Language and Literature
Wang Xiaoni's Half of Me is Aching revolves around the two opposite sides of her body as she examines the "psyche, the complexity of personality and the physical and psychological aspects of pain." The right side seems healthier than the left, and the right can be seen as the superior, more attractive side, while the left has more "sinister connotations." Contrasting images and actions run throughout the poem.
Social Science
Zhao Ziyang replaced Hu Yaobang when Hu died. Then when Zhao fell out of favor because he was seen as not conservative enough, Li Peng became the most likely person to replace him, but successes in suppressing the riots in Shanghai promoted Jiang Zemin to Zhao's vacated position.
Music
Hsi-p'i and erh-huang are "prototypes" of melodies in Peking opera generally characterized by the melodies and rhythms of the accompanying percussion section. Erh-huang melodies are generally used for serious and lyrical texts. The fiddle is tuned lower in erh-huang melodies, emphasizing the G and C scales. Erh-huang is often faster and has a denser rhythm, as it is meant for male singing voices. The hsi-p'i, on the other hand, is made for females and goes slower. Hsi-p'i melodies are usually used for brighter moments in the opera, and they emphasize the E and A tuning scales.
Art
jiaguwen - script used on oracle bones
jinwen - script used in bronze inscriptions
dazhuan - large seal script; big, rounded, curvilinear characters; used in the Qin dynasty
xiaozhuan - small seal script; compact, rounded, curvilinear characters; used on Qin dynasty steles
lishu - clerical or offical script; angular; used by clerks for bureaucratic records in the Han dynasty
kaishu - regular or standard script; about 50,000 characters from 8 fundamental strokes; still used in newspapers today
xin shu - running script; free and loose cursive writing style; revealing and personal as an art form
caoshu - draft script; free and loose cursive writing style; revealing and personal as an art form
Super Quiz
James Hansen describes the paradoxical finding that anthropogenic gases have heated the earth's surface by about two watts per square meter but that seemingly miniscule amount has led to enormous effects on our planet. "Small forces, maintained long enough, can cause large climate change."
Economics
China's financial sector is far from where it needs to be to become a major international power. Many of the banks are still state-owned, and they have "weak accounting systems and poor oversight." Often banks are strongly influenced by politics rather than commercial health. In addition, they are poor at assessing the riskiness of loans: the government has had to intervene and buy the bad loans so the banks could still remain in operation. China is working on improving its financial sector, however, as required for WTO membership.
Math
There are 11 letters in the set {TALLAHASSEE} and the letters A, L, S, and E repeat. The question essentially asks for how many different scramblings of all these letters can be made. So what you do is take the factorial of the total number of letters, divided by the factorials of how many times each letter appears. (Since letters T and H each appear once in the set, 1! is 1 and will not be written here.)
11! / (3! * 2! * 2! *2!) = 831600
Essay
The Good Earth was published in 1931 in the wake of the Great Depression. Many of the hardships of Wang Lung's family could have been quite relevant to the circumstances faced by the Westerners affected by major economic strife and famine, and the wealth the family attains could have been especially attractive in the novel. Also, for many, this was a rare look into the lives of those in the East. Buck's writing style is simple, direct, and very detailed. Buck offered a unique view of the East, since she was a Westerner who had been immersed in the Chinese culture since childhood. Plus, the story has universal themes.
