Lost in the Woods

If I was suddenly lost in the wilderness, I would panic for the first few hours, crying, and feeling depressed that I won't be able to live. I learned some survival tactics from classes, but I wasn't really paying attention in those kind of classes, since I don't believe such kind of tragedy will happen on me. But I will know that when I'm lost in the wilderness, I would DEFINITELY talk to strangers if I could find one. It would be lucky to find someone in the wilderness. One thing I remember from the English class today are that if you're on a mountain, remember to keep walking down the mountain instead of walking up because the possibility of having people living on lower parts of the mountain is way higher than having people live on the high mountains. It's pretty different to get lost in the desert and getting lost in a forest. Getting lost in the desert will be like having no water, and it's harder to find shelter and resources. But when you get lost in a forest, there will be more water, more resources, and more resources to be found.

Long Life

I think that it isn’t fair to keep the secret to themselves instead of telling it to people on earth. Although it’s unfair, I think that they’re doing the right thing. It is better to only let those few people know about it, because if a lot of people know about it, everyone will try to find a way to go on to the moon, since they would want to live longer. Humans are evil and selfish. People will do anything to others when it benefits themselves. Humans may be fighting day and night, and there will be wars around the whole world. And at that time, the governors wouldn't care about the citizens anymore. All of them would be trying to make connections with the people on the moon. Also, if many people migrate to the moon, it would need a lot of gasoline to launch the rockets for many times. The earth will be more polluted, and the people that are going to stay behind will be living in a bad environment. Also, I don't think it would be good to live for 200 years. The population will be way too high, and the moon will be soon overpopulated also. And if there is only one person who will live for 200 years, then that person will be looked at as a freak because when the person's friends are all dead, he/she will be the only one left, and the next generation of the person's friends will know that he/she should've been dead, but he/she isn't yet. People will be scared of him/her, and it'll be hard for him/her to make new friends.

The Secret

In the story, "The Secret",  Henry Cooper became suspicious when he was on moon because when he went on the moon the previous time, people were very friendly and kept talking to him. But, this time when he went up to the moon, no one seems to want to meet him. Also, he became suspicious about the nervous breakdowns that was happening. Dr. Hasting's research showed that the life span on the moon is longer than the life spans in the earth. His researches were about hamsters. The hamsters on earth should be dead in two years, but instead, the hamsters on the moon lived for five years, and some even lived till almost ten years. He didn't want to let everyone know about this because the earth was overcrowded and people would all want to migrate to the moon since everything could live for a longer life. If I was Dr. Hasting, I wouldn't tell anyone also. I would just simply live on the moon by myself. I may bring some of my friends so I won't feel bored on the moon. I am just that selfish. As long as I can live happily, I don't care about other people who I don't know.

Writing is Difficult

"Writing is supposed to be difficultm agonizing, a dreadful excercise, a terrible occupation"
This is the statement made by Ray Bradbury. I agree with this statement in a way, but disagree also. I agree that writing can be really painful when you are trying to express something but you can't succeed. Also, it's painful well you're writing about something you don't believe in, it's very painful too. The author chose writing as a job because he probably only has this talent, and even though he hates it, he still has to do it for a living or else he won't have money to do anything. I think that writing is fun sometimes though. In the times when the topic is something I feel really strong about, I can write on and on and on. Those times, I love writing. But it gets really annoying when I feel something, but can't express them with words. Although I sometimes like writing, I would never choose it as a career because I'm not a person that has a lot of patience. Many things seem difficult, but people choose to do them anyways. People do them because they benefit themselves. For example, studying. They seem difficult, actually, they are difficult but because it benefits ourselves, we still continue to study.

