Story of Travis Essay Example

Story of Travis Essay In the first part of the story, we can see that Travis, a fourteen-year old boy, wanted to take big responsibilities like those of his father, Papa. The opportunity came when Papa and the other men left the settlement to go and sell cattle in a market in Abilene, Kansas. They had to do this because they were very low on money after the Civil War. Travis was left with many big responsibilities that Papa did. Travis was going to try as hard as possible to do well with his new big responsibilities to prove his parents that he was a man now or was beginning to be. During the first part of the story, Travis realized that his responsibilities required a lot more effort than what he thought. Travis wouldn’t have been able to do all his responsibilities without the big help of Old Yeller. Old Yeller was a big aid to Travis and his family. At first, Travis disagreed in adopting Old Yeller but soon that will all change. During the challenges that Travis faced, we could see that he acted maturely. For example, when Little Arliss was going to be attacked by a mad mother bear, Travis acted quickly and ran to try to save Little Arliss instead of ignoring his screams. Also, Travis didn’t give up on the chore, no matter how hard the responsibility was. Plus, he had the help of Old Yeller which he started to love. In the other hand, there were other moments that he didn’t act mature instead he acted childlike. How could he not act childlike? He was still a boy and had a dog which he could have some fun sometimes. We will write a custom essay sample on Story of Travis specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Story of Travis specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Story of Travis specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Old Yeller helped Travis act mature and childlike. Old Yeller helped Travis in doing task like marking the pigs, keeping away wild creatures from eating the winter corn, and hunt or fish animals for food. Also, he helped Travis protect his family. At the end of the story, Travis had to shoot Old Yeller because it was bitten by a wolf with hydrophobia,a very contagious and dangerous disease. It was a very hard decision for Travis to whether to shoot Old Yeller or not. It would have been a very hard decision ,as well, to anyone who loved its own dog. It showed that Travis was mature enough to take big decisions that involved his family safety and well being. A change that can be noticed in Travis. When Papa came back from his long journey,he sees that Travis had learned a lot and matured from the experiences he had been through. He gives Travis an advice of not worrying about bad moments during good moments because it will make it all bad. Another change of him was to love Old Yeller instead of hating him like in the beginning.

25 French Food-related Terms in English

25 French Food-related Terms in English 25 French Food-related Terms in English 25 French Food-related Terms in English By Maeve Maddox Note: The pronunciation of these terms varies according to how familiar the speaker is with French. Usually, getting close is good enough. I’ve included pronunciation for six terms that may be especially tricky for some English speakers. 1. la carte Food items that can be ordered individually and not as part of a set meal are ordered la carte. The French word carte means card or menu. For example, a true la carte menu would list each item separately, with individual prices: chicken legs, $4; broccoli, $2; rice, $1.50, and so on. 2. la mode This French expression means â€Å"according to the fashion† and can be applied to clothing, furniture, dances, or anything that goes in and out of style. In US usage, the term is applied as a post-modifier to desserts. It usually means â€Å"with ice cream,† as in â€Å"pie la mode.† 3. apà ©ritif An apà ©ritif is an alcoholic drink, taken before a meal to stimulate the appetite. 4. au jus    Chiefly US, au jus is used as a post-modifier to indicate that a dish, usually meat, has been prepared or served in a gravy containing its own juices. 5. au gratin A dish prepared au gratin has been sprinkled with breadcrumbs or grated cheese browned in the oven or under the grill. The French verb gratiner means â€Å"to brown.† 6. baguette A long, thin loaf of French bread. 7. bon appà ©tit A salutation before eating. 8. cafà © au lait [ka-fay oh lay] Coffee taken with milk. 9. cordon bleu    Literally, â€Å"blue ribbon,† the expression reflects the sense of â€Å"first class.† In culinary usage, â€Å"a cordon blue† is â€Å"a first-class cook.† 10. crà ¨me brà »là ©e A cream topped with caramelized sugar, served as dessert. 11. cuisine The ordinary word for kitchen in French, cuisine is also used to describe a manner or style of food preparation. 12. en brochette A brochette is a skewer. En brochette  refers to food cooked, and sometimes served, on  brochettes, or skewers, like shish kebab. Food served  en brochette  is generally grilled.   13. maà ®tre dhà ´tel  Ã‚   Maà ®tre is French for master. The maà ®tre d’hà ´tel is the host or manager of the â€Å"front† of a formal restaurant, the part that serves the customers. British speakers shorten the phrase to maà ®tre, but American speakers refer to this person as the maà ®tre d. The responsibilities of a maà ®tre dhà ´tel  generally include supervising the wait staff,  taking reservations, and welcoming guests. 14. omelette  (US omelet) A dish traditionally made of beaten eggs fried in a pan and folded over. Sometimes other ingredients are added to the egg mixture. 15. petit four A small fancy cake, biscuit, or sweet, usually served with coffee after a meal. The literal meaning is â€Å"little oven.† 16. plat du jour Literally, â€Å"plate of the day, the plat du jour is a dish prepared in addition to the usual menu, available only on that day. 17. pot-au-feu The literal meaning is â€Å"pot on the fire.† It can refer to a large traditional French cooking pot or to something cooked in one, usually a thick soup of meat and vegetables. 18. prix fixe [pree-feex] A prix fixe meal typically includes several courses, but, unlike la carte pricing, prix fixe indicates that all the courses are included under one â€Å"fixed price 19. roux   [roo] A mixture of fat and flour heated together and used in making sauces and soups. In the United States, a spicy roux is a staple of Cajun cooking in New Orleans. 20. sautà ©    The French verb sauter means â€Å"to jump.† Vegetables that are sautà ©ed are fried in a pan with a little butter over a high heat, while being tossed from time to time. 21. sommelier [so-mel-yay] A sommelier is a wine waiter or wine steward. 22. soupà §on   [soup-sohn] Soupà §on is French for suspicion. In cooking, a soupà §on is a very small quantity or slight trace of something, â€Å"a pinch.† 23. soupe du jour Like the plat du jour, the soupe du jour (â€Å"soup of the day†) is the advertised specialty on a given day. 24. vinaigrette A vinaigrette is a dressing of oil and wine vinegar, sometimes with herbs used with salads and cold vegetables 25. pià ¨ce de rà ©sistance [pee-es duh ray-seez-tahnce] In general usage, the phrase may refer to the prize item in a collection. For example, â€Å"The museum’s pià ¨ce de rà ©sistance is an exact reproduction of an American eighteenth century carpenter’s tiger maple chest.† In reference to food, the pià ¨ce de rà ©sistance is the main or most difficult-to-resist part of a meal. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:How to Structure A Story: The Eight-Point ArcRound vs. AroundHow to Treat Names of Groups and Organizations

Compare and contrast obama and mc cain Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Compare and contrast obama and mc cain - Essay Example President Obama went to high school in Hawaii, and attended college at Columbia University in New York. At Columbia, Barack attained his B.A. in political science with a specialization in International Relations. (Wikipedia 2009, 1) Later on, after being a community organizer for awhile on the South Side of Chicago—helping Blacks, Latinos, and whites in the midst of an economic crisis due to steel mill closures—Barack decided to attend law school. Barack matriculated to Harvard Law School in 1988. He was selected as the first Black student to become the head of the Harvard Law Review. (Wikipedia 2009, 1) For twelve years, Barack was a constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago; for seven years, he was appointed state legislator in the Illinois Senate; and finally, for four years, Barack was a U.S. Senator for Illinois. (Wikipedia 2009, 1) Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance is a memoir that the President wrote telling about the time from the beginning of his life in Hawaii up until his entry into Harvard Law School. (Wikipedia 2009, 1) This book told about the challenges he had growing up in a household, where his father was a Kenyan and his white mother from Kansas raised him. In his next book, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, Obama based his work on a speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, and also was inspired by a sermon of his then-pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. (Wikipedia 2009, 1) It was at the Convention that Obama first rose to national prominence, where there was talk of him becoming a Presidential contender. (Wikipedia 2009, 1) John McCain, like Obama, had a very solid educational background. McCain, like his father and grandfather, followed his male antecedents into the service of the Navy, graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1958. (Wikipedia 2009, 1) McCain, also a strong writer, having written five books. His book titles are as

