The Importance Of Interpersonal Communication - 1038 Words

Interpersonal communication can be seen everywhere is vas locations, and is needed for relationships and the idea of yourself. In life, communication becomes very vital in continuing and maintaining these relationships, and having the ability at a competent level is a necessity. When it comes to communication you’re either good at it or not as good, but there is always room for improvement. Interpersonal communication skills are learned behaviors that can be improved through knowledge, practice, feedback, and reflection. Based on skills of listening, emotional intelligence, verbal, and communicating in groups, according to your â€Å"Interpersonal Skills Self-Assessment† results, your interpersonal skills are about average compared to other†¦show more content†¦Another strategy is by paraphrasing the speakers meaning and key ideas to show that youre aware and understand them. These are major strategies you can use to enhance your listening skills and your Inte rpersonal communication skills overall. Emotional Intelligence can also be known as â€Å"Emotional Messages†, which is one of the four components of having Interpersonal Skills. For this category, it was your second highest score which was 62%. Having the ability to recognize and manage your own emotions, and the emotions of other people, both at an individual stage and in groups, is what having emotional Intelligence means. Many people emotions may be primary or blended, as for example primary you can feel fear or dont have trust when you speak towards someone new, where for blended you can talk to your girlfriend and feel love, which is a mix of trust and joy. Having an average score of 62% youre somewhat decent when it comes to controlling your emotions, but you can always improve. The way you carry yourself is very important and your self-concept of self. If you feel mad and angry or just in a bad mood, not being able to act like youre feeling a different way, which is called â€Å"Masking†. Your emot ions can be passed from one person to another, where people tend to mimic the emotional experiences and expressions of others which is called â€Å"emotionalShow MoreRelatedThe Importance of Interpersonal Communication1186 Words   |  5 Pages------------------------------------------------- The Impact of Interpersonal Communication for Startup Business in TANRI ABENG UNIVERSITY ------------------------------------------------- English for Academic Purpose Naimy Zam Zam / Corporate Communication / 13.013 Abstract This research proposal contains the analysis about interpersonal communication in startup business The Impact of Interpersonal Communication in Startup Businesses Introduction These days, there are so many startupRead MoreImportance Of Interpersonal Communication996 Words   |  4 PagesTaking this Interpersonal Communication course has opened my eyes to the importance of effective communication as it relates to relationships. The information that I’ve learned has inspired me to take a deeper look into how I communicate with my husband. It has also provided an understanding regarding the differences in how he and I communicate. The communication style that I use is expressive, the style he uses is instrumental. He also interprets communication different than myself. I ve also noticedRead MoreThe Importance Of Interpersonal Communication1480 Words   |  6 PagesSince this process is ongoing and always changing, when we enter an interpersonal communication exchange, we are entering an event with no definable beginning or ending, and one that is irreversible. An important piece of interpersonal communication to consider is that the words said to on e another are final and cannot be simply â€Å"taken back†. This is known as the principle of irreversibility which means that what we say to others cannot be reversed. Unfortunately, life does not come with a remoteRead MoreThe Importance Of Interpersonal Communication1741 Words   |  7 Pages(2013) defines interpersonal communication as â€Å"person-to-person conversation; it’s an exchange that occurs through dialogue between two people or through discussion among several, with participation by everyone involved.† (p. 134). Because interpersonal communication involves two or more individuals, it stands vital for manager to hold the skill of listening. It is this authors supposition that if a manager is willing to make a conscious effort to improve this major communication skill, then theirRead MoreThe Importance Of Interpersonal Communication1316 Words   |  6 PagesCommunication is vital to the survival of humanity. Without communication, people tend towa rds insanity, desperately craving human interaction. Yet many, including myself, are uninterested in learning the ways of communication: how it works, how to communicate well, and how to listen well. Interpersonal communication is â€Å"†¦a transactional process involving participants who occupy different environments and create meaning and relationships through the exchange of messages,† (Adler 12). CommunicationRead MoreImportance Of Interpersonal Communication1539 Words   |  7 Pages Interpersonal communication is a face-to-face interaction, something we all do in our daily lives. Even though everyone communicates, we all do it differently and at different degrees of experiences. Not everyone will be perfectionists at communicating and socializing, but there is always room for improvement to slowly build your way up and become more efficient and competent. If you are anything like me, I consider myself an advanced communicator under certain circumstances. I tend to communicateRead MoreThe Importance Of Interpersonal Communication1091 Words   |  5 PagesHave you ever taken into consideration how your intrapersonal communication has an impact on your interpersonal communication? Our interpersonal communication is communication that strives us to create and maintain relationships with others in our life. My interpersonal communication is solely based on my self-concept, self-image, how I perceive myself, my bad and good qualities, and my non-verbal communication. My expectations about myself or my self-concept influences how I communicate with othersRead MoreThe Importance Of Interpersonal Communication1032 Words   |  5 PagesCommunication is the behaviours, whether they be verbal or non-verbal, that one individual perceives from another (Judith Dwyer, 2016). The efficient communication between a sender and receiver plays a crucial role between organisations and personal use as it allows us as communicators, to comprehend the fundamentals and processes which flow from the sender, to the receiver to ensure a dynamic and clear communication is achieved. Effective communication plays a crucial role in the delivering of messagesRead MoreThe Importance of Studying Interpersonal Communication913 Words   |  4 PagesInterpersonal communication is an important day-to-day life skill that many people may go their entire life without formally learning about. Interpersonal communication is the communication between two or more people who are sendin g and receiving verbal or nonverbal language back and forth. The opportunity to study it at a college level is very important in that it can give you a more refined insight into how it works without needing to breeze over or amend certain segments for the audience. WithoutRead MoreThe Art Of Communication : The Importance Of Interpersonal Communication1933 Words   |  8 Pagesaudiences. Thru these spectators, we become reliant on each other, to unfold the world around us. We all learn the art of communication through an overlapping set of conceptual elements. It’s a story as old as time; as our existence evolves, so does the way we communicate. Hence the ever-growing grey area of rhetoric and its tendency of it turning 50 shades darker. Since, communication is a multifaceted process, there are bound to be breakdowns along the way. Specifically, how an individual chooses