Thankful

Basiclly, I'm thankful for being alive, having great parents that are willing to spend a lot of money on me, and having wonderful friends that make my life happy. First of all, I'm thankful for being alive to experience the feeling of everything. Breathing, eating, sleeping, and even doing things I don't like. Everything makes me feel thankful to be able to experience a feeling like that. Also, I'm thankful for my parent being strict to me, so that I can have good grades. Although sometimes I feel that they give me too much pressure, but i should still feel thanful since they still care about me. If they don't care about me, they wouldn't even want to be strict and give me pressure. Lastly, I'm thankful for being best friends with Annie, Isabel, and Janet. When I'm not in a good mood, they always find ways to cheer me up, and are always by my side when I need them. And I'm thankful for being friends with all of my other schoolmates. For example, Jasper, Eddy, and Hantine. Although they always like to play jokes on me, and try to say things that can make me angry, I know that they won't play those jokes to people they don't like, and they know that my temper isn't too bad and is able to take the jokes.

My Invention

  If I could invent something to make our lives more convenient, I would want to invent something that can let people transfer to any place they want to. Now a days, cars take up too many place, and motorcycles keep driving around, which is very dangerous. There are too many accidents and people dieing because of cars and motorcycles. I would invent a very small device that can stick on any kind of material no matter if it's hair or skin. With those devices, you could go to anywhere you want as long as you know the address. There's a microphone on the device, and a button. When you want to go to a place, you just simply press the button, and say the address. When you're done saying the address, you press the button again. The next second, you'll find out that you are in a place you've told the device. This device will be very materialistic. The materials used are the materials that people throw away, and can be recycled. The only thing that you need to be aware of is your pronunciation. If you can't pronounce it clearly, the device may take you to a place where you don't even know. The shapes of the device are varied. Any person can choose how they want their device's shape is going to be.

New Technology

Now, things are already very convenient for people, like for example, transportation. People can go anywhere they want now with a car, scooter, bike...etc. But, because everyone wants and needs a transportation tool, there are way too many scooters and cars in Taiwan. In a hundred years, I think there will be almost no more cars riding around. People could just simply order their clothes to bring them to somewhere they want to in a few seconds. Where a person wants to call another, they won't only be able to hear the person's voice. They could see their face in the air. There will be no more things like "phones". The machine will be put inside jewelry, clothes, or probably even inside people's brains, and images will just pop out whenever the owner wants then to. Also, when people want to take pictures, they don't need a camera to take pictures. People could simply make a shape like a camera with their fingers and point them to the things you want to take picture of, and the picture will be taken.

Compare and Contrast of Dogs

  Although the topic is about dogs, but I'm not going to talk about dogs in this article. I'm going to talk about two cats that everyone is familiar with. They are Doraemon and Garfield. I'm going to talk about how they are different first. First of all, Doraemon is very helpful and is willing to help others when Garfield always causes troubles. Secondly, Doraemon is scared of cats which Garfield and almost all cats likes chasing after. Thirdly, Doraemon is a Japanese animation, and Garfield is an American animation. And, Doraemon doesn't have ears because they got bit off, and Garfield does have ears. Lastly, Doraemon is a cat robot, and Garfield is a real, true cat. They are alike in the ways that although Doraemon isn't a real cat, he still has a cat's appearance, and Garfield has a cat's appearance too. And, they are both fictional.

Knowledge About Dogs

I think that the old knowledge that the author says that dogs have but people had already lost is the loyalty to people. In the story, it said that the dogs went down to save their master when he got seriouly injured, but the dogs didn't need to save him. They could just go on without a master, and find one later on. Instead, they went to look for their master, and one dog even cleaned the wound the master got and didn't get excited and bit the master when it tasted the blood. It cleaned the wound like a mother dog will clean a small dog. Human has lost loyalty to other people, and also, people became more and more selfish. Now, people only care about themselves that whether they are happy or not. People start stealing money from others like their company, which means that they are not loyal to themselves' hearts, and not loyal to their own company they're working in. And people are selfish, because if a person, no matter if he/she is a friend or not, falls down and gets injured like the main character in the story did, people won't want to go down and save them since they know that if they go down, they might not be able to come back up, and die with him/her down there. And yes, I think that humans can learn from animals. Animals have many things that human lack, like what I've said above, human lacks loyalty and the willingness to sacrifice for others. I didn't learn anything from animals since I'm actually scared of them, but I know that we should look upon their actions.

