In Act II, Scene 2, lines 33-49, what does Romeo overhear Juliet saying about him and about her feelings for him?

Act II, Scene 2 of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is the famous balcony scene. Romeo is sneaking around in one of the Capulet family's orchards, when he hears Juliet speaking from her bedroom window. She is speaking aloud to herself, and (to paraphrase) is bemoaning the fact that Romeo is a son of the family Montague. Why, of all the families he could belong to, must he be from the family which rivals her own? She wishes that one (or both) of them did not really belong to their families, so that they might be allowed to be together. Juliet feels she has fallen in love with Romeo, and she would love him just the same if he were not a Montague—so is a name really what's important? As much as Juliet has been taught to hate the Montagues, she has fallen in love with one! She urges Romeo—thought not knowing he is lurking below—to abandon his family name so they can be together. 

At this, Romeo speaks up and makes himself known to Juliet. He agrees that their family names are ridiculous, and if they are in love, they should be together.

How can teachers deal with overly crowded classes?

Overcrowding complicates every aspect of teaching. On the most basic level, the more students you have, the greater your workload. This means that you will need to pay close attention to managing your own workload and time. No matter how dedicated you are to your students, you will not be able to perform at your best if you are overworked and sleep-deprived; you may need to reduce the amount of work you assign or cut back on school-related voluntary or extracurricular activities.

The key to handling a large number of students is being well organized and having lessons meticulously planned. Unfortunately, this will reduce some of your flexibility as a teacher.

Discipline can be an issue as classrooms get more crowded. One way to handle this is to use assigned seating, placing children who are most likely to be disruptive towards the front of the classroom and separating children who tend to create mischief together.

As you will not be able to give as much individualized instruction in an overcrowded classroom, you should make sure to use support services such as tutoring centers as effectively as possible for at-risk students. Parents can sometimes be useful resources, as can volunteer organizations such as Big Brothers and Big Sisters. Another useful strategy is peer-group work in which you assign more advanced students to work in groups with weaker students. Online adaptive learning systems and related technology might also be useful as a supplement to or part of classroom instruction, giving the students individualized instruction that you do not have the time to provide. 

To what extent does a country engaging in more international trade lead to a higher rate of economic growth in that country?

Engaging in international trade can greatly promote a country's economic growth. Economic growth is defined as "an increase in the capacity of an economy to produce goods and services, compared from one period of time to another" (investopedia.com).

In other words, a country must find ways to obtain more goods and services than before to grow economically. In order to conceptualize the extent to which international trade can aid in this growth, it will be beneficial to examine a greatly simplified, fictitious scenario:

Say two countries called Greensville and Icetown open up their borders to trade with each other. Greensville can produce 100 bushels of wheat in an hour and only 20 snowcones per hour. Icetown, on the other hand, can produce 20 bushels of wheat per hour and 100 snowcones per hour. Let's say there are 8 hours of work available to these countries per day. If both countries were to spend 4 hours producing each good per day, Greensville would end up with 400 bushels of wheat and 80 snowcones per day, while Icetown would have 80 bushels of wheat and 400 snowcones every day.

If Greensville were to only produce wheat, while Icetown produces snowcones, they would have 800 bushels of wheat and 800 snowcones respectively. At first glance, this may seem like an issue, since now each country only has one good. This is where international trade comes in: Let's imagine that Greensville decides to trade 400 bushels of wheat for 400 of Icetown's snowcones. At the end of this transaction, each country now has 400 of each good. Let's compare the economies of these two countries with and without trade:

                        

                                             Without Trade

                         Greensville                                    Icetown

Wheat:                  400                                              80

Snowcones:           80                                              400

                     

                                              With Trade

                           Greensville                               Icetown

Wheat:                     400                                        400

Snowcones:             400                                        400

Clearly, engaging in international trade has made both Greensville and Icetown substantially better off. The same concept can be applied to the global economy, where some countries may not have the resources to produce one good as efficiently as another. By specializing in goods for which they have a comparative advantage and then trading their excess goods, countries can greatly increase their rates of economic growth.

I hope this helps!

How do the respiratory and nervous systems work together to maintain homeostasis?

Most of the regulation of respiration is handled by the medullary respiratory center, a section of the brain stem found in the medulla oblongata and the pons. The cerebral cortex can also override the brain stem and assert voluntary control over breathing, which is why we can hold our breath or intentionally breath rapidly.

Unless we're actively trying to control our breathing, respiration is handled almost entirely by the medullar respiratory center.

Homeostasis is maintained by a negative feedback loop; as sensor input comes in from the vagus and glossopharyngeal nerves about the status of the lungs and the concentration of oxygen and CO2 in the blood, the dorsal respiratory group adjusts the rate at which it sends rhythmic impulses through the phrenic nerves as well as the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar motor nerves, which cause the muscles of the diaphragm and intercostal muscles to trigger inhalation. The DRG doesn't seem to control exhalation directly; other nerve groups essentially trigger exhalation on the rhythm that the DRG sets. If oxygen gets too high, breathing is slowed; if oxygen gets too low, breathing is sped up.

This is the normal rhythm; if the body is placed under stress and requires more oxygen than normal (e.g. exercising, fight-or-flight response), then the ventral respiratory group takes over and triggers a faster breathing rhythm. There is a similar negative feedback loop to prevent breathing from getting too fast.

