Saturday, May 2, 2009

May.2nd.2009

I had a great time meeting my best friends. we didn't have time to meet during this semester because I was too busy. Therefore, this holiday was a good chance for us.

Field trip

On the last day of April, we went field trip. The weather was hot but we had a wonderful time!



Friday, April 24, 2009

Wow=)

Today, we got our mid-term report card, and guess what? I reached my goal! Ms.Yu, Ms.Janda, and Mr.Pfeifer, thank you all=) Although today I got lots of homework to do=(,,, I am still happy. I was recently getting more and more lazy and was feeling very tired, but now I have power to keep it up. Therefore,,,, I think,, today I should enjoy this first,,,, and then maybe I can do tons of homework tomorrow=)

Friday, April 17, 2009

Cotton Candy's Words


 
I have more than just one color.
I am made of lots of sugar.
My body is like clouds in the sky.
My sweetness can soothe a screeching guy.
I can make your teeth decay,
but after this painful day,
You will forget today's pain,
and will buy me once again!

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Haiku Poems















Snow falling slowly
Blanketing the trees and road
Silence and beauty




red and pink balloons
A white cake with three candles
Happy birthday, girls




A girl squating down
Spending painful time alone
In a pouring rain



+) bonus!


I like chocolate
Because it is very sweet
I like chocolate =)

Thursday, April 2, 2009

"WALL-E" Reflection

Today, we finished the second half of the movie "Wall-E". The rest of the story, was developed in almost the same direction as I predicted yesterday. Wall-E and Eve finally save the plants and help human go back to Earth. Then, the people learn to stand and walk without help from an automatic chair, and begin a new life on the Earth again.

"Wall-E" impressed me greatly, and it made me think of lots of things.
Presently, there are many people who are worried about some side effects of advanced technology, which is good. What is unfortunate is that some of them try to put the blame for their mistake on other factors but not themselves. Some people argue that human should stop developing the technology because technology can destroy our world. But, are the problems really caused by technology development? Can it be resolved if we get rid of all the technology?

In "Wall-E", human destroy the world and leave to the space irresponsibly. They make robots who will clean the Earth for them, but when the plan was failed, they immediately abandon the Earth and decide to stay in the space, forever. The auto pilot, who cause the main conflict and try to keep human from going back to the Earth, is just following the directive which was given to him by the ancestor of the people. Hence, the problems in the movie are not really made by the advanced technology, but it comes from lack of responsibility of human.
On the contrary, robots including Wall-E and Eve, have even more humanities than real human, and help people to go back to their Earth, and help them start a new life again. With the help from the robots, human can settle on the Earth easily and soon acclimate themselves to the new environment.

There are many great writers who worry about the technology and human's future. However, in many of the stories, the original cause of the disasters is not from other factors, but from human themselves. When the people realize their faults and try to fix the problems, most of the troubles are resolved, just like in the movie "Wall-E" and "City of Ember", but if human shirk their responsibility and keep addicted to the convenience of advanced technology, some serious catastrophes can really happen to them, as it did in the story "The Veldt".

Technology is not an evil, unless we use it recklessly. It is true that there are some grave side effects of the technology development, but only if we are aware of its dangerous aspects and use it wisely, technology will bring us great advantages without disasters.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

"WALL-E"

Recently, I have learned two stories that talk about human's future and fate of our Earth in English 11 class. Today, we watched another movie called "WALL-E", which also depicts the problems that we may face in the future.

In this movie, the Earth is totally polluted by human and becomes an unsuitable place to live anymore. Therefore, human invents robots who will clean the Earth for them, and leave to the space. 700 years later, there is only one robot left whose name is Wall-E. He always clean the rubbish on the Earth and collect junk from it as a hobby. In evenings, he watches human's musical video and learns human's feeling from it, such as love and loneliness.
One day, a robot named Eve comes to Earth and Wall-E wants to be friends with her. At first, she does not pay attention to Wall-E, but they soon become closer to each other. However, when Wall-E gives Eve a plant as a gift, Eve takes the plants and shuts down because it was her mission to find a life on the Earth. Then, a spaceship comes to Earth to take her. Wall-E does not want to lose Eve, so he follows the spaceship and goes to the space.
In the space, there is a huge spacecraft, and inside the spacecraft, it is an automatic city where all the human are living in. In the city, people do not have to do anything, thus they have become a lot fatter and their legs have atrophied than 700 years ago. Eve goes to the captain of the spaceship, but the plant that she brought from the Earth has disappeared, and Eve is falsely accused for untrue report.

