Each new morn new widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows strike heaven on the face...What are the circumstances and what does this quote mean?

Macduff crossed over to England to meet Malcolm who had
taken asylum in the court of the English king after the murder of his father, King
Duncan. Macduff's intention was to convince Malcolm about the dire need of raising a
military campaign against the wholesale tyranny unleashed by Macbeth, and to urge the
legitimate heir to the throne of England to lead the said
campaign.

However, Malcolm expressed doubt as to the
bonafides of Macduff, and pretended that he would be a worse choice than Macbeth. The
quotation is part of Macduff's comments on the reign of terror as let loose in Scotland
by Macbeth. It means how the tyrant resorted to random and wide-spread violence. As
Macbeth went on killing men, new widows who lost their husbands and orphans who lost
their fathers howled and cried in great agony and helplessness. Such foul crimes
committed in the world of man also struck the world above with deep sorrow. Macduff's
words are charged with profound anguish and authenticity of
emotions.

What is the relationship between reason and emotion?

The relationship between reason and emotion is complex,
multi-faceted, and not yet completely understood. Most philosophers and social
scientists consider emotion to be pre-rational; that is, we experience emotion before
engaging in rational  thought processes. For example, if you see a lion running toward
you, you experience fear before you rationally calculate that the lion means you harm.
Due to the pre-rational nature of the experience of emotion, we often depend on emotion
to make split-second (or "intuitive") decisions.

On the
other hand, reason can change emotion. You may feel sad because you have to move far
from home. After thinking about the benefits of your move, that sadness may be replaced
with a sense of excitement or happiness. The relationship between reason and emotion is
thus not uni-directional, rather, each influences the other.

How did French loan words influence English after the Norman invasion in 1066?

The major influence of French words in the time right
after the Norman conquest was that French became the prestige language of England.  When
one language becomes a prestige language, many of its words (especially in areas of
culture and power) enter into the native language of the
country.

This is how French impacted the English language. 
French words entered the English language in areas of power (government, military) and
in areas of culture (food, entertainment).  These words like baron, dame, lieutenant,
enemy, pork and beef came to be used by people who wanted to get themselves into power
or who wanted to act like they were high class.  Eventually, they filtered down to the
rest of the people.

In The Great Gatsby, is the scene where Owl Eyes and his friend drive into the ditch a foreshadowing of the scene where Daisy hits Myrtle?I say...

I like your way of thinking here, but unfortunately I do
not agree, because the contexts of the two different crashes are completely different
and the points that Fitzgerald tries to bring out are also completely different. Let me
explain. Chapter Three, where the crash with Owl Eyes occurs, is a massive description
of the kind of parties that Gatsby threw, who went there and what the guests got up to
during the party. We already met Owl Eyes saying he had been "drunk for a week" in
Gatsby's library, and the drunkenness of Owl Eyes and the other person who was in the
car when it crashed, and didn't even know that it had stopped, clearly highlights the
kind of irresponsible attitude of the rich and famous who attended Gatsby's
parties.

Clearly this incident bears little similarity with
the crash that clears Myrtle. In the crash in Chapter Three, no one is killed and the
car is completely de-railed because of drunkenness. In the crash towards the end of the
book where Myrtle dies, it is a cold-blooded act of murder that is not a result of
drunkenness and does not destroy the car, apart from denting it. The only similarities
that do exist between the two crashes are that they both occur because the upper class
are able to do these kind of things and get away with it, without facing any punishment
that will severely effect them. Of course, Daisy is able to get Gatsby to take the blame
for killing Myrtle.

How does the metaphysical poetry of John Donne reflect his life and character?

This is an excellent question.  Donne was a very learned
man, and so the often highly intellectual nature of his poetry inevitably reflects his
deep and broad learning.  He was well read in numerous subjects, and so it is not
surprising that so many of his poems show such a wide range of intellectual interests. 
He was particularly interested in matters of religion, partly because he was raised in a
Catholic family during a time when it was technically illegal to be a Catholic.
Eventually, of course, he became one of the most highly respected priests in the
Protestant Anglican church. His religious poetry, therefore, often expresses a deeply
felt personal desire to think and speak truly about God.  "Satire III," for instance, is
a splendid example of Donne's very serious commitment to discovering truth in religious
matters.  At the same time, the poem also shows that Donne knew how difficult it could
be to arrive at such truth, especially during times of great religious controversy, such
as the era in which he lived.  It is possible to argue that Donne's deep interest in
religion affected nearly all his poems, including the ones that might seem at first to
have little to do with religion in any overt sense.  "The Flea," for instance, can seem
at first merely an erotic poem of secular love, but it is possible to argue that this
poem -- like much of Donne's apparently secular poetry -- reflects, through irony,
Donne's commitment to fundamental Christian ideals.  In other words, Donne may not
intend us to take the speakers of such poems as "The Flea" nearly as seriously as the
speakers take themselves. Such speakers, one can argue, are presented ironically in
order to teach spiritual lessons through clever indirection. Only a man as learned and
as well read and as interested in religious topics as Donne was could have written the
kind of poetry Donne composed. An excellent book on this topic is John Donne:
Conservative Revolutionary, by N. J. C. Andreasen.

