Ethics of Society Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Ethics of Society - Assignment Example Progress is a very important part of success, there is no success without progression in life. One has to understand that whatever we do in life has to be of a progressive nature and should not be static. Once we start doing things to our liking we should define set standard goals and strive to achieve those goals, and only after we achieve those goals along the lines of progression could we say that we have been successful in our endeavors. I am still in the stage of achieving my goals, and therefore I cannot classify myself as a successful person. However, whatever interim goals I had made have been fulfilled by the hard work and therefore at this stage, I can say I am successful with what I have done and with what I had got to achieve those standards. The United States is already a successful country. However, there are a lot of contingencies in the country which have to be corrected in order to make it an even more successful country. Those contingencies are the current lackluster economic condition which the country has been suffering from. The country needs more jobs and for that, the Government has to step in and make more jobs for the people. The entire manufacturing base has shifted from the United States to China and that is a cause for concern since the products which are designed in that country are now being manufactured somewhere else. Therefore for the US to be a very successful country in the future and sustain its success it has to shift the policy of outsourcing the jobs to other countries in Asia and focus on its own middle-class people who are ready and prepared to work in the factories for hours to earn some money. The middle class is now losing the focus in the country and that is why the country’s econo mic position is now deteriorating really fast. Law of attraction talks about the levels of energy and the vibes around us which we have to grab hold of and fell it along with the fact that we have to take in the vibes and give out vibes with the perspective of attracting the attention of the other individual. Law of attraction aims at understanding our flow of energy when we meet new people and how we use this energy to get the positive vibes of the people which we aim for whenever we are in a group having a conversation with people or when we are meeting new people with respect to socializing. The idea does not conflict with my values of religion since religion does not come in the way of the law of attraction. However, on the other hand, religion has its own definition of the law of attraction which is to spread good energy among the society which is pretty similar and identical to the law of attraction explained in the movie â€Å"The Secret†.            

Air Pollution Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Air Pollution - Research Paper Example Some developed countries have taken measures against the air pollution by making laws and policies and introducing green technologies. However, the rapid increase in industrialization has minimized the effect of these measures and millions of people are at risk by inhaling air containing harmful substances. Air pollution is a major problem in big industrial urban areas as compared to rural areas. Industrial, Vehicle and other types of smoke, CFCs and the greenhouse gasses are mixing up into the air that we inhale and the toxic substances in them act like slow poisons within our bodies (Gujrar, Molina and Ojha 1-14; Agarwal 1-6). We are focusing on the air pollution in general in first part of the paper and then specifically in United States. The top three greenest states and why are they called the green states will be discussed. Also the top three most polluted states and what are they doing to overcome the high level of pollutants in air will be discussed finally. Air pollution Acc ording to World Health Organization air pollution is â€Å"the contamination of the ecological system by any toxic chemical, physical or biological agent that alters the natural environment† (World Health Organization). ... Most common types of air pollutants are car emissions, chemical wastage from factories, dust, pollen, and mold spores. Pollutants can be classified into types: Primary pollutants and secondary pollutants. Primary Pollutants – are emissions discharged directly from a source. For example, volcanic eruptions or factory discharges (Gray). Secondary Pollutants- are formed as a consequence of reactions between primary pollutants and other substances found in the atmosphere for example Ozone that makes up smog (Gray). One of the most distinguishable characteristics of air pollutants is their transboundary nature that is they can travel to far and wide places away from their origins. The six major pollutants described by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are briefly discussed below (EPA; Gray): AIR POLLUTION IN UNITED STATES A study reports that more than 500,000 Americans die annually due to cardiopulmonary diseases caused by air pollution. In a recent economic study in Los Angel es Basin and San Joaquin valley of southern California it is shown that more than 3800 people face premature deaths annually (approx. 14 years earlier) because of the illegal amount of pollutants in the air. In 1948, Donora, Pennsylvania 20 died and more than 7000 were injured due to the worst ever smog disaster reported in U.S history (Peterman). The 1990 Clean Air Act (CAA) requires EPA to set National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for the conventional air toxics such as: Ozone, Particulate matter, Carbon Monoxide, Nitrogen Oxides, Sulfur dioxide and Lead. Out of which Ozone and Particulates are the biggest and primary threats. The act also enables EPA to restrict the emissions from chemical plants, utilities and steel mills. Through this act, the

Holistic and Academic Education

Holistic and Academic Education Holistic education is a discipline of education based on the premise that each person finds, meaning, identity and purpose in life through connections to the natural world, to the community, and to humanitarian values such as peace and compassion. Holistic education aims to call forth from people an intrinsic reverence for life and a passionate love of learning. This is the definition given by Miller, editor, founder and author of the journal Holistic Education. The term holistic education is often used to refer to the more democratic and humanistic types of alternative education. Flake, C. L (1998) describes this further by stating, What distinguishes holistic education from other forms of education, at its most general level, are its objectives, its focus to learning through experience, its goals and the significance it places on primary human values and relationships, within a learning environment. The concept of holism refers to the idea that all the properties of a given system in any field of study cannot be determined or explained by the sum of its component parts [Forbes, S. H, 1996]. The system as a whole instead determines the behavior of its parts. There is no single source for a holistic education movement. There is neither a major form of expression nor a predominant proponent. It is difficult to define clearly a holistic education. There are a number of perceptions and values, however that most schools claiming to be holistic would follow [Miller.R, 2010]. A holistic way of thinking rather than defining human possibilities narrowly, literally tries to integrate and encompass multiple layers of experience and meaning. Teaching Methodologies There are several methodologies adopted by schools that preach holistic education: Religion as a part of life: Holistic education cultivates religious values as a part of the life. There are classes that insist and preach moral values such as divinity, spirituality, realization of self, morality, mortality, serving the community and much more. Live Workshops: Education through experience is the main motto of holistic education. Everything is made live in the form of workshops. Scholars from various disciplines interact with the students and conduct real-time workshops rather than imparting the bookish knowledge. Children or students literally do what they learn and learn what they do. This make the children gain experience in each and every subject they learn. Science Fairs and Exhibitions: The institutions spent a lot of amount in gather people of same likes and interests at a single place and share their views on thoughts. Knowledge is the only resource that multiplies on sharing. Knowledge transfer is accomplished in holistic education due to many fairs and exhibitions. Special Training Programs: Training programs to develop various technical, managerial and behavioral skills are conducted often by these institutions. Some of the most significant training programs are leadership training, team building training, communication training, psychological training, orientation training and religious training. Mentors The teachers in the holistic schools are not strict as that of regular academic schools. Rather than threatening the students by exercising strict control over them, these teachers act as real friends and mentors of the students. The children can get guidance from their mentors very easily and without a hesitation. The barrier between the teacher- student relationships is completely broken in holistic education. Thus holistic education is far beyond the styles adopted by conventional academic learning. With acts like terrorism, crime and violence increasing in the society, holistic learning, obviously is the need of the hour. Aims and objectives of the study Primary Objective: To understand the key concepts and options of holistic education. To analyze the difference between academic and holistic education. To identify the need for holistic education. To study the process of education followed in holistic institutions in India. To evaluate the effectiveness of holistic education systems. Secondary Objective: To create awareness about holistic education among people of India. To emphasis the need for holistic education in India. To encourage the people to seek holistic education rather than conventional academic education. Review of literature The Indian educational history has always been glorified by the presence of universities like Nalanda, Vikramshila and Taxila, from the ancient period. India has got the privilege of establishing universities, even before there were universities in continents like Europe. The contributions of Arya Bhatta, Chanakya, Kalidasa and Baskaracharyya could not be forgotten by the whole world. Be it mathematics, science, literature or technology, India would be in the list of one of the historic contributors irrespective of the discipline of education. Indians have produced many of the most successful and remarkable insights, thoughts and inventions. However, on examining the post independent era, the scenario of growth in the present Indian education is remarkably low and in fact pitiable. The 65 years of post independence has not made much difference in Indian education, especially in rural India. Independent India however has stood unique by setting up over seventy education commission or education committee. Out of the 94 developing countries in the world, the position of India is 76th in terms of overall educational development index [EDI]. The percentage of students enrolled in first standard (Class I) and reached to fifth standard (Class V) is 77 in other developing countries. Controversially in India it is only 60%. [Krishnamurthy, 1994]. This statistical data is significant enough to understand the deteriorating situation of present India. India ranks a low 105 out of 127 nations in UNESCOs Education for All Development Index (EDI) for 2004, despite its much-prevalent Education for All (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan) initiative. The worst part of it is that the United Nation body says it is doubtful if India would be able to achieve the EFA (Education for All) goal. The EFA goals concentrates on 100% enrolment in primary schools by the year 2015 and it is one of the U Ns Millennium Development Goals (MDG). All this has happened only because of the conventional educational system that focuses much on making the children to pile up with loads of books rather than understanding the true value of education. The conventional academic education ruins the imaginative power of kids. Especially the academic educational system in India is so strict that it does not give place for creativity and human values. On the other hand, an alternative educational system also known as holistic education is emerging in India. Unlike the conventional system, holistic education concentrates on learning through experience. This gives a new definition and style to education. By this system, children can learn by doing whatever they love to do. This system induces an interest for learning among children and education is being made a fun by this process. Holistic learning is also known as transformative learning. Jack Mezirow (2000), Neuman (1998), Boyd Meyers and Edmond OSullivan, (1988) have contributed to the research of transformative learning and have identified a new framework or pedagogy that is to be demonstrated in holistic programs. According to Mezirow, the goal of education is to help the individual become a more autonomous thinker by learning to negotiate his or her own values, meanings, and purpose rather than uncritically acting on those of others[Mezirow ,2000]. According to Edmond OSullivan, transformative learning involves experiencing a deep, structural shift in the basic premises of thought, feelings, and actions. It is a shift of consciousness that dramatically and permanently alters our way of being in the world. [Edmond OSullivan, 1988]. OSullivan E., has identified five themes as the fundamental to transformative learning. The connection or relationship that humans have with the natural world also known as the consciousness of the environment Conscious world citizens, equality, peace, world citizenship, interdependency, narratives of inclusion and interconnectedness Integral curriculum; integral development-from the personal to the planetary, contextual-holistic vs. content-informational An experience of belonging: community, a place, roots A sense of the sacred: integrative dimension of experience, awe, respect for life, connections to the spirit [Jack Mezirow, 2000], On the other hand has specified ten elements that provide a strong foundation for transformative learning. A sense of safety, openness, trust; egalitarian, nonjudgmental and non-competitive environment A learner centered approach Critical reflection and explorations of alternative personal perspectives Affective learning, emotions and feelings discussed Solitude, self dialogue Handling disagreement, confronting rather than avoiding Experiential learning Acknowledging many ways of knowing and learning; multiple intelligences Questioning our assumptions, beliefs The use of rational discourse, dialogue [Boyd and Meyers, 1988], include supporting students to recognize their spirit-a knowing or a truth that resides in them, in promoting transformative learning. [Neuman, 1996] expands the acknowledgment of the importance of feelings and emotions to the transformative aspects of learning experiences. Research methodology Two forms of research are undertaken in order for the purpose of satisfying the objectives of the study: Primary Research: Data collected through first-hand sources Secondary Research: Second-hand data collected through different sources Primary research- Quantitative Research Quantitative research method will be followed in order to create a detailed analysis of consumers perception regarding emails and direct mails as marketing medium in India. Quantitative research offers several advantages to the study: Brower et al (2000, pg. 366) assert that quantitative researchers pursue- and insist that they generate- value-free, unbiased data. Similarly, McLaughlin et al (2002) highlight the following uses of quantitative approach: Research and establish explicit hypotheses Uses accurate measures of concepts Uses tests of statistical significance Uses controls for other explanatory variables Provides a clear theoretical context Case-studies The term case-study usually refers to a fairly intensive examination of a single unit such as a person, a small group of people, or a single company. Case-studies involve measuring what is there and how it got there. In this sense, it is historical. It can enable the researcher to explore, unravel and understand problems, issues and relationships. It cannot, however, allow the researcher to generalize, that is, to argue that from one case-study the results, findings or theory developed apply to other similar case-studies. The case looked at may be unique and, therefore not representative of other instances. It is, of course, possible to look at several case-studies to represent certain features of management that we are interested in studying. The case-study approach is often done to make practical improvements. Contributions to general knowledge are incidental. The case-study method has four steps: Determine the present situation. Gather background information about the past and key variables. Test hypotheses. The background information collected will have been analyzed for possible hypotheses. In this step, specific evidence about each hypothesis can be gathered. This step aims to eliminate possibilities which conflict with the evidence collected and to gain confidence for the important hypotheses. The culmination of this step might be the development of an experimental design to test out more rigorously the hypotheses developed, or it might be to take action to remedy the problem. Take remedial action. The aim is to check that the hypotheses tested actually work out in practice. Some action, correction or improvement is made and a re-check carried out on the situation to see what effect the change has brought about. The case-study enables rich information to be gathered from which potentially useful hypotheses can be generated. It can be a time-consuming process. It is also inefficient in researching situations which are already well structured and where the important variables have been identified. They lack utility when attempting to reach rigorous conclusions or determining precise relationships between variables. Sample size This study takes into consideration ten different holistic schools functioning in India. Secondary Research Secondary data is the information what was collected in the past for some other purpose. Usually, researchers start their investigation by studying a rich variety of already accessible data, to see if they can make a breakthrough in the study partly or wholly, without the use of expensive, time-consuming first-hand research. The following forms of secondary data will be used to research purpose: Books Journals and articles Newspapers Magazines Online web portals Annual Reports Government Agencies Independent Agencies Government official reports Limitations of the study- .5 page This concentrates on the holistic educational practices in India and not any other type of education. This study focuses exclusively on alternate schools. This study involves the holistic schools in India alone. This study is applicable for holistic schools that have been successfully serving the society for not less than eight years.

