The Minister’s Black Veil Essays -- Minister?s Black Veil Essays Paper

The Minister’s Black Veil The story â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil† is symbolic of the hidden sins that we hide and separate ourselves from the ones we love most. In wearing the veil Hooper presents the isolation that everybody experiences when they are chained down by their own sins. He has realized that everybody symbolically can be found in the shadow of their own veil. By Hooper wearing this shroud across his face is only showing the dark side of people and the truth of human existence and nature. Hooper left the dark shroud on because he has realized that secret sin is a veil that can never be lifted from anybody until the day of their death. In a quote from the story Mr. Hooper says, â€Å"There is an hour to come, when all of us shall cast aside our veils. Take it not amiss, beloved friend, if I wear this piece of crepe till then.† By saying this Mr. Hooper expresses the feeling that while human beings are alive on the earth a veil shows their face. Hooper promised himself and made a life task of playing a mirror to the people around him. The veil cannot be lifted until the freedom of truth can be observed. The minister’s friends and neighbors are so upset by the veil because the veil becomes a wall between himself and his congregation. The first response is one of curiosity which then turns in suspicion. They cannot understand the meaning for the wearing of the black veil and in turn the people become very uncomfortable around him. The veil and it color ...

The Importance of Extracurricular Activities Camry

â€Å"The Importance of Extracurricular Activities† Academics are an important part of every student's high school years. This is because academics play a big role in college acceptance. Students are encouraged by teachers and/or parents everyday to study. Every parent want their child to attend college but only want to pay less; that's one reason why they encourage their child to study more. However, there is one more other thing students can do other than academic relations I. E. Extracurricular activities. Extracurricular activities include basketball, baseball, tennis, student government, drama, choir and there things.Besides being fun and socializing with peers, extracurricular activities can enhance their time management skills. Extracurricular activities increase your chances in getting accepted for colleges. When students are involved in activities, they learn how to work in groups. Their communication skills improve. These things cross over to real life. College admis sion committees want to see students doing more than just book work. The privilege to even play on a team comes with certain requirements. Students may have to meet and maintain a minimum grade point average to play any ports or be in any clubs.Some extracurricular activities are made to help at risk teenagers. They begin to have an increased sense of self-worth, and it increases their' health. They develop life-long relationships with their peers and learn how to lead others. These activities help you stand out from the crowd. Getting involved in too many activities can have negative effects. Students involved in too many activities usually end up having academic problems. Students should pick out their favorite activities and make sure they can handle them.They shouldn't try to do it all even though it shows their passion ND commitment to activities, which builds character. These activities that students are involved in reveals a lot more about them. To put it briefly, students wh o participate in extracurricular activities will see an improvement in their academic and life skills. They will be disciplined, gain goal-setting skills, accountability and responsibility. They will also be better prepared for college. Students may even distinguish the lessons they learned outside the classroom. Extracurricular activities will help them survive in the future workplace.

Gender Disparity and the ways in which it underpins major social and economic inequalities in South Asia

