An Explication of Washing Day :: Washing Day

An Explication of Washing Day One Source Cited The poem Washing Day by Anna Letitia Barbauld illustrates two different points of view of the events that are happening on washing day. The first view is how the people surrounding the author feel towards the chores to be done that day. The second is the view from the author when she was a child, observing all that is happening. The idea of the poem is to bring to the reader's attention the joy and innocence of childhood, while at the same time noting the importance of the events of the day. The author accomplishes this by her choice of words used to describe the various tasks. As soon as the poem begins, the reader detects a feeling of melancholy. The opening line "The Muses are turned gossips" immediately creates a negative tone. Muses (inspirations) are usually thought of as being good and uplifting, here they are being turned into something that is generally thought of as being bad. As the poem continues, a sense of sarcasm can be detected at the end of the author's reference to this day. She details the way the women ("domestic Muse") come from where they live in a most woeful way "prattling on" and going by mud where there are drowning flies and an old shoe. Then she ends this section by saying, "Come, Muse; and sing the dreaded Washing-Day." If something is dreaded, a person is not going to be singing about it, even though the men would probably like to see that. The description of marriage in the next line is interestingly negative. " Beneath the yoke of wedlock bend,..." a yoke is put on an ox which is a beast of burden! I suppose the w omen feel exactly this way because they seem to have no choice in the matter. As the women are getting ready the sky looks as though it is going to rain, which makes the task even worse. Barbauld's description of the attitude at the breakfast table continues the melancholy. She uses the word "silent" and "dispatched" to depict breakfast, words that are not associated with an enjoyable meal (line 19). The next few lines illustrate the effect of the rain on such a day.

Why Wait for Tomorrow? Why Not Now?

This article â€Å"More Testing More Learning† is written by Patrick O’ Malley. In this article O’ Malley is talking about how to make a students learning more easily than it is. The word more testing and more learning mean that if we test more then it makes easier for us to learn and understand more. In this passage Patrick says that students today are so lazy to study on time, they only study when their midterms or finals are near, which gets them worried about their studies. He said that if one student have got C in his midterm then he thinks that final is the only chance for him to get through his class or it could break him and he could flung in it. O’ Malley has given amazing suggestions in this article which could improve students’ academic and will be helpful for him to learn better. O’ Malley has a strong point, that if teachers could give more in class tests or quizzes after every part or at the end of every chapter, then it would be helpful for its student and will improve in students educational knowledge. It’s true that education has always played an important part in our lives, but studying without understanding ever helps one in its professional life. We have seen a lot of college students including myself like to study a night before our exams, which could give us a result of a failure. Our results are based on our learning power, and if our learning power is lesser then the course material then it will make us feel as if we are in some deep trouble. The problem is not that we are in some trouble of failing the course or getting dropped from class because we can’t make it, but the problem is that our teachers should encourage us and make our course easier for us to understand. How can a teacher do that? As O’ Malley said by give student’s in-class tests, quizzes after every chapter or part of study, and give assignments to do, so that they both know how weak student is in particular subject. Taking these types of exams more frequently will encourage student to change its habit, and develop its learning skills. At the other hand as per the argument goes on between professors that a frequent exam seems to create more problems, therefore there are many other alternate scenarios to achieve the same criteria. First one is to introduce a program which will work on improving students study skills. Whereas this program should teach a student how to be prepared for exams, moreover this might won’t be helpful in getting rid of that worry and anxiety, but it will get through them. The second scenario is to give them in class questions to do. These questions will help them work on their timing. Like for an example, if teacher is explaining a chapter on in present class and ask them some questions about that particular chapter in order to do a revision in next class will help them improving their timing for understanding and memorizing the course material for a big exam. Now the third and last scenario is about how to help student in preparation of their midterm and final exams. Before both exams teacher should provide students with some sort of a guess paper. Like giving some questions and idea of what is coming in exam and where it is coming from, so that it will be easier for a student to learn, because they know what is coming exam and from where. More testing makes us learn more. Everyone has their own ways to learn, some do it at the same time on same day and some delay them until their exams. If I would have to compare myself to this article I would more likely say that I come in students who waits until their exams are near. I have always agreed with the idea that if teacher will make learning easier for us by giving us in class tests, quizzes, by asking some questions on the other day of class to see that if student remembers what they learn in previous class, or by teacher giving a sample exam or they tell us what is coming in exam and what is not. These all ideas make it easier for me it has always worked. I still do have some teacher in present and past classes who always made it easy for me like my intro to business and music class teachers in last semester, and English and computer information teacher in present semester. In the end I would like to say that teachers do help, they always do, but it depends on us how often we understand and learn what is best for us to improve our skills. Like I said earlier that it is true that education is playing an important role in our life, but what’s the use of that kind of education in which we just learn to get rid of it. As a memorable saying by a person to person â€Å"Study what you like, study what you are good at, but study by understanding it not by getting rid of it†.

Vampires More Than A Modern Fantasy - 1538 Words

Emily Fischer 5/26/16 AP World History Period 2 Vampires: More Than a Modern Fantasy When you think of vampires, do you think of Twilight, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or Vampire Diaries? Or, do you think of ancient vampiric legends such as Lamastu, empusai, and even Vlad the Impaler? What if both modern vampire culture and the origins of vampirism were connected, not only by topic, but by relevance? Vampiric myths allow us to understand the history and those involved, as well as to relate to the present and view how current culture evolved into what it is. Although something usually thought as irrelevant and unusual, vampiric legends explain the continuity of humans to use scapegoats to explain the unknown, whether due to a lack of†¦show more content†¦She spread terror through villages, but was actually the cause of lack of medical knowledge. When miscarriages or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) occurred, ancient peoples did not understand, and therefore drew their own conclusions, conclusions that would help satisfy not only their lack of technology b ut also their misunderstanding of the world. Similarly, in ancient Greece, a myth of a demoness named Lamia was widespread. This legend originated from Greek gods and goddesses, for it was said that Lamia was originally a mistress of Zeus. Motivated by jealousy, Hera drove the poor lover insane, causing her to eat all of her 5 children. Once awoken from her daze, Lamia soon realized what she had done and transformed into a half-snake monster, cursed to eat human children and fetuses due to the jealousy she felt for their mothers. Additionally, a related myth sprouted among ancient Hebrew texts about a demoness named Lilith. According to the texts, Lilith, not Eve, was the wife of Adam, but left the Garden of Eden due to her disagreeance of God’s will for woman to be inferior to man. God sent angels after her, but she refused to enter Eden again, so the angels said they would kill 100 of Lilith’s children every single day until she came back to Eden. Lilith therefore sw ore to forever kidnap and devour human children, turning into a hideous monster. All three of these legends described the