Justice and Mercy

In MoV(Merchant of Venice), I do not think that true justice has been meted out to Shylock. He allowed Bassanio to borrow the money from him, and Antonio's pound of flesh was going to be the mortgage in this deal. In the end, Bassanio and Antonio were unable to pay the debt, and Shylock asked for Antonio's pound of flesh. Portia said that he could take the flesh but he could not take a dip of bloods of Antonio. Shylock was unable to do it and was accused of trying to take a civilian's life. If true justice had been reached, then Shylock should get a pound of flesh as the contract stated even he could not touch a dip of bloods. This was the main purpose why the trial was held, the Duke should try to reach an agreement to this deal.

In my opinion, I think that there is no true justice in the story. Half of Shylock's possessions were given to Antonio, but Antonio agreed to keep the money for her daughter, Jessica. This seemed to be true mercy to Shylock at the first glance, but actually Jessica had converted herself to a Christian, leaving the money to Jessica had no relate to Shylock already. He did not get any benefit, as the money was only belonged to Jessica and Lorenzo. Antonio also allowed Shylock to convert himself to a Christian. This was very unfair to Shylock, he might be loyal to his own race, Jew. Asking him to convert into Christian was just like insulting him, Antonio might want to grab this opportunity to insult him together with his race. If Shylock converted himself into a Christian, he would be mocked by his Jewish friends. Hence this showed that there is no true mercy in the trial scene.

I agree that justice and mercy could be different because of the people in power who manipulated them. If the people in power disliked either side of the people involved in the trial, he could insist on not giving the side he disliked the justice. But if he had any good relationship with either side, he could try his best to bring mercy to the side mentioned. In MoV, the Duke might not be a racist, but somehow he had to support the Christian side, he was not able to bring justice for Shylock, and he had shown mercy to Antonio to try to save his life. Portia was a powerful rich lady, the Duke did not oppose anything regarding Portia's argument but he tried to protect Antonio and convict Shylock. In real life, the judge may have unusually close relationship with the prosecuting side. Even if the defendant is innocent, he may be wrongly judged and end up he was sentenced.

Take A Rest, Have A Break...

Scientist new research: Spider uses their legs to hear.

Why?

Scientist: When I put a spider on the table and I shout at it to run, it runs;

But when I pull off its legs and I shout at it to run, it does not move.

The importance of English.

How?

A new Chinese scholar has came to Canada to study. One day, when he is riding his motorcycle outside the hostel, he accidentally falls into a deep pit. A patrolling policeman passes by the pit and notices the scholar.

Policeman: How are you?

Scholar: I'm fine. Thank you.

The policeman goes off, and the scholar dies due to profuse bleeding.

Two men.

God has decided to give the most handsome guy and the most ugliest guy in the world a wish each.

Handsome guy: I want the most beautiful woman to be with me forever.

And his wish is fulfilled.

God asks the ugliest guy: What about you?

Ugly guy: I never think of changing myself before. This is my fate.

God: How sincere you are! But I will still fulfill a wish for you.

Ugly guy: Fine! I want myself to be the only man in this world.

When I enter a company...

Boss: Welcome, without you our company will be much different.

Me: If the work is too tiresome I will resign myself.

Boss: Relax, I will not let it happens.

Me: Can I take a leave every Tuesday?

Boss: Obviously, this is the baseline.

Me: Will there be overtime usually?

Boss: Impossible, who tells you that!?

Me: Is there any subsidy for lunch?

Boss: Sure, you will have the higher one.

Me: Is there the risk of dying because of heart attack?

Boss: Never, you should not have such thinking.

Me: Will there be any tour every month?

Boss: This is our company's order.

Me: Do I have to come to work punctually?

Boss: Nope, depend on the situation.

Me: What about salary? Is it distributed on time?

Boss: It is always like that.

Me: Are all the works done by new employees?

Boss: It will not be possible, you still have bosses with higher ranks.

Me: If there is any vacancy of post, can I participate in the competition?

Boss: Without any doubt, our company relies on this to continue operating.

Me: Are you deceiving me?

After I enter the company...(Please read from bottom to above)

Feedback on An Open Letter to the EM from a Secondary Four Student

I agree with most of the points the student has mentioned in the letter. One of them is the system of the education, many teachers always tell their students to memorize whatever things that are found in textbooks, notes, worksheets and other learning stuffs. I agree with the author of the letter that many students may not be able to learn something in the end of the day. Such education system will affect the students to be rigid, they may think that this way of learning is the fastest and easiest way to score an A1. That is true, but can they really learn something? They may end up forgetting what have been thought and what have they learned, they will have hard times when they step into this competitive society because their exposures of learning are very limited.

