Civil Rights Movement in America Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Civil Rights Movement in America - Essay Example When it did, he was careful not to lose support from southern politicians by enforcing overly-liberal policies (Patterson, 2001, p. 122-123). This Democratic lack of action was still apparent over thirty years later when President Clinton placed the onus for reform on individual Americans, calling for change in "our minds and our hearts," rather than expending federal funds and energy to bring about change (Klinkner, 1999, p. 27). As a result, government interest in reform has disintegrated while its efforts for populace control have grown "through increased spending on the military, police, prison building, and mechanisms for surveillance" (Giroux, 2004, p. 212). When the government has acted on civil rights, it has often been a pale or nonexistent effort. In the summer of 1997, Clinton formed him Presidential Initiative on Race as a think-tank on how to address race and racial inequality. Steven A. Holmes quoted panel member Thomas Kean in The New York Times as stating, "There is a timidity on this question [of race] We were not encouraged to be bold." (as cited in Klinkner, 1999, p. 26-27). Clinton showed his concern for reform in word, but not in deed. Similarly, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) was formed following the passage of Title VIII to receive housing complaints, but was not given to authority to act on them. This allowed the government to "do something" about unfair housing without any real action (Judd, 1999, p. 136). In fact, according to Giroux, the overall effect of modern conservatism has been to silence "any discussion of race in mainstream national politics by insisting on colorblind public policy" (2 004, p. 179). There are several instances in which the federal government has specifically shirked its responsibility to remedy racial inequalities. This was very apparent during the Reagan administration, when the momentum of the Civil Rights Movement came "to a standstill" (Fairclough, 2001, p. 332). Rather than citing governmental intervention as a possible solution, Regan claimed that it had been a problem, and went on to denounce student busing and attempt to eliminate the Department of Education (Patterson, 2001, p. 171), successfully pulling federal government away from domestic issues that sorely needed attention. His administration further claimed that "big government handouts had corrupted black communities by creating generations of cheats characterized by laziness, drug addiction, sexual excess, and a general taste for criminality and violence" (Giroux, 2004, p. 189). Even the Democratic Clinton administration rolled back government responsibility with its budget compromise of 1997, in which Clinton cut Medicare and Medicaid and endorsed tax cuts that mainly benefited wealthy Americans. In this one act, Clinton had practically undone the reform created by Roosevelt's New Deal (Klinkner, 1999, p. 11). Presidential administrations, however, have not been alone in turning their backs on racial equality; the judicial branch, since its rightward drift beginning with Nixon's presidency, has also negated the government's role in domestic

Race and Whiteness Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Race and Whiteness - Essay Example From the discusses it is clear that a concept of whiteness is based on custom and tradition, but it greatly undermines social and scientific principles of race. Racism is a representation of a historical evolution and there is a great degree of the inferiority of an â€Å"other† â€Å"race†. Racial practices are usually degrading and representatives of ethnic minorities are afflicted by negative practices of racism. There are many factors influencing deepening of discrimination practices, such as customs, traditions, social and political factors and even law. Racism by intent in the run of time transformed different cultures and social practices and underlined the superiority of white ethnic groups. This paper stresses that the social construct of race and whiteness are considered in relation to Brazilians and Asian Americans. From the very beginning, Brazilians differed from native inhabitants by skin color and were often referred to as browns or blacks. Race classification on the basis of the skin color differed greatly from color of race. Starting from 2000 in Brazil there was a lot of complaints concerning discard of color of skin and there was a need to introduce numerous social and political changes in order to constrict social gap between native inhabitants and ethnic minorities. There are evident controversies between â€Å"ideological† and â€Å"scientific" positions and representations of race.

