In Romeo and Juliet, Paris asks Capulet for Juliet's hand in marriage. Comment upon Capulet's reply.

It is interesting that in Act I scene 2, in his
conversation with Paris, Lord Capulet shows himself to be a very compassionate father.
In response to Paris's urgent desire to marry as soon as possible, Capulet shows that he
loves his daughter greatly, saying that she is too young and asking Paris to wait for
two more years. When Paris protests that women are married much younger, note how
Capulet responds:

readability="20">

And too soon marred are those so early
made.

Earth hath swallowed all my hopes but
she;

She is the hopeful lady of my
earth.

But woo her, gentle Paris, get her
heart;

My will to her consent is but a
part.

And she agreed, within her scope of
choice

Lies my consent and fair according
voice.

Capulet then clearly
points towards his love and affection of Juliet, saying that as she is his only child,
she represents all his "hopes." However, he does not want to merely parcel out Juliet to
Paris like a piece of property, and urges that Paris "woos" his daughter, and gains her
love. As long as Paris does this, he has Capulet's consent. Interestingly, this attitude
is actually very different to the kind of attitude Capulet displays in front of his
daughter later on in the play when she tries to protest against marrying Paris. Here,
however, we see a very cautious father, thinking of his daughter and risking putting off
the noble Paris to ensure his daughter is ready and also encouraging him to woo
her.

According to Guns, Germs, and Steel, in what ways did a centralized government provide strength to early societies?

To see why a centralized government is useful, look at
Diamond's description of the Fayu at the start of the chapter or look at the biography
of the Iyau woman on p. 277 in the paperback edition.  In both of those passages, we see
that societies without centralized government have a hard time providing their people
with stable lives.

As societies grow larger, they need
governments.  They can no longer be held together by family ties.  Someone needs to have
the authority to do things like preventing people from killing one another.  This is
where government comes in.  Government strengthens societies by creating ways for large
populations to live together in peace.

Of course, there are
problems that go along with having a centralized government.  However, a society without
such a government, like that of the Fayu, is one that is very unpleasant and dangerous
to live in.

How are the tone/theme of the novel filtered througthout The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao?

In The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot
Diaz filters his themes of family, love, alienation, and violence through multiple
narrators (mainly Yunior).  In an interview, Diaz
said:

I felt like one of the biggest absences was
hiding in plain sight, which is that we actually never meet directly the protagonist.
The protagonist, Oscar, is always filtered through this other narrator, Yunior. Part of
it was this desire to make Oscar simultaneously present but also entirely invisible. It
was a strategy to talk a lot about how do you put a story together from fragments and
how you put a story together from
absences.

Because of the fuku (the
curse of the de Leon family and Dominicans under Trujillo's cruel regime) and Oscar's
martyrdom to end it, Yunior filters the family's history in non-chronological order,
tracing the curse back to its native roots, from New Jersey back to the Dominican.  At
the beginning of the novel, he is an older Yunior ("the Watcher"), one who footnotes,
showing his scholarly teacher identity.  The younger Yunior in the middle of the novel
is much less educated, more full of machismo.

Here is how Yunior
filters Oscar's story:

1. 1974-1987 - "GhettoNerd at the End
   of the World" - Oscar Wao


2. 1982-1985 - "Wildwood" -
   Lola


3. 1955-1962 - "The Three Heartbreaks of Belicia
   Cabral" - Hypatia "Belicia" Cabral


4. 1988-1992 -
   "Sentimental Education" - Oscar Wao and Yunior


5. 1944-1946
   - "Poor Abelard" - Abelard Luis Cabral


6. 1992-1995 - "Land
   of the Lost" - Oscar Wao


7. "The Final Voyage" - Oscar
   Wao


8. "The End of the Story" - Oscar Wao and
   Yunior

Yunior is very much like Diaz himself,
part "ghetto nerd," part "jock"/"meathead."  Even though he is an outsider to the family
and does not like Oscar at first, he inevitably fulfills Oscar's destiny by becoming a
teacher and author.

define remainder theorem and give example

The Remainder Theorem:

Given
a polynomial f(x), and a divisor (x-a).  If r is the remainder of f(x) divided by (x-a)
then f(a) = r.

Proof:

Let
f(x)/(x-a) = g(x)*q(x) + r/(x-a)   Now multiply everything by (x-a) and we
get

f(x) = g(x)*q(x)*(x-a) + r   Now evaluate at
x=a

f(a) = g(a)*q(a)*(a-a) + r  Now note (a-a) = 0 and
anything multiplied by 0 is 0

so f(a) = g(a)*q(a)*(0) + r =
0 + r = r

So f(a) = r

In the
above example f(4) = 30

f(4) = 4^3 - 7(4) - 6 = 64 - 28 - 6
= 36 - 6 = 30.

The remainder theorem is used in using
synthetic division to evaluate a polynomial because synthetic division is simplier,
generally produces smaller numbers, and less error prone than
evaluation.

4) 1 0   -7  -6
4  16
36
-----------------
1 4   -9 30   The remainder 30 is the function
evaluated at x = 4.

Why has Diamond chosen to write Guns, Germs, and Steel in this style?guns germs and steel preface

Diamond does not ever tell us in the preface why he has
chosen to write in the style that he uses.  We must simply try to infer why this style
would be useful to him.

First, let us characterize his
style.  We can say that it is an informal and not very academic style.  So, why would he
want to write in such a style?  The reason that I would suggest is that Diamond wants
the average reader to be able to enjoy his book.  He does not want the book to read like
a textbook because he wants it to be accessible to people who are not in
academia.

I would argue, then, that Diamond chooses his
style because he wants the book to appeal to a wide variety of
readers.

Hawaii is located in the middle of the Pacific Plate, not at its boundary of the ring of fire, yet it has many active volcanoes. Why is that?

Volcanoes occur in many locations that are not on the Ring
of Fire around the edge of the Pacific Plate. At any boundary between two or more of the
plates, volcanoes may occur. That's why there are volcanoes in Iceland, for
example.

Volcanoes may also occur at any weak or thin area
of the earth's crust. In the case of the Hawaiian islands, underwater volcanoes have
been erupting for millions of years. As the lava emerges from the underwater volcanic
cones, it hardens and adds to the height of the cones. Because this has been happening
for millions of years in Hawaii's case, the cones have risen above the ocean level and
are now land - the islands of the state, which are still getting taller and larger as
lava continues to emerge and cool.

Comment upon the function of the narrative voice in "The Veldt" by Ray Bradbury.

It is important to start by realising that this excellent
short story is written in the third person limited point of view, as we follow the
thoughts and actions of one character, George Hadley. Thus it is that we have access to
his thoughts and feelings, but are only able to "hear" the speech of other characters.
Thus it is that the unaware George Hadley, ignorant of what he is doing to his children,
brings in David McClean to help analyse the situation and the problems of his children.
The narrative voice thus uses David McClean's speech to provide valuable social
commentary on the situation that the Hadleys are facing, but more generally, upon the
impact of giving children the kind of unrestricted access to technology without careful
boundaries. Consider what David McClean says to George Hadley about the mistakes he had
made:

You've
let this room and this house replace you and your wife in your children's affections.
This room is their mother and father, far more important in their lives than their real
parents.

Thus the narrative
voice, in presenting the speech of David McClean, acts to present the important message
and warning that the story contains. Unrestricted access without boundaries to an
ever-more sophisticated technology can have unexepcted and devastating social impact, as
technology can become more important to children than traditional concepts such as
family and community. This is of course a social commentary that we need to heed
particularly in our day and age.