness further. Undoubtedly, the thoughts and opinions of Mrs. MacTeer and Mrs. Breedlove in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye are essential to demonstrating the messages of societal oppression within the novel. Both women exhibit the concept of members of society being oppressed due to factors they cannot change, such as gender, level of wealth, race, beauty, or even lost dreams. Mrs. MacTeer’s fussing soliloquies reach out to an invisible audience of her children and Pecola, explicitly discussing her unhappiness with her own role in society, as well as the hierarchical roles in society and her daily life. Additionally, Mrs. Breedlove’s silent interior monologues allow readers to see the result of silence within society. Her monologues also allow readers to see the effect of giving up on one’s own happiness and dreams in life. Together, the voices of Mrs. MacTeer and Mrs. Breedlove inevitably come together to convey the effect of societal oppression within the novel. Without their respective fussing soliloquies and interior monologues, the meaning of the novel would be lost within the pages. The thoughts and opinions of Mrs. MacTeer and Mrs.

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Internet banking Essay

Internet is rapidly turning out to be a tool of world wide communication. The increasing use of Internet earlier promoted producers and entrepreneurs to sell their products online. It has also become an important source of information and knowledge. Due to this, many banking and finance organizations have come up with the idea of Internet banking or online banking. What is Internet Banking Internet banking can be defined as a facility provided by banking and financial institutions, that enable the user to execute bank related transactions through Internet. The biggest advantage of Internet banking is that people can expend the services sitting at home, to transact business. Due to which, the account holder does not have to personally visit the bank. With the help of Internet banking many transactions can be executed by the account holder. When small transactions like balance inquiry, record of recent transaction, etc. are to be processed, the Internet banking facility proves to be very handy. The concept of Internet banking has thus become a revolution in the field of banking and finance. Brief History of Internet Banking The concept of Internet banking has been simultaneously evolving with the development of the world wide web. Programmers working on banking data bases came up with ideas for online banking transactions, some time during the 1980s. The creative process of development of these services were probably sparked off after many companies started the concept of online shopping. The online shopping promoted the use of credit cards through Internet. Many banking organizations had already started creating data ware housing facilities to ease their working staffs. The development of these databases were widely used during the development of ATM’s. Sometime in 1980s, banking and finance organizations in Europe and United States started suggestive researches and programming experiments on the concept of ‘home banking’. Initially in the 80’s when computers and Internet were not so well-developed, ‘home banking’ basically made use of fax machines and telephones to facilitate their customers. The widespread of Internet and programming facilities created further opportunities for development of home banking. In 1983, the Nottingham Building Society, commonly abbreviated and referred to as the NBS, launched the first Internet banking service in United Kingdom. This service formed the basis for most of the Internet banking facilities that followed. This facility was not very well-developed and restricted the number of transactions and functions that account holders could execute. The facility introduced by Nottingham Building Society is said to have been derived from a system known as Prestel, that is deployed by the postal service department of United Kingdom. The first online banking service in United States was introduced, in October 1994. The service was developed by Stanford Federal Credit Union, which is a financial institution. The online banking services are becoming more and more prevalent due to the well-developed systems. Though there are pros and cons of electronic cash, it has become a revolution that is enhancing the banking sector. Read more at Buzzle: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/history-of-internet-banking.html

Friday, November 8, 2019

The Rhetorical Common Sense essays

The Rhetorical Common Sense essays In January of 1776, Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense with the intention of convincing American colonist to establish independence from Britain. Its apparent from the style of his pamphlet that he wanted to convince the masses in a fashion which would make them come to the conclusion that, without a doubt, Thomas Paine must be right. This rhetorical form of writing is evident throughout his pamphlet and obviously present in the title. By titling his pamphlet Common Sense, he was stating to all his readers, that it wasnt necessary for him to explain why the colonies should separate from America. It was common sense that independence was inevitable. Paines Common Sense was a pamphlet that spoke to all types of people and groups that read it. He spoke to the merchants, the loyalist, the religious separatist, and all other who may have seemed skeptical of supporting a war against Britain. As he wrote, he knew his job was to make his ideas and major points simple. He also need to phrase them in ways that made people think there could be no other way to see things. He starts by breaking down the institution of government. He states that society is what is good in man while government is what is evil. Society in every state is a blessing, but government in its best is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable on. However, the first pages of his pamphlet did not directly connected the colonies to his ideas on society and government. He uses a parable to show the evolution of society. This is an extremely important form because, for the reader, by the time they have read a few pages and reached his connection to colonies, they are already engulfed in the idea of the reality in Paines words. How can they not concluded that with such an evolution of society that Paine described in his parable, the distance of Britain and America would soon be to much for the growing co...

