Mark Twain6 Essay Example For Students

Mark Twain6 Essay Pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910), American writer and humorist, whose best work is characterized by broad, often irreverent humor or biting social satire. Twains writing is also known for realism of place and language, memorable characters, and hatred of hypocrisy and oppression. Born in Florida, Missouri, Clemens moved with his family to Hannibal, Missouri, a port on the Mississippi River, when he was four years old. In 1851 he began setting type for and contributing sketches to his brother Orions Hannibal Journal. Later, Clemens was a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River until the American Civil War (1861-1865). In 1862 he became a reporter on the Territorial Enterprise in Virginia City, Nevada, and in 1863 he began signing his articles with the pseudonym Mark Twain, a Mississippi River phrase meaning two fathoms deep. In 1865 Twain published The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and within months the author and the story had become national sensations. Much of Twains best work was written in the 1870s and 1880s. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) celebrates boyhood in a town on the Mississippi River; The Prince and the Pauper (1882), a childrens book, focuses on switched identities in Tudor England; and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court (1889) satirizes oppression in feudal England (see Feudalism). One of Twains most significant works of the 1890s and 1900s is Puddnhead Wilson (1894), a novel set in the South before the Civil War that criticizes racism by focusing on mistaken racial identities. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), the sequel to Tom Sawyer, is considered Twains masterpiece. The book is the story of the title character, known as Huck, a boy who flees his father by rafting down the Mississippi River with a runaway slave, Jim. Huckleberry Finn is especially noted for its authentic language. Twains skill in capturing the rhythms of life along the Mississippi River before the Civil War helps make the book one of the masterpieces of American literature. Twains work was inspired by the unconventional West, and the popularity of his work marked the end of the domination of American literature by New England writers. He portrayed uniquely American subjects in a humorous and colloquial, yet poetic, language. His success in creating this plain but evocative language precipitated the end of American reverence for British and European culture and for the more formal language associated with those traditions. His adherence to American themes, settings, and language set him apart from many other novelists of the day and had a powerful effect on such later American writers as Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner. Bibliography:

