Jaz Santos vs The World - profile of the player

You may have heard the name Jaz. Her name is Jasmine Santos-Campbell. She is a famous football player who played in the World Cup.

When she was eleven years old, she approached some people and formed a team.

Their coach was Rhiannon. She taught them that the things a player does off the field are as important as the things they do on the field. Some players become role models for young people.

In the final against the Silverton Shiners, at her first tournament, Bramrock Stars FC, where Jaz is a captain, played fairly and fought as a team. The game finished 2-2, and finally they won it on penalties.

She trusts her team, building good relationships.

Posted for Ritsuko

Are All Animals Equal on Animal Farm?

 I don’t think life on Animal Farm is fair for all the animals.  

At the beginning of the story, all the animals believed they were in an equal society. They thought the human was not good for them. So, they worked together to kick out Mr. Jones, and they hoped that everyone would share the work. For a short period of time, it seemed like everything might get better.

However, as time was passed, the pigs started to take more and more power. They said that pigs were the “smartest” animals, so they should make the decisions. At first, the other animals accepted this, but soon the pigs began to act like leaders. They got better food, they slept in beds, and they did not work as hard as the other animals.

The pigs also changed the rules. For example, they rewrote the commandments so their actions look correctly. They used Squealer to spread propaganda and made the other animals believe that everything was fine, even when it was not. The animals like Boxer worked extremely hard, but they never got respect for their work.

In the end, the pigs became almost the same as the humans the animals had tried to escape from. They walked on two legs, drank alcohol, and made deals with humans. The other animals were tired, hungry, and confused, but they were unable to fight the pigs because they had no power or education.

For these reasons, life on Animal Farm is not fair for all the animals. Only the pigs enjoyed a good life, while the rest of the animals cannot feel freedom. 

Taketorimonogatari - a Japanese Fairy Story

My fairy story

Tell the story of a fairy tale from your country

There is a famous fairy story, which called Taketorimonogatari.

We don’t know who wrote it and when it’s written exactly. People assume that it’s written in 10th century.

Once there was a husband and a wife. They didn’t have a child. One day, the husband went to bamboo forest, and found glowing bamboo. The husband cut the bamboo. Surprisingly, there was a cute girl sleeping in the bamboo.

The husband brought the girl to his house. The wife was pleased to see her, and they decided to raise her as their child. They named her “Kaguya”, and raised her with caution. Kaguya grew up rapidly like bamboo, and she became beautiful girl. As time goes by, many kings hear that there is a beautiful girl called Kaguya, and so many kings come over to Kaguya’s house to propose her. However, Kaguya didn’t want to marry any of kings. Five kings were persistent, and Kaguya asked one impossible favor to each man. The favor is to bring a Buddha’s base, bring an immortals tree, bring a fire-mouse skin, bring the ball of dragon neck, and bring a shell of swallow.

Each man brought fake, but Kaguya detected the lie, and those men had to say good bye to her. About the same time, she told the husband and the wife that she came from moon. She was sad, but soldier from moon came for Kaguya, and she went back to moon.

After reading_King Arthur and Knights of the Round Table

Merlin does email
Write an email from Merlin in his cave, to King Arthur at Camelot


To Arthur,


You may be surprising to see my email. I am now in a dark cave as I mentioned to you before I left your place. I cannot go out this cave, but I still can send some emails to you until the time comes.


First of all, I know you want to know who let me in this cave. It is Lady Vivien. She is still young and believes in her magic power too much. She thinks she has now the greatest and strongest magic in the world without me. I taught her all my magic so that she can help you. My magic can guide her even after I die. So, I will make sure she won’t hurt you.


Second, you will miss me sometimes in future. I took care of you for a long time so that you can be a great brave king. You are now our best king in our country. However, when you are in any trouble and think you need my help, please come to the lake where the Lady of Lake gave you Excalibur. It is a magic lake and you can see the dead people if necessary. But, remember there is only one chance to see me. So, please think carefully if you really need my help.