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

1996 Mount Everest Disaster - Death on Top of the World

1996 Mount Everest Disaster - Death on Top of the World On May 10, 1996, a ferocious storm descended upon the Himalayas, creating perilous conditions on Mount Everest, and stranding 17 climbers high upon the tallest mountain in the world. By the following day, the storm had claimed the lives of eight climbers, making it- at the time- the greatest loss of life in a single day in the history of the mountain. While climbing Mount Everest is inherently risky, several factors (aside from the storm) contributed to the tragic outcome- crowded conditions, inexperienced climbers, numerous delays, and a series of bad decisions. Big Business on Mount Everest Following the first summit of Mount Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953, the feat of climbing the 29,028-foot peak had for decades been limited to only the most elite climbers. By 1996, however, climbing Mount Everest had evolved into a multi-million dollar industry. Several mountaineering companies had established themselves as the means by which even amateur climbers could summit Everest. Fees for a guided climb ranged from $30,000 to $65,000 per customer. The window of opportunity for climbing in the Himalayas is a narrow one. For just a few weeks- between late April and late May- the weather is typically milder than usual, allowing climbers to ascend. In the spring of 1996, multiple teams were gearing up for the climb. The vast majority of them approached from the Nepalese side of the mountain; only two expeditions ascended from the Tibetan side. Gradual Ascent There are many dangers involved in ascending Everest too rapidly. For that reason, expeditions take weeks to ascend, allowing climbers to gradually acclimatize to the changing atmosphere. Medical problems that could develop at high altitudes include severe altitude sickness, frostbite, and hypothermia. Other serious effects include hypoxia (low oxygen, leading to poor coordination and impaired judgment), HAPE (high-altitude pulmonary edema, or fluid in the lungs) and HACE (high-altitude cerebral edema, or swelling of the brain). The latter two can prove especially deadly. In late March 1996, groups assembled in Kathmandu, Nepal, and opted to take a transport helicopter to Lukla, a village located about 38 miles from Base Camp. Trekkers then made a 10-day hike to Base Camp (17,585 feet), where they would stay a few weeks adjusting to the altitude. Two of the largest guided groups that year were Adventure Consultants (led by New Zealander Rob Hall and fellow guides Mike Groom and Andy Harris) and Mountain Madness (led by American Scott Fischer, assisted by guides Anatoli Boukreev and Neal Beidleman). Halls group included seven climbing Sherpas and eight clients. Fischers group comprised eight climbing Sherpas and seven clients. (The Sherpa, natives of eastern Nepal, are accustomed to the high altitude; many make their living as support staff for climbing expeditions.) Another American group, helmed by filmmaker and renowned climber David Breashears, was on Everest to make an IMAX film. Several other groups came from around the globe, including Taiwan, South Africa, Sweden, Norway, and Montenegro. Two other groups (from India and Japan) climbed from the Tibetan side of the mountain. Up to the Death Zone Climbers began the acclimatization process in mid-April, taking increasingly longer sorties to higher elevations, then returning to Base Camp. Eventually, over a period of four weeks, the climbers made their way up the mountain- first, past the Khumbu Icefall to Camp 1 at 19,500 feet, then up the Western Cwm to Camp 2 at 21,300 feet. (Cwm, pronounced coom, is the Welsh word for valley.) Camp 3, at 24,000 feet, was adjacent to the Lhotse Face, a sheer wall of glacial ice. On May 9, the scheduled day for the ascent to Camp 4 (the highest camp, at 26,000 feet), the expeditions first victim met his fate. Chen Yu-Nan, a member of the Taiwanese team, committed a fatal error when he exited his tent in the morning without having strapped on his crampons (spikes attached to boots for climbing on ice). He slipped down the Lhotse Face into a crevasse. Sherpas were able to pull him up by rope, but he died of internal injuries later that day. The trek up the mountain continued. Climbing upward to Camp 4, all but only a handful of elite climbers required the use of oxygen to survive. The area from Camp 4 up to the summit is known as the Death Zone because of the dangerous effects of the extremely high altitude. Atmospheric oxygen levels are only one-third of those at sea level. Trek to the Summit Begins Climbers from various expeditions arrived at Camp 4 throughout the day. Later that afternoon, a serious storm blew in. Leaders of the groups feared that they would not be able to climb that night as planned. After hours of gale-force winds, the weather cleared at 7:30 p.m. The climb would go on as planned. Wearing headlamps and breathing bottled oxygen, 33 climbers- including Adventure Consultants and Mountain Madness team members, along with a small Taiwanese team- left at about midnight that night. Each client carried two spare bottles of oxygen, but would run out at about 5Â  p.m., and would, therefore, need to descend as quickly as possible once they had summitted. Speed was of the essence. But that speed would be hampered by several unfortunate missteps. Leaders of the two main expeditions had supposedly ordered Sherpas to go ahead of the climbers and install lines of rope along the most difficult areas in the upper mountain in order to avoid a slowdown during the ascent. For some reason, this crucial task was never carried out. Summit Slowdowns The first bottleneck occurred at 28,000 feet, where setting up the ropes took nearly an hour. Adding to the delays, many climbers were very slow due to inexperience. By late morning, some climbers waiting in the queue began to worry about getting to the summit in time to descend safely before nightfall- and before their oxygen ran out. A second bottleneck occurred on the South Summit, at 28,710 feet. This delayed forward progress by another hour. Expedition leaders had set a 2Â  p.m. turn-around time- the point at which climbers must turn around even if they had not reached the summit. At 11:30 a.m., three men on Rob Halls team turned around and headed back down the mountain, realizing they might not make it in time. They were among the few who made the right decision that day. The first group of climbers made it up the famously difficult Hillary