In the Crucible by Arthur Miller, who was dancing naked in the woods?

In “The Crucible,” the play begins with Betty Parris lying on the bed.  She is not moving, and her uncle is having a conversation with cousin Abigail about why not.  Though Abigail denies any wrongdoing, we soon learn that what was going on in the woods was far from “harmless fun.”  In fact, the girls are out in the woods with the slave from Barbados, Tituba, casting spells, drinking blood, and dancing.  Dancing would have been prohibited in this early American Puritan society, and dancing in the woods even more so.  It would have been viewed as literally “dancing with the devil,” as Arthur Miller points out that the forest is considered “the devil’s last preserve.”    In the conversation between Abigail Parris, it is revealed that not only was there dancing; there was naked dancing.  Parris accuses Abigail:  “I cannot blink what I saw, Abigail-for my enemies will not blink it. And I thought I saw a….someone naked running through the trees! ABIGAIL: No one was naked! You mistake yourself, Uncle!  (Act I) .  Later on, we find out who was dancing naked when the girls gather to get their story straight.  “ABIGAIL: Now look you, if they be questioning us tell them we danced—I told him as much already. MERCY: And what more? ABIGAIL: He saw you naked. MERCY: Oh, Jesus! (Falls back on bed.)”  (Act I). Mercy Lewis, the Putnam’s servant, is the girl who danced naked in the woods.

What is an example of a real world relationship where there is no clear independent or dependent variable?

This situation is actually more common than its opposite. It's quite rare in real-world research to have a clear idea of the direction of causality, and quite common to find strong correlations between variables where causation could run in either or both directions.

Here are a few examples just from my own field of development economics:
1. Corruption is strongly correlated to income inequality. Does corruption lead to inequality? Does higher inequality create more corruption?
2. GDP growth is strongly correlated with the empowerment of women. Does empowering women improve economic growth? Does an improving economy provide more opportunities for women?
3. Ethnic conflict is strongly correlated with poverty. Does greater ethnic conflict cause poverty? Does poverty exacerbate ethnic tensions?

In all these cases, it's also quite possible that both effects are true, or even that neither effect is true and a common cause of both drives the correlation. (For example, height is strongly correlated with weight in children. Does weight cause height or height cause weight? Well, neither, really; growth causes both height and weight.)

Here are some more examples from other fields as well:
1. Political science: Democracies are less likely to go to war with one another than authoritarian governments are. Does being democratic make a country less likely to go to war? Does being in a state of peace encourage the establishment of democratic institutions?
2. Sociology: Higher education is strongly correlated with lower rates of sexism. Does education make people less sexist? Or does being sexist discourage people from taking on higher levels of education?
3. Psychology: Higher socioeconomic status is correlated with lower rates of empathy. Does becoming rich make people less empathetic? Or are people with less empathy more likely to get rich?

Describe the formation of urea in the body. Describe the path taken by urea from the organ it is formed in to when it is removed from the...

One important organ in the body to help maintain homeostasis is the liver. It assists many of the body systems, including the excretory system. It does this by removing nitrogen from excess amino acids which cannot be stored and forming urea--a nitrogenous waste product. Urea is then added to the circulating blood and is transported to the kidneys to be excreted.

Mammals have a pair of well-developed kidneys which have the purpose of controlling water balance in the body. This is an adaptation that allows mammals to exist in many different habitats on Earth with different climates. Kidneys also filter nitrogenous wastes in the bloodstream. These wastes, known as urea, are then combined with water and are excreted as urine. The blood that enters that kidneys contains wastes and when it leaves, it is purified and can then circulate through the body again. 

Nephrons are the functional units of the kidneys. They are microscopic filters that remove wastes from the blood and return useful substances back into circulation.  Filtration occurs in the glomerulus--which is enclosed inside the Bowman's capsule. There is a close association between blood capillaries and kidney filters that allow wastes to enter the kidneys and for useful substances to be reabsorbed, including food molecules and some of the water.

The remaining filtrate includes water, excess salt and urea. This becomes urine and passes from each kidney to a tube connected to each one (called a ureter), to the urinary bladder. This organ can temporarily store urine until it is released through the urethra, which is a tube that allows urine to exit the body. 

Body temperature must be regulated in mammals in order to maintain homeostasis. Muscles in the skin of many mammals are attached to hair, which can cause the hair to stand up. This conserves heat by allowing air to fill in the spaces between the hairs and insulates the body. Humans, which evolved in hot tropical climates, lost the thick body-hair covering that many other mammals have. When temperatures drop, the muscles in the skin contract causing goose bumps, which help to retain heat. Sweat glands in the skin perspire when temperatures increase. This allows the body to cool down as the sweat evaporates. It is also an additional way to excrete small amounts of urea present in perspiration along with excess water and salt. Fatty tissue below the skin acts as an insulator, preventing heat loss to the environment.

I have included a link showing kidney filters. I have a second link with a cross section of skin to help visualize its components.

According to the narrator, how is Simon strange? Also, how is he caring and quiet?

Simon, the "moral compass" in the stranded group is strange because he repeatedly acts just slightly outside of the displayed norm the rest of the group gives. There are many examples of when Simon breaks apart from the group (literally and figuratively–see chapter 8), and says things that seem "off":

"Simon grinned and shook his head.