The aim of this paper is to show the linkage between gender disparity and social and economic inequalities that result because of gender disparity in the South Asian context. This is an important area of study because gender disparity is closely interlinked with and supports explanations of social and economic inequality. This is also of particular interest in the South Asian context because compared to the rest of the world South Asia has one of the greatest degrees of gender disparity in the world. Furthermore gender equality can be used to measure the progressiveness and development of a given society as a whole by acting as an indicator to social equality. In other words the smaller the gap in gender disparity, the more developed and progressive a given country or society can be regarded. This paper will deal with the common perception of women in the South Asian context, social exclusion and the limited legal rights of women, Their rights to land and property, access to education and healthcare, female foeticide and infanticide, the political and economic exclusion of women and the downward spiraling effect that the above factors will have particularly on the economy and South Asian society as a whole. The paper will draw from various parts of South Asia to illustrate vividly examples of gender disparity at work. In order to really understand the existence of Gender disparity in South Asia one must look at the fiercely patriarchal nature of South Asian society. Throughout most of South Asia, men have been given the role of decision makers and heads of family because of cultural, social and religious backing that has gone on for thousands of years and thus gender bias is not just believed in by men but women also. â€Å"This has arguably resulted in female submission to male domination and the constraint of women's choices to come to be regarded as the social norm. † The first significant way that gender disparity supports economic inequality is in what can be regarded as the â€Å"unseen economy†. Many South Asian women are employed in the informal sector and thus their contribution to the national economy is not recognized and accounted for in a respective country's Gross Domestic Product or GDP. â€Å"Because their labour – in such activities as family care, household maintenance is excluded from systems of national accounts the work they do remains unappreciated and inadequately compensated. In Bangladesh, some studies estimate that women spend between 70 and 88 percent of their time in non-market work. The vast majority of South Asian women work in the informal-sector or in unpaid family assistance, with the informal sector accounting for the employment of 96 percent of economically-active women in India, 75 percent in Nepal and Bangladesh and nearly 65 percent in Pakistan. â€Å"2 Methods to incorporate the contribution of the women to the economy should be implemented. This would be the only possible way of assessing their productivity accurately. One theoretical method is to make use of the economic concept of â€Å"opportunity cost†. For example the productivity of a housewife can be taken into account by the cost of hiring domestic help to manage the household assuming she went out to work. Simply put, if she did not do the work at home, someone else has to be paid to do it. Such methods may be the only way to give women their due credit in recognition of their contribution to the economy. The next substantial way in which gender disparity supports a major economic inequality in South Asia is in the area of land rights for women. A very phallic male-centred approach to the division of property and very often occurs in South Asia. A significant proportion of women do not receive their due share of inheritance. â€Å"3 In order to really understand the economic and social implications that this brings about one must see â€Å"the links between gender subordination and property and the need to be sought in not only the distribution of property between households but also in its distribution between men and women, in not only who owns the property but also who controls it, and in relation not only to private property but to communal property. † 4 Actual ownership of a property does not always mean effective assertion of control over that property. In some cases women's names are not put on the revenue records after they inherit, in others they are persuaded to sign relinquishment in favour of male family members. â€Å"5 This is because in many parts of South Asia it is customary for sons to inherit all the land and property without any shares going to the daughters of the family. The lack of property and capital makes women economically subjugate to men because of economic dependency. They are unable to make economic decisions for themselves. When women's access to property and wealth is denied this makes â€Å"(a) A woman's class position defined through that of a man- father, husband etc. it is more open to change than that of a man: a well-placed marriage can raise it, divorce or widowhood can lower it. (b) This can occur to the extent that even women of propertied households, do not own property themselves and makes it difficult to characterize their class position. Indeed some have even argued that women constitute a class in themselves. â€Å"6 One must bear in mind that this not only gives rise to major economic inequality but also social inequality. The rise of capitalism has made economics in integral part of determining social class. Gone are the days when social class was not dependent on wealth and property. Thus in this respect women are socially compromised as well economically. Another way in which gender disparity closely supports both economic and social inequality is with regards to the Law of a state. The Law can be used as a very good indicator of gender disparity and thus social and economic inequality. Simply put the Law has to protect both men and women. Men and women should have equality before the law. The Apostle Paul said, â€Å"The law is lawful so long as one uses it lawfully†. Indeed there should not only be equality before the Law in areas of gender, but race and class as well. The legal terrain of South Asia is determined by the religious and cultural practices of several communities, and overlain by traditions of European jurisprudence and is particularly treacherous for women. Throughout the region different religious and cultural communities are governed by separate personal laws- those civil laws which deal with marriage, dowry and divorce; custody, guardianship and adoption of children and inheritance†. 