how not to spend you senior year :: essays research papers

She starts off talking about her life, starting from the third grade. She tells how when she was in third grade her mom was killed by a hit and run. Since then her and her dad have moved a lot. Thirteen elementary schools from third grade to sixth grade, five middle schools, 6 high schools but she stayed in one place for her senior year. She learned not to unpack when ever she goes to a new place. They have always moved into furnished apartments, and she now has learned that not all places come complete with a couch. She remembers every time she moved somewhere there would be the Phone Calls of Mysterious Origin which were phone calls in the middle of the night and her dad would answer them but he wasn’t on for a long time so it couldn’t be a girlfriend. And after the phone calls would stop, she would come home to her dad at the kitchen table with The Map. During her freshman, sophomore, and junior year they moved all over the eastside of Lake Washington. And at the beginning of my senior year we moved to Seattle, Washington. And I started school at Beacon High. And on that first day of school she falls head over heels in love. His name was Alex Crawford. The guy she saw across the classroom but knew that he would not remember her after that. She was standing in the parking lot looking up at this metal column standing straight up on the building and nothing on the end which seemed awkward. Alex came up behind her and said that a car use to be there but it was getting repaired. They began talking and walked towards the school. She was walking out of her first period class when Alex showed up out of the blue. He walked her to all her classes occasionally bringing his friend Elaine Golden. They all went to Drama class together and when they got there everyone was working on Shakespeare. Mr. Barnes made her join in with everyone else. Alex and Elaine did a scene from Romeo and Juliet. When it came time for the kiss Elaine pulled away as he was coming in for the kiss. The whole class was laughing. When the teacher asked some questions she accidentally said what she was thinking out loud.

Making Biases in Management Essay

A decision criterion defines what is relevant in a decision. (True; moderate; p. 158) 4. The fourth step of the decision-making process requires the decision maker to list viable alternatives that could resolve the problem. (True; easy; p. 159) 5. Once the alternatives have been identified, a decision maker must analyze each one. True; moderate; p. 159) 6. The step in the decision-making process that involves choosing a best alternative is termed implementation. Studies of the events leading up to the Challenger space shuttle disaster point to an escalation of commitment by decision makers. (True; moderate; p. 163) 12. Managers regularly use their intuition in decision making. (True; easy; p. 164) 13. Rational analysis and intuitive decision making are complementary. (True; moderate; p. 164) 14. Programmed decisions tend to be repetitive and routine. (True; easy; p. 165) 15. Rules and policies are basically the same. A policy is an explicit statement that tells a manager what he or she ought or ought not to do. False; moderate; p. 166) 17. The solution to nonprogrammed decision making relies on procedures, rules, and policies. (False; moderate; p. 166) 18. Most managerial decisions in the real world are fully nonprogrammed. (False; easy; p. 167) 19. The ideal situation for making decisions is low risk. (False; moderate; p. 167) 20. Risk is the condition in which the decision maker is able to estimate the likelihood of certain outcomes. (True; easy; p. 167) 21. Risk is a situation in which a decision maker has neither certainty nor reasonable probability estimates. (False; difficult; p. 168) 22. People who have a low tolerance for ambiguity and are rational in their way of thinking are said to have a directive style. (True; moderate; p. 171) 23. Decision makers with an analytic style have a much lower tolerance for ambiguity than do directive types. (False; moderate; p. 171) 24. Individuals with a conceptual style tend to be very broad in their outlook and will look at many alternatives. (True; moderate; p. 171) 25. Behavioral-style decision makers work well with others. (True; easy; p. 171) 26. Most managers have characteristics of analytic decision makers. (False; moderate; p. 171) 27. According to the boxed feature, â€Å"Managing Workforce Diversity,† diverse employees tend to make decisions faster than a homogeneous group of employees. (False; moderate; p. 172; AACSB: Diversity) The anchoring effect describes when decision makers fixate on initial information as a starting point and then, once set, they fail to adequately adjust for subsequent information. Answer a. When decision makers tend to think they know more than they do or hold unrealistically positive views of themselves and their performance, they’re exhibiting the overconfidence bias. b. The immediate gratification bias describes decision makers who tend to want immediate rewards and to avoid immediate costs. For these individuals, decision choices that provide quick payoffs are more appealing than those in the future. c. The anchoring effect describes when decision makers fixate on initial information as a