Seniority is at least partly a factor in nearly 90 percent of private sector contracts and can also be found in a variety of public sector...

Seniority can be loosely as the length of time for which a given employee has worked for their employer or in their current position.  Seniority can be measured in different ways.  It can, for example, reset whenever an employee switches positions in a company or it can simply measure how long an employee has worked for the firm in any capacity at all.  Seniority can be used in workplace decisions in a variety of ways.

Perhaps the most common way to use seniority is to distribute pay and benefits on the basis of seniority.  Many organizations, particularly in the public sector, have employees’ wages increase automatically as they gain seniority.  As workers’ levels of seniority rise, many employers give them more vacation and/or sick leave hours each year.

In some organizations, seniority can be used to affect larger decisions about employment.  In some organizations, particularly those with union contracts, workers with seniority can be given preference in transferring from one job to another within the organization.  In some organizations, people will be laid off in order of seniority and rehired in the same way when the economy improves.

All of these are ways in which seniority can play a part in workplace decisions.

What are the causes of cultural change?

The most common way that cultures change is through contact with other cultures. This change through contact is known as cultural diffusion. Contact between cultures can occur in a number of ways including trade, immigration, or warfare. With the proliferation of digital technology in the last half-century, cultural interactions are more common today than at any point in human history. When cultures come into contact with one another, they share ideas, religion, language, and technologies that inevitably change both cultures in meaningful ways.

Technology, or the tools that people use, also has a great impact on cultural change. An obvious example of how technology can change a culture is the invention and use of the automobile in the 20th Century and how it changed American culture. The automobile had an impact on economic development, communication, social class, and settlement patterns. Computers and the internet are revolutionizing how people live today and are relevant contemporary examples of cultural change through technology.

A change in the environment can effect cultures as well and force them to adapt. This is a modern issue as global warming has already impacted some cultures around the world (see Bangladesh.) As the climate becomes warmer, sea levels rise and cultures will need to adapt in an effort to survive. When Native Americans were challenged with the loss of the bison of the Great Plains, it changed the way they were forced to live in a remarkable way.

Another way that cultures change is through the introduction of new ideas. When cultures are challenged with a new way of seeing things, they are forced to change. I like to use the idea of equal rights for women and minorities in the second half of Twentieth Century America as an example of new ideas and how they change a culture.

What is the climax of the book Peter Pan?

The climax of the book Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie is Peter's rescue of Wendy from Captain Hook and his pirate crew. The book is a short book, so the story moves along quite quickly, which means a reader will move through the basic plot chart diagram in short order.  

On opposite sides of the climax will be the rising action and the falling action. In Peter Pan the rising action includes Peter introducing himself and Tinkerbell to the Darling children, their flight to Neverland, Wendy's interactions with the Lost Boys, and Wendy's capture by the pirates and Captain Hook.  

The falling action of the story includes the Darlings' return to their home in the real world and Wendy saying her final goodbye to Peter Pan.

Who were the first people of Mesoamerica ?

Mesoamerica originated from the people who first crossed the land bridge connecting Alaska and Siberia. They traveled down to the areas near what is now Guatemala and Belize. These earliest known American settlers, the Olmecs, were the first permanent residents of America and predate the Mayans. The Olmecs existed as farmers just as the later Mayans did. 

The Olmecs lived in the area, initially settling along the coast's fertile shores and later moved into the mountains as well. They are recorded to have existed from about 1200BC to 450BC. Aside from farming they were well known for their sculptures of huge heads. Other elements of life the Olmecs introduced that later appear in the Mayan and later the Aztec cultures are the concept of a calendar, centralized buildings for worship and spectator sports. The religion of the Olmecs appears to have included animal gods. Firm, factual knowledge about their disappearance from the area does not exist. Some say a natural disaster such as a volcano wiped them out while others say they relocated due to the weather changes or harsh geography. 

The legacy of the Olmec lived on with later cultures in the form of art sculptures and animal gods. 

Name your favorite character in this book and explain briefly (80-100words).

