Story telling in the future tense - Predicting Matt's future

As a final writing task after practising using 'will' & 'going to' for future predictions, I set up a creative writing task to make predictions about the futures of 4 high school friends, using the visual prompts on the worksheet to help them generate ideas. Do you agree with the examples of 'will' & 'going to' in these texts?

Matt's future:

Matt isn't going to graduate the high school. He wanted to become an actor. He was hopeful, but his parents felt sad.

At first, he is going to audition for a commercial. He won't get a job. Reality was strict. He is going to get a part time job and he is going to study at an acting school for 2 years. One day he is going to get a small role in TV drama. He was very happy.

He is going to become very popular. He is going to get main role in TV drama series after three years

Finally he is going to move to Hollywood. He is going to get main role in some movie. Now he is going to become super star. Dream come true! He get much money and become a big name.

Posted for Yoko

Science fiction helps you to learn new vocabulary.

Re:Genesis is a Canadian TV series about the scientists. NorBAC, "North American Biotechnology Advisory Commission," is the science lab which police ask for help when weird and struggling cases occur. Topics are what we are facing in the real world. NorBAC investigates wide variety of cases such as bio-terrorism, infectious diseases, sudden and massive fatalities of people or animals due to sudden mysterious changes in environment.

David Sandstrom, the leader of NorBAC team, has many issues like alcoholism and family issues. He is rather human-like character when comparing with Holmes. But sure you can enjoy thrilling action, love romance, family bonds, and the latest science technology in Re:Genesis. NorBAC team utilizes the most advanced equipment identifying much smaller details. A magnifying glass or a microscope cannot do that much.

Let me introduce one episode. Multiple blackouts in cities occurred and police started investigating for possible terrorism. However, police failed to find a single evidence which shows the presence of human being on sites and they asked NorBAC for help.

NorBAC team finds weird traces on power cables in power plants and further conducts DNA examination. As the results, the team identifies bacteria which eats artificial and synthetic substances causing blackouts.

When I watched this series during high school years and themes seemed unrealistic, yet we are now actually identifying various issues including strange climatic variation, radical shifts in ecosystem, and ethical issues in accordance with rapid developments in science like artificial gene synthesis.

In real world, Japanese scientists find bacteria eating plastic in 2016 and they expect to largely reduce plastic wastes. But what if such bacteria expands in public? The story can be realistic.

Re:Genesis is the one you need to learn science, math, medical science, politics and to gain your knowledge and vocabulary! Moreover, this drama is also good for someone who wants to improve your pronunciation and listening skill. Main characters speak Canadian, American, British, Latin and Asian English since the NorBAC lab has many staffs with different nationalities.

Whitechapel - review of Episode One

The TV series is about an ambitious police officer investigating a murder case. It is set in Whitechapel in 2008.

The story starts with a murder scene. A man with a funny hat brutally killed a lady. A young police officer, who wants to be promoted, is in charge of this crime. However, he has never worked in the field, so he clashed with the cops who usually do. Back to the incident, the victim's name is Cathy and she is married to Bob, a butcher, who is suspected by the cops. However, he had a cast-iron alibi that he had already been arrested at the time of the murder. He couldn't be the killer. Moreover, the incident is extremely similar to the crime which Jack the Ripper committed exactly 120 years before.

What's similar? Of course the gender, the way of killing, the place, and even the date & time! In the last scene, the cops knew the crime was a copycat criminal.

I only watched the first part, so I don't know what the story be like, but I'm really curious about it. If I have an opportunity I'd like to watch the next episode.

Posted for Yuya

Castle - TV series review

N.B. May contain spoilers!

Castle TV series features a beautiful detective Katherine Beckett and a mystery novel writer Richard Castle, who solve unusual crimes in the city of New York. This series was created by Andrew W. Marlowe, and originally released on March 9, 2009.

Female protagonist, Kate Beckett had a painful memory and trauma about the death of her mother. The case had been unsolved, and that was why she chose her current career. The first episode starts with a murder case which seems to resemble the murder case in Castle’s novel. Detective Beckett comes to contact Castle and asks him for help. Intrigued by the beautiful, mysterious Kate Beckett, Richard Castle starts working together with her two other male colleagues to solve strange challenging cases. Interestingly, Castle argues that he is going to investigate as many murder cases as possible in order to release his new novel series featuring an attractive female detective named Nicky Heat. As story goes on, Beckett is almost close to her mother’s murderer, but at the same time she has to face the devastating fact, losing her trustful boss and naerly losing her own life. The story is very thrilling as well as romantic. Richard cannot help fall in love with Beckett, supporting her in the back. Where are their relations going?

Richard Castle (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The great strength of this TV series and what makes the series different from other detective stories are the speed each episode moves and discloses the murderer, and the attractiveness of each character. Richard leads a life with his beloved daughter, Ashley, and his eccentric actress mother. Beckett’s colleagues, who are Ryan and Esposito, who support her and work with her doggedly. Each of them has their own private life and they are presented during the series. There are eight seasons. The only weakeness I notice is the unsolved case of Beckett’s mother, which remains unsolved until the end.

Posted for Shizue