starting point and then, once set, fail to adequately adjust for subsequent information. First impressions, ideas, prices, and estimates carry unwarranted weight relative to information received later. d. When decision makers selectively organize and interpret events based on their biased perceptions, they’re using the selective perception bias. This influences the information they pay attention to, the problems they identify, and the alternatives they develop. e. Decision makers who seek out information that reaffirms their past choices and discount information that contradicts past judgments exhibit the confirmation bias. These people tend to accept at face value information that confirms their preconceived views and are critical and skeptical of information that challenges these views. f. The framing bias is when decision makers select and highlight certain aspects of a situation while excluding others. By drawing attention to specific aspects of a situation and highlighting them, while at the same time downplaying or omitting other aspects, they distort what they see and create incorrect reference points. g. The availability bias is when decisions makers tend to remember events that are the most recent and vivid in their memory. The result is that it distorts their ability to recall events in an objective manner and results in distorted judgments and probability estimates. h. When decision makers assess the likelihood of an event based on how closely it resembles other events or sets of events, that’s the representation bias. Managers exhibiting this bias draw analogies and see identical situations where they don’t exist. i. The randomness bias describes when decision makers try to create meaning out of random events. They do this because most decision makers have difficulty dealing with chance even though random events happen to everyone and there’s nothing that can be done to predict them. j. The sunk costs error is when decision makers forget that current choices can’t correct the past. They incorrectly fixate on past expenditures of time, money, or effort in assessing choices rather than on future consequences. Instead of ignoring sunk costs, they can’t forget them. k. Decision makers who are quick to take credit for their successes and to blame failure on outside factors are exhibiting the self-serving bias. . Finally, the hindsight bias is the tendency for decision makers to falsely believe that they would have accurately predicted the outcome of an event once that outcome is actually known. They are alert to the smallest deviations and react early and quickly to anything that does not fit with their expectations. Another characteristic of HROs is that they defer to the experts on the front line. Frontline workers—those who interact day in and day out with customers, products, suppliers, an so forth—have firsthand knowledge of what can and cannot be done, what will and will not work. Get their input. Let them make decisions. Next, HROs let unexpected circumstances provide the solution. The fourth habit of HROs is that they embrace complexity. Because business is complex, these organizations aim for deeper understanding of the situation. They ask â€Å"why† and keep asking why as they probe more deeply into the causes of the problem and possible solutions. Finally, HROs anticipate, but alto anticipate their limits. These organizations do try to anticipate as much as possible, but they recognize that they can’t anticipate everything.

The Pearl Characters Pen Portrait

Pen Portraits-The Pearl Juana- Juana is a very young lady and she has just had her first child. In the starting of the book, she is very calm and does not speak much. Towards the end of the book she is a lot more aggressive and speaks more than she used to. Her attitude changes and she stays by Kino whatever happens. An example is when Kino has killed a man; she helps him hide the dead body instead of telling anyone of the crime. Steinbeck also writes that when she carries out her way of curing Coyotito by putting the poultice on his sting, she does not have any faith in her technique and thinks that they should go to the doctor.This is the proof that tells us that she has a strong belief in authority. At the end of the book, she becomes very stubborn and this stubbornness leads to her son’s death. When Kino tells Juana that she should hide with Coyotito to stay safe, she says no three times without any hesitation or weakness. This is an example of her stubbornness. If she wou ld have hidden with Coyotito, the consequences could have differed. My opinion of Kino is that she was a very strong character and had a very large roll to play in this book.Her roll was not only protecting Coyotito, but she was also Kino’s largest support. Kino- Kino is a young man who thinks he will achieve everything after he gets the pearl. He has too many ambitions such as sending his son to school, getting married, and having a rifle. He tells his ambitions to all the villagers and the priest becomes even greedier after hearing what he can do with just a Pearl. Although the priest cannot do anything wrong as he is a religious man, the doctor can. He also sets himself some ambitions such as drinking wine in a rich restaurant.But to achieve his ambitions he must have the pearl. He tries to seal it but