In The Giver what is Jonas most afraid of?

As he flees from his society and encounters a number of obstacles to their freedom, Jonas is most afraid that he and Gabriel will starve and he will be unable to save Gabriel and even himself.

At the end of Chapter 22, Jonas and Gabriel have traveled for days without food. Jonas's ankle has been sprained, and it is difficult for him to pedal the bicycle. Added to all this, they are exposed to cold...

As he flees from his society and encounters a number of obstacles to their freedom, Jonas is most afraid that he and Gabriel will starve and he will be unable to save Gabriel and even himself.

At the end of Chapter 22, Jonas and Gabriel have traveled for days without food. Jonas's ankle has been sprained, and it is difficult for him to pedal the bicycle. Added to all this, they are exposed to cold and now a chilling rain. Having failed at catching a fish or obtained any food, Jonas is "tortured by hunger," and Gabriel, who has not cried at all during the long, difficult journey, cries now from hunger. Jonas, too, cries; however, he cries not for himself, but for Gabriel that he will not be able to save the child. "He no longer cared for himself."

As he ponders their dilemma of deprivation of food and shelter, Jonas does experience something positive: He feels more love than he has ever experienced in his life. For, in eliminating many of the negatives of life such as hunger and physical pain, the society in which Jonas has lived has also mitigated real emotion, having declared that such words as love are "imprecise." Further, Jonas recalls how glibly his father, who has cared for Gabriel privately at home, tells his son that he has voted for Gabriel's release because the baby is unable to sleep peacefully at night without the comfort of another person. Truly, in his misery of hunger and cold, Jonas acquires an understanding that the positive and wonderful emotions of joy and love can only come after one has felt negative emotions, such as pain and sorrow.

Why do the conspirators want Brutus to join them?

When the play opens, it is only Cassius who shows how much he wants Brutus to become a part of the conspiracy he is trying to organize. Without Cassius there might never have been a conspiracy. He knows how to do such things, and Brutus doesn't. Cassius needs Brutus because he knows that he is not popular with either the common people or the patricians. He is not liked because of his character and personality. He is a miser. He is selfish and greedy. He has a violent temper and uses it to intimidate people and to get his way. He is privately thinking that he can be the real power in the conspiracy and use the mild-mannered, scholarly Brutus as a figurehead. But it doesn't work out that way. Once Brutus decides to become involved, he takes command and hardly listens to Cassius' advice.

Cassius thinks they should kill Mark Antony along with Caesar, but Brutus is too noble and too trusting to agree. Then Cassius is horrified when Brutus permits Antony to speak at Caesar's funeral, but Brutus overrules him. Before the Battle at Philippi, Cassius and Brutus have a violent argument in which Cassius threatens to kill Brutus. But Brutus is immune to the kind of scare tactics Cassius uses successfully on other people. After the quarrel ends, Brutus has obviously asserted his dominance, and Cassius just has to go along with him.

The other members of the conspiracy show their respect for Brutus, but they are not instrumental in recruiting him to their cause. It must have been Cassius who recruited them by telling them that Brutus had agreed to lend his name to their cause. They are all glad to have Brutus as their leader because of his distinguished reputation as well as because he is a descendant of the Brutus who drove the Tarquins out of Rome and established the republic. They are all apprehensive about how the masses will react after they assassinate Caesar, because Caesar has made himself so popular with the lower classes. They fear that what could happen is exactly what does happen after Antony delivers his powerful funeral oration. There is mass rioting. Brutus and Cassius have to flee from Rome, along with the conspirators who are still alive.

Brutus is partially persuaded to join the conspiracy because he thinks there are many Romans beseeching him to do so. Actually, the cunning Cassius tricks him. After the two men separate at the end of Act I, Scene 2, Cassius says to himself:

I will this night,
In several hands, in at his windows throw,
As if they came from several citizens,
Writings, all tending to the great opinion
That Rome holds of his name, wherein obscurely
Caesar's ambition shall be glanced at.
And after this let Caesar seat him sure;
For we will shake him, or worse days endure.