Utilization of Information from Job Analysis Assignment

Utilization of Information from Job Analysis - Assignment Example This research will begin with the statement that Role Definition – Several of the tools of job analysis, such as a survey, log book, or interview, would help to define the roles of employees.   Since these tools would describe the parts of the job that are done, it would allow management to define the role of a particular job as well. Recruitment – By analyzing job duties for a variety of the jobs at a corporation, you would be better able to recruit potential employees.   This is because you would be able to give them a detailed listing of the sorts of things your company does, making it easier to attract employees with the right skills and experience. Selection - Worker Analysis would help with this duty, as you would be able to determine what kind of work is needed for a particular job, and would then know what kinds of workers you need to hire to fill a particular job. Placement – As with Recruitment, by learning what sorts of employees are required for p articular jobs, you would be better able to match up new hires with jobs that suit their skill set and their experiences. Training and Personnel development – Both Job and Worker Analysis would be useful for this task, as you would be able to determine both the skills needed for the job and the processes it involves.   Then you would be able to better train personnel based on these understandings. Performance Appraisal – By determining the duties of a particular job, you would be able to see how employees actually perform.  

Virtue in Machiavelli's Philosophy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Virtue in Machiavelli's Philosophy - Essay Example "It is necessary for a prince, wanting to maintain himself, to learn how to be able to be not good and to use this and not use it according to necessity"(Machiavelli 57). He believes that one good man is surely going to suffer among those who are not good. Thus, the virtue of goodness is meaningless for Machiavelli. If a price is imagined to be just as what Machiavelli conceptualizes, he would not be less than a criminally wicked tyrant. On contrast, the Discourses is a good usable book, though being long, nostalgic, and difficult as well. Here, Machiavelli's advices go to not just the rulers but the citizens, social reformers, political leaders, and the founders of republics. The purpose served is to establish and sustain their liberty as well as the avoidance of corruption "unless indeed the goodness of one individual, together with virtue, keeps it free"(Machiavelli xxiv). Improving from the downgraded non-virtuous theme of The Prince, In Discourses, Machiavelli explain that as a new price tends to preserve his principality with glory for a long time-beyond his death-the foundation of a republic is the best approach. "A corrupt city that lives under a prince, can never be turned into a free one, even if that prince is eliminated along with all his line"(Machiavelli xxiv). However, one thing is clear that he devaluates the republics and principalities as imagined by the writers with virtue. And, the reason is that they emphasized on the moral virtue which, according to him, invites ruin; plus they also rejected violence, cruelty, and loss of faith, which are unavoidable and acceptable for the preservation of the principality according to him. And, this is what is objectionable in The Prince where he goes against the morality set by the classical and biblical values with an intention of framing a novel and modern "political" conception of virtue. The new definition of virtue means something that does not prevent the human from first gaining and then maintaining whatever has been gained, especially the authority. However, morality is one of his targeted themes that also include politics at the first place, necessity, fortune, religion, etc. As far as moral values are concerned, he shows his dislikes for the people of his time because, in his views, they were not actually following the "ancient virtue" but instead were content with keeping ancient statues in their homes, and thus honoring and imitating them in that way. The deeds rendered by the ancient rulers and republics were not at all imitated, neither their examples were meaningful to the then political scenario, according to him. In the first preface to the Discourses he talks about correct history knowledge lacked by his time. This suggests that Machiavelli was not against the ancient value; rather, he praises it with an aim of improving it. He was not much concerned about the would-be negative results of his writings and was eager to bring about a "Machiavellian" interpretation of the ancient virtue-along with a new look of the Renaissance in terms of modernity rather than a copy of the past. Machiavelli's virtue is questioned mainly because some of the advices in The Prince-such as cruelty for the sake of the subject-go against the virtue as perceived by the human masses. Also, his

Transport across a membrane

Transport across a membrane Transport across a membrane occurs by one of two opposite means, actively or passively. Active transport requires the cell to utilise cellular energy in the form of ATP, in order to employ protein pumps or engage in the activity of endo / exocytosis. Passive transport therefore occurs with no energy expenditure by the cell, where molecules exit or enter the cell using kinetic energy, or protein channels. To this effect passive transport encompasses, osmosis, diffusion of a solute across a membrane, facilitated diffusion and transport of an ion down an electrochemical gradient. The reasoning for this is outlined below. Intrinsic homeostasis at a cellular and molecular level is achieved when the cell is in an isotonic environment where the internal solute concentration of a cell is in equilibrium with the external, extra cellular environment, solute concentration and there is no net movement of water in any direction. A change in concentration of solute, initiates transport across the membrane in order to achieve equilibrium once again. The cell membrane is a structure designed in such a way to allow passage of molecules and ions in and out of the cell, to and from the extracellular fluid, whilst keeping essential components such as organelles and ribosomes within its boundary. It is comprised of a phospho lipid bi-layer, in which are embedded a variety of carrier and channel proteins. The lipid bi-layer acts as a barrier to molecules in both directions and the proteins allow entrance and exit of select molecules. (www.faculty.weber.edu/jclark1/mem%20 Permeability. PDF 25.11.09) Some chemicals will traverse the membrane, such as water, carbon dioxide, oxygen, small polar molecules and lipids and others such as ions, amino acids, large polar and macromolecules will not and the membrane is effectively selectively permeable. (www.staff.jccc.net/PDECELL/cells/transport.html 25.11.09) The most basic category of passive transport is that of diffusion of a solute across a membrane. Molecules that move across the membrane in this manner are more soluble in oil than in water and hence effortlessly ‘dissolve in and spontaneously cross the non polar lipid core of the membrane bi layer Examples of these molecules are steroid hormones, Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide (www. Biologyreference.com/Ma-MO/membrane-Transport.html 26.11.09) during the process of diffusion, ‘molecules move from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration down the concentration gradient in order to achieve equilibrium. This is achieved by kinetic energy of the molecules whi ch are in Brownian motion. An increase in temperature causes the rate of diffusion to increase causing equilibrium to be achieved more quickly as kinetic energy increases. Size and type of molecule also has a bearing on the rate as the smaller the molecule the faster it will diffuse. Osmosis is purely ‘the diffusion of water molecules across a partially permeable membrane from a region of higher water potential to an area of lower water potential'(www.biologymad.com/resources-getting in and out of cells 25.11.09) In an isotonic surrounding there is no net movement of water molecules in either direction as there is no concentration gradient, however in a hypertonic solution where the concentration of solutes is higher and hence the water potential is more negative than the cell, water molecules from within the cell will move down the ‘water potential gradient to the extracellular fluid in order to achieve equilibrium. This can be shown in laboratory conditions by placing red blood cells in a hypertonic solution and observing them. Over time the cells will crenate as the water molecules exit the cell. Similarly if cells are in a hypotonic solution where the concentration of solutes is lower, the water potential is higher and hence the cells now have a more negative water potential and water will be taken into the cell by osmosis down the water potential gradient. Red blood cells left in a hypotonic solution and observed will show nothing under the microscope over time, as the cells eventually undergo cytolysis. (www.biologymad.com/resources-getting in and out of cells 25.11.09). Unfortunately most molecules cannot cross the membrane by straightforward diffusion alone as they are either too large, insoluble in lipid or they carry a charge which is repelled by the surface of the membrane. They therefore undergo facilitated diffusion, a mechanism by which passive transport still occurs without energy expenditure of the cell, but where the molecules are assisted across by groups of proteins inherent to the membrane. Facilitated diffusion still occurs down the concentration gradient but is specific to the molecule being facilitated. A carrier protein is specific to a particular molecule or class of molecules,(www.users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ulyranet/biologypages/d/diffusion.html#facilitated 26.11.09) where the molecule binds to the protein which in turn changes shape to enable the molecule to cross the membrane. An example of this being the transport of glucose into the cell. Once inside the cell glucose phosphate is manufactured for which there is no carrier prote in and hence glucose cannot pass back out of the cell. In this case equilibrium will never be reached. . (www.biologymad.com/resources-getting in and out of cells 25.11.09). In the case of transport of an ion down the electrochemical gradient, Ions transit from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration again through facilitated diffusion with the aid of intrinsic proteins called ion channels. Without these channels charged molecules such as K+ Na+ would be repelled by the charge on the membrane. Transmembrane channels that allow facilitated diffusion, can be permanently open, or can be closed and opened as in neurones, and as such are known as ‘gated, they open or close in reaction to a ligand, a signalling molecule which can be either extracellular or intracellular. It is the gated mechanism that allows a nerve impulse to pass along a neurone. Sometimes however it is necessary for cells to transport molecules against the gradient by the use of carrier proteins, known as protein pumps. They are akin to those of facilitated diffusion, except they are working against the gradient and therefore energy in the form of ATP is expended by the cell in the doing so. This process is known as Active Transport. In all the cases outlined above the objective of passive transport has been to transport molecules across the semi permeable membrane down a concentration gradient, without expenditure of energy to the cell, and, passive transport can be demonstrated by diffusion of a solute, osmosis, facilitated diffusion and transport of an ion down an electrochemical gradient.

