Natural Resources and Energy in the Rainforests

The beauty, majesty, and timelessness of a primary rainforest is indescribable. It is impossible to capture on film, to describe in words, or to explain to those who have never had the awe-inspiring experience of standing in the heart of a primary rainforest. Rainforests have evolved over millions of years to turn into the incredibly complex environments they are today. Rainforests represent a store of living and breathing renewable natural resources that for eons, by virtue of their richness in both animal and plant species, have contributed a wealth of resources for the survival and well-being of humankind. These resources have included basic food supplies, clothing, shelter, fuel, spices, industrial raw materials, and medicine for all those who have lived in the majesty of the forest. However, the inner dynamics of a tropical rainforest is an intricate and fragile system. Everything is so interdependent that upsetting one part can lead to unknown damage or even destruction of the whole. Sadly, it has taken only a century of human intervention to destroy what nature designed to last forever. The scale of human pressures on ecosystems everywhere has increased enormously in the last few decades. Since 1980 the global economy has tripled in size and the world population has increased by 30 percent. Consumption of everything on the planet has risen- at a cost to our ecosystems. In 2001, The World Resources Institute estimated that the demand for rice, wheat, and corn is expected to grow by 40% by 2020, increasing irrigation water demands by 50% or more. They further reported that the demand for wood could double by the year 2050; unfortunately, it is still the tropical forests of the world that supply the bulk of the world's demand for wood. In 1950, about 15 percent of the Earth's land surface was covered by rainforest. Today, more than half has already gone up in smoke. In fewer than fifty years, more than half of the world's tropical rainforests have fallen victim to fire and the chain saw, and the rate of destruction is still accelerating. Unbelievably, more than 200,000 acres of rainforest are burned every day. That is more than 150 acres lost every minute of every day, and 78 million acres lost every year! More than 20 percent of the Amazon rainforest is already gone, and much more is severely threatened as the destruction continues. It is estimated that the Amazon alone is vanishing at a rate of 20,000 square miles a year. If nothing is done to curb this trend, the entire Amazon could well be gone within fifty years. Massive deforestation brings with it many ugly consequences-air and water pollution, soil erosion, malaria epidemics, the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the eviction and decimation of indigenous Indian tribes, and the loss of biodiversity through extinction of plants and animals. Fewer rainforests mean less rain, less oxygen for us to breathe, and an increased threat from global warming. But who is really to blame? Consider what we industrialized Americans have done to our own homeland. We converted 90 percent of North America's virgin forests into firewood, shingles, furniture, railroad ties, and paper. Other industrialized countries have done no better. Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil, and other tropical countries with rainforests are often branded as â€Å"environmental villains† of the world, mainly because of their reported levels of destruction of their rainforests. Why should the loss of tropical forests be of any concern to us in light of our own poor management of natural resources? The loss of tropical rainforests has a profound and devastating impact on the world because rainforests are so biologically diverse, more so than other ecosystems (e. g. , temperate forests) on Earth. Consider these facts: †¢A single pond in Brazil can sustain a greater variety of fish than is found in all of Europe's rivers. †¢A 25-acre plot of rainforest in Borneo may contain more than 700 species of trees a number equal to the total tree diversity of North America. A single rainforest reserve in Peru is home to more species of birds than are found in the entire United States. †¢One single tree in Peru was found to harbor forty-three different species of ants – a total that approximates the entire number of ant species in the British Isles. †¢The number of species of fish in the Amazon exceeds the number found in the entire Atlantic Ocean. The biodiversity of the tropical rainforest is so immense that less than 1 percent of its millions of species have been studied by scientists for their active constituents and their possible uses. When an acre of tropical rainforest is lost, the impact on the number of plant and animal species lost and their possible uses is staggering. Scientists estimate that we are losing more than 137 species of plants and animals every single day because of rainforest deforestation. Surprisingly, scientists have a better understanding of how many stars there are in the galaxy than they have of how many species there are on Earth. Estimates vary from 2 million to 100 million species, with a best estimate of somewhere near 10 million; only 1. million of these species have actually been named. Today, rainforests occupy only 2 percent of the entire Earth's surface and 6 percent of the world's land surface, yet these remaining lush rainforests support over half of our planet's wild plants and trees and one-half of the world's wildlife. Hundreds and thousands of these rainforest species are being extinguished before they have even been identified, much less catalogued and studied. The magnitude of this loss to the world was most poignantly described by Harvard's Pulitzer Prize-winning biologist Edward O.  Wilson over a decade ago: â€Å"The worst thing that can happen during the 1980s is not energy depletion, economic collapses, limited nuclear war, or conquest by a totalitarian government. As terrible as these catastrophes would be for us, they can be repaired within a few generations. The one process ongoing in the 1980s that will take millions of years to correct is the loss of genetic and species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly that our descendants are least likely to forgive us for. † Yet still the destruction continues. If deforestation continues at current rates, scientists estimate nearly 80 to 90 percent of tropical rainforest ecosystems will be destroyed by the year 2020. This destruction is the main force driving a species extinction rate unmatched in 65 million years. As human beings continue on the quest to find more efficient and economical ways of creating a better life, the world at large is feeling the effects. Searching for new land to build and to grow crops on has created a predictable disturbance to the biogeochemical cycle in rainforests. The biogeochemical chemical cycles in a rainforest rotates through both the biological and the geological world, this can be described as the biogeochemical process. Of course a rainforest takes hundreds of thousands of years to become lush and tropical, while it takes big business a matter of hours to demolish the land and begin building, farming or drilling oil wells on. The plants and animals in rain forest either remain undiscovered, become extinct or are lost to the destruction of the heavy machinery used to clear the land. This has an immense effect on the biogeochemical cycles in the rainforest. Reservoirs are affected and the trees of tropical rain forests are unable to bring water up from the forest floor that would naturally be evaporated into the atmosphere. This is a cycle that is necessary for the whole planet. Oxygen is released into the atmosphere by autotrophs during photosynthesis and taken up by both autotrophs and heterotrophs during respiration. In fact, all of the oxygen in the atmosphere is biogenic; that is, it was released from water through photosynthesis by autotrophs. It took about 2 billion years for autotrophs (mostly cyanobacteria) to raise the oxygen content of the atmosphere to the 21% that it is today; this opened the door for complex organisms such as multicellular animals, which need a lot of oxygen. (McShaffrey, 2006) This is typically the responsibly of trees in a rainforest to carry chemicals from the land into the atmosphere. Human beings are having a major impact on this action being completed. During the clearing of these rainforests, humans burn the area to be excavated and the carbon cycle in the area is then disrupted. Fossil fuels release into the atmosphere excess carbon dioxide. More carbon dioxide is then released into the air and the oceans eventually causing a common condition called global warming. Global warming simply means that the carbon dioxide produced in the atmosphere is permitting more energy to reach the Earth’s surface from the sun than is escaping from the Earth’s surface into space. Reference http://www.rain-tree.com/facts.htm

Evaluation of the Role of the Internet in Higher Education.

An Evaluation of the role of the Internet In higher education. Today ‘s learner exist In a digital age. A wide range of web tools and software Is available and the Internet offers access to apparently endless sources of Information. Pupils as well as students at university have to deal with the technologies if they want to succeed.Pupils in school mostly use the computer for typing essays and looking up information for presentations, whereas students at university need access o the internet to manage their daily university routine, their whole study depends on the internet. Data bases for course and exam registration for instance, to mention just one important fact . Mark Seersucker had good reasons to explore the value of the internet and establish the social network faceable, originally established for students to get in contact with each other.Even tutors use the features of faceable to Interact with their students. The Internet offers completely new possibilities of procedu res to the schools and university systems. Easy registration for Individual chosen courses, blending learning lasses, online shared Information on specific data bases, online tutorials for help and even online exams are current methods which are well known by any student. Learning materials are being digitized and put up on data bases.And the best thing about it is that the internet applications and software you need are for free, once you have got the general equipment. Offerings of online study courses given by so called â€Å"Open Universities† enable students of any age to take study courses and graduate with diplomas. The US increase the choice of different study courses available to students regardless of their location. Another aspect to mention is the better situation for those who has to earn money beside university, to afford high study fees for Instance, since time management Is easier and free.Yet, despite all the positive things and possibilities that are opened up by the Internet, there are always some critical aspects. Using Internet meaner at flirts having all the equipment and extras you need and second having the skills to use it at all. Very often it is taken for granted that all students possess equal competence with technology but that's not the case. Some students are even forced to Join social networks against their good will.Since internet based education will be the future it is necessary to teach pupils how to use the internet, let them know about the dangers and convey the competence of evaluating internet sources. M. Len. University 2. 0 – An Evaluation of the role of the internet in higher education. Today's learner exist in a digital age. A wide range of web tools and software is available and the internet offers access to apparently endless sources of information. Each other. Even tutors use the features of faceable to interact with their students.The internet offers completely new possibilities of procedures to the schools and university systems. Easy registration for individual chosen courses, blending learning classes, online shared information on specific data bases, online tutorials for help study fees for instance, since time management is easier and free. Yet, despite all the positive things and possibilities that are opened up by the internet, there are always some critical aspects. Using internet meaner at first having technology but that ‘s not the case. Some students are even forced to Join social

Individual Project 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Individual Project 2 - Essay Example According to Redding (2000), contrary to common belief, there are effective programs for rehabilitating juvenile offenders. Multisystemic Therapy (MST) is a comprehensive approach that intervenes in the multiple systems affecting juvenile delinquent behavior. This includes the child, family, school, peers and community. The system has been so designed to improve family relations, improve the caregiver discipline practices, decrease the youth’s association with peers who are delinquent, and increase association with peers who are pro-social. This program is meant to keep the youth engaged in positive recreational activities and improve vocational performance. Support is provided through the extended family, neighbors, and friends so that the caregivers are able to achieve the goals. This is a multi-modal family-based system approach and the rate of reduction in recidivism is much higher than standard programs. Interventions have to be multi-modal because there is not just one cause for the delinquent behavior in the youth. Multi-modal program identifies the risk factors and provide treatment accordingly. The possible risk factors could range from child (mental health problems, substance abuse), family (poor parental supervision, ineffective discipline practices), school (truancy, poor academic achievement), peer (association with delinquent peer group, gang membership), and community (neighborhood violence, drug markets) risk factors. As such, it is essential to involve all the groups in the correction or rehabilitation therapy. Community based programs have always been found to be more effective than residential programs. Each organization brings a variety of strengths into the process and this enhances the chances of success. The most significant feature of this therapy is that it is on a highly individualized basis and the treatment is developed in collaboration with the family. The family

