Log #6

       I went to a speech last Thursday in our school and the topic was about lessons that the speaker have learned from movies. She has run a website and fan pages that in both Facebook and Instagram with her husband and they shared what they learned from movies there. The movies that she introduced to us actually consist of many deep meanings. After her speech, I realized that we could learn many things and philosophy of life by watching movie. Each of the sentences that they wrote was touched and inspired a lot of people. The sentence from their website: “True love gives us courage, tears make us strong, and heartbreaks help us grow. “ When we faced difficulties, we would be upset and heartbroken. The speaker told us that we just lost the courage to face, to solve and to let go. We should pluck up our courage so that we would not be so upset. We could be brave to deal with things and learn lessons from the mistakes. During the speech, I almost cried in several moments because the words from the speaker were so touched and I could feel she was so sincere. I have learned a lot from this speech and I realized that we could not avoid things because the problems would not be solved until we faced them.

Reference: http://lessonsfrommovies.net/

Concept Map

Log #5

        In fact, I am a person who doesn’t like to talk in front of too many people. I have less confidence in myself. I don’t know why I often get nervous easily when everyone pays attention to me and listens to me. Sometimes I am envious of those who can show their confidence, express their feelings, and share their ideas generously. When people ask me, “What kind of person you are?” I often feel confused because I usually can’t explain what kind of person I am. I often think why can’t I reply them; I actually the one who understand myself the most. However, I know I don’t really understand myself too much. I want to prove myself that I am actually a person who can show the best to others, do many meaningful things, and learn how to express myself, so I decide to join the student association of our department. I actually learn a lot such as communicating with people, arranging my time efficiently, and being more confidence in myself. Although there are still many things that I have to learn, I think I have done a great job at least.

        Sometimes I will also think I am a timid person. Every time others request me to do something that I don’t want to do, I often don’t know how to refuse. I know I am not happy about this, but I often choose to ignore my feelings. Until I read the article that I paste below, I realize that I am wrong. It mentions that “Stop being your own worst enemy! Stop lying to yourself about your emotions and feelings and start accepting them and allowing yourself to feel whatever is it you feel.” I am really inspires by this sentence because I understand that I should follow my own heart or I will feel upset every time when this kind of things happen. Finally, I want to share another sentence that I think it is really good in the same article. “Being true to my feelings and acknowledging them as well as validating them have released so much fear in me. It has released my fear of not being good enough as well as my fear of not living up to the expectations I set for myself.” Just as the first paragraph that I mention, I have less confidence in myself, so I will sometimes feel I am not good enough. However, after reading this, I feel much better and get more understanding in myself.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eleni-makedonas/the-journey-of-selfdsicvo_b_7028362.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/09/shy-people-annoyances_n_5352330.html

Log #4

     Sea levels are rising faster than our prediction now. Environmental problems are also more and more serious. From the article and videos, we can know that climate change is a really serious issue. We should raise our awareness and concern about it. Because the temperature of Earth keeps rising, the ice melts faster and faster. It leads to the sea level rises rapidly and finally we will not have place to live.

     I can’t image that our Earth will almost be covered by the sea and people become extinct in our future. I read some articles and it mentions that if the entire sea rises by 1 degree Celsius, sea level would rise by approximately 50 cm. If it rises by 4 degree, almost six billion of people will submerge under the water. Our land and living place will become smaller and smaller in the future. I think it’s really terrible and we need to think about this serious issue.

Reference:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLmmHDM0VUM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oHysUOx9vo

http://www.hindustantimes.com/world/sea-levels-are-rising-faster-than-predicted-nasa/story-KoLHknuYQIy8Ltq87i3SKI.html

Log #3

     This article talks about some solutions of sea level rise. Since the weather becomes more and more serious, some cities are planning the way to prevent the natural disaster.

     For instance, New York's one billion flood prevention plan. The New York City receives one billion from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. They use the money to produce the U-shaped berm, living breakwater and flood prevention plan. The second one is Netherlands; they build the massive floodgates in Rotterdam. Because of their low altitude, they are also one of the danger countries in the world. As for Vietnam, they are stating the flood-resistant housing program. Since the people there suffer from the flood very often, they start to build the flood-resistant house and reconstruct the old building in order to prevent the flood and improve the living environment there. In India, they develop the flood warning system in order to reduce the disaster. The system can predict when the flood will come so that people can prevent in advance.

     It’s time for us to take action to prevent the disaster that causes by sea level rising and climate changing. We really need to do something before it’s too late. 

