To design and use abstract classes (§9.2). To process calendar using the Calendar and GregorianCalendar classes (§9.3). To declare interfaces to model weak inheritance relationships (§9.4). To define a natural order using the Comparable interface (§9.4). To know the similarities and differences between an abstract class and interface (§9.4). To enable objects cloneable using the Cloneable interface (§9.4.4 Optional). To use wrapper classes (Byte, Short, Integer, Long, Float, Double, Character, and Boolean) to wrap primitive data values into objects (§9.5). To create a generic sort method (§9.5). To simplify programming using JDK 1.5 automatic conversion between primitive types and wrapper class types (§9.6)