Saturday, August 31, 2019

Thesis Reading

The title of the thesis that I chose for my Thesis Reading is â€Å"BARKADAHAN SA MC: Communication within Peer Groups in Miriam College and how it leads the members to commit major violations of school rules. † It was written by four authors namely, Catherine J. Macasaet, Michelle Corazon S. Robles, Alexandrea Camille C. Rodriguez, and Anna Monica T. Torres. The thesis was published on February 9, 2008 and was submitted as a partial fulfillment of the authors’ requirements in Communication Arts. The problem of the said thesis is, â€Å"Does communication within peer groups in Miriam College lead its members to commit major violations of school rules? † and with this being said, their general objective is to identify whether communication within Miriam College students affect their chances of committing school violations. According to the findings of the group members of the thesis, based on the survey that they have conducted, almost all of their respondents are part of a peer group or what they mostly call as a â€Å"barkada. † Only 3 out of a hundred responded â€Å"no† when asked if they belong to one. And with this, those who answered â€Å"yes† to the question showed some symptoms of Groupthink that lead them to committing violations of school rules. The Groupthink phenomenon allowed the students of certain peer groups to have faulty decisions causing them to do wrong actions. The group also discussed the activities that peer groups mostly do and their self-evaluation of their school performance. With this, they have also included the number of people among their respondents who have encountered committing violations and their peers’ influence on this. The Groupthink phenomenon which was stated a while ago was the most evident situation that peer groups are commonly facing when together. Three of the symptoms present were the thought that each group’s actions are always right, that they always have undisputed choices in decision-making, and lastly, that every group does not consider the beliefs of out-groups. As an analysis of the problem stated for the thesis, the authors used two theories namely, Social Identity Theory and like what was mentioned a while ago, Groupthink Theory. First off, the Social Identity Theory was developed y Henri Tajfel and John Turner in 1979. It was used to comprehend the psychological foundation of discrimination within inter-groups. The theory has three elements in it which are categorization, identification, and comparison. The categorization element comes in when a person labels his or herself and other members of a group. Identification, on the other hand, is when a person identifies his or h erself as a part of a group which allows him or her to have a more sense of worth. Lastly, comparison is when the group members already compare their positive characteristics as a whole to the characteristics of other groups. The theory also states that groups look for confidence by positively distinguishing itself from other groups. The Social Identity Theory applies in the said thesis because, before actually studying the effects of communication of peer groups in their chances of committing school violations, the researchers first studied an individual’s process of being a member of the group through the visibility of the said theory in him or her. It showed that Social Identity is what mainly occurs first because a person labels his or herself, becomes a part of the group, and then compares his or her group to others. The theory is applicable because it helped the researchers identify how the participants of their survey identify themselves as part of a peer group. Moving on with the theories used in the paper, another relevant theory is the Groupthink Theory which was stated several times a while ago. This theory was developed by Irving Janis in 1972 and was based on human social behavior in which a hypothesis—that critical thinking is used to assess the efficiency of a group’s decision-making—was developed. Groupthink is actually a way of planning used by a group when their aim of agreement overcomes their assessment of other plans of actions. The theory also involves the group’s cohesiveness wherein the group’s involvement in each other affects their decisions—the more cohesive a group, the more pressure is applied on the members to preserve such cohesiveness. Such cohesiveness is visible when group members like each other, and would want to stay within the group, thus, not wanting to be left out. With too much of this said cohesiveness, there are dangers involved like not being able to exercise independent critical thinking, thus, having irrational decisions like hoices that are incomplete and involve risks. With these said, groupthink is actually a weakening of effectiveness in thinking because it affects how the groups actually consider different plans of actions and not just what they think is right. Groupthink Theory is relevant to the thesis of the researchers because it allows them to look at the process of decision-making by a group which is relevant in understanding how communication within p eer groups leads to commit school violations. The theory was used when the authors analyzed how each member of a group develops confidence and then starts to meet the terms of her whole group’s actions and choices. It is also applicable when the researchers were able to identify that the theory is the most apparent communication pattern within peer groups of Miriam College in such a way that after going through a phase of Social Identity which was stated a while ago, peer groups then tend to apply Groupthink which involves pressure within their group members to comply with the unanimous decision of the group as a whole. With having the thought that the group’s decision is what is right, they then tend to become confident with their actions which are sometimes, are already the violations of school rules. Because of faulty decision-making, peer groups are lead to disobedience of school policies. These are what the researchers have found out with the use of the Groupthink Theory of Irving Janis. With the help of Social Identity Theory and Groupthink Theory, authors of the said thesis were able to understand the effects that communication within the â€Å"barkadas† of Miriam College have on each of the members. The theories were actually very relevant in helping them find the results for their problem and were able to give answers to the questions that they have objectives of responding to. Both were able to help the researchers because having a thesis on peer groups, the theories also being about groups helped in defining the problem stated. Reference: Littlejohn, S. W. (2008). Theories of human communication 9th ed. Belmont, California: Wadsworth.

Friday, August 30, 2019

Asia Essay

1. Which internal and external factors have helped Reliance group to grow into its current position? Reliance group is an example of a well-managed company that has been able to take advantage of interior competitive advantage possibilities as well as exterior ones. On one hand, Reliance started out with Dhirubai Ambani by borrowing money from the Indian government, shifting towards textiles made out of synthetic plastic fibers and receiving benefits from government incentives and political connections at its origin and middle life cycle. Reliance responded perfectly to the world leading industries at the time and acted as a pioneer in introducing them in the Indian market. As the world’s leading industry shifted from a high demand for plastics and textiles derived from plastics to petrochemicals and fuel production, the Reliance group did likewise by building petrochemical plants in India and tried to make the maximum profit out of what India had to offer to the world and itself at the time and had not been developed to its maximum potential yet. On the other hand, government played a key role in Reliance success as it enabled the company to export worldwide and grow in domestically by reducing quotas and tariffs as well as taxes on the raw materials needed for manufacturing. 2. In which aspects has the management of Reliance group been typical for Indian management? In which aspects has it been atypical? Most of the aspects of the management of the Reliance group can be easily related to the way companies are managed in India. Reliance group is a family run company that depends gravely on the relationship between the siblings that own the company, all siblings had the father and founder as the center of the company and once he passed away the company was divided amongst the brothers and sisters. Another typical Indian attribute is the diversification of the operations of the company, Ranging from petrochemical to eatable products or telecommunications. Each brother took care of a different sector and the gender role with a tendency towards masculinity and seniority was also seen when the company was divided giving the oldest of the brothers 70% of the market share of the company, 20% to the younger brother and only 5% to each one of the sisters. What was very atypical was the monochromic way the company has been run, however it can easily be explained due to the fact that they need to replicate the way the international monochromic market works that emulates the way US firms work. 3. Do you think Reliance Group has to transform its fundamentally to remain successful in the future? Yes, I do believe that Reliance group should find of way of not having to depend on the fluctuations of the global market as much as it does, Thus preventing the company from ever being as impacted as it was by the recent global crisis. I believe they should expand domestically as a way of having a â€Å"safe space† in case there is another crisis in the future and perhaps try to grow deeper ties with other Asian countries like Japan or China that did not suffer from the crisis at the scale that western economies did and that are geographically closer from India than many other western countries.

The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture In everyone’s life, there are people. Some of these people walk in our lives for a second, only to run right out. While others walk in and leave a mark on our hearts. Sometimes this mark only lasts for a little while and then slowly fades away, but other times, this mark lasts for a lifetime. There is one man in my life who has made a distinct mark on my heart — a mark that was created the first time he picked me up and held me in his arms. This mark has lasted ever since then. This man is my dad. My dad is an amazing man.He has taught me an awful lot in my fourteen years. He was the man who taught me how to ride my bike. He would hold on to my handlebars and run by my side as I pedaled. Though I feared that I would get hurt, I trusted my dad and knew that he would never let me fall. When he thought that I was ready, he would let go and watch me ride, making sure I would not tumble over. Although, when I did, he was by my side in a second, picking me up and dusting the dirt off my arms and legs. He would then stand my bike back up and we would try it again and again.With his help, I learned how to never give up. This lesson is not only important while riding a bike, but it is also critical when it comes to life experiences. If you mess up, you have to keep trying. You should not become frustrated and quit. My dad also taught me about money. â€Å"If you don’t need it, don’t buy it† is his motto. Though most of my friends love to shop, because of my dad’s words, I have never found it that eexciting . This applies to other material goods besides clothes. It is important to realize that simply wanting something is not enough.You should not merely collect items that you do not need. There are people in this world who have nothing. Therefore, when being given the oopportunity to shop, you should not buy everything that meets the eye. When I was younger, my dad and I enjoyed playing games together. One of the games he taught me how to play was chess. In chess there is a strategy. I learned this by watching my dad play. Some times, while we would play, I would get bored and start moving my pieces to whatever spot was open. I soon realized that you should not move the pieces randomly or you will lose.With the help of my dad, I learned how to think things through and plan things out. I learned that in order to succeed, one should think situations through, but have fun. One of my dad’s hobbies is planning vacations. Every year he plans a family trip for the summer. A few years ago, we traveled to Europe. While visiting France, we came across many unique foods. I am not fond of trying new things, but my dad taught me that the worst that can happen is I will not like it. Some of the foods that I tried were not the best, and I probably will never try them again.However, there were some foods, like crepes, that were absolutely delicious and I am glad that he was there to talk me into try ing something new. Another vacation he planned was to Hawaii. While in Hawaii, we all went snorkeling. At first I was scared that I would not be able to breathe, but my dad told me that was why we used a snorkel. I learned how to rely on something else to breathe. In life, this is like depending on others. It is important to learn how to do things on your own, but it is okay to need a helping hand every once in a while. My dad has always been there for me.He is always there to lend a hand. My dad is such an inspiration to me. Tthroughout my life he has been there for me, supporting me and cheering me on. Whether it is in sports or school, he is always there for me, encouraging me to do my best. My dad and I are inseparable. I am so grateful to be able to have a dad like him to lean on when I need help. I can always count on him to make me laugh when I am feeling down, to pick me up when I am hurt, and to help me find the answer when I have a question. There will always be a place fo r him in my heart. He has made a mark that will last a lifetime.