is not successful. Kino knows that on the way to achieving his ambitions he will have to face evil but he is too greedy and the greed makes him blind. All he can see are his ambitions. His foolishness is also a reason of his son’s death. If he would have sold it for 1500 pesos than his sons death could have been avoided, but as I have written, greed can make a person blind. In my opinion, Kino was trapped by the pearl and he can do nothing to get rescue himself from the pearls invisible trap.It is not every day that a man gets lucky. And when Kino gets lucky, he wants to make too much from the luck and this teaches him a lesson; â€Å"you should always be happy with what you have†. Juan Tomas- Juan Tomas is Kino’s bigger brother and his wife is Apolonia. Juan Tomas warns Kino about the consequences of what the pearl could do. Kino does not listen to his brother and very unfortunate consequences follow. For example, Juan Tomas says ‘there is a devil in this pearl’ but Kino knows this but instead of throwing it away, he keeps it as a hope, he keeps it as his soul.When Kino kills a man in self-defense, Juan Tomas and Apol onia hide Kino’s family. This shows us that Juan Tomas’ nature is very helpful although he knows that he is helping a criminal who could be sent to jail or even executed, he remembers that he is Kino’s brother and should always stay as a support for him and his family From my opinion, He is a very humble man and seems happy with his post in his life; yet, he understands Kino and why he wants to earn too much from the pearl. Juan Tomas, although he has a very short part to play, it is still a very important one.

Fundamental Breach According to the Cisg

Article 25 A breach of contract committed by one of the parties is fundamental if it results in such detriment to the other party as substantially to deprive him of what he is entitled to expect under the contract, unless the party in breach did not foresee and a reasonable person of the same kind in the same circumstances would not have foreseen such a result. (CISG 1980) Used when: One of the parties suffers damages due to a breach of contract. The breach becomes fundamental when it is due to the other parties fault.This article could be interpreted as to whether or not the breaching party was ‘guilty’ of any form of neglect which caused the damages. If they could have prevented the damages, by handling reasonably, they are guilty of a fundamental breach of contract. Case: Tribunal: Court of Arbitration of the ICC Case#: 7531 of 1994 Seller’s Country: China (defendant) Buyer’s Country: Austria (claimant) Goods involved: Scaffold fittings Summary of the ca se: The plaintiff bought 80. 00 scaffold fittings from the Chinese seller. Upon delivery it turned out a substantial amount of the fittings were of bad quality. The buyer was only able to sell the goods partially and at a reduced price. Sorting out the good ones from the bad ones would have added an estimated third of the purchase-price. The Tribunal ruled in favour of the plaintiff as ‘an important part’ of the fittings did not conform to the sample which therefore resulted in a fundamental breach of contract.What was the effect of Article 25: It was proven that the plaintiff had suffered substantial damages due to the breach of contract. This enabled him to use art 25 and sue for damages. ? Article 35 (1) The seller must deliver goods which are of the quantity, quality and description required by the contract and which are contained or packaged in the manner required by the contract. 2) Except where the parties have agreed otherwise, the goods do not conform with the contract unless they: (a) are fit for the purposes for which goods of the same description would ordinarily be used; (b) are fit for any particular purpose expressly or impliedly made known to the seller at the time of the conclusion of the contract, except where the circumstances show that the buyer did not rely, or that it was unreasonable for him to rely, on the seller's skill and judgement; (c) possess the qualities of goods which the seller has held out to the buyer as a sample or model; (d) are contained or packaged in the manner usual for such goods or, where there is no such manner, in a manner adequate to preserve and protect the goods. 3) The seller is not liable under subparagraphs (a) to (d) of the preceding paragraph for any lack of conformity of the goods if at the time of the conclusion of the contract the buyer knew or could not have been unaware of such lack of conformity. (CISG 1980) Used when: This article is used when the goods delivered are not fit for the purpo se intended for them or when they are not of the same quality as the sample provided by the seller. They also need to be packed in a manner adequate to preserve and protect the goods. If they are not fit for purpose due to adequate packing, this the sellers fault. Note though that fitness for purpose is a broad term. For instance if meat has been purchased by a butcher in France he might deem the goods unfit as he meant to use them for Kosher meat. This does not count as the seller could not have foreseen this, unless it was mentioned.When selling it to a butcher in Israel however, the seller could have/ should have known these requirements. In fitness for purpose we look at the average