Although we have not finished this movie yet, we could guess what the director wants to talk to us through this movie. Similar with "the Veldt" and "City of Ember", the people in "WALL-E" also destroy the world where they live, and become addicted to the convenience that advanced technology gives them. These two problems are the main causes of conflict in all the three stories. It means that the problems are very serious in present-day world and can bring human some catastrophes in the future.

In "WALL-E", the robot Wall-E is very pure, kind, and has lots of humanities, even more than that of real human. In rest of the movie, perhaps Wall-E and Eve will find the plants and help human go back to their original home, Earth. Then, the people may be impressed by Wall-E's humanities, get themselves back as they really were in the past, and begin a new life on the Earth again.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Wow.... today is the most drowsy day in this semester. I almost fell asleep in every class, and right now, I really want to go to bed. Come on, Mariah! You have lots of work to have done by today!!! You have finished neither review for the test nor the homework for any class!!! none of them! Please stay awake!!! Do not fall asleep!!!

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Two Bad Habits

Recently, I have read many blogs of my classmates and other students in our school. I found that many of them really want to get a high mark on their provincial exams, but they say that it is really hard to get a good mark, because their English is very poor.

Well, I also tried the provincial sample exams during this weekend. By now, I have taken all the three of English exams, and my marks were 80%, 75%, and 86%. It was not as high as I hoped, but some students ask me how I got these marks. Thus, I am writing something that might be helpful for the students who are worried about their English.

Many students have two bad habits in their way of learning English.

First, I found that many students are using internet language on their blog. Students use lots of slang or abbreviated words in their writing. Maybe they think it looks cool, right? It is okay to use those sometimes, since it is also a part of internet culture. However, if you always use the informal language, perhaps you will get used to write in that way, even when you are writing a formal exam! Also, since this blog is a part of our English class, I think we should try to write in formal language here.

Secondly, if you want to improve your English, you should try to get rid of the habit of using dictionary too often. I see students looking up in their dictionary all the time. It does not really help you improve your English.
As the old saying goes, "Easy come, easy go." Looking for the meaning in the dictionary may help you understand the story more easily at that time. However, it will soon escape your brain, and next time you see the words, you will not understand most of them again. Perhaps you will become a slave of the dictionary, who cannot leave it forever. If you try to find what the word means during you read the story, you will be able to remember them more clearly.

Plus, even if you do not understand some of the words in the story, it does not really affect your reading. Do not waste your time on every single word. Instead, you should try to understand the story as groups of words. Try to understand the overall story, by reading between the lines, instead of translating all the words. Then, you will develop not only your vocabulary, but also your reading skill!

For some students whose English is extremely poor, this process would be a bit more difficult. Well,,, then, you should try to improve your vocabulary as much as you can before the test!

I really hope all of the students in our school can remarkably improve in their ability of English and get superb marks on their test, and I believe that they will definitely attain this hope.

I think all of us are doing great. Let's keep it up until the exam in June!

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Mar.28th.2009

I owe too much to the exertions of all those people around me and giving me courage.

It's true that I am busy and tired, and it gets even worse because I was used to live a lazy life before. However, if I always think back to the past and keep thinking negatively, I will not improve any more, and it will get much harder for me to study in the future. I should seek for the way to learn more things and the way to develop myself, instead of murmuring about the things around me.

Today, I tried the other two of the provincial sample exams. Adding the last one that I took in the English class, my average mark by now is above 80%. When I took the similar exam in the English 10 class last year, my mark just past but was quite lower than now. The result of the exam shows tha my English has been improved a lot, and I am still trying very hard to be better.

Recently I really feel tired and oversensitive about all the things around me. I have become very brittle that it is very hard for me to control my anger. Still, I believe that I can overcome this hardship. Perhaps this is a turning point of my life. I hope that I can pass this crisis, and become more mature in the future. Then, I will be able to grin and bear all the things even if I get much busier or face any tough hardships in my life.

Friday, March 27, 2009

As far as this but no further...

