In what year did John Grisham's story, A Time to Kill, take place? In what year did Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird take place? 1955?

John Grisham, in A Time to Kill, does specify the year in which his story takes place.  The closest he comes in his description of Omar Noose, the judge who will preside over the trial that provides the basis of Grisham’s novel about racism in the American South.  In that description, the author provides the following comment regarding Judge Noose: “That's how ex-State Senator Noose became Circuit Judge Noose. He was elected in 1975, and reelected in 1979 and 1983.”

So, we now know that Judge Noose was most recently reelected in 1983.  Circuit judges in the State of Mississippi serve four-year terms, as noted in the above quote, which is consistent with the state’s website for its Judicial Branch [See: https://courts.ms.gov/aboutcourts/aboutcourts.html].  Consequently, the year in which Grisham’s story takes place would be (assuming the election occurred in November of 1983, with the judge being sworn into office the following January) between 1984 and 1987 or 1988. 

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, published in 1960, takes place in 1935, and the two years preceding it, the seminal clue provided in the following comment by Atticus Finch during his summation and closing remarks during the rape trial of Tom Robinson: “There is a tendency in this year of grace, 1935, for certain people to use this phrase out of context, to satisfy all conditions.”  The reason we know that the story takes place in years preceding 1935 but leading up to that date is Scout’s descriptions of the passage of time, particularly with respect to the annual summer returns to Maycomb of Dill.

Why did Solzhenitsyn choose to show one typical day in the life of prisoners rather than creating a narrative that covered a longer time span?

"How can you expect a man who's warm to understand a man who's cold?" Solzhenitsyn writes in his novel of a Russian concentration camp, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. This is the challenge the author faced in writing a short work of this sort, far different from the massive Gulag Archipelago on the same topic. Solzhenitsyn portrays an ordinary character on an ordinary day in an ordinary Russian camp. Despite the averageness of this premise, the reader can hardly help from being deeply moved by the story. The story, written in the "a day in the life of" style, drags us along through the both mundane and extraordinary efforts that it takes to survive...even for one day in the camp. By the end of the novel, the reader feels that the end of an epic journey has been completed, yet this odyssey of sorts was just a day, and the missing books that could follow would exhaust the reader yet again. In this sense, Solzhenitsyn creates both the themes of hope and hopelessness that the novel is known and loved for.

What happens in Act 3, Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet?

The play that I have studied is Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Act three, scene one, the climax of this play, is a scene where much conflict occurs.

This scene opens with two of Romeo's friends, Benvolio and Mercutio, talking. Tension and suspense is established when Benvolio says,

'The day is hot, the Capulets abroad,

And, if we meet, we shall not 'scape a brawl'

The 'fiery Tybalt' enters looking for Romeo. He felt that Romeo had insulted him by going to the Capulet masked ball and he wanted to exact his revenge.

Mercutio deliberately insults him and draws his sword. Just as Benvolio tries to calm them down, Romeo enters. Tybalt tries to incite Romeo into fighting by insulting him: 'Romeo, the love I bear thee can afford/ No better term than this, – thou art a villain.'

Romeo resists Tybalt's challenge because he is now related by marriage to him. Mercutio is embarrassed by Romeo's inaction and he challenges Tybalt. As Romeo tries to stop the fight Mercutio is mortally wounded by Tybalt.

As Mercutio dies he says, 'A plague o' both your houses! / They have made worms' meet of me.' Romeo realises he is partially responsible for his friend's death and his anger leads him to kill Tybalt. He then realises he is 'fortune's fool' and flees the place.

The Prince of Verona arrives and decides to exile Romeo from the city.

(b) What are the underlying causes of conflict in this scene?

The main cause of the conflict in this scene arises 'From ancient grudge' between two major families in Verona – the Capulets and the Montagues. The feud is so strong that the play opens with their servants fighting. Indeed, the rift is so strong that the Prince of Verona is prompted to announce, 'If ever you disturb our streets again/ Your lives will pay the forfeit of the peace.'

Another cause of the conflict is the mercurial nature of Tybalt. He saw Romeo's appearance at the Capulet masked ball as an insult and was determined to challenge Romeo.

Mercutio also contributed to the conflict. He was very quick to engage in a quarrel with Tybalt and condemned Romeo for avoiding conflict, 'O calm, dishonourable, vile submission!'

Finally Romeo has much internal conflict in this scene. He is being challenged and insulted by Tybalt but feels he cannot retaliate because he is now secretly married to Juliet, Tybalt's cousin.

It is clear there is much conflict in this scene and many reasons for it – this conflict adds greatly to our enjoyment of the play.

What two maxims did Boxer adopt? Why did Napoleon change his mind and decide to have the animals bulid the windmill?