quality required for products, unless expressly mentioned otherwise. Case: Tribunal: Bundesgerichthof (Federal Supreme Court) Case#: VIII ZR 159/94 Seller’s Country: Switzerland (Plaintiff) Buyer’s Country: Germany (Defendant) Goods involved: New Zealand Mussels Summary of the case: In this case the buyer bought mussels from a Swiss seller; the buyer later found they contained a cadmium level higher than the German health authorities allowed. Therefore he was not allowed to sell and he refused to pay due to a lack of conformity.The courts decided that though the cadmium levels in the mussels was higher than allowed in Germany, they were still eatable and did meet the standard required by the Swiss health authorities. It was therefore decided that the goods were of the required quality and the buyer should have mentioned the maximum cadmium levels allowed. What was the effect of Article 35: In this case it meant that the products did meet the required standard for quality of goods and the buyer had to pay for the products. ? Article 36 (1) The seller is liable in accordance with the contract and this Convention for any lack of conformity which exists at the time when the risk passes to the buyer, even though the lack of conformity becomes apparent only after that t ime. 2) The seller is also liable for any lack of conformity which occurs after the time indicated in the preceding paragraph and which is due to a breach of any of his obligations, including a breach of any guarantee that for a period of time the goods will remain fit for their ordinary purpose or for some particular purpose or will retain specified qualities or characteristics. (CISG 1980) Used when: The goods sold initially seem to be in good order, however after some time a lack of quality shows. This is only viable when the reason for this is due the sellers fault (e. g. When cars are sold and the paint starts to faint a month after the buyer obtained them, this could be the sellers fault due to using the wrong paint). Case:Tribunal: Bundesgerichtshof [Federal Supreme Court] Case#: VIII ZR 67/04 Seller’s Country: Belgium (Plaintiff) Buyer’s Country: Germany (Defendant) Goods involved: Frozen Pork Summary of the case: The buyer bought the goods to sell them on into Bosnia- Herzegovina. There were to be three deliveries of pork. In between deliveries a new ordinance was enacted in Germany (due to concerns regarding contamination of the meat) which stated that Belgian pork was no longer marketable unless a health certificated was provided. The defendants refuse to pay after they had been prohibited to resale the meats, which were then taken by customs and ultimately disposed of.The plaintiff argued that the risk had passed to the buyer when the goods were transported and therefor was liable for the events that took place. The court held however, that if the concerns were regarding to the harmfulness of the foodstuff to human health, the goods cannot be sold and therefor lack the required fitness for purpose. What was the effect of Article 36: Art 36 could be used in this case because the meat would already have been contaminated upon leaving the seller. Despite the fact that it was not detected until much later, when the risk had already passed to the buyer, the seller was still responsible as it was an initial breach of contract. ? Reference List: CISG 1980, United Nations, Accessed 26th of march 2013, ; http://www. cisg. law. pace. edu;

Cold Mountain

The effect created in the passage from Cold Mountain leaves a profound effect on the reader. The author uses a multitude of connotative diction and specific word choices to describe setting, characters and moods. The mood is set off from the start and flows well into the end. Charles Frazier uses detailed imagery when describing the house, the 3-legged dog, the knapsack and the smokehouse. When describing the house, he mentions that it is slanted, indicating that things are out of balance. The 3-legged dog also signifies an unbalance in the setting.He gives the home â€Å"toadlike† characteristics, describing that it is nasty, slimy and unpleasant. From this description, it gives the reader a mysterious and timid feeling from the beginning of the passage. To further emphasize this feeling, when describing the dog, Frazier explains that’s it comes out of its den like a wild animal and â€Å"snatches† its bone like a wolf. He further elucidates that it is a wild pl ace with savage creatures that dwell within it. Further in the passage, Frazier tells how Inman follows the dog to the back of the house onto the porch.Immediately, Inman begins to rummage around for a gun. He â€Å"thrusts† his arm through a wood stack to find the LeMat pistol. This gives the reader the impression that Inman is very angry, and wants to do something with the gun, such as seeking revenge. While the gun was in Inman’s hand, Frazier explains that it was like a tonic to feel the weight of the pistol. This also gives us an insight to how furious and angrily unstable Inman is. The author proceeds to describe the smokehouse, where Inman in headed to.He describes the bayonet â€Å"stobbed† into the dirt floor, how packed the room was and how there was so much grease everywhere that the flame cast glints off it. This could easily be depicted as a parallel to describing hell in