Euthanasia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 3

Euthanasia - Essay Example Dear readers, I am leading you to understand the artworks of The Almighty: keeping you in His wings of love in a story of sacrifice that describes beneath the beauty of words as to how pain and illness could lead one to walk in His path and how others could closely follow and find the means to hold hope and faith through pain and sacrifice in this physical world. There is always something in store for us. When a door closes, another one opens, and it could be physical or spiritual, but it serves to enlighten us and the people within our hemisphere. The terminally ill person might take an account of their different travel logs, whether they are conscious or unconscious in state, they are dealing on their own perspectives and their own travails in a different sense in their present world. It is like a transformation from this physical world to a world that is remarkably beyond utterance and grasp. It is where the only ones who can understand are the ones who have been there and the ones who are in transit to that aspect. A meeting of faith and a meeting of the transformed belief and outlook in life no mathematical equation can ever quantify the output of that fraction. I believe that the greatest journey that I have in life is the travel from my heart to my mind. Seeing the location of both is only a near distance proximity but the evolvement of pure understanding and integral acceptance of self among a lot of things could put a large American court to process conformity to both perception and instincts. And when you reach that thing, it is a point of no return for here you will gather the wisdom of seeing what others fail to see and understand. Wisdom is a good consultation of a wise opinion coming from pure discernment through silence and fellowship with God from vast experience usually embedded in the art of pain and sacrifice. It is a total confirmation of the existence of The Almighty God and his close association with our mental and heartfelt prayers in life. And so below we see a list of reasons for marching against euthanasia. I say reasons because it is more personal as life, factors are considered to be more technical in their sense and pronouncements. A. Disregard of the Divine Intervention in our Lives This is what I have been relaying to you from my close to monologue expression above. It is a great sin to lose hope and deny the existence of our God and Creator. Every day we see a miracle. The very fact that we are standing here is a miracle in itself for I always believe that today is God's gift and tomorrow is God's mercy. This is the very thought that motivates me to strive to work to sustain life in a heap of cost of living expenses. Only God can take back what He has given. God gives, God takes! It is by His Divine Mercy that we have what we enjoy now and it is in our great awe and heartfelt thanks that we do follow His lead of good deeds. Miracles still happen. And it is only by God's great mercy that we can have these life extensions we need and deserve even though

Who are the 'winners' and 'losers' in globalization Essay

Who are the 'winners' and 'losers' in globalization - Essay Example the article concludes that the prospects for a satisfactory synthesis of a liberal economic theory of globalization, a normative political theory of the global public domain, and a new social bond are remote"( Devetak & Higgott 1999). Largely looking in terms of distribution of economic benefits of globalization it can be surmised that entrenched vested interests and inequalities have remained or even worsened. These inequalities, by themselves, would make any concept of global polity, economy or social bond from arriving in synthesis for maintenance of global social order. We examine the extent of inequalities below. Again in a slightly different context Phillip W.Jones makes a statement which is extremely relevant to the definition of globalization in present context. Jones states that," The logic of globalization contrasts markedly with that of internationalism. The latter, with its intrinsically democratic foundation, looks to a world ordered by structures supportive of that functionalism which is embedded in accountability. Globalization, by contrast, implies few logical imperatives in favour of accountability, but rather looks to the pursuit of interest on the global level through the operation of unfettered capitalism"(Jones,1998). Examining the globalization context from economic point of view prima facie capitalist motives of profits appear predominant. New technological developments, improvements in communication, growth in transnational infrastructure and liberalizing of trade and capital flows have enabled entrepreneurs the globe over to deploy and run their capitals chasing markets the globe over. The globalization aligned attitudes of IMF and World Bank are exemplified with clarity by Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the European Central Bank, when he says that," The key aim of today's policy makers has not changed compared to those at the Bretton Woods times - it has been, and still is, global prosperity and stability - but the environment in which we are acting has changed profoundly......Today we are striving for stability of the international financial system in a world of free capital flows with a growing importance of private flows and increasing trade and financial integration"(Trichet, 2004). As Roby says," world-wide output and trade have grown apace with market openings and the rise of efficient global business networks these past 15 years. An entrepreneurial class is energizing once-stagnant command economies" (Roby, 2005). It is at once apparent that this 'entrepreneurial class' is essentially limited in number the globe over. They also have limited spheres of influence. Consider for instance, the pharmaceuticals giant Astra Zeneca (AZ) has multinational operations and employs just about 65000 employees globally (Annual, 2004). Such instances abound in almost all industrial and commercial sectors where spread and success have been limited. Has AZ been able to provide cheap drugs to global population-perhaps no. We perhaps need more global entrepreneurs in each activity to raise

Egyptian Practice of Mummification Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Egyptian Practice of Mummification - Essay Example There was a need of cultivatable ground and therefore the early Egyptians decided to bury their deceased inside shallow graves on the borders of the barren region, where the high temperature of the sun as well as the waterlessness of the land produced the normal mummification procedure. Experts have indicated that â€Å"even this natural process produced remarkably well preserved bodies† (Dunand et al, p. 67). Mostly, these â€Å"early natural mummified bodies† (Dunand et al, p. 72) preserved skin tissue and hair, together with a resemblance to the individual's look when he was living. Mummification was the procedure of protecting and enclosing a deceased body with the conviction that the deceased would be needed during the Ancient Egyptian eternal life. By means of a particular procedure, the Ancient Egyptians got rid of all moisture from the dead body, leaving just a dried figure that would not easily decompose. The procedure of Mummification needs reducing â€Å"mic robial growth and dehydration† (Dunand et al, p. 102). The method of forming a mummy was difficult as well as expensive and was followed by formal procedure and service. As Egyptian record developed, mummification becomes accessible to public from the high and even the middle ranks. The political as well as financial development of the middle ranks along with the better significance of spiritual way of life and practices amid every Egyptian social rank resulted in the increase of mummification to fresh sectors of the inhabitants. Mummification was in fact most prevalent throughout the Greco-Roman era. It was at that time when foreign colonizers who established in Egypt started to implement Egyptian ‘funerary’ (Dunand et al, p. 188) convictions and traditions. Mummification during that time turns out to be an increasingly flourishing profitable endeavor, and it is likely to specify the demise's public position instead of any spiritual belief. This causes an additio nal drop in the excellence of the mummification procedure. At that point in time, bodies were ornately covered and enclosed in covers prepared from the blend of â€Å"plaster and papyrus or linen† (Brier, p. 99). On the other hand, contemporary radiographic investigation authenticates that these bodies were often badly sealed within their casings. Studies have indicated that â€Å"mummification was never generally available to the common classes of people† (Brier, p. 120). However, in view of the fact that they could not meet the expense of the refined ‘funerary’ formations, they carried on to be ‘interred’ in plain graves within barren region â€Å"where their bodies were naturally preserved† (Brier, p. 145). The real mummification procedure required more or less seventy days. The body of the dead was customarily rinsed and cleansed to start the expedition into the life after death. The subsequent step involved taking out the inner org ans. With the intention of drying out the organs as well as avoid decomposition they were positioned in ‘natron’, a kind of salt applied for drying. The body was subsequently filled with more ‘natron’. Once the body was adequately dried off, the natron was taken away and the body was cleansed cautiously. The body was covered in linen. Every mummy

Communications Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Communications - Essay Example It serves as a communication therapy discussing three major themes in communication issues: indicators, findings, and therapy (Reich 153). As with everyone who experienced family talk, it is easy to see how it can go in circles. Family members argue about little trivial matters that sometimes merely started as normal conversations. We hear every single type of complaint like â€Å"she doesn’t like to apologize,† or â€Å"I didn’t do anything wrong so I shouldn’t say sorry,† or â€Å"mom always criticizes everything I do,† or â€Å"he doesn’t appreciate what I do.† (Tannen 5-6) Every single individual experienced times when they tried to say something good yet ended up being misunderstood. This is a commonplace happening, but usually harder when family members or people who are close to each other are involved (Noller and Fitzpatrick 17). It is like giving a person a gift of a nice scented-lotion and, instead of a â€Å"thank yo u,† receive a response that they were offended because it means they smell bad or need more grooming. The real meaning of the message wrapped in the niceness of the gift is taken as a negative hint for the correction of their errors. Even if that was never the message the sender wants to give, the distorted interpretation creates a negative impact upon the relationship of the sender and receiver (Tannen 11-3). No further proof is needed for this pathology of communication problems shown in this scenario and other scenarios similar to this. There is evidence in almost every daily interaction people have with others, and usually, although unfortunately, the closer people are with each other, the greater chances there are for miscommunication (Tannen 21). The author’s intention is to explain the process of conversation, to which interpretation plays a great role. People should not read a single message in one specific context. Most communication process, particularly betwe en those who are closely related to each other, involves a lot more than mere words (Noller and Fitzpatrick 19). In interpreting the sender’s meaning, one should be familiar with all the other aspects of communication. This is the only solution for the issue of misinterpretation. The underlying message --- the meta-message --- has greater effect in communication, whether negative or positive (Tannen 7-8). In the third chapter of the book (67-93), Tannen explores meta-messages in several spoken lines people use, and the differences of these meta-messages in conversations between people in close relationships. Tannen states that the meta-messages in intimate relationships is different because of control continuum and connection continuum (Tannen 11). In the overall message of the third chapter, the solution for miscommunication is simply acknowledging that everything heard and said are potentially vague. The appropriate process in deciphering the message, therefore, is to disam biguate by looking at the core of the message. However, the issues in this process are that a speaker at times intentionally creates the meta-message, or unintentionally create the meta-message, or the receiver imagines a meta-message. This makes the interpretation of meaning a not so simple task, and unless one is able to read minds, the possibility of misunderstanding is big. Therefore, paying attention is important (Reich 153). Even to one who has not studied the art of communication, ideas regarding the surface meaning

