Exam paper---read the requirement I send you carefully Essay

Test paper - read the necessity I send you cautiously - Essay Example This composing will concentrate on business sectors that are entirely serious in nature. This composing will concentrate on different attributes of completely serious markets and how purchasers and merchants carry on in such markets. The main area of the task will concentrate on the response of dealers to changes sought after for their merchandise and ventures. The second segment of the composing will look into the attributes of a completely serious market with the qualities of New York Stock trade (NYSE). Body According to the law of interest when the interest for an item builds, the cost of the item even lifts and bad habit refrain. Because of these adjustments sought after the negligible income that is being earned by a specific industry even modifies. So as to break down the progressions that associations in a completely serious market understanding because of changes popular for an item, let us expect that the item being sold is bread. Let’s accept that as indicated by re search, eating earthy colored bread helps people in forestalling diabetes. Such disclosures emphatically sway the interest for specific item. Let’s accept that the bread business is a totally serious industry and is right now encountering since quite a while ago run harmony at a cost of $1.7 per portion of bread and the estimation of the financial benefit is comparable to zero. Figure 1 Figure 1 is a delineation of short just as since quite a while ago run change experienced by a firm just as market under immaculate rivalry. The figure shows that if there should be an occurrence of market the cost of a portion of bread is $1.7 when the amount requested for the item is at Q1 and in the event of an association that sells portion of bread the market cost of $1.7 is the organization’s minimal income which is at MR1. The figure shows that as of now there is just a single association in the market. Since the new exploration proposes that there is medical advantage of earthy colored bread, the interest for earthy colored bread expands which is delineated in figure 1 through a move in the interest bend from D1 to D2. Because of this expansion popular, there is an increment in the cost of the item and the cost of the item lifts from p1 ($1.7) to P2 ($2.3) and this prompts an expansion in the peripheral income of a solitary firm working in a market from MR1 to MR2. Because of this expansion in cost, the association even builds its yield from q1 to q2 so as to fulfill customer need in the short run (Douglas, 2011, p.615). Notice that the concealed district speaks to the financial benefit that is experienced by the association in the short run and comparative benefit will be experienced by different firms in the market in the short run. Since the market is totally serious in nature and there are no hindrances to passage or leave, the high stream of financial benefit will pull in more associations to enter the market so they can even win the benefits being of fered by the ongoing increment sought after. New association s will enter the market and this would prompt an expansion in the amount provided by the whole business as an ever increasing number of associations will enter the market, increasingly more gracefully will raise. New participants will keep on entering the market as long as their passageway is bringing about a financial benefit. Figure one delineates a move in the gracefully bend from S1 to S2 which is an impression of more firms entering the market. Because of this expansion in gracefully, the cost of the portion of bread will begin declining in the more drawn out run

Money and Banking Study Guide Chapter 1-5 Free Essays

string(88) a budgetary market wherein protections that have been recently given can be resold. Part 1-Why study Money, Banking and Financial Markets? For what reason are Financial Markets Important? Monetary markets are essential to advancing more noteworthy financial proficiency by directing assets from individuals who don't have a gainful use for them to the individuals who do. Well working monetary markets are a key factor in delivering high financial development, and inadequately performing budgetary markets, the other way around. Money related markets and middle people have the fundamental capacity of getting individuals together by moving assets from the individuals who have an excess of assets to the individuals who have a lack of assets. We will compose a custom paper test on Cash and Banking Study Guide Chapter 1-5 or on the other hand any comparative theme just for you Request Now The Importance of Interest Rates On an individual level, high loan fees can prevent you from purchasing a house or a vehicle in light of the fact that the expense of financing would be excessively high. Then again, they could urge you to spare since you acquire more enthusiasm by setting your cash aside in reserve funds. ON an increasingly broad level, financing costs influence the general wellbeing of the economy since they influence consumers’ eagerness to spend as well as businesses’ venture choices. High financing costs for instance may make a partnership defer building another plant that would give more employments. The Importance of Stocks On an individual level the variances in stock costs influence the size of people’s riches and subsequently may influence their ability to spend. On a general level, it influences business venture choices since the cost of offers influences the measure of assets that can be raised by offering recently gave stock to back speculation spending. A more significant expense for a firm’s shares implies that it can raise a bigger measure of assets, which it can use to purchase creation offices and hardware. A more significant expense implies it can raise a bigger measure of assets, which it can use to purchase creation offices and hardware. Job of Financial Intermediaries Financial middle people are establishments that get assets from individuals who have spared and thus make advances to other people. Banks are remembered for this class. They acknowledge stores and make credits. These incorporate business banks, reserve funds and advance affiliations, common investment funds banks and credit associations. Speculation banks are, insurance agencies, common assets and so on are an alternate class. Cash development and Inflation might be attached to proceeding with increments in the development pace of the cash flexibly. Nations with the most noteworthy expansion are those with the most noteworthy cash development rates. Questions: †Quantitative facilitating is finished by the Federal Reserve purchasing more bonds. This is the manner by which they decline the loan fee. Along these lines, since the Federal save said they will keep the financing cost near zero for the following two years, is this not considered QE3? †what number portions of stock are excessively? Can’t an organization boundlessly fund-raise than? Like when does it become an issue regarding possession? When 51% is in the hands of people in general? Are stock benefits considered income for an organization? Section 2-An Overview of the Financial System Indirect Finance versus Direct Finance In direct money borrowers acquire reserves legitimately from loan specialists in budgetary markets by selling them protections that are asserts on the borrower’s future pay or resources. In circuitous account, loan specialist savers give assets to money related delegates, who give assets to borrower and spenders, just as into monetary markets. This money related go-between obtains assets from the banks savers and afterward utilizing these assets make advances to borrower-spenders. This procedure is called budgetary intermediation. It is increasingly practical for them to do this in view of their economies of scale and capacity to modest off exchange costs. Additionally it gives liquidity administrations, and hazard sharing. This procedure of hazard sharing is additionally here and there alluded to as resource change, in light of the fact that it might be said, unsafe resources are transformed into more secure resources for financial specialists. Firm and Individual Ways to Obtain Funds First path is to give an obligation instrument, for example, a security or a home loan. Second is by raising assets through giving values, for example, regular stock. Essential versus Auxiliary Market Essential is the place new issues of a security, for example, a security or sock are offered to starting purchasers by the partnership or government organization obtaining the assets. An auxiliary market is a money related market in which protections that have been recently given can be exchanged. You read Cash and Banking Study Guide Chapter 1-5 in classification Papers A speculation bank aids the underlying offer of protections in the essential market by endorsing the protections: it ensures a cost for a corporation’s protections and afterward offers them to general society. An organization gets new subsidizes just when its protections are first sold in the essential market. Significance of Secondary markets Despite the fact that they don’t straightforwardly increment partnerships stock they in any case serve two significant capacities. (1) they make it simpler and speedier to offer these money related instruments to raise money; that is they make the it progressively fluid. This expanded liquidity at that point makes them progressively attractive and along these lines simpler for giving firm to sell in the essential market. (2), the optional market decides the cost of the security that the giving firm sells in the essential market. The financial specialists purchasing in the essential will pay the enterprise close to the value they figure the auxiliary market will set for the security. Agents versus Vendors Brokers are specialists of speculators who coordinate purchasers with merchants of protections; sellers interface purchasers and dealers by purchasing and selling protections at expressed costs. A seller is an individual who will purchase and sell protections for them. Then again, a dealer is one who will purchase and sell protections for their customers. When managing protections, sellers settle on all choices in regard of buys. Then again, an intermediary will just make buys according to the client’s wishes. While vendors have all the rights and reedom with respect to the purchasing and selling of protections, handles rarely have this opportunity and these rights. Currency Market versus Markets The currency showcase is a monetary market wherein just momentary obligation instruments are exchanged. The capital market is the market wherein longer-term obligation instruments and value instruments are exchanged. Currency markets are typically more generally exchanged so will in general be increasingly fluid. Transient protections are likewise less unstable in costs than long haul protections, making them increasingly more secure speculations. Authentication of Deposit (CD) Is an obligation instrument sold for the most part by business banks that pay yearly enthusiasm of a given sum and at development follows through on back the first buy cost. They are sold in the optional market. Repurchase Agreements (Repos) These are adequately momentary credits as a rule with a development of under about fourteen days, for which treasury charges fill in as security, a benefit that the bank gets if the borrower doesn't repay the advance. An enormous company for instance may have some inactive assets in its financial balance say $1 million that it might want to loan for seven days. Microsoft utilizes this abundance $1mil to purchase Treasury bills from a bank, which consents to repurchase them the following week at a cost marginally above Microsoft’s price tag. The impact is that Microsoft makes an advance of $1 million ot the bank and holds $1 million of the bank’s treasury bills until the bank repurchase the bills to take care of the credit. Administrative Funds and Federal Funds rate These are confounding on the grounds that the bureaucratic supports assignment isn't to be mistaken for advances made by the government. It is somewhat by banks to different banks. One explanation they may acquire from different banks is to meet the sum required by controllers. The government subsidizes rate is a firmly watched indicator of the snugness of credit economic situations in the financial framework. Its the financing cost at which safe foundations effectively exchange adjusts held at the Federal Reserve, called government assets, with one another, normally overnight. At the point when high that implies banks are tied for reserves, when low, banks credit needs are low. Along these lines with a high government subsidizes rate banks require more cash save in their vaults and subsequently can’t issue out credits as consistently. Uneven Information: Adverse Selection and Moral Hazard When one gathering regularly doesn't think enough about the other party to settle on precise choices. For instance a borrower who applies for a new line of credit for the most part has better data about the potential returns and hazard related with the venture ventures for which the assets are reserved than the bank does. Absence of data makes issues on two fronts: before the exchange is gone into and after. Unfavorable Selection The issue made by hilter kilter data before the exchange happens. It happens when the potential borrowers who are the well on the way to deliver a bothersome (unfriendly) result â€the awful credit dangers are the ones who most effectively search out al oan are subsequently destined to be chosen. Moral Hazard The issue made by hilter kilter data after the exchange happens. It is the hazard and peril that the borrower may take part in exercises that are bothersome from the lender’s perspective; since they make it more uncertain that the advance will be taken care of. At the point when you make an advance, it is as a rule by believe that they do what they state they’ll do with the cash. Safe Institutions Commercial banks, Savings and advance Associations, Mutual Savings Banks, Credit Unions. These are budgetary middle people, alluded to as essentially banks in the content, that acknowledge stores from people and establishments and make credits. Frugality Institutions are these less business banks. Business Banks Raise f

Essay About College Life - Tips on How to Write An Essay About College Life

Essay About College Life - Tips on How to Write An Essay About College LifeEssay about college life is one of the toughest subjects to write. It is a way for students to talk about the experiences that they have in college, which are quite similar to their everyday lives. A lot of students tend to think that writing an essay about college life is a hard thing to do but they soon realize that there are ways to simplify this writing process.Students must be conscious of what kind of essay they want to write. There are many different styles and ways to write an essay about college life. All they need to do is to understand the topic they want to discuss before writing the essay. There are many ways to start this essay. Here are some ways to start with:Organize your experiences: Students can organize the events that they have in college life in a chronological order. This will help them to better organize the topics that they want to talk about. The best thing about this is that it helps students to categorize the events so that they can easily locate the memories when they start writing the essay.Organize the past and present: Students can organize the experiences that they have in college life in an organized manner. This will also make it easier for them to recall these events once they start writing the essay. In order to find the right way to organize the past and present, students should be able to research the events that they have had. In fact, they can also use websites that allow them to search for past and present experiences through keywords.Describe the importance of certain experiences: Students can describe the importance of the experiences that they have done in college life. There are lots of students who always forget these important memories because they are too busy with their daily life. What they usually forget is the things that really matters. In order to remember those memories, students should write down the important things that they have done during their college life. They can also use their college experience to help them write about their daily life.Focus on the positives: Some students may think that writing an essay about college life is not a good idea because it will only focus on negative points. They are wrong because it will only focus on the negatives. Students must remember that it is just like any other essay that they have written and that writing is not all about the negative. They can highlight some of the positive things that they have done in their college life.Try to use as much details as possible: Some students tend to skip the details when they write an essay about college life because they think that they can only get the gist of the events from the article. However, this is not true. Students can learn more about a certain event by taking notes about it.These are some of the tips that can help students when they are writing an essay about college life. They need to make sure that they do not take shortcuts in writing this essay because it will make the whole project complicated.

