What are two criticisms of the European society which the three cannibals make at the end of the essay?

"Of Cannibals" is just one of more than 100 essays in Michel de Montaigne's collection titled Essays, originally published in the year 1580. In this particular piece, the author praises the culture of a tribe living in Brazil, even though they kill and eat the bodies of their enemies after victories in battle. While making it clear that he is definitely not a proponent of cannibalism, Montaigne describes the virtuous principals that people of this tribe adhere to in their day-to-day lives and the great society they've built. He comes to the conclusion that, on the whole, European culture is much more barbaric than theirs.
Near the end of the essay, Montaigne relays an anecdote in which he got to witness the meeting of King Charles IX and a few members of this tribe when they came to visit Rouen, France. When asked by someone to give their opinion of what they had seen in France so far, the Brazilian visitors gave three answers, of which Montaigne remembers two. The first was that they "thought it very strange" that so many large, strong men were guards for the young King and would "submit to obey a child." King Charles IX took the throne when he was only ten years old, and the tribe members found it very weird that this monarchy, and specifically these fully grown men, had a child as their leader and "that they did not rather choose out one amongst themselves to command."
The second was that they did not understand why the men in the room before them owned so much, while they had observed so many people begging in the streets, "lean and half-starved with hunger and poverty." In their eyes, these people living in need should have been revolting against the greedy men in power.

What specific moment is the climax of "The Sniper" by Liam O'Flaherty?

One could consider the climax of "The Sniper" the moment when the Republican sniper successfully tricks the opposing sniper and kills him in one shot. The moment that the enemy sniper wounds the Republican sniper is considered the rising action, which leads to the climax. The Republican sniper ends up removing his helmet, placing it over the muzzle of his rifle, and slowly raising the helmet from behind the parapet so that the enemy sniper can see it. The enemy sniper then shoots the helmet off of the rifle and assumes that he killed the Republican sniper. The climax takes place when the Republican sniper peeks above the parapet undetected and shoots the unsuspecting enemy sniper. The events that transpire following the climax are considered the falling action, and the story concludes when the Republican sniper discovers that the enemy sniper he killed was his brother.

The climax is the highest point of interest in the plot of a piece of literature. In Liam O'Flaherty's "The Sniper," the plot revolves around the actions of a Republican sniper on a Dublin rooftop during the Irish Civil War. After revealing himself to the enemy by killing an old woman and armored car commander in the street below, the sniper is confronted with an enemy sniper who is out to kill him. The climax of the story comes when the Republican sniper kills his opponent after tricking him by pretending to be dead and dropping his rifle into the street. When his adversary comes into the open, the Republican sniper shoots him with his pistol. Everything after this point in the story must be considered the falling action and resolution, in which the sniper discovers the man he killed was his brother.

Calculus of a Single Variable, Chapter 9, 9.3, Section 9.3, Problem 19

sum_(n=1)^oo(4n)/(2n+1)
The integral test is applicable if f is positive, continuous and decreasing function on infinite interval [k,oo) where k>=1 and a_n=f(x) . Then the series sum_(n=1)^ooa_n converges or diverges if and only if the improper integral int_1^oof(x)dx converges or diverges.
For the given series a_n=(4n)/(2n+1)
Consider f(x)=(4x)/(2x+1)
Refer to the attached graph of the function. From the graph we observe that the function is positive and continuous. However it is not decreasing on the interval [1,oo)
We can also determine whether the function is decreasing by finding the derivative f'(x) such that f'(x)<0 for x>=1
Let's find the derivative by the quotient rule:
f(x)=(4x)/(2x+1)
f'(x)=((2x+1)d/dx(4x)-(4x)d/dx(2x+1))/(2x+1)^2
f'(x)=((2x+1)(4)-(4x)(2))/(2x+1)^2
f'(x)=(8x+4-8x)/(2x+1)^2
f'(x)=4/(2x+1)^2
So f'(x)>0
which implies that the function is not decreasing.
Since the function does not satisfies the conditions for the integral test, we can not apply integral test.

arccos(1/2) Evaluate the expression without using a calculator

arccos(1/2)
Let this expression be equal to y.
y = arccos(1/2)
Rewriting this in terms of cosine function the equation becomes:
cos(y) =1/2
Base on the Unit Circle Chart, cosine is 1/2 at angles pi/3 and (5pi)/3.
y=pi/3, (5pi)/3
Then, consider the original equation again.
y = arccos(1/2)
Take note that the range of arccosine is 0lt=ylt=pi . Between pi/3 and (5pi)/3 , it is only pi/3 that belongs to this interval. So the solution to the original equation is:
y = arccos(1/2)
y=pi/3
 
Therefore, arccos(1/2) = pi/3 .

