Marketing Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

Marketing Plan - Essay Example Because of this low-key marketing concept with both competing beer products, Drifter can outperform both using innovation with localized and broad niche marketing both in the Oregon region and across the surrounding states. Neither Blue Moon or Sierra Nevada have a solid positioning strategy among other low-cost and higher-cost competing beer products, therefore in terms of positioning, options are virtually endless. For the sake of perceptual mapping and to monitor marketing activities, especially in areas of promotion, Drifter Beer will be positioned in terms of flavor and benefit to the customer, with less focus on pricing structure. Consumer attitudes, on the perceptual map, are noted for each competing brand in relation to pricing and quality. Drifter Beer is working amid a highly competitive environment where lower-cost beer products and the main competition (Blue Moon and Sierra Nevada) saturated the convenience and grocery markets. It works among competing brands where ongoing promotional activities bring higher brand exposure, such as with brands like Coors Light that hosts different sporting events such as the Urban Flats Classic Kickoff Celebration in Orlando, Florida (Marketing Weekly News, 2009). Contests and sweepstakes are often part of their strategies for building better brand equity. Even though Drifter’s two main competitors are higher priced, more luxury-minded beer brands, sales will definitely be impacted by the buying behaviors of consumers in relation to their response to lower-cost beer brand selection marketing. Because of the current economic environment in the U.S. markets, major brands such as Miller, Pabst and Busch (also known as the economy brews) are experiencing higher sales volumes as people defect to lower-cost brands (Kesmodel, 2009). In order to drive any type of brand equity for Drifter, marketing must make the consumer believe that he needs to defect to this upscale brand simply for the sake of

Women in Tennyson’s Poems Essay Example for Free

Women in Tennyson’s Poems Essay In â€Å"The Lady of Shallot† Tennyson portrays the lady as somewhat of a victim by being trapped in her room weaving as if she leaves she will break an elusive curse she is under. In line 63 we see that â€Å"she hath no loyal knight and true† this implies to us that she is utterly alone in her world and whether she stays or leaves men have set up a world she is doomed to fail by growing old alone or by dying. We go through the poem thinking that she is content with living in solitude looking out at the world through her mirror but when Sir Lancelot suddenly appears in Part 3 we see her look out the window and break the curse, this shows that Lancelot ultimately brought her to her death. But this point can be contradicted by the fact that Sir Lancelot did not even know he was being watched and you could argue that her own female weakness of sexuality led her to her own death. Following on the point that she is not entirely a victim it is shown in the lines â€Å"she left the web she left the loom† Tennyson’s repetition of the world ‘left’ emphasizes the gravity of her actions and the fact that she has been trapped in the tower all her life and is now leaving implies a sense of freedom, this is also shown in the line â€Å"she loosened the chain† Tennyson could be symbolising the fact she is breaking free from the constraints of a male dominated world. On the other hand we again come to feel pity for the lady at the end of the poem due to the males and Lancelot’s curt attitude to her body and Lancelot’s comment that â€Å"she has a pretty face† which suggest that the male world is ignorant and conceited. In â€Å"Godiva† we are first introduced by Tennyson to Godiva as being part of a ‘legend’ this is then wildly contradicted when we get our first glimpse of Godiva as she is seen as being controlled by her husband â€Å"the grim earl† and is just a possession towards him which gives us the sense that thi s is in fact a male dominated world this is further shown when the Earl patronises Godiva by saying â€Å"you would not let your little finger ache.† But when we get to stanza 4 we see it is a somewhat transformative stanza as Godiva starts to break away from her husband’s constraints, this is evident in the line â€Å"unclasped the wedded eagles of her belt† we start to see her transform into a strong, independent woman. Yet we still see that although she is defying her husband and riding  through town she is still made to feel extremely uncomfortable and still violated by men when she is looked at by a ‘peeping tom’ this shows although she is doing a magnificent act of defiance she is still degraded by men. On the other hand this is contradicted by the peeping tom being instantly blinded. Tennyson has used Lines such as â€Å"like a creeping sunbeam† and â€Å"like a summer moon† to maybe symbolise the fact that Godiva has huge power and capability such as the sun and moons ability to give out and create light instead of darkness. This could also signify the fact that Godiva is ending a dark time of high taxes. The last lines of the stanza express that â€Å"she took the tax away and built herself an everlasting name.† Tennyson uses the pronoun ‘she’ to emphasize the fact that it was Godiva who took away the taxes and not the earl. Therefore showing how she is ultimately stronger than the grim earl. In conclusion some may agree with the fact that although in most of Tennyson’s poems he is describing predominately male worlds and the women are presented as victims, In â€Å"Godiva† and â€Å"the Lady Of Shallot† the main characters are women who appear victims in the beginning but then ultimately break out of their confinement as inferior people and become women who make their own choice and decide how their own lives are going to go for the first time, therefore I believe they maybe are victims in some ways but the ways in which they are not overpower them.

An Analysis of Babi Yar :: Babi Yar Essays

An Analysis of Babi Yar Yevtushenko speaks in first person throughout the poem. This creates the tone of him being in the shoes of the Jews. As he says in lines 63-64, "No Jewish blood is mixed in mine, but let me be a Jew . . . " He writes the poem to evoke compassion for the Jews and make others aware of their hardships and injustices. "Only then can I call myself Russian." (lines 66-67). The poet writes of a future time when the Russian people realize that the Jews are people as well accept them as such. If you hate the Jews, he asks, why not hate me as well? True peace and unity will only occur when they have accepted everyone, including the Jews. Stanza I describes the forest of Babi Yar, a ravine on the outskirts of Kiev. It was the site of the Nazi massacre of more than thirty thousand Russian Jews on September 29-30, 1941. There is no memorial to the thirty thousand, but fear pervades the area. Fear that such a thing could occur at the hands of other humans. The poet feels the persecution and pain and fear of the Jews who stood there in this place of horror. Yevtushenko makes himself an Israelite slave of Egypt and a martyr who died for the sake of his religion. In lines 7-8, he claims that he still bars the marks of the persecution of the past. There is still terrible persecution of the Jews in present times because of their religion. These lines serve as the transition from the Biblical and ancient examples he gives to the allusions of more recent acts of hatred. The lines also allude to the fact that these Russian Jews who were murdered at Babi Yar were martyrs as well. The next ezza reminds us of another event in Jewish history where a Jew was persecuted solely because of his religious beliefs. The poet refers to the "pettiness" (line 11) of anti-Semitism as the cause of Dreyfus' imprisonment. Anti-Semitism is his "betrayer" (line 12) when he is framed, and anti-Semitism is his "judge" (line 12) when he is wrongly found guilty. Lines 13-14 claim that even the fine and supposedly civilized women of society shun Dreyfus because he is a Jew and fear him like they would fear an animal. In ezza III, Yevtushenko brings himself to the midst of the

School Nutrition: When Capitalism Causes Obesity Essay -- Nutrition

A dollop of tomato paste - that is all that this is required for an other-wise high-sodium, high-fat, and high-grease food product to be labeled as a vegetable as voted by a lobbyist-controlled congress in November of 2011. Pizza, as it turns out, is now considered a vegetable by school nutrition standards (â€Å"A Veggie Pizza†). It is obvious, then, that such as decision was not perpetuated nor endorsed by activists campaigning for proper nutrition within in the school cafeteria. It was lobbyists, most likely independent or large business caterers, who gave the decision the political and monetary boost it needed. But by allowing congress to make decisions based on lobbyist endorsement, pressure, and financial supports such as this one, America is simultaneously over-feeding its children, depriving its children of key nutrients, and establishing an epidemic of obesity. The blame, however, lies not just within the schools, parents, congress, or society, but upon a conglomerat ion of these things. Surely, it would be folly to believe otherwise. One thing is clear: America’s nutritional standards for school children must change. With this need for change in mind, citizens must no longer ignore the pressing empirical data of the detrimental state of America’s contemporary nutritional standards. Currently, most school cafeterias provide students nutritional needs by relying on processed foods (sugar, white flour, oil, artificial ingredients) and animal products whilst barely delivering any whole produce. In fact, most of the fruit-and-vegetable nutrition comes from byproducts such as juice concentrates or stocks. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends decreasing saturated fats, sugar and sodium, while increasing whole grains, ... ...tion and to be consistent with what they are teaching to avoid hypocrisy. Students, when faced with nutrition education, will observe the hypocrisy, and conclude that nutrition is not important when everything they see around them contradicts the message their teachers are trying to send. School administrators cannot, and most likely will not, be willing to endorse this message if it is not cost-efficient. It is then up to society, congress, and the people of the U.S. to see nutrition and their children not as another business expense, but as the methods to create a standard of healthy children, regardless of the financial impact. Works Cited "School Meals Need to Get Healthier: Report." Healthday. 29 OCT 2009: n. page. Web. 14 Dec. 2011. Shah, Nirvi. "School-Meals Makeover Stirs The Pot." Education Week 30.27 (2011): 1,. ERIC. Web. 7 Dec. 2011.