Home solar applications Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Home solar applications - Research Paper Example This could be as simple as ‘upgrading hot-water heating system or as complex as considering the application of green building design principles. Berry (88) reveals that these systems are known to use heat emitted from the sun for a number of household purposes including space, water and pool heating through radiant floors. Successful installation of an efficient solar domestic hot-water system translates to the drastic reduction of water heating, natural gas and electric bills. Tiwari (25) asserts that installation of solar power in homes guarantees financial paybacks in less than eight years. Solar power systems have been accurately designed to be used in almost any location even areas where there is little exposure to direct sunlight (Solar Technologies, 1). ` These systems operate on the principle of utilizing heat and light from the sun without influence mechanical devises. Passive solar systems are built on the principles of maximum energy efficiency. Glazed windows, heat absorbing thermal mass, south-facing windows, and overhangs are examples of passive solar design (Berry, 110). Additionally, these designs are commonly located on floors and walls that are exposed to direct light through southern windows. This solar power system uses light emitted by the sun to successfully excite photo electron in order to generate electricity. Consequently, solar modules are durable and require exceptionally minimal maintenance. This category of solar power systems is sub-divided into grid-tied systems (with or without battery backup) and off-grid systems the following illustration according Oksolar (1) are meant to give a clear impression solar electric. Figure 2 is a clear representation of a grid-tie system with backup power. This is very essential especially in the event of technical hitches that tend to tamper with the normal functioning of the entire system (Rutledge, 1). Figure 1 above is a basic grid-tie

Kurt Vonnegut Essay Example for Free

Kurt Vonnegut Essay Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, Slaughterhouse Five appeared on the list of Time magazine’s 100 all time best English language novels since 1923. Written in 1969, this novel is considered a classic and is also known as one of his best works. Slaughterhouse -Five spans the different time periods of the life of Billy Pilgrim, the protagonist. Vonnegut witnessed the Bombing of Dresden in World War II, and this novel portrays the aftermath of the war. Vonnegut uses time travel as the plot device to portray human conditions from an unusual perspective. He was a prisoner in the Battle of Bulge in December 1944; in Dresden, Germany as a battalion scout. In all likelihood, the bombing of Dresden saved him from being sent to the Auschwitz gas chambers. Vonnegut was among the few survivors that were taken as prisoners to a slaughterhouse during the war and he worked in a meat-locker under this slaughterhouse, making diet supplements for pregnant women . The title refers to the slaughterhouse where Billy stayed as the prisoner of war. Vonnegut combines science fiction elements along with human conditions in the aftermath of the Dresden bombing, to drive the point. Slaughterhouse-Five is the story of a man Billy Pilgrim who has â€Å"come unstuck in time†. This term refers to his surviving a plane crash where he suffers a minor brain damage. Vonnegut has created a satire on fatalism. He believes that no matter how distressing the situation of a man is; he has the power to create his own reality through the sheer power of imagination. Billy Pilgrim experiences different time periods of his life especially his experiences of the World War II. The seemingly random happening of his life structures the thematic elements of the novel in an unraveling order. The novel examines many events in Billy’s life. This includes the death of his wife, his capture by the Nazis in World War II, and the unfortunate bombing of Dresden, which also became the inspiration of this book. The major theme comprises of the narrative that depicts Billy’s difficult times in Dresden, the secondary theme that runs through is his easy and affluent life as an optometrist in the city of Illium, New York, which is a fictional stand-in for Troy, New York, the city of Schenectady, New York. This is the place where Vonnegut has based most of his novels. The fiction runs parallel to the story of Vonnegut’s own transition from the depressing years of 1930’s, which was also the time period when ‘The Great Depression’ occurred, to a well to do existence that followed. The satirical essence of the novel is portrayed by the repetitive phrase, â€Å"so it goes† which Vonnegut uses to describe death and dying; whether it is of man, animal or the bubbles of champagne. He uses it to downplay the fact of ‘mortality’; making it sound humorous and routine. Some would say that his writings are creepy, but the fact is that he wrote beautiful, bizarre and horrifying novels replete with dark humor, and that set him apart as a unique writer. In Slaughterhouse –Five he uses words and phrases such as, â€Å"mustard gas† and â€Å"roses† to describe the rotting smell of a corpse, and the breath of an alcoholic. This novel explores the idea of fate, freewill and illogical nature of human beings. In the first chapter the narrator apologizes about the fact that the novel is so â€Å"short and jumbled and jangled† and then goes on to explain the fact that there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. The satirical tone and the dark humor is the alibi, which he uses to describe the horrific aftermath of bombings and war in general. There are three themes that he uses in Slaughterhouse –Five. The first and foremost theme is the- War. He writes about the contrasts of war; which is love, beauty, humanity, innocence, humor etc. In Slaughterhouse –Five just like his many previous novels, he says that war is bad for us and it is better to love one another and live in peace, than have wars. However, she doesn’t use love as the contrast of war, since Billy Pilgrim was not shown as a man who is madly in love with his wife. Yet he chose to depict it in a light yet effective manner. An interesting contrast Vonnegut uses in his novels are differences between the characteristics of men and women. Men are shown as cruel and ready to he engage in war any time, and the females are the shields, playing the shock absorber’s effect capably, as they are always engaged in trying to dissuade men from getting into wars. Women in Vonnegut’s novels are more humane, loving and have strong wills. The most compelling theme is that we as people are like bugs trapped in an amber and there are no â€Å"whys â€Å" to it. In a sequence in the novel, when Billy is trapped in Tralfamadorin Flying Saucer he asks, â€Å"Why me? † â€Å"†¦. Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything? Because this moment simply is . Have you ever seen bugs trapped in amber? † Billy was asked, and he recalls that he in fact had a paperweight in his office, which was a blob of polished amber with three ladybugs trapped inside it. Billy answers in affirmation and he is told: â€Å" Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why. † (ibid pg. 76-77). This extraterrestrial experience of Billy is symbolic of the fact that we are physically stuck in this world with no choice over our circumstances. In Vonnegut’s novels there are no set themes or plot that follows the story of heroes, heroines or villains. As Ernest W. Ranly says that all the characters in Vonnegut’s books are â€Å"comic, pathetic pieces, juggled about by some inexplicable faith, like puppets. † (Riley, 1974, pg. 54). Vonnegut himself says in his book Hocus Pocus that if there is no one to take the blame for the bad happenings in the book, it can only mean that the villain is God Himself; â€Å" or Herself or Itself or Whatever† (Vonnegut, Hocus Pocus, 1990). Another significant theme is that there is no soldier, only man. Being a soldier is a myth as a soldier is just a puppet of war used to do as the war demands. He doesn’t remain a human being anymore. Vonnegut expresses this thought most noticeably in this extract from the novel from the time when Billy was imprisoned in Dresden. When the three fools found the communal kitchen, whose main job was to make lunch for workers in the slaughterhouse, everybody had been waiting for them impatiently. She was a war widow. So it goes. She asked Gluck if he wasn’t awfully young to be in the army. He admitted he was. She asked Billy Pilgrim what he was supposed to be. Billy said he didn’t know. He was trying to keep warm. â€Å"All the real soldier are dead. † She said. It was true. So it goes. (Vonnegut 1969. Pg. 159). Another obvious theme is that death is inevitable. It also goes on to explain that life goes on, no matter what happens and who dies. The phrase â€Å"so it goes† occurs one hundred and six times throughout the novel; it happens every time someone dies, to take away the seriousness of death and impart a humorous quality to its inevitable graveness. This book has different meanings for different people, as everyone would be likely to interpret its subtle messages in their own way. The point that Vonnegut wanted to make was that no matter what happens , we should retain our humanity.