In order to complete a summary about your favorite character, you will first have to select one.  Do you identify with one of the characters?  Is there a character that you admire?  For example, you might say that you identify with Nick because he is creative and does not give up his idea to call pens "frindles" even when he faces getting into trouble.  You might say that you admire Mrs. Granger because in the end, she tells Nick how she believed in him, even though she had him tricked to think otherwise for years.  She explains that she supported him almost all along, even though she did it in secret.

Once you select your character, you will have to provide several details and examples to explain why they are your favorite.  Look for both specific details and overall ideas to use for examples from the book.

Why is the bank’s recent borrowing of 30,000 gold napoleons a significant detail? A.Someone from the bank may be involved in the crime.B.The...

C. The gold is an attraction for a potential thief.

The story makes it pretty obvious that the gold is an attraction to a potential thief because it is all about how two thieves are actually trying very hard to break into the bank's storeroom. Mr. Merryweather, chairman of the bank's directors, explains about the French gold in the final part of the story, when Holmes, Watson, Merryweather, and a Scotland Yard officer go to the bank at night to set a trap for the tunnelers.

"We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the directors have had misgivings upon the subject.”

John Clay was the only thief bold enough and clever enough to think of digging a tunnel into the underground storeroom, which, as the story shows, is guarded by a number of locked doors and gates. He had to find a nearby shop which was suitable for his purposes. The pawnshop operated by Jabez Wilson looked ideal, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created in Wilson a character who would be perfect to suit Clay's purposes.

Wilson is not very bright. He is tight with his money. He needs an assistant. He is happy to get a qualified younger man who volunteers to work for half wages. Wilson is old, fat, and phlegmatic. He suffers from high blood pressure, as his florid complexion tells Dr. Watson. Wilson would be extremely unlikely to go down the steep, rickety stairs of his cellar to see what his assistant was doing down there. And if he ever did discover Clay digging a tunnel, Clay would simply kill him with his shovel and bury him in his own cellar. It is incidental that Wilson has flaming red hair, but this gives Clay the idea of advertising an opening in the fictitious Red-Headed League in order to get his employer out of his way for about five hours a day, six days a week. Clay and his cohort are under time pressure to finish the tunnel and loot the gold because the French napoleons are only being stored there on a temporary basis. 

Most money in those days was in coinage. Banks issued paper "bank notes" which could be redeemed in coins. In those days 30,000 gold coins, apparently equivalent to 30,000 British pounds, would be a fabulous haul, equivalent to millions of American dollars. Many of the Sherlock Holmes stories end up being about money, even though they start off from a different perspective. Holmes, with all his experience, must have been well aware of this supreme motivating factor. He immediately suspected there must be money involved somewhere in the problem Jabez Wilson brought to him. It is hard to think of Sherlock Holmes stories that do not concern money. For instance, in "The Adventure of the Speckled Band," Dr. Grimesby Roylott killed his stepdaughter Julia and is attempting to kill his other stepdaughter Helen because he wants to keep the money he would otherwise have to pay them if they got married. So Doyle's villains are usually motivated by wanting to get money or to keep money. In the famous "The Hound of the Baskervilles," the villain Mr. Stapleton wants to get possession of the entire Baskerville estate.

Why is this passage important in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird? "It was just him I couldn't stand," Dill said. […] "That old Mr. Gilmer doin'...

This passage is significant as it draws attention to the thematic concerns of Harper Lee's novel; namely, the social inequities of Maycomb, Alabama, in 1935.

The sensitive Dill, who identifies with Tom as an underdog also, begins to cry sympathetically when he witnesses the cruel and demeaning manner of the prosecutor, Mr. Gilmer, who harshly interrogates Tom Robinson. Consequently, Scout escorts Dill outside, where Scout explains Mr Gilmer's words and tone are as consistent with any prosecutor's. Besides, she adds, Tom is "just a Negro."