The Golden Compass Chapter Three Free Essays

Chapter Three Lyra’s Jordan Jordan College was the grandest and richest of all the colleges in Oxford. It was probably the largest, too, though no one knew for certain. The buildings, which were grouped around three irregular quadrangles, dated from every period from the early Middle Ages to the mid-eighteenth century. We will write a custom essay sample on The Golden Compass Chapter Three or any similar topic only for you Order Now It had never been planned; it had grown piecemeal, with past and present overlapping at every spot, and the final effect was one of jumbled and squalid grandeur. Some part was always about to fall down, and for five generations the same family, the Parslows, had been employed full time by the College as masons and scaffolders. The present Mr. Parslow was teaching his son the craft; the two of them and their three workmen would scramble like industrious termites over the scaffolding they’d erected at the corner of the library, or over the roof of the chapel, and haul up bright new blocks of stone or rolls of shiny lead or balks of timber. The College owned farms and estates all over England. It was said that you could walk from Oxford to Bristol in one direction and London in the other, and never leave Jordan land. In every part of the kingdom there were dye works and brick kilns, forests and atomcraft works that paid rent to Jordan, and every quarter-day the bursar and his clerks would tot it all up, announce the total to Concilium, and order a pair of swans for the feast. Some of the money was put by for reinvestment – Concilium had just approved the purchase of an office block in Manchester – and the rest was used to pay the Scholars’ modest stipends and the wages of the servants (and the Parslows, and the other dozen or so families of craftsmen and traders who served the College), to keep the wine cellar richly filled, to buy books and anbarographs for the immense library that filled one side of the Melrose Quadrangle and extended, burrow-like, for several floors beneath the ground, and, not l east, to buy the latest philosophical apparatus to equip the chapel. It was important to keep the chapel up to date, because Jordan College had no rival, either in Europe or in New France, as a center of experimental theology. Lyra knew that much, at least. She was proud of her College’s eminence, and liked to boast of it to the various urchins and ragamuffins she played with by the canal or the claybeds; and she regarded visiting Scholars and eminent professors from elsewhere with pitying scorn, because they didn’t belong to Jordan and so must know less, poor things, than the humblest of Jordan’s under-Scholars. As for what experimental theology was, Lyra had no more idea than the urchins. She had formed the notion that it was concerned with magic, with the movements of the stars and planets, with tiny particles of matter, but that was guesswork, really. Probably the stars had daemons just as humans did, and experimental theology involved talking to them. Lyra imagined the Chaplain speaking loftily, listening to the star daemons’ remarks, and then nodding judiciously or shaking his head in regret. But what might be passing between them, she couldn’t conceive. Nor was she particularly interested. In many ways Lyra was a barbarian. What she liked best was clambering over the College roofs with Roger, the kitchen boy who was her particular friend, to spit plum stones on the heads of passing Scholars or to hoot like owls outside a window where a tutorial was going on, or racing through the narrow streets, or stealing apples from the market, or waging war. Just as she was unaware of the hidden currents of politics running below the surface of College affairs, so the Scholars, for their part, would have been unable to see the rich seething stew of alliances and enmities and feuds and treaties which was a child’s life in Oxford. Children playing together: how pleasant to see! What could be more innocent and charming? In fact, of course, Lyra and her peers were engaged in deadly warfare. There were several wars running at once. The children (young servants, and the children of servants, and Lyra) of one college waged war on those of another. Lyra had once been captured by the children of Gabriel College, and Roger and their friends Hugh Lovat and Simon Parslow had raided the place to rescue her, creeping through the Precentor’s garden and gathering armfuls of small stone-hard plums to throw at the kidnappers. There were twenty-four colleges, which allowed for endless permutations of alliance and betrayal. But the enmity between the colleges was forgotten in a moment when the town children attacked a colleger: then all the collegers banded together and went into battle against the town-ies.This rivalry was hundreds of years old, and very deep and satisfying. But even this was forgotten when the other enemies threatened. One enemy was perennial: the brickburners’ children, who lived by the claybeds and were despised by collegers and townies alike. Last year Lyra and some townies had made a temporary truce and raided the claybeds, pelting the brick-burners’ children with lumps of heavy clay and tipping over the soggy castle they’d built, before rolling them over and over in the clinging substance they lived by until victors and vanquished alike resembled a flock of shrieking golems. The other regular enemy was seasonal. The gyptian families, who lived in canal boats, came and went with the spring and autumn fairs, and were always good for a fight. There was one family of gyptians in particular, who regularly returned to their mooring in that part of the city known as Jericho, with whom Lyra’d been feuding ever since she could first throw a stone. When they were last in Oxford, she and Roger and some of the other kitchen boys from Jordan and St. Michael’s College had laid an ambush for them, throwing mud at their brightly painted narrowboat until the whole family came out to chase them away – at which point the reserve squad under Lyra raided the boat and cast it off from the bank, to float down the canal, getting in the way of all the other water traffic while Lyra’s raiders searched the boat from end to end, looking for the bung. Lyra firmly believed in this bung. If they pulled it out, she assured her troop, the boat would sink at o nce; but they didn’t find it, and had to abandon ship when the gyptians caught them up, to flee dripping and crowing with triumph through the narrow lanes of Jericho. That was Lyra’s world and her delight. She was a coarse and greedy little savage, for the most part. But she always had a dim sense that it wasn’t her whole world; that part of her also belonged in the grandeur and ritual of Jordan College; and that somewhere in her life there was a connection with the high world of politics represented by Lord Asriel. All she did with that knowledge was to give herself airs and lord it over the other urchins. It had never occurred to her to find out more. So she had passed her childhood, like a half-wild cat. The only variation in her days came on those irregular occasions when Lord Asriel visited the College. A rich and powerful uncle was all very well to boast about, but the price of boasting was having to be caught by the most agile Scholar and brought to the Housekeeper to be washed and dressed in a clean frock, following which she was escorted (with many threats) to the Senior Common Room to have tea with Lord Asriel and an invited group of senior Scholars. She dreaded being seen by Roger. He’d caught sight of her on one of these occasions and hooted with laughter at this beribboned and pink-frilled vision. She had responded with a volley of shrieking curses that shocked the poor Scholar who was escorting her, and in the Senior Common Room she’d slumped mutinously in an armchair until the Master told her sharply to sit up, and then she’d glowered at them all till even the Chaplain had to laugh. What happened on those awkward, formal visits never varied. After the tea, the Master and the other few Scholars who’d been invited left Lyra and her uncle together, and he called her to stand in front of him and tell him what she’d learned since his last visit. And she would mutter whatever she could dredge up about geometry or Arabic or history or anbarology, and he would sit back with one ankle resting on the other knee and watch her inscrutably until her words failed. Last year, before his expedition to the North, he’d gone on to say, â€Å"And how do you spend your time when you’re not diligently studying?† And she mumbled, â€Å"I just play. Sort of around the College. Just†¦play, really.† And he said, â€Å"Let me see your hands, child.† She held out her hands for inspection, and he took them and turned them over to look at her fingernails. Beside him, his daemon lay sphinxlike on the carpet, swishing her tail occasionally and gazing unblinkingly at Lyra. â€Å"Dirty,† said Lord Asriel, pushing her hands away. â€Å"Don’t they make you wash in this place?† â€Å"Yes,† she said. â€Å"But the Chaplain’s fingernails are always dirty. They’re even dirtier than mine.† â€Å"He’s a learned man. What’s your excuse?† â€Å"I must’ve got them dirty after I washed.† â€Å"Where do you play to get so dirty?† She looked at him suspiciously. She had the feeling that being on the roof was forbidden, though no one had actually said so. â€Å"In some of the old rooms,† she said finally. â€Å"And where else?† â€Å"In the claybeds, sometimes.† â€Å"And?† â€Å"Jericho and Port Meadow.† â€Å"Nowhere else?† â€Å"No.† â€Å"You’re a liar. I saw you on the roof only yesterday.† She bit her lip and said nothing. He was watching her sardonically. â€Å"So, you play on the roof as well,† he went on. â€Å"Do you ever go into the library?† â€Å"No. I found a rook on the library roof, though,† she went on. â€Å"Did you? Did you catch it?† â€Å"It had a hurt foot. I was going to kill it and roast it but Roger said we should help it get better. So we gave it scraps of food and some wine and then it got better and flew away.† â€Å"Who’s Roger?† â€Å"My friend. The kitchen boy.† â€Å"I see. So you’ve been all over the roof – â€Å" â€Å"Not all over. You can’t get onto the Sheldon Building because you have to jump up from Pilgrim’s Tower across a gap. There’s a skylight that opens onto it, but I’m not tall enough to reach it.† â€Å"You’ve been all over the roof except the Sheldon Building. What about underground?† â€Å"Underground?† â€Å"There’s as much College below ground as there is above it. I’m surprised you haven’t found that out. Well, I’m going in a minute. You look healthy enough. Here.† He fished in his pocket and drew out a handful of coins, from which he gave her five gold dollars. â€Å"Haven’t they taught you to say thank you?† he said. â€Å"Thank you,† she mumbled. â€Å"Do you obey the Master?† â€Å"Oh, yes.† â€Å"And respect the Scholars?† â€Å"Yes.† Lord Asriel’s daemon laughed softly. It was the first sound she’d made, and Lyra blushed. â€Å"Go and play, then,† said Lord Asriel. Lyra turned and darted to the door with relief, remembering to turn and blurt out a â€Å"Goodbye.† So Lyra’s life had been, before the day when she decided to hide in the Retiring Room, and first heard about Dust. And of course the Librarian was wrong in saying to the Master that she wouldn’t have been interested. She would have listened eagerly now to anyone who could tell her about Dust. She was to hear a great deal more about it in the months to come, and eventually she would know more about Dust than anyone in the world; but in the meantime, there was all the rich life of Jordan still being lived around her. And in any case there was something else to think about. A rumor had been filtering through the streets for some weeks: a rumor that made some people laugh and others grow silent, as some people scoff at ghosts and others fear them. For no reason that anyone could imagine, children were beginning to disappear. It would happen like this. East along the great highway of the River Isis, thronged with slow-moving brick barges and asphalt boats and corn tankers, way down past Henley and Maidenhead to Teddington, where the tide from the German Ocean reaches, and further down still: to Mortlake, past the house of the great magician Dr. Dee; past Falkeshall, where the pleasure gardens spread out bright with fountains and banners by day, with tree lamps and fireworks by night; past White Hall Palace, where the king holds his weekly council of state; past the Shot Tower, dropping its endless drizzle of molten lead into vats of murky water; further down still, to where the river, wide and filthy now, swings in a great curve to the south. This is Limehouse, and here is the child who is going to disappear. He is called Tony Makarios. His mother thinks he’s nine years old, but she has a poor memory that the drink has rotted; he might be eight, or ten. His surname is Greek, but like his age, that is a guess on his mother’s part, because he looks more Chinese than Greek, and there’s Irish and Skraeling and Lascar in him from his mother’s side too. Tony’s not very bright, but he has a sort of clumsy tenderness that sometimes prompts him to give his mother a rough hug and plant a sticky kiss on her cheeks. The poor woman is usually too fuddled to start such a procedure herself; but she responds warmly enough, once she realizes what’s happening. At the moment Tony is hanging about the market in Pie Street. He’s hungry. It’s early evening, and he won’t get fed at home. He’s got a shilling in his pocket that a soldier gave him for taking a message to his best girl, but Tony’s not going to waste that on food, when you can pick up so much for nothing. So he wanders through the market, between the old-clothes stalls and the fortune-paper stalls, the fruitmongers