My visit to Singapore Air Force Open House

This is quite an exciting thing to write about, as I am just back to Eton hall after spending 8 hours from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm in the Paya Lebar Air Base and totally exhausted physically and thrilled mentally. I even feel surreal about what happened in the daytime today. After all, I really have no idea what word on earth should I use to describe my feelings after seeing F-15,F-16, Apache, C-130,S-70 and so many other famous aircrafts which only have appeared in my favorite magazines for so many years?
At first I was quite worried whether foreigners like me can participate in such activities as things related to Air Force are often classified and may not open to foreigners. However, I thought even they did not allow me to go inside, I can see something outside as they could not block the sight of fighters flying anyway. To my surprise, it turned out that, during the whole visiting, I was not even asked to show any identity. All I had was a security check at the entrance. Considering the large scale of the open house, it must have cost a lot of money for the air force, but the activity is absolutely free, which also surprised me. What surprised me more is that all aircrafts of the air force, ranging from the antique F-5 to the air force’s most advanced F-15SG, are open to public to see, touch, hug or whatever action one likes as long as it does not damage the machine. I even wore the flight helmet of F-16. Another notable thing is that all the pilots and military experts (people who do the maintenance of the aircrafts) are remarkably friendly and patient to answer all questions you raised on spot. The climax was the aerial display, during which the mighty fighters F-15 and F-16 past by us roaring all the way and the helicopters CH-47 and Apache hovering above us. The shock to me was beyond description and I can feel all cells of my body trembling with excitement. All these things that used to happen in films or magazines are happening right in front of my own eyes!
However, everything has a price. I only managed to get back to Eton Hall at 9:00 pm with my neck dragging all exhausted parts of my body below my neck. Another price is that I seem to have my skin burned after its exposure to serious sunshine for the whole daytime. Anyway, I would sincerely like to have more such prices to pay for such fabulously wonderful experience. For me, this is the best day in Singapore, absolutely. Thank you, RSAF!

Save forest, save the earth

Countless species were extinct due to human’s encroachment to their habitats and thousands of other species are under threat of extinction. It is a great cost of civilization and industrialization and if we do not change this trend, the consequences are beyond imagination.

Forests have been disappearing at the highest speed among all biomes led by human’s activities, and forest has the richest biodiversity among all biomes. This unfortunate combination makes the loss of forests lead to an enormous disaster to the animals live in forests. According to our ‘Quest 3’, each plant’s disappearing “may take with it as many as 30 insects and animals that depend on it for food.

Ignoring the great function of maintaining the variety of species forests have, people are always short-sighted. Though the campaign of replant trees have been launched, forests are lost at a speed way faster than they are plant. One of the biggest problems is, some people or countries are not aware of the importance of forests or they only focus on their own short-term profit but do not care about the forests or environment. As the example Mr. Lim gave us, despite western countries give Indonesia billions of dollar ask them to remain the forest, Indonesia still cut down tracts as large as Singapore of forests every day. As the owner of one of the most extensive and biological diverse forests in the world, Indonesia should learn to treasure it, not to ruin it.

People are concern about environment and saving the earth nowadays. But what have been done now is far from enough. The effort to reserve and rebuilt is much less than the power of destruction. We must make more effort to protect the forests, to give our earth a future.

Why are many species facing extinction?

As we all know, there are numerous kinds of species facing extinction. Looking into the reasons, I have to admit that the natural environment have influenced their selection to some degree; however, the main reason is humans’ destruction.
Firstly, humans are changing the Earth every second; therefore, the animals’ habitats are altered all the time. If the changes of the natural environment occur in a slow speed, there will not be any impact on the species. However, in contrast, there is not enough time for species to adjust themselves to the new environment if the changes occur in a very fast speed. The pollution of the sea animals’ habitats and the change of the global climate apparently demonstrate that humans’ activities have already destroyed every region of the world, especially in the past several decades. Besides, the exotic species destroy the balance of the native ecosystem. During the lengthy period of time, the native species like plants and animals have already become a part of the specific landscape. They are well adapted to their local environment and are accustomed to other native species. However, after humans bringing exotic species to the area, the balance of the ecosystem will be disrupted and may lead to other serious consequences at the same time. Moreover, humans’ overexploitation also contributes to the extinction of species. With the development of the society, humans spare no effort to satisfy themselves such as eating shark fin. Because of its delicious taste, people cruelly capture these species. And the rising of the market demands directly leads to the continuous suffering of exploitation.
To sum up, many species face the extinction because of humans’ activities. We really should do something to protect them. It is urgent for us to realize that protecting the species in the world is making contribution to ourselves and our later generations.

blog ten: divorce or not

Six days ago when we start our topic endangered species, we discussed about the divorce. On the lesson one, I did want to say my own point about the divorce since I saw some terrible marriage on TV with parents bearing each other only because of their children, which I cannot understand at all. Here, I mean those parents who fail to pretend to create a harmonious family for their children. 

