1. think about the character you used during the "living the great depression" activity. is your
character male or female? how old is your character? what is your character's position in life?
what is your character's background? does your character have other people who are
dependent on him or her? everything about a person and his or her background can influence
the thoughts and opinions a person has.
2. next, think of all the details about your character and how they might influence his or her
opinions. fill out a rafts chart to identify your character's point of view when telling about his
or her experiences during the great depression. in doing this, you will need to decide who your
character is going to communicate with in this assignment because you will be writing a letter
reflecting on your situation and your opinions about it.
3. acting as if you were your character, write a letter to the person you have identified as your
audience (perhaps a teacher would be best). in your letter, make sure that you write using your
character's point of view and voice. also, make sure to include whatever feelings you may have
had when you were in that person's role.
your letter should be at least one good paragraph in length.

in the 1800s, chinese workers migrated to the united states, first to work in the gold mines, but also to take agricultural jobs, and factory work, especially in the garment industry. chinese immigrants were particularly instrumental in building railroads in the american west, and as chinese laborers grew successful in the united states, a number of them became entrepreneurs in their own right. as the numbers of chinese laborers increased, so did the strength of anti-chinese sentiment among other workers in the american economy. this finally resulted in legislation that aimed to limit future immigration of chinese workers to the united states, and threatened to sour diplomatic relations between the united states and china.

the name of the theory is landmass theory.

from thales, who is often considered the first western philosopher, to the stoics and skeptics, ancient greek philosophy opened the doors to a particular way of thinking that provided the roots for the western intellectual tradition. here, there is often an explicit preference for the life of reason and rational thought. we find proto-scientific explanations of the natural world in the milesian thinkers, and we hear democritus posit atoms—indivisible and invisible units—as the basic stuff of all matter. with socrates comes a sustained inquiry into ethical matters—an orientation towards human living and the best life for human beings. with plato comes one of the most creative and flexible ways of doing philosophy, which some have since attempted to imitate by writing philosophical dialogues covering topics still of interest today in ethics, political thought, metaphysics, and epistemology. plato’s student, aristotle, was one of the most prolific of ancient authors. he wrote treatises on each of these topics, as well as on the investigation of the natural world, including the composition of animals. the hellenists—epicurus, the cynics, the stoics, and the skeptics—developed schools or movements devoted to distinct philosophical lifestyles, each with reason at its foundation.

with this preference for reason came a critique of traditional ways of living, believing, and thinking, which sometimes caused political trouble for the philosophers themselves. xenophanes directly challenged the traditional anthropomorphic depiction of the gods, and socrates was put to death for allegedly inventing new gods and not believing in the gods mandated by the city of athens. after the fall of alexander the great, and because of aristotle’s ties with alexander and his court, aristotle escaped the same fate as socrates by fleeing athens. epicurus, like xenophanes, claimed that the mass of people is impious, since the people conceive of the gods as little more than superhumans, even though human characteristics cannot appropriately be ascribed to the gods. in short, not only did ancient greek philosophy pave the way for the western intellectual tradition, including modern science, but it also shook cultural foundations in its own time.