sunnysmile

2006-12-28T15:45:00.000-08:00

December 26, 2006
Reading Log

The first word I can think of is 'ridiculous'. The major, the secretary, the policeman, the cameraman and the marshal, all of them were zealots! They were crazy. At the end of the story, there was a little boy. As I understand, by describing the behavior of that boy, the author wants to tell us that only those people as na飗e as children will pay attention to the deceptional TV news. The story was set in 1960's China. It was a chaotic time. Human rights and democracy were trampled and instead Chairman Mao was the law. You can say that nothing could be too ridiculous at that time. But I am wondering whether we can say that only in China and only at that time are people that crazy. My answer is NO!In fact, such ridiculous things happen everywhere. As is known, the United States is the most democratic country in the world. However, from the works of Mark Twain, we get to know that even in the most civilized country there are 'street-sweeping shows'. Politicians are always the same, no matter where they come from. They smile before cameras. They use the smaller neater brooms. They reply routinely. Street-sweeping shows are still put on. Take North Korean for example, the people there are suffering lack of democracy. In China, the cameramen are so skilful that they can always catch the best poses and smiles of the leaders. These shows are put on in many developing countries. But what about those developed countries? I guess they can not deny the existence of such shows.I have to concede that the Cultural Revolution was a disgraceful page and it had done great damage to the development of China, economically and democratically. The most important thing for us to do is not to blame or complain, since it happened and couldn't be rewritten. All the happenings were doomed and had their own historical meanings. We'd better learn what is wrong and try to avoid to do that again, which is my understanding of the story.

2006-12-28T14:21:00.000-08:00

Fred
December 21, 2006
Timed Writing

The world is changing rapidly and no countries can be an exclusion. As a developing country, China is developing at a high rate and becoming more similar to other places in the world. A lot of changes have taken place in the last twenty years because of communication and transportation.

I have to concede that some traditional concepts have not been changed and will not be changed in the coming ten or twenty years. An example for that is the reaction of most Chinese students to ‘American Pie’, a famous movie. The story showed by the movie is about love and sex. In China, based on traditional ethics sex should be bounded with love. For the American students in the movie, sex seems to be a part of a date or a party. However, most Chinese students will not think in that way and also they can not hold a ‘Naked Miles’ in which hundreds of students run without clothes!

However, changes are all around, which makes China more similar to other places. The first evident coming to my mind is the development of bridge. This game originated in Europe and few people could play bridge twenty years ago in China. Today thousands of Chinese people are playing bridge on the ‘Global Link’, an internet flat for games. The world biggest game ‘Bermuda Cup’ is going to be held in Shanghai in the next year.

New buildings completed or under construction are the second evident. As is known, the Olympic Games is going to be held in Beijing in the year 2008 and the World Exposition which will be held in Shanghai is coming after that. To be qualified, China has built more and more skyscrapers, which makes the cities more similar to the western cities in the movies. In addition, the standard of exhaust gas of cars has been restricted to Europe III in order to make the environment suitable for the Games. After that the sky can be as blue as those showed in the movies. The roads are widened and a new ‘Olympic City’ will be finished soon.

2006-12-21T17:30:00.000-08:00

Fred
December 20, 2006

Children Need Protection Rather Than Truth

The story ‘A Trifle from Real Life’ was written by Anton Chekhov, a famous Russian writer. It was set in the nineteenth century in Russia. The hero of the story, Belayeff, promised to keep it confidential the details of the conversation with his lover’s son, Aliosha. But at last he betrayed his word of honor and hurt the little boy because he could not bear what the boy’s father said about him. Though Belayeff was a playboy, it is inapt for the boy’s father to tell the boy that Belayeff was the man who was to blame.

It is inapt to do so because such troubles should be kept among adults and Aliosha’s father should better utilize the precious time he spend with his son. Since it is the adults who cause the troubles, why children should be involved in them? Besides deceit a lot of things are not in the vocabulary of childhood. Children don’t know what marriage means and also they do not know what divorce will bring to them. Further, as long as children are involved, they have to choose a side. Mother or father? It is a hard choice and in most cases children love them both, which makes it cruel! A child like Aliosha has already lost a lot of chances to communicate with his father. The time he can spend with his father is valuable and it should be used better. Using it to talk about a playboy is a kind of waste and surely got the poor boy into trouble.

It is inapt to do so because children are naïve and lack the ability to tell what is right. Apparently, Aliosha is too naïve. If Aliosha were mature, he would have taken Belayeff as his enemy after his conversation with his father. ‘Aliosha seized the toe of his left shoe in his right hand,…,and peeped out at Belayeff from under the heavy fringes of the lampshade’(54) As is known, people who are mature may hide their animosity and pretend to be concord in order to protect themselves before they can fight back. But not ever will they pose like that before their enemies. ‘They were as sweet as sugar.’(56) Aliosha’s view about the pears is positive. The only reason he gives is that they taste good, which is superficial. A pear can be both sweet and poisonous. To judge things only by theirs tastes, smells and appearances is not enough. Sometimes the more beautiful a mushroom is, the more dangerous it will be!

