Works of William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare(1564--1616) is an English playwright and poet.He is generally considered the greatest dramatist the world has ever known and the finest poet who has written in the English Language. Shakespeare has also been the world's most popular author.Reasons for the broad appeal of Shakespeare's plays include his understanding of human nature, credibility of his characters and the verisimilitude of his expositions. He could see in a specific dramatic situation the qualities that relate to all human beings. He could thus create characters that have meaning beyond the time and place of his plays. His characters are individual human beings.They struggle just as people do in real life, sometimes successfully, and sometimes with painful and tragic failure.

Shakespeare's versatility accounts for his knowledge in a wide variety of all other subjects which include music,the law,the Bible, military science, the stage art, politics, sea, history, hunting, woodcraft and sports. His plays has enormous influence on culture throughout the world. His works have helped to shape the literature of all English speaking countries. Many words and phrases from Shakespeare's plays and poems have become part of everyday speech like this phrase....'To be or not to be' . Today they are used by millions of people who are unaware that Shakespeare created them.

English Grammar--Adverb Clauses

We shall start this article by defining an adverb. What is an adverb? An adverb is a part of speech that modifies a verb, an adjective and another adverb. For example, 'The Tempters manifest Becket's former desires whose enticements to the wrong thing are quickly dismissed ,leaving Becket to face his real struggle which is the temptation to do the right thing for thr wrong reason..Here 'quickly' is an adverb modifying the verb 'dismissed'. Again in the sentence , 'The man is very strong', 'very' is an adverb modifying the predicative adjective 'strong'.It is so called because it is a part of the predicate. Thirdly, an adverb modifies another adverb for example , 'He ran so fast that he fell down'. Here 'so' is an adverb modifying another adverb 'fast'.

Adverb clauses are introduced by such words as 'when,where, since, though, although, after, so, till, and until'. Examples of adverb clauses are: When oil prices soar, the masses suffer. They refused to go until they were paid their full salaries.The strike was called off when the government agreed to meet the demands of the striking workers. For more on grammatical functions, consult the author at this email....amekepaul@yahoo.com

Parental Influence on Career Choice

Societal expectations sometimes form the basis for how parents influence the career choice of their children. Such professions like medicine, law, engineering are highly regarded in society. There is therefore the temptation to force a child into doing one of the above courses.But it is a bad educational policy to force a child to do a course for which he or she does not have aptitude. Conducting of aptitude test becomes the best way of selecting pupils and students to pursue any course in higher education.

Certain family variables such as economic status of parents may also affect the career choice of a child. For instance a student may have a flair for mathematics and other related courses, which places him in a better position to do courses such as engineering. But if the parents do not have money enough to finance the training in such a course, they may tell him or her to do Mathematics single honours which they can finance. But regardless of parental and societal expectations, the individual should be allowed to discover his needs, values and aspirations to shape his career choice. They should not be forced into doing a course they do not have aptitude for.

English Tense Forms---The Present Tense

Tense is a change in the form of a word to show time. Thew present tense shows the action that is happening now.For example : They blow the whistle. John blows the whistle.He blows the whistle.She blows the whistle. Okolo and Okeke blow the whistle.

The above five sentences show the present simple tense for what happens regularly or everyday.Note the form of the verbs in each sentence. In the first sentence ' blow' is present tense with plural subject' they'. In the second sentence , 'blows' is present tense with singular subject 'John'. In the third sentence, 'blows' is also present tense with pronoun 'he' which is third person singular. In the fourth sentence 'blows' is also present tense with singular subject 'she' which is also third person singular. In number five sentence above the plural subject 'Okolo and Okeke' has the plural verb 'blow' accordingly.

The next sentence 'I blow the whistle' shows the formation of the simple present tense with the personal pronoun 'I ' . For more online lessons on this aspect of English consult the author using the email below
amekepaul@yahoo.com

Money and Banking

The arguement whether banking originated from China or from England is not of much significance. The important thing is that commercial banking arose from the activities of goldsmiths who had facilties such as sfes for the safe-keeping of valuables. Merchants and other people who had valuables(especially precious metals such as gold and silver which were used as money) deposited them with goldsmiths.They, therefore, performed an important function of commercial banks--the acceptance of deposits. At first they charged the merchants and other depositors some fees for performing these functions for them.

In exchange for valuables deposited, the goldsmith issued receipts for various weights of valuables deposited. The valuables deposited were to be repaid on the presentation of the receipts. Thew person or merchant who deposited the valuables found out tht he could use the receipts issued to him by the goldsmith to make purchase. The receipts therefore later became means of payments. The merchant who now receives the receipts from the depositor could present the receipts to the gold smith to claim the valuables. On the other hand he could use the receipts to make other purchases. Whoever presents the receipts to the goldsmith is given the valuables worth the amount on the receipts. Since the receipts issued by the goldsmiths were used as money, they became the first issuers of bank notes, a function which was originally performed by commercial banks.From the foregoing we can see immediately the origin of commercial banks.

Law of Evidence

The concept of the law of evidence has come a long way. This aspect of the law is based on a very important aspect of the legal practice and profession. It is said in legal parlance that the accused is presumed innocent until proved guilty.The main point in this aspect of law is to save the society from undue embarrassment emanating from accusationsand counter accusations.In fact the law of evidence has placed the onus of proof on the prosecutor. So it lies the shoulders of the prosecution to prove his case beyond all reasonble doubts.

In this case again the law talks about the burden of proof . The burden of proof lies entirely on the shoulders of the prosecutor. If some one is arraigned for a certain offence,the prosecutor has to tender some pieces of evidence in court to support his case.The exhibitsmust be tendered in court to buttress the charges . Otherwise the court can declare the accused discharged and acquitted.As mentioned earlier the aim of this law of evidence is to maintain order in society, to avoid a state of anarchy which can result in the absence of law evidence. Individuals in legal practice should be very mindful of adherence to this aspect of the law, especially the Judges and Magistrates on whose shoulder it lies to decide cases by the evidence before them.

The School and Local Community

The school has a lot to contribute to the local community where it is situated. First such a community automatically becomes the cathment area of the school. For instance, a primary school in any given community forms the place of learning for the pupils born in that community. This is advantageous because siting schools near communities saves the children the agony of having to travel long distances for their education.

Even in the universities there are certain percentages allotted to the prospective students of the university.The can only be adequately prepared for life in his particular community and his society if the educational programme to which he is exposed is relevant to the problems, needs and aspirations of the community and society.It is in this respect that the inherited colnial system of education was found wanting and for which it was severely criticized by both the Nigerian nationalists and outside bodies.The school that time was therefore alienated from the community it was supposed to be serving.Educational administrators were concerned mainly with maintaining a secure school environment where the teachers teach their lessons and pupils
learn.They were oblivious of the needs and aspirations of the community where the school situates.The school must take into account the needs of the society that gave birth to it.