Economic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 3

Economic - Essay Example China adopted this very strategy and hence, climbed up the peak of growth post globalization, although other economies around the world have to compensate for the same. Hence China received pleas for a currency appreciation from nations around the world; nevertheless, it seldom gave such an action a serious thought as it threatened to slow down its economic growth though in the short run. But, China’s central bank recently exhibited compliance to these external requests when it hiked the minimum cash reserve ratio to be maintained by Chinese commercial banks, by 0.5%. This step however, was a well-thought one as it indirectly also favored the country’s economic growth. Hike in Cash Reserve Ratio Banks normally hold a certain amount of reserves which is a part of the deposits which it receives from its customers. These reserves are held as a shield against any unprecedented crisis befalling the economy. In fact, the amounts that these banks should mandatorily hold back a re decided by the apex central monetary body on the basis of a number of factors including the risks of being submerged under a crisis. The central bank normally declares a required reserve ratio which the underlying commercial banks must comply to and maintain as a part of the total deposits which they receive. Out of this reserve requirement that they retain, a certain amount needs to be maintained with the concerned central bank of the country as cash reserve ratio. Purpose of CRR is to act as a shield or protection against any crisis. For instance, in case that any bank needs more money than it has with itself at any point of time; in such situations, the bank might turn towards the concerned central bank which forwards this amount eventually. The Chinese Central Bank announced an additional cash reserve ratio of 0.5% over what the domestic commercial banks had been maintaining initially with the former. This step was believed as a development owing to requests for currency appr eciation coming from nations all around the world. Such a measure increased the liabilities of the Chinese Central Bank as more and more cash started flowing in from commercial banks. The commercial banks however, experienced an increase in their assets as a result given that a hike in CRR implied an increase in the reserves of these banks. Impact upon the economy of China Central Bank of China’s policy of increasing the CRR by an additional 0.5%, implied a reduction in the amount that the commercial banks affiliated with it, could advance to potential borrowers. Hence, the primary implication had been a reduction in the amount of money being circulated through the nation. On a secondary basis, to check the amount of loan demands, the commercial banks were instigated to raise the market rate of interest which negatively affected the volume of investments in the economy. Thus, GDP is likely to fall. Moreover, when GDP falls, so does the amount of consumption and investment whi le, the demand for imports increase. Hence, during the second phase, the economy is characterized by an increased reduction in GDP owing to reductions in consumption, investment and net exports. Impact on Money Multiplier Money multiplier, represented is the rate at which an economy can create credit given the economy’s monetary base; it is represented as, MM = (1 + c/d)/ (r/d + c/d); where, c/d ? Currency-Deposit