Illiteracy Among African Americans Essay

Abstract The high rate of illiteracy is a major problem in the United States. Although there have been programs and initiatives started to eradicate this problem, illiteracy still plagues millions of Americans. Out of all ethnic groups, African Americans have a higher illiteracy rate. Within this project, the causes of illiteracy are revealed and viable solutions to this on-going problem will be discussed. Illiteracy Among African-Americans African-American adults do not have the ability or proper skills to read, write, or speak English correctly. African-Americans have the lowest level of literacy rates in the United States. The history of literacy among African- Americans depicts the levels of literacy today. Until the Civil War, it was illegal to teach Blacks to read and write. â€Å"Compulsory ignorance† as coined by writer Brent Staples relates to the reality that â€Å"Black† literacy was obstructed as a matter of law for more than a century. Until after the Civil War, it was a crime to teach â€Å"Blacks† how to read and openly literate â€Å"Blacks† were seen as destructive and even dangerous. † The stereotype of African-American adults are considered to be part-time workers, unemployed, and non-educated illiterate people. These African-American adults are individuals who make our society incapable of succeeding because of living their life on drugs or being violent. Some African-Americans choose to follow the road of poverty in the wrong direction by being caught in armed robbery, abuse, and prison. According to the 2000 US Census of Population, 15% of African-American in the poverty level are below the 8th grade reading level. An illiteracy study which focused on African- American communities to research the job opportunities, proper education, and drug usage in the urban area stressed that lifestyles have a dramatic influence on academic levels. The urban community stresses the issues of abuse, pregnancy, drugs, and violence, but few want to help the illiterate. African Americans need to have power and motivation to educate themselves and children at home. African Americans need to focus on homework, study habits, reading comprehension skills, and written English skills. African Americans need to invest in themselves and children having the power and education to read. While the slave experiences of African Americans make experiences markedly different from other citizens, we must move forward and utilize the system. It is time to demand more from our public education systems and more from us as parents and communities. Illiteracy among African Americans was people considered middle and low class families. These are African Americans with money to invest properly, productive in education, and have low paying jobs. In the South illiteracy among African American people rate at ages ten and over from the percentage level of 76. 2%-10. 7. Illiteracy among African American makes rate at ages 20 to 64 from the percentage level of 50. 0% to 9. 6%. During the 1870 to 1979 illiteracy has been a problems throughout African American culture. The government was concern whether African Americans were capable of keeping up with modern functions in the society. The literacy rate for blacks rose from 38. 2 percent in1880 to 71. 9 percent in 1910, whereas the literacy rate for whites rose only 1.9 percentage points from its 1880 level of 93. 2 percent. Literacy among African Americans has improved statistically showing things have changed in the 20th century. Individuals were capable of receiving jobs in the Civil War period compared to the African Americans then. The characteristics of African Americans ages 55-64 were tested on three documents of illiteracy were prose, documents, and quantities skills. Each African Americans within this age range scored below average. African American with a high school diploma or GED only scored poorly on the quantities literacy test. African Americans with illiteracy have lower paying jobs like service or labor, craft, and service occupation. These African Americans with low income rates are also receiving help from the government. African American illiteracy is common because researchers feel; this ability is from cognitive and physical effects of age. Researchers feel African American are not expand to assessments of printed material written. African Americans proficiencies results showed thirty-eight percent of them scored high on there examine. The United States has specialized a program in the schools, recreation centers, and after school programs from literacy. African Americans with illiteracy receive basic skills courses to enhance their reading, writing, and English skills. The African American programs illiteracy that supports the group by designing fundamental speaking and educational classes. These classes will better prepare and motivate African American to get their GED and workforce training. African Americans have the most students of 76% or more enrolled in these classes for illiteracy. African Americans also have outreach programs for illiteracy throughout the region. African American regions are processing new strategies for people below average functioning under level number one literacy. There are state officials, business leaders, and human resources who promote assessment class to determine the adequate needs for African Americans needing more help with illiteracy. The African Americans who developmental skills are not processing the schools and recreation centers conduct remedial educational opportunities for those reading skills are below average. The government has conducted two National Assessment of Adult Literacy and The National Center for Educational Statistics. The federal government has provided funds to assist states in establishing and expanding basic education programs for individuals age 16 and over who have not completed high school. The type of services and providers funded under federal legislation has changed a number of times since it began nearly 40 years ago. Originally established under the Adult Education Act of 1966, the adult education program is currently governed by the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA), which is Title II of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998, as amended (P. L. 105-220). WIA makes the adult education program part of a new â€Å"one-stop† career center system that includes many federally funded employment and training programs. The government was trying to examine whether illiteracy is arbitrary or misleading to society. The government also was trying to develop a system where African -Americans’ English language skills through literacy would change tremendously. The regions are always stereotyping on whether the lower class of succeeding in the socioeconomic groups. African Americans are not able of reading books, newspapers and interact with their environment. African Americans are put down because their illiteracy habits are poor in average. Some African Americans illiteracy knowledge of phonics and vocabulary is on a elementary level. African American illiteracy is high in change because other ethnicities have a stronger and diverse chance of having a better job. African Americans are not pushed to get ahead because they are motivated to look to the future. African Americans are not successful because they do not have self-confidence or the proper attitudes to care about being illiterate. African Americans value the least concern for being illiterate. African Americans cultural identity is a problem for people with no social skills. African Americans have had to suffer by competing with other culture with illiteracy. African American culture of having a different sense of belief in religion affects people ways of being are very skeptical about advancing with education. Some researchers feel African Americans are failures to society. There are African Americans who prefer to be illiterate because of the mismatch languages advise throughout the country. African Americans and Hispanics are compared to each other because they are behind on the level of grade four. A quarter million of Africans Americans were treated for illiteracy. African Americans educational programs were taught to read (book, newspaper, and application) and write (proper grammatical papers). African Americans illiteracy rates went down five percent every year. Researchers receive notes of reading ability fail tremendously in directives, forms, education, and informed consent skills (Hunter & Harman). Their theories on African Americans were concern with adequate informational literacy. Hunter and Harman wanted to examine the autonomy of the informed consent of literacy. These researchers believe the rapid increase of literacy is caused by critical implication. Also, the researchers discovered literacy could be modified the health reasons. The National Adult Literacy programmed examines the process of comprehending newspaper articles, employment forms, and quantities skills. The NAL realizes the lowest of African American literacy skills will limit competing skills. The African Americans having two levels below average had disabilities and mental problems. Some had physical and disable needs to have full activity to think properly. Also, the NAL realized the older compared to middle age adults. Illiteracy and health explore different links between direct measures of learning. Researchers studies the process of education had influence the ability of illiteracy (Cumming, Smith, & Shrestha1994-2004). Illiteracy has access information and navigates in literate environments to process cognitive and linguistics process. Some illiterate African Americans access crucial information for health care without taking medication. Researchers feel different readability strategies measure out their health reasons. In conclusion the idea to try to change illiteracy for African Americans is very important. It is possible to recognize, focus, and understanding of learning. These studies are process to decrease the rate of African American knowledge of illiteracy. African Americans need to start early receiving the proper need or help. African Americans need to understand that having a deficiency is nothing to be ashamed of. African Americans to support their group by learning to read, comprehend, write, and speak correct English.

Free Essays on I Know What You Did Last Summer

*I Know What You Did Last Summer* By: Lois Duncan By reading the book and then watching the movie I have to wonder if the producers of the movie ever read the book because the two are nothing alike. Here are all the things that are alike and different from the book to the movie. - The book started out at Julie’s house and the movie started out at Helen’s beauty pageant. - Then they all went to the ocean to party a little and Julie wasn’t wearing her pink shirt like she was in the book. - In the movie there was a character that wasn’t in the book and the book had two character’s that weren’t in the movie. - The person that the four teens ran over wasn’t a little boy it was a groan man. - This man wasn’t riding a bike but the kid in the book was. - In the book the teens called 911 from the nearest phone booth and in the movie they didn’t call anyone they just dumped the body into the water. - This Max guy wasn’t in the book but him and Barry got into a little fight at the fishing docks and Barry cut Maxi’s face with a big hook. - Max gets murdered at the fishing docks where he works. - In the book Barry got shot in the back on the field at the University. In the movie some guy, the same guy that murdered Max tried to run down Barry with a car and he ended up in the hospital. - When Barry was in the hospital in the movie anyone could go to visit him but in the book there was this big thing about only allowing family to visit him. - Over the summer after the accident Ray went to California but in the movie he worked at the fishing docks all summer long. - In the book the kid that they hit, his name was David Gregg and in the movie his name was David Egan. - Ray and Julie want to David Gregg’s house in the book and in the movie Helen and Julie went. - In the movie the girls didn’t stay long at the house but in the book Ray and Julie stayed long enough to have some Ice Tea. - Melissa wasn’t... Free Essays on I Know What You Did Last Summer Free Essays on I Know What You Did Last Summer *I Know What You Did Last Summer* By: Lois Duncan By reading the book and then watching the movie I have to wonder if the producers of the movie ever read the book because the two are nothing alike. Here are all the things that are alike and different from the book to the movie. - The book started out at Julie’s house and the movie started out at Helen’s beauty pageant. - Then they all went to the ocean to party a little and Julie wasn’t wearing her pink shirt like she was in the book. - In the movie there was a character that wasn’t in the book and the book had two character’s that weren’t in the movie. - The person that the four teens ran over wasn’t a little boy it was a groan man. - This man wasn’t riding a bike but the kid in the book was. - In the book the teens called 911 from the nearest phone booth and in the movie they didn’t call anyone they just dumped the body into the water. - This Max guy wasn’t in the book but him and Barry got into a little fight at the fishing docks and Barry cut Maxi’s face with a big hook. - Max gets murdered at the fishing docks where he works. - In the book Barry got shot in the back on the field at the University. In the movie some guy, the same guy that murdered Max tried to run down Barry with a car and he ended up in the hospital. - When Barry was in the hospital in the movie anyone could go to visit him but in the book there was this big thing about only allowing family to visit him. - Over the summer after the accident Ray went to California but in the movie he worked at the fishing docks all summer long. - In the book the kid that they hit, his name was David Gregg and in the movie his name was David Egan. - Ray and Julie want to David Gregg’s house in the book and in the movie Helen and Julie went. - In the movie the girls didn’t stay long at the house but in the book Ray and Julie stayed long enough to have some Ice Tea. - Melissa wasn’t...