Black Students and the Educational Practice of Tracking :: Free Essays Online

Black Students and the Educational Practice of Tracking I remember my mom asking me one day why I didn’t have any black friends. Even though she is white, she was concerned that I hang out with kids of different backgrounds, especially because I am half black. I had never really thought about it before. I told her it was because there weren't really any black kids in any of my classes at school. I had been in mostly honors classes since the seventh grade and there were only about five to ten other black kids who seemed to circulate the â€Å"honors track† with me. I had always felt slightly out of place in my mostly white honors classes. I didn’t really become friends with many black people until my junior year of high school when I was invited to join an all black, all female, leadership group at my school called S.I.S. (Success In School). By the second semester of my junior year most of my friends were black. Me and nearly twenty other successful black and minority students became a close-knit â€Å"crewâ⠂¬  and an extended family. We served as a support system for each other and I would not have made it though the second half of high school without them. At the end of my senior year there was a big awards night. There was a special ceremony for seniors honoring academic achievement throughout the year. One of the last groups of awards presented were for the Presidential Excellence Award, National Merit Finalists, and students who were in the top ten percent of the class. The names were called, and mine was among them. I took my place on the stage among my fellow classmates. The lights were very bright and I looked out into the audience to find my parents. They were waving and smiling. I looked out into the audience for my friends. It is then that I realized that my friends were still in the audience. As I looked around the stage I noticed that I was one of only two black students on the stage. The other student, BJ Jacobs, stood farther down to my right. Though we were friends, I had always kind of resented BJ in a congenial way. However, our past rivalry didn’t seem to matter now.

Current Events and U.S. Diplomacy Essay

1.Define presidential doctrine and summarize the regional or global events during the Cold War leading up to the formation of the presidential doctrine you wrote about in Assignment 1. 2.Select one country you wrote about in Assignment 1 and describe the Cold War relationship that existed between the country you selected and the U.S. before the presidential doctrine was announced. 3.Describe the relationship that currently exists between the U.S. and the country you selected in section (2) above. 4.Describe the effect that the presidential doctrine has had on regional or global affairs since it was announced during the Cold War. 5.Assess whether or not the presidential doctrine you wrote about in Assignment 1 doctrine had had the intended effect of altering the behavior of the country you selected in section (2) above since the doctrine was first announced. 6.Use at least four (4) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources. To help you understand this assignment further, the following description and examples may be useful. Step 1: Define doctrine and identify why a president would want to announce one. A doctrine is an ideological platform that a president uses to advance a policy towards a country or region in order to accomplish foreign policy goals for the United States, so you will need to expand on this theme. Refer back to Assignment 1, and build on whatever doctrine you wrote about then. Say, for example, you selected the Truman Doctrine. Therefore, this is the only thing you will write about in Assignment 2 step 1. Step 2: Select one country you wrote about in Assignment 1 and describe the Cold War relationship that existed between it and the U.S. Before the presidential doctrine was announced. In the case of Truman, you would pick either the Soviet Union, Greece, or Iran, since all three were affected by his doctrine. If you are writing about the Eisenhower Doctrine, you would choose Lebanon or Egypt; if you wrote about the Kennedy Doctrine, you would have write about Cuba or Vietnam; if your wrote about the Nixon Doctrine,  you would choose either Vietnam, Saudi Arabia or Iran; if you chose Carter, you would select either Iran or Afghanistan; and if you wrote about the Reagan Doctrine, you would select Nicaragua, Angola, Russia or Afghanistan (although there were several others). Step 3: Describe what effect the presidential doctrine you chose has had on regional or global affairs since it was announced during the Cold War. That is, how did the doctrine change the status quo regionally or globally after it was announced by the U.S.? What happened in Western Europe after the Truman Doctrine was announced? What happened in the Middle East after the Eisenhower Doctrine was announced? What happened with Cuba or Vietnam after Kennedy offered up his doctrine of flexible response? What happened in Southeast Asia or the Persian Gulf after the Nixon Doctrine went in effect? What happened in the Middle East after the Carter Doctrine was announced? What happened in Central America or Africa or the Middle East after Reagan announced his doctrine? Step 4: Refer back to the country you selected in step two and describe the relationship that currently exists between the U.S. and that country. How has the relationship changed between the U.S. and that country since the doctrine was announced? Step 5: Evaluate whether or not the presidential doctrine had had the intended effect of altering the behavior of the one country you selected in section (2) above since the doctrine was first announced. Your assignment must: †¢Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions. †¢Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required page length. The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are: †¢Identify the cultural, economic, and political context of information resources, and interpret information in light of that context. †¢Use technology and information resources to research issues in international problems. †¢Write clearly and concisely about international problems using proper writing mechanics.