Saint Sernin Of Toulouse And Notre Dame Of Paris Essay -- Architecture

Saint Sernin of Toulouse and Notre Dame of Paris   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When one thinks of St. Sernin and Notre Dame, one tends to think of two beautiful cathedrals, not to churches that portray two totally different styles of architecture. Those two styles are, of course, Romanesque in St. Sernin and the Gothic style of Notre Dame. Some characteristics that these two buildings share include quest for height, basic floor plan, and artistic flair. The period of Romanesque architecture, which lasted roughly from 1050 A.D. to 1150 A.D., concentrated mainly on achieving massive proportions, rounded vaulted bays, the round arch, the wall buttress, cylindrical apse and chapels, and towers. Early Gothic architecture, which began in 1144 with the dedication of Saint Denis, concentrated more on mastering the idea of an obscenely high ceiling, as well as ribbed and pointed vaults, the relationship between the structure and its appearance, and perhaps, most importantly the use of light.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One of the most enjoyable things about comparing the two structures of St. Sernin and Notre Dame is that there are so many differences as far as the particulars go, but in general the two cathedrals are very, very much alike. Through the years, enough architectural and engineering advances had been made to raise the ceiling to staggering new heights of over one hundred feet. The materials remained the same as they had for years before, stone and mortar. The basic floor plan remained the same,... Saint Sernin Of Toulouse And Notre Dame Of Paris Essay -- Architecture Saint Sernin of Toulouse and Notre Dame of Paris   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When one thinks of St. Sernin and Notre Dame, one tends to think of two beautiful cathedrals, not to churches that portray two totally different styles of architecture. Those two styles are, of course, Romanesque in St. Sernin and the Gothic style of Notre Dame. Some characteristics that these two buildings share include quest for height, basic floor plan, and artistic flair. The period of Romanesque architecture, which lasted roughly from 1050 A.D. to 1150 A.D., concentrated mainly on achieving massive proportions, rounded vaulted bays, the round arch, the wall buttress, cylindrical apse and chapels, and towers. Early Gothic architecture, which began in 1144 with the dedication of Saint Denis, concentrated more on mastering the idea of an obscenely high ceiling, as well as ribbed and pointed vaults, the relationship between the structure and its appearance, and perhaps, most importantly the use of light.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One of the most enjoyable things about comparing the two structures of St. Sernin and Notre Dame is that there are so many differences as far as the particulars go, but in general the two cathedrals are very, very much alike. Through the years, enough architectural and engineering advances had been made to raise the ceiling to staggering new heights of over one hundred feet. The materials remained the same as they had for years before, stone and mortar. The basic floor plan remained the same,...

Evolution of Musical Theatre

Lillian Davila   12858751064260 Evolution of Musical Theatre Lillian Davila Mr.ThoenPeriod two3 March 2018Evolution of Musical TheatreIn the musical Pippin, the main character, Pippin sang in Corner of the Sky, â€Å"Everything has its seasons, everything has its time.† This line explains that things are constantly changing. Musical theatre has evolved over the years musically, in the plot, and the setting of the plays. Over time, the music in musical theatre has shifted from a narrow to a broader focus. During the 5th century B.C. in Ancient Greece, early musical theatre first started with an all men cast and chorus. They would sing more focused songs to the gods and perform to express their ideas (University Press Inc.). But over the years different genres of music have been introduced into musical theatre, such as jazz and rock and roll (BeHappy/ Magioery). This brought a younger audience that could enjoy the music that would convey a broader message, making musical theatre more popular. Throughout the years the plot in musical theatre developed from a weak to a stronger storyline. The early stages of musical theatre would play music that would be irrelevant to the plot of the musical, and the storyline would not have a strong structure of the rising action, climax, and falling action. For example, comedy was opinionated humor that would have random funny actions with negative music (Magiorey/UPI). Eventually, the stories started addressing the social issues of the time period with a stronger story plot. For example in the musical, Hair the main idea of the show was to express how the hippies felt about the Vietnam War and how they wanted peace (FoxFace20/Magiorey). The stories include a more vivid plot that is interesting with more opinions and responses of social issues such as gender, race equality, and peace. Over the years, the setting in musical theatre has changed from outdoor to indoor performances. At first, the setting of the shows took place in open outdoor courtyards in Athens, Greece. Later, theatre was taken to Rome where the performances took place in the church. Shortly after, it became separate from the church, because the performers would mock the church (UPI/FoxFace20/Magiorey). After the 18th century, opera houses and theatres were built allowing for indoors stages with lighting effects and props (FoxFace20). Thus, there is a separate place dedicated for people to come and enjoy theatrical performances. To summarize, the music, the plot, and the setting of musical theatre has evolved allowing people to experience more vivid stories and hear a clearer point of view on issues of the time. It has transformed from a narrow focused weak plot, and outdoor setting, to a broader focus strong plot, and indoor setting. This change has been rapidly growing year after year and will continue into the future. As in the Broadway musical, Waitress, â€Å"Everything changes†.