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Retail Merchandising & Store Operations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Retail Merchandising & Store Operations - Essay Example Marketers need to come up with new strategies to attract and hold on to their customers and one of these promotional strategies is visual merchandising and store design and layout. Walters and White have defined visual merchandising as the activity, which coordinates effective merchandising selection with effective merchandising display. (D Walters and D White, 1987). It involves communicating a positive product image to the customer and also ensuring that the customer decodes it well thus leading to positive behavioral outcome leading to purchase. The basic aim of the retailer is to trigger a customer to make a purchase. For this three major steps are to be followed. The first one should cause the customer to enter the shop. This can be caused by the shops exterior including both the exterior landscape, the board and the window display. The second effort is made to retain the customer in the store for as long as possible which is attained by making the ambience pleasing and the store comfortable. The third and the decision making process of buying is greatly affected by the product display and availability which is ensured by clean products on display in an efficient manner. The interior design of the store can greatly affect the customers psychologically, lowering their defenses and removing their doubts, encourage them to make purchases and maintain interest in the store. (Kotler, 1974). Thus all marketers are unanimous in agreeing with the fact that store design is one of the main factors behind customer store choice decisions. Other factors include pricing, distance and size of the outlet. Previously the emphasis was on the display of the products but now marketers also have to lay emphasis on the elements which excite the senses of the shoppers. Frequently used elements are smells, lighting, flat screen videos and

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Character Review from the Movie 12 Angry Men Essay

Character Review from the Movie 12 Angry Men - Essay Example Based on the knife, the inability to remember details of a movie, fighting with his father earlier in the evening, and eyewitnesses who saw him kill his father and leave the apartment, the young man should by all accounts sent to the electric chair. However, in this case, one juror, number 8, doesn't believe the defense case was convincingly portrayed and while not necessarily believing the boy to be innocent, needs to understand the facts of the case, and cannot in good conscience vote to send this young man to die. He has reasonable doubt, and voices it by voting not guilty. Juror 8, in 12 Angry Men, works from a place of virtue, principles, and good character at all times. By knowing his duty as a public servant, he does not allow idle chatter to distract him from the task, his selfish reasons to overpower, and he comes from a place of fairness and equality. Even when presented with the facts of the trial, his intuition continues to question what is right and wrong and stands by his principles. Using the virtuous approach to ethics, he listens to his inner voice, and listens to each fact once again in order to understand. As they begin to speak about the case, a number of facts exposed as exaggerated or untrue reveal themselves. The first piece of evidence being a knife so special the shopkeeper has never seen one like it before. Not quite believing the knife to be one of a kind, and following his instincts cause him to break the law by going to the kid's neighborhood and buying a similar knife. Now a lawbreaker, we may think his credibility shattered; however, he informs the other jurors of his intention of a greater good, and choosing to do something wrong in order to obtain it. In the Utilitarian approach, we see the consequence of the action is what determines right and wrong not the act itself. Was the result a good consequence for all and justifiable to produce the equality for all If so, then it was the right course of action. However, if Juror 8 continued to break the law in order to prove his point, the balance of ethics tipped, and the ends would not justify the means. An eighteen-year-old kid whose father beats him daily should be a prime suspect in the father's murder; however, juror 8 does not believe he seems like the type. Placing himself in the kid's shoes, juror eight tries to feel what the kid feels, and advocates why each fact does not convince him. Principled actions of compassion and empathy are universal and good by themselves. As a good leader would, juror 8 requests each person put themselves in the shoes of the accused - by posing questions and making it personal. "It's possible" is a favorite phrase of juror 8, and recommending another vantage point to each "fact", he shows each man a human side of things. He asks them if they have ever lived near an "L" train, if they have ever said they would kill someone without meaning it, and not remembered details of a day. Again, if the balance tipped to the principle side of ethics, analysis of each act and consequence would cause us to not move toward a resolution or ask entirely too many questions in order to understand.Eleven jurors believe themselves to be good-hearted people who are there to perform a duty. Good people do not necessarily make good decisions as mentioned in the reading. Juror 8 asks them to look at the consequences of their own actions - voting to send a kid to die

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Marketing Strategies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Marketing Strategies - Essay Example The company’s speciality operation includes royalties and licensed fees from licensed locations, revenue from the sales of branded products through retail and foodservice revenue from the sale of coffee to institutions. While the sale of branded products through retail and foodservice accounts for only a small proportion of the company’s total revenue, it is instrumental in developing and building brand loyalty. The bulk of the revenue from this segment stems from the US division, where Starbucks has a licensing relationship with Kraft Foods Inc to sell branded products, including Starbucks coffee. Through the Kraft partnership, distribution has also been expanded into Canada and the UK. The company also operates two joint ventures in which it has a 50% equity interest: North American Coffee Partnership, a joint venture with Pepsi-Cola Co to develop and distribute bottled Frappuccino and Starbucks DoubleShot coffee drinks, and Starbucks Ice Cream Partnership, a joint venture with Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream to develop and distribute ice cream products. (Spulber, 2007) Starbucks also has a partnership with Jim Beam Co, a unit of Fortune Brands Inc, to manufacture and market Starbucks bran ded premium coffee liqueur products in the US and Canada. Market performance for the third quarter 2007 continued to be positive for Starbucks in the US, with strong single digit growth for the brand in the premium coffee segment. Financial performance has been strong, with total revenue increasing by over 22% in the fiscal year ending September 2006. Both operating segments saw strong levels of growth, with the company-operated segment increasing by over 21% and the speciality segment up by over 23%. (Michelli, 2006) Within the company-operated segment, sales growth has been driven by outlet expansion, but comparable store sales has also been

Monday, August 26, 2019

Personal Philosophy of Education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Personal Philosophy of Education - Essay Example The paper herein thus offers an insightful discussion about principal values in a personal philosophy of education that is founded on a Christian view. In this personal philosophy of education, the fundamental principles are the pillars that give a comprehensive explanation to it. The principles make the philosophy from a Christian worldview with an intrinsic rationalization based on Christian values, virtues and ways (Valmyr, 2009). Education in the simplest explanation is the acquisition of knowledge. However, in Christianity, ultimate knowledge and truth is found in the word of God. As explained in the book of Hebrews, ultimate knowledge and truth became universal truth and absolute and hence it became flesh among believers. Thus, the Bible is the authoritative source for all instruction and truth even though it might not give adequate knowledge about every earthly subject that is taught in our schools. However, the Bible stands as the framework of all inquiries since it provides guidelines and principles for all our aspects of lives including educational and intellectual lives. The Bible thus shows how some subjects such as arts, science, and mathematics fit the world that the Almighty God created. The Bible allows us to understand that nature reflects Gods character. Thus, as Christian educators, we must nurture a culture of reading the Bible in students for them to understand and discover the Almighty God since most of the knowledge about Him is found in that Holy book. Christian educators understand that learning is dependent on a belief system or faith. The beliefs that we harbor are critical in influencing the manner in which we absorb knowledge and interpret it. Thus, it is imperative for Christian educators to examine any fathomable worldview according to the word in the biblical scriptures so that our educational and worldview foundation is in Gods revelation and not cultural prejudices. Our students must also be taught the same

Sunday, August 25, 2019

XTRA(2) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words - 1

XTRA(2) - Essay Example lysis of the logical requirements, design as well as implementation and these would be discussed under different categories of tasks related to the Xtra case study. A close analysis of the case study of Xtra shows that it is a small company specializing in Hollywood memorabilia and its founding principles were based on the notion of business being conducted via the post from the central offices based in the city center. However, due to global economic recession, the company has seen a significant decline in sales and the need to generate more sales has seen the company underscoring on the need to develop an eBusiness system that would help in collecting of marketing data as well as to provide a more personal customer service. E-Business is basically a general term that encompasses e-commerce but also includes the use of the internet for other business tasks such as teamwork, communication and new business services Post & Anderson 2003). E-business is increasingly regarded as a valuable tool for more traditional firms and has a large role to play in the future of many organisations through offering convenient online services to the customers. The basic eBusiness systems requirement for Xtra is the use of a system that is able to collect data automatically especially at the point of sale. This would increase efficiency in gathering data about the clients and is more efficient compared to the traditional method of using hard files to store data about their products. This involves the identification of problems with the current system and making choices. This stage would also involve the aspect of persuading the others to accept the decision and subsequently implement the ultimate solution that would have been agreed upon. Apparently, this method can handle large volumes of data and process information about any transaction swiftly. Traditionally, Xtra has been conducting its business using postal services to do all the transactions. However, because of the