Management and Cost Accounting Assignment Essay Example

Management and Cost Accounting Assignment Essay B313F Management and Cost Accounting Assignment 1 Date due:29 October 2008 Weighting:15% of the total marks of the course Question 1(25 marks) Mini Case – Seto’s Storage Warehouse Paul Seto owns and manages a commercial storage warehouse. He stores a vast variety of perishable goods for his customers. Under the existing pricing policy, he has charged customers using a flat rate of $2. 40 per kilogram per month for goods stored. His storage warehouse has 10,000 cubic metres of storage capacity. In the past two years, Seto has become dissatisfied with the profitability of the warehouse operation. Despite the fact that the warehouse remains relatively full, revenues have not kept pace with operating costs. Recently, Seto approached his accountant, Albert Lo, about using activity-based costing (ABC) to improve his understanding of the causes of costs and revise the pricing formula. Lo has determined that most costs can be associated with one of four activities. Those activities and their related monthly costs, volume measures, and volume levels for 2008 are as follows: Activity |Cost |Monthly Volume Measure | |Send/receive goods | $80,000 |Weight in kilograms – 50,000 | |Store goods | $8,000 |Volume in cubic metres – 800 | |Move goods | $10,000 |Volume in square metres – 500 | |Identify goods | $3,000 |Number of packages – 500 | We will write a custom essay sample on Management and Cost Accounting Assignment specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Management and Cost Accounting Assignment specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Management and Cost Accounting Assignment specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Lo has also collected last month’s information on the following 3 customers whose goods were all received on the first day of last month. |Customers |Weight of Order |Cubic Metres |Square Metres |Number of Packages | | |(Kilograms) | | | | |Sunshine Co. |20,000 |600 |30 |10 | |Best Buy Co. 20,000 |400 |20 |40 | |Chow’s Trading |20,000 |200 | 100 | 160 | Seto would like Lo to perform some analyses based on the above information and data in order to evaluate whether to use ABC. Required: a. Determine the price to be charged to each of the 3 customers under the existing pricing policy. (3 marks) b. Based on the monthly activity cost and volume data provided, determine the amount of cost assigned to each of the 3 customers. 10 marks) c. Determine the price to be charged to each of the 3 customers using activity-based costing (ABC), assuming Seto would base the price on the cost determined in part (b) plus a markup of 40 percent. (3 marks) d. Critically discuss whether Setoà ¢â‚¬â„¢s existing pricing policy captures the costs incurred to provide the warehouse services. (5 marks) e. A cost hierarchy categorizes costs into different cost pools on the basis of the different types of cost drivers or cost-allocation bases. Describe the four levels of a manufacturing cost hierarchy under the ABC system. 4 marks) Question 2(25 marks) Antique Furnishings Ltd. is a Yuen Long based manufacturer making three unique wood products: bed-frames, coffee tables, footstools. These products are completely carved by hand by skilled craftspeople who have been trained in making these products. Since it takes about a year to train each craftsperson, the labour cost is a fixed production constraint over the short term. For the year ended 31 December 2008, the company expects to have 34,000 available labour hours. The average hourly labour rate is $25. Information regarding the current product line is as follows: Bed-framesCoffee tablesFootstools $ $ $ Selling price900 680 240 Variable costs: Direct material220 160 60 Direct manufacturing-labour costs 300 275 75 Indirect manufacturing-labour costs 80 40 21 Other indirect manufacturing costs100 80 20 Variable selling expense 20 15 10 Variable manufacturing costs are variable with respect to units produced. Variable selling expenses are variable with respect to units sold. Fixed costs: Indirect manufacturing-labour costs 80,000 Other indirect manufacturing costs 70,000 Selling administration 75,000 Required: a. Compute the contribution margin per unit for each of the three products above. (6 marks) b. Assuming that the market demand exceeds the company’s production capacity for all products, determine the number of units of each product that the company should make. (Hint: You need to maximize the contribution per unit of the scarce resource. ) Calculate the profit before tax based on your determination of units of each product. (7 marks) c. Assuming that the company has a policy of devoting between 20% to 50% of its available skilled labour capacity to one product, determine the number of units of each product that the company should make and calculate the maximum profit before tax. (7 marks) d. Discuss how managers decide whether a cost is a direct or an indirect cost and describe the factors that will affect the classification of a cost as direct or indirect. (5 marks) Question 3(25 marks) DVD Express is a large manufacturer of affordable DVD players. Management recently became aware of rising costs resulting from returns of malfunctioning products. As a starting point for further analysis, Bonnie Lee, the controller, wants to test different forecasting methods and then use the best one to forecast quarterly expenses for 2009. The relevant data for the previous three years follows: 2006Return 2007Return2008Return QuarterExpensesQuarterExpensesQuarterExpenses 1$15,0001$16,2001$16,600 217,500217,800218,100 318,500318,800319,000 418,600417,700419,200 The result of a simple regression analysis using all 12 data points yielded an intercept of $16,559. 09 and a coefficient for the independent variable of $183. 22 (R-squared = . 27, t = 1. 4, SE = 1128). Required: a. Calculate the quarterly forecast for 2009 using the high-low method and regression analyses. Recommend which method Bonnie should use. (15 marks) b. How does your analysis in requirement #1 change if DVD Express manufactures its products in multiple global production facilities to serve the global market? (5 marks) c. How do we know when high correlation exists? Explain wh ether high correlation is the same as cause and effect? (5 marks) Question 4(25 marks) Quik Printing Inc. , is a rapidly growing company that has not been profitable despite increases in sales. It has hired you as a consultant to find ways to improve the situation. You believe that the problem results from poor cost control and inaccurate cost estimation on jobs. To gather data for your investigation, you turn to the accounting system and find that it is almost nonexistent. However, you piece together the following information for April: †¢ Production 1. Completed job 101. 2. Started and completed job 102. 3. Started job 103. †¢ Inventory values: 1. Work-in-process inventory: |March 31: Job 101 | | | Direct material†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. $ 2,000 | | Labor (960 hours ( $10)†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ | 9,600 | |April 30: Job 103 | | | Direct material†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. |$ 1,600 | | Labor (1,040 hours ( $10)†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ | 10,400 | 2. Each job in work-in-process inventory was exactly 50 percent completed as to labor hours; however, all direct material necessary to do the entire job was charged to each jo b as soon as it was started. 3. There were no raw-material inventories or finished-goods inventories at either March 31 or April 30. Actual manufacturing overhead was $20,000. †¢ Cost of goods sold (before adjustment for over-or underapplied overhead): |Job 101 | | | Direct material†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ | $ 2,000 | | Labor†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. | ? | | Overhead†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ | ? | |Total†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ | $ 30,800 | | | | |Job 102 | | | Direct material†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ ? | | Labor†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. | ? | | Overhead†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ | ? | |Total†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢ € ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ | ? | †¢ Overhead was applied to jobs using a predetermined rate per labor dollar that has been used since the company began operations. †¢ All raw materials were purchased for cash and charged directly to Work-in-Process Inventory when purchased. Raw material purchased in April amounted to $4,600. †¢ Direct-labor costs charged to jobs in April totaled $32,000. All labor costs were the same per hour for April for all laborers. Required Write a report, with supporting calculations, to management to show the following: a. The cost elements (direct material, labor, and overhead) of cost of goods sold before adjustment for over-or underapplied overhead for each job sold. (14 marks) b. The value of each cost element (direct material, labor, and overhead) for each job in work-in-process inventory at April 30. (7 marks) c. Over-or underapplied overhead for April. (4 marks)

