Cortes Discussion Essay

1. Why is Cortes’ letter a primary source?  2. Is there any information in his letter that he did not actually observe? How do you reconcile this fact with the idea that this is a primary source? Can a document be partially primary and partially secondary? (i.e., written by someone who did not witness the events or experience the emotion?) 3. What can you infer about Cortes’ motives in writing about â€Å"the wonders of Tenochtitlan† and the Aztecs? Why did he choose to write about the topics he addressed in this letter? Who is is intended audience, and how might that have influenced the letter? 4. Using Cortes’ comments in the first two paragraphs, what assumptions can you make about the wealth of the Aztec state? 5. List three characteristics of the Aztec religion. What religious practice did Cortes attempt to do away with? Do you think that he could have been successful? Cortes’ letter is a primary source because he witnessed the events he wrote about first hand. From what I gathered through his writing Cortes did not appear to leave any vital information out as he reported every aspect of the noble city. The way he was able to give his reader, or readers, vivid descriptions of Temixtitlan from the outside in, gives us reassurance that his letter is indeed a primary source. Unfortunately a document cannot be comprised partially primary and partially secondary. Primary accounts are characterized as the direct proof of a period, with material being delivered by eyewitnesses and in this case, Cortes’ time in Temixtitlan. Cortes chose to comprehend the significance of knowing the geology of the domain he wanted to conquer. Clearly, for early explorers knowing the terrain and being able to locate natural resources is the difference between life and death. He also chose certain topics because he is attempting to make his description audience-relatable, and more importantly, he is trying describe the degree of sophistication of this great city. According to the beginning paragraphs you immediately know that Temixtitlan is an exceptional city as Cortes stated the city had many rare and wonderful objects and that he would try to describe the wealth of what he had seen to the best of his ability. The Aztec religion was sacrificial, barbaric, and full of idol worshipping.

The First North Korean Nuclear Crisis during 1993-4 Essay

The First North Korean Nuclear Crisis during 1993-4 - Essay Example gh it seems difficult to oppose that view, the â€Å"crisis† was resolved in 1994 when North Korea obeyed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The situation had been considered as a nuclear crisis when the North Korea withdrew from the NPR on March 12, 1993. This became the onset of the North Korean nuclear crisis which became a major concern in the international arena. Different countries participated to be able to resolve the problem. These countries include China Japan, Russia and the members of the IAEA which held important roles in the process of settling the nuclear crisis. The most important and most affected countries though with the most significant participation in the issue are the South Korea and the United States. For South Korea, the danger had been the fact that the relationship with the Northern region had been volatile since the civil war. In addition, South Korea is facing the North’s dangerous play over the demilitarized zone and the United States, a superpower which deployed about 37,000 American military in the South and played a leadership in international community. For that matter, South Korea and United States can be considered as the major role players in the resolution of the North Korean nuclear crisis. Many of existing literature on the North Korean nuclear problem tend to focus on political aspects of the program and strategy to solve the issue. The political perspective is necessary to analyze the stake of North Korean nuclear program. Although this is the case, it is not sufficient to understand the full scope of a more complicated picture, especially the 1994 crisis which can be considered to be affected by the complicated interaction of history, politics, military and economy. Some published works have been able to reveal more thoroughly such as â€Å"Going Critical† written by insiders during the crisis. The authoritative account of the crisis recounts a detail about how

Agencies helping homeless people Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Agencies helping homeless people - Essay Example Homeless people can be encountered in any country of the world. The United States of America is not exclusion as well. However, unlike many other nations, Americans strive to support people living on the streets, those who are not able to satisfy their basic needs without outside help. Homeless people are individuals who have no place to live, have very low income, and cannot afford buying food and cloth. Most of the homeless people start living on the streets because they have failed to deal with the life problems. Very few homeless individuals enjoy the life they have, however, they do not see the opportunity to improve the position.According to the statistics, there is almost one million American people living on the streets or staying in the shelters. These include men, women, and children. The government unable to satisfy the needs of all of these people and, for this reason, the non-profit organizations aimed at supporting homeless individuals are the only hope for numerous peo ple without home. Every person has a different reaction when he sees the person with the sign "work for food". Many of citizens do not even know what it is like not to be able to buy even the simple bread. These individuals with the sign experience this feeling everyday. Some of Americans give money to homeless, while most just do not pay attention to them or get angry because of their presence.Most of the organizations offering temporary assistance to homeless people cannot cover all of the expenses associated with accommodation of homeless. For this reason, agencies have developed the official websites describing their activities, informing people about homeless and their problems, and offering the opportunity to donate any amount of money. The Institute for Human Service (IHS) is one of the agencies helping homeless people to cope with the life problems, offering temporary accommodation, and a wide range of different services. The Institute for Human Service is located in Hawaii and provides sleeping places to more than 250 individuals in one location and for 150 women (with approximately 60 children) in the second location; it serves up to 7,000 meals per week, and cooperates with many business units and non-profit institutions (http://www.ihshawaii.org). U.S. Vets Inc is another non-profit American agency offering help to the homeless veterans. Unlike Institute for Human Service, which is located only in Hawaii, Vets Inc has offices is California, Texas, Nevada, Hawaii, Arizona, and Washington D.C. According to the news posted on the official website (http://www.usvetsinc.org), U.S. Vets is the largest national organization dedicated to helping homeless veterans. If the Institute for Human Service provides accommodation services and helps homeless to meet the basic needs, U.S. Vets is focused on "successful reintegration of homeless veterans" rather than merely providing them with food, clothing, and shelter for one night. The agency cooperates with public and private sectors in providing the safe, sober, and clinically supported housing as well as employment assistance. The official websites of U.S. Vets Inc and the Institute for Human Service do not provide information about the intake procedures a participant of the programs has to go through. In addition, the sites do not contain any information about the composition of the staff or any guidance on what one must do to become a participant at the agencies. The lack of this information can be understood: the sites follow informative mission, the aim is to attract public attention to the problem, and generate funds through donations. The intake procedur