Reference: http://mashable.com/2014/07/16/cities-rising-sea-levels/#pwgIyCuBFZqC

Log #2

     Now, we are all facing a serious problem: Sea Level Rise. As the log I posted last week, there are many impacts of it. If we don't raise our awareness, we may destroy the Earth. Except for human beings, animals are also threatened by the sea level rising.

     Take polar bears for example, they live in the area of Arctic sea ice. Since the summer becomes longer, their habitat gradually disappears. Because of the global warming caused by human activities, the speed of melting ice increase rapidly. The gap between ice land and sea becoming wide leads to the inconvenience for polar bears to catch fish and find food. According to the article, it mentions that the U.S. Geological Survey projects that two thirds of polar bears will disappear by 2050. It is a terrible warning!

     Climate changing, global warming and sea level rising are becoming more and more serious. We should stop harming the Earth and should do something to slow down the deterioration. We are all living in this world and it’s our duty to protect our Earth.

Reference: 

https://www.nwf.org/Wildlife/Threats-to-Wildlife/Global-Warming/Effects-on-Wildlife-and-Habitat/Polar-Bears.aspx

Log #1

https://www.google.com.tw/amp/s/amp.businessinsider.com/5-terrifying-impacts-of-rising-sea-levels-2015-2

         Sea level rising is an important issue for everyone in the world. Global warming causes the oceans to absorb many extra heat. Moreover, ice caps and glaciers have been melting. These are the reason why sea level keep rising. It may leads to the cities in the world be submerged.

        There are five terrible impact of sea level rising in the article that I read. First, it will contaminate our drinking resources. As we all know, people can't drink saltwater. However, the ice caps melt rapidly and become saltwater very soon. Our drinking resources run off quickly and we may have less water in the future. Second, it will interfere with farming. Saltwater can kill crops. If saltwater keep increasing, it will be hard for people to grow crops and lead to the reduction of our food resources. Third, it will change our coastal plant life. Plants around the coastal may die because the saltwater seeps into the ground. Not only human but also plants can't drink saltwater. Thus, plants can't live near the costal area. Fourth, it will threaten wildlife populations. There are many animals living near the ocean. When the sea level keep rising, it causes flood. Therefore, those animals can hardly survive in that area. Finally, it will hurt the economy. Some tourist spots are located in the coastal area. However, the flood may destroy these area and cause the bad economy.

        To sum up, sea level rising is not a small but a serious problem for the world. Although we can't stop it, we can still do something to avoid it becoming worse. We need to protect our Earth and our environment. It's the most important thing that everyone should concern and come up with the solutions.

Log #8

The girl on the train

Paula Hawkins

pages 300~408

     Rachel finally reminded the memory of the night that Megan went missing. She was hit on the head by Tom and saw Megan getting on his car. It turned out that the murder was Tom. Megan found she was pregnant and the baby was Tom’s. Because the guilty of killing her first baby, Libby, she decided to give birth to the baby, love him, and take care of him. She thought she owed this baby, so she wanted the father of this baby to take the responsibilities. She told all these things to Tom, but Tom didn’t want this kid. He picked up a rock and hit Megan in order to make her shut up. However, Megan was dead. He didn’t know what to do, so he buried her body in the wood.

     When Tom told how he killed Megan to Rachel and Anna, both of them were scared and wanted to escape. However, they failed to do that. In the end, Rachel used the corkscrew to kill Tom in order to defend herself. What’s more, she saw Anna twisting the corkscrew further and ripping into Tom’s throat. They killed Tom, the man they were deeply in love.

     The end of the book really surprised me. I sweated a lot when I read the last word of it. It was too dramatic. Three of the women in the book were all related to the murder, Tom. It makes me think that we should not do the wrong things, or we will need to pay a lot for it. Megan, Tom, Anna, and even Rachel, most of the characters in the book all did many wrong things and they really paid a lot for the things they did. Their consequences were miserable. After finishing the book, I would keep these in mind: “Before doing anything, we should think it twice. We should think about the consequence. If we know it is wrong, don’t do it.”

Log #7

The girl on the train 

Paula Hawkins

Pages 148~300

     Megan was dead. What’s more, some unknown things about her were uncovered. When she was young, probably seventeen or nineteen, she lived with her boyfriend and got pregnant. She was too young to have a child and she didn’t know what to do. She killed her baby. How terrible! After her boyfriend found that, he left Megan without saying goodbye. Megan couldn’t sleep well because she felt guilty about it and she was also scared. That’s all she told Kamal when she was alive. And Kamal told all these things to the police.

