Language The monster Essay Example for Free

Language The monster Essay The setting makes the reader feel tense because the bad weather in chapter 5 gives the reader the idea that there is a sense that the atmosphere is very ominous and this gives the impression that something bad is going to happen, this type of omen gives the reader a tense feeling because it gives the reader an opportunity to pre-empt the fact that soon the tension will break and it will break into some kind of bad happening. An example of this is when in chapter 5 where there is a slight description of what is happening around the room, and outside the room the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out this gives the impression to the reader that something big is soon to happen, because when your candle burnt out, you cant see anything. Pathetic Fallacy is when someone gives inanimate features to an inanimate object, for example if you were to talk to a cushion as though it was a real person. Pathetic Fallacy gives the reader thee impression that Victor within chapter 5 feels very isolated and cannot talk to anyone, this is because he doesnt want to tell anyone about his creation. Language The monster is described as having yellow skin and having a shrivelled complexion and straight black lips this explains that Victors creation has human features but they are presented in an inhuman way. The way that this creation is described is in the way that it isnt human but it is a monster. This connotes that the monster is rather frightening to think about with his yellow skin and to think it is human is very scary. Victor thinks of his monster as scary and intimidating, although in chapter 5 Victors creation doesnt actually do anything to Victor, he does actually run away from him when faced with him. One hand was stretched out, seemingly to detain me, but I escaped and rushed downstairs. This at this point of the story shows us that the monster is a bad thing to behold, that it was intending to seek revenge on Victor, but as the reader we dont know really what is happening. Also we dont actually know if Victors creation is actually as it says in the quote trying to detain me because he may be twisting the readers point of view, because of Victor being the narrator for most of the novel The reader associates monsters and devils with Victors monster because within chapter 5 when the monster is created. In the quote below gives a clear example of the creation being linked with omens and portents, when, by the dim and yellow light of the moon, as it forced its way through the window shutters, I beheld the wretch. This gives the impression that the creation is a sign of evil that is associated by the moon omen, because as well earlier in the chapter Victor claimed that the monsters eyes appeared to be yellow like the moon. The full moon omen is an association with evil because it is supposed that when the full moon comes out all you can hear is the howling of a werewolf and that is a sign of evil The effect of oxymorons helps the reader with the description of Victors monster in chapter 5 for example but these luxuries only formed a more horrific contrast with his watery eyes this quote is saying that victor made tried making his monster with beautiful characteristics but then says that these beautiful characteristics came out wrong with his watery eyes. This explains why Victor escapes from his creation later on in the chapter; he looks at the monsters hideous features and doesnt take into account his interior. Victor within chapter 5 uses the fact that he is the narrator to his advantage, because of this Victor can say anything about the monster he wants and because he is the narrator the reader will believe this one hand stretched out, seemingly to detain me this is a prime example of manipulating the reader at this point, because the narrator says seemingly to detain me everyone believes it. This has an intriguing effect on the audience because the first thing you do as a reader is believe everything that the narrator says , however in this sense the narrator is can be very manipulative and can take advantage of what the reader may know or may not know. This is different to what victor originally thought of his monster, originally Victor thought that his monster would be a good idea because it is an original idea and everyone would praise him for the thing he had created, then if it turned out well then even more praise would come his way. Although I possessed the capacity of bestowing animation, yet to prepare a frame for the reception of it this is showing that victor thought of creating animation as a good idea and that he couldnt wait to put it into practice. Originally Victor thought of his creation as a excellent idea and he wanted to be the inventor of a revolutionary idea, Victor wanted to be like god in a way, however as we find out through chapter 5 he doesnt even want the credit for his invention There is an ammount of symbolism within chapter 5, for instance the idea that Victor created life from nothing is symbolic to religion and how god apparently created everything from nothing from his own power. I collected the instruments of life around me this gi-ves the impression that victor thinks of himself as a god-like person, that maybe he thought after creating this he would be known in history. Conclusion I think that Mary Shelly did meet her aim to curdle the blood and quicken the beatings of the heart because the novel always keeps the reader on edge all of the time, the reader never knows what is coming next. For its time I think that the novel was rather frightening for its time because at that time no-one knew anything that we know in modern day science, so this novel would be what is called sci-fi in the modern day. Today of all the people that still read this novel they still find it a fascinating read because it is quite sci-fi like even to us now, we may now know that you wont make life out of dead bodies using galvanism but it is still interesting.

Congress and Human Cloning :: Argumentative Persuasive Topics

Congress and Human Cloning This year Congress may face several decisions that could help forge, in the words of Pope John Paul II, "the path to a truly humane future, in which man remains the master, not the product, of his technology" (Address to President Bush at Castel Gandolfo, July 23). The first and most immediately urgent of these decisions regards human cloning. The Weldon/Stupak Human Cloning Prohibition Act, approved 18-to-11 by the House Judiciary Committee, is poised for a vote by the full House. It should be approved without delay. Some researchers have already announced that they are trying to produce a live-born child by cloning -- despite an overwhelming scientific consensus that about 99% of new humans created by this method would die before birth, and the rare survivor would suffer from massive medical problems. The Weldon/Stupak bill addresses this looming tragedy at its source, by banning the use of somatic cell nuclear transfer to create a new organism of the human species. This bill is carefully crafted to address only this specific problem. It has no effect on in vitro fertilization or any other reproductive technology in current use, but deals only with cases of asexual reproduction which do not involve fertilization of egg by sperm. The bill explicitly exempts any use of cloning technology to produce animals, plants, DNA, tissues, or cells other than human embryos (including stem cells which are not themselves human embryos). Proponents of cloning nonetheless argue that this bill somehow interferes with a procedure that is essential to stem cell research. Until now, of course, these same groups were insisting that embryonic stem cell research could be fully pursued using only "excess" embryos created by in vitro fertilization that "will be discarded anyway." Now they say that mass production and destruction of cloned embryos to provide genetically matched stem cells will be needed to take stem cell research from the laboratory into the clinic. While the cloning debate is now forcing such groups to admit that their earlier statements may not be true, their new claim is also open to serious question. The National Institutes of Health's new report on the science of stem cells cites cloning as one way to prevent rejection of embryonic stem cells as foreign tissue, but cites other approaches as well -- and expresses great uncertainty as to whether these cells will provoke a significant immune reaction even without such manipulations (NIH, Stem Cells: Scientific Progress and Future Research Directions, June 2001, pp. Congress and Human Cloning :: Argumentative Persuasive Topics Congress and Human Cloning This year Congress may face several decisions that could help forge, in the words of Pope John Paul II, "the path to a truly humane future, in which man remains the master, not the product, of his technology" (Address to President Bush at Castel Gandolfo, July 23). The first and most immediately urgent of these decisions regards human cloning. The Weldon/Stupak Human Cloning Prohibition Act, approved 18-to-11 by the House Judiciary Committee, is poised for a vote by the full House. It should be approved without delay. Some researchers have already announced that they are trying to produce a live-born child by cloning -- despite an overwhelming scientific consensus that about 99% of new humans created by this method would die before birth, and the rare survivor would suffer from massive medical problems. The Weldon/Stupak bill addresses this looming tragedy at its source, by banning the use of somatic cell nuclear transfer to create a new organism of the human species. This bill is carefully crafted to address only this specific problem. It has no effect on in vitro fertilization or any other reproductive technology in current use, but deals only with cases of asexual reproduction which do not involve fertilization of egg by sperm. The bill explicitly exempts any use of cloning technology to produce animals, plants, DNA, tissues, or cells other than human embryos (including stem cells which are not themselves human embryos). Proponents of cloning nonetheless argue that this bill somehow interferes with a procedure that is essential to stem cell research. Until now, of course, these same groups were insisting that embryonic stem cell research could be fully pursued using only "excess" embryos created by in vitro fertilization that "will be discarded anyway." Now they say that mass production and destruction of cloned embryos to provide genetically matched stem cells will be needed to take stem cell research from the laboratory into the clinic. While the cloning debate is now forcing such groups to admit that their earlier statements may not be true, their new claim is also open to serious question. The National Institutes of Health's new report on the science of stem cells cites cloning as one way to prevent rejection of embryonic stem cells as foreign tissue, but cites other approaches as well -- and expresses great uncertainty as to whether these cells will provoke a significant immune reaction even without such manipulations (NIH, Stem Cells: Scientific Progress and Future Research Directions, June 2001, pp.