another fashion. Frazier details every action in this scene. For example, he e xplains how Inman steps into the light to be seen purposely, but how Junior doesn’t fully recognize him. The mood given to the reader in this section of the passage is suspenseful, as we know that Inman is furious and has a gun, unknowing of what will happen next.Frazier then tells how Inman instead of shooting and killing Junior, hits him repeatedly with the butt of the gun until he lay motionless. This has a profound effect on the reader giving insight that Inman was so enraged, that he felt the need to physically kill Junior to satisfy his revenge. The mood quickly changes to brutality and malicious. The reader feels a sense of shock due to the viciousness of the murder. Frazier wraps up the passage by describing how the blood gathers in a pool around Junior on the â€Å"black earth† of the smokehouse floor.What can clearly be identified within the text is that Charles Frazier does just about everything perfectly to create the effect that the reader experiences. Fro m the use of connotative diction to the vivid imagery created, Frazier excels in setting the tone of the passage to the reader. The sentence structure that the author chooses sets up the passage by separating up the three main events. Each event leads to the other cleanly and flows seamlessly. Charles Frazier’s style of writing not only leaves an intense effect on the reader, but also manages to illustrate his work using words to make a clear visualization. Cold Mountain On the surface, Cold Mountain is the tale of a man trying to find his way home. However, once looked at in more detail, it is seen as a story of a man looking for faith. From the very first step, Inman’s journey is one of faith, a faith that he has lost in the Civil War and is on the road to recovering. We know little of Inman's life prior to his journey, but what we do learn tells us that he was at one point a Christian. In his youth he had been taught, and he believed in, the basics of the Christian faith. Specifically, he believed in heaven, the immortality of soul, and that we are all children of God. Cold Mountain is the story of a man who has undergone a traumatic experience, the likes of which has stolen away from him all optimism and hope for a better tomorrow. However, as Inman plans to step out the window of the hospital and begin his journey home, his faith in God seems to wither away. The horrors of what he has experienced in the war have â€Å"burned away† (page 36) his Christian faith. He no longer believes in the easy answers to the problems of life given by Christians. His faith is further questioned when he meets Veasey, the preacher who has impregnated his lover and who attempts to murder her in order to cover it up. Even after Veasey is discovered and thrown out of town, claiming to be a changed man through God, his life does not show evidence of this. He goes on to rob a store and sleep with a prostitute. Upon these activities, Inman states that many preachers are just like Veasey. They claim to be able to save the worst of sinners, and yet can’t save themselves. This hypocritical lifestyle was a major contributing factor to Inman losing his faith. Inman's spiritual struggle is not merely a battle with his own inner demons. Inman's main struggle is with God himself, claiming to feel like an abused child of God. In a conversation with a blind man, he was stunned to discover that no person had put out the man's eyes. He had been born that way. He then asked himself, â€Å"How did you find someone to hate for a thing that just was? â€Å". (page 82) Throughout this story, we learn that when faced with situations like this Inman blames God. He holds God responsible for the way things are. For example, when Inman travels through the woods and sees a meteor shower, he is convinced that it has been aimed at him. He looks at any unfortunate situation as a deliberate attempt by God to bring him pain. Throughout Cold Mountain, Inman faces many obstacles that question his faith. Having lost it from the beginning, these obstacles only further convince him that God is not now or ever looking out for him. Only after facing all of these obstacles does he finally find redemption in his faith through the trials of life. Cold Mountain On the surface, Cold Mountain is the tale of a man trying to find his way home. However, once looked at in more detail, it is seen as a story of a man looking for faith. From the very first step, Inman’s journey is one of faith, a faith that he has lost in the Civil War and is on the road to recovering. We know little of Inman's life prior to his journey, but what we do learn tells us that he was at one point a Christian. In his youth he had been taught, and he believed in, the basics of the Christian faith. Specifically, he believed in heaven, the immortality of soul, and that we are all children of God. Cold Mountain is the story of a man who has undergone a traumatic experience, the likes of which has stolen away from him all optimism and hope for a better tomorrow. However, as Inman plans to step out the window of the hospital and begin his journey home, his faith in God seems to wither away. The horrors of what he has experienced in the war have â€Å"burned away† (page 36) his Christian faith. He no longer