John Steinbeck section Essay

â€Å"Yea, an’ besides we gunna have to if we wanna have any fun, you know, won’t be much fun jus’ me and George. † Candy observed innocently. Slim chuckled fondly, while George whispered a soft, â€Å"Yea, won’t be much fun†¦ † He sighed contemplatively and looked down at the ground in deep thought. He was jerked out of his daydream at the sound of a bullet, the bullet coming from Carlson’s gun. He looked up and around at the nearby tree, the tree that towered over the ranch, casting a long shadow over a part of the bunkhouse. He took one last glance and turned away. The gunshot was heard again as Carlson pulled closer to the cart. â€Å"Can’t let ya leave wit’ out saying goodbye†¦ ya kno’†¦ † Carlson shifted uncomfortably while looking down at the ground. â€Å"Ok then. Thanks for the concern. † George said abruptly. â€Å"ppreciate it. † With that, George joined Candy at the front of the cart, and set off. A few days had passed and things seemed to be going as slow as ever, the days seemed like months and the nights like years. Nothing exciting had happened to George and Candy, all except for a frog that was hopping along. The monotonous sound of the horse’s hooves threatened to send George into a deep slumber. And Candy, he just sat next to George occasionally lifting his left hand to rub his stumped wrist. Just then, a woman appeared. Not just any woman, the most beautiful woman in the world according to George. Her light brown hair with streaks of a deep red that almost looked brown in the light was delicately waved. It framed her oval face perfectly. Her emerald green eyes looked at George wistfully, as if to decide whether he was approachable. Her soft pink lips parted as she slid her perfectly manicured fingers into her mouth. She whistled at the cart to grab George’s already given attention. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE John Steinbeck section.

The African Roots of the Literature Black Diaspora Essay Example

The African Roots of the Literature Black Diaspora Essay Example The African Roots of the Literature Black Diaspora Essay The African Roots of the Literature Black Diaspora Essay Abstract This paper examines the oral traditions of Africa and how those cultural practices have given birth to and shaped the literary culture of Black America. While it does not attempt to examine the entire gamut of literary creations in the Americas, the paper references, briefly, the black American oral folklore and the literature of the Harlem Renaissance – drawing parallels between the oral culture of Africa and the literature of Black America and the Caribbean. Key Words: traditions shaped Americasgamut creations Harlem RenaissanceCaribbean Introduction The issue of black self-consciousness has gone past the debate about whether the blood link between the black American and the African is a figure of speech. The blood that flows in the veins of the African-American (or the black man anywhere in the world) is ontological, not a rhetorical, phenomenon. So saying, we attempt to establish that far from being a historical accident predicated upon a similarity of fate and political experiences, this tie is inexorably derived from an immutability of genes. We stress that the connection between the African and the black man in the Americas is intrinsical, a symbiosis. We intend to point out that black African culture is a source and bi-product of black American cultural expression. Main Discussion The slave trade was the vehicle for the resettlement of the black man in the new world. This trans-Atlantic experience became instrumental in the establishment of the cultural practices of black Africa in the Americas. For, slavery imported not only slaves but a plethora of social and cultural artifacts such as music, rhetoric, folklore, religion, even the belief in, and creation of, myths and legends – subsumed in folklore – and, of course, the rivers of African blood carried in the veins of these human commodities. Now the African in the Americas has been tagged inferior to his white co-settlers. This is not becau

Use Manuscript Markers for Your First Draft

Use Manuscript Markers for Your First Draft Use Manuscript Markers for Your First Draft Use Manuscript Markers for Your First Draft By Mark Nichol In response to my recent post about parentheses, a commenter mentioned that he uses parentheses as markers for passages to return to later for reworking copy or for inserting missing text. Then he does a pass using Microsoft Word’s Find function to locate the parentheses and fill in the blanks. That’s a good writing strategy: Many writing coaches and professional writers recommend, as much as possible, writing first drafts nonstop, especially when you’re in the groove get your thoughts down, even if they’re incomplete, and jump over the gaps and keep on going. Marking the blanks for attention later is a good strategy, but unless you’re unlikely to use parentheses in your prose, I recommend you employ another marker. For example, it’s common in journalism to use TK, a phonetic abbreviation for â€Å"to come† that’s easily searched because those letters don’t naturally occur sequentially in words, which allows you to avoid false hits as you search for your markers for incomplete content. (Keep in mind, though, that both TK and TC are valid abbreviations.) Book publishers, by contrast, often employ multiple asterisks or zeroes in some cases, including page numbers for a table of contents that has not yet been finalized; a proofreader fills in the correct page numbers later. Graphic designers also use what’s called Greek text, though it’s actually adulterated Latin (also known as lorem ipsum because of that commonly appearing phrase). However, this placeholder text is used for design mockups, not as part of the writing process. (The same is true of the letter sequence ETAOIN SHRDLU, consisting of the twelve most frequently used letters in English.) When I’m editing an academic text with references, I need to check in-text citations against the reference list to make sure every reference is cited and every citation is referenced. Instead of printing out a copy of the references as a checklist, or making a duplicate file, I simply mark each reference item as I find its in-text citation, using the â€Å"at† sign or another character that doesn’t otherwise appear in the manuscript. When I’m done, I do a Find and Replace search to delete the signs in one fell swoop. That reminds me: Do you know the shortcuts for reducing or omitting letter and line spaces? Some educators still teach otherwise, but sentences should be separated by only one letter space. To reduce double spaces to single ones throughout a manuscript with just a few keystrokes and clicks, just type two spaces in the Find field and one space in the Replace field, then click on Replace All. Repeat as necessary until no instances are indicated. (Be careful not to click on Replace All before you type a letter in the Replace field, or you’ll end up with paragraph-long strings of type.) To delete letter spaces at the end of multiple paragraphs, type a letter space followed by the symbol ^ (shift+6) and the letter p with no letter space between them into the Find field and ^p into the Replace field, then hit Replace All. Repeat as necessary. To reduce two line spaces to one, enter ^p^p into the Find Field and ^p into the Replace Field and select Replace All. Repeat as necessary. 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 Fiction Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:"Because Of" and "Due To" 50 Diminutive Suffixes (and a Cute Little Prefix)10 Writing Exercises to Tighten Your Writing