Hamlet vs Agamemnon Tragedy Essay Example for Free

Hamlet vs Agamemnon Tragedy Essay Hamlet and Agamemnon are two extraordinary and timeless plays. Both plays deal with the big themes of love, loss, pride, the abuse of power and the fraught relationships between men and gods. Hamlet and Agamemnon, the protagonist of the plays that were named after them, are two tragic heroes that commit some terrible crime without realizing how foolish and arrogant they have been. Both protagonist are of higher status, and have power. However, Hamlet is more tragic than Agamemnon, for several reasons. Hamlet is a good, kind men. He is the Prince of Denmark and loved by the Danish people. Unfortunately for him, his beloved father, King Hamlet, dies. Hamlet loves his father very much, and he is deeply hurt when his dad passed away. He is even more shocked and hurt by the fact that his mother, Queen Gertrude, marries his uncle, Claudius, shortly after her husband died. Prince Hamlet sees and has a conversation with his father’s ghost. He learns that the King of Denmark was murdered by his brother, Claudius. Hamlet swears to avenge his father, and he starts to play mad so he can gather evidence and put his plan in motion. At first, he is not completely sure that the ghost was his father, and he tries to get confirmation by inviting King Claudius and Queen Gertrude to a play based on what the ghost had told him. After he is convinced that his father was murdered, he plans to kill Claudius. Hamlet is not very eager to kill his uncle, he is not happy about the situation, and he does not act fast. Agamemnon is completely different than Hamlet. He rapes Clytemnestra and murders her husband. King Agamemnon did not stop there. After he marries Clytemnestra, he sacrifices their youngest daughter, Iphigenia, to gain favourable winds to take the Greek fleet to Troy. King Agamemnon seems to be more like King Claudius. Both of them killed the rightful King, took his wife, and killed or planned to kill the Queen’s child. Agamemnon kills his daughter, Claudius plots to kill Hamlet at least twice. Agamemnon is popular, and appreciated for his battles skills and victories. He doesn’t seem to care much about other persons and values, other than his power, battles victories, and the public’s adoration. Hamlet killes Polonius when he was talking with his mother after the play. Polonius was hiding, and ears dropping for the King. When Gertrude thought that Hamlet wants to attack her, she yelled for help, and Polonius  responded, calling for help from behind the arras. In an unusual moment of spontaneous action, Hamlet stabs the concealed figure, believing it to be Claudius. The death of Polonius cased great suffering to Ophelia, his daughter. She gets a little bit mad, singing nonsense about death and sex, and ends up drowning herself. Laertes, Polonius’s son, wants justice for his father, and becomes another potential revenge hero, but unlike Hamlet, he is more determined. He doesn’t care about the spiritual part of death like Hamlet. King Claudius adds fuel to the fire, and convinced Laertes to kill Hamlet in a duel. Laertes tells Claudius that he will poisoned the tip of the blade, to kill Hamlet. Claudius promised to poison the wine in case Laertes fails to scratch Hamlet with his sword. Hamlet is not aware of this plot, and accepts Claudius’s offer to fight Laertes. During the fight, there is a switch of rapiers, resulting in both Hamlet and Laertes being stabbed with the poisoned blade. Gertrude, meanwhile, mistakenly drinks the poisoned wine. She dies and Hamlet demands that they seek out the treachery that killed her. Laertes, realizing that he and Hamlet are both dying, explains everything and blames Claudius. Hamlet kills Claudius with the poisoned sword, finally fulfilling his quest for revenge. Laertes begs Hamlet to exchange forgiveness with him and dies. Hamlet forgives Laertes. Horatio wants to drink from the poisoned wine, so he can die with Hamlet, but he is stopped by the Prince. Hamlet tells Horatio that he must live in this horrible world so he can tell Hamlet’s story. Lord Hamlet announces that Fortinbras, Prince of Norway, will be the next king of Denmark and dies. Despite the fact that in the end, Prince Hamlet, Laertes, King Claudius, Queen Gertrude, and Ophilia died, the order in the kingdom is restored. Clytemnestra is the one seeking revenge in Agamemnon. During Agamemnon’s ten year absence, Clytemnestra and her lover, Aegistheus, planned to murder Agamemnon on his return. Clytemnestra wants revenge for her daughter, Iphegenia. When Agamemnon comes back, he brings with him, as concubine and slave, the ravished Trojan Princess, Cassandra. Cassandra has the gift of prophecy, but nobody believes her, thanks to Apollo’s curse. She sees the Clytemnestra plans to kill both Agamemnon and Cassandra, but the Chorus do not believe her . Princess Cassandra prays for a quick death, a wish that would be granted. Agamemnon commits hubris. He agrees to walk on the ‘red carpet’ that has been rolled out for him by his wife, even though he  mentions it is treatment meant only for the gods. Clytemnestra preparing her husband for a bath, put on him a bath-robe she had cunningly sewn to be a strait jacket. Wearing this, Agamemnon was completely helpless. His wife butchered and buried him without honours. She does the same to Cassandra. In Hamlet, King Claudius dies, King Hamlet finds peace, and Denmark gets rid of a bad king. Hamlet is buried like a soldier, having a military funeral. In a way, in Hamlet, Laertes commits hubris as well. He dares damnation and he mentions he would kill his father’s murderer in a church. Since both Laertes and Agamemnon commit hubris, both of them die shortly after, which is the element of nemesis in tragedy. Hamartia element, a tragic error, can be seen in Agamemnon when Agamemnon enters the house with Cassandra, trusting that Clytemnestra (his wife) is in fact happy to see him. Similarly in Hamlet, Hamlet agrees to duel with Laertes, not knowing that he is going to die by Laertes hand. Hamlet was a kind and honorable person. While he wanted revenge for his father, in a way he was right to do so. He did not wanted and enjoyed the idea of killing Claudius, but he pulled himself together at the last minute, right before he died. King Claudius was guilty of murdering a King, stealing a Kingdom, a Queen, and planning the murder of Prince Hamlet. Hamlet played for his revenge with his life. Since he was buried as a soldier, and the order was restored in Denmark, the Danish people did not hate him for his sins. Also, in Hamlet, we have more death on stage. Innocent people died, like Ophelia and Polonius. Agamemnon is completely different. He raped, he killed in cold blood, he sacrificed his own daughter to win a war, and he committed hubris, and took hostage the Princess of Troy. His wife, while she might be right in a way to avenge her daughter, she was looking forward to the task of killing Agamemnon and she also killed Cassandra, even thou she was innocent. Clytemnestra and he lover, wanted to be in power and had no remorse. Hamlet is more tragic than Agamemnon, because of the innocence and remorse the major characters showed.

