The Use of the Modifier More in English

The modifier more is commonly used in English in a wide variety of situations. You are probably familiar with the use of more in the comparative form, but there are other uses as well. Below you will find explanations of each of the different ways more is used to modify nouns, as well as in the comparative form and as an adverb. More is different than (the) most which you can learn about on this page dedicated to the uses of most in English. Comparative Form The most common use of more is in the comparative form. More is used with adjectives of more than one syllable - with the exception of adjectives ending in y - to express that there is more of a particular quality. Notice that the opposite less is also used in a similar manner to indicate that there is less of a particular quality (This hike is less dangerous than the one we took last week.) Examples: My history class is more interesting than my math class.New York is more expensive than Seattle to visit. More Noun Determiner More is placed before a noun as a determiner to state that there is more of something. However, it is important to note that the preposition of is not used when speaking in general. Remember that the plural form is used when speaking in general about countable items or people (There are more students this year). When speaking about uncountable objects, use the singular form (We need more rice). Examples: Its important to eat more fruit in your diet during the summer.There are more books to read in the next room. More of Determiner Noun More of is used with articles and other determiners when speaking about a particular thing or group. This is true for people as well as for objects. Remember that the is used to indicate a specific object that both the listener and the speaker understand, whereas a is used to speak about something listeners do not which specific instance is referred to. Examples: He is more of a thinker than you might realize.Ill have to use more of this class to explain the present perfect. More Alone In some instances, its clear which noun more modifies. For example, in a restaurant, a waitperson might ask you if you would like more referring to coffee, water, etc. If the context is clear the noun may be dropped. Examples: Would you like more? - Sure, Id love more. (Mom talking to a child concerning cake)I wish I had more, but the economy is tough these days. (Friend talking about money) Number More Noun Infinitive A number used with more followed by a noun and an infinitive expresses that how many/much more there are/is to do of a certain task. One more ... to do can be substituted with another ... to do. Examples: There are three more tests to correct today.Jennifer needs two more credits to graduate. More as Adverb More can also be used as an adverb to indicate an increase in an action or feeling. The opposite of this form is less (i.e. I like him more every day. OR I like him less every day.) Examples: I like him more each time I see him.She wants more every time I talk to her. More and More The comparative phrase more and more before an adjective is used to state that something or someone is increasingly becoming a certain way. In other words, when stating that there is a growing tendency towards something use the phrase more and more before an adjective. The opposite of this phrase is less and less to indicate that something is decreasing (i.e. Its getting less and less expensive to buy a computer.) Examples: Its becoming more and more difficult to find a job.Peter is getting more and more nervous about his final exam.

`` Bad Indians `` By Deborah Miranda - 1408 Words

In Deborah Miranda’s memoir â€Å"Bad Indians†, she uses documents, images, and drawings to expose colonial violence and provides evidence of a history of conquest. There are different types of colonial violence that are depicted throughout her memoir, such as: physical, emotional, sexual, and cultural violence. Additionally, Miranda exposes the nature of colonial violence by providing evidence by implementing particular sources to contribute in confirming the history of conquest throughout the lives of California Mission Indians. The California Mission Indian’s first account of colonial violence was physical violence through corporal punishment. Miranda provides evidence to expose corporal punishment with the use of descriptions and pictures†¦show more content†¦11). Mission Indians were considered savage uncivilized people because their customs were different than that of the Spanish; Indian’s were brought to the missions to strip any form of fr eedom of religion, culture, and language. Mistreatment was prevalent because of the ideology of complete transformation of Mission Indian’s, and created psychological disorders. In Miranda’s document â€Å"Genealogy of Violence, Part 1†, there is a sequence linking Spanish Mission’s to emotional abuse which led to high suicide rates, domestic violence, clinical depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Furthermore, Miranda also creates a â€Å"Genealogy of Violence, Part 2†, where she inputs individual reports made from different missions that discusses the normal family dynamic between the child and parent of early Mission Indians. However, below each passage from the mission’s, contained personal accounts of emotional abuse Miranda’s father had exhibited on her family. Additionally, Miranda explains in each passage how the result of her father being emotionally abusive was in direct correlation of the abuse experienced in the mission’s that has been passed down. Specifically, Miranda states, â€Å"More than anything else we brought with us out of the missions, we carry the violence we were given†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Miranda, pg. 34). Miranda exposes the emotional Halpert 3 abuseShow MoreRelated`` Bad Indians : A Tribal Memoir, Deborah A. Miranda986 Words   |  4 Pages Structure of Our History in Our Present In her novel, Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir, Deborah A. Miranda theorizes that the underlying patronage of her father’s violent behavior arises from the original acts of violence carried out by the Spanish Catholic Church during the era of missionization in California. The structure of her novel plays an essential role in the development of her theory, and allows her to further generalize it to encompass the entire human population. â€Å"In this beautiful and devastatingRead MoreAnalysis Of The Movie Old News By Deborah Miranda Essay1305 Words   |  6 Pagesdiscrimination. As â€Å"whiteness† became the ideal in society, Native Americans lost their voices and the ability to stand up for themselves. Through her memoir, Bad Indians, Deborah Miranda reveals the truth of the horrific pasts of California Native Americans, and gives her ancestors’ stories a chance to finally be heard. In the section â€Å"Old News†, Deborah Miranda writes poems from the â⠂¬Å"white man’s† perspective to show the violent racism committed against Native Americans, as well as the indifference of whitesRead MoreAnalysis Of Deborah Mirandas Angel In A Pink Plymouth1189 Words   |  5 Pagesgenocide of their peoples, California Indians had to adapt and learn to survive through various forms. Storytelling and violence, while very different practices, intersect when it comes to California Indians finding a way to survive. According to Deborah Miranda, California Indians have adopted storytelling to keep their violence and suffering remembered and acknowledged; through the use of second person point of view, rhetorical questions, and symbolism, Miranda demonstrates that despite the factRead MoreBad Indians Counters The View That Native Indians Are And Have Been Gone994 Words   |  4 PagesDeborah Miranda’s entire novel Bad Indians counters the view that Native Indians are and have been gone. Throughout the novel Miranda uses tools of domination as tools of agency. The whole structure of the novel seeks to undermine the dominant discourse in society by paralleling it to the California Mission projects. This and her use of other techniques throughout the novel re-situates the history of the native community as a whole which contrasts Miranda’s feelings and views in her present stateRead More Prospero in William Shakespeares The Tempest Essay1246 Words   |  5 PagesProspero’s attitude toward Caliban changed. From a trusted guide and companion, to loathsome liar and servant Prospero â€Å"justifies his treatment by calling him a lazy, ungrateful and sexually lascivious barbarian† (Hunter 35) when he tries to rape Miranda. If we are going to connect this instance with native domination by the English, then we can also see their justification as well. This scene greatly reflects the British’s own fear of interracial contact with the natives of their colonial empireRead MoreEssay on An Analysis of Shakespeares The Tempest3488 Words   |  14 PagesWorld since they were only bringing exploitation and violence. Shakespeare is also known to have read Montaignes essay Of Cannibals, where the French essayist wrote admiringly of the Indians and lamented the whole European enterprise (114). Montaigne protests that, there is nothing in that nation [the American Indians], that is either barbarous or savage, unless men call that barbarism which is not common to them (119). With all of this literature so readily available and so much discussion on the

A Civil Action Position Paper Essay Example For Students

A Civil Action Position Paper Essay Sarah Moshel11/1/98AP American HistoryMrs.RemsteinCivil suits are important because they draw attention to a problem. Even though the case was somewhat of a failure, I feel that it had a great societal impact. It did not fulfill the task of being a vehicle for social change, although it had great potential, and did create an important awareness. Social change is a term conveying that a lawsuit of a civil action should result in justifying the impartiality. This does not always happen- like in A Civil Action. The city of Woburn, Massachusetts had a problem: it was being poisoned. No one quite knew why, but many residents of the community were breaking out into rashes, enduring stomach disorders, falling seriously ill, and the children of Woburn were dying of leukemia in statistically unusual numbers that resulted in a leukemia cluster. Anne Anderson, a Woburn mother whose son Jimmy died of leukemia, drove authorities into investigating the water, which started the case against carelessness by big business companies. Finally, in 1979, two wells supplying drinking water to Woburn were shut down because health officials from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) thought they might have been contaminated by industrial wastes. The two main defendants were the W.R. Grace corporation, a chemical and manufacturing giant that built stainless steel equipment at a plant in Woburn, and Beatrice Foods, another mega-corporation, which operated a tannery there. Toxic chemicals from these operations, many thought, had leaked in and contaminated the wells. The most serious of these chemicals was a carcinogen called trichloroethylene, a solvent used to dissolve grease and oil, which explained the leukemia. In civil suits, the plaintiff wants justice to be served because they claim one to be responsible for their hurt. They want the defendants to pay, in terms of money and in terms of truth, to justify the pain that they have suffered. The issues and complaints in this specific case is that the water in East Woburn, which was consistently used, was contaminated with harmful and toxic chemicals. Because the ingestion of this contaminated water caused many ailments, cell and other defects, symptoms of illnesses such as leukemia, and in some cases death, the plaintiffs wanted compensation and a fair judgment against the defendants. The defendants claimed that the accusations of the plaintiffs toward these prolific companies were false and should not be held responsible for the contamination of the unpalatable and hazardous water in Woburn. There is a certain rule called Rule 11 that was intended to prevent frivolous and irresponsible lawsuits that are baseless or made up assumptions. Cheeseman used this in his first attempt to motion the case. He would base the accusation by showing that there is nothing in the TCE or percs that could cause leukemia because it was stated to be unknown by the EPA. The judge was impressed by Rule 11 because he thought that many cases were stupid and insignificant and this rule should be used more often. Although this rule was not enacted. We also see throughout that this rule was mentioned later again in the book when Schlichtmann appeals the case because he had found more information against Riley and Beatrice. The reason why he uses Rule 11 was that he indicated that he didnt have complete information for the trial and that he made accusations that were frivolous and couldnt be proven without this information. The method of a summary judgment was also used in this case. It is a tool used to assure that a lawsuit isnt an exercise in futility. Although its not always successful, the main purpose is to prove that one has a valid case. It dismisses invalid claims. An example of summary judgment used in this book is when Cheeseman attempted to use this as a motion and asked Judge Skinner to dismiss the case, on the grounds that sclichtmann would be unable to present any competent scientific evidence showing that TCE causes leukemia. It was denied by the judge. We also see later in the book that Facher wants to file for a summary judgment based on the judges findings and the jurys verdict since the trial involving just the tannery would be a hopeless exercise. Through these methods we see the constant resistant of the companies as well as impartialitys by the judge to admit the wrongs of the massive corporate companies. .u8f03dc6b64dc0499562e97a2cb60ffce , .u8f03dc6b64dc0499562e97a2cb60ffce .postImageUrl , .u8f03dc6b64dc0499562e97a2cb60ffce .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u8f03dc6b64dc0499562e97a2cb60ffce , .u8f03dc6b64dc0499562e97a2cb60ffce:hover , .u8f03dc6b64dc0499562e97a2cb60ffce:visited , .u8f03dc6b64dc0499562e97a2cb60ffce:active { border:0!important; } .u8f03dc6b64dc0499562e97a2cb60ffce .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u8f03dc6b64dc0499562e97a2cb60ffce { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u8f03dc6b64dc0499562e97a2cb60ffce:active , .u8f03dc6b64dc0499562e97a2cb60ffce:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u8f03dc6b64dc0499562e97a2cb60ffce .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u8f03dc6b64dc0499562e97a2cb60ffce .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u8f03dc6b64dc0499562e97a2cb60ffce .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u8f03dc6b64dc0499562e97a2cb60ffce .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u8f03dc6b64dc0499562e97a2cb60ffce:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u8f03dc6b64dc0499562e97a2cb60ffce .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u8f03dc6b64dc0499562e97a2cb60ffce .u8f03dc6b64dc0499562e97a2cb60ffce-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u8f03dc6b64dc0499562e97a2cb60ffce:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: The Effects Of HIV Mutations On The Immune System EssayCivil suits are brought everyday although many of them are baseless or called dogs in the book. If they were to be brought to court it would be an excursive in futility, but there are also orphans which has some potential to the case. I think that the potential of this lawsuit to perform social change existed but was denied through Res Judicita. Res Judicita is when a matter once decided in a court of law remains decided, and this is what the judge used to rebuttal the truthful information which contradicted the verdict. This concept was expressed strongly in this book. Once the verdict was made, the judge overlooked the information that forthright proved the verdict to be false. If the information had been uncovered earlier, although money was taken, truth and justice would be entailed as well. I think that this was obviously impartial because it proved the courts decision to be completely false. schlichtmann and the families did not deserve this. One would think that a judge is a person who enforces justice but ironically in this case he was the one that denied justice. Lawsuits are what change and make laws. We constantly see this throughout history with landmark cases that dramatically change our society. This case would have changed social life through justifying wrong and cleansing the water as well as funding studies. A civil action suit is a tool just as much as any other case. Although many cases are baseless, if one were to dig through, they might have some hope of reforming society. We see this through Jan Schlichtmanns determination to win this case. This specific case had great potential to be a vehicle for social change and to seek justice as well as compensate the tormented families of east Woburn. Although this potential was held back greatly by the viciousness of the justice system that is dominated by rich corporate companies. This corrupt justice system cause the epic courtroom showdown that was told about in this book. This case is proof of the negative aspects that the legal system posses. It is a shame that the one true thing that the legal system is based on- justice- is the one thing that is denied. Rather than justice being served, pain and aggravation is served through domination of massive companies and impartialities caused by the people within this terrible justice system. Although this case proved to be a clear failure, it did serve one purpose that was of great importance. This purpose is that it furthered our knowledge about this corrupt justice system as well as expose the truth about the vicious corporate co mpanies dominated by money. I think that because of ones knowledge and expectation that the justice system will deny them justice and truth, one should not hesitate to bring his civil suit to court. For this case might not lead to the results they desire, yet it will fulfill an even greater task, which is to bring attention and awareness to the specific case, as well as show the truth about our established court system. This book did just that. Considering that it was a best seller, this minute Woburn case has touched the minds of many people within our society. This book taught everyone a great lesson about our legal system. A lesson that should push people even more to make their civil suits known and not to turn away from trying and attempting. With this awareness, I believe that the awareness will result in a social change in itself.