Lastly, I love you very much. I have been with you since you were born in this world. You will be the greatest king all over the world. As long as you are the king, the people in this country can live happily. Please be kind to all people in the country.


Merlin

Apollo 13 - the Ken Mattingly story

Ken Mattingly did not fly with Apollo 13.  Write about his NASA career after this mission.

After the mission, Ken Mattingly flew on the Apollo 16 as Command Module Pilot from April 16 to 27, 1972.  Apollo 16 was assigned to collect samples from the lunar highlands near the crater Descartes.  Ken carried out an extravehicular activity to retrieve film and data packages from the science bay on the side of the service module.  Apollo 16 accomplished all major objectives although the mission was terminated one day early due to concern over several spacecraft malfunctions.

After the turn to Earth, Ken worked as head of astronaut office support to the STS (Shuttle Transportations System) program and technical assistant for flight test to the Manager of the Orbital Flight Test Program.  He flew on the STS-4 (the fourth and final orbital test flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia) as the pilot from June 27 to July 4, 1982 and completed 112 orbits of the Earth.  He saluted President Ronald Reagan after the landing.  Then he also flew on the STS-51-C (the first Space Shuttle Department of Defense) to deploy a modified Inertial Upper Stage vehicle from the Space Shuttle Discovery from January 24 to 27, 1985.

After those missions, he retired from NASA in 1985.  He logged 7,200 hours of flight time.  In his career at NASA, he received twelve awards like the NASA Distinguished Service Medal which was the highest award.

After reading – King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table

Evil women: Which is the worst woman in the story? Why?

I think that Morgan le Fay is the worst woman in the story.  I felt fear when we knew that she could do magic, but she only used her magic for bad things.

Morgan le Fay pretended to be King Arthur’s kind friend, but actually she hated him and she wanted him to die.  He and his wife Queen Guinevere believed her, so did not realize her evil plans.  She used an evil knight Sir Damas and King Arthur’s knights to try to kill him.  His knights could not realize that they fought their king because of their helmets.  What is worse, King Arthur’s Excalibur was replaced with a sword from Morgan le Fay’s magic.  Therefore, King Arthur could not hurt the knights and was hurt badly by his Excalibur which the knights had.

King Arthur, however, was very brave and did not stop fighting.  Fortunately, King Arthur was safe although he was wounded badly.  I think it is not expected by Morgan le Fay.

However, Morgan le Fay knew that King Arthur was staying with the nuns to get the treatment.  She visited the nuns and stole his magic scabbard from the end of his bed.  King Arthur realized that and followed her, but the scabbard was thrown into the black lake and he never found it.

I was afraid of Morgan le Fay’s implacableness at the end of Chapter 4.

After reading "King Arthur & the Knights of the Round Table" ...write an email to King Arthur

Dear Authur,

How are you? How about your life recently? Do you have any trouble recently? I hope all is going well with you. I am far from Camelot. The place where I am now is a cave in forest. The door of the cave where I am now is closed and I can't get away from this cave. I have never asked for your help, but I will not be able to see you again, so please see this e-mail as my last message.

My ending is not-too-distance future. When I die, the magic power you and your sword have will disappear. The special sword will be just normal sword.

Please never ask for any magic or something with magic. The magic will be either danger or good by what type of people use the magic or something with magic. Actually, the magic was used by bad people and I can't get away from this cave. Thanks to the magic sword, you got a chance to be a King.

I want you to be real King who be really endeared to your company's people without your magic. There are a lot of things that you can help or bring your company's people happiness even if you have no any magic. Please always think whether the things what you think or will do would be helpful for your people or would bring your people happiness or smile.

I continuously hope that my son "Author" live with happiness and bring the company's people happiness.