I had a really hard time during this week... I had many exams and tons of homework to do. It has been only a short time since I started to study hard. (I really hated to study even until the middle of last semester...) Although I started to take interests in study, I have not been used to study yet, and it is still very hard for me to resist all the temptations. The stress and fatigue that have beem accumulated since the beginning of this semester started to press me further more than before. There are lots of students who study harder than me. I know that I need to go further. However, I am now too tired to keep going.

My dream is to contribute to the charitable businesses, and I really want to be a kind and positive person. However recently, I easily get angry with those people who hurt my feelings. I did not like to speak critically of other people before, but now, it seems that I have grievances against lots of people... Perhaps it is because I am too tired, as I said yesterday. I want to fix my mind, but it is really difficult.

Yea, I know that it is my fault. It is because I had wasted my precious time and got used to the lazy life. I always regret it, but it is useless. I will try to renew everything and be a diligent and vital student. I hope I can return my feeling before next week and go back to school with positive Mariah.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

....?????

It seems that I am recently getting more and more negative. I cannot stand even a small problem and easily get angry with all those things around me. Perhaps this is because I am too tired............ I need more energy to keep positive and active Mariah!!!!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Mar.24th.2009

Why don't you do your best first, before bragging that you are smart????

I don't know why there are so many people who are so proud of themselves. They say that the reason why they get low mark is because they don't study, and they also say that they are so smart that they can be the best only if they study. However, if you don't study, you should not expect others to believe or respect you. There is no proof that can support what you say, unless you study really hard and show us good result.

When I was young, I didn't really like to study. Since my mark ranked a bit higher than others even though I didn't study very hard, I became lazier and didn't make a great effort on my study. But, you know what though? Even if you are very smart and can do more things than others in the same time, it is useless if you don't use your talent effectively. Those who you thought foolish will learn lots of things while you are being so delinquent, then, the gap between you and them will get greater as days go by, and you will be the loser at last!

I really want the people to take this problem seriously, especially those who have talent. If you don't do this and just keep the haughty attitude, you will really regret it somedays.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Mar.16th.2009

Today, we checked the math test from last week. Before the class, I was still little bit depressed. I realized that my mind was wrong and decided not to compare with others, but I still could not be completely satisfied with it.... (It's really hard to change my mistake immediately!!) Everytime we check the test, Mr.Pfiefer calls the 4th to the 1st grade and conguratulate them. And,,,,, I was still the first. (And because the students' grades were very low, Mr.Pfeifer added 3 points to everyone's mark, so I got more than one hundred points.) I know that I should not compare my marks with others, but it's still a very happy thing to get a perfect score.

Of course, I will not be selfish and press me with those foolish thoughts again. I will just do my best. The best way is that everyone gets a full mark, isn't it??

Friday, March 13, 2009

Happy Life House ("The Veldt" Reflection 2)

 As the society develops, we are living much busier days than the past. The developed society brought many advantages to people, but unfortunately, people have less opportunity to communicate with their family. Since there is no communication, it has become much more difficult for the family members to understand each other, and lack of understanding is leading them away from unity, causing many domestic troubles. In Ray Bradbury’s “The Veldt”, the author describes this domestic trouble in allegories, and the readers can realize how serious the problem is through this story.

 In this story, George Hadley is the patriarch of one family. He has an automatic house called “Happy Life House”, and in the house, there is a very special nursery for his children, which offers everything that the children want. However, there have been some strange things about the nursery, “but, being busy, Hadley had it no attention.” (Para. 72) And it’s exactly the same as the aspect of the parents now. Nowadays, parents are very busy, even though the advanced technology has reduced their burden of household chores. They always have so much work to do but no time to play with their children. Since there is no communication between the parents and the children, it gets much more difficult for them to find what’s going wrong. Even when they find the problems, it’s also very hard for the family to fix those, because the family members are not used to talk to each other. Then, the relations between the parents and the children get more variant as days go by.

 However, the domestic trouble is not only the parents’ fault. Children are also responsible for it. Even though their parents are doing wrong, the children should know it is wrong and try to change their attitude. Sadly, most of the children are not realizing it, and are led away by the parents’ wrong behavior. When their parents are busy and have no time to listen to them, the children should control their mind well try not to fall into bad ways, but they don’t. When they don’t try to calm themselves, the children easily get addicted to the things that only can bring more problems, such as computer games, bad friends, or even drugs. Children can never be released from stress by those ways, and the relationship in their family gets worse and worse. Then, there could be really a serious problem such as violence or abscondence happens. In this story, Peter and Wendy value their nursery more than their own parents because the nursery has replaced the parents in the children’s mind. When the parents notice the problem and try to remove the nursery, they can’t stand it and finally kill their own parents using lions in the magic nursery.

