What are the differences and similarities between Catherine and Myrtle in The Great Gatsby?

Catherine and Myrtle are sisters. Catherine is unmarried and lives in New York City and Myrtle is married but involved in an affair with Tom Buchanan. At the party in Catherine's apartment (Chapter 2), Catherine tells Nick about all the wonderful places she has visited. This scene establishes Catherine as a character who is adventurous and easily bored. Similarly, Myrtle frequently complains to anyone who will listen about her husband Wilson, a near-blind auto-mechanic who lives with Myrtle outside of the city. Therefore, Catherine is similar to Myrtle (who frequently leaves her boorish husband in order to fraternize with the more exciting Tom Buchanan) because they both are unsatisfied with their lives and are searching for something more. However, they are different because Catherine repeatedly proves to be the more conscientious of the two, for she provides the apartment in which Myrtle conducts her affair (thereby saving her sister's reputation) and rushes to Myrtle's aid after Tom breaks her nose during the fight in that same apartment. 

Write the character sketch of young Jefferson of Three Men In a Boat, who was learning to play the bagpipes.

The narrator introduces us to this character in Chapter XIV of Three Men in a Boat. He says that he once knew a young fellow who was learning to play the bagpipes. But no matter where the man tried to practice, people were offended or even scared by the whiny sounds. From what little we’re told about him, it seems as though he was nevertheless quite determined to learn the nuances of the instrument, even if it meant that he was banished to practice at the other end of the property, away from everyone else. The narrator felt sorry for him:

There is, it must be confessed, something very sad about the early efforts of an amateur in bagpipes. I have felt that myself when listening to my young friend. They appear to be a trying instrument to perform upon.

No matter what the man did, it seemed he didn’t have the lung capacity to play the demanding instrument at length. He learned to play only one song successfully; but still, many people couldn’t identify the tune. Jefferson – whose name we are told only towards the end of the story – didn’t have the strength or the talent to make a go of it. And no one else supported him in his endeavor. He should have been applauded for making the attempt at such a challenge. But obviously, he was going to have to find something else to be good at. The narrator doesn’t tell us if Jefferson gave up the bagpipes and landed upon another occupation. Yet this is probably the logical conclusion to this character’s story. He would have to go through a process of self-realization first, because no one else seemed to want to tell him the truth about his music.

How would you balance the equation KOH + Ca(OH)2 ?

No reaction will take place when potassium hydroxide is mixed with calcium hydroxide.

Thus, KOH + Ca(OH)2 ---> no reaction

This is because both potassium and calcium are metals and will dissociate to form cations. The only anions are hydroxide ions, however. Hence, the possible new compounds are also the hydroxides of potassium and calcium. Thus, no reaction will take place and we don't have an equation to balance. 

If we mix potassium hydroxide and calcium chloride, we will have a reaction, which can be written as

KOH + CaCl2 -> KCl + Ca(OH)2

This equation is not balanced, since the number of atoms of each species should be the same on both sides of the equation. Here, chlorine (Cl), hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) are not balanced.

The well balanced equation for this reaction is:

`2KOH + CaCl2 -> 2KCl + Ca(OH)2`

We can check that all the species have the same number of atoms on the reactant and product side and hence the equation is balanced.

Hope this helps. 

How long do the narrator's parents plan to live in the house on Mango Street?

The very first vignette in the book is also titled "The House on Mango Street." In it, Esperanza explains that her family was living on the third floor of an apartment building on a street called Loomis. They had to leave because the pipes broke and their stingy landlord wouldn't fix them. Her parents had always dreamed of buying a luxurious home, which had everything they ever wanted; so when they moved to the house on Mango Street, she was very disappointed. Her mother tells her that living on this street is only "For the time being;" and Papa says that it is only "Temporary" (5). The fact that her parents tell her that they won't be there forever gives Esperanza hope that she and her family will one day leave the barrio. Unfortunately, her hopes change over the course of the book from leaving with her family to just leaving by herself as she grows up. One year drags on to the next until the narrator says that she will buy her own house one day.

Why is Tybalt to blame for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet?

In Act I, Scene 1, when Romeo comes on the scene after the street fight which opens the play, he makes the comment that, while the feud between the Montagues and Capulets is based in hatred, it has more to do with a love for fighting:

O me! What fray was here?
Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all.
Here’s much to do with hate, but more with love.