Free Essays on Prohibition In The Roaring 20’s

When you think of the roaring 20’s, you think about people having a good time and partying, but most often people don’t think about what was going on behind that. Prohibition was started in 1920’s and was named â€Å"the noble experiment†. Though it was a failure, it was meant for good. They thought the banning of alcohol would reduce crime rates and improve health, among other things. It was such a big failure in fact, it raised the amount of alcohol people drank in the end. It also led many drinkers to start on other drugs such as opium, marijuana, cocaine and other harmful substances. It was not very likely that they would have used these drugs if Prohibition had never occurred. It makes you think how different things would be if Prohibition never became a law. Would the use of drugs be as prevalent as it is today? This was truly an age of downfall for all of America. It is so hard to tell whether prohibition was a good thing or a bad law to pass, but either way people found a way to get around it. It all started because the people who originally started prohibition found the drinking behavior of Americans to be a problem. They didn’t want it to spread all around and grow with the immigration of Europe. With good intentions, they believed banning alcohol would make better workers and in the end, more productivity. They also believed it would decrease violence. So on January 12, 1920 America went dry officially. In the next twelve years, complete corruption, violence, and other scandals occurred. You would think after this alcohol would be very hard to get, but it was just the opposite. It became much easier to get alcohol then ever because so many people made a profit bootlegging. Alcohol was such an easy thing to come by, and believe it or not, during prohibition it was much easier to get. Since this law wasn’t enforced as much as it should have been, crime grew even larger. People were willing to ... Free Essays on Prohibition In The Roaring 20’s Free Essays on Prohibition In The Roaring 20’s When you think of the roaring 20’s, you think about people having a good time and partying, but most often people don’t think about what was going on behind that. Prohibition was started in 1920’s and was named â€Å"the noble experiment†. Though it was a failure, it was meant for good. They thought the banning of alcohol would reduce crime rates and improve health, among other things. It was such a big failure in fact, it raised the amount of alcohol people drank in the end. It also led many drinkers to start on other drugs such as opium, marijuana, cocaine and other harmful substances. It was not very likely that they would have used these drugs if Prohibition had never occurred. It makes you think how different things would be if Prohibition never became a law. Would the use of drugs be as prevalent as it is today? This was truly an age of downfall for all of America. It is so hard to tell whether prohibition was a good thing or a bad law to pass, but either way people found a way to get around it. It all started because the people who originally started prohibition found the drinking behavior of Americans to be a problem. They didn’t want it to spread all around and grow with the immigration of Europe. With good intentions, they believed banning alcohol would make better workers and in the end, more productivity. They also believed it would decrease violence. So on January 12, 1920 America went dry officially. In the next twelve years, complete corruption, violence, and other scandals occurred. You would think after this alcohol would be very hard to get, but it was just the opposite. It became much easier to get alcohol then ever because so many people made a profit bootlegging. Alcohol was such an easy thing to come by, and believe it or not, during prohibition it was much easier to get. Since this law wasn’t enforced as much as it should have been, crime grew even larger. People were willing to ...