and the fried-fish seller, with his little daemon on his shoulder, a sparrow, watching this way and that; and when a stall holder and her daemon are both looking elsewhere, a brisk chirp sounds, and Tony’s hand shoots out and returns to his loose shirt with an apple or a couple of nuts, and finally with a hot pie. The stall holder sees that, and shouts, and her cat daemon leaps, but Tony’s sparrow is aloft and Tony himself halfway down the street already. Curses and abuse go with him, but not far. He stops running at the steps of St. Catherine’s Oratory, where he sits down and takes out his steaming, battered prize, leaving a trail of gravy on his shirt. And he’s being watched. A lady in a long yellow-red fox-fur coat, a beautiful young lady whose dark hair falls, shining delicately, under the shadow of her fur-lined hood, is standing in the doorway of the oratory, half a dozen steps above him. It might be that a service is finishing, for light comes from the doorway behind her, an organ is playing inside, and the lady is holding a jeweled breviary. Tony knows nothing of this. His face contentedly deep in the pie, his toes curled inward and his bare soles together, he sits and chews and swallows while his daemon becomes a mouse and grooms her whiskers. The young lady’s daemon is moving out from beside the fox-fur coat. He is in the form of a monkey, but no ordinary monkey: his fur is long and silky and of the most deep and lustrous gold. With sinuous movements he inches down the steps toward the boy, and sits a step above him. Then the mouse senses something, and becomes a sparrow again, cocking her head a fraction sideways, and hops along the stone a step or two. The monkey watches the sparrow; the sparrow watches the monkey. The monkey reaches out slowly. His little hand is black, his nails perfect horny claws, his movements gentle and inviting. The sparrow can’t resist. She hops further, and further, and then, with a little flutter, up on to the monkey’s hand. The monkey lifts her up, and gazes closely at her before standing and swinging back to his human, taking the sparrow daemon with him. The lady bends her scented head to whisper. And then Tony turns. He can’t help it. â€Å"Ratter!† he says, half in alarm, his mouth full. The sparrow chirps. It must be safe. Tony swallows his mouthful and stares. â€Å"Hello,† says the beautiful lady. â€Å"What’s your name?† â€Å"Tony.† â€Å"Where do you live, Tony?† â€Å"Clarice Walk.† â€Å"What’s in that pie?† â€Å"Beefsteak.† â€Å"Do you like chocolatl?† â€Å"Yeah!† â€Å"As it happens, I’ve got more chocolatl than I can drink myself. Will you come and help me drink it?† He’s lost already. He was lost the moment his slow-witted daemon hopped onto the monkey’s hand. He follows the beautiful young lady and the golden monkey down Denmark Street and along to Hangman’s Wharf, and down King George’s Steps to a little green door in the side of a tall warehouse. She knocks, the door is opened, they go in, the door is closed. Tony will never come out – at least, by that entrance; and he’ll never see his mother again. She, poor drunken thing, will think he’s run away, and when she remembers him, she’ll think it was her fault, and sob her sorry heart out. Little Tony Makarios wasn’t the only child to be caught by the lady with the golden monkey. He found a dozen others in the cellar of the warehouse, boys and girls, none older than twelve or so; though since all of them had histories like his, none could be sure of their age. What Tony didn’t notice, of course, was the factor that they all had in common. None of the children in that warm and steamy cellar had reached the age of puberty. The kind lady saw him settled on a bench against the wall, and provided by a silent serving woman with a mug of chocolatl from the saucepan on the iron stove. Tony ate the rest of his pie and drank the sweet hot liquor without taking much notice of his surroundings, and the surroundings took little notice of him: he was too small to be a threat, and too stolid to promise much satisfaction as a victim. It was another boy who asked the obvious question. â€Å"Hey, lady! What you got us all here for?† He was a tough-looking wretch with dark chocolatl on his top lip and a gaunt black rat for a daemon. The lady was standing near the door, talking to a stout man with the air of a sea captain, and as she turned to answer, she looked so angelic in the hissing naphtha light that all the children fell silent. â€Å"We want your help,† she said. â€Å"You don’t mind helping us, do you?† No one could say a word. They all gazed, suddenly shy. They had never seen a lady like this; she was so gracious and sweet and kind that they felt they hardly deserved their good luck, and whatever she asked, they’d give it gladly so as to stay in her presence a little longer. She told them that they were going on a voyage. They would be well fed and warmly clothed, and those who wanted to could send messages back to their families to let them know they were safe. Captain Magnusson would take them on board his ship very soon, and then when the tide was right, they’d sail out to sea and set a course for the North. Soon those few who did want to send a message to what-ever home they had were sitting around the beautiful lady as she wrote a few lines at their dictation and, having let them scratch a clumsy X at the foot of the page, folded it into a scented envelope and wrote the address they told her. Tony would have liked to send something to his mother, but he had a realistic idea of her ability to read it. He plucked at the lady’s fox-fur sleeve and whispered that he’d like her to tell his mum where he was going, and all, and she bent her gracious head close enough to his malodorous little body to hear, and stroked his head and promised to pass the message on. Then the children clustered around to say goodbye. The golden monkey stroked all their daemons, and they all touched the fox fur for luck, or as if they were drawing some strength or hope or goodness out of the lady, and she bade them all farewell and saw them in the care of the bold captain on board a steam launch at the jetty. The sky was dark now, the river a mass of bobbing lights. The lady stood on the jetty and waved till she could see their faces no more. Then she turned back inside, with the golden monkey nestled in her breast, and threw the little bundle of letters into the furnace before leaving the way she had come. Children from the slums were easy enough to entice away, but eventually people noticed, and the police were stirred into reluctant action. For a while there were no more bewitchings. But a rumor had been born, and little by little it changed and grew and spread, and when after a while a few children disappeared in Norwich, and then Sheffield, and then Manchester, the people in those places who’d heard of the disappearances elsewhere added the new vanishings to the story and gave it new strength. And so the legend grew of a mysterious group of enchanters who spirited children away. Some said their leader was a beautiful lady, others said a tall man with red eyes, while a third story told of a youth who laughed and sang to his victims so that they followed him like sheep. As for where they took these lost children, no two stories agreed. Some said it was to Hell, under the ground, to Fairyland. Others said to a farm where the children were kept and fattened for the table. Others said that the children were kept and sold as slaves to rich Tartars†¦.And so on. But one thing on which everyone agreed was the name of these invisible kidnappers. They had to have a name, or not be referred to at all, and talking about them – especially if you were safe and snug at home, or in Jordan College – was delicious. And the name that seemed to settle on them, without anyone’s knowing why, was the Gobblers. â€Å"Don’t stay out late, or the Gobblers’11 get you!† â€Å"My cousin in Northampton, she knows a woman whose little boy was took by the Gobblers†¦.† â€Å"The Gobblers’ve been in Stratford. They say they’re coming south!† And, inevitably: â€Å"Let’s play kids and Gobblers!† So said Lyra to Roger, one rainy afternoon when they were alone in the dusty attics. He was her devoted slave by this time; he would have followed her to the ends of the earth. â€Å"How d’you play that?† â€Å"You hide and I find you and slice you open, right, like the Gobblers do.† â€Å"You don’t know what they do. They might not do that at all.† â€Å"You’re afraid of ’em,† she said. â€Å"I can tell.† â€Å"I en’t. I don’t believe in ’em anyway.† â€Å"I do,† she said decisively. â€Å"But I en’t afraid either. I’d just do what my uncle done last time he came to Jordan. I seen him. He was in the Retiring Room and there was this guest who weren’t polite, and my uncle just give him a hard look and the man fell dead on the spot, with all foam and froth round his mouth.† â€Å"He never,† said Roger doubtfully. â€Å"They never said anything about that in the kitchen. Anyway, you en’t allowed in the Retiring Room.† ‘†Course not. They wouldn’t tell servants about a thing like that. And I have been in the Retiring Room, so there. Anyway, my uncle’s always doing that. He done it to some Tartars when they caught him once. They tied him up and they was going to cut his guts out, but when the first man come up with the knife, my uncle just looked at him, and he fell dead, so another one come up and he done the same to him, and finally there was only one left. My uncle said he’d leave him alive if he untied him, so he did, and then my uncle killed him anyway just to teach him a lesson.† Roger was less sure about that than about Gobblers, but the story was too good to waste, so they took it in turns to be Lord Asriel and the expiring Tartars, using sherbet dip for the foam. However, that was a distraction; Lyra was still intent on playing Gobblers, and she inveigled Roger down into the wine cellars, which they entered by means of the Butler’s spare set of keys. Together they crept through the great vaults where the College’s Tokay and Canary, its Burgundy, its brantwijn were lying under the cobwebs of ages. Ancient stone arches rose above them supported by pillars as thick as ten trees, irregular flagstones lay underfoot, and on all sides were ranged rack upon rack, tier upon tier, of bottles and barrels. It was fascinating. With Gobblers forgotten again, the two children tiptoed from end to end holding a candle in trembling fingers, peering into every dark corner, with a single question growing more urgent in Lyra’s mind every moment: what did the wine taste like? There was an easy way of answering that. Lyra – over Roger’s fervent protests – picked out the oldest, twistiest, greenest bottle she could find, and, not having anything to extract the cork with, broke it off at the neck. Huddled in the furthest corner, they sipped at the heady crimson liquor, wondering when they’d become drunk, and how they’d tell when they were. Lyra didn’t like the taste much, but she had to admit how grand and complicated it was. The funniest thing was watching their two daemons, who seemed to be getting more and more muddled: falling over, giggling senselessly, and changing shape to look like gargoyles, each trying to be uglier than the other. Finally, and almost simultaneously, the children discovered what it was like to be drunk. â€Å"Do they like doing this?† gasped Roger, after vomiting copiously. â€Å"Yes,† said Lyra, in the same condition. â€Å"And so do I,† she added stubbornly. Lyra learned nothing from that episode except that playing Gobblers led to interesting places. She remembered her uncle’s words in their last interview, and began to explore underground, for what was above ground was only a small fraction of the whole. Like some enormous fungus whose root system extended over acres, Jordan (finding itself jostling for space above ground with St. Michael’s College on one side, Gabriel College on the other, and the University Library behind) had begun, sometime in the Middle Ages, to spread below the surface. Tunnels, shafts, vaults, cellars, staircases had so hollowed out the earth below Jordan and for several hundred yards around it that there was almost as much air below ground as above; Jordan College stood on a sort of froth of stone. And now that Lyra had the taste for exploring it, she abandoned her usual haunt, the irregular alps of the College roofs, and plunged with Roger into this netherworld. From playing at Gobblers she had turned to hunting them, for what could be more likely than that they were lurking out of sight below the ground? So one day she and Roger made their way into the crypt below the oratory. This was where generations of Masters had been buried, each in his lead-lined oak coffin in niches along the stone walls. A stone tablet below each space gave their names: SIMON LE CLERC, MASTER 1765-1789 CEREBATON REQUIESCANT IN PACE â€Å"What’s that mean?† said Roger. â€Å"The first part’s his name, and the last bit’s Roman. And there’s the dates in the middle when he was Master. And the other name must be his daemon.† They moved along the silent vault, tracing the letters of more inscriptions: FRANCIS LYALL, MASTER 1748-1765 ZOHARIEL REQUIESCANT IN PACE ICNATIUS COLE, MASTER 1745-1748 MUSCA REQUIESCANT IN PACE On each coffin, Lyra was interested to see, a brass plaque bore a picture of a different being: this one a basilisk, this a serpent, this a monkey. She realized that they were images of the dead men’s daemons. As people became adult, their daemons lost the power to change and assumed one shape, keeping it permanently. â€Å"These coffins’ ve got skeletons in â€Å"em!† whispered Roger. â€Å"Moldering flesh,† whispered Lyra. â€Å"And worms and maggots all twisting about in their eye sockets.