The student also points out that moral values are not taught in school. I agree with her point, many students and teachers and even parents are too eager to "force" the students to get an A1. They value the certificate too much, many teachers and parents always tell the students that certificate is the most important thing they must have to be success in life. The students can succeed in life later, but what about their attitudes, their conducts, their behaviors? Even though they are success, but no one will bother, some people may even mock at them. This is why philosophers think that EQ is far more important than IQ in our life.

Some of her points, however, are rather exaggerated. If a student cannot ask "WHY" in school, they can carry out research, they can consult other students, it is not necessarily that a teacher must teach everything in the lesson. We have to be independent, whatever things we do not understand, surf the web, the fastest, most convenient, most enriched platform for the students to carry out their learning.

From her use of tones in the letter, I know that she is agitated. She seems fed up with current education system, but I do not think it is appropriate. We should not blame the education system completely, we are responsible for our own learning journey. We should find our ways to seek for solutions of the difficulties. The student also has a very fierce tone in the letter, she keeps condemning the education minister for not doing the job well. Actually, if a well education system is to be created, it requires the cooperation of the students and the ministers. The students should follow the orders given by the teachers, whilst the ministers should give the suitable orders to the students. By doing this the education system can be improved, so I do not think that she should use such serious tone, but to use more general tone to respect the ministers.

The letter is taken from:

http://www.temasekreview.com/2011/07/12/an-open-letter-to-the-education-minister-from-a-secondary-4-student/

Love and Money. Which are more important?

Love and money are vital components in a matrimony, we cannot disagree that. But whether is money or love more important in a marriage, it is debatable. In my opinion, I think that love is more important in a marriage. If one of the spouse is very rich, but there is no love in between them, the marriage will not be sustainable. Love can help to strengthen the relationship of the couples, and they will not divorce so easily. Only with true love, there is a very strong support in the matrimony, the couples truely love each other and they will be able to work together to build a warm family. But if the marriage is created because of money, the couples will separate easily. The spouse who marry another just because of the money will divorce by the time he or she gets another's possession. It is very sad to see the couples who only emphasize money and strive to get money from another, as they do not seriously treat marriage, they will just think that marriage is one of the platforms to get money. They abuse it so that they can get as much benefits as possible. Personally, I think that love should be the main reason why a matrimony is created.

Evolution of War

It is rather obvious that the war has evolved and it has changed a lot too. For example, in the past soldier used spears, shields, bow, crossbow, etc. to fight during the war. It was not that devastating as it would not hurt too many innocence, especially the citizens who were not involved in the war. A soldier would not intentionally kill the innocence, even if he would, he could not kill many people in such a short period, he had to commit to the war. But in nowadays, soldier has guns, grenades, mines, etc. to fight during the war. Those thrown weapons, especially grenades and remote mines, can cause massive damages to a large area and kill a lot of innocence. Furthermore, they are largely produced in a short time. Although in the past there are soldiers using cannon in the war, but it was not as devastating as grenades, and it took very long time to cool down and recharge. While grenades can be rapidly thrown as long as there are enough supplies of them. The purposes of the wars in the past and nowadays are rather different. In the past, the soldiers could be fighting for freedom, to gain power, to obliterate mortal enemies and many other reasons which were considered unique nowadays. But now some people start the war because they want to protest to the tyrants what they are not satisfied of. Some wars are started due to the wide variety of races and religions, like terrorism. The infamous terrorist organization Al-Qaeda had many wars with the army of USA, the terrorists sacrifice themselves to fight because they think that it is a glory to die for Allah, the God of Muslim, but Americans think that this will cause chaos in the world if terrorism is not stopped.

Concluding my points above, there are two main differences between the war in the past and nowadays, i.e. the intention of the war and the weaponry of the war.