Persuasive Outline Essays (1236 words) - Drug Culture, Drug Policy

Persuasive Outline Topic: Legalization of Marijuana Audience: Essay General Purpose: To persuade Specific Purpose: To persuade my audience that hearing is very valuable and if some precautions are not taken then it may be lost forever. Thesis: I. Introduction A. Attention Getter: Did you know that the American government spends more than 20 billion a year on marijuana prohibition? B. Reason to Listen: Legalizing marijuana will have a positive effect on our country. C. Thesis Statement: Marijuana prohibition is ineefective because of its high cost, infringement of personal liberties, does not help, and has strong potential for medicinal use. people of all ages. D. Credibility Statement: 1. I have done research on the internet and from reading a TIME magazine article on this topic. 2. I have previous background knowledge on this topic E. Preview of Main Points: III. Conclusion A. Review of Main Points: 1. Liberty: people deserve freedom to use marijuana. 2. Cost: keeping marijuana illegal is expensive. 3. Failure: prohibition doesn't help. B. Restate Thesis: : Marijuana prohibition is ineefective because of its high cost, infringement of personal liberties, does not help, and has strong potential for medicinal use. Point 1 - Liberty: From a philosophical point of view, individuals deserve the right to make choices for themselves. Marijuana is far less dangerous than some drugs which are legal, such as alcohol and tobacco Marijuana use does not endanger others and so therefore the government has no reasonable cause to ban its use. SUMMARY:Individuals deserve the right to decide whether or not they should use marijuana. The government should not tell individuals what to do as long as they do not harm others. Point 2 -Cost: keeping marijuana illegal is expensive: It would save our government lots of money. Marijuana users often get locked up in prison and the taxpayers have pay. In addition, if marijuana were legal, the government would be able to collect taxes on it, and would have a lot more money to pay for effective drug education programs and other important causes. SUMMARY:We would have more money to spend on important problems if marijuana were legal. Point 3; Fa ilure: prohibition doesn't help There is no good evidence that prohibition decreases drug use, and there are several theories that suggest prohibition might actually increase drug use One unintended effect of marijuana prohibition is that marijuana is very popular in American high schools. SUMMARY:Prohibition does not work. Education and treatment are better ways to address the drug problem. Alejandro Iglesias Communication January 10th 2017 Persuasive Essay Persuasive Essay: Marijuana Legalization If you are concerned about how high taxes are, you may want to listen to this. Did you know that the American government spends more than 20 billion dollars per year on average on marijuana prohibition alone? This is a startling statistic that exemplifies one of many reasons marijuana prohibition is illogical, and hurting your wallet. In this essay we will dispell some common myths that support marijuana prohibition as well as look at some information that shows that legalization is good step for our country Marijuana prohibition is ineffective because of its high cost, infringement of personal liberties, and does not help our country at all. If you want a country with liberty as a strong virtue, lowered taxes, and reduced societal problems, such crime related violence and overcrowded prisons, vote "yes" on local legalization! The first and most basic reason that marijuana should be legal is that there is no good reason for it not to be legal. From a philosophical point of view, individuals deserve the right to make choices for themselves. The government only has a right to limit those choices if the individual's actions endanger someone else. This does not apply to marijuana, since the individual who chooses to use marijuana does so according to his or her own free will. The government also may have a right to limit individual actions if the actions pose a significant threat to the individual. This argument does not logically apply to marijuana because marijuana is far less dangerous than some drugs which are legal, such as alcohol and tobacco. Individuals deserve the right to decide whether or not they should use marijuana. The government should not tell individuals what to do as long as they do not harm others. The second important reason that marijuana should be legal is that it would save our Persuasive Outline Essays (1236 words) - Drug Culture, Drug Policy Persuasive Outline Topic: Legalization of Marijuana Audience: Essay General Purpose: To persuade Specific Purpose: To persuade my audience that hearing is very valuable and if some precautions are not taken then it may be lost forever. Thesis: I. Introduction A. Attention Getter: Did you know that the American government spends more than 20 billion a year on marijuana prohibition? B. Reason to Listen: Legalizing marijuana will have a positive effect on our country. C. Thesis Statement: Marijuana prohibition is ineefective because of its high cost, infringement of personal liberties, does not help, and has strong potential for medicinal use. people of all ages. D. Credibility Statement: 1. I have done research on the internet and from reading a TIME magazine article on this topic. 2. I have previous background knowledge on this topic E. Preview of Main Points: III. Conclusion A. Review of Main Points: 1. Liberty: people deserve freedom to use marijuana. 2. Cost: keeping marijuana illegal is expensive. 3. Failure: prohibition doesn't help. B. Restate Thesis: : Marijuana prohibition is ineefective because of its high cost, infringement of personal liberties, does not help, and has strong potential for medicinal use. Point 1 - Liberty: From a philosophical point of view, individuals deserve the right to make choices for themselves. Marijuana is far less dangerous than some drugs which are legal, such as alcohol and tobacco Marijuana use does not endanger others and so therefore the government has no reasonable cause to ban its use. SUMMARY:Individuals deserve the right to decide whether or not they should use marijuana. The government should not tell individuals what to do as long as they do not harm others. Point 2 -Cost: keeping marijuana illegal is expensive: It would save our government lots of money. Marijuana users often get locked up in prison and the taxpayers have pay. In addition, if marijuana were legal, the government would be able to collect taxes on it, and would have a lot more money to pay for effective drug education programs and other important causes. SUMMARY:We would have more money to spend on important problems if marijuana were legal. Point 3; Fa ilure: prohibition doesn't help There is no good evidence that prohibition decreases drug use, and there are several theories that suggest prohibition might actually increase drug use One unintended effect of marijuana prohibition is that marijuana is very popular in American high schools. SUMMARY:Prohibition does not work. Education and treatment are better ways to address the drug problem. Alejandro Iglesias Communication January 10th 2017 Persuasive Essay Persuasive Essay: Marijuana Legalization If you are concerned about how high taxes are, you may want to listen to this. Did you know that the American government spends more than 20 billion dollars per year on average on marijuana prohibition alone? This is a startling statistic that exemplifies one of many reasons marijuana prohibition is illogical, and hurting your wallet. In this essay we will dispell some common myths that support marijuana prohibition as well as look at some information that shows that legalization is good step for our country Marijuana prohibition is ineffective because of its high cost, infringement of personal liberties, and does not help our country at all. If you want a country with liberty as a strong virtue, lowered taxes, and reduced societal problems, such crime related violence and overcrowded prisons, vote "yes" on local legalization! The first and most basic reason that marijuana should be legal is that there is no good reason for it not to be legal. From a philosophical point of view, individuals deserve the right to make choices for themselves. The government only has a right to limit those choices if the individual's actions endanger someone else. This does not apply to marijuana, since the individual who chooses to use marijuana does so according to his or her own free will. The government also may have a right to limit individual actions if the actions pose a significant threat to the individual. This argument does not logically apply to marijuana because marijuana is far less dangerous than some drugs which are legal, such as alcohol and tobacco. Individuals deserve the right to decide whether or not they should use marijuana. The government should not tell individuals what to do as long as they do not harm others. The second important reason that marijuana should be legal is that it would save our

Anna Karenina essays

Anna Karenina essays Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy is a novel about love and marriage among the Russian aristocracy in the 1870s. Anna is young, beautiful woman married to a powerful government minister, Karenin. She falls in love with the elegant Count Vronsky and after becoming pregnant by him, leaves her husband Karenin and her son Seryozha to live with her lover. Despite the intervention of friends such as her brother Oblonsky, an adulterer himself, she is unable to obtain a divorce, and lives isolated from the society that once glorified her. As a man, Vronsky enjoys relative social freedom, which causes Anna to have increasingly intense fits of jealousy. Because of her constant suspicion, she thinks that Vronskys love for her is dwindling. Their story is ended by an exciting finale that moves the reader. Interwoven with the story of Anna, is the tale of Levin, a thoughtful, passionate young man who seeks to marry the Princess Catherine Shcherbatskaya, known as Kitty. Kitty rejects his first proposal because she believes that Vronsky, who flirted with her before he met Anna, intends to marry her. Levin is devastated and withdraws to his country estate and works on a book about agriculture. But the couple reunites through another appearance of Oblonsky, Kittys brother in law, and they discover that they are deeply in love. Kitty joyfully accepts Levins second proposal. Once married, they live happily in the country, host their families and guests during the summers, and have a son. Levin's philosophical doubt and religious skepticism trouble him despite his domestic happiness, but, after a spiritual enlightenment, he finally recognizes that the capacity for goodness is innate. He devotes himself to living for his loved ones, and to giving his life meaning by advancing the will of God . Anna Karenina is a timeless classic and has been acclaimed by many literary critics as the best or one of the best novels of all time. One critic te...

