#41

The Sniper

             The author of ‘The Sniper’, Liam O’Flaherty, shows the unpleasantness of war through the story. Throughout his writing, he builds up this image of how bad a war is. Mostly, the darkness and the tension affect the readers’ notion. The three major things that Liam uses to show his hatred are cigarette and hidings, cruelty, and tragedy.

             The cigarette that the sniper smoked and how he had to hide, perfectly shows how a person has to be extraordinarily careful during wars. It’s very hard to believe how hard it is to live restrained for even an hour. Imagine yourself having to creep under the shadows, not allowed to do anything but wait. The sniper couldn’t even smoke, for then; he would be spotted and get killed instantly. However, he did smoke as he would usually do normally, and got shot! There is no mercy out there in the war. The people have to live with anxiety and fear until they win, or they lose.

             Furthermore, the cruelty of the plot inwardly describes how the author utterly disliked wars. The sniper had to kill an old lady whom he did not know at all, just because she was informing his enemy. Just because she was his enemy, he had to kill her. What difference does it make between this and Holocaust? Germans killed the Jews just because they were Jews. The sniper killed the old lady and the man just because they were his enemy. The war just simply makes human relationships forbidden by telling them which side they are on. The sniper ended up killing his on brother because they were on different sides. Even looking at a dead person makes someone disgusted and dismayed, imagine how dreadful it would be to kill one’s own family? Even though the sniper was cold hearted and was excited to kill his enemy, he was sickened by what he had done. These battles and wars have people on their strings and take control on them, leaving a bloody mess behind them, letting family and friends mourn in pain and horror.

             Lastly, this story is a microcosm of the tragedy of wars. Wars are, as most people know, sad. People have to fight against each other; people lose their belongings, their friends, family… etc. They are broken apart from their merry life. Even in Korea, many people suffered from bombs, deaths, diseases, and every other factor that they were sick of it. Liam expressed the tragedy by showing how the sniper had changed after he killed the last man, his brother. And when he finally saw that the man was his brother, he was shocked.

             Liam O’Flaherty showed how pointless wars are with his ‘symbols’ in the novel. Overall, He used gloomy background and intensive sense to create the tragedy of wars.

#40

Comparison Essay:

Cancer

             The article states that cancer is a genetic factor. On the other hand, the speaker says that causes relate to cancer.

             The reading passage contends that Japanese men are five times more likely to get stomach cancer than Americans. However, they are five times less likely to get prostate cancer than Americans. Thus, this demonstrates that cancer is hereditary. The reading also tells how Native Americans have the lowest rate of getting a cancer than any other ethnic groups in America. This show how cancer is affected genetically.

             On the other hand, the listening says that cancer depends on its cause. She says that because Japanese men eat a lot of salty fish and pickled food, they are more likely to get cancer. More specifically, Japanese immigrants to America, who ate American food, their rate of getting a stomach cancer decreased. As a conclusion, people get cancers from what they do. Her second argument is that Native Americans consume natural medications that use plants and herbs. They also eat root that attacks cancer cells.

             In conclusion, cancer really depends on its cause rather than genetic factor of humans.

#39

Strawberry Banana Smoothie

um-mm....
my favorite drink ever! XD


no more of off-side-s ...
i'll start right away

ingredients:

5 frozen strawberries

half a banana(about 2.5 inch)(or less)(for it makes the drink ruff :()

milk

honey

how to:

put the strawberries into the mixer.

same with the banana!

pour about a cup(but less) into the mixer.

just a bit of honey(half a teaspoon) sill do..

Blend!

blend until you can't feel the fruits blending...

done!

enjoy yourselves :)

#38

Students per Class

           Schools should have few students (10-15) in classes because then students may get better quality of education, they can make good friendship, and this provides more jobs.

           Firstly, students can receive greater education. In Korea, for instance, has a lot of students in class. 35-40 students do not get chance to ask great deal of questions to teachers, because if they do, the teacher would be exhausted and get annoyed. Thus, most students do not ask questions even though they are confused. Moreover, most teachers do most of the talking while their students fall asleep. Many students feel like they are okay to doze off because the teacher is too tired to teach 40 students. The students feel sleepy and so does the teachers. However, when a class has fewer students, teachers and students become more intimate and actually converse with each other. Because a teacher gets to meet smaller groups, s/he might naturally know, understand, and handle one’s students. It is very hard to remember 40 names. How hard would it be to even teach them without knowing their names? This causes students to do whatever they want to do in class. This is why a there should be few students in class so that a teacher can handle quite well, and the students can get solve their curiosity.

           Secondly, students can build better friendship. Some people might say that in a larger group of people, a person can make friends easily. However, a person can make more friends in smaller groups. In a class of 40 students, s/he might be able to find a friend that shares the same interest. But, that friend might befriend her or him and play with other friends. Because there are more people, it is far much absolute that ‘friend-cycle’ begins and ends faster, living students tired of making any more progress. On the other hand, in smaller groups, people feel more like they bond together. Moreover, the friend-cycles are simpler and last longer, for they know if a friendship breaks, there are far less chance to make another one because there are not much people. Students can benefit a lot from friendship. For instance, they can study as a friend, ask questions, play together and have fun, feel a little competitive, experience social life, and mostly, having friends just makes a school life fun with joy.