Book Review

First Book: "The Secret Country" by Jane Johnson

A boy named Benjamin Christopher Arnold also known as Ben wanted to buy a pair of Mongolian Fighting Fish. When he entered the pet shop opened by Mr. Dodds, a black cat signalled him to buy it. Due to the sympathy of Ben towards the cat who was tortured by Mr. Dodds, Ben used all the pocket money to buy it. The cat, known as Iggy the Wanderer, came from another world called Eidolon. Iggy claimed that Ben held the bloods of Eidolon, and asked him to bring itself back to Eidolon. On the journey, Ben met Silver the Selkie and Twig the wood-sprite, they also asked Ben to bring them back to Eidolon. They encountered the same problem, that was they became unconsciously suddenly in Eidolon, and was brought to the human world. After sending them back to Eidolon through a series of adventure, Ben met Zark the Dragon who was trained by Mr. Dodds and his uncle Mr. Aleister as a garden incinerator. Zark disobeyed their command and stopped incinerating the grass of others' house yard. Mr. Dodds and Uncle Aleister planned to kill the dragon as it had no more value again. Ben who saw the dragon tried his very best to save it. When Uncle Aleister drove the dragon together with the family to the mysterious path to Eidolon, Ben sneaked to the dragon and released it, they rushed to the path to Eidolon. Mr Dodd and Uncle Aleister noticed them and chased them, so they entered Eidolon too. Mr Dodd, known as Dodman in Eidolon who was going to take the throne of Eidolon and Uncle Aleister, known as Old Creepie in Eidolon succeeded in capturing Ben and Zark. When Ben was nearly killed, a dryad saved him. Since Ben was truly the prince of Eidolon(His mother was the real Queen in Eidolon), Dodman and Old Creepie arrested him and imprisoned him in the Rose Room which was once his mother's room. Then Iggy the Wanderer and Silver the Selkie came to rescue him, Ben succeeded to return to the real world, but Old Creepie chased him from Eidolon too. In the end, another dryad nearby entangled Old Creepie and his black business was discovered by the policemen, that was to transfer creatures from Eidolon who possessed special abilities to sell them in the real world and made fast money.(The policemen who did not know the existence of Eidolon thought that Old Creepie altered the DNA of the animals which was in fact illegal in the real world) Ben true identity was revealed but he chose to stay with his mother who was once the Queen of Eidolon.

Second book: "The Marvellous Medicine" by Roald Dahl

George's irritating Grandma had started to torture George again by asking him to do a lot of things when his parents were not at home. George could not resist his Grandma's attitude, so he wanted to create a medicine for his Grandma to eat so that she would treat him more politely. During the medicine time, George mixed a weird concoction made up of many ingredients such as shampoos, toothpastes, animal pills, floor polisher, a variety of powders, a handful of grease, engine oil and many other substances. He cooked them as fast as he could so that Grandma would not suspect him to change the medicine into the weird concoction. When Grandma had a spoonful of George's medicine, weird things started to happen: Grandma felt suddenly very hot, her body started to expand, Grandma started to grow and finally she was higher than the roof. She asked for more medicine so that she would grow higher. George tried the effect of this medicine towards the chicken their parents had breed. As expected, the chicken began to grow bigger. When George's parents returned, they was surprised. George's father was a person who liked money very much, he did not care to save Grandma, but he asked George to create more such medicine. But George had forgotten the process and the ingredients he had used in the making of the medicine. The chickens and goats who had sipped in the medicine began to grow awkwardly, like none of their parts grew except their necks, none of their parts grew except legs. After a few tries, Grandma started to feel impatient and asked George to make her returned to the original size. So George boiled a medicine again, but Grandma shrunk gradually and did not stop. At last, she shrunk into nothing and disappeared.

Reflection on "The Soldier"

Singapore has National Service, Malaysia has Khidmat Negara. The difference is that all male Singaporeans are required to attend National Service, but Malaysia does not make Khidmat Negara compulsory for all Malaysians.

Through Khidmat Negara, people will have a sense of belonging of being a Malaysian holding Malaysian's IC, and this will make them to be more patriotic to Malaysia. It may be unnecessary for a resident in Malaysia to attend Khidmat Negara since Malaysia has no war, but it will encourage the people to have the will to serve the country better. So, we should not blame the country but to appreciate such training provided by the government.

Khidmat Negara has somehow instilled patriotism on me, I will take it as a opportunity for me to train myself. It would not be a torture, it just depends on the mindset of the person. Since I do not participate in Khidmat Negara before, I cannot really feel the sense of patriotism in the deepest of my heart.

Back to the poem, the soldier expressed his patriotism and love towards the country. This can be seen from the literary devices he had used in the poem, he left a wonderful impression of England to the readers. He conveyed that he was borned in England, and he had to repay the country by sacrificing himself in the battlefield to achieve victory for England. He did not regret to die for the country, he thought that it was the most glorious moment in his life.

