ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Introduction Shakespeare’s representation of the English Renaissance is featured by the imagination and picturing of the grief, which was the essential element of the Renaissance literature. Originally, King Lear is the play, created to reveal the theme of grief, sorrow and decline (both political and economic). The key topics, that are aimed to discuss the political background of the play are the justice, that authority and chaos, and, finally, reconciliation. Historical Age First of all it is necessary to mention, that the historical period, Shakespeare lived and created in was featured by the bloom of the philosophical considerations on the matters of perfect community, and the attempts to understand the matters of life, death, and history. The period of Shakespeare’s life was the period of the outstanding reigning of the Queen Elizabeth I. It was the period, when England became the blooming and leading European country, as the naval, and commercial spheres were rapidly developing. (Dollimore, 1994). The basic assumptions of the feudalism were openly challenged at that time with the support of Elizabeth, and then her successor John I. It was reasoned by the optimism for the human destiny, and the position of England in the world, as success promoted the further optimism, even in spite of the fact, that destiny may be rather changeable. Shakespeare, in his turn, preferred discovering the human nature, as regardless of the historical period. The human nature is not dependent on the economic welfare of the country, political power, which is on the throne, and the development level of the science. Shakespeare reveals the fact, that human is only interested in material. Almost all the characters in “the Tragedy of King Lear” think only about the inheritance and power, while those, who aim to get spiritual wealth, get expatriated. (Falco, 2003). Regarding the matters of historical materialism and the issues of new historicism it should be emphasized, that these approaches are rather similar in the context of the representation of human nature and the view of the world, which looks idealistic. Literature of that period is regarded as the provider of these idealistic views, as the rascals and villains get punished. On the other hand, new historicism presupposes literature as just the mirror of the time. The politics of renaissance represents numerous views, closely linked with human freedoms and dignity; however, King Lear is the complex for analyzing the issues of his politics through the prism of Renaissance, as this play is multi-layered and represents numerous aspects of monarchism, human nature and the issues of inter-human relations. Understanding King Lear The historical context of the play is rather multi-faceted. On the one hand, the action takes place in the Eight century BC. On the other hand, it is claimed to describe the human nature from the viewpoint of the Shakespeare’s time. It has numerous references for the Bible. Moreover, it represents the feudal str
Directed by Alan J. Pakula, Sophie’s Choice is a romantic masterpiece set in 1947 but released in 1982. Sophie’s Choice would easily pass for another Holocaust film; actually, looking at it superficially, one gets this impression. However, this film is more than just another Holocaust movie as it goes beyond that to cover life before, during and after the Holocaust. Flashes of what happened before; during, and after Sophie’s stay in the Auschwitz concentration camp expose how this atrocious experience affects her life until she finally dies after taking cyanide. As the film opens in 1947, Stingo arrives in Brooklyn and looks forward to embark on his writing career. One would expect the plot to delve into Stingo’s writing career. Unfortunately, the story line takes a major turn after Stingo hears a quarrel upstairs where Sophie and his boyfriend; Nathan, are living. Stingo goes upstairs to investigate only to meet Nathan who has just knocked down Sophie. What a ludicrous way to meet one’s neighbors for the first time. The following morning Sophie invites Stingo to a walk and she apologizes for the disruption they caused him the previous night. Nevertheless, this walk draws Stingo to Sophie who opens up and pours her past to him. It emerges that Sophie survived the Holocaust and this experience haunts her every time. Before this misfortune, Sophie had Josef as a lover with whom they had two children. Her family died in the hands of Gestapo while she does not know the fate of her son taken away by the Nazis. On the other side, Nathan is not haunted by any ghosts but is entangled in alcoholism coupled with mental imbalances. Though he works as an aid for a research group, he claims to own the research project that would actually earn him the Nobel Prize. He assaults Sophie but somehow she chooses to stick with him. After Stingo learns of Nathan’s mental imbalance, he (Nathan) threatens to kill both Sophie and Stingo forcing them to flee to a hotel. They become sexually intimate that night but Sophie sneaks out and goes back to Nathan. Stingo wakes up to find Sophie gone prompting him to pursue her. Unfortunately, by the time he reaches Nathan’s house, Nathan and Sophia have already taken cyanide and they are dead. One would wonder why this film has to title Sophie’s Choice. What choices did Sophie make? Well, the night that Sophie spends in a hotel with Stingo, she divulges the choices she had to make. During her stay in the concentration camps, she was forced to choose whom to die between the two of her children. By making no choice, she would risk losing both of them; therefore, she chose her son to live and her daughter to die. This was a debilitating choice but she had no better option. Sophie also made the choice to stick with Nathan even though he was abusive and irresponsible. Surely, this film is all about choices and the title given befits it perfectly. In life people have to