7 The lack of a uniform civil code in South Asian states to protect the rights of women has sadly allowed loopholes in the law to be exploited which aids in the economic and social oppression of women. It is a sad truth that in many parts of South Asia there is still a strong degree of gender-bias in the law of the state, which puts women at an unfair disadvantage as compared to men. â€Å"The lack of a uniform civil code in which fundamental human rights take precedence over gender discriminatory religious customs remains a main obstacle to the achievements of women's equal rights. â€Å"8 In order to illustrate the significant impact the law can have on promoting inequality the laws pertaining to women's rights in South Asia will be looked at. Property and inheritance laws are in themselves highly gender discriminatory across South Asia. This will be tied in with the earlier example of land rights for women and the role of the law as a mediating device. Take for example the case of the â€Å"Jaffna Tamils in Sri Lanka, a married woman needs her husband's consent to alienate land which she legally owns. â€Å"9 Legal ownership does not always carry with it the right of control in all senses. Legal ownership might still be challenged by prevailing social constraints as well. Thus there has to be not only implementation of legal rights but enforcement as well in order to safeguard the rights of women. Strong degree of gender disparity can be seen from inheritance laws in Nepal. â€Å"One of the laws states that a daughter can only inherit paternal property if she is unmarried and over 35 years of age, and she cannot inherit tenancy rights. â€Å"10 Needless to say the very legal system, which should serve the function of protection, seems to undermine women and compromise their representation. A very serious aspect that needs to be looked at is the implication of some of the bias inheritance laws, which contribute to a downward spiral effect. These bias inheritance laws not only economically and socially impair women but in many cases their offspring bear the brunt of the hardship as well. Firstly, these â€Å"discriminatory property laws limit women's capacity to obtain credit and benefit from new opportunities for economic advancement by engaging in self employment. This also has further serious implications as in the case of the â€Å"cancellation of the provision of inheritance for orphan grandchildren by a Federal Shariat Court in Pakistan. This has a multiplier effect on economic and social inequality because of the overwhelming burden placed on widowed mothers. They lose their only means of financial support with the death of their husbands and this also means that the children would not be able to inherit the property of their father which will also increase the financial burden of the women. 11 Also, the law not only fails to protect women in terms of property and inheritance rights but in many other areas as well. Women who are the victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse in South Asia have a much harder time seeking justice than their counterparts around the world. Often in South Asia, women who are the victims of sexual assault and battery are blamed for the crime rather than the perpetrators and abusers themselves. Gender disparity really underpins the social inequality in Bangladesh. â€Å"Even today, for the majority of women in Bangladesh, the world consists of their immediate family, and the new households of near relatives and neighbours. Very few are involved in any social institution apart from the family, and this even often applies to middle-class women in urban areas. The cultural institution of parda requires the isolation of all women besides minors from men outside the family and close relative circle. Movements outside the home are to be carried out only for prescribed reasons and at prescribed times of the day. † 12 Because of this cultural institution many Bangladeshi women literally become â€Å"birds in a cage†. This not only compromises women socially but economically and politically as well. This restricts their occupational chances and mobility. Furthermore parda leaves virtually no room in a woman's life for public interaction. Women are thus excluded from elections, conferences and decision-making bodies. Because of the strong nature of patriarchy is South Asian society and the Dowry system in marriages, women are considered a liability even before they are born. In the next few paragraphs the paper will look at women's access to healthcare and education and female foeticide and infanticide. This indeed causes an exacerbation of social and economic inequality. In order for a country or state to bloom as a society the rights and interests of both sexes have to be catered for. If women are given equal educational opportunities and access to healthcare, the standard of living and quality of life as a whole will improve. Educational quotient and life expectancy will rise. Women will also be able to take on more jobs and increasingly knowledge based ones and thus contribute more substantially to the economy as well. If women are given an equal chance as men economically and socially in South Asia, it might gradually eradicate the mentality that daughters are a liability and thus slow down and eventually stop the vicious cycle. The need for dowries may disappear if this were the case. Female foeticide and infanticide will cease to be such an impending issue and South Asian society will be more progressive as a whole. Prenatal sex determination techniques such as â€Å"amniocentesis techniques for developing foetal abnormalities were developed in India, at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. It was soon discovered that these tests could also accurately determine the sex of the child. A statistic purporting to come from the Registrar General of India, based on hospital records alone showed that 3. lakh female foetuses were aborted in India between 1993 and 1994†. Needless to say the sex ratios in South Asia are one of the most unbalanced in the world because of the substantially higher ratio of men to women. This is gender disparity in action in its worst social implication. Very simply, a price is put on the lives unborn female children. They are being killed in the hundreds of thousands to such a degree that some people have aptly come up with the term, â€Å"femicide† to describe the literal culling of the female sex. What is far more worrying though is the practice of infanticide where many female children are killed after birth. This is tantamount to murder but goes unchecked in many parts of South Asia. Sometimes however, one wonders whether it is crueler to commit female infanticide rather than subject the female child to a life of hardship, misery and oppression. Girls are treated differently from boys since birth. They are not given enough food compared to boys and they suffer from nutritional deficits. Girls are far more prone to malnutrition in South Asia than boys are. They also tend to suffer from a host of other ailments and still preferential medical treatment is given to boys. â€Å"Educational indicators of South Asian women although recording improvement in recent years, are some of the worst in the world, especially at technical and higher levels. Women constitute only 17 percent of technical students, and South Asian governments spend approximately 4. 4 percent of their educational budgets on technical and scientific education†14 It is of little wonder that women are subject to economic inequality judging from the statistics above. In conclusion in can be said that gender disparity greatly underpins major social and economic inequalities in South Asia. This is evident in the Legal systems, educational systems and medical systems and social systems of South Asia. It can be seen that the root of a lot of economic and social evils in South Asia are due to gender disparity between men and women. If South Asia is to progress as a society as a whole, gender disparity must be eradicated or if not, at least curbed.