Saturday, August 24, 2019

Contemporary Management Problem Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Contemporary Management Problem - Essay Example Organizational sustainability depends on efficiency of management team. The organization is not a mere set of employees or top management. Organizational sustainability depends on synchronization between top level management, middle level management and lower level management. Business management helps to integrate functions of each department to increase the efficiency of service delivery. Business management plays a cordial role to solve critical organizational issues (labour related problem, irregular trade practices, employee disruption, maintaining transparency between each department’s works, designing vision and mission statement and maintaining a stable organizational hierarchy). Many companies use Business Crisis Management (BCM) and Continuity Management (CM) to identify and solve business related problems. Centrality of management functions revolves around few departments of the organizations. Various departments (like production, marketing, finance, operation) play pivotal role to decide the dynamics of business management. Business management plays important role in solving people related issues of management. Many organizations have failed due to poor performance of top level management in last few years. ... Learning organization concept has been used by many management research scholars to distinguish between successful and failed organizations. Learning organization can be described in the following manner. The organization gives importance on acquiring or creating and transferring information and knowledge (Porth and McCall, n.d.). Four key things are important for a learning organization. They are- 1-problem solving in an ethical and systemic manner, 2- encouraging new thoughts or process to change the management functions, trying to learn from past mistakes committed by other organizations, 3- trying to maintain equilibrium between good business practise by other organizations and self evaluation, 4- maintaining transparent communication dynamics across the organization. Free flowing communication model helps to spread the knowledge across every department of organization (Garvin, 1993, p. 81). Many organizations failed to maintain a steady business policy to create a sustainable or ganizational structure. Various management problems are explained in the following section. Organisational structure (problems regarding management hierarchy, board members are not very clear about their responsibilities, lack of communication between different functional departments). Leadership (organization is running without any mission and vision statement, organization is managing business without any long term objectives). Motivation (lack of motivation among employees to perform a particular task, lack of support from the top level management creates communication gap between them and employees). Business ethics (many companies fail to maintain fair business

Friday, August 23, 2019

Neo-Conservatism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Neo-Conservatism - Essay Example This new policy was also, in some ways, ineffective – as unions failed, blue-collar workers felt let down by the system and turned to neo-conservatism. The lack of contradictory political ideologies also played its part, giving dissatisfied Democrats the terrible choice of sticking with a disappointing party or turning to the right. As the century wore on, event after traumatic event shook the American culture, fatally dismantling people's faith in the current leftist governments. The Vietnamese war, the Watergate scandal, and the Iranian hostage crisis (amongst others) generated a pervasive sense of cynicism and alienation (WBA 695) which made neo-conservatism strangely more attractive. The culmination of such events combined with the inefficacy of the Democratic government to become a deathly blow to leftist politics. Many American people, particularly the working class and poor who had previously identified with the Democratic party, felt let down by a system which appeared to not care about them. This led to a massive drop in the amount of people going to the polls, meaning even before the results were in that a significant change in contemporary politics was almost guaranteed.

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Poetry Essay Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Poetry Assignment - Essay Example The poem however took a deeper meaning when the â€Å"rain† in a â€Å"long line† is taken figuratively. For it meant feeling blue in waiting in a long line not to mention the inconvenience brought by rain while â€Å"waiting at Ford Higland Park†. This complaint, grievance or poignant disposition of the writer serves as the thesis of the poem where the rest of the poem take its cue and argument of a narrative of a complaint. The workplace is not only inconvenient and difficult but can be cruel as well. With work and employees making a living, most of course would want more than they want. This want to have more can turn â€Å"your own brother† as â€Å"someone else’s brother† Evident with this line when â€Å"You rub your glasses /with your fingers,/and of course it’s someone else’s brother†. This suggests that man will turn against another just to get ahead ten paces ahead of us. This has been true during the time of Levine and is still true today not only at work but also in other aspect of life. Some will step on another or will do anything even to the detriment of a brother just to have a leg up. Work however is not only about drudgery and a never ending quest to endure. There must be a reason why people endure even the most back braking of work. Levine explained this in the poem why a man has to work. Poignant as the poem may sound with all the difficulty and impersonal rat race at the place of work, people work because of concern and love for the people they love. This love for someone else in their lives make them endure the drudgery of work no matter how hard it is. Levine may address that person in the poem as â€Å"brother† in the line â€Å"the love flooding you for your brother†, but it can be applied to anyone where a worker finds a reason to endure those long hours of repetitive work. The person may be a father or a mother working to provide for their family, a brother or a sister providing

Southern Stereotypes Essay Example for Free

Southern Stereotypes Essay Grotesque roams in the South whereby grace transformed into violence it becomes realization. In 1955, Flannery O’Connor wrote Good Country People, where she uses the distorted side of humans to aware the reader of the powerful reality of spirituality. Mostly the characters are used to represent grotesque. A female character in particular that O’Connor uses is Joy Hulga, a rather fanatical character who denies Southern stereotypes and is a â€Å"virgin ogre† who is a misfit. Southern belles are the way in the south that will have a place to fit. In this particular story O’Connor uses females to demonstrate a Southern social code. The society where these ladies are placed is one where a lot is expected. â€Å"The Southern Belle grows up (in genteel style), gets married (becoming a Southern lady), and like the larger American culture’s stereotypical woman, fulfills her highest destiny when she is wife and mother† (Pierce 1). Carramae has the attributes to truly be a southern belle who is a blonde that at age fifteen had come to be both a wife and a mother. Then on the other side her sister, Glynese an eighteen year old redhead with many admirers. Glynese wasn’t one to settle for crumbs she was worth a ’36 Plymouth and to get married by a preacher. Both â€Å"Glynese and Carramae are both fine girls,† (O’Connor 5) that any mother would be proud to be affiliated with and brag about and any man ready to escort such pretty ladies. â€Å"These Southern ladies are caricatures of normal girls who court young men, marry, and produce children† (Westling 518) representing the ways of a fine South. Unlike fine girls Joy Hulga denies the traditional Southern stereotypes of women. A common stereotype that O’Connor expresses is beauty within the exterior. Joy Hulga is always being compared to Glynese and Caramae and mostly because they are the belles while Joy Hulga is â€Å"a large blonds girl who has an artificial leg† (O’Conor 1). Joy Hulga has never fulfilled or fitted in a normal role or even danced, â€Å"any woman who fails to fulfill these roles is typically portrayed as either laughable, pathetic, or terrifying (and, in some cases, all of the above† (Pierce 1). She is now characterized as a thirty-two year old lady, whose life has passed beneath her eyes with no chance of a normal southern life converting her into a bitter egocentric person. She walks around stomping in a sluggish matter transmitting a depressing atmosphere. Aside from not having exterior beauty she has a Ph. D in philosophy. Any mother could brag about her daughter becoming a teacher but never a daughter who obtained a Ph. D. Due to the extent education she has she becomes an atheist. Since she thinks that she knows the truth about salvation, it brings herself into thinking she is superior than people because they haven’t opened their eyes to understand that there is no real salvation. â€Å"She looked at nice young men as if she could smell their stupidity† (O’Conor 3). Jo Hulga’s exterior and mindset juxtapose Southern life. Joy-Hulga’s very extensive character denies the Southern life who becomes a â€Å"virgin ogre† that is a misfit. O’Connor uses grotesque to establish characters creepy qualities. She has given Joy Hulga a distorted side to deny Southern stereotypes. It’s realism or just grotesque.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Secure Vehicular Traffic Re-routing System using SCMS