 This story is also telling the readers that the gifts that the parents gave to their children can destroy the children, or even the whole family. Instead of trying to understand their children, the parents now are giving their children material gifts, as Mr. Hadley bought the magic nursery for his children, Peter and Wendy. He thinks that he gave his children everything that they wanted and it was all what he had to do. Therefore when the children disobey the father’s order, he gets very angry and says, “We’ve given the children everything they ever wanted. Is this our reward— secrecy, disobedience?”(Para.134). Now, many parents think they are doing well. They think they have to earn money and say that it is all for their children. However, money can’t replace the parents. Even if they offer everything, it’s far less valuable than the parents’ true love. When the children get some present from parents, it can please the children, but only for a short time. Later, the children will not value the little gifts anymore and may consider the gifts that their parents gave to them as if they must be there necessarily. When the parents don’t satisfy the children’s demands, the children may think that the parents don’t love them and become crooked, just as Peter and Wendy did in “the Veldt.”

 A family where the members do not communicate and do not even try to understand each other, it has become the aspect of many families in the world where we are now living in. Nevertheless, as the old saying goes, “blood is thicker than water.” family is the more important thing than any other treasures. Every family member loves each other, and tries to be good to their family. It’s the ideal of family and it has been like this for so long time. No matter how busy we are, we should notice what the priority is and try to keep our precious family. When we try to listen to our families and care about them, our families will be the most comfortable place for us to rest and to shelter against all the stress that press down on us.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

"The Veldt" Performance -Tableau

 Today, we finally did our performance about "the Veldt". Actually, it was supposed to be done by Monday... but since some students had problems with their reading, it was delayed until today. Anyway, they also finished their reading, and we could finally start this project!  
 
 In my opinion, tableau is a very good way to review stories. It can help us understand the stories better. I felt this during our project!

 First, during this project, we could understand the story of "the Veldt" more clearly than before. We were assigned to choose 5 the most important scenes in this story, and to do this, we had to know the plot of this story very well! We talked about the story of "The Veldt", and discussed each other to find the essential parts!

 Secondly, we could understand the mood of the story. To make our tableaux more effective, we tried to show feelings of the characters on our face! This needed us to read the story more carefully, to find how the characters felt in each different situation.

 Next, the performances also helped us to grasp entire the story. We were divided into two groups, and each group tried their best on this project. Watching the other group's performance, we could know what we missed and gained more information.

 These were all good for us, but most importantly, we could also have fun! For some students, perhaps reading a story could be a little boring, especially when they can't understand it easily. However, when we were preparing for the performance, nobody seemed bored! They looked very excited and joined in it very diligently!

 Hence, tableau is a very good way to learn about a story!!
 I was very excited today, and hope we can do this again on the next time~

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

People killing, People dying,
Children hurt and you hear them crying,
Can you practice what you preach,
Would you turn the other cheek,

Father Father Father help us,
send some guidance from above
cuz people got me got me questioning,
Where is the love...

- Black eyed peas "Where is the love"

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Pitfalls Behind the Convenience ("The Veldt" Reflecion)

 
 Nowadays, as the technology develops, our life has become much quicker and more convenient. It gave us many advantages, but also has been leading us to indulge in the convenience. Becoming tame by the quickness and the convenience, people depend upon the machineries, but never consider the side effects behind it. 

 Perhaps the changes that we have experienced in recent 50 years would be bigger than those in previous hundreds of years. It's only a short time since those amazing contraptions such as computer, mobile phone, internet, or navigation were invented. We already got used to use those in every part of our life, and maybe our descendants would consider those as if they must be in their life necessarily. No, maybe these are already happening now. We don't search lots of books to find information for our homework. We use our cell phone all the time, and some of us can't live with their cell phone. Children spend their whole day on raising their level up in the on-line game, instead of playing soccer outside with their friends. 