Nature vs Nurture in Language Acquistion Essays

Nature vs Nurture in Language Acquistion Essays Nature vs Nurture in Language Acquistion Essay Nature vs Nurture in Language Acquistion Essay Many consider the use of a complex language as a uniquely human feature (maybe with the exception of some whale species). Furthermore, we are able to learn this complex skill quite quickly. The average child has a vocabulary of six-thousand words by the time it turns five years old. It is this ability of language acquisition that is a particularly interesting field in the nature-nurture debate. Is language acquisition and development innate or taught? This debate about nature versus nurture in language acquisition has drawn heated testimony from both sides. Nature? The idea that language acquisition is an innate ability is called ‘nativism’. People supporting this view believe that the human brain is prewired for language acquisition and use. Linguist Noam Chomsky is a strong proponent of this perspective. He has spent a lot of time on developing a theory of grammar that is called universal grammar. Basically, it states that underlying all the different languages there are some basic principles. The nativists consider this universal grammar too complex to be acquirable through environmental stimuli (nurture). The proponents of this innateness believe that the human brain developed certain brain structures for language acquisition and use as a result of Darwinian evolution and the ‘survival of the fittest’ tenet. The innate knowledge of language is also called the language faculty. Chomsky considers this language faculty as a biologically autonomous system in the brain that has an initial state which is genetically determined. The fact that every known human culture developed some sort of language suggests that there is a genetic basis for the ability to construct and produce language. Furthermore all human languages seem to have some characteristics in common. They all have large vocabularies of words whose meaning is mediated through a phonological system, they all have a grammatical system that governs the way in which words are combined and they change through time by adding new words and losing old ones. Or Nurture? The second position concerning nature and nurture in language acquisition is defined by the premise that language is a consequence of our large brains with the ability to learn many things and the fact that we are extremely social beings. This is called ‘empiricism’. One the most prominent proponents of this approach is psychologist B. F. Skinner, who believes that humans are capable of language because we have the time, the opportunity and the brain capacity that is required to learn it. Empiricists explain the universal presence of language in human cultures otherwise. They state that the beneficial quality of language is responsible for the ubiquitous distribution. People who came in contact with it, adopted it because of its beneficial effects and in this way, language spread across the earth. Lastly, they claim that the ability of the human brain to understand and produce language can also be a consequence of neuronal connections that are made in early childhood. When a baby makes a certain sound that is followed by an action of a parent, there will be a neuronal connection in his brain that will be excited. After a lot of repetitions this will lead to a neural path which connects a sound with a meaning. Or a little bit of both? Is it truly nature versus nurture in language acquisition, or is it nature and nurture? Many aspects of human behavior can be explained by a collaboration of genetic and environmental aspects. Maybe this is also true for language acquisition. Perhaps some genetic features, such as our large brain or nutritional requirements have predestined us in some way to develop vocal communication, which in turn has grown to a full language as a consequence of environmental factors, such as upbringing, social system or the use of symbols. References Bates, E. (1999). On the Nature and Nurture of Language. In R. Levi-Montalcini, D. Baltimore, R. Dulbecco, amp; F. Jacob (Series Eds. ) amp; E. Bizzi, P. Calissano, amp; V. Volterra (Vol. Eds. ), Frontiere della biologia [Frontiers of biology]. The brain of homo sapiens Rome: Giovanni Trecanni. Duke University: Exploring the Mind: duke. edu/~pk10/language/psych. htm National Science Foundation: nsf. gov/news/special_reports/linguistics/learn. jsp Read more: brighthub. com/science/genetics/articles/82090. aspx#ixzz19LHeXAmf Nature vs. Nurture: The Miracle of Language by Malia Knezek Or if I would delight my private hours/ With music or with poem, where so soon/ As in our native language can I find/ That solace? - John Milton THE CONTROVERSY Why do some children build towers with blocks, cry when they scrape their knees, and shout, Choo-choo mine! when a sibling takes away their favorite toy train? Why are some children able to perform entire piano concertos or master complex mathematical concepts, while others cannot even learn to communicate in the normal way? In short, why do humans behave the way they do? With the exception of identical twins, each new human being receives a novel combination of genes divided among forty-six chromosomes. Undoubtedly, this genetic mate rial provides the basis for growth and development and, in doing so, places certain restrictions on the new infant. If the limiting action of genes seems disputable, think of how many people you know who grow to heights of more than twenty feet tall, live longer than two hundred years, or can run faster than a cheetah. My guess would be not many! Controversy does arise, however, when one tries to examine the extent of genetic influence on human behavior. Just how many of our abilities and shortcomings are innate in nature, and how many are acquired through our interactions with the environment? This debate has been going on for centuries, and popular attitudes have varied greatly throughout this time. At one extreme, we have John Lockes idea of tabula rasa, which proposes that the minds of newborn infants are blank slates that will be differentiated and altered only through sensory experience. Modern biological determinism represents the other extreme. In its strictest form, this ideology suggests that behaviors are inherent and innate, resulting from the expression of genes. Most intellectuals subscribe to a view somewhere between these two extremes, on the gradient of a controversy that is still a hot topic of debate in many intellectual fields. LANGUAGE One particularly interesting field within the nature-nurture debate that has drawn heated testimony from both sides is language acquisition. How much of our ability to produce and comprehend language is programmed into our genes, and how much do we acquire only with environmental stimulus? Obviously, language cannot be completely genetic. Humans speak a wide variety of different languages, and very young children of any race or ethnic background can learn to speak and understand any of these if exposed to appropriate models at the proper time in development. Similarly, children cannot learn to speak a public language without this critical exposure. However, all humans use language in one form or another, and psychologists and linguists have noted many cross-lingual universals both in how children acquire language and in the inherent characteristics of the languages themselves. Therefore, as is the case with most aspects of human behavior, the truth most likely lies in some combination of nature and nurture. The ability to use language is a very important part of human cognition. In fact, some would argue that it is this ability which distinguishes us from other animals. Regardless of ones view of the capability of animals to use language or language-like symbols, the fact that humans have language abilities far superior to those of other animals cannot be ignored. Despite the ubiquity of human linguistic ability, pinning down exactly how language helps us and how we use it is not at all a straightforward task. One obvious use for public language is to communicate one? s thoughts to other people. In fact, this may seem like the only, or at least the most important, use of our linguistic abilities. However, both Howard Gardner and Andy Clark stress other uses. Gardner, for example, lists four discrete uses for public language in his Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences: 1. People use language to induce action in other people. Examples of this might include a child asking a parent to hand him a toy that is on a high shelf or a boss sending a memo out to his employees asking them to hand in budget drafts by next Wednesday. . Language can be used as a tool by one individual to help that individual remember things. In this way, language expands cognitive abilities that are already present in the human brain. For example, a child may not be able to remember how many days are in December or May, but by learning the rhyme that begins, Thirty days hath September? he will easily be able to store these facts in memory. Wearing nametags at a conference and making oral or written shopping lists are other examples of using language to aid memory. 3. The third use of language involves the transfer of explanations or knowledge from one person to another. For example, the parent teaching his child how to tie his shoes and the professor giving a lecture on ionic bonding are both using language to share their knowledge with another person. It is this use that can lead to cultural evolution, which will be discussed later in this paper. 4. The fourth discrete use of language is to talk about language itself, or as Gardner states, to use language to reflect upon language, to engage in ? metalinguistic? analysis (78). A child asking his father what the word wish means and a linguist examining the syntactic rules of various languages are both using this type of metalinguistic analysis. Gardner acknowledges the wide variety of ways in which we use language, but he believes that they all fit into one of these four categories (78). In his book entitled Being There: Putting Brain, Body, and World Together Again, Andy Clark agrees that language is not solely a tool for communicating thoughts or ideas. He describes the uses of language in more general terms than Gardner. To borrow a fitting analogy from Clark? book, language is a tool built for use by humans, just as is a pair of scissors. Just as scissors enable us to exploit our basic manipulative capapcities to fulfill new ends, language enables us to exploit our basic cognitive capacities of pattern recognition and transformation in ways that reach out to new behavioral and intellectual horizons (193-194). In other words, scissors take the manipulat ing abilities of human hands and use them to produce a skill that normally could not be accomplished by a human being: namely, cutting a fairly straight line through a piece of paper. Like these scissors, public language takes human abilities that already existthis time cognitive rather than manipulative in natureand expounds upon these to give this human-plus-tool combination abilities that were not achievable by the human (or the tool) alone (Clark 193-194). The use of language as an aid to memory, which Gardner lists as one of the four main uses, is an example of this type of ability-enhancement, as is the existence of technical vocabularies in such disciplines as math and physics. Can you magine, for example, trying to calculate the correct trajectory angle at which to launch a space shuttle without having words to express such concepts as trajectory, angle, force, velocity, etc.? Such a feat would be near impossible. Thus, there is general agreement on the importance of language in human cognition, and even in the different ways we use this necessary skill. The ability to use language sets humans apart from other animals and accounts, at least partly, for the uniqueness of our cognitive profile. We would definitely be a very different species were it not for this awesome skill. The question now is: How did we develop this unique ability? THE ISSUES Howard Gardner, along with Noam Chomsky and many others, believes that parts of the brain have evolved over time specifically for the purpose of producing and understanding language. Thinkers such as Andy Clark and Jean Piaget, on the other hand, believe that public language utilizes brain structures and psychological functions that were already present before the development of this important tool. In the first (nature) school of thought, linguistic abilities have developed over time as a result of Darwinian evolution. In the conflicting ideology (a nurture position), there is no innate linguistic ability; and linguistic evolution occurs as a result of learning and cultural evolution, which will be explained in greater detail below, rather than through natural selection. The beliefs do overlap; and oftentimes the proponents of one side argue against what they suppose the other side would believe, when in fact the other side subscribes to no such ideology. For example, the nature proponents argue that human