The secret history vs the bacchants essays

The secret history vs the bacchants essays The novel of Donna Tartt The Secret Hystory has many similarities with the play of Euripides The Bacchants, but the differences are too contrasting beteween each other that it is safe to say that The Secret Hystory is definetly not a modern day version of The Bacchants. The themes are very different to the point where they contradict each other, the thenes of The Bacchants, that is Fear the gods and follow blindly the gods, is completely different and opposite to the thenes of the secret hystory which is to think ahead and know what effects will an action bring before doing any action. In the other hand the themes from The Bacchants almost urge you to have complete submission to the gods, thats why the theme between the bacchants and the secret history contradict each other. A similatiry is that both themnes of both the novel and the play teach us that if we dont follow their respective themes, we will end up in a tragic en like the charactes of the bacchants and the secret hystory. If you look back at the themes differences paragraph you will see that the themes contradict each other in the aspect of instructions yet, Donna Tartt uses a similar outcome for her characters to the characters of The Bacchants, in other words, Donna Tart is Criticizing Euripides play The Bacchants. The main difference of the plot between The Bacchants and The Secret History are that that Dionysus followers practiced the rituals because they were cursed by Dionysus, but the greek class students did the ritual by their own because they were curious, in other words, the greek students didtheritual by their own will, while the Dionsysus followers had no chice but to follow Dionysus because they were being mind controlled by Dionysus. This is a major plot difference ...

An Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge Essay

An Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge - Essay Example Plato invites us to imagine a group of life-long inhabitants of a prison-cave with no knowledge what so ever of the outside world. When shadows appear on the walls of the cave the inhabitants take them to be real entities without knowing that the shadows are actually those posed by the humans outside. This explanation of Plato directs towards the fact that â€Å"most of us live in ignorance most of the time. The worst of this situation is that we do not even know we are ignorant†. (Mitchell, 2008) The truth that we perceive, therefore, seems to be subjective to our experience and conditioning.The emotional states of our inner being determine the way we see the outside world. Great poetry works are inclined to this particular phenomenology. Poet Matthew Arnold, once, sitting over the edge of Dover Beach claimed the â€Å"grating roar† of the pebbles that the sea flung back and forth over the beach to have brought the â€Å"eternal note of sadness in†(stanza 1). Th e withdrawing of the sea from the coast only reminds him of the ignorance of people and their diminishing faith in god. It is the melancholic and sad state of the poet’s mind that makes him behold the sea also as sad. For a sad person, even a bright sunny green day will appear to be boring while for a joyous person, even a rainy, cloudy or a gloomy day might appear to be mirthful! Differences occur among individuals on the way we emotionally react to certain situations. Temper-oriented people do not need much of a reason to go haywire in anger while for those spiritually and morally inclined individuals, even the most aggravating circumstances might be won over by forgiveness. How we take things, therefore, is a matter of our subjective emotional state. The reason that we claim for any happening is purely determined by the kind of mindset we have been brought up with.

Making references to at least two of the operas that we have studied, Essay

Making references to at least two of the operas that we have studied, write on the main features of opera as an art form - Essay Example The ma8in features of opera as an art form are historicism and social reflections, a strong impact on feelings and sensation and authentic nature. Opera is a form of art reflecting historical or social events, criticism and observation of the epoch. For instance, Prelude and Liebestod from "Tristan and Isolda" by wagner show that opera becomes a matter for critical attention in the light of this nostalgia for power it can give its listeners (especially this most famous listener), a nostalgia that works even now as a high-class aestheticist cult and longing for and pursuit of a pure experience. Opera is a phenomenon whose time has come, even if the form is practically speaking dead in terms of new writing and performance of the new. "But within a society which was a structural unity the knowledge of certain types of material could always be relied on, so that the author of a music-drama was always in the closest contact with his audience" (Wellesz and Kean 89). Prelude and Liebestod break up the order of the singing contest by praising sensuality and emotions. These forces, heard in the orchestra, are those of the prelude, whos e music momentarily reappears (Zuckermann 32). Similar to other forms of art, opera has a strong impact on feelings and sensation of the listeners. ... What is more, the emotional listener "fiercely resists all attempts to make him listen structurally -- more fiercely, perhaps, than the culture consumer who for culture's sake might put up even with that." ().In short, emotional listeners display a troubling anti-intellectualism and use music predominantly as an excuse for extramusical emoting. These are people who vigorously reject the romanticized excess of emotional listening. But rather than attempting to move beyond it, into the kind of critical awareness engendered by authentically modern music, they naively retreat to the music of periods which they believe (wrongly) to be safe havens from the forces of reification and the predominantly commodity character of music. Purity and simplicity are highly desirable attributes of music destined for paidela, lest its effects become diluted, mistaken, or confused. Instruments capable of panharmonic playing were therefore particularly troublesome. For instance, in Mozart's Overture from "Don Giovanni" the unique feature is extraordinary expression of desire and emotions in music. What emerges from Prelude and Liebestod from "Tristan and Isolda" is a "sense of Wagner as a way station, revolutionary in the sacralization of art and pursuit of synaesthesia, but still too confined to produce a completely 'pure' experience" (Zuckermann 37). It was not merely a matter of draining off specificity to achieve heightened mystery and a reformulation of the Subject, but also of problematizing the relationship between word and tone (Zuckermann 39). Following Wellesz and Kean (1950) 'the very complicated laws' that govern musical discourse; these lead to two independent spheres that, fused though they may appear to be,

Project risk management of south africa's 2010 world cup challenge Essay

Project risk management of south africa's 2010 world cup challenge - Essay Example These negativities pose a great risk in hosting such a mega event. This country has never got such a chance to propagate its plus points at any previous time in history so it should focus on appropriate planning of strategies and successful management of risks. The political risks are high, as the opposition would always scrutinize each and every effort and actions of the ruling party. Organizing such a big event without any political upheaval is nearly impossible. Reports have already started coming which state that opposition feels that spending so much of money in a gala event is not required when South Africa has other burning issues like poverty, unemployment and underdevelopment to deal with. Each and every issue related to world cup is taking a political angle. There are a section of people who believe that showing so much of interest in this event should not be the priority of the government, instead the focus should be in the overall development of the country. This viewpoint has the risk of further aggravating the political tensions as the opposition may try to project this viewpoint of a small section of society into the opinion of the masses. This entire hullabaloo will negatively impact the feelings of those who are pro FIFA w orld cup in South Africa and give a chance to the opposition in creating a situation that might pose a threat to the hosting and staging of the sports event. All other controversial issues of the South African politics will also come in the fore thus distracting the ruling party’s enthusiasm and focus towards the event. Hence political unrest in the backdrop of this gala event is a major threat to this project. Other major controversies like power shortage in the country and underdeveloped broadcast infrastructure would be greatly emphasized by the opposition which would pose a threat to the South Africa’s image to the entire world. There is a risk from a section of

