Book Analysis on Undercover

As the days grow shorter, Elisa worries that the increasingly urgent letters she sends her father wont bring him home. Like the undercover agent she feels she has become, Elisa retreats to a pond in the woods, where her talent for ice-skating gives her the confidence to come out from under cover and take centre stage. But when Lila becomes jealous of Theos friendship with Elisa, her revenge nearly destroys Elisas ice-skating dreams and her plan to reunite her family. A. Book 1. Author Beth Kephart was nominated for the National Book Award for her book A SLANT OF SUN. In 2000, she received a National Endowment for the Arts grant, and she also won Pew Fellowships in Arts grant in 2005. At the age of nine, Beth Kephart began to skate on a pond in Boston, where she taught herself the every moves Elisa teaches herself in this story. Beth won her first competitive freestyle competition at a Wilmington, Delaware, rink. Today she ballroom dances and is an avid gardener. She lives in Pennsylvania with her family. 2. Title The main character in the story fits the title under cover, the fact that the main character hides her skill of skiing to her friends and family. B. Characters Protagonist: Elisa Cantor- she is a father’s daughter and doesn’t really relate well with her mother and sister. Antagonist: Lisa- Theo’s girlfriend; known for her beauty and popularity. Supporting Characters: Tina Cantor- Elisa and Jilly’s Mother. Jilly- Elisa’s Sister, she is a very fashionable teenager like her mother. Mr. Cantor- Elisa’s Father, he understands Elisa. Theo- Elisa’s classmate in Honors English, a special friend and one of the boys who ask love notes from Elisa. Margie- Elisa’s past best friend in eighth grade and classmate in Honors English. Dr. Charmin- an Honors English teacher and believed and supports Elisa’s talent in writing. Mr. Marcoroon- a strict Math teacher. Mrs. Garland- a friend of Tina. Stuart little- a client of Mr. Cantor in San Francisco. Sarah- an Honour English student. II. Plot A. Exposition 1. Setting The story takes place in a pond in the woods where she always find herself at ease and thinking she could be herself there alone while skating. B. Complication When her father has to go away for work it makes their life complicated. To make it even more complicated, Elisa starts to fall on a boy who she is providing with poetry to woo another girl. C. Climax Lila tore the dress of Elisa before the start of the skating competition. D. Denouement Elisa never let herself be defeated by wearing the torn dress made by the antagonist, Lila, while skating gracefully. E. Resolution Yes it’s a happy ending because finally her family was once again reunited and everyone accepted the real her. III. Analysis 1. Did you admire the author for writing this book? Why? Yes. A teenager who reads this book would really understand the feelings and thinking’s of the main character of the story. Many teenagers can relate of how it feels to be a loner or to be bullied. 2. Tell something about the cover, did it spark your interest? Does it fit the story? It did spark my interest because it makes me wonder what story it will give me. Yes it does fit in the story because the covers do tell the story. 3. Who is your most favourite character? Why? My favourite character in the story is Elisa Cantor. For being brave enough to uncover her great skill to everybody even when she herself has no confidence that everyone would accept her and gain their respect. 4. Who is your least favourite character? Why? My least favourite character in the story is Lisa, because of her jealousy of Theo’s friendship with Elisa; her revenge nearly destroys Elisa’s ice-skating dreams and her plan to reunite her family. . What is your favourite part of the story? Why? My favourite part of the story is when Elisa got sick during the last days of Christmas season, which was the time that her sister and mother took care of her and after her sickness they finally become close to each other. 6. What is your least favourite part of the story? Why? My lea st favourite part of the story is when Lisa and her friends destroyed Elisa’s dress that was made by her mother and sister for the ice-skating competition. 7. Discuss your favourite quote from the story. â€Å"You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world goes on. Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain Are moving across the landscape, Over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers. Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, Are heading home again. Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, The world offers itself to your imagination, Calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting Over and over announcing your place in the family of things. † It tells about a person who doesn’t have to be perfect just to meet their expectations. Being yourself is a lot more happy and easy than pretending or trying to be someone you are not. 8. What is your realization about life after reading the novel? After reading the story I realize in life that you shouldn’t hide yourself from others, don’t be scared of letting them know your true self and don’t give up on something that you haven’t tried yet.

