Who were the three new roommates Lyddie interacted with? How did they treat her?

Lyddie is introduced to her three new roommates in chapter 8.  She has just arrived in the city after her travels which are explained in chapter 7.  Lyddie is on her way to the city, but she has no idea what to expect there.  She has no idea where she will stay or anything like that.  During chapter 7, Lyddie helps get the carriage that she is riding in unstuck.  Her grit and intelligence impresses the driver of the carriage, and he introduces Lyddie to his sister, Mrs. Bedlow.  Mrs. Bedlow owns and operates a boarding house for the factory working girls.  She takes Lyddie under her wing and helps Lyddie find a room at the boarding house and some new clothes.  

Lyddie meets her three roommates.  Their names are Amelia, Prudence, and Betsy.  It's a fairly standard first roommate encounter.  They are friendly and cordial, but are not immediately the best of friends.  That takes some time, and Betsy and Lyddie wind up being quite close by the end of the book.  It's Betsy that reads to Lyddie and teaches her the importance of education. Prudence isn't around for that much of the book.  She gets sick and ends up leaving the factory.  Amelia is a bit higher class than Lyddie and takes it upon herself to teach Lyddie a bit more social etiquette.  Amelia isn't being stuck up about it; she just wants Lyddie to learn a bit more class.  

How does Harpo know Sofia isn’t coming back?

Harpo and Sophia are, perhaps, the couple most truly in love in Alice Walker's The Color Purple.  They are also the two characters who most exhibit swapping gender roles in a traditional relationship.  Harpo and Sophia were happily married until Harpo, after years of watching his father abuse Celie in every possible way, began questioning why Sophia didn't "mind" him the way Celie did Albert.  Celie, motivated by a jealousy that she grew to regret bitterly and later repent of, advised Harpo to beat Sophia into submission. Sophia, however, had made a pledge to herself years before that she would not accept such abuse, and she fights back. By Letter 32, Sophia has been gone from the home she shared with Harpo and the children for six months.  Harpo is openly distraught during this time and begins to assert his manhood and his independence by seeing other women. Finally, he and a friend convert the home he once shared with Sophia into a juke joint, and when Celie asks him what Sophia will think about this when she comes back, Harpo tells her that he knows now that she won't be returning.

In The Call of the Wild by Jack London, how does Buck perform when he succeeds Spitz as lead dog?

In The Call of the Wild by Jack London, Buck performs exceedingly well when he succeeds former lead dog Spitz. At first, the drivers want to use another lead dog, but Buck refuses to allow it, inserting himself in the lead dog position until finally he is allowed to stay there. 

"Francois complied, whereupon Buck trotted in, laughing triumphantly, and swung around into position at the head of the team. His traces were fastened, the sled broken out, and with both men running, they dashed out on to the river trail" (London Chapter 4).

The drivers, Francois and Perrault, soon learn that they have underestimated Buck. Though they thought Sol-leks would be the better lead dog, they quickly realized they were wrong. Buck, not only did his job, but he also made sure the other dogs did theirs. Francois had thought Spitz was the best lead dog he had ever worked with, but now Buck was proving to be even better. 

"'Never such a dog as dat Buck!' he cried. 'No, never! Him worth one thousand dollair, by Gar! Eh? What you say, Perrault'" (London Chapter 4)?

Buck was such a good leader, in fact, that the team had a record run and made it to Skagway in just two weeks time.  

How do the sisters' conversation at the beginning of Tolstoy's story "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" foreshadow what happens later?

As my colleague rightly explains, the sisters argue passionately about the ramifications of their different lifestyles. Each remains convinced that her way of life is much safer, more dependable, and more satisfying. The sisters' argument centers on the theme of contentment.

Pahom, the husband of the younger sister, thinks that more land will ensure his security to the point that he wouldn't have to fear the Devil himself. His wife's assertion that the land is the center of the peasant's security prompts Pahom to covet more land. In due time, Pahom becomes a landowner, and he is justly proud of everything he manages to accomplish on his land. However, Pahom discovers that ownership comes with sundry annoyances and trials he would rather do without. His neighbors encroach on his land and test his patience. Pahom finds himself quarreling with them and imagines that he would be happier if he had even more land.

Here, we begin to see how the sisters' argument foreshadows Pahom's eventual downfall. The younger sister accuses her older sister of living a decadent and covetous lifestyle. She asserts that city life comes with too many temptations and uncertainties; she claims to be contented with a simple peasant's life. However, it is her own husband who faces ruin and eventual death because of his covetousness. Pahom never realizes that the temptations in his path will ultimately destroy him.