 If we give ourselves up to the comforts and become lazy, it'll be possible for us to live the life that we haven't been wanting. These days we are living much more comfortable life, but we are kind of losing the touch of humanity. The developed technology is supposed to release us from pressures, but actually we're getting more stressed out as days go by. We had always walked to the destination on our feet, however, now we complain about the traffic jam and say it's wasting our time. Previously, we could bear the inconvenience and lived happily, but now, our expectation is getting higher and higher as days go by, and we can't stand even a small problem. If we continue this, we will become the slaves of the technology, just as the children in "The Veldt", who couldn't stand life without the convenience from the automatic house and killed their own parents. We can use the technology, but shouldn't be controlled by it. 

 Sometimes, we can write to our parents asking how they are on letter paper, instead of sending an e-mail on internet. Turning off our cell phone for one day may teach us how we are dependent upon the machineries. When driving, we can turn off our navigator sometimes, and look at the map or ask the passersby. 

 Some people may think it's time-wasting to spontaneously live such inconvenient life in spite of the quick and handy way. However, we need to look back upon the past, when we didn't have such developed technology as now. We had to do lots of things without help from the machineries, but we still lived happy life, and there was even less murmurs about the inconvenience around us!
 

Friday, February 20, 2009

Good start:)

My First week of this new semester has passed all too soon. I had a very busy time to acclimatize myself to new classes and environment.

On Wednesday, we were assigned our first group project of this semester in English 11 class. In our group, Jonson, Fani, and I worked together, and prepared for the presentation very diligently. We tried to cooperate each other and did our best.

And finally today, we presented our result. No matter what mark for this project we get, I will be satisfied with it, because we learned many things. Working together in a group, we learned that it is important to help each other. We made a good start for this whole semester, and we shall not forget this lesson until the end of the semester.

I think the next time, when we do our project in a group again, we can do much better than this time!

(Although I will not be displeased with my grade even if I get a poor mark, it doesn't mean that I don't care about my grade!! So Miss.Yu!! Please don't be so severe in marking our project!!:)

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Snowy day

Yesterday, when I got out of my house, I got surprised, because it was snowing. And today morning, I was surprised again, because It has not stopped snowing. The snow had been piled up, that I could leave my footprints on it. I was so happy and jumped for joy.

If I were in Korea, I still would feel very excited, but it wouldn't be very special or surprising for me. In Korea, it snows very often in winter. It's not that heavy as in other cold countries like Canada, but it's still a lot and enough to play with it. When the snowflakes begun to flutter in the air, I runned to the playground with my friends during the break time. We snowballed each other and made snowmans. Fascinated by the snow, sometimes we came back to classroom late and scolded by teacher.

Since I came to Beijing, I had not been enjoying these things, cuz it doesn't often snow in Beijing and even when it snows, it melts away very rapidly. Therefore, today is a very special day for me. It made me very happy and also brought back to me many memories of the days when I was in Korea.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Mariah's Intro.

First, I'm very happy to introduce myself to you here.

I am Mariah Shin, 17-year-old, from Korea. I have been in China for 2 years, and I can speak a little Chinese. Even now, I'm still learning Chinese! I can also speak English and I will improve my English skill a lot more in this Class, English 11! :P Long ago, I had learned Japanese for several months, although now I have forgotten almost everything. Beginning this new year, I have decided to restart learning Japanese. Therefore, I should work very hard in this year, because I have to learn 3 languages!

Despite it, I'll also enjoy my hobby on weekends, otherwise, I will suffer from all the routines everyday. I have a variety of hobby, but I particularly enjoy baking. Of course, reading books is also one of my favorite things:P I'm a good student!

In this semester, I'll try much harder than last terms, and my goal for this term is to get all A again in the courses I'm taking! In last term I got A in the all courses that I took, however, now I'm taking much more high-leveled courses such as Social 11 and Math 12, it would be much harder for me to get all A in this semester! Thus, I must try my best and appeal to my teachers.
Also, I have to prepare for lots of things including Toefl and HSK, to achieve my dream.

I will persevere in my efforts and finally graduate SBS with a very good grade. Then, I will be able to enter the civil engineering department of M.I.T!!! Maybe after twenty years, I can be the Nobelist:P I'll study Environmental engineering, and contribute to the eco-business. To achieve these goals, I must study hard and hard and hard, and I also need help from my surrounding people! Please help me to improve myself in many ways!

Now, it's already 6 o'clock, and it's time to go to study~ Thank you for reading and see you!