Narrative Speech

“Have you heard the news?”
“ ‘Bout what?”
“ The world coming to an end.”
“An end?”
“Yes, an end! Everyone has been talking about it.”
“How come I’m the only one in the dark?”
“No idea, but it is estimated that the world would end by tomorrow.”
“How is that possible?”
“Scientist research showed that gigantic meteorites would hit the Earth’s surface by tomorrow, travelling at the speed of 500m/sec!”
“Omigod, we’re doomed… Anyway to escape?”
“No… Maybe, I think that they were working on a private underwater home, called “Watome”, enough to supply for about a few hundred thousand people.”
“But how would it help?”
“Scientists think that if the meteorite hit the water surface, it would slow down to a speed that would not cause much damage.”
“But… Would it work?”
“Yes, maybe, if the meteorites that hit the water does not heat the water up, it might work.”
“What about the other kids? And our parents?”
“They’re finding out more news, in the center of the town.”
“What’s happening in town?”
“The mayor is making an important speech, which all adults need to attend.”
“What about the children? Don’t they need to know something about this thing?”
“The scientist kept this news so secretive to everyone, even some other governments don’t know about this?”
“We’re in deep soup…”
“But there must be something we can do…”
“Nothing, when the meteorites hit the Earth’s surface it would crack and break, subsequent hits would cause the Earth’s core to crack… And that would be the end.”
“Like how dinosaurs died… And I still doubted it.”
“There’s no time for nonsense! We gotta go to the beach.”
“Wait… Why?”
“I heard that the project of the “Watome” is just around the area of the beach, grab your snorkel, we’re going to go diving.”

IN-CLASS ONLINE LESSON #11

“Technology: Pro or Con to students?”

Good afternoon Mr. Lundberg. This afternoon, I am going to talk about a rather general topic regarding students in Singapore, whether technology has become a pro or con to the students.

As we all, in Hwa Chong, we had adopted this program known as the future school. This allows students to use the aid of the technology, to help them improve their knowledge, outside the book and certainly, there are pros and cons about technology, which includes laptops, smart phones etc. for students.

Let me share with you one statistic before starting the argument, from the Pew Research Center it is found in 2009 that 99% of boys and 94% of girls play that video games. Game playing experiences are diverse, with the most popular games falling into the racing, puzzle, sports, action and adventure categories. Other than games, there are different types of how students can use technology, one include social media, which are programs like “Facebook” or “Twitter” or the recent one “Stomp”. “This is great and would not cause any detrimental impact on my studies.” I might say as point of view as a student, but when it comes to gaming and social media, there are bound to be problems that will arise. Gaming, which mostly contains of violence when it falls into the category of action, would cause students to develop thinking that violence is acceptable. Though statistic stated that the amount of violent deaths in school dropped from 270 from 1992-3 to a quarter of that in 1999-2000, but violence could still happen with lesser or no reports made by students. Some of the violence done by students would include bullying, which is a punch in the stomach or fights happening between students. Slaps or punches might not be very serious to the students, but little did they know, that is a form of violence. One example would be in school life, but to protect the piracy of the people, I would not name them, but friendly fights do happen in class so often after school, messing up the whole class, which are signs of violence. And I repeat, serious violence. They get hurt but do not mention it to anyone, but suffer themselves. Social media would also cause a problem, because of cyber bullying. Students might make comments, accidentally or purposely to cause hurt or embarrassment to the victim. Me myself, got bullied socially before, and the hurt done to me couldn’t be described at that time, feeling lost and there is nothing much I could do. These are cons of technology to students nowadays. Academics might also be affected because of the distraction caused by the computer. Smart phones also made games, application, easily accessible, which is why technology might be a con to students.

Certainly there are pros too, but pros would definitely not help the students more than it would hurt them. With the distraction and problems done to students, they might not know how to prioritize their work between gaming and academics, thus I feel that technology, that includes computers, social media and smart phones, are more of a con than a pro to most students. Thank you.

Strauss-Kahn

Based on the severity of the accused crime, was it fair for the media to form a premature opinion about Strauss-Kahn's innocence?

