How was Mercutio being bawdy about what he thinks Romeo has been up to all night in Act 2, Scene 4?

Something bawdy is lewd or obscene, especially in the way you're talking, so we're looking to see how Mercutio is being perverted, inappropriate, or sexually suggestive as he teases Romeo about what went on the previous night. Readers should be aware that much of what Mercutio says in Act 2, Scene 4 is rather crass--not at all appropriate for young children.

For a little context, recall that Romeo had basically disappeared the previous night as he and his friends were leaving the party, so Mercutio assumes Romeo went off to be with some girl, maybe Rosaline. His comments are focused on teasing Romeo about having spent all night having sex; Mercutio is teasing Romeo gently, as a friend, pretty much congratulating his buddy in an indirect, bawdy way for what he thinks Romeo had done the night before.

As readers, though, or as viewers if we're watching the play on stage, we experience some dramatic irony here: we know that Romeo has been with Juliet, but that they have not consummated their love for each other physically. So Mercutio's assumptions are actually incorrect.

Let's look at Mercutio's first handful of bawdy comments as Romeo enters the scene:

1. "Without his roe, like a dried herring. O flesh, flesh, how art thou fishified!" Here, Mercutio is saying that Romeo looks like a shriveled-up fish that has deposited its eggs, and now he looks weak and tired. Mercutio is hinting that Romeo is exhausted from having sex.

2. Next, Mercutio mentions a bunch of famous women and hints that the girl Romeo has been with must be even more fantastic than they were--based on how tired Romeo looks now: "Laura to his lady was but a kitchen-wench—marry, she had a better love to berhyme her—Dido a dowdy, Cleopatra a gypsy, Helen and Hero hildings and harlots, Thisbe a grey eye or so, but not to the purpose."

3. After Romeo gives Mercutio the excuse that he'd had to slip away from his friends to take care of some important business, Mercutio basically says, "Yeah, I know. You had important business to accomplish with your butt." Here are the words he actually says: "That’s as much as to say, such a case as yours constrains a man to bow in the hams."

4. When Romeo tries to clarify what Mercutio means, Mercutio replies "Thou hast most kindly hit it." On the surface, this means "Yes, that's what I meant." But it's also another bawdy joke; its second meaning is "you hit your target," or in other words, "you had sex."

5. Mercutio then alludes to female sex organs, calling himself "the very pink of courtesy."

Romeo joins in on the jokes, and he and Mercutio go on and on, playing off each other's choice of words and making more and more bawdy puns. The only thing that really stops them is the sudden appearance of Juliet's nurse. You can understand the puns and innuendos that Mercutio is making if you notice that he's bringing the conversation back again and again to Romeo's exhausted body.

In the book The Cay, why is it important for the gas and oil to be shipped out?

In the Caribbean, during World War II, the oil refineries became more important in the war effort. Oil and gas absolutely had to be shipped out so that the Allied forces could continue to power themselves and their vehicles—the planes and ships that would fight the war.

As Phillip, the narrator of The Cay, explains, he enjoys watching the tankers go in and out of the harbor, and the gas and oil they conveyed were shipped as far as England and the African desert.

The danger comes, however, when enemy vessels use torpedoes and shells to attack the ships carrying the gas and oil, destroying these resources along with human lives, and preventing them from getting to the opposing Allied forces. Enemy forces also block incoming ships, meaning that the people in the Caribbean had limited access to a fresh water supply. A shortage of fresh water, of course, also makes life difficult for Phillip's family and the other island inhabitants. 

What is the meaning of the title Warriors Don't Cry?

This phrase comes from Melba Pattillo Beals's grandmother, who told her, "Even when the battle is long and the path is steep, a true warrior does not give up" (page 3). On the first day that Melba and the other students in the Little Rock Nine attempt to enter Central High School, they are prevented from doing so by a mob that isolates one of the students, Elizabeth Eckford. In response, Melba is understandably upset. Her grandmother, Grandma India, tells Melba that this will be the last time Melba cries. She says, "You're a warrior on the battlefield for your Lord. God's warriors don't cry 'cause they trust he's always on their side" (page 57). Her grandmother's words become a rallying cry for Melba, and she thinks of them often when she faces violence, harassment, and intimidation during the year she integrates Central High School with the other students in the Little Rock Nine. 

In the poem "Mending Wall," does the wall between the neighbors' farms serve a practical purpose? What evidence in the poem supports this view?

The practical purpose of the wall is to serve as a divider between the properties. 

