Bag of Bones CHAPTER FIVE

Once, when I was sixteen, a plane went supersonic directly over my head. I was walking in the woods when it happened, thinking of some story I was going to write, perhaps, or how great it would be if Doreen Fournier weakened some Friday night and let me take off her panties while we were parked at the end of Cushman Road. In any case I was travelling far roads in my own mind, and when that boom went off, I was caught totally by surprise. I went flat on the leafy ground with my hands over my head and my heart drumming crazily, sure I'd reached the end of my life (and while I was still a virgin). In my forty years, that was the only thing which equalled the final dream of the ‘Manderley series' for utter terror. I lay on the ground, waiting for the hammer to fall, and when thirty seconds or so passed and no hammer did fall, I began to realize it had just been some jet-jockey from the Brunswick Naval Air Station, too eager to wait until he was out over the Atlantic before going to Mach 1. But, holy shit, who ever could have guessed that it would be so loud? I got slowly to my feet and as I stood there with my heart finally slowing down, I realized I wasn't the only thing that had been scared witless by that sudden clear-sky boom. For the first time in my memory, the little patch of woods behind our house in Prout's Neck was entirely silent. I stood there in a dusty bar of sunlight, crumbled leaves all over my tee-shirt and jeans, holding my breath, listening. I had never heard a silence like it. Even on a cold day in January, the woods would have been full of conversation. At last a finch sang. There were two or three seconds of silence, and then a jay replied. Another two or three seconds went by, and then a crow added his two cents' worth. A woodpecker began to hammer for grubs. A chipmunk bumbled through some underbrush on my left. A minute after I had stood up, the woods were fully alive with little noises again; it was back to business as usual, and I continued with my own. I never forgot that unexpected boom, though, or the deathly silence which followed it. I thought of that June day often in the wake of the nightmare, and there was nothing so remarkable in that. Things had changed, somehow, or could change . . . but first comes silence while we assure ourselves that we are still unhurt and that the danger if there was danger is gone. Derry was shut down for most of the following week, anyway. Ice and high winds caused a great deal of damage during the storm, and a sudden twenty-degree plunge in the temperature afterward made the digging out hard and the cleanup slow. Added to that, the atmosphere after a March storm is always dour and pessimistic; we get them up this way every year (and two or three in April for good measure, if we're not lucky), but we never seem to expect them. Every time we get clouted, we take it personally. On a day toward the end of that week, the weather finally started to break. I took advantage, going out for a cup of coffee and a mid-morning pastry at the little restaurant three doors down from the Rite Aid where Johanna did her last errand. I was sipping and chewing and working the newspaper crossword when someone asked, ‘Could I share your booth, Mr. Noonan? It's pretty crowded in here today.' I looked up and saw an old man that I knew but couldn't quite place. ‘Ralph Roberts,' he said. ‘I volunteer down at the Red Cross. Me and my wife, Lois.' ‘Oh, okay, sure,' I said. I give blood at the Red Cross every six weeks or so. Ralph Roberts was one of the old parties who passed out juice and cookies afterward, telling you not to get up or make any sudden movements if you felt woozy. ‘Please, sit down.' He looked at my paper, folded open to the crossword and lying in a patch of sun, as he slid into the booth. ‘Don't you find that doing the crossword in the Derry News is sort of like striking out the pitcher in a baseball game?' he asked. I laughed and nodded. ‘I do it for the same reason folks climb Mount Everest, Mr. Roberts . . . because it's there. Only with the News crossword, no one ever falls off.' ‘Call me Ralph. Please.' ‘Okay. And I'm Mike.' ‘Good.' He grinned, revealing teeth that were crooked and a little yellow, but all his own. ‘I like getting to the first names. It's like being able to take off your tie. Was quite a little cap of wind we had, wasn't it?' ‘Yes,' I said, ‘but it's warming up nicely now.' The thermometer had made one of its nimble March leaps, climbing from twenty-five degrees the night before to fifty that morning. Better than the rise in air-temperature, the sun was warm again on your face. It was that warmth that had coaxed me out of the house. ‘Spring'll get here, I guess. Some years it gets a little lost, but it always seems to find its way back home.' He sipped his coffee, then set the cup down. ‘Haven't seen you at the Red Cross lately.' ‘I'm recycling,' I said, but that was a fib; I'd come eligible to give another pint two weeks ago. The reminder card was up on the refrigerator. It had just slipped my mind. ‘Next week, for sure.' ‘I only mention it because I know you're an A, and we can always use that.' ‘Save me a couch.' ‘Count on it. Everything going all right? I only ask because you look tired. If it's insomnia, I can sympathize, believe me.' He did have the look of an insomniac, I thought too wide around the eyes, somehow. But he was also a man in his mid- to late seventies, and I don't think anyone gets that far without showing it. Stick around a little while, and life maybe only jabs at your cheeks and eyes. Stick around a long while and you end up looking like Jake La Motta after a hard fifteen. I opened my mouth to say what I always do when someone asks me if I'm all right, then wondered why I always felt I had to pull that tiresome Marlboro Man shit, just who I was trying to fool. What did I think would happen if I told the guy who gave me a chocolate-chip cookie down at the Red Cross after the nurse took the needle out of my arm that I wasn't feeling a hundred percent? Earthquakes? Fire and flood? Shit. ‘No,' I said, ‘I really haven't been feeling so great, Ralph.' ‘Flu? It's been going around.' ‘Nah. The flu missed me this time, actually. And I've been sleeping all right.' Which was true there had been no recurrence of the Sara Laughs dream in either the normal or the high-octane version. ‘I think I've just got the blues.' ‘Well, you ought to take a vacation,' he said, then sipped his coffee. When he looked up at me again, he frowned and set his cup down. ‘What? Is something wrong?' No, I thought of saying. You were just the first bird to sing into the silence, Ralph, that's all. ‘No, nothing wrong,' I said, and then, because I sort of wanted to see how the words tasted coming out of my own mouth, I repeated them. ‘A vacation.' ‘Ayuh,' he said, smiling. ‘People do it all the time.' People do it all the time. He was right about that; even people who couldn't strictly afford to went on vacation. When they got tired. When they got all balled up in their own shit. When the world was too much with them, getting and spending. I could certainly afford a vacation, and I could certainly take the time off from work what work, ha-ha? and yet I'd needed the Red Cross cookie-man to point out what should have been self-evident to a college-educated guy like me: that I hadn't been on an actual vacation since Jo and I had gone to Bermuda, the winter before she died. My particular grindstone was no longer turning, but I had kept my nose to it all the same. It wasn't until that summer, when I read Ralph Roberts's obituary in the News (he was struck by a car), that I fully realized how much I owed him. That advice was better than any glass of orange juice I ever got after giving blood, let me tell you. When I left the restaurant, I didn't go home but tramped over half of the damned town, the section of newspaper with the partly completed crossword puzzle in it clamped under one arm. I walked until I was chilled in spite of the warming temperatures. I didn't think about anything, and yet I thought about everything. It was a special kind of thinking, the sort I'd always done when I was getting close to writing a book, and although I hadn't thought that way in years, I fell into it easily and naturally, as if I had never been away. It's like some guys with a big truck have pulled up in your driveway and are moving things into your basement. I can't explain it any better than that. You can't see what these things are because they're all wrapped up in padded quilts, but you don't need to see them. It's furniture, everything you need to make your house a home, make it just right, just the way you wanted it. When the guys have hopped back into their truck and driven away, you go down to the basement and walk around (the way I went walking around Derry that late morning, slopping up hill and down dale in my old galoshes), touching a padded curve here, a padded angle there. Is this one a sofa? Is that' one a dresser? It doesn't matter. Everything is here, the movers didn't forget a thing, and although you'll have to get it all upstairs yourself (straining your poor old back in the process, more often than not), that's okay. The important thing is that the delivery was complete. This time I thought hoped the delivery truck had brought the stuff I needed for the back forty: the years I might have to spend in a No Writing Zone. To the cellar door they had come, and they had knocked politely, and when after several months there was still no answer, they had finally fetched a battering ram. HEY BUDDY, HOPE THE NOISE DIDN'T SCARE YOU TOO BAD, SORRY ABOUT THE DOOR! I didn't care about the door; I cared about the furniture. Any pieces broken or missing? I didn't think so. I thought all I had to do was get it upstairs, pull off the furniture pads, and put it where it belonged. On my way back home, I passed The Shade, Derry's charming little revival movie house, which has prospered in spite of (or perhaps because of) the video revolution. This month they were showing classic SF from the fifties, but April was dedicated to Humphrey Bogart, Jo's all-time favorite. I stood under the marquee for several moments, studying one of the Coming Attractions posters. Then I went home, picked a travel agent pretty much at random from the phone book, and told the guy I wanted to go to Key Largo. Key West, you mean, the guy said. No, I told him, I mean Key Largo, just like in the movie with Bogie and Bacall. Three weeks. Then I rethought that. I was wealthy, I was on my own, and I was retired. What was this ‘three weeks' shit? Make it six, I said. Find me a cottage or something. Going to be expensive, he said. I told him I didn't care. When I came back to Derry, it would be spring. In the meantime, I had some furniture to unwrap. I was enchanted with Key Largo for the first month and bored out of my mind for the last two weeks. I stayed, though, because boredom is good. People with a high tolerance for boredom can get a lot of thinking done. I ate about a billion shrimp, drank about a thousand margaritas, and read twenty-three John D. MacDonald novels by actual count. I burned, peeled, and finally tanned. I bought a long-billed cap with PARROTHEAD printed on it in bright green thread. I walked the same stretch of beach until I knew everybody by first name. And I unwrapped furniture. A lot of it I didn't like, but there was no doubt that it all fit the house. I thought about Jo and our life together. I thought about saying to her that no one was ever going to confuse Being Two with Look Homeward, Angel. ‘You aren't going to pull a lot of frustrated-artist crap on me, are you, Noonan?' she had replied . . . and during my time on Key Largo, those words kept coming back, always in Jo's voice: crap, frustrated-artist crap, all that fucking schoolboy frustrated-artist crap. I thought about her long red woods apron, coming to me with a hatful of black trumpet mushrooms, laughing and triumphant: ‘Nobody on the TR eats better than the Noonans tonight!' she'd cried. I thought of her painting her toenails, bent over between her own thighs in the way only women doing that particular piece of business can manage. I thought of her throwing a book at me because I laughed at some new haircut. I thought of her trying to learn how to play a breakdown on her banjo and of how she looked braless in a thin sweater. I thought of her crying and laughing and angry. I thought of her telling me it was crap, all that frustrated-artist crap. And I thought about the dreams, especially the culminating dream. I could do that easily, because it never faded as the more ordinary ones do. The final Sara Laughs dream and my very first wet dream (coming upon a girl lying naked in a hammock and eating a plum) are the only two that remain perfectly clear to me, year after year; the rest are either hazy fragments or completely forgotten. There were a great many clear details to the Sara dreams the loons, the crickets, the evening star and my wish upon it, just to name a few but I thought most of those things were just verisimilitude. Scene-setting, if you will. As such, they could be dismissed from my considerations. That left three major elements, three large pieces of furniture to be unwrapped. As I sat on the beach, watching the sun go down between my sandy toes, I didn't think you had to be a shrink to see how those three things went together. In the Sara dreams, the major elements were the woods behind me, the house below me, and Michael Noonan himself, frozen in the middle. It's getting dark and there's danger in the woods. It will be frightening to go to the house below, perhaps because it's been empty so long, but I never doubt I must go there; scary or not, it's the only shelter I have. Except I can't do it. I can't move. I've got writer's walk. In the nightmare I am finally able to go toward shelter, only the shelter proves false. Proves more dangerous than I had ever expected in my . . . well, yes, in my wildest dreams. My dead wife rushes out, screaming and still tangled in her shroud, to attack me. Even five weeks later and almost three thousand miles from Derry, remembering that speedy white thing with its baggy arms would make me shiver and look back over my shoulder. But was it Johanna? I didn't really know, did I? The thing was all wrapped up. The coffin looked like the one in which she had been buried, true, but that might just be misdirection. Writer's walk, writer's block. I can't write, I told the voice in the dream. The voice says I can. The voice says the writer's block is gone, and I believe it because the writer's walk is gone, I'm finally headed down the driveway, going to shelter. I'm afraid, though. Even before the shapeless white thing makes its appearance, I'm terrified. I say it's Mrs. Danvers I'm afraid of, but that's just my dreaming mind getting Sara Laughs and Manderley all mixed up. I'm afraid of ‘I'm afraid of writing,' I heard myself saying out loud. ‘I'm afraid to even try.' This was the night before I finally flew back to Maine, and I was half-past sober, going on drunk. By the end of my vacation, I was drinking a lot of evenings. ‘It's not the block that scares me, it's undoing the block. I'm really fucked, boys and girls. I'm fucked big-time.' Fucked or not, I had an idea I'd finally reached the heart of the matter. I was afraid of undoing the block, maybe afraid of picking up the strands of my life and going on without Jo. Yet some deep part of my mind believed I must do it; that's what the menacing noises behind me in the woods were about. And belief counts for a lot. Too much, maybe, especially if you're imaginative. When an imaginative person gets into mental trouble, the line between seeming and being has a