Fixing A Computer :: essays research papers

Fixing A Computer   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Fixing computers is easy. The paragraphs to follow contain information on labeling parts, problems, and repairing vs. fixing. In these paragraphs will also compare a computer to the human circulatory system.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The internal parts of computers are very easy to recognize, once they are labeled. We will start by opening the case into the computer. Before opening the case don’t forget to have the computer turned off and unplugged, we don’t want to fry the computer parts. Once inside, we have a look around, and see a lot of parts that are unrecognizable to us. We will start from a top to bottom process of labeling parts. First look towards the bottom the big green board that everything else lies on is called the motherboard. A motherboard acts like the arteries of a human taking the blood all over allowing the blood places to travel, except the motherboard does this with electrical signals. The motherboard has three cards on it; they are the graphics card, sound card, and modem. They act like the voice, the eyes and the mouth of a human. You can tell the difference between them by how they connect in the back of the computer. The graphics card has a prong plug i n, the sound card has a place where speaker plugs can go and modems have a place where you can put your phone line. Next to the left of the cards we see there is a little chip with a fan on top, this is the processor. The processor acts like the heart of a human sending blood all over the body, but instead of blood the processor sends electrical signals. Straight above the processor in the little slot is the hard drive. The hard drive acts kind of like the brain of the whole computer, by storing information on it and sending and receiving electrical signals. Finally we have the cd-rom. This is located above the hard drive. The cd-rom is the mouth of the human. But the cd-rom takes in data instead of food. Next on the motherboard is three little chips, sitting next to the processor, these are called Random Access Memory, or RAM. The ram acts like the quick storage in the brain it remembers the stuff that you are working on right then. There now that we know the computers insides, I will give examples of problems and explain how to fix them.