Farm Management - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 7 Words: 2057 Downloads: 5 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Management Essay Type Critical essay Level High school Did you like this example? Farm Management Assess the current capacity of ‘Holly Farm and critically evaluate the optional ways of achieving the intended growth in the number of visitors, bearing in mind that capital investment is not available, although self-financing revenue earning ventures can be considered. 1. Introduction This piece examines the case of Holly Farm, and the plan proposed by Gillian Giles to attempt to boost the number of visitors attending the farm. Holly Farm is currently quite a successful example of a farm that has diversified into visitor activities to boost its overall revenue levels. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Farm Management" essay for you Create order However, the farm has now reached a point at which visitor levels are relatively steady, and hence the farm is failing to grow its revenue significantly. This piece will thus investigate the current situation at the farm, including the current visitor numbers and the projected capacity for the farm. This data will then be used to determine the extent to which the farm can try to attract more visitors and the strategies that could be used to achieve this. This analysis will take place assuming that the farm is unable to raise further capital investment, other than through additional services that will also generate revenue. 2. Analysis and current situation Car park capacity Coach spaces 6 Car spaces 40 Average visitors per coach 35 Average visitors per car 3 Daily coach visitor capacity 210 Daily car visitor capacity 120 Total daily capacity 330 Current visitor numbers April May June July August September October Total Visitors 1,200 1800 2800 3200 3400 1800 600 14,800 Days open 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 112 Weekend days open 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 56 Week days open 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 56 Average weekend day visitors 100 150 233 267 283 150 50 176 Average weekday day visitors 50 75 117 133 142 75 25 88 Daily car park capacity 330 330 330 330 330 330 330 330 Weekend utilisation 30.3% 45.5% 70.7% 80.8% 85.9% 45.5% 15.2% 53.4% Weekday utilisation 15.2% 22.7% 35.4% 40.4% 42.9% 22.7% 7.6% 26.7% Daily milking parlour capacity 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 Weekend milking parlour visitors 80 120 187 213 227 120 40 141 Weekday milking parlour visitors 40 60 93 107 113 60 20 70 Weekend utilisation 40.0% 60.0% 93.3% 106.7% 113.3% 60.0% 20.0% 70.5% Weekday utilisation 20.0% 30.0% 46.7% 53.3% 56.7% 30.0% 10.0% 35.2% The analysis of the current situation is based on the following assumptions: On average, each coach visiting the farm will contain 35 visitors, and each car will contain 3 visitors. This is to account for the number of single parent families and families with only one child that may visit the farm. The proportion of visitors by coach and by car are roughly proportional to the respective visitor capacity for coach and car visitors The car and coach spaces cannot be used flexibly, i.e. coaches cannot park in the car spaces and vice versa The milking sheds can support 80 people per hour for a period of two and a half hours, thus they have a daily capacity of 200 The visitors are spread roughly evenly throughout each month 90% of visitors arrive after 12:30pm, and the visitors that arrived before 12:30pm at still there at this time. As such, around 1pm all visitors to the farm are at the farm and hence all need a car park space The analysis indicates that the farm is currently very close to its maximum visitor capacity in July and August, with 80.8% and 85.9% capacity utilisation in the car park on these days. With 80% of visitors going to the milking parlour, the parlour itself is already over capacity on these days, with capacity utilisation levels of 106.7% and 113.3% respectively. It must be assumed therefore that some visitors that would have liked to have visited the milking sheds were unable to do so due to the capacity constraints. 3. Different scenarios Two primary scenarios have been considered. The first is where the farm engages in widespread promotional activity designed to boost overall levels of attendance by 50%. The second is where the farm engages in targeted promotional activity designed to encourage school visits during the week, thus boosting weekday attendance levels by 50%. The analysis for these two scenarios is shown below: 3.1 Boost visitor demand by 50% on all days Projected visitor numbers April May June July August September October Total Visitors 1,800 2,700 4,200 4,800 5,100 2,700 900 22,200 Days open 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 112 Weekend days open 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 56 Week days open 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 56 Average weekend day visitors 150 225 350 400 425 225 75 264 Average weekday day visitors 75 113 175 200 213 113 38 132 Daily car park capacity 330 330 330 330 330 330 330 330 Weekend utilisation 45.5% 68.2% 106.1% 121.2% 128.8% 68.2% 22.7% 80.1% Weekday utilisation 22.7% 34.1% 53.0% 60.6% 64.4% 34.1% 11.4% 40.0% Actual average weekend day visitors 150 225 330 330 330 225 75 238 Actual average weekday day visitors 75 113 175 200 213 113 38 132 Total weekend day visitors 1200 1800 2640 2640 2640 1800 600 13320 Total weekday day visitors 600 900 1400 1600 1700 900 300 7400 Total visitors 1800 2700 4040 4240 4340 2700 900 20720 Daily milking parlour capacity 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 Weekend milking parlour visitors 120 180 264 264 264 180 60 190 Weekday milking parlour visitors 60 90 140 160 170 90 30 106 Weekend utilisation 60.0% 90.0% 132.0% 132.0% 132.0% 90.0% 30.0% 95.1% Weekday utilisation 30.0% 45.0% 70.0% 80.0% 85.0% 45.0% 15.0% 52.9% It should be noted that, for this scenario, as the capacity of the car park is limited to around 330 people per day, some visitors who wish to visit the farm on weekends in July and August will be unable to do so. The farm will thus have maximum average daily weekend visitor numbers during these months of 330. A plan should thus be put in place to manage capacity on these days, and ensure that visitors do not travel a long way only to find there is no space in the car park. 3.2 Boost visitor demand by 50% for weekdays only Projected visitor numbers April May June July August September October Total Average weekend day visitors 100 150 233 267 283 150 50 264 Average weekend day visitors 75 112.5 175 200 212.5 112.5 37.5 132 Weekend days open 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 56 Week days open 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 56 Total weekend day visitors 800 1200 1867 2133 2267 1200 400 9867 Total weekday day visitors 600 900 1400 1600 1700 900 300 7400 Total visitors 1400 2100 3267 3733 3967 2100 700 17267 Daily milking parlour capacity 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 Weekend milking parlour visitors 80 120 187 213 227 120 40 211 Weekday milking parlour visitors 60 90 140 160 170 90 30 106 Weekend utilisation 40.0% 60.0% 93.3% 106.7% 113.3% 60.0% 20.0% 105.7% Weekday utilisation 30.0% 45.0% 70.0% 80.0% 85.0% 45.0% 15.0% 52.9% In this scenario, the capacity of the car park does not represent a critical factor, as the farm will never attract more than 330 visitors per day on average. This will thus help relieve the problems associated with an across the board increase in visitor numbers. 4. Suggestions and validation The results from the first scenario show two main issues with Gillians desire to boost visitor numbers. The first is that boosting levels of demand will cause capacity issues in the car park in the busy months of June, July and August. This will create issues for the farm as it may result in visitors arriving and having to be turned away, which could create a negative image for the farm. In addition to this, boosting the number of visitors during these peak periods will result in the milking sheds becoming very congested with long queues, and potentially large numbers of people unable to visit the sheds. As the carousel appears to be a very important attraction, if people are unable to visit it they may again become unhappy and this could damage the reputation of the farm as well as causing problems for the employees running the attraction (Waters, 1999, p. 85). In terms of the actual impact on visitor numbers, the 50% increase in demand across the board would be expected to boo st visitor numbers by around 40%, from 14,800 to 20,720 per annum. In contrast, the 50% increase during weekdays would boost visitor numbers by around 17%, from 14,800 to 17,267 per annum. As such, the 50% increase across the board would be more beneficial in terms of total numbers, but would also likely cost more to implement, and would not provide a full 50% increase in visitor numbers. In order to achieve this 50% increase, the best option would be to implement both the general marketing scheme to increase overall numbers, and the targeted partnership scheme with schools to boost visitor numbers during the weekdays. This would help achieve the 50% target within the existing capacity constraints. At the same time, the farm will need to carry out targeted analysis of the current levels of car park usage, in order to determine whether it should target more coach groups or more family groups depending on the capacity utilisation of the coach and the car spaces. However, the best way to achieve the goal of a 50% expansion in visitor numbers whilst avoiding the potential issues with capacity and overcrowding the in the milk sheds as discussed above would be to address the constraints the company faces. According to Huefner (2011, p. 40), â€Å"companies of all sizes are limited by any number of constraints: capacity of their plants and other physical structures, distribution channels, rules and regulations, size and education of the workforce, and access to raw materials, to name a few†. As such, addressing and overcoming these constraints is a vital aspect of operations management, and enables companies to improve their profitability without having to invest additional capital. One of the main ways this could be achieved for the farm would be to improve capacity management through car park flexibility. Specifically, the farm should look to arrange the spaces in the car park so that coaches can park across two or three car parking spaces in order to bo ost capacity. This is because two or three cars will bring an average of around nine visitors, but a coach can contain 35 visitors. As such, by allowing some car spaces to be used for coaches, the farm could focus on attracting more coach groups at the weekends, and thus boost the effective capacity of the car park. This will play a vital role in boosting overall capacity, as parking is a critical factor in determining travel destinations (Nurul Habib et al, 2012, p. 154). This would also help the farm profit more by offering discounted entry fees to coach tours, as well as potentially running coaches from larger nearby car parks where other visitors could park and then ride to the farm. Another important tool that could be used to boost revenues and visitor numbers is to engage in superior demand management, through pricing structures. According to Hwang et al (2010, p. 465) the use of pricing for demand management plays a key role in the effective management of demand levels, a nd thus maximises potential revenue levels. In this case, the farm could offer half day visitor structures, whereby people who arrive later, after 4pm, when around 20% of visitors have left, will be offered discounted prices. There could also be discounted prices offered to people who arrive at 11am and stay only for a couple of hours, thus leaving before the large groups arrive. This would help ensure that more visitors can attend during quieter periods. Similarly, setting higher prices at the weekend and lower prices during the week could help ensure that more people came on Friday and Monday, when the farm is quiet, instead of at the weekends when it is busy. These efforts could be combined with revenue management techniques which use differential pricing strategies and capacity allocation tactics to maximise overall revenue levels for the farm, as well as visitor numbers (Deng et al, 2008, p. 737). In addition to this, the farm could boost capacity by opening new attraction n earby such as a go kart course. This would create funds to expand the car park and encourage people to visit both attractions at once. Different tickets could be sold for people who want to go on the go kart in the morning and visit the farm in the afternoon and vice versa, in order to smooth out demand levels across the two attractions. These efforts would improve capacity utilisation in the car park and boost the overall visitor numbers, but efforts will still be needed to address the issue of queuing for the milking shed, and ensuring capacity is smoothed in this area. One of the main ways to achieve this would be for each visitor to the milking shed to come to the shed when they first arrive and book a time slot for their viewing. This would help customers avoid having to queue and reduce customer discontent due to the length of the queue (Xu et al, 2007, p. 971). It would also ensure that customers were not left waiting until the end of the day and then frustrated that the m ilking shed was not open for them to see the milking. This approach would thus help reduce the queues in the milking shed and hence support the increase in visitor numbers for the farm as a whole. References and Bibliography Deng, H. Wang, Q. Leong, G. and Sun, S. (2008) The Usage of Opportunity Cost to Maximize Performance in Revenue Management. Decision Sciences; Nov2008, Vol. 39 Issue 4, p737-758 Huefner, R. (2011) A Guide to Integrating Revenue Management and Capacity Analysis. Management Accounting Quarterly; Autumn2011, Vol. 13 Issue 1, p40-46 Hwang, J. Gao, L. and Jang, W. (2010) Joint demand and capacity management in a restaurant system. European Journal of Operational Research; Nov2010, Vol. 207 Issue 1, p465-472 Nurul Habib, K. Morency, C. and Trà ©panier, M. (2012) Integrating parking behaviour in activity-based travel demand modelling: Investigation of the relationship between parking type choice and activity scheduling process. Transportation Research Part A: Policy Practice; Jan2012, Vol. 46 Issue 1, p154-166 Shim, J. and Siegel, J. (1999) Operations Management. Barrons Educational Series. Waters, D. (1999) Operations Management. Kogan Page Publishers. Xu, S. Long, G. and Jihong, O. (2007) Service Performance Analysis and Improvement for a Ticket Queue with Balking Customers. Management Science; Jun2007, Vol. 53 Issue 6, p971-990

The Role of the Community Reinvestment Act on the 2007...

