Lake Mungo (Australia) Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Lake Mungo (Australia) - Term Paper Example Presently the main attraction of the Mungo National Park, Janesoceania.com described the landscape as being stark, silent, desolate and often eerie sand sparse only resurgent vegetation and the spiny hard pitted crinkled and fluted dunes and ridges can look like a moonscape. (Cited by K.K. Hirst, About.com) The lakes dried up around 14 000 years ago and are considered to be an extraordinarily rich source of fossils. The quality and quantity of evidence pertaining to the landforms, animal life and environmental conditions during the last ice age are of the highest calibre, in part due to the alkaline rather than acidic quality of the soils. Discovered in the 1960s, the site has been excavated by geomorphologists and archaeologists to establish both the chronological and geologic age and status of its deposits. The remains of extinct creatures such as; Tasmanian tigers, giant, short-faced kangaroos and a strange oxen-sized animal called a zygomaturus - have been found. Crucially, carbo n dating has indicated that Aborigines inhabited the area 40 000 years ago, making it the site of the oldest known human occupation in Australia. These inhabitants benefited from the lake significantly. Freshwater shellfish and other aquatic fauna inhabited the lake, and many large trees grew around its margins; outlines of their branching roots have been fossilized and preserved by calcium carbonate. Waves driven by the westerly wind created a crescent-shaped sandy beach (a lunette) on the eastern lee shore. This dune consists of the Zanci, Arumpo, Mungo and ‘golgol’ units, named after local pastoral properties.  Ã‚   Inhabitants gathered mussels, Murray cod and golden perch from the lake compared to wallabies, rat kangaroos and emu eggs that they collected from their surroundings. The diet of the hunter-gatherers at Lake Mungo was varied and rich in protein. They ate the western native cat, the brown-haired wallaby, the hairy-nosed wombat and various other small ani mals and bird. Remains of these creatures have been found in ancient fireplaces, together with numerous broken emu shells. Their presence indicates that people were camping at Lake Mungo in the spring, when emu eggs hatch. In the heat of summer, people would have stayed close to the plentiful fresh water and shellfish of the lakes. In the cooler winter, they probably spread out away from the lakes onto the arid plains and hunted land animals, thus conserving the lake's food supplies for the harsh summers. Such a pattern of exploitation and seasonal movement is characteristic of Aborigines in arid regions, and was observed in the Willandra Lakes region in the nineteenth century. (Janeoceania.com) The number, size and species of fish remains in sites have been identified by comparing their otoliths, or ear bones, with those of modern fish in the same region. Seventy per cent of fish caught in the Pleistocene Willandra Lakes were golden perch (Petroplites ambiguus). The large numbers o f perch at the sites, which dated between 22 000 and 26 000 BP and were each believed to result from a single event, from tightly restricted size ranges, which strongly suggests the use of gill nets at some sites and traps at others. Fishing with fixed gill nets is a highly selective process: it tends to catch fish of the same species and age. Nets were probably set at the time of a spring spawning run, when the fish migrate up the rivers in large numbers. Golden perch are difficult to catch