War - A Personal Response

War – A Personal Response

‘I am hungry, brother.’ ‘Oh shut up! We have no more food to feed you, find the food yourself!’ This photograph gives me this first impression when I see this photograph. Some thin children are standing in the forest, this indicates that they are homeless and have to seek a shelter for themselves. They look desperate, their faces look pale too.

The children are lack of nutrition, they are quite pathetic as they are as thin as bamboos. According to their characteristics, I know that most of them have been affected by the disease. The war happened around their homeland has been the main cause of their homelessness, so they have to be outside as they have no home. Their mother and father are not present, most probably they are either called to war or have been killed. We should feel pity for them but not ridicule at them.

The war has caused the immense destruction in the country. In this photograph, not only these children are homeless, so do the rest of the children who can be seen not far away from these children. They are quite poor too, they have no clothes to wear, no food to eat and no shelter to live in. Their bodies do not develop well, and they will face a lot of health problems even the war has been put to an end.

We should be grateful for what we have now around us. Some people are not rich, and some people are rich, but we must know that there are more victims in some countries who suffer more pains as compared to ours. They even cannot afford their basic needs to survive, they have to depend on their fates. They will suffer more, or they can have peace and find their parents, they have no choice unlike us who live in such peaceful country.

Final Draft

Note: This is the improved version of the first draft, some grammatical errors are amended and more settings will be put into the story.

I walk into the darkness, my heart was trembling, I received the paper anxiously. The dire questions in the paper seemingly could not be solved, I was stunned. Then the invigilator started the exam, his terrifying voice startled me badly, I move my heavy hand and grabbed a pen to start writing, would I get good result or would I returned in shame? I turned and rolled my head continuously, tried to solve the questions. An annoying mosquito flew around, tried to distract me, but this motivated me to pay more attentions to the questions....

Since primary 2, I join the Olympiad Mathematics Training. My talent in Mathematics was noticed by an experienced Mathematics teacher, Mr. Lim. I often get good result in Mathematics Test. This also changed my life as I would be studying in Malaysia if I did not join the team. Mr. Lim nurtured me and other teammates to participate in the Olympiad Mathematics, it was rather different than the normal Mathematics questions as it required additional working and formulae as well as logic.

Before I joined, Mr. Lim sent me an letter to invite me. I took out the white piece of paper with only some illegible fonts. At first I thought it was a letter of reminder to pay the bills, but soon I noticed the purpose of the letter. Although I was invited, I refused to join at first, my mother also did not want me to join since the fee was costly and it was unnecessary to me. My mother always told me that tuition would not fix your hole so called weakness but it would make it bigger because some of the tuition teachers did not even teach properly, the most common way of “guiding” the students to get an A for result was to recognize and memorize the entire essay, and then pasted in their essay test such as English test and Chinese test.

But Mr. Lim seemed to be able to read both my parents' minds and mine. I also found out that he always tried to seek a chance to acquaint my mother. His effort continued until one day, whilst my mother was reading a newspaper, she suddenly shouted, “Oh my God, I can’t believe this!” In the newspaper, there was a big headline wrote “Talented Malaysian Gets Scholarship to Study in Singapore“. After reading the report, my mother encouraged me immediately to go to the Olympiad Mathematics Training so that I could also get the scholarship to decrease her burden very much since I was a burden to her too. Studying at no cost was great for parents because they could save a lot in their children's expenditure. I was shocked because I did not anticipated this moment. From that day onward, my life was covered with dark endless orb.

Knowing the fact that I would join the training, Mr. Lim was much obliged. I learned very hard to strive for the incoming Asian Pacific Mathematics Olympiad for Primary School. Although I wanted to reject, but for the sake of my future, I had to bear it. I also did not want to disappoint my mother who had high expectations to me. At first I tried to skip the training lesson, but my mother advised me to think of the next generation as the currency of Singapore Dollar was much bigger than Ringgit Malaysia, which meant that Singapore’s economy was better than Malaysia’s economy, and I could have better standard of life in Singapore.

To be honest, my mother transferred her burden to me. I felt stressful after a few orientations of the training, every time I heard the explanations of the answers of the questions by Mr. Lim, they were like thousands of piercing razor stabbed fatally into my heart, I carried the burden alone, it was too heavy for me to carry, I would be squashed to death. Sometimes I thought myself: Should I gave up, yielded, surrendered to the God of Fate? I did not want to continue this type of life, I wanted a life that was full of freedom and no restriction or stress. My life was getting boring and uninteresting. My mother always tried to assure me, it was Mr. Lim who gave me an analogy of studying in Malaysia and studying in Singapore, I thought for a whole day every time Mr. Lim advised me and assured me.