Secure Vehicular Traffic Re-routing System using SCMS Secure Vehicular Traffic Re-routing System using SCMS in connected cars ABSTRACT The centralized system encounters two vital issues, the centralized server needs to accomplish genuine calculation and communication with the other vehicles continuously, which can make such architecture infeasible for extensive zones with various vehicles; and driver security is not guaranteed since the drivers need to share their area furthermore the beginning stages and goal of their excursion with the server, which may keep the acknowledgment of such courses of action. To address these issues, a half and half vehicular rerouting structure is enlivened. The structure off-weights a tremendous part of the rerouting figuring at the vehicles, and therefore, the re-coordinating system gets the opportunity to be useful persistently. To settle on group rerouting decisions, the vehicles exchange messages over vehicular extraordinarily delegated frameworks. The system is hybrid since notwithstanding it uses a server to choose an exact overall point of view of the development more than 2G/3 G affiliation. Likewise imperative is that the customer security is balanced with the rerouting ampleness. SCMS issues advanced endorsements to taking an interest vehicles for setting up trust among other vehicle, which is imperative for prosperity applications in perspective of vehicle-to-vehicle correspondences. It underpins four principal use cases, to be particular, bootstrapping, endorsement provisioning, bad conduct reporting and renouncement. The principle outline aim is to give both security and insurance to the greatest degree sensible and possible. To fulfill the last specified, vehicles are provided pseudonym certificates, and the provisioning of those supports is partitioned among different affiliations. The essential challenges is to energize capable renouncement while giving insurance against various attacks from insiders. Keywords Intelligent vehicles, VANET, SCMS, IOT, P2P Communication, Traffic Re-Routing. Traffic congestion has changed into a continually developing issue the world over. Blockage diminishes ampleness of transportation foundation and expands travel time, air pollution, and fuel utilize. Traffic blockage acknowledged urban Americans to travel 4.8 billion hours more than should be required and to buy an additional 1.9 billion gallons of fuel, for a stop up cost of $101 billion in 2010. It is normal that by 2015, this cost will scale to $133 billion (i.e., more than $900 for each expert). The measure of abused fuel will hop to 2.5 billion gallons (i.e., enough to all more than 275,000 gas tanker trucks) [1]. While blockage is, figuratively speaking, considered as a significant city issue, delays are winding up being consistently normal in negligible urban areas and some commonplace zones also. Starting now and into the foreseeable future, finding reasonable reactions for clog adjust at sensible expenses is changing into a stringent issue. The considering is that all the more convincing vehicle re-directing can be proactively given to individual drivers accommodatingly, in light of the communitarian information amassed from shrewd mobile phones or structures presented in vehicles, to encourage the impacts of blockage in the city. The advances of the rising distinguishing and get ready pushes empowers unavoidable change of the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS). ITS arrangements to update the voyager encounter by melding advancement and data into the present transportation structure. Vehicle re-coordinating framework (VRS) progression is a subset of ITS. In the previous 30 years, assorted VRS advancements have been considered and made the world over using unmistakable courses of action to accomplish chop down travel time for drivers. At present static passed on street side sensors (e.g., acknowledgment circles, camcorders) and vehicles going about as versatile sensors (i.e., utilizing implanted vehicular frameworks or pushed cells) can collect steady information to screen the activity at fine granularity. For instance, the Mobile Millennium widen [2] demonstrated that specific a low rate of drivers need to offer information to satisfy a right activity see. The centralized system gathers reliable development information from vehicles and conceivably street side sensors, and it completes a couple re-routing methods to delegate another course to every re-routed vehicle in light of real travel time in the street deal with. Rather than utilizing basic most short way figurings, the re-guiding strategies utilize stack changing heuristics to figure the new course for an offered vehicle to relieve the potential blockage and to chop down the common travelling time for all vehicles. This specialized way is pushed to a vehicle driver when indications of blockage are seen on his stream way. Regardless, paying little personality to completing a tremendous decreasing in the travel time experienced by drivers, united strategies, for example, our own specific experience the malevolent effects of two trademark issues. In the first place, the central server needs to perform honest to goodness estimation (re-route vehicles to new ways) and correspondence with the vehicles (to send the course and to get territory redesigns) incessantly continuously. It would make centralized system infeasible for boundless districts with different vehicles. In a centralized Vehicle Re-routing framework, the server requires the steady area and moreover the starting point and goal of the vehicles to survey the activity conditions and give productive individual re-steering course. This prompts to significant security stresses toward the drivers and may keep the appointment of such blueprints in perspective of Big Brother fears. For whatever time span that vehiclesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸ takes after are completely unveiled, clients character can without a lot of a broaden be comprehended paying little personality to the probability that monikers utilized [3]. This is an immediate consequence of the way that territory can contain individuals character data [4]. Besides, a movement of area tests will as time goes on reveal the vehicles personality [5]. In this way, it is significant to make the structure work without uncovering the customers Origin and destin ation (OD) sets and with inconsequential number of area overhauls along a client travel. In any case, a totally decentralized outline is not sensible for a proactive re-routing system. For example, by making vehicular specially appointed systems (VANETs), the vehicles can trade information using multi-jump correspondence, and in this manner can perceive signs of blockage in little correspondence while sparing their security. In any case, VANETs dont permit vehicles to get an exact worldwide activity perspective of the road arrange, achieving incorrectly or if nothing else minimum imperfect re-routing. In like manner, in a totally circulated plan, as a result of the nonattendance of a facilitator, the vehicles cant take synchronized exercises meanwhile, which makes it infeasible to settle on group arranged decisions persistently. To handle each one of these issues, this article proposes DIVERT, a dispersed vehicular re-routing system for blockage evading, which impacts both cell Internet and VANET correspondence. Possess is a crossbreed system since in spite of all that i t uses a server, reachable over the Internet, to choose an exact overall point of view of the movement. The consolidated server goes about as a coordinator that accumulates zone reports, recognizes movement blockage and scatters re-routing notices (i.e. overhauled travel times in the road framework) to the vehicles. In any case, the system offloads an unlimited part of the re-routing figuring at the vehicles and consequently the re-steering process gets the opportunity to be particularly helpful dynamically. To take synergistic re-routing decisions, the vehicles orchestrated in a comparable area trade messages over VANETs. Furthermore, DIVERT executes a security change tradition to guarantee the usersà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸ assurance, where each vehicle recognizes the road thickness locally using VANET and furtively reports data with a particular probability just from high activity thickness lanes. Right when signs of blockage are perceived, the server sends the action framework to the vehicles that sent the latest upgrades. Thusly, these vehicles scatter the action data got from the server in their locale. Customer security is uncommonly upgraded since this convention decreases radically the amount of vehicle area overhauls to the server and, thusly, the driver presentation and distinguishing proof dangers. Also, in this half and half plan, the server does not know the OD sets of the customers. Along these lines, the standard duty of this article is the scattered system for re-coordinating. Involve, has four crucial components: (1) a versatile structure building for appropriated re-routing, (2) dispersed re-routing estimations that use VANETs to vehicle accommodatingly enlist an individual alternative route for each vehicle that considers the incorporating vehiclesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸ future ways. (3) security careful re-routing that on a very basic level decreases fragile area data presentation of the vehicles, and (4) upgrades to diminish the VANET overhead and henceforth improve vehicle-to-vehicle correspondence idleness. Re-Routing in VANET to keep away from congestion in the versatile environment by preserving security of client. Centralized System is not adaptable for expanding vehicles. Centralized System causes danger to the client protection No V2V security Emergence of Smart City programs in India Building In-App versatile minimal effort navigation Assigning separate course to every vehicle if there should be an occurrence of re-routing when congestion happens.. Protecting users privacy from server. Implementing security and credential management system among V2V communication Implementing hybrid model while communicating with server i.e. direct Vehicle- to-Server or Vehicle to RSU to Server communication. 