Describe a Place You Know

vyI am going to talk about the part of  the messy house where they put their shoes of my friend in America. Even though she is my friends, but I still have to say that  her house is amazingly messy and disgusting. When you are walking, you can kick on or trip over things even if you don't intend to. When you walk into their house, the shoes are thrown all over the floor like a war has just happened in their house, and a bomb hit them. Trying to walk over those shoes are like trying to walk through a mined plain. The scene isn't pretty, and the smell is not pretty too. It feels like they never ever wash the shoes and doesn't even bother to put them under the sun to let it fry out when the shoes get wet. It's a place where you will don't want to stay in for more than a minute. Also, when you leave their house, try not to lean against the wall while you're trying to put on your shoes. The wall is sticky and gooey. When you put your hands on the wall, it feels like you've touched a slimy fish.

The influence of setting

  The settings of a story is very important. Just by writing a good setting, readers can be more interested in what is going to happedn later on. For example, if you see two different stories, and one is very specific and descriptive, the other is very vague and boring; which would you want to read? Of course the one that is more descriptive, right? When you read the descriptive settings, you feel like you can see what's going on, and where the characters were. The setting may also be a part of forshadowing. If the setting is very creepy, you may know that the story is going to be about something not so good. Think about "The Landlady" in the Holt Reader. The setting is descriptive, and how the author wrote it, makes people want to read on, and will start guessing about what's going to happen to Billy. We all know that something not good was going to happen to him, but how? And why?

What I Like About This Class

  In our grade eight English Class, I like how the homework isn't too much, unlike some teachers. It's always the right amount of homework for us to do. And also, most of the homework are done online, or by sending emails. It saves a lot of printing and paper money. Also, all the homework are posted on wikispaces, when some teachers don't even use schoology, so we won't be able to find out our homework if we forgot them. Another thing I like about this class is that most of the time, the environment is great, everyone are happy, and are laughing. Some of the times, it's not, but the teacher always jokes around, and make people laugh. One other thing is about hte pushups we have to do when we speak Chinese. It's very interesting, especially when you find out that the teacher was the only one who did the pushups before. The last thing I'm going to mention, is about the break. Not all teachers gives breaks, and some even deduct points when you go to the bathroom. It's not good! But in this English class, people are allowed to go to the bathroom when they need to.

What I Don't Like About This Class

  There isn't much of what I hate about this class, but one of them are that even though the homework are posted on wikispaces, the test dates aren't. For example, the Harriet Tubman's test wasn't posted on wikispaces, and almost the whole class didn't know that there was a test that day. So, the date we have a test should propably be posted on wiki also. One other thing I don't like is the Greek or Latin roots quiz. I think that there should be one test in two weeks. And also, sometimes, the teacher jokes about things students may not like, also, he sometimes gets crazy suddenly. It kind of scares the students, and the students don't know how to react sometimes. The last one and the MOST important one is that for these journal writings, some topics are too hard for us to write to 200 words. Even if we write around thte topic, sometimes we still aren't able to write to 200 words. I think that what the teacher should look at isn't how much we wrote, he should look at what we wrote instead.

Frietchie and Jasckson

  For the differences between Barbara Frietchie and Stonewall Jackson, first of all, Barbara is a female, which Jackson is not, and there age difference if pretty big. Also, Barbara  is very loyal to her country because she wasn't even scared when the troops went marching in the town. Everyone hid the flags, but her. She was the only one that kept the flag up, and when the soulders shot at the flag, she grabbed the flag and wansn't scared. She was willing to sacrifice herself also. Her actions were like heroes; but Jackson was not that loyal to his side. If there's a person that disobeys what he says, he should kill them, since he was a leader. If he doesn't kill them, people will think that he isn't scary, and won't listen to his orders. The similarities they have are that they are both human beings, and they both have their own side they believe in. Also, they are similar that they both are heroes. Barbara stood up for what she believed, and for her country; Jackson fought and led a whole army which is epic.

