The external pricing decision Essays

The external pricing decision Essays The external pricing decision Paper The external pricing decision Paper The uses of Hubbart formula can have certain advantages and disadvantages. The Hubbart formula can establish the price over a period of time or a wide range of establishments. However, it requisite rate of return on owners capital employed, and works back to the total revenue that needs to be generated from accommodation. In addition to the required data, it also calls for the full cost, that is all the variable costs plus some share of fixed cost, and hence it is in fact a cost based pricing through the external pricing decision. Definitely, the company would like to attain what they are yearning for, nonetheless, this kind of approaches may appear to be too subjective and arbitrary, and it is acting as a method of allocating the fixed costs as well. Apparently, tourism is a seasonal industry and always influences by the global changes; therefore the occupancy of the hotel may vary according to different seasons and different incidents. Such as, a few months ago, there was a terrorism in Bali, after the Bali Blast, the travelers are not willing to travel to Bali since Bali seems to be a considerable dangerous place for them to travel. As a result, the occupancy of the hotels in Bali decreases significantly. Furthermore, we have to concern about the location of the hotel too, if it situates in Britain Brighton (the southern part of England where it is along the coastal area where it is a seaside resort), then the summer time will be the peak period of tourism, as a result, the seasonal prices should incline as well. As long as the hotel does not concern about this factor, then they will suffer from a great loss since there will be less visitors during the winter, and hence the occupancy within that period will be relatively lower. It appears that the occupancy that we use in the Hubbart formula is the average rate, yet it will amend noticeably in different months, so it is necessary to anticipate the monthly occupancy. It is certain that the demand for the tourism industry (e. g. hotels bedrooms) is always elastic, so it is unlikely that the tourism operating sectors (e.g. accommodation sector hotel) to set the prices according to the cost of the goods and services produced. As a result, it is essentially important for the company to realize the significance of charging the price that the market will bear, instead of charging the price according to their wishes. Thus, the full cost techniques can then applied to see if this obtainable price covers the full cost of the product or services, and how much profit can be made at this price. Last but not least, it is often said that pricing decisions are extremely complex. In addition to the incorporation of the basic cost and financial data, the Star Hotel should also add in other internal and external considerations, including macro-economic, environmental, political and social factors and also it should take the other factors non-financial and non-quantifiable nature (such as behavioral factors) into their concerns and considerations. To put it briefly, if the above disadvantages can be avoided, it may escape from the inefficiencies that automatically built into the costing system and the uncompetiveness and ongoing to the track of success. Pricing is closely related to the decision that managers in both profit-making and non profit-making sectors. Providing that the total revenues are not in excess of total expenses the firm must subsequently go into liquidation. Overwhelmingly, there are defined rules of pricing. In my point of view, the Star Hotel can either use the Hubbart Formula or Market-based Pricing, which is one way of the external pricing methods as well. It implicates that the price will be charged for goods and services offered to the travelers outside an organization on market prices. It is because the goods and services produced by the Star Hotel are in reality sold in a highly competitive market since there are other suppliers offering identical or near-identical products. Consequently, the suppliers will be competing fiercely in respect of price, quality, reliability, and services. Undoubtedly, the Star hotel is one of the participants in the tourism industry, and we can identify it as a tourism-operating sector. Moreover, the demand for the tourism products is actually elastic, meaning that the lower price is offered, the more units will be sold. By using this method, Star Hotel should firstly categorize its target market and evaluate its position in the market. Afterwards, the price can be set. Overwhelmingly, different markets will have its own price since dissimilar demands occur and also hotels have different abilities, such as some are better in services and some are famous for its quality products. Then an interpretation of the sales according to the source of reservations and category of client is necessary for a further review since it will disclose the standard achievable room rate. As a result, it is indispensable for the Star hotel to base its price per room on what is being charged in the market. Or else, if it charges more than the market price, their sales will be reduced. On condition that it charges less than the market, its sales will increase in short term but the market will quickly adjust to a lower level of selling prices. Furthermore, the market conditions largely determine a suppliers selling prices; it is particularly significant to ensure that tight control is exercised over costs. Otherwise, the gap between total sales and total costs (i. e. the profit) will be insufficient to guarantee an adequate return on capital employed. In case, external price determination is concerned, including both market oriented and cost oriented methods, we can generalize by arguing that prices tend to be governed by the market. And so it is important to ensure that unyielding management is exercised over costs, as there will normally be little opportunity to raise the selling price.