Communication eassy 7 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Communication eassy 7 - Essay Example Earliest films were very short, often just a minute or ten, one or two reels and eventually it goes up to 2 hours. (The Birth and Early Development of   the  Motion Picture,by Robert P. Brooks, Bulletin of the Passaic County Historical Society, April 1959). We can see a gradual development in the field of motion picture. Several inventors set up their projector machine in make shift halls and projected moving pictures on a screen. The ides of longer film with story began in 1895. The man named James .H White produced a picture 500 feet in length. It was called ‘American Fireman’. Today motion pictures have predisposed both in maintaining social order and powerful agents of change. Films are cultural artifacts formed by special cultures. Motion pictures have been a great influence in the cultural field. It affected the society too much. When motion pictures transformed from black-and –white to colour in U.S in the 1950’s the sensors struggled much to eli minate erotic imagery, and immoral treatment of sexuality. Many directors of that time violated the moral side of film industry. A good example for such film is â€Å"Lady Chatterleys Lover†, banned by New York censorship board in 1957. (Vaughn). Nudity, explicit sexual behavior, profane language, gratuitous violence, and themes of promiscuity, homosexuality, abortion, drug use, etc were the chief characteristics of the films of that time. The year 1968 marked tremendous changes in U.S. film industry. A new system of Production Code has been adopted that prevented the government censorship. Censors edited the films before they reached the theatres. A kind of spiritual and moral progress was visible in the films of 1930’s and it also promoted high social life and enlightened thinking. Those Films which were not acceptable to the social morality were severely opposed by the Roman Catholic Church and they were banned in the

Race and Whiteness Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Race and Whiteness - Essay Example From the discusses it is clear that a concept of whiteness is based on custom and tradition, but it greatly undermines social and scientific principles of race. Racism is a representation of a historical evolution and there is a great degree of the inferiority of an â€Å"other† â€Å"race†. Racial practices are usually degrading and representatives of ethnic minorities are afflicted by negative practices of racism. There are many factors influencing deepening of discrimination practices, such as customs, traditions, social and political factors and even law. Racism by intent in the run of time transformed different cultures and social practices and underlined the superiority of white ethnic groups. This paper stresses that the social construct of race and whiteness are considered in relation to Brazilians and Asian Americans. From the very beginning, Brazilians differed from native inhabitants by skin color and were often referred to as browns or blacks. Race classification on the basis of the skin color differed greatly from color of race. Starting from 2000 in Brazil there was a lot of complaints concerning discard of color of skin and there was a need to introduce numerous social and political changes in order to constrict social gap between native inhabitants and ethnic minorities. There are evident controversies between â€Å"ideological† and â€Å"scientific" positions and representations of race.

Genetics and Evolution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Genetics and Evolution - Essay Example Thus in such situations the characters used to recognise the species becomes merely diagnostic, not distinctive. Biologically speaking, these are a connected series of the species in neighbouring areas which interbreed with two end populations which are too phenotypically and geographically separated that they cannot interbreed. These two genetically and phenotypically diverse populations which represent the end populations may exist in the same geographic region, yet due to genetic and phenotypic diversity would not interbreed. As an example, the case of Larus gulls can be taken, the different species of which form a ring around the North Pole. The Lesser Black-beaked Gulls in Siberia form a part of this ring, and although they descend from the same species, adjacent Herring gulls are so different from them that they do not interbreed. Earnst Mayr's Biological species concept tends to recognise species based on defined phenotypic characters. Mayr defined species as groups of interbreeding populations, which do not reproduce across other species. This builds in a concept of reproductive isolation from other such groups. Particular species specific phenotypic characters or attributes prevent interbreeding with other species. Although the biological species concept places the taxonomy of natural species within the concept of population genetics, it fails to explain the ring species. Although there are apparent differences between naturally occurring ring species, the phenotypic distinction within the same or adjacent geographic areas blur, so in actuality, they interbreed. Secondly, the existence of connecting population distinguishes the ring species from two separate species. These features raise questions about the species concept (Liebers et al., 2004). Q2. Neo-Darwinism and Lamarckism The Neo-Darwinism of evolution contends that all life on earth arose from a common ancestor. This was postulated to occur due to random mutations of genes, which survived following the process of natural selection. Where these mutations were beneficial and had survived natural selection, it led to a replicative process leading to more offspring. On the contrary, those with deleterious mutations have fewer or no offspring. Some of these mutations which were beneficial could help new adaptations to altered environments changed or new. These adaptations were incorporated in the genetic traits leading to generation of newer species. It has been postulated that the genetic makeup of the complex organisms is a result of duplication and useful mutation of existing genes of simple organisms. Lamarck's theory of evolution on the other hand posits that when environmental conditions change, an organism goes through the need for changes. With these changes, organs or organ systems may also go th rough the drives of these changes, which ultimately would need use or disuse of some organs. If used, these organs will develop, and if disused, these organs will demonstrate diminution. In this way a new characteristic or genetic trait is acquired. When acquired traits run in generations, these become hereditary, and the organism demonstrates an evolution. These two theories differ in the concept of causation of mutation. While the neo-Darwinian

Sprayer and Probability Questions Essay Example for Free

Sprayer and Probability Questions Essay 1. A real estate office has been averaging 1.8 sales per day for the past several months. What is the probability that the office will make 4 sales today? .0723 2. A washing machine in a Laundromat breaks down an average of two times per month. What is the probability that the machine will break down more than 28 times in the next year? .1775 3. Flaws occur randomly in a particular fabric with a mean rate of occurance of 1.5 every 5 sqare yards. If you purchase 20 square yards of fabric, what is the probability that there will be at least 5 flaws in your fabric? . 5543 4. A coil of wire has 500 metres of wire. Suppose there are 20 nicks (the most common problem with wire) are randomly distributed on a coil. a) What is the probability that in a 50 metre length of wire there will be at least 7 nicks? .0011 b) What is the probability that in a 31 metre length of wire there will be exactly 3 nick(s)? .0920 5. Two students have started a business to seal driveways during the summer months. They rent a pickup truck and a power sprayer. With this they will use a tar based spray to seal asphalt driveways. Past experience has shown that the best time to sign up customers is to ring their doorbells between 5:00 and 8:00 p.m. on any weekday evening. Any jobs that they obtain will be completed the next day. In the months of June. July and August they find that they get an average of 2.9 customers per hour ringing doorbells. a) What is the probability that they will get from 5 to 7 jobs in an evening of soliciting? Â  b) They charge $25 per driveway. If the truck costs $45 per day, and the spraying equipment costs $20 per day and the material to seal one driveway costs $6, what is the probability that they will make a profit on any given day.