Standing up for your beliefs

  I think that actually everyone are thought as heroes, just as I wrote for one of the journals. Everyone is a hero for someone else, and so they stand up for things that aren't fair, what they don't agree with, and things that they think shouldn't happen that way. The more famous heroes are those ones that stand up for many people, and got thought of as a real hero. For example, Harriet Tubman. She stood up for the slaves because she believed that slaves shouldn't be treated like that. So, she stood up for the slaves and freed them. And me, I would stand up for anything that made me unhappy. For example, test grades. If I think that the teacher made a correcting or calculating mistake, I would go to the teacher and fight for it. I care about my grades, so I'll stand up for it. Also, if any of my friends are bullied, I will stand up for them also, because I believe that people shouldn't bully each other around, because it's mean.

Hero Biology

 The hero I'm going to talk about is born in Taipei, Taiwan in 1966. She lives with my brother, my dad and me. And, yes, I'm writing about my mom. For other people, she may not the best mom on earth, but to me, she's the best. Although she is very strict on me, and gives me a lot of pressure sometimes, I know that it is good for me. When my brother is angry and shouts at her, even if she's really angry, she doesn't shout back unless he was being too mean. But when he tries to hit me or hurt me, my mom jumps out and protects me from any harm. Not only harm from my brother, she protects me from harm from any one. For example, last time when one of my classmates were joking with me, and pulled my chair away when I sat down. It really hurt, and my mom was very worried, and even though she had a lot of work to do, she brought me to the hospital, and waited there with me. She cares about me a lot, and is willing to sacrifice anything to make me be happy. To me, she is my heroine.

What is a hero?

  I can guarantee that all of you have read about or seen stories about heroes. But, have you ever thought about this question? "What is a hero?" In a lot of stories, the heroes are superman, and saves people when they need to. It is true that heroes save people, but is it only that? I think that heroes don't have to have superpowers at all. All a hero has to have is a brave and kind heart that is full of justice. Also, they have to be willing to sacrifice themselves for other people without wanting payback.
  For examples for real heroes, I think that everyone is a hero, because for example, most NORMAL parents are heroes for their children, and teachers are heroes for students that are lost...etc. So, I think that everyone is a hero for one another. And for examples for  fake ones, I still think that every character is a hero even if it's a bad person. Think about it, when a person does something bad, there's going to be a motive for it. Alot of the times, the motive is because they want to save someone. To the people that are been saved by them, the bad people are heroes. They sacrifice themselves to save them. So, I really think that everyone is a hero to one another.

Leaving Everything Behind

  There is a Taiwanese movie filmed and showed not a long time ago. The name of the movie is "No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti". The title is in Spanish, and it means " I can't live without you". The story is basiclly talking about a father and a daughter trying to stay together, while the government wants to seperate them because they the father was too poor, and wasn't able to raise the child. They wanted to take away the child, but the father didn't want to, and did anything that could stop them from taking away the child. He worked many jobs at a time, and when the government people tried to take them apart, he even threatened to jump down a bridge. The whole movie is really touching, and almost everyone cried when they saw this.
  The daughter was actually the one that was like the slaves, because she is the one who is going to leave behind everything she knows, and loves. But, I actually think that the daughter in the movie is more pityful, because she's so young, and has to leave her father? I mean like, leave the ONLY person she loves, and the ONLY person that loves her? It was insane. I'm not saying that hte slaves weren't pityful, I just think that the little girl is more pityful because of her age. The slaves were more mature, and could get over things easier. The little girl may have her life ruined if she gets seperated with her dad.