What were the goals of the second-wave feminist movement?

The second-wave feminist movement developed in the mid to late 1960s. Its goal was to provide women with equality in pay and educational and career opportunities and to change the broader social culture so that women's roles were not narrowly confined to those of wife and mother. In the 1950s and early 1960s, women were often steered towards traditional roles. After they were married, they tended to drop out of the workforce. Even before marriage, women were only widely accepted into certain jobs, such as teaching, nursing, or related fields. Very few women were accepted into graduate school in areas such as medicine, law, or business, and they were not generally encouraged to take athletics seriously. The 1963 book The Feminist Mystique by Betty Friedan, which exposed the way in which middle-class women felt trapped in their roles as housewives, was a catalyst for this movement.
The women's rights movement that developed in the 1960s was concentrated on opening up graduate school programs, including in what had been traditionally masculine fields such as medicine and law, to women. In addition, the movement changed the ways in which people thought about women's ability to succeed in academics, professions, and athletics.

The second-wave feminist movement concerned itself with more substantive issues relating to women's equality. It argued that it was no longer enough to remove legal obstacles to women's participation in public life or in the economy; women needed to demand more positive rights. In other words, activists involved in second-wave feminism demanded the freedom to do instead of just freedom from, which had been the main focus of the first-wave of feminism.
Second-wave feminism sought to raise women's consciousness as much as anything, alerting them to the numerous injustices which women faced in all walks of society. Many of these injustices arose from issues such as domestic violence, the very discussion of which was regarded as taboo in many quarters. As this would suggest, second-wave feminism embraced a broad range of issues, and in their diagnosis of the ills of patriarchal society, many of its most strident activists sought to change that society from top to bottom.
It wasn't enough that women should be protected from injustice; the gendered notion of justice as it had hitherto operated in traditional patriarchal society needed to be challenged. In this sense, as in many others, second-wave feminism was considerably more radical than its first-wave predecessor. It advocated an agenda of comprehensive social and economic reform that struck at the very roots of patriarchal society, pointing a way towards substantive, rather than simply legal, equality between the sexes.

Second-wave feminism focused on gaining equality and rights for women in all sectors of life—social, legal, employment-related, and reproductive. First-wave feminism had focused on legal rights such as women’s right to vote and had been successful following the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. The next wave was not as singularly focused.
During World War II women aided the war effort by working in factories. After the war they were sent home to resume domestic life, and boredom set in. By the 1960s, this lifestyle was no longer acceptable. The second-wave feminists who rose up in response wanted the same opportunities in life that their male counterparts enjoyed. This included equality in the workplace and higher education institutions, fairness in divorce proceedings, and reproductive rights.
There was resistance and outright rejection of the aims of the movement. A major failure was that of the Equal Rights Amendment, which would have codified equal rights in America. Discord existed within the movement as well due to discrepancies between conflicting groups of feminists. Some were only interested in equal legal rights (such as the ERA would have provided), while more radical thinkers wanted complete liberation. The issue of abortion was a major break between the groups. Some were against it, believing that it would tarnish the entire movement, while others felt a personal contention with the procedure itself; others advocated abortion access and the right to choose.
Despite these issues, the second-wave feminists were able to achieve significant success in many areas: new jobs opened to women, divorce laws were passed, Title IX allowed women into historically male colleges, and Roe v. Wade allowed abortion in all fifty states. Most of the equal rights that women enjoy today are a direct result of the second wave of feminism.
https://www.britannica.com/event/womens-movement

As it applies to ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, how did the geography and environment in both locations affect the development of each culture’s economy, government, and religious practices?

Mesopotamia and Egypt are River Valley Civilizations—some of our earliest agricultural civilizations that centered around rivers. Mesopotamia, which means "between two rivers," was centered over the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in modern-day Iraq. Egypt was centered on the Nile River. Both of these civilizations developed a specific way because of their location on a water source.
Economically, both civilizations had trade based on agriculture. Both the Nile and the Tigris/Euphrates Rivers allowed these civilizations to irrigate their lands and plant crops, like barley and millet. In turn, they were able to trade excess crops to other local peoples (and each other!) as an economy.
Politically, they developed differently. Egypt was a centralized state with their leader, the Pharaoh, in charge of all things. In Egypt, the state also directed the economy. There was government control over many aspects of daily life. They did this in order to control the flow of goods into and out of the State and also because the Pharaoh was considered to be a God. This is different from the Mesopotamians. In Mesopotamia, they were organized as city-states with their own rulers.
The most famous, Hammurabi of Babylon, was never considered a God like the Pharaohs of Egypt but was important in codifying laws and keeping the peace. The government did not have as large a role in controlling the economy, and merchants had some power in trading and selling. The city-state structure was adopted here in part because of the environment; Mesopotamia spread over a large, diverse area with different needs.
Religiously, they were both polytheistic. Many early civilizations adopted polytheism and worshiped gods related to aspects of their daily life, like the sun, death, food, fertility, and so on.