† â€Å"Must be ghosts down here,† said Roger, shivering pleasantly. Beyond the first crypt they found a passage lined with stone shelves. Each shelf was partitioned off into square sections, and in each section rested a skull. Roger’s daemon, tail tucked firmly between her legs, shivered against him and gave a little quiet howl. â€Å"Hush,† he said. Lyra couldn’t see Pantalaimon, but she knew his moth form was resting on her shoulder and probably shivering too. She reached up and lifted the nearest skull gently out of its resting place. â€Å"What you doing?† said Roger. â€Å"You en’t supposed to touch em.† She turned it over and over, taking no notice. Something suddenly fell out of the hole at the base of the skull – fell through her fingers and rang as it hit the floor, and she nearly dropped the skull in alarm. â€Å"It’s a coin!† said Roger, feeling for it. â€Å"Might be treasure!† He held it up to the candle and they both gazed wide-eyed. It was not a coin, but a little disc of bronze with a crudely engraved inscription showing a cat. â€Å"It’s like the ones on the coffins,† said Lyra. â€Å"It’s his daemon. Must be.† â€Å"Better put it back,† said Roger uneasily, and Lyra upturned the skull and dropped the disk back into its immemorial resting place before returning the skull to the shelf. Each of the other skulls, they found, had its own daemon-coin, showing its owner’s lifetime companion still close to him in death. â€Å"Who d’you think these were when they were alive?† said Lyra. â€Å"Probably Scholars, I reckon. Only the Masters get coffins. There’s probably been so many Scholars all down the centuries that there wouldn’t be room to bury the whole of ’em, so they just cut their heads off and keep them. That’s the most important part of ’em anyway.† They found no Gobblers, but the catacombs under the oratory kept Lyra and Roger busy for days. Once she tried to play a trick on some of the dead Scholars, by switching around the coins in their skulls so they were with the wrong daemons. Pantalaimon became so agitated at this that he changed into a bat and flew up and down uttering shrill cries and flapping his wings in her face, but she took no notice: it was too good a joke to waste. She paid for it later, though. In bed in her narrow room at the top of Staircase Twelve she was visited by a night-ghast, and woke up screaming at the three robed figures who stood at the bedside pointing their bony fingers before throwing back their cowls to show bleeding stumps where their heads should have been. Only when Pantalaimon became a lion and roared at them did they retreat, backing away into the substance of the wall until all that was visible was their arms, then their horny yellow-gray hands, then their twitching fingers, then nothing. First thing in the morning she hastened down to the catacombs and restored the daemon-coins to their rightful places, and whispered â€Å"Sorry! Sorry!† to the skulls. The catacombs were much larger than the wine cellars, but they too had a limit. When Lyra and Roger had explored every corner of them and were sure there were no Gobblers to be found there, they turned their attention elsewhere – but not before they were spotted leaving the crypt by the Intercessor, who called them back into the oratory. The Intercessor was a plump, elderly man known as Father Heyst. It was his job to lead all the College services, to preach and pray and hear confessions. When Lyra was younger, he had taken an interest in her spiritual welfare, only to be confounded by her sly indifference and insincere repentances. She was not spiritually promising, he had decided. When they heard him call, Lyra and Roger turned reluctantly and walked, dragging their feet, into the great musty-smelling dimness of the oratory. Candles flickered here and there in front of images of the saints; a faint and distant clatter came from the organ loft, where some repairs were going on; a servant was polishing the brass lectern. Father Heyst beckoned from the vestry door. â€Å"Where have you been?† he said to them. â€Å"I’ve seen you come in here two or three times now. What are you up to?† His tone was not accusatory. He sounded as if he were genuinely interested. His daemon flicked a lizard tongue at them from her perch on his shoulder. Lyra said, â€Å"We wanted to look down in the crypt.† â€Å"Whatever for?† â€Å"The†¦the coffins. We wanted to see all the coffins,† she said. â€Å"But why?† She shrugged. It was her constant response when she was pressed. â€Å"And you,† he went on, turning to Roger. Roger’s daemon anxiously wagged her terrier tail to propitiate him. â€Å"What’s your name?† â€Å"Roger, Father.† â€Å"If you’re a servant, where do you work?† â€Å"In the kitchen, Father.† â€Å"Should you be there now?† â€Å"Yes, Father.† â€Å"Then be off with you.† Roger turned and ran. Lyra dragged her foot from side to side on the floor. â€Å"As for you, Lyra,† said Father Heyst, â€Å"I’m pleased to see you taking an interest in what lies in the oratory. You are a lucky child, to have all this history around you.† â€Å"Mm,† said Lyra. â€Å"But I wonder about your choice of companions. Are you a lonely child?† â€Å"No,† she said. â€Å"Do you†¦do you miss the society of other children?† â€Å"No.† â€Å"I don’t mean Roger the kitchen boy. I mean children such as yourself. Nobly born children. Would you like to have some companions of that sort?† â€Å"No.† â€Å"But other girls, perhaps†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"No.† â€Å"You see, none of us would want you to miss all the usual childhood pleasures and pastimes. I sometimes think it must be a lonely life for you here among a company of elderly Scholars, Lyra. Do you feel that?† â€Å"No.† He tapped his thumbs together over his interlaced fingers, unable to think of anything else to ask this stubborn child. â€Å"If there is anything troubling you,† he said finally, â€Å"you know you can come and tell me about it. I hope you feel you can always do that.† â€Å"Yes,† she said. â€Å"Do you say your prayers?† â€Å"Yes.† â€Å"Good girl. Well, run along.† With a barely concealed sigh of relief, she turned and left. Having failed to find Gobblers below ground, Lyra took to the streets again. She was at home there. Then, almost when she’d lost interest in them, the Gobblers appeared in Oxford. The first Lyra heard of it was when a young boy went missing from a gyptian family she knew. It was about the time of the horse fair, and the canal basin was crowded with narrowboats and butty boats, with traders and travelers, and the wharves along the waterfront in Jericho were bright with gleaming harness and loud with the clop of hooves and the clamor of bargaining. Lyra always enjoyed the horse fair; as well as the chance of stealing a ride on a less-than-well-attended horse, there were endless opportunities for provoking warfare. And this year she had a grand plan. Inspired by the capture of the narrowboat the year before, she intended this time to make a proper voyage before being turned out. If she and her cronies from the College kitchens could get as far as Abingdon, they could play havoc with the weir†¦. But this year there was to be no war. Something else happened. Lyra was sauntering along the edge of the Port Meadow boatyard in the morning sun, without Roger for once (he had been detailed to wash the buttery floor) but with Hugh Lovat and Simon Parslow, passing a stolen cigarette from one to another and blowing out the smoke ostentatiously, when she heard a cry in a voice she recognized. â€Å"Well, what have you done with him, you half-arsed pillock?† It was a mighty voice, a woman’s voice, but a woman with lungs of brass and leather. Lyra looked around for her at once, because this was Ma Costa, who had clouted Lyra dizzy on two occasions but given her hot gingerbread on three, and whose family was noted for the grandeur and sumptu-ousness of their boat. They were princes among gyptians, and Lyra admired Ma Costa greatly, but she intended to be wary of her for some time yet, for theirs was the boat she had hijacked. One of Lyra’s brat companions picked up a stone automatically when he heard the commotion, but Lyra said, â€Å"Put it down. She’s in a temper. She could snap your backbone like a twig.† In fact, Ma Costa looked more anxious than angry. The man she was addressing, a horse trader, was shrugging and spreading his hands. â€Å"Well, I dunno,† he was saying. â€Å"He was here one minute and gone the next. I never saw where he went†¦.† â€Å"He was helping you! He was holding your bloody horses for you!† â€Å"Well, he should’ve stayed there, shouldn’t he? Runs off in the middle of a job – â€Å" He got no further, because Ma Costa suddenly dealt him a mighty blow on the side of the head, and followed it up with such a volley of curses and slaps that he yelled and turned to flee. The other horse traders nearby jeered, and a flighty colt reared up in alarm. â€Å"What’s going on?† said Lyra to a gyptian child who’d been watching open-mouthed. â€Å"What’s she angry about?† â€Å"It’s her kid,† said the child. â€Å"It’s Billy. She probly reckons the Gobblers got him. They might’ve done, too. I ain’t seen him meself since – â€Å" â€Å"The Gobblers? Has they come to Oxford, then?† The gyptian boy turned away to call to his friends, who were all watching Ma Costa. â€Å"She don’t know what’s going on! She don’t know the Gobblers is here!† Half a dozen brats turned with expressions of derision, and Lyra threw her cigarette down, recognizing the cue for a fight. Everyone’s daemon instantly became warlike: each child was accompanied by fangs, or claws, or bristling fur, and Pantalaimon, contemptuous of the limited imaginations of these gyptian daemons, became a dragon the size of a deer hound. But before they could all join battle, Ma Costa herself waded in, smacking two of the gyptians aside and confronting Lyra like a prizefighter. â€Å"You seen him?† she demanded of Lyra. â€Å"You seen Billy?† â€Å"No,† Lyra said. â€Å"We just got here. I en’t seen Billy for months.† Ma Costa’s daemon was wheeling in the bright air above her head, a hawk, fierce yellow eyes snapping this way and that, unblinking. Lyra was frightened. No one worried about a child gone missing for a few hours, certainly not a gyptian: in the tight-knit gyptian boat world, all children were precious and extravagantly loved, and a mother knew that if a child was out of sight, it wouldn’t be far from someone else’s who would protect it instinctively. But here was Ma Costa, a queen among the gyptians, in a terror for a missing child. What was going on? Ma Costa looked half-blindly over the little group of children and turned away to stumble through the crowd on the wharf, bellowing for her child. At once the children turned back to one another, their feud abandoned in the face of her grief. â€Å"What is them Gobblers?† said Simon Parslow, one of Lyra’s companions. The first gyptian boy said, â€Å"You know. They been stealing kids all over the country. They’re pirates – â€Å" â€Å"They en’t pirates,† corrected another gyptian. â€Å"They’re cannaboles. That’s why they call ’em Gobblers.† â€Å"They eat kids?† said Lyra’s other crony, Hugh Lovat, a kitchen boy from St. Michael’s. â€Å"No one knows,† said the first gyptian. â€Å"They take ’em away and they en’t never seen again.† â€Å"We all know that,† said Lyra. â€Å"We been playing kids and Gobblers for months, before you were, I bet. But 1 bet no one’s seen ’em.† â€Å"They have,† said one boy. â€Å"Who, then?† persisted Lyra. â€Å"Have you seen ’em? How d’you know it en’t just one person?† â€Å"Charlie seen ’em in Banbury,† said a gyptian girl. â€Å"They come and talked to this lady while another man took her little boy out the garden.† â€Å"Yeah,† piped up Charlie, a gyptian boy. â€Å"I seen ’em do it!† â€Å"What did they look like?† said Lyra. â€Å"Well†¦l never properly saw ’em,† Charlie said. â€Å"I saw their truck, though,† he added. â€Å"They come in a white truck. They put the little boy in the truck and drove off quick.† â€Å"But why do they call ’em Gobblers?† Lyra asked. ‘†Cause they eat ’em,† said the first gyptian boy. â€Å"Someone told us in Northampton. They been up there and all. This girl in Northampton, her brother was took, and she said the men as took him told her they was going to eat him. Everyone knows that. They gobble ’em up.† A gyptian girl standing nearby began to cry loudly. â€Å"That’s Billy’s cousin,† said Charlie. Lyra said, â€Å"Who saw Billy last?† â€Å"Me,† said half a dozen voices. â€Å"I seen him holding Johnny Fiorelli’s old horse – I seen him by the toffee-apple seller – I seen him swinging on the crane – â€Å" When Lyra had sorted it out, she gathered that Billy had been seen for certain not less than two hours previously. â€Å"So,† she said, â€Å"sometime in the last two hours there must’ve been Gobblers here†¦.† They all looked around, shivering in spite of the warm sun, the crowded wharf, the familiar smells of tar and horses and smokeleaf. The trouble was that because no one knew what these Gobblers looked like, anyone might be a Gobbler, as Lyra pointed out to the appalled gang, who were now all under her sway, collegers and gyptians alike. â€Å"They’re bound to look like ordinary people, else they’d be seen at once,† she explained. â€Å"If they only came at night, they could look like anything. But if they come in the daylight, they got to look ordinary. So any of these people might be Gobblers†¦.† â€Å"They en’t,† said a gyptian uncertainly. â€Å"I know ’em all.† â€Å"All right, not these, but anyone else,† said Lyra. â€Å"Let’s go and look for ’em! And their white truck!