The Role of the Community Reinvestment Act on the 2007 Housing Bubble Collapse The reality of the worst financial crisis in the last 80 years has led to wide speculation of its causes. While a plethora of theories have been offered, none have been as persistent and as patently false as the assertion that the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 played a significant role in the housing bubble collapse. Critics of the Community Investment Act (CRA) argue that by pushing banks to meet the credit needs of low-income borrowers, the law forced lending institutions to take on riskier loans that proved to be fiscally irresponsible. The securitization and speculation of these low quality loans led to the housing bubble collapse and the wider†¦show more content†¦The Act dictated that relevant supervisory agencies ensure depository banks fulfill the credit and lending needs in the areas in which they were chartered. The Act goes on to state that all business must continue to be conducte d within sound operating practices. Compliance (or lack thereof) would be taken into account when approving applications for expansion through new charters, mergers and acquisitions. The law makes no attempt to evaluate the performance of any given institution, nor does it establish minimum criteria for granting an individual or business a loan. The CRA does not mandate that an institution take on any particular types of loans, or approve certain applicants. With the obvious incentives of complying with the CRA, local bankers began to tap into markets that would have been considered prior to CRA enforcement in the late 70’s. These lower-income areas proved fiscally viable, and began to draw the attention of financial institutions other than depository banks. These investment banks were involved in speculative investment and resale of mortgages and were not regulated under the terms of the CRA. 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The pricing for mortgage loans varied widely due to no nationwide housing market. The main funding for these loans was provided by life insurers, thrifts, and commercial banks. By 1932, a housing crisis was wreaking havoc on home loans. The estimatedRead MoreThe Great Depression Of The 1930s Essay1689 Words   |  7 Pagesother hand, was a more recent recession caused by sub-prime mortgages and mortgage backed securities, that didn’t have as much of a lasting effect as it did on having a spreading effect on other economies. It is important to look at the causes of the bubbles, scale of economic crisis’s, and the economic effects to identify similarities and differences between to the two crisis’, because it helps gather a firm understanding and better prepare us for a future crisis. Causes The Great Depression In AmericaRead MoreLa Salle University : The Volcker Rule Case Study2458 Words   |  10 PagesGiambuzzi FIN 306-01 Financial Services Industry Dr. Elizabeth W. Cooper February 20th 2015 The Glass-Steagall Act was a law enacted right after the stock market crash of 1929, whose intent was to split commercial and investment banking activities into two different entities. The main objective of the act was to prevent future crises and bank runs. The provision of the act disallowed commercial banks to deal with underwriting and/or dealing in securities, and to have a cap in place on theRead MoreThe Assertion By Lawrence And Weber Essay2638 Words   |  11 Pagesthrough the events leading up to and during the housing crisis in which government regulation, wall street investors and bankers and citizens converged through a series of bad legislation and regulation, poor investment and lending practices and individual over extension and personal finance management to create the perfect economic storm that lead to the collapse of the housing markets. Consumers vs. Lenders A key point of contention during the housing crisis was issue of who was at fault, the lenders

Level 2 Essay - 1516 Words

UNIT 4222-264 THE PRINCIPLES OF INFECTION PREVENTION AND CONTROL (ICO1/201) Outcome 1 understand roles and responsibilities in the prevention and control of infections 1.1 Explain employees’ roles and responsibilities in relation to the prevention and control of infection * To ensure that their own health and hygiene does not pose a risk to service users and colleagues. * To ensure effective hand washing is carried out when working with service users, giving personal care, handling/preparing food. * To ensure they use protective clothing provided when needed and appropriate. * Attend relevant courses * Report any hazards that could lead to infection 1.2 Explain employers†¦show more content†¦Employers are ethically bound to do all they can to ensure that employees do not suffer illness, serious injury or death. They are by law required to carry out risk assessments as any accidents and injuries occurred which have not been risk assessed could inflict significant costs on the company. Outcome 5 Understand the importance of using PPE in the prevention and control of infections 5.1 Demonstrate correct use of PPE * Have the responsibility to wear PPE appropriately to avoid contamination as far as possible 5.2 Describe different types of PPE * Gloves - protect hands * Aprons- protect skin and/or clothing * Goggles- protect eyes * Masks and respirators- protect mouth and respiratory tract from airborne infectious agents * Face shields- protect face, mouth, nose and eyes 5.3 explain the reasons for use of PPE * Personal Protective Equipment reduces, but does not completely eliminate the risk of acquiring or spreading an infection. It is important that it is used effectively and correctly. And at all times where contact with blood and body fluids of patients may occur. 5.4 State current relevant regulations and legislation relating to PPE * Employees are responsible to use PPE appropriately and as instructed by their employer. * Ensuring employees who store and handle dangerous substances are properly trained * Using appropriate precautions when handling substances, forShow MoreRelatedEssay Level 21468 Words   |  6 Pageshow it is used appropriately. There is no definite guide to the content of a first aid kit but as a guide you will expect to see: * 2 sterile eye pads * 20 individually wrapped sterile dressings * 4 individually wrapped triangular bandages * 6 safety pins * 6 medium sized and individually wrapped sterile and non-medicated wound dressings * 2 large sized and individually wrapped sterile and non-medicated wound dressings * At least 1 pair of disposable gloves * No tabletsRead MoreNvq Level 21583 Words   |  7 Pagesemployee has to wear PPE at all times when carrying out any personal care to help prevent any cross infection and to help prevent any. 2. Explain employer’s responsibilities in relation to the prevention and control of infection. The employer is responsible for making sure all employees use PPE when it is required to help prevent and control infection Outcome 2. 1. Outline current legislation and regulatory body standards which are relevant to the prevention and control of infection. 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Counselling requires professional training and is specifically contracted or explicitly agreed. It has a theoreticalRead MoreNCFE LEVEL 2 UNIT 2 Essay733 Words   |  3 Pagesï » ¿UNIT 2 1.1 My duties and responsibilities as a support worker are maintaining a high standard of care be it in personal hygiene, assistance with laundry and so on. Maintaining confidentiality and keeping records. Reporting immediately any incidents that may occur. Participating in courses that might help me improve my care. Being supportive and empathic towards everyone. 1.2 Maintaining trust and confidence in the patients by respecting the confidentiality norms. This is in protecting the rightsRead MoreEquaity and Diversity Level 2 Unit 21641 Words   |  7 PagesUnit 2 Assessment Hi Henry Well done! You have made a great start to this unit however some of your answers need to be amended and I have highlighted these for you. Could you please make the amendments, remove my highlighted text, proof read and spell check your work and re-submit this unit by 19/10/15. Don’t forget to keep updating your learner tracking sheet with the dates and times you have spent working on this unit as you will need to send me this completed document when you haveRead MoreUnit 1 Level 2926 Words   |  4 Pagesyou need to adjust your communication methods. Also it is important so that you can recognise any communication barriers such as language difficulties, hearing difficulties, visual impairments any physical difficulties affecting your communication. 2. 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You should outline customer service roles in each organisation and highlight the differences in how customer serviceRead MoreEssay on NVQ level 25394 Words   |  22 Pageslevel 2 err worksheet ERR Unit Question 1 – List the aspects of employment covered by law (1.1.1) The law in the UK covers the following aspects of employment – †¢ National minimum wage †¢ Hours worked †¢ Discrimination †¢ Health and safety (work conditions) †¢ Holiday entitlements †¢ Redundancy and dismissal †¢ Training †¢ Disciplinary procedures Question 2- List the main features of current employment legislation (1.1.2) The main features of current employment legislation are: †¢ EmploymentRead MoreErr for Level 2 Childcare2526 Words   |  11 Pagesholidays. Company policies and procedures, this section explains that I will comply with the companies policies and procedures and those copies have been made available. training, this section explains that all employees are expected to train to the level of their job role, and need to hold several certificates within the first 6 months of employment.confidentiality, in this section it explains that I shall not during or after my employment disclose any information about the company or its clients.

Hacking Marketing Practices Free samples †Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss about the Hacking Marketing for Agile Practices. Answer: Introduction The performance of a brand is very critical in the short term and long term growth of an organization. There are many factors that affect the success of a particular brand in the market. Among these factors include the quality of goods and services offered by the organization, it marketing and advertising activities, innovation through research and development. This report seeks to establish reasons why the Lenovo brand is under-performing and make recommendations on how the situation can be reversed. Background of the company Lenovo Group Ltd is a Chinese multinational company that designs and manufactures technological products. The company is headquartered in Beijing and Morrisville in the United States. The company was formed in the year 1984 by a man named Liu Chuanzhi. The products that the company produces include: Smartphone, desktops, servers, notebooks, tablets, printers, TV sets, peripherals, storage devices, scanners among many others. By the end o f the year 2016, the company had approximately 59,700 workers (Weinberg, 2016). The company has been performing well financially and its market share has been increasing rapidly throughout the years. The companys performance in China is also very admirable with the company having a diverse distribution network that helps the company to distribute and market its products effectively. The company has however struggled to establish its brand internationally with low sales volumes reported in countries such as the United States. The level of competition in this industry has also been a major contributor to under-performance of Lenovo as brand Industry and competitor analysis The global technology industry especially the personal computer manufacturing is very competitive. The intense competition in this market is due to the large number of competitors among many other factors. The global PC industry has five main industry players; Apple, Hewlett Packard, Dell, Lenovo and Samsung (Ling, 2006). There are also many other companies in the industry who hold a smaller market share. The industry is innovation driven. Companies operating in this industry put a lot of emphasis on the value of innovation. The companies have heavily invested in research and development to help the companies keeps on introducing new products and improving the existing ones. There is increasing need for more efficient and more sophisticated electronic gadgets and thesis what has driven the industry towards competing more on the basis of innovation. The industry is very large in size. There are many opportunities for growth and expansion in this industry. The global personal computer market has been experiencing continuous growth for the last five years. This trend is expected to continue for the next couple of years. The market is expected to reach approximately US$252.6 billion in 2017 due to increasing innovations. For instance, introduction of new ultra-portable thin laptop is expected to increase growth in this market (Brinker, 2016). The market growth is driven by various environmental factors which are external to the organization. The largest growth is expected in the Asian market where the personal computer and the use of Smartphone is getting very popular. Research and secondary data on the subject The Lenovo brand has been able to live up to its billing after initially hitting the market with a storm. The company has experienced continuous growth in terms of revenues and it has been able to expand into many more markets across the world. Lenovo is the largest supplier of personal computers globally. Its market share for Smartphone business has been low compared to the market leader position held by Samsung and that of Apple. By the year 2014, Lenovo was the second most Smartphone brand, by the year 2017; the companies brand had gone down to No 11. The Lenovo brand dropped when the company bought Motorola Smartphone Company. The Company was owned by Google and was worth $2.90 billion (Brinker, 2016). The intention of acquiring this company was to help expand the market share In the Smartphone market. This was encouraged by Motorola`s technologies which were leading as well as intellectual property rights which it sold to Lenovo. There were high expectations with the new acquisition considering the great success of IBM acquisition in the year 2005, Integration of Motorola into Lenovo although failed to happen as fast and effectively as expected. One of the mistakes that Lenovo made in the regard to sales and distribution channels it used. The market experienced a shift from carrier-led Smartphone sales and to direct and open market sales. Lenovo competitors have taken advantage of other sales methods. The use of these sales methods has affected the sales of the company. For instance, Huawei uses online sales for its major brands in order to deliver a low cost distribution process which helps in reducing costs hence lower prices for their commodities. Another common example is the 200,000 retail stores in China owned by mobile phone manufacturer OPPO. The strategy might be a bit costly but it gives the company an opportunity to interact with its customers and therefore it can establish long term relationships with its clients. This results to customer loyalty. By reduction of Smartphone carriers subsidies in China affected the company so much since Lenovo entirely depended on this technique (Kachru, 2006). Another mistake that resulted in the weakening of the Lenovo brand in China is lack of proper marketing. The company had always depended on the carriers to help in reducing their marketing costs. When the government ordered government run carriers to reduce their, marketing expenses by over 20% within 3 years, the company found itself in a complicated situation (Arun, 2011). The company resulted to other means of marketing which were much more expensive. The cost of marketing was shifted to the consumers and this resulted to increase in prices of the companies` products. Consumers therefore had no option but to substitute to other more affordable Smartphone brands. The brand of the company continues to become weaker because of the lack of product differentiation. The company has not been able to keep up with the pace of growth and innovation in the industry because it has not been able to put in place proper strategies that will encourage innovation and product development in the com pany. Most of its competitors in the Smartphone market have been keen in improving and adding key features in its products. An example is Samsung which has been very consistent in its product differentiation and improvement strategy. Samsung introduced the curved screen displays which was a market first while Apple introduced larger screened Smartphone. The lack of innovation in the company has therefore been its undoing for the company. Another factor that has led to the decline of the Lenovo brand is due to the changing economic environment of the countries it is operating in. Many countries in the world in which Lenovo enjoys a substantial market share have been experiencing tough economic moments (Kachru, 2006.) This has been driven by factors such as increase in factors of production. Economic growth drives industrial growth and economic recession results to decline of factories in a country. Increase in labor cost in many countries in Asia has affected the performance of many countries and the companies in these countries have not been spared. The increases in costs have therefore resulted to increase in prices of products which lead to low sales volumes by the company. Conclusion Lenovo has to act very fast in order to save its declining brand from falling. The company has to implement the following strategies in order to improve its financial performance and improve its brand both in China and globally. The first step that Lenovo should take to salvage its brand and improve its market share in the Smartphone business is that it should focus more on the research and development function of the business. This is due to the fact that the technology industry is driven by innovation and invention. Lenovo should encourage its engineers and other staff working in the product development section to help the company come up with more products on a regular business. Increased levels of innovation will mean that the company will generate more sales from its products. Consumers of technology products are driven by uniqueness of products of a company in order to buy the companys products (Ferrell, 2011). This has been the secret of Apples and Samsung continued market growth and expansion. Therefore, through product differentiation and innovation, Lenovo will be able to make its brand more appealing to customers globally. The company should also make adjustments it sales and distribution channels. This will help reduce the cost of distribution and improve sale of the companys products. Lenovo should be employ distribution techniques that are cheap and easy to reach the customers. The distribution channels used by the company should be able to establish direct contact with customers in order to help create customer and brand loyalty. Recommendation Improve and focus more on research and development to develop new products and improve existing ones Change the product distribution channels and adopt a cheaper method which is less costly More aggressive marketing and advertising to increase the customer base for the company Adoptions of product differentiation strategies that will help the company increase its product line. References Ferrell, O. C., Hartline, M. D. (2011). Marketing strategy. Australia, South-Western Cengage Learning. Kachru, U. (2005). Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases. New Delhi, Excel Books. Lamb, C. W., Hair, J. F., Mcdaniel, C. D. (2009). Essentials of marketing. Mason, Ohio, South-Western. Arun Kumar, Meenakshi, N. (2011). Marketing management. Noida, Vikas Publishing House. Brinker, S. (2016). Hacking marketing: agile practices to make marketing smarter, faster, and more innovative. Weinberg, T. (2009). The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web. Sebastopol, O'Reilly Media, Inc. https://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=536620. Ling, Z. (2006). The Lenovo affair: the growth of China's computer giant and its takeover of IBM-PC. Singapore, Wiley. Liu, D. M. (2010). Case studies on successful M A practices in Acer Lenovo: a dynamic capabilities perspective.