Since vocabulary development Essay Example for Free

Since vocabulary development Essay Since vocabulary development is an active, ongoing process for children during these years, helping them increase the size of their vocabulary should be an integral, ongoing part of any school curriculum. As suggested by the research cited above, curricula for vocabulary development should concentrate on introducing new words into the classroom and using a variety of teaching methods to ensure that students can grasp the meaning of the words and remember them. Often, this does not mean that teachers need to drastically change their curriculum rather they just need to make sure that whatever their lesson is, it includes a focus on vocabulary. Ive incorporated ideas suggested from the research on vocabulary acquisition, and the teaching recommendations of Baumann Kameenui (1991), and come up with a list of strategies that is key for 3 5 year olds. 1. All curriculum areas should be structured with an eye towards introducing unfamiliar words within that subject area. Teachers should provide definitions or contextual clues to help children figure out the meaning of words, and they should use them often. Students should have the opportunity to use them in the context of the work they are doing. For example, if the teacher is doing a unit on animals and teaching the children the names of different animals, the children might have to pick an animal they like best and draw it. The children could then dictate stories to the teacher that could get written on the picture, or they could make a picture book with pictures of a number of different animals and then tell the teacher the names of all the animals. 2. The teacher should plan to read stories that contain unfamiliar words and then plan a number of activities that give the children the opportunity to use the words. This would include having a discussion of the unfamiliar words, having an analytic discussion of the story, providing opportunities for the students to use the words again by retelling the story in their own words, having students draw pictures that illustrate the word or the story, or having the students act out the story or do a puppet show. 3, The teacher should try to expose students to a variety of oral language, such as songs, poems, stories, non-fiction, etc.  4. A rich conversation/discussion life should be developed in the classroom so that children have the opportunity to hear unfamiliar words and use them in discussions. The children should be given plenty of opportunities to express themselves in general and to use new words. This can include telling stories, acting stories out, singing, reciting poems, playing games, etc. The children should be involved in analytical discussions and the teacher should have small group discussions with the children when possible. 5. The children should be taught strategies for using contextual or visual clues to try to figure out what a word means.  6. Since the home is just as important as school for vocabulary development in these early years (Snow, 1993), ways should be found to involve families in the learning process as much as possible. Studies have shown ( Segel, 1994; Toomey and Sloane 1994) that most parents are interested and willing to learn techniques to help their children learn. At the beginning of the school year, there should be a meeting and information sent to parents to explain the effort to increase the vocabulary of the children. Parents should be informed of the important role they can play and how they can participate throughout the year. The meetings should explain the rationale of this teaching strategy and show parents how to read with their children and highlight new vocabulary and engage them in analytical discussions. Depending on how much time the parents have, the children would bring home their work or a book every night ( or as often as agreed upon between parents and the teacher) and read with their parents or tell their parents a story that they drew or maybe sing a song that they learned, or parents and children could create a story together that the child could bring into school. Parents could be invited to school on a regular basis to see how the teacher works with the children, so that they have a better idea of how to do that at home. Parents could also be invited to read with their children in the classroom at the beginning or end of school for 15 minutes or so. The role of technology in instrucation Media is ideally suited to support this kind of instruction. Since, for the most part, children cannot read at this age, they must rely on the adults around them for the rich oral environment that will help build their vocabulary. This is not the same for older children, who can read independently and look up the definitions of words. The extent to which young children are involved in a rich oral environment, then, depends on the time the adults around them can spend with them, talking and reading to them. The introduction of media allows the child to spend significantly larger amounts of time hearing stories (which can be repeated over and over), hearing rare words, and creating their own stories, both in the classroom and at home. The role of the media, in this case, is to act as a supplement, not take the place of the adults. It is to extend and reinforce the teaching and analytic discussions in the classroom. Children cant have analytic discussions with computers, but they can use the computers and other media to hear stories and words again, and draw or dictate their own stories. The media is also a key element in introducing and maintaining active vocabulary acquistion in the home. The media can be a real help for parents. If the child can bring the media home, parents and children can, for example, watch something together and the parent can discuss it with the child. If the parent is busy, the child can still watch and get the benefits of the additional exposure without having to wait for a parent to be free. Additionally, if a parent does not have strong reading skills and/or is not a native English speaker, they may find it too hard to read to their children. They might find it a lot easier to listen to an audio tape or watch a video of a story with their child.

Graduation Speech -- Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote, "You are a very special person - become what you are." These words encourage us, the graduating class of 2012, to recognize the goodness and potential in each and every one of us and to go out and excel in the world. We are a diverse group of different aspirations and backgrounds, bound for different corners of the earth to carve out our won individual niches. Before we leave behind Lee Falls High School and each other, we must ask ourselves how we have become who we are. Most of us have grown up in this town. We have known each other for many years, gone through the school system and interacted with the community. We have been labeled by the press as inhabitants of "Cranktown" and "Methville," but the community has rallied to fight the problem. This same community is the true spirit of where we come from and who we are. It is the same community that sees generations of change and is always willing to stretch its hands out to help those in need and to honor those deserving. We live in a unique community, though we may not realize it, a...

