What are three quotes from Nadine Gordimer's "Once Upon a Time" that illustrates fear of those regarded as "other?"

Much of "Once Upon a Time" revolves around fear of those who are different, or "other." Here are three quotes that best illustrate this.

For when they began to live happily ever after they were warned, by that wise old witch, the husband's mother, not to take on anyone off the street. They were inscribed in a medical benefit society, their pet dog was licensed, they were insured against fire, flood damage and theft, and subscribed to the local Neighborhood Watch, which supplied them with a plaque for their gates lettered YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED over the silhouette of a would-be intruder. He was masked; it could not be said if he was black or white, and therefore proved the property owner was no racist.

This passage introduces the beginning of the family's downfall: the husband's mother's advice. Reasonable precautions, such as insurance, did not seem to be enough; one can see here the beginning of the family’s insatiable desire for security. The plaque on the gate also recounts the theme of racism as well as the denial of it: the fact that the intruder is masked appears to be enough, in the family’s mind, to obscure the racial tensions of the divide between the suburb and the outer quarters of the city.

The wife could never see anyone go hungry. She sent the trusted housemaid out with bread and tea, but the trusted housemaid said these were loafers and tsotsis, who would come and tie her and shut her in a cupboard. The husband said, She's right. Take heed of her advice. You only encourage them with your bread and tea. They are looking for their chance ... And he brought the little boy's tricycle from the garden into the house every night, because if the house was surely secure, once locked and with the alarm set, someone might still be able to climb over the wall or the electronically closed gates into the garden.

This further demonstrates how compassion slides in the wake of fear. The wife, who was one of the first to embrace enhanced security measures, attempts to be kind and feed those who are hungry, but she is warned away from helping because it would “encourage” the loafers. The husband and housemaid have at this point succumbed to fear as well.

The whitewashed wall was marked with the cat's comings and goings; and on the street side of the wall there were larger red-earth smudges that could have been made by the kind of broken running shoes, seen on the feet of unemployed loiterers, that had no innocent destination.

One can see here that the loiterers are so untrustworthy that their suspicion pervades even their shoes. The racial tensions are echoed once more in the “whitewashed” wall and the “red-earth smudges” marring it. Suspicion and fear run together in this story; the suspicion justifies the fear and the fear fuels the suspicion, forming a vicious cycle.

How can I get started on writing a paper for a history course on Mary, Queen of Scots?

I hope you can come to enjoy the study of history. It truly is fascinating.  And the fact is that no matter what your major is, the writing expectations are the same, to have a clear thesis that you can support with good arguments.  Let's talk about Mary, Queen of Scots, and then about how to write a paper like this.  Your writing center has not let you down, really. But they cannot help you if you don't even have an idea to work with. 

Mary lived through some of the most interesting periods in English and Scottish history.  If you do even cursory research on her life and times, you can see this.  She became a queen when she was six years old. There are plots and murders; there are  imprisonments and arranged marriages.  This is a period rich in the drama of history.

Since you have already done some research, you need to ask yourself what you find interesting about Mary.  You must ask yourself what more you would like to know about her.  You must ask yourself what you find admirable about her or what you find despicable about her.  You need to explore your ideas about the times she lived in.  She may have been a product of those times or have done something daring and modern in her day.  She is a female, trying to get along in a male-dominated world.  She is a devout Catholic, trying to get along in a Protestant world. She dies accused of attempting to assassinate Elizabeth. You might very well wonder if she was guilty.  You need to decide what strikes your fancy about Mary and her world. 

Out of all of this, an idea will emerge, and you will need to support that idea, first in a thesis statement, and then in the paper.  Let's take, for example, the idea that Mary might have been innocent of conspiring to kill Elizabeth.  If that is your thesis, you will have to support it.  Writing a paper for history can be like being a detective.  Mary might have had enemies who framed her.  The court may have relied on circumstantial evidence or no evidence at all, for that matter.  Elizabeth might have gained considerably by getting Mary out of the picture.  All of these would be the means of support for such a thesis.  The idea is to then state the thesis and the supporting points in one sentence, at the end of your introduction, saying essentially, "Thus and such is true because of A, B, and C."  That's all any thesis statement is, really.  Then your A, B, and C must each be developed into a section or body paragraph, with your evidence that shows that your thesis, your assertion, is true, or at least feasible.  You end with a conclusion, which is a review of your thesis and points. 

The study of history may or may not be for you, but a coherent and organized research paper is a normal expectation for most college classes.  The sooner you learn how to do this, the smoother your college experience is going to be.  There must have been something about history that appealed to you, that caused you to choose this major. Don't lose your interest the first time you hit a little bump in the road! 

How many Lithium ions are present in 75.3 grams of lithium sulfate?

There are three steps to solving this problem:

1. Calculate the molar mass of lithium sulfate. The formula is Li2SO4. We know this because the lithium ion has a charge of +1 and sulfate ion is SO4 2-. The ratio of lithium ion to sulfate ion is 1 to 2 to give a net charge of zero.

2. Convert grams of lithium sulfate to moles

3. Find the number of lithium ions in the calculated number of moles of Li2SO4. The chemical formula indicates that there are two ions of lithium per formula unit, so moles of lithium sulfate is multiplied by 2 to get moles of lithium ions.

The molar mass of lithium sulfate is:

2(6.9 g/mol) + 32.1 g/mol + 4(16.0 g/mol) = 109.9 grams/mole

Moles of Li2SO4 = (75.3g)(1 mol/109.9 g) = 0.685 moles

lithium ions = (0.685 moles LiSO4)(2 Li/1 LiSO4)(6.02x10^23 ions/1 mol)

= 8.25 x 10^23 lithium ions

The backbone of the double helix has alternating_______and_________?