Scout's words typify those of many who listen to the trial, and Dill is not satisfied with them. Before he can attempt to articulate his feelings, however, Mr. Dolphus Raymond answers for him, saying, "...it just makes you sick, doesn't it?" He means that things do not seem fair to Tom Robinson, who has done nothing but try to help a girl who is on her own most of the time.

Mr. Raymond tries to cheer up Dill by saying of Tom that "Things haven't caught up with that ones' s instinct now." But, in actuality, Dill sees Tom's situation realistically and knows that the boy is in serious trouble.

What does the statement "nature is designed for nurture" mean?

In biology, the term “nature” refers to the genetic and inherited disposition of an individual. In other words, the term “nature” refers to an individual’s phenotypes that are a result of his or her genotypes.

In biology, the term “nurture” refers to the impacts that the environment and one’s daily encounters has on the individual’s disposition and traits.

Thus, saying “nature is designed for nurture” suggests that genes are designed to take their cues from the environment. The saying suggests that genetics do not solely define an individual. This saying refers to the belief that genes provide the platform on which a plethora of plays can occur. Which play an individual actually manifests is largely influenced and modified by his or her life experience.

Why is there no neutron in hydrogen?

Some hydrogen atoms have neutrons. There are three different common isotopes of hydrogen. Isotopes are atoms of the same element that contain different numbers of neutrons.

Hydrogen-1 has no neutrons, just one proton. Hydrogen-2,  also called deuterium, has one neutron and one proton. Hydrogen-3, also called tritium, has two neutrons and one proton. Hydrogen-3 is radioactive and undergoes beta decay.

There are a few other heavier and highly unstable isotopes of hydrogen that don't occur naturally but have been synthesized by scientists.

The most common isotope is hydrogen-1. It accounts for 99.98% of all hydrogen in nature, so it's correct to say that most hydrogen atoms have no neutrons. The number of neutrons an atom contains is influenced by a balance between the nuclear force binding protons and neutrons together and the electromagnetic force that keeps electrons around the atom. The three naturally occuring isotopes of hydrogen all fall within the range of stability for these two competing forces.

In Chapter 17, from pages 117-120, Holden outlines almost all of his anxieties about life. What are his criticisms?

In addition to the phoniness Holden sees in the cute, young girls (they will all marry phony, boring men) he watches waiting for Sally to show up for the date. Throughout the chapter, he also describes his anxiety or angst about growing up.

• Holden doesn’t want to wait until after college to live his life.  He wants to run off and live in a cabin in New England.  He says that after college you have to grow up and “follow the rules”.


• Holden hates the play because the actors were showing off more than they were acting.


• Holden hates the “name-dropping” that Sally and George engage in at the play.  Phoniness!


• Holden hates the phoniness of George and the social groups of the “Ivy-League type” like George who stand around and talk about the play.


• Holden doesn’t like it when Sally says he should grow out his hair because his hairstyle is old-fashioned.  Again, a phony statement by Sally who can’t accept Holden for who he is even though she says she “loves” him.


• Holden’s anxiety about sex causes him to change the subject when Sally asks him if he is coming over to “trim the Christmas tree” with her.


• One of the final anxieties is that Holden doesn’t think anyone understands him.  This is shown when Sally thinks Holden is shouting, and Holden says he isn’t.

This chapter solidifies Holden’s anxiety about phony people and their actions. The irony is that Holden, too, falls victim to phoniness when he “makes out” with Sally and says he loves her, when he asks her to run off with him to live in a cabin even though he knows she is not his type.

In summary, Holden's angst has to do with growing up and accepting responsibility, phoniness, not being accepted by others, and being misunderstood.

Do we still need the Voting Rights Act?

The Voting Rights Act is still needed. It is a necessary piece of legislation. The Voting Rights Act made it illegal to use poll taxes and literacy tests to deny people the opportunity to register to vote or to vote in general. The federal government also would help in registering voters.