It was unfair for the media to form a premature opinion about Strauss-Kahn's innocence. Strauss Kahn is an IMF director Dominique and his privacy is already given away, and thus such opinions should not be tolerated. The trial was not over yet so it was unfair for them to presume him guilty. The media had little or no evidence and if he was proven innocent, the public would already develop the wrong thoughts about him and speak bad about him already.
Strauss Kahn is the director of Dominique, and he should be spoken well of, but even when such accuses are made by someone with little or no evidence, the media should not speak bad of him even before the trial. The trial is a place to prove someone innocent or guilty, and before the truth is out, people should try to put themselves into Strauss Kahn shoes and think about how he would feel, or how they would feel if the public do not even provide support for you but even criticizes you and your moral would be very low already.
The media should know that whatever they write, would be believed by many people, because they find the media reliable, but when such things are spilled out, it cannot be recovered, just like how spilled water cannot be captured back. And thus, the media would have a high price to pay, if Strauss Kahn is proven innocent.
Thus I feel that it is unfair for the media to form a premature opinion about Strauss Kahn's innocence, especially even before the trial.

The Next Space Race!

Comment on the idea of private commercial space travel. Is it a good thing or a bad thing? Why or why not?

I feel that private commercial space travel is a good thing because of experiments, gaining of newer knowledge and chances for people to go into space.

I feel that private commercial space travel is a good thing because of experiments people would be able to do. With the exception of NASA, private commercial space travel could be a kind of experiment for people, as things might be give a turn when scientist, whose experiments needs to be in space, can do so, with the help of these private commercial space travels. Space programs to explore space might also be launch for a group of students, who can afford the price to go into space for school programs, for people to better understand space, thus private commercial space travel is a good thing as people can experiment.

Private commercial space travel is also a good thing because people might have a deeper knowledge of space. Excluding the group of people who paid for the trip, astronauts who wants to explore space by himself when he feel that some parts of space is not explored, he could try it out himself and will not need to go with NASA as he might have a mission when going into space already. Thus Private commercial space travel is a good thing as people might have a deeper knowledge of space.

Finally, Private commercial space travel is a good thing because there would be a chance for people to go to space, instead of trained professionals. That means that whoever willing to spend that amount of money to go to space, would be able to. Instead of being a professional astronaut, someone could just pay the amount of money to space travel, and thus raising the economic of a certain country if they manage to get hold of space shuttle. Thus Private commercial space travel is a good thing as normal people can go to space.

In summary, Private commercial space travel is a good thing because people could experiment in space, have a greater knowledge of space and normal people can go to space, raising the economy of a country.

MOV Act 1 Scene1

Pretend for a moment that you are Antonio. Based on Bassanio's arguments, would you also have loaned him the money?

I would have loaned Bassanio the money. Because even though I sent a lot of my investments overboard and do not have the financial means to lend him money, he is still a good friend of mine that I trust. It will not be the speech that I would take in account for, but the sincerity he has that I feel safe when lending him my money. Bassanio wanted the money, to woo someone he really likes, and that of which I must encourage, because he could learn something new, other than just gambling and spending money away, he can learn ways to woo people and maybe learn to be a worse spendthrift. Even though his arguments did not sound logical, it might just happen like a miracle. Because it is true that if you shot an arrow, at a point, and shoot another arrow, provided that the wind speed and everything else is the same, there would be a chance of him recovering the arrows, just like the money. Because circumstances do change, "wind speeds" might be different, and thus, finding the money back is difficult, but I am willing to give it a chance, and give him a chance to try to find the money to repay me.

MOV

The difference between the clip and the book is that there was missing information within the characters. For example, the foolish behaviour of Gratiano was taken away and that was one point which shows both Gratiano and Bassanio's attitude towards each other. In the book, it says that Gratiano was smarter than Bassanio but was not given the chance to speak as much. Thus, the change in the character's attitude between the clip and book is that there is missing information and some were either unclear or missing. Another difference is the use in language. In the book, it explains most of the things with the depth of the language and the tone is displayed in an open area, grassy lands as what people might imagine, instead of a room in a restaurant. The characters in the clip also speak too quickly for people to understand sometimes. So it might cause confusion. The movement, settings of the clip is totally different from the book, thus readers might also feel that the clip has lesser details of the characters, the settings, and movements in the book is different from the clip and the clip is vague in terms of language as compared to the book.

Apple.

Negative consequences of Apple's decision that allows iPhone owners to buy apps but not music, movies, or books through Apple. Their reason is rampant piracy throughout Asia.