It is inapt to do so because children are not strong enough to protect themselves. Most children can be neither smarter nor stronger than adults. The boy believes that so called ‘word of honor’ will save him from a coming storm. Unfortunately, he is wrong. “’But Nikolai Ilitch, you gave me your word of honor!’ cried Aliosha trembling all over.’ (57) After he is deceived, what can he do? Fight against Belayeff? Turn to his father for help? Or make his mother stand on his side? None of these will work. All he can do is crying and trembling, which shows how desperate and helpless he is. His father has not expected things will go like this but it happens.

It is clear that Belayeff is not a kind man and is the man to blame. But to tell the truth to such a little boy is another thing. It means hurt, though his father does not want to see that. Some day, the boy will, of course, find out what kind of person Belayeff is. And it is better for him to reveal the truth by himself.

2006-12-04T07:46:00.000-08:00

Fred
December 4, 2006
Draft Two

The story ‘A Trifle from Real Life’ was written by Anton Chekhov, a famous Russian writer. It was set in the nineteenth century in Russia. The hero of the story, Belayeff, promised to keep it confidential the details of the conversation with his lover’s son, Aliosha. But at last he betrayed his word of honor and hurt the little boy because he could not bear what the boy’s father said about him. Though Belayeff was a playboy, it is inapt for the boy’s father to tell the boy that Belayeff was the man who was to blame.

It is inapt to do so because such troubles should be kept among adults and Aliosha’s father should better utilize the precious time he spend with his son. Since it was the adults who caused the troubles, why children should be involved in them? Besides deceit a lot of things are not in the vocabulary of childhood. Children don’t know what marriage means and also they do not know what divorce will bring to them. Further, as long as children are involved, they have to choose a side. Mother or father? It is a hard choice and in most cases children love them both, which makes it cruel! A child like Aliosha had already lost a lot of chances to communicate with his father. The time he could spend with his father was valuable and it should be used better. Using it to talk about a playboy was a kind of waste and surely got the poor boy into trouble.

It is inapt to do so because children are naïve and lack the ability to tell what is right. Apparently, Aliosha was too naïve. If Aliosha were mature, he would have taken Belayeff as his enemy after his conversation with his father. ‘Aliosha seized the toe of his left shoe in his right hand,…,and peeped out at Belayeff from under the heavy fringes of the lampshade’(54) As is known, people who are mature may hide their animosity and pretend to be concord in order to protect themselves before they can fight back. But not ever will they pose like that before their enemies. ‘They were as sweet as sugar.’(56) Aliosha’s view about the pears was positive. The only reason he gave was that they tasted good, which was superficial. A pear can be both sweet and poisonous. To judge things only by theirs tastes, smells and appearances is not enough. Sometimes the more beautiful a mushroom is, the more dangerous it will be!

It is inapt to do so because children are not strong enough to protect themselves. Most children can be neither smarter nor stronger than adults. The boy believed that so called ‘word of honor’ would save him from a coming storm. Unfortunately, he was wrong. “’But Nikolai Ilitch, you gave me your word of honor!’ cried Aliosha trembling all over.’ (57) After he was deceived, what could he do? Fight against Belayeff? Turn to his father for help? Or make his mother stand on his side? None of these would work. All he could do was crying and trembling, which showed how desperate and helpless he was. His father had not expected things would go like this but it happened.

It is clear that Belayeff was not a kind man and was the man to blame. But to tell the truth to such a little boy is another thing. It means hurt, though his father did not want to see that. Some day, the boy would, of course, find out what kind of person Belayeff was. And it is better for him to reveal the truth by himself.

2006-11-27T13:23:00.000-08:00

Fred
November 27, 2006
Trial Draft

The story ‘A Trifle from Real Life’ was written by Anton Chekhov, a famous Russian writer. It was set in the nineteenth century in Russia. The hero of the story, Belayeff, promised to keep it confidential the details of the conversation with his lover’s son, Aliosha. But at last he betrayed his word of honor and hurt the little boy because he could not bear what the boy’s father said about him. Though Belayeff was a playboy, it is inapt for the boy’s father to tell the boy that Belayeff was the man who was to blame.

It is inapt to do so because such trouble should be kept among adults. ‘This was the first time in his life that he had come roughly face to face with deceit; …, things for which no name could be found in the vocabulary of childhood.’(57) Besides deceit a lot of things are not in the vocabulary of childhood. Children don’t know what marriage means and also they do not know what divorce will bring to them. A child like Aliosha had already lost a lot of chances to communicate with his father. The time he can spend with his father was valuable and it should be used better. Using it to talk about a playboy was a kind of waste.