Step to reach the summit at about 1:00 p.m. After a brief celebration, it was time to turn around and complete the second half of their laborious trek. They still needed to get back down to the relative safety of Camp 4. As the minutes ticked by, oxygen supplies began to dwindle. Deadly Decisions Up at the top of the mountain, some climbers had been summiting well after 2:00 p.m. Mountain Madness leader Scott Fischer did not enforce the turn-around time, allowing his clients to stay on the summit past 3:00. Fischer himself was summiting just as his clients were coming down. Despite the late hour, he continued up. No one questioned him because he was the leader and an experienced Everest climber. Later, people would comment that Fischer had looked very ill. Fischers assistant guide, Anatoli Boukreev, had inexplicably summited early on, and then descended to Camp 4 by himself, instead of waiting to assist clients. Rob Hall also ignored the turn-around time, staying behind with client Doug Hansen, who was having trouble moving up the mountain. Hansen had tried to summit the previous year and failed, which is probably why Hall made such an effort to help him up despite the late hour. Hall and Hansen did not summit until 4:00 p.m., however, far too late to have stayed on the mountain. It was a serious lapse in judgment on Halls part- one which would cost both men their lives. By 3:30 p.m. ominous clouds had appeared and snow began to fall, covering up tracks that descending climbers needed as a guide to find their way down. By 6:00 p.m., the storm had become a blizzard with gale-force winds, while many climbers were still trying to make their way down the mountain. Caught in the Storm As the storm raged on, 17 people were caught on the mountain, a perilous position to be in after dark, but especially so during a storm with high winds, zero visibility, and a wind chill of 70 below zero. Climbers were also running out of oxygen. A group accompanied by guides Beidleman and Groom headed down the mountain, including climbers Yasuko Namba, Sandy Pittman, Charlotte Fox, Lene Gammelgaard, Martin Adams, and Klev Schoening. They encountered Rob Halls client Beck Weathers on their way down. Weathers was stranded at 27,000 feet after being stricken by temporary blindness, which had prevented him from summitting. He joined the group. After a very slow and difficult descent, the group came within 200 vertical feet of Camp 4, but the driving wind and snow made it impossible to see where they were going. They huddled together to wait out the storm. At midnight, the sky cleared briefly, allowing guides to catch sight of the camp. The group headed off toward camp, but four were too incapacitated to move- Weathers, Namba, Pittman, and Fox. The others made it back and sent help for the four stranded climbers. Mountain Madness guide Anatoli Boukreev was able to help Fox and Pittman back to camp, but could not manage the nearly comatose Weathers and Namba, especially in the middle of a storm. They were deemed beyond help and were therefore left behind. Death on the Mountain Still stranded high on the mountain were Rob Hall and Doug Hansen at the top of the Hillary Step near the summit. Hansen was unable to go on; Hall tried to bring him down. During their unsuccessful attempt to descend, Hall looked away for just a moment and when he looked back, Hansen was gone. (Hansen had likely fallen over the edge.) Hall maintained radio contact with Base Camp through the night and even spoke with his pregnant wife, who was patched through from New Zealand by satellite phone. Guide Andy Harris, who was caught in the storm at the South Summit, had a radio and was able to hear Halls transmissions. Harris is believed to have gone up to bring oxygen to Rob Hall. But Harris also disappeared; his body was never found. Expedition leader Scott Fischer and climber Makalu Gau (leader of the Taiwanese team that included the late Chen Yu-Nan) were found together at 1200 feet above Camp 4 on the morning of May 11. Fisher was unresponsive and barely breathing. Certain that Fischer was beyond hope, the Sherpas left him there. Boukreev, Fischers lead guide, climbed up to Fischer shortly thereafter but found he had already died. Gau, although severely frostbitten, was able to walk- with much assistance- and was guided down by Sherpas. Would-be rescuers had attempted to reach Hall on May 11 but were turned back by severe weather. Twelve days later, Rob Halls body would be found at the South Summit by Breashears and the IMAX team. Survivor Beck Weathers Beck Weathers, left for dead, somehow survived the night. (His companion, Namba, did not.) After being unconscious for hours, Weathers miraculously awoke late on the afternoon of May 11 and staggered back to the camp. His shocked fellow climbers warmed him up and gave him fluids, but he had suffered severe frostbite on his hands, feet, and face, and appeared to be near death. (In fact, his wife had been notified earlier that he had died during the night.) The next morning, Weathers companions almost left him for dead again when they departed camp, thinking he had died during the night. He awoke just in time and called out for help. Weathers was assisted by the IMAX group down to Camp 2, where he and Gau were flown out in a very daring and dangerous helicopter rescue at 19,860 feet. Shockingly, both men survived, but frostbite took its toll. Gau lost his fingers, nose, and both feet; Weathers lost his nose, all of the fingers on his left hand and his right arm below the elbow. Everest Death Toll The leaders of the two main expeditions- Rob Hall and Scott Fischer- both died on the mountain. Halls guide Andy Harris and two of their clients, Doug Hansen and Yasuko Namba, also perished. On the Tibetan side of the mountain, three Indian climbers- Tsewang Smanla, Tsewang Paljor, and Dorje Morup- had died during the storm, bringing the total of deaths that day to eight, the record number of deaths in one day. Unfortunately, since then, that record has been broken. An avalanche on April 18, 2014, took the lives of 16 Sherpas. A year later, an earthquake in Nepal on April 25, 2015, caused an avalanche that killed 22 people at Base Camp. To date, more than 250 people have lost their lives on Mount Everest. Most of the bodies remain on the mountain. Several books and films have come out of the Everest disaster, including bestseller Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (a journalist and a member of Halls expedition) and two documentaries made by David Breashears. A feature film, Everest, was also released in 2015.