In looking at events that are occurring in some states today, it would be a fair conclusion to say the law is still needed. The reason why this law was passed was to ensure that minorities, mainly African-Americans, wouldn’t be denied the right to vote. The use of literacy tests and poll taxes limited the opportunity of many African-Americans from voting, especially in the South. Today, we are seeing the passage of voter identification laws in some states. Despite very little evidence of voter fraud, these laws require a voter to show identification in order to vote. However, many poor people don’t have basic forms of identification such as a driver’s license. They also can’t afford to take time off of work to go get a state identification card. Since lower income people tend to vote for Democrats, and since many voter identification laws are being passed by state legislatures that are mainly controlled by Republicans, there is a fear that voter identification laws are really a way to mask suppressing the vote of lower income people. This would aid Republicans and hurt Democrats.

There have been and are too many instances throughout our history where various forms of discrimination have been used against different groups of people. One area where this occurred was in the area of voting. Therefore, any law that protects voting rights should not be eliminated in my opinion.

In To Kill a Mockingbird, what does Scout mean when she states, “It was then, I suppose that Jem and I first began to part company,” and what...

Scout realizes that Jem is getting older and they no longer think alike when he risks everything to retrieve the pants he left at the Radley house.

Scout makes her comment about parting company with Jem after the pants incident.  Jem, Dill, and Scout tried to pass a note to Boo Radley that would make him come out of his house.  Boo was a neighborhood boogeyman, but Dill was obsessed with him.  He felt sorry for him and thought he would feel better if he got to know them.

Jem accidentally leaves his pants at the Radley place, and tells his father that he lost them playing strip poker.  He sneaks back at night to get them, because he is afraid that Atticus will punish him when he finds out.  Jem explains to Scout that it is not the punishment he fears; it is Atticus’s reaction.

He blew out his breath patiently. “I—it’s like this, Scout,” he muttered. “Atticus ain’t ever whipped me since I can remember. I wanta keep it that way.” (Ch. 6)

Scout tells Jem not to risk his life just so that he won’t get spanked, but to Jem it is about Atticus’s opinion of him.  He doesn’t want Atticus to know that he did something he wasn’t supposed to.  He wants his father to think of him as more grown up.

Scout realizes that she and her brother have different priorities.  She would not have cared if Atticus found out.  She was afraid to go back to the Radley place and be shot by Nathan Radley.  Jem was willing to risk it to keep Atticus in the dark.

It turns out that Boo Radley understood.  To keep Jem from getting in trouble, he sews up the pants and leaves them for Jem to find.  Jem's reaction to and understanding of Boo Radley also demonstrates how he is more mature than Scout.  She is still afraid of him.

What is the most important thing to know about Christopher Columbus ?

The answer to this question is quite subjective, as determining the most important thing about Christopher Columbus would depend upon what you consider to be worth knowing about a person.

That being said, most historians would agree that it is important to know that Christopher Columbus is credited with the (re)discovery of the New World. Though Vikings from Northern Europe had traveled to North America during the 11th century, their settlement was short lived. The attempt to settle at L'Anse Aux Meadows in Canada was complicated by weather and a lack of natural resources the Vikings were accustomed to. Centuries later, Christopher Columbus famously sailed from Spain to South America, beginning a long legacy of colonization in the Americas.

Some other things which might be considered about Christopher Columbus were that he traveled on behalf of the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella. They funded his journeys so that he  might find the New World and bring back resources for their use. During this time, the spice trade with Asia was both lucrative and a sign of luxury. The Spanish monarchs would have loved the idea of importing rare and unusual goods from a place which was mysterious in the European mind.

There has been an academic movement to understand the implications of Columbus' journeys and to make this knowledge a part of historical studies. Christopher Columbus may be credited as the father of the transatlantic slave trade and he believed that people of color needed the shepherding of white Europeans to become civilized. From his arrival in Hispaniola and South America, he captured slaves to bring back to Spain. Columbus' claiming territory and pioneering exploration of the New World for Europeans lead to the forced conversions of millions of First Nations peoples, the colonization of their lands, and the import of African people as a source of labor. 

