39. AP English Test After Thought

We’re finally done with the AP English test today! I thought the multiple choice was easier than what we did for the Barrons practice test. The passage was easier to understand than I expected and there weren’t many question that tested on rhetorical strategies (which I was worried about). However, I still almost ran out of time and didn’t get time to check. I hope I did well on the multiple choice because I’m not so sure about my essays. All of my essays were shorter than what I usually write in practice tests. For the first one, I managed to use all of the sources so I think that was okay. However I spent a bit too much time of it and I worried that I would run out of time. Its good that I didn’t spend as much time on the other two. On my second essay, I just followed what I planned to do: ethos, pathos, and logos, it went pretty well. It’s the last essay I’m not so sure about. I wrote less than two pages because I didn’t know how else to continue it. I felt like I expressed my point though and gave examples in my two body paragraphs. I hope I did well!

38. Journal Writing: Marriage

I think marriage is a promise: a promise to your other half that you would be there for him/her. Although it may seem like just another legal document (as so many people divorce nowadays), to me, it had a much deeper meaning in it. Like the vow people take in marriage, people promise to be part of each other’s life. A marriage means a creation of a family. A couple is a couple, even if they act as though they are married; they have made no promise to each other. Their relationship may end any time and there will be no consequences or responsibility.

When people marry, people are seeking for a belongingness and trust. When two people bond together as husband and wife, they legally and mentally belong to one another. I think the phrase “settling down with someone” describe the feeling very well, because you are no longer trying to find your other half. You move on to a new stage of life, which may involve a change in lifestyle. When people get married, they loose part of their independence. In a sense, they are no longer just themselves, because they have “another half”. They give up a part of them for another person. In exchange, they get parts of the other person to keep. 

37. Journal Writing: Too Much Pressure - Wenke

Do you agree with Wenke that most students think cheating is acceptable? In your journal, write down your views of how common cheating is in your school.

I think most people know that cheating is unacceptable. We have all been all been told over and over again, since elementary, that cheating is bad. Why else would teachers separate out chairs during tests? Why else would we even do a test on our own? Yet, people still do it. As Wenke said, there has been a strong emphasis on grades and pressure on students to get good grades. Maybe that is the reason why students cheat nowadays. But I doubt that students in the past don't cheat. There will always be people that seek the easy way out. Those are the people that constantly cheat, only because they don't want to study. I'm not going to lie, I have witnessed cheating in our school... especially during wordly wise classes. Most people there don't want to take wordly wise. They were put there because they have no other classes to take, so they have to memorize vocabulary. Another reason for the excessive cheating in that class is that is it so easy to cheat. The teachers or staffs that supervise the class usually don't do much supervising. They just let you do your own thing. You put reluctant students with lazy teachers in a wordly wise class, this is what you get.

36. Redefine Integrity

Since we are redefining a word, we might as well start with the dictionary meaning. According to the Marriam-Webster dictionary, integrity means "firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values; incorruptibility".
To tell the truth, I had a vague definition of the word until the PAS community started to over use it. It began with some incident over cheating among the eighth graders, which lead to a school-wide lecture over integrity. The school middle and high school department had to watch a movie and write a report about it. After that, the word became sort of a mocking slogan among the students. I guess most students see the word as honesty and no cheating. 
In our class discussion, Christine mentioned that she thinks that having integrity is being true to yourself. It hit me then that that is exactly how I feel towards the words too, I just never had the words to grasp the idea. I think a person's integrity is largely defined by their own values. Just like any other values, it can be influenced by others, but it is usually not easily changed and people hold on to them. I think having integrity is doing things that will not leave a shadow in your heart and you can do them without regret.

35. Being a Chink Journal Writing

So far in life, I have never felt particularly defensive for my parents. The only time I felt the need to help, or protect you might say, about anything was about the english language. My parents have spent huge sums to send my to this American school. They are giving me a chance to learn a language that they are not particularly familiar with. They gave me the chance to exceed them in this language. So, when it comes time that they have to communicate in English (mainly in the written form) I am of some help. When there were translations needed to be done, I am usually the use to be asked. 

Once, my mom asked me to check her e-mail to her friend in the States before she sent it. The e-mail was generally fine, with just a few awkward phrases and grammar. I explained my changes while I did them. After the edit, my mom patted my back and said, "Thank you. That was a great help for me. The money I spent was worth it." Even though she said it half-jokingly, I felt a tiny pang in my heart. They gave so much to me. My 3-minute edit can never compare to the sum and the time they spent for my education. Yet, my mom was still so appreciative over something so small. 

34. How much influence should the school have on our personal lives?

I feel that the school shouldn't try to control on our personal lives as long as we do things that do not infringe on others or the school. However, the school should take into concern things that might effect us as people, so i would say the school may give suggestions or help, but cannot force people to do things in terms of personal matters. That is why personal lives are called personal; they should be kept to ourselves. Parents are the ones that have the rights to have a say in our personal lives because they are the people that raise you up are part of your family (isn't that part of personal lives already?) Schools should not be able to decide whether or not we date people, because that is our personal choice. However, the school should be allowed to make sure that children under 18 are not drinking or smoking. Even though some may say that is part of personal life, it is going against the law. If that is involved, then the school should be allowed to prohibit students from doing so. I think the best way the school should or try to influence us is by educating and influencing our values. Sex education in health class would be a very good example of how the school can provide teenagers with the correct information about sexual intercourse so that students can make the right decisions.

33. The Earth is Full Speech Analysis

Paul Gilding's speech, "The Earth is Full", is effective because he had good contents and he uses rhetorical devices that further encourages the reader to take in his information. He starts off the speech by painting a negative picture of what the world would be like if we continued to use resource the way we do now. He uses repetitions and parallel structure like "full of... full of... full of..." to emphasize his points. He also makes his audience feel engaged because he uses words like "we" and "us" (for example, "we have to end our denial".) He acknowledges questions or doubts the audience might have by saying "you think..." and then provides a comprehensive counter attack. He continuously asks the audience to "imagine" what things would be like in the future. He repeats and rephrases his points to make things clear for the audience. He provides some statistics (we are using about 1.5 Earths), but does not overload them and overwhelm the audience. He tries to raise awareness, especially on the fact that if the Earth is to be sustainable, we will not experience the economic growth we are so used to. Finally, he ends his speech with a very positive scenario of the future, but we will have to take actions now.