The backbone of the double helix consists of alternating phosphate and deoxyribose sugar molecules. If you picture DNA like a twisted ladder, the sides of the ladder would be the backbone and the rungs would be complementary base pairs.

A single unit of DNA is called a nucleotide. A nucleotide contains a phosphate group, a sugar called deoxyribose and one of four nitrogenous bases--adenine, guanine, cytosine or thymine. If one nucleotide contained the base adenine, then the complementary base in the adjacent nucleotide would contain thymine. That is because adenine pairs to thymine. Similarly, the base cytosine pairs to guanine. A chemical bond called a hydrogen bond holds the base pairs together in the double helix.

I have attached two links with nice diagrams of the DNA molecule. Both are color coded to illustrate the location of the base pairs and the backbone of the molecule.

The frequency of sound emitted by a string is inversely proportional to the length of the string. When the string is 50 cm long, the frequency of...

We are told that the frequency of sound emitted by a string is inversely proportional to its length. Also, the frequency is 256Hz when the length is 50cm.

Note that when variables vary inversely, as one variable increases the other variable decreases and vice versa.

When two variables are inversely proportional (or vary inversely) the variables are related in the following manner: `y=k/x ` where the variables are x,y and k is called the constant of proportionality. Here we have `f=k/l ` where f is the frequency in hertz, l is the length in centimeters, and k is the constant of proportionality. Note that k will depend on outside factors such as the material of the string, the medium it is in, etc..., but k will be constant for the given situation.

We are given that when f=256, l=50, so we can solve for k:

`256=k/50 ==> k=50(256)=12800 `

(a) If l=40 we have `f=12800/40 ==> f=320 ` ; so when the length is 40cm the frequency is 320Hz.

This agrees with the knowledge that as the length gets shorter the frequency should increase.

(b) If f=400 then `400=12800/l ==> l=12800/400 ==> l=32 ` ; thus when the frequency is 400Hz, the length will be 32cm.

Who was the top of the social status in Ravloe in Silas Marner?

The answer to your question can be found in chapter III, where the narrator tells us who is the most powerful man in Raveloe, and gives us information about his family and how he is perceived in the community.

The greatest man in Raveloe was Squire Cass, who lived in the large red house with the handsome flight of stone steps in front and the high stables behind it, nearly opposite the church.

This description of the home is given through the viewpoint of the citizens, who are obviously impressed with those “stone steps and high stables.”

We are then told that he holds a strong standing in the community as one of the few landed people there

He was only one among several landed parishioners, but he alone was honoured with the title of Squire

From the landed people in the community, Cass was almost at the same level of deference as the Osgoods.  This clan, along with the Cass’s, are considered two of the oldest families in Raveloe.

…. Mr. Osgood's family was also understood to be of timeless origin—the Raveloe imagination having never ventured back to that fearful blank when there were no Osgoods….

Yet, out of the two families, Osgood “merely owned the farm he occupied.” Cass, on the other hand, has tenants. This places him at a higher standing since he has people whom are dependent on his land and property. These tenants, we are told, “complained … to him quite as if he had been a lord.” The implication of this statement is that these tenants treated Squire Cass with high respect (as people often do to those on whom they depend for whatever reason) and, as such, Cass has continued to be treated by others.

Squire Cass enjoyed his status and showed it off plenty of times with feasts for the community either at his own home or at The Rainbow Inn, which is the community’s public house. He felt entitled to the treatment he got, as he felt that he had a 

 hereditary duty of being noisily jovial and patronizing. 

Yet, Squire Cass is the quintessential example that money and status does not guarantee success in every area of life. His two children, Dunstan and Godfrey, are useless, to say the least. Dunstan, especially, is perhaps the most reprobate member of the community. He is the thief of Silas’s money, and has led his older brother to a downward spiral complete with an opium fiend wife, an illegitimate child, and financial ruin. 

Hence, that Squire Cass and his family are at the top of Raveloe society does not prescribe that they are also the most successful people there, the ones who have done best for themselves, or the ones who most deserve to be happy.

In "Lord of The Flies", Ralph asks Piggy "what makes things break up". How does the narration's description of Piggy's reaction to Ralph's question...

Ralph poses this question to Piggy following the splintering of the tribes and Ralph's realization that not only do most of the boys completely fail to understand the importance of being rescued, but that his own group no longer has enough members to keep a fire going, feed themselves, and defend themselves against Jack's raids. 

Piggy's answer is to blame Jack.

“I dunno, Ralph. I expect it’s him.”

“Jack?”

“Jack.”

It's a little unclear, and Piggy doesn't elaborate, whether he means Jack personally, or people like him. The irony of Piggy blaming Jack according to any definition is that Piggy is simply encouraging the breaking-up that Ralph is inquiring about. By making the division a matter of Jack's person, Piggy is widening the gulf that separates the sense of "Us" and "Them" that is crucial for establishing identities; Piggy is practically saying that everything would have gone just fine if it wasn't for Jack, who just came along and ruined everything simply by existing.

The fact that Ralph goes along with this suggests a few things in terms of the narration. It might imply that Ralph is physically, mentally and emotionally tired, and doesn't want to go through the degree of introspection necessary to really think this over. He's also seen that thinking and rationalizing hasn't really gotten them anywhere, and it's getting harder for him to do it too. It might also suggest that the boys haven't really learned from their experiences, and they're just settling into the same divisive habits and modes of thinking that, as adults, lead to war.