Charles Dickens Essays (1953 words) - Charles Dickens,

Charles Dickens Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens is the greatest English writer that ever lived. He was one of the most popular writers in the history of literature. Surely no English author is so well known and so widely read, translated and remembered as Charles Dickens. He fame is well deserved. From the pen of this great author came such characters as Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim, Mr. Pickwick, and Little Nett. Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth and spent most of his childhood in London and Kent, both of which appear frequently in his novels. Charles Dickens was the son of John and Elizabeth Dickens. John Dickens worked as a clerk at the Navy pay office in Portsmouth. Charles, the second of seven children, went to the local school. John Dickens found it difficult to provide for his growing family on his small pay. In 1822 the family moved to Camden Town in London. John Dickens' debts had become so severe that all the household goods were sold. Still unable to satisfy his creditors, John Dickens was arrested and sent to Marshalsea Prison. At age 12, Charles found work at Warren's Blacking Factory, where he was paid six shillings a week wrapping shoeblack bottles. The brief time that he worked at the Blacking Factory haunted him all of his life. He spoke of it only to his wife and to his closest friend, John Forster. The rough time he had there would show up in his stories Da vid Copperfield and in Great Expectations. Six months after being sent to Marshalsea, one of John Dickens's relatives died. He was left enough money in the will to pay off his debts and to leave prison. Some of the inheritance was used to educate Charles at a nearby private school, Wellington House Academy. Charles was only a moderate student and at the age of fifteen he left school and found work as an office boy in a firm of solicitors. Charles Dickens decided he wanted to become a reporter. He purchased a copy of Gurney's Brachgraphy and taught himself shorthand. At the age of sixteen, Charles Dickens found work as a court reporter. Later he joined the Mirror of Parliament, a newspaper that reported the daily proceedings of Parliament. Perhaps developing the power of precise description made his creative writing so detailed, descriptive, and outstanding. Dickens became interested in the subject of social reform and started contributing articles to the radical newspaper, the True Sun. Despite having to charge the heavy tax imposed on newspapers, the True Sun sold 30,000 copies a day. In his articles, Dickens used his knowledge of what went on in the House of Commons to help make changes in parliament. Charles Dickens was pleased when Parliament eventually agreed to pass the 1832 Reform Act. In 1833 Charles Dickens had his first story published in the Monthly Magazine. Using the pen name of 'Boz', Dickens also began contributing short stories to the Morning Chronicle and the Evening Chronicle. These stories were so popular that they were collected together and published as a book entitled Sketches by Boz. In 1835 he met and became engaged to Catherine Hogarth. Dickens earned enough money to marry Catherine Hogarth on April 2, 1836. During the same year he became editor of Bentley's Miscellany, published the second series of Sketches by Boz, and met John Forster, who would become his closest friend and confidant as well as his first biographer. The success of Pickwick Papers, Dickens first novel made him famous. Oliver Twist, and Nicholas Nickleby followed this. Dickens was now the most popular writer in Britain and over the next few years he wrote a series of popular novels including The Old Curiosity Shop, Barnaby Rudge, Martin Chuzzlewit. Dickens is probably most remembered at Christmas time because of his novel A Christmas Carol that is my all time favorite Christmas story. Dickens also decided to invest some of his royalties in a new radical newspaper, The Daily News. It was not a great commercial success and Dickens resigned as editor. However, he was determined to create a means where he could communicate his ideas on social reform