† And that precipitated a swarm. Other searchers soon joined the first ones, and before long, thirty or more gyptian children were racing from end to end of the wharves, running in and out of stables, scrambling over the cranes and derricks in the boatyard, leaping over the fence into the wide meadow, swinging fifteen at a time on the old swing bridge over the green water, and running full pelt through the narrow streets of Jericho, between the little brick terraced houses and into the great square-towered oratory of St. Barnabas the Chymist. Half of them didn’t know what they were looking for, and thought it was just a lark, but those closest to Lyra felt a real fear and apprehension every time they glimpsed a solitary figure down an alley or in the dimness of the oratory: was it a Gobbler? But of course it wasn’t. Eventually, with no success, and with the shadow of Billy’s real disappearance hanging over them all, the fun faded away. As Lyra and the two College boys left Jericho when suppertime neared, they saw the gyptians gathering on the wharf next to where the Costas’ boat was moored. Some of the women were crying loudly, and the men were standing in angry groups, with all their daemons agitated and rising in nervous flight or snarling at shadows. â€Å"I bet them Gobblers wouldn’t dare come in here,† said Lyra to Simon Parslow, as the two of them stepped over the threshold into the great lodge of Jordan. â€Å"No,† he said uncertainly. â€Å"But I know there’s a kid missing from the market.† â€Å"Who?† Lyra said. She knew most of the market children, but she hadn’t heard of this. â€Å"Jessie Reynolds, out the saddler’s. She weren’t there at shutting-up time yesterday, and she’d only gone for a bit of fish for her dad’s tea. She never come back and no one’d seen her. They searched all through the market and everywhere.† â€Å"I never heard about that!† said Lyra, indignant. She considered it a deplorable lapse on the part of her subjects not to tell her everything and at once. â€Å"Well, it was only yesterday. She might’ve turned up now.† â€Å"I’m going to ask,† said Lyra, and turned to leave the lodge. But she hadn’t got out of the gate before the Porter called her. â€Å"Here, Lyra! You’re not to go out again this evening. Master’s orders.† â€Å"Why not?† â€Å"I told you, Master’s orders. He says if you come in, you stay in.† â€Å"You catch me,† she said, and darted out before the old man could leave his doorway. She ran across the narrow street and down into the alley where the vans unloaded goods for the covered market. This being shutting-up time, there were few vans there now, but a knot of youths stood smoking and talking by the central gate opposite the high stone wall of St. Michael’s College. Lyra knew one of them, a sixteen-year-old she admired because he could spit further than anyone else she’d ever heard of, and she went and waited humbly for him to notice her. â€Å"Yeah? What do you want?† he said finally. â€Å"Is Jessie Reynolds disappeared?† â€Å"Yeah. Why?† ‘†Cause a gyptian kid disappeared today and all.† â€Å"They’re always disappearing, gyptians. After every horse fair they disappear.† â€Å"So do horses,† said one of his friends. â€Å"This is different,† said Lyra. â€Å"This is a kid. We was looking for him all afternoon and the other kids said the Gobblers got him.† â€Å"The what?† â€Å"The Gobblers,† she said. â€Å"En’t you heard of the Gobblers?† It was news to the other boys as well, and apart from a few coarse comments they listened closely to what she told them. â€Å"Gobblers,† said Lyra’s acquaintance, whose name was Dick. â€Å"It’s stupid. These gyptians, they pick up all kinds of stupid ideas.† â€Å"They said there was Gobblers in Banbury a couple of weeks ago,† Lyra insisted, â€Å"and there was five kids taken. They probably come to Oxford now to get kids from us. It must’ve been them what got Jessie.† â€Å"There was a kid lost over Cowley way,† said one of the other boys. â€Å"I remember now. My auntie, she was there yesterday, ’cause she sells fish and chips out a van, and she heard about it†¦.Some little boy, that’s it†¦I dunno about the Gobblers, though. They en’t real, Gobblers. Just a story.† â€Å"They are!† Lyra said. â€Å"The gyptians seen ’em. They reckon they eat the kids they catch, and†¦Ã¢â‚¬  She stopped in midsentence, because something had suddenly come into her mind. During that strange evening she’d spent hidden in the Retiring Room, Lord Asriel had shown a lantern slide of a man with streams of light pouring from his hand; and there’d been a small figure beside him, with less light around it; and he’d said it was a child; and someone had asked if it was a severed child, and her uncle had said no, that was the point. Lyra remembered that severed meant â€Å"cut.† And then something else hit her heart: where was Roger? She hadn’t seen him since the morning†¦. Suddenly she felt afraid. Pantalaimon, as a miniature lion, sprang into her arms and growled. She said goodbye to the youths by the gate and walked quietly back into Turl Street, and then ran full pelt for Jordan lodge, tumbling in through the door a second before the now cheetah-shaped daemon. The Porter was sanctimonious. â€Å"I had to ring the Master and tell him,† he said. â€Å"He en’t pleased at all. I wouldn’t be in your shoes, not for money I wouldn’t.† â€Å"Where’s Roger?† she demanded. â€Å"I en’t seen him. He’ll be for it, too. Ooh, when Mr. Cawson catches him – â€Å" Lyra ran to the kitchen and thrust her way into the hot, clangorous, steaming bustle. â€Å"Where’s Roger?† she shouted. â€Å"Clear off, Lyra! We’re busy here!† â€Å"But where is he? Has he turned up or not?† No one seemed interested. â€Å"But where is he? You must’ve heard!† Lyra shouted at the chef, who boxed her ears and sent her storming away. Bernie the pastry cook tried to calm her down, but she wouldn’t be consoled. â€Å"They got him! Them bloody Gobblers, they oughter catch ’em and bloody kill ’em! I hate ’em! You don’t care about Roger – â€Å" â€Å"Lyra, we all care about Roger – â€Å" â€Å"You don’t, else you’d all stop work and go and look for him right now! I hate you!† â€Å"There could be a dozen reasons why Roger en’t turned up. Listen to sense. We got dinner to prepare and serve in less than an hour; the Master’s got guests in the lodging, and he’ll be eating over there, and that means Chef’11 have to attend to getting the food there quick so it don’t go cold; and what with one thing and another, Lyra, life’s got to go on. I’m sure Roger’11 turn up†¦.† Lyra turned and ran out of the kitchen, knocking over a stack of silver dish covers and ignoring the roar of anger that arose. She sped down the steps and across the quadrangle, between the chapel and Palmer’s Tower and into the Yaxley Quad, where the oldest buildings of the College stood. Pantalaimon scampered before her, flowing up the stairs to the very top, where Lyra’s bedroom was. Lyra barged open the door, dragged her rickety chair to the window, flung wide the casement, and scrambled out. There was a lead-lined stone gutter a foot wide just below the window, and once she was standing in that, she turned and clambered up over the rough tiles until she stood on the topmost ridge of the roof. There she opened her mouth and screamed. Pantalaimon, who always became a bird once on the roof, flew round and round shrieking rook shrieks with her. The evening sky was awash with peach, apricot, cream: tender little ice-cream clouds in a wide orange sky. The spires and towers of Oxford stood around them, level but no higher; the green woods of Chateau-Vert and White Ham rose on either side to the east and the west. Rooks were cawing somewhere, and bells were ringing, and from the oxpens the steady beat of a gas engine announced the ascent of the evening Royal Mail zeppelin for London. Lyra watched it climb away beyond the spire of St. Michael’s Chapel, as big at first as the tip of her little finger when she held it at arm’s length, and then steadily smaller until it was a dot in the pearly sky. She turned and looked down into the shadowed quadrangle, where the black-gowned figures of the Scholars were already beginning to drift in ones and twos toward the buttery, their daemons strutting or fluttering alongside or perching calmly on their shoulders. The lights were going on in the Hall; she could see the stained-glass windows gradually beginning to glow as a servant moved up the tables lighting the naphtha lamps. The Steward’s bell began to toll, announcing half an hour before dinner. This was her world. She wanted it to stay the same forever and ever, but it was changing around her, for someone out there was stealing children. She sat on the roof ridge, chin in hands. â€Å"We better rescue him, Pantalaimon,† she said. He answered in his rook voice from the chimney. â€Å"It’ll be dangerous,† he said. ‘†Course! I know that.† â€Å"Remember what they said in the Retiring Room.† â€Å"What?† â€Å"Something about a child up in the Arctic. The one that wasn’t attracting the Dust.† â€Å"They said it was an entire child†¦.What about it?† â€Å"That might be what they’re going to do to Roger and the gyptians and the other kids.† â€Å"What?† â€Å"Well, what does entire mean?† â€Å"Dunno. They cut ’em in half, probably. I reckon they make slaves out of ’em. That’d be more use. They probably got mines up there. Uranium mines for atomcraft. I bet that’s what it is. And if they sent grownups down the mine, they’d be dead, so they use kids instead because they cost less. That’s what they’ve done with him.† â€Å"I think – â€Å" But what Pantalaimon thought had to wait, because someone began to shout from below. â€Å"Lyra! Lyra! You come in this instant!† There was a banging on the window frame. Lyra knew the voice and the impatience: it was Mrs. Lonsdale, the Housekeeper. There was no hiding from her. Tight-faced, Lyra slid down the roof and into the gutter, and then climbed in through the window again. Mrs. Lonsdale was running some water into the little chipped basin, to the accompaniment of a great groaning and hammering from the pipes. â€Å"The number of times you been told about going out there – Look at you! Just look at your skirt – it’s filthy! Take it off at once and wash yourself while I look for something decent that en’t torn. Why you can’t keep yourself clean and tidy†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Lyra was too sulky even to ask why she was having to wash and dress, and no grownup ever gave reasons of their own accord. She dragged the dress over her head and dropped it on the narrow bed, and began to wash desultorily while Pantalaimon, a canary now, hopped closer and closer to Mrs. Lonsdale’s daemon, a stolid retriever, trying in vain to annoy him. â€Å"Look at the state of this wardrobe! You en’t hung nothing up for weeks! Look at the creases in this – â€Å" Look at this, look at that†¦Lyra didn’t want to look. She shut her eyes as she rubbed at her face with the thin towel. â€Å"You’ll just have to wear it as it is. There en’t time to take an iron to it. God bless me, girl, your knees – look at the state of them†¦.† â€Å"Don’t want to look at nothing,† Lyra muttered. Mrs. Lonsdale smacked her leg. â€Å"Wash,† she said ferociously. â€Å"You get all that dirt off.† â€Å"Why?† Lyra said at last. â€Å"I never wash my knees usually. No one’s going to look at my knees. What’ve I got to do all this for? You don’t care about Roger neither, any more than Chef does. I’m the only one that – † Another smack, on the other leg. â€Å"None of that nonsense. I’m a Parslow, same as Roger’s father. He’s my second cousin. I bet you didn’t know that, ’cause I bet you never asked, Miss Lyra. I bet it never occurred to you. Don’t you chide me with not caring about the boy. God knows, I even care about you, and you give me little enough reason and no thanks.† She seized the flannel and rubbed Lyra’s knees so hard she left the skin bright pink and sore, but clean. â€Å"The reason for this is you’re going to have dinner with the Master and his guests. I hope to God you behave. Speak when you’re spoken to, be quiet and polite, smile nicely and don’t you ever say Dunno when someone asks you a question.† She dragged the best dress onto Lyra’s skinny frame, tugged it straight, fished a bit of red ribbon out of the tangle in a drawer, and brushed Lyra’s hair with a coarse brush. â€Å"If they’d let me know earlier, I could’ve given your hair a proper wash. Well, that’s too bad. As long as they don’t look too close†¦There. Now stand up straight. Where’s those best patent-leather shoes?† Five minutes later Lyra was knocking on the door of the Master’s lodging, the grand and slightly gloomy house that opened into the Yaxley Quadrangle and backed onto the Library Garden. Pantalaimon, an ermine now for politeness, rubbed himself against her leg. The door was opened by the Master’s manservant Cousins, an old enemy of Lyra’s; but both knew that this was a state of truce. â€Å"Mrs. Lonsdale said I was to come,† said Lyra. â€Å"Yes,† said Cousins, stepping aside. â€Å"The Master’s in the drawing room.† He showed her into the large room that overlooked the Library Garden. The last of the sun shone into it, through the gap between the library and Palmer’s Tower, and lit up the heavy pictures and the glum silver the Master collected. It also lit up the guests, and Lyra realized why they weren’t going to dine in Hall: three of the guests were women. â€Å"Ah, Lyra,† said the Master. â€Å"I’m so glad you could come. Cousins, could you find some sort of soft drink? Dame Hannah, I don’t think you’ve met Lyra†¦Lord Asriel’s niece, you know.† Dame Hannah Relf was the head of one of the women’s colleges, an elderly gray-haired lady whose daemon was a marmoset. Lyra shook hands as politely as she could, and was then introduced to the other guests, who were, like Dame Hannah, Scholars from other colleges and quite uninteresting. Then the Master came to the final guest. â€Å"Mrs. Coulter,† he said, â€Å"this is our Lyra. Lyra, come and say hello to Mrs. Coulter.† â€Å"Hello, Lyra,† said Mrs. Coulter. She was beautiful and young. Her sleek black hair framed her cheeks, and her daemon was a golden monkey. How to cite The Golden Compass Chapter Three, Essay examples