The Promised Land

  How was Harriet Tubman like Moses? Both of them brought people that were suffering, to places that were called the "Promised Land". For Harriet, the Promised Land was Canada. Both of them sacrificed themselves and were willing to save other people from places they don't want to be, even though they didn't have to do that. They risked their lives for other people unselfishly, which is heroic. It is one of the definitions that is going to be on my essay for the English term essay. In my heart, I really respect this lady, Harriet. She makes me feel that I am a bad girl because I don't care about what others feel. As long as I am free, and am happy, what other people think does not matter to me. And for Moses, he risked his life to bring the people to the promised land also. Although some people betrayed them, but he still didn't mind. When I think of him, I feel that I am a bad girl also.

Why Risk Your Life

  Harriet was one of the few great people that sacrifices themselves, to save other people. She knows the feelings of being a slave, so she knows that the slaves were in pain and were suffering. Although she was free, she knew that she had the ability to save the slaves from the torturement, so she did it.  She was a great woman that is not selfish and is willing to save people she doesn't even know, just because she knows what it feels like. If I were in her shoes, I would never go to save those people I don't even know. I would think that I am free, why should I risk my life to save people I don't know? If I got caught, I would be tortured, and put to death. So now, I am free, I would stay home, and do whatever I want. I am actually that selfish.

For The Sake of Freedom

  What have people endured for the sake of freedom? People that wanted to be free, or not to be controled by anyone had to sacrifice something. For example, slaves. What did they sacrifice when they decided to run away? They sacrificed their "allowance" to walk around without hiding. If you're a slave and you ran away, you wouldn't be able to walk around like you did when you weren't free. Also, the slaves had to risk their lives, because if they didn't, they probably wouln't even be able to run away. And for the modern days, some children want to run away from their homes because they think that their parents are taking too much "care" of them, and they don't like it. If they want to run away from homes like that, the child would have to sacrifice their life of sleeping on a real bed, eating three meals...etc. And, for the question of what have people endured because their freedom was taken away, I would say that people rebelled and disobeyed their "freedom taker", because they wanted it back.

What Happens?

   Billy finally realized that something was wrong, and wanted to run away, but the landlady held him on the shoulder. She smiled at him in a wierd way, and said, "Billy, my dear Billy. Look at the calender on the wall over there." Billy turned around and looked at the calender. It read " April first". Billy was so nervous that he didn't understand what the landlady meant, and turned back. He said," Um...It is April first today." The landlady hesitated, and moved her hand to her neck, then started to peal off her skin. Billy was so scared and closed his eyes. After a few seconds, he heard voice of his best friend, Ashley. Billy felt so reliefed and remembered that Ashley lives in Bath. Ashley explained everything to him, and Billy kind of got angry, but because Ashley was his best friend and was just playing with him, he just smiled and sat down.

Stuffed Pets

 I think that the sentence the landlady said suggests that Billy will be killed and stuffed. I think that way because she said that Christopher and Gregory were still upstairs, but their names were written on the guest book two and three years ago. If they weren't killed and stuffed, then where were they? And why didn't they come down at all? And also when the landlady said that Gregory's skin was really good, it made the readers feel creeped out. The literary device is "forshadowing". It gives out clues about what is going to happen to Billy and makes us feel nervous. To me, I think that foreshadowing is a good way to write stories especially stories like this one. It made me unable to stop reading it, and wasn't satisfied when I saw the ending.

The Landlady's Perfect Guest

The kind of guest that the landlady accepts are only guests that are really young, tall, and handsome. They don't have to be young actually, but they have to ve young and tall. Christopher isn't that young but has a perfect skin. I think what happened to the guests is that they were killed and stuffed by the landlady because it's been two or three years already, and the landlady said they were upstairs. And the parrot and the dog were stuffed after they died also. So I think that the two guests were killed and stuffed by the landlady.