Biography of Chief Massasoit, Native American Hero

Biography of Chief Massasoit, Native American Hero Chief Massasoit (1580–1661), as he was known to the Mayflower Pilgrims, was the leader of the Wampanoag tribe. Also known as The Grand Sachem as well as Ousemequin (sometimes spelled Woosamequen), Massasoit played a major role in the success of the Pilgrims. Conventional narratives of Massasoit paint the picture of a friendly Native American who came to the aid of the starving Pilgrims- even joining them in what is considered the first Thanksgiving feast- for the purpose of maintaining peaceful relationships and harmonious co-existence. Fast Facts: Known For: Leader of the Wampanoag tribe, who helped the Mayflower PilgrimsAlso Known As: The Grand Sachem, Ousemequin (sometimes spelled Woosamequen)Born: 1580 or 1581 in  Montaup, Bristol, Rhode IslandDied: 1661Children: Metacomet,  WamsuttaNotable Quote: What is this you call property? It cannot be the earth, for the land is our mother, nourishing all her children, beasts, birds, fish and all men. The woods, the streams, everything on it belongs to everybody and is for the use of all. How can one man say it belongs only to him? Early Life Not much is known about Massasoits life before his encounters with the European immigrants other than he was born in Montaup (now Bristol, Rhode Island) around 1580 or 1581. Montaup was a village of the Pokanoket people, who later became known as the Wampanoag. By the time of the Mayflower Pilgrims interactions with him, Massasoit had been a great leader whose authority extended throughout the southern New England region, including the territories of the Nipmuck, Quaboag, and Nashaway Algonquin tribes. Colonists Arrival When the Pilgrims landed in Plymouth in 1620, the Wampanoag had suffered devastating population losses due to a plague brought by Europeans in 1616; estimates are that upwards of 45,000, or two-thirds of the entire Wampanoag nation, had perished. Many other tribes had also suffered extensive losses throughout the 15th century due to European diseases. The arrival of the English with their encroachments on Indian territories combined with the depopulation and the Indian slave trade, which had been underway for a century, led to increasing instability in tribal relationships. The Wampanoag were under threat from the powerful Narragansett. By 1621, the Mayflower Pilgrims had lost half of their original population of 102 people as well; it was in this vulnerable state that Massasoit as the Wampanoag leader sought alliances with the equally-as-vulnerable pilgrims. The Pilgrims were impressed with Massasoit. According to MayflowerHIstory.com, Plymouth colonist Edward Winslow described the chief as follows: In his person he is a very lusty man, in his best years, an able body, grave of countenance, and spare of speech. In his attire little or nothing differing from the rest of his followers, only in a great chain of white bone beads about his neck, and at it behind his neck hangs a little bag of tobacco, which he drank and gave us to drink; his face was painted with a sad red like murry, and oiled both head and face, that he looked greasily. Peace, War, and Protection When Massasoit entered into a treaty of mutual peace and protection with the pilgrims in 1621, there was more at stake than a simple desire to make friends with the newcomers. Other tribes in the region were entering into agreements with the English colonies as well. For example, the Shawomet Purchase (todays Warwick, Rhode Island), in which sachems Pumhom and Sucononoco claimed they had been forced to sell under duress a large tract of land to a rogue Puritan group under the leadership of Samuel Gorton in 1643, led to tribes placing themselves under the protection of the Massachusetts colony in 1644. By 1632, the Wampanoags were engaged in a full-scale war with the Narragansett. Thats when Massasoit changed his name to Wassamagoin, which means Yellow Feather. Between 1649 and 1657, under pressure from the English, he sold several large tracts of land in Plymouth Colony. After abdicating his leadership to his eldest son Wamsutta (aka Alexander), Massasoit is said to have gone to live the rest of his days with the Quaboag who maintained the highest respect for the sachem. Later Years and Death Massasoit is often held up in American history as a hero because of his alliance and assumed love for the English, and some of the documentation hints at an overestimation of his esteem for them. For example, in one story when Massasoit contracted an illness in March 1623, Plymouth colonist Winslow is reported to have come to the side of the dying sachem, feeding him comfortable conserves and sassafras tea. Upon his recovery five days later, Winslow wrote that Massasoit said that the English are my friends and love me and that whilst I live I will never forget this kindness they have showed me. However, a critical examination of the relationships and realities casts some doubt over Winslows ability to heal Massasoit, considering the Indians superior knowledge of medicine and likelihood that the sachem was being attended to by the tribes most skilled medicine people. Still, Massasoit lived for many years after this illness, and he remained a friend and ally of the Mayflower Pilgrims until his death in 1661. Legacy Peace between the Wampanoag Nation and the Pilgrims lasted for four decades after the 1621 treaty, and centuries after his death, Massasoit has not been forgotten. For more than 300 years, Massasoit, and many artifacts related to his time as chief were buried in Burr’s Hill Park, which overlooks Narragansett Bay in the present-day town of Warren, Rhode Island. A confederation of Wampanoags, who still live in the area, worked for two decades to secure funding and dig up Massasoits remains and the remains and artifacts of many other Wampanoag tribe members who were buried in Burrs Hill. On May 13, 2017, the confederation re-interred the remains and items in the park in a concrete vault marked with a simple boulder during a solemn ceremony. They hope the burial site will eventually be added to the National Register of Historic Places. Ramona Peters, the repatriation coordinator of the Wampanoag Confederation who led the project, explained shortly before the re-interment: I would hope Americans would be interested too. Massasoit made it possible for the colonization of this continent. Sources Daley, Jason. â€Å"Massasoit, Chief Who Signed Treaty With the Pilgrims, To Be Reburied.†Ã‚  Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 21 Apr. 2017.Hayes, Ted. â€Å"Burrs Hill Re-Burial to Be Solemn, Private Affair.†Ã‚  RhodyBeat, 12 May 2017.â€Å"Massasoit.†Ã‚  MayflowerHistory.com.â€Å"Massasoit Quotes. AZ Quotes.