Some negative consequences would be that Asians would not be able to know about music, movies, books in other countires, because they could only obtain music from a different source. Thus making the artist not earning from a huge market already.
Discrimination against Asians and there would be more piracy since they cannot buy music, movies, books, and might want to be involve in piracy more.
Apple users in Asian countries would not be able to fully enjoy iPhone's uses because they cannot watch the movies, listen to music and read books on iPhone.

Descriptive narrative,

I woke up. Time to go to work. I went out of my room, went to get myself wash up and got ready for work, my work is actually school. Everyone has to go to school, I was no exception. I went to the bus stop and waited for the bus. I waited for 15minutes, with my friends, who also waited for 15minutes. The bus came, and we boarded it. And it took off on a journey to the school. It would take about 40minutes to reach school, but for today it took an hour. I was late, so were my friends. We got a demerit point and felt relieved, as it was not 2, which will be given if one was late. I went to class after morning assembly and read the newspaper which we paid a high price for. After that, we had a lesson on Chinese, and we had recess. I love recess the most because we could eat stuffs. We could eat Western or Muslim. After recess, lessons continue until 1:30. Lesson we had every weekday. We went for CCA afterwards, and had so much fun. It is the end of Monday, and soon Tuesday would start, and it would start all over again.

Expert Circle

Topic 2

1. Elizabeth I (7 September 1533 – 24 March 1603) was Queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. She was also known as the virgin queen, gloriana. Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty. In 1558 Elizabeth succeeded the Catholic Mary I, during whose reign she had been imprisoned for nearly a year on suspicion of supporting Protestant rebels.

2. As

3. Queen Elizabeth I liked when plays were acted out for her. She was very fond of Shakespeare’s plays. In some of his play, Shakespeare cleverly hinted passages referring to the Queen and other events that affiliated during both of their life time. Queen Elizabeth I was a great supporter of the arts, mainly she supported plays and masques.

Topic 5
2. * Why was there such animosity between Jews and Christians?

Love in Christianity:
Jewish conception of love to justice, and the Christian conception of love to charity.

Sin:

• in both religions, sin refers to an offense towards god. these sin can be thoughts, words and deeds.
• however, in the christian religion, sin is grouped into different types. the first one is called a venial sin, in which the sinner has wounded their relationship with god. on the other hand a complete destruction of the relationship with god is most often called a mortal sin. Christians think that unless the sinner has salvation from sin, after they die they will go to hell in the afterlife

3. In what ways did the Christians discriminate against Jews in 15th and 16th century Europe?

- Christians thought that Jews are inferior to them and therefore, should not be accepted into their society. What is more is that if a Jew wants to be accepted into the society, they will have to be converted to a Christian. They are also openly discriminated by the Christians and treated as slaves.

Antisemitism

Among socio-economic factors were restrictions by the authorities. Local rulers and church officials closed many professions to the Jews, pushing them into marginal occupations considered socially inferior, such as tax and rent collecting and moneylending, tolerated then as a "necessary evil". Catholic doctrine of the time held that lending money for interest was a sin, and forbidden to Christians. Not being subject to this restriction, Jews dominated this business. The Torah and later sections of the Hebrew Bible criticise Usury but interpretations of the Biblical prohibition vary. Since few other occupations were open to them, Jews were motivated to take up money lending. This was said to show Jews were insolent, greedy, usurers, and subsequently led to many negative stereotypes and propaganda. Natural tensions between creditors (typically Jews) and debtors (typically Christians) were added to social, political, religious, and economic strains. Peasants who were forced to pay their taxes to Jews could personify them as the people taking their earnings while remaining loyal to the lords on whose behalf the Jews worked.

Topic 6

In what sort of building were Shakespeare’s plays performed?

Shakespeare’s plays were mostly performed in the Globe Theatre which was some sort of a medieval building. The outer view of the building has a much simpler design while the inside holds a much more intricate design which brings out a mystical atmosphere. The Globe Theatre had no roof, allowing sunlight to enter the building during the day. The building had no lighting equipment thus plays were mostly scheduled in the afternoon where there is light.

How did the physical constraints of the theatre affect the language of Shakespeare’s plays?

The theater that Cuthbert Burbage built for the Chamberlain’s Men had a total capacity of between 2,000 and 3,000 spectators. Because there was no lighting, all performances at the Globe were conducted, weather permitting, during the day (probably most often in the mid-afternoon span between 2 P.M. and 5 P.M.). Because most of the Globe and all of its stage was open air, acoustics were poor and the actors were compelled by circumstances to shout their lines, stress their enunciation, and engage in exaggerated theatrical gestures.