The Landlady-Predictions

I first started to suspect that things in the boarding house were not normal when Billy read the guestbook, and found out that the last entry was two years old. How could a boarding house in a place like that have only two people in three years? It's almost impossible. Also, the way the landlady talks is kind of creepy too. I predicted that something bad happened to the two other guests, the story makes us think that they are dead also. And, I believed that something bad was going to happen, but the story didn't write about it in the end.

Bed and Breakfast

   I had a fight with my parents today, and they kicked me out of home. I was angry and sad and I went on the train. I had no idea where the train was going and what I was going to do. I got off the train and started walking blankly. When my stomuch rumbled, I realized that I needed a place to rest and eat. I looked around, and saw a building on the other side of the street. There was a sign in the window that says, "Bed and Breakfast". There are yellow flowers in a vase and green curtains in the window. I looked closer and saw a young lady sitting in a rocking chair, sipping her tea. Beside the rocking chair was a flowery sofa that seems really comfortable. There was a fire place and the fire was burning. Beside the sofa, was a black piano. There were many photographs on top of the piano. I looked to the other side of the room and saw stairs, and beside it, there was a big box that had dust on it. I wondered what it was, and when I tried to see it more carefully, the lady turned around and said, "It's time to wake up!" I didn't have time to figure out what she was saying, and I woke up. I felt relieved and sat up.

Advice Letter

   Dear Advice Column Lady
My name is Alfonso and I have a problem. I asked a girl out, her name is Sandra. i promised that I woud bring an extra bike for her, but, my bike's chain broke, and my brother doesn't want to borrow me his.What am i supposed to do? This is my first date, and i do not want to ruin it. And, Sandra is really cute. I met her because I helped her brother come down of a fence. Well, that's not important. What am I going to do? I don't have money to afford another new bike!
                                      From the desperate Alfonso

Broken Chain- Thinking Critacally

The question is asking which of Alfons's feelings do girls have?

Because the world is made up of girls and boys, so what Alfonso thinks, I think that is what everyone thinks. So, I believe that everyone are insecure about their looks. Everyone wants to look good in front of other people, especially the opposite gender. Everyone wants to have a boyfriend or a girlfriend. Also, everyone feels shy but also looks forward for the first date, and are shy. If anyone is about to miss their first date, they'll all be really nervous. It is what Alfonso did when he felt like he couldn't go to find Sandra. He says in the story that he doesn't want to be the most handsome guy in the school, but wants to be over average. I believe that this is what almost everyone thinks. Some people may want to be the best looking person in the school, but the percentage isn't really high. Because if you are really that good looking, people want to be friends with you and may harass you.

Popularity v Intelligence

I think that the advantages of being popular are that when you need freinds, there will be someone for you anytime. Also, if you're at school,you can ask anyone to do almost anything for you.
The disadvantages are that you have to look nice because people "think" that you should look nice. It could be tiring. Also, some people like you so much that they would start harassing you so muc they would harass you. It is annoying!!!
The advantages of being smart is that you could get good grades and go to good colleges.
But, the disadvantages are that people may think that you are nerdy and dislike you. Some people may be jealous too.
If I could choose, I would be a smart popular kid, because I think that even if you are smart, if you are mot happy on school, you will not like it also.
In order to be popular, a lot of people act like they are a little more stupid, and they have to act like they like to do some things they do not like.
Also, I think that being unusual is not good AT ALL because I think that if you are unusual, people may think that you are weird and may not like you.

Grade 8 English Journal- What do 13/14 years old think about?

I think that ALOT of 13, 14 years old teenagers starts thinking about the opposite gender. For example, I always talk about cute boys with my friends, and we try to look pretty all the time also. I also believe that teenagers think about being popular all the time. Nobody says it to other people, but secretly, they trying sqeazing into the popular "circle". They do whatever the popular people do always, they try to look good and pretty, and sometimes, they would be mean to the unpopular people.