Ten Short Stories - The hitchhiker

        “Ten Short Stories” is written by Roald Dahl, a famous writer.  One of his short stories is titled “The Hitchhiker”.

        “The Hitchhiker” is a story about the author going to London one day during June on his BMW. On his way, he meets a hitchhiker. After letting the hitchhiker in, the author drove off again. On the way to London, the two men started chatting. Then, they talked about the author’s car. The hitchhiker asked how fast the BMW is. The author states that the car can go up to 129 miles an hour, but the hitchhiker does not believe. Therefore, the author started speeding up. Just when the car reached 120 miles an hour, the deafening sound of the police siren could be heard. Then, a policeman with his police motorcycle stopped them, and after some questioning, the policeman demanded for the author’s driver license. The author obediently handed over his license. After recording both the author and the hitchhiker’s particulars, the policeman drove off. The author and the hitchhiker continued their trip to London. Then, the author asked about the hitchhiker’s job. Finally, the hitchhiker told him that his job is a finger smith, a better word for a pickpocket. The hitchhiker had shown the author the speed of his fingers, which was very fast. Then, at the end, the hitchhiker took out the books in which the policeman had recorded their particulars. The author was very surprised. Finaly, the hitchhiker gave the idea to destroy the books by burning them.

           I feel that the story “The Hitchhiker” is very interesting and a bit of suspense is included in the story. The author keeps pressing the hitchhiker for his job but the hitchhiker refuses to reveal till the end, which will make the readers want to read on. Therefore, I feel that Roald Dahl is very good at writing so he can come up with such an interesting book.

Something valuable that I had learnt so far

    
       In this year, I had learnt much in Language Arts. Firstly, I learnt about poetry. Although poetry is a difficult subject of  Language Arts, I found out that analyzing a poem is not a difficult as it seems to one. We just have to follow the ten-steps rule, which worked most of the time. Also, I think that poems are actually quite interesting when you can try to figure out what the poet is trying to tell his audience.
      Secondly, I learnt about how I can find out the meaning of a word through skills like the context and  finding a the word's root word, etc. This helped me in my comprehension skills, although I did not score well for the vocabulary part this time. I guess what I lack is reading and practise, since practise makes perfect. I target to score at least a 4 out of 5 in the future tests.
      Thirdly and lastly, I learnt about the SEE format for our comprehension's comparison question where we have to compare Passage A and Passage B. I think that it is very effective to use this in any subject, since firstly, we need a sentence, which is the 'S'. Also, we need to give examples/ evidence and the elaboration to complete what the question is asking for.

Poem Analysis

Q2) Snapshotland is a land far away, something magical. It is also a relaxing place about taking photographs.

Q4) People in Snapshotland not growing old, people are always happy

Q5) "Snapshotland is the promised land" - metaphor
       "right" and "sight" - assonance
       "smooth sand", "smile and smile and smile" etc - alliteration

Q6) Description of time freezing is a lot and there are many words that start with 's'

Q7) There is always something about happiness in the poem (every stanza has something about it) and time is like frozen

Q8) The people in Snapshotland are photographs.

Q9a) Third Person

Q9b) General Public

Q9c) Relaxed

Q9d) Relaxed

Q9e) It shows the time of Snapshotland

Q9f) It allows people to feel the happiness in Snapshotland

Poem of Primary School

Primary School is fun
Less stress and homework
Kindness here and there
Happiness everywhere

Teachers were kind
Helping with anything
School was easy like ABC
Students were happy

The school was fun
We could run everywhere
Playing Hide-and-Seek
You could hide in the toilet


What a great time it was
A great difference from Secondary School
Nothing was boring
Everything was fun and exciting


Though the time had came
For everyone to separate
I would never forget my friends
Nor will they forget me

Metaphors (Life is a(n)..........)

Life is a wrestling match
Full of up and downs
You fall or succeed
Try to survive the blow you get

Punching and wrestling
One will win the match
One will surely fall
And life will be over

Slowly and steadily
You will lose once
And that
Will be your last day on Earth

Home Learning Lesson 1 - Figurative Language

The Poem:

Fire and Ice by Robert Frost



Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favour fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice

 

 

-The End-

 
 
 
1. How is figurative language used in the poem? Give the specific word(s), explain what type of figurative language it is and why the poet chose to use this figurative language.
 