The Debt An Economic Catastrophe Essay Example For Students

The Debt: An Economic Catastrophe Essay The Debt: An Economic CatastropheFew national economic issues have generated the same kind of concern as has thefederal debt problem of Canada. There is a pressing need for long-term policiesto lift Canada out of the national debt hole it is in. Eliminating the debtwill not only free up money being spent on interest and reduce taxes, but makeCanada a more feasible place for future generations to live and work. Interest on the debt has eroded the governments ability to fund its ownoperations and essential social services. Presently, thirty-five cents of everytax dollar the federal government raises is used for interest payments alone onthe debt. Though there have been operating surpluses within the federalgovernment, they have been eaten up by the debt interest payments. Few peopleunderstand the devastating effects of compound interest. The debt, at acompound rate of 10%, doubles in seven years, quadruples in fourteen years, andis eight times as much in twenty-one years. This creates great difficulty forgovernments to slow the debt, much less eliminate it. Our federal debt growsall by itself to the tune of approximately ninety million dollars every day. We will write a custom essay on The Debt: An Economic Catastrophe specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now This may seem hard to digest, but it is reality. The need for debt eliminationis vital if Canada wants to free up billions of dollars being spend on interestpayments. Two approaches may be taken to this. First, an increase ingovernment revenues through higher taxation may be considered. However, taxesare already at a point where some people feel they are working merely to pay thegovernment, rather than support themselves. Second, a restraint on governmentspending by means of cutbacks may be a path, possibly a difficult one, to theroad of eliminating our federal debt. Either way, it will be the young citizensof Canada that will have to pay for previous government overspending. Ournational debt, after all, is an internal debt, owed not only by the nation butto the nation. If our children have to pay the interest, they will pay thatinterest to themselves. (Franklin Delano Roosevelt)As our debt continues to increase, so do the taxes that Canadians are paying. Thirty-five percent of our taxes are being paid to reduce the debt, leaving therest to fund government programs such as health care, education, and jobcreation. For every benefit you receive a tax is levied. (Ralph WaldoEmerson) However, a long look must be taken at how the tax dollar isdistributed to various programs to determine which ones need more funding, andwhich should be receiving less. There is, by no means, excess money to spendfoolishly; that is what got Canada into the financial crisis it remains in today. But by restricting the growth of program payments, eliminating some programsand cutting back on others, and by having higher income individuals pay back agreater share, dollars are now being reassigned to the most essential programsand to needy Canadians. The battle to reduce tax waste and increase efficiencycontinues across all government departments. Nevertheless, Canadians now claimthey are being taxed to death. And the only way to stop this excessive taxationis for the government and citizens to work together to fight the debt, andsubsequently, less tax dollars will be needed to pull Canada out of thefinancial crisis it is in. There is no doubt that a debt-free country would be the greatest place in theworld to live and work. There would be adequate funding for job creation bymeans of public and private investment, tax dollars would be spent responsiblyand wisely, resulting in tax relief but still receiving essential services, andsocial spending would be prioritized to ensure the long-term survival of socialprograms that Canadians value and need. However, the position Canada is in nowgreatly differs from this. Canadians are out of work. Our government spendstoo much, owes too much, and taxes too much. This vicious cycle drains thelifeblood out of the economy, scares away private investors who create jobs, andmakes Canadian products less competitive. Taxes are too high. Government over-spending has led to enormous interest payments on the debt, driving up the taxburden on individual Canadians. And finally, our health care system is incritical condition. Out-of-control government spending is the greatest sin glethreat to health care and other social programs in Canada. As one can see, thedebt-free scenario is much more attractive. This would unquestionably draw morepeople to Canada to live, raise families, and work, consequently stimulating thefederal economy. .uecf0ba285fdd62d48e66477c5e89b5d5 , .uecf0ba285fdd62d48e66477c5e89b5d5 .postImageUrl , .uecf0ba285fdd62d48e66477c5e89b5d5 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .uecf0ba285fdd62d48e66477c5e89b5d5 , .uecf0ba285fdd62d48e66477c5e89b5d5:hover , .uecf0ba285fdd62d48e66477c5e89b5d5:visited , .uecf0ba285fdd62d48e66477c5e89b5d5:active { border:0!important; } .uecf0ba285fdd62d48e66477c5e89b5d5 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .uecf0ba285fdd62d48e66477c5e89b5d5 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .uecf0ba285fdd62d48e66477c5e89b5d5:active , .uecf0ba285fdd62d48e66477c5e89b5d5:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .uecf0ba285fdd62d48e66477c5e89b5d5 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .uecf0ba285fdd62d48e66477c5e89b5d5 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .uecf0ba285fdd62d48e66477c5e89b5d5 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .uecf0ba285fdd62d48e66477c5e89b5d5 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .uecf0ba285fdd62d48e66477c5e89b5d5:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .uecf0ba285fdd62d48e66477c5e89b5d5 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .uecf0ba285fdd62d48e66477c5e89b5d5 .uecf0ba285fdd62d48e66477c5e89b5d5-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .uecf0ba285fdd62d48e66477c5e89b5d5:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Enders Game EssayThe journey to a debt-free Canada will not be a short one. Nonetheless,measures must be taken to eliminate this economic catastrophe before it getsmore out of hand than it already is. We must learn to live within our means,and understand that we can no longer spend money we do not have. Some debtsare fun when you are acquiring them, but none are fun when you set aboutretiring them. (Ogden Nash)BibliographyEmerson, Ralph Waldo. Quotation Homepage: http:www.lexmark.com/data/quote-21.html. Nash, Ogden. Quotation Homepage: http:www.lexmark.com/data/quote-21.html. Roosevelt, Franklin Delano. Quotation Homepage:http:www.lexmark.com/data/quote-21.html.

Blood Brothers by Willy Russell Essays

Blood Brothers by Willy Russell Essays Blood Brothers by Willy Russell Essay Blood Brothers by Willy Russell Essay Essay Topic: Literature On the 20th October 2010, we went to watch ‘Blood Brothers’. Written by Willy Russell, the story is a gripping, emotional and sometimes comical tale of twin brothers from Liverpool who are separated at birth due to the financial desperation of their single mother. Brought up in completely different social backgrounds, their birth mother’s obsessive attempts at keeping her sons from discovering each other lead to a tragic conclusion. I was really surprised how they started the play with a flashback but it worked well, it made me realise that the play is going to have a tragic ending. It also engaged me to want to watch the play and find out what happens further on into the story. It allowed me as the audience to feel sympathy for the characters without knowing them. My favourite actor was Sean Jones who played the part of Mickey. This is because I really enjoyed how he acted like a seven year old, he used his enthusiasm clearly to make his acting realistic and believable. He portrayed this by using his body language and facial expressions effectively. He was really successful in showing he was upset and arrogant when he wasn’t allowed to play outside, which is originally what a real seven year old would do. Sean Jones used his levels effectively to present himself as a seven year old. When his mother told him he wasn’t allowed to go outside, he immediately fell to the floor to show sadness. He also made sure he was engaging with the audience by using facial expressions. One effective facial expression, I personally thought was good was when he dropped his face in an exaggerated way like a child would do if they were sad. His voice was loud and confident to show that Mickey was able to speak his mind, and slightly high pitched to present his age. Sean also showed a shy side of Mickey when he was around Linda. He showed this by placing his hands in his pockets and looking away as if he was embarrassed. When Mickey was depressed, Sean presented him clearly and effectively. He showed Mickey was depressed by slowing his voice and making it seem slightly slurred. Even though his voice was quite slurred he still kept it loud and understandable. Sean also showed anger by shouting and steeping forward in a threatening way. He was at the front of the stage to make him seem closer to the audience; I think this was to show he was superior and dominant and felt like he had control over the situation. The other actor I favoured was Nikki Evans who played Mrs. Johnstone because I thought she had a very powerful voice. I think she showed a motherly side to all the children throughout the play. The scene I thought she was effective in was when she gave Edward the locket and she came down to his level. She previously acts quite vicious and keeps on shouting at him, but to me makes it clear she is protecting Mickey and Edward. Both movement and voice were used successfully by this actor, showing Mrs Johnstone was tired and worn out from having a quite stressful life. This therefore made me feel quite sympathetic for her because she clearly couldn’t manage another child and had no choice to give Edward to Mrs Lyons. In the play I didn’t like the one character, Edward played by Paul Davies because I feel like the actor didn’t change much from a 7 year old to a much older person. Unlike Sean, Paul didn’t put as much energy into his movement around the stage. The scene I really didn’t like which involved him was the shooting scene as he didn’t make his acting seem dramatic instead he was more boring and dull. He could have improved this scene by using his body language to portray his innocence and weakness. His facial expression didn’t change much unlike Mickey because he was just having a same face, and not changing. For example when Sean Jones said the ‘f’ word Paul Davies had a little bit of a shocked face but not much. The scene I thought was most effective was when Mickey and Edward first meet and become ‘Blood Brothers’. I like this moment because I find that it’s really sweet and makes the audience feel happy and warm. The actors really showed their enthusiasm which made them look and feel like a seven year old. Mickey tried to impress Edward and attempted to show off, by pulling his jumper over his knees, saying words like ‘piss off’ and the ‘F’ word, this made Edward feel like Mickey is amazing and that he should be his best friend. This proved to us that they were younger than they actually were by using the stage well, by running around as if they were playing a game. I was really disappointed with the last scene. In my opinion there was a lot of poor acting; Edward’s facial expression was completely blank and to me seemed to have no fright in it what so ever. Also the how the police run in through the audience wasn’t effective because it was quite distracting and confusing as I didn’t know where to look. The lighting was a vital part to the play, it helped to create atmosphere. I felt that the use of red presented an evil feel towards the play. Red originally represents anger, murder and hatred. This happened when Mickey thought Linda was having an affair with Edward, in rage Mickey grabbed a gun and ran off the stage in search of Edward. They also used lighting to illustrate places they were, like when they were at the cinema and the lights were dimmed but certain lights were flickering on their face which made it look like a real cinema. These also made the audience feel like their part of the story and as if there watching a real film. They also used lighting to portray their emotions, for example when they got rehoused out into the countryside, the lights turned bright and happy, as if it’s a new start to their life, a new beginning. The lighting became brighter to show their emotions turned happy. This made me feel happy for the Johnstones as they got to start a new life for themselves. In the scene were Mrs Johnstone and Mrs Lyons swear on the bible the lights went dim and a spotlight came down on them. I felt that this was effective as it created a tense environment for the audience and slightly sinister. It also effectively marked the moment. I think the use of music was extremely effective in showing me the different stages of the characters’ lives. ‘The devils got your number’ was dark and sinister, I think it symbolises Mrs Johnstone and Mrs Lyons as if making a deal with Satan. The fact that the Narrator was singing it made it feel more effective in my opinion; this was because it made you see the narrator as the devil always reminding Mrs Johnstone and Mrs Lyons of their deal. The music they chose went well with the scenes and create different moods, for example when Mrs. Johnston sang ‘and we went dancing’ song created a happy and a jolly mood, before she had children and her husband left her. The music changed when conflict grew for example when Mickey accused Edward of having an affair with Linda, the music changed to a fast tempo with makes the audience alert. The music also changed when they moved to the countryside which makes the music happy and bright. This makes people feel happy and good as if it’s going to be a good new start. The use of music also portrayed their age, such as the difference sounds of the gun shots. The gun a considerably high pitched, quite ‘ping’ when they were younger, to me this could reflect on their immaturity level and how their life consists of happiness, whereas the gun made a loud, agitated ‘bang’ noise when they older, perhaps this shows that all their happiness have been diluted due to the fact they’ve grown up and symbolises tough times in the character’s lives. The use of the narrator was really effective. The fact that the narrator was in every scene, I feel that it was effective as it portrayed to the audience that he is being represented as the never leaving past for Mrs Johnstone and Mrs Lyons even though it was the audience who only knew of his existence. He is used to taunt the two characters which eventually led Mrs. Lyons to insanity. Without the narrator, I feel the play wouldn’t have been as effective as you wouldn’t get a deeper view of the play and it generally wouldn’t make any sense. It also wouldn’t show the progress of Mrs. Lyons madness as clearly. They also used the narrator as thought tracking. The thought tracking was effective as I feel it allowed the audience to interact with the characters feelings and thoughts. In my perspective I feel it presented a clear perspective of each character. The contrast in class was clearly shown from the start of the play. The accents the characters consisted off allowed us to make a judgement on where they fit into society. The ‘scouse’ accent may be looked down up when compared to the way Mrs Lyons talked. The tone the actors playing the Lyons’ were quite patronising, as if they knew they were better and enhanced the way they talked to portray to the audience. The movement the actors across the stage also helped show the difference in hierarchy. Sean Jones, who played Mickey, made himself look more relaxed and didn’t make himself look approachable, whereas Paul Davies, who played Edward, had good posture and presented himself as a polite character. The costume the characters wore helped show their class as Sean wore loose fitting clothes with holes in, this reflected how poor his family is and how Mrs Johnstone ached to provide for children but diteriates. Paul however wore smart, fitted clothing that looked expensive. This portrayed that Edward was clearly brought up in a well off house. The set in ‘Blood Brothers’ was really effective because they showed the fact there was two different houses involved in the play. The difference in the houses was that on the rougher side, the houses were dull and boring, parts of the walls were crumbling and they had broken windows. On the other side of the street was the more posh and more well of houses, the houses on the more well off side had fixed windows, unbroken walls unlike the rougher side of the street. This gives off a theme of class and how it affects people in different backgrounds. In the end I feel like it’s a good play with lots of humour and effective acting. It was completely different to what I expected but a lot better than I thought it would be. It consists of humour, romance and tragic deaths which would generally allow you to not take your eyes of the stage. It’s a humorous, comical play which will leave the audience mind blown. The actors that took part really did well and their characterisation was brilliant. They all spoke the same accent, even though they weren’t all from Liverpool, which I congratulate them on. The fact there were hardly any people on the stage, I enjoyed as it made the play simple and not complex. I definitely would really take the opportunity to see this play again and I would highly recommend it to a friend or relative.