     Who is the murder? At first, I think it may be Kamal because Rachel saw him in Megan’s house the day before her missing. However, after Tom asked Rachel to have a talk, I think Tom’s behavior was really strange. In addition, I think Scott could be the murder. He found Megan had an affair so he was angry about it and killed her. That would be possible!

     The plot in this book is a little bit complicated but it’s really wonderful. I think Rachel is a really stubborn person. She loves her ex-husband very much. However, just as the book, The Great Gatsby ever mentions, “We can’t repeat the past.” Sometimes, something happens, we may regret about it and hope to restart to do it again; however, we can’t. No one can come back to the past, so all we have to do is to live in present. I think Rachel should know about this and she would be happier than she was before.

Log #6

The girl on the train 

Paula Hawkins

Pages 72~148

     Something bad happened! Megan was missing. No one knew where she had gone. Before the day that Megan was missing, Rachel saw that she kissed with a man. However, this man wasn’t her husband Scott. This made Rachel think about herself because she was betrayed by her husband. The police suspected that Megan’s missing might be related to Scott. However, Rachel thought that it was related to the man who appeared in Megan’s house yesterday, so she decided to tell police what she had seen. After that, she sent an e-mail to Scott; she wanted to tell all the things to him.

     I was immersed in the plot and was eager to know why Megan was missing. Besides, who was the man appeared in Megan’s house before her missing. I think this unknown man was related to Megan’s missing and I really want to find out who is that man. 

Log #5

The girl on the train

Paula Hawkins

Pages 1~72

In fact, we spent a lot of time choosing the book. At the end, we decided to read “The girl on the train”.

I think it is a little bit boring in the beginning of the book because it just describes some unimportant things. Also, I can’t totally understand what the author wants to express. However, after few pages, I can know the plot and feel excited about it. I like the way the author conveys in her novel, such as she uses some rhymes and great sentences to stress the important points.

In the book, the main character is Rachel who was an alcoholic after her divorce. She wanted to pretend she still had a job, so she took the train in the work day. During the train stopped at one of the signals, she observed a couple and she called them Jason and Jess. She liked the way they got along with each other, and this made her think about the life she used to belong to with her ex-husband, Tom. Moreover, she can also see the house she used to live with Tom. However, this made her sad because she could also see Anna who replaced her, to live in a happy live with Tom.

I think there must have something happened between Rachel and Tom. I really want to know what had happened to make them divorce. The author doesn’t give many details, so I am eager to read and know all the things that happened between all the characters. 

Three best presentations

1. P.S. I love you

After Frances’ sharing, I was really interested in this book. She told that this was not only a touching love story but also a self-exploration journey. This book was about friends, relationship, and family. Whenever you face difficulties, family will always stand by you. This book also talked about the importance of family. I think this book may be really touching.

2. Seriously...I’m kidding

Cindy is a really good presenter. She gave us a lot of details in this book and made me really want to borrow this book to know more about it. By her sharing, I can know this is an interesting book and we can also learn a lot from this book. She mentioned that appearance isn’t everything we should care about. I think in this society, most of the people care too much about appearance. I think we can’t judge a person by his or her appearance. We should care about the inner beauty in a person’s heart.

3. Me before you

I was impressed by Patty’s sharing because she told us something amazing. I knew she was a hard-working person. She got two part-time jobs in order to pay the rent and her braces. She once told me that she has to pay nine thousand dollars per month without eating. Because of that, she sacrificed a lot of time to work. But she told us that after she read this book, she decided to quit her jobs; and I was really shocked about that. She said the book mentioned that “You only get one life. It’s your duty to live it as fully as possible.” Because of these words, she decided to do something and live a life that she wanted. I never read this book, but I have watched the movie before. This movie was really touched, and I even cried at the end of the movie. I think this novel must be good and I really want to read it.

Log #4

     The Silver Linings Play Book

Matthew Quick

     One of Pat’s friends, Ronnie, invited him to have a dinner with his family. At that night, Pat met a special person, Tiffany, who was Veronica’s sister. Her husband, Tommy, died some time ago, and she was so sad that she was also mentally ill. Both of them lost their beloved one and couldn’t accept the truth for a long time. They had something in common, for example, they were in similar housing situations, they both enjoyed running and they fought hard to maintain their grip on reality.

     After they went through many things together, they found that they could comfort each other since they had similar experience. Tiffany was fall in love with Pat, but not to pretend him was Tommy. She loved him sincerely, because she found she was different after he came into her life.