Cars Technical Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6000 words

Cars Technical - Essay Example After World War I, the United States became a renewal of economic growth, from new inventions to growth of an expanding road infrastructure. This economic growth helped accelerate the need for the automobile. The automobile industry grew quickly because of many innovative inventions. In the 1950's innovation was getting greater speed through the design of more powerful engines. In the 1960's innovation was building a sleek but performance driven auto. In the 1970's, the automobile and gas shortage led many automakers to look for innovative ways to control emission and decrease gas consumption. The convergence of computer and auto industries helped improve gas mileage and cut down on emission. The last 25 years of the car industry has seen technical and design advances that increased standardization, platform sharing, and CAD design. Body styles have changed to include the hatchback, minivan and sport utility vehicle (Consumer Guide p 10). Automotive engines are called internal combustion (IC) engine because the fuel that runs them is burned internally, or inside the engines. There are two types, reciprocating and rotary. Reciprocating means moving up and down, or back and forth. Almost all automotive engines are of the reciprocating type. In these engines, pistons moves up and down, or reciprocate, in cylinders. This type of engine is called piston engine. Rotary engines have rotors that spin, or rotate. The only such engine now used in automobiles is the Wankel engine. 1 )Types of Engine System: 1.1 Car Engine: The main function of a car's engine is to make it move. Engines come in a range of strengths as well as speeds. All recent engines are made of vital parts. Car engines are built around cylinders (generally something from 2-12 of them, however usually 4, 6 or 8) in which the fuel is burnt. Super-strong metal and sealed shut, arte used to make these cylinders however at one end open and closes exactly like bicycle pumps: these consist of tight-fitting pistons (plungers) that may slide up as well as down in them. At the top of every cylinder, there are two valves. The inlet valve permits fuel as well as air to go into the cylinder; the outlet valve lets the exhaust gases loose. At the very top of the cylinder, a sparking plug (or spark plug) is present, this is a device which is controlled electrically as well as makes a spark to put fire to the fuel. At the base of the cylinder, the piston is connected to a continually turning axle that is known as a crankshaft. The crankshaft's function is to powers up the gearbox of the car which then drives the wheels. The capacity of an engine function is depends on the power or the horse power that i t develops. This in turn is reliant on the ability of the engine. 2.)Diesel Engines: In 1892, Rudolph Diesel, a German engineer developed the "diesel" engine. Unlike the gasoline engine, the diesel engine is capable of spontaneous combustion of liquid fuel without requiring spark ignition. "The key advantage of the diesel engine over the gasoline engine is its fuel economy as well as durability" (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_engine). Known as a "workhorse" the diesel engine became the engine of choice for heavy construction machinery, mining