Article Abstarct 04 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Article Abstarct 04 - Essay Example The authors also had interview with actual stakeholders of the baseball games to come up with their findings. The team concluded that the nearer two teams are, the lesser the turnout is of both teams when compared to two teams whose locations are farther apart. They also discovered that, when a new team shifts into the region of an already existing team, then there is a further initial drop in turnout for the current team. The biggest contribution of the paper was to advise baseball teams of where they should set their grounds if they want people to attend their games. The fans are the main driving force of a team, and they authors did well to show the teams how they could attract them. They gave numerical evidence, which is always 99.9%, for the teams to consider. However, the authors went wrong advising teams not to set up shop in area where other teams are settled. This might bring rivalry because the already-settled team would not want to experience a drop in its fan base. They forgot to advise these teams just how far they should set up their grounds in order to attract people. They should have gone to the actual fans to ask them just how far they are willing to travel in order to attend their favorite team’s match. At least this would give the teams a rough idea of where they should set up their

Ecological Footprints Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ecological Footprints - Assignment Example   An ecological footprint is a vital tool for measuring the consumption of the earth. It gives a simple assessment overview of how our lifestyles affect the environment. In turn, these facts can be useful in the future, to help promote wise management of ecological assets. Apart from that, it challenges individuals and households to take personal and collective initiatives in the protection of nature (Ferng, 2001). For example, a household or an individual can get to use public transport to reduce their ecological footprint, or they can choose to adopt the use of organic substances to help protect the environment. It is, therefore, true to say that, the ecological footprint varies directly proportional to the rate of human consumption, this means that an increase in the rate of human consumption significantly increases the footprint and vice versa. Compared to most of my classmates, my ecological footprints is on the higher side, this means that my consumption is slightly on the ri se. According to the results, rated at 40.8percent, Yuni has the highest percentage of ecological footprint, while Charles took the least percentage with a total footprint of 16.8 percent. Equated to my 34.4 percent, it is evident that I need to reduce my resources consumption and waste disposal. If everybody on the planet could adopt my choice of lifestyle, then we would need 7.7 planets to provide the required resources. Charles will need 4.1 planets to expedite if all the people adopted his lifestyle.  

Falconry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Falconry - Essay Example Therefore, what I learnt from young age is how to take care of the birds of prey, especially the Saker Falcon, since it was the type of bird that we used often, as well as learning how to feed the bird. In addition, I learnt more about the health problems and diseases that affect birds, especially the birds of prey that has changed their natural habitat from wild birds, to become bred at home. We used to treat the bird when they would show some symptoms of sickness, and then feed and rest them until they recovered fully. The experiences I obtained from the game is that; hares and Stone-curlews mostly inhabit the arid or semi-arid areas, where camping was also convenient. The game was most enjoyable here, due to the full uninterrupted view of the falcons hunting the hares or the birds even over long distances. The game has impacted me through making me develop love for birds, such that I have learnt the care and feeding for different varieties of birds, and the methods of training and treating the

