Wednesday, May 15, 2013
New Yorkers Short
story
The
Christmas Present
9-1
2013/05/16
Summary
In New York there was woman called
Della. She doesn’t have money, so her usual day of her meal is always cheapest foods.
She is living with her husband called James Dillingham Young, off course he is
poor too, but has job. Each one have special thing. Husband is gold watch and
Della has a beautiful hair. On the Christmas day, they wanted to give special
gift each other secretly. Della decided to sell her hair and to buy him a chain
for his watch. After James came back from his job, he bought her a Christmas either
except he doesn’t have his watch. He sold his watch to get Della a comb for her
hair. And so, there relationship got deeper and they had Christmas day now.
I won’t recommend this because it
is a terrible story for me. First I don’t have feeling to feel for girlfriend
yet, so I don’t really like it. However, if you get older you might know how
lonely it is or if you were girl this book will be good. The book New Yorkers
is short story, so there might be some other stories that you might like.
Monday, April 22, 2013
Surviving
China’s Latest Earthquake, but Afraid to Go Home
New
York Times
4/22/2013
YUXI, China — Many residents of this tiny village in the
mountainous region of southwest China spent Saturday night in tents and
makeshift shelters, too scared to sleep in their flimsy homes after an
earthquake killed 188 people early that morning.
Roofs buckled, walls tumbled and windows
broke after the earthquake shook houses and sent boulders tumbling down
mountain sides onto the narrow road that leads into this valley of Lushan
County near the epicenter of the earthquake, which Chinese authorities said had
a preliminary magnitude of 7.
The aftermath was not nearly as serious
as the 7.9-magnitude earthquake in 2008 that left more than 70,000 people dead
in the Wenchuan area. But villagers who work in Chengdu, about 100 miles away,
streamed back home Sunday morning, many on foot, the lucky ones on motorbikes,
to check on their homes.
Song Yuanqing, 43, a construction
worker, arrived back after a 22-hour trip to find his roof and the walls
unstable. “We would like to do something, but we can’t do anything,” Mr. Song
said as he sat with neighbors around an outdoor fire built by the village
leader in his backyard. Some people had slept under the machinery at a lumber
yard. The village leader, Gao Zaimeng, said his house — a two-story concrete
structure that is one of the best in town — shook violently. “More violent than
in 2008,” he said. Although his house was intact, he was too nervous to risk
sleeping or cooking inside, he said.
About 50 soldiers attached to the
People’s Liberation Army’s regional headquarters in Chengdu marched in
formation along the main village street, armed with shovels and picks to help
shore up buildings. In all, the government deployed about 7,000 soldiers and
People’s Armed Police officers to the affected area. By Saturday evening, there
were so many rescue workers in the area that the government asked volunteers to
stop coming.
China’s prime minister, Li Keqiang,
perhaps mindful of the criticism of the rescue efforts in 2008, flew to the
area and slept in a tent on Saturday evening in Lushan County.
The earthquake shook Sichuan Province at
8 a.m., when people were rising a little later than usual because schools and
universities were closed.
“We were just getting up and getting
dressed in our dormitory when the building shook, and I looked outside from our
seventh-floor window and saw a row of houses collapsed,” Xu Yan, 22, a student
at the Agricultural University in Ya’an, said in a telephone interview. “I have
never flown down the stairs so fast.”
The Chinese government said early Sunday
that the known death toll was 174, with most of the victims in Ya’an. The
ministry also said that about 5,700 people had been injured.
The United States Geological Survey said
that the earthquake occurred on the Longmenshan fault line, the same one
responsible for the 2008 quake. But more than 12 hours after the initial
tremor, the impact seemed to be far less severe.
Chinese radio quoted an unnamed official
who said, “We have a basic grasp of the overall disaster situation, and there
won’t be thousands or tens of thousands of fatalities.”
Rescue efforts were hampered by
landslides, and officials expressed concern about two barrier lakes that had formed
after debris blocked two waterways.
The tremors were felt in Chengdu, one of
China’s biggest cities and the capital of Sichuan Province. Residents described
water spilling out of home aquariums and objects like home water dispensers
falling to the floor.