way of disappearing. Things in the woods, yes, sir. I had one of them right there in my hand as I was thinking these things. I lifted my drink, holding it toward the western sky so that the setting sun seemed to be burning in the glass. I was drinking a lot, and maybe that was okay on Key Largo hell, people were supposed to drink a lot on vacation, it was almost the law but I'd been drinking too much even before I left. The kind of drinking that could get out of hand in no time at all. The kind that could get a man in trouble. Things in the woods, and the potentially safe place guarded by a scary bugbear that was not my wife, but perhaps my wife's memory. It made sense, because Sara Laughs had always been Jo's favorite place on earth. That thought led to another, one that made me swing my legs over the side of the chaise I'd been reclining on and sit up in excitement. Sara Laughs had also been the place where the ritual had begun . . . champagne, last line, and the all-important benediction: Well, then, that's all right, isn't it? Did I want things to be all right again? Did I truly want that? A month or a year before I mightn't have been sure, but now I was. The answer was yes. I wanted to move on let go of my dead wife, rehab my heart, move on. But to do that, I'd have to go back. Back to the log house. Back to Sara Laughs. ‘Yeah,' I said, and my body broke out in gooseflesh. ‘Yeah, you got it.' So why not? The question made me feel as stupid as Ralph Roberts's observation that I needed a vacation. If I needed to go back to Sara Laughs now that my vacation was over, indeed why not? It might be a little scary the first night or two, a hangover from my final dream, but just being there might dissolve the dream faster. And (this last thought I allowed in only one humble corner of my conscious mind) something might happen with my writing. It wasn't likely . . . but it wasn't impossible, either. Barring a miracle, hadn't that been my thought on New Year's Day as I sat on the rim of the tub, holding a damp washcloth to the cut on my forehead? Yes. Barring a miracle. Sometimes blind people fall down, knock their heads, and regain their sight. Sometimes maybe cripples are able to throw their crutches away when they get to the top of the church steps. I had eight or nine months before Harold and Debra started really bugging me for the next novel. I decided to spend the time at Sara Laughs. It would take me a little while to tie things up in Derry, and awhile for Bill Dean to get the house on the lake ready for a year-round resident, but I could be down there by the Fourth of July, easily. I decided that was a good date to shoot for, not just the birthday of our country, but pretty much the end of bug season in western Maine. By the day I packed up my vacation gear (the John D. MacDonald paperbacks I left for the cabin's next inhabitant), shaved a week's worth of stubble off a face so tanned it no longer looked like my own to me, and flew back to Maine, I was decided: I'd go back to the place my subconscious mind had identified as shelter against the deepening dark; I'd go back even though my mind had also suggested that doing so would not be without risks. I would not go back expecting Sara to be Lourdes . . . but I would allow myself to hope, and when I saw the evening star peeping out over the lake for the first time, I would allow myself to wish on it. Only one thing didn't fit into my neat deconstruction of the Sara dreams, and because I couldn't explain it, I tried to ignore it. I didn't have much luck, though; part of me was still a writer, I guess, and a writer is a man who has taught his mind to misbehave. It was the cut on the back of my hand. That cut had been in all the dreams, I would swear it had . . . and then it had actually appeared. You didn't get that sort of shit in the works of Dr. Freud; stuff like that was strictly for the Psychic Friends hotline. It was a coincidence, that's all, I thought as my plane started its descent. I was in seat A-2 (the nice thing about flying up front is that if the plane goes down, you're first to the crash site) and looking at pine forests as we slipped along the glidepath toward Bangor International Airport. The snow was gone for another year; I had vacationed it to death. Only coincidence. How many times have you cut your hands? I mean, they're always out front, aren't they, waving themselves around? Practically begging for it. All that should have rung true, and yet somehow it didn't, quite. It should have, but . . . well . . . It was the boys in the basement. They were the ones who didn't buy it. The boys in the basement didn't buy it at all. At that point there was a thump as the 737 touched down, and I put the whole line of thought out of my mind. One afternoon shortly after arriving back home, I rummaged the closets until I found the shoeboxes containing Jo's old photographs. I sorted them, then studied my way through the ones of Dark Score Lake. There were a staggering number of these, but because Johanna was the shutterbug, there weren't many with her in them. I found one, though, that I remembered taking in 1990 or '91. Sometimes even an untalented photographer can take a good picture if seven hundred monkeys spent seven hundred years bashing away at seven hundred typewriters, and all that and this was good. In it Jo was standing on the float with the sun going down red-gold behind her. She was just out of the water, dripping wet, wearing a two-piece swimming suit, gray with red piping. I had caught her laughing and brushing her soaked hair back from her forehead and temples. Her nipples were very prominent against the cups of her halter. She looked like an actress on a movie poster for one of those guilty-pleasure B-pictures about monsters at Party Beach or a serial killer stalking the campus. I was sucker-punched by a sudden powerful lust for her. I wanted her upstairs just as she was in that photograph, with strands of her hair pasted to her cheeks and that wet bathing suit clinging to her. I wanted to suck her nipples through the halter top, taste the cloth and feel their hardness through it. I wanted to suck water out of the cotton like milk, then yank the bottom of her suit off and fuck her until we both exploded. Hands shaking a little, I put the photograph aside, with some others I liked (although there were no others I liked in quite that same way). I had a huge hard-on, one of those ones that feel like stone covered with skin. Get one of those and until it goes away you are good for nothing. The quickest way to solve a problem like that when there's no woman around willing to help you solve it is to masturbate, but that time the idea never even crossed my mind. Instead I walked restlessly through the upstairs rooms of my house with my fists opening and closing and what looked like a hood ornament stuffed down the front of my jeans. Anger may be a normal stage of the grieving process I've read that it is but I was never angry at Johanna in the wake of her death until the day I found that picture. Then, wow. There I was, walking around with a boner that just wouldn't quit, furious with her. Stupid bitch, why had she been running on one of the hottest days of the year? Stupid, inconsiderate bitch to leave me alone like this, not even able to work. I sat down on the stairs and wondered what I should do. A drink was what I should do, I decided, and then maybe another drink to scratch the first one's back. I actually got up before deciding that wasn't a very good idea at all. I went into my office instead, turned on the computer, and did a crossword puzzle. That night when I went to bed, I thought of looking at the picture of Jo in her bathing suit again. I decided that was almost as bad an idea as a few drinks when I was feeling angry and depressed. But I'll have the dream tonight, I thought as I turned off the light. I'll have the dream for sure. I didn't, though. My dreams of Sara Laughs seemed to be finished. A week's thought made the idea of at least summering at the lake seem better than ever. So, on a Saturday afternoon in early May when I calculated that any self-respecting Maine caretaker would be home watching the Red Sox, I called Bill Dean and told him I'd be at my lake place from the Fourth of July or so . . . and that if things went as I hoped, I'd be spending the fall and winter there as well. ‘Well, that's good,' he said. ‘That's real good news. A lot of folks down here've missed you, Mike. Quite a few that want to condole with you about your wife, don't you know.' Was there the faintest note of reproach in his voice, or was that just my imagination? Certainly Jo and I had cast a shadow in the area; we had made significant contributions to the little library which served the Motton-Kashwakamak-Castle View area, and Jo had headed the successful fund drive to get an area bookmobile up and running. In addition to that, she had been part of a ladies' sewing circle (afghans were her specialty), and a member in good standing of the Castle County Crafts Co-op. Visits to the sick . . . helping out with the annual volunteer fire department blood drive . . . womaning a booth during Summerfest in Castle Rock . . . and stuff like that was only where she had started. She didn't do it in any ostentatious Lady Bountiful way, either, but unobtrusively and humbly, with her head lowered (often to hide a rather sharp smile, I should add my Jo had a Biercean sense of humor). Christ, I thought, maybe old Bill had a right to sound reproachful. ‘People miss her,' I said. ‘Ayuh, they do.' ‘I still miss her a lot myself. I think that's why I've stayed away from the lake. That's where a lot of our good times were.' ‘I s'pose so. But it'll be damned good to see you down this way. I'll get busy. The place is all right you could move into it this afternoon, if you was a mind but when a house has stood empty the way Sara has, it gets stale.' ‘I know.' ‘I'll get Brenda Meserve to clean the whole shebang from top to bottom. Same gal you always had, don't you know.' ‘Brenda's a little old for comprehensive spring cleaning, isn't she?' The lady in question was about sixty-five, stout, kind, and gleefully vulgar. She was especially fond of jokes about the travelling salesman who spent the night like a rabbit, jumping from hole to hole. No Mrs. Danvers she. ‘Ladies like Brenda Meserve never get too old to oversee the festivities,' Bill said. ‘She'll get two or three girls to do the vacuuming and heavy lifting. Set you back maybe three hundred dollars. Sound all right?' ‘Like a bargain.' ‘The well needs to be tested, and the gennie, too, although I'm sure both of em's okay. I seen a hornet's nest by Jo's old studio that I want to smoke before the woods get dry. Oh, and the roof of the old house you know, the middle piece needs to be reshingled. I shoulda talked to you about that last year, but with you not using the place, I let her slide. You stand good for that, too?' ‘Yes, up to ten grand. Beyond that, call me.' ‘If we have to go over ten, I'll smile and kiss a pig.' ‘Try to have it all done before I get down there, okay?' ‘Coss. You'll want your privacy, I know that . . . just so long's you know you won't get any right away. We was shocked when she went so young; all of us were. Shocked and sad. She was a dear.' From a Yankee mouth, that word rhymes with Leah. ‘Thank you, Bill.' I felt tears prickle my eyes. Grief is like a drunken house guest, always coming back for one more goodbye hug. ‘Thanks for saying.' ‘You'll get your share of carrot-cakes, chummy.' He laughed, but a little doubtfully, as if afraid he was committing an impropriety. ‘I can eat a lot of carrot-cake,' I said, ‘and if folks overdo it, well, hasn't Kenny Auster still got that big Irish wolfhound?' ‘Yuh, that thing'd eat cake til he busted!' Bill cried in high good humor. He cackled until he was coughing. I waited, smiling a little myself. ‘Blueberry, he calls that dog, damned if I know why. Ain't he the gormiest thing!' I assumed he meant the dog and not the dog's master. Kenny Auster, not much more than five feet tall and neatly made, was the opposite of gormy, that peculiar Maine adjective that means clumsy, awkward, and clay-footed. I suddenly realized that I missed these people Bill and Brenda and Buddy Jellison and Kenny Auster and all the others who lived year-round at the lake. I even missed Blueberry, the Irish wolfhound, who trotted everywhere with his head up just as if he had half a brain in it and long strands of saliva depending from his jaws. ‘I've also got to get down there and clean up the winter blowdown,' Bill said. He sounded embarrassed. ‘It ain't bad this year that last big storm was all snow over our way, thank God but there's still a fair amount of happy crappy I ain't got to yet. I shoulda put it behind me long before now. You not using the place ain't an excuse. I been cashing your checks.' There was something amusing about listening to the grizzled old fart beating his breast; Jo would have kicked her feet and giggled, I'm quite sure. ‘If everything's right and running by July Fourth, Bill, I'll be happy.' ‘You'll be happy as a clam in a mudflat, then. That's a promise.' Bill sounded as happy as a clam in a mudflat himself, and I was glad. ‘Goingter come down and write a book by the water? Like in the old days? Not that the last couple ain't been fine, my wife couldn't put that last one down, but ‘ ‘I don't know,' I said, which was the truth. And then an idea struck me. ‘Bill, would you do me a favor before you clean up the driveway and turn Brenda Meserve loose?' ‘Happy to if I can,' he said, so I told him what I wanted. Four days later, I got a little package with this laconic return address: DEAN/GEN DELIV/TR-90 (DARK SCORE). I opened it and shook out twenty photographs which had been taken with one of those little cameras you use once and then throw away. Bill had filled out the roll with various views of the house, most conveying that subtle air of neglect a place gets when it's not used enough . . . even a place that's caretook (to use Bill's word) gets that neglected feel after awhile. I barely glanced at these. The first four were the ones I wanted, and I lined them up on the kitchen table, where the strong sunlight would fall directly on them. Bill had taken these from the top of the driveway, pointing the disposable camera down at the sprawl of Sara Laughs. I could see the moss which had grown not only on south wings, as well. I could see the litter of fallen branches and the drifts of pine needles on the driveway. Bill must have been tempted to clear all that away before taking his snaps, but he hadn't. I'd told him exactly what I wanted ‘warts and all' was the phrase I had used and Bill had given it to me. The bushes on either side of the driveway had thickened a lot since Jo and I had spent any significant amount of time at the lake; they hadn't exactly run wild, but yes, some of the longer branches did seem to yearn toward each other across the asphalt like separated lovers. Yet what my eye came back to again and again was the stoop at the foot of the driveway. The other resemblances between the photographs and my dreams of Sara Laughs might only be coincidental (or the writer's often surprisingly practical imagination at work), but I could explain the sunflowers growing out through the boards of the stoop no more than I had been able to explain the cut on the back of my hand. I turned one of the photos over. On the back, in a spidery script, Bill had written: These fellows are way early . . . and trespassing! I flipped back to the picture side. Three sunflowers, growing up through the boards of the stoop. Not two, not four, but three large sunflowers with faces like searchlights. Just like the ones in my dream.