The Black Pearl - write an e-mail from the governor to his brother in England

Trhe Black Pearl (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Dear brother,

How have you been? I hope all is getting well with you. How is your life in England? Is it fun for you? How about your family? What is the weather now in England? What is your recommendation in England during this season?

Please kindly advise me yours. We have not met for a long time, I really want to see you in near future. Today, I am writing this email to tell you good happy news for you, not only me.

My daughter, Elizabeth has decided to marry a very kind man, Will Turner. I want to bring him to you with Elizabeth to introduce him. He is same age as Elizabeth and they knew each other after she was ten or eleven years old and are nice to each other. He is good blacksmith.

To be frank with you, I had been unhappy that Elizabeth and Will were nice to each other because a man named Norrington I recommnded liked her and he was very appropriate for my beautiful daughter, Elizabeth. I believe that if you are in my position, you would want Elizabeth to marry Norrington without doubt.

But, when the pirates came into our country and we faced serious situation, Will fighted well together with one pirate's help and could protect Elizabeth from pirates or other unfriendly issues and secured my country.

So, I decide to accept Elizabeth and Will to marry.

Please make your time to see again.

Apollo 13 - after reading

Marilyn watched the drama of Apollo 13 unfold on TV...
Do you think she wants her husband to go into space again? Why/why not?

 

The crew of Apollo 13 on board the USS Iwo Jima following splashdown 

No, I don’t. She doesn’t want her husband to go into space never. I think she may be very worried sick. But if her husband says he wants to go again, I think she can’t say not to go. Because she knows how her husband wants to go to the moon. 

If he goes into space again, she always thinks that the same thing will happen such as Apollo 13. But if she says not to go and her husband decides he won’t go into space again, she has to continue to see her husband repress his feeling. I think it’s not good for each other.

It’s not decided the accident will happen. So if I were her, I want my husband to go there again, and I hope he comes home safely. Of course I am very worry and I always think about him. But I want him to make his dream come true.

Maybe Marilyn has heard the story about her husband’s dream from him many times.  

I think she needs time to sort out her feelings. Soon after he comes home, she doesn’t want him to go there again, but after a few months she can change her mind.

Finally, she will support him, I think.

Seven - book review

This book is about detectives who find a clue to the last deadly sin, Envy...I think the most exciting and most aggressive part is when the assistant shoots the murderer, Doe, in the head.

The story is about a crazy-minded man being jealous of happy people and kills seven of them, leaving Deadly Sins' names somewhere. The given sins' names are related to the case of the person who was murdered. There are seven different ways of killing the victims, but I'm not going to say how they die because if so, the stroy will be ruined.

I loved the idea of using the seven deadly sins' names. It was amazing & fresh. I also loved the way of killing people and the backgrounds of the victims. What I didn't like so much was that it was a little bit too bloody & I think the book is not suitable for kids.

I my opinion, this book was written for teens, and bloody scenes are required, so maybe you'll like it.

Posted for Shimei.

Grey Owl

Q26: There were a lot of women in Grey Owl's life. What do you think they felt about him? Why?

I think that Grey Owl was awful person for women, because he abandoned his wives and children several times.
He was generous for animals, but he was selfish for women.
I think that his first 4 wives (Angele, Marie, Ivy, Anahareo) and her children felt same as me. But his last wife Yvonne might fell that he was generous for women, because they hadn't divorced.
I think that Yvonne didn't know his love affair well.
If Grey Owl was born in modern age, he shouldn't supported by women.

Yoichi

Books galore

With a pile of books this deep it must be time for this season's business classes to get started. Once again, we will be getting busy in class with all manner of communicative exchanges, developing our everyday language skills and in many cases focusing on work-related topics in particular.

Outside of class, there will be plenty of reading; this time we are mixing up the readers with titles from OUP's Bookworms series, CUP's catalogue, Penguin's movie tie-ins, and newly adopted Macmillan's hot-looking red readers. I'm looking forward to a stream of good posting here. I think it's great that students of all levels and abilities can get stuck into a good book.