brains are biologically different from the brains of other animals; and that at least part of this diference is due to innate, inherited differences in genes. However, they really need not spend time arguing for this point because the nurture proponents do not, in actuality, disagree with the fact. They also believe that genetic factors are responsible for some of the differences between the brains of humans and those of other animals. The disagreement lies only in how different our brains are from those of other animals, and how much of this difference can be attributed to genetic variances. Similarly, both sides agree that language draws from and influences other thought processes. However, there is a controversy centered around the extent of this interaction. Nature proponents see language as a very autonomous ability, while nurture proponents tend to see it as more inseparable from other, general cognitive abilities. (For more information on how language influences thought, please see Something to Talk About by Brian Skotko. Do the only disagreements, then, center around questions of degree and extent? It seems, upon cursory examination of the arguments, that the two schools of thought agree on almost all basic tenets of language use, and disagree only on the exact recipe for combining these tenets. This is not the case, however, as true disagreement does exist on some fundamental issues. First of all, Chomsky, Gardner, and others of similar ideologies believe that infants are born with a significant prewired knowledge of how languages work and how they do not work. Views within this group vary slightly, but they all hold to this basic tenet and cite ample evidence in defense of this view. These proponents of the innateness of linguistic ability also believe that the genetic basis for language came about as the result of Darwinian evolution and by an extension of the survival of the fittest argument. Again, individual views vary slightly, but all supporters of this school of thought see language as a product of Darwinian evolution (Gardner 90-91). On the other hand, Piaget, Clark, and others see the newborn as possesing only a few basic cognitive abilities. The more specific abilities we see in the developing child, they argue, are due to interactions with the environment and are independent of any inheritable code found in the genes. They place language skills in this category, and so they disagree completely with Chomsky? s assertion that humans inherit certain linguistic knowledge (Gardner 80). In addition, proponents of the Nurture ideology view public language as a tool constructed by people for use by people, and they believe its development is due to cultural evolution, a completely different mechanism for change (Clark 200-213). Perhaps it is worth taking a few moments to describe the differences between Darwinian evolution and cultural evolution. Most people are familiar with the tenets of Darwinian evolution as proposed by Charles Darwin in his Origin of the Species, and as expanded upon by numerous scientists since then. In this type of evolution, natural selection or survival of the fittest results in actual changes in the gene frequency of a species. These changes are innate and inheritable, passed down from one generation to the next by means of biological reproduction. This type of evolution is very slow, and even minor changes in a species tend to take thousands or even millions of years to occur. Cultural evolution, like Darwinian evolution, brings about changes within the human species. However, these changes occur at a much faster rate and by different mechanisms. Whereas traits in Darwinian evolution are passed from one generation to the next through genes only, without regard to what progress one generation has made or what it has learned during its lifetime, traits in cultural or Lamarckian evo lution are passed on through language from one generation to the next. This means that progress made by one generation can be selectively passed on to the next, which does not occur with random genetic mutations. The focus and ease of transfer characteristic of cultural evolution lead to changes that takes place at such a fast rate that the effects of Darwinian evolution, in comparison, are practically negligible. As scientist Stephen Jay Gould remarks, While the gene for sickle-cell anemia declines in frequency among black Americans, we have invented the railroad, the automobile, radio and television, the atom bomb, the computer, the airplane and spaceship. Clearly, cultural evolution is a distinct process from Darwinian evolution and accounts for many changes in human behavior (324). Nurture advocates in the language debate believe that humans invented language as they did computers through the process of cultural evolution. Again, subscribers to this school of thought have gathered much evidence in support of their theories. Indeed, determining which of these two theories better describes human linguistic ability will require careful examination of the arguements and evidence, and even after such examination will nonetheless prove to be a difficult task. THE LANGUAGE FACULTY As mentioned before, linguist Noam Chomsky suggests that humans are born with an innate knowledge of language, and he calls this knowledge the language faculty. He invisions this language faculty as a biologically autonomous system in the brain that has an initial state which is genetically determined, like. . . the kidney, the circulatory system, and so on (13). Chomsky supports his claim with several lines of evidence. For one thing, he argues that all humans (except, of course, those suffering from a language-related pathology) understand certain ambiguities of language the same way. For example, take the expression brown house, which could be expressed in another language as well as English. Upon hearing this expression, any human would have certain understandings that were not expressed with language explicitly. For example, even children realize that this expression contains two separate words with separate meanings, quite a feat when considering that the spoken phenomes generally run together. When spoken in English, a listener will know that the two words contain the same vowel sound. More surprisingly, when this phrase is spoken in any language, the listener will understand that the speaker is referring to a house that is brown on the outside. This is remarkable, because houses can just as easily have brown interiors, but listeners never have to ask which surface (inner or outer) the color is naming (Chomsky 20-21). Chomsky argues that this type of linguistic knowledge must be innate since every healthy human makes the same assumptions. He also suggests that knowledge such as that described above must exist in the language faculty in the brain. Linguist M. Y. Liberman describes other characteristics found in every spoken human language. First, all of these languages have very large vocabularies consisting of words whose articulatory/acoustic definition is mediated by a phonological system. Second, all languages have a grammatical system that governs the way in which these words are combined to express meaning. Third, all languages change throughout time with new words being added and old ones being dropped or changed continuously (qtd. in Studdert-Kennedy 8). Anthropologist Donald E. Brown describes even more detailed aspects of language that all humans share. First, in any given language words can exist that are the equivalent of good, wide, and deep. In some languages, opposite words (bad, narrow, and shallow) exist also. In others, however, the opposites are formed with a negating word and the original juxtaposed (not good, not wide, not deep). The surprising finding is that in no language does the negation go the other way (not bad to express good, etc. ). Does this happen because the expression of such concepts as good, wide, and deep lies n the language faculty and is innate in all humans? Chomsky would say that it does. He would also cite other universals listed by Brown, including the fact that all languages contain nouns, verbs, and possessive formations, as well as the fact that poetry around the world has lines that last about three seconds in between pauses, as evidence of a language faculty genetically present in all human brains (Brown 132). Anothe r fact that Chomsky believes supports his theory of the language faculty involves comparing humans to other species. Not only do we have a linguistic ability much superior to that of other animals, but the rules we have regarding language and symbols in general cannot be found in any other species (Chomsky 13). For example, if one were to teach a chimpanzee signs that meant brown house, he would not have all the innate knowledge described above which is present in all humans. In addition, this process would involve much teaching and learning before a chimp could learn these signs; whereas humans acquire such knowledge with little or no conscious effort taking place. This brings us to another fact that provides strong evidence for Chomskys theory: that all normal children acquire language in the same way. Chomsky prefers the term language acquisition rather than language learning, because he sees this process as a maturation of the language faculty (much like the growth of a heart or kidney) rather than a learning process (Chomsky 13). Gardner also describes this very process in his chapter on linguistic intelligence. Infants begin babbling not too long after birth, and the sounds produced during this period contain the basic sounds they hear spoken around them as well as phenomes not present in their native tongue. This is strong evidence for an innate language faculty. By the time the child turns two years old, he or she will speak single words in the native language, and soon thereafter, will begin to form very simple, twos may include drink milk, byebye Daddy, and doggy run. By the age of three, these two-word utterances grow in length and complexity, so that the three-year-old child can utter sentences of several words long, even including questions, negations, and clauses. These sentences often have grammatical errors (which can be explained by overgeneralization and remain consistent throughout speakers of a single language), such as in the example, I no watch T. V. no more. By the time the child is four or five years old, he no longer makes these grammatical mistakes; and he can speak wit h considerable fluency in ways that closely approximate adult syntax (Gardner 79). Three aspects of this form of language acquisition are of interest in light of Chomskys theory. That all children follow this development regardless of the language they speak supports Chomskys claim of an inate language organ that is maturing through this process. Secondly, during the babbling stage, babies produce phenomes they have never heard, from a variety of different languages spoken around the world. Chomsky believes that this is due to the fact that the language faculty already contains knowledge of all the sounds that can be produced in any natural spoken language, more evidence for extensive innate language knowledge. Third, normally-developed four-year-olds are already able to come up with appealing figures of speech (comparing a foot falling asleep to bubbling ginger ale); tell short stories? alter their speech register depending upon whether they are addressing adults, peers, or toddlers younger than themselves, and even engage in simple metalinguistic banter. The latter includes asking such questions as What does X mean? and Should I say X or Y? These feats are truly remarkable, and as of yet no machine or computer program has even come close to reproducing them (Gardner 80). According to Chomsky, young children would not be able to accomplish such feats without the aid of an innate knowledge system based on language. The biology of the brain can also support Chomskys theory. Almost all right-handed humans have language centers located in the left hemisphere of the brain. This left hemisphere is larger and structurally different from the right hemisphere, an asymmetry that can be traced to the Neanderthal man, but is not seen in monkeys (Gardner 90). There are several specialized regions in the left hemisphere that are used for various language tasks, such as Brocas area for producing language and Wernickes area for comprehending language spoken by others. Lesions to various regions of the brain cause very distinctive aphasias, or language problems; and the same area causes the same aphasia across the species. For more information on the neurobiology of language and the specific aphasias, please see Bora Lees paper entitled The evidence gleaned from studies f aphasic patients supports Chomskys theory by pinpointing various areas of the brain that seem to be a part of this innate language faculty. The final evidence for Chomskys view of language comes from evolutionary studies. As mentioned earlier, brain asymmetry linked to the language faculty has been found to exist in Neanderthal man, which means they date back thirty thousand to one hundred thousand years. There is also evidence that this