Yang Yubing, an executive at a sculpture
factory in Baoxing County, one of the hardest-hit areas, said he was visiting
Chengdu when he felt the tremors. He immediately left on a seven-hour drive to
his home in Baoxing. But emergency workers stopped him when he got close to his
apartment, Mr. Yang said. “They said five or six kilometers of roads were
collapsed,” he said in a telephone interview. “We are all living in temporary
tents in the school.” Badly injured people were taken to hospitals by helicopter,
he said.
In the town of Longmen, another hard-hit
area within Ya’an’s jurisdiction, a resident, Zhang Yan, said 90 percent of the
buildings had collapsed.
“About 100 people died around here,” Ms.
Zhang said in a telephone interview. “Rescue crews have not yet arrived. There
is no water or electricity.”
Xinhua quoted a hospital official who
said scores of injured people were sprawled in front of the county hospital on
Saturday afternoon. Firefighters in Lushan County pulled 27 survivors from
collapsed buildings, Xinhua said.
The 2008 quake raised questions about
poorly constructed schools that collapsed and killed thousands of students.
That earthquake prompted an extensive
official relief effort and a passionate outpouring of volunteer help. But some
quake-stricken residents and observers criticized the government for sending
rescue efforts to the wrong places, or for failing to muster the equipment
needed to lift victims from under slabs of concrete and brick. Instead, many
troops and rescuers clambered over the rubble with sticks and spades.
This time, the government appears intent
on avoiding any accusations of lagging behind
In 2008, officials restricted
independent reporting on the disaster, but Ran Wang, a businessman, said he
hoped officials would allow greater transparency. “No censorship, no cover-ups
or control so the right of the people and society to be informed during natural
disasters is respected,” he wrote on his microblog account.
The Longmenshan fault line, which runs
between the Tibetan plateau and Sichuan Basin, is seismically active. Twelve
earthquakes with a magnitude of 5 or greater have occurred along the fault line
since 1900, said Jiang Haikun, an official with the China Earthquake
Administration.
Sichuan Province is also one of China’s
best-known habitats for pandas, and at the Bifengxia reserve, about six miles
north of Ya’an, workers said that 20 pandas in the park were safe. “We
inspected the panda area after the quake, and they were unaffected,” said Chen
Yong, the media relations officer of the reserve.
Summary
In April, 20th
2013 at 8a.m, there was an earthquake of 7.9 magnitudes which happened in
Southwest of China. Caused by that, about 188 citizens died. Also by this
earthquake, roof came down and walls fell. For proof in Ya’an 90% of homes were
gone. But compare to 2008’s earthquake, less people were dead. Even though less
people dead, still there are people a lot of who lost their house, so lot of
people slept in schools or in tent. Many people helped for volunteers and
police helped for rescue. However, many roads were blocked by debris, so it
took time to rescue.
Vocabulary
Buckled– almost
same as collapse.
Collapse- to fall
down
Tremor- to shake
Fatalities- a death that is caused by an accident or in a war.
Debris- pieces of wood, metal, brick, etc. that are left after something
has been destroyed.
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
The Crucible
Arthur Miler
By Muneyoshi
Yoshihiro
9-1
The story of “The Crucible” is a
non- fiction story that happened in real life in 1692, but some characters were
arranged and some remained same. It is a tragic story because this was the real
story that happened in real life which lots of people were accused. The story
starts with girls who are living in the town called Salem. Salem is a place
where witchcraft exists even though there are no real witches. People in that
town are very paranoid about witchcraft and people kills innocent one without
any proof. Girls are dancing in the middle of the forest so that no one can see
them and this was to call devil. However, they were caught by Reverend Parris
when they started screaming and running around because Tituba (only the black
women in the Salem) put rabbit in the pot to call devil. So Reverend Parris
told people in the Salem and all girls got sent to the court. Abigail William
is one of the women, who was dancing at the forest and gave rabbit to Tituba. She
blamed that Tituba called the devil and then Tituba blamed that Sarah Good and Goody
Osburn called the devil. Abigail loves John Proctor who is a farmer, but she
can’t love him because John was married with Elizabeth Proctor, so Abigail told
to Judge Danforth that Elizabeth called the devil too. John Proctor cannot
forgive this happening, so he sacrificed for Elizabeth and stopped the
witchcraft in the Salem.
Pg 124
(summarized) No, I don’t! It is my name, and I cannot have another in my life! How
may I live without my name? I have given my soul…., just leave me my name!