5.1 Existing Vehicle Routing Services Projects, for instance, Mobile Millennium [14], CarTel , JamBayes , Nericell ,and surface street estimation [4] vehicle test data accumulated from vehicle on-board GPS devices to change the state of development and gage most constrained travel time. The proposed investigate moves past this idea: instead of investigating the achievability and precision of using PDAs as action sensors, this wander focuses on using that information to recommend courses more splendidly, in this way, fulfilling better adequacy to the extent keeping up a key separation from blockage and diminishing travel time. Organizations, for instance, INRIX [3] give continuous development information at a particular passing precision, which licenses drivers to pick elective courses if they are showing lower travel times. According to Wardrops first action concordance standard [6], this could incite to a customer perfect development adjust. It is known, in any case, that no real adjust can be found under stop up. A cou ple of exercises have been take in the headings of envisioning whole deal discontinuous and transient non-tedious blockages [4]. In any case, the handiness of these applications is in like manner confined: (i) they have exact information generally about interstates and along these lines are not particularly important for city development, and (ii) they cant keep up a key separation from stops up and, meanwhile, it is understood that no certified concordance can be found under blockage [3]. Non-repetitive blockages which address the greater part of all obstructs [8], are especially unsafe as drivers cant use their expert travel times to oversee them. 5.2 Location Privacy Protection There is reliably an trade-off among security and information sharing or disclosure. On the one side, the measure of the information collected particularly impacts the sufficiency of the system. Of course, information disclosure dismisses the all inclusive communitys security (e.g., region, heading). The request is the methods by which to evaluate the assurance and minimize the security spillage. Regarding the estimation, the work in explores the information spills in the question instruments of sorted out shared (P2P) obscure correspondence systems and how these breaks can be used to exchange off mystery. In the meantime, paper [14] described Self Exposure Risk Index (SERI) and External Exposure Risk Index (XERI) to assess the insurance spillage. Concerning region assurance, an unlimited variety of work spotlights on spatial covering to give k-namelessness, which guarantees a customer to be indistinct from at any rate k-1 others. The work in battles that both spatial and common estimations should be considered in the figuring to achieve better k-mystery, where a structure is proposed to engages each versatile client to show the base level of lack of definition that it needs and the most extraordinary transient and spatial strengths that it will recognize. Distinctive techniques can be used to fulfill impelled k-anonymity, for example, registers zone entropy while uses the prefix of the territory hash regard. To keep the zone taking after, achieves k-secrecy by implanting k-1 fake zone takes after. On an extremely essential level, k-obscurity reduces the way of the customers confinement, which is not material for steady region based organizations, for instance, persistent vehicle re-coordinating. The strategy in shows way perplexity approach which uses convenience desire to make a web of meeting ways, staying away from un-trusted zone based organizations from taking after customers while giving uncommonly corr ect constant region overhauls. A weakness careful way covering figuring is proposed in for sparing insurance in GPS takes after that can guarantee a level of security despite for customers driving in low-thickness domains. SCMS Manager: Ensures productive and reasonable operation of the SCMS, sets rules for checking on rowdiness and repudiation solicitations to guarantee that they are right as indicated by techniques. Certification Services: Provides data on which sorts of gadgets are guaranteed to get computerized testaments and indicates the affirmation procedure. CRL Store (CRLS): Stores and circulates CRLs. This is a basic go through capacity since CRLs are marked by the CRL Generator. CRL Broadcast (CRLB): Broadcasts the current CRL, might be done through Road Side Equipment (RSEs) or satellite radio framework, and so on. This is a go through capacity Device: An end-element gadget that sends BSMs, for instance On-Board Equipment (OBE) or After-market Safety Device (ASD). Device Configuration Manager (DCM): Provides confirmed data about SCMS part arrangement changes to gadgets, which may incorporate a segment changing its system address or testament, or handing-off approach choices issued by the SCMS Manager. It is likewise used to confirm the Enrollment CA that a gadget is qualified to get enlistment authentications. Enrollment CA (ECA): Issues enlistment endorsements, which go about as an international ID for the gadget and can be utilized to demand pen name. Diverse ECAs may issue enlistment declarations for various geographic areas, makers, or gadget sorts. Linkage Authority (LA): Generates linkage values, which are utilized as a part of the endorsements and bolster effective repudiation. There are two LAs in the SCMS, alluded to as LAl and LA2. The part keeps the administrator of a LA from connecting endorsements having a place with a specific gadget. Location Obscurer Proxy (LOP): Hides the area of the asking for gadget by changing source locations, and in this manner forestalls connecting of system locations to areas. Furthermore, when sending data to the Misbehavior Authority (MA), the LOP rearranges the reports to keep the MA from deciding the journalists courses. Misbehavior Authority (MA): Processes rowdiness reports to recognize potential bad conduct by gadgets, and if essential disavows and adds gadgets to the CRL. It likewise starts the way toward connecting a testament identifier to the relating enlistment endorsements, and adding-the enlistment authentication to an interior boycott. The MA contains three subcomponents: Internal Blacklist Manager (IBLM), which sends data required for upgrading the inner boycott to the RA; Global Detection (GD), which figures out which gadgets are making trouble; and CRL Generator (CRLG), which issues endorsement disavowal records to the outside world. Pseudonym CA (PCA): Issues here and now (nom de plume) to gadgets. Individual PCAs may, for instance, be constrained to a specific geographic area, a specific producer, or a kind of gadgets. Registration Authority (RA): Validates, procedures, and advances demands for nom de plume to PCA. Request Coordination (RC): Ensures that a gadget does not ask for more than one arrangement of endorsements for a given era. It facilitates exercises between various RAs, and is just required if a gadget could ask for authentications from different RAs Fig. 1. System Architecture A hybrid configuration is proposed to execute DIVERT as showed up in Figure 4.1. The building is made out of a central server and an item stack running on an on-board contraption (e.g., a propelled cell phone) in every taking an intrigue vehicle. This structure uses two sorts of correspondence. The vehicles talk with the server over a 3/4G framework to report adjacent movement thickness data and to get the overall action thickness in the road orchestrate. The vehicles report data as showed by a security careful estimation . In like manner, the vehicles that are firmly found speak with each other over VANETs to choose the area development thickness, to scatter the movement data got from the server, and to execute a spread re-coordinating method. The server uses the vehicle action reports to gather a correct and overall point of view of the road sort out development. The framework is addressed as an organized graph where each edge looks at to a road divide. In addition, each edge has related a dynamic weight addressing the constant action thickness on the edge. A road segment is considered to show signs of stop up when the action thickness is more conspicuous than an edge regard. Each time new road pieces give blockage suggestions, the server uploads a partly weighted diagram (i.e., simply the edges having a travel time not the same as the free stream travel time) to the cars that reported starting at late and are close to the obstruct parcels. The exhorted vehicles dissipate the information (i.e., development graph and vehicle course) in their territories with a set number of ricochets to keep up a key separation from over the top flooding. The dispersal furthermore has a timeout, which is an unfaltering parameter in the system. Exactly when the time is up, in perspective of the movement graph and course information shared by various vehicles, each vehicle, whose present way crosses the stop up spot, locally forms another course to its objective. While speaking with vehicles the vehicles affirm the mechanized verification of the get-togeth er then simply its starts granting. Vehicles in like manner report getting acting up vehicle in structure if found, with the objective that system can affirm it and can discard its statement. Each vehicle sends underwriting when talking with the server as this can disentangle the issue of non-disavowal of message. Fig.2. SCMS Architecture Due traffic re-routing, vehicle travel time and fuel consumption gets lowered. As vehicle are connected it enables other Location based service Traffic is controlled and managed in more efficient manner. It helps in traffic monitoring VANET-based Emergency Vehicle Warning System Traffic light preemption for Emergency Vehicle Vehicle break down notification leads to avoiding accidents Car Upper/Dipper alerts while turning. Crash avoidance 360 vehicle awareness. Intersection movement assistance. Do not pass warning. Emergency Electronic brake light warning A feasible, cost-effective, and effective movement re-routing framework can be executed and deployed in real-time settings. This Approach is versatile as it offload the re-routing calculation on vehicle. References [1] D. Schrank, T. Lomax, and S. Turner. TTIs Urban Mobility Report. Texas Transportation Institute, Texas A M University, 2011. [2] B. Hoh, M. Gruteser, R. Herring, J. Ban, D. Work, J.C. Herrera, A.M. Bayen, M. Annavaram, and Q. Jacobson. Virtual trip lines for distributed privacy preserving traffic monitoring. In Proceedings of the 6th international conference on Mobile systems, applications, and services, pages 15-28. ACM, 2008. [3] Y.C. Chiu, J. Bottom, M. Mahut, A. Paz, R. Balakrishna, T. Waller, and J. Hicks. Dynamic traffic assignment: A primer. Transportation Research E-Circular, (E-C153), 2011. [4] M. Haklay and P.Weber. Openstreetmap: User-generated street maps. IEEE Pervasive Computing, 7(4):12-18, 2008. [5] D. Jiang and L. Delgrossi. Ieee 802.11 p: Towards an international standard for wireless access in vehicular environments. In IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference, pages 2036-2040, 2008. [6] J.G. Wardrop. Some theoretical aspects of road traffic research. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Part II, 1(36):252-378, 1952. [7] J. Kleinberg and E. Tardos. Algorithm design. Pearson Education India: Delhi, 2006 [8] Car-to-car communication.[Online; accessed on 14-Dec-2013]. [9] T. Nadeem, S. Dashtinezhad, C. Liao, and L. Iftode. Traffic view: traffic data dissemination using car-to-car communication. ACM SIGMOBILE Mobile Computing and Communications Review, 8(3):6-19, 2004. [10] S. Dornbush and A. Joshi. Streetsmart traffic: Discovering and disseminating automobile congestion using vanets. In Vehicular Technology Conference, IEEE 65th, pages 11-15, 2007. [11] V. Gradinescu, C. Gorgorin, R. Diaconescu, V. Cristea, and L. Iftode. Adaptive traffic lights using car-to-car communication. In Vehicular Technology Conference, IEEE 65th, pages 21-25, 2007. [12] T. Hunter, R. Herring, P. Abbeel, and A. Bayen. Path and travel time inference from gps probe vehicle data. NIPS Workshop on Analyzing Networks and Learning with Graphs, 2009. [13] D. Schultes. Route planning in road networks. Karlsruhe: Universitat Karlsruhe (TH) Fakultat fur Informatik. Institut fur Theoretische Informatik, Algorithmik II, 2008. [14] N. Malviya, S. Madden, and A. Bhattacharya. A continuous query system for dynamic route planning. In Proceedings of 27th IEEE International Conference on Data Engineering (ICDE 2011), pages 792-803, 2011. [15] N.B Taylor. CONTRAM 5, an enhanced traffic assignment model. TRRL research report. Transport and Road Research Laboratory, Crowthorne, United Kingdom, 1990 [16] J. Nzouonta, N. Rajgure, G. Wang, and C. Borcea. VANET routing on city roads using real-time vehicular traffic information. Vehicular Technology, IEEE Transactions on, 58(7):3609-3626, 2009. [17] Juan (Susan) Pan, Iulian Sandu Popa, and Cristian Borcea DIVERT: A Distributed Vehicular Traffic Re-routing System for Congestion Avoidance. IEEE transaction in mobile computing ,2016 [18] W. Whyte, A. Weimerskirch, V. Kumar, and T. Hehn. A Security Credential Management System for V2V Communications. In Proceedings of the 2013 IEEE Vehicular Networking Conference, pages 1-8, 2013