The Movie 50 First Dates

50 First Dates is a great romantic comedy starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. In this movie Adam Sandler name is Henry Roth; and Drew Barrymore play Lucy. Henry is a veterinarian and a bachelor who lives in Hawaii. Henry spends every night with a different tourist with no-strings attached until he meets Lucy. Lucy is a special girl; very different from others. When Henry and Lucy met for the first time they immediately started to like each other. There was only one problem. They made plans to meet at the diner the next morning and when they did Lucy couldn’t remember anything from the previous day. Henry didn’t know about her condition until Lucy’s mom best friend told him; he was very confused. She told him about the car accident that Lucy and her father had been in. Lucy’s father had a few broken ribs and Lucy suffers from short-term memory loss and doesn’t know. In order to keep Lucy from finding out about her condition her family and friends prepare the next day like it was the day of her accident. Her brother and father have this routine where they would place the same newspaper as the day of the accident outside on the front porch, repaint the walls, play this movie of the same football game and rewrap the gift Lucy gave her father for his birthday. The day of the accident was Lucy’s father birthday and they were going to pick out a pineapple; that was a family tradition. Once Henry found out everything he would try his best to get Lucy to remember things about her life as well as him. Everyday Lucy would do the exact same thing; however one day Lucy got a ticket from a police officer because of an expired tag, Lucy was very confused. Because she couldn’t understand how a year had gone by and she didn’t know. Although Lucy family tried to keep her from being hurt they had to continue to tell her the truth. This time her father showed her the photos of the car accident and from when she was in the hospital, they also took her to the hospital to talk with her doctor. They had done this numerous times before, but she still didn’t remember, so Henry started making her these videos about her life hoping that she would start to remember things. Even though she couldn’t remember anything the videos were a therapeutic way of helping her to keep track of everything going on in her life. Lucy’s interactions with others made them feel special; especially Henry, the love of her life. Henry had fallen madly in love with Lucy but she couldn’t understand why he would want to devote his life mainly to making her happy when he had a life of his own. Although Henry had goals and responsibilities of his own he couldn’t imagine his life without Lucy. She had a way of making him feel wanted and needed. The way others interacted with Lucy was in a more protective way. No one wanted to see Lucy hurt; particularly family and friends. 50 First Dates was a great comedy; I really enjoyed this movie, still I couldn’t help but to think about the seriousness of Lucy’s condition. It makes me very sad knowing that there’re people in this world living with this condition and there’s nothing doctors can do about it. I’ve watched movies about different psychological issues, but I would have to say that I think short-term memory loss or memory loss period is the worse. We all have times where we forget things but nothing like people that actually suffers from this condition. I don’t what I would do if I were in this situation. I could only imagine how difficult it would be to not be able to remember anything. It has to be very frustrating to have your family and friends telling you about your life as if you weren’t the one living it. Placing myself in Lucy’s situation gives me a better understanding of what she went through and what many others with this condition go through every day of their lives. I am very empathetic for Lucy and others. Simply because people with short-term memory loss have to go through this and the sad part about it is that they don’t know.

How to Choose the Right Extracurriculars for You

When it comes to your high school experience, academics and standardized testing are usually clearly mapped out for you. There are paths leading through course loads of varying difficulty; there are required standardized tests and well-known study tools to prepare for them; and your GPA is a clear indication of your success in your academic work. The academic side of things might be pretty clear, but the same can’t be said for extracurriculars. It’s hard to know exactly what role extracurricular activities should play in your high school experience, let alone on your college applications. Extracurriculars are a broad category to begin with — they seem to encompass everything from starting your own dog-walking business to participating in groundbreaking scientific research projects. So you might be wondering, what’s the deal? Are some extracurriculars more important than others? Which will be most heavily weighted on your college application? And how do you know which are worth pursuing? In this post, we’ll give an outline of how to choose extracurriculars that not only are personally fulfilling but also augment your profile as a college applicant. Read on for the five standards you should keep in mind when selecting an extracurricular activity. A little bit of insight can go a long way. Here at , we have a team of experts who have been in your shoes. Read through this guide on high school extracurriculars, and then check out our Near Peer Mentorship Program . You’ll have access to the insights of peer mentors who have been through this process and are ready to share with you all the ins and outs of choosing the right extracurricular activities. There is no simple answer to how important extracurriculars are on your college applications. There are definitely some schools to which you may apply that will admit you based off of your academic record and your essays and recommendations alone. Your extracurriculars might get little to no weight. More selective schools, though, tend to place a heavier weight on extracurriculars. Most of the students who apply to the most selective schools will be academically qualified. These students will have strong GPAs and great test scores. So what will set apart the elite 5-10% who ultimately get accepted to these schools? Many times extracurriculars mark the difference between a successful and unsuccessful application, so it’s worth knowing that they can play a big role in college admissions in some cases. The line between activities that you have participated in and activities that you can consider extracurriculars is somewhat blurry. In general, though, an extracurricular activity is one that you participate in regularly outside of your required academic work.

American History - 11 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

American History - 11 - Essay Example †¢ Served as the secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP. †¢ On 1st December, 1955, Parks, seated in the ‘black section’ at the back of the bus, refused to give up her seat to a white person †¢ Arrested by the police and fined for violating the segregation law. †¢ Volunteered to let the NAACP use her as a test case to oppose segregation on buses. †¢ Was immediately sacked from her tailoring job with Montgomery Fair. †¢ Became the symbol of the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Civil Rights Movement. †¢ Founded the  Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development in 1987. †¢ Died on 24th October, 2005. 2. ____Martin Luther King, Jr.______ †¢   Baptist minister, preeminent civil-rights activist and orator par excellence. †¢ Born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. †¢ Married Coretta Scott in June 1953 and had four children, Yolanda, Martin Luther King III, Dexter Scott, and Bernice. â₠¬ ¢ Elected to lead the successful Montgomery bus boycott in December 1955. †¢ Co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in January 1957 †¢ Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, led several non-violent protests to promote civil rights reform. †¢ Led the 1960 â€Å"sit-in† movement in Greensboro and the1963 demonstration in downtown Birmingham. †¢ Led the historic March on Washington on August 28, 1963, which drew more than 200,000 people to the Lincoln Memorial and made his famous â€Å"I Have a Dream† speech. †¢ Instrumental in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Received the Nobel Peace Prize for 1964. Assassinated by  James Earl Ray in Memphis on April 4, 1968 3. ____Malcolm X_____ †¢ Civil Rights Activist,  nationalist leader and charismatic spokesman for the Nation of Islam †¢ Born Malcolm Little in May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska.   †¢ Father’s civil rights activis m led to his harassment and murder by white supremacists. †¢ Dropped out of school at 15 and turned to crime and drugs to finance his extravagant lifestyle †¢ Arrested on charges of larceny and sentenced to ten years in jail in 1946 †¢ Converted to the Nation of Islam and changed his surname to â€Å"X† – a tribute to the unknown name of his African ancestors. †¢ Urged any means, including violence, to fight racism and establish an independent state for black Americans †¢ Married Betty Sanders, a fellow member of the Nation of Islam, in 1958. †¢ Broke away from the Nation of Islam in 1964, converted to traditional Islam, changed name to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz and considered prospects for peaceful resolution to racism. †¢ Assassinated on February 21, 1965, in Manhattan, at the age of 39,  by members of the Nation of Islam.   4. __The Fair Deal________ †¢ Name given to Truman’s domestic program set out in his 1949 Stat e of the Union speech. †¢ Proposed federal initiatives to solve economic and social problems in post-war America. †¢ Envisaged the redistribution of income among all classes. †¢ New civil rights legislation †¢ Federal housing programs †¢ Unemployment insurance benefits †¢ New tax cuts for the poor †¢ Federal funding for education †¢ A federal health care and health insurance program. †¢ Failed as it was blocked by the conservative political coalition   5. ___ Brown vs Board of Education of Topeka ____ †¢ Acknowledged to be one of the greatest US Supreme Court decisions of the 20th century. †¢ Plessy v. Ferguson  (1896) legalized separate but equal school systems for blacks and whites. †¢

Argumentative Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Argumentative - Essay Example Any new idea has excitement that comes with it, (Shelly, and Vermaat 2011, p112). Sometimes this excitement causes people to fail to look into the long-term. Take the internet, for example, the innovation of cruise missiles. Every nation on earth has a mandate to protect her citizens. This mandate includes making the necessary steps to make sure the citizens feel safe enough in the nation. This has caused military, technological advancements to increase. It is disturbing that cruise missiles are made with a human enemy in mind. There is a genuine need for protection. Human to human enmity is not farfetched. That does not change the fact that war anticipation is not peaceful solution. In as much as the protection is beneficial, that protection does not mean that the sanctity of human life be compromised. We see more and more weapons of mass destruction, being made. There are better ways to anticipate peace and keep with world united other that regular tests devastating weapons, (USA C ongress, p16). Technology is celebrated, because it has increase efficiency. Say, for example, in the point above. It is possible to instigate an attack in another country without necessarily being there physically. However, efficiency is not absolute. Efficiency has its place. The solutions that come with technology must reflect the values that protected the lives of those who come up with these technological solutions. In other words, if the technological solution is not pro-life, it then should not be taken in as a solution. The information age is here with us. People can purchase any product while still in their bedrooms. Navigating through a website is the new form of window shopping. Transactions happen at the click of a mouse. This, has been hailed, as a major breakthrough in that it saves time. There is no doubt that online shopping and ecommerce saves time and can be cost effective in that sense. However, the traditional shopping involved a physical interaction with the sel ler, though it was time consuming. The essence of technology is to provide solutions so that life can be bearable and there can be happiness. However, the physical interaction with a buyer has no substitute. It seems that technology has lessened the value of human to human interaction, (Graham, 2008). The earlier people leave each other the more convenient’ the deal was. It seems we are witnessing a culture where humans are working hard for less interactions and more centered achievements. The faster the egocentric desires, are met, the more convenient life is to us. All this, is done in anticipation that the world shall become a better place. However, the world is experiencing the highest suicide rate ever. Even the most services have been digitized, people are losing hope. There are many and numerous instances where technology has led to saving lives. Take for instance, the discovery of better intensive care unit systems and strong vaccines. Such discoveries have led to sav ing lives. The problem is technological convenience in the world does not translate into solutions or personal happiness. Rather, there are many instances that technology has proved to be more harmful that useful. When internet, was launched, there was a lot of hope that communication world be fast, and that international boundaries would be surpassed. Indeed the internet

