Finally, it is the end of year of my Secondary One life. I have learnt a lot of things in my Secondary school. Now, it is the time to reflect what I had learnt in the whole Secondary One year.
Firstly, I had learnt the school values(J-TIGER) which is Joy, Teamwork, Intergrity, Global perspective, Excellence and Respect. I feel that these values are very important because they helped me through the year of Secondary one and I use them as a guide on how to be an independent learner.
I also made a lot of friends and they helped me when I were in need of help. I also met some teachers who were teaching us with their greatest help that they could give. Hence, I am very grateful for all the teachers who had taught me one way or the other.
Then, I learnt many new things that was going round the world through the Current Affairs when some panelists were discussing a topic which is related to what was going on around the world with us. This certainly enriched me in the Secondary One life.
I have also learnt a lot of knowledge that the teachers had taught us through different subjects. This enriched my knowledge of different subject and this somehow made me become a independent learners.
I think I have learnt a lot of knowledge and values which are very important to the Secondary life and the future. Hence, I think my Secondary One is a fruitful year.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Old and New Generations
My parents expected me to become a useful person in the future so that I can contribute to the society and let them have more glory. They wanted me to study hard and work hard in order to achieve good results. They also expected me to do well in all areas, especially acedemic.
However, when I grow up, I expect my child to do well to and want him to be an all-rounded person. I will send him for special course, such as piano playing and etc. I might also expect him to have a clear mind of what wrong and what is right. I also expected him to do well in his subjects as well as sports.
I think there are not much difference in expectations between my parents and I. It's probably because I am influenced by my parents but I think my expectations of my child might change as I grow up.
However, when I grow up, I expect my child to do well to and want him to be an all-rounded person. I will send him for special course, such as piano playing and etc. I might also expect him to have a clear mind of what wrong and what is right. I also expected him to do well in his subjects as well as sports.
I think there are not much difference in expectations between my parents and I. It's probably because I am influenced by my parents but I think my expectations of my child might change as I grow up.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Book review
Title: The Process of Aging
Author: Louis George Alexander
Summary: At the age of twelve years, the human body is at its most vigorous. It has yet reach its full size and strength but at this age the likelihood of death is least. Earlier, we are infants and young children and consequently more vulnerable; later, we shall undergo a progressive loss of our vigor and resistance which, though imperceptible at first, will finally become so steep that we can live no longer, no matter how well we look after ourselves, however well the society. This decline in vigor with the passing of time is called aging
Feeling: I think this book tell us a lot of things, such as the knowledge of aging and how to appreciate the time before we start to age. I think this book is very interesting and I have gained much knowledge from it.
Author: Louis George Alexander
Summary: At the age of twelve years, the human body is at its most vigorous. It has yet reach its full size and strength but at this age the likelihood of death is least. Earlier, we are infants and young children and consequently more vulnerable; later, we shall undergo a progressive loss of our vigor and resistance which, though imperceptible at first, will finally become so steep that we can live no longer, no matter how well we look after ourselves, however well the society. This decline in vigor with the passing of time is called aging
Feeling: I think this book tell us a lot of things, such as the knowledge of aging and how to appreciate the time before we start to age. I think this book is very interesting and I have gained much knowledge from it.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
CASINO
I strictly condemn its construction and ultimately the hardships it will cause in Singapore. I know that some people will have a job and make a living by working at the casino but with one more casino on the world, it offer more places for the gamblers to gamble and more people will start to gamble. It is a losing situation because although there are people getting jobs, there are people who are losing their jobs by gambling. Money may not necessarily be earned from the casino. It may be earned from tourism or other places not necessarily from casino. My parents said that With the casino, people will think that gambling is alright and legal so they they will start to addict to gambling even more seriously. The NPR said "and there are signs the economic downturn is spreading to the gambling industry." Hence, it shows that casino is not good to be built and make money from. Hence, I strictly condemn its construction and ultimately the hardships it will cause in Singapore.