Formative and Summative Assessment Essay Example for Free

Formative and Summative Assessment Essay On the basis of only one factor we cannot take a life long decision in our life. For instance, individuals who are considering purchasing a house look at the house’s age, state, position, style, characteristics, and edifice, as well as the worth of nearby homes. Doctors detecting an illness apply multiple evaluations: the patient’s medical history, lab experiments, answers to questions about how the patient experiences, and so on. The question arises that why do education representatives and practitioners at times choose to make vital decisions based on only one pointer? Here, the concept of multiple measures comes into play. By the term ‘multiple measures’ we mean that one indicator to make decision about groups such as class, team, educational institutions, etc. Individuals who understand, use, and converse review results have a specialized liability to employ multiple sources and sorts of relevant information about individuals or programs whenever likely in making educational judgments. In any kind of educational backdrop, decisions should not be taken on the basis of one single indicator. If the overall scores and situations are taken into consideration, then the decision making procedure seems to be better. If our major concern is to make out for certain whether an educational institution has arrived at a goal on a particular accomplishment construct (an attribute one is trying to assess), then we might feel like to apply a compensatory approach joining multiple measures of that construct. If false negatives are a major concern—for example, if rigorous outcomes are in position for failing to meet a standard—then we would like to apply complementary multiple measures so that an educational institution can pass by fulfilling the standard on any one assessment. However, if we are persuaded that each of several assessments is crucial to quality, we would perhaps want to apply a conjunctive approach in which an educational institution must pass all assessments. This is what Brookhart’s reading is trying to articulate (Brookhart, 2009). According to McMillan, each decision taken about the learners and the educational institutions should be based on something. The educators make use of their knowledge, logical reasoning, experience and convention to come to any decision. Evaluation of learners is difficult since effectual decision making is based to some extent on the capability of educators to comprehend their learners and to match performances with precise evaluations (McMillan, 2000, p. 3). The teachers need to understand the learners what they are capable of, what are their problems and how they can cope with that problems, then only the educators can come to any decision and make assessments. Assessments start with the recognition of specific purpose for gathering and interpreting the information. Once the rationale has been identified, accurate techniques for collecting and synthesizing the information can be recognized. What works well for one rationale might not work out for another rationale. The nature of assessment technique should follow from the projected rationale (McMillan, 2000, p. 4). Similar kinds of views have been found in both the arguments placed by Brookhart and McMillan. Thus, the arguments placed by both the proponents have solid ground. Therefore, it is important to use multiple measures in today’s classrooms to assess children’s academic performance. Youngsters deserve assessment that demonstrates them their strengths as well as their requirements and that directs their educators to devise instruction that will best assist them develop as readers. Formative assessment and summative assessment share a general aim of evaluating learner knowledge. The main distinction between the two is the rationale for which the assessment is carried out. Formative assessment is proposed to notify and direct alterations to teaching on an enduring basis. Summative assessment is proposed to keep an eye on development and assess the overall achievement of both learners and instructional programs on a continuing basis (Formative and Summative Assessment, n. d. , p. 5). Summative assessments are aimed purposely for execution with uninterrupted progress-examining systems. These systems would permit educators to track learners all through a school year and, preferably, over a total educational career, from nursery through high school (Formative and Summative Assessment, n. d. , p. 8). The summative assessment can be related to the propositions placed by Brookhart and McMillan. By making use of all the assessment records of any learner, the educators can easily come to any decision of evaluating a student’s performance at the end of any academic year. According to Dylan William, he wanted to find out if using evaluation to support learning, rather than just to assess its results, can improve learners’ accomplishment, even when such accomplishment is evaluated in the form of state-authorized examinations. In assessing 250 studies from around the globe, issued between 1987 and 1998, he had observed that a focus by educators on evaluation for learning, in preference to assessment of learning, produced a considerable increase in learners’ accomplishment. Since the studies also divulged that day-to-day classroom evaluation was comparatively rare, he felt that substantial improvements would be caused by supporting educators in developing this feature of their practice. The studies did not tell, however, how this could be attained and whether such achievements would be continued over an unlimited period of time. Each educator will have to find a method of integrating the assessment designs into their own practice, and effectual formative assessment will look very dissimilar in different classrooms. It will, however, have some distinctive characteristics. Learners will be considering more often than they are seeking to remember something, they will think that by working hard, they get intellectual, they will appreciate what they are working in the direction of, and will know how they are advancing. References: 1. Brookhart, S. M. (Nov. 2009). â€Å"The Many Meanings of Multiple Measures†. Educational leadership. Multiple Measures. Vol. 67, No. 3. Available at: http://www. ascd. org/publications/educational-leadership/nov09/vol67/num03/The-Many-Meanings-of-? Multiple-Measures?. aspx (Accessed on July 15, 2010). 2. McMillan, J. H. (2000). Essential assessment concepts for teachers and administrators. California: Corwin Press. 3. â€Å"Formative and Summative Assessment† (n. d. ). Glencoe/McGraw-Hill. Interactive Educational Systems Design, Inc. Available at: http://www. readingnavigator. com/mkt/assets/formative_and_summative_assessment. pdf (Accessed on July 15, 2010).