Near Earth Objects (NEOs) Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Near Earth Objects (NEOs) - Research Paper Example Depending on how close they are to the Earth, they can be spotted with the naked eye, or they can be spotted with a telescope. Rather than clustered together, a comet is a single large object with a long tail. More often than not, it is the tail, and not the main part of the comet that can be seen. Near Earth Objects might be fun to look at, but they are capable of doing catastrophic damage. Craters around the world pay homage to the respect that they undoubtedly deserve. One of the most widely accepted theories for the extinction of dinosaurs is that a massive meteor struck the planet and radically changed both climate and atmosphere. Fortunately, when it comes to this modern age, there are methods and theories in which to deflect NEOs. All of these are untested, however, and have only performed in labs. A meteor, or meteorite, is a body of rock, ice, or metal that enters the Earth’s atmosphere. Many of these are small and harmless, and burn up upon entering the atmosphere. W hen you see a shooting star, or a meteor shower, that is what you are seeing. While no threatening meteors have recently struck the Earth’s surface, the evidence is all around us. The largest crater in the world, created by a meteor, is in South Africa in an area called the Vredforte Dome. This meteor hit the Earth more than 2 billion years ago, and was around 10 km in diameter. According to science, the impact of the meteor might have been massive enough to jumpstart multicellular life by increasing the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere. There are, to date, 841 World Heritage sites around the world. A World Heritage site is a special place that has either a cultural or a physical significance. These sites are chosen by the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization), which has been around since 1945. While Earth appears safe for the most part, it has had its share of close calls. One such close call occurred in September of 2004. An asteroid b y the name of Toutatis swept by Earth, missing it by about a mile. Several kilometers in diameter, if Toutatis or a rock like it were to hit Earth, it would devastate life as humans know it. The sun would be obscured by a huge cloud of dust that would travel around the globe, changing the temperature and climate of the Earth. Plants would start to die from lack of sunlight, unable to complete their cycles of photosynthesis, and herbivores would begin to starve. Humans would have major crop failure as well, and would need to resort to another means of sustenance. Eventually, over time, civilization would cease to be. Food, if any survived at all, would be both precious and hard to come by. Water would become stagnant and toxic to drink, as the evaporation process would be altered without sunlight. The impact of a NEO of this size would ultimately either destroy all life on the planet, or force evolution into overdrive. A rare NEO that is usually only seen by astronomers with high-pow ered telescopes and other special equipment is the comet. These massive objects are made up of ice and organic material. They carry behind them a long ‘tail’, which consists of ice and other materials that it picks up as it hurtles through space. The ‘head’ of the comet is called a nucleus, which consists of the ice and organic materials. The core of the nucleus is as yet unknown. These beautiful objects are far older than many of the planets in the solar system, the majority of them estimated to be

How Investing Became Cool Essay -- Internet Stock Market Essays

How Investing Became Cool Bankers and stockbrokers are not generally viewed as the most exciting people in the world. Traditionally, they have been viewed as those guys who are always reading the Wall Street Journal or talking on their cell phones when they're out in public; they wear the same white shirt, red tie combination every day of the week, and there's no noticeable distinction between work and the rest of their lives. Not exactly the kind of people you'd want to invite to liven up a Christmas party. And if you do invite them, they usually end up standing before a group of bored and confused laymen talking about hedge funds or IPOs. This was a common perception in the past, but within the last decade this image has changed considerably. The field of finance and investments has seen a considerable increase in popularity, and these same bankers and stockbrokers might even be considered cool now. The 1990s saw the climax of the longest bull market in recent history. As John Cassidy pointed out in an article for the New Yorker earlier this year, interest rates were low, unemployment was low, and thanks to the Internet bubble the Nasdaq was climbing at an unbelievable rate. To the average American, it started to become apparent that the stock market was a good place to turn to make a quick and easy profit, and the seemingly infinite growth made it seem like an almost risk-free investment. Soon everybody was talking about stocks like they were the newest and hottest fashion trend, and it was impossible not to notice. In a recent Money magazine article, Joseph Nocera says that in 1994, 34% of American households had some money in the market, up from just 10% in the 1950s, and this number climbed even further to mo... ...rk on Main Street. If you've understood everything I've said without too many visits to a financial dictionary, then you've proven my point. For the most part, the American public has been educated, and stock market lingo has made its way into everday speech. Perhaps it is only a matter of time before a diversified portfolio becomes as much a part of the American Dream as apple pie and white picket fences. Sources cited Ameritrade, Inc. 21 Oct. 2002; Cassidy, John. "Striking it Rich; The rise and fall of popular capitalism." The New Yorker. 14 Jan. 2002: 63; E*Trade Financial. 21 Oct. 2002; Internet Movie Database. 21 Oct. 2002; Nocera, Joseph. "Welcome to the Money Revolution." Money. Fall 2002: 34-38; Perkins, Edwin. Wall Street to Main Street: Charles Merrill and Middle-Class Investors. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Analysis on Materialism and Pink Flamingo Essay