Everything You Need to Know About The Great Gatsby Setting

Everything You Need to Know About The Great Gatsby Setting SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips One reason that The Great Gatsby has now become a byword for the East Coast of the Roaring 20s - the decadently extravagant post-WWI era - is that Fitzgerald was amazing at creating memorable settings. Whether it's the sprawling luxury of Gatsby's mansion, the drunken chaos of Myrtle's apartment, or the suffocating airlessness of a suite at the Plaza Hotel, The Great Gatsbyfeatures settings that perfectly encapsulate character, mood, atmosphere, and emotions. In this article, I'll go through all of the Great Gatsby settings, explain what role settings play in a novel, show how these settings compare with one another, and explore what symbolic meaning they have. Article Roadmap Why Is Setting Important All the Settings in The Great Gatsby Great Gatsby Time Period Setting 1922 Summertime Comparing and Contrasting PairedGreat GatsbyLocations Midwest versus East Coast Manhattan versus Long Island East Egg versus West Egg Gatsby's mansion versus Daisy and Tom's mansion The Valley of Ashes: Setting and Symbol How to Write About Setting Why Is Setting Important? The literary term "setting" means the time and place of anovel's events. If the characters are the "who," then the setting is the "where" and "when." This "where and when" can be very general - for example, "20th century Earth." Alternately, the setting can beeach of the manydifferent places where any of the novel’s actions occur, no matter how small. For instance, you could a imagine a domestic drama where different rooms in the same house work as different settings. Usually, novels feature several different settings, and authors use descriptive language to explain what these times and places look, smell, sound, and maybe even feel like. Using these descriptions, we can learn a lot! Settings help readers fully understand characters. Character backgrounds, motivations, and the pressures they feel from their environment and surrounding society, are often coded into the places where they are.For example, a 20-year-old woman in a novel set in Victorian England would be under enormous pressure to get married and have kids (this desperation isthe plot of Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth). Meanwhile, the same woman in a novel set in today’s NYC is going to be more worried about getting a job (the main drama in The Devil Wears Prada). Settings develop or affect plot. Actions that are commonplacein one setting would be impossible in another. Often this has to do with what is and isn't considered acceptable behavior. Other times, it has to do with the technology, transportation, or means of communication that are available in a particular time. Many bad decisions in G. R. R. Martin'sSong of Ice and Fire happen because it takes weeks or monthsto get a piece of information from one castle to another - the quasi-medieval setting dictates this part of the plot. Settings contribute to mood,tone, and atmosphere. Many novels use setting as a way of developing a particular mood. For instance, the magical yet desolate and creepy setting of the moors inWuthering Heights creates the prevailing air of menace, imprisonment, and terror that infects that novel. Contrast this with the cozy setting ofLittle Women, where the March house represents the loving, close-knit, family atmosphere of the novel as a whole. Settings are used for symbolic or thematic purposes. Sometimes a particular setting is linked to one of the novel's themes, functions as a symbol, or if used to make moral, ethical, or aesthetic judgments. For example, in The Great Gatsby, the Valley of Ashes – an industrial neighborhood in Queens – symbolizes the desperate circumstances of those who are victims of the capitalist system the novel describes. There's a reason horror movies aren't typically set in sunny green meadows. All the Settings In The Great Gatsby Before analyzing theGreat Gatsby settings, I'm going to briefly explain and describe all the different settings that the novel uses. Time Setting The Great Gatsby takes place during the summer of 1922. The 1920s are a period that is sometimes called the Roaring 20s or the Jazz Age. Location Settings The Great Gatsby takes place in the United States. Most of the characters come from the Midwest to the East Coast. In the novel, the East Coast setting is divided into three distinct places: Manhattan, Long Island, and an industrial part of Queens that the novel calls either the Valley of Ashes or just the ashheaps. In Manhattan, we see two main settings: Tom and Myrtle's apartment uptown in Harlem, and asuite in the very posh Plaza Hotel next to Central Park. Gatsby's Long Island is broken down into two incredibly wealthy towns that face each other across a bay: West Egg, less fashionable and home to new money people,and East Egg, where older and more established families live. We see two WestEgg settings: Jay Gatsby's sprawling, extravagant mansion, and Nick Carraway's small rented house next door. In East Egg lies Tom and Daisy Buchanan's red and white Georgian mansion. In the novel's version of Queens, the main setting is George Wilson's garage and the road that runs next to it, connecting Long Island and Manhattan. Oheka Castle, one of the real life mansions that aresaid to have inspired Fitzgerald. Quick Note on Our Citations Our citation format in this guide is (chapter.paragraph). We're using this system since there are many editions of Gatsby, so using page numbers would only work for students with our copy of the book. To find a quotation we cite via chapter and paragraph in your book, you can either eyeball it (Paragraph 1-50: beginning of chapter; 50-100: middle of chapter; 100-on: end of chapter), or use the search function if you're using an online or eReader version of the text. Great Gatsby Time Period Setting What makes the Roaring 20’s different from other periods in history, and why does all the action take place in the summer time? 1922 The novel takes place during a period of enormous change and transition for the U.S. 1919 brought the end of World War I, a war marked byits massive death toll and the horrors of trench warfare which countered the image of soldiering as glorious and heroic. The young men who fought inthe war were dubbed The Lost Generation: the devastated and aimless survivors and the needlessly slaughtered dead. The post-war period in Americawas later dubbed theRoaring 20s because ofthecountry's rapidly growing economy and the greater influence abroad that came as a result of American involvement in the war. Many of the things this time period is famous forconnect with eventsin the novel. Prohibition went into effect in 1920, making almost all recreation alcohol illegal. This means thatany time you see people drinking alcohol in the novel, they are breaking the law. Moreover,Gatsby’s enormous wealth comes from him being a bootlegger - someone who illegally sells alcohol Women got the right to vote in 1919, and the Equal Rights Amendment wasfirst introduced in Congress in 1923. InThe Great Gatsby, the power and agency of women come up often. The three women in the novel make choices about their independence; Daisy and Myrtle find it hard to escape dysfunctional marriages, though they try through affairs; Jordan is able to lead a more independent life. The production and ownership of cars skyrocketedafter Ford popularized the efficient mass production of cars by assembly line. In the 1920, 1 out of 4 Americans owned a car. In the novel, cars are associated with danger and recklessness, as people are constantly either talking about car accidents or getting into them.And of course, the climax of the novel is when Daisy runs over and kills Myrtle. Summer The Great Gatsby pointedly takes place during the summer,as opposed to any other season. I say pointedly because the novel goes out of its way to assign meaning to summertime and to contrast it with the rest of the year - and often even with itself. For example, summer is somehow both healthfully airy and horribly suffocating. Nick initially relishes the Long Island summer, shirking his work because there is "so much fine health to be pulled down out of the young breath-giving air" (1.12). But in the tense confrontation in the Plaza Hotel, where Tom, Gatsby, and Daisy have a life-changing fight, the oppressive and unbearable summer heat means the room has basically no breathable air at all: The room was large and stifling, and, though it was already four o'clock, opening the windows admitted only a gust of hot shrubbery from the Park... "Open another window," commanded Daisy, without turning around. "There aren't any more." "Well, we'd better telephone for an axe- - " "The thing to do is to forget about the heat," said Tom impatiently. "You make it ten times worse by crabbing about it." ...the compressed heat exploded into sound and we were listening to the portentous chords of Mendelssohn's Wedding March from the ballroom below. "Imagine marrying anybody in this heat!" cried Jordan dismally. (7.174-190) Similarly, it's up for debate whether the summer brings with it life - the way we typically associate new foliage with a sense of rebirth - or not. On the one hand, Nick starts out with a traditional view of the summertime: And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees-just as things grow in fast movies-I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer. (1.) But soon, Jordan compares summer unfavorably to the potentially positive change that fall brings when she says. Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall. (7.75) This desire to have life start over again is crucial, since this novel is so interested in how the wish for forward momentum fights against the way the past anchors us and pulls us back. Despite his initial positive feelings about the summer on the East Coast, Nick eventually reverts to his roots in the Midwest. He contrasts the disappointing summer he spends on Long Island withthe season he associates with Midwestern wholesomeness and goodness - winter: That's my middle west- not the wheat or the prairies or the lost Swede towns but the thrilling, returning trains of my youth and the street lamps and sleigh bells in the frosty dark and the shadows of holly wreaths thrown by lighted windows on the snow. I am part of that, a little solemn with the feel of those long winters, a little complacent from growing up in the Carraway house in a city where dwellings are still called through decades by a family's name. I see now that this has been a story of the West, after all- Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life. (9.125) I don't know about you, but I'll take this version of summer any day. Comparing and Contrasting PairedGreat GatsbyLocations Now let'stackle theGreat Gatsby settingsthatfunction as foils to one another. We can analyze them by comparing and contrasting them to each other. Midwest vs. East Coast Considering Nick eventually decides that whathe has written is really the story of Midwesterners failing to make it on the East Coast, these might be the two most significant settings in the novel. Still, before we dive in, it's important to remember that this Midwest is Nick's version of the Midwest, which is often undercut (for instance,a lot of Gatsby's criminal business comesas phone calls frombig Midwestern cities like Detroit). Nick describesthe Midwest as the center of all things moral and wholesome.It's a place where everyone is friendly, happy, innocent, and so much "in it together," that when he is describing his memories of the Midwest, Nick doesn't use the pronoun "I," but instead starts writing in the first floors person plural "we": One of my most vivid memories is of coming back west from prep school and later from college at Christmas time...I remember the fur coats of the girls returning from Miss This or That's and the chatter of frozen breath and the hands waving overhead as we caught sight of old acquaintances and the matchings of invitations: "Are you going to the Ordways'? the Herseys'? the Schultzes'?" and the long green tickets clasped tight in our gloved hands. And last the murky yellow cars of the Chicago Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad looking cheerful as Christmas itself on the tracks beside the gate. When we pulled out into the winter night and the real snow, our snow, began to stretch out beside us and twinkle against the windows, and the dim lights of small Wisconsin stations moved by, a sharp wild brace came suddenly into the air. We drew in deep breaths of it as we walked back from dinner through the cold vestibules, unutterably aware of our identity with this country for one strange hour before we melted indistinguishably into it again. (9.123-124) In contrast, the East Coast is a place where everyone is so out for themselves, that after Gatsby dies none of the people whom he spent an entire summer entertaining can even be bothered enough to come to his funeral. In the beginning, this Midwestern quality of goodness strikes Nickas boring, which is why he decides to go East to New York: Instead of being the warm center of the world the middle-west now seemed like the ragged edge of the universe- so I decided to go east and learn the bond business. (1.6) But after his experiences during the summer, Nick comes to see the East as a kind of nightmare of debauchery, violence, and a disregard for human life: Even when the East excited me most, even when I was most keenly aware of its superiority to the bored, sprawling, swollen towns beyond the Ohio, with their interminable inquisitions which spared only the children and the very old- even then it had always for me a quality of distortion. West Egg especially still figures in my more fantastic dreams. I see it as a night scene by El Greco: a hundred houses, at once conventional and grotesque, crouching under a sullen, overhanging sky and a lustreless moon. In the foreground four solemn men in dress suits are walking along the sidewalk with a stretcher on which lies a drunken woman in a white evening dress. Her hand, which dangles over the side, sparkles cold with jewels. Gravely the men turn in at a house- the wrong house. But no one knows the woman's name, and no one cares. After Gatsby's death the East was haunted for me like that, distorted beyond my eyes' power of correction. (9.126-127) Manhattan vs. Long Island The action in The Great Gatsby is about evenly split between Manhattan and Long Island. Overall, Manhattan is the place where characters go to show off their disregard for society’s rules and lawful behavior. It's the easiest place to accommodate sexual indiscretions and shady business dealings: In Chapter 2, Tom takes Nick there to meet his mistress, Myrtle, and go to a party at their apartment, where Tom has sex with her while Nick waits, and where Tom ends the evening by punching Myrtle in the face. Gatsby takes Nick to Manhattan in Chapter 4 to have lunch with Meyer Wolfshiem, the gangster who fixed the World Series and who is Gatsby’s business partner. Finally,Gatsby, Nick, Daisy, Jordan, and Tom to go Manhattan in the explosive Chapter 7 showdown where Daisy chooses Tom over Gatsby. Partly this is because Manhattan is portrayed as a melting pot where a diversity of social classes, races, and backgrounds is par for the course, and where unusual people don't really stand out. For example, check out this passage where Nick and Gatsby are driving into the city: The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world. A dead man passed us in a hearse heaped with blooms, followed by two carriages with drawn blinds and by more cheerful carriages for friends. The friends looked out at us with the tragic eyes and short upper lips of south-eastern Europe, and I was glad that the sight of Gatsby's splendid car was included in their somber holiday. As we crossed Blackwell's Island a limousine passed us, driven by a white chauffeur, in which sat three modish Negroes, two bucks and a girl. I laughed aloud as the yolks of their eyeballs rolled toward us in haughty rivalry. "Anything can happen now that we've slid over this bridge," I thought; "anything at all. . . ." Even Gatsby could happen, without any particular wonder. (4.55-58) There are wealthy African-Americans, European immigrants, the living and the dead, all mixed together without a problem. The city is awash in possibility, the "wild promise" that anything could happen there - "even Gatsby." Also, misdeeds are easy to get away with in Manhattan because its size affords everyone enormous anonymity, which Nick loves: I began to like New York, the racy, adventurous feel of it at night and the satisfaction that the constant flicker of men and women and machines gives to the restless eye. I liked to walk up Fifth Avenue and pick out romantic women from the crowd and imagine that in a few minutes I was going to enter into their lives, and no one would ever know or disapprove. (3.157) On the other hand,Long Island is a much smaller, more insular community. Instead of shrugging off anonymous misbehavior, the people on Long Island care deeply about who their neighbors are and what theyare doing. It's harder to conduct affairs, shady business, or whatever else there without incurring the moral opprobrium of everyone else. While Gatsby is unremarkable in Manhattan, in West Egg he becomes the focal point of unending rumors. People say he is related to Kaiser Willhelm (the ruler of Germany during WWI, and thus America's main enemy), that he is a German spy, and any number of other things: Gatsby's notoriety, spread about by the hundreds who had accepted his hospitality and so become authorities on his past, had increased all summer until he fell just short of being news. Contemporary legends such as the "underground pipe-line to Canada" attached themselves to him, and there was one persistent story that he didn't live in a house at all, but in a boat that looked like a house and was moved secretly up and down the Long Island shore. (6.5) Similarly, Tom's affair with Myrtle benefits from its city setting, asTomfeels free to cheat on his wife in public: "he turned up in popular restaurants with her and, leaving her at a table, sauntered about, chatting with whomsoever he knew" (2.4). Meanwhile, when Daisy and Gatsby start their affair, Gatsby has to fire his entire household staff because he is worried that his servants will tell everyone what they've seen: Gatsby had dismissed every servant in his house a week ago and replaced them with half a dozen others, who never went into West Egg Village to be bribed by the tradesmen... The grocery boy reported that the kitchen looked like a pigsty, and the general opinion in the village was that the new people weren't servants at all. Next day Gatsby called me on the phone. "Going away?" I inquired. "No, old sport." "I hear you fired all your servants." "I wanted somebody who wouldn't gossip. (7. 9-14) You can see how rumor immediately spreads and is uncontainable in the close circles of Long Island. Even despite all of Gatsby's precautions, Nick has already "heard" from someone else that Gatsby has fired all his servants. This minute observation of one's neighbors really differentiates the towns in Long Island from the big city of Manhattan. The rumor mill even brings a reporter out to interview Gatsby in Chapter 6. West Egg vs. East Egg While very rich people live in both East Egg and West Egg, the difference is the kind of rich people live in each town. East Egg is for the old money crowd - people whose wealth is inherited, and who have been the upper crust of society for generations. In contrast,West Egg is for the nouveau riche - self-made people who have become rich recently and who were originally born into working or middle-class families. This means that in generaleveryone from East Egg looks down on everyone from West Egg in order to demonstrate their superiority.(Nick is one of the exceptions: he lives in West Egg despite having the family background necessary to fit in in East Egg).At one of Gatsby’s parties, Nick hangs out with an East Egg group who don’t socialize with anyone else and who are clearly there to mock and be appalled by the other party guests: Jordan invited me to join her own party who were spread around a table on the other side of the garden...Instead of rambling this party had preserved a dignified homogeneity, and assumed to itself the function of representing the staid nobility of the countryside- East Egg condescending to West Egg, and carefully on guard against its spectroscopic gayety. (3.37) This also means that since they can’t distinguish themselves through their wealth, East Egg residents rely on their better understanding of the nuances and minutiae of manners and behavior to signal that they are so very far above their West Egg neighbors. We get the sense that every East Egg person is forever sending knowing looks at every other East Egg person every time they encounter someone from West Egg. For example, check out Gatsby’s encounter with Tom’s horseback riding friend Sloane and his woman friend, when Gatsby repeatedly puts his foot in his mouth: Mr. Sloane didn't enter into the conversation but lounged back haughtily in his chair; the woman said nothing either-until unexpectedly, after two highballs, she became cordial. "We'll all come over to your next party, Mr. Gatsby," she suggested. "What do you say?" "Certainly. I'd be delighted to have you."