Introduction The military has been regarded as a man’s world. However there has emerged a new generation of women who have taken on the challenge of serving in combat. Not only do women serve in the military as subordinates, but there are many military women leaders. It may seem impossible for women leaders in the military to have cooperation from their subordinates in this egocentric world of combat, but the power of influence has worked for them. This is by applying the tool of transformational leadership. The purpose of this paper is to discuss transformational leadership in relation to women of armed forces. Military Women as Leaders Women have in the past been discriminated against during appointment of leadership positions in most organizations. The study of leadership in regard to women has been a topic full of contention but it has, in the recent past, undergone a major transition (Harper, 2004). Policies that protect women leaders from discrimination have increased numerously hence widening the scope of leadership opportunities for women. As a result, women are holding leadership positions in all domains of influence or interest in a way that has never been experienced before (Taylor, 2008). Leadership in combat is a topic that was in the past being tackled mostly using male admirals, leaving out women, who have a great potential of making good leaders in the military. Though there still remains some resentment and prejudice regarding women in the military, there has recently been an increase of women serving in this field and opportunities for military training for women are on the rise (Taylor, 2008). There is a continuous evolution on the attitudes and assumptions about women’s roles in military (Booher, 2007). Roles and Responsibilities Women play a great role in military. In the past, women were not allowed to handle machinery or to work in the infantry (Simon, 2001). Today, their role in military have changed from merely cooking, cleaning and nursing male soldiers to serving as military police, commanders, drivers, pilots of jet fighters, guards of prisoners and medics in battles (Carreiras, 2008). Women also serve very effectively as spies because they are not easily suspected, owing to the common assumption that women’s role is mainly domestic, not military. Historical Background From time immemorial, fighting in battles has been believed to be an area suitable for men only. This is because women have been believed to be both physically and emotionally fragile, and they cannot therefore cope with the physical strain or trauma that accompanies military wars (Carreiras, 2008). Therefore, women’s participation in military has been considered to be ‘indirect’ in that they have served as nurses and care givers to their male companions during war. Women used to participate during times of war by helping the men who were fighting or to nurse those that got hurt, but they were not allowed to involve themselves in the battle (Lindm, 2008). However, the number of women serving ‘directly’ in the military has conti
The short film Eating Out will serve as a background for the first analysis based on the pair attributes from the list. One of the main attributes characterizing the whole film is undoubtedly the pair consistency and unpredictability. Unpredictability is the main feature of the movie. From the beginning of the story the viewer does not know what to expect. Though, when the robbers enter the café the spectator starts to think that he has captured the main idea. However, the things go in the unpredictable way and that gives especial charm to the video. The actions come one after another, astonishing the viewer, though being quite consistent in its own way. The unpredictable ending completely confuses everyone by strange relations between man and woman. This also points out the next pair of attributes peculiar to this video – characterization and character interaction. The characters interaction composes the main sense of the video. Completely imperturbable behavior of the cook and the customer underlines the absurdness of the action and makes the opposition to the nervous and diffident robber. The pair causality and characters choices is also important here – the whole story is based on the relationships of the robbers and the girls choice to eat before taking the money, though in the end her attitude to her friend changes and she stays at the cafe leaning to the stranger. The last important thing here is the interplay of image and sound – the preparing meat, the man eating his portion, very loudly playing radio and constant noise of the rain are the only sounds at the beginning of the story which become blended only with the appearing of the robbers. The sound contributes greatly to the creation of the atmosphere of unpredictability and imperturbability. The second short movie is called Coffee and Cigarettes. It is made in the different style, though, it is also very unusual. The pair characterization and character interaction is very important here to, it even makes the frame of the story, which is based on the talk of two men at the table while drinking coffee and smoking. The character interaction becomes the core of the story – the fast, nervous gestures and the manner of speaking of the first man is opposed to the slow, calm manner of the second one. It is up to the viewer to decide whether it is because of coffee and cigarettes or it is just the usual manner for the first man – the view of the 5 cups of coffee and the ash-tray full of cigarette ends is shown very clear. However, their relations are developing from the acquaintance at the beginning to the agreement about going to the dentist in the end. The interplay of the image and sound plays great role to – the film is made in the black-white manner with the strange background – dirty and scuffed walls help to create the effect of being unpleasant to look at and this effect can be felt throughout the whole movie. The ending surprises the viewer and the