Finally, I decided to continue this stressful life because I would feel the hardship for only this short reading period, but I would be successful after this period as I learned more things than other classmates and therefore got higher opportunities compared to other students when I became grown-up. The competition arrived at last; I was chosen to be one of the competitors because I did well in the primary round, I felt quite exciting when my result was announced, one of the reasons was because I did not visit Singapore before, the other reason was I did not fail to meet my parents' expectation. Some of my chosen teammates and I went to Singapore by bus for the secondary and final round. This competition would judge my future fate and destiny, hence I became quite nervous.

I passed the second round successfully, and I would enter final round. If I did well then I might get the scholarship to study in Singapore. I walk into the darkness, my heart was trembling, I received the paper anxiously. The dire questions in the paper seemingly could not be solved, I was stunned. Then the invigilator started the exam, his terrifying voice startled me badly, I move my heavy hand and grabbed a pen to start writing, would I get good result or would I returned in shame? I turned and rolled my head continuously, tried to solve the question. An annoying mosquito flew around, tried to distract me, but this motivated me to pay more attentions to the questions...

Guess what? Now I am studying in Hwa Chong Instituition, it was very obvious that I did very well in the final round to get this scholarship to study in Singapore.

Settings and a short excerpt of a story

Taken from : http://pixdaus.com/single.php?id=72043

The chilling wind blew my face, terrifying stray wolves howled at night. This was not a usual route I had taken to return to my "home sweet home". This place was abandoned very long time ago, there were dumped wastes and broken, uprooted trees here. The dim light flashed like an unused wasted bulb. The shadows of things here waved on the wall, the noise of the thrown cats and dogs instilled paralyzing fear on me. I gradually slowed down my pace of footsteps as I noticed something weird. There were scribbles of the word "DIE" everywhere, the words were painted with the color which seemed like the mixture of the bloods of human and animals. I began to imagine all the scary things I would meet during this trip. Suddenly, I felt like my chest had been touched by something, a blurred shadow appeared at the back of me under the dim radiance of a corrupted road lamp......

Jews in Germany before World War II

1)Around 1933, Hitler who was the leader of the Nazi Party became the president of Germany, to get more supports from the citizens, he claimed that Jews were guilty of leading to the defeat of Germany's army in World War II, he also blamed Jews and the prosecution of the Jews started to spread widely among Germany after Hitler successfully convinced the Germans. It was considered as religion discrimination since it did not affect the entire Jews in the world but only the Jews in Germany who followed the culture of Germans.

2)The term concentration camp refers to a camp in which people are detained or confined, usually under harsh conditions and without regard to legal punishments and imprisonment that are acceptable in a constitutional democracy. In Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945, concentration camps were held to imprison and capture mostly the German communists, socialists.

3)Genocide, the destruction of a people, is the most extreme form of persecution. During World War II, Hitler's dream of destroying European Jews came true. Through the use of propaganda, he successfully convinced millions of followers that the Jews were to blame for Germany's troubles, including Germany's humiliation of being defeated during World War I, and its economic depressions. Six million Jews were captured and tortured and brutally killed by the German's Nazi Army.

4)'Mein Kampf ' this book was written by Adolf Hitler about his autobiography as well as his point of views over the politics, when he started to write this book, it was in November 1923, Hitler was still not the president of Germany yet. He had the opinion to write this book was because he was 'inspired' by his fail attempt to seize the power of Germany.

Short Story First Draft

Short Story First Draft
I walk into the darkness, my heart was trembling, I received the paper anxiously. The dire questions in the paper seemingly could not be solved, I was stunned. Then the invigilator started the exam, his terrifying voice startled me badly, I move my heavy hand and grabbed a pen to start writing, would I get good result or would I returned in shame? I turned and rolled my head continuously, tried to solve the questions.

Since primary 2, I join the Olympiad Mathematics Training. My talent in Mathematics was noticed by an experienced Mathematics teacher, Mr. Lim. I often get good result in Mathematics Test. This also changed my life as I would be studying in Malaysia if I did not join the team. Mr. Lim nurtured me and other teammates to participate in the Olympiad Mathematics, it was rather different than the normal Mathematics questions as it required additional working and formulae as well as logic.

When I received the invitation letter, I refused to join, my mother also did not want me to join since the fee was costly and it was unnecessary to me. My mother always told me that tuition would not fix your hole so called weakness but it would make it bigger because some of the tuition teachers did not even teach properly, the most common way of “guiding” the students to get an A for result was to recognize and memorize the entire essay, and then pasted in their essay test such as English test and Chinese test.