First, a child does not mean love forever. I do not deny that child is the combination of the love between parents. And some people regard their children as the evidence of love and hope this kind of love could stay long.But child did not mean the existence of love anyway except the special period of time in my opinion. Since nobody could predict the future , how could control what would happen such like the lack of love between their parents? Then, a terrible relationship is more harmful to children. I do not agree that single parent could always bring negative effects. And I totally insist that it is more helpful for the growth of children with single parent than necessary to create the complete family for them. The endless quarrel is totally devil which leads children to suffer much. 

Maybe some people would say it is selfish if the parents divorce without thinking about their children. it is true that human did be selfish somehow. However, when people meet such situation, I think it is far from selfish because everyone has right to pursue their ideal life and should do so without hesitation. 

these are all my thoughts. What is yours? 

Are zoos good for animals
Because human beings develop their technology and expend their space, wild space is becoming smaller and smaller. Animals are distinct in a very fast speed. Some people say that zoos can help to protect the endangered animals. But it cannot solve the problem thoroughly. Animals should live in the wild, not in cages. Zoos limit the freedom of animals and let the animals loss their survival skills. For this reason, animals will not be able to go back to the wild. Though some of the endangered animals are protected, it makes little sense to the whole.
Besides, there are some people use zoos to earn money deviously. For example, once I saw a video about a zoo in China. Near the zoo there was a restaurant, where people could buy tiger meat. We all know it is illegal to eat tiger, but where the tigers from. Journalist found that the tigers were offered by the zoo. Workers in the zoo maltreat the tigers and did not give them food, so that the tigers would die quickly. As a result, they can sell them for their own profit. This is so cruel for the tigers.
The best way to protect animals is to increase people’s awareness about protecting the natural environment, then animals can be really protected.

The college entrance examination system is necessary
One month later the college entrance examination will start in China. One year ago we were busy preparing our examination. It was really a struggling period. Just because of the stress and tire caused by the college entrance examination, many people think the examination should be canceled. But in my opinion, the college entrance examination is necessary.
Firstly, China is a large country. There are lots of students compete for opportunities of work. We need a standard to select the outstanding persons. The college entrance examination right provides a relatively fair competition platform for students. Secondly, since the college examination is difficult for students to get a good result, students need to be intelligent, hardworking, patient and ambitious. So the people who have these personalities can be selected generally. Thirdly, the college entrance examination can ensure that the knowledge level of the students is high enough. Then our country can have a better future.
Some people may say, they have abilities, so that though they cannot study well, they can have a bright future. But I think study is a work which can test one’s abilities. Young people should experience this trial, so that they can have a better volition and their other personalities can also be developed.For these reasons, I think the college entrance examination is necessary

separation



During my eighteen years of life, I have seen and gone through quite a few separations, like separating from my parents, teachers or roommates, departing from home, leaving high school after graduation or breaking up with friends. I feel depressed every time I have to face separation, maybe because something I feel will exist forever is suddenly coming to an end. We suppose it will be a long time before anything changes, but actually departure is just around the corner.

Two weeks later, our bridging course of English will come to an end and it also means our Group 6 will separate. We have been together studying Englishfor more than 5 months. It is nearly half a year, but I still feel time is quite short for us to get to know each other. When I first started the bridging course, I thought it was quite a long time, but now it seems time flies so fast and just in a twinkling, the course is near the end. Moreover, only after two months, we will finish all bridging courses including c programming and economy course. Then we SM3 students will be distributed to different faculties and halls and it also indicates the present big community of 19^th batch SM3 students will no longer exist.We no longer attend the same lectures and may hardly meet each other afterwards.

I always feel sad when thinking about separation in the near future or maybe I am a little pessimistic. We do not have many “half a year” to make new friends, so I quite value every relationship with people around me. However, separation, on the other hand, also marks the start of new stage of life. We will see different beautiful scenery and make new lovely friends in the next stage of life journey. I just hope we can value every person we meet during the journey, for it is so lucky to meet each other among crowds of people.