Ans: The symbolism of fire adds to the meaning of the poem along with the denotations and connotations. Another symbol is the word ice. Ice can be used to represent hate. The poet also used the world as a relationship symbol. All these symbols makes both desire and hate feelings felt the relationship and helps to tie together the poem.

2.Tell us why you like this poem in no less than 100 words.

Ans:  I like this poem, firstly because 'Fire' and 'Ice'  which are used in the poem, are two opposite items, and this makes the poem more interesting. Secondly, although the poem is quite short, it has much more meaning behind it. Thirdly, I like the way this poem is structured, like the part 'I hold with those who favour fire'. Finally, I think that this poem makes people want to know more about the end of the world, since the poet has said that he agree with those that said fire and people would want to know. Therefore, I like this poem and thus chose it.

Identifying a person in a pose that represents how Lila reacts(Bodily/Kinesthetic)

The first picture shows a girl offering flowers. It represents Lila offering flowers to the sacred rock in the sea. It shows that the girl is not unhappy because her mouth looks like she is smilling, and it is the same for Lila since she felt that it was the peaceful place for her.

This photo is taken from: http://greenearthchoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/giveflower.jpg

The second picture shows a girl begging. It can be showed as Lila begging the medicine man to 'heal' her mother and she was very desperate to do so. I think that this will show the expression of Lila, her eyes making one feel guilty for not helping her. Thus, I decided to use this photo to show how desperate one can be when one need help desperately. 
 
 
 
 
This photo is taken from: http://kaybee.mlblogs.com/begging%20girl.jpg

     

This picture shows a girl crying, probably because somthing very bad had happened and thus she is crying. This is also the same for Lila. When Pinto was killed, she felt very upset, since Pinto was devoted to her and she liked Pinto. Thus, I feel that this photo will show the unhappiness of Lila,.

This photo is taken from: http://brideandblog.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/girl_crying.jpg

 

Select a piece of ambient music(Musical/Rhythmic)

     One music from youtube that can be used to show a scene from The Village By The Sea is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFmczpYZSFA&feature=related.

     It is a music on the sea. Not only does it show the sound of the sea, it shows also a relax music at the end. This music can be used to depict the scene in the beginning, when Lila goes to the sea to pray at the stone, and sad incidents start happening.

     Using this music, the feelings about the sad incidents like Pinto being poisoned and her father being drunk and became hot-tempered can be brought out. This means that people who listen to the music and know the story of  The Village By The Sea will pity Lila and Hari, who both went through hardships.

The Effects of Toddy(Spatial/Visual)

    Toddy is a alcoholic beverage created from the sap of various species of palm tree such as the Palmyra, and coconut palms. However, toddy is not good. Why?
    Toddy might cause familial problems, such as when one becomes drunk and violent, thus beating up his/her family members. Yes. That also includes one's parents and children! Imagine waking up after a night of toddy and finding your family members unconscious! That would be so scary!
    Another problem might be one's health problem. Although people might have the assumption that alcoholic beverage can make one become less worry, toddy causes headaches, and it is bad for one's immune system. You would not want to fall sick just because of your worries, right?
    Also, alcoholic beverages are expensive. You would not want to spend $10 on just a small cup of toddy that can be drank in one tiny gulp, do you? Anyway, even if you want to, think about your family members. Do you have the ability to spend $100 - 10 tiny gulps of toddy for a day? That adds up to $3000 a month! This means that even if you earn $6000, you got only $3000 left! That's 50% of your pay! You certainly cannot afford such a thing....  
    If you still do not think that the above reasons for one to stop drinking toddy are enough, let me add one more. Social problem. Would you like to sit face to face with some body that smells of toddy? Will that be pleasant? The answer would obviously be 'No'! So, if you still drinks toddy, how is your boss or employee going to feel? Soon, you woud be kicked out of the company! Then, you will have no more money to spend on toddy.
    In conclusion, drinking toddy is unhealthy for yourself and you might beat up your family members unintentionly, lose much money due to toddy and worse still, get fired and left with no money! Thus, DO NOT drink toddy!
     

Imagining conducting an interview with one of the characters in The Village by the Sea - Lila(Linguistic)

     This is a interview between Lila and I (Imagining)

Me: What's your role as the oldest sister?

Lila: I had to go to the sacred rocks at the sea to scatter flowers about the rocks, take care of my siblings, cook and take care of the house.