Background And Rationale Of The Study English Language Essay

Background And Rationale Of The Study English Language Essay Language assessment is an instrument for language teachers to identify the students strengths and weaknesses in language learning, to place the student into a program and to measure the use of English in four basic skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking). The assessment can be done by such methods as tests, interviews, or observations. For language teachers, the tests provide evidence of the results of learning and instruction, and hence feedback on the effectiveness of the teaching program (Bachman Palmer, 1996, p. 8). The test results enable the students to develop their performance in language learning effectively. In addition, it is very important to select the most suitable language tests which respond to the specific goals of teaching. Language teachers should also understand the functions and the characteristics of the language tests thoroughly. Many practitioners and researchers in language testing (Bachman Palmer, 1996; Brown, 1996; Hughes, 2003; McNamara, 2000) categorize four kinds of language tests based on the test purposes and functions as follows: (1) Proficiency Tests are designed to measure general language skills, including speaking, listening, reading and writing. In addition, proficiency tests generally help teachers to set up entrance and exit standards for a curriculum (Brown, 1996, p. 9). For instance, the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and International English Language Testing System (IELTS) are currently used by many universities where English language proficiency is required. (2) Achievement Tests are aimed at the degree of learning or how much progress the students have made (McNamara, 2000). So achievement tests are directly relevant to the goals of learning and instruction. These tests can be given in the middle or at the end of the program (Hughes, 2003; McNamara, 2000). (3) Diagnostic Tests are established to analyze the students strengths and weaknesses in the learning process (Brown, 1996; Hughes, 2003). These tests are conducted at the beginning of the program (Brown, 1996). (4) Placement Tests are focused on screening the students to see whether they can study in a program and grouping the students in the same level of language proficiency (Hughes, 2003). Hence, the results of these tests will enable the teachers to accurately place the students entering any institution or program (Bachman Palmer, 1996). In addition to a clear understanding of the functions and the characteristics of language tests, language teachers have to understand the construction of those tests. There are two approaches which have an influence on test construction: the discrete-point approach and the integrative approach (Hughes, 2003). For the discrete-point approach, language teachers view each language component separately, measuring one language skill at a time, such as testing grammar or vocabulary (Brown, 1996; McNamara, 2000). In language testing, discrete-point tests emphasize language form rather than language use (McNamara, 2000). However, the discrete-point test results focusing on a single language component are inadequate to determine the students language proficiency (Jitendra Rohena-Diaz, 1996). As a consequence, Oller (1979) suggests that teachers should construct language tests using the integrative approach instead. In the integrative approach, the language teachers view language as a whole, emphasizing both productive and receptive skills (Brown, 1996; Hughes, 2003; McNamara, 2000). Integrative tests, such as cloze, dictation, writing an essay, and interview, can measure several skills simultaneously (Brown, 1996; Hughes, 2003). Moreover, integrative tests are suitable for assessing language proficiency and communicative skills (Brown, 1996; McNamara, 2000). McNamara (2000) contends that integrative tests take a lot of time to construct and score, as shown in Table 1. However, cloze tests are reported to be less time consuming, easier to score, and more reliable in measuring students English language proficiency (Oller, 1979). The cloze test was initiated by Taylor (1953, cited in Oller Conrad, 1971). Originally, there were two kinds of cloze tests: a rational cloze and a random cloze (see Example 1). The former refers to the deletion of specific types of words in a selected passage, such as prepositions or articles. The latter deals with a consistent deletion of every nth word, such as every fifth or seventh word. The students task is to fill in the deleted part in the cloze passage. Cloze tests can measure grammatical structure, written expression and vocabulary as well as reading comprehension (Steinman, 2002). In addition, some studies (Aitken, 1977; Oller Conrad, 1971; Oller, 1979; Stubbs Tucker, 1974) indicate that the cloze test is an effective instrument which is reliable and valid to measure English language proficiency. But the different deletion rates have an effect on the validity and the measurement of the cloze test (Alderson, 1979, 1980, 1983, 2000). Klein-Braley (1997) adds that the dele tion rates used in cloze tests require long passages. If a cloze test with the deletion of every fifth word provides 50 items, the text length should be at least 250 words (Oller, 1979). This problem has led to the development a new form of the cloze test which is called the C-Test. The C-Test, one of the new cloze tests, was constructed by Raatz and Klein-Braley (1981) in order to see if it could be more effective than the original cloze tests in measuring the students English language proficiency. The construction of the C-Test is based on the same principle as that of the cloze test; however, only the second half of every second word is deleted as can be seen in Example 2. In the C-Test, if the deleted word contains an even number of letters, the second half of this word will be deleted, such as exper i e n c e (10 letters). For a word with an odd number of letters, its larger part must be deleted, such as th e r e (5 letters). Moreover, many research studies indicate that the C-Test is more effective and more reliable than the original cloze (Connelly, 1997; DÃ ¶rnyei Katona, 1992; Klein-Braley, 1985, 1997), and yet, DÃ ¶rnyei and Katona (1992) report that the C-Test is too difficult for non-native students studying a target language such as English. As a result, Thongsa-nga (1998) adopted the original C-Test to make it suitable for Thai students studying English as a foreign language. Imitating the C-Test construction, Thongsa-nga (1998) proposed the New C-Test (the NC-Test) by deleting the second half of every third word in order to provide more clues for the non-native test takers, as can be seen in Example 2. According to the investigation of Thongsa-nga (1998), the NC-Test is employed as a proficiency test for non-native students at a secondary school level. The findings reveal that the NC-Test is reliable to assess the English language proficiency of these Thai Mathayomsuksa Six students. As far as this researcher has been able to establish, there has been no research investigating the use of the NC-Test for non-native university students in Thailand. So the present study is designed to examine the similarities and the differences in using the C-Test and the NC-Test in measuring the English language proficiency of first-yea r Thai undergraduate students. Another form of the cloze test, the Modified C-Test (the MC-Test), also known as the X-Test, was invented by Boonsathorn in 1987 (cited in Boonsathorn, 1990, p. 46). For the MC-Test, the first half of every second word is deleted (see Example 3). In the MC-Test, if the total number letters of the deleted word is an even number, the first half of this word will be deleted, such as d i s a gree (8 letters). For a word with an odd number of letters, its larger part will be deleted, such as o t h er. According to Boonsathorn (1987), the first half deletion in the MC-Test compares with the C-Test. His study reports that the MC-Test is more difficult and discriminates better than the C-Test. Some research findings show that the MC-Test has high reliability and validity and can be used with advanced students (KÃ ¶berl Sigott, 1996; Prapphal, 1994; Sigott KÃ ¶berl, 1993; Wonghiransombat, 1998). So the MC-Test should be further investigated to see its strengths and weaknesses in assessing English language skills. The MC-Test can be an alternative type for a better assessment of the English language proficiency of Thai undergraduate students, although the study of Sigott and KÃ ¶berl (1993) claims that the MC-Test is more difficult for non-native speakers. Wonghiransombat (1998) then proposed the New Modified C-Test (the NMC-Test) in order to make the original MC-Test appropriate for non-native students (p. 23). The construction of the NMC-Test is based on the same principle as the MC-Test; however, the first half of every third word is deleted to provide more clues as shown in Example 3. In addition, Wonghiransombat (1998) reports that the NMC-Test with the third starting point, or the third-word deletion, is easier and has better discrimination than the original MC-Test. Her study, the only research done in Thailand to examine the use of the MC-Test and the NMC-Test at the postgraduate level, also shows that the NMC-Test can be utilized to measure English language proficiency of Thai postgraduate students. Therefore, the present study is also aimed at examining the similarities and the differences in using the original MC-Test and the NMC-Test in measuring English language proficiency of the Thai undergraduate students. In addition to the construction of new language tests, language teachers should further investigate the students test-taking strategies in order to validate the language test and to examine what language abilities the test can measure (Cohen, 1994, 1998). Test-taking strategies can be defined as the processes that the test takers make use of in order to produce acceptable answers to questions and tasks, as well as the perceptions that they have about these questions and tasks before, during, and after responding to them (Cohen, 1998, p. 216). For instance, some students