â€Å"Materialism coarsens and petrifies everything, making everything vulgar, and every truth false.† These profound words spoken by Swiss philosopher Henri Amiel illustrate the wretched vulgarity and superficiality of the virus-like spread of materialism. In the essay entitled â€Å"The Pink Flamingo: A Natural History† by Jennifer Price, Price examines the popularity of the well-known pink flamingo and how it relates to the ideals and whims of American culture. Using American fascination of the plastic, pink flamingo as her medium, Jennifer Price shows her evident disdain for the superficial materialism present in American society. Jennifer Price introduces her analysis of the flamingo fad by presenting the rise of the pink flamingo in American culture and how society reacted upon the popularization of this cultural icon. Price effectively illustrates the American public’s reaction to the introduction of the plastic, pink flamingo by implementing specific diction that reinforces her own opinions of the â€Å"flamingo boom†. Similar to a mindless flock of birds following each other without much thought as to why, Price writes that â€Å"Since the 1930s, vacationing Americans had been flocking to Florida and returning home with flamingo souvenirs.† Price’s choice to describe Americans as â€Å"flocking† is meant to establish a comparison to a flock of mindless birds; in effect, the author characterizes Americans as bandwagon followers who lack any consideration for the examination of their culture and the conceptual purpose behind their symbolic icons. The author also presents how Americans have rendered the plastic, pink flamingo as symbolic of wealth and luxury. Price states that â€Å"In the 1910s and 1920s, Miami Beach’s first grand hotel, the Flamingo, had made the bird synonymous with wealth and pizzazz.† In the context of the essay, terms like â€Å"wealth† and â€Å"pizzazz† possess a shallow, superficial connotation that consequently translates into the flamingo as not only being a symbol of wealth and pizzazz but also a symbol of superficiality and vulgar ostentation. Price’s introductory paragraph is significant to the purpose of the essay because it illustrates the magnitude of the flamingo fascination and how Americans irrationally react to the flamingo’s popularity. In reiteration of Price’s stance, heavy criticism in the essay of the plastic  flamingo’s intrinsic boldness simply because it represents an exotic creature depicts Price’s severe disdain for the whims of American society. Price utilizes an ironic situation in conjunction with historical evidence when she attempts to establish a connection between real flamingos and plastic flamingos. Americans, Price points out, â€Å"had hunted flamingos to extinction in Florida in the late 1800s, for plumes and meat. But no matter. In the 1950s, the new interstates would draw working-class tourists down, too.† Price bluntly uses facts and historical research about American culture to express her disgust of the irony that the American nation has created for itself with regards to the plastic, pink flamingo. When Price writes â€Å"But no matter,† she reinforces the implication that it is as if American society regards the destruction of the flamingo as trivial b ecause capitalist society would benefit more from the production of plastic flamingos that could yield revenue. Thus, a nation that embraces the flamingo in all its beauty after having been so destructive of the natural population reveals the ironic carelessness and hypocrisy of American society. Furthermore, Price uses the image of the pink flamingo with its natural boldness to emphasize her point about the ignorance of Americans and their culture. The author states, â€Å"The bird acquired an extra fillip of boldness, too, from the direction of Las Vegas with†¦Flamingo Hotel. Anyone who has seen Las Vegas knows that a flamingo stands out in a desert even more strikingly than on a lawn.† The simple fact that a flamingo is a subtropical animal unfit to live in the desert gives Price the justification to illustrate how Americans took the flamingo fad to such extreme heights without giving one regard to the appropriateness of the flamingo in context. In doing so, Price once again conveys the total ignorance and lack of consideration that characterizes American society. The paragraph in which Price asserts her belief regarding the ironic situation American society has put itself in supports a belief that Americans have taken their obsession so far as to having destroyed a population of animals for the sake of wealth and luxury; thus, the pink flamingo, in the context of Price’s essay, is merely a symbol of the vulgar materialism Americans possess because of their ignorance and inconsideration for the appropriateness of destroying flamingos and â€Å"plasticizing† them. Jennifer Price provides further details regarding the plastic flamingo’s image which forces the reader to question if the plastic flamingo is even close to being a valid representation of its real-life counterpart. Price’s use of imagery in her essay and the interpretation that follows shows that she believes the plastic flamingo is obviously not even fit to represent the true flamingo. Price lists the colors, â€Å"tangerine, broiling magenta, livid pink, incarnadine, fuchsia demure, Congo ruby, methyl green,† in