Wednesday, January 29, 2020

The Devil’s Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea Essay Example for Free

The Devil’s Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea Essay Luis Alberto Urrea has done thorough research over the topic of illegal immigration and the problems people face while crossing the border before writing this book. Most of them die in the mid of their journey as they have to cross on foot which is very dangerous and involves a lot of risk. Urrea describes the situation and facts so lively that the reader gets completely involved and almost starts feeling the pain by which these men might have gone through. Urrea wants to point out that these illegal immigrants as human eings and wants them to be treated likely because the process of immigration takes us back into the history when men were needed in US to do some odd jobs that the citizens were not willing to do. Also these people could be paid less and thus helped indirectly in the economy of the country. But seeing some of the Mexicans well settled in US lot of them wanted to come and this gave rise to people like Don Moi to create mafia too. The Arizona desert is considered as the devil’s highway because it is deadly. Getting lost nd water are continuous problems that men face there. The description of different kinds of death makes the reader breathless and this looks quite close to reality as they tell their personal stories and the reasons behind why each one is risking his life. Urrea uses terms like ‘cutting the drag’ and explains the reader how these men carry themselves forward in that unimaginably strong sun and drag their body in extreme hot conditions. He also uses terms like ‘a pig at a luau’, which is used to describe the type of death these men were getting in that deadly desert due to heat. The ‘signcutters’ like Don Moi in the story takes away his cut of interest and leave the men in the way lost, as there are no signposts in the way to guide them. Urrea spends a lot of time on the point of view of the Border Petrol because he wants to show the real picture to the readers. He has done complete research work and has interviewed the various politicians on each side. Some of them are in favor of immigration while many want to build a high wall from one end to other end of Border. He wants to tell the reader that the common and poor people suffer due to this kind of politics. The two sides of the story tell the reality of both immigrants and the problems they face and activities involved at the border like patrolling and maintaining them. Urrea has very beautifully mixed the two stories and makes the reader feel the real picture behind what people actually think of. The Devil’s Highway’ is considered as literary nonfiction because it is a story based on acts and author has done a great job of blending reality with story. The facts are so well described in the pattern of story telling that reader actually feels pain and almost relive the story along with words used by writer. Urrea tells the story in a very fascinating way and even gives brief description of each individual, his life and reason why he wants to immigrate. This makes the story even more interesting and live. The book is ‘literary’ because reader is almost linked to facts through the story.

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

In Favor of Class Size Amendment in Florida :: Argumentative Persuasive Argument Essays

In Favor of Class Size Amendment in Florida Merely glimpsing into a handful of the classrooms that scatter the state should signal that we have a blatant problem with too many students. With an average of 23 students per teacher from kindergarten to fifth grade and a staggering average of almost 28 per teacher in high schools, one might wonder exactly how any young person can obtain a comprehensive education. The correlations between classroom sizes and school grades around the state clearly depict the problem at hand: from 2003 to 2004 the number of failing schools increased from 35 to a grand total of 49 schools, according to the Florida Department of Education. Although the incline of fourteen failing schools may not stupefy the masses, the ascension alone should warn officials that it is not only our students who are failing, but our current method of handling them as well. To solve this problem, in November of 2002, Florida's voters passed Constitutional Amendment 9, which limits class sizes in Florida's public schools. The established limits are 18 students in prekindergarten through grade three, 22 students in grades four through eight, and 25 students in grades nine through twelve. Although it may seem to be a rather straightforward problem to solve, according to Governor Jeb Bush, it is quite the opposite. Specifically, he is overly worried about the price-tag associated with this class-size amendment. Obviously, greatly increasing the number of classrooms statewide does not transpire with little effort or funding, but this alone does not justify Bush's persistent effort to wipe aside the idea of Floridian students being able to obtain a more comfortable and extensive education. So, why exactly should decreasing class sizes be held with utmost importance regardless of the costly efforts required to put this plan into action?

Monday, January 13, 2020

Analysis of Elizabeth Bishop’s “The Fish”