Affixation In English And Vietnamese English Language Essay

Affixation In English And Vietnamese English Language Essay A purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of a system of voluntarily produced symbols is defined as language (Sapir, Language, P.7). Therefore, every language itself provides attentive learners with a wide knowledge of the primary function, social nature as well as the important characteristic which is the system of symbols consisting of different levels from sound systems to meaning, such as phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. Only the unity of these four systems can form what is so-called language. Correspondingly, with a purpose of researching on this field that is to bring you, Vietnamese learners of English, an in- depth look at how minimal meaningful English morphemes can be used again and again as building blocks to form different words and some relevance to the constitution of Vietnamese words, I hope this can be a useful material for you to approach English reading comprehension and bilingual translation work fr om a more efficient and interesting angle. Literary review According to Eugene A Nida, â€Å"morphemes are the minimal meaningful units which may constitute words or parts of words† (Nida, 1946:1) and are defined as units of semantic content or grammatical function. Morphemes are of two kinds: free morphemes, ones that can be uttered alone with meaning and bound morphemes, ones that cannot be uttered alone with meaning. Based on this definition, affixes are defined as bound morphemes because they occur before or behind roots or cores of all words and somewhat modify the basic meaning of the roots. e.g. Verb + – able Æ’Â   Adj: enjoy + – able Verb + – er Æ’Â   Noun: wait + – er, act + – or un + Adj Æ’Â   Adj: un + – productive, un + – easy Adj + – en Æ’Â   Verb: deep + – en, thick + – en Besides, like bound morphemes, affixes may also be derivational or inflectional, which means that affixes can create new words by deriving new words from other words or making minor grammatical changes necessary for agreement with other words without changing meanings or parts of words. From that point, affixation is assumed as the linguistic process speakers use to form new words by adding bound morphemes at the beginning, the middle or the end of words. Correlatively, affixes are divided into prefixes, suffixes, infixes, suprafixes or suprasegmental and so on. Some categories of affixes: Prefix un-do prefix -stem Appears at the front of a stem Suffix look-ing stem-suffix Appears at the back of a stem Infix Minneà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹flippin’à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ºsota st-infix-em Appears within a stem – common in Borneo-Philippines languages Circumfix a-scatter-ed circumfix-stem-circumfix One portion appears at the front of a stem, and the other at the rear Interfix speed-o-meter stema-interfix-stemb Links two stems together in a compound Duplifix teeny-weeny stem-duplifix Incorporates a reduplicated portion of a stem (may occur in front, at the rear, or within the stem) Transfix Maltese: k-i-t-e-b = â€Å"he wrote† (compare root ktb = â€Å"write†) s-transfix-te-transfixà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ºm A discontinuous affix that interleaves within a discontinuous stem Simulfix mouse à ¢Ã¢â‚¬  Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ mice Changes a segment of a stem Suprafix produce (noun) produce (verb) Changes a suprasegmental phoneme of a stem Disfix Alabama: tipli = â€Å"break up†

Politeness in english Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Politeness in english - Essay Example 157). The key assumption of this definition is that social friction is generally undesirable and there are several behavioral modes that have historically been gradually developed and can be adequately categorized as being polite. It is believed that if these behavioral modes are adequately applied in society, they will have the result of either preventing friction or at least minimizing its occurrence. Another definition of politeness defines it as being a strategic avoidance of any possible conflict (Watts, 2003, p. 50). Although this definition can be perceived as being concrete, a closer examination of the definition shows that politeness is something that we tend to use rationally and consciously with the sole intent of avoiding conflict.Another proposed definition of politeness defines it as being one of the various constraints of human interaction that is primarily used to aid in the promotion of rapport, the consideration of other’s feelings and the establishment of mu tual comfort (Locher, 2004, p. 76). This definition of politeness equates politeness with a general constraint on human interaction that mainly involves a social injunction preventing one form doing the opposite (Bax and Ka?da?r 106-107). Defining politeness as being either a constraint or a set of various constraints is seen to conveniently help lead us away from any form of objectivist approach to politeness. This is mainly due to the nature of constraints that requires people to learn them on an individual basis through their social interactions and practice. Although researchers can be able to observe the various instances of emergent social practice, they are however unable to adequately observe the constraint itself (Bax and Ka?da?r 106-107). Politeness is found to be a common word that is frequently in everyday use in the English language and has various translations in different languages such as politesse in French and beleefdheid in Dutch. The tem is found to be particular ly established in most scholarly works on pragmatics and linguistics. As is common with most everyday English expressions, politeness is found to be rather fuzzy and hence its susceptibility to having multiple variations based on personal, historical and social differences. It is common for such common terms to often have wider applications than technical terms in the language and there is a tendency for uncertainty to arise in the event that the two happen to be confused. Technical terms are found to often be not everyday expressions and as such have more a generally more specific denotation. This makes it important to clearly distinguish between the basically technical term â€Å"politeness† and the more everyday notion that the term is put to use(Gotti, Dossena&Dury, 2008, p. 5). An analysis of the term politeness as it is used in these contexts can be perceived to be a very worthwhile research both historically and in the different varieties of PDE. This can have the bene fit of providing an ethnographic view of how the different speakers of the English language talk about politeness and the semantics of the word politeness or polite at several different points in the history of the English language (Gotti, Dossena&Dury, 2008, p. 5). Politeness in the English Language The distinction existing between negative and positive politeness that was