The author foreshadows Pahom's downfall beautifully by shining a spotlight on questions regarding temptation and covetousness. The sisters' argument sets the stage for Pahom's story to unfold. When he thinks that he has gotten a good bargain at the expense of the Bashkirs, Pahom is ecstatic. He imagines that he can get as much land as he wants for a trivial price. But, how much land does a man really need? If he loses his life in the act of procurement, has he really gained anything? The sisters' conversation foreshadows Pahom's destruction, but it also highlights a main theme of the story: discernment is lacking in someone who is covetous. The unfolding story clearly shows that a man is not exempt from temptation, whether he lives in the country or the city.

The story ends on an ironic note, but does answer the question posed in the title:

His servant picked up the spade and dug a grave long enough for Pahom to lie in, and buried him in it. Six feet from his head to his heels was all he needed.

What kinds of work did slaves do in Ancient Mesopotamia and in the world today?

Slaves in Mesopotamia were generally prisoners of war. Sometimes, however, children were sold into slavery by their parents in desperate economic times. The wealthy of the civilization were the ones that could own the slaves and the slave became the property of the owner. Slaves mostly worked domestic chores in the homes of the wealthy, but could also be used in the temple to do work for the priests. Some slaves worked in the fields, but this was pretty uncommon since the wealthy were generally not involved in farming. Some female slaves were used as concubines by the master. The master could also support slaves with skills to operate a business or apprenticeship. This was not done with the purpose of making the slaves life better, but as an investment in future returns, the slaves could bring him.

Today, slavery still exists in the world and is a major problem. Today slaves are much cheaper to acquire and are seen as disposable commodities. Slaves today are used as unskilled manual laborers to produce agricultural goods or consumer goods. There is also a darker side to the slave trade today that uses slaves in illicit sex trafficking rings. This trade accounts to close to a quarter of all slaves and is estimated to be numbered at close to five million slaves.

Describe Montag’s transition from duty-bound fireman to intellectual revolutionary.

At the beginning of the novel, Montag is fully satisfied with his life as a fireman. He takes pleasure in burning the books and has a visceral high from his job, somewhat like an addiction: 

He knew that when he returned to the firehouse, he might wink at himself, a minstrel man, burntcorked, in the mirror. Later, going to sleep, he would feel the fiery smile still gripped by his face muscles, in the dark. It never went away, that. smile, it never ever went away, as long as he remembered. 

In this role, Montag is a tool of the authorities. He has been conditioned and brainwashed to believe that burning books is a righteous vocation. He has also been taught that creative thinking and questioning things are practices that will only lead to dysfunction and unhappiness. So, he doesn't think of such things. 

The first instance that sparks the beginning of change in Montag occurs with his first conversation with Clarisse. After bombarding him with questions, she leaves asking him if he is happy. He is struck by the fact that she got him to think about himself in a profound way: 

People were more often-he searched for a simile, found one in his work-torches, blazing away until they whiffed out. How rarely did other people's faces take of you and throw back to you your own expression, your own innermost trembling thought? 

He goes home and has to deal with Mildred's overdose. Then he actually says, "I don't know anything anymore." He is clearly uncertain about things at this point, whereas at the beginning of the novel, he is comfortable and happy in his ignorance. 

Another conversation with Clarisse moves Montag to have more questions. He sees a woman choose to burn with her books during a raid on her house. This affects him deeply. In a later conversation with Millie regarding this event, he says, "There must be something in books, things we can't imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don't stay for nothing." Montag steals a book from the raid. 

His curiosity about books and knowledge increases. He takes more books. He seeks out advice from Faber, a college professor. Clarisse's disappearance also is a clue. He begins questioning a society that would eliminate a girl simply for being curious about life. In a culminating moment, he reads poetry to Millie and her friends. This leads Millie and one of her friends to turn Montag in. But by this point, he has his mind set on becoming the intellectual revolutionary. In the end, he must flee his own home and happens upon the other traveling intellectuals. 

How did the Puritans justify the taking of Native American land?

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and
multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea,
and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.  --Genesis I:28. 

The Puritans believed that God blessed them with the lands of the New World. Their main justification for taking Indian land was that the Native American populations were not using the land effectively, so it was their divine right to take the lands that belonged to the Native Americans.  Since the Native Americans did not understand land ownership in the same way that the English did, it was not as difficult to take it from them.  The Indians did not build cities or towns and the land looked to be undeveloped in the eyes of the Puritans.  The colonists believed that the land was being under-utilized and that they were actually providing the Indians with a service by civilizing their culture.  In quoting scriptures from the Bible, like the one referenced above, the Puritans felt a sense of moral calm in taking the land from the Native Americans.