LOTTERIES
I think I do not support lotteries. This is because the lotteries are waste of money and energy. Lotteries are just another form of gambling because people who buy lotteries are betting their money and when they did not buy the correct number, they will not be getting their money back. This is similar to gambling. However gambler spent more money than buying lotteries. My parents said, "However, buying lotteries is a habit so you will become addicted to it. Hence, you will buy more lotteries after you win or not win so the money lost is accumulated and in total the money lost by buying lotteries is quite a lot too." The "Battling back from Gambling Addiction" said that Jonny W. says he lost almost everything to a gambling addiction — his wife, his money, and the life he once knew. Hence, I think that buying lotteries is similar to gambling which is not good. The money used to buy lotteries can be used to buy a lot of other things, such as food, clothes or daily necessities. Hence I think that buying lotteries is a waste of money and should be condemned.
Comparison between poems
In the first poem,Tom Beatty is a lawyer who try to bet and thinks that gambling is not good as the percentage of winning is very low and if you lose, you cannot get back the money and have to leave the room.
The second poem is about the people in the casino wanting to win back their money.
"the blazing desire to win back,
To take revenge, to bring back
The nerves, the time, the brain
And all that was spent in vain." shows that the energy and money spent by gamblers are useless.
The third poem is about a man who spent his only one dollar coin on gambling and now he had nothing.
The first poem is from the lawyer's point of view, while the second and the third poems are from the gamblers' point of view.
The second poem is about the people in the casino wanting to win back their money.
"the blazing desire to win back,
To take revenge, to bring back
The nerves, the time, the brain
And all that was spent in vain." shows that the energy and money spent by gamblers are useless.
The third poem is about a man who spent his only one dollar coin on gambling and now he had nothing.
The first poem is from the lawyer's point of view, while the second and the third poems are from the gamblers' point of view.
Monday, June 29, 2009
My favourite poet
His work has been featured in the Pushcart Prize anthology and has been chosen several times for the annual Best American Poetry series. My favorite poet is Billy Collins who was born in New York City in 1941. He is the author of several books of poetry. I think that all his works of poetry are quite interesting and rhyming. His poem is also very pleasant to read and recite. I think he is very brilliant and clever as he is able to create such poems. I like this poet because he can write many wonderful poems which I think they are interesting.
This poet leaves me an impression that he is very talented when I first see his photograph. After reading his poem and his background, I found out that he is really a talented poet. Hence, I started to like him and his poems. I found out that his poems are very popular. Thus, I like this poet.
This poet Billy Collins was born in New York City in 1941. He is the author of several books of poetry, including Ballistics (2008), She Was Just Seventeen (2006), The Trouble with Poetry (2005); Nine Horses (2002); Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems (2001); Picnic, Lightning (1998); The Art of Drowning (1995), which was a finalist for the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize; Questions About Angels (1991), which was selected by Edward Hirsch for the National Poetry Series; The Apple That Astonished Paris (1988); Video Poems (1980); and Pokerface (1977).
Collins's poetry has appeared in anthologies, textbooks, and a variety of periodicals, including Poetry, American Poetry Review, American Scholar, Harper's, Paris Review, and The New Yorker.
In 2001, Collins was named U.S. Poet Laureate. His other honors and awards include fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation. In 1992, he was chosen by the New York Public Library to serve as "Literary Lion". He has conducted summer poetry workshops in Ireland at University College Galway, and taught at Columbia University, Sarah Lawrence, and Lehman College, City University of New York. He lives in Somers, New York.
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/278
Three poems by the poet:
1)Fishing on the Susquehanna in July
by Billy Collins
I have never been fishing on the Susquehanna
or on any river for that matter
to be perfectly honest.
Not in July or any month
have I had the pleasure--if it is a pleasure--
of fishing on the Susquehanna.
I am more likely to be found
in a quiet room like this one--
a painting of a woman on the wall,
a bowl of tangerines on the table--
trying to manufacture the sensation
of fishing on the Susquehanna.
There is little doubt
that others have been fishing
on the Susquehanna,
rowing upstream in a wooden boat,
sliding the oars under the water
then raising them to drip in the light.
But the nearest I have ever come to
fishing on the Susquehanna
was one afternoon in a museum in Philadelphia
when I balanced a little egg of time
in front of a painting
in which that river curled around a bend
under a blue cloud-ruffled sky,
dense trees along the banks,
and a fellow with a red bandanna
sitting in a small, green
flat-bottom boat
holding the thin whip of a pole.
