Low Down

Language-learning aptitude is often thought of as what is assessed by language aptitude tests. These tests address such cognitive abilities as making correspondences between sound and symbol, auditory discrimination (between sounds), native-language vocabulary, memorization, and linguistic analysis, especially inferring grammatical patterns from information provided on the test. Some of these non-tested factors are related to personality, learning style, and emotional factors, which are treated in subsequent chapters in this volume. These are not traditionally considered aptitude factors at all, yet they have much to do with language-learning success. Among these, tolerance of ambiguity (especially comforting in situations where you cannot understand everything) is a major element in language learning both inside and outside the classroom. With a greater tolerance of ambiguity, that learner would be more likely to keep listening until more information comes in and permits a good guess ...

The study of 28 serial murderers found that 68% of the killers used some form of a con game or ruse to lure their victims . T he majority of victims in this study (n = 390 or 54%) were blitz attacked, while only (n = 242) 33% of the victims were lured to their deaths through the use of a con. It can be noted that it has been proven and found that 21% of their child killers used a con to gain control over their victims . Con in this study means that the killer initiated contact with his victims by use of a verbal contact, questions asked, or story told. Ploy differs in that it requires the killer to use some form of subterfuge — a broken arm, stalled car, etc. — to lure victims to their deaths. In the present study, there were (n = 133) 18% of such cases involving a ploy to lure victims. The frequency with which serial murderers used sex as a ruse to gain access to victims was (n = 228) 31%. This variable includes offenders who made contact with their victims either as a prost...

Classification models of serial murderers have typically relied on speculation, as the focus of serial murder, that the offender is driven to murder due to his violent fantasies; suffers from some form of pathology; or kills due to narcissistic drives . Another focus on serial murderers that is propounded in the literature is that offenders kill to act out sexual perversions. These types of crimes are defined as lust murders. There are certainly sexual overtones to many serial murders, lust murderers may not be representative of serial murderers at large. The Facet Classification Model of serial murder does not carry direct implications for the internal dynamics of serial murderers. The model proposes that more objective accounts of what really happens in the course of a serial murder will relate in part to the link between the offender and the victim. The objective is important from a practical point of view, because it allows the study of the material that is available in police...

On the night of April 13. 1865. crowds of people moved through the brightly lit streets of Washington   to celebrate Lee's surrender at Appomattox. A man who was there wrote in his diary: "Guns are firing, bells ringing, flags flying, men laughing, children cheering, all, all are jubilant." At exactly 10:13. when the play was part way through. A pistol shot rang through the darkened theatre. As the President slumped forward in his s e at, a man in a black f let hat and high boo ts jumped from the box on to the stage. He waved a gun in the air and shouted "Sic semper tyrannist ”   and then ran out of the theatre. It was discovered later that the gunman was an act or named John Wilkes Booth .   He was captured a few days later, hiding in a barn in the Virginia countryside . The president Lincoln was assassinated. Lincoln was succeed ed as President by his Vice President. Andrew Johnson. The biggest problem the new President faced was how to deal with the defe...