Sunday, March 22, 2020

Rumors Summary Essays - Rumors, Charley, Eighth Doctor

Rumors : Summary Neil Simon's farce, Rumors, gives readers an in-depth look at the lives of ten wealthy individuals attending a dinner party. In an attempt to stay within the social crown, the characters start unsubstantiated rumors about their friends in an attempt to make themselves look better. The hosts of the party, Ken Gorman, and his wife Chris must cover up the fact that a friend of theirs, Charley Brock, has been shot in the ear lobe. They do not know how he got shot, but they decide that he must have tried to commit suicide, and thereby proceed to spread rumors about what they have heard in an attempt to avoid a possible attempted suicide scandal. They first lie to Charley's personal doctor, they lie about what happened to all of the servants, and they finally about a second gunshot heard in the house. When the Gormans first encounter Charley in his bedroom, they immediately call his personal doctor at the theater to tell him that Charley feels just fine. Chris relates the story to the doctor when she says, "Dr. Dudley, I'm afraid there's been an accident_ Well, we just arrived here at Charley's house about ten minutes ago, and as we were getting out of our car, we suddenly heard this enormous_ thud_ It seemed Charley had tripped going up the stairs_ no, wait, down the stairs. Down the stairs. But he's all right," (13). Finally, Chris manages to explain to the doctor that Charley had not really hurt himself in the first place and that she felt sorry to have bothered him at the theater. After hanging up the phone, the Gormans put Charley in the shower to wash off the blood, wrap a towel around his head to stop the bleeding, and go back downstairs to wait for the rest of the party guests. Lenny and Claire Ganz arrive at the party first. Coming straight from a car accident, the Ganz's ask why Charley has not joined them for the party. Ken Gorman explains that Charley has had a rough day and he decided to take a nap for a little while. Lenny exclaims that he has not had a thing to eat since breakfast and wonders where Mai Li the cook has put all of the food. Not wanting to explain that they have recently fired Mai Li, the Gormans fabricate a story about her having to go back to Japan to visit her sick mother. Claire asks, "But Mai Li is Chinese, isn't she?" The Gormans look at each other and then Chris quickly says, "I know. Her mother was visiting Japan." As a result of this, they must ask their friends to help them prepare dinner for their own party. They know that if they explain to the Ganz's that they do not have enough money to keep her in service any longer, they will fall of out favor with their friends. For this reason, they find it necessary to fabricate stories to explain happenings in the house. As the night progresses, they consistently dig themselves into a deeper hole of lies. The situation eventually gets terrible when Ken tries to hide the gun so Charley can't find it to shoot himself again. On his way to putting in the closet, Ken trips over Charley's slippers and discharges the gun straight into the wall. The report occurred right next to his ear, and for the rest of the play, Ken is almost entirely deaf. Naturally, the Gormans cannot say that a gunshot went off in the house, so they create a variety of different excuses to explain the sound upstairs. At first, Claire decides that a car backfiring has the most credibility, but because of the volume of the sound, she later changes it to a manhole cover that exploded. After some time, she again changes the story to a can of shaving cream that exploded due to the pressure from the manhole cover exploding. This story seems a little far-fetched to the other guests, so she finally says, "Oh, I know. I know. I know exactly what it was_ it was a balloon. They've been blowing up party balloons up there all day," (43). This answer seems satisfactory enough for everyone, and they lapse back into their normal conversations again. The party in Rumors has a lot of humor to it, but on the other hand, it shows just how far people will go just to be accepted by their peers. Through deceit, the Gormans lied about Charley's health to avoid an investigation. They lied about their lack