... "You come to supper with me," said the lady enthusiastically. "Both of you."... Gatsby looked at me questioningly. He wanted to go and he didn't see that Mr. Sloane had determined he shouldn't... "My God, I believe the man's coming," said Tom. "Doesn't he know she doesn't want him?" "She says she does want him."... Suddenly Mr. Sloane and the lady walked down the steps and mounted their horses. "Come on," said Mr. Sloane to Tom, "we're late. We've got to go." And then to me: "Tell him we couldn't wait, will you?" Tom and I shook hands, the rest of us exchanged a cool nod and they trotted quickly down the drive, disappearing under the August foliage just as Gatsby with hat and light overcoat in hand came out the front door. (6.38-59) Gatsby, the quintessential West Egg-er, can’t tell that the woman doesn’t want him to come to her party. He is even less able to see that Sloane really doesn’t want him to come. And he doesn’t seem to sense how rude they are being to him - something which Tom and Nick pickup on immediately. This social cluelessness and lack of social adroitness translate into the style with which Gatsby lives his life. He spends enormous sums of money, but with every purchase, he is always showing that he is new to the moneyed scene. Let’s see how this plays out in his house. Gatsby’s Mansion vs. Daisy and Tom’s Mansion The differences between old money and new money are reflected primarily bydifferences in style, aesthetics, and taste. Gatsby typifies the ostentatious, over-the-top conspicuous consumption of those whose wealth is new and so must be always on display: I lived at West Egg, the- well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them. My house was at the very tip of the egg, only fifty yards from the Sound, and squeezed between two huge places that rented for twelve or fifteen thousand a season. The one on my right was a colossal affair by any standard- it was a factual imitation of some Hà ´tel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool and more than forty acres of lawn and garden. It was Gatsby's mansion. (1.14) His house is a reproduction of French chateau. This is ridiculous both because this French design is out of place in America, and also because it is a visibly brand new building trying to replicate something that would be centuries old. It’s completely ludicrous, and it is telling that the only person who has the desiredresponse to this mansion is Gatsby’s father: It was a photograph of the house, cracked in the corners and dirty with many hands. He pointed out every detail to me eagerly. "Look there!" and then sought admiration from my eyes. (9.102) Gatsby’s father has the same taste as Gatsby - the appreciation of a poor person for the trappings of wealth. Meanwhile, Daisy and Tom live in a house that is also extravagant, but one that has its luxury somewhat concealed: Their house was even more elaborate than I expected, a cheerful red and white Georgian Colonial mansion overlooking the bay. The lawn started at the beach and ran toward the front door for a quarter of a mile, jumping over sun-dials and brick walks and burning gardens- finally when it reached the house drifting up the side in bright vines as though from the momentum of its run. The front was broken by a line of French windows, glowing now with reflected gold, and wide open to the warm windy afternoon (1.18) The windows were ajar and gleaming white against the fresh grass outside that seemed to grow a little way into the house. A breeze blew through the room, blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale flags, twisting them up toward the frosted wedding cake of the ceiling- and then rippled over the wine-colored rug (1.26) The house is much more fit for its location - Georgian Colonial is an architectural style that is appropriate toAmerica (as its name suggests, it came from England during the colonial period). The description also confirms the permanenceof the Buchanans' mansion. Gatsby’s house is fighting with its surroundings (it’s off both in time period, and it seems to be having a problem with the â€Å"raw† ivy). In contrast, Daisy and Tom’s house is so much a part of the environment that the grass â€Å"seemed to grow a little way into the house,† blurring outside and inside just like the open windows that let the breeze blow through. It may not be too much to read some foreshadowing into these contrasting descriptions: Gatsby’s house is too new and not rooted enough. Meanwhile, the place where Daisy and Tom live is deeply embedded and seems unbreakable. No one's pulling this thing out of the ground anytime soon. The Valley of Ashes: Setting and Symbol The Valley of Ashesin The Great Gatsby functions both as a literal place where the climactic event of the novel happens, and is also a powerful symbol – in other words, a concrete object that stands for an abstract idea connected to the novel's themes. The Valley of Ashes is the name that Nick gives to an industrial neighborhood in Queens that the rich have to drive through on their way from the Eggs to Manhattan. This is where George Wilson has his gas station, and where Myrtle Wilson is run over and killed by Daisy. Suitably, it is a horribly bleak and drab place: About half way between West Egg and New York the motor-road hastily joins the railroad and runs beside it for a quarter of a mile, so as to shrink away from a certain desolate area of land. This is a valley of ashes- a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. Occasionally a line of grey cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-grey men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud which screens their obscure operations from your sight. (2.1) This is the place where those who cannot make it in the cutthroat world of East Coast capitalism end up. It is also the place propping up much of that wealth through the production coming from the factories that are polluting the spot. But the description that transforms the ash that covers everything from simply being dust to a scary substance capable of creating otherworldly plans and people signals that this Valley of Ashes has rich symbolic meaning. For a detailed analysis of how this symbol functions within the great Gatsby, check out our articles on how to approach symbols in general and on the Valley of Ashes as a symbol in particular. How to Write About The Great GatsbySetting So how do you use setting to create a compelling essay? Pick a Topic There are severalways to go about findingyour topic when tackling this kind of assignment. Here are some possibilities: Close reading. You can focus on settings themselves, digging really deeply into the description of one, two, or more places or times in the novel to explore how word choice, similes, metaphors, and any other literary devices help the reader visualize location. For example, you could trace the way the word "ash" appears in the novel, at first defining The Valley of Ashes itself is a kind of fantastical alternate reality, and then spreading outtoward the places of the privileged. You could focus on a literary device called metonymy, using a part to stand in for the whole, and explore why the novel chooses to focus on Dustin Ash as the representative aspect of this neighborhood. Connection to character. Often, setting is away to define character. If you write about this, your essay will tease out the common qualities of a character and of the place most closely associated with that character. These will either be synergistic, with one amplifying the other, or else theywill play as a contrast, undercutting the character. In our case, for instance, Gatsby's mansion speaks volumes about how he sees himself andhis money, and also about the vast gulf that separates him from the upper elite that he really wants to be part of. Conversely, Nick's pokey little house seems humble and unassuming, much like Nick wants to project himself to be. But in reality, by being located next to obscenely luxurious mansions, the house is only falsely modest, and shows off some of Nick's poorly disguised snobbery. (Read more about all the novel's characters in our overview article.) Connection to theme. Similarly, setting can help clarify a novel's theme by providing a concrete example of an abstract idea. In the great Gatsby, you could focus on the way one or more of the settings play into the failure of the American Dream, one of this novel's most salient themes. One way to do this would be to focus on the Valley of Ashes, the place where dreams come to die, both literally and figuratively. If the idea of the American dream is that through hard work anyone can become successful, then George Wilson's tragic fate, as exemplified through his garage and circumstances, serves to completely debunk this myth. Create an Argument It’s not enough to just describe one of the novel'ssettingsand explain its possible connections to either character or theme - or to compare and contrast it to another setting. Instead, you have to make sure that you’re making some kind of point about why/how the settingfunctions in the novel as a whole. How do you know if you’re making an argument and not just saying the obvious? If you can imagine someone arguing the opposite of what you’re saying, then you’ve got an argument on your hands. Once you've figured out what you want to argue, startsmall by analyzing chunks of the text where the symbol pops up, and then broadening your points out to the rest of the book. This way, your argument will be strengthened by textual evidence. What’s Next? Learn how to write about the themesthat settingsare usually linked to. Get help on other assignments by reading our guide on analyzingor comparing and contrasting characters. Brush up on the context of these settingsin our summary of The Great Gatsby. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