order to establish images that overwhelm the reader’s mind with bold colors. The extremely bold colors of the plastic flamingo such as â€Å"livid pink† and â€Å"broiling magenta† formulate the conclusion that the plastic flamingo could never be synonymous with the quiet, demure brilliancy of a real flamingo. Thus, once the reader has interpreted the color imagery and concluded that all of the colors are just â€Å"too much†, the reader can make the connection that society is also â€Å"too much† obsessed with putting on pretenses of wealth as opposed to focusing on issues that really matter such as the preservation of the real flamingo. Price also makes use of repetition in order to express the magnitude of the plastic flamingo’s color in society. Jennifer Price states, â€Å"Washing machines, cars, and kitchen counters proliferated in passion pink, sunset pink, and Bermuda pink.† By stating that the pink fad present in the plastic flamingo was also transferred into household appliances such as washing machines and kitchen counters, Price implies that the materialism and vulgarity of appearing wealthy spread into the home; the infiltration of materialism into the home meant that the desire for wealth and extravagance had also infiltrated the aspects of America n life. Price’s criticism of the flamingo’s color fascination supports the essay’s idea that Americans are only satisfied by boldness and extravagance as evident in the pink coloration of household appliances because pink was the color of the symbolic pink flamingo of wealth; Americans, thus, have difficulty equating modesty and demureness with any sort of wealth. The simple belief is that extravagance and flamboyance are the way to go if one wants to appear wealthy. Americans who desire wealth are therefore subject to the whims of materialism and superficiality. The author concludes by delivering an argument that criticizes American views and ideals, or the lack of, as being disrespectful and insulting towards the  significance of the flamingo itself. Jennifer Price uses cultural evidence from other nations to present the importance of the flamingo. She states, â€Å"People†¦have always singled out the flamingo as special. Early Christians associated it with the red phoenix. In ancient Egypt, it symbolized the sun god Ra. In Mexico and the Caribbean, it remains a major motif in art, dance, and literature.† The author uses these facts to justify that the reduction of the brilliant flamingo in American culture to a mere plastic souvenir attached to grass is a shameful comparison to other cultures that respect nature and revered the bird as a glorious symbol. Price then makes use of parallelism in order to strengthen her criticism of American culture. In the essay, Price states, â€Å"No wonder that the subtropical species stood out so loudly when Americans in temperate New England reproduced it, brightened it, and sent it wading across an inland sea of grass.† By using repeating sentence structures through parallelism, Price emphasizes that Americans have done so many things to the flamingo that the plastic version is so far removed from its original counterpart. Thus, Americans have lost sight of the intended genuine meaning behind embracing the flamingo in the first place. The significance of this section within the essay is important because it not only allows the author to go beyond criticism of the flamingo, but it also shows that, in the grand scheme of things, Price was more intent on exposing and criticizing the true validity of all American cultural values. Jennifer Price allegorized the fascination of the plastic flamingo in order to establish a sort of comparison between obsession with purchasing plastic flamingos that symbolize wealth and the materialism evident in American culture. Although the essay mostly depicts American society as insensitive and inconsiderate according to the author’s tone, the satirical nature of the essay provides a subtle, underlying, hopeful connotation that perhaps one day American society will learn to go beyond their materialistic greed and ascend to a different type of wealth. Bibliography: Jennifer Price’s essay â€Å"The Plastic Pink Flamingo: A Natural History†

Expressing Emotions Interjections and Exclamations

You will need quite a bit of experience in, and understanding of, a culture to speak Japanese naturally. If the proper expression does not come to mind instantly, it will sound like you are reading it. When you have a chance to hear the Japanese speaking, listen carefully to the way they speak as well as to their facial expressions. If you are interested in these exclamatory expressions, Japanese comic books (manga), which include many of them, might be good a resource to explore. Here are some of the widely used expressions. Remember that exclamations are used almost always in the  informal style. A, Aa Oh. A, nagareboshi da! Oh, thats a shooting star! Aree, Oya, Maa Oh my! Gee! Maa, kirei na nagame nee! Oh my, what a nice view!(Maa is used by women only.) E What? E, Shigoto yameta no. What, you quit your job? Masaka! No kidding! Masaka sonna koto ga aruhazu nai yo! That cant be! Hee! Really! Hee, sore wa yokatta ne! Wow, thats great! Naruhodo I see. Naruhodo, sou iu koto datta no ka. I see, thats the way it was. Yare yare Oh boy! Yare yare, nante koto da! Oh boy, what a disaster!