Hitler And National Socialism In Germany Essay Example for Free

Hitler And National Socialism In Germany Essay Adolf Hitler was born in 1889 at Braunau an Inn on the Austrian side of the border with Germany. In 1913 he left Vienna for Munich and in August 1914 he joined a Bavarian infantry battalion and spent the next four years of the First World War on the western front, where he was promoted to the rank of corporal and generally served with distinction. At the end of the war, amid considerable revolutionary fervour in Germany, he returned to Munich and joined the German Workers Party, a counter-revolutionary movement dedicated to the principles of German national socialism, as opposed to Jewish Marxism or Russian Bolshevism. In February 1920 the party took the name National Socialist German Workers Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, NSDAP, Nazi for short) and set out its 25- point party programme. The name at the bottom of the document is not Hitlers that of Anton Drexler, who set up the German Workers Party in Munich. Although Hitler had only been a member of the party for a year, the twenty-five points reveal the influence of his ideas. The programme contained many of the policies that became associated with the Nazis when they gained power constitutionally in 1933. In November 1923 Hitler entered Landsberg prison; he remained there until his release in December 1924. To all practical intents and purposes his party had ceased to exist and it was perhaps as well for the fuehrer that he had to withdraw from all political activity, for the general climate was not propitious. Inflation had come to an end, and after experiencing some severe shocks in her domestic and foreign affairs, Germany entered a period of relative calm and stability. For the time being, at any rate, this reduced the appeal that the extremist movements of both right and left had for the public. Stability was not to last and in retrospect the mid-twenties appear to have provide the Nazis with the necessary interlude in which to prepare themselves for the great onslaught on the Weimar Republic which too place towards the end of the decade. Hitlers stay in prison, almost as merry and certainly as comfortable as that described in Johann Strauss famous operetta, provided him with a welcome opportunity to put some of his ideas in writing, thus giving National Socialism a doctrine of sorts. On foreign policy in particular National Socialism had been rather weak, frequently contradictory; Hitler must have felt an urgent need to give his movement some guidance in this field when, in 1926, he wrote the sections on a future German policy in the last part of Mein Kampf, and when, in 1928, he dictated his second book entirely devoted to foreign political questions, destined not to appear in print in his lifetime. In these writings Hitlers views about Russia and Bolshevism were systematically developed for the first and last time; essentially, they did not undergo any major change throughout the rest of his life. Hitler and National Socialism in Germany While Hitler was in prison the leaderless National Socialist movement split into several factions. Some Bavarian Nazis decided to follow a more radical left-wing line, mainly in order to attract Communists; there was some vague idea of a division of labour between the extremes. You hang the Jews, well hang the other capitalists, some Communists are alleged to have replied. But since this demagoguery alienated the lower middle class, which was, after all, the backbone of Nazism, the political line eventually was changed, and Communism again became a dangerous enemy. In the west of Germany, there was but little hope of attracting workers with the anti-leftist slogans that had been successful in Munich before 1923. The brothers Gregor and Otto Strasser, as well as young Dr Goebbels, who built up the Nazi Party in west Germany, decided on a much more radical approach, and one which led to open conflict within the Nazi movement and eventually to a showdown. In October 1932, when the economic crisis in the West had reached its peak, the official organ of the Nazis declared: The five year plan has ceased to be a theory. It has become a reality, a hateful, but one that must be taken into account. The relative success of the plan made a deep impression in these circles; its cost and the many unnecessary victims it demanded did not worry the Nazis; on the contrary, the Gewaltmensch Stalin became for some of them almost an attractive figure. Yet it did not make them more friendly disposed towards Communism. They stressed in their propaganda now that the Soviet menace in the East had grown and that only a National Socialist Germany could successfully withstand the Bolshevik tide. National Socialism, they said, would defend Germany not for capitalism, which was bankrupt- it was certainly not worth while to shed ones blood for this. Germany would be saved only by an idea, a new organic social order- namely, National Socialism. In 1945 German historians were confronted with a completely new challenge. The defeat of National Socialist Germany in the Second World War not meant the Germans had lost the war but now also had to face being held accountable for political crimes of previously inconceivable proportions. American historians explain this after 1945 with a politically undesirable development in Germany that is supposed to have reached from Luther to Hitler; the rise and fall of the Third Reich was thus merely the inevitable end thereof. The two leading German historians of the immediate postwar period, Friedrich Meinecke and Gerhard Ritter, both having distanced themselves considerably from the Third Reich, believed the entire tradition of the German national state to be in great danger. In 1946 Meinecke therefore tried to represent the Third Reich as the German catastrophe, for which he held the National Socialism and its demonic leader Hitler responsible. Ritter even claimed in 1948 that National Socialism was not a specifically German phenomenon, but had instead been caused by the crisis in European democracy in the twentieth century. Both failed to include National Socialism in the continuity of German history, but instead chose to interpret it as a historical break with tradition. After the erection of the Berlin Wall, and the subsequent crisis in the Federal Republic of Germany, this form of dealing with Germanys past was radically challenged. Fritz Fischers book on Germanys grip for world power in the First World War showed that even the imperial government, led by Wilhelm II had followed an expansive imperialist policy- by no means was Hitler the first to do so. The continuity of German politics in the twentieth century, which most of the West German historians had vehemently denied, was thus once again on the scholarly agenda. This led to the first big Historikerstreit in the mid-1960s in the Federal Republic of Germany, who by those who believed a degree of continuity from imperialist to National Socialist Germany existed. In particular, the development of National Socialism was seen as the result of a historical singular path (Sonderweg), which only German society had followed in 1871, when the Reich was founded. The central argument of this interpretation of National Socialism consists in blaming the continued existence of pre-industrial and authoritarian societal structures for the lack of drastic modernisation in Germany. Without a successful bourgeois revolution, Germany was thus helpless when faced with the attack of authoritarian- oriented political forces. Seen from this point of view, National Socialism thus appears as the result of the opposition of national-conservative elite against the societal process of transformation in Germany that had been gathering momentum since 1919. In order to support this interpretation, less focus was placed on German politics since 1919 and more on German society during the Empire. It was National Socialism, not the Hitler Youth, that made such a powerful appeal to young Germans, above all by its activist character. In vivid contrast to the interminable discussions of the Biinde, elaborating ideals that were to be realized in some indefinite future, Hitler affirmed that the hour had already struck; the day of national salvation had arrived. The Biinde had wanted their members to understand that all the different aspects and facets of the political problem had to be studied, each from its own angle, before a political judgement could be valid and comprehensive. Commendable in itself, this relativistic approach was also their weakness, and made them an easier prey to the fanaticism and one-sidedness of National Socialism. While the Biinde were talking about sacrifice, their rivals were demanding, and getting, immediate action. Facing the rising tide of National Socialism, more and more of the biinische youth feared that history would pass them by, and felt incapable of remaining inactive. The cry for political engagement awakened a profound response in such a period of disarray and desperation. It must be remembered that the middle classes were hardly less seriously hit by unemployment than the working class; every thing seemed undermined by the general economic decline and the spectre of academic and white-collared poverty was becoming a grim reality. Choosing Hitler was not an act of political decision, not the choice of a known programme or ideology; it was simply joining a quasi-religious mass movement as an act of faith. Rational misgivings about the relevance of Hitlers professions of the solution of Germanys real problems cannot have been entirely absent from the minds of many, but they were perfectly willing to surrender their own critical judgment. It meant abandoning democracy and freedom as impotent and discredited ideas and trusting the Fiihrer, who would know best what to do.

Advantages Of Women Entrepreneurs Business Essay

Advantages Of Women Entrepreneurs Business Essay In India women entrepreneurs play a very pivotal role. They are not only educated, talented, confident, ambitious and career oriented but they also know their minds. This helps them to juggle the tasks, manage all the chores and strike a fine balance between the professional and personal lives. They have a good foresight, patience, negotiating and budgeting skills. Today, women have demonstrated their multitasking ability. Women entrepreneurs can certainly initiate, organize, plan and operate their small and medium venture efficiently. Affirming this notion, Ms. Husain Chairperson and Managing Director of Shanaz Husain Group of companies elaborate, the women who is creative finds greater freedom to translate her creativity and ideas when she has her own enterprise. For those women without high professional qualifications and those who are from a lower economic sector, entrepreneurship is a means of earning money and contributing to the family income. However, the challenge for the larger sections of women in India lies in crossing the threshold, overcoming barriers and discovering their own potential and identity. The climate is more conducive today and the time is right. C:UsershclDesktopwomen-business.jpg ADVANTAGES OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS Advantages of women entrepreneurs are as follows: 1. Emotional Intelligence Women are more emotionally intelligent than man and possess good interpersonal skills which are vital for framing strategies and building support. 2. Multitask Orientation Women have the ability of handling many tasks at the same time like talking on the phone, reading their mails, scheduling what else needs to be finished for the rest of the day and giving excellent results. They balance their families and career simultaneously effectively. Men are known to have been more troublesome with multitasking tending to focus on one or two things, thus wasting opportunities. 3. Self-Branding Attitude Woman entrepreneurs are extremely passionate by nature and enthusiastic about their choices, talking about them and sharing their thoughts. They emphasize the benefits of their services to their potential clients and are aware of how to highlight the positive features. 4. Patience Women entrepreneurs are very patience by nature and have great vision. Visionary entrepreneurs giving up on their dreams after only some months as a consequence of becoming impatient with the process only proves that the vision is not enough. The ability to wait and see is a key attribute in order to receive positive outcomes and women have it naturally. 5. Motivation Women entrepreneurs have a great passion for the work and a commitment to society. If they have the drive to pursue entrepreneurship, it means they are not afraid of taking any risks and will also make monetary gains. They possess the inner strength to continue and searches all possible means to share their business ideas with others. The increasing number of women entrepreneurs can promote economic and social equity which facilitates self-fulfillment for individuals, and improve the use of valuable human capital. Feminine traits and talents can be seen as sources of power with great advantages for entrepreneurship. In the near future women may be closing the venture capital gender gap. DISADVANTAGES OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS Family Considerations In the United States, women are more likely to shoulder a greater share of child-rearing duties. Children may demand their mothers undivided attention, which can be a challenge for female entrepreneurs to deal with. Building and running a new business requires a great deal of time, which may conflict with ones family obligations. Women in this situation must balance their family life with their duties as entrepreneurs. For example, parents can communicate about the need to devote some time during the day solely on business, while other times can be devoted to family matters. Confidence Although both men and women can face issues of self-doubt, or lack confidence to compete in the business market, men do not suffer from the same degree of prejudgment as do women entrepreneurs. For example, male business leaders may not believe that their female counterparts can compete or innovate to the degree that men can. The basis of these views are stereotypes about women. Having female mentors and confidants can help instill self confidence in your abilities as a female entrepreneur. Financial Barrier The foremost disadvantage of female entrepreneurship is the capital financing barrier. When starting a business, entrepreneurs need to line up capital to get the business off of the ground. Female entrepreneurs often get their initial funding from family loans, savings and credit cards. However, women can obtain capital from government startup programs, self-funding and venture capitalists. When women have promising business ideas, it is less difficult for them to obtain startup capital. Therefore, having solid business plan helps in reducing the finance barrier for women. Lack of Networks Female entrepreneurs are more likely to encounter difficulty because they are less likely to be associated with networks of people who can help them in launching and sustaining businesses. Networks include people who provide mentorship, help and valuable information to entrepreneurs. Men tend to dominate the highest levels of corporate leadership. Therefore, there are fewer women available to provide valuable advice to female entrepreneurs. Women also face customer/supplier discrimination, which occurs when customers or suppliers discriminate against women-owned firms. In response, women business leaders can create their own networks to cultivate the success of female entrepreneurs. Female Entrepreneurs Versus Male Entrepreneurs Do men have an advantage over women when it comes to starting a business? Historically, research has seemed to show that men have an advantage over women when it comes to starting a business. More recent research indicates that the perceived disparity between male and female entrepreneurs doesnt actually exist and gender is not a determining factor in the success or failure of a new business venture. But even though gender itself doesnt put female entrepreneurs at a disadvantage, the statistics point to several other factors that can impact the performance of women-owned business startups: Experience Expectations Statistically, men benefit from more business experience and higher expectations prior to opening a business. This may give men a confidence advantage when they launch a business, but according to the numbers women are more likely to report positive revenues. So whats the lesson? If you are a female entrepreneur, you shouldnt be intimidated by male counterparts even if they seem to enjoy more experience, higher expectations, and greater confidence. Risk Tolerance According to the numbers, female owners are more likely to prefer low risk/low return businesses. Male entrepreneurs, on the other hand, are more likely to start technologically intensive businesses, businesses that lose their competitive advantage more quickly, and businesses that have a less geographically localized customer base. In other words, men tend to embrace more risk than women in a new business venture. Risk is sometimes unavoidable as a business owner. But for the most part, female entrepreneurs should take steps to maintain a healthy balance between risk and reward in their companies. Education, Business Size, Hours Worked   As it turns out many of the differences that have been thought to exist between male and female business owners are more myth than reality. When all other variables are taken into account, male and female entrepreneurs have the same education levels, start businesses of similar sizes, and work roughly the same amount of hours. Since the notion that female entrepreneurs are less educated with smaller companies and less time to devote to their business is false, female small business owners should feel relieved of much of the pressure to prove themselves to their peers and more free to enjoy the fruits of their entrepreneurial endeavors. CONCLUSION Women are known for their multitasking ability; they have lot of responsibilities to fulfill such as household duties, office duties and in case of mothers, it becomes too difficult for them to step out of the house, for specific time and work in their area of interest. Because of this most of women dont get chance to go for jobs although it is their passion.   A woman, having flexible working hours and a choice of job will show miracles in the market. Starting business at home is a great opportunity for any women to start their journey in a corporate world.   It is proven that woman who runs her own business is happier than a woman who works for others. Advanced technology has given a chance to start and manage their business from home and to pursue their dream of becoming an entrepreneur. This will help them to make money for themselves while relaxing at home. They can work wherever and whenever they want. Because of this they can maintain a balance between their personal and professional life.