Employee Engagement Essay

They are more profitable, more customer-focused, safer, and more likely to withstand temptations to leave the organization. In the best organizations, employee engagement transcends a human resources initiative — it is the way they do business. Employee engagement is a strategic approach supported by tactics for driving improvement and organizational change. The best performing companies know that developing an employee engagement strategy and linking it to the achievement of corporate goals will help them win in the marketplace. Unleashing the Potential for Growth World-Class Average 33% 67% Engaged 49% Not Engaged Actively Disengaged 26% 7% 18% 9. 57:1 1. 83:1 Ratio of Engaged to Actively Disengaged What’s Your Engagement Ratio? Gallup’s engagement ratio is a macro-level indicator of an organization’s health that allows executives to track the proportion of engaged to actively disengaged employees. The average working population ratio of engaged to actively disengaged employees is near 2:1. Actively disengaged employees erode an organization’s bottom line, while breaking the spirits of colleagues in the process. Within the U. S. workforce, Gallup estimates this cost to the bottom line to be more than $300 billion in lost productivity alone. In stark contrast, world-class organizations that have built a sustainable model using Gallup’s approach have an engagement ratio of more than 9:1. As organizations move toward this benchmark, they greatly reduce the negative effect of actively disengaged employees while unleashing the organization’s potential for rapid growth. Copyright  © 2008, 2010 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved. 1 Gallup’s Research-Based Approach Gallup’s employee engagement work is based on more than 30 years of in-depth research involving more than 17 million employees. This research has appeared in many business and scientific publications, including the Journal of Applied Psychology and the Harvard Business Review and in our bestselling books First, Break All the Rules and the sequel 12: The Elements of Great Managing. 12 Elements of Engagement Gallup has developed and identified 12 core elements that link powerfully to critical business outcomes. These 12 statements emerged from Gallup’s pioneering research as those that best predict employee and workgroup performance. The 12 Elements of Great Managing I know what is expected of me at work. I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right. At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day. In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work. My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person. There is someone at work who encourages my development. At work, my opinions seem to count. The mission or purpose of my organization makes me feel my job is important. My associates or fellow employees are committed to doing quality work. I have a best friend at work. In the last six months, someone at work has talked to me about my progress. This last year, I have had opportunities at work to learn and grow. Copyright  © 1993-1998 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved.. 2 Copyright  © 2008, 2010 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved. Adding Elements In addition to the 12 elements, Gallup recommends adding questions that address your company’s unique culture or address business issues facing your organization. Gallup’s expansive item bank includes key indices to help organizations measure their strength in areas such as innovation, change management, customer orientation, leadership, and inclusiveness. Gallup’s latest meta-analysis (an analysis of data from more than 152 organizations) shows dramatic differences between top- and bottom-quartile workgroups on key business outcomes. It is through this meta-analysis that Gallup continues to validate the 12 elements. Beyond the dramatic difference engaged workgroups show in productivity, profitability, safety incidents, and absenteeism versus disengaged workgroups, Gallup has proven that companies with world-class engagement have 3. 9 times the EPS growth rate compared with organizations with lower engagement in their same industry. Linking Employee Engagement to Critical Business Outcomes Employee Engagement and Critical Business Outcomes 30% 20% 10% 0% -10% -20% -30% -40% -50% -60% -70% -37% -49% -49% -60% -25% -27% -41% Turnover High Absenteeism Turnover Orgs. Low Turnover Orgs. Safety Incidents Patient Safety Incidents 18% 12% Quality (Defects) Shrinkage 16% Customer Productivity Profitability Top decile companies have 3. 9 times the Earnings Per Share (EPS) growth rate Difference Between Top and Bottom Quartile Performance Copyright  © 2008, 2010 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved. 3 Systematically Improving Employee Engagement Improving engagement goes beyond simply asking the right questions. Engaging employees requires a year-round focus on changing behaviors, processes, and systems to anticipate and respond to your organization’s needs. From the leadership team to the frontline employees, all levels within an organization must commit to making these changes. A Sustainable Approach Gallup approaches employee engagement with sustainability in mind, and thus, provides managers and leaders with tools to help drive performance on an ongoing basis through a combination of measurement, reporting, learning, action planning, and strategic interventions. Using the latest technology and cutting-edge research, Gallup continually provides clients with innovative solutions that drive change. From state-of-the-art organizational mapping software and online tools to first-class instructional designers and consultants, Gallup’s approach to employee engagement reduces the amount of time needed to move from measurement to improvement. The world’s top-performing organizations recognize the critical role managers play in achieving business objectives. As a global leader in the area of employee ecruitment and selection, Gallup has a proven method for hiring managers and employees with the talent to build engagement. After reviewing nearly 10,000 validated pre-employment questions and the global Q12 database, Gallup uncovered a subset of questions that enables organizations to assess whether a job candidate, if hired, will boost engagement levels. This engagement selecting approach will help hiring managers find candidates who have more potential to drive engagement in the workplace. Selecting for Engagement 4 Copyright  © 2008, 2010 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved. What the World’s Best Organizations Do Differently Gallup drives organizations to systematically improve employee engagement using proven interventions at the local and enterprise level. Beyond setting the proper strategy, interventions include finding the right performance metrics that drive accountability, creating a comprehensive communication strategy, and designing development opportunities for