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Impact of Language Software on Language Learning

Impact of Language Software on Language Learning Chapter one Introduction Overview In todays world, using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and its influence on various aspects of human life, have caused great development on in society and human relations, which is referred to as the information revolution. The increasing development of Information Technology (IT) in human life especially in educational environment and the its use of it have led to a new era in human life that can be called the intelligence community[E1]. Living in such a society that is progressing every day requires people who canto adapt themselves with such progression. The first step in this regard is the issue of how to make optimal use of ICT applications in general education curriculum. Because of the arrival of technology in human life, all individuals, institutions and systems in countries should be prepared for a variety of changes that are vital to progression. To be specific in education, it is not more than some decades which Educational Technology (ET) started to appear in educational system around the world. Nowadays neither students nor instructors can be regarded as the traditional ones who had simple facilities available. According to Thorne and Reinhardt (2008), â€Å"emerging literacies associated with digital media are highly relevant to their current and future lives as language users† (p. 560). Before considering the application of ET with its new concept, instructors and teachers supplied audiovisual products to improve the result of their teaching and learning materials in education. However, recent developments in the computer industry and information, multi-media, communication technologies and the[E2] emergence of local and regional inf ormation networks especially the internet put new methods and tools for designers, managers, executives, and curriculum trainers.Plenty of technologies and tools in learning and teaching process such as educational software, Personal Data Assistance (PDA), mobile and etc. requires the instructors to lead their learners toward using technology in their life at least their education. According to Bruce and Hogan (1998), â€Å"As technologies embed themselves in everyday discourse and activity, a curious thing happens. The more we look, the more they slip into the background. Despite our attention, we lose sight of the way they shape our daily lives† (p. 270). As technology becomes the normal and expected means of communication and education, Bruce and Hogan (1998) point out, important changes occur in expectations about the abilities students have to acquire to be successful language users. The interaction between instructors and learners should be so close in order to get a good and reasonable result. The more teachers update and are familiar with new technologies in teaching, the more knowledgeable and update students will be. In general, the influence of new information technologies in educational institutions (from schools to higher education) and even homes has changed the relationship between student and teacher. Thus, traditional learning paradigms are changed and users are faced with vast amounts of information and knowledge. Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) It is obvious that in these days everybody, especially school and university students, tends to use computer in their daily activities specially explosion of interest in using computers for language teaching and learning which is an interest of both language instructors and language learners. The development of CALL brought about a revolution in teaching process, as the teaching tools offered through CALL were gradually becoming more reliable. Today CALL has popularity in education specially in learning a foreign language so that language learners support it and use it as an essential part of their language learning process. However, applying CALL in teaching and learning has some weaknesses. Nowadays both English language teachers and English learners are tend to utilize computer in their methods especially its very important for English instructors to use CALL because English course book of secondary school changed from the current educational year that CALL is one of important part of it. Schools and their school districts would benefit from a the current program that assesses the English teachers’ use of technology and readiness for use of technology in their classroom, as well as their ability to utilize technology in an engaging and meaningful way for the English learners specific to their content area. One such example is the Teacher Education and Technology Planning Guide created by Learning Point Associates in November of 2004. It looks at eight key categories for the implementation of technology by pre-service teachers and colleges of education (Fulton, Glenn Valdez, 2004). Statement of the problem Informatics and computer-based communication have created a collection that originated arevolution thatis based on information industry: a revolution that itswhose focus is on accessing information, that is, searching and retrieval of information in limited time with a reasonable cost. Ultimately, it results in creating global village and the information society.In this regard, a related terminology Information Technology (IT)would be mentioned that is a key point in the revolution. According to Wikipedia, free encyclopedia, IT is the application of computers and telecommunications equipment to store, retrieve, transmit and manipulate data, often in the context of a business or other enterprise. As its name indicates, in such society each organization and its staffs should be inform of what are going on in the world around and should possess the technology and be able to apply it to get such information. To remain in such society, change is essential, so as a result every organizatio n changed. Education in general and teaching English in particular is one of the many fields thathas been affected by IT and changed. At present, any society needs educated people who have the power of decision-making, people who should be able to act and communicate based on their abilities in a world of widely changing. It means knowledgeable people who are flexible and can adopt themselves to any conditions in their job that are dealing with IT. In addition, each society needs teachers who are able to apply technology in their classes.Regarding to development of technology in human life and man’s move toward technology, teachers need to adapt themselves with technology, too. To get a good and acceptable result of instruction at the end of semesters, English teachers need to update themselves by using CALL. The goal of all language teachers is to teach their students in a way that the students acquire language component and language skills. For vocabulary learning, teachers have applied and employed so many methods and ways such as; memorizing long lists of words, translating texts, making sentences with new words, and so many other ways that are known for the experts in language teaching. In Iran, English teachers have been trying several methods to teach their students English but despite great effort in teaching, they probably have not achieved success.Nowadays there are great amounts of high school students and even university students who cannot use English even a simple introduction while they past at least seven years of English instruction in guidance and high school.English language teaching experts have different beliefs about it. One of the main problems may be if for the purpose of the books that are not communicative based. [E3]In both guidance schools and high schools, English teachers require the students to memorize long list of vocabulary that were at the end of each lessons. Although the words were retained, it was not last for long time. The other main reason may be is its way of teaching grammar. English teachers teach grammar like mathematics. It means first they wrote a formula on the board and then wrote some examples and wanted the students to d o following examples that were on their books. Usually the grammar applied on the lesson reading text but it was not clear enough to make the students understand. There were so many problems that the bottom line was failing to learn English language well. After some years of graduating their high school and nowadays during the school, the students who are poor in learning English language referred to English language institutes to start to learn it better and also in a new method. Experience has shown that the students who participate in English institutes learn and apply English better than those who do not participate in such classes. Unlike schools, the way of teaching English in English institutes are totally different. First, the book which are taught in English institutes are completely different from school. Although there are different kinds of books, all of them are designed with the aim of communication and all of them are following same goal.The books which are using in English institutes are include: Happy House, Happy writing, Potato pals, Pocketsand some others for kids and beginning in starter levels.Let’s go, First friend, Family and friends which are usually forjunior levels and intermediate levels.Interchange, Touchstone, Top notch, Summit, American English file and English resultthatis usually for senior levels adult learning. It should be mentionthat all of the series have different stages.Regardless of the variety of books, in English institutes students are expected to be able to communicate at the end of each semester according to the level of the related book. The remarkable thing in such book is that these books have given considerable attention on learning words with different ways and in some casesfor better understanding of a word, presents a word with its pictures. In all kinds of books, they used kind of CALL. In most of the books, especially for kids, the publisher provides additional software according to the book for better understand of the contents. For kids, it provides some moving pictures and famous cartoon characters to teach them English alphabet or some simple words like dog, cat, ant etc. For junior, intermediate, upper intermediate and senior levels the publisher usually provide demo of the book and additional tests. Even some publishers enlist some English software and attach the software to the book. These publishersmight be believe that such technology is more attractive for language learners and it help to sell their product more. Recently, English teachers have tried to incorporate technology and the old methods of teaching English that have taught in schools, which usually was based on grammar translation method (GTM). As the researcher is going to do his research on vocabulary learning aspect of English language, he has tried to search for some software and CALL programs that their focus is on vocabulary. One of the most important parts of language learning and language usage is vocabulary and the ability of using it. English teachers have used so many different ways to teach vocabulary to English learners but they were not much success. Nowadays English teachers usemany English software to teach vocabulary, learning vocabulary in learners is better than far past but seemingly they have not achieved as success as they expected. They use some software like Oxford Picture Dictionary (OPD), Longman Children Picture dictionary,Nosrat English language teaching, demo of some English books and such software that contains language components specially vocabulary learning. Some of such English software were good at the beginning and attracted learners’ satisfaction even sometimes learners thought it was the best software that they could use but it did not last. One of the most important reasons is because the method they (English software) worked onis not like learners’ real life. Foreign language learners need to learn a newlanguage as much as their first language, which refers to acquiring it rather than learning. It means to teach vocabulary to English language learners so that they internalize in their mind and they could apply it. English language learners need to learn English the same way they leant their first language it means they should be completely surrounded by the language they are going to learn not see a translation of words or instructing. In other words, they should be in a natural immersion of language. With regard to above mentioned characteristics of teaching a language, the researcher chose choose an English software that does not have the above mentioned problems. This study is going to examine teaching vocabulary through the Rosetta Stone English software. Due to above mentioned problems of Iranian EFL learners on vocabulary learning, the researcher is going to demonstrate some words and sentences by related pictures. It is considered that the learners can mix both their auditory and visual sense in their mind so that the word would be learned. Other features of this software will explain in detail in following chapters.This research intends to investigate the impact of Rosetta Stone English software vocabulary learning in a way that the learnt material be last for long time like everybody’s first language. Significance of the study The domain of CALL in Iran is in need of moreresearch. To the researcher’s best knowledge, studiesabout computer-based instruction in Iran are not somanyespecially for research through English language learning software.In addition, there is not any research through Rosetta Stone English software at all and this is the first research in this field using this software.In Mazandaran, Mahmoudabad, it is the first time that a CALL research is going to be done on English language learners so it is novel in this major. A few studies about using podcast and the use of CALLinteaching listening and grammar toIranian EFL learners have beenconducted. It is anticipated that this study encourages English language teachers to use computers in languagelearning in general, and in learning English vocabularyin particular. This study also attempts to bridge the gapbetween the theoretical and practical sides of usingCALL in teaching vocabulary. Therefore, the findings of this study may befunctional for different categories of people; it mayhelp EFL curriculum designers and EFL methodologists develop teaching materials that suit various ways ofteaching and match students’ level of achievement inEnglish language in general and in vocabulary in particular. The finding of this research can be helpful for English language teachers whose students have problem with learning vocabulary and are bored by learning English vocabulary in traditional ways. Moreover, this study may helpEnglish teachersby facilitating their role as well as students byhelping them absorb and apply Englishvocabulary itemsquite easily and smoothly. There are many English learners who are looking for good English software that couldlearn English by themselves; conducting this research makes familiar the people with this software and its abilities.Even some English teachers do not know such software; it is hope that reading this thesis will familiarize t hem with the software.Finally, this study mayencourage other researchers to conduct further studieson the same topic, or maybe on other skills or sub skills of English, which will enrich both the local andinternational literature. Research question and hypothesis This study is going to answer these questions: Does Rosetta Stone English software have any statistically significant impact on Iranian EFL learners’ vocabulary learning? Does Rosetta Stone English software have any statistically significant impact on Iranian EFL learners’ delay[E4] recall? This study will focus on the following null hypotheses: Rosetta Stone English software has no statistically significant impact on Iranian EFL learners’ vocabulary learning. Rosetta Stone English software has no statistically significant impact on Iranian EFL learners’ long-term [E5]recall of vocabulary items. Definition of key terms Computer-assisted language learning (CALL): It is succinctly defined in a seminal work by Levy (1997) as the search for and study of applications of the computer in language teaching and learning. CALL embraces a wide range of Information and communications technology applications and approaches to teaching and learning foreign languages, from the traditional drill-and-practice programs that characterized CALL in the 1960s and 1970s to more recent manifestations of CALL. Here by CALL it means using some software and CDs that learners use to strengthen their vocabulary skill and sometimes using some software such as English Rosetta Stone for practicing English vocabularies. Rosetta Stone English software: It is proprietary CALL software published by Rosetta Stone Inc. The software uses images, text, sound, and video to teach words and grammar by spaced repetition, without translation. Rosetta Stone calls their approach Dynamic Immersion (a term which they have trademarked). Information and Communication Technology (ICT): It is often used as an extended synonym for information technology (IT), but is a more specific term that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications (telephone lines and wireless signals), computers as well as necessary enterprise software, middleware, storage, and audio-visual systems, which enable users to access, store, transmit, and manipulate information. In this study by ICT it means the ways and activities that are related to language learning and activities that learners can do by ICT as their language learning processes. Educational Technology (ET): According to Richards and Schmidt (2010), it is 1. The use of machines and educational equipment of different stores (e.g. language and labrotaries, tape recorder, video, etc.) to assist teachers and learners. 2. A system of instruction which contains (a) an analysis of what learners need to know and be able to do (b) a description of these needs as behavioral objectives. According to Richey (2008), sometimes termed EdTech, is the study and ethical practice of facilitating e-learning, which is the learning and improving performance by creating, using and managing appropriate technological processes and resources. Delimitations of the study This study has the following limitations: This study limits its scope on lower intermediate institutes vocabulary learning. Therefore, other skills and sub skills are not concern of this study. This study will be done on Mahmoudabad lower intermediate institutes learners with their own ecological and cultural characteristics, so learners in other cities and provinces with different levels are not included. This research will study on both genders, so others researchers can limits their study on just one gender. [E1]Source? [E2]As you see in this page, you need a thorough proofreading of your thesis. I did it only for page 1. You continue with the rest. [E3]rewrite [E4]does not match hypothesis 2 [E5] does not match question 2