An investigation in the phenomenon of humour

An investigation in the phenomenon of humour Humor is a universal phenomenon which shows in the tribal and industrialized societies (Apte, 1985). In the Oxford English Dictionary, humor is defined as that quality of actions, speech, or writing which excites amusement; oddity, jocularity, facetiousness, comicality, fun (Simpson Weiner, 1989). From the psychology perspective, humor is stated as a cognitive, emotional and motivational stance toward incongruity, as inherent in funny artifacts, but also in inadvertently amusing situation, our fellow behaviour and attitudes, in fate and life and human nature and existence in general (Ruch, 2002). The term sense of humor will be more specific which refer to a personality trait or individual-differences variable (Ruch, 1998). In addition, Schmidt-Hidding (1963) and Ruch (1998) pointed out that humor has changed rapidly throughout history and during different epochs which has been viewed as predominant mood, talent virtue, style, philosophical attitude or world view. According to Marti n, Puhlik-Doris, Larsen, Gray and Weir (2003), the different facets of sense of humour lend themselves to different measurement approaches, including maximal performance tests (eg. Humour as cognitive ability), funniest ratings (eg. Humour as aesthetic response), observer ratings and self-reported scale. Furthermore, Tamaoka Takashima (1994) stated that humor actually is grounded in a cultural and social context as understanding humor should requires some knowledge of the language which humor was written. From past research, humor is often to be tested in different dimensions which include how it deals with stress and depression (Thornson, Powell, Sarmany-Schuller Hampes, 1997). Lefcourt (2001) stated that people with great sense of humor are easily get well with others, have better ability to cope with stress and also have a better mental and physical health. Martin (2000) explained that humor has become a broad and multi-faceted construct in current psychological research which refers to mental processing in creating, perceiving, understanding and appreciating humor, to characteristics of a stimulus or to the responses of the individual. Nowadays, there are lots of approaches to measure humor, which includes the self-report scales, ability tests, behavioural observation techniques and human appreciation measures. Among all the measurements, there are a few well-known measurements which are frequently used by researchers in their studies. These measurements include Coping Humor Scale (CHS; Matin Lefcourt, 1983), Situational Humor Response Questionnaire (SHRQ; Matin Lefcourt, 1984), The Sense of Humor Questionnaire (SHQ; Svebak, 1974), Multidimensional Sense of Humor (MHSH; Thorson Powell, 1993), and Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ; Martin, Puhlik-Doris, Gray Weir, 2003). Coping Humor Scale was a 7 items scale which designed to report individuals on the humor in coping with stress and the association between sense of humor and both mental and physical health. Besides that, Coping Humour Scale inquires participants used humour to alter difficult situation (Ruch, 1998). Following that, Situational Humor Response Questionnaire was a 21 items scale which has been used in research on sense of humor as a stress-moderator and also the association between sense of humor and both mental and physical health. Thorson (1990) critic SHRQ is a measurement that defines sense of humor purely in terms of laughter frequency. Kuiper and Martin (1993) stated that individuals who score higher marks in both the Coping humour Scale and Situational Humour Response Questionnaire had higher level of self esteem, less discrepancy between their actual and ideal self-concepts, and greater stability in their self concepts over time. Sense of Humor Questionnaire was a 21 items measured with 3 dimensions (Metamessage sensitivity, liking of humor, and emotional expressiveness. SHQ used for investigating relationship between sense of humor and other personality dimensions as well as measures of psychological and physical health and well being. Then, Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale was a 24 items scale with 4 factors (humor creativity and uses of humor for social purposes, uses of coping humor, appreciation of humorous people and appreciation of humor) comparing groups on sense of humor for determining correlates between sense of humor and other personality variables. Humor Styles Questionnaire was a 32 items scale which used to measure 4 humor styles (affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive and self-defending) in accessing both positive and negative styles of humor in correlational research on the role of humor in psychological and physical health, etc. Lefcourt (2001) described that humor has always been found to occur in everyone across many different cultures around the world. Three different categories of research area in cross cultural differences or national differences in humor were suggested by Goldstein (1976): cross cultural comparisons, cross national replications, and intracultural research of Western and non-Western cultures. Other than that, Nevo, Nevo Yin (2001) stated that cross cultural studies are valuable because they help assess the generality of empirical phenomena and highlights the effects of specific cultural influences which show in Castell and Goldstein (1976) research. They compared different culture group like Belgium, Hong Kong and US, and found out that US unlike others nations, they preferred jokes which related to sexual and aggressive content. In addition, humor tends to be interpreting in different way by various cultures which results of cultural and linguistics differences (Thorson, Brdar and Pow ell, 1997). Besides that, Hofstede (1983) found out that cultures could be differentiated on two dimensions: individualism-collectivism andpower-distance. There are several studies using Multidimensional Sense of Humor to measures humor in cultural differences with the finding which culture score higher in creativity. In Nevo, Nevo Yin (2001) studies, there is a significant cross cultural difference found in the structured questionnaires was the tendency of Singaporean students to rely less on humor when coping with difficulty which concludes (Crawford Gressley, 1991) that they are tendency to produce humor rather than to appreciate it. The relationship of humor and gender are being discussed over year and year. According to Lampert Tripp (1998), men are more likely to joke, tease and kid, whereas women are more likely to act as an appreciative audience than to produce humor of their own. Powell, Sarmany-Schuller and Hampes (1997) stated that there are pretty much gender neutral in using the MSHS questionnaire, however, there are still some differences between male and women in the sense of humor. A past research which done by Thorson and Powell (1996) using the MSHS questionnaires showing that males tended to respond with higher score on the humor production and the social uses of humor, while woman respond with higher score in the coping mechanism. The study of Ho Chik (2010) have examines there is a gender differences in association with the moderating effects of coping humor on environmental mastery. The present study is interested in investigating the humour responses in both Malaysian and British cultures, cross gender comparison and also the interaction between the culture differences and the gender in humour. There are few studies in humour using Western countries culture like British, Canadian and Eastern countries culture such as Singaporean, Hong Konger and Japanese but they arent studies done on Malaysian humour. There wasnt any research have been done between Malaysian and British but there were researches done between western and eastern culture which the hypothesis was made accordingly to the results done by previous cultural studies. In the support of the past research, two hypotheses were made for this study. The first hypothesis were that male participants will be more humorous than female which based on the finding of past research like Thornson Powell (1996) which shows men will score higher in the humour production and humour creativity of Multidimensional Sense of Humour Scale. Additionally, the second hypothesis was British tend to be funnier, hilarious comparing to Malaysian due to the cultural differences. Acordingly to the studies of humour in most of the eastern culture showed that they are not humourous as western cultures because of their own cultural bias. Method Participants There were 100 participants (28 female Malaysian, 28 male Malaysian, 22 female British, 22 male British) were recruited for this study. 75% of British and Malaysian participants were recruited Middlesex University and Malaysia, the remaining 25% were recruited through email within Middlesex database and Malaysias friends. All the participants were required to respond to a demographic form and 4 sets of questionnaires (Coping Humour Scale, Situational Humour Response Questionnaire, Multidimensional Sense of Humour Scale, Humour Scale Questionnaire). For this experiment, participants were between 16 to 57 years of age, the average mean of the age was 24.44 (SD= 6.76). All of them were English literate, able to do their questionnaire without others help. Design The present study carried out had an independent groups design. There were two independent variables which the first independent variable was the nationality of the participants and the second independent variable was the gender of the participants. The dependant variables are participants humour responses, which measured through 4 sets of questionnaires. These dependent variables include the Coping Humour Scale questionnaires, Situational Humour Responses Questionnaires, the affiliative humour, self-enhancing humour, aggressive humour and self-defeating humour of Humour Scale Questionnaires, the humour creativity, coping humour, attitude towards humorous people and facility of social uses of humour of Multidimensional Sense of Humour Scale. Materials Participants are required to complete a demographical form with few questions, eg.Gender, nationality, age etc. (appendix 3) and 4 sets of Humour questionnaires which they were Coping Humour Scale (appendix 4), Situational Humour Response Questionnaire (appendix 5), Multidimensional Sense of Humour (appendix 6), and Humour Styles Questionnaire (appendix 7). The Coping Humour Scale (CHS; Martin Lefcourt, 1983) is a 7-item scale which designed to measure participants tendency to make use of humour as a strategy for coping with stress and also the association between sense of humor and both mental and physical health. The CHS (Coping Humour Scale) is a 4-point Likert scale which ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (4). Eg 1. extract from appendix 4 Strongly disagree Mildly disagree Mildly agree Strongly agree 1. I often lose my sense of humour when I am having problems. 2. I have often found that my problems have been greatly reduced when I try to find something funny in them. Example 1 The Situational Humour Response Questionnaire (SHRQ; Martin Lefcourt, 1984) is designed to assess participants sense of humour as the tendency to laugh and smile in a wide range of situations. The SHRQ includes 18 situational items that describe a possible life situation. Participants were asked to respond to the situation by imaging or recalling it, which they could be as irritating or they might be amusing. These questionnaires will be rated in a 5-point Guttman-type scale ranging from I wouldnt have found it particularly amusing (1) to I would have laughed heartily (5) (Martin 2006). Besides that, Martin (2006) also explain that the SHRQ correlated significantly with peer ratings of participants laughter, and tendency to use humour in stressful situations . Eg 2. Extract from appendix 5. 1. If you were shopping by yourself in a distant city and you unexpectedly saw an acquaintance from school (or work), how have you responded or how would you respond? (a.) I would probably not have bothered to speak to the person (b.)I would have talked to the person but wouldnt have shown much humor (c.) I would have found something to smile about in talking with him or her (d.)I would have found something to laugh about with this person (e.) I would have laughed heartily with the person Example 2 Humour Style Questionnaires (HSQ; Martin, Puhlik-Doris, Gray Weir, 2003) is a 32 items scale which consists of 4 humour style (each humour style contains of 8 items). The four humour style includes affiliative humour ( I enjoy making people laugh), self-enhancing humour (If I am feeling depressed, I can usually cheer myself up with humour), aggressive humour (if someone make mistake, I will often tease them about it) and finally the self-defeating humour (I let people laugh at me or make fun at my expense more than I should). Humour Style Questionnaires consists of 21 positively- phrased item and 11 negatively-phrased items which the 11 negatively-phrased items will be reversed in scoring. All questions are answered by participants on a seven-point scale ranging from totally disagree (1) to totally agree (7). Eg 4. Extract from appendix 7 Totally Disagree = 1 Moderately Disagree = 2 Slightly Disagree = 3 Neither Agree nor Disagree = 4 Slightly Agree = 5 Moderately Agree = 6 Totally Agree = 7 1. ______ I usually dont laugh or joke around much with other people. 2. ______ If I am feeling depressed, I can usually cheer myself up with humor. Example 4 The Multidimensional Sense of Humour Scale (MHSH; Thorson Powell, 1993) contains 24 self descriptive Likert item testing for the four factors which assess individual aspects of the sense of humour. These four factors includes humour creativity (sometimes I think up jokes and funny stories), use of humour as a coping mechanism (Uses of humour help to put me at ease), attitudes towards humour itself (people who tell jokes are a pain in the neck) and appreciation of humour (I appreciate those who generate humour). Multidimensional Sense of Humour Scale consist of 18 positively- phrased item and 6 negatively-phrased item. The 6 negatively-phrased items are reversed in scoring. In this questionnaire, participants with higer scores indicate higher sense of humour (Thorson, Powell and Samuel, 2001). Participants were required to indicate their choices on every question on a Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). Eg3.extract from appendix 6 Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree 1. I can often crack people up with the things I say. 1 2 3 4 5 2. Other people tell me that I say funny things. 1 2 3 4 5 Example 3 Procedure Participants were invited to participant in the study as they will be given an information sheet (appendix 1) which explained about the study. After finished reading the information sheet, they will be given the informed consent form (appendix 2) to sign if they willing to participate the experiment. After signing the consent form, they will require to fill in the demographic form (appendix 3) which consists of gender, age, nationality etc. Then, four sets of questionnaires which include the Multidimensional Sense of Humour Questionnaire, Humour Styles Questionnaire, Coping Humour Scale and Situational Humour Response Questionnaire will be given to them to fill in. After finishing all the questionnaires, participants were given a debriefing sheet (Appendix 8) and dismissed from the study. For participants recruited through email, they had also received the information sheet by email before they agreed to do the experiment. Then, they will receive a consent form to sign and together with the demographic form and four sets of questionnaires to fill in. After finished filling in all the answer, the consent form, demographic form and four sets of questionnaires will be given back through email. After receiving the questionnaires set, a debriefing sheet will be emailed to them. Results Descriptive statistics The means and standard deviations (S.D) for each of the measures are shown in table one to table two, by splitting gender (male, female) and nationality (British, Malaysian) respectively. From the table 1 shown below, British male had higher mean than Malaysian Male in all of the measures except Coping Humour scale. In the other hand, Malaysian female had higher mean compare to the British Female except Multidimensional sense of Humour Sense which shown in table 2. To be more specified, descriptive tables for both four subscale of Humour Style Questionnaires and Multidimensional Sense of Humour Scale are shown in table three to table six. The Mean and Standard Deviation (S.D) of the dependent variables of Male Participants (50) were shown below as table 1. British Male Sample size = 22 Malaysian Male sample size= 28 Total Sample size =50 Mean S.D Mean S.D Mean S.D Coping Humour Scale 2.89 0.43 2.96 0.40 Situational Humour Response Questionnaire 2.70 0.62 2.47 0.45 Humour Style Questionnaire 5.44 4.33 4.09 0.50 Multidimensional sense of Humour Sense 4.01 3.17 3.22 0.24 Table 1 The Mean and Standard Deviation (S.D) of the dependent variables of Female Participants (50) were shown below as table 2. British Female Sample size = 22 Malaysian Female sample size= 28 Total Sample size =50 Mean S.D Mean S.D Mean S.D Coping Humour Scale 2.60 0.37 2.90 0.32 Situational Humour Response Questionnaire 2.34 0.43 2.46 0.39 Humor Style Questionnaire 4.05 0.46 4.09 0.67 Multidimensional sense of Humour Sense 3.30 0.29 3.16 0.26 Table 2 The Mean and Standard Deviation (S.D) of the Humour Style Questionnaires sub-factors (dependent variables) of Female Participants (50) were shown below as table 3. Humor Style Questionnaire British Male Sample size = 22 Malaysian Male sample size= 28 Total Sample size =50 Mean S.D Mean S.D Mean S.D Affiliative humour (HSQ) 5.41 1.23 5.18 0.79 5.29 1.00 Self-enhancing humour (HSQ) 4.70 1.10 4.00 0.89 4.28 1.04 Aggressive humour (HSQ) 3.50 1.04 3.50 0.68 3.49 0.85 Self-defeating humour (HSQ) 3.75 1.03 3.73 0.86 3.74 0.93 Table 3 The Mean and Standard Deviation (S.D) of the Humour Style Questionnaires sub-factors (dependent variables) of Female Participants (50) were shown below as table 4. Humor Style Questionnaire British Female Sample size = 22 Malaysian Female sample size= 28 Total Sample size =50 Mean S.D Mean S.D Mean S.D Affiliative humour (HSQ) 5.58 0.96 5.28 0.82 5.41 0.89 Self-enhancing humour (HSQ) 4.05 0.82 3.88 0.77 4.00 0.79 Aggressive humour (HSQ) 3.55 0.83 3.47 0.71 3.50 0.76 Self-defeating humour (HSQ) 3.03 0.90 3.72 1.05 3.42 1.04 Table 4 The Mean and Standard Deviation (S.D) of the Multidimensional Sense of Humour Scale Questionnaires sub-factors (dependent variables) of Male Participants (50) were shown below as table 5. Multidimensional Sense of Humour Scale British Male Sample size = 22 Malaysian Male sample size= 28 Total Sample size=50 Mean S.D Mean S.D Mean S.D Humour creativity 3.48 0.94 3.49 0.61 3.46 0.76 Coping humour 3.63 0.48 3.62 0.51 3.62 0.49 Attitude towards humorous people 3.89 0.65 3.91 0.55 3.90 0.59 Appreciation of humour 4.25 0.65 4.29 0.63 4.27 0.63 Table 5 The Mean and Standard Deviation (S.D) of the Multidimensional Sense of Humour Scale Questionnaires sub-factors (dependent variables) of Female Participants (50) were shown below as table 6. Multidimensional Sense of Humour Scale British Females Sample size = 22 Malaysian Females sample size= 28 Total Sample size= 50 Mean S.D Mean S.D Mean S.D Humour creativity 3.36 0.61 3.32 0.76 3.29 0.70 Coping humour 3.56 0.67 3.53 0.43 3.54 0.54 Attitude towards humorous people 4.31 0.63 3.95 0.72 4.11 0.70 Appreciation of humour 4.57 0.44 4.52 0.59 4.54 0.52 Table 6 Factor Analysis Factor analysis was carried out in order to test the validity of the sub-scales in two measures (Humour Style Questionnaires and Multidimensional Sense of Humour Scale). It was expected that the four factors of each measure would emerge from this analysis. Both Humour Style Questionnaires and Multidimensional Sense of Humour Scale used Principal Component Analysis (PCA) as the analysis. Table seven and table eight showed both of the results of the PCA of Humour Style Questionnaires and Multidimensional Sense of Humour Scale using the Varimax rotation and Kaiser-Meyer-Oblin test. The results showed that the expected factors loading in previous studies did not emerge from the current sample. For the Humour Style Questionnaires, five items (questions 6, 22, 26, 27, 28) load in different factors comparing to Martins (2003) original questionnaires, which looks a bit confusing. In addition, four items (questions 7, 13, 16, 30) did not load significantly (at above .3), therefore, there were excluded from the tables 7. For the Multidimensional Sense of Humour Scale, table 8 showed messy values load in each factors. Two factors can not be identified due to the messy items comparing with Thornson Powells (1993) original scale. Only one item did not load significantly (at above .3) on any factors. The overall results of the factor analysis were not satisfied, because the analysis came out in a mess. One of the reasons which contribute the following table 7 and table 8 might because of the small sample size (100) comparing with the large sample size (>1000) in Martins (2003) and Thornson Powells (1993) studies. Therefore, the following reliability test and ANOVA will adopt past researchs scale. Table 7: Factor loadings of the 32 items of Humour Style Questionnaires (Principal Componenet Analysis using Varimax Rotation, N=100) Items Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 3 Factor 4 I usually dont like to tell jokes or amuse people. .765 I dont often joke around with my friends. .711 I usually dont laugh or joke around much with other people. .654 I enjoy making people laugh. .650 I usually cant think of witty things to say when I m with other people. .640 Even when Im by myself, Im often amused by the absurdities of life. .564 I rarely make other people laugh by telling funny stories about myself. .557 I dont have to work very hard at making other people laugh I seem to be a naturally humorous person. .468 I often go overboard in putting myself down when I am making jokes or trying to be funny .767 Letting others laugh at me is my way of keeping my friends and family in good spirits. .716 I often try to make people like or accept me more by saying something funny about my own weaknesses, blunders, or faults. .618 I will often get carried away in putting myself down if it makes my family or friends laugh. .598 If I dont like someone, I often use humor or teasing to put them down .554 I let people laugh at me or make fun at my expense more than I should .517 When I am with friends or family, I often seem to be the one that other people make fun of or joke about. .479 It is my experience that thinking about some amusing aspect of a situation is often a very effective way of coping with problems. .391 -.311 If I am feeling upset or unhappy I usually try to think of something funny about the situation to make myself feel better. .775 If Im by myself and Im feeling unhappy, I make an effort to think of something funny to cheer myself up. .755 If I am feeling depressed, I can usually cheer myself up with humor. .703 My humorous outlook on life keeps me from getting overly upset or depressed about things. .357 .322 .360 If I am having problems or feeling unhappy, I often cover it up by joking around, so that even my closest friends dont know how I really feel. .344 I do not like it when people use humor as a way of criticizing or putting someone down. .654 If I am feeling sad or upset, I usually lose my sense of humor. .393 .579 Even if something is really funny to me, I will not laugh or joke about it if someone will be offended .506 If someone makes a mistake, I will often tease them about it. .487 Sometimes I think of something that is so funny that I cant stop myself from saying it, even if it is not appropriate for the situation. .443 I never participate in laughing at others even if all my friends are doing it. -.334 .336 Eigenvalue 4.73 3.21 2.41 2.02 % of Variance 14.80 10.04 7.53 6.34 * Only Coefficient above .3 were shown Table 8: Factor loadings of the 24 items of Multidimensional Sense of Humour Scale (Principal Componenet Analysis using Varimax Rotation, N=100) Items Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 3 Factor 4 I can say things in such a way as to make people laugh. .837 Other people tell me that I say funny things. .825 Im confident that I can make other people laugh .793 My clever sayings amuse others. .785 I use humour to entertain my friends .779 Im regarded as something of a wit by my friends. .779 People look to me to say amusing things .773 I can often crack people up with the things I say. .755 Sometimes I think up jokes or funny stories .699 I can actually have some control over a group by my uses of humour .643 .324 I can use wit to help adapt to many situations. .545 .337 Trying to master situations through uses of humour is really dumb. .704 .333 Humour is a lousy coping mechanism .697 Calling somebody a comedian is a real insult. .695 I like a good joke .592 People who tell jokes are a pain in the neck. .581 Humour helps me cope .814 Uses of wit or humour help me master difficult situations .798 Coping by using humour is an elegant way of adapting. .750 I appreciate those who generate humour .774 Uses of humour to put me at ease. .523 .641 I dislike comics .566 Im uncomfortable when everyone is cracking jokes .372 .447 Eigenvalue 6.67 3.41 2.26 1.13 % of Variance 27.82 14.19 9.40 5.61 * Only Coefficient above .3 were shown Reliability Test The internal consistencies (Cronbach Alpha) were run in order to check the reliability of the test. The Cronbach Alpha for the Coping Humour Scale was low, .50 but still acceptable and it was lower than the value .61 found in Martin and Lefecourts (1983) studies in Canada. The corrected item-total correlation for the 7 item of Coping Humour Scale fall between .199 to .483, with an exception of Item 1 ( I often lose my sense of humour when I am having problems), which the corrected item-total correlation was -.22. This means that item 1 is not consistent with other items, if item 1 was deleted, the Cronbach Alpha of Coping Humour Scale will become .58, higher than current value .50. The Cronbach Alpha of the Situational Humour Response Questionnaire was high, .78 which was a reliable measure although it only consists of 18 items comparing to 21 items. The corrected item-total correlation for the 18 items of Situational Humour Response Questionnaire falls between .151 and .519. Given its comparability to previous study of 21 items, Cronbach Alpha ranging from .70 to .85 and test-retest correlation of around .70 was presented (Lefcourt Martin, 1986; Martin Lefcourt, 1984). The Cronbach Alphas of the four sub-scales (affiliative humour, self-enhancing humour, aggressive humour and self-defeating humour) of the Humor Style Questionnaire were .77, .68, .47 and .69 respectively. The Cronbach alpha of aggressive humour was low .47, if the item 27 (If I dont like someone, I often use humor or teasing to put them down) was deleted, the Cronbach alpha will rise to an acceptable value .50. Comparing with Martin, Puhlik-Doris, Gray and Weirs research(2002), reliabilit