Jean Piaget Essay -- Essays Papers

Jean Piaget Introduction Now known as one of the trailblazers of developmental psychology, Jean Piaget initially worked in a wide range of fields. Early in his career Piaget studied the human biological processes. These processes intrigued Piaget so much that he began to study the realm of human knowledge. From this study he was determined to uncover the secrets of cognitive growth in humans. Jean Piaget’s research on the growth of the human mind eventually lead to the formation of the cognitive development theory which consists of three main components: schemes, assimilation and accommodation, and the stage model. The theory is best known for Piaget’s construction of the discontinuous stage model which was based on his study of children and how the processes and products of their minds develop over time. According to this stage model, there are four levels of cognitive growth: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. While a substantial amount of psyc hologists presently choose to adhere to the constructs of the information processing approach, Piaget’s ground breaking cognitive development view is still a valuable asset to the branch of developmental psychology. Whether or not Piaget uncovered any answers to the mysteries of human knowledge is disputable, but one belief that few dispute is that Jean Piaget did indeed lay a strong foundation for future developmental psychologists. Historical Background In 1896 the summer in Switzerland was just an ordinary, uneventful three months. However, during this ordinary and uneventful span of time, a child was born who would become an extraordinary developmental psychologist and fulfill the future with ground breaking events in the field of cognitive psychology. He was the son of an intelligent man and a stern, smart religious woman, and the godchild of respected epistemologist Samuel Cornut. With such scholarly surroundings, there is little surprise that Jean Piaget developed into such an intelligent individual. At age eleven, young Piaget wrote a paper on albino sparrows and got it published. This publishing provided him with the opportunity to meet a man who would turn out to be very influential, Paul Godet, the curator at the local museum. Young Piaget also benefited highly from his prestigious high school in Neuchatel, along with the aforementi... ...they themselves are innovative theoretical components. Impact on Society Jean Piaget was the leaning experimental epistemologist, thanks in some part to Simon and Binet’s work, but he set the standard that would not be accepted by the ethnocentric Americans until they were desperate during the Cold War and decided to open their eyes and accept his findings. Once they did this, they implemented Piaget’s theory into many American school systems which would have had a much more beneficial outcome had the powers that be implemented the great man’s work more carefully. Yet Piaget and his theory have survived and he is labeled as â€Å"the dominant force in shaping the cognitive-field and perceptual-field theories.† His theory was strong because he placed intellectual development over the child’s emotional, social, and moral development because he viewed the intellect as having influence over these other developing entities. In conclusion, Piaget summarized the cognitive development theory best in this statement: â€Å"M y secret ambition is that the hypotheses one could oppose to my own ill finally be seen not to contradict them but to result from a normal process of differentiation.†

The Loneliness of Hamlet :: Shakespeare Hamlet Essays

The Loneliness of Hamlet Hamlet was a lonely, isolated character, with few friends, and little faith in humanity. His loneliness played a great role in his downfall, by alienating him from his friends and family and eventually taking control of his actions. He did not share the knowledge of his father's murder or the appearance of the ghost with anyone. He couldn't even trust his friends and family, and he hid his true feelings from his only love, Ophelia, driving her to suicide. These events lead eventually to his downfall, and could have been avoided by sharing his dilemma. Two of Hamlets friends, Horatio and Marcellus, were standing watch at the castle one night when they witnessed the first apparition of the ghost of Hamlet's father. They decided to confide in their friend, and tell Hamlet of what had taken place. The following night, the three of them all stood watch to wait for the ghost. It appeared, and informed Hamlet that his uncle, Claudius, had murdered his father. Immediately following this, Hamlet declared that the event must be kept in secrecy "Never make known what you have seen tonight (I;v;144)." In order to prove the validity of the ghost, Hamlet would have to find proof of his father's murder, without sharing his ideas with anyone. He decided to make believe he was mad, so that the members of the king's court could excuse his behavior as he plotted his revenge. However, as he kept to himself, he became overwhelmed by his "madness" and fell into a deeper state of loneliness, ignoring those close to him, as he contemplated the value of l ife. "...it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'er hanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire-why it appears nothing to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapors...(II;ii;289)" As Hamlet tried to prove the murder of his father and have his revenge, Claudius discovered that Hamlet knew the truth. Claudius hired two of Hamlet's friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to spy on Hamlet in secret, "...be even and direct with me whether you were sent for or no (II;ii;278-79)." Later on, Claudius and Polonius, the father of Ophelia, also spied on Hamlet when he was with Ophelia, trying to discover the cause of his madness "Ophelia, walk you here.

Things Fall Apart: Literary Analysis

In China Achebe's Things Fall Apart, the Bib culture is depicted as a civilized society although it is quite the contrary. The Bib tribe is first portrayed as a civilized society t o those who live amongst it with good morals, a safe environment along with its leaders, and a stable r elision. Throughout the novel,it is clear that the Bib people are not a civilized society. In Things Fall Apart, Known is an important male role who disagrees with his culture and whether or not his cultural traditions are moral.This is evident in Known when Chin a Achebe states,†Known had felt for the first time a snapping inside him†¦ When they heard an I enfant crying in the thick forest. † (Achebe, 61) This is an example of a conflict dealing with morals because Known is said to have this horrid feeling as they are passing by the thick forest, and they hear an in fan's cry he feels bad about the situation because that baby was put there for being a twin and it was t radiation to thro w twins in the Evil Forest.Known realizes that this is not morally correct and is inhuman en Just like it wouldn't be correct to follow through with this tradition now a days in any culture. Of of, FAA, a columnist of Ghanaian states in her column on the book, Things Fall Apart,†He could have censored all the gory details if he chose to †¦. The throwing of twins into the evil forest etc.All of these fly in the face of our general human values today,† meaning that such a tradition now a days w loud be immoral and wrong and the author gave us such details and made them important so they he could portray a better picture about what kind of society the Bib are, an uncivilized society. The Bib society practices such as having more than one wife, the male being the lea deer of the souse, and the family violence seen in the novel provide another reason as to why the e Bib society is uncivilized.For example, in the novel it says,†She was Ginkgo's second wife, Kef, who m he nearly shot,†( Achebe, 39) when speaking of the time Awoken almost shoots his sec ND wife for a small misunderstanding, this quote shows both the practices of having more than on e wife and family violence, which are both corrupt practices. This information being provided to the re adders by the author helps better understand how the Bib society is and whether or not it is civilized. Like polygamy and attractor and the violence it sometimes engenders against women,† states Poof, FAA a, when explaining how the Bib society practices and actions shown in the novel would go against social norms today and are not very civilized practices and actions to begin with. The tragic death of Awakening, being killed by his fatherly figure,the novel's protagonist SST, and tragic hero is another major reason as to why the Bib are not civilized. My father the y have killed me,†leukemia said as he ran towards Awoken,†who drew his machete and cut him down. â€Å"(Achebe, 61). These two quotes are used to explain how Awakening dies and also to show the d reek side of Awoken and how far he would go to be seen as not weak, they whole event in the no vela can be used as an example to show how the Bib are uncivilized because first, Awakening was killed because Ann., the goddess, said he must be killed and second because it is is murder and murder I s morally wrong. The killing of Awakening who had become a part of Ginkgo's family,† writes Poof, F FAA when explaining that the murder of Awakening by his so called father was provided by the author to understand the novel, and most of all culture and society of the Bib, and how they are coarse and uncivilized in many ways. The Bib society is uncivilized despite the fact that it is first shown as a civilized society .Whether or not the Bib society was civilized is important because it shows how times have chaw engaged, this novel having been written in the sass's and even though the culture may be diffe rent, man y practices, actions, and beliefs shown in the novel affected many and are still being put to practice now a days in different 2 ways. These actions were not morally Justified back then but no one was punished, it was not stopped, it was allowed. Unlike today where women can be the leaders of the house, murder is never Justified, ND throwing twin babies in a forest is wrong. Things Fall Apart (Literary Analysis) Things Fall Apart Literary Analysis Okonkwo and his father, Unoka, were two very different people. With just one wife and nothing to leave behind to his only son, Unoka was seen as a failure in the eyes of his village. Okonkwo, however, became a titled man with three wives and a successful harvest every season. He was well respected in his community, despite his impulsive tendencies and rigidness. Although he despised Unoka, Okonkwo would not have grown to be the man that he did if it weren't for his father. Okonkwo was aware of his father's chronic laziness growing up and he knew firsthand the consequences of that kind of lifestyle.He learned from Unoka's mistakes, and as an adult tried to become the opposite of him. â€Å"Okonkwo was ruled by one passion- to hate everything his father had loved. One of those things was gentleness and another was idleness. † He didn't want to be judged based on the faults his father, and he proved that he was indeed everything Unoka was not: Strong, successful, determined and hardworking. Okonkwo also lived in perpetual fear of being perceived as weak, as his father had been. This fear drove him to do reckless things such as kill Ikemefuna, who had regarded Okonkwo as a father-figure. Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak. † Such impulsive actions proved him to be tough on the outside, but only weakened him on the inside. Okonkwo came to love Ikemefuna like a son, because he was much more like himself than his own biological son, Nwoye. However, he would never show his affection and later became deeply depressed by what he'd done. Nwoye, too, chose a very different path than his father. Okonkwo always thought Nwoye was lazy and feminine, much like Unoka. â€Å"‘†¦ I have done my best to make Nwoye grow into a man, but there is too much of his mother in him. ‘Too much of his grandfather,' Obierika thought, but he did not say it. The same th ought also came to Okonkwo's mind. † Later in Nwoye's life, he defied his father's wishes and joined the Christian church. Upon hearing this news, Okonkwo disowned him as a son. I think this shows that how we're raised greatly influences the people we become as adults. Okonkwo, who's father didn't have many expectations of him, created high expectations for himself. However, Nwoye failed to meet Okonkwo's high standards and eventually gave up on trying to please him.

