Tossing a Coin
Tossing a coin Introduction As part of my IT GCSE portfolio I had to design a spreadsheet which would be able to accurately simulate the tossing of a coin and later the tossing of a die. When thinking of simulations, most people think of flight simulators, but there are many more areas where simulations of real life are used. Simulators are useful because they can take the place of experiments that would be too dangerous or too costly to carry out. Examples of simulations include:- ) Experiments in chemistry 2) Nuclear physics experiments 3) Airline training 4) Queues at petrol filling stations 5) Traffic light systems 6) Queues at supermarket checkouts Simulations are usually performed to avoid the expense or danger of making mistakes. When engineers are designing new bridges or buildings, they can simulate the construction by using the computer to calculate the stresses at various points and discover the safest without having to build it first. So simulations are very much a part of our everyday life and without them in this modern day and age we'd be lost. Here's my report on using a model to simulate the tossing of a coin. Background We found out the probability of getting a heads when tossing a fair unbiased coin, which was 1:2 or to say it differently 0.5. But when tossing a coin in real life ten times, will the results reflect the probability (0.5)?
Alan Bennett's purpose in writing
'A Cream Cracker Under The Settee' Essay Alan Bennett's purpose in writing "A Cream Cracker Under The Settee" is to highlight the problems old people face. He points out that obsession with hygiene can be destructive "I never should have tried to dust." Everytime the old lady cleans she gets into trouble. He criticises society for neglecting the old "Home help. Home hindrance." Years ago people used to respect the old, look up to them. But now they get swept under the carpet and forgotten about. Bennett also highlights the lack of communication in society "Don't know anybody round here now. Folks opposite, I don't know them." Neighbours used to look out for each other, but now there seems to be less and less interaction because people go out and don't bother with them, long gone is the tight-knit community of the past. It seems that her obsession with housework has been a substitute for a child, she has never got over the fact that she lost her and Wilfreds child. She would not have coped with the mess of a child. The cleaning aspect of the monologue is to teach us that real life is messy and cannot be tidied. To show that this character has not really grown up and moved on her childhood. This monologue also shows the fears old people have. To show that old people can be defiant and that the idea of being in an institution or home dependant on others is too terrible
How believable did you find the transformation of Miss Ruddock in Prison?
How believable did you find the transformation of Miss Ruddock in Prison? Irene Ruddock, the main character in Alan Bennett's dramatic monologue, "Lady of Letters" first gives the impression of being a prejudiced, nosey and naïve woman who writes letters whenever she finds something of which she disapproves. However, after entering prison for libel she encounters a huge personality change. In my opinion, the time scale in which this happens is the biggest factor which makes it unbelievable. I am going to discuss other factors that contribute for and against this decision. To begin with, Miss Ruddock starts the monologue in a negative way "I can't say the service was up to scratch". From even the very first sentence she starts speaking, the audience, ironically, are supposed to make prejudicial assumptions about her. Throughout the first scenes we see, she makes horribly racist and prejudicial judgements on people she deems as inferior like "they don't look very promising... the kiddy looks filthy". Making decisions when she doesn't fully know the situation promotes the idea of her being nosey and extremely quick to jump to conclusions. We also see a lonely side to Miss Ruddock since she goes to a funeral of a distant acquaintance for an excuse to go out. Although she reveals that she hasn't been out in a long time, "At least it's an outing", she tries to deny this by
A Lady of Letters - Post 1914 Drama
How does Patricia Routledge create sympathy for an unsympathetic character in her performance of the monologue, 'A Lady of Letters'? Upon reading "A Lady of Letters' one is automatically filled with a sense of disgust or profound lack of sympathy for Irene Ruddock. It's unsurprising that her curious actions are deemed to be the act of a busy-body. She is the typical 'nosey old woman' who has no greater pride than meddling in other people's affairs with her pedantic letters. So, when a viewer is faced with Patricia Routledge's thought-provoking performance, sympathy is last thing you'd have thought would be related to a character such as Irene Ruddock. But pity is what we feel towards her. Shockingly, the most notable way in which Routledge changes our perception of Irene is her voice. Her emphasis on 'my' and 'I' still shows us that she's proud. However, pride is not the only emotion she conveys; a sense of depression and loneliness is apparent in her low tone. This softened, lower voice also slows her speech significantly and thus drawing the attention to us that she is sad, especially here when she is talking about her mother, 'She lost her mother around the time I lost mine.' This not only makes us sympathise with her for the loss of her mother, but makes her seem more human and so worthy of pity than the faceless letter writer that she is perceived as. Thoughts can be
How does Bennett create sympathy for Doris in "A cream cracker under the settee"?