Me: So you play an important role...

Me: How did you feel when Hari left home and went to Bombay?

Lila: I felt hopeless, since my father was always drunk, my mother was ill and nobody was there to earn money. This meant that we would not be able to survive, since I did not know how to work.

Me: Then, do you think that the factories should be here, in Thul?

Lila: No, I really hoped that the factories will move to other places since they will change the traditional way of the Thul’s villagers’ lives.

Me: Urbanization arriving in Thul is not good at all?

Lila: I think so. I just want a peaceful live, that my mother will be healthy again, my father will stop drinking toddy, Pinto to be back from death and everyone living happily.

Me: Okay. Thanks for letting me interview you.

Lila: No problem.

Research on the preparation of chapathi, jalebi, roti prata and you tiao

     Firstly, what is 'chapathi', 'jelebi', 'roti prata' and 'you tiao'? Honestly, I don't know.
     After doing some research on chapathi, I realised that it was an unleavened flatbread freshly made for a meal from almost any flour from northern India and Pakistan. Now. After knowing what a chapathi is, let's move on to roti prata. Roti prata evolved from the original pancake recipes from Pakistan and India. The word 'roti' means “bread”, while 'prata' means “flat”.
     My next task is to find out, what's the difference between the two of them? Well, the main difference is that roti prata is an evolution of the original pancake while chapathi is not an evolution.
     Next, I am going to find out about jalebi. Again, I don't know what is its meaning. Research time! Finally, I found out that jalebi  is a deep fried sweet, and it is a little bit same as funnel cakes, but it is smaller and different in flavor. The treat is made in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh primarily. Next, what is you tiao? Mainly, you tiao is long and golden-brown in colour. It is a deep fried strip of dough in Chinese or other Southeast and East Asian cuisine.
     Now, again, what is the difference between the two of them? Well, although both are deep fried, jalebi is a kind of sweet and it origins from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, while the you tiao is a strip of dough in Chinese or other Southeast and East Asian cuisine.
     Finally, my last task is to find a recipe for the cooking of both chapathi and jalebi.
 This recipe can be found on:  http://www.paajaka.com/2007/03/soft-chapathis.html 

Ingredients(chapathi)

• 2 Cups - Pillsbury Chakki Fresh Atta 
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt 
• 3/4 tablespoon Oil
• Water
• Little oil for making chapathis

The method of cooking

     Firstly, mix the salt and oil to the flour. Add water little by little and knead the dough. The consistency should not be too sticky or too hard.

     Next, make small balls and roll each ball. Then, dredge in the flour if its sticky.
 

     Next, heat a Tawa and place a rolled chapathi. Some time later when you notice the chapathi slightly puffing, apply very little oil immediately and press all around and turn around the chapathi ( Do not allow the other side to become too dry). Press the Chapathi. Again, you will notice the chapathi puffing. Apply very little oil again on the upper side and turn around the chapathi again. After a couple of seconds, take away the chapathi from the Tawa. The final product should still be soft. These chapathis will be healthy and remain soft for longer duration.

Ingredients(jalebi)

• 2 cups of self raising flour
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 cup of yogurt
• Vegetable/canola/sunflower cooking oil for deep frying
• 1 cup of sugar
• Few strands of saffron
• 1/4 teaspoon of cardamom powder
• 2 drops orange of food colour
• 2 tablespoons of rose water

The method of cooking 

Firstly, mix the flour, baking powder and yogurt into a batter and keep aside for 24 hours to ferment. Next, pour the batter into a ketchup dispensing bottle. In order to make sugar syrup, melt the sugar with the rose water and boil to get a one thread consistency. To check for one thread consistency, carefully dip the tip of your index finger into the syrup, touch your finger and thumb together and genly tease apart. If one thread is formed between your finger and thumb, the syrup is done. Turn off fire, add the saffron strands and cardamom and stir well. Heat the oil in a deep wok-like dish. To test for the right temperature, drop a small amount of batter into the oil. If it sizzles and rises to the top of the oil, the oil is hot enough. Keep the flame on medium at all times to ensure all round cooking of the jalebis. Now hold the ketchup dispenser over the hot oil and squeeze the batter into the oil into a wiggly, randomly coiled circle. Squeeze out several at a time. Fry till light golden and then remove and put directly into the sugar syrup. Allow to soak for 2-3 minutes and then remove. Serve warm.