every employee, manager, and leader. While partnering with many of the world’s best organizations, Gallup has observed that world-class organizations make employee engagement a priority by focusing on the following: Strategy World-class organizations develop a formula for success by looking objectively and rigorously at the business problems they face and by focusing on finding the right employees and keeping them engaged. For these organizations, an employee engagement strategy is not only fundamental to the way they do business, it is critical to their success. Accountabil ity and Performance The top-driven companies focus on outcomes. They define and rigorously measure success at every level in the organization. These measurements ultimately help focus each person, team, department, and business unit on driving performance and results. Communication Within the best performing organizations there is a cultural alignment between the employees and the company, paired with a strategic alignment between activities and company goals. These organizations use their corporate communication touchpoints to reinforce their commitments to employees and customers. Development As the struggle for talent intensifies, organizations face a continual challenge to build and grow their leadership capacity. The world’s top-performing companies have comprehensive leader and manager development programs, but they also go one step further — these programs are performance-driven and incorporate a comprehensive succession plan throughout the organization. They make it a priority to not only identify leadership potential, but also to focus intently on the creation of developmental paths for current and future managers and leaders. †¢ †¢ †¢ Copyright  © 2008, 2010 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved. 5 Proven Return on Investment Increasing employee engagement directly correlates with a positive effect on key business metrics. A partnership with Gallup enables your organization to design, implement, and execute an employee engagement strategy, and at the same time, your organization will have concrete evidence of the effect of this strategy on the bottom line. Gallup’s proof of ROI goes beyond the case study level. By continually validating the effect of increasing employee engagement through meta-analyses and business impact studies, Gallup can observe ROI trends across hundreds of clients. The observed net gain in key business outcomes for business units that grow employee engagement is a direct link to ROI. Typical Net Gain at the Organizational Level 8. 0% 7. 0% 6. 0% 5. 0% 4. 0% 3. 0% 2. 0% 1. 0% 0. 0% Median Growth in Engagement (. 15 GrandMean) m A Tu r Think about the cost to replace an employee, attract a new, loyal customer, or pay workers’ compensation. Using quick and simple math with the net gain values provided, your organization can begin to model the ROI it is capable of attaining. 6 Tu r Pa t Pr od er uc tiv ity Pr o? ta bi lit y Copyright  © 2008, 2010 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved. h y et af Q ge ow ty eis ka -H fe -L ua lit C ig te rin Sa tS en ve r ve r no no ien bs Sh us to y Performance Optimizationâ„ ¢: Managing the Employee-Customer Encounter Taking employee engagement one step further, Gallup’s Performance Optimization approach offers an innovative, research-based approach to one of the toughest challenges businesses face t oday: how to drive success by effectively managing the moments when employees interact with customers. This approach brings employee and customer engagement on to a single management platform. It combines a proven method for assessing the health of the employee-customer encounter with a disciplined process for improving it. Gallup is unique in its ability to design and execute this aligned approach because our expertise and global capability in marketplace consulting practices is as deep as our expertise and global capability in workplace consulting practices. e Impact of Performance Optimization HIGH TM CE11 CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT Boost 70% 240% Boost 1. (Baseline) LOW LOW Boost HIGH 70% Q12 EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT Our meta-analysis of engagement and financial performance in companies across multiple industries reveals that business units that score above our database median on customer and employee engagement significantly outperform units that rank in the bottom half on both measures. Organizations employing Performance Optimization principles have outperformed their competitors by 26% in gross margin and 85% in sales growth. Their customers buy more, spend more, return more often, and stay longer. Blending strategic analysis with hands-on, practical steps and advice, Performance Optimization changes how leaders view their work, their employees, and their customers. Copyright  © 2008, 2010 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved. 7 Gallup’s Global Reach Gallup’s 2,000 professionals deliver services at client organizations and from 40 offices around the world. Benchmarking World-Class Organizations Gallup maintains the world’s most comprehensive historical and comparative employee engagement databases. The historical database contains data collected in 67 languages from more than 17 million respondents in 175 countries worldwide. Gallup updates the comparative database annually, which enables clients to benchmark their organization’s employee engagement levels against the most recent data Gallup collects from around the world. Gallup’s most recent database, covering the past three years, includes data collected from more than 6. million employees representing more than 815,000 workgroups in 16 major industries and more than 70 sub-industries in 170 countries worldwide. Gallup understands the importance of timely data and relevant comparisons in the competitive landscape of today’s fast-paced marketplace. As a result, your organization can compare its engagement data with Gallup’s global, world-class, industry-specific, or custom database segments. Change That Drives Outcomes Transformation does not occur instantaneously. It takes a lot of energy and effort to initiate change, and it takes even more energy to build on that momentum. It takes focused attention to drive engagement. A partnership with Gallup will help your organization influence and inspire engagement by building a â€Å"people† strategy that holds people accountable for performance, aligns communication, and builds development opportunities for leaders, managers, and frontline employees, giving your organization a competitive edge. 8 Copyright  © 2008, 2010 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright  © 2008, 2010 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved. 9 â€Å"Best Buy has already had success in connecting improved employee-engagement scores to store performance: it found that for every 10th of a point it boosted the former, its stores saw a $100,000 increase in operating income.