Thursday, March 5, 2020

Austria Essays - States Of Austria, Salzburg, Austria, Alps

Austria Essays - States Of Austria, Salzburg, Austria, Alps Austria Austria Austria is the republic in central Europe. It is about 360 miles long and has an area of about 32,378 square miles. Vienna is the countrys capital and largest city. Austria is predominantly a mountainous country, with an average elevation of about 3000 feet. Most of the land falls within the eastern part of the Alps. In general the major mountain ranges of Austria run in an eastern-western direction and are separated from one another by large valleys. The northernmost line of ranges includes the North Tirol Alps and the Salzburg Alps. Among the central range is the Hohe Tauern, which tops in the Grossglockner, the highest elevation in the country. The Pasterze Glacier, one of Europes largest, descends from the Grossglockner peak. The southernmost ranges include the tztal Alps, the Zillertaler Alps, the Carnic Alps, and the Karawanken Mountains. Besides these eastern-western ranges, several series of mountain extend in a northern-southern direction. The mountain barriers of Austria are broken in many places by passes, including the Brenner Pass and the Semmering Pass. The principal river is the Danube, which enters Austria at Passau on the German border. Austrian tributaries of the Danube include the Inn, Traun, Enns, and Ybbs rivers. In the south, important rivers are the Mur and the Mrz. In addition to the rivers, the hydrographic system of the country includes numerous lakes, Bodensee, and Neusiedler Lake in Burgenland. The lake is the countrys lowest elevation point. The Austrian climate varies with altitude. Mountainous regions are subject to moderate Atlantic conditions and experience more precipitation than the eastern lowlands. Spring and fall are usually mild throughout the country. Summers are short with moderate temperatures. Cold and often severe winters last about three months in the valleys. The foehn is important to Austrias agricultural production, allowing for early cultivation of the southern valleys. Average annual temperatures range between about 44 and 48 F throughout the country. Average annual rainfall is about 26 inches in Vienna and about 34 inches in Innsbruck. In some interior valleys, the average annual rainfall is between about 60 and 80 inches. Austria has large deposits of iron ore, lignite, magnesite, petroleum, and natural gas and is a prime world agent of high-grade graphite. Some small deposits of bituminous coal have been mined, as well as lead, zinc, copper, kaolin, gypsum, mica, quartz, salt, bauxite, antimony, and talc. Deciduous trees, mainly beech, oak, and birch, are predominant in the lower altitudes. Spruce, fir, larch, Austrian black pine, and stone pine extend to the timberline. The higher altitudes have a very brief season during which alpine plants, including edelweiss, gentians, primroses, buttercups, and monkshoods, come into brilliant flower. Wildlife is generally scarce in Austria. Chamois, deer, and marmot are still represented; bear, which were once abundant, are now almost completely absent. Hunting is strictly regulated to protect the remaining species. The Austrian people are German-speaking, but the country has a varied ethnic mixturea legacy from the time of the multinational Habsburg Austria. About 96 percent of the population is ethnic Austrian. Minority groups include Croats and Hungarians, Slovenes,Czechs, as well as small numbers of Italians, Serbs, and Romanians. A large amount of refugees in the years following World War II increased their numbers, and new groups, such as the Turks, were added. According to the 1991 census, Austria had a population of 7,795,786. The 1996 estimated population was about 8,023,244, giving the country an overall population density of about 248 people per square mile. About 61 percent of the population is urban, with more than one-quarter of the people living in the five largest cities: Vienna, Graz, Linz, Salzburg, and Innsbruck. Austria is divided into nine federal provinces: Burgenland, Krnten, Niedersterreich, Salzburg, Steiermark , Tirol, Obersterreich, Vienna, and Vorarlberg. Roman Catholicism is the religion of about 78 percent of the population of Austria. Reformed Lutherans and various other Christian denominations account for 8 percent, and Muslims make up 2 percent. Those without a religion or whose faith is unknown constitute 12 percent of the population. German is the official language of Austria. About 2 percent of the population speak languages other than German, mainly Croatian, Slovenian, Czech, and Turkish. The basis of the Austrian educational system is the national law that requires school attendance for all youths between the ages of 6 and 15. Austrias long tradition of free education dates from the Educational Reform Act of 1774, instituted by the Empress Maria Theresa. This law, which was expanded in 1867 and again in 1962, largely accounts for the fact that virtually all