In Macbeth Act IV scene 1, how is Macbeth isolated mentally, politically and socially?

Throughout the course of the play, Macbeth deteriorates as a character. He plunges deeper and deeper into sin and manipulation. When Macbeth began making these poor choices, he began isolating himself from his wife, his friends, and himself. Overwhelming ambition can cause individuals to draw inward into isolation. In Act IV Scene 1, Macbeth is confronting the witches. He is tired of living in constant fear, and he wants answers no matter what the cost. At this point in the play, he has isolated himself from his wife and from the other nobles of Scotland. His isolation is clearly seen in this scene. As the witches reveal the prophecy, we as readers understand that he is isolated mentally. He is not thinking clearly. He is solely focused on himself and how he can maintain his kingship. He is also isolated politically. No one wants him to be king. The witches tell him that Banquo's descendants will become kings. This prophecy causes Macbeth even more distress, which causes him to further isolate himself politically. Finally, Macbeth is isolated socially. He stops sharing his plans with his wife. He doesn't want any advice from anyone. He says, "From this moment The very firstlings of my heart shall be The firstlings of my hand. And even now, To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done" (Act IV Scene 1). Essentially, Macbeth is saying "I am going to do what I want to do no matter what." This line of thinking caused him to be isolated socially. Act IV Scene 1 highlights just how far Macbeth has gone off the path.

What is Dill's claim to fame in To Kill a Mockingbird?

Dill’s claim to fame is that he won a Beautiful Child contest.

The children meet Dill when he comes to stay with his Aunt Rachel during the summer.  They are fascinated with him because he is a new kid, and he seems a bit unique.  Dill tells them his life story, including a tidbit about how he won five dollars. 

His family was from Maycomb County originally, his mother worked for a photographer in Meridian, had entered his picture in a Beautiful Child contest and won five dollars. She gave the money to Dill, who went to the picture show twenty times on it. (Ch. 1)

The children seem impressed that he has seen so many picture shows, since the opportunity to do so is a bit limited in Maycomb.  Dill’s knowledge of the movies makes their make-believe games more interesting, as does having another actor to play more characters.

“Don’t have any picture shows here, except Jesus ones in the courthouse sometimes,” said Jem. “Ever see anything good?”

Dill had seen Dracula, a revelation that moved Jem to eye him with the beginning of respect. “Tell it to us,” he said. (Ch. 1)

Dill is fascinated with a good story.  He tells a few whoppers himself.  He also is curious about the story of Boo Radley.  He believes that Boo is just misunderstood and lonely, and his goal is to make him come out so that they can talk to him.  Jem and Scout are not disposed to think of Boo so pleasantly, but they do not want to be considered chicken.

Dill does not have much in his life.  His mother ships him off every summer, and he doesn’t know his father.  This is why Dill tells stories.  He loves a good story, true or not. 

What do scientists infer quarks are made of?

There is currently no experimental evidence that suggests quarks are "made of" anything smaller; they are considered a fundamental particle, essentially a building block of matter. However, we should specify that the emphasis is on our uncertainty rather than our certainty that this is the case; the quark might be made of something smaller, and we simply lack the technology or the procedure to properly investigate and confirm the existence of that substructure. A number of theories, such as the "preon" put forth the idea that the quark has a substructure and that this simplifies rather than complicates our explanation of empirical observations in particle physics, but to date there is little or no indication that preon/substructure explanations are superior AND supported by evidence compared to the Standard Model, which currently depicts quarks as fundamental. 

A (very oversimplified) interpretation of the quark is that it is a combination of multiple "ripples" in different fields that are all superposed in the same location, making it "point-like" in that it has no surface area, but it occupies a definite volume within which its characteristics are established. This is distinctly different from having specific sub-structures occupying a volume within the volume of the quark; if anything, it's more like the quark is a series of substructures all occupying the same three-dimensional location, and inseparable from each other. 

What were the new challenges that the ending of the Cold War brought to the United States at the end of the 20th century?