A journal entry from the point of view of one of the characters from The Village by the Sea : Hari ( Intrapersonal )

     No! Why? Why is my father just spending his money on toddy? Now, Pinto, the dog in our house is dead! All because of my father! He owed the horrible and evil drunkard that was our neighbour  money and that drunkard kill Pinto! I am so confused and angry! I want to go to Bombay and leave my sisters! I don't want to be here anymore, living with my scared sisters!
    
     I don't want to live like this! I want a job and support myself! Yes! I will go to Bombay tomorrow and never come back to this house, or maybe this sad house. I want to leave my frightened sisters, my mother who is so ill that can't take care of us and my drunken father! Yes. Tomorrow I will go to Bombay. I will leave home and run away from home! I can get a job from the de Silvas. Mr de Silva said that he would give me a job as a car-cleaner.                                                                                                                                                   
     I will be saying goodbye to you now, Diary, since I can't bring you with me to Bombay. Bye now, Diary. I have to go to sleep now.  It will be a long day tomorrow and I have to reserve my energy for then. Bye for the third time!

Your owner,
Hari

Explanation of 'The lady, or the tiger?'

I chose this ending to show the great love between the princess and the young man. This will make the viewers feel sympathatic to the two main characters, since the semi-babaric King also felt sorry for them. Also, I want to use this ending to tell the viewers that everyone should be treated fairly, and that the princess and the young man should have a happy ending. As for the lady who came out of the door, she was not in the wrong and thus, she was not punished. As for the King, he just wanted to prevent his daughter from getting hurt if they broke up, and did not do anything that was extrmely inhuman, though his methods were too serious.
This ending creates a sad feeling at the start of the ending when the young man opened the right door, but a happy feeling overcame it in the end, when it was a happy ending. Thus, I decided to use this ending.

Journal According to Patrick Maloney before the events of the story(Intrapersonal)

Dear journal,
  Today was a fine day, except that I have to do alot of things down at the police office. It's such a pain, being have to walk about when I am a senior policeman. Well, I am going to my mistress house after I tell Mary that I don't love her anymore. She just gets on my nerves, bothering me just as I get home. How I wish that she could just disappear for good! Anyway, I will tell her that I will divorce her, and marry my mistress. She love me so much, so she will just let me do what I want!
  Hm... Now... What should I do later when I meet my mistress? new wife? Maybe we should go for a drink, then go to a park for a walk. Then, when we reach our new home, we should each have a bath and go to sleep!
  The following day, maybe we can go to visit our relatives and tell them we are a couple! Hm... On second thoughts, maybe we shouldn't. What if they don't allow us to be together? Maybe we should go shopping... We will surely need new items for our new house!
  Then, maybe two years later, when I am even older, I might need to quit my job as a policeman. Then, when we have enough savings, we can have a tour to different countries. France! Malaysia! China! Anywhere we want! Then, maybe we should have a house somewhere in these countries, and we will be able to live there sometimes, when we want to!
  As for Mary, maybe I will stop sending her money after a few months. She won't know where I am, and can't find me! In this way, I will be able to save more money! Mary spends so much, as compared to my  new wife!
  Well, I have to go now. It's about the time I go home, if not I will have less time with my new wife! Goodbye, journal... I will write more about my day tomorrow!
Your owner,
Patrick Maloney

The lady, or the tiger?

   The young man took a deep breath. "Don't be afraid. I can do this." He scanned the audiences' face. They were getting nosier as the time passes. He stepped forward, one tiny step at a time, towards the doors. They seemed to be a long way ahead. Finally, he reached the two doors. He had seen the Princess pointing to the right. Should he open the right door or the left door? Could the Princess had wanted to kill him since he will not be her husband? Wild thoughts raced through his mind.
   Then, he heard a roar, from the right door. He glanced back at the Princess, shocked. However, the Princess looked normal, as though nothing had happened. The crowd knew what the young man will choose. It was surely the left door, where the roar was not from.
   However, the young man turned open the right door, to the audience's horror! He glanced into the door, waiting for the tiger to pounce out and eat him out. However, nothing happened. There was just a lady , sitting on a bench behind the door, and in her hand was a tape recorder. It must had been used to make the tiger's roar!
   The lady walked towards the young man. She was one of the most beautiful lady he had ever seen, next to the Princess. The young man looked back. He stared at the Princess, who was cring uncontrollably. He understood what had happened. The princess still loved the young man, but she wanted to test if the young man still loved her and believe in her. The tears of the Princess touched the semi-barbaric king, and he gave his order. "I will let you marry my daughter, but with one condition. You have to protect her, love her and make sure that she is well every single day, till you are dead. Is that clear?"
   The young man looked at the Princess, then back at the king. " Yes." He answered. The audience gave a loud cheer. This was how the young man and the princess married, and the young man soon became the King after the old King had died. As for the lady who came out of the door, she married the young man's brother, who was also handsome like the young man andwas nice to her.  
 