Profile Essay

Mike Koran L. Lykken 1021 Composition 03/09/13 Mike Koran (left) and Doug King (right) â€Å"I’m Doug. And I’m a survivor. † â€Å"I love to have fun! It is in my blood. † Doug speaks this way as if to show signs of life enjoyment behind scarred mental anguish. This is a man who was diagnosed dead in the back of an ambulance and fell into a coma. Doug is not lying when he says he likes to have fun because he is a man suffering from a severe brain injury due to his passion for fun and the thrill of excitement. He was young and doing want any young boy likes to do with a four-wheeler and that his go fast.Laura Stone, writer for dontjudgeme. com, writes; â€Å"Speaking of those toys†¦ While speeding on his quad (ATV) sans helmet, he smacked into a partially hidden tree stump and flew up in the air an estimated 80 to 120 feet, coming straight down on his head. As he lay there convulsing, the ambulance made its way through the bracken to him. He died in t he back of it as they raced back to the hospital, but was able to be brought back to life. He fell into a coma and stayed there for twelve days. † Doug is still looking forward these days and has a recent change in his life.Doug King is a part of Brevard County down here in FL. He lives in Melbourne which is the city next to Palm Bay and his area holds most of the shopping. It is similar to popular Minnesota twin cities shopping spots Maplewood mall/ Rosedale mall combined with a Robert or lake street. Doug believes in honesty, hard work, and perseverance because he is such an interesting character that when you first meet him, you see that he is so outgoing, that it doesn’t even make sense to ask any questions. He has a tremendous background full of life but he also suffered a lot of tragedy.He now is a `†hoarder†, for many reasons, but one in particular is due to a brain injury he suffered which resulted in permanent disability. We will go further into thi s tragedy and its detail because this man had died, for 12 days to be exact, and that lead him to hoarding. He does this as an action of hoarding to establish a memory bank full of material or trash that symbolizes a certain memory. This has worked as a tool for Doug and he tends to need the items to remind him of certain things in the past.Doug reminded me of Forrest Gump by the way he was continuously bringing up life stories and they were similar to the way the movie had such a personal and dramatic story line about one man’s life. Doug is open about his father committing suicide, about his death experience, his hole in his neck from; ripping a feeding tube out after he awoke from his coma. When you first get to know Doug this could all be said with in the first 10 minutes of meeting him because of his outburst of outgoing personality.He explains his tragic four wheel incident by saying â€Å"I can’t remember anything from before my coma but I read stories and I wa s shown pictures. I was in a coma for 12 days after dying in the back of an ambulance. I was brought back to life, stayed in the coma, woke up and freaked out. † He told the story with such poise that you knew he had told this story plenty of times. He explained how his brain damage crippled everything in his life. I started to get the feeling that Doug enjoyed sharing his story so much that he must have had accolades that he talks about. I was just on hoarders the T. V. show! † he answers to me. I am in disbelief! I ignorantly (but necessarily) search Google for him as we are talking. It turns out that Doug King was on an episode of Hoarders. â€Å"Doug is one of those rare people whom soap operas love to put in their stories: his traumatic brain injury was so great; all memories before that tragic day were wiped clean. This was when his hoarding began. † Laura Stone wrote in this article on a critique magazine company running under the domain of heydontjudgeme. com. There you are thinking to yourself why doesn’t this seem odd? It’s my life and I am comfortable with it but even the show had me staying in a nice hotel for the time they were shooting the episode because they didn’t want me to feel any urges to try and get more stuff while they were gone. I need things to keep my brain working right and when I don’t have them I go and get them wherever I can. † Doug says. â€Å"I like to make people laugh when I do something I call common comedy which I define as the old fashioned jokes that we all heard as a kid.I’ll ask a question like (Have you ever got caught jacking off in the closet? ) and the person or people will say no and that’s when I tell them (Good hiding spot aint it!? )†Doug laughs and says that this is what he calls â€Å"common comedy. † Doug is as innocent they come because he is like a child in an adult body and he tries his best every day to keep positive. Doug d oes not have many accomplishments in life but he proceeds to fight his condition and it’s a blessing that the show helped him out.Doug feels the need to keep this mindset going in his life but friends and family are scared that he will not be able to keep it up over time without the proper help. They are concerned for him and they know he is a special person with unfortunate events. Doug is taking it one day at a time. â€Å"I am trying to get into fire fighter class since I did the show. They firefighters of Brevard County inspired me during filming because they showed up and showed they cared. They were interested in seeing the show and its process and they knew I had lived here a long time.They were concerned on how I was living because I didn’t have electricity or water and I was open to many dangers among me. I found ways to live like this and they were shocked because I have the disability. I told them I am a HHH hoarder. I am an honest honorable hoarder. I hono r the smallest piece of item I have even if it is trash. I don’t have much and what I do have I keep. † Doug may not be the best citizen that this country offers but he is just as important as anyone else. His profile can inspire people to either help someone they know or just others in need of this condition that haunts so many people.The world and the people in it can help individuals like this simply by caring enough to help. Doug was fortunate to find a solution to his problems and not everyone will be able to be on hoarders. After the show Doug found that he had new opportunities. His house looks great compared to the way he had it and it is something he enjoys now. He has found new ways to turn his hoarding habits into healthy environment tasks such as cleaning. He has been working on finding new tools to fight against helps him feel connected to memory.These are as simple as organizing, collecting, and formatting his personal belongings in order for his OCD over memory retention. I met Doug after the show and he is a fixture around the area. â€Å"With the power fully restored, he’s now living in his house and working with an organizer to keep his house clean. His sister Amy takes him to his regular therapy sessions, and they’re growing closer again. Doug is the kind of guy who just deserves a break, and I hope these good things coming his way keep on coming. What a sweetheart of a guy.To learn more about traumatic brain injury and the resources available (medical and legal), go to www. braininjury. com† Laura also wraps up her piece with this statement. Dougs Office: http://www. aetv. com/hoarders/pictures/season-6-17213370/#Doug-office-before http://www. aetv. com/hoarders/photos/season-6/doug-living-room-before. JPG http://www. aetv. com/hoarders/photos/season-6/Doug-living-room-after. JPG CITING: www. AETV. com/hoarders LAURA STONE @ http://heydontjudgeme. com/2012/09/18/hoarders-6-2-doug-ruth/ Profile Essay Mike Koran L. Lykken 1021 Composition 03/09/13 Mike Koran (left) and Doug King (right) â€Å"I’m Doug. And I’m a survivor. † â€Å"I love to have fun! It is in my blood. † Doug speaks this way as if to show signs of life enjoyment behind scarred mental anguish. This is a man who was diagnosed dead in the back of an ambulance and fell into a coma. Doug is not lying when he says he likes to have fun because he is a man suffering from a severe brain injury due to his passion for fun and the thrill of excitement. He was young and doing want any young boy likes to do with a four-wheeler and that his go fast.Laura Stone, writer for dontjudgeme. com, writes; â€Å"Speaking of those toys†¦ While speeding on his quad (ATV) sans helmet, he smacked into a partially hidden tree stump and flew up in the air an estimated 80 to 120 feet, coming straight down on his head. As he lay there convulsing, the ambulance made its way through the bracken to him. He died in t he back of it as they raced back to the hospital, but was able to be brought back to life. He fell into a coma and stayed there for twelve days. † Doug is still looking forward these days and has a recent change in his life.Doug King is a part of Brevard County down here in FL. He lives in Melbourne which is the city next to Palm Bay and his area holds most of the shopping. It is similar to popular Minnesota twin cities shopping spots Maplewood mall/ Rosedale mall combined with a Robert or lake street. Doug believes in honesty, hard work, and perseverance because he is such an interesting character that when you first meet him, you see that he is so outgoing, that it doesn’t even make sense to ask any questions. He has a tremendous background full of life but he also suffered a lot of tragedy.He now is a `†hoarder†, for many reasons, but one in particular is due to a brain injury he suffered which resulted in permanent disability. We will go further into thi s tragedy and its detail because this man had died, for 12 days to be exact, and that lead him to hoarding. He does this as an action of hoarding to establish a memory bank full of material or trash that symbolizes a certain memory. This has worked as a tool for Doug and he tends to need the items to remind him of certain things in the past.Doug reminded me of Forrest Gump by the way he was continuously bringing up life stories and they were similar to the way the movie had such a personal and dramatic story line about one man’s life. Doug is open about his father committing suicide, about his death experience, his hole in his neck from; ripping a feeding tube out after he awoke from his coma. When you first get to know Doug this could all be said with in the first 10 minutes of meeting him because of his outburst of outgoing personality.He explains his tragic four wheel incident by saying â€Å"I can’t remember anything from before my coma but I read stories and I wa s shown pictures. I was in a coma for 12 days after dying in the back of an ambulance. I was brought back to life, stayed in the coma, woke up and freaked out. † He told the story with such poise that you knew he had told this story plenty of times. He explained how his brain damage crippled everything in his life. I started to get the feeling that Doug enjoyed sharing his story so much that he must have had accolades that he talks about. I was just on hoarders the T. V. show! † he answers to me. I am in disbelief! I ignorantly (but necessarily) search Google for him as we are talking. It turns out that Doug King was on an episode of Hoarders. â€Å"Doug is one of those rare people whom soap operas love to put in their stories: his traumatic brain injury was so great; all memories before that tragic day were wiped clean. This was when his hoarding began. † Laura Stone wrote in this article on a critique magazine company running under the domain of heydontjudgeme. com. There you are thinking to yourself why doesn’t this seem odd? It’s my life and I am comfortable with it but even the show had me staying in a nice hotel for the time they were shooting the episode because they didn’t want me to feel any urges to try and get more stuff while they were gone. I need things to keep my brain working right and when I don’t have them I go and get them wherever I can. † Doug says. â€Å"I like to make people laugh when I do something I call common comedy which I define as the old fashioned jokes that we all heard as a kid.I’ll ask a question like (Have you ever got caught jacking off in the closet? ) and the person or people will say no and that’s when I tell them (Good hiding spot aint it!? )†Doug laughs and says that this is what he calls â€Å"common comedy. † Doug is as innocent they come because he is like a child in an adult body and he tries his best every day to keep positive. Doug d oes not have many accomplishments in life but he proceeds to fight his condition and it’s a blessing that the show helped him out.Doug feels the need to keep this mindset going in his life but friends and family are scared that he will not be able to keep it up over time without the proper help. They are concerned for him and they know he is a special person with unfortunate events. Doug is taking it one day at a time. â€Å"I am trying to get into fire fighter class since I did the show. They firefighters of Brevard County inspired me during filming because they showed up and showed they cared. They were interested in seeing the show and its process and they knew I had lived here a long time.They were concerned on how I was living because I didn’t have electricity or water and I was open to many dangers among me. I found ways to live like this and they were shocked because I have the disability. I told them I am a HHH hoarder. I am an honest honorable hoarder. I hono r the smallest piece of item I have even if it is trash. I don’t have much and what I do have I keep. † Doug may not be the best citizen that this country offers but he is just as important as anyone else. His profile can inspire people to either help someone they know or just others in need of this condition that haunts so many people.The world and the people in it can help individuals like this simply by caring enough to help. Doug was fortunate to find a solution to his problems and not everyone will be able to be on hoarders. After the show Doug found that he had new opportunities. His house looks great compared to the way he had it and it is something he enjoys now. He has found new ways to turn his hoarding habits into healthy environment tasks such as cleaning. He has been working on finding new tools to fight against helps him feel connected to memory.These are as simple as organizing, collecting, and formatting his personal belongings in order for his OCD over memory retention. I met Doug after the show and he is a fixture around the area. â€Å"With the power fully restored, he’s now living in his house and working with an organizer to keep his house clean. His sister Amy takes him to his regular therapy sessions, and they’re growing closer again. Doug is the kind of guy who just deserves a break, and I hope these good things coming his way keep on coming. What a sweetheart of a guy.To learn more about traumatic brain injury and the resources available (medical and legal), go to www. braininjury. com† Laura also wraps up her piece with this statement. Dougs Office: http://www. aetv. com/hoarders/pictures/season-6-17213370/#Doug-office-before http://www. aetv. com/hoarders/photos/season-6/doug-living-room-before. JPG http://www. aetv. com/hoarders/photos/season-6/Doug-living-room-after. JPG CITING: www. AETV. com/hoarders LAURA STONE @ http://heydontjudgeme. com/2012/09/18/hoarders-6-2-doug-ruth/