read an entire cloze passage before filling in the missing parts (Cohen, 1998). Moreover, the perceptions of language tests and test-taking strategies of the students with high- or low-language-ability are different (Cohen, 1984; Sasaki, 2000; Yamashita, 2003). As far as the present researcher has been able to determine, there has been no investigation in Thailand on cloze test-taking strategies. Therefore, cloze comp letion processes are also included in this study to examine the strategies used in taking the C-Test, the MC-Test, the NC-Test, and the NMC-Test for non-native undergraduate students. In conclusion, this research is aimed at comparing the new cloze formats (the NMC-Test and the NC-Test) with the older cloze formats (the MC-Test and the C-Test) and to examine the similarities and the differences in these four tests for Thai undergraduate students. Also, this study focuses on examining what test-taking strategies or procedures the students use while responding to the different types of cloze tests. 1.2 Purpose of the Study The present study aims to investigate the differences in the four types of the cloze tests by comparing the use of the MC-Test with that of NMC-Test, and the use of the C-Test with that of the NC-Test. In order to understand the cloze test-taking strategies, the study is also designed to find out to what extent undergraduate students use seven test-taking strategies while answering the different types of cloze tests. The strategies are based on the latest categorization of Sasaki (2000). The new cloze tests including the C-Test, the NC-Test, the MC-Test, and the NMC-Test were taken by first-year science students at Mahidol University in the first semester of academic year 2003. Therefore, the research questions are posed as follows: Does the NMC-Test yield different results from the original MC-Test in measuring students language proficiency? Does the NC-Test yield different results from the original C-Test in measuring students language proficiency? Does using every third-word deletion of the NMC-Test and the NC-Test affect the discrimination power of the test? What test-taking strategies do the first-year undergraduate students in the Faculty of Science at Mahidol University use while taking the C-Test, the MC-Test, the NMC-Test, and the NC-Test? 1.3 Significance of the Study This study is designed to compare the new cloze formats, including the original C-Test with the NC-Test, and the original MC-Test with the NMC-Test. The results of this study may provide an alternative way for language teachers to measure the English language proficiency of Thai undergraduate students learning EFL. Test-taking strategies are also studied to enable the language teachers to understand how effectively the students respond to the new types of cloze passage. 1.4 Scope and Limitation of the Study (1) The study is limited to first year science students at Mahidol University in the first semester of the academic year 2003. The results cannot be generalized to other students, at other university levels, and in other areas. (2) The study focuses on first-year science students with high- and low-language-ability based on the English Entrance Examination scores, which were reported by the coordinator of the science program. (3) Only exact word scoring is employed in this study. (4) It is assumed that all of the first-year science students have had some background knowledge of English up to Mathayomsuksa Six. 1.5 Definitions of Terms Cloze test refers to a test in which the entire words are rationally or randomly deleted and the student is asked to fill in the missing words (Boonsathorn, 1990, 2000; Wonghiransombat, 1998). C-Test is a test in which the second part or the second half of every second word is deleted and the students task is to fill in the deleted parts (Boonsathorn, 1990; Klein-Braley, 1985). New C-Test (NC-Test) is a test in which the second part or the second half of every third word is deleted and the student is required to fill in the missing parts (Thongsa-nga, 1998). New Modified C-Test (NMC-Test) is a test in which the first part or the first half of every third word is deleted and the students task is to fill in the missing parts (Wonghiransombat, 1998). Modified C-Test (MC-Test) is a test in which the first part or the first half of every second word is deleted and the student is required to fill in the deleted parts (Boonsathorn, 1990, 2000; Wonghiransombat, 1998). Readability refers to how easily written materials can be read and understood. Readability depends on many factors, including (a) the average length of sentences in a passage, (b) the number of new words a passage contains, and (c) the grammatical complexity of the language used. Procedures used for measuring readability are known as readability formulae (Richards, Platt, Platt, 1993, p. 306). Test-taking strategies are the processes that the test takers make use of in order to produce acceptable answers to questions and tasks, as well as the perceptions that they have about these questions and tasks before, during, and after responding to the test (Cohen, 1998, p. 216).