Formulation of Systemic PEST Analysis †Free Samples to Students

Question: Discuss about the Formulation of Systemic PEST Analysis. Answer: Introduction Marketing is one of the most important functions of any organization. It helps companies understand who are their customers, what their needs are, how those needs can be satisfied, how to reach these customers and lastly how to manage customer feedback. This is the reason organizations invest so heavily in their marketing management. This report throws light on four marketing strategies and how companies make use of them by industry examples. PESTLE is an analysis tool used by marketing managers to evaluate the macro marketing environment before introducing a new product or service. It throws light on the political, socio-cultural, environmental, legal, economic and technological aspect of the industry. This gives them an idea about the environment and helps organizations decide on the feasibility and sustainability of their product (Ho, 2014). For example, the company Stylerunner is an Australian based startup established in 2012. Stylerunner has created a niche by selling active wear to women. Until now it was presumed that active wear cannot be fashionable. But Stylerunner is slowly changing that mindset and people are investing on clothes that they will sweat into. This is a perfect example of an entirely new product. Let us see how they have used PESTLE analysis before entering the market. Political: Australia is a liberal-capitalistic democracy therefore the interference of government is not very high. Australia levies a corporate tax of 30% which is higher than most G7 countries (Trading Economics, 2017). However, Australia has provided Stylerunner with world class infrastructure and efficient communication systems in place. Environmental: Environmentally Australia is making a lot of changes by switching to renewable sources of energy which is great for business. In fact, Australia is a net exporter of energy resources. Social: Socially Australians are moving towards a healthier lifestyle which makes the market for Stylerunner very attractive. High level of education among individuals is also helping them adopt to changes and accepting active wear as fashionable. The average age of Australians is not very high and hence the youth can be targeted for selling active wear. Technological: Technologically the Australians are way advanced. Over 70% people own a smartphone and 40% of people prefer shopping online. This provides for a great platform for launching Stylerunner online or as a mobile application. The entire country is well connected with the use of internet and hence technologically it is a perfect platform to promote, sell and target customers. Legal: Three major taxes levied are Corporate Tax, GST and Capital gains tax. The procedure of opening a new business in Australia is simple. Australia ranks 10th in the world in terms of ease of doing business. This makes Australia an attractive destination for starting a new business. Economic: Australia is the largest capitalist economies in the world. Demographically Australia is a perfect market for Stylerunner active wear. The interest rate is at an all-time low of 1.5% which makes it cheaper to borrow money from the banks (RBA, 2017). Ease of doing business and contained inflation are other attractive factors for Stylerunner. Although the retail sales have shown a slight decline in the recent years, the growth is expected to pick up especially for a niche segment like active clothing. SWOT analysis is a tool used by marketers to understand the internal and external environment of any already existing business (Hollensen, 2015). It throws light on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of any company. The strengths and weaknesses are for internal analysis and understanding the details of the company better whereas the opportunities and threats are for external environment and understanding the industry better. For example Aldi discount Stores SWOT is as below: Strengths: One of the biggest strengths upon which Aldi positions itself is its low prices and its fast check out process that saves time of customers. Aldi discount stores places various barcodes on a single product and claims to be 40% more faster than other retail stores in the industry. Weaknesses: In order to maintain low cost and fast speed, Aldi offers very less variety of brands for customers to choose from. There are not more than two brands of the same product line. Opportunities: Tying up with E-commerce websites especially in this global era of technology is a big opportunity for retail stores. Starting membership cards for consumers and offering further membership discounts and bonuses can help attract more customers leading to an enlarged customer base. Threats: Retail industry in Australia is a heavily competitive market. There are various big players like Coles and Woolworths and they have a high market share and brand presence. Segmentation, Targeting Positioning STP is a tool used by marketers in order to analyze the industry. It is predominantly used for customer profiling. This is important because it helps companies divide the entire region into simpler and well defined segments and help understand the needs of customers of that particular segments. This helps organizations understand a need gap and fill that gap by delivering products that are required by the consumers. The best example for this is McDonalds Australia who is clear about its customers in every country and exactly offers them what they need. Segmentation: Segmentation refers to dividing the market into segments as per the needs of the consumers (Pike, 2014). McDonalds divides its market as below: Demographic Segmentation: Considering demographics, McDonalds should segment the market into various age groups, working and non-working professionals, income groups and gender. Psychographic Segmentation: Psychographic segmentation is done on the basis of consumer lifestyle, eating habits, religious beliefs and spending patterns. Targeting: Once the Segments have been defined, Targeting helps in understanding which particular customers need to be targeted in that segment. Demographic: McDonalds targets school and college students looking for low priced snack option. Another target market involves office goers who are looking for a quick and convenient breakfast option. Psychographic: People are not very health conscious and believe in a convenient lifestyle are targeted. Positioning: Positioning is the image in the minds of the consumers about the product (Armstrong, 2015). McDonalds has positioned itself as a low price, quick and convenient snack station meant to satisfy small hunger pangs. Moral principles guiding the product and its marketing are simply marketing ethics. Every organization must ensure that the product and its marketing is ethically correct and not offensive to any social, cultural or political group (Eagle, 2015). Marlboro marketing campaign Dont be a maybe, be a Marlboro had pictures of youngsters smoking which led to various anti-tobacco campaigns across the globe. This campaign was introduced in 50 countries with posters showing youngsters acting radical, adventurous and decisive ways. This kind of marketing is ethically wrong as it is promoting bad habits among youngsters. While creating marketing strategies, marketers must keep in mind the effects of such marketing upon society. References Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M. and Brennan, R., 2015.Marketing: an introduction. Pearson Education. Eagle, L. and Dahl, S. eds., 2015.Marketing Ethics Society. Sage. Ho, J.K.K., 2014. Formulation of a systemic PEST analysis for strategic analysis.European academic research,2(5), pp.6478-6492. Hollensen, S., 2015.Marketing management: A relationship approach. Pearson Education. Pike, S. and Page, S.J., 2014. Destination Marketing Organizations and destination marketing: A narrative analysis of the literature.Tourism management,41, pp.202-227. Reserve Bank of Australia, 2017, Interest rate decisions 2017, https://www.rba.gov.au/monetary-policy/int-rate-decisions/2017/, retrieved on 8 October, 2017. Trading Economics, 2017, Australian corporate tax, https://tradingeconomics.com/australia/corporate-tax-rate, retrieved on 8 October, 2017

Saving for Retirement Essays - Taxation In The United States

Persuasive Speech On Saving For Retirement Persuasive Speech on Saving for Retirement Dateline: 08/17/98 In virtually every business college, you will have to take some form of speech/communication class. Here's a persuasive speech with a format that Business Majors Guest Writer Allen Yamazaki used for his Speech 251 class. You can also learn about saving for retirement at the same time. Saving for Retirement General Purpose: To persuade Specific Purpose: To persuade the audience to start saving for their retirement Central Idea: Starting early to save for retirement has many benefits over Social Security Introduction: I. (Attention Getter) Only 2 people out of the 19 responses I got from the survey have started saving for their retirement. A. This is understandable because most of us probably think that retirement is something that is eons away. B. Because we are college students, our school schedule only allows us to work part time. C. Between the 2 people that has started saving for their retirement, one person currently works full time. And this person also is participating in their employer's profit sharing program or 401K plan. And this person also owns stocks. This person already has a good start. II. (Credibility Statement) I myself have started saving for my retirement by starting an IRA. III. (Reveal Topic) You simply cannot rely on Social Secur

Humbug Definition

Humbug Definition Humbug was a word used the 19th century to mean a trick played upon unsuspecting people. The word lives on in the English language today thanks largely to two notable figures, Charles Dickens and Phineas T. Barnum. Dickens famously made â€Å"Bah, humbug!† the trademark phrase of an unforgettable character, Ebenezer Scrooge. And the great showman Barnum took delight in being known as the â€Å"Prince of Humbugs.† Barnum’s fondness for the word indicates an important characteristic of humbug. It isn’t just that a humbug is something false or deceptive, it is also, in its purest form, highly entertaining. The numerous hoaxes and exaggerations which Barnum exhibited during his long career were termed humbugs but calling them that indicated a sense of playfulness. Origin of Humbug as a Word The word humbug seems to have been coined sometime in the 1700s. Its roots are obscure, but it caught on as slang among students. The word began appearing in dictionaries, such as in the 1798 edition of A Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue edited by Francis Grose: To Hum, or Humbug. To deceive, to impose on one by some story or device. A humbug; a jocular imposition, or deception. When Noah Webster published his landmark dictionary in 1828, humbug was again defined as an imposition. Humbug as Used by Barnum The popular use of the word in America was largely due to Phineas T. Barnum. Early in his career, when he exhibited obvious frauds such as Joice Heth, a woman said to be 161 years old, he was denounced for perpetrating humbugs. Barnum essentially adopted the term and defiantly chose to consider it a term of affection. He began to call some of his own attractions humbugs, and the public took it as good-natured kidding. It should be noted that Barnum despised people like con men or snake oil salesmen who actively cheated the public. He eventually wrote a book titled The Humbugs of the World which criticized them. But in his own usage of the term, a humbug was a playful hoax that was highly entertaining. And the public seemed to agree, returning time and again to view whatever humbug Barnum might be exhibiting. Humbug as Used by Dickens In the classic novella, ​A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, the miserly character Ebenezer Scrooge uttered â€Å"Bah, humbug!† when reminded of Christmas. To Scrooge, the word meant a folly, something too silly for him to spend time on. In the course of the story, however, Scrooge receives visits from the ghosts of Christmas, learns the true meaning of the holiday, and ceases to regard celebrations of Christmas as humbug.

How to Write About Ranges

How to Write About Ranges How to Write About Ranges How to Write About Ranges By Mark Nichol A range is, in written expression, the numerical difference between or among two or more values, or a pair of elements denoting the end points on, and perhaps one or more elements along, a continuum. Using sentences with errors in expressing ranges, this post discusses how to correctly do so in writing. The school enrolls students in grades 9 12. The correct treatment of a range numbers expressed in numerals is one number followed by an en dash (although some publications employ a hyphen) and another number, with no letter spaces: â€Å"The school enrolls students in grades 9–12.† This style, with a numeral range, is correct even when a publication uses a style system in which references to numbers are usually spelled out if the number is one hundred or less. However, if the range is expressed with to (or through) instead of a dash, the numbers should, in that case, be spelled out: â€Å"The school enrolls students in grades nine to twelve.† Operating hours are from 9 a.m.–10 p.m. If from precedes the expression of a number range, to, rather than a dash, should intervene between the two values: â€Å"Operating hours are from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.† (If a dash is preferred, delete from: â€Å"Operating hours are 9 a.m.–10 p.m.†) Only a handful of school districts within a 30-40 mile radius rank among the top twenty-five school districts. The solution for this example is not simply to replace the hyphen with a dash; the range must be recast as shown here: â€Å"Only a handful of school districts within a 30- to 40-mile radius rank among the top twenty-five school districts.† The expressed range is not â€Å"30–40†; it is â€Å"a 30-mile radius to 40-mile radius,† with the first value truncated to the number and a suspensive hyphenation. (This range can also be expressed â€Å"a radius of 30 to 40 miles.†) Qualifying businesses are those with revenues of $10–$20 billion. This sentence suggests that the low end of the range is $10, rather than $10 billion. Except in the case of suspensive hyphenation, values should be fully expressed: â€Å"Qualifying businesses are those with revenues of $10 billion–$20 billion.† The sanctions impact the economy broadly, affecting business transactions ranging from the import of airplanes; the export of caviar, carpets, and pistachios; and the manufacturing of cars. The sequence of phrases specifying trade and production of goods does not constitute a list; it is a range that includes three elements. From must be complemented by to, and the semicolons are extraneous and intrusive: â€Å"The sanctions impact the economy broadly, affecting business transactions ranging from the import of airplanes to the export of caviar, carpets, and pistachios and the manufacturing of cars.† These range from restricting access for the sanctioned entity to the US financial system, to prohibitions on investing in a sanctioned entity, to restrictions on imports from the sanctioned entity, to the exclusion from the U.S. of controlling officers or controlling shareholders of a sanctioned entity. Elements consisting of a sequence of phrases indicating a range and beginning with one element preceded by from and one or more subsequent elements preceded by to should not be interrupted by punctuation: â€Å"These sanctions range from restricting access for the sanctioned entity to the US financial system to prohibitions on investing in a sanctioned entity to restrictions on imports from the sanctioned entity to the exclusion from the United States of controlling officers or controlling shareholders of a sanctioned entity.† If the sentence is not clear without punctuation, recast the sentence. In many cases, including the sentence used as an example here, the use of from and to as signifiers of a range is not necessary, as a given sequence may not necessarily indicate a range that implies priority of one phrase over another. (Here, the sequence does not explicitly express increasingly strict sanctions, though they may be inferred to be so.) When this is true, simply revise the sentence to express a simple list: â€Å"These sanctions include restricting access for the sanctioned entity to the US financial system, prohibitions on investing in a sanctioned entity, restrictions on imports from the sanctioned entity, and the exclusion from the United States of controlling officers or controlling shareholders of a sanctioned entity.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Style category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Arrive To vs. Arrive AtHow to Pronounce MobileTrooper or Trouper?