asymmetry may exist even in the gre at apes, although evidence is not conclusive. Either way, the structural brain regions needed for language have been present in the species long before recorded history, which suggests a gradual evolution of intellectual capacities (Gardner 90). Many intellectuals on the nature side of the language debate believe that this could explain how humans acquired their language abilities through gradual evolution. Chomsky, however, has a different view. He believes that our language capabilities could not have evolved gradually; and, instead, he proposes that the entire language faculty came in one evolutionary step (Gardner 91). Regardless of their views on the specifics of evolution, all nature advocates believe that human lingual ability results from an innate, inherited language faculty through which lingual information is passed on from one generation to the next. LANGUAGE AS AN ARTIFACT Those who believe that language is learned through intellectual processes common to all learning and who do not believe in an innate language faculty explain the evidence presented above in another way. According to proponents of the nurture theory, humans are much more advanced than other animals because they are able to use language, rather than the other way around. The mechanisms that make this possible will be explained in the next few pages. One major type of evidence that Chomsky and others who believe in an innate language faculty often cite is the universal characteristics of language itself and of language acquisition in humans. But does the fact that all humans exhibit a certain behavior really prove that that behavior is due to the genetic code of the human? As Donald E. Brown explains in his book entitled Human Universals, this is not necessarily the case. [U]niversals form a heterogeneous set. A great many, for example, seem to be inherent in human nature. Some are cultural conventions that have come to have universal distribution (4). To understand how a behavior exhibited by all humans can be due to culture rather than genetics, consider the example of cooking food. All humans cook their food, but there is no cooking gene that genetically programs us to do this. Rather, cooking was discovered by some human and found to be so beneficial that every human who came in contact with the procedure adopted it. In this way, cooking spread across the earth and became a universal, even without a genetic basis. Could the universals found in language be explained in the same way? Language certainly seems to be beneficial enough to have spread this way from human to human and culture to culture. However, this does not explain why we have special parts of the brain dedicated to language or why humans can communicate through language while other animals cannot. In order to understand how a culturally based model of language could account for these facts, it is important to examine how new models are being used to explain the brain and human behavior. The brain, above all else, is an organ whose purpose is to manipulate the behavior of the body in an environment to secure survival. This is true of all species from the snail to the human. It has been shown experimentally that experience causes structural and chemical changes at the synapses between neurons which means that learning takes place in the connections between neurons. If, for example, a dog finds that jumping over a fence allows him to eat some meat barbecuing in the neighbors yard, and if this behavior gets this reward several times, then the connections between his neurons will strengthen in the path that goes from smelling meet to jumping the fence. If, however, the dog tries to jump the fence one day and gets shocked by an electrical wire, the weights of connections will become weaker. If this happens several times, then the neuronal path between smelling meat and jumping the fence will have a strong inhibitory connection, so that the dog no longer performs this behavior. How does this relate to a human brain producing and understanding language? Well, suppose a baby finds that if he produces the sound wa-wa he will receive a drink of water. The neuronal connections between his feeling of thirst and his speaking the sound wa-wa will be strongly excitatory, and he will have learned to communicate. If, however, his mother decides to break him from the habit of baby-talk and only gives him water when he pronounces the entire word water, then the connections between thirst and wa-wa will become inhibitory and a new neural path, between thirst and water, will become more excitatory. This still does not explain why so many people have the same assumptions when hearing the phrase brown house or why language functions are so specific to regions of our brains. To understand these phenomena, one must realize that humans use language as a tool that alters the nature of the computational tasks involved in various kinds of problem solving (Clark 193). To return to the scissors analogy from before, humans created scissors in order to increase the scope of our manual skills to include cutting straight lines. Similarly, we created language to increase the scope of our mental abilities. Just as scissors have one part for manipulating the environment (the blades) and one for making them easier to hold (the handles), language also performs a double function. Not only must language be able to cause changes in the environment (or in our own thinking, such as when we write a grocery list to remember what we need to buy), but the language we use must also fit the intellectual abilities we already have. Thus, language as a tool would not be helpful if it demanded more of our intellect than it provided in benefits. Because of this fact, language is constantly evolving in two directionsto better express our ideas and manipulate the world and to better fit the structures and functions of our various brain regions (Clark 193-194). If, for example, the area in the left hemisphere that we call Brocas area was already well-adapted to finding structure and rules in a random input of stimulus, then this area would naturally be where the grammatical structure of language is stored; and a lesion to this area would then make it hard for the subject to produce gramatically meaningful speech. This could explain the assymetry of the brain and the cases of aphasia that show the brains specificity. Just because all humans have a Brocas area that houses the faculties for producing grammatical speech does not necessarily mean that Brocas area evolved for this purpose. What about the fact that other animals do not have similar language capabilities? Obviously, if you place a snail (or even a monkey) in a situation where it comes in contact with many models of human speech, it will still not learn to use language. This obviously involves ome innate difference between humans and other animals, which means that we have genes that are different from those of other animals. However, the difference could just lie in our vocal tracts and our hearing ability. Chances are that this is not the case since other animals do not use any other form of language (i. e. sign language) even though they have the physiological capabilities. Most likely, there are some differences between human brai ns and those of other animals, though the differences need not be nearly as pronounced as Chomsky and others believe they are. As explained above, the language tool that we have invented gives us many mental capabilities we would not have otherwise, including thinking about thinking. Thus, a tiny evolutionary difference in our brain could have given us the ability to invent language, an artifact that may make possible not only higher-order thinking exhibited by humans, but perhaps even the consciousness that we so dearly treasure (Clark 208-209). So all we can say for sure is that language, like so many other aspects of human behavior, has proven to be the product of nature and nurture working together. This amazing human ability to communicate through language is both the result and the cause of our uniqueness as human beings. Language is a tool indeed: Simple enough for a child to effortly grasp, yet so complex that we may never completely understand just how genetics and experience interact to produce this most integral human trait. Brown, Donald E. Human Universals. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc. , 1991. Chomsky, Noam. Powers and Prospects: Reflections on Human Nature and the Socail Order. Boston: South End Press, 1996. Clark, Andy. Being There: Putting Brain, Body, and World Together Again. Cambridge, Mass. : The MIT Press, 1997. Gardner, Howard. Frames of Mind: the Theory of Multiple Intelligences. New York: Harper Collins, 1983. Gould, Stephen Jay. The Mismeasure of Man. New York: W. W. Norton amp; Company, 1981. Studdert-Kennedy, Michael, ed. Psychobiology of Language. Cambridge, Mass: The MIT Press, 1983. Almost all human beings acquire a language (and sometimes more than one), to the level of native competency, before age 5. How do children accomplish this remarkable feat in such a short amount of ime? Which aspects of language acquisition are biologically programmed into the human brain and which are based on experience? Do adults learn language differently from children? Researchers have long debated the answers to these questions, but there is one thing they agree on: language acquisition is a complex process. Most researchers agree that children acquire language through interplay of biology and environ mental factors. A challenge for linguists is to figure out how nature and nurture come together to influence language learning. Emphasis on NatureSome researchers theorize that children are born with an innate biological â€Å"device† for understanding the principles and organization common to all languages. According to this theory, the brain’s â€Å"language module† gets programmed to follow the specific grammar of the language a child is exposed to early in life. Yet the language rules and grammar children use in their speech often exceed the input to which they are exposed. What accounts for this discrepancy? That is where the theory of universal grammar comes in. This theory posits that all languages have the same basic structural foundation. While children are not genetically â€Å"hard-wired† to speak a particular language like Dutch or Japanese, universal grammar lets them learn the rules and patterns of these languages- including those they were never explicitly taught. Some linguists believe that universal grammar and its interaction with the rest of the brain is the design mechanism that allows children to become fluent in any language during the first few years of life. In fact, childhood may be a critical period for the acquisition of language capabilities. Some scientists claim that if a person does not acquire any language before the teen-aged years, they will never do so in a functional sense. Children may also have a heightened ability, compared to adults, to learn second languagesespecially in natural settings. Adults, however, may have some advantages in the conscious study of a second language in a classroom setting. Emphasis on Experience and UsageNot all linguists believe that the innate capacities are most important in language learning. Some researchers place greater emphasis on the influence of usage and experience in language acquisition. They argue that adults play an important role in language acquisition by speaking to children- often in a slow, grammatical and repetitious way. In turn, children discern patterns in the language and experiment with speech gradually- uttering single words at first and eventually stringing them together to construct abstract expressions. At first glance, this may seem reminiscent of how language is traditionally taught in classrooms. But most scientists think children and adults learn language differently. While they may not do it as quickly and easily as children seem to, adults can learn to speak new languages proficiently. However, few would be mistaken for a native speaker of the non-native tongue. Childhood may be a critical period for mastering certain aspects of language such as proper pronunciation. What factors account for the different language learning capabilities of adults and children? Researchers suggest accumulated experience and knowledge could change the brain over time, altering the way language information is organized and/or processed. Why Further Study is NeededWhile our understanding of language acquisition is incomplete, this pursuit is well worth the effort, according to NSF program officer Joan Maling. We still don’t understand how a child learns its first language, why some children have language disorders or how children and adults learn a second language,† she says. â€Å"And we still don’t understand what happens when a stroke or a disease such as Alzheimer’s seems to wipe out a person’s knowledge of language. † Unraveling the process of language acquisition promises not only to help scientists answer these questions, but to explain fundamental features of learning and the human brain. By Nicole Mahoney