¿Qué es la evolución - 960 Words

 ¿Por que hay tantas clases de seres vivos?  ¿Porque la Tierra es el habitat de millos de especies, desde bacterias hasta plantas u organismo marinos, que a veces parecen seres de ciencia ficcion? La busqueda de una explicacion para la gran diversidad biologica tomo impulso en el siglo XIX, cuando Charles Darwin propuso la teoria de la evolucion mediante la seleccion natural.  ¿Charles Darwin es considerado el primero cientifico que studio la evolucià ³n? La evolucion sin embargo, ya habia sido el centro de discusiones academicas mucho antes de que Darwin formulase su teoria.  ¿Que es la evolucià ³n? La evolucià ³n es el proceso de cambios biologicos a traves del cual los descendientes se diferencian de sus antepasados. Este concepto habia sido debatido durante mas de 100 aà ±os cuando Darwin propuso su teoria de como se producia la evolucion. La evolucion es el tema central de todas la especialiadades de la biologia en la actualidad. Esta definicion abarca dos tipos de evolucion, pequeà ±a escala (microevolucià ³n) y gran escala. (macroevolucià ³n). En la microevolucià ³n se observa cambios en un solo gen en una poblacià ³n con el tiempo. En la macroevolucià ³n, el descenso de las diferentes especies de un ancestro comà ºn por muchas generaciones. Contribuciones a la teorà ­a evolutiva Carolus Linnaeus (23 mayo de 1707 hasta 10 enero 1778) â€Å"If a tree dies, plant another in its place†. Botà ¡nico sueco, zoà ³logo y taxà ³nomo. Su mà ¡s importante contribucià ³n a la ciencia fue su sistemaShow MoreRelatedY Secuelas Del Gran Quemado809 Words   |  4 Pagesquemaduras de mà ¡s del 20% de la SPC o inhalatorias, pacientes con mà ¡s de un 70 en el à ­ndice de gravedad. Tambià ©n a aquellos pacientes con patologà ­as previas o que se encuentren en el rango de edad de riesgo menores de 2 aà ±os o mayores de 65 aà ±os. 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Era casi exclusivamente una empresa franquiciadora dà ³nde no existe el equilibrio entre establecimientos en propiedad y franquiciados. ï‚ § Distribucià ³n cadena en el aà ±o 1997: †¢ Establecimientos propios: 29 †¢ Franquiciados: 1.449 PROBLEMà TICA: La falta de estrategia a nivel empresarial ha traà ­do como consecuencia una reduccià ³n del crecimiento de ventas y por tanto unaRead MoreThe Bible And The Interpretation Of The Bible910 Words   |  4 Pagesbelieving communities. Los principios que fundan la prà ¡ctica de la actualizacià ³n son los siguientes: †¢ La actualizacià ³n es posible, porque la plenitud de sentido del texto bà ­blico le otorga valor para todas las à ©pocas y culturas (cf. Is 40,8; 66,18-21; Mt 28,19-20). El mensaje bà ­blico puede a la vez relativizar y fecundar los sistemas de valores y las normas de comportamiento de cada generacià ³n. †¢ La actualizacià ³n es necesaria porque, aunque el mensaje de la Biblia tenga un valor duradero, sus textos

Assessing the current state of the worlds financial system - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 9 Words: 2836 Downloads: 1 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Economics Essay Type Research paper Did you like this example? The world financial system, has suffered a severe and virtually unprecedented blow leading to the failure of a number of major institutions and forcing government intervention on a massive scale in a number of countries. Adrian Turner, chairman of the FSA in the UK attributes the current financial crisis to: ..an interplay between macroeconomic imbalances which have become particularly prevalent over the last 10-15 years, and financial market developments which have been going on for 30 years but which accelerated over the last ten under the influence of the macro imbalances. Peter J. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Assessing the current state of the worlds financial system" essay for you Create order Wallison observes that the current crisis has three noteworthy elements: It is worldwide, engulfing the economies of nearly all the developed countries. It is comprehensive in that it involves financial institutions of all kinds. Third of all it is characterized by doubts about the stability and solvency of most of the worlds major financial institutions. While he believes that the first two of these elements fit within the conventional notion of systemic risk, the third element is unusual and, perhaps, unprecedented. On the 9th January 2009, the OECD blamed the regulatory framework as very poor because not only did it fail to prevent the crisis but also contributed to it. One of the key triggers was the introduction of a new regime for supervising all banks, the Basle II regime, which significantly boosted the attractiveness to banks of lending money secured on residential property. That led to a rise in loans to sub-prime borrowers, which were then packaged into securities and s old to institutions. The OECD traced the roots of the problem to 2004, when there was a veritable explosion in residential mortgage-backed securities. Furthermore it was made easier for the poor to obtain mortgages. Tougher capital requirements imposed on the mortgage finance groups Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, which triggered an invasion of banks into their territory. Thirdly the transition towards Basle II, made mortgage lending more attractive and fostered the creation of off-balance sheet vehicles. The final element was a policy shift by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which allowed investment banks to increase their leverage from about 15 to one to as much as 40 to one. Shortcomings in risk management, bonus schemes, governance structures, liquidity and counterparty risk need to be addressed, the OECD said.  David R. Henderson believes that the triggering cause of the current financial crisis in the United States was the decline in housing prices that began in the summer of 2006. This decline in housing prices caused a large increase in foreclosures because many people owned houses with mortgages almost equal to the initial value of the houses. When the values of those houses fell and went below the amount of the mortgages, lenders often foreclosed on borrowers.  Since so many financial institutions owned securities based on these mortgages- mortgage-backed securities (MBS), the large decline in value of these MBSs led to large losses for their owners. And because so many of the owners were financial firms that held only a tiny percent of the value of their assets in reserve, even a small percentage decline could, and did, destroy almost the whole value, and sometimes the whole value, of the financial firms that held these securities.   Ãƒâ€š Henderson, however believes that: The best evidence is that the problem was triggered by previous government regulation combined with an unrealistic belief on the part of many people that housing prices could only go up. He rules out greed as well as deregulation as the causes for the financial crisis. On the contrary he argues that the culprit is regulation itself such as the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act and the Community Reinvestment Act amongst others.  He blames such regulation that placed pressure on banks to lend to people with weak credit histories and sketchy employment prospects.  Moral hazard was another contributor to the crisis. This is because lenders to government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) assumed that the US government would guarantee the loans of Fannie Mac and Freddy Mac.  Fannie and Freddy had taken on riskier loans during the housing boom and were able to borrow, at a very low interest rate, the funds with which to buy these loans.  