The speaker points out that walls are normally used to keep livestock enclosed.  Since neither of the neighbors have livestock, there is no need for a wall according to his point of view. However, his neighbor wants to keep the wall in good shape because he believes that “good fences make good neighbors.” In other words, he believes that a little separation between neighbors is a good thing.

He only says, "Good fences make good neighbours."

Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder

If I could put a notion in his head:

"Why do they make good neighbours?"

The neighbor is repeating his father’s saying, and probably his father’s ritual. He wants to meet his neighbor once a year to repair the wall. The speaker finds it a bit amusing. “Something there is that doesn't love a wall,” he says, because the wall is coming down. It is just regular erosion and wear and tear. However, they have to meet and fix it. 

He moves in darkness as it seems to me,

Not of woods only and the shade of trees.

He will not go behind his father's saying,

And he likes having thought of it so well

He says again, "Good fences make good neighbours."

The practical purpose of the wall then is to keep a barrier between the neighbors and to get them together once in awhile to fix the wall. Even if they are not particularly chatty while they are doing it, it gives them a reason to interact and collaborate. In working together on the common project, they become better neighbors. However, according to the neighbor, they should then go their separate ways, and the distance and separation between them should make each of them happier.

In chapter 8 of To Kill a Mockingbird, who put the blanket around Scout?

Boo Radley placed the blanket over Scout's shoulders.

In Chapter 8 of To Kill a Mockingbird, on a bitterly cold night, especially for southern Alabama, Scout is awakened by her father because Miss Maudie's house has caught fire. Since this fire is raging right across from their home, Atticus instructs the children to stand in front of the Radleys' front gate away from the fire.

The fire begins to devour Miss Maudie's house. Finally, the children see the old fire truck, which has been "killed by the cold," being pushed from town by a large group of men. When the men hook the hose to the hydrant, the old hose bursts and water shoots into the air. The men carry out what they can for Miss Maudie, and they call to Mr. Avery to get out.

Shortly thereafter, the fire truck from a nearby town arrives and pumps water on the Finch house and others close by. All that can be done is to protect the nearby homes. It is nearly dawn when the children return to their house. As they enter, a perplexed Atticus looks at Scout; then, he becomes stern, growling, "I thought I told you and Jem to stay put." Scout tries to explain that they have obeyed, but Atticus interrupts, "Then whose blanket is that?" Unaware that she possesses such an item, Scout glances down and sees she has been clutching a brown woolen blanket.

Jem discloses their interactions with Boo and the little things he has done or made for them. This information assists Atticus in his conclusion: 

"We'd better keep this and the blanket to ourselves. Someday, maybe, Scout can thank him for covering her up."

"Thank who?" Scout asks.

"Boo Radley. You were so busy looking at the fire you didn't know it when he put the blanket around you."

Scout is shocked to think that Boo sneaked out of the house to place a blanket around her.

How is the setting of The Great Gatsby influenced by Fitzgerald's life?

The setting of The Great Gatsby is informed by the life of F. Scott Fitzgerald, for it was he who named the time period the Jazz Age. In addition, there is much that is autobiographical in the character of Jay Gatsby, who aspires to live with the rich, whom he feels hold magical qualities, just as did Fitzgerald himself. Certainly, the decadent lifestyle of those with whom Fitzgerald associated at times is illustrated in the parties given by Jay Gatsby and the irresponsible strangers who attend.

Further, the luxurious homes and cars and lifestyles of those in East Egg are created from the memory of Fitzgerald, who for a time lived in the East and, with his wife Zelda, associated with the wealthy as he pursued his American Dream.

Fitzgerald once wrote,

The idea that to make a man work you've got to hold gold in front of his eyes is a growth, not an axiom. We've done that for so long that we've forgotten there is any other way.

East Egg of The Great Gatsby is peopled with those who have forgotten that "there is any other way" to work and live. Indeed, Jay Gatsby believes that money is all he needs in order to win back his idealized Daisy and achieve his American Dream.

Why did the Treaty of Versailles have a negative economic effect on Germany?

The Treaty of Versailles had a negative effect on Germany's economy for two main reasons. First, the treaty imposed massive reparations payments on the new Weimar government. These reparations, which were initially set at almost 300 billion gold marks, were ruinous to the Germany economy, which experienced unprecedented inflation as the government strained to meet payment schedules. The Treaty also harmed the German economy by placing the Saar Valley, which was one of the richest industrial regions in Germany before the war, under the administration of the League of Nations. France claimed access to the region's coal. So under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany faced crippling reparations payments and the loss of one of its richest regions in industry and natural resources. These both contributed to hyperinflation, which rendered German currency totally worthless and brought the economy to a standstill by the mid-1920s.