Reading Journal-16

The Landlady by Roahld Dahl

*Genre: The short story (the fiction)

*Source: International English class from Ms. Farrer

*Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

*I have read the whole story

*2 new vocabulary words:

1. Swanky: adj.(informal, disapproving) fashionable and expensive in a way that is intended to impress people.

2. Dotty: adj. slightly crazy or silly.



The link is lead to the youtube website that you can watch the video of the Landlady.

*Question 12: What is an exciting or horrifiying or sad or funny part of what you have read?

Since the mood of the story is scary and horrifying, there is no funny part or exciting part of the story at all. Instead of that, there are many horrifying parts of the story. One of the parts was when the landlady was half-way up the stairs, and paused with one hand on the stair-rail, turning her head and smiling down at Billy with pale lips. Then, she travelled slowly all the way down the length of Billy's body,to his feet , and then up again. The other part was when she mentioned that she stuffs all her pets after they pass away. That makes me to think that she could be able to stuff not only pets but also humans.
Imagining person like the landlady is very horrifying. I don't think I would go in private house to stay for days when I am travelling just for in case.

Reading Journal-15

The Hitchhiker by Roald Dahl

*Genre: Non-fiction, short-story

*Source: From International English class (Teacher: Ms.Farrer)

*Rating: 4 out of 5

*I have read whole story

*2 new vocabulary words:

1. hefty: adj.(of a person or an object) big and heavy.

2. twerp: n. (old-fashioned,informal) a stupid or annoying person.

Question from Homework website:
What is the setting?
When? Where?
How important is the setting to the story?
What effect does it have?

The story shows us the setting from the beginning of the story.
The narrator and the Hitchhiker (fingersmith) met the road which is head up to London. So, overall board setting is London. But, the narrow and specific setting is in the narrator's car which is BMW. There is no specific time setting but from the description of the hitchhiker by the narrator (He was wearing cloth cap on his head and greyish-coloured jackiet.), it happens during this day a few years ago or nowadays like 21th century.
Like many stories, the setting of the story makes it more interesting. Since in the car is very limited to move, there is more chance to make a dialogue each other. The story is unfloded by conversation between the narrator(the driver) and the Hitchhiker.

Reading Journal-14

Howl's Moving Castle by Daiana Whynne Jones.
Published by 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022.

*Genre: Fiction, Novel

*Source: Kinokuniya bookstore

*Rating: 4 out of 5

*I have read ch.1~ch.3 of the story.

*2 New vocabulary words:

1. allure: n. pleasing or exciting quality that they have.

2. velours: n. silk or cotton fabric similar to velvet.

About few years ago, I watched the Japanese animation called 'Howl's Moving Castle' by Miyajaki Hayao. At that time, I didn't know that the animation was based on the book called 'Howl's Moving Castle'. My English tutor recommended this book to read since she also grew up with this book. The very beginning of this book is almost similar as the animation.

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Because I was too young to fully understand this marvellous book (story), I kept in my mind that the animation (story) called 'Howl's Moving Castle' is very boring and not very good story to appreciate. However, now, I grew up more than few years ago, I realised that there are many morals inside the story that the author wanted to tell readers. This story has topic about againsting the war, opposing to judge a man by appearane. Hence, people can think more about those topics due to reading this book.

Reading Journal-13

The wonderful story of Henry Sugar by Roald DahlPublished by the Penguin Group Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London wc2r, England

*Genre: Fiction

*Source: Form Borders

*Rating: 5 out of 5

* I haver read whole story

*2 new vocabulary words:

1_) disciple: noun. a person who believes in and follows the teachings of a religious or political leader

2_) crouch: verb. to lower your body close to the ground by bending your legs under you

* Roahld Dahl is my one of favorite authors. The reason why I like his stories is his fantastic descripnations. Actually, it's first time to read his story which is written for teenagers. I have read only his stories which are written for children such as charlie and chocolate factory, Matilda,Fantastic Mr. Fox and BFG....etc.

* Question14 : Start as what you want to.
My question for everyone is 'What if you can see everything without hiding your two eyes completely?
If I were a girl who can see with my eyes closed, I will first try to figure out what happended to me. Of course, as everyone can imagine firstly, there are many advantages that I can get from sepcial ability that I got. But what people recognise is that closing eyes also have some advantages. We can close eyes not to see something while watching scary movies or sleeping. Also, my habit is to close my eyes to not to see something but dark so that I can concentrate easily and think deeply. However, if I can see with my eyes closed, I can't make doing that.
So, think carefully what you want to be.