Last blog

The theme this week is endangered species, but I am not going to talk anything about it. This is because I feel that we spend so much of our lives not saying anything we want to say. The things we should say, we speak in short messages, writing letters, or most of the time, we just store them in our hearts. This is my last blog already, I am afraid I won’t have no more chance, if I don’t seize it this time.

When I first found that there is no more blog waiting for me, my only feeling was: How time flies! I can still remember the day I first came to Singapore and settled down in parry hall, feeling all alone, and then more than half a month passed with nothing being done. I can still remember one day after class, on the bus back to Eton hall, I said to Song yang: Half of our bridging course has passed and I feel that I have learnt almost nothing. Now, suddenly our English class is coming to an end and I feel that all those things happened yesterday. Looking back on the days we have covered, I feel that I have learnt something more or less. However, more importantly, I feel very lucky to meet all you fantastic people. Some are pretty, some are handsome, and some are naïve. We became friends and spent not very short time together. But good time always passes quickly. We are soon to put an end to English course, and then, we are going to enter different faculties in NUS. Years later, we will have different occupations, working in different places. One of my friend ever told me, when your friends fail, you will get upset; when your friends succeed, you will get more upset. I don’t know whether it is right or wrong. At least for me, I don’t quite agree with it.

I often imagine what we will be like ten, twenty years later, often imagine how we will walk further and further away on the roads of our own. I sometimes feel that my friends and I are on an old train, just like the one in Harry Potter, running towards the unknown future. Everyone carries their heavy luggage, with a both happy and nervous impression on the face. Every time when the train reaches a stop, someone get off and someone get on. I help them throw their luggage out off the window, waving goodbye to them. I feel that the scenery behind them is always indistinct but beautiful. Then the train moves on and I smile to my new friends. I don’t know what their lives will be like, but I pray for them, I wish they can find what they want finally. Maybe we are rather confused sometimes, or even far from ready to correction, but we dare to look for the ways of our own, running towards our tomorrows.

I wonder if we will meet again years later. Maybe at that time, there will have been a girl in your arms, or you are the girl in another man's arms; you will even have got a child; maybe you are not as young, not as handsome as now any more. But it really doesn’t matter, because I’m looking forward to see the longed for smiles on your faces. I think that may be the most beautiful expectation we can have.

Lastly, I want to say something I really want to say, plainly, simply, thank you for your company, all this way alone. Things wouldn’t have been the same without you.

If I were a Panda

When discussing endangered species this week, we talked about panda which is on the edge of extinction. Somehow, it reminded me of my nickname in primary school which was also panda. Then my mind began wandering and an interesting idea occurred to me: what if I were a real panda?

After waking up, I found myself in a strange place without bamboo, soil or sky but huge white stones around me and one above my head. I was lying on something soft and a bit high from the ground. I had never been to this place and I was scared and wanted to run away. But I cannot move at all. It seemed my whole body did not listen to me no matter how hard I tried. After some time of struggle, I was exhausted when I heard something walking to me. It was not one but a group. They stared at me, opened their mouth and showed their teeth. Are they going to eat me? I held my breath.

Surprisingly, they did not tear me up for a big meal though I was sure my body could feed these little things for at least a week. Instead, they pushed the thing I was lying on to another place which made me happy because this place was familiar to me. It had soil, sky and most importantly, my favourite bamboo! Suddenly I realized I had not eaten anything for almost two weeks because I could not find this bamboo everywhere and I was starving. I used to live on the mountain full of bamboo but recently it became less and less. It seemed that the bamboo could not survive on the mountain anymore.

Those little creatures left me alone at this nice place after arriving. I was glad not only for the abundant food but also my strength came back little by little. I crawled to the fresh bamboo and had a big meal. Then I noticed that there was another panda sleeping few meters away, and she was gorgeous! I seldom met my species after I left mom because the mountain was so big and only few of us living there, let alone a beautiful girl like her.

We lived happily for a few months. Everyday fresh bamboo was sent to us. And one day I found she was pregnant. At the day she was about to deliver our baby, those little creatures came again and helped her with the process. I watched besides in silence because I trusted these little things now. They just wanted to help us.