Primary Education and Trendy Brown Jacket Essay

The most important qualities of an outstanding teacher are those that improve teaching and enhance student learning. Key note speeches often have an icebreaker – I thought I would provide the laughs – literally It only seems like yesterday that this photo of my classmates and I was taken? It was the end of my primary education, and secondary school beckoned. They were halcyon days! But, were they the best days of my life? For me they were very special. But I think the best days came later, as a result of my positive, and negative, experiences at school. Mr Halley (there he is in his trendy brown jacket – with elbow pads) was my best teacher – he was well dench! Of course that expression hadn’t been coined yet, but he was. He made learning fun, he made it interesting. Key note speeches often have an icebreaker – I thought I would provide the laughs – literally It only seems like yesterday that this photo of my classmates and I was taken? It was the end of my primary education, and secondary school beckoned. They were halcyon days! But, were they the best days of my life? For me they were very special. But I think the best days came later, as a result of my positive, and negative, experiences at school. Mr Halley (there he is in his trendy brown jacket – with elbow pads) was my best teacher – he was well dench! Of course that expression hadn’t been coined yet, but he was. He made learning fun, he made it interesting. Key note speeches often have an icebreaker – I thought I would provide the laughs – literally It only seems like yesterday that this photo of my classmates and I was taken? It was the end of my primary education, and secondary school beckoned. They were halcyon days! But, were they the best days of my life? For me they were very special. But I think the best days came later, as a result of my positive, and negative, experiences at school. Mr Halley (there he is in his trendy brown jacket – with elbow pads) was my best teacher – he was well dench! Of course that expression hadn’t been coined yet, but he was. He made learning fun, he made it interesting. Key note speeches often have an icebreaker – I thought I would provide the laughs – literally It only seems like yesterday that this photo of my classmates and I was taken? It was the end of my primary education, and  secondary school beckoned. They were halcyon days! But, were they the best days of my life? For me they were very special. But I think the best days came later, as a result of my positive, and negative, experiences at school. Mr Halley (there he is in his trendy brown jacket – with elbow pads) was my best teacher – he was well dench! Of course that expression hadn’t been coined yet, but he was. He made learning fun, he made it interesting. Key note speeches often have an icebreaker – I thought I would provide the laughs – literally It only seems like yesterday that this photo of my classmates and I was taken? It was the end of my primary education, and secondary school beckoned. They were halcyon days! But, were they the best days of my life? For me they were very special. But I think the best days came later, as a result of my positive, and negative, experiences at school. Mr Halley (there he is in his trendy brown jacket – with elbow pads) was my best teacher – he was well dench! Of course that expression hadn’t been coined yet, but he was. He made learning fun, he made it interesting. Key note speeches often have an icebreaker – I thought I would provide the laughs – literally It only seems like yesterday that this photo of my classmates and I was taken? It was the end of my primary education, and secondary school beckoned. They were halcyon days! But, were they the best days of my life? For me they were very special. But I think the best days came later, as a result of my positive, and negative, experiences at school. Mr Halley (there he is in his trendy brown jacket – with elbow pads) was my best teacher – he was well dench! Of course that expression hadn’t been coined yet, but he was. He made learning fun, he made it interesting. Key note speeches often have an icebreaker – I thought I would provide the laughs – literally It only seems like yesterday that this photo of my classmates and I was taken? It was the end of my primary education, and secondary school beckoned. They were halcyon days! But, were they the best days of my life? For me they were very special. But I think the best days came later, as a result of my positive, and negative, experiences at school. Mr Halley (there he is in his trendy brown jacket – with elbow pads) was my best teacher – he was well dench! Of course that expression hadn’t been coined yet, but he was. He made learning fun, he made it interesting. Key note speeches often have an icebreaker – I thought I would provide the laughs – literally It only seems like yesterday that this photo of my classmates and I was taken? It was the end of my primary education, and secondary school beckoned. They were halcyon days! But, were they the best days of my life? For me they were very special. But I think the best days came later, as a result of my positive, and negative, experiences at school. Mr Halley (there he is in his trendy brown jacket – with elbow pads) was my best teacher – he was well dench! Of course that expression hadn’t been coined yet, but he was. He made learning fun, he made it interesting. Key note speeches often have an icebreaker – I thought I would provide the laughs – literally It only seems like yesterday that this photo of my classmates and I was taken? It was the end of my primary education, and secondary school beckoned. They were halcyon days! But, were they the best days of my life? For me they were very special. But I think the best days came later, as a result of my positive, and negative, experiences at school. Mr Halley (there he is in his trendy brown jacket – with elbow pads) was my best teacher – he was well dench! Of course that expression hadn’t been coined yet, but he was. He made learning fun, he made it interesting. Key note speeches often have an icebreaker – I thought I would provide the laughs – literally It only seems like yesterday that this photo of my classmates and I was taken? It was the end of my primary education, and secondary school beckoned. They were halcyon days! But, were they the best days of my life? For me they were very special. But I think the best days came later, as a result of my positive, and negative, experiences at school. Mr Halley (there he is in his trendy brown jacket – with elbow pads) was my best teacher – he was well dench! Of course that expression hadn’t been coined yet, but he was. He made learning fun, he made it interesting. Key note speeches often have an icebreaker – I thought I would provide the laughs – literally It only seems like yesterday that this photo of my classmates and I was taken? It was the end of my primary education, and secondary school beckoned. They were halcyon days! But, were they the best days of my life? For me they were very special. But I think the best days came later, as a result of my positive, and negative, experiences at school. Mr Halley (there he is in his trendy brown jacket – with elbow pads) was my best teacher – he was well dench! Of course that expression hadn’t been coined yet, but he was. He made learning fun, he made it interesting. Key note speeches often have an icebreaker – I thought I would provide the laughs – literally It only seems like yesterday that this photo of my classmates and I was taken? It was the end of my primary education, and secondary school beckoned. They were halcyon days! But, were they the best days of my life? For me they were very special. But I think the best days came later, as a result of my positive, and negative, experiences at school. Mr Halley (there he is in his trendy brown jacket – with elbow pads) was my best teacher – he was well dench! Of course that expression hadn’t been coined yet, but he was. He made learning fun, he made it interesting. Key note speeches often have an icebreaker – I thought I would provide the laughs – literally It only seems like yesterday that this photo of my classmates and I was taken? It was the end of my primary education, and secondary school beckoned. They were halcyon days! But, were they the best days of my life? For me they were very special. But I think the best days came later, as a result of my positive, and negative, experiences at school. Mr Halley (there he is in his trendy brown jacket – with elbow pads) was my best teacher – he was well dench! Of course that expression hadn’t been coined yet, but he was. He made learning fun, he made it interesting.