Reading Journal-12

The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant

*Genre: Literature

*Source: From Mrs. Farrer

*Rating: 4 out 5.

* I have read whole story.

* 2 New vocabulary words:

1. Exultant: adj. (formal) feeling or showing great pride or happines especially
because of something exciting that has happened

2. petulantly( petulant): adj. (written) bad tempered and unreasonable, especially because you cannot do or have what you want.

Many vocabulary words from this story was very hard and some words are not familiar to me. So I had to look up my dictionary to understand the whole story.
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Actually, I have already read the story before, so it was easy to understand more than before while I was reading.

The author is Guy de Maupassant who is from France.
This story is very famous and still, read by many readers.

The story is simple enough to understand for readers. However, what the author and the story want to tell readers is complicated and deep enough.

From the story, the necklace, which is the symbol of this story, represent desire and vanity of many humans. So, the author is trying to say how humans' desire and vanity are hopeless, and how only one mistake can change human's life through the necklace. Also, the author is trying to say how human can be changed so easily by the many kinds of environments.

From this story, Human is shown as a greedy existence which always follows hopeless beautiness not seeing the beautiness of the inside.
The greed and desire can take away discriminating power to see the real truth from human.
So, without having any discriminating power to see the real truth of something, it is hard to discriminate the real and fake things for humans.
The desire and greed of human can't eliminate easily.
However, the author ask a question to the readers 'If Matilde didn't lose her necklace?' at the end of the story so, that the readers can think deeply about the story.

Reading Journal-11

PLUGGING INTO THE SUN - SUNLIGHT BATHES US IN FAR MORE ENERGY THAN WE COULD EVER NEED

by GEORGE JOHNSON
From NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SEPTEMBER 2009: VOL. 216 . NO3

Publishing Group President John Q. Griffin

* Genre: Magazine

* Source: Bookstore Magazine

* Rating: 3 out of 5

* I have read all article

* 2 New Vocabulary words :

1. Plateau - an area of flat land that is higher than the land around it

2. Deluge- a sudden very heavy fall of rain ; a flood

* The image at the top is the picture of solar power energy.
And this website is the youtube video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DboEhc5D9aE
This video explained well about solar panels, history of solar power and efficiency of solar power.

* Question 16: Design a starter of your own

CAN SOLAR SAVE US? - PROBABLY, EVENTUALLY, WITH LOTS OF GOVERNMENT HELP.

Nowadays, there are many efforts to find efficient ways to save the environment. Since humans have used some parts of science worngly, they think it's time to cure the Earth. AFter scientists researched many studies, alternative energies were found and used society.

One of the most efficient and good alternative energies is uing the sunlight which is called 'Solar Energy'. Since people have used fossil-fuels too much, the environment became worse. Using fossil-fuels such as coal or oil emits lot of carbon dioxide (CO2) which results in golbal warming. So, peopl are studying more about Solar Energy which is renewable and can be used a s an alternative.

Another benefit of solar energy is that there is no limitation. Since the Sun will always shine on the Earth, solar energy is free and there is no limitation to using it. So, excluding the worst hypothesis-if the SUn stops shining on the Earth foreever, this is a very good solution to global warming. Solar Energy is also Independent and it doesn't require much work from jumans since the Sun shines by itself. Of course, this energy is not as harmful as using fossil-fuels.

However, there are also side effects from this source of energy. Solar Powered equipment is the most expensive to build from all alternative energies. Humans also have to consider the area which they might install solar powered machines in and think about the fact that a tnight, there is no production of sunlight.

We don't know how much help that Solar Power Energy can help us instead of using fossil-fuels yet, but I'm sure that the environment won't worry anymore since there is much effort by humans for it.

Reading Journal-10

BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY by HELEN FIELDING
First published 1996 by Picador an imprint of Pan Macmilan Ltd Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf road, London N1 9RR.

*Genre: Fiction

*Source: From High School Library

*Rating: 4.7 out of 5

*I have read 3 chapters

*2 New Vocabulary words:

1. Tabloid- Newspaper that has small pages, short articles, and lots of photogrpahs. Tabloids are often considered to be less serious than other newspapers.

2. Fraudulent- A fraudulent activity is deliberately decitful, dishonest or untrue.

*Question 16 : Design a starter of your own

As everyone can see from the title, which is 'Bridget Jones's Diary', all the story is organized as form of the many diaries. So, the reader can know the whole stroy from Bridget Jones's 1 year diaries. I think this form of the story is really special for the all readers. Not like every other stories, the narrator is the main character who tells the whole story of the book. So, the reader can easily see the main character's feelings or mind because Bridget tells about her everything to her own diaries.