Because lenders to the GSEs did not bear much risk in case the GSEs bore large losses, they had little incentive to be careful in their lending, and the GSEs had little incentive to be careful in their financial decisions.  Furthermore, there has been an explosion of world macro-imbalances, with very large current account surpluses piling up in the oil exporting countries, China, Japan and some other east Asian developing nations, and large current account deficits piling up in the USA, UK, in Ireland, Spain and some other countries. A key driver of those imbalances has been very high savings rates in countries like China; since these high savings are in excess of domestic investment, China and other countries must accumulate claims on the rest of the world. Since, in addition, those countries are committed to fixed or significantly managed exchange rates, these rising claims take the form of central bank reserves, typically invested not in a wide array of equity, property or fixed income assets but almost exclusively in apparently risk-free or close to risk-free government bonds or government guaranteed bonds. This in turn has driven a reduction in real risk free rates of interest to historically lo w levels. They have helped drive rapid growth of credit extension in some developed countries, particularly in the US and the UK and particularly but not exclusively for residential mortgages with this growth accompanied by a degradation of credit standards, and fuelling property price booms which for a time made those lower credit standards appear costless. Secondly, they had driven among investors a ferocious search for yield a desire among any investor who wishes to invest in bond-like instruments to gain as much as possible spread above the risk-free rate, to offset at least partially the declining risk-free rate. Financial sector innovation. The fundamental macro economic imbalances have thus stimulated demands which have been met by a wave of financial innovation, focused on the origination, packaging, trading and distribution of securitised credit instruments. It was from the mid-1990s that the system entered explosive growth in both scale and complexity. This was due to the huge growth in the value of the total stock of credit securities. An explosion in the complexity of the securities sold together with the related explosion of the volume of credit derivatives, enabling investors and traders to hedge underlying credit exposures, or to create synthetic credit exposures also contributed to the crisis. All of these developments, in different ways, seeking to satisfy the demand for yield uplift, and all predicated on the belief that by slicing and dicing, structuring and hedging, using sophisticated mathematical models to understand and manage risk, to create value by offering investors combinations of risk and ret urn which are more attractive than those available from direct purchase of the underlying credit exposures. This explosion was supported by and in itself drove big increases in the leverage of major financial institutions in particular investment banks and the investment banking activities of some large universal banks. As it developed the rapid growth began to drive and to be driven by one of those self-fulfilling cycles of falling risk aversion where credit spreads on a wide range of securities and loans falling to clearly inadequate levels. This crisis is the first major global boom and bust of securitised credit instruments. One of the crucial questions to ask is whether the originate and distribute model is inherently riskier than the one that it has partially replaced or whether, provided it is regulated more effectively, it is capable of being a more stable system, or indeed of delivering the positive benefits of increased financial stability which its advocates originall y proposed. The IMF Global Financial Stability Report of April, 2008 makes it clear that the majority of the holdings of the securitised credit, and the vast majority of the losses which arose, did not lie in the books of end investors intending to hold the assets to maturity, but on the books of highly leveraged banks and bank-like institutions. What increasingly happened was that the credit securitised and taken off one banks balance sheet, rather than being simply sold through to an end investor, was bought by the   propriety trading desk of another bank, or sold by the first bank but with part of the risk retained via the use of credit derivatives, or used as collateral to raise short-term liquidity creating a complex chain of multiple relationships between multiple institutions, each performing a different small size of the credit intermediation and maturity transformation process, and each with a leveraged   balance sheet requiring a small slice of capital to support that function. Another striking development of the last several decades has been that a growing part of this maturity transformation has been occurring not on the books of regulated banks with central bank access, but on the off-balance sheets of banks, and on the balance sheets of shadow banks or near banks. SIVs and conduits performed large-scale maturity transformation between short-term promises to noteholders and much longer term instruments held on the asset side. While some of these developments in particular the growth of SIVs, and investment bank balance sheets and mutual funds were most prevalent in the US and less important elsewhere, the impact in a global funds market was felt throughout the world. Examples of this are Northern Rock and Bradford Bingley who were directly or indirectly dependent on the maturity transformation function of US mutual funds and SIVs. Therefore the huge growth in securitised credit intermediation and a related increasing r eliance of the total system on liquidity assured by marketability contributed to the credit crisis. In a securitised system, credits become marketable instruments, tradeable in liquid markets. All liquid  markets can be susceptible to swings in sentiment which produce significant divergence from rational equilibrium prices. Bond yields were driven irrationally low and prices irrationally high by irrational exuberance between 2002 and early 2007, and the yields subsequently soared, the prices collapsed. Since banks are highly leveraged they perform maturity transformation which exposes them to liquidity risk and they are involved in a process of continual rollover of new credit supply to the real economy without which economies will contract. It is therefore possible that the growth of the securitised credits intermediation model has increased some aspects of systemic risk in ways which are not just the result of poor execution bad remuneration practices, inadequate risk m anagement or disclosure, failures in the credit-rating process but absolutely innate. The more complex and globalised the world economy becomes, the more complex are the functions which the worlds banks have to perform in intermediating credit and other flows, and in themselves managing and helping corporates manage, the risks that arise from global operations, and fluctuating   exchange rates,   interest rates and commodity prices. The far bigger failure was the failure to identify that the whole system was fraught with market-wide, systemic risk. Regulators were too focused on the institution-by-institution supervision of idiosyncratic risk: central banks too focused on monetary policy tightly defined, meeting inflation targets. And reports which did look at   the overall picture, for instance the IMF Global Financial Stability Report sometimes simply got it wrong, and when they did get it right, for instance in their warnings