In Ch.6 Orwell describes in great detail how the animals struggled to build the windmill. Large stones had to be hauled up a steep slope and then allowed to roll down to be broken into small pieces. This laborious process, was accomplished mainly by the unrelenting efforts of Boxer:

"To see him toiling up the slope inch by inch, his breath coming fast, the tips of his hoofs clawing at the ground, and his great sides matted with sweat, filled everyone with admiration. Clover warned him sometimes to be careful not to overstrain himself, but Boxer would never listen to her. His two slogans, "I will work harder" and "Napoleon is always right," seemed to him a sufficient answer to all problems."

He represents the common people of Communist Russia who were exploited by Josef Stalin and his henchmen.

In Ch.5,Orwell tells us that,

"On the third Sunday after Snowball's expulsion, the animals were somewhat surprised to hear Napoleon announce that the windmill was to be built after all. He did not give any reason for having changed his mind, but merely warned the animals that this extra task would mean very hard work, it might even be necessary to reduce their rations."

But a little later Squealer explains why Napoleon changed his mind about the windmill:

"The windmill was, in fact, Napoleon's own creation. Why, then, asked somebody, had he spoken so strongly against it? Here Squealer looked very sly. That, he said, was Comrade Napoleon's cunning. He had SEEMED to oppose the windmill, simply as a manoeuvre to get rid of Snowball, who was a dangerous character and a bad influence. Now that Snowball was out of the way, the plan could go forward without his interference. This, said Squealer, was something called tactics. He repeated a number of times, "Tactics, comrades, tactics!" skipping round and whisking his tail with a merry laugh."

"Tactics," of course, means merely that Napoleon stole Snowball's idea of the windmill and then manoeuvred slyly to get rid of Snowball and take all the credit for himself.

John Updike's short story "A&P": The character of Sammy.How fully does Updike draw the character of Sammy? What traits (admirable or otherwise)...

    The main character in John Updike's short story, "A&P," Sammy is an immature social misfit with very little (if any) experience with the opposite sex. Although that is not completely unusual for an awkward teenager, Sammy describes the girls who enter the grocery store as if he were looking at them in a second-rate girlie magazine. They are far from perfect--he points out all of their physical faults and refers to them as "sheep"--but they remain untouchable.  A common store clerk and cashier who is only hired to serve the customer, he sees "The Queen" as royalty.
    Sammy apparently has few admirable character traits. He has little respect or understanding of authority; his boss is just another worker with a door "marked MANAGER behind which he hides all day." Sammy is not yet ready for all the demands of the adult world, and when he sees the chance to become a hero in the girls' eyes by quitting in protest of their treatment at the hands of his boss, he makes his move. His action is hardly heroic, however, since he hates his job and only hopes it will give him a shot with the girls. But Sammy takes his time getting to the parking lot and finds the Queen and her court long gone.
    Sammy is no James Dean. He dislikes authority and is not ready to hold down a full-time job, but his actions are far from noble. They reek of immaturity and, though he knows his life will be tougher without the security and income of the A&P, he feels more comfortable in his schoolboy world of beaches and bathing suits.

What does this quote from The Crucible mean? "In unity still lay the best promise of safety."

This quote is from Arthur Miller's comments before the action starts in Act I.

If you look at the context, the quote is actually talking about how the people in Salem during those days could best protect themselves.  And what they needed to protect themselves from was the Indians.  The quote is followed by

The edge of the wilderness was close by.  The American continent ... stood dark, threatenening... for out of it Indian tribes marauded from time to time.

However, in the context of the play, you can argue that Miller is trying to foreshadow or refer to what is to come.  During the witch trials, you could see the quote in two ways:

1. You were only safe if you stood with the court -- in unity.


2. The only way true safety could ever come about would be from the town standing up to the court.

For what value of b will the line joining the points P and Q be parallel to the x axis? P(-6, 2b + 3) , Q(7, -1)

The slope of the  line joining the two points(x1,y1) and( x2,y2) is

(y2-y1)/(x2-x1).

So, the slope of the line joining P((-6,2b+3) and Q(7,-1) is (-1-(2b+3))/(7-(-6))=

(-4-2b)/13=-(4+2b)/13....................(1)

The slope of x axis is zero, as x axis is inclined  to itself at  angle zero and  so the slope of x axis is the tangent of zero angle  which is zero.

PQ and x axis are parallel only if the slope of PQ  equals  to that of x axis which is zero.This can be only  when  slope obtained of PQ in (1) ,that is, 4+2b/13  = 0 or b= -4/2 = -2.

So the value b=-2,makes PQ ||  to X axis.

Aliter:

Any line pararallel to the x axis keeps the same distance from  x axis  . So, the coordinates (or ordinates) of any point  on the line parallel to x axis should be same or equal.  That means, the value of the y coordinate is same for all points on the line paarallel to x axis.

Since PQ || ro X axis,

Y coordinate of P(-6,2b+1)  =  Y coordinate of Q(7 -3) or

2b+1= -3 or

2b=-3-1 or

b= -4/2 =-2