Explain the following statement about the lawyer from the short story "The Bet" by Anton Chekhov: "His reading suggested a man swimming in the...

The comparison of the lawyer’s reading during his rigorous solitary confinement to the act of swimming in the sea following a shipwreck sounds quite apt.

By accepting to live in solitary confinement for fifteen continuous years, the lawyer has staked the most vital period of his life. If he succumbs, he might ruin himself. His situation has been appropriately compared to that of a man, who is swimming desperately in the sea after his ship is destroyed.

The man constantly clutches "first at one spar and then at another" in order to drift ashore. Similarly, the lawyer finishes reading book after book during his imprisonment.

To the lawyer, it is only reading that could help him pass the long period of time that appears unending as a sea.

What he reads range from “novels with a complicated love plot, sensational and fantastic stories” and classics to languages, philosophy, and history; from Gospel and “histories of religion” to books on natural sciences, chemistry and medicine.

Thus, he reads everything that he could think of. The books provide him with the support and moral strength he essentially needs to spend the vast span of time all alone in his isolated cell. 

So, we see that his voracious reading of books is very aptly represented in the image of a man "swimming in the sea among the wreckage of his ship, and trying to save his life by greedily clutching first at one spar and then at another."

How come, in Lord of the Flies, Simon's hair grew? It was said on a few websites that the boys' growing hair represents their descent into...

What a terrific question! Perhaps the growth of hair is not indicative of the descent into savagery, but rather the infiltration of savagery into the boys' minds'.  While Simon never hurt a fly, he did have "conversations" with the Lord of the Flies about the evil on the island.  From chapter 8:

Simon’s head was tilted slightly up. His eyes could not break away and the Lord of the Flies hung in space before him. “What are you doing out here all alone? Aren’t you afraid of me?” Simon shook. “There isn’t anyone to help you. Only me. And I’m the Beast.” Simon’s mouth labored, brought forth audible words. “Pig’s head on a stick.”

Simon came face to face with the savagery on the island and rejected it.  His hair grows because he recognizes the evil, but he does not allow it to overtake him.

Piggy, on the other hand, does not seek out the truth as Simon does.  While he was present for the murder of Simon, it may be that he was involved with different motivation than the rest of the boys.  Piggy was seeking the comfort of the group, which is understandable given the ways in which he was repeatedly excluded from the group.  From chapter 9:

Piggy and Ralph, under the threat of the sky, found themselves eager to take a place in this demented but partly secure society. They were glad to touch the brown backs of the fence that hemmed in the terror and made it governable.

While Ralph has a history of dabbling in acts of savagery, Piggy does not.  It would be a reasonable claim that is involvement was purely to feel oneness with the larger group.

Why does Attean's grandmother treat Matt's hand?

While it is true that Attean's grandmother despises the "white man," she decides to treat Matt's hand after he hurts it trying to free a dog from a trap. There are several factors that worked together and allowed her to come to the decision to help Matt despite her negative feelings about his people. 

The dog that Matt attempted to help out of the trap belonged to Attean. This impressed his grandmother because Matt had no obligation to help the dog when he came upon it while walking in the woods. In addition, Matt and Attean's sister, who translated for Matt when he insisted upon seeing Attean's grandmother, pleaded with her at length about the situation. They needed Matt to be able to return to the trap with help to free the dog. Lastly, it was mentioned that if the wound were not fixed, it may get worse due to poison that may be in the wound. 

The encounter between Pip and the runaway convict at the beginning of the novel and his promise to him is crucial to the plot of Great...

Pip promises everything the convict demands because he is terrified. This is what the convict demands.

“You bring me, to-morrow morning early, that file and them wittles. You bring the lot to me, at that old Battery over yonder. You do it, and you never dare to say a word or dare to make a sign concerning your having seen such a person as me, or any person sumever, and you shall be let to live. You fail, or you go from my words in any partickler, no matter how small it is, and your heart and your liver shall be tore out, roasted, and ate."                                                                                               Chapter I

In Chapter III Pip brings the convict a generous amount of food including a whole pork pie, along with brandy and a file from Joe's workshop. The convict is eventually caught and taken back to the prison ship. He disappears from Pip's life. Some years later Pip is informed by Mr. Jaggers that he has "great expectations." A benefactor, whose identity is to remain a secret, wants Pip to be trained to become a London gentleman. Pip naturally assumes that the benefactor is Miss Havisham, but he cannot question her or Mr. Jaggers, who becomes his guardian.

Then in the critical and marvelously written Chapter XXXIX, Pip, who is now a cultured gentleman, is amazed and horrified to learn that his real benefactor has been the convict he helped in Chapter III when he was a little boy. The convict, whose name is Abel Magwitch, had been transported to Australia and has come back at the risk of being hanged to see the boy he made into a gentleman.

“Yes, Pip, dear boy, I've made a gentleman on you! It's me wot has done it! I swore that time, sure as ever I earned a guinea, that guinea should go to you. I swore arterwards, sure as ever I spec'lated and got rich, you should get rich. I lived rough, that you should live smooth; I worked hard that you should be above work. What odds, dear boy? Do I tell it fur you to feel a obligation? Not a bit. I tell it, fur you to know as that there hunted dunghill dog wot you kep life in, got his head so high that he could make a gentleman—and, Pip, you're him!”