about over rapid credit gro wth in the UK and the US, were largely ignored. From his end, Lloyd C. Blankfein sees three broad underlying factors contributing to the crisis: First, governments, particularly the U.S., explicitly supported homeownership through a variety of government programs and initiatives. Second, mortgage assets were considered relatively impervious to sharp downturns. And lastly, the creation of more flexible and varied mortgage products attracted even more capital in search of higher returns. These factors, to varying degrees, contributed to a housing bubble not just in the U.S. but in many other countries as well. Furthermore, he believes that: We rationalized because our self-interest in preserving and growing our market share, as competitors, sometimes blinds us especially when exuberance is at its peak. A systemic lack of skepticism was equally true with respect to credit ratings. An over-dependence on credit ratings coincided with the dilution of the coveted triple A rat ing. Furthermore, a lot of risk models incorrectly assumed that positions could be fully hedged and failed to capture the risk inherent in off-balance sheet activities, such as Structured Investment Vehicles (SIVs). Lastly, financial institutions didnt account for asset values accurately enough. Given the size and interconnected character of markets, the growth in volumes, the global nature of trades and their cross-asset characteristics, managing operational risk will only become more important. Circumstantial evidence that supervisory boards of many large enterprises in the banking sector do not have the necessary know-how to perform their functions properly is also worrying. To what extent has recruitment been on the basis of connections and political expediency, and not on the basis of merit and know-how? It is widely believed that the current crisis is an example of systemic risk becoming reality and that to prevent a recurrence, greater regulation, covering a wider range of participants in the financial markets, is necessary. However, Peter J. Wallison believes that there is as yet no evidence that the current crisis was the result of systemic risk, which is characterized by a kind of contagion. Instead, he opines that the crisis appears to have arisen from the failure of traditional regulated institutions to limit their risk-taking. Consequently he argues that the current crisis provides support for better supervision of traditionally regulated industries, but no warrant either for a systemic risk regulator or for the supervision of other participants in the financial markets that have not previously been regulated. Wallison believes that understanding the current crisis as a solvency problem seems correct. The underlying cause was the collapse of the housing bubble in the United States, aggravated by the fact that weak subprime and Alt-A loans were major constituents of the housing-related assets held by banks and other financial intermediarie s around the world. These mortgage loans, which are held mostly in the form of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), are defaulting at unprecedented rates. The difficulty of determining the value of the underlying mortgages has caused the market for these instruments to come to a virtual halt, and it has also engendered uncertainty about the solvency of the financial institutions that hold them. Until investors and counterparties are persuaded that these institutions are solvent, they will not be stable. He believes that seeing the crisis as a solvency problem rather than a liquidity problem also clarifies a lot about the major events of the last six months, beginning with the bailout of Bear Stearns. Therefore the underlying problem is not contagion or illiquidity but rather fear that others are not or will not be solvent or stable counterparties. The crisis instead arose from the fact that all these institutions invested heavily in the sam e weak assets-primarily MBS and CDOs backed in whole or in part by subprime and Alt-A mortgages. Conclusion The fact that the current financial crisis is caused by doubts about the solvency of almost all of the worlds major financial institutions sets it apart from any other financial crisis in history. The failure of a large number of insured depository institutions and investment banks shows that better regulation and better regulatory tools are warranted. The current crisis has demonstrated that globalisation is a real and irreversible phenomenon. We have a world market and a world system of trade that are interlinked in many ways. A crisis in the USA, or even in Iceland, is a crisis that affects us all. Solutions cannot be national, as has been adequately demonstrated over the last few weeks. They have to be co-coordinated. Greater preparedness and the ability to coordinate action on a global scale may yet prove to be the lasting legacy of the current crisis. But, across the world, regulators need to continually assess how evolving industry structures and institutional roles are c hanging the nature of risk, both for individual institutions and for the whole system, and if necessary to adapt the coverage of  prudential regulation over time. All along, it has been known that market events and economic trends are interwoven on a global basis. But the events of the last year have shown that the connections are more direct and immediate than previously appreciated. All in all, I believe that it is safe to argue that though failure in regulation did contribute to the financial crisis, other criteria such as bad risk management practices, moral hazard, lack of transparency coupled with the greed of banks and self-interest of investors, lack of knowledge of the financial instruments being dealt with (CDOs) as well as lack of monitoring of the credit rating agencies all contributed and aggravated the crisis to varying degrees.

Soundtrack of Your Life - 1337 Words

Aleesah Brown English 113-51 16 April 2011 Paper 1 â€Å"The Soundtrack of Your Life† Music is a key factor in my life, now and has been for as long as I remember. Music is one thing that can control my mood and emotions unlike any other. The sounds and melodies of the composition have the potential to sway my moods from a dark gloomy state all the way to a joyous and soothing harmonic atmosphere. Music allows me to control how and what I want to be, or represent. Music is almost like picking out a favorite outfit. When one picks out an outfit to wear they most likely pick an outfit that expresses them and how they are feeling at that direct moment. They have the ability to change shoes, accessories, or their hairstyle to make it†¦show more content†¦Finally, I would like to introduce the classic song off of the movie â€Å"Space Jam† that has respectively impacted my life. This song simply is real and to me defies the essential steps in creating growth in myself. This song teaches that one must be able to see and visualize themselves in an instance in order to â€Å"touch the sky† or in other words overcome an obstacle that would once never be thought of or made possible. This song is none other than the 1996 billboard topping hit ofShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of The Poem Radiohead 1745 Words   |  7 PagesRadiohead, in a Motion Picture Soundtrack, tie together the negative effects of popularity and pop culture. By leaving out the more optimistic view of fame, it prevents the sugar-coating of details. This technique, while dreary and glum, sets the perfect tone for the writer to reach the reader on subjects not frequently talked about. Ironically, in order to ‘shine light’ upon this topic, Radiohead creates as gloomy and dark of an environment as possible to convey their ideas. Within the song itselfRead MoreAnalysis Of The Movie Dark Souls Ost 1417 Words   |  6 Pagesarea will stand up or stumble. Motoi Sakuraba announces his presence with the grandiose opening theme â€Å"Prologue†. Listeners familiar with the soundtrack to Valkyrie Profile 2 will recognize the subtle build of harp and strings into an unlashing of full orchestral tutti. However, it’s the next track that truly defines the bleaker timbre of this soundtrack. â€Å"Firelink Shrine† is the piece for the hub area of the game, as with most adventure games, a place for the player to rest and prepare for theRead MoreAnalysis Of The Movie The Revenant 1424 Words   |  6 Pagesmother that soon nearly claw and bite Glass to death. According to The Telegraph, this scene is â€Å" drunk on blockbuster quantities of self-importance and with the coppery tang of machismo pricking on its palate†(Collins). The movie has an excellent soundtrack in the majority of the scenes, however in this scene there is no music. 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Part Three Chapter IV Free Essays