The biggest challenge that the end of the Cold War brought to the United States was in the realm of foreign policy. Basically, the question was: What should the role of the United States be in the post-Cold War world? Then-president George H.W. Bush referred to a "new world order," and intellectual Francis Fukuyama proclaimed the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and the communist bloc as the "end of history." But the reality was that nobody knew what to expect from the post-Cold War world. The Cold War had offered a sort of stability that vanished with its end. One immediate challenge emerged in the Balkans, where the collapse of communism unleashed long-simmering ethnic tensions that degenerated into a brutal civil war. Eventually, under President Bill Clinton, the United States and NATO launched airstrikes to stop the potential genocide that accompanied this development. During the Bush administration, in 1990, Saddam Hussein's Iraq invaded neighboring Kuwait. The United States and a broad coalition of nations, including Arab leaders, launched "Operation Desert Storm," which successfully drove Iraq from Kuwait. But the Bush and Clinton administrations struggled to find a response to flashpoints in the African nations of Somalia and Rwanda, the latter of which resulted in the genocide of hundreds of thousands of people in that country. So the end of the Cold War created questions of how and to what extent the United States should play a role in shaping the new world order.

Where do the first and last chapters take place in the book Rumble Fish?

The book Rumble Fish by S.E. Hinton begins and ends in the same place and at the same time.  The book opens with Rusty running into an old friend, Steve Hays, five or six years after the main events of the book take place.  The physical location is a beach.  The two men get to talking, but inevitably their past lives come up.  Chapter Two is a flashback and tells Rusty's story, starting five or six years before the present. Rusty's flashback story ends in Chapter 11. In Chapter 12, readers are placed back into the present, with the men talking on the beach.  Steve explains why he left, and then he invites Rusty to dinner.  Rusty politely refuses, because he does not want to be around Steve.  Steve is a reminder of the awful past. 

How can I write a speech supporting the argument that all schools shouldn't provide free lunches for students? So far, I'm suggesting that it will...

While it is true that money devoted to free school lunches could be used to feed the homeless, it may also be true that many students in American schools may in fact be homeless, while others may be "latchkey" kids with little adult supervision or involvement in their lives.

A larger debate may center around the availability of economic resources for not only school lunches, but for schools themselves, along with the various other institutions that American society has decided should be funded by taxpayers. Even beyond that debate are the enormous resources that are devoted to items like military spending, corporate subsidies, medical care and the like, which consume a large percentage of what Americans spend both via taxes for military spending and corporate subsidies, and private resources for  the massive costs of medical care (which also involve taxpayer funds for large segments of medical spending).

Many would argue that when it comes to education, sources should be devoted away from military spending and corporate subsidies to better fund education, with more than sufficient money available for free lunch programs that target the needy. It is estimated that upwards of half of all taxes are devoted to the military-industrial complex when one considers direct spending on weapons, bases, pay for soldiers, and indirect spending on the various industries and service sectors that support the military.

Can this nation afford to divert sufficient monetary resources away from one sector of the economy to better fund another sector like education? That is a very question that has confronted taxpayers and citizens for much of our recent history.

How does George Eliot vividly portray Silas Marner's despair after losing his gold in Silas Marner?

When Silas Marner first sees the empty hole where his gold has been, his "heart leap[s] violently," as he cannot believe the gold is gone. He tries to control his terror. But, when he despairs of hope, Marner's hands tremble, he screams, and he cries in desolation. He then totters to his loom in order to assure himself of some reality. 

As Marner's realization that his gold is missing sinks into him, he is absolutely devastated, as his life revolves around this gold alone. In Chapter V, when Silas Marner returns to his cottage which has never been disturbed during his twelve-year residency, he enters and places his candle "unsuspectingly" on the floor by his loom. But, when he sees the empty hole in his floor, Marner feels his heart "leap violently." Yet, there is a suspension of belief that this gold is really gone. He feels terror because it has been solely his gold that

...gathered his power of loving together into a hard isolation like its own.

Marner's gold has been the one joy in his life. In a ritual every night, he waits until he has his supper before he counts the gold, but he places the bags upon his table before him as he eats--

For joy is the best of wine, and Silas's guineas were a golden wine of that sort. 

In his temporary suspension of the truth, Marner looks around again, hoping that he may have missed seeing his bags of gold, but they are not visible anywhere. He again puts his hands to his head and brings forth from his heart "a wild ringing scream, the cry of desolation." After this, he sits at his loom, his "strongest assurance of reality."
Finally, the possibility that a thief has taken it comes to Marner and with it the hope that this thief can be caught. He does not desire that the thief be punished, either; he just wants his gold returned to him. For, the loss of his gold has "left his soul like a forlorn traveler on an unknown desert."