I was happy and enjoyed my life now. However, I still wanted to go back to the mountain where I grew up if possible. After all, it was my home.

blog 10

Our bridging course is coming to an end. When I look over, I find I really improved a lot. So I am writing a blog to mark the improvement of me after the bridging course.
Firstly, my English listening skill has been improved apparently. Before the bridging course, I could hardly understand what people were saying in English, nor could I understand an English movie without subtitle. During the courses, our tutors taught us in English, and we SM3 students were asked to talk in English in classroom. Thus, my English listening skill was improving every day. Now, I can almost understand what people are talking using English, and I can roughly know the meaning of an English movie without subtitle.
In addition, I have leant how to learn an English essay. When I was in China, I could only write so called English compositions which are around 100 words for each. While, during the bridging course, I was taught to write many sorts of English essays in a standard way. Now, I know how to organize my essay, I know how to use punctuations and words properly. In terms of length, I can write an English essay around 450 words. If I am now asked to write a so called English composition as in high school, I am afraid I cannot stop at 100 words. Even a paragraph can be longer than that!
Finally, I find I can now present in front of people. When I was in China, I hardly got a chance to speak in front of people. If there were a chance, I would try to avoid it because I was afraid of speaking in front of people. During the bridging course, it was made compulsory for us to speak in front of the whole class. Thus, I have done a lot of oral reports and presentations. At first, I was very nervous to speak. But now, nerve will not disturb me a lot when I am presenting.
In my view, the skills I have leant in bridging course would be very useful in university time. So, I treasure our bridging course a lot. But I am now still looking forward to our university courses.

blog 10

Our bridging course is coming to an end. When I look over, I find I really improved a lot. So I am writing a blog to mark the improvement of me after the bridging course.
Firstly, my English listening skill has been improved apparently. Before the bridging course, I could hardly understand what people were saying in English, nor could I understand an English movie without subtitle. During the courses, our tutors taught us in English, and we SM3 students were asked to talk in English in classroom. Thus, my English listening skill was improving every day. Now, I can almost understand what people are talking using English, and I can roughly know the meaning of an English movie without subtitle.
In addition, I have leant how to learn an English essay. When I was in China, I could only write so called English compositions which are around 100 words for each. While, during the bridging course, I was taught to write many sorts of English essays in a standard way. Now, I know how to organize my essay, I know how to use punctuations and words properly. In terms of length, I can write an English essay around 450 words. If I am now asked to write a so called English composition as in high school, I am afraid I cannot stop at 100 words. Even a paragraph can be longer than that!
Finally, I find I can now present in front of people. When I was in China, I hardly got a chance to speak in front of people. If there were a chance, I would try to avoid it because I was afraid of speaking in front of people. During the bridging course, it was made compulsory for us to speak in front of the whole class. Thus, I have done a lot of oral reports and presentations. At first, I was very nervous to speak. But now, nerve will not disturb me a lot when I am presenting.
In my view, the skills I have leant in bridging course would be very useful in university time. So, I treasure our bridging course a lot. But I am now still looking forward to our university courses.

What I have learned from English Bridging Course

Nearly six months have passed, and our bridging course is coming to an end. Though six months is not a long time to us, I believe that I have learned a lot in the course.

Firstly, I have learned how to do academic writing in this bridging course. Before I came to Singapore, I could only write about one hundred words in simple English. So I was quite shocked and scared as I heard that we would be able to write a five-hundred-word essay at the end of the course. Could I make it? However, after we started our course, it seemed not so difficult to me. With the guidance from our tutors, we started to write short paragraphs, then essays. After six months, I can see that I have made some progress, though I still have much to do in future. Moreover, I also acquired some basic skills. For example, I have learned how to summary or paraphrase and how to avoid plagiarism. All the skills will surely help me a lot in undergraduate study.

Secondly, I am able to speak out now. Before I came to Singapore, I cannot find much opportunity to practice my speaking English. What I focus more on is grammar. So, after I came to Singapore, I found that my speaking English is quite poor. I still remember the first oral report I gave in January. The night before the oral report, I wrote down the outline carefully on a piece of paper. I tried to memorize the outline, but I did not perform well the next day. As soon as I stood in the front of the classroom, I became so nervous that I started to forget what I should say. At the end of that oral report, I nearly read paper to finish the report. However, after several months, I am accustomed to speaking in front of people in English. Though I am still nervous when doing a report now, I can control myself well.

Thanks to the English bridging course, I am quite well prepared for the undergraduate study. I would like to thank all my tutors, and I believe I can be better in future.

My opinions about zoo

Recently there have been several discussions on whether zoo is good or bad for animals in the class, and some of my classmates said zoo was just like a prison and we should close zoos. In my opinion, zoo should never be closed and we should try to improve the situation of zoos.