Gender of Animals in Spanish

Gender of Animals in Spanish If you think that masculine nouns in Spanish are always used with referring to males and feminine nouns when referring to females, your assumption would be wrong - especially when talking about animals. Like most nouns, the names for nearly all animals are either masculine or feminine. For example, the word for giraffe, jirafa is feminine, and it can be used when referring to any giraffe, whether male or female. Similarly, rinoceronte is masculine, and it can be used to refer to rhinoceroses of either sex. The same is done with people. El humano (human) is masculine even when referring to a woman or girl, and la persona (person) is feminine even when referring to a man or boy. Animals With Sex-Differentiated Names Some animals have different names for each sex. For example, a perro is a male dog, and a perra is a female dog or bitch. The names dont have to be so similar: a cow is una vaca, while a bull is un toro, even though they refer to the same species of animal. As in these examples, it is common, although not universal, for animals with sex-differentiated names in Spanish to have differentiated names in English as well. Some other animals with different names for the sexes are: el lagarto (male lizard), la lagarta (female lizard)el elefante (male elephant), la elefanta (female elephant)el caballo (stallion), la yegua (mare)el carnero (ram), la oveja (sheep)el gallo (rooster), la gallina (hen)el macho (billy goat), la cabra (nanny goat) Generally, the masculine form can be thought of as the default name for the type of species. Thus if you dont know whether a cat is male or female, its fine to refer to it as un gato. But a cat known to be female can be referred to as una gata. Groups of Animals In the case of animals whose names vary with the sex, if you have a group of animals, some female and some male, they should be referred to by the masculine plural: thus los gatos or los perros. But if the name of the animal is invariably feminine, the feminine must still be used: las jirafas (even for a group of males) or las araà ±as (spiders). In a very few cases where each sex has a different name - they include vaca, cabra, and oveja - the feminine form can be pluralized to represent a group. (The same can be true in English, as cattle might informally be referred to as cows even if bulls are part of the mix.) Macho/Hembra If you need to indicate the sex of an animal with a undifferentiated name, you can add the word macho for male or hembra for female: la jirafa hembra, the female giraffela jirafa macho, the male giraffeel dinosaurio macho, the male dinosaurel dinosaurio hembra, the female dinosaur Note that macho and hembra, however, are traditionally considered to be either nouns or invariable adjectives. Thus they do not vary in form with gender or number: las jirafas hembra, the female giraffeslas jirafas macho, the male giraffes Although treating macho and hembra as invariable adjectives is the grammatically safe thing to do, in real life speakers often make them plural. You should stick to the traditional form in formal writing, however. Personal Names When referring to animals with personal names (such as pets), you should use adjectives whose gender matches the given name of the animal when using that name as the subject of a sentence: Pablo, la jirafa ms alta del zoo, est enfermo. (Pablo, the zoos tallest giraffe, is sick.)Su hmster negro se llama Elena. Elena es muy guapa. (His black hamster is named Elena. Elena is very pretty. Note the change in grammar depending on whether the category name or given name is the grammatical subject.) Key Takeaways The category or species names for most animals are either masculine or feminine, and the gender for the animal name is used whether a specific animal in male or female.Some animals have separate names for each sex, such as a cow being una vaca and a bull being un toro.When the subject of a sentence is the personal name of an animal, such a pet, the accompanying adjectives should match the animals sex rather than that of its species name.

Outliers Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Outliers - Assignment Example He is a sports lover and has an attitude inclined towards psychology and research. In his literature psychological and sociological issues are delved deeper by the use of sports at all levels. Gladwell said; "Im not sure that the boundaries that used to exist among different recreational activities will matter as much in the future." Gladwell is the writer of four books, all successful. He described his brainwave of writing as; "I have two parallel things Im interested in. One is, Im interested in collecting interesting stories, and the other is Im interested in collecting interesting research. What Im looking for is cases where they overlap." The Tipping Point gives a new way to understand world, Blink changed the view of thinking and Outliers transformed the understanding of success. He really is a gifted man with the ability to see beyond those simplicities which others ignore. Outlier is a statistical term which is used to define points which do not follow the trend. Literally an outlier is the odd one out, the different, the status quo breaker, the one who brazen out the routine and the one who has the ability to challenge the norms. The book â€Å"Outliers† is itself an out of the box idea of Gladwell. Like his previous books, Gladwell, in Outliers has followed his tradition of challenging the status quo. The name itself has embark an extremely different and entirely new definition of the term; â€Å"Outliers†. After reading â€Å"Blink† the initial two seconds spent on looking the book comprised of the name; â€Å"Outliers†. My very first opinion influence through the name of the book was that it will be a powerful piece of literature. To me the hypothesis is successful, decisions made in mere two seconds are as good as the decisions made cautiously and deliberately. The book; â€Å"Outliers† is as powerful as the name itself suggests. Gladwell has used the term â€Å"Outlier† to represent the successful people of the world. He talks of those

History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 15

History - Essay Example This was the only immediate option for our survival as the owner of the farm we used to till included us on the list of peasant families that were to be removed from its custody due to extreme hardship (Curtis). When the entire Ireland experienced food shortage between 1845-1846 (Curtis), my husband’s illness worsened and he died at the height of the Great Famine. The extremely difficult life in Ireland at that time, leaving only in potato for subsistence (Curtis) had made the call of the Statue of Liberty irresistible. I soon decided to accept the opportunity to flee from the hunger which afflicted Ireland and the painful memory of my husband’s death. I boarded a ship to America on December, 1846 bringing along our five year-old boy, Oliver. After a â€Å"6 to 8 weeks† (â€Å"Irish Settlement†) voyage, my son and I safely arrived in America on February, 1847. We landed in New York and the America that met us was bustling with activity. I saw thousands of immigrants like myself willing to become â€Å"servants with a promise of land and a new life in the new country† (â€Å"Irish Settlement†). I desired to work in one of the many existing factories in New York but found myself wanting of job opportunities. I realized then that we arrived at a time when America was, as described by John Curl, on the brink of technological advancement in machinery thereby creating â€Å"unskilled laborers out of the formerly skilled workers.† Indeed, my son and I were welcomed in 1847 by an America that was buried in â€Å"depression, layoffs, wage cuts and failing strikes† (Curl). It was a terrible experience. I found myself competing with the â€Å"Native-born Americans† (Curl) for factory jobs and being a woman and an immigrant made it even more difficult. I then failed to find a job in New York. During our brief stay in New York, I heard many fellow immigrants recount their â€Å"helpless condition† in America upon arrival (Maguire, 1868). â€Å"Many families were