Unit 4 Business Communication

Verbal communication Verbal communication is when a person communicates with someone in a way that they can hear and understand each other. It can be done in many different ways such as telephone, face to face and meetings. Although verbal communication is the easiest it has its advantages and its disadvantages just like every way of communication. In terms of Tesco’s verbal communication the example are the following: * Customer services * Tannoy system * Meetings * Interaction with customersThe tannoy system is one way of the verbal communication in the Tesco industry they use them a lot for either flinging a lost child in the shop or getting staff to a till immediately this is one of the fastest ways of communication in a Tesco shop. The second way of communication in is meeting the also use them a lot because that’s one of the most important things in the business, they need to sit and discourse about what’s happening in the business what they need to do to m ake it better.The biggest and most important communication in Tesco is the verbal interaction with the customers. Written We see written information everywhere on a day to day base around Tesco information is any information written down in words or symbols. This is the one of the easiest ways to communicate with a person and written information can really help the customers that are deaf or hard hearing. * posters * letters * reports * PowerPoint * leaflets Web-based- Web bases information is collection and distributing information through the web or internet.For Tesco’s website web-based information can be used for in informing Competitor and performance for the customers the people that don’t know anything about the website and have an interest for chopping at Tesco’s and the staff within or outside the shop. * Internet * On-Screen On-screen information is any information that I presented on screen such as a presentation for collages by showing lessons, using the computer, this can apply to chats, web-based information, and computer information Multimedia Multimedia is the integration of multiple forms of media. This includes text, graphs, audio, video, etc.