The message of Dickens' novel is that the fine ladies and gentlemen all owe their superior refinement, their luxuries and their privileges to the ignorant and exploited lower classes represented by Abel Magwitch. Pip realizes that he has become a useless fop incapable of doing anything but act the part of a gentleman. He had always assumed that Miss Havisham was paying for his education and culture in order to make his a suitable husband for Estella. This dream comes crashing down, along with the realization that he is virtually the property of a well-meaning but hopelessly ignorant and uncouth convict who has been a criminal since boyhood and who has returned to England in blatant violation of the law. Pip is now obliged to harbor Magwitch and to have him as a constant companion for the foreseeable future. As Magwitch tells him:

Look at your clothes; better ain't to be got! And your books too,” turning his eyes round the room, “mounting up, on their shelves, by hundreds! And you read 'em; don't you? I see you'd been a reading of 'em when I come in. Ha, ha, ha! You shall read 'em to me, dear boy! And if they're in foreign languages wot I don't understand, I shall be just as proud as if I did.”

So Pip's encounter with the escaped convict on the marshes in the opening chapter is to affect his entire life. He becomes Magwitch's idea of a gentleman, which is like a spoiled and haughty parasite. He cannot even feel that he deserves all the money that Magwitch has spent on his "education" because Magwitch completely misunderstood Pip's motives in helping him as he did. 

“You acted nobly, my boy,” said he. “Noble Pip! And I have never forgot it!”

Pip was not acting out of compassion and generosity. He was only doing what he had been forced to promise because he was frightened out of his wits. Magwitch had a better opinion of the little boy than he deserved, just as he has a better opinion of the gentleman he has created with all his hard work and privations than that gentleman deserves now. Pip is thoroughly ashamed of himself, and Dickens intended at least some of his readers to share that shame. If some people have too much, it can only be because others have too little.

The California legislature passed a law to make Amazon collect tax for products sold to California residents because the residents weren't paying...

The clue to the correct answer is in the question.  It says that Amazon has to collect tax on items sold to California residents.  A tax that is levied on items that are sold to people is a sales tax.

The law mentioned in this question was passed in 2012.  Before that, there had been a great deal of controversy over whether Amazon (and other online sellers) should have to collect sales taxes when they sold items to people outside of the state in which Amazon was physically located.  At first, Amazon did not have to do so.  Now, more states require this.

The only other answer that would make any sense is “excise tax.”  However, excise taxes are collected only on certain specific items.  For example, there is an excise tax on cigarettes.  Excise taxes do not apply to all items that are sold the way that sales taxes typically do.

The law that California passed was a law that requires Amazon to collect sales tax on the items it sells to people in California.

`105^@ = 60^@ + 45^@` Find the exact values of the sine, cosine, and tangent of the angle.

You need to evaluate the sine of `105^o` , using the formula `sin(a+b) = sin a*cos b + sin b*cos a` such that:

`sin(105^o) = sin(60^o + 45^o) = sin 60^o*cos 45^o + sin 45^o*cos 60^o`

`sin(105^o) = (sqrt3)/2*(sqrt2)/2 + (sqrt2)/2*1/2`

`sin(105^o) = (sqrt2)/2*(sqrt3 + 1)/2`

You need to evaluate the cosine of `105^o` , using the formula `cos(a+b) = cos a*cos b - sin b*sin a` such that:

`cos (105^o) = cos (60^o + 45^o) = cos 60^o*cos 45^o - sin 45^o*sin 60^o`

`cos (105^o) = 1/2*(sqrt2)/2 - (sqrt2)/2*(sqrt3)/2`

`cos (105^o) = (sqrt2)/2*(1 - sqrt3)/2`

You need to evaluate the tangent of `105^o` , such that:

`tan 105^o = (sin(105^o))/(cos (105^o))`

`tan 105^o = ((sqrt2)/2*(sqrt3 + 1)/2)/((sqrt2)/2*(1 - sqrt3)/2)`

`tan 105^o = (sqrt3 + 1)/(1 - sqrt3)`

`tan 105^o = ((sqrt3 + 1)*(1 + sqrt3)/(1 - 3)`

`tan 105^o = -((sqrt3 + 1)^2)/2`

Hence, evaluating the sine, cosine and tangent of `105^o` , yields `sin(105^o) = (sqrt2)/2*(sqrt3 + 1)/2, cos (105^o) = (sqrt2)/2*(1 - sqrt3)/2, tan 105^o = -((sqrt3 + 1)^2)/2.`

Scout reflects: “Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.” What comparison is Lee suggesting in...

It seemed that Scout Finch was always reading.  She had started to read at a young age.  Long before starting school, reading seemed natural to Scout.  It was simply a part of her life.  

On Scout's first day of school, however, her teacher told her to stop reading.  Miss Caroline said that Scout should no longer read with her father each night.  Instead, she wanted Scout to learn how to read the "right" way.  It was after this scene that Scout made the following statement:

Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read.  One does not love breathing (To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 2).

After Miss Caroline's new command, Scout gained a new appreciation for reading.  She realized that she valued reading.  It was important to her.  She also realized that reading was so essential to her life that it was like breathing.  She did not pay attention to it, but yet it was a necessary part of daily life.