Bacterial Culture Techniques Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Bacterial Culture Techniques - Essay Example Bacteria have been often termed as being the primitive beings and are said to help with the nitrogen cycle. In a wider view if looked at bacteria are all those unicellular organisms that belong to the category of Schizomycetes they may have a difference in their requirements for oxygen and nutrients and have difference in morphology as well as have varying motility and be free-living. Bacteria are also known as prokaryotes in general and these are known to be grouped together as they all do not have nuclear membranes. The growing of cells in a synthetic environment is known as cell culture. That could very well refer to either types of cells be those prokaryotic or eukaryotic cells. Culture can also be called the in vitro growing of cells of either plants or animals in a nutrient artificial medium. In the process of cell culture the cells used are no longer in an organized tissue form rather they are separate and grown in a simulated environment. The materials that are necessary for culturing bacteria cells are (a) culture tubes that are made of glass and that have their own labels and metal covers. (b) Media room or customized growth medium for simulation. (c) Para Film is also needed and (d) Pipette tubes that are also made of glass. Other necessary equipment includes Bunsen burners, motorized pipettes and micropipettes along with sterile tips. The first step in culturing bacteria cells is to streak an Agar plate and then incubate that until there begins a growth in colonies. Some bacteria have a temperature sensitive mutation rate and there fore would require the incubators to be set at 30C however in the case of E.coli the desired temperature for incubation is 37C. In order to be certain that the beginning of this culture has been from a single population of cells streaking of the plate is necessary. It is not necessary that you use an Agar plate as they are only

Series Nip tuck Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Series Nip tuck - Essay Example In essence we all crave for perfection. It can be easily said that in the present world, where beauty is depicted by waif thin models , whose perfect figure, perfect features and perfect walk symbolise the very idea of womanhood/manhood , an average person's entire idea of self esteem and personal worth is based on how good he looks .If he or she doesn't look good then he runs the risk of facing rejections in getting employment, in personal relationships and in forging new contacts. Depression and low self-esteem can be only the tip of an iceberg of difficulties that unattractive people have to face. People with facial scars or burns have reported symptoms ranging from social withdrawal to body dimorphic, agoraphobia to anxiety, sleeping difficulties to suicidal impulses. It is becoming increasingly evident that being perceived as ugly can seriously detract from one's quality of life, while being attractive can bring a whole raft of benefits. It seems clear that beauty or the lack of it is no longer merely about aesthetics, but is now a health issue. Everyone dislikes some aspect about their own appearance, inc... ect about their own appearance, increasingly so when the outrageously beautiful are promoted as the norm in advertising, television, music and cinema. Some people are not satisfied with their small nose while others have complaints with their cheekbones, some people fret about the shape of their eyes while others would prefer their waist be a little thinner. The dislikes have become more intolerable bordering on almost a complete prejudice as with the latest advancement in medical science and particular cosmetic surgery , getting perfect cheekbones has become as easier as getting a cheese burger . It is this very idea and obsession about getting a perfect exterior that is portrayed and dramatically depicted in the series running on a famous American channel FX. The name of the series is nip /tuck .It is an Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning American television medical drama series created by Ryan Murphy for FX Networks. It had the highest ratings as a new series on American basic cable, nominated eleven times for an Emmy and eight times for a Golden Globe and the reasons for its popularity is but obvious. It has become controversial and famous for addressing and exploring various taboo subjects . It is currently in its fifth season, and has aired seventy three episodes as of February 19, 2008. It is often Billed as "a disturbingly perfect drama ". The main characters of the series are the two cosmetic surgeons whose business is to make their customers have a perfect exterior as they run a cosmetic surgery Clinic under the name Troy/McNamara, where Troy and MacNamara are the respective surnames of the two surgeons.