'How do you know then?'

When Simon was still silent Ralph said curtly, 'you're batty.'

Simon shook his head violently till the coarse black hair flew backwards and forwards across his face. 'No I'm not. I just think you'll get back all right.'"

Simon is also considered strange in how he is innately gentle-natured; while most of the boys are giving in to their primal desires, Simon is kind to Piggy and helps the littluns ("found for them the fruit they could not reach, pulled off the choicest from up in the foliage, passed them back down to the endless, outstretched hands" Chapter 3). These kind-hearted tendencies reveal themselves later to allow Simon to be the only one perceptive enough to discover the "real beast" on the island.

What is the Central Metaphor in Robert Frost's "The Most of It?"

Taken literally, the "he" of the poem wishes that the universe and nature are there to provide him some kind of emotional and spiritual support. He wants more than just the return of his own voice (in echo). This is an allusion to the myth of Narcissus and Echo. Hera cursed Echo, making Echo only able to repeat the words of others. Narcissus is famous for falling in love with his own reflection in a pool of water. Frost seems to be using these allusions to show how there is a tendency for a person to be selfish in expecting more from nature (more than an echo). The selfish man might get his own reflection or echo in return, but this is selfish thinking if he actually thinks this is nature giving love back particularly to him. This critique is summed up as, "the world doesn't revolve around you." 

It is therefore more logical to simply "make the most of it," to make the most of what nature offers us. If we see something beautiful or stirring in nature, it is not necessarily nature answering our cries or prayers. (This is the Naturalist interpretation of nature). It is simply nature being nature, a spatio-temporal field of events we can experience and interpret in our own ways. A thunderstorm, a rainbow, or a calming breeze are all just "there." These are not responses to a single person's cries. But these are all there for each and every person to experience in whichever way they choose. 

You could suggest that in addition to the literal meaning, nature could also be a metaphor for society. In other words, the "he" of the poem wants more out of life than he believes life is giving him. He selfishly thinks "he kept the universe alone," as if to say he is the center of the universe. He knows that the deer is just doing its own thing but he likes to think that this event is there for him to experience. Think of this metaphorically in terms of this man and other people in his life. He wants to think that all others exist to be parts of his life; they exist to fill the world of his existence. But if he was more open-minded and selfless, he would understand that each person ("each buck") and each event in life is not necessarily in existence for his own personal gain or enjoyment. He has to realize that he is only one part of this large interactive (ecological) community. He should consider that the buck (metaphorically, another person) has a story, desires, dreams just as much as he does. In this metaphor, nature can also be thought of as a social world and the buck can represent any other person in the man's life. 

What advice did Brian's English teacher give him in school?

Brian is sitting by the lake, contemplating his situation, after somehow surviving the crash. He takes stock of what he has and realizes that he should make an exact catalog of it. He also remembers his English teacher, Mr. Perpich, who "was always talking about being positive, thinking positive, staying on top of things." Brian thinks that perhaps he can take that advice and focus on what he does have rather than what he doesn't.

He empties his pockets and counts the change, and then his wallet and the fingernail clippers. At that moment he realizes that he has the hatchet still clipped to his belt. Up until then, he had forgotten about it.

Brian remembers Perpich and things that his teacher would have told him to be careful about. Perpich would also have told him to really look at everything so that he can do an even more careful inventory. At the end of the scene, he remembers Perpich's other constant refrain: He would say that "you are the best thing you have."

What led Sam and Bill to kidnap the young boy in "The Ransom of Red Chief"? Why did they sign the letter as "Two Desperate Men" even when as...

Bill and Sam are a pair of bumbling criminals.  Home Alone had a pair of criminals just like Bill and Sam.  Thought they were smart, but lost badly to a little kid.  

The text tells the reader that Bill and Sam have $600 to their name and they need $200 more.  

Bill and me had a joint capital of about six hundred dollars, and we needed just two thousand dollars more to pull off a fraudulent town-lot scheme in Western Illinois with.

In other words, Bill and Sam need more money in order to pull off a real estate scheme in Illinois.  They figured that kidnapping a kid from a small town would be easy ransom money.  

Bill and Sam chose to do their kidnapping in the town of Summit.  They chose Summit because it was big enough to have a population to spread the news, but it was also small enough to not have decent law enforcement.  

We knew that Summit couldn’t get after us with anything stronger than constables and, maybe, some lackadaisical bloodhounds and a diatribe or two in the Weekly Farmers’ Budget. So, it looked good.

Once the town was selected, Bill and Sam had to pick the victim.  They decided on Johnny Dorset for a few reasons.  One reason is that he is an only child.  His father is more likely to pay to get his one kid back.  A second reason is that Ebenezer Dorset is a fairly affluent member of the town.  He can afford to pay a small ransom to get Johnny back.  

We selected for our victim the only child of a prominent citizen named Ebenezer Dorset. The father was respectable and tight, a mortgage fancier and a stern, upright collectionplate passer and forecloser.

Unfortunately for Bill and Sam, little Johnny Dorset is no easy child.  He terrorizes Bill and Sam, and they eventually pay Ebenezer to take his own son back.  They are "desperate men" because they desperately want to get rid of this kid . . . not because they are desperately dangerous.