This week is more like a swirl of a naughty tornado; I barely registered anything happening before meeting quite the end of the week!
The Internet
This week in English class, we learned about the Internet. The Internet is a crucial part of our lives right now. The example within an arm's length is me. I order numerous books online and they would send it to the convenience store I picked, one not far from our school. It was efficient, it was fast, and it was cheaper. I still go to bookstores, though, but those visits were hunts for new books, not the ones I have written down on my book wishlist. The books I want are hard to obtain from physical bookstores, sometimes they even have to import the books overseas exclusively for me.As the Internet has such a broad range of accessible benefits, it is also one of the sharpest double-edged swords found in the world. The Internet kills. With the anonymity and the literal web of information as we call it, one wrong move can wreck one's life and haunt them for years. One of the most prominent cases is cyberbullying. During class, we learned about a girl who couldn't live a peaceful life, all because of her once young and oblivious action of flashing herself on a live stream. It was impulsiveness, it was stupidity, but no one deserved the blackmailing, the name-calling, the bullying that followed her. It led her into self-harming and eventually, she took her own life to evade all the pressure that had been bothering her for years. I don't believe that no one was innocent in this incident. The girl was wrong to ignore the high risks when using the Internet, but the people sending her those ill-bearing and abusive remarks were in no way justified. Even those who were just watching the whole thing unfold, unwilling to offer a hand when the girl needed it most; no one did the right thing. It was depressing, and I know, if I were there, knowing the whole picture, I would hand out my hand to her, no matter how others would react.
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| You never know what happens. (via Google Pictures) |
This Week and Future Events
Every week a new event.
This week, we were still working on the voiceover contest. It was hard, to mimic the voice of the originals, to keep up with the speed and the tones of the characters. Cathy, Patrick, Doris and I are on the same team, and I hope we would be able to pull it off.
This Saturday was also our school's PTA. My mother was elected parents' representative of the class! From now on, on a regular basis, she would have to come to school as well, for some meeting of school affairs. Fingers crossed for my mom =)
Remember the musical we went to see at Taipei American Schoo? The Addams Family? The week after the next on Thursday, which is 9/28, we are visiting TAS once more, this time for a modern rendition of The Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare. Now, at the mention of TAS and Shakespeare, I was reminded of the happiness I felt, both from The Addams Family we watched last year -Candy was still swooning over the Lucas in the show. Don't tell her I said that, or she would kill me :)- and also the Much Ado about Nothing from the Wadham College in England. I still had the tunes of the musical last year in my head, for I occasionally go on the Net and looked for the soundtrack from Broadway; I still can recall some scenes in the open theater in the college, how stunning the emotions were that it was almost tangible. I know, going to this show is going to be another one that would be imprinted in my mind.
Answering Questions
1. What events happened on September 11 th 2001, that are now commemorated by
Memorials through the United States?
A terrible airplane hijacking terrorist attack took place, crashing into a number of prominent American buildings, the Twin Towers, and the Pentagon building, for example. The passengers on all the hijacked planes sacrificed, and hence they were commemorated.
2. In the Memorial in Tempe, how are the different flags marked?
2996 flags were marked with different colors of ribbons and the victims' names. Each kind of ribbon represents who the people were, singing about their bravery.
3. Why is the Tempe Town Lake an appropriate place for the “Healing Field”?
I am not sure why it is appropriate, but with the three-day-long ceremony, and the mass of the memorial events, it does look so.
4. Where do most of the flowers that Mr. Maher mentions grow wild? What is necessary
to be sure that the flowers can thrive in the desert?
The mentioned flourishing flowers are mostly from northern Mexico and Southern Arizona, and just like all flowers do, it requires an adequate amount of water and a certain amount of shades for the flowers to bloom fervently.
5. Why are certain colors of flowers usually planted? Why were the blue flowers planted?
When are the blossoms on the blue flowers actually open?
Usually, most of the flowers planted are in red, orange, and yellow to attract the hummingbirds for the pollen, and the blue ones are planted because it strikes Mr. Maher's liking; they are bell-shaped blue flowers that open up somewhat an hour after sunrise.
6. What is the major project that the City of Tempe will soon be starting in Mr.
Maher’s neighborhood?
All the old and used underground pipes are to be renewed.
7. What will be the benefits of this project? What will be some of the drawbacks
while the project is in progress?
While it sounds good to have an upgraded version of water piping system, a massive construction like this usually takes a long time, and it causes inconvenience regularly.
8. What are Labrador Retrievers actually bred to do? How will a “good” Labrador
show this when they play “fetch”?
Labrador Retrievers is a kind of hunting dog bred to withstand some cold climates, and when they play fetch, they accountably bring back the ball. Repeatedly.