Ensuring a safe Workplace Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Ensuring a safe Workplace - Essay Example Productivity of an employee depends on the surrounding during task delivering. Therefore, it would be wise to support the enhancement of the working environment for the employees. Arguing for my position requires one to take a bold stand as those taken by the likes of Malcolm X and Karl Marx. Employees are and will continue to be the engine of an organization, and regardless of the level of input they add to the firm. It is a wish of all organizations to be leading in terms of sale, and brand, and to achieve that employees are a critical aspect. Conducive working environment makes employees feel safe in their daily endeavor, and this motivates them. It should never be considered blindly that employees will risk their lives for the sake of building a firm’s reputation. According to (Noe, 2006), Human Resource Management has evolved over the years to view employees as an asset rather than job seeker only after pay. In an organization where hazardous products are being handled emergency measures should be in place to salvage any outbreak (â€Å"Managing health, safety and working environment†, 2009). Esteem of employees is enhanced on how they are treated at their workstation. An employee is just like any other individual whose esteem will be improved by the surrounding. For instance, an organization where the manager uses abusive terms when addressing the employees has a severe impact on the employee’s esteem. Low esteem among employees has been identified as the cause low productivity. Human resource manager needs to ensure the employees are psychologically safe which determines the degree of job concentration. Welfare of the staffs should not be considered as secondary need while they are on duty within the organization. If the workstation is viewed as a home by employees, then productivity from them will be to the optimum. According to (PetrylaitÄâ€", &

E-Business and Social Media as the Most Buzz Words Over the Recent Essay

E-Business and Social Media as the Most Buzz Words Over the Recent Past - Essay Example This paper illustrates that the growing importance of social media in an individual’s life can be defined simply as a way of communication. Alongside dominance in driving individual life, social media has taken the co-pilot’s position in every business flight and businesses are transforming their existence using social media power. In addition, social media is taken a priority position among the communication channels for the reason of giving access to the greater business audience without considerable investment. The estimate of the size of the audience of social media can be made as only single social media site, Facebook has population next to population of India and China. The role of social media in business is as important as in an individual’s life and with the passage of time, this has been gaining more attention. However, immense success of social media sites has gained popularity across business and individuals. This has also called for attention to exp lore the methodology that leads to the success of the E-business form of social media sites. Understanding the business model requires understanding the defining elements. Social media component of e-business has undergone considerable debate pertaining to its definition. Kaplan and Haenlein for defining various categories of social media have provided two-factor matrix as given in the paper. There has been a debate on what the definition of social media is over the years. However, since businesses are concerned with benefits from the social media irrespective of its technical definitions, Hansen, Shneiderman, and Smith have declared social media as any medium that provides connectivity to the community for interaction. In addition to this connectivity, social media also facilitates the functions of creating, finding, sharing and evaluating the mass information available across social and other web channels. Social media form has many dimensions that can be accredited for being the reason for success behind the understudy business model.

A Quality Candidate for the Position of Teacher Essay

A Quality Candidate for the Position of Teacher - Essay Example Teachers are expected to create the most conducive learning environment that would design and impart theoretical concepts according to defined modules and encourage students to be actively engaged in the learning process. As a Bilingual Math teacher with extensive experiences in curriculum design, integrating technological applications and applying a multidimensional approach to teaching, I strongly believe that I am a quality candidate for the position of a teacher. Being a Bilingual Math teacher for the past 4 years has paved the way for the continued personal and professional growth in terms of honing skills in instructional design, the creation of an interactive learning environment, incorporating technology in education, and adhering to ethical and moral codes of conduct expected of the teaching profession. The continued interaction with various academic stakeholders from diverse cultural orientations enabled continuous improvement of knowledge, abilities, and skills required in the academe. Other than the teaching experience, one previously assumed the position of an accountant for Angelo & Carlos, lnc., an organization in New York and the role of a manager for the U.S. Marine. The leadership skills, professional discipline, interpersonal and communication skills, as well as problem-solving and decision-making abilities have all been gained from past personal and professional experiences. All of these are contributory to enhanced competencies in handling classroom management and maximizing learning opportunities in diverse academic environments.

E-Business and Social Media as the Most Buzz Words Over the Recent Essay

E-Business and Social Media as the Most Buzz Words Over the Recent Past - Essay Example This paper illustrates that the growing importance of social media in an individual’s life can be defined simply as a way of communication. Alongside dominance in driving individual life, social media has taken the co-pilot’s position in every business flight and businesses are transforming their existence using social media power. In addition, social media is taken a priority position among the communication channels for the reason of giving access to the greater business audience without considerable investment. The estimate of the size of the audience of social media can be made as only single social media site, Facebook has population next to population of India and China. The role of social media in business is as important as in an individual’s life and with the passage of time, this has been gaining more attention. However, immense success of social media sites has gained popularity across business and individuals. This has also called for attention to exp lore the methodology that leads to the success of the E-business form of social media sites. Understanding the business model requires understanding the defining elements. Social media component of e-business has undergone considerable debate pertaining to its definition. Kaplan and Haenlein for defining various categories of social media have provided two-factor matrix as given in the paper. There has been a debate on what the definition of social media is over the years. However, since businesses are concerned with benefits from the social media irrespective of its technical definitions, Hansen, Shneiderman, and Smith have declared social media as any medium that provides connectivity to the community for interaction. In addition to this connectivity, social media also facilitates the functions of creating, finding, sharing and evaluating the mass information available across social and other web channels. Social media form has many dimensions that can be accredited for being the reason for success behind the understudy business model.

Compare and contrast the nursing theorist models of Parse and Watson Essay

Compare and contrast the nursing theorist models of Parse and Watson - Essay Example Patients now want to be consulted first, they have more access to various medical information, and want to be respected, recognized, and referred to when it pertains to their well-being. All new developments have also made nursing a highly-specialized profession, and nurses must continually update their knowledge they gained in the academe and from work experiences with continuing education. A few examples of nursing specializations are in pediatrics, geriatrics, acute care, natal care, cardiology, surgery, palliative care, toxicology, and mass casualties, to name just a few. In this regard, the nursing profession must not lose sight of its primary or core mission, despite the modernity in health care delivery. Its main aim is to render human care in whatever setting, be it in administrative, clinical, institutional, assisted-living facilities, senior retirement homes, or in a medical research facility. It is quite easy to get lost in all the complexity and forget human values necess ary in a patient-nurse relationship. In an attempt to preserve the noble heritage of nursing, several prominent nurses and educators have developed their own theories with regards to nurses' responsibilities despite all the heavy workload, from a shortage of nurses to increased number of patients nowadays. This paper examines the theories of Jean Watson and Rosemarie Parse. Discussion Although there are many nursing theories propounded by eminent practitioners, there are a few of these theories which had gained widespread acceptance and greater credibility due to their salient points when it comes to giving patient care. Over the years, nursing schools and hospital administrators have promoted these viable nursing theories as models for the nursing profession intended to be followed and applied in all health care settings. The idea is that nursing has core values which are applicable anywhere, and these must be applied consistently so that a patient recovers faster, while the nurse retains his or her humanity as an archetypal ideal nurse. Jean Watson – she developed her own theory of nursing based from her extensive work experiences in both academic and clinical settings. She has an undergraduate degree in nursing, a master's degree in psychiatric (mental health) nursing, and also a doctorate degree in educational psychology, together with three other honorary doctorate degrees granted by three countries, of Canada, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. A basic principle of her nursing theory is the return to the basics, in effect, what Florence Nightingale of England had tried to achieve when she first founded today's modern nursing practice during wartime conditions to care for the wounded. The key elements of Watson's theory are composed of three paradigms in nursing care, which are the carative (from the Greek word of care) factors composed of ten basic elements, the trans-personal relationship, and the caring moment. All the three paradigms are intended to make a nurse aware that a patient is a person with feelings and emotions which can adversely affect his health if not handled properly. Moreover, a nurse must give due care to a fellow human being in a holistic approach, as contrasted to the medicines used to cure a patient (Watson, 2008). Rosemarie Parse –

Dynamic and flexible opportunities Essay Example for Free

Dynamic and flexible opportunities Essay Different institution or any organized group that composes members and hierarchy of position can establish welfare policy to maintain balance and harmony. Policymakers are faced with a challenging task to present variety of opportunities, orders and challenges basically for the benefits of those people under a group or institution. However what if those welfare policies create different impacts on the participants? Since an organize group composed of different kinds of members, one can not guarantee that everyone will agree with the given rules and policies. Opinion and principles from different kinds of people who have different cultural and social orientation may collide and thus create conflict. Some policies that are beneficial to others may be a disadvantage to some. Can the conflicting goals of welfare policy ever be reconciled to produce an effective welfare policy? Diversity of ideas and insights from different members can create a relationship within the group who will explore and examine the conflicting interests that is associated to the given welfare policies. The prevailing sense of community from this relationship can establish a sense of understanding from the ideas and goals of each. Since policy welfare is always equated with the well being within the members, relationships and human attachment will be beneficial to unity. This will encourage members to discuss and review the welfare policy that should aim to propose measures which will bring a fairer distribution of resources and opportunities. Attachment will definitely give them a moral responsibility. Variety of insights from different cultural and social orientation can challenged the minds of the policy makers to create more dynamic and flexible opportunities and policies that will suit all members. As a result, these flexible opportunities will help the members to enhance and explore their talents and capabilities outside their normal orientation. The innovated policy welfare because of conflicting goals may create subsequent developments to the individuality of the members and later on to the institution as a whole. Sometimes conflicting goals from the established welfare policy can be healthy and beneficial to the organized group. It encourages innovation to the welfare policy which as a result can motivate new discoveries to the possible policies that can help the members grow as a person and as professionals. Diversity of culture and principles can motivate learning and self discovery. In order to established effective welfare policy, one must discover their full potentials.