How did the U.S. affect East Asia in the 1800’s and 1900’s?

The US has had very different effects on East Asia at various points in the two hundred years that this question spans.  These effects have been felt through both trade and war.

The US started to impact East Asia in the mid-1800s.  At the time of the first Opium War, in the 1840s, the US (with British help) forced China to grant it special privileges within China.  The US was to have trade privileges in China and its citizens were exempt from Chinese laws.  Not long afterwards, the US had a major impact on the other main power in East Asia, Japan.  In 1853, American warships forced Japan to open itself to foreign trade.  For the rest of the century, the US mainly impacted East Asia through its trade.  Trade exposed East Asians to ideas from the US and Europe, changing the cultures of East Asian countries to some degree.

American trade with East Asia continued to affect the region throughout much of the 20th century.  This is particularly true of Japan, which was heavily influenced by American culture in the pre-WWII 1900s.  Japanese started to wear Western clothes and enjoy American music.  They started to play baseball.  They watched American movies.  Many English words entered the Japanese language.  This trend towards Westernization broke for a while during WWII, but then continued through much of the 20th century.

The US also affected East Asia militarily, mostly during WWII and the Cold War.  The US, of course, devastated Japan with bombing raids towards the end of WWII.  It then used its military might to impose a new constitution on Japan and to occupy the country for a few years after the war ended.  The US impacted Korea by dividing the country with the Soviet Union and then by fighting a war there.

After WWII, the US has mainly impacted East Asia as a trading partner.  US trade helped both Japan and South Korea boom in the post-war era.  At the very end of the 20th century, trade was starting to help China rise to greater wealth.  As the US has traded with these countries, it has created a complex relationship with them where the US impacts the Asian countries culturally and intellectually while running trade deficits with them and boosting their economies.

In these ways and many others, the US deeply affected East Asia during the two centuries that you mention here.

What is the irony in Shirley Jackson's short story "Charles"?

Shirley Jackson uses dramatic irony in her short story "Charles" about a young boy who is in his first year of school. Dramatic irony occurs when there is a contrast between what a reader realizes is true and what characters in the story believe. Throughout the story, young Laurie, who has just started Kindergarten, repeatedly comes home from school with stories about a classmate named Charles, who is continually in trouble and is portrayed by Laurie as being a bully and a brat. Charles torments other children, is disrespectful to the teachers and is often "fresh," as Laurie puts it. It should be apparent to the reader within the first few paragraphs that Laurie is just as disruptive as Charles. He hits his baby sister, is "fresh" to his father, and is all too happy to apply his own misdeeds to the fictional Charles. Thus, the reader already knows what the parents cannot bring themselves to believe: that Laurie is Charles.

Laurie's mother never suspects that her son, even though he is a terror at home, could really be as bad as Charles. She becomes more and more concerned that Charles might possibly be a bad influence, but the father simply believes that it's good for Laurie to meet such children—"Bound to be people like Charles in the world. Might as well meet them now as later." Both parents are in an obvious state of denial over Laurie's behavior. Finally, Laurie's mother attends a parent-teacher gathering and is anxious to find out about Charles. She is promptly informed by the Kindergarten teacher that there is no boy named Charles in the class and that all the teachers are very "interested" in Laurie. 

What does the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare suggest about the significance of the individual's response to threatening forces?

At the start of the play, we learn of Macbeth's bravery on the battlefield. Duncan praises him for this and this indicates that Macbeth is a loyal Thane of the king. However, Macbeth proves himself to be morally weak and easily persuaded to engage in murderous deeds in pursuit of his own gains. How much is this is due to his individual weakness and how much is it the power of external influences? 

There will always be debates about the witches themselves. Are they real or hallucinations? Do they merely suggest things to Macbeth or do they actually foresee things that are going to happen? In other words, do they simply present the possibility that Macbeth could become king (thereby leaving it up to him) or do they actually foresee what he is fated going to do? Or, if they are supernatural, do they unfairly cast a spell on Macbeth in this way and is it therefore not his fault? Is he at the mercy of their powerful influence? 

These questions can not be definitively answered. And this is useful for a discussion about the individual reacting to external influences as well as his own internal "voices." If Macbeth is reacting to real witches (forget for the moment that they have a supernatural advantage over him), this shows how the individual can be pressured and/or persuaded by others, by the culture, or any external influence. This is especially evident when the individual is persuaded with the promise of some kind of reward. If the witches are hallucinations, representing Macbeth's own desires and impulses, it shows how he (subconsciously) is blaming or attributing his own weakness on the external world. So, even in this case, Macbeth is reacting to what he thinks is the influence of the external world. 

Macbeth is also manipulated by his wife. This dynamic is the subject of debate as well. How much can we blame her? How much should we blame Macbeth for giving in to her malicious encouragement? 

The play suggests that this particular individual, Macbeth, is easily persuaded to commit horrible things in pursuit of selfish goals. It suggests one of two things, or perhaps a combination of the two: the individual is weak and quickly bends when faced with threatening influences and/or threatening influences in the external world are quite powerful and difficult for anyone to resist. 

Consider the parallels between the witches and our contemporary external influences. How do the witches compare with advertising and how we are persuaded to buy into things? How does political ideology make us act, vote, and behave in certain ways? How much does it show individual weakness? How much does it show the power of threatening or pervasive influence?