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The Morning of December 8, 2014

The mischance happened the morning of Dec. 8, 2014. The examination by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reasoned that the reasonable justification was â€Å"the pilot's direct of a methodology in basic icing conditions without turning on the plane's wing and flat stabilizer deice framework, prompting ice amassing on those surfaces, and without utilizing the suitable landing execution speeds for the climate conditions and plane weight,† (National Transportation Safety Board 2014). In light of the discoveries of the examination, the NTSB required the improvement of hardware for single-pilot flies that cautions the pilots when the ice-insurance frameworks ought to be actuated. The security load up likewise suggested the advancement of preparing past what is presently required to pass a sort rating check ride in such planes. The pilot, 66 years of age, was a doctor and CEO of a clinical think-tank. He held a carrier transport pilot authentication and an EMB-500 compose rating, which he had gotten around seven months previously the mischance. As it flew through Northern Virginia and into Maryland, different pilots were announcing ice endeavoring to shape on their wings as they flew through mists between 4,000 feet and 5,500 feet height. Mr Rosenberg, the pilot turned on the plane's de-icing framework for over two minutes as it achieved its 23,000-foot cruising elevation, yet then he flicked if off again for the rest of the flight. It stayed off as he plummeted toward Gaithersburg, in spite of flying through mists once more. The NTSB said that may have been a lethal oversight: â€Å"That puts the plane in noticeable dampness, a basic component for ice, for around 15 minutes. Mr Rosenberg was a very qualified pilot, with 4,500 hours signed responsible for a flying machine. He was guaranteed as a business pilot and as a flight educator. He likewise was appraised to fly the Phenom, a refined six-traveler stream that costs more than $4 million and can fly more than 400 mph. In any case, the 2014 occurrence was the second time that Rosenberg slammed while endeavoring to arrive at the Gaithersburg airplane terminal†, (NTSB 2014). Four years sooner, slow down admonitions sounded as he contacted a solitary motor turboprop plane down on the runway. â€Å"At the point when the plane floated to one side of the 75 broad runway, Mr Rosenberg endeavored to lift off again to circle the airplane terminal for a second arrival endeavor. Rather, the plane went around 100 feet to one side and collided with trees. He got away with minor damage. The NTSB inferred that the reason was pilot blunder†, (NTSB 2014) In excess of 1,000 little planes crash in the United States each year, and many those accidents result in fatalities, yet few accomplish the unpleasant qualification of what occurred in Gaithersburg on the Monday morning of Dec. 8, 2014. Discoveries from National Transportation Safety Board are as per the following:† The plane was appropriately certificated and furnished as per government controls†, (NTSB 2014).â€Å"Examination of the plane destruction uncovered no preimpact breakdowns or disappointments that would have blocked typical activity of the plane†, (NTSB 2014).â€Å"The pilot's activities previously departure for the mishap flight were reliable with resistance with standard working techniques†, (NTSB 2014).  Ã¢â‚¬Å"In spite of the fact that the pilot's utilization of off base tenant and freight weights had no impact on the plane staying inside EMB-500 Airplane Flight Manual weight and parity constraints, it influenced the arrival speeds he chose in anticipation of the way to deal with Montgomery District Airpark, which were slower than those that compared to the plane's real landing weight†, (NTSB 2014).â€Å"The pilot's utilization of the slower landing rates in anticip ation of the way to deal with Montgomery Region Airpark is reliable with his referencing the Normal (non-icing) agenda, which does not require the initiation of the wing and flat stabilizer deice framework, and brought about band signs on the velocity show that did not suitably demonstrate the slow down speed†, (NTSB 2014).â€Å"For something like 15 minutes amid the plummet and way to deal with Montgomery County Airpark, the pilot was working in a domain helpful for auxiliary icing without either plane ice insurance framework actuated†, (NTSB 2014).â€Å"Not utilizing the plane's ice insurance frameworks amid the way to deal with Montgomery County Airpark was in opposition to the pilot's preparation and distributed standard working methodology and was conflicting with the pilot's past conduct amid the mishap flight†, (NTSB 2014).â€Å"The pilot's inability to utilize the wing and level stabilizer deice framework amid the methodology to Montgomery County Airpark prompted ice collection, a streamlined slow down at a higher velocity than would happen without ice aggregation, and the event of the slow down previously the aural slow down notice sounded or the stick pusher actuated. Once the plane slowed down, its height was too low to recuperate†, (NTSB 2014).† Providing pilots of turbofan planes that require a sort rating and are confirmed for single-pilot tasks and trip in icing conditions with programmed alarming about the need to actuate ice assurance frameworks would strengthen this basic strategy while working in potential icing conditions—particularly in single-pilot tasks†, (NTSB 2014).National Transportation Safety Board proposals as pursues. To the Federal Aviation Administration: â€Å"Work with the General Aviation Manufacturers Association to build up a framework that can naturally alarm pilots when the ice insurance frameworks ought to be actuated on turbofan planes that require a sort rating and are ens ured for single-pilot tasks and trip in icing conditions†, (NTSB 2014/A-16-12). To the General Aviation Manufacturers Association: â€Å"Work with the Federal Aviation Administration to build up a framework that can consequently ready pilots when the ice security frameworks ought to be initiated on turbofan planes that require a sort rating and are confirmed for single-pilot tasks and trip in icing conditions†, (NTSB 2014/A-16-13). To the National Business Aviation Association: â€Å"Work with your individuals that are makers and preparing suppliers of turbofan planes that require a sort rating and are confirmed for single-pilot activities and trip in icing conditions to create improved pilot preparing rules relating to chance administration in winter climate activities, including the utilization of ice assurance frameworks and adherence to agendas, with uncommon accentuation given to insufficiencies in pilot execution recognized in this mischance, and attempt accessible to the network of pilots who fly these planes†. (NTSB 2014/A-16-14). The synapsis of this whole incident was determined by National Transportation Safety Board that, â€Å"the probable cause of this accident was the pilot's conduct of an approach in structural icing conditions without turning on the airplane's wing and horizontal stabilizer deice system, leading to ice accumulation on those surfaces, and without using the appropriate landing performance speeds for the weather conditions and airplane weight, as indicated in the airplane's standard operating procedures, which together resulted in an aerodynamic stall at an altitude at which a recovery was not possible,† (NTSB 2014).

