What is the story of the Magi in Christianity?

Three kings from the East--Gaspar, Melchior and Balthazar-- followed a significant star to find baby Jesus not long after he was born. They brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh and presented them to the infant as he lay in the manger.

These are all fancy gifts; gold is basically money in every culture that has it. Frankincense is religious-grade incense, and is pretty expensive. Myyrh is a kind of balm that smells fancy and might have medicinal powers. But the infant Son of God doesn't really have use for any of these rich gifts. (You'd think that the impoverished Mary and Joseph would use the gold to secure better shelter than an animal manger, but their poverty wasn't the issue so much as that there was no room at the inn.)

In O. Henry's "Gift of the Magi," the young married couple splurged more than they could afford to buy fancy presents that the recipients turned out to have no use for. He pawned his watch to buy a comb, and she sold her hair to buy a watch fob. For extravagant gifts, it shouldn't be just the thought that counts, but sometimes it is.

What is the summary for Seven Wonders by Ben Mezrich?

Seven Wonders is a true thriller (although not a horror piece) in that the pace is staggering and the description of the worldly backdrops is breathtaking.  The novel was long awaited in that Mezrich hadn't written another since 2001.  This one focuses of the Seven Wonders of the World, and rightly so.

At the beginning of this novel, which will be the first in a trilogy set, we see Jeremy Grady doing what he does best:  sitting in the "Level Four Security Lab" working with numbers.  On this night, Jeremy worries about a possible problem with the code at the lab.  Since it was a code Jeremy wrote himself, he is perplexed at the issue.  Why?  "Numbers didn't lie.  Numbers were safe and certain and sure."  The key this time has to do with the title.  Jeremy superimposed the seven ancient wonders of the world on top of the seven modern wonders. 

As Jeremy continues to remain perplexed at the problem with the code, he is murdered.  As it described in the text, Jeremy's eyes go "wide" as he looks at something "jagged and white" that is sticking out of his chest. 

Now it is Jeremy's brother, Jack Grady, who has to find out who murdered his brother.  What is interesting is that Jack ends up searching the world on a sort of Seven Wonders wild goose chase in order to track down the killer:  Brazil, India, Peru, etc.  As Jack runs around the world searching for the murderer, Jack realizes that his brother was not only super smart, but may have come upon something really important about the Seven Wonders that has always been a secret. 

It isn't long before Jack Grady joins forces with Sloane Costa and the two find out the covert truth.  The secret is as follows:  there is a conspiracy to conceal a road map to the true Garden of Eden which proves the existence of an ancient culture full of a mythology of which no one has ever heard.

What is the tone of the speaker in Dylan Thomas' poem "Fern Hill"? What does the speaker lament?

Generally, the tone of a speaker is found by closely examining the diction and syntax in a piece of writing. In Dylan Thomas' "Fern Hill," studying the diction in the poem (the word choice, in other words) should clearly show you that the tone is idealistic and nostalgic.

"Fern Hill" is essentially a look back at childhood, and most of the language is playfully infused with a sense of magic. Take, for instance, the first five lines of the poem:

Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs

About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green,

The night above the dingle starry,

Time let me hail and climb

Golden in the heydays of his eyes... (Thomas 1-5)

Notice the nostalgia inherent in phrases like "happy as the grass was green" and "Golden in the heydays of his eyes." Additionally, notice the playful diction, such as "lilting house" and "the dingle starry." Thomas' diction signals two things: first, this is an examination of a child's perspective, as the word choice clearly reflects a child's perception of the magic inherent in everyday life. Second, this perspective is viewed through a lens that is primarily nostalgic for the loss of a magical childhood.

Accordingly, it's apparent that the speaker laments the loss of childhood, and it's clear that there is a certain vibrant quality that is lost once childhood passes. As a whole, the poem is largely also lamenting the passage of time, as is evidenced by the last few lines: "Time held me green and dying / Though I sang in my chains like the sea" (44-5). In this passage, it is obvious that Thomas is reflecting on the passing of time with sadness and yearning for days of happy and carefree youthfulness.  

What is the theme of "The Furnished Room" by O. Henry?

The theme of "The Furnished Room" is that New York is a cold, heartless city that devours people and destroys their dreams. Many people are drawn here because it is possible to achieve spectacular success, as Carrie Meeber does, for example, in Theodore Dreiser's great novel Sister Carrie. But the majority of people with artistic talents of one kind or another find that the competition is overwhelming. They get worn out with living in the horrible conditions described by O. Henry when the young man follows the housekeeper up the stairs and into the furnished room. Such rooms seem designed to create despair. They get discouraged by all the running around they have to do trying to find a little paying work, whether it be in acting, singing, dancing, writing, drawing, or whatever else. Johnsy and her friend Sue are both good examples of aspiring artists in O. Henry's story "The Last Leaf." Sue is struggling desperately to make living expenses by doing sketches "on spec" for some magazine. Johnsy has given up the struggle and is only waiting to die. The girl the young man is searching for in "The Furnished Room," whose name is Miss Eloise Vashner, came to New York with high hopes, but she gave up just a week ago and committed suicide by the then standard means of turning on the gas without lighting it.