The 18 Hardest ACT English Questions Ever

The 18 Hardest ACT English Questions Ever SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips If you’ve been hard at work studying for the ACT, you’ve mastered the basics of the test. But are you ready to tackle the hardest grammar, punctuation, syntax, and writing logic questions that ACT English will throw at you? Read this article to try your hand at 18 of the toughest, most confusing challenges ACT English poses. Then check out the detailed explanations of what makes each question tick, how to solve it and others like it, and what to watch out for when faced with similar questions on the real test. Why Should You Care About the Hardest ACT English Questions? Of course it is good to be able to answer all the questions you'll see on the ACT. But, how deeply you should be concerned about acing the hardest questions depends on what yourtarget score is. Are you trying to get as close to aperfect ACT score as possible?Getting above a 33 on ACT English leaves almost no room for error, so if you’re aiming for the highest scores, these are the questions you need to be able toanswer correctly. If you’re lessconcerned with getting the best possible score, then it’s good to know what the toughest questions look like because your strategy may be to skip some of them. What Makes ACT EnglishQuestions Hard? Surprisingly, questions aren’t hard because they test new or more complex material.Instead, what makes the hardest questions so challenging is that often, they ask you to do several types of thinking at the same time. Often, questions propose counterfactual ideas, where you have to keep in mind both the original and a completely different version of the text. For example, a regular reading comprehension question would ask what the main point of a passage is. Meanwhile, a difficult reading comprehension question would first present a scenario where the passage was altered in some way, and then ask how its main point would change as a result. (See Question 8 below for how this works in practice.) Also possible are questions that test several different grammar, punctuation, and style issues at once. For instance, each suggested answer choice for a hard grammar-based question could be completely plausible rather than obviously wrong. You would have to comb the sentence for meaning and style, not just grammatical information, in order to answer correctly. (Question 5 does this particular trick.) Finally, questions can add a layer of complexity byswitching from a detail-oriented to a big-picture focus. You could be asked to correctly complete a sentence in a passage - and then realize that your answer changes depending on how you interpret that passage! (Question 7 is an example ofthis.) Complexity is created when many simple things are layered on top of each other. Spoiler Warning! Before I show you the actual hardest questions, I think it's only fair to warn you. These questions are all fromthe official ACT practice tests(the PDF tests, not the online oneon the ACT website)! If you’re the type of person who will see them once and remember them forever, maybe wait to read the rest of the article till after you’ve taken the practice tests in test-day conditions. The Hardest ACT English Questions Since ACT English is an entirely passage-based section, all of these questions come from long passages, which I mostly haven’t included. Try to answer each question in about 35 seconds – that’s how long you’ll have on the test. Once you're done, check out theanswer and explanation that follows each question. Question 1 The county cleared this path and paved it with packed gravel, so they would have a peaceful place to hike and bike. Which of the following alternatives to the underlined portion would NOT be acceptable? path, paving path and then paved path before paving path paved The Challenge This question is hard for two reasons. First, because your brain is trained to assume that most answers are wrong, so this reverse question format - where most of the answers are correct - is challenging. And second,because each suggested option tests your knowledge of a different piece of grammar. Answer: D Explanation To find the unacceptable alternative, let’s first figure out the meaningof the original sentence. Two things happened: first the county cleared the path, and then the county paved it. So any answer choices that express this sequence of events would fit the sentence, and thus not be the "wrong" answer that we are looking for here. Answers A, B, and C all express the same idea in slightly different ways,creating perfectly grammatical phrases. Now let’s see what happens when we plug in answer J. We get this weird sentence: â€Å"The county cleared this path paved it with packed gravel†¦Ã¢â‚¬  This is clearly arun-on sentence, so answer J is our odd man out. Question 2 The first train took twenty-six minutes to complete the route, which ran from City Hall to West 145th Street in under a half an hour. NO CHANGE in the completion of its route. in twenty-six minutes. DELETE the underlined portion and end the sentence with a period. The Challenge Redundancy is sometimes tricky to spot. Especially when, like here, the repeating thing is a concept rather than a word used more than once, and is placed far away in the sentence from whatever it’s duplicating. Answer: D Explanation You first have to realize that 26 minutes is the same thing as "under a than half hour."Once you see this, you know that the question is testing editing out repetition. The original (answer A) doesn’t work, since it’s repeating the route length already described in the beginning of the sentence.Answer C has the same problem – it’s repeating the route time exactly as already expressed.Answer B takes one type of redundancy and replaces it with another, since it’s just a variant of the words â€Å"to complete the route† already in the sentence. So, the only answer that fixes all the redundancies is D. Question 3 The fresco is a dynamic work because, by capturing the energy, humanity, and collective achievement of the Detroit workers, celebrates all working men and women. NO CHANGE that, while, that was, The Challenge By interrupting the sentence with a long aside, the question breaks your concentration and makes it hard to see that although â€Å"because† fits the meaning and logic of the sentence, it isn't grammatical. Answer: B Explanation If you realize that the sentence is being broken in half by a long descriptive phrase, then you can simply take it out! Without the phrase"by capturing the energy, humanity, and collective achievement of the Detroit workers," our sentence simply reads: The fresco is a dynamic work because celebrates all working men and women. That clearly doesn't work, so answer A is out. Now you can simply plug the other answers in to see which of them makes sense. C and D also create nonsense sentences. Answer B is the only choice that gives us a functional sentence with orwithoutthe long descriptive phrase. Question 4 We talked just as easily as we had in the past, when we would sit in the field behind Joan’s house atop the rabbit hutch and discuss our friends and our hopes for the future. NO CHANGE in the field atop the rabbit hutch behind Joan’s house atop the rabbit hutch in the field behind Joan’s house behind Joan’s house in the field atop the rabbit hutch The Challenge This question is all about figuring out how to fixmisplaced modifiers. It's hard because there’s a confusing jumble of three different prepositional phrases that you have to sort into the right order. Answer: C Explanation Let make a mental image of what’s happening, and then zoom out to do the correct placement of bodies. Imagine a movie camera literally zooming out from the conversation to show us where these two people are: There are two people. They are sitting on top of the rabbit hutch (basically a small shed). The hutch is in a field. The field is behind Joan’s house. OK, so now let’s go through the answers to see which describes that reality. The original text (answer A) says, basically: There are two people. They are sitting in a field. The field is behind Joan’s house. Either the field or Joan’s house is on top of the rabbit hutch. That makes no sense. Answer Bgoes: There are two people. They’re sitting in a field. The field is on top of the rabbit hutch†¦ ok, that’s also wrong. Answer Dhas: There are two people. They are sitting behind Joan’s house. They are in a field. The field is on top of the rabbit hutch. That’s the same problem again. Only answer Cfits our mental image of the scene. Don't picture the rabbits in your mental movie, though. Their cuteness is too distracting. Question 5 In some agricultural parts of Japan, for instance, these three stars are commonly referred to as Karasuki and represent a three-pronged plow. Given that all the choices are true, which one provides a detail that has the most direct connection to the information that follows in this sentence? NO CHANGE distant populated historic The Challenge Questions where there is no logically â€Å"wrong† answer are hard because you can’t easily eliminate answers by a quick glance. Here, you have to extract the correct information from the sentence and fit it to thevocabulary offered. Answer: A Explanation Since the question asks us to connect anadjective to what the sentence is about, let’s first figure out what is being described. The bits of information we have are: Something about stars A foreign word for the stars The stars look like a type of plow Now, let’s see whichword choice connects with one of these pieces of information. â€Å"Distant† means far away. Certainly the stars are far away, but in this sentence â€Å"distant† would modify â€Å"parts of Japan† and nothing in the sentence discusses geographic distances of any kind. â€Å"Populated† means inhabited, or where people live. That doesn’t go with anything else in the sentence. â€Å"Historic† means important because of past events that happened there. Again, this doesn’t connect with anything in the sentence. The original word â€Å"agricultural† means having to do with farming. And that goes directly with the fact that the stars represent a â€Å"three-pronged plow,† a type of farming implement. Question 6 Unbricking a kiln after a firing is like a person uncovering buried treasure. NO CHANGE someone a potter OMIT the underlined portion. The Challenge Illogical comparisons can be very tough to spot unless you are familiar with what to look for. Answer: D Explanation The basic rule is that you can only compare things that are alike in some way. For example, you can compare pears and plums (both fruits!), but you can’t compare a pear to a person eating a plum. One trick to spotting illogical comparison questions is to look for words like â€Å"than† or â€Å"is like† that signal that something is about to be compared to something else. This something else needs to immediately follow the words â€Å"than† or â€Å"is like.† So, what’s being compared here? â€Å"Unbricking a kiln.† Even if you don’t know what that means, it’s clearly an action of some sort. The original text (answer A) compares this action to â€Å"a person.† An action is clearly not like a person, so that’s out.Once you realize this, you can see that answers B and C are also out, since all they do is replace the word â€Å"person† with alternate versions. Only answer D removes the illogical comparison, so that the sentence now compares â€Å"unbricking† to â€Å"uncovering† – two similar actions. Question 7 [1] Our son has started playing organized T-ball, a beginner’s version of baseball. [2] â€Å"Organized† is what parents call it, anyway. [3] Joe is seven, living in those two or three years when children can manage to throw a baseball a few feet but when what they’re really interested in are things closer at hand: bugs, butterflies, dirt (if they’re in the infield), grass (if they’re in the outfield). [4] Children of that age still think nothing of doing little dances in the outfield, often with their backs to home plate and, consequently, the batter. [5] It’s not as if the outfielders’ positions matter much, though- the ball never gets hit hard enough to reach there. The writer wishes to add the following sentence in order to emphasize the uncertainty already expressed about an idea in the paragraph: I still have doubts. The new sentence would best amplify and be placed after Sentence: 1. 2. 3. 4. The Challenge This question is hard because you have to recognizethe sarcasm in the sentence before you can figure out that the author doesn’t mean what is written literally. Answer: B Explanation This question is testing your ability to detectauthorial mood and voice. In this case, the sentence â€Å"I still have doubts.† has to back up something that the author disagrees with or doesn’t believe in.The best way to solve this is to go option by option to see which sentence is the one where skepticism is introduced. The first sentence (answer A) is completely factual. The author tells us about her son’s new activity, and explains that T-ball is a type of baseball. None of this is in dispute, so putting â€Å"I still have doubts† after this wouldn’t make sense. Sentence 3 is alsoquite fact-based. We learn the son’s age, and then get the author’s generalization about the inability of young kids to focus on the game. This is an opinion that the author clearly believes in, so putting â€Å"doubts† after this would be wrong. Sentence 4 continues the theme of distractibility, with a funny image of outfielders dancing around while the ball is in play. The author doesn’t doubt that this is the case – it’s clearly a description coming from personal experience. Sentence 2, on the other hand, is riddled with sarcasm and humor. We can tell because the word â€Å"organized† is now in quotation marks, separated out as being untrue. The phrase â€Å"what parents call it† signals that despite being called organized, T-ball is anything but. Finally, the adverb â€Å"anyway† signs the author’s shoulder shrug at the fact that other parents can see any organization on the field – a shrug that is followed by a bunch of evidence of how little attention the kids are paying to the game in progress. Right after sentence 2 is the perfect place to emphasize the author’s disagreement with the sentence â€Å"I still have my doubts.† Baseballs, tennis balls, a stuffed animal - just your basic T-ball chaos. Question 8 Banneker lived and worked on the family farm. After his father died in 1759, Banneker took over the responsibility of the farm and the care of his mother and younger sisters. In addition, he pursued scientific studies and taught himself to play the flute and violin. If the writer were to delete the last part of the preceding sentence (ending the sentence with a period after the word studies), the paragraph would primarily lose: support for the essay’s point about Banneker’s love of learning. a direct link to the previous paragraph. a humorous description of Banneker’s other interests. an extensive digression about music The Challenge The trick here is that it’s difficult to mentally process counterfactual information, like the question expects you to. The fact that answers B and C also sound plausible is an added challenge. Answer: A Explanation This question is checking to see how well you understand sentence-levelauthorial intention – why a writer includes or leaves out particular supporting details or examples. Another way to reframe this question is to ask: what purpose does the phrase â€Å"and taught himself to play the flute and violin† play in this passage?From reading it, we can see that it points to Banneker being interested in things other than just the farm and science.Now, let’s go through the answers to see which fits this description of the phrase. Answer D says that the section is an â€Å"extensive† discussion of music. Music is mentioned in the phrase, but only briefly and without any specific details. This answer is clearly wrong. It’s tempting to pick option C, since the phrase does deal with â€Å"other interests† – that’s what we noted in our own description – but there is nothing â€Å"humorous† about it. So, answer D is out. Answer B is also tempting – much of the longer passage dealt with Banneker’s various talents and skills. But we have an even better option to go with in this case. Answer A describes exactly what the phrase that question suggests cutting out does: it shows that Banneker loved to learn about all sorts of things. Question 9 The two principal types of kayaks are: the easily maneuverable white-water kayak and the largest sea kayak. NO CHANGE very biggest more large larger The Challenge You have to know that you are only comparing two things, so you can’t use thesuperlative form of the adjective. Answer:D Explanation When we compare a specific quality of several things, we can change the form of the adjective we use to show which object has more of that quality. For example, three tiny things can be ranked in size order: Small Smaller (the comparative form of the adjective â€Å"small†) Smallest (the superlative form of the adjective â€Å"small†) The rule is that if three or more things are being compared, then one of them can be labeled with the "-est"form of the adjective.But if only two things are being compared, then only the "-er"form of the adjective can be used. In this case, we are comparing two things: we are ranking the â€Å"white-water kayak† and the â€Å"sea kayak† in size order.Since there are only two things, we can’t use either â€Å"largest† or â€Å"biggest† to describe the sea kayak, so answers Aand Bare out. Some adjectives need the words â€Å"more† and â€Å"most† to indicate comparison. For example, you can’t say â€Å"this actor is woodener than that one,† you have to say â€Å"this actor is more wooden than that one.