This statement is quite true of Tybalt, Juliet's cousin. He is one of the instigators of the street brawl and seems bent on perpetuating the feud in any way possible. His anger and aggression are one of the major causes which lead Romeo and Juliet to commit suicide at the end of the play.

In Act I, Scene 5, he overhears Romeo speaking at Capulet's party and, when dissuaded by Capulet from fighting Romeo on the spot, vows revenge and sends a letter of challenge to Romeo. In the meantime, Romeo falls madly in love with Juliet and they marry before Romeo ever hears of the challenge. 

In Act III, Scene 1, Tybalt acts on his challenge by seeking out Romeo in the streets. He first comes upon Mercutio and the two trade insults before Romeo enters. When addressed as a "villain" by Tybalt, Romeo immediately backs down because he has just married Juliet. He even suggests that he loves Tybalt. Of course, neither Tybalt nor Mercutio know of Romeo and Juliet's romance and they wind up fighting. Unfortunately, Romeo is unable to stop the sword fight and Mercutio is eventually stabbed by Tybalt who then runs away. Had the scene ended here, Romeo and Juliet may have continued their lives and eventually even announced their marriage and brought the families together just as Friar Laurence had hoped when he performed the marriage.

Despite having already killed one man, "the furious Tybalt" returns to the scene. Obviously, his love of fighting has not been satisfied. Feeling he has been cowardly and "effeminate," Romeo fights Tybalt and promptly kills him. It could certainly be argued that Tybalt's return, and his death at the hands of Romeo, lead directly to the mischief which occurs in the second half of the play. Lord Capulet, believing Juliet to be grieving over her cousin's death, arranges a "day of joy" by promising Juliet to Count Paris. This plan puts Juliet in a problematic situation and ends in her faking her death and the other circumstances which lead to the final suicides of Romeo and Juliet. Tybalt, playing out his role as the main catalyst of feud, is easily blamed for the final tragic events.  

How old was Mona Lisa when she was drawn by Leonardo da Vinci?

It’s difficult to give an exact age, but we can estimate.

The Mona Lisa, painted by Leonardo da Vinci, depicts Lisa (Gherardini) del Giocondo, the third wife of a wealthy merchant in Florence, Italy.

We know she was born in 1479. We also know the portrait itself had to have been painted sometime between 1503 and 1506. da Vinci, who had been a mapmaker in the Italian military, only returned to Florence in 1503, and by 1506 he had already left for Milan. Although we’re not quite sure how long the painting took, the model would have only needed to be present in the beginning. Assuming that Lisa del Giocondo sat for the portrait in 1503, this would put her age at around 24.

Why does Darnay pay to have an escort to Paris in Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities?

Darnay needs an escort for his safe passage to Paris because he has been born a French aristocrat, and a particular one, at that.

In Book the Third, Chapter I, Dickens depicts every village and every town gate as having its own band of citizen-patriots with their muskets in "a most explosive state of readiness." These "red-caps" or sans-culottes,* as they were called, are the revolutionaries, who like Madame Defarge, have registered their enemies in lists of their own and often exercise a capricious judgment when stopping the "comers and goers."

Perhaps because he is a particular emigrant, Darnay is spared immediate death, and is, instead, awakened in the night and told that he must pay for escorts. The two men who escort him allow Darnay to ride his own horse, but they have a line tied to its bridle which they hold.

When they reach the town of Beauvais, the main reason for Darnay's escorts then becomes apparent. "Down with the emigrant!" is a shout from many; a farrier curses him, "Judged!....Aye, and condemned as a traitor." Hearing him, the crowd shouts its approval, so the escorts and the postmaster hurry Darnay's horse into a yard and shut the gates against the rushing crowd.

Further in the narrative, as Darnay is escorted to Paris, he moves from being a "free traveler and French citizen" to becoming a prisoner handed over to Monsieur Defarge. As he stands before a desk on which registers lie, Darnay hears, "Is this the emigrant Evremonde?" After this, he is questioned and conducted to La Force where he is handed over to the jailer with a note reading "in secret." Darnay is placed in a cell by himself. 
It is, thus, apparent that Darnay has had two particular escorts and has been turned over to M. Defarge because his name has been knitted into her list, and his is a special name.

* sans-culotte (a name given to the revolutionaries) = without shorter pants. It was the aristocracy who wore the shortened pants (culottes) with stockings