Develop Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Develop - Assignment Example This includes those functioning in learning & memory, motivation & appreciation and inhibitory regulation over character. Because drug abuse and addiction comes in many ways and interfere with one’s personal life, treatment is difficult. Proper treatment programs involve many components. The components are specific to aspects of the illness and its effects. Treatment must help the victim stop using drugs, maintain a normal lifestyle and become a productive individual in the society, at work and with family. As addiction is a chronic illness, individuals cannot just seize using drugs shortly and be cured. Most victims need prolonged or continuous care to achieve the main goal of sustainable recovery from addiction. When a person is fighting with drug addiction, sobriety may be a difficult goal to achieve. However, recovery is a viable option. It never depends on the situation or failures. Everyone is susceptible to change given the correct treatment, care and appropriate examination of the root causes (John, 2011). Many individuals with a struggle in dealing with addiction, the first step mainly for the addicts remains to be the decision to seek for change. Conflict in the choices an individual makes the biggest and the most vital step towards recovery of drug and substance abuse. There are several things, which the individual requires to comprehend before embarking on recovery phase. Commitment remains the absolute solution for the recovery phase. The activities requiring change include: People with addiction problems may view themselves as not ready for the required change of quitting. Several factors require comprehension before the individual is ready to change. The process is usually a long-term thing and requires time. Commitment, motivation and support are the most vital key factors require consideration. Upon contemplation there are several points that an individual can rely on to achieve full recovery, these are: The change

Equal Employment Opportunity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Equal Employment Opportunity - Essay Example 87). Diversity management is linked with growing organizational plans that value all individuals in the same way, not considering their distinctions. In controlling diversity, attempts are made by both the business as well as the persons in it to become accustomed to and acknowledge the value of diversity. Businesses can as well deal with diversity concerns in more limited techniques: (1) equal employment opportunity and (2) affirmative action. Equal employment opportunity (EEO) is a wide thought implying that persons must have equal dealing in every service associated activities. Persons who are sheltered under equal employment regulations are protected from illegitimate prejudice, which takes place as persons having identical traits are distinguished against because of that trait. Different laws have been passed to defend persons who share some particular traits, â€Å"such as race, age, or gender† (Smith, p. 102). Those having the elected traits are referred to as a seclude d group or as associates of a secluded faction. A sheltered group is made of those who come within a group recognized for defence in equal employment regulations and set of laws. Several of the sheltered groups, in the past, have been exposed to illegitimate bias. The reasons for protection that have been recognized by different centralized regulations are (1) cast, cultural basis, colour and creed (2) sexual characteristics (3) age bracket (4) persons with physical or psychological inabilities (5) armed forces experience and (6) religious conviction. For example, consider a company that is trying to be suitable for EEO policy has comparatively a small number of Hispanic executives. To raise the number of Hispanics, the company will employ and interview Hispanics who have minimum required credentials for the administration posts. What the company is offering is equal employment opportunity for competent persons to be considered for service. To remedy regions within which it seems th at persons in sheltered groups â€Å"have not had equal employment opportunities† (Burstein, p. 183), a number of companies have extended positive action approaches. Affirmative action takes place as companies recognize trouble regions, set objectives, and take constructive strides to assure equal employment opportunities for individuals in a sheltered group. Affirmative action concentrates on appointing, guiding, and endorsing of sheltered group associates where they are underrepresented within a company with respect to their ease of use within the labour markets from which hiring takes place. At times, companies have introduced affirmative action willingly, although many times companies have been obliged to do so as they are government service providers having more than 50 workers and more than 55,000 USD in government agreements yearly. When equal employment opportunity set of laws are talked about, perhaps the most unpredictable problems concern the approach that â€Å"a ffirmative action leads to quotas, preferential selection, and reverse discrimination† (Burstein, p. 201). Integral to the disagreement is the company’s part in choosing, guiding, and endorsing sheltered group associates as they are underrepresented in different professions within a company. Individuals who are not associates of any sheltered group have stated that there is inequity in reverse. This reverse bias may

Historical Letter Essay Example for Free

Historical Letter Essay What privileges do you enjoy today? Do you have air-conditioning when the sun scorches your back? Do you have heating machines when the cold bites you from deep inside? Do you have a vehicle that brings you to your destination without you having to hike three mountains or so? Which of these privileges do you take for granted? It’s because you never experienced living without these privileges that you do not fully understand and appreciate their importance. What other rights do you have? Are girls allowed to go school with boys? Are women given access in the universities as men are? Can women engage in careers that men are engaged in? Can women vote? I am Mary Ellise Scott. An eighteen-year-old lady from Pennsylvania. And through this letter I will explain to you how different your time is from my time. There was a time when all these were deprived of women. Take for instance the right to vote. In the 19th century, in my century, I am already am eighteen years old. But despite this fact, I am not allowed to vote – I am not allowed to choose who will represent my needs in government. This is why in my century Carrie S. Burnham, a teacher and a physician took her case to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania on 4 April 1873. This was already the peak of her campaign, as she was already going around Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and all other cities in the country, speaking about this. I was just sixteen years old when she came and spoke in our town square. I always thought before that the order that things are in now, is that’s what it’s supposed to be – men vote and women don’t, just because. I never thought of it in a perspective of inequality until I heard her arguments about it. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court rejected her arguments. Susan B. Anthony campaigned for the same rights, and eventually got senators to amend the Constitution and finally allow women to vote. There are others who are like this during my time. There are many women who thought and realized that the handicap they are accorded on account of their sex is just plain unfair. One of these is Mary Church Terrel. Indeed, it is difficult to be a woman during my time. While we are already allowed to go the university and study, most of the parents who send their children who are women to school, just do the same for the sake of saying that they allow their children to go to school. But after graduating, their daughters are already to marry. She goes to the university to study how it is to be a good housewife for the most part, and the other subject matters that would later on translate to a career, are disregarded. I consider those daughters lucky. At least they get to go to the university. For my case, father never allowed me to go to the university. He thought that my education was more than enough to find me a good husband and allow me to become a good mother. Father thinks that this is the only purpose that a woman has. A woman, as my mother had to stay at home, attend to the chores and needs of the husband and the children. He tells me that I do not need some fancy education and some expensive diploma to allow me to do this. He tells me that I will learn about being a good wife and mother, by staying at home and helping my mother out. I want to be a doctor you know. But how can I do that when my father only believes that I am meant for the broom and the ladle. This is also why the men in the family are more valued than the women. Aside from the fact that they have all the privileges you can think of, fathers treat them differently. They are the favorites because for them the men bring glory to the family, as they bring home the money and as they have the chance to pursue careers and become good at their fields, while women are just good for the house. There is a certain repulsion that I feel deep inside, with the knowledge that there really is no substantial difference between my brother and I, for him to be able to go to the university and for him to be able to vote. If he can decide for his country, why can’t I? Just because I am woman, I cannot vote. I do not see any logic in that. You see, you are lucky. You have everything you need and many more. So appreciate what you have and realize how difficult it was for us during this time to pursue something other than being homemakers. Women are not just for the brooms and ladle, we are for the books and for careers as well.

Free Awakening Essays: Romanticism :: Chopin Awakening Essays

Romanticism in The Awakening Even though it was written in the Victorian era, Kate Chopin's The Awakening has several romantic qualities, especially with the main character, as she struggles between society's obligations and her own desires. Chopin writes about a woman who continues to reject the society around her, a notion too radical for Chopin's peers. Edna Pontellier has the traditional role of both wife and mother, but deep down she wants something more, difficult to do in the restricted Victorian society. The typical Victorian woman maintained her sphere which deemed "women's personal lives center around home, husband, and children." (Victorian Women, p. 118). Women were supposed to happily accept this position in the home, and be satisfied. It never satisfied Edna, who always seemed out of place when with other women. She was a wife and a mother, but not the typical Victorian wife and mother. With regards to her children, "Their absence was sort of relief...It seemed to free her of a responsibility which she blindly assumed and for which Fate had not fitted her" (p. 18). Already she is revealing ideas uncommon in the Victorian era. She tries to maintain her roles, but it is very difficult for her. As the story progresses, Edna focuses on her desires rather than what her husband wants. She refuses to participate in the traditional role given to her as a woman. The romantic notion of individualism comes out as Edna decides to go out on a Tuesday afternoon rather than receive visitors. When her husband finds out, he is extremely upset. "'I should think that you'd understand by this time that people don't do such things; we've got to observe les convenances if we ever expect to get on and keep up with the procession'" (p. 51). Edna disregards her husbands appeal to conform and continues to do what she wants. Victorian society was not ready for a novel whose main character disregards the norm for her own happiness. The rejection Chopin received was mainly due to Edna's rejection of the traditions and the adultery aspect of the novel. Edna, caught up in a loveless marriage, resorts to adultery to keep herself satisfied. Edna follows her heart rather than reason when she pursues Robert Lebrun. In revealing her love for Robert, her romantic passion is expressed. "'I love you,' she whispered, 'only you; no one but you.