How Insects Attract a Mate

How Insects Attract a Mate If youve spent any time watching insects, youve probably stumbled on a pair of lady beetles or flies joined together in the throes of love. When youre a lone bug in a big world, finding a partner of the same species and the opposite sex is not always that simple. So how do insects find a mate? Love at First Sight- Visual Signals Some insects begin their search for a sexual partner by looking for or giving visual cues or signals. Butterflies, flies, odonates, and luminous beetles use visual signals most often. In some butterfly species, males spend much of the afternoon patrolling for receptive females. Anything that looks like a female may be inspected, especially if the object is a desired color and floats like a butterfly, to borrow a phrase from Muhammed Ali. Many species of flies perch in a place that provides a clear view of the area. The fly sits, watching for any flying object that might be a female. If one appears, he quickly takes flight and makes contact. If his quarry is indeed a female of his own species, he escorts her to an appropriate place for mating- perhaps a leaf or a twig nearby. Fireflies may be the most famous insects that flirt using visual signals. Here, the female sends the signal to lure a male. She flashes her light in a specific code that tells passing males her species, her sex, and that she is interested in mating. A male will reply with his own signal. Both male and female continue to flash their lights until they have found each other. Serenades of Love- Auditory Signals If youve heard the chirp of a cricket or the song of a cicada, youve listened to insects calling for a mate. Most insects that make sounds do so for the purpose of mating, and males tend to be the crooners in species that use auditory signals. Insects that sing for a partner include Orthopterans, Hemipterans, and Coleopterans. The best-known singing insects must be the male periodical cicadas. Hundreds or even thousands of male cicadas congregate in an area after emerging and produce an ear-splitting chorus of song. The cicada chorus usually includes three different species, singing together. Remarkably, the females respond to the song and are able to find mates of the same species from within the chaotic choir. Male crickets rub their forewings together to produce a raspy and loud song. Once he lures a female close to him, his song changes to a softer courtship call. Mole crickets, which are ground dwellers, actually construct special entrance tunnels shaped like megaphones, from which they amplify their calls. Some insects simply tap on a hard surface to produce their love calls. The death-watch beetle, for example, bangs his noggin against the roof of his tunnel to attract a mate. These beetles feed on old wood, and the sound of his head tapping resonates through the wood. Love Is in the Air- Chemical Cues French naturalist Jean-Henri Fabre discovered the power of the insect sex pheromones quite by accident in the 1870s. Male peacock moths came flitting in the open windows of his laboratory, landing on the mesh cage of a female. He tried to fool the males by moving her cage to different locations, but the males always found their way back to her. As you might suspect from their plumose antennae, male moths search for suitable female mates by sensing sex pheromones in the air. The female cecropia moth emits a scent so powerful it attracts males from miles around. A male bumble bee uses pheromones to lure a female to a perch, where he can mate with her. The male flies along, marking plants with his perfume. Once he sets his traps, he patrols his territory waiting for a female to land on one of his perches. Unmated Japanese beetle females release a strong sex attractant, which quickly draws the attention of many males. Sometimes, so many male suitors appear at one time that they form a crowded cluster referred to as a beetle ball.

Zhou Dynasty (1045 BC-256 BC) Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Zhou Dynasty (1045 BC-256 BC) - Research Paper Example This research will begin with the statement that the Zhou were the first of a series of ruling dynasties of nomadic origins that came from China’s borderlands† to the west of the country. The Zhou kings established their rule after conquering the Shang. The great victory took place in 1122 B.C., with only 50,000 Zhou troops defeating an army of Shang troops over ten times that size, because the Shang ruler was corrupt and depraved. The Zhou Dynasty ruled for around eight hundred years and extended China’s borders significantly. The Zhou worshipped sun gods, especially Tian. The first Zhou kings were powerful monarchs who relied on their swords. However, with the passage of centuries, power slipped from the ruler’s hands and increasing military and administrative duties were delegated to local aristocrats who acquired new territory. Consequently, China expanded, but at the same time, the control of the government weakened. The long period of the Zhou Dynasty in Chinese history is usually divided into the Western Zhou 1045-771 B.C., with its capital in the Wei River Valley, and the Eastern Zhou 771-256 B.C. which shifted eastwards, after defeating in battle.The idea of the Mandate of Heaven and moral accountability that rulers are sanctioned by Heaven as long as they rule virtuously for the benefit of the people was used originally to justify Zhou conquest of the Shang. However, it increased in strength as a potent idea of moral thought and continues to be used in the present time.  