Monday, August 19, 2019

Indian Persecutions :: essays research papers

The text we have studied relates to the integration problem between teh white and Indian population of United States : Indians are called Native-Americans because they have lived there for centuries. White Europeans arrived in the 17th century on their land during the conquest of the new territories. The confrontation of two cultures led to many problems we will discuss later but, basically, we had the Indian culture related to nature, natural living in direct confrontation with the white industrial and urban culture. By 1950, unemployment was high among native-Americans and the Bureau of Indian Affairs believed the solution was to relocate these populations in urban areas. Indians could see brochures pushing them to leave the country for better conditions in the cities. Many left but half of them came back to their reservation ! Hydroelectric power needs (les besoins en ...) led ( ont conduit) to many conflicts, especially for the building of dams (barrages) as it would flood reserv ations. Using legal protest and open protest, the Indians succeeded in some cases but other projects flooded most of Dakota ‘ s arable land for example. Another sensitive issue is about Fishing rights. Indians have always fished for a living (pour vivre) and thus they have been granted special tribal fishing rights. These rights are now challenged by environmental groups. A movie to illustrate the story of Indians :  « Little Big Man  », starring Dustin Hoffman is a 1971 Hollywood movie which broke all stereotypes people had about Indians : westerns : cow boys, indians.... Indians have often been treated unequally and many protests were held during the 1960s and 1970s.

Sunday, August 18, 2019

A Comparison of Runes and Magic in Beowulf and in Anglo-Saxon England :: comparison compare contrast essays

Runes and Magic in Beowulf and in Anglo-Saxon England      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the Old English poem Beowulf we see the mention of runes, which were used with connotations of magic or charms. Examining evidence from historic times, we find that early Englishmen were fully conversant with the Germanic runic alphabet and that runes did have special connotations.    In Beowulf the hero is in deadly combat with Grendel’s mother in the mere. He is at the point of being killed by the monster when suddenly God shows to him the presence of a special sword nearby on the wall. Beowulf seizes the giant weapon and kills the monster. Then:      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   that sword had begun to melt  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   in battle-bloody icicles; that it melted away  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   was as much a marvel as ice itself  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   when the Father unwinds the bonds of frost,  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   loosens the freezing chains of water,  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Who keeps the power of times and seasons;   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   He is the true God. . . . Already the sword  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   had melted away, its blade had burned up;  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   too hot the blood of the poisonous spirit  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   who had died within. . . . the wave-sword burned up,  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   quenched in that blood. . . . then the strange gold hilt  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   was placed in the   hand of the gray-bearded king,  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   wise war-leader old work of giants;  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   after the fall of devils it came into the hands  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   of the lord of the Dane-men, from magic smithies;  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   once the fierce spirit, long God’s opponent,  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   guilty creature, and his murderous mother  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   had quitted this world, it came to the power  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   of the best overlord between the two seas,  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   of all world-rulers in Scandanavia  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   who gave good treasures. Hrothgar spoke,  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   examined the hilt, great treasure of old.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There was engraved the origin of past strife,   when the flood drowned, the pouring ocean killed  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   the race of giants. . . . On its bright gold facings  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   there were also runes set down in order,  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   engraved, inlaid, which told for whom   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   the sword was first worked, its hair-keen edges,  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   twisted gold scrolled in the hilt,  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   the woven snake-blade(1605ff).    Chickering in his â€Å"Commentary† would have us believe that the melting sword is a reference to patristic theology, to St.

Saturday, August 17, 2019

How Does Steinbeck Presents Curley’s Wife in of Mice and Men Essay

Curley’s wife is a significant personality in the novel. John Steinbeck presents her in different ways during the novel and uses different methods to influence the reader’s judgement, for instance through her look, as she is a complex character. Significantly Steinbeck makes it clear that nurture turns her into the person she is in the novel, her nature is different. He uses language to show us who she is as revealed by colour and light symbolism; incongruity of her appearance and the setting; simile. For the majority of the book she is labelled in a negative way as a treacherous, kittenish character which could be interpreted as a replication of the way civilization observed the character of women in the novel. Sometimes, Steinbeck includes thoughts denouncing Curley’s wife. He also points out some of her good qualities. Due to this, readers can interpret for themselves if Steinbeck thinks highly of her, or if he does not like her. Nevertheless later in the book Steinbeck deploys the reader into seeing her as complex, and feeling consideration for Curley’s wife; revealing her as a victim, anxious and secluded in a man’s world. Although he may go back and forth on Curley’s wife, in the end, Steinbeck is mainly condemning her. Steinbeck explores her as attractive towards man through her beauty and an attention seeker. In the passage the first words that Steinbeck uses are that â€Å"Both men glanced up,† and through this we are introduced to Curley’s wife through her effect on men and not through any notion of herself, which Steinbeck does to show us she is only worthy for the use of men. The word glanced up shows that she want men to look at her for she is has the beauty of an actress. Not extended moment when Steinbeck exaggerates â€Å"the rectangle of sunshine in the doorway way cut off. † Here, Steinbeck uses the light symbolically to highlight how imposing she is and present the idea that she is the obstacle to a better life. The image of Curley’s wife casting a shadow across the bunkhouse hints at trouble to come later in the novel. It soon becomes apparent that Curley’s wife is an outsider of the group when it states, â€Å"A girl was standing there looking in,† hence is a metaphor for the segregation she senses. It could be insightful of the gender roles at the time; women were only desired for men’s erotic desires rather than their company. One could also deduce it as how likewise to a ‘girl’, (which she ironically is no longer), she is in search of thoughtfulness and requires all eyes to be on her by standing in the sight of the whole world and might be realised as attempting to listen in on their conversation – both very juvenile schemes. Therefore Steinbeck presents Curley’s Wife in â€Å"Of Mice and Men† as someone who is very eye-catching and courtesy inquirer. On the other hand, he portrays her as isolated and discriminated by men as she is excluded for being female, which sometimes lead to violence. This is illustrated when she is called ‘tart’, ‘jailbait’, and ‘bitch’ by the men on the ranch; henceforth the ranch is a very hostile and misogynistic place. Curley’s Wife is an outsider and seems very out of place. She is frequently found in examine for companionship on the ranch as her recently found marriage does not give her the warmth she desires, as she states to Lennie â€Å"I don’t like Curley he aint a nice fella,† and due to this she often tries to cooperate with the other men although she is never allowed as they think a â€Å"ranch aint no place for a girl. † Carlson also states of how a â€Å"women should be at home where she belongs. † The fact that she is excluded from a place of physical work is symptomatic of how women were exposed during the 1930’s. They were not predictable to do work, but in its place stay at home and raise a family. Curley’ wife feels apprehensive because of the solitude she feels and it is made clear she is exasperated with this condition, â€Å"none of them care how I gotta live. † Nonetheless, the reader is presented with a side to an apparently playful and occasionally vindictive character. In chapter 5, Steinbeck permits Curley’s Wife’s character to eloquent emotions of loneliness, â€Å"I get lonely† and â€Å"I get awful lonely†. The use of repetition is used to give emphasis to the remoteness and frustration of not being able to talk to â€Å"nobody but Curley†, her hindrance which incessantly exteriors as she speaks to Lennie. Moreover, for the period of the scene Steinbeck describes as such â€Å"And then her words tumbled out in a passion of communication, as though she hurried before her listener could be taken away†. The word â€Å"tumbled† recommends her frantic need to communicate to people, at the same time as the expression â€Å"passion† demonstrates her authority and strength needed to interconnect. Yet, what is predominantly conspicuous is she is used to people walking away from her when she speaks, this generates such consideration for her. In this chapter she is also presented as a moderate and approachable character, as Steinbeck describes â€Å"she consoled him. ‘Don’t you worry any’ [†¦] she moved closer to him and spoke soothingly. † The fact that she spoke â€Å"soothingly† suggests that she has a kind nature, and asked in a maternal way when Lennie needed such gentleness. The reader can then relate this sudden behaviour transformation and her upcoming, but the syrupiness she bounces off blurs the reader’s sight to floral it. All the way through the novel as similar to Crooks, Curley’s Wife is not named. This highlights her lack of identity on the ranch and how she is viewed as the property of her husband as well as the word â€Å"live† indicates that she also is a living human being who wants to fulfil her dreams and desires but it would be impossible for her. As a result of her insecurities, she tries to combat her loneliness and sequestration by resorting to violence. Her vicious attacks on Crooks to getting him â€Å"strung up on a tree† and the attacks on Lennie due to his mental disability show how loneliness can not only change a person, but destroy them. All of the emotions Curley’s Wife encounters come as a result of the loneliness she feels, and these clearly represent of what a terrifying character she is. Therefore Steinbeck describes Curley’s wife as isolated and discriminate due to her gender of a female throughout the novel. Equally, at the end of the novel, she is presented as innocent and purified from all the trouble through the description of her appearance. This can be seen in chapter 6 when Steinbeck explains â€Å"Curley’s wife lay with a half-covering of yellow hay. And the meanness and the plannings and the discontent and the ache for attention were all gone from her face. She was very pretty and simple, and her face was sweet and young. Now her rouged cheeks and her reddened lips made her seem alive and sleeping very lightly. The curls, tiny little sausages, were spread on the hay behind her head, and her lips were parted. As happens sometimes, a moment settled and hovered and remained for much more than a moment. And sound stopped and movement stopped for much, much more than a moment. † From this passage, the reader can acknowledge the real Curley’s wife but at the same time feel sorry for her as her dream was unfulfilled. The phrase â€Å"meanness (†¦ ) plannings (†¦) discontent (†¦) were all gone from her face† shows that she is no longer vicious and dangerous as all the negativity vanished. Most importantly the phrase â€Å"roughed cheeks and reddened lips† conveys that her dream is unfulfilled and the repetition of â€Å"stopped† to emphasise stillness and the feelings of time standing still. Therefore Steinbeck does not present her as a negative character, but at the time of her death he shows the reader the real her as it was not her nature but nurture that made her what she was. In contrast Curley’s Wife at first is portrayed as a revolting unpleasant woman. Curley’s Wife is described by Steinbeck many times as â€Å"roughed lips and wide-spaced eyes. Her fingernails were red. † this causes the reader to think of her as he says so. Nonetheless, despite these brutal views of her, the reader is presented with a side to a seemingly flirtatious and sometimes malevolent character. The repetition of the colour â€Å"red† denotes the fact that she is very dangerous and cause lot of trouble as the colour red is frequently associated to blood and murder which foreshadows the scenes later on in the novel. An alternative interpretation could be that red is also represent as the colour of love and she is wanting to be love, but many readers would link it to her actress personality as most actress love to dress a lot. Not so long, Steinbeck describes her hair as â€Å"her hair hung in little rolled clusters, like sausages,† and this simile shocks the reader because sausages are disliked and filthy, so linking it to her means that she is also disliked. Furthermore as sausages do not match with hair, the same way she is not suitable for a place like the ranch. Therefore Steinbeck portrays Curley’s wife as a woman who is dangerous and disliked by linking her with words that supports the point. John Steinbeck points out many flaws in Curley’s wife. For example, he does this when he writes, â€Å"she leaned against the door frame so that her body was thrown forward† (Page 51). In this statement, Steinbeck is pointing out that Curley’s wife always tries to instigate something. He also describes her body image and how provocative she is, always looking for attention. Steinbeck says many more things to condemn Curley’s wife, but that is not all that he says about her. Steinbeck also defends Curley’s wife. He writes of how lonely she is, and describes her as innocent as the rabbits and puppy killed by another character, Lennie. For instance, Curley’s wife says, â€Å"Think I don’t want to talk to somebody ever’ once in a while? Think I like to stick in that house alla time? †(Page 77). In this statement, Curley’s wife implies that she is tired of being lonely and wants to talk to other people. As much as Steinbeck appears to flip-flop on his view of Curley’s wife, readers can draw different conclusions.