YR 11: Twentieth Century Drama GCSE Coursework How does Bennett create sympathy for Doris in "A cream cracker under the settee"? Bennett creates lots of sympathy for Doris by talking about her past quite a lot. This makes the audience feel very sorry for Doris by talking about her still born child. "The Midwife said he wasn't fit to be called anything and asked if we had any newspaper?" This builds up more sympathy for her because of the way that people treated her dead son like it was nothing. Bennett uses her emotion to bring in sympathy aswell. Bennett also creates sympathy for Doris by talking about the way she's been treated by other people in the play. For instance Zulema treats her like a child when she's cleaning Doris' house E.G "Doris do not attempt to dust. The dusting is my Department. That's what the council pays me for. You are now a lady of leisure. Your dusting days are over." And "Doris. I don't want to hear you've been touching the Ewbank. Is out of bounds." Here this is wear she is mainly treated like a little child. By telling Doris what to do like: Don't touch the Ewbank or don't attempt to dust. Doris complains about this saying that Zulema is a kind of Dictator to her. This brings more sympathy to Doris aswell. Bennett also creates sympathy for Doris by talking about her severe Loneliness. We know this because she's always complaining about
Discuss Rosenthal's use of minor characters in P'tang Yang Kipperbang.
Discuss Rosenthal's use of minor characters in P'tang Yang Kipperbang P'tang Yang Kipperbang is a TV Play about the ups and downs of adolescence. It focuses mainly upon the life of Alan Duckworth and how he deals with his current problems and problems that he may encounter in his future life. However, throughout the play we are introduced to numerous other characters that reflect and contrast Alan's (Quack Quack's) life. Examples of theses characters are Shaz and Abbo, Alan's best friends. These contrast and compare upon Alan and his life. Rosenthal does this by making them seem the total opposite of Alan i.e. confident and a lot more sexually experienced. When really Shaz and Abbo are both as pathetic as Alan, if not more pathetic. This is because they always lie about things that they say they have done. Another way in which Alan compares and contrasts with Shaz and Abbo is that Alan appears to be a normal teenager who talks to his friends about girls activities with the girl that he likes he just wants to kiss her. However he says that he does want to do all the 'other things' because his mates pressure him to say it. Shaz and Abbo emphasise not just Alan's problems but problems that all adolescents face in general. Ann Lawton is Alan's High school sweet heart, and he will do anything just to kiss her once. But as always there is someone, or something as the case may be
'Write a critical appreciation, in which you compare at least two of Alan Bennett's dramatic monologues 'Talking heads' from the perspective of a theatre goer/ television viewer'
20th century Drama Course-work 'Write a critical appreciation, in which you compare at least two of Alan Bennett's dramatic monologues 'Talking heads' from the perspective of a theatre goer/ television viewer' I had the opportunity to visit the Harrogate Theatre to watch three of Alan Bennett's dramatic monologues. These were, 'Cream Cracker Under the settee', 'Bed Among the Lentils' and 'Chip In the Sugar'. I thoroughly enjoyed the production and preferred the interpretation of the plays in comparison to the televised version. I found the televised version lacked emotional depth and resonance, whereas the theatre production successfully conveyed emotion whilst remaining static. The theatre production also introduced props which were convincingly used by the actors to make the performance more real and ring true. And as the characters spoke directly to the audience it made the entire experience all the more personal; it was as though the character was confiding in the audience. The dramatic Monologues from 'Talking Heads' were initially written as a television series and shown in 1988 by the BBC; they included the renowned actress Maggie Smith, Thora Hird and Julie Walters. 'Talking Heads' broke new dramatic ground as previous monologues tended to be musical and it has become a modern classic. Such was the success and popularity, the plays moved on to the BBC radio,