Both Mesopotamia and Egypt were fortunate to have rivers with cyclical flooding patterns that could be predicted. Mesopotamia, located in the Fertile Crescent, was between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. These rivers provided silt to fertilize the fields when they flooded. Early civilizations also used irrigation to provide water for crops during the dry season. The early religions of the area believed that the gods controlled the water.
Early governments were placed in charge of defending valuable cropland through war and trading surplus crops with other areas. Kings replaced priests over time; these kings soon made their reigns hereditary. The economy of Mesopotamia was improved by trade with other regions and conquest through war. The region was a major exporter of grain.
The ancient Egyptians, like the civilization in Mesopotamia, were quite dependent on floods to fertilize crops. The Nile's floods were cyclical, and the Egyptians were able to create a calendar in order to predict the floods. The gods controlled everything in this life and the next; the Egyptian pharaohs, in order to increase their power, declared themselves divine. In order to further proclaim their power, the pharaohs were placed in elaborate tombs with all the items needed for a happy afterlife.
The Egyptians placed a high value on education for its ruling classes, as it was important to chronicle grain harvests and laws for future generations. These hieroglyphics still line many burial sites in Egypt. Like the Mesopotamian culture, Egyptian culture also produced a lot of grain for export, but it was also able to take advantage of its position on the Mediterranean Sea. The Egyptians traded with and were commercial rivals with the Sea People, such as the Phoenicians.

Mesopotamia, whose civilization developed around 4,000-3500 BCE, was located between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, a fertile area (called the Fertile Crescent) that allowed for irrigation and the cultivation of crops. The development of agriculture allowed hunter-gatherers to settle down into permanent settlements and live in urban areas. The need for the upkeep of the cities along the rivers, as well as the construction of dams and other means to control the rivers, led to the development of government. Religion played a vital role in the development of government and urban areas, as gods were thought to be integral to the development of cities, and cities developed around ancient cult centers. Religious ziggurat structures were often located at the centers of cities. Around 3600 BCE, kings replaced priests as leaders and became the spokespeople of the gods.
In ancient Egypt, the people were dependent on the flooding of the Nile to grow and irrigate crops in an otherwise arid land. The dynastic period in Egypt began around 3100 BCE, when King Menes unified Upper and Lower Egypt and established his capital at Memphis near the Nile delta. The ability to grow surplus crops led to the development of a complex civilization that had a king (later a pharaoh) at its head, who controlled the agriculture and trade of the region. As the government developed in complexity, the vast bureaucracy collected taxes, maintained a system of justice, and recruited workers to grow certain crops and produce certain products as well as to carry out irrigation projects. The pharaohs of Egypt were regarded as divine and as intermediaries between people and the gods. The pharaohs were seen as critical in maintaining the support of gods to create an orderly universe. 

What does Mr.Easton mean when he says "you know it takes money to keep step with the crowd in Washington"?

Mr. Easton, though now on his way to Leavenworth prison, originally comes from an elite social background. That's why Miss Fairchild, who once moved in the same circles as him, automatically assumes he's a marshal escorting a prisoner to jail rather than a prisoner himself. Because of his background, his smooth, dapper appearance, and his polished manners, it's simply inconceivable to the young lady that her former acquaintance could be some kind of criminal. Yet that is precisely what he is.
He explains to her that he headed out West because he needed to make money. Easton hints that he would've preferred to become an ambassador, a very important role in the bureaucracy, just the thing for a gentleman of quality. Sadly, it was not to be. We gather from this that Easton and Miss Fairchild are from Washington's social elite. But it's an expensive business living among the upper-classes of the nation's capital. It's important to be seen, to keep up appearances. This involves spending large sums of money on fine clothes, luxurious accommodation, fancy restaurants, and all the other trappings of a socially respectable life. Keeping up with such a moneyed crowd requires cash, and lots of it. So Easton headed out West to find some, only he did so dishonestly.
https://americanliterature.com/author/o-henry/short-story/hearts-and-hands