The Dramatic Importance of Act 1 Scenes 1 and 2 referring to other parts of the play wherever appropriate ('Twelfth Night')

The Dramatic Importance of Act 1 Scenes 1 and 2 referring to other parts of the play wherever appropriate The title 'Twelfth Night' seems to suggest that Shakespeare, who wrote the play around 1602, wanted it to be performed on the twelfth day after Christmas; the festival of the Epiphany. This day formally marked the end of the Christmas season, which at the time was celebrated as a special festival. In addition to eating, drinking and generally over indulging, the performance of plays was a common feature on this day. He may have written this romantic comedy whilst keeping this festive spirit in mind. The title therefore may have had some bearing on the actual plot or characters. The secondary title 'What You Will', suggests that the play has something of interest for everyone and it also reflects the theme of excess. This title is appropriate, as this theme is apparent in some of the characters, particularly in terms of their longings and desires. 'Twelfth Night' was the last of Shakespeare's 'mature comedies', the other two being 'Much Ado About Nothing' and 'As you like it'. Like most of Shakespeare's other plays, this play does not have an original plot. It has many elements that were common to Elizabethan romantic comedy, including the devices of mistaken identity, separated twins and cross-dressing disguises. The plot revolves around overcoming obstacles to true

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  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Of Mice and men - Overall Plot.

Overall Plot George and Lennie are two migrant American labourers, who share a dream; that one day they may buy a farm, and Lennie will be able to take care of the rabbits. Although Lennie is physically very strong and has the body of a man, he has the mind of a child. The two men arrive on a ranch near the town of Soledad, where they are about to start work as barley buckers. On arriving there, they meet Candy, an old one-handed man who mops the floor, and Curley. Curley is the Boss' son, and immediately hates Lennie because of his impressive size. George realises that Curley will undoubtedly cause trouble for them. After the two men are hired by the Boss, they meet Slim, a jerkline skinner. He has a lot of authority and has earned much respect from the men. They also meet Carlson. Later that night, after dinner, Slim gives Lennie one of his puppies. Lennie is delighted by the gift, for he loves to pet things like rabbits, puppies and even mice, although he sometimes accidentally kills the creatures, not knowing his own strength. George confides in Slim, telling him about how Lennie has caused many problems before, like in Weed. A girl thought Lennie was trying to rape her, and they had to flee. Later that night, Candy overhears George and Lennie talking about their dream, and he asks if he could join them. He has quite a bit of money saved up, and they realise that

  • Word count: 5926
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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The North Sea

North Sea The North Sea contains Western Europe's largest oil and natural gas reserves and is one of the world's key non-OPEC producing regions. Norway and the United Kingdom hold the majority of the North Sea's reserves and production. Denmark, the Netherlands, and Germany have smaller North Sea oil and natural gas resources. Information contained in this report is the best available as of August 2004 and is subject to change. GENERAL BACKGROUND North Sea oil and natural gas were first discovered in the 1960s. The North Sea, however, did not emerge immediately as a key non-OPEC oil producing area until the 1980s and 1990s, when major discoveries began coming online. Oil and natural gas extraction in the North Sea's inhospitable climate - cold and windy - and at great depths requires sophisticated offshore technology. Consequently, the region is a relatively high cost producer, but its political stability and proximity to major European consumer markets have allowed it to play a major role in world oil and natural gas markets. A key feature of North Sea oil is its role as one of the major "benchmark" crude oils, the Brent price marker. Because Brent crude is traded on the International Petroleum Exchange (IPE) in London, fluctuations in the market are reflected in the price of Brent. Therefore, the many other crude oils linked to Brent can be priced according to the

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  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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What attitudes to war have youfound in your reading of war poetry?

What attitudes to war have you found in your reading of war poetry? Discuss these attitudes by examining three poems in detail; refer closely to the content and style of each poem and compare the poems by showing the similarities and differences you have found in your reading. For the past eighty years people throughout the world have remembered the Great War. Partly the sheer scale of the casualties meant that more British, French, German and Belgian had lost sons, husbands, fathers, or knew families that had- than in any previous conflict. Studies estimate that between 10,000,000 and 13,000,000 combatants perished in battle or from wounds and disease related to the war. The Great War saw the end of several ancient monarchies, and the alignment of power was radically altered even among the victors. At the time of the outbreak of war Britain owned about 25% of the world's area containing 425,000,000 people. But by the end of the war both Britain and France lost their status as first-class powers, and America emerged as the strongest financial and industrial nation in the world. World war one began in 1914 and ended in 1918. During these four years there were enormous numbers of dead and wounded. Soldiers as young as 18 years old defending trench lines, which produced deadlock and nightmarish battles that ended in horrific consequences. ''They shall not

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  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Oscar Wilde

REALISM Great economic and political changes started in the beginning of the 19th century. Trading class began to struggle for radical political changes. As the political power was placed in the hands of the property - owning class, labor became cheep and living conditions grew worse. Disappointed and haggard working class decided to fight for their rights. People held uprisings, strikes, mass meetings and demanded more democratic reforms to improve their own conditions. All this stimulated the growth of realism and in the presentation of reality Romanticism became too abstract and symbolic. The realistic novels became the most important and most popular genre (7). Realism in literature is an approach that attempts to describe life without idealization or romantic subjectivity. Although realism is not limited to any one century or group of writers, it is most often associated with the literary movement in 19th-century France, specifically with the French novelists Flaubert and Balzac. George Eliot introduced realism into England, and William Dean Howells introduced it into the United States. Realism has been chiefly concerned with the commonplaces of everyday life among the middle and lower classes, where character is a product of social factors and environment is the integral element in the dramatic complications (13). In the drama, realism is most closely associated

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  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Semantic Processing in Advertising