Rhetorical Devices in Great Gatsby

Gatsby Essay Honors English II Asura Louise Osborne In the 1920’s, the world was full of new inventions, dances, and drinks. The standards of even the most rigorously structured social classes were changed, allowing the rich to cut loose and throw elaborate and entertaining parties. Every day, the world was changing for the better. Author F. Scott Fitzgerald’s work â€Å"The Great Gatsby† reflects these ideas, communicating through various rhetorical devices that the world is a magical place, and that even in times of sadness, anything is possible. Prior to the Jazz Age, growing up was associated with a loss of happiness and hope.During the 20’s, however, this standard seemed to change, pushing the perception of adulthood into something magical and frivolous. Fitzgerald reflects this in the archetypal portrayal of a city, describing it as â€Å"in white heaps and sugar lumps†. White is an archetype for purity, innocence, and hope. It illuminates the hope that the young adults living in the 1920’s felt, as well as the innocent parties they danced at, innocent not because of what took place in them, but because they were blissfully unaware of the harsh realities that existed elsewhere in the world.Happiness is also communicated in the use of the word â€Å"sunlight†, because the sun is an archetype for energy and hope. Through the personification of the city â€Å"rising up†, it is illuminated that the roaring twenties came from seemingly nowhere, almost like a fairytale. The magic of the upper classes’ world was also portrayed in the hyperbole, â€Å"all built with a wish. † In reality, the city merely began as a wish, but Fitzgerald portrays it as something that sprung up from a thought.Potentially the most illuminatory literary device is the imagery in the sentence â€Å"its wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world. † The picture painted is one of excitement, hope, and perhaps most importantly, the creation of a wonderful world borne from fancy. In times of loss, a traditional coping mechanism is bargaining. This is generally portrayed as â€Å"If I do such and such, so and so will come back. † It is usually a time when the bargainer believes in part that anything is possible. F. Scott Fitzgerald dives into that idea when Jay and Nick become part of a funeral procession.One way he communicates the idea that anything is possible is in the juxtaposition of life and death, â€Å"A dead man†¦in a hearse†¦heaped with blooms†¦Ã¢â‚¬  His diction also illuminates this concept through the use of the word â€Å"blinds†, suggesting that most people are blind to the presence of possibility. In addition to diction and juxtaposition, Nick’s reaction to seeing blacks in an affluent setting also illuminates that Fitzgerald is communicating through him, â€Å"Anything can happen now†¦anything at all. † Even in the presence of a â€Å"somber holiday†, the world is still coming up with new possibilities.The world is ever changing, which is one thing that makes life on Earth so exciting. All of the changes that are present today really began in the 1920’s though, a time of new ideas and hopes. F. Scott Fitzgerald led America’s run head-first into the Jazz Age, and gave future generations a peek inside what life was like at the time with his novels. In his book, â€Å"The Great Gatsby†, he uses many literary devices to illuminate the concepts that life is magical, and that even in times of sadness, the world is filling itself with new possibilities.