9. What areas were stuck and damaged by Hurricane Irma? (This questions is not
directly answered in the Newsletter, but you should know this from following the
news. Hint: One area is a state in the United States, but the other is a region,
named after a sea.)
The hurricane struck mostly at the islands of the Caribbean and a big chunk of Florida, including North Carolina and Georgia.
10. Why does Mr. Maher suspect that somebody has a relative in the power pole
business?
The wooden poles for carrying electricity are way under the standards, and it would likely to be destroyed soon.
A Peculiar Pair of Typhoons
Speaking of the Hurricane Irma, I mourn at the people and properties lost in the vast natural disaster, and at the same time it reminded me of the two typhoons that were so close to us, but instead of making a substantial strike on the land of Taiwan, they, one by one, took an abrupt turn and swerved into some other directions. It was weird. However, I felt guilty when I chimed in with my class when we complained about not getting a day off. We study in Taipei, so seldom do we have the geographical position to undergo the rough and ferocious storms and wind people felt and suffered. We were inconsiderate, and I felt unwell because of that.
Drained... :D
It really takes a long time to finish writing all these, but this is something I really enjoy doing. Let's end this one with a nicely placed pun!
Yours truly,
Hugo
p.s. Early hand in bonus woohoo! Just kidding. :D
Hugo,
ReplyDeleteSorry to take so long on responding to you latest post. As you probably know by now, your letters are a little longer and more involved than most of the other students, so I like to read them over two or three time, and reflect a little on what what you have to say before a write a response. That can take a few days. I'm not suggesting that you write any less. But I am pointing out that, as difficult as it can sometimes be, you may have to be a little patient.
Good responses on the questions. I like the way that you put your responses in your own words, and didn't just use extracts from the Newsletter. You and Sabrina are answer all of the questions, but other students are answering only some of them. Are the questions an "optional" assignment for the class.
Are the questions easy to do? Which is the more challenging part: finding the answer, or writing the answers in complete sentences?
By the standards of most countries, Taiwan is well prepared for the typhoons that strike the island. A fer roofs blown away, some tree branches down, and some minor flooding is usually the result. The people that are killed are usually people out doing something stupid. So your typhoon are a little inconvience, and a nice excuse for students and other to have an unplanned holiday.
If you look at the hurricanes in Texas, Florida, and especially in the Caribbean, your typhoons don't amount to very much. Unless you've "been there, done that", its had for us to even imagine all of the destruction. Everything that these people have worked for their whole lives is now a pile of flattened rubble. All of the necessities of life are in short supply, and your very survival is now dependent on the kindness of strangers. Restoring the essentials of life can take weeks, and restoring "life as it was" will take years. I don't know if I can ever complain about the Arizona heat again. Compared to those hurricanes, it would just seem like whining. Nobody like a whiner
On a more cheery note, how did the "voice overs" go? The common response is that it didn't go as well as most people expected. The reasons usually given was the 1) it was too early in the year, 2) you didn't have enough time to prepare, and , 3) Students didn't take it seriously enough. Is that about right?
Tim
Hello, Tim. Thank you for your reply and especially such a long one. I have to say sorry for not being patient enough. I think I was just too eager and I didn't know better than to keep waiting. I should have known that you have not only us the HP students to deal with, but also your students in America and students from the other schools in Taiwan. I know that I sometimes write a little bit too much but this is where my passion is and I promise that I will will keep it up no matter how busy I am. And now for the questions you have asked me:
ReplyDeleteRegarding to your questions on the comprehension questions you gave us, I think that it was really nice to still have this kind of practice because it is not like the usual comprehension tests we get from school, since we have to bend our mind a little to see the answers within the sentences and also that we have to write them down; it requires us not only to quote what you just said but also try to put them in our own words and express little bit more about our opinions. And for our class, after talking about the questions you provided us with my classmates and mrs. Summer, the recommended answered question is about three to five per week. As you said last time not all the students are so enthusiastic about writing a long essay as a reply so I don't think that they should be asked to do that while I as well think that it would be such a waste if we just skipped all the questions you made.
After the typhoon that almost hit us the weather was basically all sunshine and no rain. It gets frustrating when the air is suffocatingly filled with hot, humid air.
As a resident of a typhoon-prone island, I can somehow relate to the victims of the hurricanes happening recently. It must feel heartbreaking, to see all the places you've once known being made into rubble and debris. Hope that they can recover soon, and if I had the chance to go over, I would like to help. I am not sure if I would be of much help, but I certainly would try.
As for the voice over, it certainly didn't go well, but the results were still surprising in our team. I will talk about it in the next letter!
Again, sorry for the impatient waiting, and thank you.
Hugo