believes in the easy answers to the problems of life given by Christians. His faith is further questioned when he meets Veasey, the preacher who has impregnated his lover and who attempts to murder her in order to cover it up. Even after Veasey is discovered and thrown out of town, claiming to be a changed man through God, his life does not show evidence of this. He goes on to rob a store and sleep with a prostitute. Upon these activities, Inman states that many preachers are just like Veasey. They claim to be able to save the worst of sinners, and yet can’t save themselves. This hypocritical lifestyle was a major contributing factor to Inman losing his faith. Inman's spiritual struggle is not merely a battle with his own inner demons. Inman's main struggle is with God himself, claiming to feel like an abused child of God. In a conversation with a blind man, he was stunned to discover that no person had put out the man's eyes. He had been born that way. He then asked himself, â€Å"How did you find someone to hate for a thing that just was? â€Å". (page 82) Throughout this story, we learn that when faced with situations like this Inman blames God. He holds God responsible for the way things are. For example, when Inman travels through the woods and sees a meteor shower, he is convinced that it has been aimed at him. He looks at any unfortunate situation as a deliberate attempt by God to bring him pain. Throughout Cold Mountain, Inman faces many obstacles that question his faith. Having lost it from the beginning, these obstacles only further convince him that God is not now or ever looking out for him. Only after facing all of these obstacles does he finally find redemption in his faith through the trials of life.

The Holocaust Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

The Holocaust - Essay Example It is claimed that nearly six million Jews were massacred during these twelve years through different painful means, besides other cruelties inflicted upon the community. â€Å"Between 1941 and 1945, five to six million Jews were systematically murdered by the Nazi regime, its allies, and its surrogates in the Nazi-occupied territories. Yet despite the extraordinary scale and intensity of the genocide, its prominence in recent decades was far from preordained.† (Mayer, 1988:107) Somehow, the Nazis and pro-Nazis refute(d) the very claim by declaring it an infamous blur on the very face of their party and its leader Adolf Hitler. They are of the opinion that the Nazi government persecuted only the traitors and the supporters of the rivals of Germany in order to suppress the rebellion and revolt against the German nation at large in order to escape any further treachery within Germany against her army and leadership on the one hand, and to save the country from dividing into ethn ic, racial and religious groups and communities on the other. Since unity of a nation is vehemently necessary one during the time of war and peace, the communities challenging the unity and playing into the hands of the foes must be taught a remarkable lesson in order to avoid defeat, chaos, and turmoil in the country. Consequently, the Germans, according to the pro-Nazi claimants, did not kill the Jews en masse; on the contrary, the entire claims portraying holocaust are the product of the USA and her allies designed and planned to defame their opponent Adolf Hitler and Germany in such a nefarious manner that the future German generations would neither gather courage to raise any voice against the UK and USA altogether, nor could they seek the support from the Jewish community in order to fight war on some justified cause an issue. Hence, the Holocaust had been a burning issue as well as a moot point between pro-Jewish and pro-Nazis for the last six decades, and both the groups cla im themselves as innocent and guiltless, which had to face the conspiracies, trials, and opposition from the rivals. Additionally, since Hitler sought the domination of the great and superior German nation, he intended to kill or kick out the sick, retarded, disable and infected people from Germany, so that the German nation could have consisted of brave, talented, healthy and vigorous individuals. â€Å"Unwanted children, in the eyes of Hitler, were orphans, children in care because of emotional or behavior problems, adolescent non-conformists as well as children with physical disabilities or mental handicaps (in addition to Jewish, Gypsy, and non-white children).† (holocaust-trc.org) Before embarking upon the topic under study, it would be advisable to briefly throw light upon the historical background of the catastrophe. By critically examining the history of the world at large, it becomes evident that human beings had been at daggers drawn against one another since manâ⠂¬â„¢s arrival on the very face of the earth. Hundreds of thousands of wars had been fought and battlefields had been arranged and decorated by the groups, communities, states, and nations in order to subjugate the opponents in the name of seeking peace and justice by fighting  against the people belonging to rival clans, communities, ethnic-racial groups, and religious faiths. Hence, ethnicity, race, and religion have always played the dominant role in waging and fighting wars between the opposing forces, states and countries.