What are the implicit and explicit meanings of the poem "I heard a Fly buzz when I died" by Emily Dickinson?

Let's start with the easier—the explicit. Our speaker starts by saying that she literally heard a fly buzz when she died. Move to stanza two and we learn that the room gets quiet and it would seem she sees God enter her room. In stanza three she shares that she has willed away her belongings and just before her last moments, a fly interjects itself into her line of vision. In her final stanza, the speaker shares that the last thing she sees before it all goes black is the fly, with its continual buzzing.

When we look more deeply, we see our speaker sharing her struggles with the eternal life and the natural life.  Through each stanza, we see her balancing both spectrums, perhaps to remind us how intrinsically tied together both worlds can be. As she wills away her keepsakes, and we assume is taking her final breaths, she is brought back to her earthly place with the fly appearing in her line of vision, ultimately blocking her first look into the afterlife. But if we go back to the first line, we can infer that our speaker is able to unshackle herself from this world because she writes "I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—". With the last portion, we learn that this poem was written post-mortem, a truly interesting perspective.

In The Cay, Phillip felt dependent on Timothy at the same time he felt superior to him. What two events revealed Phillip's conflicting feelings?

Since the S.S. Hato was torpedoed, Phillip has lost his eyesight and his mother. He now finds himself stranded on an island with a man he barely knows and essentially no survival skills.

As a result, he feels dependent on Timothy. When Timothy leaves Phillip to explore the island, Phillip feels alone and frightened. He begins to worry that Timothy has fallen and is hurt. He worries that Timothy won't return and he will have to fend for himself. When Stew Cat brushes against Phillip's arm, Phillip screams in terror.

When Timothy returns, Phillip yells

"Never leave me again. Don't you ever leave me again!"

This shows his dependence on Timothy for survival.

However, Phillip also feels superior to Timothy. For example, when they are constructing the word "help" on the beach out of stones, Phillip learns that Timothy cannot spell.

"I felt good. I knew how to do something that Timothy couldn't do. He couldn't spell. I felt superior to Timothy that day, but I let him play his little game, pretending not to know that he really couldn't spell."

Describe the Civil Rights Act of 1968.

The Civil Rights Act of 1968 was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson. Known as the "Fair Housing Act," it expanded on the previous iterations of the Civil Rights Act by basically outlawing discrimination in housing--both sales and rentals as well as mortgage lending--based on race or other factors. It was essentially an attempt to deal with the issue of de facto segregation, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 having explicitly outlawed de jure segregation. It forbade zoning laws, so-called "redlining" and other practices that were used to bar African-Americans and other minorities from living in white-dominated neighborhoods. It also mandated that mortgage lenders not use race as a criterion for extending credit. Its effects were complex, but its most significant unintended consequence was to accelerate the phenomenon of "white flight" from inner cities to the expanding suburbs around urban areas. Meanwhile, millions of African-American families moved into inner cities. Neighborhoods remained segregated in fact if not by law. 

Who was Delphine's mother?

Your question refers to the 2003 novel by Louise Erdrich, The Master Butchers Singing Club. This story is about the separate lives of Delphine Watzka and her partner Cyprian, as well as Fidelis Waldvogel and his family. They all live in Argus, North Dakota. 

Throughout the story Delphine’s mother is unknown. All that is known is her father Roy Watzka, a severe alcholic. At the end of the book it is revealed that her biological mother is actually Mazarine Shimek’s mother (a close friend of Delphine’s), Mrs. Shimez. Step-and-a-Half, the town scrap collector, found her abandoned in an outhouse and gave her to Roy to raise.

But this book focuses on showing non-biological familial ties as well. So when answering your question, who is Delphine’s mother, it is also important to point out non-biological mothering figures in the text. Eva Waldvogel, who helps run the butcher shop, becomes a role model for Delphine. She teaches her many domestic and other skills that a mother traditionally would.

Erdrich, L. (2003). The Master Butchers Singing Club. New York: HarperCollinsPublishers.