     I was touched by the end of this book; it made me think of a sentence that I saw on the Internet. “I love you not because of who you are, but because of who I am when I with you.” This book mentions that they both mentally ill, but I don’t think so. Both of them suffered a lot, they just couldn’t accept the reality that they had lost something they really loved. Although they were different from others, we couldn’t say they were abnormal or insane. They just couldn’t find a way to have a rest and accept the truth. Fortunately, both of them plucked up their courage, forgot the unhappy memories, and started their new life.

Log #3

The Silver Linings Play Book

Matthew Quick

When the first time I entered the Reading Lab, I was really confused. Because there are too many books in the lab, I didn’t know which books I should choose. In order to make my decision quickly, I asked my senior there, and she recommended me this book.

Pat, who is the main character of this book, is mentally illness. He lives in the mental hospital for a long time and he calls there “bad place”. He has a wife whose name is Nikki. They are separate because Nikki asks for some time apart. He loves his wife very much, so he keeps waiting to meet her. In order to make his wife back, he exercises a lot to lose weight, reads the book that his wife mentioned before, and learns something useful. He believes the existing of the silver linings just like he believes his wife will come back one day.

From this book, I learn that we should always think in the positive way. In our life, we may encounter many obstacles. However, no matter what kind of difficulties we face, we should believe we can deal with it. Just as the saying goes, “When God closes a door, he always opens a window”.

Log #2

Far from the Madding Crowd

Tomas Hardy

     The reason why I chose this book is that it has a great cover. Moreover, I’m interested in in the introduction of this book. It mentions that “It is never wise to ignore the power of love. Love brings misery, pain, and violent passions that can destroy lives…”

     This book talked about a woman, Bathsheba, who was young, proud, beautiful, and independent. Therefore, there were many men who wanted to court her and marry her. However, she was so independent that she didn’t want to get marry at such a young age. There was a man, Gabriel, who was poor but hard—working. He was deeply in love with Bathsheba. However, she was so proud that she refused his proposal. Though he was sad about that, he still loved her and treated her very well. Then, Bathsheba was in love with a handsome guy, Troy. Gabriel knew that Troy wasn’t a good person, so he decided to tell her. However, she didn’t listen. To her surprised, she found out that the one she chose was her servant’s lover. At the end, she realized that the one who truly loved her was Gabriel. They got married and lived a happy life in the end.

     After reading this novel, I realized that we have to cherish those who are sincere around us. Actually, happiness is just right beside us. 

Log #1

The Great Gatsby

 F. Scott Fitzgerald

     The reason why I choose this book is that I have read it when I was a senior high student and I really like it. When the first time I read this book, I have been fascinated by its wonderful plot. Also, there are many deep meanings that I have learned from it. It is so famous that it becomes a part of American high school curricula and numerous stage and film adaptations.  

     In the story, the main character’s father once said, “Whenever you feel like judging anyone, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” I have been impressed by this sentence since I turned to the first page of this book. It means that you don’t have to judge others because you don’t really have to. You must have something advantages that others don’t have.

      There is a green light in the book; I think it is a symbol of Gatsby’s future and hope toward Daisy. He was deeply in love with her and he could sacrifice himself for her. However, the green light disappeared in the end of the story; it meant that Gatsby’s dream was broken. I think that the green light in the book can be a symbol of all the people’s future and dream. We spend lots of times making ourselves better and better in order to make our dreams come true. However, some people may succeed, but some may like Gatsby that can’t fulfill their dreams. Despite the fact that we don’t know what our future will be, all we can do is to work harder and harder. As a saying goes, “There is no elevator to success. You have to take the stairs.” After all, there are no successful people without working hard.

My Reading History

     Actually, I seldom read because I don’t really like to spend lots of time sitting in front of the desk and reading. However, there are some reasons that I will read the book. First, I will read for the exam. In order to get good grades, I will force myself to focus on reading. Second, there are some great novels that really attract me to read, such as The Great Gatsby. When I was a senior high student, I read several great English novels because of the English novel course. Third, my friends sometimes will recommend me some books, so I will read and share my thoughts with them.

     I think the reason why I don’t like to read is that I have been forced to read a lot of things since I am a student. I have to read what I’m not interested in for the purpose of getting good grades and not being scolded by parents or teachers. Therefore, maybe I’m tired of reading, so I just choose what I really want to read.

     I know that I can get much knowledge and benefit a lot through reading, so I need to develop a habit of reading. Although I don’t like it, I still have to try. I hope I can do it and learn a lot from this course.