The Emerald Forest by John Boorman Movie Review

The Emerald Forest by John Boorman - Movie Review Example Apart from the difference in the authority structures of these two societies, their entire life styles and cultures are different. Western modern society is developed and advanced in terms of technology and uses machine guns and weapons to fight, aero planes to travel and other machines to cut off forests and clear the land for construction, whereas the invisible people do not have much use of technology as they use arrows and spears to fight and travel by walking long distances (â€Å"Proyect†). As wanadi says, â€Å"When I was a boy, the edges of the world was very far away, but it comes closer each year.† It means that western world is growing in technology and now travelling across the entire world to reach far off places have become easy and fast. However, as technology is enhancing it is destroying the natural environment more (â€Å"The Emerald Forest†). Air pollution from the aero planes, cars etc have increased resulting in various diseases affecting our respiratory systems when we inhale the oxygen present in the air. Also the modern guns and weapons have resulted in the increasing demolition of mankind who are killed in massacres. The machines used to clear off forests have destroyed the beauty of the world and the indigenous livelihood (â€Å"The Emerald Forest†). The natural resources are being depleted with the adoption of new technology. This is the reason that the people of the western world were called to be Termite as they cut down big trees and destroy the real world which is in forests (â€Å"The Emerald Forest†). The invisible people are loving, caring, innocent people who calls the forest as their world, who keeps to themselves, away from western society and just want... Both the traditional culture and the culture of the western American societies have their own good and bad points but in my view, the culture of the invisible people is far better than that of the westerners. The reason is that the invisible people were good hearted, loving humans who were satisfied with their lives and were happily living with their people in their world. Their culture satisfies all their humanly needs like physiological needs of food, water, sex etc, the safety needs by providing them shelter, resources to survive, health, their emotional needs by providing family, love, and by giving a sense of community in which people can depend upon each other in time of their need, their esteem needs i.e. their culture teaches them how to respect others and confidence and finally the highest level of human need that is self-actualization by providing them problem-solving capabilities and morality. The traditional culture promotes spirituality and the feeling of community which makes them selfless people who unlike the westerners do not tear apart nature and others feel for their own needs or motives. This view is further supported by Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud and Emile Durkheim who also views modern society as a misery in which people are unhappy and never fully satisfied. Even though they all have the same conclusion, they have different reasons for their views. According to Karl Marx, this misery results from capitalism which divides society into two major groups Bourgeoisie and Proletaria.

Customer Relationship Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Customer Relationship Management - Essay Example CRM is a broad aspect and can be used from the perspective of consumer, business and implementation of strategies. CRM can be broadly divided into three major categories namely, functional, business strategy and implementation. Functional category includes aspects which relate to the functional areas of an organization and includes areas like sales force automation, customer support etc. The business strategy aspect can be divided into three types which are business, technology and customer. The implementation perspective can be divided into analytical, collaborative and operational based practices. Analytical CRM is a tool that seeks to gather and analyse data related to operational aspects of an organization. Tools like OLAP and other data warehousing techniques help in creating a better experience for consumers by improving their relationship with the organization. Collaborative CRM focuses upon the different points of interaction with the customer and the firm and serves to integ rate the various channels of communication for a better service delivery. Operational CRM helps in providing solutions with regards to various back and front end support for administrative and customer related aspects by integration with different databases to provide customer friendly support and delivery business processes (Motiwalla & Thompson, p.332-333). CRM not only aims at developing a better relationship with the customers but also strives towards creating an all round development.... Collaborative CRM focuses upon the different points of interaction with the customer and the firm and serves to integrate the various channels of communication for a better service delivery. Operational CRM helps in providing solutions with regards to various back and front end support for administrative and customer related aspects by integration with different databases to provide customer friendly support and delivery business processes (Motiwalla & Thompson, p.332-333). Scope and Importance of Customer Relationship Management CRM not only aims at developing a better relationship with the customers but also strives towards creating an all round development of relationship with all the major stakeholders including the suppliers who play a crucial part in the sustainability of the organization. The main aspects of CRM include knowledge of the customer, an effective strategy directed towards maintaining a relationship with the customer, communication and finally the value addition in the product or service offering (Peelen, p.7). Figure 2: Diagram showing the scope of CRM (Source: Buttle, p.299) CRM places the customer at the centre of the framework as all its intended policies are directed towards the development of customer relationship. Management of suppliers is essential considering the fact that they form the backbone of an organization’s business activities. Firms like Wal-Mart have effectively used ERP to bring about a better and efficient relationship with the suppliers so as to deliver greater value to the consumers. Toyota uses a effective CRM framework to manage its large number of suppliers which has helped in attaining efficiency which has reaped numerous operational benefits to

The Wizard of Oz Essay Example for Free

The Wizard of Oz Essay The Wizard of Oz uses film form by using similarity and repetition. With Dorothy being the main character, she is always reappearing in the film. As well as all of the characters, The Tin Man, The Lion, and The Scarecrow, have similarities to Dorothy. Each of them need something, Dorothy needs to go back home, The Tin Man needs a brain, The Scarecrow needs a heart, and The Lion needs courage. The film also progresses from the beginning to the end, as well as the characters. Dorothy starts at one spot, follows the yellow brick road and eventually makes it to her destination to see The Wizard of Oz, gets what she wants and ends up back home. The characters grow as they go. You can really evaluate this film because it is very interesting and catchy. The director carries the story very well in his Narrative form. Film Style (Mise-en-Scene) The viewers can pick up a lot from the film The Wizard of Oz. The setting is always pretty much the same, there is a lot of different colors, different shapes, and patterns. The filmmaker is always grabbing our attention with the variety of things that show up throughout the film. Something else that the viewers notice a lot is the characters, especially Dorothy. Each of their costumes represents the character, leaving the viewers to remember them by what they are wearing. The main thing that is remembered about Dorothy is her ruby red heels that end up getting her back home. Dorothy receives the ruby red heels at the beginning of her adventure and she wears them all throughout the film down the yellow brick road, and at the end of the film the ruby red heels have a big significance. Dorothy ends up getting let in to see the Wiz of Oz only because of the ruby red heels. Eventually, Dorothy clicks her ruby red heels together and they magically get her back home. (Cinematography) The Cinematography that the Wizard of Oz used is a benchmark for Technicolor’s three-strip process. The individual colors stand out everywhere, and there is never a trace of chroma noise. The image is brighter and sharper in the film. The contrast of the film really affects the mood. Since the contrast is so bright the viewer is bound to stay focused and aware because everything is so catchy and noticeable. Also, the exposure changes throughout the film. At the very beginning the film starts in black and white and changed to color as the story progressed. The filmmaker uses a lot of Long Takes, each shot of Dorothy meeting someone new is pretty lengthy. (Editing) The Wizard of Oz is an early film but editing is used quite a bit. First off, the absence of color in the beginning and the ending of the film. This sets an overall feeling of Dorothy being home. Next the film turns to color once Dorothy dreams of being in a different world, the color, yet again, set an overall mood for Dorothy in this new world â€Å"Over the rainbow.† The first steps of Dorothy being in the world of The Wizard of Oz gives off an example of inside and outside editing. The shot begins with a close up of Dorothy’s face and the camera slowly moves out to show everything else around Dorothy, which was the start of the yellow brick road and Munchkin land. After the viewer see all of that, the camera moves back in to Dorothys face when she says that they are not in Kansas anymore. One editing transition used a lot in The Wizard of Oz is the fade-in and dissolve. Another is cross-cut, two events occurring at the same time but in two different locations. This is used in the scene at the poppy field, after Dorothy and her friends meet the Lion. The shot zooms out to the Witches crystal ball, and fades away. Then the Witch looks into her crystal ball and can see the poppy field, zooming back in to see Dorothy and her friends on their adventure to see The Wizard of Oz. (Sound) The perceptual properties of film sound used in The Wizard of Oz are the loudness (volume) and pitch. The scenes where the group sing â€Å"We’re off Were off to see the Wizard, The wonderful Wizard of Oz, Youll find that the man is a whiz of a Wiz, If ever a Wiz there was, If ever, if ever a Wizmthere was, The Wizard of Oz is one because, Because, because, because, because, because, Of the wonderful things he does, Were off to see the Wizard, The wonderful Wizard of Oz,† the volume as well as the pitch always go up. The rhythm flows really well. An example from the Wizard of Oz that shows non-diegetic sound is when Dorothy is talking to the Wicked Witch and the Good Witch. The characters conversation is mirrored with the music playing in the background. The non-diegetic sound supports the narrative. As well as helping the viewer’s get an emotional attachment to the shots. (Narrative)

Current Issue Article :: essays research papers

I found this article to be very interesting it ties very well into what we have been learning about with the universe. The article talks about how astronomers have used old stars to determine the age of the universe. The article tells how Timothy Beers and his associates have discovered a radioactive isotope, uranium-238, in a metal-poor star located on the outskirts of the milkyway. I suppose I should give a little back that the article talked about first. Astronomers have found the age of many stars by using radioactive dating. See astronomers are able to calculate the age of a star by using this radioactive dating. This method does work for older stars that were formed from just hydrogen, helium and lithium these are nonradioactive elements that are called metal poor-stars. Well it is believe that some of these stars were massive and exploded and set off nuclear reactions that made a second generation of metal-poor stars and some of these stars contained radioactive isotopes. So now that leads us to were I started until the discovery of uranuim-238 astronomers were only able to detect isotope-thoruim-232. Well with the discovery of this star that contained uranuim-238 researchers were able to calculate the age of the star and make an estimated minimum age of the universe. Astronomers hope that with the discovery of more of these stars they will be able to find the minimum age of the universe.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I know that was a long explanation I just don’t think I could have made it shorter. Any ways I picked this article because I found it so interesting. I mean to think that for thousands of years astronomers have been studying the stars and here in the year 2001 they are still making discoveries.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  On the other hand is knowing the age of the universe going to make some big impact on our lives. I guess what I am wondering is I am sure that they are spending millions of dollars for this research.

