What is the national debt and the complexities surrounding it?

It is simple enough to tell you what the national debt is, but it is not possible to know what complexities your professor has discussed in class or what sorts of essay questions he might ask about them.  I would strongly advise that you consult your class notes and/or talk to your professor and any TA you might have.

The national debt is the accumulated money that the United States owes as a country.  When we talk about the national debt, we need to differentiate it from the national deficit.  The deficit is the amount which government revenues fall short of spending in a given year.  The debt is the accumulation of all prior years’ deficits (less a very few years when we had government surpluses). 

That much is straightforward and does not depend on anything that your professor has said.  However, the complexities surrounding the debt have very much to do with what your Professor Hampson has discussed in class.  One complexity might be the fact that different amounts of the debt are owed to different people.  Some of the debt is owed to domestic sources and some to foreign sources.  Those parts of the debt have very different implications for the US.  Another complexity could be the fact that some people believe that it is good to have a debt.  If we could not have a debt, we would lack flexibility to engage in fiscal policy during recessions and we might have a hard time doing things like waging unexpected wars.  Another complexity might be the debate over whether debt “crowds out” private borrowing or whether it actually helps us by creating things like infrastructure that pay off over the long term.  Another complexity might be the difficulty of dealing with the debt when our deficits are so large and so much of our deficit spending is driven by entitlements rather than by discretionary spending that can be cut relatively easily.  All of these are possible complexities about the national debt.  It is very important that you find out which of these complexities have been addressed in your textbook or in class sessions.

From where are they coming in Of Mice and Men? Why are they camping out? What does Lennie have in his pocket?

We can find all of this information in chapter one of the novella. George and Lennie are coming from a place called Weed.  They left that place in haste, because the people there accused Lennie of attempting rape. Lennie likes to touch soft things. This brings him comfort. When he touched a girl’s dress, she took it the wrong way and accused him of rape.  So, George and Lennie fled for their lives.

George and Lennie are camping out by the river, because the bus dropped them off in the wrong place.  They are spending the night there and resting before they get to their final destination. They are headed to a new ranch to get work.  They are migrant workers.

As to what Lennie has in his pocket is a dead mouse. As stated above, Lennie loves to touch soft things.  The problem is that dead mice can get him sick.  So, George has him throw away the mouse.  All these events show the reader that Lennie is mentally challenged.

What are compounds?

Substances can be classified into three categories: elements, compounds and mixtures. An element is a pure form of matter and is composed of atoms of only one type and cannot be further divided. A compound is made up of two or more elements in a specific ratio and can be further divided. A mixture is a combination of different elements and/or compounds. 

A compound can be divided into elements by using chemical means. The properties of a compound are different from those of its individual constituent elements. An example of a compound is water (`H_2O` ), in which two elements, hydrogen and oxygen are mixed in a 2:1 ratio. Irrespective of the amount of water, all its molecules will always have this fixed ratio. Also, hydrogen is combustible, whereas oxygen is necessary for combustion. In comparison, water is used for extinguishing fires (and hence has different properties than hydrogen or water).

Hope this helps. 

In Act Two, Scene 2, who seems to be more courageous, Macbeth or Lady Macbeth?

In Act Two, Scene 2, Macbeth exits Duncan's chamber and tells his wife that he committed the murder. He is clearly shaken and laments about his actions. Macbeth looks down at his bloody hands and says "this is a sorry sight." Macbeth then tells his wife that Duncan's chamberlains woke each other up when one cried "Murder!". They then blessed each other and Macbeth comments that he was not able to say "Amen." Macbeth goes on to tell his wife that he heard a voice say "Sleep no more!" and Lady Macbeth responds by telling him that he's allowed himself to become weak and cowardly. She then tells him to wash his hands off and calls him a coward for not placing the daggers by the chamberlains. Lady Macbeth then takes it upon herself to enter Duncan's chamber to put the daggers in their proper place. Throughout this scene, Lady Macbeth clearly seems to have more courage. Unlike her husband, Lady Macbeth is focused on completing the task. She dismissed Macbeth's fears of hearing voices and told him to wash the blood from his hands. Lady Macbeth is level-headed, while her husband is shaken, confused, and full of regret. 

How do I write an introduction for a research paper on blood pressure?

An effective introduction for a research paper presents a concise summary of what the reader should expect to learn from the paper. In a scientific research paper, the introduction is presented as a leading and separate section of the paper, and presents a summary of the purpose, methods, clinical results and conclusions of the study. It should be constructed only after other sections of the paper are complete. If the paper is a topical review of blood pressure, the scope and intended audience of the paper should first be identified. The content contained in the introduction and the paper will be dependent on these parameters. For a review paper on human blood pressure, the introduction should define blood pressure physiologically, discuss how blood pressure is regulated and measured, delineate normal vs. abnormal measurements, and identify factors associated with abnormal readings. This should be followed by a discussion of measures for treatment, and a conclusion citing current trends in research regarding blood pressure. 