Introduction For many decades over the past period, mass media have played a vital role in disseminating significant information to the audience. Consequently, audiences have reciprocated these efforts by expressing loyalty to various television shows and radio shows. As a result, a large audience base is likely to be constituted depending on the host’s ability to draw as many audiences as possible. This has a mutual benefit between the host and the audience following them. The host is likely to benefit more than the audience in various instances as revealed in studies on the Oprah Winfrey’s shows. Television shows have hit the market more than the radio shows given the improved technological changes that allow television broadcasting share various shows on certain terms and conditions. The major expectations of audiences are learning, entertainment, advices, and more important, getting inspiration from the television shows. Since the introduction of The Oprah Winfrey Show, approximately 26 years ago, the show managed to draw many audiences across the world. Each episode could attract different audience, depending on the message and the hosted character. However, the show, just like many other business ventures had its odds and hardships leading to its last days in mid-2011. This came up after the host; Oprah Winfrey decided to concentrate on her OWN cable network that she had established January 2011. Love her or hate her, this lady with a very poor life background managed to conquer odds in life to an extent of becoming a superstar. From lags to riches, from Mississippi, Oprah improved on her weight, (although still struggling), created world recognition, inspired people undergoing hard times, and marketed herself among others. With her termination of the show, many audiences could not afford to watch her based on the expense in securing a Nielsen box to transmit the OWN programs, such as Oprah’s Next Chapter. The Television show triggered both motivational and inspirational powers to audience with assistance of books published by this host. The big question derived from the show could be; why did The Oprah Winfrey Show has to end despite rising into high popularity standards? (Goodale 1). Therefore, this study cultivated on various important issues contributed by the show, reasons attributing to termination of this television show and why self promotion is complicated. Research Questions Based on the study thesis, various questions will be formulated to ensure the study come up with a conclusive explanation of various weighty matters learned from The Oprah Winfrey Show. Therefore, the following research questions will guide the study;  1. What were the audiences’ expectations, lessons, and source of quest to continue watching the show both locally and globally?  2. Was it necessary for Oprah Winfrey to terminate her role in hoisting the show?  3. What are the highs and lows encountered in the journey to gain success as a public figure through self promotion?  4. Why did this show had to be terminated despite its source of inspiration
Introduction Meneseteung is one of the famous short stories of Alice Munro which was published in writer’s collection, Friend of My Youth (1990). Meneseteung is entitled without any specific implications it is just a name of river, Champlain as Munro’s themes are concerned with her love of recalling history of rural Ontario, Canada where she passed her life in youthful age. Munro employs such narrative techniques to continue flow of eventful descriptions from 1800s to the 1980s by giving informative descriptions of different thematic stories via newspaper clippings and excerpts from books, break off of narrative story and questionable narrative authenticity due to extensive range of narrative devices. The story of Meneseteung is developed gradually with manifold thematic sense to boost up curiosity of readers interestingly. Analysis Sometimes the story of Meneseteung gives historical theme by giving details about life of a Canadian frontierswoman who has to face a lot of bitter experiences in life by leading life in a male-dominated society. The story reflects the elemental features of male dominated society where pervasive vulgarity, indecency and dissipation are prominent and all story is narrated by an impartial narrator who describes different events in perspective of historical happenings by full coverage of interpolation. A reader can find out some biographical elements of author who tries to progress story by self-narrative style of depicting story. (1) Alice Munro’s stories have basic themes of love, romance, adventure, history, and horrors. The story of Meneseteung is described unidentified gender of a narrator who recites poetic verses of Almeda Joynt Roth from the book. The narrator’s descriptive style of poetry of Roth gives some historical background of poet’s life, shifting of here family in frontier of Canada West (modern-day Ontario), lamentable moments of life on deaths of her family members. The narrator describes major events of Roth’s life in 1879 when she had to live an isolated life in the house near Pearl and Dufferin streets after her parent’s death. The narrator gives comparison of both life style of living in old home and new one in the area of