The Twilight Saga 5: Midnight Sun 1. First Sight

This was the time of day when I wished I were able to sleep. High school. Or was purgatory the right word? If there was any way to atone for my sins, this ought to count toward the tally in some measure. The tedium was not something I grew used to; every day seemed more impossibly monotonous than the last. I suppose this was my form of sleep – if sleep was defined as the inert state between active periods. I stared at the cracks running through the plaster in the far corner of the cafeteria, imagining patterns into them that were not there. It was one way to tune out the voices that babbled like the gush of a river inside my head. Several hundred of these voices I ignored out of boredom. When it came to the human mind, I'd heard it all before and then some. Today, all thoughts were consumed with the trivial drama of a new addition to the small student body here. It took so little to work them all up. I'd seen the new face repeated in thought after thought from every angle. Just an ordinary human girl. The excitement over her arrival was tiresomely predictable – like flashing a shiny object at a child. Half the sheep-like males were already imagining themselves in love with her, just because she was something new to look at. I tried harder to tune them out. Only four voices did I block out of courtesy rather than distaste: my family, my two brothers and two sisters, who were so used to the lack of privacy in my presence that they rarely gave it a thought. I gave them what privacy I could. I tried not to listen if I could help it. Try as I may, still†¦I knew. Rosalie was thinking, as usual, about herself. She'd caught sight of her profile in the reflection off someone's glasses, and she was mulling over her own perfection. Rosalie's mind was a shallow pool with few surprises. Emmett was fuming over a wrestling match he'd lost to Jasper during the night. It would take all his limited patience to make it to the end of the school day to orchestrate a rematch. I never really felt intrusive hearing Emmett's thoughts, because he never thought one thing that he would not say aloud or put into action. Perhaps I only felt guilty reading the others' minds because I knew there were things there that they wouldn't want me to know. If Rosalie's mind was a shallow pool, then Emmett's was a lake with no shadows, glass clear. And Jasper was†¦suffering. I suppressed a sigh. Edward. Alice called my name in her head, and had my attention at once. It was just the same as having my name called aloud. I was glad my given name had fallen out of style lately – it had been annoying; anytime anyone thought of any Edward, my head would turn automatically†¦ My head didn't turn now. Alice and I were good at these private conversations. It was rare that anyone caught us. I kept my eyes on the lines in the plaster. How is he holding up? she asked me. I frowned, just a small change in the set of my mouth. Nothing that would tip the others off. I could easily be frowning out of boredom. Alice's mental tone was alarmed now, and I saw in her mind that she was watching Jasper in her peripheral vision. Is there any danger? She searched ahead, into the immediate future, skimming through visions of monotony for the source behind my frown. I turned my head slowly to the left, as if looking at the bricks of the wall, sighed, and then to the right, back to the cracks in the ceiling. Only Alice knew I was shaking my head. She relaxed. Let me know if it gets too bad. I moved only my eyes, up to the ceiling above, and back down. Thanks for doing this. I was glad I couldn't answer her aloud. What would I say? ‘My pleasure'? It was hardly that. I didn't enjoy listening to Jasper's struggles. Was it really necessary to experiment like this? Wouldn't the safer path be to just admit that he might never be able to handle the thirst the way the rest of us could, and not push his limits? Why flirt with disaster? It had been two weeks since our last hunting trip. That was not an immensely difficult time span for the rest of us. A little uncomfortable occasionally – if a human walked too close, if the wind blew the wrong way. But humans rarely walked too close. Their instincts told them what their conscious minds would never understand: we were dangerous. Jasper was very dangerous right now. At that moment, a small girl paused at the end of the closest table to ours,stopping to talk to a friend. She tossed her short, sandy hair, running her fingers throughit. The heaters blew her scent in our direction. I was used to the way that scent made mefeel – the dry ache in my throat, the hollow yearn in my stomach, the automatictightening of my muscles, the excess flow of venom in my mouth†¦ This was all quite normal, usually easy to ignore. It was harder just now, with thefeelings stronger, doubled, as I monitored Jasper's reaction. Twin thirsts, rather than justmine. Jasper was letting his imagination get away from him. He was picturing it – picturing himself getting up from his seat next to Alice and going to stand beside the littlegirl. Thinking of leaning down and in, as if he were going to whisper in her ear, andletting his lips touch the arch of her throat. Imagining how the hot flow of her pulsebeneath the fine skin would feel under his mouth†¦ I kicked his chair. He met my gaze for a minute, and then looked down. I could hear shame andrebellion war in his head. â€Å"Sorry,† Jasper muttered. I shrugged. â€Å"You weren't going to do anything,† Alice murmured to him, soothing hischagrin. â€Å"I could see that.† I fought back the grimace that would give her lie away. We had to stick together,Alice and I. It wasn't easy, hearing voices or seeing visions of the future. Both freaksamong those who were already freaks. We protected each other's secrets. â€Å"It helps a little if you think of them as people,† Alice suggested, her high,musical voice too fast for human ears to understand, if any had been close enough tohear. â€Å"Her name is Whitney. She has a baby sister she adores. Her mother invited Esmeto that garden party, do you remember?† â€Å"I know who she is,† Jasper said curtly. He turned away to stare out one of thesmall windows that were spaced just under the eaves around the long room. His toneended the conversation. He would have to hunt tonight. It was ridiculous to take risks like this, trying totest his strength, to build his endurance. Jasper should just accept his limitations andwork within them. His former habits were not conducive to our chosen lifestyle; heshouldn't push himself in this way. Alice sighed silently and stood, taking her tray of food – her prop, as it were – with her and leaving him alone. She knew when he'd had enough of her encouragement.Though Rosalie and Emmett were more flagrant about their relationship, it was Alice andJasper who knew each other's every mood as well as their own. As if they could readminds, too – only just each other's. Edward Cullen. Reflex reaction. I turned to the sound of my name being called, though it wasn'tbeing called, just thought. My eyes locked for a small portion of a second with a pair of wide, chocolatebrownhuman eyes set in a pale, heart-shaped face. I knew the face, though I'd neverseen it myself before this moment. It had been foremost in every human head today. Thenew student, Isabella Swan. Daughter of the town's chief of police, brought to live hereby some new custody situation. Bella. She'd corrected everyone who'd used her fullname†¦ I looked away, bored. It took me a second to realize that she had not been the oneto think my name. Of course she's already crushing on the Cullens, I heard the first thoughtcontinue. Now I recognized the voice.' Jessica Stanley – it had been a while since she'dbothered me with her internal chatter. What a relief it had been when she'd gotten overher misplaced infatuation. It used to be nearly impossible to escape her constant,ridiculous daydreams. I'd wished, at the time, that I could explain to her exactly whatwould have happened if my lips, and the teeth behind them, had gotten anywhere nearher. That would have silenced those annoying fantasies. The thought of her reactionalmost made me smile. Fat lot of good it will do her, Jessica went on. She's really not even pretty. Idon't know why Eric is staring so much†¦or Mike. She winced mentally on the last name. Her new infatuation, the genericallypopular Mike Newton, was completely oblivious to her. Apparently, he was not asoblivious to the new girl. Like the child with the shiny object again. This put a meanedge to Jessica's thoughts, though she was outwardly cordial to the newcomer as sheexplained to her the commonly held knowledge about my family. The new student musthave asked about us. Everyone's looking at me today, too, Jessica thought smugly in an aside. Isn't itlucky Bella had two classes with me†¦I'll bet Mike will want to ask me what she's – I tried to block the inane chatter out of my head before the petty and the trivialcould drive me mad. â€Å"Jessica Stanley is giving the new Swan girl all the dirty laundry on the Cullenclan,† I murmured to Emmett as a distraction. He chuckled under his breath. I hope she's making it good, he thought. â€Å"Rather unimaginative, actually. Just the barest hint of scandal. Not an ounce ofhorror. I'm a little disappointed.† And the new girl? Is she disappointed in the gossip as well? I listened to hear what this new girl, Bella, thought of Jessica's story. What didshe see when she looked at the strange, chalky-skinned family that was universallyavoided? It was sort of my responsibility to know her reaction. I acted as a lookout, forlack of a better word, for my family. To protect us. If anyone ever grew suspicious, Icould give us early warning and an easy retreat. It happened occasionally – some humanwith an active imagination would see in us the characters of a book or a movie. Usuallythey got it wrong, but it was better to move on somewhere new than to risk scrutiny. Very, very rarely, someone would guess right. We didn't give them a chance to test theirhypothesis. We simply disappeared, to become no more than a frightening memory†¦I heard nothing, though I listened close beside where Jessica's frivolous internalmonologue continued to gush. It was as if there was no one sitting beside her. Howpeculiar, had the girl moved? That didn't seem likely, as Jessica was still babbling to her.I looked up to check, feeling off-balance. Checking on what my extra hearing' could tellme – it wasn't something I ever had to do. Again, my gaze locked on those same wide brown eyes. She was sitting rightwhere she had been before, and looking at us, a natural thing to be doing, I supposed, asJessica was still regaling her with the local gossip about the Cullens.Thinking about us, too, would be natural. But I couldn't hear a whisper. Inviting warm red stained her cheeks as she looked down, away from theembarrassing gaffe of getting caught staring at a stranger. It was good that Jasper wasstill gazing out the window. I didn't like to imagine what that easy pooling of bloodwould do to his control. The emotions had been as clear on her face as if they were spelled out in wordsacross her forehead: surprise, as she unknowingly absorbed the signs of the subtledifferences between her kind and mine, curiosity, as she listened to Jessica's tale, andsomething more†¦fascination? It wouldn't be the first time. We were beautiful to them,our intended prey. Then, finally, embarrassment as I caught her staring at me. And yet, though her thoughts had been so clear in her odd eyes – odd, because ofthe depth to them; brown eyes often seemed flat in their darkness – I could hear nothingbut silence from the place she was sitting. Nothing at all. I felt a moment of unease. This was nothing I'd ever encountered before. Was there something wrong withme? I felt exactly the same as I always did. Worried, I listened harder.All the voices I'd been blocking were suddenly shouting in my head†¦.wonder what music she likes†¦maybe I could mention that new CD†¦ MikeNewton was thinking, two tables away – fixated on Bella Swan. Look at him staring at her. Isn't it enough that he has half the girls in schoolwaiting for him to†¦ Eric Yorkie was thinking sulfurous thoughts, also revolving aroundthe girl. †¦so disgusting. You'd think she was famous or something†¦ Even Edward Cullen, staring†¦ Lauren Mallory was so jealous that her face, by all rights, should be dark jade in color. And Jessica, flaunting her new best friend. What a joke†¦ Vitriol continued to spew from the girl's thoughts. †¦I bet everyone has asked her that. But I'd like to talk to her. I'll think of a more original question†¦ Ashley Dowling mused. †¦maybe she'll be in my Spanish†¦ June Richardson hoped. †¦tons left to do tonight! Trig, and the English test. I hope my mom†¦ Angela Weber, a quiet girl, whose thoughts were unusually kind, was the only one at the table who wasn't obsessed with this Bella. I could hear them all, hear every insignificant thing they were thinking as it passed through their minds. But nothing at all from the new student with the deceptively communicative eyes. And, of course, I could hear what the girl said when she spoke to Jessica. I didn't have to read minds to be able to hear her low, clear voice on the far side of the long room. â€Å"Which one is the boy with the reddish brown hair?† I heard her ask, sneaking a look at me from the corner of her eye, only to look quickly away when she saw that I was still staring. If I'd had time to hope that hearing the sound of her voice would help me pinpoint the tone of her thoughts, lost somewhere where I couldn't access them, I was instantly disappointed. Usually, people's thoughts came to them in a similar pitch as their physical voices. But this quiet, shy voice was unfamiliar, not one of the hundreds of thoughts bouncing around the room, I was sure of that. Entirely new. Oh, good luck, idiot! Jessica thought before answering the girl's question. â€Å"That's Edward. He's gorgeous, of course, but don't waste your time. He doesn't date. Apparently none of the girls here are good-looking enough for him.† She sniffed. I turned my head away to hide my smile. Jessica and her classmates had no idea how lucky they were that none of them particularly appealed to me. Beneath the transient humor, I felt a strange impulse, one I did not clearly understand. It had something to do with the vicious edge to Jessica's thoughts that the new girl was unaware of†¦ I felt the strangest urge to step in between them, to shield this Bella Swan from the darker workings of Jessica's mind. What an odd thing to feel. Trying to ferret out the motivations behind the impulse, I examined the new girl one more time. Perhaps it was just some long buried protective instinct – the strong for the weak. This girl looked more fragile than her new classmates. Her skin was so translucent it was hard to believe it offered her much defense from the outside world. I could see the rhythmic pulse of blood through her veins under the clear, pale membrane†¦ But I should not concentrate on that. I was good at this life I'd chosen, but I was just as thirsty as Jasper and there was no point in inviting temptation. There was a faint crease between her eyebrows that she seemed unaware of. It was unbelievable frustrating! I could clearly see that it was a strain for her to sit there, to make conversation with strangers, to be the center of attention. I could sense her shyness from the way she held her frail-looking shoulders, slightly hunched, as if she was expecting a rebuff at any moment. And yet I could only sense, could only see, could only imagine. There was nothing but silence from the very unexceptional human girl. I could hear nothing. Why? â€Å"Shall we?