The Problems Associated With Exponential Growth Environmental Sciences Essay

The Problems Associated With Exponential Growth Environmental Sciences Essay Define exponential growth. Describe the connection between exponential growth and environmental problems. Exponential growth is the growth in which some quantity, such as population size or economic output, increases at a constant rate per unit of time. The connection between these two is that exponential growth plays a key role in five important and interconnected environmental problems and issues by having population growth, resource use and waste, poverty, loss of biological diversity, and global climate change. But the great news is that we have solutions to these problems that we could implement within a few decades. Distinguish between solar capital and natural capital. Evaluate the significance of these forms of capital in the development of human societies. By analogy, we can think of energy from the sun as solar capital. Solar energy or capital includes direct sunlight and indirect forms of renewable solar energy such as wind power, hydropower, and biomass. Similarly, we can think of the planets air, water, soil, wildlife, forest, rangeland, fishery, mineral, and energy resources and the processes of natural purification, recycling, and pest control as natural resources or natural capital. Natural capital consists of resources that support and sustain the earths life and economies. This priceless natural capital that nature provides at no cost to us plus the natural biological income it supplies can sustain the planet and our economies indefinitely as long as we do not deplete them. Distinguish between living on principal and living on interest. Analyze which of these behaviors humans are currently illustrating. Evaluate the possibility of continuing to live in our current style. If you have something of value such as an amount of money, that is the principle. If you take from that amount to live on, you are living on the interest. The basic item you own is decreasing in value. You may be living well now. If you continue using up the item, you wont be able to use it in the future. You will need other sources of money in the future. Some items gain in value, such as a bank savings account that provides interest. If you draw off the interest, the basic amount in the account stays the same. But you are living on the interest. Currently I believe that humans are living on interest. They dont have enough money to support them so they would just spend first and pay the amount back slowly as interest builds up though. Define globalization. Globalization is the broad process of global social, economic, and environmental change that leads to an increasingly integrated world. What factors affect globalization? Factors accelerating globalization include information and communication technologies, human mobility, and international trade and investment. Summarize the advantages and disadvantages of globalization. Pros Of Globalization With globalization, there is a global market for companies to trade their products and a wider range of options for people, to choose from among the products of different nations.    Developing countries benefit a lot from globalization, as there is a sound flow of money and thus, a decrease in the currency difference. To meet the increasing demands that follow globalization, there is an increase in the production sector. This gives loads of options to the manufacturers as well. Competition keeps prices relatively low, and as a result, inflation is less likely to occur. The focus is diverted and segregated among all the nations. No country remains the single power head; instead there are compartmentalized power sectors. The decisions at higher levels are meant for the people at large.    Communication among the countries is on the rise, which allows for better understanding and broader vision. As communication increases amongst two countries, there is interchange of cultures as well. We get to know more about the others cultural preferences. As we feed to each others financial needs, the ecological imbalance is also meted out. Governments of countries show concern about each other.    Cons Of Globalization Globalization is causing Europeans to lose their jobs as work is being outsourced to the Asian countries. The cost of labor in the Asian countries is low as compared to other countries. The high rate of profit for the companies, in Asia, has resulted in a pressure on the employed Europeans, who are always under the threat of the business being outsourced. Companies are as opening their counterparts in other countries. This results in transferring the quality of their product to other countries, thereby increasing the chances of depreciation in terms of quality. There are experts who believe that globalization is the cause for the invasion of communicable diseases and social degeneration in countries. The threat that the corporates would rule the world is on high, as there is a lot of money invested by them. It is often argued that poor countries are exploited by the richer countries where the work force is taken advantage of and low wages are implemented. Distinguish between developed countries and developing countries. Describe changes in the wealth gap between these groups of countries. Developed country is highly industrialized already and has a high per capita GNP while developing countries have low to moderate industrialization and low to moderate per capita GNP. Most of its location is in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The developed countries are wealthier in economy wise while the developing countries are barely surviving. Distinguish between the following terms: physically depleted and economically depleted resources; nonrenewable, renewable, and potentially renewable resources; reuse and recycle. Economically depleted: When 80% of resource is extracted and used up therefore the cost to extract the 20% exceeds its economic value. Physically depleted: When 100% of resource is extracted and used up. Nonrenewable: Resource that exists in a fixed amount (stock) in various places in the earths crust and has the potential for renewal by geological, physical, and chemical processes taking place over hundreds of millions to billions of years. Examples are copper, aluminum, coal, and oil. We classify these resources as exhaustible because we are extracting and using them at a much faster rate than they were formed. Renewable: Resource that can be replenished rapidly (hours to several decades) through natural processes. Examples are trees in forests, grasses in grasslands, wild animals, fresh surface water in lakes and streams, most groundwater, fresh air, and fertile soil. If such a resource is used faster than it is replenished, it can be depleted and converted into a nonrenewable resource. Potentially renewable resources: something that can be replaced. Reuse: Using a product over and over again in the same form. An example is collecting, washing, and refilling glass beverage bottles.  Recycle: Collecting and reprocessing a resource so that it can be made into new products. An example is collecting aluminum cans, melting them down, and using the aluminum to make new cans or other aluminum products.   Draw a depletion curve. Explain how recycling and reuse affect depletion time. It affects depletion time because as we recycle and reuse the products over time it saves much more of that product and overtime it increases. Define sustainable yield. Sustainable yield is when the highest rate at which a potentially renewable resource can be used without reducing its available supply throughout the world or in a particular area. Describe the relationship between sustainable yield and environmental degradation. Renewable resources can be depleted or degraded. The highest rate at which a renewable resource can be used indefinitely without reducing its available supply is called its sustainable yield. When we exceed a renewable resources natural replacement rate, the available supply begins to shrink, a process known as environmental degradation. Describe the tragedy of the commons. Summarize how most environmentalists alleviate this type of tragedy. The  Tragedy  of the Commons is a term used to  describe  what happens to common resources as a result of human greed. It was first coined in an article in  Science  in 1968 by Garrett Hardin. The commons dilemma was seen long before Hardin, but he brought widespread attention to it and described it in a common-sense fashion that made it easily accessible. The  Tragedy  of the Commons can also be used when describing  national parks, river use, air quality, oil, forests, and even things such as radio frequencies. The  Tragedy  of the Commons is an important  theory  for designing resource usage plans, as its fundamental assumption about how rational humans can act in a way to bring about destruction of their resource gives a reason to set artificial limitations on usage through governmental policy. Distinguish between the following terms: point source of pollution and nonpoint source of pollution; nonpersistent, persistent, and nondegradable pollutants. Point source: Single identifiable source that discharges pollutants into the environment. Examples are the smokestack of a power plant or an industrial plant, drainpipe of a meatpacking plant, chimney of a house, or exhaust pipe of an automobile. Nonpoint source: Large or dispersed land areas such as crop fields, streets, and lawns that discharge pollutants into the environment over a large area.   Nonpersistent: breaking down rapidly. Persistent pollutionhuman created pollution that doesnt break down naturally and is stored in the fats of animals. Nondegradable pollutionpollution that does not break down at all. Distinguish between pollution prevention and pollution cleanup. Evaluate the effectiveness of these two approaches in decreasing pollution. Pollution prevention is when we reduce or eliminate the production of pollutants. Pollution cleanup is when it involves cleaning up or diluting pollutants after they have been produced. Both of these help the Earth stay cleaner because with these two preventions its helping the Earth do something better as in cleaning up or preventing it from happening. It can either be recycling or putting a stop to the harmful products or cutting back on the object. Summarize underlying causes of environmental problems. The major causes of environmental problems are population growth, wasteful resource use, poverty, poor environmental accounting, and ecological ignorance. Describe a simple model of relationships among population, resource use, technology, environmental degradation, and pollution. According to this simple method, the environmental impact (I) of a population on a given area depends on three factors: the number of people (P), the average resource use per person (affluence, A), and the beneficial and harmful environmental effects of the technologies (T) used to provide and consume each unit of resource and to control or prevent the resulting pollution and environmental degradation. Some factors of technology, such as polluting factories and motor vehicles and energy- wasting devices, increase environmental impact by raising the T factor in the equation. But other technologies, such as pollution control and prevention, solar cells, and energy-saving devices, lower environmental impact by decreasing the T factor. In other words, some forms of technology are environmentally harmful and some are environmentally beneficial. Evaluate which model is most useful to you. Assess which model would be most useful in explaining these relationships to young children and which more closely resembles reality. The technology model is very useful because today in the current world, everyone uses technology such as cars to get around and internet and the computer, and cell phones. Without technology, I dont think people would live as successful as today. In reality, no matter how old you are your family should own a cell phone and a computer at least. Without these, I dont think people would function as successful as they are today. Summarize strategies humans can use to work closely with the earth. To help the Earth function, I believe that people should do their best to conserve what they can, reuse what they can, and recycle from time to time to help out the environment. They should also care about the air we inhale and exhale to prevent any lung diseases that can harm us, and cut back on smoking.