Who meets a girl and falls in love with her in the novel That Was Then, This Is Now?

In the novel That Was Then, This Is Now, Bryon meets and falls in love Cathy Carlson. Cathy is M&M's sister who recently moved back in town and works at a snack bar in the local hospital. Bryon is immediately attracted to her beautiful smile and down to earth personality. After taking her to a school dance, Bryon realizes that Cathy is an innocent girl who is not jealous or controversial like the other girls he has dated in the past. As the novel progresses, Bryon falls in love with Cathy and starts to spend more time with her than he does with his best friend, Mark. One day, M&M runs off with some of his hippie friends and does not return home. Cathy is upset and distraught about not being able to find her brother. When Cathy and Bryon find M&M, he is high on acid and Cathy breaks down before calling her father. Later on, Bryon calls the authorities on Mark for selling drugs, loses interest in Cathy, and becomes distant. Cathy and Bryon stop talking, and Cathy ends up dating Ponyboy Curtis at the end of the novel.

Find examples of an inversion and an invective in Chapters 1-4 of Animal Farm.

George Orwell uses both inversions and invectives in his classic novel Animal Farm. An inversion is also known as "anastrophe," and is a technique where the usual order of words is changed, usually for emphasis. For example, instead of the normal noun, verb order, the verb is placed first; or an adjective, which usually comes before the noun it modifies, is placed after the noun. In Chapter One, Orwell writes,

"Alone among the animals on the farm he never laughed." (Orwell 26)

And in Chapter Three,

"About the rebellion and its results he would express no opinion." (Orwell 47)

In both of these sentences, the subject, which would normally come at the beginning of the sentence, is "he." 

An invective is an insult which attacks or denigrates someone or something and shows the strong emotion of the speaker. Shakespeare was famous for his invectives. Orwell also uses this in Chapter 1:

"Man is the only real enemy we have. Remove Man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished for ever. Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits."  (Orwell 29)

How did the Lewis and Clark expedition impact people?

The Lewis and Clark expedition was very influential.  The journals kept by the explorers were read and used as guidebooks by the early mountain men; these explorers would ultimately help set the trails for the early Oregon Trail in the 1840s.  Lewis and Clark established an American claim to the Oregon Territory which would become a later diplomatic bone of contention between Britain and the United States.  The expedition also established that there was no Northwest Passage; this was the fabled waterway that would connect the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific via a river through the American continent, thus making European-Asian trade easier.  Lewis and Clark's voyage was a diplomatic and military voyage first and foremost--the explorers made contact with many native American tribes.  This was the U.S. government's first contact with the Sioux nation of the High Plains--this tribe told the explorers to keep traveling on.  The Sioux were recently decimated by a smallpox outbreak and were not trustful of the new explorers.  Lewis and Clark brought back many animal and plant specimens specifically for Thomas Jefferson, and many of the bones brought back fueled an early American interest in paleontology.  

Where did Mr. Lewis take Bud?

Mr. Lewis takes Bud several places throughout the novel Bud, Not Buddy. When Mr. Lewis first runs into Bud walking on the side of the road toward the prejudiced town of Owosso, he gives him a ride back to Flint, Michigan. Mr. Lewis is heading to Flint to take blood to the Hurley Hospital and says that he'll take Bud to Grand Rapids after he drops the blood off. He lets Bud stay at his daughter's house, and she allows Bud to spend the night there. After Bud eats breakfast with Mr. Lewis, Mrs. Sleet, and her children, Mr. Lewis drives Bud to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Mr. Lewis lives in Grand Rapids, and Bud tells him that Herman E. Calloway is his father. Mr. Lewis is impressed and drops him off at Herman's club, the Log Cabin, which is located in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

In the story "Once upon a Time," what stylistic device does Gordimer use that creates the emotional background of children stories?

In "Once upon a Time," Nadine Gordimer uses allusions to the bedtime story as a stylistic device that evokes the emotional background present in many children's stories. The frame story begins with the narrator having been asked to write a children's story and refusing. She then tells herself "a bedtime story" to help herself fall asleep. 