Brutus is made to believe that there are many important citizens who want him to lead a conspiracy to assassinate Julius Caesar. Actually, most of them are elated after the fact. Cassius is a "user." He manipulates Brutus into joining his purely theoretical conspiracy by making Brutus think it is much bigger than it is, and then he recruits others into the conspiracy by showing them that Brutus is the leader. If Cassius is not a villain, he comes very close to meriting that title.

Why won't the school punish Dana in Hoot?

Dana Matherson is a bully who regularly terrorizes students at Trace Middle School. As the new kid in school and one who weighs under 100 pounds, Roy finds himself on the receiving end of Dana's torments. On the bus one day, Dana puts Roy into a dangerous choke hold, and Roy can hardly breathe. To save himself, Roy punches blindly behind him and over his head and connects with Dana's nose, breaking it. Roy gets...

Dana Matherson is a bully who regularly terrorizes students at Trace Middle School. As the new kid in school and one who weighs under 100 pounds, Roy finds himself on the receiving end of Dana's torments. On the bus one day, Dana puts Roy into a dangerous choke hold, and Roy can hardly breathe. To save himself, Roy punches blindly behind him and over his head and connects with Dana's nose, breaking it. Roy gets called before the vice-principal, Miss Hennepin, to account for his actions. She is able to see the bruises on Roy's neck, so she knows he tells the truth about Dana choking him. Roy is punished by being suspended from the bus for two weeks and having to write an apology letter to Dana.

Dana, however, receives no punishment from the school. Because Dana has received such a severe injury, the school fears his parents might sue the school. In order to keep Dana's parents from stirring up any trouble, the school "decided not to take disciplinary action against Dana Matherson." In the end, however, Dana is sent away to juvenile detention when he is lured into trespassing on a false tip from Roy. Although the school doesn't give Dana what he deserves, Dana eventually gets his comeuppance. 

Questions on plant growth and optimization of growing conditions.

The optimal growth can be determined by comparing plant height per unit acid added. For example, for 20 ml acid added, plant grew by 18.5 cm; that is, plant grew at 0.925 cm/ml of acid. Similar number for other acid additions are:

20 ml        0.925 cm/ml

30 ml        0.69 cm/ml

40 ml        1.13 cm/ml

50 ml        1.246 cm/ml

60 ml      ...

The optimal growth can be determined by comparing plant height per unit acid added. For example, for 20 ml acid added, plant grew by 18.5 cm; that is, plant grew at 0.925 cm/ml of acid. Similar number for other acid additions are:

20 ml        0.925 cm/ml

30 ml        0.69 cm/ml

40 ml        1.13 cm/ml

50 ml        1.246 cm/ml

60 ml        0.177 cm/ml

Thus, 50 ml is the most optimal acid addition.

Interpolation can help us determine the approximate plant growth at 35 ml acid addition.

Plant grew 20.7 cm and 45.2 cm for 30 ml and 40 ml acid addition. That is, for each ml acid addition, plant grew by 2.45 cm (= (45.2-20.7)/10). Thus, for 35 ml acid addition, plant will grow to approximately, 32.95 cm (= 20.7 + 5 x 2.45), or approximately 33 cm.

If the plant height is 59 cm, then the acid addition is between 40 and 50 ml (from the table). One way to solve it is by interpolation. Between 40 ml and 50 ml acid addition, each ml acid addition caused 1.71 cm (= (62.3-45.2)/10) of plant growth. 

Thus, 59 = 45.2 + Vx1.71

solving this we get, V = 8.07 ml

that is, the amount of acid added was, 40 + 8.07 = 48.07 ml or about 48 ml.

Thus, (about) 48 ml of acid caused 59 cm of plant growth.

Hope this helps. 

What ideas for government did Thomas Jefferson stress in his inaugural address?

Jefferson's First Inaugural is usually noted for its appeal for reconciliation between political factions. Mindful of the bitter partisan struggles of the late 1790s that played out in the election of 1800 itself, he urged his countrymen to unite around common beliefs, saying "we are all republicans, we are all federalists." Yet Jefferson also articulated much of his political vision in his speech, emphasizing that the "sum of good government" was to "restrain men from...