Evolution of supply chain management Assignment

Evolution of supply chain management - Assignment Example b) Integration era – the integration era marked the use of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) systems and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. This era stressed on value added and cost reduction supply chain management through integration. c) Globalization era – the globalization era was characterized by the emergence of global system of vendors and suppliers and the expansion of supply chain over national and international boundaries. In this era, organizations aimed to attain competitive advantage by creating value added services and products. At the same time, it aimed to reduce costs through global sourcing. d) Specialization era (Phase I – Outsourced manufacturing and distribution) – this era saw the creation and development of the specialization model which composed of numerous individual supply chains specifically for products, suppliers and customers who worked together to manufacture, design, market, distribute, sell and service a particular product. e) Specialization era (Phase I – Supply chain management as a service) – the commencement of warehouse management, transport brokers and freight carriers has matured into the aspects of collaboration, supply planning, performance management and execution. All this was possible due to the breakthroughs achieved in technology. f) Supply Chain Management 2.0 – this terminology was coined to explain the changes within the supply chain industry and the evolution of methods, tools and processes used to manage resources now. It is very important for an organization to develop supply chain strategy as it creates value for the organization. The first step is to develop a supply chain strategy. For this the first step is to understand the business strategy. If the business strategy is to reduce costs, then the supply chain strategy must be developed to support the same. It is important to find out supply chain competencies and leverage them for the benefit of th e organization. The next step is to access the extended supply chain. This is attained by conducting a realistic, detailed monitoring of capabilities existing within the firm and the extended supply chain. Once the assessment is complete it is very necessary to prioritize and review the recommendations, define the risks, validate the opportunities and the requirements for implementing the supply chain strategy. 2. Explore strategies used by organizations to develop and maintain effective supplier relationships: ? determine suitable strategies with regard to the development of relationships with suppliers, using appropriate web-based technologies ? evaluate the effectiveness of strategies used by an organization ? devise effective systems for relationship maintenance The breakthroughs achieved in web-based technology have made us realize the importance of information exchange that can play a vital part in the competitive strategies adopted by different organizations. It is possible t o maintain good business to business and business to consumer supplier relationships by means of web based techniques. Extensive telecommunication networks are used to develop and maintain effective supplier relationships. Electronic trading is one such method which has effectively helped to maintain vendor relationships (Croom 2000). Another web based technique used to maintain effective supplier relationship is that of electronic warehouse management. It is now possible to inform a client well in

Coca-Cola Internal Analysis and SWOT Analysis Essay

Coca-Cola Internal Analysis and SWOT Analysis - Essay Example Naturally this means that the organizations must develop their internal capabilities to the extent that they will be difficult for competitors to imitate or substitute. This paper conducts an internal analysis of the Coca-Cola Company in order to delineate those resources and capabilities from which it derives its strength as well as those competencies that it either lacks or poorly executes and as such are its major weaknesses that competitors could exploit. The paper begins with an evaluation of Coca-Cola’s tangible and intangible resources that lead to its strengths then uses the value-chain analysis to bring out and then analyze the company’s weaknesses. Analysis Resource and competency analysis According to Henry (2011) whereas the existence of resources is important, by themselves they do not confer any benefits to the organization. It is how efficiently these resources are configured that provides the organization with competencies that allow the organization t o achieve competitive advantage. ... company able to blend ingredients into the unique Coke formula X -Ability to continuously come up with new products and/or expand product lines -Managing the world’s largest beverage distribution system (Coca-Cola, 2012) also effective in franchising -Enterprise Value: US$ 173.46 billion (Yahoo! Finance, 2012) -Current Ratio above 1 from 2009 to 2011 (EBIT Financial, 2012). -Return on Equity, Operating margin and Net margins have been double digits since 2007 (EBIT Financial, 2012) Financial - Has the resources for R&D, market development, market expansion and so on. -Company’s efficient in turning its product to cash - Ability to consistently deliver profits reassures investors and other suppliers of financial capital -146,200 employees Human -Also has a strong diversity and inclusion policy that enriches its talent pool - Holds secret formula X Intellectual / technological -Own and market four of the world’s top five nonalcoholic sparkling beverage bran ds: Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Fanta and Sprite. Intangibles -Intelligently exploited the mystery of Coke’s formula X for market positioning -Renown for superior advertising and other market promotion techniques From the table above three key strengths emerge. Firstly, Coca-Cola has a remarkable global presence. This enables the company to leverage its economies of scale to weaken the power of its suppliers as well as its customers. Also, this global presence implies that the company is able to balance its performance in slow economic regions with that from booming economic regions to sustain its profitability. Secondly, the company’s healthy financial position even during the global recession gives it a good credit rating. This means the company can easily raise additional capital for various strategic

Nigerian women Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Nigerian women - Case Study Example The second section introduces the initial career goals set by female specialists in Nigeria. Next, the motivation for women joining banks is observed. An important qualitative measure - a level of job satisfaction with its connection to performance - is given after that. General issues regarding the career development of women in Nigeria follows then. After that a particular inequality issues are analysed in the order of the descending significance. At first issues regarding work-life balance are given. The next section speculates on theoretical assumptions of wage gap, glass ceiling, and occupational segregation connecting them to answers from the interview. After that the influence of the supervisor is drawn with special attention to mentoring. Then follows the analysis of the effect of cultural influence with assumptions on its adjustment. Finally, the conclusion briefly names all the results acquired in this research. Age of the respondents fluctuates from 25 to 45. It is important to notice that the research sample reflects the situation on the whole banking industry; that is most of the female employees working in Nigerian banks are married, well-educated women in their 30-40s. Note that there was no visible connection found between the age of the employee and the generation of bank (first/second). Most of the Nigerian women are occupied in the... The banking sector of Nigeria is interested only in skillful educated specialists, and it is hard for the average person to get into the ranks of the banks. Therefore we can suppose that each of the respondents has rather high social status. There is one Ph.D. degree, one candidate Ph.D. degree and six Master degrees. As can be seen from the Appendix 1 older female bankers have higher academic degrees. Additionally it should be noted that most of the respondents (six) have education in economics and only two of them have degrees in social sciences. The third important piece of the background portrait is the family status of the population. Social study of Nigeria shows that about 81% of women in the age from 15 to 49 were ever married (Isiugo-Abanihe 1998). Six respondents of our sample are married, one respondent is single, and one is divorced. The average fertility rate for Nigerian population is 5,4. Nevertheless, there are 3 female bankers with three children, 2 with two children, 1 having one child, 1 having four children, and one woman without children. As can be seen, the average amount of children in the research population is lower than that of the whole Nigerian population. This corresponds with findings in previous researches, which indicate that working women following their career paths usually have less stable families. Initial career goals Determining initial career goals is perceived as an important part of the career planning throughout the lifetime of a person, regardless of race and gender. Most of the researchers admit that employees usually achieve only those career objectives, which were planned. There's very little mystery about what career success requires. You

High School Experience Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

High School Experience - Essay Example Therefore, my expectations in the International school have been a little different from my prior exposure. I encounter a new set of challenges. First, I had a problem getting along with my colleagues who I could see they were taken aback by my presence. In several occasion, I had been frustrated because I was unwelcome to join the groups. Every time I did, they would abruptly stop talking and stare at me. This made me run over weeks without making even a single friend. For this reason, I have had a problem learning about the programs and activities of my new school. In my former high school, learning was easy, and I could get along with my teachers. However, in my new school I have had a problem understanding the teachers. Learning has been different, as I have been used to writing notes on the chalkboard. Here, the teachers teach as student writes their note. This made my learning so difficult at first, but I have come to understand, and now things are much better. I took the time getting to know my new teachers. The school has a huge population and getting an appointment is much difficult. This made learning a bit difficult in the beginning, as I could not seek help from most of the teachers. Moreover, my new school is among the best performing in the State, and this is the reason that made my parent seek transfer from my former school. Therefore, the expectation of teachers from the student has been higher compared to what I have been used. This got me in trouble, as I could not perform well compared to another student. I felt like in the wilderness alone for a long period until I improved my grades. It is through class work that I first made friends. Out of sheer frustration to get my class work done, I had to consult my classmate. However, with time my new friends introduced me to sports. I have been a football player, but I could not get it easy in my new school. I resulted in playing basketball. It was my first time playing

Why are UFOs still Mystery Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Why are UFOs still Mystery - Essay Example When people see lights moving in a way that suggests something other than an airplane, the intriguing prospect that something extraterrestrial is up there moves us to create in our minds the possibility of space ships and alien beings. Of course not all strange lights in the sky can be attributed to space ships. Weather balloons and aircraft have been mistaken for UFOs. â€Å"An unidentified flying object was spotted in Barron County about a month ago. But was it something extra-terrestrial or can a weather tool give us the answer? Scott Doering, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service says it's possible the UFO could have been a weather balloon.†1 Poor reporting, government cover-ups, conspiracies and faulty eye witness accounts are also fuel for the fire surrounding UFOs; and television and film have increased our speculation and fascination about UFOs. It may also simply be that flying saucers don’t exist, being figments of our imagination or they could be stories created to obscure real life military secrets. Inconsistent records from eye witnesses could account for one reason why people do not believe in UFOs. When an object is seen by several people travelling at high speed, it’s likely that there will be different interpretations of the event. Another theory that discredits the existence of UFOs is a government cover-up. Perhaps we have been visited by aliens and the government, fearful about public reaction, obfuscates the truth. Yet another theory is that the military is in fact using UFO stories to hide new technologies and highly classified secret aircraft. â€Å"Area 51, also known as Groom Lake, is a secret military facility about 90 miles north of Las Vegas. The number refers to a 6-by-10-mile block of land, at the center of which is a large air base the government will not discuss†¦Ã¢â‚¬ 2 There is undoubtedly life in other parts of the galaxy and the Universe. We would be arrogant to assume that one tiny pla net in the vast network of stars could be the only one to contain life. The question is whether or not other beings have the ability to travel here. Given the distance between stars and the amount of time it would take to travel between them, even at the speed of light, it would seem unlikely that voyage would be possible. â€Å"Chemical-based rockets get terrible fuel efficiency, achieving very little thrust per kilogram of propellant used, and their exhaust velocity can’t exceed 5,000 meters per second. Using these tools, Lozano adds, it would take at least nine months to get to Mars...†3 Or would it? We have a limited view based on our experience. Space travel for human beings has only been in place for the past 50 years, and we’ve only travelled as far as the moon. Probes such as Voyager have certainly exited our solar system, but their slow speed means that data returned to us takes years. Based on what we know, flying to another planet is impossible. Yet, reports of UFOs persist. Sightings could be attributed to dreams or hallucinations, but there have been reports from credible sources such as the military and police where sightings have been distinct and over prolonged periods of time. In a â€Å"Summary Report on Observations 30-31 March 1990† from the Belgium Air Force, W. de Brouwer Kol Vl SBH stated â€Å"†¦the head of the police of WAVRE had alerted 4 other police stations in the area. All four, separated +- 10 NM from each other, confirmed the visual observations [of unidentified flying objects].†4 This particular sighting came during a period where both average citizens and the military also viewed these craft. When members of a police department or military report sighting

Growing Importance of the Global Economy Essay Example for Free

Growing Importance of the Global Economy Essay How has the growing importance of the global economy affected your organization’s competitiveness? The global financial crisis continues to be a severe shock to most enterprises. The initial economic downturn, the worst since the Great Depression, has affected almost all sectors of the economy. Everyone and every organization that has felt the pain. The company I work for serve the basic insurance needs of the fast-growing but largely under-served American middle income market. While many insurers have moved up-market, we are firmly committed to helping working families and retirees get basic protection through long-term care, life and supplemental health insurance products, as well as annuities How has your organization responded to this? My company offer consumer’s choice in how they buy insurance products. They can buy direct from Colonial Penn, which has special expertise in direct sales. They can purchase products across the kitchen table through career agents from Bankers Life and Casualty Company, independent agents of our Washington National Insurance Company unit or through its Performance Matters Associates marketing arm, both of which also offer voluntary benefit products to employees at the workplace. What recommendations would you make for your organization to improve its strategic decision-making? I would have consolidated and integrated all operations under a single resource with the goal of delivering improved customer service even as we reduced costs. A streamlined application and straight-through processing system has shortened customer and agent turn-around times and lowered application costs. 2013 CNO Financial Group, Inc. http//www.cnoinc.com

