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.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.