What does Helen mean when she says "...but I am improvident enough to prefer present joy to hoarding riches against the rainy day"?

In context, Helen Keller was referring to her college days.  Before college, she had a more leisurely life in which she could spend time alone with her thoughts, enjoying the outdoors, reading her favorite books, or doing whatever she pleased.  However, in college, there was no time for this.  Now, she had to spend every moment learning new things in school.

Helen admitted, "I suppose I ought to find some comfort in the thought that I am laying up treasures for future enjoyment..."  She knew that she should be grateful for college because it was giving her something to use later on in her life.  College was much more useful to her at that time than daydreaming or wandering in the woods, and she realized this.  She continued, "...but I am improvident enough to prefer present joy to hoarding riches against a rainy day.”  Being "improvident" means you are being careless about your future, and not preparing ahead.  So she honestly admitted that she would much rather enjoy her life in the "present joy" by being lost in her thoughts or books than to bear the drudgery of studying--even though studying is obviously the wisest choice for her future career, just as "hoarding riches" is wise to prepare for a potential future calamity, or "rainy day."

We do know that Helen went on to be a very educated and successful woman.  But in context, her quote was lamenting the strict discipline of college in contrast with her love of having free time in which she could do as she pleased.

What are the woods called where Katniss Everdeen Hunts in The Hunger Games?

In The Hunger Games, the woods have no official name but "the Woods." The Woods is the area where Katniss and Gale go and hunt. The Woods is outside of District 12, and Katniss and Gale have to climb under a fence that should be electrified. That is where Katniss uses her bow to hunt animals. After hunting, the animals are taken to the black market, The Hob, to be sold to others in the city. In Catching Fire, Katniss goes out to hunt in The Woods only to come back to find the fence electrified. She has to find a way to get over the fence to get back into District 12. We learn that at the end of Catching Fire, Gale saves almost one thousand people from District 12 by taking them to safety in the Woods. 

Why is Julia against the party and Big Brother?

In 1984, Julia is Winston's girlfriend and his co-conspirator against Big Brother and the party. While Winston is an idealist and thinker who seeks to bring down the party for the sake of humanity, Julia is quite the opposite. She is a person who lives for the moment, who expresses herself through her sexuality. As such, she rebels against the party because it seeks to control her sexuality and determine her relationships with others. 

While Julia works for the Junior Anti-Sex League, which promotes celibacy, she mocks and ridicules its aims and propaganda at every opportunity. As she says to Winston in the woods, for example: "Girls are always supposed to be so pure. Here's one who isn't, anyway." She then explains to Winston that she had her first love affair with another party member at the age of 16 and has, since then, slept with hundreds of men. By doing this, Julia is deliberately flouting party rules and creating loyalties to others, not to Big Brother. There is another reason, too, why Big Brother fear these sexual liaisons, as Julia explains in Part 3, Chapter 3:

'When you make love you're using up energy; and afterwards you feel happy and don't give a damn for anything. They can't bear you to feel like that. They want you to be bursting with energy all the time."

Julia is able to successfully rebel against Big Brother for much of her adult life. It is only when she meets O'Brien that her thoughtcrimes are uncovered and her life is put into serious peril. 

In the story "Harrison Bergon," how does Harrison convey the conflict between the ideals of society and the realities of the actual people?

The defining characteristic in the society of "Harrison Bergeron" is physical equality, in intelligence, strength, and beauty. Three constitutional amendments and Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, ensure that people are made artificially equal through the use of handicaps. Intelligent people like George have aural devices that send loud noises into their ears to disrupt their thoughts. Strong people have to wear bags of bird shot, small metal balls, and beautiful people have to wear masks.

The conflict arises with the fact that people are not naturally equal, but that does not make others feel bad. Vonnegut alludes to this idea when George wonders "that maybe the dancers shouldn't be handicapped." This musing suggests that George would enjoy watching the dancers moving gracefully, even though they would be better at dancing than he is.

The stern penalties also suggest that the reality of the people does not align with the quest for equality. When Hazel suggests that George take out a few of the metal balls, he reminds her that the penalty is "two years in prison and two thousand dollars fine for every ball [he] took out." In the end, the killing of Harrison and his Empress underscores this tension. Their only crimes include being strong and beautiful, but they are shot dead by Diana Moon Glampers. Any law that must be upheld with such force must be contrary to the inner desire of the public.

What is the tone of "The Tell-Tale Heart"?

Tone refers to the specific attitude the author took with regard to a character, place or topic. The reader understands the author's intended meaning, feeling and perspective created in the text because of the tone. In Poe's "Tell-Tale Heart" the author created a frantic, sinister and nervous tone. This helps the reader understand the main character's state of mind with regard to his own sanity and belief that the heart of the person he killed haunts him with its beating sound.

The pace of the writing with its short, choppy sentences and exclamations adds to the frantic tone of the text. The narrator refers often to the question of his sanity, further adding to the frantic nature of the writing. The frantic tone in the beginning leads way to a sinister tone as the narrator describes the way in which he killed and hid the old man. As the police arrive, the narrator returns to a frantic tone. This time, rather than attempting to convince the reader of his sanity, he is driven to the point of madness by the sound of the dead man's beating heart that he believes he hears.

Write a different ending to the story "Thank You, M'am" by Langston Hughes. For example, Mrs. Jones calls the police.

The point of Langston Hughes' “Thank You, M'am” is that people can create a caring, loving world by their responses to the conflicts they encounter in life. He uses Mrs. Jones' surprising behavior to Roger's attempted thievery to demonstrate this idea. Instead of punishing Roger for trying to steal her purse, she treats him with kindness and even gives him the money he wanted to steal from her in the first place.

However, it is possible that Mrs. Jones could maintain the same attitude toward Roger, but act differently. To use your example, suppose she called the police? Although that is a much different response than what she actually did, it could be framed in a caring way.

Whatever ending you choose to create, you want to make sure that you maintain Mrs. Jones' proper character. She is not going to call the police out of anger or fear. However, she might make the case to Roger that it is in his best interest that he learn right now, before it is too late, that behaving like a criminal is going to make for a very difficult life. She might still cook for him, and perhaps she could offer to help him in some way once his legal situation was straightened out.  

How is the idea of human nature explored by in "The Sniper" by Liam O’Flaherty?

O'Flaherty does not suggest that humans are inherently good nor inherently bad. Therefore, he makes no overarching statement about which way human nature tends to lean. He may have an opinion on this but he does not make it clear in this story. He does show how humans are capable of becoming used to killing, notably in the situation of war. When the sniper kills the solider, the old woman, and the enemy sniper, he is killing the enemy. He is able to ignore the thought that he is killing people, let alone fellow citizens, or even a brother. In the opening paragraphs, the author describes the sniper: 

His face was the face of a student, thin and ascetic, but his eyes had the cold gleam of the fanatic. They were deep and thoughtful, the eyes of a man who is used to looking at death. 

This passage is telling because it demonstrates a notion of human nature. The sniper had the face of a student. This indicates youth, naivety, and maybe even innocence. But after experiencing war, he has become cold, fanatical, and "used to looking at death." He is able to become robotic in this way. But that initial innocence, that potential for compassion never really goes away. It is suppressed until he looks into the face of his brother. Then the compassion returns. This suggests that human nature is here presented as having the potential for compassion and indifference. In this analysis, O'Flaherty shows how our human nature is malleable, capable of good and evil.