Elements of bedtime stories that Gordimer weaves into the tale she tells include the witch, the dragon's teeth, and the phrase "happily ever after." In the story the narrator tells, the "living happily ever after" comes first rather than at the end. This may put the reader on alert right away. We know that once the characters are living happily ever after, there are no more troubles and nothing more to tell about them. If a story begins with them living happily ever after, we suspect that state will not endure.

When the dragon appears near the end of the story—actually a fence topper designed by "DRAGON'S TEETH"—it is actually willingly brought to the family's home despite the woman's misgivings about it. She shudders at the sight of it at a neighboring home, and she "hope[s] the cat will take heed." Knowing the treachery of dragons in most bedtime stories, readers feel dread. In the final paragraph, Gordimer overtly alludes to a specific bedtime story, "Sleeping Beauty," as the little boy attempts to play-act the hero and is destroyed by the Dragon's Teeth.

By choosing the stylistic device of the bedtime story but turning it on its head, Gordimer gives readers much to think about that will shake them out of the complacency of thinking they can live happily ever after in a world where they ignore the suffering of others.

Did Cherry helping Ponyboy have anything to do with sunsets in The Outsiders?

Ponyboy likes Cherry, and feels that they have a true connection, but also feels separate from her because of their social class difference, and the fact that there is an ongoing rivalry in their school between Greasers and Socs. Since the novel is written in the first person, we learn that he thinks she must see the same sunset he does every night. In the film version made by Francis Ford Coppola, the scene is played out with dialogue between the two characters. Ponyboy asks her if she can see the sunset from the side of town where she lives, and she says yes, pretty good. He says he can see it from his house too. She smiles and realizes he is saying that nothing really separates them after all, that it would be possible for them to be friends. Later in the film, Ponyboy is angry when he thinks Cherry is behaving charitably towards him out of pity. She says she wasn't trying to give him charity; that she likes him, and thinks fondly of him when remembering how they talked.

Sunsets are also a theme in the novel of things that connect everyone regardless of imagined or artificial differences like class. Sunsets occur every day, moving time forward predictably; they are a constant in a world where many people think that change is within their grasp. In this way sunsets can be seen both as a symbol of hope and change, but also of sameness and repetition, a reminder that nothing ever changes. Ponyboy looks at the sunset and thinks of "hundreds of boys who maybe watched sunsets and looked at stars and ached for something better."

In The Crucible, when Mary Warren tries to tell the court the truth, what happens?

The girls accuse Mary Warren of sending an icy wind.  Abigail begins the accusation, saying that "A wind, a cold wind, has come," and she turns her eyes upon Mary, hugging herself as if to stay warm.  Mercy Lewis and Susanna Walcott pick up the thread and also feign being cold.

Mary is severely questioned by the judges in this scene.  In fact, their questions automatically assume her own guilt, and she feels such terror that she cries out and attempts to run out of the room.

Abigail says that Mary has sent her spirit out as a yellow bird who "want[s] to tear [Abigail's] face."  She pretends to see this bird on a beam overhead while the other girls stare up and comment on her "claws" and her wings.

From where did the Robinson family set out and where were they heading, in classic The Swiss Family Robinson?

The Swiss Family Robinson, by Johann David Wyss, tells the story of a family who become shipwrecked in the East Indies and adapt to their situation by scrapping their ship and its contents to build a home on the island. The book was intended to be instructional and entertaining, and teaches lessons about plants, animals, and Christian values.

The Robinson family is from Switzerland, hence the title, and are travelling to a new colony in Australia. The book does not reveal their port of origin, but the family is planning to make land at Port Jackson, today called Sydney Harbor. 

Switzerland is a land-locked nation, so it is highly unlikely that their port of origin would have been anywhere in the country. It is difficult to suppose where they have set out from, as there are no direct routes from the coast of Europe to Australia, and a trip by ship would have been very long and likely demanded boarding in another port along the way.