What were three difficulties caused by the Articles of Confederation?

One difficulty was a major fiscal crisis confronting the new nation. Both the states and the national government had enormous debts from the Revolutionary War. The problem was that under the Articles of Confederation, the national government essentially lacked the power to tax. Therefore it could not raise enough money to service the national debt, and could not inspire much confidence among potential creditors among the nations of Europe. 

Another problem was the lack of unity in dealing with foreign affairs. The British were quick to exploit this weakness by maintaining forts on the American frontier in contravention of the Treaty of Paris that had ended the Revolutionary War. Spanish influence among Western settlers was also seen as a problem, and farmers who moved west of the Appalachian worried that they couldn't ship their produce down the Mississippi River, as Spain controlled the city of New Orleans. There was little the national government, which couldn't really raise an army, and which totally lacked diplomatic clout, could do about it.

Finally, in the absence of a central authority with the sole power to regulate interstate commerce, many of the states levied tariffs on each other's goods, a potentially ruinous development. This created enormous animosity between many of the states, and was, in fact, was one of the reasons that the first meetings of state delegates was called at Annapolis, Maryland one year before the Philadelphia Convention. 

What is the overall mood at Jack's feast in Lord Of The Flies?

This was the first time since being on the island that the boys would be savouring meat, so one would expect that the mood would be one of excitement and joy. The overall mood was, however, tense and uncomfortable.

The reason for this was that in the process of hunting, the signal fire had been forgotten and had died. A ship had passed by in the distance and would most likely have been drawn to the smoke, which meant rescue. When Jack and the hunters returned with their bounty, Ralph, who was extremely upset, confronted him.

Ralph spoke.
“You let the fire go out.”
Jack checked, vaguely irritated by this irrelevance but too happy to let it worry him.
“We can light the fire again. You should have been with us, Ralph. We had a smashing time. The twins got knocked over—”

Those who had gone on the hunt were enthralled by their experience and wanted to share, but Ralph would not allow it. When Jack started talking about the hunt, Jack reiterated what he had said earlier. He added:

“There was a ship. Out there. You said you’d keep the fire going and you let it out!”
He took a step toward Jack, who turned and faced him.
“They might have seen us. We might have gone home—”

Piggy soon joined the argument and the realisation that they could have been rescued dawned on the other boys. Some of the younger ones began to cry. Jack became indignantly upset when Piggy kept on nagging and he turned against him, hitting him in the stomach with his fist. He then smacked him on the head sending Piggy's glasses flying. One of the lenses was broken and Piggy cried out that he now had only one eye. Jack copied him and the hunters began to laugh. Jack scrambled up towards Piggy who was behind a rock, causing more laughter. Jack later apologized about the fire and earned the admiration of the boys for being such a gentleman and doing 'the decent thing.'

Once the fire had been made, the tension lifted somewhat but the general strain prevailed. The boys tried cooking the meat by using a stake over the fire but that did not work, so each boy took a chunk and skewered it onto a branch or stick to be roasted in the fire, also burning themselves in the process. Ralph and Piggy both dribbled and Jack gave Ralph a half cooked piece of meat into which he immediately sank his teeth. Piggy was not given anything and when he complained, Simon gave him his. Jack, who wanted to punish Piggy, was upset about this and cut off a chunk of meat which he threw to Simon, commanding him to eat.

Jack was clearly enraged and shouted that he had gotten them all meat, stressing: 

“I painted my face—I stole up. Now you eat—all of you—and I—” Slowly the silence on the mountain-top deepened till the click of the fire and the soft hiss of roasting meat could be heard clearly. Jack looked round for understanding but found only respect. Ralph stood among the ashes of the signal fire, his hands full of meat, saying nothing.

Jack had gained the boys' respect, but no one spoke. The tension was still palpable. Maurice broke the silence when he asked questions about the hunt. Jack could not stand the idea of someone else telling his story and started talking about the hunt. Soon the other boys joined in and the mood changed. Maurice ran into centre pretending to be a pig and the boys started dancing and chanting:

“Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Bash her in.”

Ralph, who resented and envied their celebration, waited until they had stopped dancing and singing to announce that he was calling a meeting: 

“I’m calling an assembly.”
One by one, they halted, and stood watching him.
“With the conch. I’m calling a meeting even if we have to go on into the dark. Down on the platform. When I blow it. Now.”
He turned away and walked off, down the mountain.