Introduction The Wall Street Crash of 1929 was one of the most impactful events in the financial history of the United States that also influenced the flow of the global banking operations. When the Wall Street stock market evidenced a sudden crash on October 24, 1929 (“Black Thursday”), the global economy could not withstand the pressure and was forced into the Great Depression, which also affected the United Kingdom and its London Stock Exchange’s crash (Ganeri 2009). The image below depicts a photo of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle headline on October 24th: Newspaper Headlines I Figure 1. Newspaper headlines (Brooklyn Daily Eagle n.d.). Causes of the Wall Street Crash Before analysing the impact of the Crash on the global banking system (see table Bank Failures II), it is essential to mention key points that explain the causes of the event. Among the reasons for the Wall Street Crash were the collapse of prices on land, the supply of food and goods exceeding the demand, too much speculation in the stock market, as well as the fact that the United States lent substantiate amounts of financial resources to European countries. According to Amadeo (2017b) from The Balance, several days before the Crash, The New York Times released information about the exit of foreign investors from the stock market, short-selling, and margin sellers, which had a significant impact on spreading the panic. It is also noteworthy to mention that the Crash followed an “asset bubble,” which meant that the prices of stocks, housing, gold, and other assets were over-inflated, leading to the increases in the stock market by 20% every year since 1922 (Amadeo 2017a, para. 1). Lastly, the irrational spending that took place during the Roaring Twenties weakened the financial sector and thus made the stock market more vulnerable to changes that the economy could withstand had there been enough resources to do so. Social From the social perspective, the global society (predominantly American and European) felt the impact of the Great Depression immediately. People thought that the stock market crash was their fault, that they had spent too much previously and were paying for it (Hanakova 2015). The middle class that followed the principle of “personal gains” lost many jobs and had nothing to do during the Depression (Hanakova 2015, p. 45). Moreover, the mental attitude of the middle class changed significantly, leading to the shame of asking for help, to which they were not used. As mentioned by Hanakova (2015), “the majority of people were hit
There are two opposing views on the contemporary juvenile justice system in the United States. One of the postulates is that it has long ceased to be efficient and should be redesigned completely. The opponents of such radical measured argue that it is functional and that only some details need to be fixed. I support the second viewpoint because I do not think that revolutionary changes within a judicial system can contribute to the well-being of juveniles and the community, in general. I do understand that the modern juvenile justice program has a great number of limitations such as the underprivileged position of these people in the court, retributive punishments, red tape, poor allocation of responsibilities, and lack of support from the government (Whitehead & Lab, 2010; Blomberg et al, 2006). However, these drawbacks do not require dismantling, they can be dealt with separately. One has to remember that restructuring any judicial system is always a very time-consuming and expensive process. Some of these costs that will be entailed by this process can be spent more effectively, for instance, by funding those schools that educate former juvenile offenders. It seems that such an investment would be much more beneficial to the community. The supporters of radical measures believe that the juvenile justice system should be dismantled but they do not say what we do at the point when the old system is already non-existent, while the new one is still under development. Therefore, one should first understand how to bridge the gap between two systems. This gap can result in overgrown bureaucracy and even arbitrary treatment of juveniles. These are the reasons why I cannot advocate radical views about the juvenile justice system. Reference List Blomberg T. Blomberg J. Waldo G. Pesta G. & Bellows J. “Juvenile Justice Education, No Child Left Behind, and the National Collaboration Project” Juvenile Justice News. Web. Whitehead J. & Lab. S. (2010). Juvenile Justice, Sixth Edition . NY: Anderson.
Identifying Communicative Task Criteria The first selected activity is the creation of a list of interesting places that can be found in a city and neighborhood for a friend to visit them with a pupil. The main goal of the given activity is to use the new vocabulary that is learned regarding the particular topic, master communication skills, and promote the ability to use these words in dialogues of various communicational situations. The given activity can be used during the application and extension phase for learners to perform targeted goals and tasks. It also meets the criteria of a well-constructed communicative task as it is a meaningful and contextualized exercise (Larsen-Freeman & Anderson, 2013). It is focused on the improvement of skills regarding a particular context and vocabulary. Another activity is making arrangements for the arrival of foreign exchange students which also implies reading their messages and create a plan of action. The main goal of this task is to ensure the improved understanding of new words, to develop the ability to use them while constructing texts, cultivate working in groups, and presentation skills. It can be a part of the assimilation phase as the teacher should control some activities and monitor if the task and vocabulary are clear for learners, and they can engage in the group work. It is a contextualized sort of work with multiple options for choosing which provides students with more opportunities for the development of their language skills. The given tasks can also be adopted to achieve various goals while working with students; however, it is critical to consider the current demands for students and classes. For instance, the second activity can be changed by eliminating the phase with reading messages; instead, students can create their presentations using the offered vocabulary or contexts. It will have to reduce the time and achieve better effectiveness while mastering a certain vocabulary. Understanding Instructional Sequencing Regarding the existing demands to the organization of dialogues, the following sequence can be suggested:  1. Play the dialogue on the tape.  2. Explain unknown words.  3. Read the dialogue out loud while students are listening.  4. Read each line out loud, having student