10 Geographic Facts About Sichuan Province, China

10 Geographic Facts About Sichuan Province, China Sichuan is the second largest of Chinas 23 provinces based on its land area of 187,260 square miles (485,000 sq km). It is located in southwestern China adjacent to the countrys largest province, Qinghai. Sichuans capital city is Chengdu and as of 2007, the province had a population of 87,250,000 people. Sichuan is an important province to China because of its abundant agricultural resources which include such Chinese staples as rice and wheat. Sichuan is also rich in mineral resources and is one of Chinas main industrial centers. The following is a list of ten things to know about Sichuan Province: 1) Human settlement of Sichuan Province is believed to date back to the 15th century B.C.E. In the 9th century B.C.E., Shu (what is present-day Chengdu) and Ba (todays Chongqing City) grew to become the largest kingdoms in the region. 2) Shu and Ba were subsequently destroyed by the Qin Dynasty and by the 3rd century B.C.E., the area was developed with sophisticated irrigation systems and dams which ended seasonal flooding of the region. As a result, Sichuan became the agricultural center of China at the time. 3) Because of Sichuans location as a basin surrounded by mountains and the presence of the Yangtze River, the area also became an important military center throughout much of Chinas history. In addition, several different dynasties ruled the area; among them are the Jin Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty. 4) An important note about Sichuan Province is that its borders have remained mostly unchanged for the last 500 years. The largest changes occurred in 1955 when Xikang became a part of Sichuan and in 1997 when the city of Chongqing broke away to form a part of the Chongqing Municipality. 5) Today Sichuan is divided into eighteen prefecture-level cities and three independent prefectures. A prefecture-level city is one that is below a province but ranks higher than a county for administrative structure. An independent prefecture is an area that has a majority of ethnic minorities or is historically important for ethnic minorities. 6) Sichuan Province is within the Sichuan basin and is surrounded by the Himalayas to the west, the Qinling Range to the east and the mountainous parts of Yunnan Province to the south. The area is also active geologically and the Longmen Shan Fault runs through part of the province. 7) In May 2008, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake occurred in Sichuan Province. Its epicenter was in the Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture. The earthquake killed over 70,000 people and numerous schools, hospitals and factories collapsed. Following the earthquake in June 2008, severe flooding from a lake formed by a landslide during the earthquake occurred in low-lying areas that had already been significantly damaged. In April 2010, the region was again impacted by a magnitude 6.9 earthquake that struck neighboring Qinghai Province. 8) Sichuan Province has a varied climate with a subtropical monsoon in its eastern portions and Chengdu. This region experiences warm to hot summers and short, cool winters. It is also typically very cloudy in the winters. The western part of Sichuan Province has a climate affected by the mountains and high altitude. It is very cold in the winter and mild in the summer. The southern part of the province is subtropical. 9) Most of Sichuan Provinces population is Han Chinese. However, there is a significant population of minorities such as Tibetans, Yi, Qiang, and Naxi in the province as well. Sichuan was Chinas most populous province until 1997 when Chongqing was separated from it. 10) Sichuan Province is famous for its biodiversity and the area is home to the famous Giant Panda Sanctuaries which consist of seven different nature reserves and nine scenic parks. These sanctuaries are UNESCO World Heritage Sites and are home to more than 30% of the worlds endangered giant pandas. The sites are also home to other endangered species such as the red panda, the snow leopard, and the clouded leopard. ReferencesNew York Times. (2009, May 6). Earthquake in China - Sichuan Province - News - The New York Times. Retrieved from: http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/news/science/topics/earthquakes/sichuan_province_china/index.html Wikipedia. (2010, April 18). Sichuan - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sichuan Wikipedia. (2009, December 23). Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sichuan_Giant_Panda_Sanctuaries

Beef Scares Europe essays

Beef Scares Europe essays The strange disease, called bovine spongiform encephalopathy, better known as BSE, had its origin in 1985, when the first official case of mad-cow disease was detected in Britain. In 1988 Britain ordered the slaughter of all cattle infected with BSE but the British manufacturers continued to export banned animal feed to the Continent. In 1990 a cat with symptoms of BSE was discovered. The British Government was frightened and started to watch for human cases. In 1995, the first person died of a Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), the human version of mad-cow disease. Because of this tragic incident the continental Europeans stopped to buy British Beef, British cows and British animal feed in the mid-1990s and thats the reason why many European states felt themselves safe. Nevertheless in the last few weeks the first cases of BSE have been announced in Germany and Spain. In France a panic broke out as well because three supermarkets made public that meat from a dozen cows, which had an infected animal among them, had made its way into the shops. The outcome was that the beef prize dropped down immeasurably. The French public is eating 50 percent less beef than they did a few weeks ago and five neighbour-countries dont import meat from France anymore. The number of victims in Britain has increased to 82 in the last few days. Since last summer also two people in France and one person in Ireland have died from the disease. Doctors say that CJD is a mysterious, incurable illness that attacks the nervous system and destroys the brain and all its functions. Nobody knows when the illness will break out because the human form of the disease can incubate for a decade or more before symptoms appear. Unfortunately there is no cure for it but there are a number of medicaments which can relieve the pain. The bad news is that the number of victims is rising now about 40% because of the long incubation period. ...

Why Yield Management Is Important To Hotels Essay

Why Yield Management Is Important To Hotels - Essay Example The paper focuses on the potential value of ‘revenue management, also known as yield management’ to hotels. In the context of the hotel industry, yield management is a term used for describing a high range of techniques through which occupancy is appropriately managed so that the profits of a hotel are increased. Therefore, yield management is quite important to hotels. However, in practice it has been revealed that yield management can also have a series of implications for the organization, its employees, and customers; this issue is discussed below using literature published in this field. Yield management in the hotel industry has a series of advantages. Baker, Huyton & Bradley note that yield management if it is used in the particular industry, it can lead to ‘the increase of a room’s revenue and of its space’. It is explained though that yield management can play the above role only if a staff is appropriately trained for offering customer servi ce of high quality. In other words, low employee efficiency can eliminate the value of yield management, either in the short or the long term. In any case, the value of yield management, as a key concept in the hotel industry, cannot be doubted. Indeed, yield management can highly benefit the hotel industry. The potential for accurate forecasting is considered as one of the most important advantages of yield management systems. However, the above benefit can be available only in hotels that use advanced IT systems that can monitor every organizational activity and provide accurate information in regard to the organization’s strengths and weaknesses.   Yield management can also help hotel managers to make effective plans in regard to the potential expansion of the organization. For example, in order for a hotel to enter a foreign market, it would be necessary for the hotel’s managers to have an accurate view of the hotel’s profitability so that they are able to check whether the risk of potential losses could be undertaken or not.

Book report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Book report - Essay Example He has written a beautiful and thought provoking account on the social history that many people would not have known. Throughout the book, Osofsky uses his great appealing writing to attract the reader till the end. With an attractive way of revealing details, he highlights the change of Harlem from being the largest segregated neighborhood in the nation to a slum. He had never been to Harlem or talked to the people there, but the way he wrote about it would tell you much more about the way he has used his mind. There have been many books previously written around the same topic but in most of these books the authors have only tried to look for the history of Negroes from the surface. The growth and development of the Negro communities have not been a very important issue since the civil war. Many people want to study about the Negro life but the material that is available is scanty. There are newspapers and various kinds of documents available through which one can go back to the 20 th century. The Negro life in the cities can also be generalized through interviews with elderly people who have seen and experienced how the Negroes have settled their tough lives in the areas. There are a few authors who have researched and talked about the Negro history in their books and Osofsky has written one of the finest books. He has shown a series of events that took place since the Negro Resolution in the 1960’s and how the creation of a Harlem ghetto took place. Since Osofsky has written an account of all the events and details revealed in the series of events, he has made a detailed research about all the history that he could reach up to. The book is well documented about the afro-American migration in the early 20th century. Every new day bought a new turn in the making of the ghetto and Osofsky has managed to analyze every detail in a colorful and informative manner. This book would take you back in the 20th century and bring to you the history that was unreve aled yet eye opening. It shows the period of the black migration and settlement in Harlem exclusively. Gilbert Osofsky has written this book in three parts to make it much clearer and planned out. In the first part, he starts his book with an introduction to the Harlem settlement. Osofsky clearly gives a picture of how Harlem was before this migration. Harlem was a rich neighborhood with no blacks. Instead there were more of Jews and Italians who used to live in that community back in the 1800’s and early nineteenth century. It shows an analysis of the social, economic and political conditions of a community which was known to be one of the finest neighborhoods in the nation. The creation did not greatly bring a change in the economic condition Harlem was in, but it was a change prominent enough to be seen than what it was to what it is now. Harlem was a wealthy area where ministers and rich people used to live in their mansions. He brings out the history of Harlem before the 20th century and then talks about the events through which this migration of the blacks took place. With his brilliant mind and analysis he reaches out the message to the people and convinces them that the social, economic and political factors were the major reasons why Harlem became a slum. These factors were also greatly the causes behind Harlem’s development equally. The real estate guesswork is what made the upper reaches of Manhattan more accessible for the black migrati

The Berlin Conference of 1884 and Africa Research Paper

The Berlin Conference of 1884 and Africa - Research Paper Example The continent was relatively isolated from the rest of the world especially the western countries but historians have recorded early trade in Africa. Trans-Saharan trade is one of the earliest recorded commerce, carried out in Africa between eighth and 16th century (Wright, 2007). According to Wright (2007), Trans -Saharan trade was concentrated in the northern Africa and it involved countries around the Mediterranean Sea and West Africa. The trade route crossed the Saharan desert and the caravans travelled for long distances to obtain goods in various regions covered in the larger frontier. The Arabs dominated the trade and it mainly involved precious metals such as gold that was mined in West African region, ivory, salt and agricultural products. In addition, slave trade was an important component of Trans- Saharan trade, and African servants were transported to the north to work as soldiers and domestic workers (Wright, 2007 pp76-81). Conditions Leading to the Berlin Conference Th e rich gold deposits and success of the Trans-Saharan trade attracted the attention of Europeans and in the 15th century, Portuguese traders opened new trade routes along the West African coast that had rich gold deposits (Wright, 2007 p 137). ... In the mid 1870, Henry Morton successfully completed the Congo River basin expedition that had remained the last unchartered frontier in Africa (Emerson, 1979). Henry Morton was later appointed by King Leopold II of Belgium as an envoy to Congo that eventually became Congo Free State, a Belgian colony (Emerson, 1979 p69). In central Africa, France moved to the western part of the Congo basin and established Brazzaville in 1881. Great Britain conquered and occupied the Ottoman Empire in Egypt that ruled Sudan and the Somaliland. Germany declared territorial ownership of Namibia, Cameroon, and Togo while Italy claimed Eritrea in the horn of Africa in 1882 (Koponen, 1993 p124). The scramble for more African colonies generated intense competition among the European powers leading to violent conflicts and the need to have a more organized criterion for partitioning Africa became apparent. Germany had become an influential European power and other countries, including France and Britain we re aggressively seeking new colonies to assert their power in Europe. In view of the emerging power changes in Europe, Germany was determined to maintain its leading influence in Europe. Therefore, it was important to formulate a reasonable formula of partitioning African continent among the competing European powers to avoid the risk of conflict that would threaten Germany influence in Europe and the globe (Koponen, 1993, pp 129-133). The Berlin Conference At the request of Portugal, the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck invited leaders of fourteen European countries with territorial interests in Africa, and the United States for a conference in Berlin in 1884 (Collins,