It is inapt to do so because children are naïve and lack the ability to tell what is right. ‘Aliosha seized the toe of his left shoe in his right hand,…,and peeped out at Belayeff from under the heavy fringes of the lampshade’(54) Apparently, he did not know what Belayeff had done to his family even after his father told him that Belayeff ruined his mother. Moreover he thought Belayeff was kind only because Belayeff never scolded his mother. ‘They were as sweet as sugar.’(56) For Aliosha, it seems that sweet things are always good and he was credulous. However, an apple can be both sweet and poisonous. Sometimes the more beautiful a mushroom is, the more dangerous it will be! It is unwise to tell children that mushrooms can be delicious before they know that some can also be killing.

It is inapt to do so because children are not strong enough to protect themselves. Most children can be neither smarter nor stronger than adults. “’But Nikolai Ilitch, you gave me your word of honor!’ cried Aliosha trembling all over.’ (57) The boy believed that so called ‘word of honor’ would save him from a coming storm. Unfortunately, he was wrong. After he was deceived, what could he do? Fight against Belayeff? Turn to his father for help? Or make his mother stand on his side? None of these would work. All he could do was crying and trembling, which showed how desperate and helpless he was. His father had not expected things would go like this but it happened.

It is clear that Belayeff was not a kind man and was the man to blame. But to tell the truth to such a little boy is another thing. It means hurt, though his father did not want to see that. Some day, the boy would, of course, find out what kind of person Belayeff was. And it is better for him to reveal the truth by himself.

2006-10-28T13:52:00.000-07:00

October 28, 2006

Dear Portfolio Reader:

I like the academic writing classes given by Ron Corio. They are wonderful!

First, I like the stories chosen by him. From those stories, I can not only be enlightened by the beautiful expressions, but also get to know some kind of life I have not experienced. A cosmetician who dresses for the dead, a soldier who resists the order to save lives, a major who is almost a smooth article and a poor boy who has no idea about deceit, all of them impressed me a lot.

Second, I learned a lot for the reading logs posted in the Internet Classroom Assistant(ICA). There the class members share their thoughts, exchange their ideas and encourage each other. Every time I am confused by some points of the stories, I will find answers in others’ reading logs. It is a pretty good brainstorm.

Third, the ‘free writing’ is my favorite part. In this part, I can free my thought. There is only a general topic. Anything I think about can be written down. The first time I only wrote several lines. While the last time I wrote a whole page! It is a great progress.

Two classes a week are far from adequacy and I always find that ninety minutes passes in a blink. For this portfolio, I will post some academic essays under Ron's instructions.

2006-10-22T09:10:00.000-07:00

Introduction

Hello,

I am Fred, a Beijinger. After I graduated from Beijing No.4 High School, I came to Shanghai and began my campus life in Fudan University. I am an undergraduate student studying in the Department of Statistics. I have lots of hobbies, such as: bridge, chess, basketball, football, tennis, pingpong, swimming, reading and playing computer games.

Although I have had a bad start, I like writing a lot. When I was in primary school I began to study how to write in Chinese. At that time, as a little boy my world was full of fun. I played all day and spent little time reading. Though I tried hard to learn how to write, I could still write some clumsy passages. As a result, my interest in writing faded. Few of us are willing to do the things that fail us again and again.

However, to write a composition with a given title was a section of the entrance examination. I had to take the pains to write and write and write. It was not until I was enlightened by my Chinese teacher in high school that I began to know that reading was the fundament of writing. Writing begins by imitating. Except some genius, most people have to read plenty of articles before they know how to write. Then I read several novels written by some contemporary writers. I was firmly caught by the beautiful expressions and the cliffhanging scenarios. I started to imitate and made a great progress. I even tried to write a short play that received high praise from my Chinese teacher. It was a pity that I did not have enough time to read more and write more in high school for the reason that I had to bury my head in the textbooks of many other subjects.

Not long after the beginning of my campus life, did I find that I had more time to read some novels. Through those novels I got to know how others led their lives. It was all of a sudden that I wanted to write down the happenings that gave me deep impression. From some friends I knew I could write blogs. So I registered a username after my MSN identity and my first blog came into being. It is, of course, written in Chinese. Since it is a place where I can release myself and tell my friends what I like and dislike, the articles are informal ones. I do like the feeling of writing without any limits.

If writing were always like that, it would be more charming! But the fact was that I had to take the GRE and the skill of writing formal essays was required. It was really an arduous work for me - a student whose native language was not English. I prepared for the writing test for about two months. During those two months, I wrote down all the syllabi of the topics, a tough work. Is it the examination that kills the joy of writing? Or formal writing itself is a boring one? I do not know.