What sort of people acted in plays?

Shakespeare’s fellow members of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men acted in his plays. Among these actors were Richard Burbage (who played the title role in the first performances of many of Shakespeare’s plays, including Hamlet, Othello, Richard III and King Lear), Richard Cowley (who played Verges in Much Ado About Nothing), William Kempe, (who played Peter in Romeo and Juliet and, possibly, Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream) and Henry Condell and John Heminges, are most famous now for collecting and editing the plays of Shakespeare’s First Folio.

What sort of people went to see them?

People from all classes went to see Shakespeare’s plays in Shakespeare’s time. Anyone who could afford the minimum price of one penny could go and stand in the yard in front of the stage. They were known as ‘groundlings’ or ‘penny stinkers’; they stood all through the play. Those who could afford two pennies could sit on the covered benches; there were three tiers of covered seating around the edge of the yard. Rich people could sit above, or above and just to the side of the stage in the ‘Lords’ rooms’.

How was “The Theatre” viewed by Elizabethan society?

The Mayor and Corporation of London banned plays in 1572 as a measure against the plague, and in 1575 they formally expelled all players from the city1 This prompted the construction of playhouses outside the jurisdiction of London, in the liberties of Halliwell/Holywell in Shoreditch and later the Clink, and at Newington Butts near the established entertainment district of St. George’s Fields in rural Surrey

Compare the modern-day Globe Theatre in London with the theatres that Shakespeare worked in.

In the past, Shakespeare worked in places like the theatre….
The Theatre was an Elizabethan playhouse located in Shoreditch (in Curtain Road, part of the modern London Borough of Hackney), just outside the City of London. It was the second permanent theatre ever built in England, after the Red Lion, and the first successful one. Built by actor-manager James Burbage, near the family home in Holywell Street, The Theatre is considered the first theatre built in London for the sole purpose of theatrical productions. The Theatre’s history includes a number of important acting troupes including the Lord Chamberlain’s Men.The design of The Theatre was possibly adapted from the inn-yards that had served as playing spaces for actors and/or bear baiting pits. The building was a polygonal wooden building with three galleries that surrounded an open yard.


However, the modern Globe theatre is different in…
Shakespeare’s Globe is a reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, an Elizabethan playhouse in the London Borough of Southwark, located on the south bank of the River Thames, but destroyed by fire in 1613, rebuilt 1614 then demolished in 1644. The modern reconstruction, of the 1614 building, was founded by the actor and director Sam Wanamaker and built approximately 230 metres (750 ft) from the site of the original theatre. The theatre was opened to the public in 1997, with a production of Henry V. The site also includes a reconstruction of the Blackfriars Theatre.

Sex-Selective Abortions

What will be the effect on Asia society by such a large gender imbalance if this trend continues?

I feel that Asia society would be affected negatively. There would be a lack of jobs because of an overcrowding society of men in the street, looking for jobs. There will also be a decrease in fertility rate and also there would be political stress.
There would be a lack of jobs because of an overcrowding society of men in the streets, looking for jobs. Men will not only be looking for jobs, but also better jobs, sustainable jobs, to support their family and his wife, who might be the most precious thing because the number of women are dropping. In New York, employers slashed another 598,000 jobs off of U.S. payrolls in January, taking the unemployment rate up to 7.6%, according to the latest government reading on the nation's battered labor market. Thus, if there was a gradual increase of men, there would be a lot of bachelors, paying for brides and would affect the Asia society negatively.

There would also be a decrease in fertility rate. In Singapore, the number of boy schools are more than the number of girl schools and there are more boys in mixed classes as compared to girls. If this continues, Singapore would yet again face the fertility crisis, in which the fertility rate drops below the current 1.28. It would be a negative impact in Singapore because Singapore, which is known to be small and having a lack of resources, have only its people as the resource, but if Singapore too has very little local talent, it would make Singapore fare badly economically. Therefore, it would affect Asia society negatively.

There would also be political stress because government might try to solve this problem, by banning abortion, but a lot of families would have troubles, with underage sex, people who are financial handicapped or people who keep having boys. This would cause political stress, because the government would want more babies born, and wives could also have multiple husbands. Fights would often occur too because of conflict between men fighting for wives. Therefore, it would affect Asia society negatively.

Thus, I feel that the large gender imbalance would affect the Asia society negatively, as there would be lack of jobs, there would be a decrease in fertility rate and there would also be political stress.