Pressing and Pressure

Pressing and Pressure Pressing and Pressure Pressing and Pressure By Mark Nichol Press and all the words containing it as a root, as well as a few disguised words from the same source word, pertain in some sense to applying force. This post lists many of the words stemming from the Latin verb premere, meaning â€Å"cover† or â€Å"hold fast,† and its descendant pressare. Press itself means â€Å"cluster,† â€Å"exert force,† â€Å"push forward,† and â€Å"squeeze out.† As a noun, it refers to a device for applying force, including a printing press, from which influence the word came to describe the collective entity of print media (and later all journalistic media). In that sense, in such phrases as â€Å"press conference,† it also acquired adjectival form. It also applies to an approach to applying force, as in a defensive strategy in basketball such as the full-court press. A press is also a crowd or an acting of crowding together. Pressure is the application of force. As a verb, pressure means â€Å"apply force,† and the verb pressurize refers to injecting a gas into a container in a greater concentration than outside the container (or pertains to designing the container for that purpose). The adjectival form is pressurized, and the act is pressurization. (The corresponding antonymic forms are depressurize and so on.) The adjective â€Å"high pressure† denotes a literal or figurative situation in which force is applied, often in the context of its effect on an individual, as when referring to a high-pressure job. Tension or pain resulting from such situations can be alleviated by acupressure, a therapeutic application of pressure to points of the body. (One form of acupressure, developed in Japan, is called shiatsu- literally, â€Å"finger pressure.†) To compress is to push against or together, or to reduce as if by doing so, and something compressed undergoes compression. As a noun, it describes a piece of cloth applied to a body part, especially an injured one, as treatment, or pertains to a device that compresses; an example of the latter might, alternatively, be called a compressor, such as a machine that compresses air to provide force for a tool. To reverse compression is to decompress. Depress, by contrast, means â€Å"push down.† By extension, word also came to apply to lowering someone’s spirits or reducing value. The adjective for all senses is depressive, and depression describes an act of depressing or a physical alteration of a landform or an object that leaves one area or part lower than the rest; the word also has astronomical, mathematical, and meteorological senses. (The historical period of economic distress that lasted roughly throughout the 1930s throughout the world is called the Depression or the Great Depression.) Depressant is a synonym for sedative, and a medication intended to alleviate depression is an antidepressant. Express means â€Å"expel† or â€Å"push out† (hence the borrowed Italian word espresso, which refers to coffee brewed with steam pressure), but it also came to mean â€Å"put into words† or â€Å"represent.† Something that can be expressed in the former senses is expressible, and the latter connotations are represented by the adjective expressive. (The antonyms are inexpressible and inexpressive.) The adverb expressly, however, means â€Å"plainly.† Something expressed is an expression, including an attitude or emotion signaled by the way one’s face is shaped by movement of one’s eyebrows, mouth, and so on. (Expressive also describes something that reveals attitudes and emotions.) Express itself came to be employed as an adjective meaning â€Å"implied,† and both as an adjective and adverb, it refers to a special condition or treatment; for example, an express train is one that travels directly from one station to another, bypassing intermediate stops. In this sense, the word also serves as a noun, as when sending a package by a rapid delivery method. A system of doing so is called an express, and the word used to apply to a messenger employed to deliver something quickly. An expressway, meanwhile, is a thoroughfare with a minimum of exits or intersections. Impress refers to having an emotional or physical effect or influence. Something that leaves a positive emotional impression because it is aesthetically pleasing or demonstrates achievement is impressive. An impression may be an effect or influence, an uncertain or unclear belief or idea, or an appearance or suggestion; the word also refers to an emotional or physical application, such as fixing a personality trait or stamping an object. (The use of press and impressment to refer to an act of forced labor or military service is unrelated; the source of these terms is the Latin verb praestare, meaning â€Å"stand before.†) To oppress is to push against, to repress is to push back, and to suppress is to push down; the adjectival forms add -ive, and actions are indicated with the inflection -ion. All three terms often pertain to using despotic force against people agitating for freedom or rights. Repress and suppress also apply to excluding emotions or thoughts from one’s consciousness. Oppress may also apply to an emotional or spiritual burden. One who, because of a buoyant or determined personality, seemingly cannot be repressed is described as being irrepressible, and a suppressant is a drug that controls or prevents a reaction or state. Print (and imprint) are disguised relations of the press family, as is imprimatur; that word (New Latin for â€Å"let it be printed) originally applied to a printing or publishing license authorized by the Catholic Church, and later referred to approval to do so in general and then, by extension, pertained to any type of approval or a mark of approval. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Yours faithfully or Yours sincerely?"Have" vs "Having" in Certain Expressions10 Functions of the Comma

Starbucks in China Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 7500 words

Starbucks in China - Coursework Example How this coffee shop at the neighborhood did invade and changed the lifestyle of many It is a sort of colonization. I call it Starbuckzation. Starbucks has been around since 1971. According to Starbucks Coffee Company (2007) history, it started by selling roasted coffee beans in Seattle's Pike Place Market bearing the name of Starbucks Coffee, Tea and Spices. It was in 1981 when this coffee shop caught the attention of plastics salesman Howard Schultz (Wilson, 2005); Schultz is now the Chairman of Starbucks Coffee Company. But it was never easy for him to turn the business into an international giant that it is now. In 1982, Schultz was hired as Starbucks' head of marketing; shortly thereafter he was sent to Italy for an international house ware show It is where he got the idea of turning Starbucks into an espresso bar (Wilson, 2005). But things did not immediately come his way. The opportunity came in 1987 when Starbucks was up for sale; Schultz was able to raise the money, remade the establishment, and started history in the coffee industry. Today, Starbucks has 6,281 company-operated stores and 3,533 licensed stores in 50 states of US plus the District of Colombia It has also established coffee houses in 39 countries outside US (Starbucks, 2007). It is not quite surprising though that Starbucks is a success in the United States of America since a cupful of steaming coffee has almost become a necessity to every American. What is more amazing is its success in Asia particularly in China that can be considered, by far, as Starbucks' largest market outside North America. Traditionally, Chinese are fond with tea, which they say has healthy benefits. How come that a tea-drinking country could easily shift to coffee Starbucks started its operation in China in the late '90s. The company began with a store in Taiwan in March 1998, spread in Mainland China at the China World Trade Building in Beijing in January 1999, then in Hong Kong in May 2000, and Macau in August 2002; to date, there are almost 500 stores all over China (Starbucks China, 2007). Has China really fell under Starbuckzation It could be so. However, Starbucks' phenomenal success in China has not been copied in Australia. Since its first store was established at Sydney's CBD in July 2000, Starbucks has set-up only 50 stores in Sydney, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast, Canberra, and Melbourne today (Starbucks Australia, 2007). It could be attributed to a number of cafes in Australia. Geographical and social settings also contribute to this aspect. 1. Efficiency Among the keys to attain success in any field is efficiency. In Starbucks' case, it is the coffee house's capability to deliver the goods regardless of its customers' race or creed. There is a cup of flavorful coffee that will suit the discriminating taste buds of everyone. It has a blend from various regions; coffees are blended depending on the flavors that characterize a certain country. There is Colombia Nario Supremo, Guatemala Antiqua, Arabian Mocha Sanani, Komodo Dragon Blend, and Sumatra, to name a few. Apart from coffee, Starbucks also offer tasty cakes and pastries. There is also a variety of