Mary Maloney from "Lamb to the Slaughter."

Dear Dairy,    
  Phew! The stupid police finally left. Good thing they are so dumb that they don't know that the weapon is just under their nose, the lamb leg they are eating, just like they had comment!! Well, this is bad. I killed Patrick. I hope that nobody will find out... What should I do now? Anyway, it's Patrick's fault. He shouldn't had left me and our baby. But, will I have enough money to spend for my rest of my life? I am feeling weird now. Firstly, I feel confused. There's a mixture of happiness and sadness in me. Happiness because of freedom, but sadness because of the old love and longing for him. Next, I don't know if I should admit that I killed him. I want to, but I have to take care of my baby that is not born yet!
  Maybe I shouldn't have killed him. I was too rash then. How I wish that I can travel back in time and prevent it. But, it's too late. Now, I feel so... upset . No. It's more like heartbroken. Dairy, what can I do?
  I am going to sleep. That's it for now. Bye.
Your owner,
Mary Maloney

Blogging

  Well, blogging might look fun at first, but there is quite alot of rules that should be followed when blogging to make those who look at your blog be interested. You would not want others to look at your blog and respond like this, " Hm... Who is this person? OH MY GOD! There's over 20 different vulgarities in this blog!!!" Or, " What 'great' vulgarities! I better report this whoever wrote this!"
   That would not be fantastic, right? So, rule number 1. No vulgarities.
  Agreed? Then, let's talk about rule number 2. No racist, defamatory and hurtful remarks. You would not like that people from different races post racist remarks about your race? You wouldn't like that. Then, don't do it to others.
  Next, let's look at rule number 3. Do not give your personal information in your blog. Well, you will not like it if someone suddenly contact you and say, "Can I come to your house now? I am just at the street behind your house." However, you do not know who this guy was. Worse still, if you are alone at home, you might be awfully scared. So, no leaking of your and your friends' personal information.
  Wow... A long list of rules. Rule number 4. Do not spam. It's not really 'fun' to do this. Spamming might cause others' computer who are on the website hang. You might think, Big deal. It's just lagging.Then, will you like it if you are surfing the internet and comes to an interesting page. Then , you go to another website on another internet. Then, you see the blog. Then, this poor and innocent guy's compuer hangs all of a sudden. It's all because of a irresponsible guy who spams others' blog. How will you feel? Good? Bad? And remember, you are on your ' interesting page'.
  Enough of rule number 4. Let's talk about the last rule, rule number 5. No hacking into others' blogs. Imagine. You are happily going to blogger.com and then when you look at your own blog, it says, "I love you, XXXX. Wow! Anywhy, you did not log in since a year ago!!! Now, everyone has looked at it and soon, everyone knows about it. Your friends, your schoolmates, teachers and even your parents. That would be embarrasing right? Then you curse that hacker silently. So, do not hack into other people' s website.
  That's it for today. Bye.

Questionnaire on http://is.gd/62Av6

  Hi! I would like to share with all of you about the quiz I have taken at http://is.gd/62Av6.
  I took the questionnaire on the website and the resuts shown that I was extremely bad on my music. I only had 1/25 out of it. However, I was much better in logic, which was number smart, scoring 23/25.I found out that the top 3 that I was better at was Logical(Number Smart), Interpersonal(People Smart) and Intrapersonal(Myself Smart), which I scored 20/25 for both my Interpersonal and Intrapersonal.
  As for my other areas, I got 16/25 for Linguistic(Word Smart) , 11/25 for my Visual/Spatial(Picture Smart), 16 for my Naturalistic(Nature Smart) and finally, 11 for Kinaesthetic(Body Smart).
  I think that I should improve on most of my areas, especially music, so that I can excel in my studies and become a better person.