But Mr. Lim seemed to be able to read my mind. I also found out that he always tried to seek a chance to clarify the advantages of this training to my mother. One day, while my mother was reading a newspaper, she suddenly shouted, “Oh my God, I can’t believe this!” In the newspaper, there was a big headline wrote “Talented Malaysian Gets Scholarship to Study in Singapore“. After reading the report, my mother encouraged me immediately to go to the Olympiad Mathematics Training so that I could also get the scholarship to decrease her burden very much since I was a burden to her too. Studying at no cost was great for parents because they could save a lot in their children’s expenditure.

Knowing the fact that I would join the training, Mr. Lim was much obliged. I learned very hard to strive for the incoming Asian Pacific Mathematics Olympiad for Primary School which could be called APMOPS. I also did not want to disappoint my mother who had high expectations to me. At first I tried to be truancy of the training lesson, but my mother advised me to think of the next generation as the currency of Singapore Dollar was much bigger than Ringgit Malaysia, which meant that Singapore’s economy was better than Malaysia’s economy.

To be honest, my mother transferred her burden to me. I felt stressful after a few orientations of the training, every time I heard the explanation of the answers of the questions by Mr. Lim, it was like thousands of piercing razor stabbed fatally into my heart, I carried the burden alone. Sometimes I thought myself, should I gave up, yielded, surrendered to the God of Fate? I did not want to continue this type of life, I wanted a life that was full of freedom and no restrictions or stresses. The life of me was getting boring and uninteresting. My mother always tried to assure me, it was Mr. Lim who gave me an analogy of studying in Malaysia and studying in Singapore, I thought for a whole day every time Mr. Lim advised me and assured me.

Finally, I decided to continue this stressful life because I would feel the hardship for only this short reading period, but I would be successful after this period as I learned more things than other classmates and therefore got higher opportunities compared to other students when I became grown-up. The APMOPS arrived at last; I was chosen to be one of the competitors because I did well in the primary round. Some of my chosen teammates and I went to Singapore by bus for the secondary and final round. This competition would judge my future fate and destiny and hence I became quite nervous.

I passed the second round successfully, and I would enter final round. If I did well then I might get the scholarship to study in Singapore. I walk into the darkness, my heart was trembling, I received the paper anxiously. The dire questions in the paper seemingly could not be solved, I was stunned. Then the invigilator started the exam, his terrifying voice startled me badly, I move my heavy hand and grabbed a pen to start writing, would I get good result or would I returned in shame? I turned and rolled my head continuously, tried to solve the question.

Guess what? Now I am studying in Hwa Chong Instituition, it was very obvious that I did very well in the final round to get this scholarship to study in Singapore.

Setting In A Story

1. Where has each of the above stories been set?

2. What time period has each of these stories been set in?

3.What clues do you get from the setting about the kind of the story it is going to turn out to be?

The Real Durwan by Jhumpa Lahiri
1)Boori Ma worked as a sweeper in a building since she had to go floor-by-floor to clean the room. She was most likely the refugee and was forced to work as slave.

2)The story was set in the morning, Boori Ma had to start to work.

3)Most likely Boori Ma will face the excruciating torture by the owner and the sad atmosphere would be created.
The Adventure of the Speckle Band by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
1)The author sets the story in Watson's house where a lady came to ask for his help.

2)The story was in 1883, a morning in the early April.

3)The story was most likely be very mysterious and there would be a detective to solve the suspicious case.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Auston
1)The story was set in a small town in England.

2)The story was in the early 19th century, the struggle for love happened

3) The romantic atmosphere of the story would be created, and the soothing effect of the story about the love was given to the readers.

Jim Crow's Laws

a. The term "Jim Crow's Laws" is sometimes referring to the song-and-dance caricature named "Jump Jim Crow" of African Americans performed by a white actor called Thomas D. Rice. As Rice became famous later, "Jim Crow" became an expresssion used to mean "African American".

b. The Jim Crow's Laws were state and local laws enforced by the United States of America between 1876 and 1965. The law is to restrict the rights of the African Americans. Their rights seemed to be equal to the white Americans' rights superficially but both of their rights were actually different due to this law.