Esther Zamora Jon Schneiderman ENC1102-09 03/12/2013 Analysis of Elizabeth Bishop’s â€Å"The Fish† All battered and scarred from many years of trials, Grandma always has a smile on her face. Grandpa died when she was still young, her three sons have also died, and only her two daughters remain. In spite of these difficulties in her life, she manages to be happy and accepting of what life has tossed her way. An older person has scars from life and doesn’t have the strength to fight for it. The elderly have gone through many trials and afflictions that life has tossed at them.With age, they have gained wisdom and understanding through these hardships. Life has a tendency to cruelly throw darts at humanity without any kind of reservation or remorse. In Elisabeth Bishop’s â€Å"The Fish,† the narrator is the fisher woman. Upon catching a tremendous fish and analyzing it carefully, she is reminded of her life. She notices the fish is not fighting to sta y alive. He just hung there, still, and ready to die. This reminds her of her own life. She is now faced with the memory of the many scars that life has brought her.She’s not willing to fight as she once did. Age has really taken a toll on her, demanding her once youthful strength. The author speaks of the fish saying, â€Å"He hung a grunting weight, battered and vulnerable and homely† (7-9). The fisher woman found a similarity with her life and the fish’s life. She made a distinct connection between her life and this small creature. Older and more experienced, the fisher woman is reminded of her past afflictions. Now old and gray which are signs of aging, as the fish’s lips that give away his age.The lips are an important sign because the hooks and lines they have in their mouth demonstrates their experience. The fish in the poem declares â€Å"hung five pieces of fish- line† (51), showing how many times the fish had previously been caught and re leased again. Each line represents the many endeavors the fish had accomplished by conquering those hooks. As with people who overcome adversity and scars inhabit their life, the fish also has scars that remain as an indication of previous struggles. Wisdom and understanding is gained as things in life happen.For the fish, he gains wisdom and understanding each time he escaped a net or a line which is shown by his scars. A person gains wisdom and understanding with the trials they are faced with and that age has brought them. These are reminders to people as well as for fish. A person may have loved ones who have passed away, or possibly experienced some kind of trauma. All these tribulations serve for gaining wisdom and understanding in life. In conclusion, the fisher woman, by looking and observing the fish closely, is reminded of all the previous trials she had in her life.The scars in his lips, the â€Å"five-haired beard of wisdom† (62) helps her think of herself. She no tices the rainbow of colors reflecting from the oil on the boat, reminding her of the fish’s accomplishments. Even though the fish is small, it somehow provokes a sense of relation with herself. She relates these attributes of the fish with maturity, adversity, trials, wisdom, and understanding. She encounters a close identification with the fish. Filled by this emotional connection and compassion for the fish, she let him go.

Sunday, January 5, 2020

Simple Cuisiner (to Cook) Verb Conjugations in French

When you want to say to cook in French you have two options. One is  cuire  and the other is  cuisiner, which is the subject of this verb conjugation lesson. Since we borrowed the word cuisine in English to speak about styles of food, this one should be easy to remember. Conjugating the French Verb  Cuisiner Cuisiner  is a  regular -ER verb  and that makes conjugating it to the past, present, or future tense just a little easier. Thats because this is the most common verb conjugation pattern found in French. Once you learn the appropriate verb endings for  cuisiner, you can apply them to countless other verbs. To conjugate  cuisiner, begin by identifying the verb stem:  cuisin-. To this, various endings are added to match the tense to the appropriate subject pronoun for your sentence. For example, I cook is je cuisine and we will cook is nous cuisinerons. Subject Present Future Imperfect je cuisine cuisinerai cuisinais tu cuisines cuisineras cuisinais il cuisine cuisinera cuisinait nous cuisinons cuisinerons cuisinions vous cuisinez cuisinerez cuisiniez ils cuisinent cuisineront cuisinaient The Present Participle of  Cuisiner The  present participle  of cuisiner  is  cuisinant.  This is formed by simply adding -ant  to the verb stem and it can also act as an adjective, gerund, or noun.   The Past Participle and Passà © Composà © A  common way to express the past tense cooked in French is with the  passà © composà ©. To construct it, you must first conjugate the  auxiliary verb  avoir  to match the subject pronoun. The  past participle  cuisinà ©Ã‚  is then added. It all comes together quickly: I cooked is jai cuisinà © and we cooked is nous avons cuisinà ©. Note how  ai  and  avons  are conjugates of  avoir  and that the past participle does not change. More Simple  Cuisiner  Conjugations Among the other simple conjugations of  cuisiner  that you might need are the following. The verb moods of the subjunctive and the conditional imply that the action of cooking may not be guaranteed. In literature, you might also find the passà © simple or the imperfect subjunctive. Subject Subjunctive Conditional Pass Simple Imperfect Subjunctive je cuisine cuisinerais cuisinai cuisinasse tu cuisines cuisinerais cuisinas cuisinasses il cuisine cuisinerait cuisina cuisint nous cuisinions cuisinerions cuisinmes cuisinassions vous cuisiniez cuisineriez cuisintes cuisinassiez ils cuisinent cuisineraient cuisinrent cuisinassent To express  cuisiner  in exclamations, requests, or demands, use the imperative form. When doing so, the subject pronoun is not required: use cuisine rather than tu cuisine. Imperative (tu) cuisine (nous) cuisinons (vous) cuisinez