ACT Prep for ESL and Bilingual Students

ACT Prep for ESL and Bilingual Students SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Unless a 4 year college has a test flexible policy, it requires the ACT or SAT from all its applicants. Since the ACT is meant to measure your academic skills for college classes that will be taught in English, there's no option for ACT dual language or ACT instructions in another language. ESL and bilingual students have to take the ACT for many colleges. In a lot of cases, they have to take the TOEFL or IELTS, as well, to demonstrate their English language proficiency. The ACT is a tough test for all students, and its time and verbal demands make it especially challenging for English language learners. Luckily, prepping for the ACT, once you have sufficient English language skills, can go a long way toward improving your scores. Let's go over what the ACT is all about and what you can do to get ready. What's Tested on the ACT? If you're looking for an ACT ESL or ACT in Spanish version, unfortunately you're out of luck. There's no option for ACT dual language for bilingual students. Having limited English proficiency doesn't count as a reason to get extended time, either. Only students with a documented disability may be approved for time accommodations. The ACT has four sections, all of them in English: English, Math, Reading, and Science. They always come in that order. There's also the option of taking the ACT with Writing, which adds a 30 minute essay at the end. A lot of non-native English speakers prefer the ACT to the SAT for a few reasons. One is that the essay is not required and not a part of the overall score, unlike on the current SAT. A second reason is that the ACT doesn't test as advanced, high level vocabulary as the SAT. Finally, a lot of students appreciate that the ACT has a Science section, which is more quantitative and less heavy on verbal skills. The English section tests your knowledge of grammar rules and structure. You'll have to identify and fix sentence errors within paragraphs, along with rearranging ideas for a more logical organization. The Math tests pre-algebra, algebra, geometry, and trigonometry and comes in one long 60 minute section. After Math is the Reading section. Reading presents passages and asks questions about main purpose, vocabulary, and inferences, among others. Finally, the Science section asks about biology, chemistry, physics, and earth sciences, but focuses less on facts and more on reasoning and interpretation skills within the field of natural sciences. It doesn't test very advanced content knowledge, so you may have all the scientific background you need by 9th or 10th grade. Because of the Science section's emphasis on skills of interpretation and reasoning, it's sometimes likened to the Reading section even more than to the Math. Even so, a lot of ESL students find they can score more highly on the Math and Science sections. The ACT is a time intensive, fast-paced test. You'll have to answer a lot of questions under limited time. this means you also have to have the language skills to answer questions accurately and quickly. The good news is that the test is very coachable, and preparation goes a long way. Before starting to prep, you should ask yourself, What's my English level? Am I ready to start prepping for the ACT? First step: measure your ESL level. What's Your English Level? What would you consider your level of English to be, beginner, intermediate, or advanced? Apart from your level in your classes at school, another way to measure your English skills is by taking the TOEFL. Many ACT experts agree that you aren't ready to start prepping for the ACT until you've scored between an 80 and 90 on the TOEFL. The minimum TOEFL score I've seen colleges require is a 79, while an Ivy League school like Yale requires at least 100. While ACT prep is essential and can help you achieve large score improvements, you have to have enough knowledge of the language to prep effectively. Let's look at what you can do to prepare yourself at each of these three levels. If you're High Beginner or High Intermediate, you can take advice from both sections and determine which approach best applies to you. ACT Prep for Beginner English Language Learners If you're in beginner level ESL, then you're probably not ready quite yet to start prepping for the ACT or to go directly into college level courses. You should focus on improving your English language reading, writing, listening, and speaking. You can begin to familiarize yourself with what's tested on the ACT, and that way you can make sure to learn relevant information, like math terms and grammar rules. Overall, the best approach you can take at this level is to continue learning English. If you're already a senior in high school, you might consider an ESL bridge program. A lot of colleges, like UMass Boston, University of New Hampshire, and Roger Williams, offer programs for ESL students to study English before moving into the undergraduate program. Another option is enrolling in community college, which may require the TOEFL but won't ask for the ACT. You can keep improving your English there and gaining college credits. When you're ready, you can then transfer to a 4-year college. In the end, your diploma will be from the 4-year college. As a beginner ESL student, you should contine building up your vocabulary, reading comprehension, writing skills, and knowledge of English idioms. Once you approach the intermediate and high intermediate level, you can begin to do more focused prep for the ACT. Start early to give your skills time to grow. ACT Prep for Intermediate English Language Learners If you're an intermediate ELL, then you could benefit from some ACT prep, but still will have challenges with English, Reading, and, if you choose to take it, essay section. If you want a more precise measure of your readiness, you might take the TOEFL or try sample TOEFL questions to see if you make that benchmark of 80 to 90. The first step in prep should be familiarizing yourself with exactly what's tested on the ACT. What do you need to know for the English, Math, Reading, and Science sections? Find out about the types of questions, what the instructions say, and how much time you have. Eventually, learn about strategies to save time and narrow down your answer choices. As I mentioned above, ESL students typically score higher on the Math and Science sections than on the English and Reading. For these sections, you want to make sure you've learned the content, like geometry and trigonometry, as well as brush up on your math and science vocabulary. You may be a whiz at trigonometry, but if you don't understand what a question is asking, you won't be able to show it. Native and non-native English speakers prepping for the ACT should focus their prep on the areas where they need it most. If reading comprehension and essay writing are most challenging for you, then spend the most amount of time reviewing, practicing, and going over your mistakes in those sections. For the English section, study grammar rules and read as much as you can with an eye for structure and organization of ideas. Another way you can root out your strong areas and weak points is by taking official ACT practice tests. Score them and find out where you did well and where you need to improve. Most intermediate students will still have a tough time scoring highly on the ACT, as it really requires advanced English skills. Your prep can help you improve both your performance on the ACT and your English at the same time. While you prep, though, you want to make sure you're using the most effective method. Let's consider the options. Choose the method of test prep that will best get you from Point A to Point B. Methods of ACT Prep for Intermediate Students There are a few main methods of prep for the ACT: self-studying with books, classes, online prep programs like PrepScholar, and one-on-one tutoring. Of these four methods, I would only recommend the last two for intermediate ESL students, online programs and one-on-one tutoring. The ACT is a challenging test, and coming up with and sticking to a study plan is tough as well. With books, you don't know if you're tackling the material in the best way. You also will probably run into confusion and not have anyone to help clear it up. A major part of test prep is reading through answer explanations and analyzing your mistakes. If you're unsure why you made a mistake, then you won't learn for next time. Instead, you'll repeat it over and over. The problem with classes is that few are geared toward ESL students. They move at too fast a pace and don't offer a ton of individualized attention. A class could end up discouraging you more than it teaches you. With online programs and one-on-one tutoring, you have the help and explanations you need. PrepScholar's program starts with a diagnostic pre-test, and then customizes the curriculum and study plan to best meet your needs. You'll know exactly how to prep, use high quality material, and have access to lots of strategies. Plus you'll get feedback on ACT essays. Tutors can also customize curriculum for you. The best ones have experience working with ESL students. The limitation here is the cost of tutoring, the skill of the tutor, and potentially infrequent meetings. With an online program, you can access it anytime you have internet. Prep takes a lot of time, dedication, and structure to do well. If possible, you should start a year or two out and leave yourself time to take the ACT more than once. Finally, this brings us to ESL students who are in the advanced level and/or fluent. How should advanced ESL students prep for the ACT? ACT Prep for Advanced English Language Learners The ACT is a demanding test for native and non-native speakers of English. Advanced ESL students sometimes have an advantage over native English speakers, because they usually explicity study the grammar rules and conventions of English. If this sounds like you, this technical understanding can help you out a lot on the English section. As an advanced student, you should start by learning about the ACT and then taking a practice test. Score your test and find out where you need the most prep. Take the time to thoroughly understand your mistakes and find ways to fill in your gaps in knowledge. While you shouldn't leave out studying for the Math and Science sections, you probably want to focus especially on English and Reading. Outside of using ACT materials, you should read widely to continuously improve your reading comprehension and ability to understand the meaning of vocabulary words in context. ACT Word of the Day and ACT Question of the Day are also a convenient way to gradually build up your knowledge. Advanced ESL students may benefit more than intermediate students from self-studying with books and in classes, but I'd still recommend online programs or tutoring to have that extra element of support. Not only will these last two options offer you help, feedback, and a customized plan, but you'll also get, at least with PrepScholar, feedback on practice essays. ACT essay scorers are looking for as few errors as possible in grammar, structure, and spelling. If you score highly enough on the Reading and English sections, then yourcolleges might waive the TOEFL requirement. For instance, Johns Hopkins waives the TOEFL if you achieve the high ACT bilingual scores of 30+ on both sections. Check with admissions offices to make sure you understand exactly what tests are expected of you as an ESL student, even if you're already fluent and took only one ESL course in high school. Determine your target ACT scores early and start reviewing content and learning new strategies. Read on for a possible game plan for your study schedule. Make a Plan for Your ACT Prep Consider how much time you have and your budget for test prep, along with what method works best with your study style. I recommend finding that extra support, if financially possible, that comes with an online program or a qualified, experienced tutor. The extra help and explanations you'll get will be a huge help in improving your scores. Based on your English level and potential colleges, you can figure out your target scores by section and composite score. Weigh the amount of time you have against the available test dates. Remember that the fall of senior year is probably your last chance to test ahead of college deadlines. To give yourself a lot of time to prep and retest, you could take the ACT for the first time in the spring of sophomore year after studying a few hours each week throughout the year. Unless you're satisifed with your scores, you could study more intensively over the summer and take it again in the fall of junior year. Then you might have about two more chances to test, in the spring of junior year and fall of senior year. There are more test dates in between, but you shouldn't have to take the official ACT many more times than this. You'd be better served putting your time into studying and taking practice tests. This schedule might be too early if you haven't learned the algebra, geometry, trigonometry, or lab skills yet to tackle the Math and Science sections. Again, familiarize yourself with the test to know if you have the content knowledge to understand the material. All of this prep for the ACT will help you not just earn the test scores you need for college, but also further sharpen your English language and study skills. All of this will help you succeed once you reach the college level. What's Next? We have a ton of free resources for ACT prep and strategies for students at all scoring levels. Check out these guides and explore the many more articles we have to help you excel on the ACT! The 21 ACT Tips You Should Be Using Today How Science/Math People Can Do Well on ACT Reading The Ultimate Study Guide for ACT Science: Tips, Practice, and Strategies The Complete Prep Guide for ACT Reading The Full Study Guide for ACT English What ACT Target Score Should You Be Aiming For? How to Stop Running Out of Time on ACT Math The Best Way to Approach the ACT Reading Passage ACT Writing Tips: 15 Strategies to Raise Your Essay Score Want to improve your ACT score by 4 points?We have the industry's leading ACT prep program. Built by Harvard grads and ACT full scorers, the program learns your strengths and weaknesses through advanced statistics, then customizes your prep program to you so you get the most effective prep possible. Check out our 5-day free trial today:

