A prominent academic, Jarred Diamond, has called the agricultural revolution "the worst mistake in the history of the human race." Do you agree or disagree? What are your reasons? Please submit at least 250 words in your reply. You should go into the benefits and drawbacks of agriculture while painting your argument.

Source: Developing academic language with the SIOP Model, by Short and Echevarría

1.     On page 27, Short and Echevarría offer examples of verbal scaffolding. explain three scaffolds why they are important. (p. 27)

2.      What are the four categories of language objectives? please explain each category. (pp. 42-43)

You have been asked to participate on a committee charged with designing the ideal middle school. Given your knowledge of the developmental stages adolescents are traversing at this age, discuss three recommendations you would offer to promote the social, emotional, and academic development of the students and the rationale for each recommendation. (detailed answer please)

An analyst has gathered the following information about a company

Income Statement for the Year 2004
Sales                                                      $1,500
Expenses
COGS                        $1,300
Depreciation                     30
lnt Expenses                     40
Total expenses                                           1,370
Income from cont op                                     130
Gain on sale                                                   30
Income before tax                                         160
Income tax                                                     64
Net Income                                                   $96

Additional Information:                                              

Dividends paid                                                                                                 $30
Common stock sold                                                                                            20
Equipment purchased                                                                                         50
Bonds issued                                                                                                      80
Fixed asset sold for (original cost of $100 with accumulated depreciation of $70)     60
Accounts receivable decreased by                                                                        30
Inventory decreased by                                                                                       20
Accounts payable increased by                                                                             20
Wages payable decreased by                                                                               10

What is the cash flow from operations?

1. $170

2. $156

3. $135

In an article that appeared in Business Review Weekly on 4 March 2004 (entitled ‘Share options trap’), it is stated that under AASB 2 ‘companies must value and record as an expense any options granted to employees in exchange for their services. Previously, Australian companies recorded share-based payments in the notes to financial statements, arguing that share-based payments did not cost the company anything’. REQUIRED Do you think that there is any logic to the argument that ‘share-based payments did not cost the company anything’?

A 335-room hotel property recorded in 2004 a 66.6% occupancy and an ADR of $117.98. What is the property’s franchise fee (1) on a per available room basis and (2) as a percentage of rooms revenue if the agreement required the hotel to pay a reservation fee of $7.65 per available room per month; a royalty fee of 5% of rooms revenue; an advertising fee of 2.3% of rooms revenue; and a frequent traveler program fee of $5.00 per occupied room. The hotel had frequent stay guests totaling 6% of the occupied rooms. The initial fee is a minimum of $45,000 plus $300 per room for each room over 150.

1. Please use the information from Question 1 to calculate the Total franchise fee.

              Total franchise fee (round to a whole number) $ ___

2. Please use the information from Question 1 to calculate the Franchise fee on PAR basis.

             Franchise fee on PAR basis (round to two decimal places) $___ PAR/yea

3.Please use the information from Question 1 to calculate the Franchise fee as a % of revenue.

             Franchise fee as a % of revenue (round to two decimal places) ___%

It is argued that culture (Wong, 2004) and non-compliance with IFRSs (Ali, 2005) are two major barriers to harmonize accounting standards globally.

1. Briefly discuss the above statement in the Introduction section.

2. Do you agree that culture can be a barrier to harmonize accounting standards throughout the world? Discuss with examples and provide your own comments.

3. Do you think that compliance with IFRS is essential to harmonize accounting standards globally? What are the reasons for non-compliance with IFRS? Discuss with examples.

4. Do you think harmonization of accounting standards is possible? Justify your answer.

5. Summarise the above questions in the Conclusion section.

Analyse the Case
Shanghai is China’s financial and business hub. In late July 2004, with daytime temperatures reaching 37 degrees Celsius, the city’s electricity consumption surged to a weekly record of 14.35 million kilowatt hours. The city authorities resorted to asking 2,100 businesses to operate at night, and a further 3,000 others to adjust operating hours.
The Chinese government has certainly been working tirelessly to resolve the power crisis. Thermal coal is the principal fuel used to generate electric power in China. In July, Premier Wen Jiabao exhorted, “Railway departments should do their utmost for the transport of coal for electricity generation”. The Ministry of Railways increased train speed and freight loads, and allocated 90% of freight capacity to transport key materials. In the first half of 2004, Chinese railways shipped 480 million tons of coal, up 12.2% over the same period last year.
The Ministry of Communications has also pitched in. It diverted ships from overseas routes to domestic coal transport and approved emergency coal transportation on various roads and waterways. China is the world’s second-biggest coal exporter. In 2003, China exported 93 million tons of coal, including 80.8 million tons of thermal coal. To assure supplies to the electric power industry, the Chinese government has limited coal exports to 80 million tons in 2004. China Coal Import & Export Vice President Zhou Dongzhou predicted that exports of thermal coal would fall to 70 million tons.
In the late 1990s, the Chinese government dissolved the Ministry of Electric Power, and divided its functions between the State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC) and the State Power Corporation of China. The State Power Corporation owns five of the six transmission grids (Northwest, North, Northeast, Central, and East) and about half of the national generating capacity. Regulation is necessary to ensure that the State Power Corporation does not abuse its monopoly power.
The SERC regulates all aspects of the electricity industry, except pricing. With regard to electricity pricing, the SERC’s role is to advise the National Development Reform Commission (NDRC).
Some estimate that the nationwide power shortage will soon reach 30 million kilowatts, which is more than double Shanghai’s peak consumption.
With China headed for a power crisis, the government is under pressure to increase electricity prices. In June 2004, following persistent rises in the cost of fuel, the NDRC increased electricity prices by an average of 2.2 fen per kilowatthour in the East, North, Central, and South grids. But, apparently, this increase has not been sufficient. The threat of a power crisis continues.
Analyze the case and answer the following questions.
(a). Explain how the impact of a price increase on electricity consumption depends on the price elasticity of demand. (7.5 Marks)
(b). The price elasticity of the Indian demand for electricity has been estimated to be -0.65 among residential users and -0.45 among industrial users. If these elasticity’s apply to China as well, how will the impact of a price increase be spread between residential as compared with industrial users? (7.5 Marks)

The Pew Internet and American Life Project reported in 2004 that “17% of current music down loaders say they are using paid services”. Consider a random sample of 400 music down loaders. Compute the probability that X equals the mean of X where X is the number of current music down loaders (You can use appropriate program). Find the mean of X. Find the probability?

The number of users of a certain website (in millions) from 2004 through 2011 follows.

Using Minitab or Excel, develop a quadratic trend equation that can be used to forecast users (in millions). (Round your numerical values to one decimal place.)

T_t =

Consider the following time series.

b) Use the following dummy variables to develop an estimated regression equation to account for seasonal effects in the data:

x₁ = 1 if quarter 1, 0 otherwise; x₂ = 1 if quarter 2, 0 otherwise; x₃ = 1 if quarter 3, 0 otherwise.

=

(c)Compute the quarterly forecasts for next year.

quarter 1 forecast

quarter 2 forecast

quarter 3 forecast

quarter 4 forecast