Reading Journal-09

"Truth Or Dare" by Celia Rees
published by Macmillan Children's Books 2000 in the New WIndmill Series 2001.

*Gnere: Fiction(horror, mystery)

*Soure: High School Senior Library

*Rating: 3 out of 5

*I read 8 chapters from this book.

* 2 New Vocabulary words :

1. Minnow - A very small FRESHWATER fish

2. Tarry - (old use or literary) to stay in a place, especially when you ought to leave; to delay coming to or going from a place

*Question 14 : If you disliked or found something you read very boring, explain why?

This book has interesting story in it, but I disliked how this story unfloding. The reason why I disliked how the story unfloding because the book unfold the stroy too slow. Of course, unfolding too fast is also bad, but still, the specific story didn't come out even though I have read chapter 8. The book was concentrated to tell the reader about the setting, main characters and main character's history and past. So, if the story unfold faster than now, I wouldn't dislike or bored while I reading this book.

Reading Journal-08

"China Flies High"by Bill Powell from "Time" August10,2009.

*Genre: News(Magazine)

*Source: Book Store

*Rating: 3 out of 5

*I read whole article

*2 new vocabulary words

1. Recession- n. a difficult time for the economy of a country, when there is less trade and industrial activity than usual and more people are unemployed

2. Zeitgeist- n. (from German, formal) the general mood or quality of a particular period of history, as shown by the ideas, beliefs, etc. common at the time


About few months ago, the world's economy had gone into a deep hole and it didn't seem like there were any answers. However, some people are now looking for another country which can save the world.
China is known for its very wide land, world-side language and its big population. The world is watching China. A few years ago, this would have sounded really ridiculous. However, now, China has developed really fast. From the Time article 'China Flies High', it is mentioned that China looks like a picture of economic dynamism.
Although China is recieving high expectations from the world, there are sill some problems now. I have learned that China's current situation is similar to the U.S's. So some people are worrying that China may fall into U.S's. current situation.
I think the world economy has become better than before. I hope we can find more special ways to recover our economy.

Reading Journal-07

"One Giant Leap"
by Craig Nelson from Rocket Man
July 2009, Singapore. The magazine READER'S DIGEST
*Genre: Magazine

*Source: Book Store

*Rating: 3 out of 5

*I read whole article

*2 New Vocabulary words:
1: Manoeuvre-n. A clever plan, action or movement that is used to give somebody an advatage.
2: monochrome-adj. (of photographs, etc.)using only black, white and shades of grey.

*The picure of Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin.

*The Moon Landing Conspiracy
1. Footprints in the extraordinarily fine lunar dust, with no moisture or atmosphere or strong gravity are unexpectedly well preserved- as if made in wet sand.

->The dust is silicate, and this has a special property in a vacuum of sticking together like that.

2.The flag placed on the surface by the astronauts flapped despite there being no wind on the Moon

->The astronauts were movin the flag into position. The flag's rippled appearance was form folding during storage, and it could be mistaken for motion in a still photogrpah.

Reading Journal-06

"About A Boy"
by Nick Hornby. Published by the Penguin Group in Great Britain, 1998.
*Genre: Fiction

*Source: High School Senior Library

*Rating: 4.7 out of 5

*I have read whole book

*2 New Vocabulary words
1: vertigo- n. the feeling of DIZZINESS and fear, and of losing your balance, that is caused in some people when they look down from a very gigh place

2: Abstracted- adj.(formal) thinking deeply about something and not paying attention to what is around you

*There is also movie which is based on this fiction.
(Directors are Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz).

*Best Line: No man is an island
Human must live together, leaning on each other.

*Comment on the opening. How effective?
How does it try to hook you?
What is introduced?

This book starts from introducing 2 different main characters, Will and Marcus.
There are huge differences between Will and Marcus. Will, who is thirty-six but acis like a teenager. Because of his father, although he has no job to earn money, he owns amount of money and play all the time. He reads the right magazines, goes to the club and knows how to get the score from the women. However, Marcus, who is only 12-year-old, is strange. He listens to Mozart, looks after his mum and he doesn't know what is popular now around all the other teenagers.
After the introduction of these 2 characters, the book implies about the future of the 2 peopel- Perhaps if Will can teach Marcus how to behave a teenager and Marcus can help Will to be grown up.