IV ‘Very sad,’ said Howard Mollison, rocking a little on his toes in front of his mantelpiece. ‘Very sad indeed.’ Maureen had just finished telling them all about Catherine Weedon’s death; she had heard everything from her friend Karen the receptionist that evening, including the complaint from Cath Weedon’s granddaughter. We will write a custom essay sample on Part Three Chapter IV or any similar topic only for you Order Now A look of delighted disapproval was crumpling her face; Samantha, who was in a very bad mood, thought she resembled a monkey nut. Miles was making conventional sounds of surprise and pity, but Shirley was staring up at the ceiling with a bland expression on her face; she hated it when Maureen held centre stage with news that she ought to have heard first. ‘My mother knew the family of old,’ Howard told Samantha, who already knew it. ‘Neighbours in Hope Street. Cath was decent enough in her way, you know. The house was always spotless, and she worked until she was into her sixties. Oh, yes, she was one of the world’s grafters, Cath Weedon, whatever the rest of the family became.’ Howard was enjoying giving credit where credit was due. ‘The husband lost his job when they closed the steelworks. Hard drinker. No, she didn’t always have it easy, Cath.’ Samantha was barely managing to look interested, but fortunately Maureen interrupted. ‘And the Gazette’s on to Dr Jawanda!’ she croaked. ‘Imagine how she must be feeling, now the paper’s got it! Family’s kicking up a stink – well, you can’t blame them, alone in that house for three days. D’you know her, Howard? Which one is Danielle Fowler?’ Shirley got up and stalked out of the room in her apron. Samantha slugged a little more wine, smiling. ‘Let’s think, let’s think,’ said Howard. He prided himself on knowing almost everyone in Pagford, but the later generations of Weedons belonged more to Yarvil. ‘Can’t be a daughter, she had four boys, Cath. Granddaughter, I expect.’ ‘And she wants an inquiry,’ said Maureen. ‘Well, it was always going to come to this. It’s been on the cards. If anything, I’m surprised it’s taken this long. Dr Jawanda wouldn’t give the Hubbards’ son antibiotics and he ended up hospitalized for his asthma. Do you know, did she train in India, or – ?’ Shirley, who was listening from the kitchen while she stirred the gravy, felt irritated, as she always did, by Maureen’s monopolization of the conversation; that, at least, was how Shirley put it to herself. Determined not to return to the room until Maureen had finished, Shirley turned into the study and checked to see whether anyone had sent in apologies for the next Parish Council meeting; as secretary, she was already putting together the agenda. ‘Howard – Miles – come and look at this!’ Shirley’s voice had lost its usual soft, flutey quality; it rang out shrilly. Howard waddled out of the sitting room followed by Miles, who was still in the suit he had worn all day at work. Maureen’s droopy, bloodshot, heavily mascara-ed eyes were fixed on the empty doorway like a bloodhound’s; her hunger to know what Shirley had found or seen was almost palpable. Maureen’s fingers, a clutch of bulging knuckles covered in translucent leopard-spotted skin, slid the crucifix and wedding ring up and down the chain around her neck. The deep creases running from the corners of Maureen’s mouth to her chin always reminded Samantha of a ventriloquist’s dummy. Why are you always here? Samantha asked the older woman loudly, inside her own head. You couldn’t make me lonely enough to live in Howard and Shirley’s pocket. Disgust rose in Samantha like vomit. She wanted to seize the over-warm cluttered room and mash it between her hands, until the royal china, and the gas fire, and the gilt-framed pictures of Miles broke into jagged pieces; then, with wizened and painted Maureen trapped and squalling inside the wreckage, she wanted to heave it, like a celestial shot-putter, away into the sunset. The crushed lounge and the doomed crone inside it, soared in her imagination through the heavens, plunging into the limitless ocean, leaving Samantha alone in the endless stillness of the universe. She had had a terrible afternoon. There had been another frightening conversation with her accountant; she could not remember much of her drive home from Yarvil. She would have liked to offload on Miles, but after dumping his briefcase and pulling off his tie in the hall he had said, ‘You haven’t started dinner yet, have you?’ He sniffed the air ostentatiously, then answered himself. ‘No, you haven’t. Well, good, because Mum and Dad have invited us over.’ And before she could protest, he had added sharply, ‘It’s nothing to do with the council. It’s to discuss arrangements for Dad’s sixty-fifth.’ Anger was almost a relief; it eclipsed her anxiety, her fear. She had followed Miles out to the car, cradling her sense of ill-usage. When he asked, at last, on the corner of Evertree Crescent, ‘How was your day?’ she answered, ‘Absolutely bloody fantastic.’ ‘Wonder what’s up?’ said Maureen, breaking the silence in the sitting room. Samantha shrugged. It was typical of Shirley to have summoned her menfolk and left the women in limbo; Samantha was not going to give her mother-in-law the satisfaction of showing interest. Howard’s elephantine footsteps made the floorboards under the hall carpet creak. Maureen’s mouth was slack with anticipation. ‘Well, well, well,’ boomed Howard, lumbering back into the room. ‘I was checking the council website for apologies,’ said Shirley, a little breathless in his wake. ‘For the next meeting – ‘ ‘Someone’s posted accusations about Simon Price,’ Miles told Samantha, pressing past his parents, seizing the role of announcer. ‘What kind of accusations?’ asked Samantha. ‘Receiving stolen goods,’ said Howard, firmly reclaiming the spotlight, ‘and diddling his bosses at the printworks.’ Samantha was pleased to find herself unmoved. She had only the haziest idea who Simon Price was. ‘They’ve posted under a pseudonym,’ Howard continued, ‘and it’s not a particularly tasteful pseudonym, either.’ ‘Rude, you mean?’ Samantha asked. ‘Big-Fat-Cock or something?’ Howard’s laughter boomed through the room, Maureen gave an affected shriek of horror, but Miles scowled and Shirley looked furious. ‘Not quite that, Sammy, no,’ said Howard. ‘No, they’ve called themselves â€Å"The Ghost of Barry Fairbrother†.’ ‘Oh,’ said Samantha, her grin evaporating. She did not like that. After all, she had been in the ambulance while they had forced needles and tubes into Barry’s collapsed body; she had watched him dying beneath the plastic mask; seen Mary clinging to his hand, heard her groans and sobs. ‘Oh, no, that’s not nice,’ said Maureen, relish in her bullfrog’s voice. ‘No, that’s nasty. Putting words into the mouths of the dead. Taking names in vain. That’s not right.’ ‘No,’ agreed Howard. Almost absent-mindedly, he strolled across the room, picked up the wine bottle and returned to Samantha, topping up her empty glass. ‘But someone out there doesn’t care about good taste it seems, if they can put Simon Price out of the running.’ ‘If you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking, Dad,’ said Miles, ‘wouldn’t they have gone for me rather than Price?’ ‘How do you know they haven’t, Miles?’ ‘Meaning?’ asked Miles swiftly. ‘Meaning,’ said Howard, the happy cynosure of all eyes, ‘that I got sent an anonymous letter about you a couple of weeks ago. Nothing specific. Just said you were unfit to fill Fairbrother’s shoes. I’d be very surprised if the letter didn’t come from the same source as the online post. The Fairbrother theme in both, you see?’ Samantha tilted her glass a little too enthusiastically, so that wine trickled down the sides of her chin, exactly where her own ventriloquist’s doll grooves would no doubt appear in time. She mopped her face with her sleeve. ‘Where is this letter?’ asked Miles, striving not to look rattled. ‘I shredded it. It was anonymous; it didn’t count.’ ‘We didn’t want to upset you, dear,’ said Shirley, and she patted Miles’ arm. ‘Anyway, they can’t have anything on you,’ Howard reassured his son, ‘or they’d have dished the dirt, the same as they have on Price.’ ‘Simon Price’s wife is a lovely girl,’ said Shirley with gentle regret. ‘I can’t believe Ruth knows anything about it, if her husband’s been on the fiddle. She’s a friend from the hospital,’ Shirley elaborated to Maureen. ‘An agency nurse.’ ‘She wouldn’t be the first wife who hasn’t spotted what’s going on under her nose,’ retorted Maureen, trumping insider knowledge with worldly wisdom. ‘Absolutely brazen, using Barry Fairbrother’s name,’ said Shirley, pretending not to have heard Maureen. ‘Not a thought for his widow, his family. All that matters is their agenda; they’ll sacrifice anything to it.’ ‘Shows you what we’re up against,’ said Howard. He scratched the overfold of his belly, thinking. ‘Strategically, it’s smart. I saw from the get-go that Price was going to split the pro-Fields vote. No flies on Bends-Your-Ear; she’s realized it too and she wants him out.’ ‘But,’ said Samantha, ‘it mightn’t have anything to do with Parminder and that lot at all. It could be from someone we don’t know, someone who’s got a grudge against Simon Price.’ ‘Oh, Sam,’ said Shirley, with a tinkling laugh, shaking her head. ‘It’s easy to see you’re new to politics.’ Oh, fuck off, Shirley. ‘So why have they used Barry Fairbrother’s name, then?’ asked Miles, rounding on his wife. ‘Well, it’s on the website, isn’t it? It’s his vacant seat.’ ‘And who’s going to trawl through the council website for that kind of information? No,’ he said gravely, ‘this is an insider.’ An insider †¦ Libby had once told Samantha that there could be thousands of microscopic species inside one drop of pond water. They were all perfectly ridiculous, Samantha thought, sitting here in front of Shirley’s commemorative plates as if they were in the Cabinet Room in Downing Street, as though one bit of tittle-tattle on a Parish Council website constituted an organized campaign, as though any of it mattered. Consciously and defiantly, Samantha withdrew her attention from the lot of them. She fixed her eyes on the window and the clear evening sky beyond, and she thought about Jake, the muscular boy in Libby’s favourite band. At lunchtime today, Samantha had gone out for sandwiches, and brought back a music magazine in which Jake and his bandmates were interviewed. There were lots of pictures. ‘It’s for Libby,’ Samantha had told the girl who helped her in the shop. ‘Wow, look at that. I wouldn’t kick him out of bed for eating toast,’ replied Carly, pointing at Jake, naked from the waist up, his head thrown back to reveal that thick strong neck. ‘Oh, but he’s only twenty-one, look. I’m not a cradle-snatcher.’ Carly was twenty-six. Samantha did not care to subtract Jake’s age from her own. She had eaten her sandwich and read the interview, and studied all the pictures. Jake with his hands on a bar above his head, biceps swelling under a black T-shirt; Jake with his white shirt open, abdominal muscles chiselled above the loose waistband of his jeans. Samantha drank Howard’s wine and stared out at the sky above the black privet hedge, which was a delicate shade of rose pink; the precise shade her nipples had been before they had been darkened and distended by pregnancy and breast-feeding. She imagined herself nineteen to Jake’s twenty-one, slender-waisted again, taut curves in the right places, and a strong flat stomach of her own, fitting comfortably into her white, size ten shorts. She vividly recalled how it felt to sit on a young man’s lap in those shorts, with the heat and roughness of sun-warmed denim under her bare thighs, and big hands around her lithe waist. She imagined Jake’s breath on her neck; she imagined turning to look into the blue eyes, close to the high cheekbones and that firm, carved mouth †¦ ‘†¦ at the church hall, and we’re getting it catered by Bucknoles,’ said Howard. ‘We’ve invited everyone: Aubrey and Julia – everyone. With luck it will be a double celebration, you on the council, me, another year young †¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ Samantha felt tipsy and randy. When were they going to eat? She realized that Shirley had left the room, hopefully to put food on the table. The telephone rang at Samantha’s elbow, and she jumped. Before any of them could move, Shirley had bustled back in. She had one hand in a flowery oven glove, and picked up the receiver with the other. ‘Double-two-five-nine?’ sang Shirley on a rising inflection. ‘Oh †¦ hello, Ruth, dear!’ Howard, Miles and Maureen became rigidly attentive. Shirley turned to look at her husband with intensity, as if she were transmitting Ruth’s voice through her eyes into her husband’s mind. ‘Yes,’ fluted Shirley. ‘Yes †¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ Samantha, sitting closest to the receiver, could hear the other woman’s voice but not make out the words. ‘Oh, really †¦?’ Maureen’s mouth was hanging open again; she was like an ancient baby bird, or perhaps a pterodactyl, hungering for regurgitated news. ‘Yes, dear, I see †¦ oh, that shouldn’t be a problem †¦ no, no, I’ll explain to Howard. No, no trouble at all.’ Shirley’s small hazel eyes had not wavered from Howard’s big, popping blue ones. ‘Ruth, dear,’ said Shirley, ‘Ruth, I don’t want to worry you, but have you been on the council website today? †¦ Well †¦ it’s not very nice, but I think you ought to know †¦ somebody’s posted something nasty about Simon †¦ well, I think you’d better read it for yourself, I wouldn’t want to †¦ all right, dear. All right. See you Wednesday, I hope. Yes. Bye bye.’ Shirley replaced the receiver. ‘She didn’t know,’ Miles stated. Shirley shook her head. ‘Why was she calling?’ ‘Her son,’ Shirley told Howard. ‘Your new potboy. He’s got a peanut allergy.’ ‘Very handy, in a delicatessen,’ said Howard. ‘She wanted to ask whether you could store a needleful of adrenalin in the fridge for him, just in case,’ said Shirley. Maureen sniffed. ‘They’ve all got allergies these days, children.’ Shirley’s ungloved hand was still clutching the receiver. She was subconsciously hoping to feel tremors down the line from Hilltop House. How to cite Part Three Chapter IV, Essay examples