Foreign Direct Investment Essay

Today, the traits of foreign investment have change than it was for two decades. Then it was mainly followed by the â€Å"multinational† companies to build their image. Foreign investment was never deemed as an autonomous â€Å"economic activity†, in fact I was always conceived to be a procedure to assist in trade related activities. However, one can not perceive â€Å"foreign direct investment† as an assistant to trading activities. It is necessary for the growth and development of capital that the resources should be efficiently distributed and apportioned. Nowadays, the flow of capital is against the expectations, as most of the capital moves towards the â€Å"developed countries†. (Konrad, 2000) The fact is that excessive flows of capital must have been initiative in the â€Å"developing countries†. These have the dire need of direct capital investments for development and reconstruction. Although, developing countries do have room for these types of investments, the presence of high â€Å"risks† there discourages high foreign investments. Hence, one can say that today the largest piece of work is to introduce reforms in the process of capital distribution. Being a new concept all the â€Å"large and small† countries adopted â€Å"foreign direct investment† with great â€Å"concern† and doubts. Today it is a part of the aims of the companies to facilitated and sustain foreign direct investment. Large enterprises go for external investments. However, the availability of â€Å"mutual fund† has facilitated foreign investment to the â€Å"small investors†. (Konrad, 2000) Today, most of the developing countries are experiencing high capital flows. In other wards one can say that foreign direct investment is the major source of capital availability in the developing countries. It has even taken over the funds provided by the government and â€Å"multinational† banks for development and reconstruction of the developing countries. About one third of the investments in developing countries are actually done by the international investors. Recently, the flows of capital form the â€Å"developed† to the developing countries have spiked causing the positive outcome of the investments from the OECD to the â€Å"non-OECD† countries. (Konrad, 2000)   The increasing importance of the â€Å"foreign direct investment† has increased the demand for the creation of an international investment platform. Investment is actually functioning of economics that enjoy high social importance. It also assists in the achievement of maintenance and growth of the countries. The role of policies in the sustainability of investment in the develop countries helps to form â€Å"Market disciplines†. It is for this reason that most of the â€Å"policy-makers† rely upon it in the development of the policies. (Konrad, 2000) The lust of making money has many dire implications. The US government’s stances to raise the investment prospects resulted in high reception of taxes during 1992-1998. This increase in the â€Å"value† of investment areas termed quite profitable for the US. It got the chance to overcome its â€Å"budget deficit†, to build an appreciable budget for defense purpose; it also helped the US government to make certain national and international investments. That ultimately led to its development and strong economic presence in the world. However, the situation is opposite in the â€Å"developing countries†. There the â€Å"policy makes† are facing many difficulties in the investment and development of society mainly because of the availability of limited capital inflows. (Konrad, 2000) The greater increase of Foreign Direct investment among OECD countries-â€Å"Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development†- show that the OECD do have some stake in such type of investments. In fact the most of the foreign direct investment in developing countries is actually a result of the investment done by the OECD countries. Notwithstanding, yet OECD countries have not adopted a â€Å"multilateral agreement† for such type of investment. These types of investments can only be facilitated and practice by following the â€Å"guidelines† set by the United Nations.   The policies adopted by the European Union for the implementation of foreign direct investment are totally different from other countries. Most of the â€Å"treaties† and policies followed by the EU member states preserve â€Å"foreign direct investment† in them. The EU countries cannot sign or â€Å"negotiate† any â€Å"multilateral† investment proposal individually. However they can form a â€Å"bilateral† investment proposal individually. (Konrad, 2000) The well known matter of foreign direct investment is â€Å"home state†. This principle refers to a country’s ability to hold the investment made by its investors in some other country. This principle have stake in the foreign investment even after completely depending upon the â€Å"state responsibility principles† and the involvement of diplomats.   This principle proves that both investments and trades have different implications. (Konrad, 2000) Foreign direct investment is in many ways necessary for attaining â€Å"development† which can be maintained for a longer period of time. Unfortunately. most of the current investment policies and the framework are not properly maintained. A proper â€Å"investment† is required to take over them. Therefore, a collective â€Å"international investment regime† is required to facilitated and make public foreign direct investment. Today, due to increase in the direct investment from foreign countries developed countries have a limited share in the investment GDP than they had during the â€Å"Environment and Development Conference† conducted by the UN. Today, countries like â€Å"Brazil, China, Chile, Argentina and Mexico† have a big share in the implications of foreign direct investment. However, it is not reliable for a country to totally rely upon this type of investment. Using such type of investment to develop funds ends finishes all its resources. (Konrad, 2000) This may affect the ability of the country to invest for maintaining its development. In other words the outflow of capital should be directed towards the developing or underdeveloped countries. Up till now all the initiations to constitute an â€Å"international investment regime† have failed only because of the divergence of perspectives among the United Nations and the OECD.   United Nation has mainly focused upon the duties of the â€Å"multinational corporations† however the OECD countries are concerned with the â€Å"Investors rights† to introduce reforms in their investment’s security. (Konrad, 2000) Today, it is really necessary to differentiate between the â€Å"rights† and duties of the private and public sector investors. Unfortunately, none of the current international corporations are following this approach to attain compatible foreign direct investments for their country. It is necessary for most of the â€Å"international† corporations to build an equilibrium investment policy. Only then a capable foreign direct investment policy can be developed and implemented. Moreover, â€Å"the relationship between the investor† and the country been invested in is different from the relationship between the exporting country and the importing country. It is obligatory upon the investors to attaint the investing rights of the country, he wishes to invest in.   And it is for this reason the development of an international investment platform is necessary. (Konrad, 2000) For the implementation of the foreign direct investment and the solution of wars it is necessary to have a publicaly legitimized system. It will assist in the proper functioning of the investment platform. Foreign direct investment will pave ways for the development of a platform where investment treaties could be building. A pact have been designed properly can help to meet the policies of foreign investments. These pacts will make the aims of the â€Å"foreign direct investment† platform more clear and applicable. However, the outcome of these types of small and big agreements will be the formation of â€Å"regime† that would be easily accept and implement the changes in the foreign direct investment. Up till now all the initiatives taken by â€Å"World Bank, WTO, and UN† to facilitate these investments have failed. In fact the difference of opinion among the policy makers resulted in the deadlock. Although the organization built for the just implementation of the foreign direct investment must be predictable and flexible for larger duration. (Konrad, 2000) Foreign direct investment has shown subsequent increase during last 10 years. It is believed that many factors are responsible for this increase.   To get increased capital flows from public and â€Å"private† sector and the formation of liberal â€Å"global financial system† helped in the â€Å"development and globalization† of product manufacturing. The cause for the raise in the flow of â€Å"long-term investments† towards the south is the growing interest of â€Å"public and private† investors in the region. Especially, most of the public departments and officials showed great interest for the international investments. These investments were supposed to assist in countries development and reconstruction. Foreign investments usually undermine the domestic industry. Therefore, most of the â€Å"developing countries† build certain rules and regulation for the foreign investors. These initiatives were only taken to preserve and develop the â€Å"domestic industry†. Admittedly, increasing autonomy of finance and trade as well as the growing prospects of investments has resulted in the formation of â€Å"new† atmosphere that assists in the arrival of foreign investments.   Notwithstanding, â€Å"global economy† has also played a great role to introduce new prospects in the spheres of foreign direct investments. The increase in the â€Å"intra firm trade and internationalization of production† has been actually resulted form the growing competition among the â€Å"multinational corporations (MNC)†. With the globalization the multinational organizations are also growing. Foreign direct investments are necessary for the Multinational corporations so that they can raise their competitive popularity and explore their business to the â€Å"new markets†. All the factor relating to the â€Å"demand and supply† of the foreign investments are necessary for the development of foreign direct investments (FDI). FDI involves less â€Å"risks† than other investment programs. It is for this reason that today the supply of investments and the process of â€Å"lending† are dominated by the FDIs. Although, most of the Asian countries were badly affect by the â€Å"financial crises† of 1990s, even then they enjoyed heavy â€Å"inflow† of foreign direct investments. Explicitly, most of the multinational corporations –that rely upon the exports- do not need inflow of capital for the â€Å"production† of their produce. However, the decreased in the value of â€Å"local† currency has resulted in the demand for foreign investment. It is for this reason that an environment for the foreign direct investments is progressing. Today, the competition in the â€Å"trade, transportation and telecommunication† sectors has rocketed globally. Therefore, in order to remain in the race most of the corporations have to depend upon the â€Å"Relative factor cost†. Countries more anxious to attain foreign direct investment try to make their domestic product international and to make adjustment in their infrastructure globally. This approach usually adopted by the countries where there is expensive labor.   Mostly, the ideology of â€Å"export and intra-firm trade† is linked with the â€Å"efficiency seeking† foreign direct investments. In most of â€Å"service sector† foreign direct investment is used for the formulation and implementation of â€Å"market-seeking and resource-seeking† plans. (Odele, 2001) Mostly companies willing to explore â€Å"new markets† bring the FDIs in service sector. Major aspects of the foreign direct investment is the â€Å"geographical† closeness of the developing and â€Å"new† markets. This approach is usually adopted by the corporations, want to capture and attract â€Å"new consumers†. Most the companies that want to attain â€Å"global† market adopt â€Å"cross-border† strategies for foreign investments. These strategies are based upon the â€Å"acquisition and merger (M& A)† of international firms. Mostly corporations in the â€Å"banking, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals and insurance† sector adopt M&A approach for FDI. In 1997 the merger and acquisition approach was considered the major cause of the â€Å"inflow† of the foreign direct investment in the industrial sectors. According to survey conducted by UNCTAD â€Å"mergers and acquisition† cover â€Å"three-fifth† of the foreign direct investment in the global markets. This approach has also resulted in the concession of industries in the global market. Due to increase in foreign direct investments the â€Å"productions† in the foreign market raised to $3.5 trillion. However, â€Å"global sales† show that the â€Å"international productions† have risen to $9.5 trillion. This increase in production has resulted in the increase of the GDP to about 7%. Ultimately, it seems that today foreign investments account for â€Å"one-third† of worldly â€Å"exports†. (Odele, 2001) As most of the alternatives of the inflows of capital form the foreign market decreased in 1980s, the demand for foreign direct investment surged. Initially, most of the â€Å"domestic industries† of the south countries was preserved by the â€Å"high tariffs† and restricted interference of investors form the international market. Up till now most of the â€Å"developing countries† have worked really hard to protect their â€Å"domestic† industries from the empowering of international firms. Different rules and regulation were implement in this regard e.g. heavy tariffs were demanded from foreign investors. They were allowed to invest in only limited sectors. Property rights were also denied to the foreign investors. (Odele, 2001) However, it is amid 1998s that these countries realized the importance of FDIs. Therefore, they liberalized foreign direct investment to some extent; most of the autonomy was provided in the â€Å"export oriented† sector. So that it can be compete in the international market and bring heavy reserves in the country. Yet foreign direct investors were denied independence in the other â€Å"domestic† sector. The â€Å"financial crises† of Asia was also a reason to liberalized FDIs. This crisis proved that investments for â€Å"long term† are more profitable than the â€Å"short-term investments†.   The best example in this regard is of Mexico. Who faced great loss in for its â€Å"short-term† investment plans during the financial crises? (Odele, 2001) According to â€Å"endogenous growth theory† foreign direct investments facilitates development of economy by providing â€Å"Scarce capital, technology and skills†. These three serve as elements for the creation of capital in a country. (Odele, 2001) Initially FDI were concerned to be affects the economy of the â€Å"host† country positively. But the experiment in this regards have proved that it is difficult to maintain these positive impacts of FDI upon a country’s economy. It is for this reason the response of the â€Å"host governments† towards the FDI is ambiguous. The involvement of government and proper policies can help to bring positive results of FDI. All the experiments towards the FDI are not positive but some researches have also proved negative impacts of FDI upon the domestic industry and economic growth of the country. Hence, many countries design their FDI policies with great concern. (Odele, 2001) FDI is a crucial element in the â€Å"economic development† of developing and under developed countries. Though it is true that FDI helpful in the production of â€Å"new technologies†, providing employment opportunities, facilitates international market accessibility etc. it is also termed as a major cause for the downfall of environmental peace, it badly thwarts the equality of culture and society and disrupts the association with the local governments with the economy.   (Annie et al, 2000)