That is something I am unlikely
ever to do, I remember
saying to myself and the person next to me.
Then I blinked and moved on
to other American scenes
of haystacks, water whitening over rocks,
even one of a brown hare
who seemed so wired with alertness
I imagined him springing right out of the frame.
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16497
2)Forgetfulness
by Billy Collins
The name of the author is the first to go
followed obediently by the title, the plot,
the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel
which suddenly becomes one you have never read,
never even heard of,
as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor
decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,
to a little fishing village where there are no phones.
Long ago you kissed the names of the nine Muses goodbye
and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag,
and even now as you memorize the order of the planets,
something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps,
the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.
Whatever it is you are struggling to remember
it is not poised on the tip of your tongue,
not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen.
It has floated away down a dark mythological river
whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall,
well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those
who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.
No wonder you rise in the middle of the night
to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war.
No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted
out of a love poem that you used to know by heart.
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19754
3)Introduction to Poetry
by Billy Collins
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20177
This poet leaves me an impression that he is very talented when I first see his photograph. After reading his poem and his background, I found out that he is really a talented poet. Hence, I started to like him and his poems. I found out that his poems are very popular. Thus, I like this poet.
This poet Billy Collins was born in New York City in 1941. He is the author of several books of poetry, including Ballistics (2008), She Was Just Seventeen (2006), The Trouble with Poetry (2005); Nine Horses (2002); Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems (2001); Picnic, Lightning (1998); The Art of Drowning (1995), which was a finalist for the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize; Questions About Angels (1991), which was selected by Edward Hirsch for the National Poetry Series; The Apple That Astonished Paris (1988); Video Poems (1980); and Pokerface (1977).
Collins's poetry has appeared in anthologies, textbooks, and a variety of periodicals, including Poetry, American Poetry Review, American Scholar, Harper's, Paris Review, and The New Yorker.
In 2001, Collins was named U.S. Poet Laureate. His other honors and awards include fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation. In 1992, he was chosen by the New York Public Library to serve as "Literary Lion". He has conducted summer poetry workshops in Ireland at University College Galway, and taught at Columbia University, Sarah Lawrence, and Lehman College, City University of New York. He lives in Somers, New York.
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/278
Three poems by the poet:
1)Fishing on the Susquehanna in July
by Billy Collins
I have never been fishing on the Susquehanna
or on any river for that matter
to be perfectly honest.
Not in July or any month
have I had the pleasure--if it is a pleasure--
of fishing on the Susquehanna.
I am more likely to be found
in a quiet room like this one--
a painting of a woman on the wall,
a bowl of tangerines on the table--
trying to manufacture the sensation
of fishing on the Susquehanna.
There is little doubt
that others have been fishing
on the Susquehanna,
rowing upstream in a wooden boat,
sliding the oars under the water
then raising them to drip in the light.
But the nearest I have ever come to
fishing on the Susquehanna
was one afternoon in a museum in Philadelphia
when I balanced a little egg of time
in front of a painting
in which that river curled around a bend
under a blue cloud-ruffled sky,
dense trees along the banks,
and a fellow with a red bandanna
sitting in a small, green
flat-bottom boat
holding the thin whip of a pole.
That is something I am unlikely
ever to do, I remember
saying to myself and the person next to me.
Then I blinked and moved on
to other American scenes
of haystacks, water whitening over rocks,
even one of a brown hare
who seemed so wired with alertness
I imagined him springing right out of the frame.
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16497
2)Forgetfulness
by Billy Collins
The name of the author is the first to go
followed obediently by the title, the plot,
the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel
which suddenly becomes one you have never read,
never even heard of,
as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor
decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,
to a little fishing village where there are no phones.
Long ago you kissed the names of the nine Muses goodbye
and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag,
and even now as you memorize the order of the planets,
something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps,
the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.
Whatever it is you are struggling to remember
it is not poised on the tip of your tongue,
not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen.
It has floated away down a dark mythological river
whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall,
well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those
who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.
No wonder you rise in the middle of the night
to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war.
No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted
out of a love poem that you used to know by heart.
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19754
3)Introduction to Poetry
by Billy Collins
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20177
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)