†But in this case, â€Å"large† does easily take the "-er"form, so answer Cis out, and answer Dis the right one. Question 10 Radioactive pools of toxic waste are okay for others to live in; even acid cannot kill them. NO CHANGE are all right for others to live in; are home to still others; suit others to a tee; The Challenge It can be hard toavoid overly colloquial speech and to modulate language level correctly. Answer: C Explanation Using words that are appropriately formal and avoiding diction that’s too slangy or casual is an important skill on the ACT. In this case, there is nothing grammatically wrong with the underlined phrase,but the sentence is clearly a piece of scientific writing, so this language is just too casual for this context.That means we have to find a version of the phrase that means the same thing, but uses more elevated language. The word â€Å"okay† in particular jumps out as being inappropriate here (so answer Ais wrong).Answer Bproposes changing â€Å"okay† to â€Å"all right† – this doesn’t really raise our diction in any way, so this answer is out.Answer Dreplaces the phrase with theidiomatic phrase â€Å"suit to a tee,† but this kind of folksy expression is still not the right fit. The most neutral and least casually inflected option is answer C, which creates themost compact and formal version of this description. Question 11 As the dancers step to the music, they were also stepping in time to a sound that embodies their unique history and suggests the influence of outside cultures on their music. NO CHANGE are also stepping have also stepped will also step The Challenge Some questions aboutmatching verb tenses are tricky because of the context of the sentence. Here, the words â€Å"time† and â€Å"history† can lead you down the wrong path, as can answer choice C. Answer:B Explanation Usually, verbs in the same sentence should be in the same tense: present, past, or future. Sometimes, though, when a sentence explains a shift in time, verb tenses shift along with it. For example: I think (now, so present tense) in the future we will be (later, so future tense) wearing utilitarian jumpsuits. In this question, the sentence seems to point to something about the dancing taking place in the past, as we connect the dancers dancing now to a â€Å"history.† But you have to realize that the dancing itselfis only happening in the present. This means that both forms of the verb â€Å"step† have to be in the present tense. The original verb (answer A) is in the past tense, whileAnswerDoffers us the future tense - both wrong. Answer Cis tempting because the helping verb â€Å"have† seems to be in the present tense. However, the full verb isâ€Å"have stepped† which is a past tense that'sused for actions that started in the past and are still ongoing. That’s not the case here, so answer Cis out. Answer Bsolves the problem by matching the present tense of the first verb, â€Å"step† with the present continuous â€Å"are stepping.† Question 12 To add to the confusion, every New Year’s Day a person according to this Korean counting system, becomes a year older, regardless of his or her actual birthday. NO CHANGE person, person; person who, The Challenge The many different commas in the sentence can easily throw you off track. You have to seethat the phrase â€Å"according to this Korean counting system† needs to be set off with commas. Answer: B Explanation This sentence is such a confusing jumble of phrases that it’s hard to make heads or tails of what goes with what and which punctuation is appropriate. First, let’s take the sentence apart and connect the pieces that actually go together. â€Å"To add to the confusion,† – prepositional phrase â€Å"every New Year’s Day† – prepositional phrase â€Å"a person† – subject â€Å"according to this Korean counting system,† – verb phrase â€Å"becomes a year older,† – verb â€Å"regardless of his or her actual birthday.† – prepositional phrase Breaking everything down like this shows us that there is a descriptivephrase separating the sentence’s subject and verb, which are: "a person becomes a year older." This means that this separating phrase needs to be set off from the rest of the sentence by commas, so answers A and C are out.Answer D gives us the comma, but it also introduces a dependent clause subject (â€Å"who†). We only have one verb, so we don’t need two subjects, so this answer is wrong. Only B fixes the actual problem, adding a comma to set off the modifier. What if you were born on New Year's Day? Do you get to celebrate twice? No? OK, fine - how about just two slices of cake then? Question 13 Wearing Jeans in School In 1970, the school board in Pittsfield, New Hampshire, approved a dress code that prohibited students from wearing certain types of clothing. The school board members believed that wearing â€Å"play clothes† to school made the students lax and indifferent toward their school work, while more formal attire established a positive educational climate. When twelve-year-old Kevin Bannister wore a pair of blue jeans to school, he was sent home for violating the dress code. Kevin and his parents believed that his constitutional rights had been violated. The United States District Court of New Hampshire agreed to hear Kevin’s case. His claim was based on the notion of personal liberty- the right of every individual to the control of his or her own person- protected by the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment. The court agreed with Kevin that a person’s right to wear clothing of his or her own choosing is, in fact, protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. The court noted, however, that restrictions may be justified in some circumstances, such as in the school setting. So did Kevin have a right to wear blue jeans to school? The court determined that the school board had failed to show that wearing jeans actually inhibited the educational process. Furthermore, the board offered no evidence to back up its claim that such clothing created a negative educational environment. Certainly the school board would be justified in prohibiting students from wearing clothing that was unsanitary, revealing, or obscene. The court remained unconvinced, therefore, that wearing jeans would actually impair the learning process of Kevin or of his fellow classmates. Kevin Bannister’s case was significant in that it was the first in the United States to address clothing prohibitions of a school dress code. His challenge initiated a review of students’ rights and administrative responsibility in public education. Suppose the writer’s goal had been to write a brief persuasive essay urging students to exercise their constitutional rights. Would this essay fulfill that goal? Yes, because the essay focuses on how Kevin encouraged other students to exercise their constitutional rights. Yes, because the essay focuses on various types of clothing historically worn by students as a freedom of expression. No, because the essay suggests that the right to wear blue jeans was not a substantial constitutional right in the 1970s. No, because the essay objectively reports on one case of a student exercising a particular constitutional right. The Challenge After spending time examining this passage on a sentence level for all the other questions associated with it, it's pretty challenging tohave to zoom out and think about what is actually being said here. Plus, the answers all hit plausible notes. Answer: D Explanation You’re being tested on how well you understand overallauthorial intention – what the purpose and point of a given piece of writing are. So what features would an essay urging people to act have in it? It might be organized around a bit of activism. It might tell the story of some protest or challenge to the order of the day. It would have a clear point of view of who/what is right and who/what is wrong in a given situation or problem. It would most likely either start or end with a directive to go out there and do something. Does this passage do those things?It does tell the story of a legal challenge to established order.But it doesn’t do any of those other things. And, even if you can’t immediately picture what an essay urging action would sound like, you can check out the descriptions of this passage in the answers to see whether any of them actually fit what you just read. Answer A is wrong because there is no mention of Kevin interacting with other students in any way. Answer B is wrong because aside from jeans, there is no mention made of any other self-expressive clothing choices made by students. Answer C is tempting because it agrees that the essay is not urging anyone to do anything, but the answer also says that the passage picks a side in the fight over whether jeans are a constitutional right. But the essay does no such thing, so this answer is out. Answer D is the only one that actually describes this essay: it’s a simple, chronological, fact-based, neutral account of one court case. Question 14 Some sixty years later, an elderly Frances Griffiths publicly admitted that her and her cousin had staged the photographs as a practical joke. NO CHANGE her cousin and herself she and her cousin her cousin and her The Challenge The question is asking you to correct what is a prettycommon mistake in spoken English, where we don’t pay careful attention to pronoun forms when we use compound nouns. Ifyou're used to hearing people speak this way, you might be caught off guard here. Answer: C Explanation One trick to use, when you’re looking a compound noun (two nouns or pronouns connected with the word "and"), is to take the noun away, leave the pronoun, andsee whether the sentence still works. Here, we would get: "Frances Griffiths admitted that her had staged the photographs,† which is clearly wrong.This means answers A and D are out – both use the â€Å"her† form of the pronoun. Using the trick with answer B, we would get: â€Å"Frances Griffithsadmitted that herself had staged the photographs,† which also doesn’t work. The only answer that works is C, which uses the subject form of the pronoun: â€Å"she.† Question 15 One significant aspect of this relationship was: that Susan was perhaps the only reader of Emily’s poems-in-progress. NO CHANGE was that Susan was, that Susan was that Susan, The Challenge The difficulty here is that there are two types of punctuation rules being tested at the same time. Answer:B Explanation This question is testing how well you know how to punctuate a modifying clause (basically, a part of a sentence that explains the rest of the sentence). The rule is that if the modifying phrase is necessary for the sentence to make sense, then it doesn't need any commas around it. In this case,the modifying clause explains the relationship between the two women-â€Å"that Susan was perhaps the only reader of Emily’s poems-in-progress." Without it, the sentence wouldn't work at all: One significant aspect of this relationship was. This tells us that the correct answer is the one that leaves out any punctuation -answer B. Question 16 A lot of people hate to ride the New York City subways, but I love them because I like to get places fast. A musician balancing a cello case, two Buddhist monks in saffron robes, and a group of stockbrokers in crisp, charcoal gray suits get on at Wall Street. A passenger placidly sews while the subway train flings and jolts. A teenager who’s holding a shoebox containing a kitten as tiny as a gingersnap smiles as a line of girls in frilly white communion dresses file by. About three and a half million people a day ride the subways, and I think maybe I’ve met them all. At this point, the writer wants to provide one reason why she likes to ride the subways. Which choice is most relevant to the information provided in this first paragraph? NO CHANGE I never know what I’ll see there. they are so much cheaper than taxis. they are places of enormous quiet and calm. The Challenge This question challenges you to find the common theme of the paragraph and then circle back to apply it to this sentence. It's easy to get it wrong because eachof the answers is a completely plausible way to end the sentence - if you don't connect it to the rest of the passage. Answer: B Explanation Each answer option would create a totally different topic sentence for this paragraph. Yourjob is to use the paragraph to find clues for what a relevant topic sentence would be here The passage that follows the sentence is basically a long list of different people that the author has seen riding the subway: a musician, monks, stockbrokers, someone sewing, a teenager, and girls. Let’s see whether one of the answer choices sets up this list. Answers A and C are about the advantage of the subway as a mode of transportation. They’re true, but they aren’t what this paragraph is about. Answer D actually is about the environment inside the subway, but the paragraph describes a crazy mishmash of people and things, while â€Å"quiet and calm† are adjectives better suited to a library than public transit. Answer B is the only one that gives us an intro to what is to come in the rest of the paragraph. Then we all took off one shoe and got on the subway together! Question 17 The Navajo language is complex, with a structure and sounds that makes them unintelligible to anyone without extensive exposure to it. NO CHANGE makes it make it make them The Challenge Because this question is testing both subject/verb agreement and noun/pronoun agreement, it's easy to get tripped up by it. Answer:C Explanation We are asked here to figure out two things: whether the verb â€Å"make† should be singular or plural and whether the pronoun "them" should be singular or plural.Let’s take these one at a time. A verb has to match its subject. In other words,a singular subject takes a singular verb, while a plural subject makes the verb plural.In this case, to figure out the right form of the verb "make," you have to first determine what is doing the making. What is making Navajo language complex? The structure and sounds. So, since the subject is plural, the right verb is "make," eliminating answers A and B. Similarly, a pronoun has to match the noun that it's linkingback to. Here, you have to analyze: what is being made complex by the structure and sounds? The Navajo language. Since this noun is singular, the underlined pronoun should be too, making C the correct answer. Question 18 On each wing, all flighted birds have ten primary flight feathers, each one shaped slight different. NO CHANGE slight differently. slightly differently. slightly more different. The Challenge Here, you have to realize that you have to use anadverb to modify a verb and another adverb. Answer: C Explanation Choosing whether to usean adjective or an adverbdepends on what you want to that word to describe. The rule is: nouns can be modified by nouns or adjectives; butadjectives, adverbs, and verbs can only be modified by adverbs. In this case, it’s important to first figure out what function the underlined words are playing.The sentence is explaining that each feather has a different shape from those around it. That means that the verb â€Å"shaped† is being modified by the word explaining variations in form. Since it’s modifying the verb, it needs to be an adverb, so it has to be â€Å"differently.† This means answers A and Dare out. But the sentence also points out that the feathers aren’t all that different from one another – their shapes have mild, not extreme variance.So the adverb â€Å"differently† is being modified by the word expressing the degree of difference. Since it’s modifying an adverb, it has to be â€Å"slightly,† so answer Cis correct. Flight feathers in action. How to Tacklethe Hardest ACT English Questions Now that you've seen what the ACT English section is ready to dish out, how can you get ready to meet its most difficult challenges? TakeComplexity Step By Step. Most of the hardest questions are difficult because they layerseveral rules, ideas, or concepts into one pile. Whenever this happens, your best bet is to untangle each part of the question and solve it on its own. Not only are you less likely to make mistakes if you work in simple steps, but often, solving one part of the question will lead you to find the right answer for the other parts as well. Use the Process of Elimination. Another useful technique is to cross out the answers you know are wrong. After you've done this, look at what's different about the remaining answer choices. Often, you will realize what the question is testing by looking at these left-over answers and comparing the changes they suggest with the original text. Balance Your Time Wisely. Earlier in this article, I told you that you would have only about 35 seconds to solve each ACT English question. But that's only if you spend the same amount of time on each of the questions in this section of the test. A better approach is to do a first pass through the section to solve the easiest questions as quickly as you can while still being precise. Then, you will have more time left to devote to the questions that need extra attention and care. Trust Your Gut.If all else fails, trycovering up all the answer choices (including the underlined originaltext), and read the restof the passage. See ifyou can form your own opinion about: the logical progression of the passage structure the way the different sentences, or the different parts of one sentence, relate to one another how you wouldfill inthe blank space yourself Then, try to find the answer choice that most closely matches your own thoughts, rather than being distractedby the answer choices. The Bottom Line The most challenging questions on ACT English are difficult because they: Check your understanding of more than one grammar, editing, or punctuation skill at the same time. Have several answer choices that seem correct on first glance. Force you to flip between detail-oriented, sentence or phrase-level observation and passage-wide comprehension. Present counterfactual information. Some ways to tackle these hardest questions on the test are: Simplify multi-layered questions by solving each component by itself. Use the process of elimination to cross out obviously wrong answers, and then figure out what the question is testing by comparing the remaining answers to one another. Balance your time wisely to have more time to spend on the most difficult questions. Trycovering up the answer choices and rewriting the underlined piece of the passage yourself. What’s Next? Shooting for the top score on the ACT? Check out our article on 9 strategies to a perfect score on ACT English, our guide togetting a perfect ACT score, and a discussion of how many questions you can miss and still score a 36. Need to study more for ACT English? Check out our guides forthe best way to prepare for ACT Englishandboosting your overall ACT score in 10 days. Wondering how you’ll stack up when you take the test? We’ve gotan explanation ofwhat a good/bad/excellent ACT score looks like, and advice onfinding a target score. Want to improve your ACT score by 4 points? Check out our best-in-class online ACT prep classes. We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your ACT score by 4 points or more. Our classes are entirely online, and they're taught by ACT experts. If you liked this article, you'll love our classes. Along with expert-led classes, you'll get personalized homework with thousands of practice problems organized by individual skills so you learn most effectively. We'll also give you a step-by-step, custom program to follow so you'll never be confused about what to study next. Try it risk-free today:

Article Review #4 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Article Review #4 - Essay Example The planners of this operation knew that in order to do so, the true scale of the convoy must be hidden from Axis knowledge; once the Axis do learn of it, their leaders must be kept from knowing its true objectives and their forces must be kept preoccupied far from the intended landing sites of the Allied forces. In his article â€Å"Fortuitous endeavor: intelligence and deception in Operation Torch†, Commander Patch pieced together the planning and execution of this ambitious undertaking and underscored the significance of military deception and signals intelligence to its success. Torch planning commenced in August 1942 with the formation of the Armed Forces Headquarters (AFHQ) led by General Eisenhower. During the planning, signals intelligence (SIGINT) of Allied forces was greatly enhanced when the British’s Government Code and Cipher School (GCCS) broke down high-grade Axis cipher codes, providing a source of intelligence information known as ULTRA. The intelligence information gathered by Allied forces helped shaped the strategic and operational framework of Torch. Particularly, SIGINT sources provided decrypts and Y-intelligence that informed Torch planners about weather conditions in Axis-controlled areas, accounts of Axis order of battle, movements of Axis shipping and naval assets, intentions of Axis leaders, and the Axis’ perceptions of the intent of Allied Forces. The latter helped Torch planners gauge the efficacy of their deception measures, a strategy they employed to help secure their covert operation. Deception measures in war strategies have been valued as far back as the time of Sun Tzu but it has never been used in the scale that Operation Torch intended. Here again, signals intelligence played a key role. The extensive double-agent network controlled by British forces planted information that was to confuse the Axis forces regarding the true objectives of the massive

