In A Tale of Two Cities, analyze the behavior of the Marquis toward the peasant child.

The answer to this question can be found by analysing
Chapter Seven of Book the Second, in which this event occurs. Dickens goes to great
lengths to emphasise the cruelty and the lack of compassion of the Marquis in this
episode, and the way he responds to the news that his carriage has killed a peasant
child only serves to reinforce our earlier impressions of his character. As he is
confronted by the father of the child and the faces of the crowd, the Marquis is said to
look at them "as if they had been mere rats come out of their holes." Then note what he
actually says to them:

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"It is extraordinary to me," said he, "that you
people cannot take care of yourselves and your cihldren. One or the other of you is
forever in the way. How do I know what injury you have done my horses? See! Give him
that."

Note the contempt with
which the Marquis responds, and the way that he considers his horses to be more
important than the life of another being. The equally contemptuous gesture of tossing a
gold coin in recompense for the life that he has just taken again shows his extreme
arrogance and his view of the French peasantry as being little more than objects to be
bought or paid off.

Explain the role of literacy in the overthrow of the Inca according to Guns, Germs, and Steel?

The answer to this can be found in Chapter 3.  It is on
pages 78 and 79 in the paperback edition.  The answer can be found in the part where
Diamond is telling us why the Spanish came to South America instead of having the Inca
come to Europe.

Diamond argues that literacy was a major
factor in why the Spanish were able to cross the ocean while the Inca were not.  Diamond
says that literacy allowed information to "be spread far more widely, more accurately,
and in more detail" than was possible for any society that did not have writing.  The
accounts of Columbus's voyages could be published, making people aware of the New World
and eager to go there.

At the same time, the Inca did not
have writing.  This helps explain why they walked into a trap that Pizarro set.  The
Inca who met the Spanish were not able to send accurate and detailed reports to the
government.  This made the government much less aware of what the Spanish were capable
of doing.

These were the major reasons why literacy was
important in causing the Spanish to be able to overthrow the
Inca.

give an explanation of these lines'Half-flush that dies along her throat:' such stuffWas courtesy, she thought, and cause enoughFor calling up that...

The speaker in the poem "My Last Duchess" is presumably
the Duke, her husband. Throughout the poem, he expresses his displeasure at the young
lady's joy.  She finds joy in things like a sunset ("the dropping of the daylight...)
and cherries from an orchard.  For the Duchess, these were simple things of beauty, and
worthy of her joy.  It might also be assumed that she is blissfully unaware of the
Duke's unhappiness.

The Duke, in turn, appears to harbor
some jealously, not only at the "officious fools" who bring her cherries, but also
towards innocent symbols of joy such as the sunset.  For the Duke, the money and
pleasure that he provides her should be the only things that make the Duchess
happy.

The fact that these do not take priority in her
pleasure drives the Duke to distraction, and he meticulously lists everything that makes
her heart glad "too soon" and that calls that "spot of joy" to her cheek.  In short, he
is jealous and past the verge of letting this jealously get the better of
him.

How would you describe the imagery used in the poem

The contrasts drawn between the springtime imagery and the
dark concept of death are powerful. "I have a rendezvous with Death/When Spring brings
back blue days and fair." Here Seeger personalizes both Death and Spring. Two such
dissimilar subjects make for supreme tension. People want to think of death as coming on
only gray, rainy, and dismal days. The narrator, though, will be meeting death when the
days are filled with fair blue skies. It's obvious, too, that the narrator is involved
with war, and he makes that contrast too. "On some scarred slope of battered hill,/When
Spring comes round again this year/And the first meadow flowers appear." The landscape
has been torn apart by battle. Seeger depicts in a few short words a beaten countryside.
Yet it will see a resurrection in the form of meadow flowers. They will cover over the
scars. Spring, though, will not bring life to the narrator. Instead, he will face that
meeting with Death. And even though Death will come in "some flaming town," the narrator
won't miss his date. He will go to meet it, even though he will miss the delights of
Spring. Hopefully, he will be "pillowed in silk and scented
down."

In Chapter 8 of Lord of the Flies, why did Simon lose consciousness?

The answer to this question can be found at the end of
this chapter. Simon, just before Jack's tribe (which he has set up in opposition to
Ralph and his leadership) raids the beach, Simon leaves the boys and returns to the
jungle glade where he had gone before to contemplate the beauty of nature. Now, however,
he finds the beauty of nature tainted by the presence of the pig's head impaled on a
stake in the centre of the clearing. Simon is transfixed by the sight of the pig's head
and sits down staring at it and the flies that are buzzing around the pig's head. As he
becomes more and more rapt by the sight before him, in his mind it is as if the pig's
head comes to life, speaking to Simon as "Lord of the Flies," terrifying Simon by
telling him that there is no escape from him and that he will have some "fun" with
Simon:

I'm
warning you. I'm going to get angry. D'you see? You're not wanted. Understand? We are
going to have fun on this island. Understand. We are giong to have fun on this island!
So don't try it on, my poor misguided boy, or
else--

Simon is of course
absolutely terrified by this turn of events, and as the chapter ends, Simon loses
consciousness with the immensity of his fear and confusion over what he has seen and
heard.

What are some open ended questions for part 1 of Fahrenheit 451?I need open ended questions for part 1. Answers would be greatly appreciated but...

1) During his conversation with his neighbor Clarisse
McClellan, Montag says that "You never wash it off completely" referring to the
kerosene. What could this mean symbolically?

2) Clarisse
asks Montag a final question after their first encounter. Why is this question important
to the plot?

3) What does the existence of the
mechanical hound & its purpose say about the society that Montag lives
in?

4) Clarisse tells Montag about an her uncle who was
arrested. What does this arrest indicate about the society in which they
live?

5) What do you think the author meant when he said
“How rarely did other people’s faces take of you and throw back to you your own
expression, your own innermost trembling thought”? What does this question reveal about
Montag’s state of mind?

6) Mildred’s earpieces have been
described as “electronic bees,” “mosquito hums,” and “hidden wasps.”  Why do you think
Bradbury compares these devices to insects?

7) What do
people talk about in this society? How is this different from our own society? Why do
you think Clarisse has such a problem with everything being
“abstract”?

8) Why do you think the woman stays in her
house while it is burning?

9) How do you feel about
Bradbury’s predictions of school? Are there any truths to this
assessment?

What is ironic about daybreak at the chateau of the Marquis in A Tale of Two Cities?

The irony in Chapter Nine of Book the Second lies in the
way that the sunlight actually foreshadows the act of murder that has been committed
during the night. Let us consider the following paragraph from this excellent chapter so
that we can discuss how the irony in it functions:

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Lighter and lighter, until at last the sun
touched the tops of the still trees, and poured its radiance over the hill. In the glow,
the water of the chateau fountain seemed to turn to blood, and the stone faces
crimsoned. The carol of the birds was loud and high, and, on the weather-beaten sill of
the great window of the bedchamber of the Monsieur the Marquis, one little bird sang its
sweetest song with all its might. At this, the nearest stone face seemed to stare
amazed, and, with opened mouth and dropped under-jaw, looked
awe-stricken.

This quote of
course immediately precedes the discovery of the corpse of the Marquis, and thus the
descriptive detail of the water in the fountain turning to blood has ironic
significance. In addition, there is irony in the way that the little bird sang "its
sweetest song with all its might" at the window of the bedchamber of the Marquis, only
to have this excellent song fall on deaf, or dead, ears. The gargoyle faces themselves
ironically appear to be impacted by the act of murder, as they are described as being
"awe-stricken."