Semantic Processing in Advertising Introduction Having learnt about levels of processing in Psychology it has made me think more about the meaning of words and how we decipher that meaning. Levels of Processing suggests that stimuli can be encoded and processed at varying levels/depths from shallow to deep. It shows that the long term memory store is not just a simple storage unit but a complex processing system. There are at least three levels of processing, visual, acoustic and semantic. Visual processing involves analysing the visual appearance (orthography components) of a word. Acoustic processing is about the sound (based on the phonemic components) of the word for example 'does it rhyme'? And semantic processing analyses the meaning of the word. I am particularly interested in semantic processing and how it links with memory. I am interested to find out what features make words stand out and make a word/sentence memorable and to see how these techniques are used in advertising in that they have a lasting affect on the person reading the advert. To avoid transgressing which limits boundaries and to achieve more significant results, this experiment will focus on two levels, visual and semantic as these are the extremes (shallowest and deepest level of processing). Does semantically processing a word increase recall? What other features increase recall? To

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  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Quotes from All My Sons

Quotes from All My Sons CHARACTORS Joe Keller "I saw your factory on the way from the stations. It looks like general motors"p150 Allusion-Savy businessman "Well that's only your business, Chris"p100 Inability to stand up to Kate "in hopeless fury, looks at her, turns around, goes up the porch, and into the house slamming screen door violently behind him" p126 Shows he can be neurotic "Chris... Chris, I did it for you...For you! A business for you."p158 Keller deals with guilt by blaming others and unfortunately taints his love for his son "A man can't be a Jesus in this world"p169 Allusion He is realistic but slightly jaded you can try to fulfil your moral and social responsibility "I'm his father and he's my son and if there's something bigger than that I'll put a bullet in my head!"p163 Dramatic irony and prolepsis- family is the most important thing for him commendable but leads to his downfall as he convinces himself that he shipped the cylinder heads for his family rather than himself "(Chris with admiration) Joe McGuts"p116 He is very brave "But I think to him they were all my sons. And I guess they were" p170 Recognition that he has social responsibility can't live with the realisation "I can't sleep here; I'll feel better if I go"p170 He shows determination there is a metaphorical recognition that he needs to die he is admirable even in death

  • Word count: 5688
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Consider the novels ‘Birdsong’ and ‘Regeneration’ compare Faulks’ and Barker’s presentation of life in the trenches during world war one.

Consider the novels 'Birdsong' and 'Regeneration' compare Faulks' and Barker's presentation of life in the trenches during world war one. In Birdsong the experience of trench warfare is made extremely vivid. The terror of life at the front and in the underground beneath it, is graphically portrayed by Faulks through the eyes of the characters, particularly those of Stephen Wraysford. Stephen, an officer promoted from the ranks, endures the nightmare world of the trenches. The horror of this experience is depicted objectively. Some central scenes in the novel are set in mining tunnels that both sides constructed between their separate trench networks. The allies and the Germans both dug these mines and countermines; sometimes as Faulks illustrates, one side would succeed in detonating explosions that destroyed enemy tunnels, killing the sappers or burying them alive. Faulks does not give any gratification to any sensibilities in his descriptions of the mutilating and killing. He also vividly evokes the dread of constant noise from the barrage and bombardment, the fear of gas attack and the utter squalor of life-and death-in the trenches. 'When there was a battle or a raid, they expected to die; it was the losses through sniper fire, through shells and mortars, the blowing of the tunnel, the continuous awareness that any moment could bring death in a

  • Word count: 5687
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Language Aquisition Notes

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION Theorists * Cognitive - Jean Piaget - can only understand lang when you understand concept (e.g. can talk in past tense when you know about time) * Behaviourist - Skinner learn through imitation - doesn't explain where new sentences come from * Nativist - Chomsky - Language Acquisition Device (LAD) - works out what is/isn't acceptable lang use using innate programmed patterns (which are general). exact rules learnt through trial and error. His theory supports the fact that children around the world seem to develop at a similar pace, irrespective of race/culture/mother tongue. (This also 'defies' Skinner's model) Also, the fact that there is a universal grammar amongst all languages of the world. & the fact that children consistently create new forms of language that they would not have heard before. * Conversely, John Macnamara - said that rather than having an in-built language device, children have an innate capacity to read meaning into social situations. It is this capacity that makes them capable of understanding and learning language, not the LAD. * Interactive - caretaker, motherese etc - slower pace than adult convo, simplified, repetition, short sentences, often caretaker asking 'where is___?', 'that's a___', tag questions to involve child ('isn't it?') * Example for importance of social interaction: Bard and Sachs. Studied a boy

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  • Word count: 5494
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Hamlet essay

"How successful was Claudius likely to be as a replacement for Hamlet Senior?" In what ways does Shakespeare present the central antagonist to Hamlet in this play? It is argued among many critics that Claudius, no matter what his redeeming features may be within his psychological make-up, his failure to be a replacement as a father, Monarch and Courtier, are testament to the fact that he could never actually replace Hamlet Senior. Counteracting this viewpoint, though the court fails to be a place where justice overthrows all else, and becomes what can only be described as a "slaughter house", Claudius committed regicide for the reason that he was sure of what he wanted, which was to be everything that his brother was; a husband, father and Monarch. Having his desires fulfilled before his very eyes, Claudius would automatically look for qualities he posesses which are parallel to 'Old Hamlet's', in order to gain respect from Hamlet. These qualities to a certain extent already exist through his character's trait as a natural leader whereby he uses his skilled opportunism and his bold plotting; "Now must your conscience my acquittance seal, and you must put me in your heart for friend" These traits of character could be taught to Hamlet and Claudius could therefore succeed as a father figure. However, to succeed as a father figure Claudius would have to be supportive of his

  • Word count: 5454
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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