The Cubist Movement and Les Demoiselles dAvignon Essay

The Cubist Movement and Les Demoiselles dAvignon - Essay Example The essay "The Cubist Movement and Les Demoiselles d’Avignon" investigates the role of Pablo Picasso in the context of cubism. His focus on emotions was a reaction to the perfectionism of the photograph and the machine age and a justification for the continuation of the art of painting as an art form. The approach they took was to portray the realism of the subject by breaking the established rules of art in order to explore images or reflections of pure emotion. Lyotard describes this process as an attempt â€Å"to make visible that there is something which can be conceived and which can neither be seen nor made visible†. This â€Å"something that can be conceived but not seen nor made visible† is often referred to as the sublime, a quality of transcendent greatness â€Å"with which nothing else can be compared and which is beyond all possibility of calculation, measurement or imitation†. The presence of this sublime element, then, inspires the imaginatio n in a specific direction based on which elements remain visible or understandable. Its significance is in the way in which it brings attention to the uncertainty of meaning inherent in the work, such that no resolution makes itself apparent and the viewer is forced to come to an understanding of his or her own. This establishes a communication between the art, the artist and the viewer that goes beyond the image on the canvas and remains individual for each viewer. For artists of the Modernism, to achieve this sublime element meant to throw away the training.

Asses the fundamental principles of Jurisprudence in Lumets film Essay

Asses the fundamental principles of Jurisprudence in Lumets film Twelve Angry Men - Essay Example That is until one juror votes â€Å"not guilty† on the grounds that â€Å"it’s possible† that the man is innocent. That one phrase is the key to his argument, which enables him to change the opinions of every other juror in the room and turn a near conviction into an acquittal. The juror, Juror #8, argues that it is not certain that the witnesses were correct in their testimonies. When one of the other jurors argues against him and says that what they are doing isn’t an exact science he replies, â€Å"That’s right, it isn’t†. This juror recognizes the fundamental principles of jurisprudence as it applies to juries in a court of law. He knows that jury deliberation should be approached from a careful perspective and should not stray from that perspective. Juror #8 recognizes that there is an ethical ground by which every member of a jury should adhere to. â€Å"The jury has the right to determine both the law and the facts.†- Samuel Chase (fortunecity.com). This means that the jury is granted the right to weigh the facts of the case and come to a conclusion about what illegal activities have occurred based on those facts, but only those facts. They don’t only have the right to determine the facts. They have the obligation to determine the facts. There can be no straying from the facts. Biases or prejudices cannot interfere with a juror’s decision. The jurors also cannot come to a conclusion that is based only on speculation or a â€Å"leap of faith†. â€Å"Most of em, its like they have no feelings! They can do anything! Whats goin on here? Im trying to tell you were makin a big mistake, you people! This kids a liar! I know it. I know all about them! I mean, whats happenin here? Im speaking my piece†¦,† says Juror #10. The last part of that line speaks volumes about why that particular juror thinks that he knows exactly what happened the night of the murder. He has let his opinion