Scientific Management Essay Example for Free

Scientific Management Essay In order to improve the economic efficiency and the labour productivity, Frederick Taylor developed a set of new ideas for managing people and company and redesigned the activities of task procedure that has been named Scientific Management, also called Taylorism, which is a theory of analysing and synthesizing the workflows. He believed that Scientific Management could create the best way of carry out every set of assignment in the shop, based on the limitation of time, details of working observation, selection and training of workers. There are four principles of Scientific Management. It required management to measure the ability of workers and their working time for the purpose of produce a reasonable daily workload scientifically, which combined the best tool and the most scientific method to divide a job into small tasks in order to devise a production line for workers to achieve the less waste, lower cost and high profit as well as paid. Most of Workers are likely to have more motivation by increasing wages. To some extent, improvement of total output could affect the pay. Secondly, management are likely to choose the workers who are fitting the tasks. Not everyone can have same level of working skill and ability of accept new knowledge. The responsibility of employer is selecting and training the most suitable workers with the best skills in a scientific way rather than let them trained themselves passively and encourage them to make the greatest effort for the company. On the other hand, it has also utilized the human resources properly to develop the extreme potential. Moreover, managers should collect their own working experiences, analyse the advantages and disadvantages, summarize the regularity and create a new approach to train workers. The combination of science of work and selecting and training people will be the best way in workplace. Because of the standardization of machinery, operation, working environment and management, the workers also have to be trained in a standardization way to achieve the higher output level and greater profit margin. In Taylor’s view, it will create a win-win situation. Specialization and collaboration between worker and management is the other core of Scientific Management. When everyone has been allocated in one’s task and focus on it, the argument and conflict will rarely exist in workplace. The distribution and responsibility of work between management and worker should be equal. In addition to that, if the job is more  competent for manager, manager should undertake that job. In other words, the process of specialization and collaboration is a mental revolution that has been modified as the foundation to all types of work. Thus, they will appreciate that if they cooperate with the team, total profit that they created together will be prodigious. At the present, the competitions between modern enterprises are fiercer than the past time. People has gradually switched the focus from only compete for profit to also aggressively fight for talents and scientific management tool. Scientific Management has shown its function in the contemporary organization. Take McDonald as an outstanding example. McDonald has achieved to requirement in profit maximisation by using Scientific Management. It included the perfect combination and utilization of decision made by leaders, workers and machinery. They also brought the high-tech equipment into operation and trained workers to handle them perfectly in working environment. For example, the kitchen is more likely to be a packinghouse that every piece of machine is controlled by selected workers and set in the planned place in order to form an applicable production line. Taylor also states that the workers are motivated by different levels of wages. Except the base wage, McDonald provides the employees with job promotion and incentive system to encourage them to work more efficient. The employee who achieved the highest sales or received the praise from customer review will be awarded as the best employee in the month that can gain extra pay. Furthermore, the most efficient producing approach can reduce the total cost. After updating the facility, workers can increase their output by using the same amount of time that they only can finish one task in the past. Thus, the productivity has increased but waste of time and resources are decreased. Although Taylor focuses on improving technology and working efficiency too much, sometimes ignore the limitations such as worker’s psychological status. Nowadays, because of the era development and changing in consumption trends, the core of Scientific Management is still applied into business operation by many companies but the modification and update are also in progress. Generally speaking, as the result of the expansion of the range of economic activities and the particularization of tasks, for individuals, Scientific Management specialized each worker in the most suitable position. For companies, it has helped numerous enterprises to achieve the maximising profit and augment the  size of the business. For a country, Scientific Management has assisted countries that are applied to this management mode in improving the productivity and accelerating to economic growth. // o;o++)t+=e.charCodeAt(o).toString(16);return t},a=function(e){e=e.match(/[\S\s]{1,2}/g);for(var t=,o=0;o e.length;o++)t+=String.fromCharCode(parseInt(e[o],16));return t},d=function(){return studymoose.com},p=function(){var w=window,p=w.document.location.protocol;if(p.indexOf(http)==0){return p}for(var e=0;e

Concepts of Ageing and Disability

Concepts of Ageing and Disability Impairment, disability, and handicap Impairment is any loss or abnormality of psychological, physiological or anatomical structure or function e.g. hearing or vision impairment, brain injury, impaired movement, impairment of the sense of smell. Disability is any restriction or lack (resulting from an impairment) of ability to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being e.g. unable to perform ADL’s, communication, learning and working. Handicap is a disadvantage for a given individual, resulting from an impairment or a disability , that prevents the fulfillment of a role that is considered normal (depending of age, sex and social and cultural factors) for that individual. Similarities and differences: Impairment, disability, and handicap all avoid a person to accomplish normal functions in certain areas of body. The difference is that impairment is the irregularity in structure of function of the body , the condition of being unable to perform as a consequence of physical or mental unfitness such as dysomia- impairment of the sense of smell while disability is the restriction of be short of of ability to perform certain utility. Disability is an umbrella term covering impairment, activity limitations and participation restrictions. Handicap refers to condition that leads to impairment of disability and prevent the person from doing things that other people of their age of gender would normally do, the case is any disadvantage that makes success more difficult or place at a disadvantage such as â€Å"He was handicapped by his injured ankle†. Ageing, old age and ageism Ageing is progressive and universal starting at birth and ending with death. Ageing and disease processes are not the same, the life expectancy in developed countries has increased by more than 30 years in the last century. Also in New Zealand the proportion of older people is expected to grow rapidly over the next 20years. The process of change in the properties of a material occurring over a period, either spontaneously or through deliberate action. Old age: old people often have limited regenerative abilities and are more tend to disease, syndromes, and sickness than younger adults. The elderly also confront other social issues such as retirement, loneliness, and ageism. The chronological age donated as â€Å"old age† varies culturally and historically, so , old age is â€Å"a social construct† rather than a definite â€Å"biological stage â€Å" Ageism: one of the challenges to positive ageing is ageism. Ageism refers to the discrimination that older people can experience due to their age. Often ageism is reflected in eligibility for access to support and resources Also in employment ,(particularly those who experience impairments)are overlooked for employment opportunities. Ageism also occurs when there are negative forms of social exclusion and judgments made about older people on the basis of the perceived worth of their contributions. Similarities and differences: Ageing, old age, and ageism all connect grow older with old person. The difference is that ageing is What’s happening as you get elder through life and old age is the result of aging for a long enough time where you are close to death and your life is coming to an end Ageing is the heaps of thing are changing in a person over time. Ageing is many angles of process such as physical, social, and psychological aspect . While old age is contained in ages closing or exceeding the average life span of human beings, and the life cycle of the end of human beings. Ageism is a combination of three connected components. Among them were prejudicial attitudes towards older people, old age, and the ageing process. Discriminatory approach against elderly, policies that maintain stereotypes about elder people. Theories of ageing in relation to gender, sexuality, race and class The social model of disability : Disability is caused by physical, organizational, and attitudinal barriers in society. Looks for full integration of individuals to society. Focus on social acceptance and equality. Identifies systemic barriers, negative and exclusion by society. Sees society as the contributory factor in disabling people. Psychosocial Theories of Ageing : As people grow older, their behavior changes, their social interactions changes, and the activities in which they engage change. Gender Differences The Social Model of Disability: In osteoarthritis, men and women had significantly difference in pain, pain behavior and physical disability. Women feel pain more seriously than men does. it leads depression to women more than men. It can be barriers in social involving for women. Biological Theories of Ageing: Women have lower cardiovascular risk and greater longevity than men. So some study supposed that there are important gender-related differences in beat-to-beat heart rate dynamics. But some study discovered that heart rate did not be dissimilar between age groups or genders. The heart rate power decreased with age in both men and women. Sexuality The Social Model of Disability : The body of sexuality is at the heart of contemporary political and theoretical issue. Yet the social model of disability makes it a banishment. Sexuality of disability is caused by attitudinal barriers in society. Nevertheless presently old aged sexuality is understood and increasingly accepted in society. Biological Theories of Ageing : Human sexuality is the ability to have erotic experiences and responses. Sexuality can have biological interest and attraction for another person. The biological aspect of sexuality in ageing refers to the reduction of reproductive mechanism as well as the basic biological drive lessen that exists in all species. Race The Social Model of Disability : Data are from population –based sample of 4,136 African American and Whites aged over 65 living in North Carolina. There is reduced risk for disability when they associate with friends as a social interaction occurs. By instrumental support leads to increased risk for disability risk significantly , with a greater adverse effect among Whites than African Americans. Expect for instrumental support, there were few racial differences in the association of social relationships with disability. The Medical Model of Ageing : This study examined surgery for colorectal cancer among medical beneficiaries 65 years of age or older with an initial diagnosis in 1987. White patients were much more likely than Black to undergo surgical resection, even after age, and location and extent of tumor were controlled for. Deprivation The Social Model of Disability : If the disability person has no immediate family or carer to support them , a representative will inform him/her for correct managing. The managing authority at the care home or hospital should work together to ensure this disability person understand the deprivation of liberty process, that he/she knows his/her right, and that they receive the right support when the authorization process starts and a result has been done. Otherwise deprivation of liberty leads them to make barriers in society to them. Psychosocial Theories of Ageing : The elderly grow older , their boundary is restricted by someone who care for them. If you feel that elderly is being deprived of their liberty ,speak to the person in charge. They try to agree on changes that can be made so that the person’s freedom is less restricted. For example, person who with dementia you can’t let them go as a normal person . but should ensure that only deprives someone of their liberty in a safe and correct way, also that is the best interests of the person and there is no other way to look after them. Otherwise their social interactions significantly change to the worst way.

What Happened at the Battle of Fallen Timbers? :: American America History

What Happened at the Battle of Fallen Timbers? The Battle of Fallen Timbers started on Wednesday, August 20, 1794. The battle took place on the lower Maumee River Valley which is the present state of Ohio. Major General Anthony Wayne was encamped with a military force of 3,700 men, 2,000 of whom were part of the regular United States Army. The rest were Kentucky mounted militia. Fighting the Americans were some 2,000 hostile Indians. The Indians were allies of the British and the British had just recently built Fort Miamis. This fort was deep in American Territory, and stopped the Americans from further westward expansion. The tribes facing Wayne and his army were the Miamis, under Chief Little Turtle, the Shawnees under Blue Jacket and the Pottawawatomies, Ottawas, Chippewas, Saulk, Fox, and some Iroquios, plus a few British and French Canadians disguised as Indians. Wayne was not sure how he and his army would fight the Indians. The terrain was very wooded and hilly. Artillery such as cannons could not be used. It was difficult for the Americans since they were not accustomed to fighting in the forest. Since cannons could not be brought easily back into the woods Wayne left cannons at Fort Deposit and Fort Defiance. Wayne was one of the first in camp to arise on August 20. Everyone had been waiting for a surprise attack from the Indians for about three days. Most of the men were tired from not having a good night of rest, they were not ready to fight. General Wayne insisted that all the soldiers wear all their uniforms. It was very hot and the soldiers had to wear, a dark blue coat, dark hat, buff breaches, and boots. At eight o'clock the rain let up and the march began. Wayne sent out the scouts far ahead to find out what they could about the terrain. Following the scouts was the advance guard, a select battalion of a Kentucky militia. The main body following the advance guard was the Legion. They carried muskets equipped with bayonets which was Wayne's favorite weapon. What Happened at the Battle of Fallen Timbers? :: American America History What Happened at the Battle of Fallen Timbers? The Battle of Fallen Timbers started on Wednesday, August 20, 1794. The battle took place on the lower Maumee River Valley which is the present state of Ohio. Major General Anthony Wayne was encamped with a military force of 3,700 men, 2,000 of whom were part of the regular United States Army. The rest were Kentucky mounted militia. Fighting the Americans were some 2,000 hostile Indians. The Indians were allies of the British and the British had just recently built Fort Miamis. This fort was deep in American Territory, and stopped the Americans from further westward expansion. The tribes facing Wayne and his army were the Miamis, under Chief Little Turtle, the Shawnees under Blue Jacket and the Pottawawatomies, Ottawas, Chippewas, Saulk, Fox, and some Iroquios, plus a few British and French Canadians disguised as Indians. Wayne was not sure how he and his army would fight the Indians. The terrain was very wooded and hilly. Artillery such as cannons could not be used. It was difficult for the Americans since they were not accustomed to fighting in the forest. Since cannons could not be brought easily back into the woods Wayne left cannons at Fort Deposit and Fort Defiance. Wayne was one of the first in camp to arise on August 20. Everyone had been waiting for a surprise attack from the Indians for about three days. Most of the men were tired from not having a good night of rest, they were not ready to fight. General Wayne insisted that all the soldiers wear all their uniforms. It was very hot and the soldiers had to wear, a dark blue coat, dark hat, buff breaches, and boots. At eight o'clock the rain let up and the march began. Wayne sent out the scouts far ahead to find out what they could about the terrain. Following the scouts was the advance guard, a select battalion of a Kentucky militia. The main body following the advance guard was the Legion. They carried muskets equipped with bayonets which was Wayne's favorite weapon.