c. Some Blacks such as Charles Sumner and Benjamin F. Butler thought that equal treatments were to be given to both white Americans and the Blacks. But this act had only little impact, the Supreme Court did not agree to this law by giving some non-existed reasons. And in year 1892, a African American called Homer Plessy bought a first-class railway ticket from New Orleans and sat in the "white-only" platform. He was later asked to leave the platform and went to the "coloured-only" platform. He refused to leave and he was arrested at once for challenging the Jim Crow's Law. The Blacks in New Orleans fought the case and stood on Plessy's side to support him in the Supreme Court. They losed in the court decision called "Plessy vs. Ferguson" alas.

d. The Jim Crow's Law appeared in the novel To Kill A Mockingbird. This law affects the whole storyline in To Kill A Mockingbird very much especially during the trial of Tom Robinson who was accused of raping the white girl Mayella Ewell. Although he was proved to be the innocent one, but the jury claimed that he was guilty and he was arrested. Tom was killed in the jail as a result he tried to "flee" the prison, but most probably he was killed because he was a Black.

Discrimination

Discrimination based on personal preference

• based on Sexual orientation
• based on breast-feeding
• based on political preference
• against discrimination
• based on religion
  
  Discrimination based on physical properties
• based on sex/gender
• based on age
• based on pregnancy
• based on appearance
• based on skin-colour
• based on medical status
• based on disability
  
  Discrimination based on background
• based on family background
• based on parental status
• based on marital status
• based on race
• based on nationality
• based on economic status
• based on language
• based on intelligence

Civil Rights Movement

a) The Civil Rights Movement was on Year 1955.

b)The Civil Rights Movement was to restore the voting rights of the African Americans. It was also to obliterate the racial discrimination based on races as the African Americans were always humiliated since their skin colour was black. They made protest to the government and became arrogance towards the government authorities and showed civil disobedience. They felt that thier privileges were much lower than the normal Americans.

c)On first of the December, 1955, the "mother" of the Civil Rights Movement, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white American. She was then accused of her disorderly conduct. Some of the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement organised riots to demand for a better bus transportation system.

In 1961 to 1962, some Civil Rights Movement activists had criticised the King personally. Therefore, the SLCC created a campaign and was assisted by the King to capture those activists. But the goals were not specific enough, and it was disrupted by a cunning local police chief.

In 1964, President Johnson signed a Civil Rights Act which banned other people for making racial discrimination based on races, religion, etc. And the law was enforced by Attorney General.

d)President Lyndon B.

e)The privileges of the African Americans were as equal as normal Americans' privileges.

f)The period in the novel was most probably before the era of the Civil Rights Movement as Tom was proved to be innocent clearly but still he was convicted and later killed. And the difference in privileges between normal Americans and African Americans was crystal clear.

After You, My Dear Alphonse

Topic:Would you have treated Boyd or someone who is not of the same races as you differently? Why or why not?

Since there are many races in the world, we cannot humiliate others just because they are of the different races. If we treat other races unfairly, people of the different races will also treat us unfairly too. It is better to have a friend rather than have an enemy. People who treat other religions and races unfairly are known as racists, it sounds bad too if people call me racist. Just like in the passage, the stereotyping occurs frequently in our life as people always try to exaggerate their own race and make other races to be seemed worse. Therefore people tend to insult other races, and the vendetta among the people begins. So, I will not treat people of the other races such as Boyd differently as this is the nature of a person.

Comic Strip: Protect the environment

My comic strip is about the conservation of the environment. We, as a part of the mother Earth, has the responsible to protect the Earth and the family in the Earth. Do not simply kill the animals as this will affect the food chain harshly. If done too often, endangered animals such as tiger in this comic strip will become extinct. Furthermore, our next generation will be unable to see these animals again. Also, some animals benefit us very much in either a direct way or an indirect way. Therefore, I create this comic strip to convey the message that we must stop killing animals and stop destroying plants for a better future to the next generation.

A weird story I have been told

When I was small, my friends used to tell me that the dragon existed in this world. Due to my childishness and my enthusiasm towards this mysterious creature, I believed this rumour. And one of my friends noticed that I did not feel suspicious, he told me that the dragon had "teleported" to my school's abandoned backyard. Through this was ridiculous, I did not suspect anything. Thus, I tried to find some friends to go to the backyard since I was terrified.

The backyard of my school was believed to be haunted, so the school decided not to use it anymore because a prophet said that something bad would happen there. I was so eager to see the true form of the dragon as this creature was known as legendary creature. Despite fearness, I insisted on going there for further investigation. Finally, I managed to find a friend who shared the same opinion of me towards the existence of the dragon.