Sunday, November 3, 2019

Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 - Essay Example Public companies are demanded to set internal control structures to guarantee the quality and accuracy of financial reports in order to enable investors make informed decisions on which investments decisions they should undertake. Public companies are therefore needed to have independent board of directors to provide oversight and develop and assess internal controls systems. Secondly, the act has stipulated the standards and manner in which auditors should carry their mandate by ensuring that their independence is not impaired and that members of the audit engagements do not have conflict of interests (Pain & Karmakar, 2007). It further restricted audit firms from providing non audit services that are likely to interfere with their objectivity. In addition, the act has placed the responsibility of ensuring accurate and complete financial reports on senior management. The act specifies the responsibility of senior management on the validity and accuracy of the financial reports and outlines the interaction between board audit committees and the external auditors. Moreover, Sarbanes Oxley highlights the enhanced financial disclosure requirements for the financial results (Pain & Karmakar, 2007). Public companies are required to disclose off balance sheet transactions and beef their reporting. Significant changes in the assumptions and conditions should further be disclosed. Likewise, the act mandates security analysts, directors and auditors to declare their conflict of interest before accepting to provide financial services to public companies. Equally stipulated in the act are the penalties preferred for destruction, manipulation and alteration of financial records with an objective of misleading the public in order to make financial gains. It recommends sentencing and incorporates failure to certify financial reports as an

Friday, November 1, 2019

Analysis of a Bankruptcy for a Firm Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Analysis of a Bankruptcy for a Firm - Essay Example As a result of this, it becomes imperative to predict if any firm has chances of going bankrupt. Accurate forecasting of bankruptcy enables a firm to take corrective actions, and thereby reducing losses, and possibly even prevent bankruptcy. Hence, bankruptcy prediction is a topic of great interest and attracting a lot of research. There are two kinds of bankruptcy prediction models, generally found in the literature. The first is the accounting based models, which include logistic regression models. The second category is the market-based model, which include Merton Models. Fitzpatrick (1931) used the approach of using ratio analysis to compare bankrupt and successful firms. His univariate model of using 13 ratios to indicate failure was first attempt of such kind to predict industry failures. However, no significant relationship could be established between the model and failure. The work done by Beaver (1966) is considered as the first pioneering work in the field of bankruptcy prediction. He proposed that the firm can be seen as a â€Å"reservoir of liquid assets, which is supplied by inflows and drained by outflows. (†¦) The solvency of the firm can be defined in terms of the probability that the reservoir will be exhausted, at which point, the firm will be unable to pay its obligations as they mature†. Beaver used 30 ratios to develop a univariate model. These ratios were applied to 158 companies, half of them as bankrupt and the other half as successful firms. The finest ratios were the â€Å"working capital funds flow/ total assets†, and â€Å"net income/ total assets†. These ratios correctly identified 90%, and 88% of the cases. This study was followed by Altman’s model (1968, 1983). He applied multiple discriminant analysis to 33 pairs of bankrupt and successful firms. He proposed that bankruptcy could be explained by using a combination of 5 financial ratios.  Ã‚