The Frightful Abuse of Human Rights

Violence or education as forms of oppression carried out by political groups in Latin America is a reoccurring theme as seen in Argentina and Cuba from earlier essays. Government sponsored â€Å"cloaks of fear† take over the nation and keep the common citizen subdued as seen in Argentina. The process of educating the common person so that he/she would not only understand, but be able to participate in political affairs was a major force in the Cuban revolution. In the 1980's, Central America saw both violence and education used as political devices to promote or prevent political change. The most common and horrific form of oppression in Central America is violence. Violence can be used to eliminate political competition as seen in El. Salvador â€Å"In November 1980 Alvarez and five top associates were killed by government forces, an act hat eliminated an entire cadre of reformist politicians† (Skidmore & Smith: 350). Another example of eliminating a potential threat to the government can be seen in the movie â€Å"Men With Guns†. In this movie a religious leader (Bishop Romero) with some control of people and their political thoughts was considered dangerous by the El. Salvadorian government. Therefore he was assassinated by the military in an attempt to silence his voice and maybe even spread fear throughout the country as others feared what would become of them if they spoke out against the government. This imposement of fear, was another method of using violence to prevent political change. Argentina is the most dominant example of government created ‘fear' as a weapon against the voice of the people. The acting government or Junta, randomly kidnapped citizens and offered no reason for their actions. In many cases the kidnapped (disappeared) were tortured and killed, their bodies and explanations for what happened never found. The actions of the Guatemalan government during its politically unstable period are a clear example of using violence and fear to repress change as seen in Skidmore and Smith (1997: 357) â€Å"One feature of this entire period†¦ was the frightful abuse of human rights. Paramilitary death squads most notoriously Mano Blanca and Ojo por Ojo, carried on a murderous campaign against political dissenters. No fewer then 80,000 people were killed or â€Å"disappeared between the 1960's and 1990†. Because people feared that if they spoke out against the government they would face death/torture, many would-be activists sat quietly as the government did whatever it wanted. The only weapon against this ‘cloak of fear' was to bring in the help of outside nations and expose the atrocities being committed. For example this is what the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo were famous for. They petitioned at a time nobody else would leave their house and they brought the attention of the United Nations and other human rights groups to the current situation in Argentina. However in the case of Guatemala, the government continues their oppression until they see fit to stop it themselves as illustrated by Skidmore & Smith (1997: 357-358): â€Å"The government bore at least indirect responsibility for these killings, but world wide protests did not bring much respite†¦By the mid-1980s the Guatemalan military judged their campaign against the Marxist Guerrillas successful enough to allow the election of a civilian president†¦ Under a patina of electoral democracy, the military force continues to predominate in Guatemala†. Violence does not have to be only used as a form of oppression. Violence is sometimes used as a form of combating represent by groups of revolutionary solders. These groups of indigenous (local) solders combine to fight for their political and social rights are called Guerillas. Guerillas and guerilla tactics are spattered all throughout the history of Central America. They live in the mountains or jungles and rely on the locals for food, recruits, and information. Guerillas typically share the same ethnic background and social class, these are the chains that link them together. They use violence and military strategy to combat the unjustness or oppressing governments. Another form of oppression in Central America is education and lack of it. Much of Central America is poverty-stricken and underdeveloped (Skidmore & Smith: 1997), this leads to a lack of literacy. By not having the ability to read and understand what is going on politically in their country, the common citizen lacks the knowledge necessary to participate in political affairs. Domineering governments do little to educate the common citizen because doing so would/could make them a dangerous adversary as seen in Hammond (1998: 15) â€Å"To acquire knowledge is to acquire power, or at least it is a necessary first step. Popular education fosters specific skills, personal growth, and critical consciousness among the poor and oppressed. Learning empowers poor people because they prove they can do something they were always told was beyond them†. Education can also be used as a weapon against oppression, as discussed in the book Fighting to Learn. Hammond (1998: 61) describes meetings between solders and their leaders where they discussed political issues and current events. Another issue often stressed in these meetings was the need to spread propaganda and knowledge into civilian communities. Educating the common people can produce many effects, all useful in combating an oppressive government regime. Knowledge and education expose people to multiple views of common issues, therefore allowing them to decide for themselves what is right and wrong. This creates a sense of political and social awareness that combined with the desire for change and the willingness to use violence can be an explosive combination in the fight against oppression.

lexington avenue essays

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Argumentative Essay Writing Tips

Argumentative Essay Writing Tips How to Write an Argumentative Essay? An argumentative essay typically consists of major points. However, the body paragraphs are the core part of the assignment. This is where a student is supposed to provide strong argumentation and evidence to the key points described in the work. The paper requires a considerable writing style, which appears to be the main challenge or writers. How to start an argumentative essay? A good thing about the paper is that students can generally choose a topic they like unless the instructor assigns it. Try to choose a topic you are good at. It is the only way to write something solid. You are supposed to be an expert or at least show off your expertise making readers believe that you are an expert. To achieve this, you need to do the following: Step 1 – Make a plan Having a clear plan or outline is the basis for the paper. The writing process will be time-consuming and daunting unless you have a clear plan. Try several variants, sketch the outline and choose the best bet. When you work out the plan, you already have a clear understanding of what to write about and in what way. Step 2 – Handle the creative block The creative crisis is a common issue for many amateur and immature writers. You will obviously face creative problems especially if you write this type of paper for the first time. Do not overload your brain with difficult objectives. Try to think clearly or simply have a rest not to be overwhelmed with the task. Keep your mind clear; make notes of everything that may come in handy. Step 3 – Benefit from critical thinking Once you are done with the plan and ready to write, it is high time we used critical thinking. Check all your notes and try to organize the key ideas bringing them to one place featuring logical connections. Make sure you stick to the plan. Add proofs and argumentations in accordance with the outlines. Step 4 – Revise the paper The major part of your writing work is done! Good for you! Now you need to make sure that the content is flawless from grammar and writing style perspectives. You need to edit and proofread the paper.   Double-check the text to make you feel safe. The slightest mistake will doom your work to failure. Step 5 – Let friends read your paper You’ve done a great job! A good idea is to ask your friends or relatives to read the essay and share their opinion. They can notice some mistakes or misconnections as well. Checking and editing are never enough when it comes to delivering high-quality argumentative essays.