† Rosalie murmured, interrupting my focus. I looked away from the girl with a sense of relief. I didn't want to continue to fail at this – it irritated me. And I didn't want to develop any interest in her hidden thoughts simply because they were hidden from me. No doubt, when I did decipher her thoughts – and I would find a way to do so – they would be just as petty and trivial as any human's thoughts. Not worth the effort I would expend to reach them. â€Å"So, is the new one afraid of us yet?† Emmett asked, still waiting for my response to his question before. I shrugged. He wasn't interested enough to press for a more information. Nor should I be interested. We got up from the table and walked out of the cafeteria. Emmett, Rosalie, and Jasper were pretending to be seniors; they left for their classes. I was playing a younger role than they. I headed off for my junior level biology class, preparing my mind for the tedium. It was doubtful Mr. Banner, a man of no more than average intellect, would manage to pull out anything in his lecture that would surprise someone holding two graduate degrees in medicine. In the classroom, I settled into my chair and let my books – props, again; they held nothing I didn't already know – spill across the table. I was the only student who had a table to himself. The humans weren't smart enough to know that they feared me, but their survival instincts were enough to keep them away. The room slowly filled as they trickled in from lunch. I leaned back in my chair and waited for the time to pass. Again, I wished I was able to sleep. Because I'd been thinking about her, when Angela Weber escorted the new girl through the door, her name intruded on my attention. Bella seems just as shy as me. I'll bet today is really hard for her. I wish I could say something†¦but it would probably just sound stupid†¦ Yes! Mike Newton thought, turning in his seat to watch the girls enter. Still, from the place where Bella Swan stood, nothing. The empty space where her thoughts should be irritated and unnerved me. She came closer, walking down the aisle beside me to get to the teacher's desk. Poor girl; the seat next to me was the only one available. Automatically, I cleared what would be her side of the desk, shoving my books into a pile. I doubted she would feel very comfortable there. She was in for a long semester – in this class, at least. Perhaps, though, sitting beside her, I'd be able to flush out her secrets†¦not that I'd ever needed close proximity before†¦not that I would find anything worth listening to†¦ Bella Swan walked into the flow of the heated air that blew toward me from the vent. Her scent hit me like wrecking ball, like a battering ram. There was no image violent enough to encapsulate the force of what happened to me in that moment. In that instant, I was nothing close to the human I'd once been; no trace of the shreds of humanity I'd managed to cloak myself in remained. I was a predator. She was my prey. There was nothing else in the whole world but that truth. There was no room full of witnesses – they were already collateral damage in my head. The mystery of her thoughts was forgotten. Her thoughts meant nothing, for she would not go on thinking them much longer. I was a vampire, and she had the sweetest blood I'd smelled in eighty years. I hadn't imagined such a scent could exist. If I'd known it did, I would have gone searching for it long ago. I would have combed the planet for her. I could imagine the taste†¦ Thirst burned through my throat like fire. My mouth was baked and desiccated. The fresh flow of venom did nothing to dispel that sensation. My stomach twisted with the hunger that was an echo of the thirst. My muscles coiled to spring. Not a full second had passed. She was still taking the same step that had put her downwind from me. As her foot touched the ground, her eyes slid toward me, a movement she clearly meant to be stealthy. Her glance met mine, and I saw myself reflected in the wide mirror of her eyes. The shock of the face I saw there saved her life for a few thorny moments. She didn't make it easier. When she processed the expression on my face, blood flooded her cheeks again, turning her skin the most delicious color I'd ever seen. The scent was a thick haze in my brain. I could barely think through it. My thoughts raged, resisting control, incoherent. She walked more quickly now, as if she understood the need to escape. Her haste made her clumsy – she tripped and stumbled forward, almost falling into the girl seated in front of me. Vulnerable, weak. Even more than usual for a human. I tried to focus on the face I'd seen in her eyes, a face I recognized with revulsion. The face of the monster in me – the face I'd beaten back with decades of effort and uncompromising discipline. How easily it sprang to the surface now! The scent swirled around me again, scattering my thoughts and nearly propelling me out of my seat. My hand gripped under the edge of the table as I tried to hold myself in my chair. The wood was not up to the task. My hand crushed through the strut and came away with a palmful of splintered pulp, leaving the shape of my fingers carved into the remaining wood. Destroy evidence. That was a fundamental rule. I quickly pulverized the edges of the shape with my fingertips, leaving nothing but a ragged hole and a pile of shavings on the floor, which I scattered with my foot. Destroy evidence. Collateral damage†¦. I knew what had to happen now. The girl would have to come sit beside me, and I would have to kill her. The innocent bystanders in this classroom, eighteen other children and one man, could not be allowed to leave this room, having seen what they would soon see. I flinched at the thought of what I must do. Even at my very worst, I had never committed this kind of atrocity. I had never killed innocents, not in over eight decades. And now I planned to slaughter twenty of them at once. The face of the monster in the mirror mocked me. Even as part of me shuddered away from the monster, another part was planning it. If I killed the girl first, I would have only fifteen or twenty seconds with her before the humans in the room would react. Maybe a little bit longer, if at first they did not realize what I was doing. She would not have time to scream or feel pain; I would not kill her cruelly. That much I could give this stranger with her horribly desirable blood. But then I would have to stop them from escaping. I wouldn't have to worry about the windows, too high up and small to provide an escape for anyone. Just the door – block that and they were trapped. It would be slower and more difficult, trying to take them all down when they were panicked and scrambling, moving in chaos. Not impossible, but there would be much more noise. Time for lots of screaming. Someone would hear†¦and I'd be forced to kill even more innocents in this black hour. And her blood would cool, while I murdered the others. The scent punished me, closing my throat with dry aching†¦ So the witnesses first then. I mapped it out in my head. I was in the middle of the room, the furthest row in the back. I would take my right side first. I could snap four or five of their necks per second, I estimated. It would not be noisy. The right side would be the lucky side; they would not see me coming. Moving around the front and back up the left side, it would take me, at most, five seconds to end every life in this room. Long enough for Bella Swan to see, briefly, what was coming for her. Long enough for her to feel fear. Long enough, maybe, if shock didn't freeze her in place, for her to work up a scream. One soft scream that would not bring anyone running. I took a deep breath, and the scent was a fire that raced through my dry veins, burning out from my chest to consume every better impulse that I was capable of. She was just turning now. In a few seconds, she would sit down inches away from me. The monster in my head smiled in anticipation. Someone slammed shut a folder on my left. I didn't look up to see which of the doomed humans it was. But the motion sent a wave of ordinary, unscented air wafting across my face. For one short second, I was able to think clearly. In that precious second, I saw two faces in my head, side by side. One was mine, or rather had been: the red-eyed monster that had killed so many people that I'd stop counting their numbers. Rationalized, justified murders. A killer of killers, a killer of other, less powerful monsters. It was a god complex, I acknowledged that – deciding who deserved a death sentence. It was a compromise with myself. I had fed on human blood, but only by the loosest definition. My victims were, in their various dark pastimes, barely more human than I was. The other face was Carlisle's. There was no resemblance between the two faces. They were bright day and blackest night. There was no reason for there to be a resemblance. Carlisle was not my father in the basic biological sense. We shared no common features. The similarity in our coloring was a product of what we were; every vampire had the same ice pale skin. The similarity in the color of our eyes was another matter – a reflection of a mutual choice. And yet, though there was no basis for a resemblance, I'd imagined that my face had begun to reflect his, to an extent, in the last seventy-odd years that I had embraced his choice and followed in his steps. My features had not changed, but it seemed to me like some of his wisdom had marked my expression, that a little of his compassion could be traced in the shape of my mouth, and hints of his patience were evident on my brow. All those tiny improvements were lost in the face of the monster. In a few moments, there would be nothing left in me that would reflect the years I'd spent with my creator, my mentor, my father in all the ways that counted. My eyes would glow red as a devil's; all likeness would be lost forever. In my head, Carlisle's kind eyes did not judge me. I knew that he would forgive me for this horrible act that I would do. Because he loved me. Because he thought I was better than I was. And he would still love me, even as I now proved him wrong. Bella Swan sat down in the chair next to me, her movements stiff and awkward – with fear? – and the scent of her blood bloomed in an inexorable cloud around me. I would prove my father wrong about me. The misery of this fact hurt almost as much as the fire in my throat. I leaned away from her in revulsion – revolted by the monster aching to take her. Why did she have to come here? Why did she have to exist? Why did she have to ruin the little peace I had in this non-life of mine? Why had this aggravating human ever been born? She would ruin me. I turned my face away from her, as a sudden fierce, unreasoning hatred washed through me. Who was this creature? Why me, why now? Why did I have to lose everything just because she happened to choose this unlikely town to appear in? Why had she come here! I didn't want to be the monster! I didn't want to kill this room full of harmless children! I didn't want to lose everything I'd gained in a lifetime of sacrifice and denial! I wouldn't. She couldn't make me. The scent was the problem, the hideously appealing scent of her blood. If there was only some way to resist†¦if only another gust of fresh air could clear my head. Bella Swan shook out her long, thick, mahogany hair in my direction. Was she insane? It was as if she were encouraging the monster! Taunting him. There was no friendly breeze to blow the smell away from me now. All would soon be lost. No, there was no helpful breeze. But I didn't have to breathe. I stopped the flow of air through my lungs; the relief was instantaneous, but incomplete. I still had the memory of the scent in my head, the taste of it on the back of my tongue. I wouldn't be able to resist even that for long. But perhaps I could resist for an hour. One hour. Just enough time to get out of this room full of victims, victims that maybe didn't have to be victims. If I could resist for one short hour. It was an uncomfortable feeling, not breathing. My body did not need oxygen, but it went against my instincts. I relied on scent more than my other senses in times of stress. It led the way in the hunt, it was the first warning in case of danger. I did not often came across something as dangerous as I was, but self-preservation was just as strong in my kind as it was in the average human. Uncomfortable, but manageable. More bearable than smelling her and not sinking my teeth through that fine, thin, see-through skin to the hot, wet, pulsing – An hour! Just one hour. I must not think of the scent, the taste. The silent girl kept her hair between us, leaning forward so that it spilled across her folder. I couldn't see her face, to try to read the emotions in her clear, deep eyes. Was this why she'd let her tresses fan out between us? To hide those eyes from me? Out of fear? Shyness? To keep her secrets from me? My former irritation at being stymied by her soundless thoughts was weak and pale in comparison to the need – and the hate – that possessed me now. For I hated this frail woman-child beside me, hated her with all the fervor with which I clung to my former self, my love of my family, my dreams of being something better than what I was†¦ Hating her, hating how she made me feel – it helped a little. Yes, the irritation I'd felt before was weak, but it, too, helped a little. I clung to any emotion that distracted me from imagining what she would taste like†¦ Hate and irritation. Impatience. Would the hour never pass? And when the hour ended†¦ Then she would walk out of this room. And I would do what? I could introduce myself. Hello, my name is Edward Cullen. May I walk you to your next class? She would say yes. It would be the polite thing to do. Even already fearing me, as I suspected she did, she would follow convention and walk beside me. It should be easy enough to lead her in the wrong direction. A spur of the forest reached out like a finger to touch the back corner of the parking lot. I could tell her I'd forgotten a book in my car†¦ Would anyone notice that I was the last person she'd been seen with? It was raining, as usual; two dark raincoats heading the wrong direction