I recommend this
book because this is a historic story that you should know. People should know about
witchcraft because it brought to many innocent dead in the past and people are
getting blamed of witchcraft today in countries like Africa. In the future, you
might read play book like Shakespeare, so it will good practice.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
U.S.,
South Korea stand firm against Pyongyang's threats
Muneyoshi
Yoshihiro
9-1
2013/04/16
The
Japan news by Yomiuri Shinbun
SEOUL (AP)--U.S.
Secretary of State John Kerry and his South Korean counterpart said Friday that
North Korea will gain nothing by threatening tests of its missile or nuclear
program.
Kerry said the
United States and its Asian ally will not accept the North as a nuclear power.
And he says its rhetoric is "unacceptable."
Kerry made his
first-ever visit to Seoul amid strong suspicion that North Korea may soon test
a mid-range missile.
South Korean
Foreign Minister Yun Byung Se called Pyongyang's threats a "grave
provocation" to the entire international community.
Kerry was kicking
off four days of talks in East Asia amid speculation that the North's
unpredictable regime would launch a mid-range missile designed to reach as far
as the U.S. territory of Guam. Kerry also planned to visit China and Japan.
North Korea often
times its provocations to generate maximum attention, and Kerry's presence in
Seoul will provide plenty of that, even if the United States is engaged in
intense diplomacy with China, the North's benefactor, in an effort to lower
tensions. Another dangerous date on the calendar is April 15, the 101st
birthday of North Korea's deceased founder, Kim Il Sung.
Kerry's trip
coincides with the disclosure of a new U.S. intelligence report that concludes
North Korea has advanced its nuclear knowhow to the point that it could arm a
ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead. The analysis, disclosed Thursday at a
congressional hearing in Washington, said the Pentagon's intelligence wing has
"moderate confidence" that North Korea has nuclear weapons capable of
delivery by ballistic missiles but that the weapon would be unreliable.
Pentagon spokesman
George Little said afterward that "it would be inaccurate to suggest that
the North Korean regime has fully tested, developed or demonstrated the kinds
of nuclear capabilities referenced" at the congressional hearing.
James Clapper, the
director of national intelligence, said he concurred with Little and noted that
the report alluded to at the hearing was compiled by the Pentagon's Defense
Intelligence Agency and was not an assessment by the entire U.S. intelligence
community. "Moreover, North Korea has not yet demonstrated the full range
of capabilities necessary for a nuclear armed missile," he said.
Kerry's trip marks
his first foray to the Asia-Pacific as America's top diplomat, spearheading the
effort to "pivot" U.S. power away from Europe and the Middle East and
toward the world's most populous region and fulcrum of economic growth.
And it comes on the
heels of months of provocative action and warlike rhetoric from Pyongyang,
including talk of nuclear strikes against the United States--however outlandish
analysts consider such threats. No one is discounting the danger entirely after
tests of a nuclear device and ballistic missile technology in recent months.
Kerry's trip was
planned well in advance of the latest danger to destabilize the Korean
Peninsula: North Korea's apparent preparations for another missile test in
defiance of United Nations resolutions. The crisis clearly has overtaken the
rest of his Asian agenda.
The Obama
administration believes North Korea is preparing for another missile test, said
a senior State Department official traveling with Kerry on the plane to Seoul.
"We will show to our allies that we are prepared and we will defend
them," the official said.
Summary
One threat was that international
was talking about missiles that they will shoot or not. Describe why they are
doing like act. Because it they want to get attention from everyone. They could
shoot by ballistic missiles with nuclear warhead. However, it is not perfect. Even
N. Korea said that said that they have power to destroy Washington; we don’t
know that it is strong enough. For now N. Korea is threatening S. Korea, but
people think that it is likely to happen, but some does believe because they
showed the part when missile was lunched. If N. Korea shoots, U.S. will defend
Asia.
Vocabulary
Rhetoric （修辞学）-
using skill of language in speech and writing which influence people.
Provocation (怒らせること) – to
do or say something that makes he/ she mad.
Regime (政治制度) –
system of government especially with one unfairly chosen.
Diplomacy (外交) –
managing relationship between different countries
Congressional (会議の) – belonging to congress.
Destabilize (不安定にする) – to
make system country and government less successful
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