Strategic Hotel Management Issues Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Strategic Hotel Management Issues - Essay Example . Also, management must decide whether it wishes to skim the market or penetrate it deeply. In such cases, the major challenge is to ensure that each of the channels makes sense on economic grounds. Flexibility and risk mitigation techniques will help a hotel operator to obtain a stable market position in Vietnam. Following Rutherford, a tourism industry is influenced by political, social and economic factors of a particular country. Using the case of the USA, it is possible to say that "among the country's living patterns. People and industry have moved from the so-called rust belt to the sun belt. The explosion of technology and information-based companies has concentrated human endeavor in technological corridor" (Rutherford 2006, p. 1). The country selected for analysis is Vietnam. In today's transformation from the industrial to the postindustrial era, managers devote much energy and time on each firm's strategic posture. Taking advantage of new opportunities and deflating threats may be the essence of strategy, but changes in strategy do not just happen automatically. Strategy depends on a firm's ability to identify emerging patterns in the business environmentand to act accordingly on time. Strategy design depends on learning or, more precisely, on institutional learning. Opportunities and threats will be anal... Opportunities and Threats for the Hotel Industry In Vietnam Opportunities and threats will be analyzed in terms of demographic characteristics, technology, market segmentation, vocation resorts, national economy, travel patterns and types of investments. Modern Vietnam (south and North), can be characterized by productivity, unemployment, and corporate restructuring preoccupying industrialized society, causing anxiety to firms unprepared to deal with these problems. Thus, as a developing country, Vietnam proposes opportunities for a hotel business (DeFranco and Noriega 1999). Opportunities Opportunities in Vietnam are connected with young population and huge investments in business, technological developments and modernization processes. Since 60 percent of Vietnam's population is under the age of 25, it is no surprise that hotel chains are also quick to make moves in Vietnam. Experts agree that the Vietnamese market holds tremendous potential over the long term. It may be two decades before Vietnam reaches the level of economic development found in Thailand today. Meanwhile, the country's location in the heart of Asia and the presence of an ample, low-wage workforce are powerful magnets for foreign companies. Overall FDI peaked at about $3.1 billion in 1997 after rising steadily since the early 1990s. Investment pledges totaled $1.48 billion in 1999, down dramatically from $4 billion in 2004. U.S. investment in Vietnam has lagged well behind that of other countries (VIETNAM: Economic Policy Analysis, 2006). Technology is still underdeveloped by local companies and in ternational corporation invest heavily in this sphere of business (Dittmer 2001; see appendix 1,2). Threats The population is very poor, with 2005 annual per

Health Care Delivery Across Cultures Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Health Care Delivery Across Cultures - Essay Example "Cultural awareness is defined as the process of conducting a self-examination of one's own biases towards other cultures and the in-depth exploration of one's cultural and professional background." (Bacote 2007). This also means being aware of the reality of recognized racism and other "isms" in healthcare delivery. Cultural skill involves the skill carry out a cultural assessment in order to gather significant cultural data concerning the problems of the client and performing physical assessment based on culture. Cultural knowledge is "the process in which the healthcare professional seeks and obtains a sound information base regarding the worldviews of different cultural and ethnic groups as well as biological variations, diseases and health conditions and variations in drug metabolism found among ethnic groups (biocultural ecology)." (Bacote 2007). Through cultural encounter, the healthcare professional employs cultural interactions, in person, with the clients from different cultural background. The aim of this is to transform established ideas concerning a cultural division and to check probable stereotyping.

The nature of pension plans with focus on defined contribution pension Research Paper

The nature of pension plans with focus on defined contribution pension plans and defined benefit pension plans - Research Paper Example â€Å"Actually, an individual who periodically invests in stocks, bonds, certificates of deposit (CDs), or other investments for the purpose of saving for retirement is establishing a personal pension fund. Often, such individual plans take the form of individual retirement accounts (IRAs) to take advantage of tax breaks offered by that arrangement† (Part A: The nature of Pension Plans n.d. p. 1010). Pension funds must be controlled. They have managerial responsibilities? create decisions on the subject of benefits and entitlements and, in some cases, guarantee that long-term duties are met in the circumstance of uncertainty and risk. As such, it is debatable that pension funds are like other financial organizations, which have objectives and goals in addition to procedures that help attain these objectives and goals are realized. Pension plans often increase productivity, decrease turnover, gratify union demands and permit employers to fight in the labor market. Corporations set up pension plans for various reasons. Sponsorship of such plans provides workers with an amount of security during the time of retirement and accomplishes a moral duty felt by many employers. This security also encourages the level of job satisfaction and possibly loyalty that might increase productivity and decrease turnover. Defined Contribution Plans: A defined-contribution plan is a kind of plan in which workers’ benefit for the period of retirement depends on the contributions made as well as the performance of the investment of the assets in his or her account, rather than on the workers’ years of service or history of earnings. Like a classic savings account, a defined-contribution account includes a particular balance at any given time, which is up to the market value of the assets gathered in the account. Unlike in the case of a defined-benefit plan, workers have significant control over how the donations and contributions to their plan are invested and ma y normally prefer an assortment of stocks (frequently including company stock), mutual funds, bonds, and other investment vehicles. These pension plans assure fixed yearly contributions to the pension fund (say, 5% of the workers pay). Employees prefer (from designated alternatives) where funds are invested generally? that is? in fixed-income or stocks securities. Retirement disburse depends on the volume of the fund available during retirement. In a defined contribution plan, investment rewards and investment risks are assumed by every worker or retiree and not by the employer or sponsor. This risk could be considerable. Based on simulations from safety returns over the 20th century across 16 states, there can be seen substantial variation in pension fund ratios across both the country as well as different time periods in the same country. â€Å"There are several types of defined contribution plans, including money purchase plans, profit-sharing plans, 401(k) arrangements, savings plans, and employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs). These are described briefly below† (Defined Benefits and Defined Contribution Plans: Understanding the Differences, n.d. p. 2). Advantages: Observe money and develop

Responses Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Responses - Essay Example This is because through the humanistic approach employed by John Calvin and Martin Luther among others, they were able to go back to the sources with the aim of critically and carefully studying the past documents and texts which they discovered to be governed differently from the Roman church of their time .These studies led to the radical critique of the institutional church and traditional theology. Luther used a new edition in the Greek New Testament in 1516 to attack the practices and indulgences of the roman church. I feel the protests erupted because the Roman Catholic Church defended themselves by producing a counter history (George, 40) to come up with a factual interpretation of the bible which later led to conflicts between them and new protestant church. The author was not successful in making me think that the Roman Catholic Church attacked the protestant church and the new writings, although I feel that the Roman church defended itself instead of pointing out the weaknesses of the protestant church. Luther’s and Calvin’s goal was to prove that the Roman Catholic Church did not follow traditions the early church had laid for them. Tension grew among these two groups especially in the publication of â€Å"Ecclesiastical Anals† written by Italian Cardinal and Historian Caesar Baronius (George, 40) to prove that the church did not follow its traditions. In addition the use of â€Å"Madgeburg Churches† by Lutheran Theologies was also a means of attacking the Catholic Church via writings. Generally in my opinion, it’s fascinating that the religious revolution in Europe was majorly based on writings although a few persecutions were

IMPROVING BUSINESS Performance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

IMPROVING BUSINESS Performance - Essay Example The research in this case targets the improvement of performance of the company. The main activity in this case would be the analysis of the current performance of the company to determine the current performance, requirements and the challenges (Maginn 2007, p, 288). The solution of the challenges will result following the formulations of means to transform the challenges into opportunities. The exercise targets the division of the company into sectors of performance. The difficulties will then be determined in regards to the company’s performance. Recommendations for the solution of the problems in every perspective will then be made. Eventually, assessment will be made on the recommendations to pride from more efficient mechanisms for improving the business. Introduction The fact that PIPEWORK plc is an old established UK company, it is not at its performing at its best due to various reasons. The company has challenges with lack of a succession plan that makes it look visi onless. Lack of morale is a characteristic of many stakeholders hence hindering performance. Computerization of functions and departments is lacking leading to discrepancies in accounting and delivery delays. All these would be best addressed using the Business Process Reengineering. Moreover, there exist challenges with status quo who wish to maintain their status hence hindering the capacity of the company to get new technologies and managerial skills. Most of the staff and heads of department are untrained and incompetent leading to low quality products and poor service delivery. These challenges can only be best addressed by the Kaizen approach PIPEWORK plc is a UK based company that is a market leader in the pipework sector. PIPEWORK plc is divided into three divisions namely the Drainage Division, Do-it-yourself (DIY) Division and Boilers Division. Though they are operated as independent business units, with individual balance and profit sheets that are later amalgamated, the company has recorded losses with respect to the previous year’s performances (Patterson et al 2012, p, 624). This year’s turnover was ?700m with a pre-tax profit of ?35m though it is a loss compare to last year’s which was at ?900m with a pre-tax profit of ?50m. The average age of senior management staff being 56 years implies the company lacks in new managerial skills methods in the market. Lack of a succession plan by the Head of Human Resources and Divisional directors is clear indication for lack of a vision in the company. Only two divisions have staff and management appraisal procedures which are long overdue in terms of re-evaluation. In order to have a deeper establish the context for evaluation of PIPEWORK plc, it is vital to consider the vital sections considered for its maximal performance. Drainage Division Overreliance on the olden traditional way of making clay pipes using kilns leads to wastage rates due to fractures and malformation. The fracture s and malformations are as a result of long time the clay takes in the kiln and the fire used. Though the engineers have recently introduced PVC pipes, PIPEWORK lacks the internal resources to develop brand new products. This has made the company incur extra costs to suppliers to help them develop a new plastic pipe making machine to facilitate the division create newfangled products appropriate for present day market. It is expensive to produce the PVC pipes alongside the clay ones. In as much as PIPEWORK has opened a major manufacturing plant in Germany