wouldn't pique too much interest, or give me away. Except that I was not the only student who was aware of her today – though no one was as blisteringly aware as I was. Mike Newton, in particular, was conscious of every shift in her weight as she fidgeted in her chair – she was uncomfortable so close to me, just as anyone would be, just as I'd expected before her scent had destroyed all charitable concern. Mike Newton would notice if she left the classroom with me. If I could last an hour, could I last two? I flinched at the pain of the burning. She would go home to an empty house. Police Chief Swan worked a full day. I knew his house, as I knew every house in the tiny town. His home was nestled right up against thick woods, with no close neighbors. Even if she had time to scream, which she would not, there would be no one to hear. That would be the responsible way to deal with this. I'd gone seven decades without human blood. If I held my breath, I could last two hours. And when I had her alone, there would be no chance of anyone else getting hurt. And no reason to rush through the experience, the monster in my head agreed. It was sophistry to think that by saving the nineteen humans in this room with effort and patience, I would be less a monster when I killed this innocent girl. Though I hated her, I knew my hatred was unjust. I knew that what I really hated was myself. And I would hate us both so much more when she was dead. I made it through the hour in this way – imagining the best ways to kill her. I tried to avoid imagining the actual act. That might be too much for me; I might lose this battle and end up killing everyone in sight. So I planned strategy, and nothing more. It carried me through the hour. Once, toward the very end, she peeked up at me through the fluid wall of her hair. I could feel the unjustified hatred burning out of me as I met her gaze – see the reflection of it in her frightened eyes. Blood painted her cheek before she could hide in her hair again, and I was nearly undone. But the bell rang. Saved by the bell – how clich. We were both saved. She, saved from death. I, saved for just a short time from being the nightmarish creature I feared and loathed. I couldn't walk as slowly as I should as I darted from the room. If anyone had been looking at me, they might have suspected that there was something not right about the way I moved. No one was paying attention to me. All human thoughts still swirled around the girl who was condemned to die in little more than an hour's time. I hid in my car. I didn't like to think of myself having to hide. How cowardly that sounded. But it was unquestionably the case now. I didn't have enough discipline left to be around humans now. Focusing so much of my efforts on not killing one of them left me no resources to resist the others. What a waste that would be. If I were to give in to the monster, I might as well make it worth the defeat. I played a CD of music that usually calmed me, but it did little for me now. No, what helped most now was the cool, wet, clean air that drifted with the light rain through my open windows. Though I could remember the scent of Bella Swan's blood with perfect clarity, inhaling the clean air was like washing out the inside of my body from its infection. I was sane again. I could think again. And I could fight again. I could fight against what I didn't want to be. I didn't have to go to her home. I didn't have to kill her. Obviously, I was a rational, thinking creature, and I had a choice. There was always a choice. It hadn't felt that way in the classroom†¦but I was away from her now. Perhaps, if I avoided her very, very carefully, there was no need for my life to change. I had things ordered the way I liked them now. Why should I let some aggravating and delicious nobody ruin that? I didn't have to disappoint my father. I didn't have to cause my mother stress, worry†¦pain. Yes, it would hurt my adopted mother, too. And Esme was so gentle, so tender and soft. Causing someone like Esme pain was truly inexcusable. How ironic that I'd wanted to protect this human girl from the paltry, toothless threat of Jessica Stanley's snide thoughts. I was the last person who would ever stand as a protector for Isabella Swan. She would never need protection from anything more than she needed it from me. Where was Alice, I suddenly wondered? Hadn't she seen me killing the Swan girl in a multitude of ways? Why hadn't she come to help – to stop me or help me clean up the evidence, whichever? Was she so absorbed with watching for trouble with Jasper that she'd missed this much more horrific possibility? Was I stronger than I thought? Would I really not have done anything to the girl? No. I knew that wasn't true. Alice must be concentrating on Jasper very hard. I searched in the direction I knew she would be, in the small building used for English classes. It did not take me long to locate her familiar voice.' And I was right. Her every thought was turned to Jasper, watching his small choices with minute scrutiny. I wished I could ask her advice, but at the same time, I was glad she didn't know what I was capable of. That she was unaware of the massacre I had considered in the last hour. I felt a new burn through my body – the burn of shame. I didn't want any of them to know. If I could avoid Bella Swan, if I could manage not to kill her – even as I thought that, the monster writhed and gnashed his teeth in frustration – then no one would have to know. If I could keep away from her scent†¦ There was no reason why I shouldn't try, at least. Make a good choice. Try to be what Carlisle thought I was. The last hour of school was almost over. I decided to put my new plan into action at once. Better than sitting here in the parking lot where she might pass me and ruin my attempt. Again, I felt the unjust hatred for the girl. I hated that she had this unconscious power over me. That she could make me be something I reviled. I walked swiftly – a little too swiftly, but there were no witnesses – across the tiny campus to the office. There was no reason for Bella Swan to cross paths with me. She would be avoided like the plague she was. The office was empty except for the secretary, the one I wanted to see. She didn't notice my silent entrance. â€Å"Mrs. Cope?† The woman with the unnaturally red hair looked up and her eyes widened. It always caught them off guard, the little markers they didn't understand, no matter how many times they'd seen one of us before. â€Å"Oh,† she gasped, a little flustered. She smoothed her shirt. Silly, she thought to herself. He's almost young enough to be my son. Too young to think of that way†¦ â€Å"Hello, Edward. What can I do for you?† Her eyelashes fluttered behind her thick glasses. Uncomfortable. But I knew how to be charming when I wanted to be. It was easy, since I was able to know instantly how any tone or gesture was taken. I leaned forward, meeting her gaze as if I were staring deeply into her depthless, small brown eyes. Her thoughts were already in a flutter. This should be simple. â€Å"I was wondering if you could help me with my schedule,† I said in the soft voice I reserved for not scaring humans. I heard the tempo of her heart increase. â€Å"Of course, Edward. How can I help?† Too young, too young, she chanted to herself. Wrong, of course. I was older than her grandfather. But according to my driver's license, she was right. â€Å"I was wondering if I could move from my biology class to a senior level science? Physics, perhaps?† â€Å"It there a problem with Mr. Banner, Edward?† â€Å"Not at all, it's just that I've already studied this material†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"In that accelerated school you all went to in Alaska, right.† Her thin lips pursed as she considered this. They should all be in college. I've heard the teachers complain. Perfect four point ohs, never a hesitation with a response, never a wrong answer on a test – like they've found some way to cheat in every subject. Mr. Varner would rather believe that anyone was cheating than think a student was smarter than him†¦ I'll bet their mother tutors them†¦ â€Å"Actually, Edward, physics is pretty much full right now. Mr. Banner hates to have more than twenty-five students in a class – â€Å" â€Å"I wouldn't be any trouble.† Of course not. Not a perfect Cullen. â€Å"I know that, Edward. But there just aren't enough seats as it is†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Could I drop the class, then? I could use the period for independent study.† â€Å"Drop biology?† He mouth fell open. That's crazy. How hard is it to sit through a subject you already know? There must be a problem with Mr. Banner. I wonder if I should talk to Bob about it? â€Å"You won't have enough credits to graduate.† â€Å"I'll catch up next year.† â€Å"Maybe you should talk to your parents about that.† The door opened behind me, but who ever it was did not think of me, so I ignored the arrival and concentrated on Mrs. Cope. I leaned slightly closer, and held my eyes a little wider. This would work better if they were gold instead of black. The blackness frightened people, as it should. â€Å"Please, Mrs. Cope?† I made my voice as smooth and compelling as it could be – and it could be considerably compelling. â€Å"Isn't there some other section I could switch to? I'm sure there has to be an open slot somewhere? Sixth hour biology can't be the only option†¦Ã¢â‚¬  I smiled at her, careful not to flash my teeth so widely that it would scare her, letting the expression soften my face. Her heart drummed faster. Too young, she reminded herself frantically. â€Å"Well, maybe I could talk to Bob – I mean Mr. Banner. I could see if – â€Å" A second was all it took to change everything: the atmosphere in the room, my mission here, the reason I leaned toward the red-haired woman†¦ What had been for one purpose before was now for another. A second was all it took for Samantha Wells to open the door and place a signed tardy slip in the basket by the door, and hurry out again, in a rush to be away from school. A second was all it took for the sudden gust of wind through the open door to crash into me. A second was all it took for me to realize why that first person through the door had not interrupted me with her thoughts. I turned, though I did not need to make sure. I turned slowly, fighting to control the muscles that rebelled against me. Bella Swan stood with her back pressed to the wall beside the door, a piece of paper clutched in her hands. Her eyes were even wider than usual as she took in my ferocious, inhuman glare. The smell of her blood saturated every particle of air in the tiny, hot room. My throat burst into flames. The monster glared back at me from the mirror of her eyes again, a mask of evil. My hand hesitated in the air above the counter. I would not have to look back in order to reach across it and slam Mrs. Cope's head into her desk with enough force to kill her. Two lives, rather than twenty. A trade. The monster waited anxiously, hungrily, for me to do it. But there was always a choice – there had to be. I cut off the motion of my lungs, and fixed Carlisle's face in front of my eyes. I turned back to face Mrs. Cope, and heard her internal surprise at the change in my expression. She shrank away from me, but her fear did not form into coherent words. Using all the control I'd mastered in my decades of self-denial, I made my voice even and smooth. There was just enough air left in my lungs to speak once more, rushing through the words. â€Å"Nevermind, then. I can see that it's impossible. Thank you so much for your help.† I spun and launched myself from the room, trying not to feel the warm-blooded heat of the girl's body as I passed within inches of it. I didn't stop until I was in my car, moving too fast the entire way there. Most of the humans had cleared out already, so there weren't a lot of witnesses. I heard a sophomore, D.J. Garrett, notice, and then disregard†¦ Where did Cullen come from – it was like he just came out of thin air†¦ There I go, with the imagination again. Mom always says†¦ When I slid into my Volvo, the others were already there. I tried to control my breathing, but I was gasping at the fresh air like I'd been suffocated. â€Å"Edward?† Alice asked, alarm in her voice. I just shook my head at her. â€Å"What the hell happened to you?† Emmett demanded, distracted, for the moment, from the fact that Jasper was not in the mood for his rematch. Instead of answering, I threw the car into reverse. I had to get out of this lot before Bella Swan could follow me here, too. My own person demon, haunting me†¦ I swung the car around and accelerated. I hit forty before I was on the road. On the road, I hit seventy before I made the corner. Without looking, I knew that Emmett, Rosalie and Jasper had all turned to stare at Alice. She shrugged. She couldn't see what had passed, only what was coming. She looked ahead for me now. We both processed what she saw in her head, and we were both surprised. â€Å"You're leaving?† she whispered. The others stared at me now. â€Å"Am I?† I hissed through my teeth. She saw it then, as my resolve wavered and another choice spun my future in a darker direction. â€Å"Oh.† Bella Swan, dead. My eyes, glowing crimson with fresh blood. The search that would follow. The careful time we would wait before it was safe for us to pull out and start again†¦ â€Å"Oh,† she said again. The picture grew more specific. I saw the inside of Chief Swan's house for the first time, saw Bella in a small kitchen with the yellow cupboards, her back to me as I stalked her from the shadows†¦let the scent pull me toward her†¦ â€Å"Stop!† I groaned, not able to bear more. â€Å"Sorry,† she whispered, her eyes wide. The monster rejoiced. And the vision in her head shifted again. An empty highway at night, the trees beside it coated in snow, flashing by at almost two hundred miles per hour. â€Å"I'll miss you,† she said. â€Å"No matter how short a time you're gone.† Emmett and Rosalie exchanged an apprehensive glance. We were almost to the turn off onto the long drive that led to our home. â€Å"Drop us here,† Alice instructed. â€Å"You should tell Carlisle yourself.† I nodded, and the car squealed to a sudden stop. Emmett, Rosalie and Jasper got out in silence; they would make Alice explain when I was gone. Alice touched my shoulder. â€Å"You will do the right thing,† she murmured. Not a vision this time – an order. â€Å"She's Charlie Swan's only family. It would kill him, too.† â€Å"Yes,† I said, agreeing only with the last part. She slid out to join the others, her eyebrows pulling together in anxiety. They melted into woods, out of sight before I could turn the car around. I accelerated back toward town, and I knew the visions in Alice's head would be flashing from dark to bright like a strobe light. As I sped back to Forks doing ninety, I wasn't sure where I was going. To say goodbye to my father? Or to embrace the monster inside me? The road flew away beneath my tires.