Upon reaching there, we could see the urine and the "chocolates" left by some creatures scattered over the ground. Although the smell was extremely disgusting, I decided to go further to get more secrets. There were bushes and trees everywhere. The sunlight had been blocked by the leaves and therefore it was very dark there. We proceeded in mortal dread. Finally we had reached the dead end. But unfortunately, there was nothing there.
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Suddenly, we heard eerie sounds everywhere. Then, I sensed something moving around the area and was covered entirely by the bush. We shrieked so loud until we made the situation even worse. The creature dashed out of the bushes behind us and tried to backstab us. Without hesitation, we rushed immediately and escaped the bakyard. We told this incident to our friends, I completely believed the existence of the dragon until the following year where the backyard was developed by the Housing Authority. I finally knew the truth.

The creature in the backyard was a tigress whose home was destroyed. It had to take care of its cub and therefore, it came to the backyard and made it as a shelter for both itself and its cub. But the cub died due to the inadequate supply and care from its mother. The tiger was then sent to the national zoo instead of kill this endagered animal.

After this incident, I had learned not to be so naive and gullible as this would make me very vulnerable to trickers. I also got some experiences about the mortal danger the endangered species faced and hence I learned a virtue to protect animals even though it was just a puny creature.

Thoughts on the poem "Cloony the Clown"

This blog is written by Shel Silverstein who was a well-known poet because of his "tongue-in-check" humour.

Cloony The Clown

I'll tell you the story of Cloony the Clown
Who worked in a circus that came through town.
His shoes were too big and his hat was too small,
But he just wasn't, just wasn't funny at all.
He had a trombone to play loud silly tunes,
He had a green dog and a thousand balloons.
He was floppy and sloppy and skinny and tall,
But he just wasn't, just wasn't funny at all.
And every time he did a trick,
Everyone felt a little sick.
And every time he told a joke,
Folks sighed as if their hearts were broke.
And every time he lost a shoe,
Everyone looked awfully blue.
And every time he stood on his head,
Everyone screamed, "Go back to bed!"
And every time he made a leap,
Everybody fell asleep.
And every time he ate his tie,
Everyone began to cry.
And Cloony could not make any money
Simply because he was not funny.
One day he said, "I'll tell this town
How it feels to be an unfunny clown."
And he told them all why he looked so sad,
And he told them all why he felt so bad.
He told of Pain and Rain and Cold,
He told of Darkness in his soul,
And after he finished his tale of woe,
Did everyone cry? Oh no, no, no,
They laughed until they shook the trees
With "Hah-Hah-Hahs" and "Hee-Hee-Hees."
They laughed with howls and yowls and shrieks,
They laughed all day, they laughed all week,
They laughed until they had a fit,
They laughed until their jackets split.
The laughter spread for miles around
To every city, every town,
Over mountains, 'cross the sea,
From Saint Tropez to Mun San Nee.
And soon the whole world rang with laughter,
Lasting till forever after,
While Cloony stood in the circus tent,
With his head drooped low and his shoulders bent.
And he said,"THAT IS NOT WHAT I MEANT -
I'M FUNNY JUST BY ACCIDENT."
And while the world laughed outside.
Cloony the Clown sat down and cried.


Thoughts on this poem:
The irony in the poem really happens in our daily life frequently. Sometimes when I feel depressed, people may think I am emo-ing, trying to get others attentions, then they will take it as a lame joke. And sometimes I feel sympathy for something, people may think that it is humorous. But most of the times I cannot do anything about these things so that I will not be the person who people think is an idiot just because most of the people have the same idea but differ from mine.

Furthermore, when I am poor at something but I am forced to do so, it can also ruin my reputation because people think that I am stupid. People always have an opinion: When most of the people are good at something, then supposedly others need to also be good at it too. Why? Because if so many persons can do it well, why the others cannot? If there is so many people good at it, then it must be extremely easy so the people who cannot do it well are reckoned as dumb.

In this poem, Cloony was a clown and he had to have funny actions and reactions all the time because this was his job. But when he was not good at it and he could not change his job so easily, he was stressed. He had to face the reality that people insulted him either directly or indirectly because he could not perform his profession well. Just like me, for example, I was chosen as a leader in a particular subject, and I did not do well. What people might think? They will comment me negatively and condemn me and grumbled at me and complained me and ...... There is no need to say about the end of me.

Well, from this poem, I learn that we must think on others' side and know what do they want, how do them feel, what are the stresses they will face, and more. That's why some people can have such excellent interrelationship between each other. Hence, if we want to make more friend, we need to have such virtue that can be learned in this poem which was the reason I liked this poem.