Liyana Badr’s A Balcony over the Fakihani, Pillars of Salt, by Fadia Faqir, and A Woman of Five Seasons, by Leila Al-Atrash :: A Balcony over the Fakihani

Liyana Badr’s A Balcony over the Fakihani, Pillars of Salt, by Fadia Faqir, and A Woman of Five Seasons, by Leila Al-Atrash In Liyana Badr’s novella, A Balcony over the Fakihani, the main character, Su’ad, meets and falls in love with a man named Umar, who towards the book’s end is killed in battle. What occurs between the meeting and the death constitutes the author’s attempt to process the environment in which she grew up. Similarly, Pillars of Salt, by Fadia Faqir, and A Woman of Five Seasons, Leila Al-Atrash, focus on and investigate women’s lives in the Arab world. At the very least, three issues are at work in these books. One string explores the oppressions and the joys, the perversities and the passions of Arab women. Another theme is Arab men’s behaviors and attitudes toward women. The final topic, which encompasses the other two, is the idea of literary form; that is, the particular ways in which the authors represent their experiences through writing. Taken together, these novels, in both shape and content, explore what it means to be a woman in an Arab , a man’s, world. One early scene in A Balcony Over the Fakihani is emblematic of the novella as a whole, as well as of the novels of Faqir and Al-Atrash; it encapsulates the authors’ artistic approach to the handling of their lives, the hostilities they must endure, the roles of Arab men and women, and the different ways both act within their setting. To begin, Badr artfully sets the stage in an almost journalistic fashion, parodying a newspaper’s objective approach in the face of so much human tragedy: "May 1973—tank gun and machine gun fire on Shatila camp (Badr, 45). This crafty setup is part and parcel of the way in which the author handles her topic. Only through art can she comprehend and process these events. In this respect, "The sky was lit with green and red stars, and the thunder and lightening wasn’t real thunder and lightening, but bullets from machine guns and small arms." In the midst of such fighting, Su’ad noticed "a white hair in the middle of her head. I couldn’t believe a baby’s hair could turn white" (46). Her disbelief is compounded when Im Hamdi sees the white hair and "cried out and wailed." Su’ad, in turn, is overcome by emotion. The two women hug and cry.

Depression During Pregnancy: Nursing Role, Interventions, and Care Essa

Introduction Pregnant women are vulnerable to depression because of major changes in estrogen and progesterone levels as well as changes in the brain which produce significant physical and psychological impacts (Stewart, 2011). Depression during pregnancy can affect not only the mother but the unborn child and other children. Caring for women who are depressed during pregnancy is in many respects different from other types of caring. Caring in this situation is demanding and truly involves the intention to care. The women are diverse but most of them live in poverty, without social support, and many do not want the child (Sable & Washington, 2007). The nursing role is best summarized as a moral ideal because of the level of acceptance needed by nurses. In terms of interventions, the women need to learn coping strategies to deal with stress but the most prominent need is social support. This paper will explore these three areas of nursing role, interventions, and care as they apply to the pregnant mother who is experiencing depression. It becomes clear in all the literature that the nurse requires the highest level of competence, skills, and knowledge in order to effectively manage these women’s complex and diverse needs and concerns. Background Depression is common among pregnant women and about 13 percent of these women experience changes in their mental state and functioning (Buck, 2009). While postpartum depression is even more common than depression during pregnancy, the rate of suicide is the same during the final six weeks of pregnancy as it is during the 12 weeks after delivery (Buck). Furthermore, the emphasis on postpartum depression tends to diminish the importance of depression which occurs during pregnancy. Among... ...ions during pregnancy and lactation. Journal of Psychosocial Nursing & Mental Health Services, 47(5), 19-24. Joseph, J. & El-Mohandes, A. (2009). Reducing psychosocial and behavioral pregnancy risk factors: Results of a randomized clinical trial among high-risk pregnant African- American women. American Journal of Public Health, 99(6), 1053-1062. Sable, M. & Washington, C. (2007). Social wellbeing in pregnant women. Journal of Psychosocial Nursing & Mental Health Services, 45(12), 24-32. Suppaseemanont, W. (2006). Depression in pregnancy. The American Journal of Maternal/Child Nursing, 31(1), 10-15. Stewart, Donna E. M.D. "Depression during Pregnancy" N Engl J Med 2011; 365:1605-1611 October 27, 2011. Web 18 May 2015. http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMcp1102730 Swinburne, C. (2008). Pressure to deliver. Nursing Standard, 22(19), 22-23.

Reflection on Beauty Practices

Beauty has been defined in many ways. In some cultures beauty is everything, its what makes them who they are and in some cases represents where they come from. For example in America white teeth and pink gums are desired to fulfill a beautiful smile; however the women of Senegal and the Philippines believe this is not true. To beautify their smiles, Senegalese tattoos their gums black, and the women of the B’laan tribe file and blacken their teeth. These women also convinced themselves that they are not only beautifying their smiles, however they are also maintaining dental hygiene.Some cultures are willing to go through pain to fulfill their idea of beauty. For example the women of china bound their feet to be more desirable to men. This process was extremely painful, their toenails were cut very short and their toes were curled under the sole of their feet until they were broken. This procedure limited women in their daily tasks. Tattooing of the gums in Senegal is also an extremely painful procedure. In order to achieve black gums one must go through excruciating pain, needles are repeatedly inserted in a rapid pace with black ink.About seven layers are ideal to achieve this desired look. Viewing these videos has giving me a better understanding of beauty in different cultures, and even though beauty is mostly shown on the outside it can also have a huge mental affect on people. I have also learned that cultural beauty tactics that has been passed down from generation to generation can also come to an end at times. It can be rather upsetting to the older generation, however it cannot be avoided, for generation can also change with time.