The furnished room in the story is beautifully described in all its ugliness. It symbolizes the lives of the many aspirants who come and go--

Homeless, they have a hundred homes. They flit from furnished room to furnished room, transients forever—transients in abode, transients in heart and mind. 

This rooming house is the end of the line. You can't get any lower than that. And when a person moved into one of these gritty, smelly rooms, it is a good indication that suicide may be the next step down. 

It would seem that Eloise Vashner had enough talent to make her ambition plausible. When the two housekeepers are talking about her at the end of the story:

“She'd a-been called handsome, as you say,” said Mrs. Purdy, assenting but critical, “but for that mole she had a-growin' by her left eyebrow. Do fill up your glass again, Mrs. McCool.”

The mole serves a dual purpose. It identifies her positively as the girl the young man had been seeking. It is also a tiny defect that may have been responsible for her inability to succeed in her chosen career as an entertainer. The competition in show business is so fierce that anything short of perfection is a nearly insurmountable handicap. Today there are countless thousands of talented people, including beautiful girls from every corner of America, flocking to New York and Hollywood with nothing but youth and hopes. They will find that the competition exceeds their worst expectations. 

Another related theme in "The Furnished Room" is that Eloise Vashner should have stayed in whatever small town she came from, married this young man who so obviously loved her, and settled for a simple life in a little house with a family, a rose garden, and some friendly neighbors.

How many moles of hydrogen gas would be needed to react with excess carbon dioxide to produce 88.1 moles of water vapor?

The relevant chemical reaction can be written as:

`CO_2 + 4H_2 -> CH_4 + 2H_2O`

In this reaction, carbon dioxide reacts with hydrogen to form methane and water. This reaction is known as the Sabatier reaction and is very commonly used to generate methane for fuel.

Using stoichiometry, along with the balanced chemical reaction (written above), 4 moles of hydrogen gas are used to produce 2 moles of water. 

or, 2 moles of hydrogen will produce 1 mole of water.

Thus, to produce 88.1 moles of water, 2 x 88.1 = 176.2 moles of hydrogen gas would be needed in the presence of excess carbon dioxide. Knowing this data, we can also calculate the mass of hydrogen gas needed. The molar mass of hydrogen gas (H_2) is 2 g/mole and hence a total of 352.4 grams of hydrogen gas are needed. 

Hope this helps. 

On what page do Max and Kevin run away from Tony D.?

To celebrate the Fourth of July, Max and Freak are allowed to go and see the fireworks together. As Max points out, this is kind of a big deal since he was never able to go see the fireworks by himself. In Chapter 6, “Close Encounter of the Turd Kind,” Max and Freak bump into Tony D. and his gang. Max knows they are trouble and wants to stay away, but Tony D. picks on them for their size and appearance. Freak starts smart-talking Tony D. and calls him a “cretin.” Just when it’s about to get violent, cop cars roll by, making Tony D. and his gang run away from Max and Freak. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the only time they cross paths with him.

When Max and Freak actually run away from Tony D. it is in Chapter 7, “Walking High Above the World,” on pages 34-40. The fireworks end and Max and Freak are on their way home when Tony D. and his gang show up again. In order to escape, Max puts Freak on his shoulders. Freak becomes Max’s eyes and brain, and Max becomes Freak’s feet. Freak gives Max directions, and at first, Max isn’t sure if he should follow him, but he begins to trust Freak and goes with it. They escape Tony D. and his gang by running into the muddy, mucky pond. Because of Max’s size, he is able to escape the sinking of the pond whereas Tony D. and members of his gang submerge under the water. Freak spots some officers and calls them over for “assistance.” They recognize Max because of his father, but Freak kindly corrects them and says, “We’re Freak the Mighty, that’s who we are. We’re nine feet tall in case you haven’t noticed” (39-40).

Which word best describes Mrs. Lapham? Generous, kind, practical, or religious?

In the book Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes, Mrs. Lapham acts as a practical character throughout the story.  This is seen in numerous examples; however, it is especially seen in her treatment and communication with Johnny Tremain.

Throughout the beginning of the book, Mrs. Lapham relies on Johnny to work diligently in the silversmith shop. Although he has only been there for two years, she encourages him to work hard, even on Sunday (which was not socially or religiously acceptable at the time).

After Johnny’s accident, Mrs. Lapham encourages Johnny to leave and find different work because it is not practical for him to stay. Regardless of his past work, Mrs. Lapham believes:

“it is an extravagance for a poor household to keep a boy [Johnny] just for chores.”

Furthermore, she states:

“no business can be run with just a feeble old man and three of the most worthless boys in Boston, eating their heads off.”

As a result, she pushes Johnny to find new work, leave the people he knows, and even suffer from malnourishment because of her emphasis on practicality. Although Johnny is initially very practical and advantageous to the shop, he quickly becomes a burden due to his injured hand. As a result, Mrs. Lapham quickly treats Johnny as worthless and as a burden.