Pakistan Flood Essay Example for Free

Pakistan Flood Essay The Pakistan flood of 2010 happened on Monday the 26th July 2010 in the villages Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan. Causes The heavy rains were caused by a monsoon depression (also called a monsoon low) that formed over the Bay of Bengal on July 24, crossed over India, and reached Pakistan on July 27 Climate change – There was unusually heavy monsoon rains which caused widespread flooding in Pakistan, whilst coinciding in Russia unusually high temperatures ( resulting in a heat wave). Both of which were attributed to global warming. Poor river management Impacts Over 500,000 or more people had been displaced from their homes At least 1,540 people died, 2,088 people had received injuries and 557,226 houses had been destroyed. Infrastructure was destroyed. The Karakoram Highway, which connects Pakistan with China, was closed after a bridge was destroyed. Floodwater destroyed the health care infrastructure leaving people vulnerable to water-borne disease Millions of crops were destroyed leaving a severe shortage of food across the country Responses * petitions were immediately launched by international organisation, like the UK’s Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC)– and the UN (United Nations) – to help Pakistanis hit by the floods * the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) provided support in disaster management authorities to assist evacuate populations from affected areas of southern Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, * Many charities and aid agencies provided help, including the Red Crescent and Medicines Sans Frontiers * Pakistan’s government also tried to raise money to help the huge number of people affected * But there were complaints that the Pakistan government was slow to respond to the crisis, and that it struggled to cope * Foreign Governments donated millions of dollars, and Saudi Arabia and the  USA promised $600 million in flood aid. But many people felt that the richer foreign governments didn’t do enough to help * The UN’s World Food Programme provided crucial food aid. But, by November 2010, they were warning that they might have cut the amount of food handed out, because of a lack of donations from richer countries Effects There were both long-term and short-term effects, they include: Short-term:- * At least 1600 people died * Aid couldn’t get through because of the failing infrastructure 45 major bridges and thousands of kilometres of roads were destroyed or badly damaged, limiting the aid supplies reaching the areas badly affected * loss of cattle resulted in loss of dairy products * Access to health care, such as maternity care was difficult due to the damaged infrastructure Long-term:- * 20 million Pakistanis were affected (over 10% of the population), 6 million needed food aid * Whole villages were swept away, and over 700,000 homes were damaged or destroyed * Hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis were displaced, and many suffered from malnutrition and a lack of clean water * 5000 miles of roads and railways were washed away, along with 1000 bridges * 160,000km2 of land were affected. That’s at least 20% of the country * About 6.5 million acres of crops were washed away in Punjab and Sindh provinces Future Local authority-run disaster management forums, including local men and women were set up to assess future flood situation and created Community Rapid Response Teams to plan search and rescue activities. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) produced a plan to  employ local tradesmen to help reconstruct shelters, etc which in turn provided an income for those people this will encourage the local economy to grow. Reconstructing and strengthening the irrigation band was deemed crucial to protect villages in the future. A plan to rebuild embankment and well maintain them was created.

Wind Power Essay -- Wind Power Energy Sources Essays

Wind Power Harnessing the natural power of the wind is by no means a new concept. Asides from sailing, wind power has been utilised for many thousands of years, principally for agricultural purposes. Basic windmills are thought to have been used in Persia (now Iran) as early as the 7th century AD. Their ability to make use of otherwise untapped energy sources without the needs and costs of other alternatives, ensured that they remained the machines of preference in several industries throughout both agricultural and industrial revolutions. Whilst their basic concepts have remained true to the basic origins, technological advances have enabled engineers to adapt the mechanics of the mill to enable a more functional and useable source of power. In the 18th C, engineers developed spring sails (a device incorporating shutters onto the sails) to enable the mill to be run at constant speed during variable wind speeds automatically. The development of the fantail in 1745 also ensured the mills ran in the face of the wind and along with airbrakes meant that the mill could run at its most efficient at all times without the risk of doing itself damage in strong winds. Uses developed into water pumping, wood sawing, papermaking, pressing oil seeds and a variety of grinding uses. The use of wind turbines for generating electricity was pioneered in Denmark late in the 1890s. The concept was made a reality by Poul la Cour (1846-1908) who had originally trained as a meteorologist. He built the world's first electricity generating wind turbine in 1891 and although his project was a success, decided the greatest problem lay in storage of the electricity. As a result he used the electricity from his turbines for electrolysis in order to produce hydrogen for the gas lighting in his school.  ¡Ã‚ §One basic drawback of this scheme was the fact that he had to replace the windows of several school buildings numerous times, as the hydrogen exploded due to small amounts of oxygen in the gas (!) ¡Ã‚ ¨ DWTMA. As technological barriers were worked through, wind turbines became increasingly complicated. One of the greatest developments was the use of aerofoils instead of angled blades. Aerofoils have the benefit of using lift to turn the blades in the same manner as an aircraft ¡Ã‚ ¦s wing rises on an air current. This type of blade replaced the older type, which relied upon drag, t... ...9, www.foe.co.uk Energy without end, Michael Flood, Friends of the Earth, London 1991 Green Futures, Magazine of Forum for the Future, Issues 6 1997- issue 11 1998, London Johnston, Bryan, 'Landscape effects leave wind power up in the air,' Planning 1084, 2.9.94. Milne, Roger, 'Renewables feel the draught,' Planning no. 1095, 18.11.94. Microsoft Encarta 1996 Encyclopaedia, www.msn.com Rothe, David, 'Renewable energy and rural development,' Town and Country Planning, March 1993. Review of the impacts of wind farms and other aerial structures upon birds, J Paul Gill, Mike Townsley & Greg P Mudge, Scottish National Heritage Review no.21, Perth UK, 1996 UK Power 99, McMillan- Scott PLC Publications, Cheshire December 1998 Wood, Peter & Wade-Smith, Richard, 'Welsh decision sets the wind farm scene', Planning 939, October  ¡Ã‚ ¥91. Wind Energy Conservation- from theory to practice- Proceedings of the 19th BWEA Conference (16-18 July  ¡Ã‚ ¦97), Edited by Ray Hunter, The British Wind Energy Association, Mechanical Engineering publications Ltd, London 1997 Wind Energy- Power for a sustainable future, British Wind Energy Association, London 1997, www.bwea.com

Best Practices & Most effective strategies for Curriculum Design in K-12 education in America Essay