The Return: Shadow Souls Chapter 44

Elena was wakened by shouting. She'd already once awakened to unbelievable bliss. Now she was awake again – but surely that was Damon's voice. Shouting? Damon didn't shout! Throwing on a robe, she went dashing out the door and downstairs. Raised voices – confusion. Damon was kneeling on the floor. His face was blue-white. There wasn't a plant in the room that could be strangling him. Poisoned, was the next thing Elena thought and immediately her eyes darted around the room to see a spilled drink, a dropped plate, any sign that poison had done this. There was nothing. Sage was clapping Damon on the back. Oh, God, could he have choked? But that was idiocy. Vampires didn't breathe, except for talking and building Power. But then what was happening? â€Å"You have to breathe,† Sage was shouting in Damon's ear. â€Å"Take a breath, as if you were going to speak, but then hold on to it, as if for raising your Power. Think about your insides. Get those lungs working!† The words only confused Elena. â€Å"There!† cried Sage. â€Å"You see?† â€Å"But it only lasts an instant. Then I need to do it again.† â€Å"But, yes, that is the point!† â€Å"I tell you I'm dying and you laugh at me?† a disheveled Damon shouted. â€Å"I'm blind, deaf, my senses are haywire – and you laugh!† Disheveled, thought Elena, bothered by something. â€Å"Well.† Sage seemed to be at least trying not to laugh. â€Å"Perhaps, mon petit chou, you should not have opened something that was not addressed to you?† â€Å"I put wards all around me before I did it. The house was safe.† â€Å"But you were not – breathe! Breathe, Damon!† â€Å"It looked completely harmless – and admit it – we were all going – to open it last night – when we got too tired – !† â€Å"But to do it alone, to open a present from a kitsune†¦that was foolish, yes?† A choking Damon snapped, â€Å"Don't lecture me. Help me. Why am I muffled in cotton wool? Why can't I see? Or hear? Or smell – anything? I'm telling you I can't smell a thing!† â€Å"You are fit and sharp as any human could be. You could probably defeat most vampires if you fought with one right now. But human senses are very few and very dull.† Words were swimming in Elena's head†¦opening things not addressed to you†¦bouquet from a kitsune†¦human†¦ Oh, my God! Apparently, the same words were going through the mind of someone else, because suddenly a figure dashed in from the kitchen area. Stefan. â€Å"You stole my bouquet? From the kitsune?† â€Å"I was very careful – â€Å" â€Å"Do you realize what you've done?† Stefan shook Damon. â€Å"Ow. That hurts! Do you want to break my neck?† â€Å"That hurts? Damon, you're in for a world of hurt! Do you understand? I talked to that kitsune. Told him the whole story of my life. Elena came to visit and he saw her practically†¦well, never mind – he saw her crying over me! Do†¦you†¦realize†¦what†¦you†¦have†¦ done?† It was as if Stefan had started climbing a series of steps, and that each one lifted him to a higher level of fury than the last. And here, at the top†¦ â€Å"I'll KILL YOU!† Stefan shouted. â€Å"You took it – my humanity! He gave it to me – and you took it!† â€Å"You'll kill me? I'll kill you, you – you bastard! There was one flower in the middle. A black rose, bigger than I have ever seen. And it smelled†¦heavenly†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"It's gone!† Matt reported, producing the bouquet. He displayed it. There was a gaping hole in the center of the mixed flower arrangement. Despite the hole, Stefan ran to it, and stuck his face into the bouquet, sucking in great heaving breaths of air. He kept coming up and snapping his fingers and each time lightning flared between his fingertips. â€Å"Sorry, bud,† Matt said. â€Å"I think it's gone.† Elena could see it all now. That kitsune†¦he was one of the good ones, like the stories Meredith had told them about. Or at least good enough to sympathize with Stefan's plight. And so, when he had gotten free, he had made up a bouquet – kitsune could do anything with plants, although surely this was a great feat, something like finding the secret of eternal youth†¦to turn vampires into humans. And after Stefan had endured and endured and endured and should have finally gotten his reward†¦right now†¦ â€Å"I'm going back,† Stefan shouted. â€Å"I'm going to find him!† Meredith said quietly, â€Å"With or without Elena?† Stefan stopped. He looked up at the stairway, and his eyes met Elena's. Elena†¦ We'll go together. â€Å"No,† Stefan shouted. â€Å"I would never put you through that. I'm not going after all. I'm just going to murder you!† He swung back on his brother. â€Å"Been there, done that. Besides, I'm the one that's going to kill you, you bastard! You took my world away from me! I am a vampire! I'm not a† – some creative cursing – â€Å"human!† â€Å"Well you are now,† Matt said. He was just barely not laughing out loud. â€Å"So I'd say you'd better get used to it.† Damon leaped at Stefan. Stefan didn't step aside. In an instant there was a ball of thrashing, kicking, and punching, and cursing in Italian that made it sound as if there were at least four vampires fighting five or six humans. Elena sat down helplessly. Damon†¦a human? How were they going to deal with this? Elena looked up to see that Bonnie had carefully made up a tray of all sorts of things that tasted good to humans, and that she'd undoubtedly done it for Damon before he had worked his way into hysteria. â€Å"Bonnie,† Elena said quietly, â€Å"don't give it to him yet. He'll just throw it at you. But perhaps later†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Later he won't throw it?† Elena winced. â€Å"How is Damon going to deal with being human?† she asked herself aloud. Bonnie looked at the cursing, spitting ball of vampire/human fury. â€Å"I'd say†¦kicking and screaming the whole way.† Just then Mrs. Flowers came out of the kitchen. She had a huge mound of fluffy waffles stacked on several plates on a tray. She saw the rolling, swearing, snarling ball that was Stefan and Damon. â€Å"Oh, my,† she said. â€Å"Did something go wrong?† Elena looked at Bonnie. Bonnie looked at Meredith. Meredith looked at Elena. â€Å"You†¦could say so,† gasped Elena. And then the three of them gave way to it. Gales and gales of helpless laughter. You've lost a powerful ally, said a voice in Elena's mind. Do you know that? Can you foresee the consequences? Today, when you have just come back from a world of Shinichis? We'll win, Elena thought. We have to.