Reading Journal-05

"Foxspell"
by Gillian Rubinstein. First Published as a Trade Paperback in 1994 by Hyland House Publishing Pty Ltd in South Melbourne.*Genre: Fiction

*Source: From Ms.Farrer

*Rating: 4 out of 5

*I have read 3 chapters from this book

*2 New Vocabulary words
1: Haphazard- adj.(disapproving) with no particular order or plan; not organized will

2: Stammer- v. to speak with difficulty, repeating sounds or words and often stopping, before saying things correctly

*Question 9: How is this text similar or different to other things you have read?

I have read one book series called 'DARREN SHAN-CIRQUE DU FREAK'.
This serious is consisted of 12 books. This serious is a bit similar to 'foxspell' because foxspell's plot is about a boy who become half fox and half human. And Darren Shan's plot is about a boy who become half vampire and half human. However, the difference is completely different. Foxspell's main problem and story are to select to become fully fox or fully human. But, Darren Shan's main problem and story are about after the main character select to become fully vampire.

Reading Journal-04

I am so glad to write review of this book!!!!!:)
The book that I am going to write review is 'Pride and Prejudice' by Jane Austen.
Jane Austen is one of my favorite authors. Although I only read Pride and Prejudice , I'm going to read another books of her- such as Persuasion, Emma....etc.
Of course, Pride and Prejudice is also one of my favorite books and I watched the movie too.

*PRIDE AND PREJUDICE BY JANE AUSTEN.
PUBLISHED AND DISTRIBUTED BY PEARSON EDUCATION LIMITED

*Genre is Romance, fiction. I found this book from High school library and I also have read when I was in Korea.

*My rating of this book is 4.8 over 5.

*I have read whole book

*My 2 new vocabulary words are...

1. unjust: adj. not deserved or fair.

2. bewitch: verb. to attract or impress somebody so much that they cannot think in a sensible way.

Reading Journal-03

DID WE KILL THE NEANDERTHALS?- The mysterious extinction of our sister species may reveal much about the roots of human nature.
BY EBEN HARRELL FROM 'TIME' (Magazine) , AUGUST.2009.

*This article is scientific article and I found this article from 'TIME' magazien.

*My rating is 3.5 over 5.

*I have read this whole aritcle.

*My 2 new vocabulary words are...

1. INEVITABLE : adj. that you cannot avoid or prevent.

2. SUCCUMB : verb. th fail to resist and attack, an illness, a temptation, etc.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1863325/did_man_kill_the_neanderthals/

The two pictures of the top are the picure of the Neanderthals and the cave that the Neanderthals had lived and also, the url at the top of this sentence is short video about the Meanderthal - Did we kill the Neanderthals?

*My Question : 3. What is the setting? When? Where? How important is the setting to the stroy? Why does it have?

The setting is really important to this article. Because the setting that the Neanderthals lived in gives us many clues to extinction of the Neanderthals.
Scientists found Shanidar 3;s remains in the cave where he died in what's now modern day Iraq ( 'TIME' the article). Also, scientists think the Neanderthals were exist 50,000 years ago.

Reading Journal-02

THE PICTURE THAT SAVED A BABY'S LIFE BY ELIZABETH ADLAM
FROM READER'S DIGEST (MAGAZINE)- JULY 2009 SINGAPORE

*I found this article from 'Reader's Digest' magazine.

*My rating of this article is 3 over 5.

*I have read this whole article.

*Two new vocabulary words are..
1. MALIGNANT: (of tumour or disease) that cannot be controlled and is likely to cause death.
2. DILATE : verb. to become or to make something larger, wider or more open.

*The picture of the top is the photo that revealed Rowan's retinoblastoma - the white pupil can be seen in her left eye.

*Question: 12. What is an exciting or horrifying or sad or funny part of what you have read?

Briefly, the story about this article is the girl who got a rare disease was saved by one woman who is friend of the baby's mom. The woman was surprised after she saw the picture of her friend and friend's baby. The thing that made her shocked was baby's left eye. She noticed that her friend's baby has serious problem - Retinoblastoma which is a very aggressive cancer and suggested her to go to the hospital. The horrifying part of this article was when I heard that only 1 year baby got one of the most serious and aggressive cancer in the world - Retinoblastoma. Retinoblastoma (Rb) is a rapidly developing cancer which develops in the cells of the retina, the light detecting tissue of the eye(Wikipedia, the free encyclopeida).
I felt sorry for the baby and horrified about the baby's next future. However, luckily, because of the picture and the woman who suggested to go to hospital, the baby was cured at the appropriate time.