Curriculum is a plan for learning that includes targeting a student population, conducting a needs assessment, and writing a mission statement. It includes developing goals, objectives, content, teaching strategies, and assessment tools. Alignment is critical in curriculum development from purpose and philosophy, to goals and objectives, to content and activities, and to assessment and evaluation. Working through a process of asking and answering who, what, where, why, when, how questions is essential in designing and developing curriculum. A curriculum serves several purposes that include: †¢ Explicit statements of ideology underlying the instruction (why are you teaching it, and why is the teaching the way it is? †¢ General long-term aims (what are students intended to gain from following the course? †¢ Specific, testable, short-term objectives (what will they be able to do as a result of following the course? ) †¢ Resources to be used (what is needed to deliver the course? ) †¢ The delivery methods to be employed (how is it to be taught? ) †¢ Timing of the units and their sequencing (when is it to be taught and in what order? ) †¢ Assessment procedures and the balance of assessments to be made (how, when and why will it be examined? ) †¢ A methodology for evaluating how well the course has been received (how will instructor acquire feedback from the students about the course? ). K-12 education is defined as educational technology in United States, Canada and other countries for publicly supported grades prior to college. The K stands for kindergarten and 12 denotes 1st to 12th grade before the 13th that is the first year of college. Curricular Theory and Theorists The word curriculum has its origins in the running/chariot tracks of Greece. It was, literally, a course. In Latin curriculum was a racing chariot; currere was to run. A useful starting point for us here might be the definition offered by John Kerr and taken up by Vic Kelly in his standard work on the subject. Kerr defines curriculum as, ‘All the learning which is planned and guided by the school, whether it is carried on in groups or individually, inside or outside the school. [1] This gives us some basis to move on. For the moment all we need to do is highlight two of the key features: †¢ Learning is planned and guided. We have to specify in advance what we are seeking to achieve and how we are to go about it. †¢ The definition refers to schooling. We should recognize that our current appreciation of curriculum theory and practice emerged in the school and in relation to other schooling ideas such as subject and lesson. In what follows we are going to look at four ways of approaching curriculum theory and practice: †¢ Curriculum as a body of knowledge to be transmitted. †¢ Curriculum as an attempt to achieve certain ends in students – product. †¢ Curriculum as process. †¢ Curriculum as praxis. Curriculum as a body of knowledge to be transmitted Many people still equate a curriculum with a syllabus. Syllabus, naturally, originates from the Greek. Basically it means a concise statement or table of the heads of a discourse, the contents of a treatise, the subjects of a series of lectures. In the form that many of us will have been familiar with it is connected with courses leading to examinations. For example, when teachers talk of the syllabus associated with, say, the Cambridge GSCE exam. What we can see in such documents is a series of headings with some additional notes which set out the areas that may be examined. A syllabus will not generally indicate the relative importance of its topics or the order in which they are to be studied. Those who compile a syllabus tend to follow the traditional textbook approach of an ‘order of contents’, or a pattern prescribed by a ‘logical’ approach to the subject, or the shape of a university course in which they may have participated. Thus, an approach to curriculum theory and practice which focuses on syllabus is only really concerned with content. Curriculum is a body of knowledge-content and/or subjects. Education in this sense is the process by which these are transmitted or ‘delivered’ to students by the most effective methods that can be devised [3]. Where people still equate curriculum with a syllabus they are likely to limit their planning to a consideration of the content or the body of knowledge that they wish to transmit. ‘It is also because this view of curriculum has been adopted that many teachers in primary schools, have regarded issues of curriculum as of no concern to them, since they have not regarded their task as being to transmit bodies of knowledge in this manner’. Curriculum as product The dominant modes of describing and managing education are today couched in the productive form. Education is most often seen as a technical exercise. Objectives are set, a plan drawn up, and then applied, and the outcomes (products) measured. In the late 1980s and the 1990s many of the debates about the National Curriculum for schools did not so much concern how the curriculum was thought about as to what its objectives and content might be. It is the work of two American writers Franklin Bobbitt, 1928 and Ralph W. Tyler, 1949 that dominate theory and practice within this tradition. In The Curriculum Bobbitt writes as follows: The central theory is simple. Human life, however varied, consists in the performance of specific activities. Education that prepares for life is one that prepares definitely and adequately for these specific activities. However numerous and diverse they may be for any social class they can be discovered. This requires only that one go out into the world of affairs and discover the particulars of which their affairs consist. These will show the abilities, attitudes, habits, appreciations and forms of knowledge that men need. These will be the objectives of the curriculum. They will be numerous, definite and particularized. The curriculum will then be that series of experiences which children and youth must have by way of obtaining those objectives. This way of thinking about curriculum theory and practice was heavily influenced by the development of management thinking and practice. The rise of ‘scientific management’ is often associated with the name of its main advocate F. W. Taylor. Basically what he proposed was greater division of labor with jobs being simplified; an extension of managerial control over all elements of the workplace; and cost accounting based on systematic time-and-motion study. All three elements were involved in this conception of curriculum theory and practice. For example, one of the attractions of this approach to curriculum theory was that it involved detailed attention to what people needed to know in order to work, live their lives and so on. A familiar, and more restricted, example of this approach can be found in many training programs, where particular tasks or jobs have been analyzed and broken down into their component elements and lists of competencies drawn up. In other words, the curriculum was not to be the result of ‘armchair speculation’ but the product of systematic study. Bobbitt’s work and theory met with mixed responses. As it stands it is a technical exercise. However, it wasn’t criticisms such as this which initially limited the impact of such curriculum theory in the late 1920s and 1930s. Rather, the growing influence of ‘progressive’, child-centred approaches shifted the ground to more romantic notions of education. Bobbitt’s long lists of objectives and his emphasis on order and structure hardly sat comfortably with such forms. The Progressive movement lost much of its momentum in the late 1940s in the United States and from that period the work of Ralph W. Tyler, in particular, has made a lasting impression on curriculum theory and practice. He shared Bobbitt’s emphasis on rationality and relative simplicity. His theory was based on four fundamental questions: 1. What educational purposes should the school seek to attain? 2. What educational experience can be provided that is likely to attain these purposes? 3. How can these educational experiences be effectively organized? 4. How can we determine whether these purposes are being attained? Like Bobbitt he also placed an emphasis on the formulation of behavioural objectives. Since the real purpose of education is not to have the instructor perform certain activities but to bring about significant changes in the students’ pattern of behaviour, it becomes important to recognize that any statements of objectives of the school should be a statement of changes to take place in the students. We can see how these concerns translate into an ordered procedure and is very similar to the technical or productive thinking steps set out below. 1. Diagnosis of need 2. Formulation of objectives 3. Selection of content 4. Organization of content 5. Selection of learning experiences 6. Organization of learning experiences There are a number of issues with this approach to curriculum theory and practice. The first is that the plan or programme assumes great importance. For example, we might look at a more recent definition of curriculum as: ‘A program of activities by teachers designed so that pupils will attain so far as possible certain educational and other schooling ends or objectives [4]. The problem here is that such programmes inevitably exist prior to and outside the learning experiences. This takes much away from learners. They can end up with little or no voice. They are told what they must learn and how they will do it. The success or failure of both the program and the individual learners is judged on the basis of whether pre-specified changes occur in the behaviour and person of the learner. If the plan is tightly adhered to, there can only be limited opportunity for educators to make use of the interactions that occur. It also can deskill educators in another way. For example, a number of curriculum programs, particularly in the USA, have attempted to make the student experience ‘teacher proof’. The logic of this approach is for the curriculum to be designed outside of the classroom or school. Educators then apply programs and are judged by the products of their actions. It turns educators into technicians. Second, there are questions around the nature of objectives. This model is hot on measurability. It implies that behaviour can be objectively, mechanistically measured. There are obvious dangers here: there always has to be some uncertainty about what is being measured. We only have to reflect on questions of success in our work. It is often very difficult to judge what the impact of particular experiences has been. Sometimes it is years after the event that we come to appreciate something of what has happened. For example, most informal educators who have been around a few years will have had the experience of an ex-participant telling them in great detail about how some forgotten event brought about some fundamental change. Yet there is something more. In order to measure, things have to be broken down into smaller and smaller units. The result, as many of you will have experienced, can be long lists of often trivial skills or competencies. This can lead to a focus in this approach to curriculum theory and practice on the parts rather than the whole; on the trivial, rather than the significant. It can lead to an approach to education and assessment which resembles a shopping list. When all the items are ticked, the person has passed the course or has learnt something. The role of overall judgment is somehow sidelined. Third, there is a real problem when we come to examine what educators actually do in the classroom, for example. Much of the research concerning teacher thinking and classroom interaction, and curriculum innovation has pointed to the lack of impact on actual pedagogic practice of objectives. One way of viewing this is that teachers simply get it wrong as they do not work with objectives. The difficulties that educators experience with objectives in the classroom may point to something inherently wrong with the approach, that it is not grounded in the study of educational exchanges. It is a model of curriculum theory and practice largely imported from technological and industrial settings. Fourth, there is the problem of unanticipated results. The focus on pre-specified goals may lead both educators and learners to overlook learning that is occurring as a result of their interactions, but which is not listed as an objective. The apparent simplicity and rationality of this approach to curriculum theory and practice, and the way in which it mimics industrial management have been powerful factors in its success. A further appeal has been the ability of academics to use the model to attack teachers. There is a tendency, recurrent enough to suggest that it may be endemic in the approach, for academics in education to use the objectives model as a stick with which to beat teachers. ‘What are your objectives? ‘ is more often asked in a tone of challenge than one of interested and helpful inquiry. The demand for objectives is a demand for justification rather than a description of ends. It is not about curriculum design, but rather an expression of irritation in the problems of accountability in education. [5] Curriculum as process We have seen that the curriculum as product model is heavily dependent on the setting of behavioural objectives. The curriculum, essentially, is a set of documents for implementation. Another way of looking at curriculum theory and practice is via process. In this sense curriculum is not a physical thing, but rather the interaction of teachers, students and knowledge. In other words, curriculum is what actually happens in the classroom and what people do to prepare and evaluate. What we have in this model is a number of elements in constant interaction. It is an active process and links with the practical form of reasoning set out by Aristotle, which is as follows: Teachers enter particular schooling and situations with an ability to think critically in action and with an understanding of their role and the expectations others have of them, and a proposal for action which sets out essential principles and features of the educational encounter. Guided by these, they encourage conversations between, and with, people in the situation out of which may become thinking and action. They continually evaluate the process and what they can see of outcomes. Curriculum as praxis Curriculum as praxis is, in many respects, a development of the process model. While the process model is driven by general principles and places an emphasis on judgment and meaning making, it does not make explicit statements about the interests it serves. It may, for example, be used in such a way that does not make continual reference to collective human well-being and to the emancipation of the human spirit. The praxis model of curriculum theory and practice brings these to the centre of the process and makes an explicit commitment to emancipation. Thus action is not simply informed, it is also committed. It is praxis. Critical pedagogy goes beyond situating the learning experience within the experience of the learner: it is a process which takes the experiences of both the learner and the teacher and, through dialogue and negotiation, recognizes them both as problematic. It allows, indeed encourages, students and teachers together to confront the real problems of their existence and relationships. When students confront the real problems of their existence they will soon also be faced with their own oppression. The process model is modified to fit the praxis model, which is as follows: Teachers enter particular schooling and situations with a personal, but shared idea of the good and a commitment to human emancipation, an ability to think critically in action, an understanding of their role and the expectations others have of them, and a proposal for action which sets out essential principles and features of the educational encounter. Guided by these, they encourage conversations between, and with, people in the situation out of which may become informed and committed action. They continually evaluate the process and what they can see of outcomes. Proposed Curriculum Design: A curriculum prepared for the targeted students of K-12 education must be tailored to meet their needs for a fast and productive mental growth. Therefore a curriculum for k-12 education must be prepared so that it supports all children and young people from 3 – 18 to develop as successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors, ready to play a full part in society now and in the future. As part of the review process we need to develop clear guidance which sets out expectations of what children and young people should learn and also promotes flexibility and space so that teachers can use their professional judgment creatively to meet children’s needs. Therefore, before beginning to design a curriculum for k-12 education, one must capture the essence of what young people will learn over the course of their schooling and express this through the experience and outcome statements. Curriculum Designing Guidelines Purpose The construction of experiences and outcomes that effectively provide progression in each curriculum area and convey the values, principles and purposes of A Curriculum for Excellence is central to the success of the program. In particular, it is important that you reflect relevant aspects of the four capacities in your work. If we can get this right these outcomes and experiences will have a significant, positive, impact on classroom practice and hence on the learning experience of all children and young people. It is an exciting prospect. Starting point In phase 1 each early review group should be asked to simplify and prioritise the curriculum (from age 3 to 15 in the first instance) retaining what currently works well and making changes where these were justified by research evidence. The output from phase 1 of the review process and the rationale for your curriculum area, research and other national and international comparators are your starting points. Your work will be based on the relevant parts of the Curriculum Frameworks: for Children 3 – 5, 5 – 14 guidelines, Standard Grade, and National Qualifications. It is important that experience and outcome statements you write at each Curriculum for Excellence level provide appropriate cognitive demand. The framework for outcomes The experiences and outcomes will sit within a framework of advice to teachers. Curriculum Area The eight curriculum areas are: Expressive Arts, Health and Wellbeing, Languages, Maths, Religious and Moral Education, Science, Social Studies and Technologies. Rationale The rationale provides an overview of the curriculum area states its main purposes and describes its contribution to the values and purposes. Subsets of the curriculum area Each curriculum area is subdivided either into fields of learning – or ‘subjects’ (e. g. Expressive Arts into art, drama, dance and music) or into aspects of learning in that area (e. g. Languages into listening and talking, reading and writing) Lines of development These identify learning tracks in each subset of the curriculum area. They are expressed in different ways in each area of the curriculum. For example within expressive arts they identify the skills to be developed: creating, presenting and evaluating in art, drama, dance and music; within science they describe broad areas of knowledge and understanding to be developed; biodiversity, being human and cells in Our Living World. Experiences and outcomes Within each line of development, experiences and outcomes describe the expected progression in learning for children and young people. Essential outcomes Essential outcomes are a small number of high level statements, derived from the main purposes described in the rationale, that encapsulate what learning in that curriculum area provides for all children and young people. Taken together, the essential outcomes are intended to sum up the expectations for the broad general education of all young people. The focus of your work will be writing the experiences and outcomes for your curriculum area. It is likely that there will be interplay between what you produce and the ‘essential outcomes’ , which are the ones helping to shape and refine the other in an iterative manner. Outcomes should be written in the clearest possible English. Where possible these should be accessible to children and young people, but not at the expense of clarity. It is also important to try to write lively and engaging experiences and outcomes. Best Practices of Writing the Curriculum Ultimately the intention is to produce streamlined guidance for the entire curriculum in a single document. We also intend to make the outcomes available in electronic format to allow curriculum leaders and teachers to identify and blend outcomes from both within and beyond curriculum areas. Several stages will be required to achieve this. Curriculum for Excellence Achievement framework In the first stage of work the aim is to produce experience and outcome statements up to Third level with provisional work done to Fourth level. Both Third and Fourth level have particular significance. Third level is important because it defines the point at which a young person has experienced a broad general education and has satisfied the essential outcomes in all curriculum areas. At this point there may be opportunities to choose what she or he wishes to study, typically with a greater degree of speciality and in greater depth to Fourth level and possibly beyond. For some pupils, their choices will result in continued, lateral progression, in curriculum areas at Third level. Fourth level is important because it will enable transition into the formal qualifications system. Experiences and outcomes at this level will tend to be more specific than those for earlier levels. The outcomes and experiences written during this stage will be subject to refinement through the engagement process. Writing an excellent outcome Always remember that the experiences and outcomes should have an impact on classroom practice and learning. The outcomes should not be written in the form of assessment criteria, nor should they constrain learning. Every outcome should therefore be tested against the following criteria: 1. It should express learning that is clear to the teacher, and where possible the young person. This will promote the application of formative assessment strategies. 2. It should indicate the purpose of the outcome and/or direct the selection of learning activities for all children and young people. 3. It should allow evaluation of the outcome. In other words, it should be clear from the outcome what evidence might be observed to demonstrate progress by the child or young person. Also bear in mind that there is no intention to produce an elaborated curriculum. Outcomes should therefore offer and support opportunities for enrichment and development for those young people with additional support needs who may not progress beyond the first levels. As you complete blocks of work a further test is to consider the extent to which you have prioritised and simplified existing guidance and to ask yourself if any changes are robust and justifiable. As a general rule outcomes should begin with the ‘I can’ stem. Experiences describe purposeful and worthwhile tasks, activities or events that contribute to motivation, personal development and learning. As a general rule they should be signalled using the ‘I have’ stem. The following additional general parameters will help you get started. †¢ Simplification and prioritisation should result in time and space being made to operate the seven principles of curriculum design. For example, teachers should have time for greater depth of study, to introduce topics or ideas in a relevant context or to respond to local events or circumstances and to ensure progression. †¢ Assume your outcomes can be taught within the time allocations typically applied in schools at present.