Summarize Mark's views on the United States' state of Civil Defense preparedness. Does the author seem to agree with him?

Mark's views on U.S. Civil Defense preparedness are
enlarged upon in the conversation Mark has with Randy in Randy's new Bonneville at the
virtually abandoned airfield, and his views have a most negative
tone.

The term "Civil Defense" has been replaced in recent
times with the terms "emergency management" and "Homeland Security." Civil defense
preparedness is the government authorized, non-military actions that are taken (or
planned) to prepare the civilian population for military attack (or for other
catastrophes such as the contemporary focus on asteroid collision or massive solar
flares and coronal mass ejections). Mark speaks rather succinctly to the civil defense
preparedness in the setting of the story when he says that tipping off the people is
"something Civil Defense should have done weeks--months ago."

In
summary, Mark's views of the country's Civil Defense
preparedness (in the setting of the story; the author's own views reflect Civil Defense
preparedness in the United States during the Cold War era) is that it suffers
form:

• secrecy; "[S]omebody says, '...Let's not
  alarm the public.' So everything stays [classified as] secret or
  cosmic."


• delay: "[E]verybody ought to be digging
  [shelters] or evacuating right this minute."


• reliance on
  the covert: "Maybe if the other side ... knew that we knew, they wouldn't try to get
  away with it."


• out-moded mentality: "Chevrolet
  mentalities shying away from a space-ship
  world."

Mark has a poor opinion of the
decisions made at the highest government level and at the top level of military command.
If Mark were in a position of authority, Mark would have approached Civil Defense by (1)
honestly and candidly informing the public of the mounting threats; by (2) instructing
the populace to immediately begin "digging" bomb shelters and stocking them with
provisions; by (3) making approaches to "the Russians" to lay out the intelligence that
was known (rather like the disclosure of information that later occurred in real life
with Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs); by (4) getting "Bold" "Impatient" "Rude men" to jolt
and invent and demand the country's way out of the "Chevrolet" mentality and into a
"space-ship world" mentality.

While trying to deduce an
author's views from the fiction that that author writes can
be tricky, it can also be said that, as with the poet of lyric poetry, the voice and
stance of the author can be assumed to be heard in the protests, warnings, views and
lessons of apocalyptic narrative. This was certainly true of The Riddle of the
Sands written in 1903 by Erskine Childers as a warning to the British about
their lack of invasion preparedness in England. Considering other apocalyptic and
post-apocalyptic literature, like Wyndham's The Chrysalids and
The Day of the Triffids, that the author speaks through his narrative
can further be asserted as a truth. Consequently, there is a firm argument for asserting
that Pat Frank expresses his own views about United States Civil Defense preparedness
through his narrative and, particularly, through the voice of Mark Bragg. Indeed, the
argument can be taken further to assert that Frank is, like Erskine Childers before him,
warning his country about its failures to be prepared, in this case, for Civil
Defense.

What outline should I follow in order to write a good augmentative essay (Arguing a Position)?

There are different ways to structure an essay like this. 
Different teachers might prefer different structures and so you might want to consult
with your own teacher.  I prefer the following structure to an essay.  (Of course, there
needs to be an introduction and conclusion, but I will discuss the body of the essay
here.)

In the body of the essay, you should argue both for
and against your major points.  This shows that you have understood that other points of
view are possible and it gives you a chance to rebut those other points of view.  There
are two possible ways to do this.

You could outline your
essay like this:

A.  Points against my
argument

B.  Points for my
argument

In each of these headings, you would give all of
the points against and for your point.  (I recommend doing it in this order so that your
argument is the "last word.")

Alternatively (and I think
this is better), you could go point by point.  In this format, each paragraph would
present the opposing point of view followed by your own point of view.  I believe this
is more effective because it puts the two arguments together in one place and makes it
easier for the reader to compare the two.

So, I would
structure the body of the essay into paragraphs where each paragraph gives a point that
disagrees with your point and then presents evidence to rebut the opposing point of
view.