Sexual Harassment Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Sexual Harassment - Research Paper Example (The Masschusetts Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights pp. 3-5) What is sexual harassment in employment? Sexual harassment is a situation where an unwanted attention of a sexual behavior occurs in the process of working or seeking work and hence threatens the ability of an individual to earn a living. . (The Masschusetts Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights pp. 3-5) Is it a serious problem? Harassment can be with different behaviors like passing distracting or annoying comments to intimidate, giving threats or demanding to have sexual conduct. The most troublesome and serious situation happens when an employee faces a supervisor who makes sexual demands accompanied by job-related threats. Majority of the people thinks that such situation becomes very critical to handle. Such situations especially happen where jobs are scarce and when the employee has few job skills. (Conte pp. 6-10) However, less unmitigated forms of harassment may also have the serious effect of threatening the income of an employee or his or her career prospects. Acts that may appear to be disturbing and distracting from the victim's perspective, may sufficiently lead to a fall in work performance or might even try to take majority day offs in order to ignore such situations. (Conte pp. 6-7) Who are the victims? According to most of the studies, this kind of problem of encountering sex related threats demands, and annoying behavior are being mostly faced by women. This is understood because it is very consistent with the way power is distributed in the workplace as women workers are typically at the bottom of the job ladder, and those in supervisory positions are mostly males. (Boland p. 12-18) There are many variations to these work places like professors happen to be mostly male, are in a position to take advantage of students, female enrollment in skilled trades apprenticeships is increasing, but instructors, union officials, and foremen are almost invariably male and even female professionals employed by corporations, government agencies, and other large institutions are almost always responsible to male executives. Those who claim that there are places where males get harassed by females do have a point and must get equal consideration, but very few females are in a position to take advantage over males in the workplace. Sexual overtures from the employee to the supervisor hardly entail the threat associated with the reverse. (Boland p. 12-18) Why is this issue receiving so much attention recently? Sexual harassment in the workplace is a very old problem. Women have put up with it in the past because there has been no simple escape. However, recent increases in the number of women in the labor force have made us aware of a whole range of ignored issues of concern to working women—harassment, child care, comparable worth, and others. In the last few years, court decisions and guidelines of Federal and State agencies h ave made it clear that sexual harassment is illegal and has defined the responsibilities of employers in

Financial Performance of Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank in UAE Case Study

Financial Performance of Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank in UAE - Case Study Example Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank acquired RBS’ UAE retail, wealth management and SME banking business. Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank is currently the third largest bank in the UAE in terms of operations and second largest in the Emirates of Abu Dhabi in terms of total assets. The bank has a substantial customer base and holds around 12% market share by loans and 10% market share by deposits. The bank currently has approximately 500,000 retail customers and 33,000 wholesale customers in the UAE. Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank has divided its operations into four main domains as follows. Abu Dhabi, the second largest city of UAE, is one of the emerging economies of the world. During the financial year 2009, amid the global economic crisis, the growth trend of Abu Dhabi took a downward plunge when the real GDP growth remained only 0.2% and its GDP per capita was 90,538 USD, which was still considered among the highest at the global level. With the implementation of prudent policies, the government of UAE has now able to restore its previous economic prosperity and it is portraying inclining trend once again. The banking sector in UAE can be regarded as the biggest beneficiary of the economic growth. This is due to the fact that the prevailing interest rate in the UAE economy is lower as compared to the other countries depicting similar economic trends. Central Bank of UAE is the regulatory authority which issues guidelines and pronouncement regulating the functioning of these banks. As of March 31, 2011, UAE economy had 23 local banks with 736 branches and 28 licensed foreign banks with 83 branches. The following graphical representation presents the growth in the banking sector in UAE over the years [presentation] Technical Analysis The share price of Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank remained fluctuated over the past few years. If we consider the financial year 2006, the share price of the bank depicts a rising trend. In the beginning of the financial year 2006, the share price of the bank was crossing 5.66, but by the end of the financial year 2006, the share price took a downward plunge and the December closing of the financial year recorded a share price of 4.16. Despite the declining trend in the previous year, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank was able to restore its previous market capitalization and by the end of the financial year 2007, the share price represents an increase of 19%. Financial year 2008 and 2009 are