'Waiting for the telegram'
'Waiting for the telegram' 'Waiting for the telegram' is a dramatic monologue by Alan Bennett. This works as a piece of drama and is humors which helps the audience to understand more about the charters. Violet is one of the main characters and she talks about her life and memories. Violet is 95 and she is in a nursing home which is in poor condition and is not very good. Violet exaggerates some of her speech to make it more interesting and she also makes it humors by changing the meanings of words or phrases. Exaggerating the speech makes it fun, interesting and humors for the audience to watch. Violet uses humor in the drama to catch the audience's eyes and to also make it interesting to watch. Violet uses humor by making funny suggestions or changing the meaning of something for example when she is talking about having control over her body. Alan Bennett uses humor in the play very well and it works with what the speech is about. 'I saw my legs today...that Devon was giving me a bath...whose legs do you think they are...well I have never known this place...'. In the drama repapered words is very common because it is showing Violets old age for example when a fellow if talking to violet he has to say hello about 5 time before violet answers him because she is not understanding what he is saying or can't hear what he is saying but violets response is 'bugger off' and
Talking Heads - Alan Bennett.
TALKING HEADS - ALAN BENNETT The following text is an essay based on two of the six Talking Heads monologues written by Alan Bennett: Bed Among The Lentils and Her Big Chance. The essay attempts to explain whether anything is lost or gained by reading these plays as short stories rather than seeing performances on television or the stage. The Talking Head monologues were originally written for performance on television, though they are also available as a collection of short stories. It has been suggested that Bennett created the pieces for specific performers, all of who are, to a certain extent, associated with him. It is therefore probable that he tailored the material to suit the individual actors' styles. Bed among the Lentils starred Maggie Smith as Susan, who can be thought of as a typical English actress synonymous with intelligent, straight-laced, aloof characters, i.e. Miss Brody, while Her Big Chance starred Julie Walters as Leslie, who, at that time, was best known for her ditsy, flamboyant, comic roles. Casting of this kind makes a difference to the way in which the characters are accepted by the audience. The Actors individual nuances and deliverance would have been taken into account when the plays were written and would make a vast difference to the way in which the characters are shown. Being aware of a particular Actors performance strengthens the
Parody of a Murder Investigation - Who dunnit?
Parody of a Murder Investigation - Who dunnit? The clock chimed twelve in a slow, continuous rhythm. (Except for the last stroke where there was a bong to emphasize the lateness of the hour.) The guests of Moreton Manor stood awkwardly in silence waiting for the detective to arrive. None of them felt safe, as the body of the butler was lying in the next room. Mrs. Bennett looked uneasily about the room, eyeing the people, looking from face to face. This would be terrible for her business, especially once it became public knowledge. There were nine guests in all, not including the bellboy, Harry. All of the cooking staff had left two hours ago, and no one was allowed to leave without the Detective's permission. At last there was a heavy knock on the door You could almost hear a sigh of relief inside the people's minds, hoping that the detective would be able to comfort them somehow. Mrs. Bennett went to unlock the door and let the Detective in. He came alone, smoking a pipe, and wearing a long brown coat and a deerstalker. (Even though there were no deer's in sight or had anything to do with the death) "Sorry I didn't come quicker," he remarked. "I took my time seeing as he's already dead and one quick glance tells me who the murderer is" There were some murmurs of surprise ad some gasps of shock from the guests. Mrs. Bennett looked very tense. No one had mentioned a