Classification of Modern Germanic Languages and their Distribution Essay

Classification of languages means their placement into families or phyla [‘failÉ™] on the basis of lexical or typological similarity or shared ancestry. Languages may thus be classified either genetically or typologically. A genetic classification assumes that certain languages are related in that they have evolved from a common ancestral language. This form of classification employs ancient records as well as hypothetical reconstructions of the earlier forms of languages, called protolanguages. Typological classification is based on similarities in language structure. As for the English language, genetically (historically) it belongs to the Germanic or Teutonic group of languages of the Indo-European linguistic family. Old Germanic languages comprised 3 groups: East Germanic, North Germanic and West Germanic. East Germanic languages no longer exist, as they are dead. Only one language belonging to this group is known, Gothic, as a written document came down to us in this la nguage. It is a translation of the Bible made in the 4th century A.D. by the Gothic Bishop Ulfilas from the Greek language. Modern Germanic languages embrace 2 groups: North Germanic and West Germanic as they have survived until today. The table below illustrates their division and distribution. Researchers are not unanimous in their estimation of the number of Germanic languages and their distinction. Until recently Dutch and Flemish were named as separate languages, now there is a common term for them – the Netherlandic (Netherlandish) (Note 7) language as spoken in The Netherlands, together with the same language in northern Belgium, which is popularly called Flemish. In the European Middle Ages, the language was called Dietsc, or Duutsc, historically equivalent to German Deutsch and meaning simply â€Å"language of the people,† as contrasted with Latin, which was the language of religion and learning. The form Duutsc was borrowed into English and gives modern â€Å"Dutch.† The official name of the language is Nederlands, or Netherlandic. In the Netherlands it is also called Hollands (Hollandish), reflecting the fact that the standard language is based largely on the dialect of the old province of Holland (now North Holland and South  Holland). Frisian and Faroese are regarded as dialects since they are spoken over small politically dependent areas (Note 8); British English and American English are sometimes thought to be 2 independent languages. By one estimate, the number of people speaking Germanic languages amounts to 440 million (T.A. Rastorguyeva) plus an indefinite number of bilingual nations with English spoken as one of the official languages. Old Germanic Languages and their Classification The history of the Germanic group begins with the appearance of what is known  as the Proto-Germanic (PG) language also termed Common or Primitive Germanic, Primitive Teutonic or simple Germanic. PG is the linguistic ancestor or the parent-language of the Germanic group. It is believed to have split from the IE related tongues sometime between the 15th and 10th c.c.BC. The ancient Germans or Teutons are supposed to have settled on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea in the region of the Elbe. This place is regarded as the most probable original home of the Teutons. PG is an entirely pre-historical language: it was never recorded in written form. In the 19th century it was reconstructed by methods of comparative linguistics from written evidence in descendant languages. It is believed that at the earliest stages of history, PG was one language, though dialectally coloured. In its later stages dialectal differences grew, so that towards the beginning of our era Germanic appears divi ded into dialectal groups and tribal dialects. Dialectal differentiation increased with migrations and geographical expansion of the Teutons caused by over population, poor agricultural technique and scanty natural resources in the areas of their original settlement. Earliest records of Germanic tribes The records of ancient Germanic tribes are based on testimonies by Greek and Roman travellers and geographers. The earliest of them refers to the IV c. B.C. made by Phytheas, a Greek astronomer and geographer who sailed from Gaul (France) to the mouth of the river Elbe. He described the tribes of the Teutons. The next major description of the Teutons came from Julius Caesar, the Roman general and statesman which he left in his book ‘Commentaries on the War in Gaul’ (1 c. BC.) A century later (1 c. A.D.) Pliny the Elder, a Roman naturalist, gave a classification of the Germanic which until quite recently had basically been accepted by modern researchers. According to it, the tribes in 1st c.A.D. comprised 5 major groups which fell into 3 subgroups: Eastern Germanic, Western Germanic and Northern Germanic. They were 1) the Vindili 2) the Ingaevones 3) The Istsaevones 4)the Hermiones 5) the Hilleveones. Table 2 illustrates this division. A few decades later the Roman historian Tacitus compiled a detailed description of the life and customs of the ancient Teutons where he reproduced Pliny’s classification of  the Germanic tribes. Having made a linguistic analysis of several Germanic dialects of later ages, F. Engels came to the conclusion that Pliny’s classification of the Teutonic tribes accurately reflected the contemporary dialectal division. The traditional tri-partite classification of the Germanic languages was reconsidered and corrected in some recent publications (Rastorgueyva). It appears that the development of the Germanic group was not confined to successive splits; it involved both linguistic divergence and convergence. It has also been discovered that originally PG split into two main branches and that the tri-partite division marks a later stage of its history. The earliest migration of the Germanic tribes from the lower valley of the Elbe consisted in their movement north, to the Scandinavian peninsula, a few hundred years before our era. This geographical segregation must have led to linguistic differentiation and to the division of PG into the northern and southern branches. At the beginning of our era, some of the tribes returned to the mainland and settled closer to the Vistula basin, east of the other continental Germanic tribes. It is only from this stage of their history that the Germanic languages can be described under three headings: East Germanic, North Germanic and West Germanic. Table 2 Classification of Ancient Germanic Tribes Record Languages Tribes Settlement 4th c. B.C. – Pytheas, Greek astronomer and geographer 1st c. B.C. – Julius Caesar< Roman general and statesman 1st c. A.D. – Pliny the Elder, Roman naturalist: classification of the Germanic tribes: East Germanic The Vindili (including the Goths and the Burgundians) Eastern part of Germanic territory Western Germanic The Ingaevones North-western part of Germanic territory, the shores of the Northern Sea, modern Netherlands The Istsaevones The western part of the Germanic territory, on the Rhine (the Franks) The Hermiones Southern part of the Germanic territory (southern Germany) Northern Germanic The Hilleveones Scandinavia – 2nd c. A.D. Cornelius Tacitus, Roman historian Characterized the social structure of the old Germanic tribes Material Culture According to Julius Caesar, the Germans were pastoralists, and the bulk of their foodstuffs—milk, cheese, and meat—came from their flocks and herds. Some farming was also carried out, the main crops being grain, root crops, and vegetables. Both the cattle and the horses of the Germans were of poor quality by Roman standards. The Iron Age had begun in Germany about four centuries before the days of Caesar, but even in his time metal appears to have been a luxury material for domestic utensils, most of which were made of wood, leather, or clay. Of the larger metal objects used by them,  most were still made of bronze, though this was not the case with weapons. Pottery was for the most part still made by hand, and pots turned on the wheel were relatively rare. The degree to which trade was developed in early Germany is obscure. There was certainly a slave trade, and many slaves were sold to the Romans. Such potters as used the wheel—and these were very few—and smiths and miners no doubt sold their products. But in general the average Germanic village is unlikely to have used many objects that had not been made at home. Foreign merchants dealing in Italian as well as Celtic wares were active in Germany in Caesar’s time and supplied prosperous warriors with such goods as wine and bronze vessels. But from the reign of Augustus onward, there was a huge increase in German imports from the Roman Empire. The German leaders were now able to buy whole categories of goods—glass vessels, red tableware, Roman weapons, brooches, statuettes, ornaments of various kinds, and other objects—that had not reached them before. These Roman products brought their owners much prestige, but how the Germans paid for them is not fully known. Warfare In the period of the early Roman Empire, German weapons, both offensive and defensive, were characterized by shortage of metal. Their chief weapon was a long lance, and few carried swords. Helmets and breastplates were almost unknown. A light wooden or wicker shield, sometimes fitted with an iron rim and sometimes strengthened with leather, was the only defensive weapon. This lack of adequate equipment explains the swift, fierce rush with which the Germans would charge the ranks of the heavily armed Romans. If they became entangled in a prolonged, hand-to-hand grapple, where their light shields and thrusting spears were confronted with Roman swords and armour, they had little hope of success. Even by the 6th century, few of the Germanic peoples had adequate military equipment. Form of Government No trace of autocracy can be found among the Germans whom Caesar describes. The leading men of the pagi (kindred groups) would try to patch up disputes  as they arose, but they acted only in those disputes that broke out between members of their own pagus. There appears to have been no mediatory body at this date. In fact, in peacetime there appears to have been no central authority that could issue orders to, or exercise influence over, all the pagi of which any one people was composed. In wartime, according to Caesar, a number of confederate chieftains were elected, but they were joint leaders and held office only in time of war. By Tacitus’ time a new type of military chieftainship had come into being. For this office only the members of a recognized â€Å"royal clan,† such as is known to have existed among the 1st-century Cherusci and Batavians, the 6th-century Heruli, and others, were eligible. Any member of this royal clan was eligible for election, and the chie ftainship was in no way hereditary. A chief of this type held office for life and had religious as well as military duties. He could be overruled by the council of the leading men, and his proposals to the general assembly of the warriors might be rejected by them. The degree of his influence depended largely on his own personal qualities. A rudimentary judicial apparatus had come into existence among the Germanic peoples by Tacitus’ time. The general assembly elected a number of the leading men to act as judges, and these judges traveled through the villages to hear private suits. Each of them was accompanied by 100 attendants to lend authority to his decisions. A person who was found guilty by these judges had to pay a number of horses or cattle proportionate to the gravity of his offense. But many disputes (e.g., those arising from homicide, wounding, or theft) continued to be settled by the kindreds themselves, and the blood feuds to which they gave rise might continue from generation to generation. Long after the conversion to Christianity the German rulers found it difficult to stamp out the blood feud. .The monarchy did not become fully established in the Germanic world until German peoples had settled as federates inside the Roman Empire, and the leaders of the Ostrogoths in Italy, the Visigoths in Gaul and Spain, the Vandals in Africa, and so on are the first Germanic kings. Other famous German chieftains in this period, such as Athanaric and Alaric, who either lived outside the Roman frontier or whose peoples were not federates settled in the provinces under a treaty (foedus) to defend the frontier, seem to have had little more personal authority than the leaders described by Tacitus. Conversion to Christianity Evidence suggests that before the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, none of the great Germanic peoples was converted