Publicly-listed companies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Publicly-listed companies - Essay Example Business organizations are formed and nurtured by individuals; therefore, the norms are a reflection of the character patterns of the proprietors. The acts of a defiant worker will result, depending on his/her target, lead to either productivity loss, sabotage property, show no respect for others or anti-social to colleagues. Out of the society’s desire to have and regulate ethical behaviors, jurisdictions have developed and enacted into law ethical guidelines that inform decisions. Unethical behaviors have been defined in federal law to include invasion of privacy, theft, embezzlement, fraud, price fixing and incomplete disclosures. All organizations are bound by the rules intended not only to punish, but to encourage companies to prevent violations (Zschietzschmann 25). There are three influences in ethical decision-making; intensity, moral development and ethical principles. Ethical intensity is the degree of concern people hold about ethical issues encompassing magnitude of consequences, social consensus, probability of effect, temporal immediacy, proximity of effect and concentration of effect. Ethical principles are a sum-total of long-term interests, personal virtue, religious injunctions, government regulations, utilitarian benefits, individual rights and distributive justice in guiding the process of decision-making. In enforcing and preserving ethical behavior, a company must have code of ethics that all employees must abide by whether inside or outside the workplace. The code of ethics informs, from the onset, how employees are hired to ensure that the employee personal interest conforms to that of the organization. Ethics are further transmitted through continuous training as the law is not static. When faced with an ethical issue to deci de, individual needs to identify the problem as a first step. The next step is to identify the extent of the effect it causes followed by why it came to happen. One has to explore the

Popular Culture Essay Essay Example for Free

Popular Culture Essay Essay Although there are some parts of popular culture that make it into high culture, popular culture is transient; it describes the way of life, attitudes, and passions of mostly younger people. These views usually change as they age and gain real life experience. This essay will cover culture, popular culture, three major trends in popular American culture and how popular American culture affects personal decision making. Culture is the united design of social understanding, faith, and conduct that hinges on the ability to search for knowledge and spread it to future generations. It is also the ordinary principles, collective customs, and measurable qualities of ethnic, religious, or a community. (Oxford English Dictionary, 2012) â€Å"The soul takes nothing with her to the next world but her education and her culture.† (Plato, 2012) Popular cultural is the understanding and actions of a particular set of people in a particular era. It is also television shows (like Reality TV) or marketable goods (like sagging pants, oversized shirts, hats designed to be worn backward, etc.) made for, or targeted at particular set of people. (Oxford English Dictionary, 2012) In this student’s opinion popular culture comes and goes and only defines an era not its people. Three major trends in today’s society are a digital society, sexual explicitness, and a general lack of personal responsibility. Americans live in a digital society that relies on technology more than personal relationships. We do a great deal of shopping and purchasing online and have become a society where the sexier it is the better. Almost everything on television, in magazines, and even our music have become permeated with sexual overtones and innuendos. Finally, we have a dilemma with the lack of personal responsibility in our country; recently there have been several lawsuits against fast food restaurants for making people fat. Americans need to accept responsibility for our own actions; it was not the fast food restaurants that made us fat, rather it was our decision to eat there that did. Popular American culture affects personal decision making various ways, whether it is the type of food we buy, the music we listen to, electronics we purchase, and even the people we date. In this student’s opinion the Internet is the single most influential popular culture influencer of our time. We use it for everything from dating, shopping, exploring, studying, traveling, relaxing, and so much more. Popular culture  affects us in almost every decision we make. Although there are some parts of popular culture that makes it into high culture, popular culture is transient. This essay covered culture, popular culture, three major trends in popular American culture and how popular American culture affects personal decision making. â€Å"Culture is made of everything that enables man to maintain, enhance or transform without weakening it, the ideal image of himself that it has inherited.† (Malraux, 2001) References Malraux, A. (2001, May 2). UCL Discours recteur Marcel Crochet. Retrieved from http://sites.uclouvain.be/actualites/dhc2001/drecteur.html Oxford English Dictionary. (2012, June). Retrieved from http://www.oed.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/view/Entry/45746?rskey=BftxmAresult=1isAdvanced=false#eid Plato. (2012, June 4). Here, There, and Everywhere. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/here-there-and-everywhere/201206/whats-after-30-quotes-the-afterlife