Audi A6 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Audi A6 - Essay Example It’s available in the saloon and wagon configurations, providing an appealing combination of luxury, technology and responsive handling dynamics. Exterior Outside, the  A6  resembles a downsized version of  Audi's full-size  A8  sedan. The exteriors features more extensive use of aluminum components, with day time running lights, body color front and rear bumpers, halogen headlight with projector beam lenses and remote sun proof tinted glass. Its external dimensions include 73.8 inches width, overall length of 193.9 inches, 3,682 lbs weight, and overall height of 57.8 inches, 114.7 inches wheelbase, a front track 64.1 inches, rear track (63.7 inches) and curb to curb turning circle 39.0ft. Other notable features include a paneled under floor to direct airflow under the vehicle, and the use of striking matte-finish wood inlays. A wraparound dashboard and the most recent generation of  Audi's instinctive MMI system are built-in as standard. Performance The A6 is avai lable in five different flavors: the A6 Premium 2.0, the A6 Premium Plus 2.0, the A6 Premium 3.0, the A6 Premium Plus 3.0 and the A6 Prestige 3.0. â€Å"The engine transmits power to the front wheels via a constantly variable transmission† (audi.com) returning fuel economy records of 25 mpg and 33 mpg in the city and on the highway respectively. To ensure traction for all weather conditions, the A6 comes exclusively with Audi's valued Quattro all-wheel-drive system which makes use of an eight-speed automatic gearbox. It’s fitted with standard equipment that include eight-way power adjustable leather seats with memory functionality, Bluetooth  Smartphone integration, triple-zone automatic climate control, keyless start, a four-spoke multifunction steering wheel and a premium audio system with an iPod input jack. The 17-inch alloy wheels and Audi drive select enables drivers to set vehicle steering configurations, select transmission shift characteristics and customize engine response. Drivers have the choice of Auto, Comfort, Dynamic or Individual settings. The A6 Premium Plus also has a 40-GB hard drive voice-activated navigation system, Audi MMI touch handwriting recognition to interpret handwritten inputs, Audi connect which turns the car into a portable Wi-Fi hotspot and a parking assistance system with front and rear sensors. Optional Features The A6 Cold Weather Package comprises heated steering wheel as well as front and rear seats. The optional sport package incorporates a lower and firmer suspension, a three-spoke steering wheel with flappy paddle shifters and, depending on the trim level, special 18-, 19- or 20-inch wheels. The Driver Assistance Package integrates Audi pre sense plus, adaptive cruise control, and power folding, heated exterior side mirrors. Side Assist Package includes a blind spot monitoring system, power-folding mirrors and a pre safe system for altering the front and rear head commands to achieve maximum support inc ase an impending collision is identified. The Innovation Package also has a heads-up display, night vision assistance and LED headlights. Safety features All A6 models are equipped with dual front airbags, driver and front passenger knee air bags and optional Rear-passenger thorax side airbags. Other safety features include tire-monitoring system, traction and stability control systems and ABS with electronic brake-pressure distribution. Conclusion The Audi A6 model is near the top of the line for Audi products suitable