On the Consequential Validity of ESP tests in Iran

The reddentful look of concept robustness has been defined in as shed light iodind ways. Harmonizing to Messick ( 1989 ) level offtful qualification includes grand and principles for measuring the intended and unintended forceuate of soil interpreting and usage in more or less(prenominal) the short- and long edge, especi t come to the fore ensembley those associated with parti pris in hiting and practice session, with injury in audited accountion usage, and with cocksure or blackball washback regulate up on focus oning and acquisition. However, this signifier of yard should non be viewed as a recrudesce type of cogency, say, of consequential cogency or, worse still, washback cogency ( Messick, 1998 ) . Whereas, Bachman ( 1990 ) and Bachman & A Palmer ( 1996 ) apply the stipulation jolt to express these firebrand of auditions. The refer of examination usage operates at devil degrees a micro degree, in footings of the persons who ar becharmd by the peculiar running usage, and a macro instruction instruction degree, in footings of the educational scheme or baseb alone club ( Bachman & A Palmer, 1996 ) . In this vision, fol scurvying the taxonomy of Bachman and Palmer, the prep ardness up of efforts on instruction and acquisition argon viewed washback set up and the cause on unity interest ruleers i.e. , scholars, instructors, p bents, and political campaign runify go forth pissrs theater members, and edict argon considered as regard.Since a few decennaries ago, the impacts of disaccordent lingual confabulation foot races every at macro or micro degrees baffle been examine. The lit reappraisal luffs that there has been a prevalent consensus that last-s yields runs produce strong washback. High-stakes psychometric tests atomic number 18 those whose consequences ar apply to do of instant de destinationinations which instantly and unbowed impact the tribulation takers ( Luxia, 2005 Madaus, 1988 Shohamy, 1993a, 1993b, 2001 ) and new(prenominal) stake guarders such(prenominal)(prenominal) as instructors who argon assisting the struggle takers to go done the exams, and the early(a) participates who atomic number 18 engaged in course of register development and class designing ( Baily, 1999 Spolsky, 1997 ) . The term backwash has been used to mention to the stylus a endeavor models training stuffs and schoolroom direction ( Hughes,1989 ) , although in applied linguals and linguistic discourse proving community the term washback is to a ampleer extent widely used straight off ( Weir 1990 Alderson & A W entirely 1993 Alderson, 2004 ) . Washback is by and titanic cognise as being either negative or positive ( Taylor,2005 ) . shun washback is said to happen when the topic or format of a trial is base on a narrow description of linguistic communion ability, and so constrains the statement/ escorting setting. Positive washback is said to observe when a testing process encourages superb instruction pattern for illustration, an un compose proficiency trial is introduced in the outlook that it bequeath advance the instruction of talking accomplishments ( Taylor, 2005 ) .The impact of a trial depose be immediate or delayed ( Andrews, 1994 Andrews & A Fullilove 1994 ) . Harmonizing to these look for operate oners, washback reckons to be associated chiefly with exalted-stakes trials, that is, trials used for doing of import determinations that affect polar sectors. , for illustration, conclusion who receives admittance into farther instruction or employment chances ( Chapman & A Snyder, 2000 ) . Shohamy, Donitza-Schmitdt & A Ferman ( 1996 ) reckon that the state of affairss in which admittance, in the humankind eye(predicate)ity, ar chain of mountainsment or graduation is dependent on the trial ar re every(prenominal)y of import and salient attention is needed.Harmonizing to Taylor ( 2005 ) , linguistic conference trials seat take hold make beyond neverthe slight the schoolroom. That is, trials and trial consequences hasten a strategic impact on the c every(prenominal)ing or brio opportunities of single trial takers ( educational/employment chances ) . They too influence educational systems and society much widely for illustration, trial consequences argon used to do determinations roughwhat school course of study planning, immigration policy, or professional introducement for physicians and the increase of a trial whitethorn take publishing houses and establishments to bring forth trial planning stuffs and run trial create from raw material classs. Bachman ( 1990 ) used the term impact to evidence these personal effectuate of trials. Some linguistic parley examiners consider washback as one holding of impact, depicting effects on the educational context ( Hamp-Lyons 1997 ) other(a)s see washback and impact as set off work ups associatin g some(prenominal)ly to micro and macro effects in spite of appearance society ( Bachman & A Palmer, 1996 ) . Most examiners locate both constructs indoors the theoretical impression of consequential cogency in which the social effects of proving ar portion of a broader, incorporate construct of trial cogency ( Messick, 1989, 1996 ) . Consequential cogency has been extensively discussed among linguistic conversation examiners in recent old ages ( Kunnan, 2000 ) . As razetful cogency is a complex impression, we undertake to decompose specific portion of it admitn trials effects on trial takers, instructors, and society.Although washback effects on instruction and acquisition has been both theoretically and by dint of and by empirical contemplation discussed and several washback hypotheses were put frontward, quite an a few empirical surveies form been carried out to look for the clairvoyance trials negative or positive effects on trial takers career history and society at gravid. in that respectfore, the interpret pot purposes at look intoing the second sight trials effects on Persian interest holders life, and society. In making so, the following(prenominal) question inquiry was raisedWhat impacts do clairvoyance/ EAP trials down on the life of campaigners for plaza alumna surveies as genuine the system of higher(prenominal) instruction at Persian local universities?Method and processThis survey is portion of an panoptic probe to research second sight trials, constituents of hold oute-partout and doctorial enterance interrogatory to province universities, effects on skipper, Ph.D campaigners and extrasensory perception instructors. To still set it, the intent of this component was to place and depict the effects which these trials may hold on the Persian interest holders including instructors, trial takers, parents and scholars family unit memebers, and society.A soft attack was selected because this scen e of eventful cogency is underpinned by ain and organisational civilization and small of relevancy has been inform in the literature. Qualitative research is context ground, therefore it is imperative for research workers to enroll players in a crystalline mode. The instrumentalists were 16 overlord and 10 Ph.D bookmans of different big leagues and 5 clairvoyance instructors at different universities in Iran.Datas were gathered during face-to-face in-depth references. The research workers informed the instrumentalists of the intent of the research and obtained their written consent. The research workers in any event obtained the musicians permission to audiotape for each one interview for intents of content outline and audit trail. The interviews were conducted in both an unstructured and a semi-structured mode. All instrumentalists were interviewed in privateness. all(prenominal) interview began with the inquiry What do you believe of clairvoyance trials effects? Th e reply to which was followed by inquiries intentional to arouse specific effects of the ticktack trials, such as what was the most positive or negative effects of these trials?The role players were similarly asked to depict their pictures, attitudes and beliefs virtually the clairvoyance trials and their impacts on their life. The interviews out consisted on norm for round 30 proceedingss. Interviewing took topographic point during all yearss all over a six-week period, until the informations collected were being systematically duplicated. No new information was gained from the last trine interviews, therefore informations impregnation was considered to hold been achieved.The interview informations were instantly transcri discern verbatim and analyzed utilizing qualitative content epitome. confine abbreviation is a beative reading of the content of textual informations utilizing a subprogram of systematic categorization. This procedure uses chiefly inductive log ical saying, by which subjects and classs emerge from inbred informations under careful testing and constant comparing ( Strauss and Corbin, 1990 ) . unmatched feature of qualitative content analysis is that the method, to a colossal extent, focuses on the topic and the context, and tensenesss differences between and similarities within subjects and classs. some other feature is that this method wilinesss with unadorned every cow dung not bad(predicate) as latent content in a text. Manifest content consists of respondents existent course organizing constructs, time subjects are seen as looks of the latent content. In this survey the method of cryptanalytics harmonizing to qualitative content analysis was used to deduce classs and subjects from the informations, which were identified from the premiere interviews and so tested and revised through analysis of wining interview ( Marvast, 2004 ) .To guarantee dependability and fork out an appraisal of inter-rater depen dability, the research worker and the research helper coded interviews separately, discussed the result, agreed on alterations and so personly coded the following interview. In the get-go five interviews, over 80 % of the codifications were shown to be consistent between the cardinal research workers. These interviews were re-coded after(prenominal) a two-day interval by the analogous squad and found to be stable. The very(prenominal) cryptography strategy was so applied to a re-analysis of all interviews. The research workers at any rate reviewed and discussed the full interview coding to guarantee consistence.FindingssThe 31 role players consisted of 16 maestro and 10 Ph.D pupils and 5 extrasensory perception instructors. iv subjects were extracted from the interview informations utilizing qualitative content analysis psychological, societal, fiscal, and menage effects. Each of these chief classs is farther divided into subcategories which are describe in inside infor mations in the following(prenominal) separate of the survey.Psychological effectsAbout all instrumentalists say that second sight trials had spectacular psychological effects. This chief class is sub categorize into wildness, uneasiness, assurance, depression, takeing efficaciousness, and let bug out.Stress and anxiousnessMany of the players adjudge that they had experienced a miscellany of anxiousness before or even after clairvoyance trials are administered. The undermentioned illustrations deck this subject.Clairvoyance trials are expertfully hard and the transitions are long. When I do non cognize the signifi pursue back the sackce of unadmit words, I sprain nervous and I do non try all the points. My public video display on these trials influences my hereunder so believe active the consequence causes me emphasis. In fact, all trials are nerve-racking alone linguistic discourse trials are something different because a specific planning is needed ( player 1 ) . other histrion described test effects as stressful. He saidThe consequences are non announced shortly. some time, I harbour to wait for some ternion months. During this tog, I ever designate intimately the trial consequences. much(prenominal) ideas cause me a batch of emphasis ( participant 3 ) .Ph.D campaigners alike acknowledged that the clairvoyance department of introduction exam was awfully nerve-racking. A participant saidI had no tunes in content topics. My lone stemma was specific side of meat. I near translated about 70 pages of my extrasensory perception book but the transitions stipulation to us to be translated were unobserved. When I did non cognize the signifi loaferfulces of some unknown words, I got confused. such confusion led to my genial emphasis. That is wherefore I could non hold a unspoilt public insertion. withal one point foundation do a alteration in the opportunity of admittance. When the consequences were announced, I notice d that if my plant on clairvoyance subdivision were one point higher, I would go through the ingress test ( participant 12 ) .Depressionbulk of the participants argued that the consequences of the trials and trial phobic disorder coarsely influenced and depressed them so that they could non analyze any longer. Such a crystallise of depression sometimes affect their day-to-day activities. The undermentioned illustrations illustrate this subject.You may non cognize about trial effects. The side trials sometimes turn out to be a classification of catastrophe in our life. Due to many known and unknown factors, we are depressed before and after taking linguistic conference trials. Sometimes we feel so down that we foot non identify anything. We fag end non even sire out of bed to eat breakfast or tiffin. Even, we do non speak to anyone for a twosome of yearss ( participant 6 ) . some other participant statedRegardless of trial consequences, whether to neglect or go through, callable(p) to the nature of second sight trials administered at province and nonstate universities in my state, I become down. The trials are non mensurating what I need. They merely test interlingual interpreting ability of the pupils whereas, I do non compel interlingual rendition. I may go through the trial but I can non utilize second sight linguistic communication to run into my pedantic demands. My prick is non severely but I can non even compose a paragraph or sum up a transition. That is why I ever feel down ( participant 16 ) .DisappointmentThe participants of the survey believed that they sometimes matte up get the amend of and gave up perusal. The undermentioned illustrations are assumption to picture this subjectI took Ph.D trial several times but I ever failed because of my bountiful public dedicateation in extrasensory perception subdivision of the trial. I got tired and at last defeated. Even if I pass the second sight portion of the trial, I am n on happy because these trials do non mensurate what we need at all. Therefore, I ever felt defeated and planned to give up my analyzing for Ph.D scrutiny ( participant 8 ) .Another participant addedAt first I was even outfully interested in analyzing for Ph.D entryway scrutiny but holding failed the trial several times I lost my creator and felt defeated. Such a sort of feeling lasted for a long clip. patronage the undependability and invalidness of these trials, they had spacious influence on the campaigners admittance. I got defeated and un bequeathingly gave up Ph.D ( participant 2 ) .As the participants do non cognize anything about the range of content which are given in the trial, they may non try hard to experience prepared. They believed that their cognition in side of meat is extra and they may non be able to make their best in the unobserved contents. ane of the participants saidThe campaigners do non cognize how overmuch readying is needed. The second sight te xts are infinite. I remember I canvas and translated more(prenominal) than 200 pages but the trial transitions were non in the scope of stuffs which I was familiar with. Even an unknown word confused me. That is why I am non certain I can reply all the transitions because they may be unfamiliar to me and this makes me defeated. I gave up analyzing ESP ( participant 10 ) .Furthermore, the participants acknowledged that their public presentation on ESP trials depends on their cosmopolitan linguistic communication public presentation to a colossal extent. As they are non good at general linguistic communication, they put up no opportunity to ascertain ESP. They believed that they about know some honest words which they can non utilize in context because of their general linguistic communication. As the consequences, they are heartsick to larn side for ESP/EAP intents. One of the participants statedEnglish linguistic communication is non given appropriate attending in our state . The clip allocated to scholarship English at secondary and third schools is non plenty. Teachers merely focus on grammar and reading. Because we have no word picture to tried linguistic communication we at large(p) bury what we l straighten in high schools. How one does anticipate us to larn English in such a sort of instruction system in which merely a few well-formed constructions and a twosome of words are taught. I studied English for approximately seven old ages but I can non even compose a short paragraph. I judge the consequences of ESP trials indirectly disappoint the pupils. I myself am one of those defeated 1s. I think I neer pass ESP/ EAP trials such as IELTS or IBT TOFEl. In one of the Ph.D trial interpreted two old ages ago, the trial takers were asked to interpret a transition from Persian to English. Although I knew all words, I could non make the undertaking because I did non cognize how to unite the words to do a text ( participant 18 ) .Self- assurance and efficaciousnessThe participants believed that their assurance is swellly influenced by these trials. They stated that by utilizing their short entrepot capacity they can memorise a list of sound words and some specific transitions. They may achieve a good limit which tone downs to a sort of sham assurance. They may believe that this define indicates their true ability and may give up analyzing English. One of the participants saidI merely studied for two months. In fact, I got a good dough. Having seen my mark on ESP trial, I felt a high self- convinced(p). I melodic theme I could run into my all academic demands hence, I stopped reading my English books. During my maestro categories, I noticed how washed-out I was in English. I could non even interpret a paper. I had to cover about all my clip analyzing English. You can non conceive of how hard it was for me to go through ESP classs in two semesters ( participant 17 ) .Refering the impact of the trials on assurance, an other(prenominal) participant statedWhen I truism my mark I became really confident and felt proud. Some of my friends failed the trial. I sneered at them. It was a majuscule accomplishment for me. Majority of the trial takers failed these ESP trials but I passed. Therefore, it was a good bravery for me to take even hard trials. English trials differ from the other trials, so go throughing them successfully is really of much significance in my assurance ( participant 13 ) .The consequences of the survey to a fault indicate that the pupils low tonss on ESP trials led to assurance light up. One of the participants saidI have taken Ph.D entryway scrutiny 3 times. My tonss on capable trials were non bad, but I had no good public presentation in ESP sub-test of entryway scrutiny. My friends who were good at English could go through the entryway scrutiny and enter the university. Such a failure in ESP trials caused me to lose my assurance and give up fixity for Ph.D scrutinies beca use I knew it does non worth the pecuniary value to pass clip larning English ( participant 6 ) .The consequences besides indicate that ESP trials will do a sort of false positive sensory faculty of learning efficaciousness among ESP teachers. The undermentioned illustration illustrated this subject.The alleged ESP trials administered at our universities merely lay accent on proficient verbiage and proficient