Jefferson's First Inaugural is usually noted for its appeal for reconciliation between political factions. Mindful of the bitter partisan struggles of the late 1790s that played out in the election of 1800 itself, he urged his countrymen to unite around common beliefs, saying "we are all republicans, we are all federalists." Yet Jefferson also articulated much of his political vision in his speech, emphasizing that the "sum of good government" was to "restrain men from injuring one another" while leaving them "otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits." Jefferson also stressed frugality in government, protecting states rights, avoiding "entangling alliances," maintaining a militia (rather than a standing army), and protecting civil liberties. Many of these statements sound like platitudes, and they were, but they also were politically charged. Jefferson's critique of the federal government under Federalist control was that it had repeatedly overstepped its bounds by claiming powers not delegated to it in the Constitution. Those who read the address would have recognized this, and understood that he was describing his vision for what the federal government would look like under Republican administration. So Jefferson's speech was full of rhetorical flourishes and the appeals for unity that are always found in inaugural addresses, but it also included an extended statement of his beliefs. Limited government, civil liberties, and civic virtue were cornerstones of his thinking, and his speech is an appeal for these ideas.

Why does Holling think that the real world is sometimes like Hamlet and Bobby Kennedy in June of Gary Schmidt's The Wednesday Wars?

In the chapter titled "June" of Gary Schmidt's The Wednesday Wars, Holling notes how much the real world is full of unexpected disappointments and sorrows. He uses a reference to Shakespeare's character Hamlet to reflect on his mother's feelings of disappointment and sorrow and a reference to Bobby Kennedy to further show just how much the real world is full of unexpected, devastating blows that can severely impact our future.

After reading Much Ado About Nothing, Holling felt disappointed by Shakespeare's representation of romantic love. His disappointment stems from the fact that, at home, he is observing how romantic love fades slowly such as the love between his parents; it doesn't instantaneously stop and start up all over again as it does in Shakespeare's play. Holling then relates the feelings his mother must be suffering as love fades to the feelings of Hamlet:

That's the way it is in the real world. It's not always smiles. Sometimes the real world is like Hamlet. A little scared. Unsure. A little angry. Wishing that you could fix something that you can't fix. ("June")

In other words, because of Mr. Hoodhod's cold and distant behavior, Holling is noting that his mother is beginning to feel sad, uncertain, angry, and to wish for something better, just as Hamlet felt such feelings in Shakespeare's play.

Similarly, Holling relates the real world to major, unexpected disappointments such as Bobby Kennedy being shot before he could be elected president. Bobby Kennedy's death was a serious blow to those who opposed the Vietnam War because Bobby Kennedy promised to withdraw U.S. troops if he was elected. Throughout his seventh-grade year, Holling has come to understand that the real world is full of major disappointments such as death, discrimination, being humiliated, and betrayal.

From the time of Reconstruction after the Civil War up until now, what progress have we made in the United States when it comes to liberty,...

The United States has moved toward greater liberty and equality since the end of the Civil War. After that war, the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were passed, ending slavery, granting citizenship to everyone born in the United States, and allowing all men to vote, respectively. The right to vote and the right to full citizenship was abridged for many Americans, however. In the South, Jim Crow laws created a segregated society and denied African Americans the right to vote. Asians, Latinos, and others were often treated as second-class citizens, and during World War II, Japanese-Americans on the west coast were forcibly removed to relocation centers—an unconstitutional abridgment of their rights as citizens. After these setbacks, the Civil Rights movement after World War II resulted in greater freedoms for African Americans, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Women, initially given the right to vote with the 19th Amendment in 1920, saw their roles expand during the Women's Rights Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. The Gay Rights Movement of the 1960s and beyond resulted in eventual gains for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and other people, including the right to marry for gay and lesbian couples. Many argue, however, that we are still not a completely free and equal society, as straight white men hold the majority of positions of power in government, business, and other realms. However, the general movement has been towards a freer and more equal society.