           Lastly, placing few students per class makes more jobs available. Nowadays, many people are suffering from no-job. Even those people who graduated Seoul National University are not able to get a job despite their great educational background. There just aren’t enough jobs. Schools can solve this problem my providing work for the unemployed. For example, teaching, cleaning, cooking, guarding, playing... etc. Therefore, if more than 500 schools are planning to put fewer students in class, they can hire a lot of people and save Korea’s accession rate.

           As one can see, fewer students per class can give students better education, build better friendship, and provide more jobs for unemployed-s.

#37

Riddle Poetry

I am usually in a vivid color

You can find me on any stories

I am very useful when fighting terror

I am heavy, but what is inside me is as light as bubbles

With my bubbles, you shouldn’t be afraid unless you can’t find me

I hope that can unleash my leash and help yourselves.

Who am I?

#36

Single sex school vs. Co-ed school

             Co-ed schools are more beneficial than single sex schools because they reflect our real life. Co-ed schools also advantages the youth by giving them many chances to learn from each other as a different gender. Lastly, co-ed schools may help their students with their future marriage and relationships.

             In co-ed schools, many students are exposed to a real-life society, even though they might have not realized it. In the real life, hardly any societies have a group single-sex-ed people. Societies are made up of males and females, so that they can supplement each other. However, if teenagers are separated into their genders, they may have a problem adapting to a society later on in their life. Nevertheless, co-ed schools make up for this problem by naturally building man-and-woman society. Then, students from these schools eventually learn to work as a group and as a society, which prepares them for the ‘real’ life before hand.

             In addition, co-ed schools also give the students opportunities to learn from each other educationally. Since the co-ed schools have both boys and girls, there is more possibility of better education. Especially in Korea, because its students are so competitive, there needs to be an ideal person or people to be alike. For instance, a boy can look upon a girl who is at the top of the whole school and feel motivated. It is an excuse to say that in co-ed schools, girls or boys get distracted by their opposite sex and do not study. However, the attitude of mind to study is important for one’s sake. Students who do not really want to study have a reasonable possibility that they are not going to study hard in single sex schools. Thus, if students’ consciousness of studying is erect, co-ed schools can help them by giving great look-and-learn environment.

             Lastly, co-ed schools even help their students with their future marriage and relationships. On top of all those benefits that co-ed schools give, they even prime students for relationships. People not only have to have friends of the same sex, but also the opposite sex. When students are in single sex school, possibility that they are going to make friends of the opposite gender is pretty low. However, co-ed schools have both genders for students, so that they can be friends. From learning how to be friends with their opposite gender, they also learn about their opposite sex. Boys learn about what girls like and do not like and vice versa. By so, they will eventually understand what to do when their spouses get mad or sad. As one can see, co-ed schools have both genders so that their students can also learn about their opposite gender.

             Co-ed schools are able to overlap single sex schools in real society, education, and future relationships. Thus, co-ed schools are far more advantageous than single sex schools.

#35

The Silver Outrigger: How the Setting Affects the Plot

             In ‘the Silver Outrigger’, there is this one kind of setting that lifts up the readers’ tension; the weather. In this story, the weather could be separated into three parts. First part is when the storm builds up, then the storm rushes in, and the last part is when the storm is dissolved. As the reader reads trough the story, s/he gets all focused and yet nervous and then BOOM! comes the storm and the climax. Thus, the tension and the weather are parallel to each other.

             The story begins by telling the readers about how Captain Jarvis and Tod invited Mr. Williamson to a feast, but he refused. The weather of the night was humid and hot like the tropics. Jarvis and Tod start to go and visit Williamson in face. When they arrive ashore, they are welcomed by an earthquake. The earthquake is the trigger of the readers’ tension. On top of that, whining of the mosquitoes also pushes up the tension. These settings are on top of the basic setting, the humid and hotness. The sky becomes cloudier and the humidity rises even more, which parallels to the tension of the story. When they finally meet Williamson, he greeted them unpleasantly at first because he was haunted by the silver canoe. Then, he explains all about this canoe with no one on it. The weather is still building up and is very close to giving a huge storm. Jarvis recommends to chase after the canoe after he and other people had seen it with their own eyes. When they start to chase after the canoe, the storm comes right in and the story has reached its climax.

             As one can see, when the plot had reached the climax, the weather, too, had built up till its storm broke out. While the three of them are chasing after the canoe, the readers are constantly stimulated by frequent reminders of how the weather is like at the moment. There is fog, rain, strong winds, harsh waves… etc. This plot is the most active and so is the weather. It seems like when they get closer to the canoe, the weather worsens and tries to keep them apart. However, they manage to get near it.

             Finally, Jarvis, Tod, and Williamson got close enough to see who was in the canoe. When they did, the weather softened and the storm went by. Everything was solved. The weather and the plot’s tension had gone down slightly. However, some tension is left behind so that the story is a bit unfinished.

             ‘The Silver Outrigger’ is a story that uses weather as its biggest setting. So by following the weather patterns, readers can understand the basic plot.