Difference Between Natural and Artificial Flavors

Difference Between Natural and Artificial Flavors If you read the labels on food, youll see the words natural flavoring or artificial flavoring.. Natural flavoring must be good, while artificial flavoring is bad, right? Not so fast! Lets take a look at what natural and artificial really mean. There are two ways to look at natural and artificial flavors. First, there is the formal definition of an artificial flavoring, as defined by the Code of Federal Regulations: ... a natural flavor is the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional. Anything else is considered artificial. That covers a lot of ground. In practice, most natural and artificial flavors are exactly the same chemical compounds, differing only by their source. Both natural and artificial chemicals are processed in a lab to ensure purity. Safety of Natural Versus Artificial Flavors Is natural better or safer than artificial? Not necessarily. For example, diacetyl is the chemical in butter that makes it taste buttery. Its added to some microwave popcorn to make it butter-flavored and is listed on the label as an artificial flavoring. Whether the flavor comes from real butter or is made in a lab, when you heat diacetyl in a microwave oven, the volatile chemical enters the air, where you can breathe it into your lungs. Regardless of the source, this can cause health problems. In some cases, natural flavor might be more dangerous than artificial flavoring. For example, natural flavor extracted from almonds can contain toxic cyanide. The artificial flavor has the taste, without the risk of contamination by the undesirable chemical. Can You Taste the Difference? In other cases, you can taste a world of difference between natural and artificial flavors. When a single chemical (artificial flavoring) is used to mimic a whole food, flavor is affected. For example, you can probably taste the difference between blueberry muffins made with real blueberries versus muffins made with artificial blueberry flavor or real strawberry ice cream versus artificially flavored strawberry ice cream. A key molecule might be present, but the true flavor may be more complex. In other cases, the artificial flavor might not capture the essence of the flavor you expect. Grape flavoring is a classic example here. Artificial grape flavor tastes nothing like grapes you eat, but the reason is that that molecule comes from Concord grapes, not table grapes, so its not the taste most people are used to eating. Its worth noting a natural flavor must be labeled as an artificial flavor, even if it comes from natural sources if it is added to a product to impart a flavor that isnt already present. So, if you add blueberry flavor, from real blueberries to a raspberry pie, the blueberry would be an artificial flavoring. The Bottom Line The take-home message here is that both natural and artificial flavors are highly processed in a lab. Pure flavors are chemically indistinguishable, where you would not be able to tell them apart. Natural and artificial flavors diverge when artificial flavors are used to try to simulate complex natural flavors rather than one single chemical compound. Natural or artificial flavors may be safe or dangerous, on a case by case basis. The complex chemicals, both healthful and harmful, are missing from any purified flavoring compared with the whole food.

Setting a Purpose for Motivated Reading

Setting a Purpose for Motivated Reading Setting a purpose for reading helps keep students focused and engaged while reading, and gives them a mission so that comprehension can be reinforced. Reading with purpose motivates children and helps students who tend to rush, take their time reading so they wont skip over key elements in the text. Here are a few ways teachers can set a purpose for reading, as well as teach their students how to set their own purpose. How to Set a Purpose for Reading As the teacher, when you set a purpose for reading be specific. Here are a few prompts: Read until you get to the part where so and so did this.Stop reading until you find out about so and so.Read until you discover___.Read until you find out where the story takes place.Close the book when you figure out the problem in the story. After students have completed your task you can help build comprehension by asking them to do a few quick activities. Here are a few suggestions: Draw a picture of what they think will happen next in the story.Create a concept map recording elements in the story.Write down a problem they discovered while reading the story.Ask critical thinking questions, such as What the solution to the problem in the story?...What is the purpose of this book?....What is the author trying to accomplish?...What issues arise in the story?Retell the story in your own words with a partner.Compare how the characters have changed throughout the story. Teach Students How to Set Their Own Purpose for Reading Before teaching students how to set a purpose for what they are reading make sure they understand that a purpose drives the choices they make while they are reading. Guide students into how to set a purpose by telling them the following three things. You can read to perform a task, such as specific directions. For example, read until you meet the main character in the story.You can read for pure enjoyment.You can read to learn new information. For example, if you wanted to learn about bears. After students decide what their purpose for reading is then they can select a text. After the text is selected you can show students before, during, and after reading strategies that match their purpose for reading. Remind students that as they read they should refer back to their main purpose. Checklist for Reading Purposes Here are a few tips, questions, and statements students should be thinking about before, during, and after reading a text. Before Reading: What do I already know about the topic?What can I expect to learn?Skim the book to find out what I will be learning. During Reading: Pause during reading to reflect upon what was just read. Try to link it to something you already know.Do I understand what I just read?Place a sticky note next to any question, unfamiliar word, or comment you would like to share in the text. After Reading: Reread any passages that confused you.Go over your sticky notes.Summarize in your head what you have just read.