Incident in Japan

The incident that I had because of language when I was traveling around Japan.
I have learned Japanese for 1 year when I was in Korea for 3rd language in middle school so I know some words and I can speak basic Japanese.
Although I have learned Japanese, it's impossible to communicate fluently in Japanese, so I went to Japan with my mom using tourist agency in case. Japan is famous for 'onchun' (hot-spring). Because Japan is island, it has many advantages for forming hot bath naturally. Finally, my mom and I decided to go to 'onchun' for some rest. When we arrived at the place , it was too late and too dark. Hence, my mom and I just went to hotel again and slept for a while before we enjoy japanese' culture. The hotel for 'onchun' ( hot bath, hot-spring), was located very near to bath. In this sentence, bath means just normal bath where we can wash our bodies to make clean before we enter the 'onchun'. Of course, 'onchun' is for soaking our bodies in hot water for health and relaxation which can use for everybody(specifically, female and male), but as we know, the normal bath is divided into 2 rooms( of course, one room for male, another room for female).
I checked the location of the female bath before I went up to my hotel room. I was feeling happy about noticing some japanese words from the paper which was attached next to the female bath.
I can't remember what was it, but the one important words has meaning of go back or something. According to my memory, the paper says ' go back after 5:00 a.m.' . In the hotel room, my mom was snoring so loudly so I couldn't sleep at all and I think I wasn't sleepy that much. After I slept only like 4 hours, I checked the clock and it told me that it is acceptable time to go to bath.
I woke my mom up, but she was so tired, so I just went down myself and was heading for the location of female bath that I checked yesterday preparing some bath soap, bath towel....etc. I was almost opened the bath door and enter. However I was stopped entering by one person. It was my tourist agency. She was really surprised at me and asked "Do you know what were you doing?"
I almost enter the male's bath. I misunderstood something. I didn't know that the word from the paper which was attached next to the bath door has many meanings. I thought the word means go back. So I misunderstood that it's okay to go back to bath after 5:00 a.m. However, the word has another meaning - change or switch. Later, I understood that the paper wanted to say that after 5:00 a.m., the female and male bath are changing.

Reading Journal-01

'Marry Poppins' by P.L.Travers

A musical based on the stories of P.L.Travers
'The classic international best selling children's book'
First published in Great Britain by Peter Davies Ltd 1934
This edition published by HarperCollins Children's Books 2004

This book is fiction and I get this book from my tuition center.
My rating about this book is 4.

I have been read 4 chapters.

*undignified from ch.4: adj. causing you to look silly and to lose the respect of other people

*Dilapidated form ch.1: adj. (of furniture and buildings) old and in very bad condition

Question 4.
Describe the main character. How is she/he like or unlike you?
How interesting is she/he to read about?

The main character is marry poppins
One day, she arrived at Cherry Tree Lane- Number Seventeen using her umbrella by the wind.
She thinks she doesn't need any references.
Marry brought funny bag which was made of carpet, but there are lots of things in empty and small bag.
Such as large cake of Sunlight Soap, a toothbrush, a packet of hairpins, a bottle of scent, a small folding armchair and a box of throat lozengers.
She also has a strange medicine which has various flavors.
She sometimes strict to children, but she knows how to treat mischief children.

Profile of my own reading habits

Although I am not a keen reader, I like to read and enjoy reading.
I usually read one book per week. I sometimes write a review of reading and I also check about the author or more information about book that I really appreciated.
I subscribe 'reades digest' monthly and sometimes read some articles from newspaper like 'Time'.

I feel comfortable when I read some fictions. I just feel free to read some interesting stories.
However, when I read some non-fictions or difficult books which require amount of concentration, I feel nervous. Especially when I read textbooks.

I choose books from some lists such as books of recommendation lists or significant books for my age. I get books from my tuition center or national library and school library. I also can find books that I have not started to read yet-from my father's study room. While I'm reading, I always try to imagine places, characters...etc. I like book which I can get many things from it.

I enjoying reading English literatures. So I have enjoyed reading ' Pride and Prejudice' by Jane Austen in the past year. I also watched movie after I read this book.

My goals for this year are read more english books and study vocabularies to make my own words. And read more poems to understand them.

About Myself

This is the picture of clouds that I have taken.

My name is Joo, Min Jung.

I'm from South Korea.

I lived in there for 14 years and moved to Singapore in this January.

So my English is poor and need to improve.

Especially , Speaking is extremely hard to me.

I always feel shy when I meet new people or speaking in front of many people.

I have father, mother and two younger brothers.

One is in grade 7 in middle school and the other is in grade 5 in elementary school.

I love to play the piano. I started to play when I was 6 years old.

My favorite musical composer is Chopin. I like his gorgeous and vivid melodies.

I think the most beautiful thing in Singapore is cloud.

I like to observe clouds in the sky.