Free Essays on Gates Of Fire

#1. Briefly summarize the plot of Gates of Fire. In 480 B.C., the Persian army under the command of King Xerxes went into Greece planning to make Europe part of the Persian Empire. The King’s two million troops ran into three hundred men of the Spartan army, squires and helots along with a few thousand allies at the Thermopylae, a narrow mountain pass in northern Greece named for the natural hot springs. The sole mission of this army was to hold off the Persians until the Greek army could get organized and reinforce this small band of Spartans and allies. It was suicide and these Spartans knew it but they also knew that they would die in honor and love for their country and their families would be honored for their sacrifice. Finally the Persian allies and the royal Immortals surrounded and flooded the remaining one hundred Spartan soldiers. Xeones mortally wounded, is found beneath a pile of dead warriors. Under orders from King Xerxes himself the royal surgeons are commanded to attend to Xeones. Once recovered, he is placed before King Xerxes and his scribes and historians to find out how so few men could hold off two million troops for so long before succumbing to its force. Xeones tells the story of his life and how he came to be to the Spartan army. He tells of the relationships, the training, the brotherhood of men and the culture that creates the most formidable army in the world. #2. Analyze any three of the major characters (Gobartes, Xeones, Alexandros, Dienekes, King Leonidas, Polynikes, Rooster, etc.) focusing on the following: What motivates the character? What type of person is the character? Does his persona change during the course of the novel? Do you like the character? Why or Why not? Cite examples from your reading. Xeones Xeones was a decent person who really only wanted to avenge the death of his parents and the betrayal of his village by the Argives. He felt that he had failed his famil... Free Essays on Gates Of Fire Free Essays on Gates Of Fire #1. Briefly summarize the plot of Gates of Fire. In 480 B.C., the Persian army under the command of King Xerxes went into Greece planning to make Europe part of the Persian Empire. The King’s two million troops ran into three hundred men of the Spartan army, squires and helots along with a few thousand allies at the Thermopylae, a narrow mountain pass in northern Greece named for the natural hot springs. The sole mission of this army was to hold off the Persians until the Greek army could get organized and reinforce this small band of Spartans and allies. It was suicide and these Spartans knew it but they also knew that they would die in honor and love for their country and their families would be honored for their sacrifice. Finally the Persian allies and the royal Immortals surrounded and flooded the remaining one hundred Spartan soldiers. Xeones mortally wounded, is found beneath a pile of dead warriors. Under orders from King Xerxes himself the royal surgeons are commanded to attend to Xeones. Once recovered, he is placed before King Xerxes and his scribes and historians to find out how so few men could hold off two million troops for so long before succumbing to its force. Xeones tells the story of his life and how he came to be to the Spartan army. He tells of the relationships, the training, the brotherhood of men and the culture that creates the most formidable army in the world. #2. Analyze any three of the major characters (Gobartes, Xeones, Alexandros, Dienekes, King Leonidas, Polynikes, Rooster, etc.) focusing on the following: What motivates the character? What type of person is the character? Does his persona change during the course of the novel? Do you like the character? Why or Why not? Cite examples from your reading. Xeones Xeones was a decent person who really only wanted to avenge the death of his parents and the betrayal of his village by the Argives. He felt that he had failed his famil...

10 Colloquial Terms and Their Meanings

10 Colloquial Terms and Their Meanings 10 Colloquial Terms and Their Meanings 10 Colloquial Terms and Their Meanings By Mark Nichol Why is there a taint surrounding ain’t? Why do editors get ornery or riled, or have conniptions or raise a ruckus, if writers try to use these and other words? The ebb and flow of the English language’s vocabulary is caused by competing crosscurrents. Neologisms come in with each tide, some of them washing ashore and others drifting back out to sea. But pronouncements from self-appointed experts and tacit disapproval by the self-selected better classes can also result in the relegation of certain terms and idioms to the realm of substandard or nonstandard usage. Here are ten words that, at least in terms of one sense, have been demoted by an association with rural dialect. 1. Ain’t: Once a fully legitimate contraction of â€Å"am not† employed at least in familiar conversation by speakers of all social classes, ain’t came to be identified with less well-educated people, and in the United States specifically with poor rural dwellers. It’s unfortunate that in writing, its use is restricted to humorous emphasis or idiomatic expressions (â€Å"Say it ain’t so!†). 2. Allow: The sense of allow meaning â€Å"concede† or â€Å"recognize† has been relegated to obscurity; seldom is this usage employed except in faux-rural contexts. 3. Conniption: This word for an emotional fit, usually appearing in plural form (â€Å"having conniptions†), is still employed occasionally in a jocular sense. It was first attested almost two hundred years ago, but its origin is obscure, though it’s possibly a corruption of corruption, which once had a connotation of anger, or might be derived from a dialectal form of captious (â€Å"fallacious†). 4. Fetch: Fetch has a colloquial air about it, and it’s unfortunate that the word lacks respectability, because it is more vivid and thorough a term than get (â€Å"Could you fetch that for me?†), and more compact than, for example, â€Å"Could you go over there and bring that back for me?† It survives in one formal sense, however: far-fetched (originally, â€Å"brought from afar,† but used figuratively for most of its centuries-long life span). 5. Ornery: This contraction of ordinary, influenced by the latter word’s less common senses of â€Å"coarse† and â€Å"ugly,† developed a connotation of cantankerous or mean behavior. Today, it’s used only in a humorous or scornful sense. 6. Reckon: The sense of reckon that means â€Å"suppose† (â€Å"I reckon I ought to get home†) is one of the most high-profile examples of stereotypical rural dialect, but it’s absent from formal usage. 7. Rile: This dialectal variant of roil, in the sense of â€Å"stir up,† is used informally to describe irritation or anger. 8. Ruckus: Ruckus, probably a mash-up of ruction (â€Å"disturbance†) and rumpus (â€Å"boisterous activity†) themselves both dialectal terms is now used only light-heartedly. 9. Spell: The sense of spell that means â€Å"an indefinite period of time,† related to the use of the word to mean â€Å"substitute,† is confined to rural dialect or affectation of such usage. 10. Yonder: This formerly standard term meaning â€Å"over there† is now known only in rural dialect (or spoofing of it) or in a poetic sense. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Wether, Weather, Whether"Certified" and "Certificated"When to use "an"