to Christianity while still living outside the Roman frontier, but that all the Germanic peoples who moved into the Roman provinces before that date were converted to Christianity within a generation. The Vandals seem to have been converted when in Spain in 409–429, the Burgundians when in eastern Gaul in 412–436, and the Ostrogoths when in the province of Pannonia about 456–472. In all these cases the Germans embraced the Arian form of Christianity (Note 9); none of the major Germanic peoples became officially Catholic until the conversion of the Franks under Clovis (496) and of the Burgundians under Sigismund. The reason for their adoption of Arianism rather than Catholicism is very obscure. The last Germanic people on the European continent to be converted to Christianity were the Old Saxons (second half of the 8th century), while the Sca ndinavian peoples were converted in the 10th century. England had been converted in the 7th century. Germanic Alphabets and Old Germanic Writings Germanic tribes used 3 different alphabets for their writings which partly succeeded each other in time. The earliest of these was the Runic alphabet (Note 10) each separate letter being called a rune. The word rune originally meant ‘secret’, ‘mystery’ and hence came to denote inscriptions believed to be magic. According to scholars, this alphabet was derived either from Latin or from some other Italic alphabet, close to Latin, in the 2nd c. A.D. somewhere on the Rhine or the Danube where the Germanic tribes came into contact with Roman culture. This alphabet was used by such tribes as the Goths, Anglo-Saxons and Scandinavians. The runes were used as letters, each symbol indicating a separate sound. Besides, a rune could also represent a word beginning with that sound and was called by that word. For example, the rune denoted the sound [ÃŽ ¸], [à °] was called ‘thorn’ and could stand for OE Þorn(NE thorn). The letters of the runic alphabet are angular, straight lines are preferred, curved lines are avoided. This is due to the fact that  runic inscriptions were cut in hard material: stone, bone or wood. The shapes of some letters resemble those of Greek and Latin; others have not been traced to any known alphabet. The number of runes in different OG languages varied from 28 to 33 runes in Britain against 16 or 24 on the continent. That is the number of runes in England was larger: new runes were added as new sounds appeared in English. Neither on the mainland nor in Britain were the runes ever used for everyday writing or for putting down poetry and prose works. Their main function was to make short inscriptions on objects, often to bestow on them some special power or magic. The two best known runic inscriptions in England are the earliest extant OE written records. One of them is an inscription on a box called the ‘Franks Casket, the other is a short text on a stone cross known as the Ruthwell Cross. The Franks Casket was discovered in the early years of the 19th c. In France, and was presented to the British Museum by a British archeologist A.W. Frank. The Casket is a small box of whale bone; its four sides are carved: there are pictures in the centre and runic inscription around. The longest of them, in alliterative verse, tells the story of the whale bone, of which the Casket is made. The Ruthwell Cross is a 15ft tall cross inscribed and ornamented on all sides. The principal inscription has been reconstructed into a passage from an OE religious poem† The Dream of the Rood†, in which Christ’s Passion is told from the point of view of the Cross on which he was crucified. The Cross speaks: Ic wà ¦s miÞ blodi bistemid (Old English translation) (I was with blood bedewed). Many runic inscriptions were preserved on weapons, coins, amulets, tombstones, rings, various cross fragments. Some runic insertions occur in OE manuscripts written in Latin characters. The total number of runic inscriptions in OE is about 40; the last of them belong to the end of the OE period. Next came Ulfiala’s Gothic alphabet used in his translation of the Bible. It’s a peculiar alphabet based on the Greek alphabet with some admixture of Latin and Runic letters. (The Gothic alphabet should not be confused with the so-called Gothic script which is used in German writings and is a modified version of Latin script). The latest alphabet to be used by the Germanic tribes is the Latin alphabet. It superceded both the Runic and the Gothic alphabets when a new technique of writing was introduced, namely that of spreading some colour or paint on a surface instead of cutting or engraving the letters. The material used for  writing was either parchment or papyrus. Introduction of the Latin alphabet accompanied the spread of Christianity and Christian religious texts written in Latin. Since the Latin alphabet was adequate to represent all the sounds of Germanic languages, it was adapted to the peculiar needs of the separate languages. For example, to denote the dental fricative [ÃŽ ¸], [à °] the runic Þ was used (derived from Latin D). Ulfilas’s Bible, otherwise called the Silver Code (Codex Argenteus) is kept in Sweden. Along with other OG writings, next comes the Old High German Song of Hilderbrandt, a fragment of an epic, 8th century, and the Beowulf, an OE epic, probably written in the 8th c. Then come Old Icelandic epic texts collected in the so-called Older Edda comprising songs written down in the 13 c. A most important role in the history of the English language was played by the introduction of Christianity. The first attempt to introduce the Roman Christian religion was made in the 6th century during the supremacy of Kent. In 597 a group of missionaries from Rome dispatched by Pope Gregory the Great landed on the shore of Kent. They made Canterbury their centre and from there the new faith expanded to Kent, East Anglia, Essex, and other places. The movement was supported from the north; missionaries from Ireland brought the Celtic variety of Christianity to Northumbria. In less than a century practically all England became Christianized. The introduction of Christianity gave a strong impetus to the growth of learning and culture. Monasteries were founded all over the country, with monastic schools attached. Religious service and teaching were conducted in Latin. A high standard of learning was reached in the best English monasteries, especially in Northumbria as early as the 8th and 9th centuries. During the Scandinavian invasions the Northumbrian culture was largely wiped out and English culture shifted to the southern kingdoms, most of all to Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great. From that time till the end of the OE period, Wessex with its capital at Winchester remained the cultural centre of England. OE scribes used two kinds of alphabet: runic and Latin. The bulk of the OE records is written in Latin characters but the scribes made certain modifications and additions to indicate OE sounds. Like any alphabetic writing, OE writing was based on a phonetic principle: every letter indicated a separate sound. This principle, however, was not always observed, even at the earliest stages of phonetic spelling. Some OE letters indicated two or more sounds; some letters stood  for positional variants of phonemes: a and à ¦. Fricatives stood for 2 sounds each: a voiced and a voiceless consonant. The letters could indicate short and long sounds. The length of the vowels is shown by a macron or by a line above the letter; long consonants are indicated by a double letter. Linguistic Features of Germanic Languages Phonetic peculiarities of Germanic Languages. Word Stress and its role in further development of Germanic languages In ancient IE, prior to the separation of Germanic, there existed two ways of word accentuation: musical pitch and force stress (otherwise called dynamic, expiratory or breath stress). The position of the stress was movable and free, which means that it could fall on any syllable of the word – a root morpheme, an affix or an ending – and could be shifted both in form building and word-building. (cf. Russian: Ð ´Ã ¾Ã ¼Ã ¾Ã ¼, Ð ´Ã ¾Ã ¼Ã °, Ð ´Ã ¾Ã ¼Ã °, etc.). But these properties of the word accent were changed in PG. Force or expiratory stress became the only type of stress used. The stress was now fixed on the first syllable, which was usually the root of the word and sometimes the prefix; the other syllables – suffixes and endings – were unstressed. The stress could no longer move either in form-building or in word-building. This phenomenon has played an important role in the development of the Germanic languages, and especially in phonetic and morphological changes. Due to the difference in the force of articulation, the stressed and unstressed syllables underwent different changes: accented syllables were pronounced with great distinctness and precision, while unaccented became less distinct and were phonetically weakened. The differences between the sounds in stressed position were preserved and emphasised, whereas the contrasts between the unaccented sounds were weakened and lost. Since the stress was fixed on the root, the weakening and loss of sounds mainly affected the suffixes and grammatical endings. Many ending merged with the suffixes, were weakened and dropped. E.g. (the reconstructed word )PG *fiskaz Goth fisks Oicel fiscr OE fisc The First or Proto-Germanic Consonant Shift (Grimm’s Law) Comparison with other languages within the IE family reveals regular correspondences between Germanic and non-Germanic consonants. It looks as if the Germanic consonants ‘shifted’ as compared with their non-Germanic counterparts. This phenomenon was first observed and later formulated in terms of phonetic law (1822) by (Rasmus Rask and Jacob Grimm. Hence its name- Grimm’s Law. By Grimm’s Law, which includes 3 acts, voiceless plosives (stops) developed in PG into voiceless fricatives (1 act); voiced aspirated plosives were shifted to pure voiced plosives or voiced fricatives; and voiced plosives changed into voiceless plosives (stops). The Danish scholar Karl Verner was the first to explain them as the result of further development of Germanic languages. According to Verner, all the early PG voiceless fricatives [f, ÃŽ ¸, h] which arose under Grimm’s Law, became voiced between vowels if the preceding vowel was unstressed; otherwise they remained voiceless. The voicing of fricatives occurred in early PG at the time when the stress was not yet fixed on the root-morpheme. [f – v- b] seofon [ÃŽ ¸ – à ° – d] O Icel. hundraà ° – hundert [h – g] Goth. swaihro –OE sweger [s – z – r] Lat. auris – Goth. auso – Icel. eyra (ear) The change of [z] into [r] is called rhotacism. As a result of voicing, there arose an interchange of consonants in the grammatical forms of the word, termed grammatical interchange. Part of the  forms retained a voiceless fricative, while other forms acquired a voiced fricative. For example, heffen (Inf.) – huob Past sg.) heave; ceosan (choose) curon (Past pl.). Some modern English words retained traces of Verner’s Law: death – dead; was- were, raise – rear. Throughout history, PG vowels displayed a strong tendency to change. The changes were of the following kinds: qualitative and quantitative, dependent and independent. Qualitative changes affect the quality of the sound, for example [o – a] or [p – f]; quantitative changes are those which make long sounds short or short sounds long. For example,[ i – i:]; dependent changes are restricted to certain positions when a sound may change under the influence of the neighbouring sounds or in a certain type of a syllable; independent changes or regular (spontaneous) take place irrespective of phonetic conditions, that is they may affect a certain sound in all positions. In accented syllables the oppositions between vowels were carefully maintained and the number of stressed vowels grew. In unaccented positions the original contrasts between vowels were weakened or lost; the distinction of short and long vowels in unstressed syllables had been shortened. As for originally short vowels, they tended to be reduced to a neutral sound, losing their qualitative distinctions and were often dropped in unstressed final syllables (fiskaz). Strict differentiation of long and short vowels is regarded as an important characteristic of the Germanic group. Long vowels tended to become closer and to diphthongize, short vowels often changed into more open vowels. IE short [o] changed in Germanic into more open vowel [a] and thus ceased to be distinguished from the original IE [a]; in other words in PG they merged into [o]. IE long [a:] was narrowed to [o:] and merged with [o:]. For example, Lat. nox Goth. nahts; Lat. mater OE modor; Sans. bhra:ta OE bro:à °or .