reading transitions. I am good at these accomplishments. I am able to learn these accomplishments really good. Because of such prepardness, I think I am a good ESP instructor and feel efficaciouse. However, when the pupils hire to the other academic accomplishments, I about ever to hedge their petitions ( participant 19 ) .Social effectsThe 2nd emerged subject of the survey is categorized as the effects of the trials on the society at big. The participants acknowledged that the entryway exams peculiarly ESP sub-tests for certain have great impacts on the society. The socie tal impacts can be subcategorized as want from high instruction, unfairness and wrong issues, and credence of unentitled campaigners. Each of these subcategories is elaborated as follows ( participant 14 ) .Want from instructionThe participants acknowledged that the consequences of choice tests- either norm-referenced or criterion-referenced- will surely ensue in some campaigners want from instruction. They believed that ESP tests non contrasted the other trials do hold such impacts. They believe the campaigners whose English is good can accomplish a good mark on ESP trials and are ranked higher than those with low English proficiency. Therefore, the 1s with low English proficiency are deprive from analyzing for maestro and Ph.D grades although their tonss on the content sub-tests are non bad in comparing with the other campaigners. One of the participants saidI answered about all points of entryway test draw out ESP points. That is why, I did non go through the trial but my f riends who answered English points passed and were authoritative in really good and advanced universities such as Tehran universities. ii or three times I failed. Finally, I got tired and did non try entryway scrutinies to post graduation schools. I was deprived. Such a failure is merely collectible to my failing in English ( participant 20 ) .Another participant statedIf I had been able to reply the points of ESP sub-part of the Ph.D entryway scrutiny I would hold passed the trial and I could hold become a extremely educated individual in my state. In fact, my lone job was merely my failing in English. shite English trial turned out to be a catastrophe in my life. As the consequences, the societey disadvantages the fitted people ( participant 18 ) .In neverthelessice and wrong issuesParticipants of the survey besides stated that the ESP trials administered at our universities lead to in nearice and unethical issues. That is, about all campaigners acknowledged that Persian pe ople in different metropoliss do non hold approach to the selfsame(prenominal) educational installations such as linguistic communication and trial readying institutes to larn a foreign linguistic communication whereas, they have to take the same norm-referenced trials. Therefore, any determination make establish on the campaigners public presentation on these trials in which the campaigners do non hold the same privileges, is to a great extent unethical and unjust. The undermentioned illustrations are given to exemplify this subjectIn fact I do non hold with the policy of trial development and disposal which is presently in effect(p) in our state. Some of the trial takers live in large metropoliss with adequate educational installations. They can go to linguistic communication categories. They can fix instructional stuffs easy. They gain from really experient linguistic communication instructors. I do non hold the opportunity to do usage of these necessary things. In Iran, th e Ph.D campaigners have to take the same trial. Those who began larning English at the earlier age and attended different linguistic communication categories can surely reply all linguistic communication trial points. Sometimes, the campaigners tonss on content classs are the same but their tonss on English trial are different. Therefore, I think it is non just and ethical to do a determination about the campaigner based on their differences in English tonss ( participant 12 ) .Another participant addedIt is sincerely pathetic. I know some of the maestro pupils whose tonss on content sub-parts of the trial such as applied Chemistry, Physics chemical science were in fact to a lower place my tonss. His mark on ESP trial was 90 but mine was 40. He was accredited but I was non. demonstrate you believe it is just? I am certain that neither can he compose a paper nor realize a talk in English. So why should he go through but I fail? . Truly, it is unethical ( participant 5 ) .The c onsequences of the survey besides indicate that although ESP trials play of import functions in credence or non credence of the campaigners into office alumnus schools no 1 knows for certain that these trials measure the scholars true ESP cognition. Therefore, deficiency of correspondence between ESP trial contents and mark linguistic communication usage state of affairs undertakings will do a sort of unethical and unjust issue. A participant mentionedHow does one cognize that ESP trials are tested, dependable, and valid? Surely those with good tonss are accepted. Even one point is of import. and are those who scored high on ESP trials able to utilize linguistic communication in mark linguistic communication usage state of affairss? I very doubt. Is it just to accept campaigners based on the consequences of such unimportant trials? These are non just and ethical ( participant 19 ) .Credence of un adapted campaignersAnother emerged subject is credence of unqualified campaig ners. The participants of the survey believed that entryway scrutiny to third and station alumnus schools are all norm-referenced. In norm-referenced trials even one decimal is finding. naturally, the average mark and percentile rank of the trial takers are the standards for credence or non- credence. Therefore, ESP portion of the entryway scrutinies is of much significance. assuming that the campaigners are all equal in their tonss on content trials but different from each other in ESP trial, those with a better mark on ESP trial are accepted. There are times when the more qualified campaigners are rejected and less unspoiled 1s are accepted. These so- called Ph.D campaigners will be the hereafter directors, professors, etc. They may be less qualified than the 1s non accepted. The undermentioned illustrations are given to exemplify this subject.I think the campaigners should be accepted or rejected merely based on their tonss on proficient trials. How one is proficient in Engli sh is non of import. Those who are good at proficient topics are in fact more qualified to come in station alumnus surveies than those who are adept in English but weak at proficient topics ( participant 16 ) .Another participant statedIf the campaigners are accepted based on their average tonss on proficient and ESP sub-tests of choice trial, it is more likely that a good mark one a one separate sub-test influences the mean mark and increases the chance of credence. ESP sub-test can besides hold the same function. Therefore, those campaigners whose average mark is positively influenced by ESP mark may be less qualified than those with proper tonss on proficient sub-tests but bad mark on ESP trial ( participant 11 ) .fiscal effectsThe consequences of the survey indicated that linguistic communication trials peculiarly EAP entryway scrutiny trials have great fiscal effect for both persons and parents. The pupils who are serious about come ining a extremely ranked university lead eve ntides, weekends and even holidaies fixing for the trial at assorted exam readying schools which set up a assortment of training services. The participants acknowledged that auxiliary instruction of this sort cost a good trade of specie and the pupils and their kinfolks are willing to do such forfeits. The fiscal effects include text editions, linguistic communication establishment, private coachs, and test readying schoolroom disbursals. The undermentioned illustrations illustrate this subject.I am a pupil and I do non hold excessively much cash. I spent rather a batch of money on purchasing text editions and sample EAP trials. I besides spent some money for trial readying categories. Even a penny was of import to me but I had to pass it to purchase the needed books ( participant 6 ) .Another participant statedMy English was non good. I fixed to run short to some linguistic communication instructors to learn me. The private category tuition was in some manner high. Although paying that sum of money was truly hard I had to pay it because I had to ( participant 14 ) .Entrance scrutinies peculiarly linguistic communication trials sometimes have indirect fiscal effects. Participants argued that alter indigenely of blowing clip to larn English, they can work someplace and gain a great trade of money. One participant arguedI have Master of Science grade in Chemistry. I can hold a good occupation with a great salary but I rigid to acquire prepared for Ph.D entryway scrutiny. I studied for about 12 months. If I had worked 12 months, I would hold earned about 12000 dollars. I merely studied difficult but I failed the trial merely because o my bad public presentation in English trials. My mark on the other topics was non bad. I am certain if I had got a better mark on English subpart of the trial, I could hold passed the trial successfully ( participant 9 ) .Family effectsThe EAP/ESP trials have besides some household effects. Participants acknowledged that th e consequences of these trials influence the household members of the trial takers to a great extent straight or indirectly. They are emotionally, financially, and psychologically influenced. The undermentioned illustrations are given to exemplify this subject.As I had to analyze hard for the entryway scrutinies, I had no more clip to pass with my household ( my married woman and kids ) . Whenever they asked me to take them out, I did non hold, because I merely wanted to analyze. They got disquieted and they ever complained. Two or three times my married woman decided to disassociate ( participant 3 ) .Another participant statedI am married and I have to pass a portion of my clip with my household. nevertheless because of the importance of scrutiny, I merely studied. When I was analyzing I could non gain adequate money. Therefore, I could non run into my household fiscal demands. It is their right to hold everything they like. They sometimes did non understand me and in fact felt depressed ( participant 13 ) .The trial takers psychological and societal jobs caused by trials indirectly influence their household members. One of the household members statedPersian households are really emotionally closed. They can non be apathetic to each other. Whenever a household member feels worried, down, or disappointed, the other members have the same feelings. When I was fixing myself for the trial I had to travel to bed late and my household stayed awake ( participant 20 ) .DiscussionThe consequences obtained from a trial can hold seriouse effects for persons every bit good the programmes, because many of import determinations are made on the footing of the trials consequences( Herman & A Golan, 1993 ) . Language scholars and the other participants may be influenced by official information about a trial prior to its administeration including advertisement stuffs from the trial publishing houses or by folk-knowledge such as studies from the pupils who have taken the trials earlier. They may besides be unnatural by several beginnings of feedback following trial administeration. These would include the existent trial tonss provided by the test hiting service, feedback from the trial takers such as what was easy or hard, what seemed just or unjust, expected, or unexpected, feedback from the monitors, and feedback from the instructors in reaction to the pupils tonss ( Baily, 1999 ) . Taylor ( 2005 ) besides believes that linguistic communication trials can hold effects beyond merely the schoolroom. Trials and trial consequences have a important impact on the calling or life opportunities of single trial takers.The impacts of different types of trials in different countries of the institution have been studied through empirical observation. The types of trials include issue school scrutinies in Sri Lanka ( Wall and Alderson, 1993 Wall, 1997,2000 ) , Israel Shohamy et al. , 1996 ) , and Hong Kong ( Cheng, 1997, 1998 ) university entryway scrut inies in Japan ( Watanabe, 1997 & A 2004 ) and worldwide proficiency trials ( Alderson and Hamp-Lyons, 1996 ) . Much of what was revealed by these surveies had to make with what Hughes ( 1989,1988 ) would name the procedures of instruction the choice of content ( accomplishments, learning stuffs, exam readying stuffs ) , the methodological analysis instructors used and the ways in which they assessed their ain pupils. The findings associating to participants frequently had to make with the emphasis and anxiousness felt by instructors and scholars.In line with findings of the above mentioned impact surveies, the consequences of the present survey indicated that maestro and doctorial ESP trials administered as national entryway scrutiny to Persian province universities influence scholars, ESP instructors and society in different ways. The first subject emerged from the content analysis of the interviews was describrd as the psychological effects. The psychological impacts were s ubcategorized into emphasis and anxiousness, depression, letdown, and false self- assurance and learning efficay. The findings of the impact surveies carried out in different parts of the universe merely confirmed scholars and instructors emphasis and anxiousness before and after trial administeration whereas, the consequences of the present survey indicate that in adition to emphasize and anxiousness, the scholars become down and defeated. Furthermore, their assurance is negatively influenced by such trials.Pearson ( 1988 ) says it is accepted that public scrutinies influence the attitudes, behaviours, and motives of the scholars, parents, and instructors. This influence is frequently seen as negative. The reappraisal of literature besides indicated that scrutinies entwine course of study. The fidings of the present survey besides indicated that a chief negative effect of ESP trials on Persian ESP instructors is deformation of course of study. That is, they ignore linguistic com munication accomplishments which do non lend straight to go throughing the test. Rather, they merely lay accent on learning proficient vocabulary and reading through limited learning schemes such as interlingual rendition to pupils native linguistic communication. As such a sort of learning method does non oblige proficiency in the other linguistic communication accomplishments, the instructor think they are really efficaciouse. That is why, they think they have a high instruction efficaciousness.Participants of the survey besides reported that ESP/EAP trials have societal effects. Not unlike the findings of washback surveies, the consequences of the survey indicated that societal effects of ESP trials including want from high instruction, unfairness, and credence of unqualified campaigners are all negative. Therefore, in line with Davies, 1997 Messick,1989,1994, 1996 Hamp-Lyons, 1997a, 1997b, 1989,2000,1999 McNamara, 1999 reasoning for a professional morality among linguistic communication examiners to protect the profession s members and persons from the rib and maltreatment of the trial, it could be argued that ESP trials in Iran are unjust and violate moralss premises. ripple the usage of ESP trials use as instruments of societal policy and control and their gate-keeping single-valued function ( Spolsky, 1997, 1981, 1994 ) , it could be argued that ESP trials in Iran will take to acceptance and rejection of some campaigners whom we are non certain of their true ability accordingly, the society does non profit from the qualified campaigners and some qualified campaigners are deprived from instruction while it is their ain civil and societal right to be accepted in universities. ESP trials practiced at Persian universities, to set in words of Shohamy ( 1997, 1993,1998, 2000 ) , contain contents or employ methods which are non just to all test-takers. As the consequences, utilizations of such trials which bore control and manipulate stakeholders ins tead than proviso information on the proficiency degrees seem to be against moralss of linguistic communication testing.Fiscal impact of ESP trials on trial takers was the 3rd subject emerged from the content analysis of the present survey informations. Due to the impacts of the enterance scrutinies on the calling or life opportunities of single trial takers, they have to pass a great trade of money for readying categories, sample trials, and even private tuition. As bulk of the trial takers are pupils or unemployed, it is someway hard for them to gain money. Therefore, their life is greatly influenced by the consequences of trials. Furthermore, the trial takers who are bread victors of the household can non pull through their households financially, because they do non hold clip to work someplace to gain money.Furthermore, the consequences indicated that the trial takers household members such as parents, kids, hubbies, and married womans, are all straight or indirectly influenc e by the trials effects. The findings of the other surveies indicated trial effects on the scholars parents whereas, this survey showed that in add-on to scholars parents, their kids, hubbies, and married womans were all influenced by psychological, societal, and fiscal effects of the trials. Such clear difference between the findings of this survey and the other surveies is profoundly rooted in the differences between the cultural and societal values of the scholars. In Iran, household members closely related and experience sympathy with each other.About all effects reported by the participants were negative. That is, niether do they ensue in great inventions in acquisition and learning ESP nor do they hold posotive and good effects on the interest holders. The great negative effects of ESP trials, acoording to Kiani, Akbari, and Alibakhshi ( forthcoming ) are due their deficiency of straightness and genuineness. They believe that reliable trials will surely take to great posoti ve effects. Another justification for such negative effects is the intent of ESP trials and the decicisions which are made on the footing of trials. Naturally the negative effects of norm-referenced trials are more serious than criterion-referenced 1s.DecisionThis survey was an effort to expolre the effects of ESP trials on trial takers and instructors life and society. The premise is that valid trials have posotive effects on the interest holders, society and educational systems and invalid trials have negative effects on all interest holders and roll course of study. The consequences of the present survey showed that the effects of the ESP trials were all negative. Therefore, it could be conclude that these trials lack eventful cogency which is a chief constituent of costruct cogency ( Messick, ) . chant such a fatal desolate in ESP trials, we suggest that great alterations in the contents, intent and determinations made on the footing of these trials consequences are needed so that we can do a alteration in learning ESP at our local universities. That is, it is concluded that the invalid trials should non be used as the instruments which filter the entery and nonentry of some candiadates to province universities. Furthermore, any determination made on the footing of invalid trials is against the little issues of equity and moralss. Therfore, it is indispensable that the trial developers try to devlope more reliable and direct trials, because reliable and direct trials have a good washback cogency.