Responses Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Responses - Essay Example This is because through the humanistic approach employed by John Calvin and Martin Luther among others, they were able to go back to the sources with the aim of critically and carefully studying the past documents and texts which they discovered to be governed differently from the Roman church of their time .These studies led to the radical critique of the institutional church and traditional theology. Luther used a new edition in the Greek New Testament in 1516 to attack the practices and indulgences of the roman church. I feel the protests erupted because the Roman Catholic Church defended themselves by producing a counter history (George, 40) to come up with a factual interpretation of the bible which later led to conflicts between them and new protestant church. The author was not successful in making me think that the Roman Catholic Church attacked the protestant church and the new writings, although I feel that the Roman church defended itself instead of pointing out the weaknesses of the protestant church. Luther’s and Calvin’s goal was to prove that the Roman Catholic Church did not follow traditions the early church had laid for them. Tension grew among these two groups especially in the publication of â€Å"Ecclesiastical Anals† written by Italian Cardinal and Historian Caesar Baronius (George, 40) to prove that the church did not follow its traditions. In addition the use of â€Å"Madgeburg Churches† by Lutheran Theologies was also a means of attacking the Catholic Church via writings. Generally in my opinion, it’s fascinating that the religious revolution in Europe was majorly based on writings although a few persecutions were

The Odyssey by Homer Essay Example for Free

The Odyssey by Homer Essay In the morning, Nausicaa, daughter of King Alcinous and Queen Arete, goes with her friends to the river with the laundry and begins to wash and play games. Odysseus wakes up by their noise and, covered in salt and covering up his private parts with a leaf, travels to them. Nausicaas friends run away screaming but Nausicaa stays to listen to what the stranger has to say. Fearing that he may scare her if her were to grab her knees in supplication, Odysseus pleads with her at a distance. Nausicaa respects Odysseus and his fine words and thought and gets her friends to bathe him in the river and to clothe him. In the process, Athene divinely enhances his appearance so that he looks quite like a god. The fact that Nausicaa, without her maidservants and veil the two things that protect her person and reputation in public stays to talk to Odysseus shows her spirit and sturdiness of character. Fearing gossip, Nausicaa tells Odysseus, after inviting him to the palace to meet her parents, to wait in the grove. While there, Odysseus prays to Athene to aid him in his supplication to the king and queen. Book 6 contains an element, which although not scarce in the Odyssey, is certainly very rare in most epic poem: comedy. The comic element is unmistakeable in these scenes. Odysseus embarrassment when making his approach to the girls and right before bathing, as well as the girls terrified reactions to his nakedness, cannot help but elicit a lighter mood in the poems action, which until now had centered solely on the horrible problems faced by Odysseus and his family. Homer uses a simile to describe Odysseus as a lion (used in war situation in the Iliad which demonstrates, in this non-warfare situation that the girls viewed Odysseus as a dangerous and wild beast) and Nausicaa and the other girls as sheep. Here, the ravenous lion, buffeted by the elements but striving onward to state his all-consuming hunger on helpless sheep, is compared to the salt-covered Odysseus, ragged from days at sea, and filled with a hunger of an entirely different nature. The relation of the sheep to the girls can be seen clearly in retrospect when the girls flee before this ominous figure of male sexuality as sheep would flee before a hungry lion. This simile does not serve merely to make us once again pity the poor, travel-beaten Odysseus; it is rather an attempt to lighten the tension filling much of the first five books. BOOK 7 W HEN NAUSICAA AND HER FRIENDS HAD REACHED THE PALACE, Athene, disguised as a young girl, offers to lead Odysseus to the palace and places a magical mist around him rendering him invisible in order to evade rude questioning. Athene tell him that in order to speak to King Alcinous, he must first win favour with Queen Arete. When they reach the palace, Athene leaves and buggers off to Athens. Odysseus admires the fine palace then enters, sees Arete and grabs her knees in supplication. She allows him to see the king, who after removing one of his sons off of a chair so that Odysseus doesnt have to sit in the ash, feats with them and tells them the story of how he came to Phaeacia. The queen notices his Phaeacian clothes and Odysseus tells them about their daughters generosity. As they admire Odysseus and Nausicaa ha refused all other suitors, Alcinous hints at marriage but Odysseus stresses that he wants to go home. He is therefore promised their magic ships to sail home by. The ships can reach any destination and return in a day. Arete and the servants then prepare a bed for Odysseus and sleeps. In Book 7, we see the epitome of a motif that runs throughout the Odyssey: the relationship of host to guest. We saw the kind treatment Telemachus bestowed on Athene when was disguised as Mentes as well as the great hospitality extended to Telemachus by both Nestor and Menelaus. Now it is Odysseus himself who comes as a stranger to a foreign court and must act accordingly. Indeed, the role of a foreign visitor is one that Odysseus knows well, for he has wandered long and far and knows the customary courtesies expected by guests. Contrasted with his seasoned guest, Alcinous, although kind and benevolent as a host, is unused to receiving guests, and is initially unsure of how to react to Odysseus suit. After Odysseus has humbled himself by sitting in a heap of ashes, no one, including Alcinous, knows quite how to act. Finally, an elder named Echeneus, the oldest man of Phaeacia speaks. Echeneus tactfully reminds Alcinous of his duties as a host to a stranger. Once again, it is not Alcinous social grace and magnanimity that is lacking; it is his inexperience with situations of this sort that temporarily holds him back from action. We are also given insight into another motif of the poem: the nature of divine disguise. Alcinous suggests that Odysseus might be a god who has come to test the Phaeacians benevolence towards guests. We have already been told of the gods special love for the Phaeacians, and how the people of Phaeacia themselves are nearly divine. Now we lean that the gods manifest that love by appearing to them not disguised, but in their actual form. This gives us an indication of just how strongly Athene loves Odysseus, for she often converses with him in her pure, undistinguished form. But it is not until Odysseus once again reaches Ithaca that she will be able to do so without fear of Poseidons wrath. Homer, by mixing in some elements of magic (the forever ripe fruit and semi-divine Phaeacians) prepares the reader for the fantasy books. BOOK 17 T ELEMACHUS LEAVES EUMAEUS HUT AND GOES HOME AND IS WARMLY greeted by Eurycleia, maidservants and his mother, Penelope. He tells her to go and pray to the gods while he meets Theclymenus the seer and Peiraeus in the place of assembly. There he tells Peiraeus to hold onto his Spartan treasure until after the conflict with the suitors. Theoclymenus and Telemachus then return to the palace where Theoclymenus reveals a prophecy of Odysseus already being in the city to Penelope over dinner. Odysseus and Eumaeus then head off into the city and meet the traitorous Melanthius who both physically and verbally abuses Odysseus who manages who his peace while Eumaeus tells him off. Unshaken, the goatherd goes off into the palace. Then, as they approach the palace themselves, they see Odysseus old dog Argus is dying on top of dung. The dog wags his tail as he recognises his master after twenty years of separation and then dies. In the palace, Telemachus gives Odysseus a meal and then Athene commands Telemachus disguised father to beg from the suitors. Antinous, who was slightly provoked by Odysseus beggar, throws a footstool at him and Odysseus walks off bitterly and silently. The fact that Antinous did this, and was corrected and doomed by the other suitors, shows that he has no respect for Xenia. Penelope then decides that she wishes to speak to Odysseus as the beggar. Eumaeus, however, tries to dissuade her from this as she has heard so many false tales from men who have falsely claimed to have met Odysseus. Still, she wants to see him. But Odysseus only wants to see her after the suitors have left. She agrees and Eumaeus goes home but is asked by Telemachus to come back to the palace in the morning. Now that Odysseus has appeared before the larger Ithacan community in disguise, there is more room for the dramatic irony that fills many of the verses of The Odyssey. We see this notably during the Melanthius episode. Although Odysseus holds his peace after Melanthius attack, Eumaeus calls upon the gods to return Odysseus to his home so that he can punish the scornful goatherd. Melanthius, a loyal follower of the suitors, knows the power that will be his when Telemachus is eliminated. His own vow, of course, recoils back upon him. Melanthius wishes that Telemachus may suffer death as surely as Odysseus himself has already done so. The irony lies in the fact that Melanthius vow is fulfilled, only not in the way he had intended. Odysseus himself has not died, and is in fact standing right there. Therefore, as surely as Odysseus has not died, so too will Telemachus not die. Melanthius has unwittingly stated the truth. We see a similar use of irony later, after Antinous strikes Odysseus with the footstool. Only this time, no one specifically mentions the long-lost Odysseus. Instead the suitors remark that Antinous did badly to strike the beggar as he could have been a god testing the suitors kindness. Of course, we know Odysseus is not a god. But the gods have indeed disguised him fir the very reason that the suitors suggest: to test them and to see which are righteous and which are malevolent. It is also appropriate that Odysseus disguise makes others liken him once more to a god. Yet this time the situation is reversed. Before, Telemachus thought Odysseus a god for removing his disguise. Now, the suitors consider the possibility due to the lowly appearance of the disguise itself, not because of the majesty with which the gods envelop him when he stands revealed in his true form.