Zoo is home for many endangered animals. In the zoos, animals need not bear hunger and coldness, and animals can live more easily and avoid extinction in the zoo. If there is no zoo, then where should the endangered animals go? Maybe you call it law of nature, but the variety of animals is very important for us human. We can distill some precious material from these animals, have fun watching them and so on. Could you imagine you had never seen birds flying or fishes swimming because they had died out? If we close all the zoos, and the animals die out due to lack of protection, then that would be the situation our descendants would facing.

When the water is polluted, we did not just stop drinking, instead, we tried to improve the quality of water. Similarly, the condition of zoos now is not good enough, what we should do is not just close the zoos, instead, we should try to improve the condition of zoos. We should build zoos where animals live comfortably and naturally, letting them enjoy and benefit life in such prison.

Zoo is good for animals, but not good enough. We should try to build better zoos, bot close them.

tuedays with morrie

After watching the movie Tuesdays with Morrie, I thought nothing has changed in my life. But after I sit down and think about all the things Morrie taught us about, I know there has been change. At least, I am fine to accept the fact of death, the grief of separation. I remembered that when my grandfather passed away, I cried and cried until there are no tears any more. But at the last scene of Morrie’s death, I did not cry. I think that might be one of the treasures I get from the movie—the courage to accept death. When Michi asked Morrie what the last lesson is about; is it about death? Morrie, the dying man said no, it is about life. knowing how to die can make you know how to live. In the past, young as I am, I have never given much thought to the big topics of what life is and what death is. But young though I was, I feel death is something dark and terrible. I cannot help but feel sorrow facing it. But after watching the movie, I think I can better deal with death now.

When Michi asked, “your time is limited, don’t you feel sad?” Morrie says death is one of the things that will make people sorrow, but living unhappily is another one. We keep running all the time in our life. We are constantly pushed forward by deadlines. Yet we rarely stop and give a thought about it whether we like the thing we do. We never step back to judge whether this is the life we want. We chase after fame, money just like everybody do. But that is not the core idea of life. If you do as Michi, to let a bird always stand on your should to watch what we are doing. Are they the things that we want for life? And then we may see the essentials of life.

Another lesson I get from Morrie is to forgive and to love. In his opinion love ranks the top above everything. Even he is dying, he still cares about others; he still wants to teach. He asked Michi, why am I still caring for others, am I not suffering. No, I am suffering. But to love and to give love can make me feel that I am really living. This is the feeling that wealth or even my look in the mirror cannot provide. Only when I devote my time and the people I love smile happily again will I feel as healthy as ever. This is the spirit of love. Besides, Morrie teach us to forgive. It is important to forgive others. But it is even more important to forgive yourself. Never indulge yourself in the past moments. Life will move on no matter what.

Here to share Morrie’s favorite poem with you:

All I have is a voice

　　 To undo the folded lie,

　　 The romantic lie in the brain

　　 Of the sensual man-in-the-street

　　 And the lie of Authority

　　 Whose buildings grope the sky:

　　 There is no such thing as the State

　　 And no one exists alone;

　　 Hunger allows no choice

　　 To the citizen or the police;

　　 We must love one another or die.

　　 ——September 1.1939-by Wystan Hugh Auden

My last blog: Dolphins

Recently I saw a movie which has a very high mark in Douban.com. Its English name is the cove and in Chinese it is Haitunwan. It described the crime of dolphin slaughter in Tokyo, Japan. I have to say that this movie get a high mark in Douban.com because it is anti-Japan. However, this movie really touched me a lot.

I used to watch these sea animals, like dolphin, shark, and Polar bear in Dalian Ocean Polar Museum. I remembered that we queued for such a long time to get a ticket for the dolphin show. Finally we managed to take part in the dolphin show and found there were many, many people at the performance. Every time the dolphin jumped and got the ball the instructor threw, we all stood up and cheered. When the dolphin finished all the movements given by the instructor, we were all so excited that we didn’t even want to leave.

Now after watching that movie, I understood how foolish and arrogant I was at that time. At that time, I did not know dolphin is a very fast and smart animal. One minute she is here and one minute later it might appear several miles away. In Japan, 23 thousand dolphins were killed every year just for the sake of money. A dolphin that is capable of performing worth 150 thousand dollars. I don’t know what the dolphin feel when she is performing. But I think she must have been suffering a lot from the training. Just imagine how you feel if you lost your freedom and dignity and are trained to do these movements to entertain people. How foolish I am to pay for such a show and encourage the crime of slaughtering dolphins. I could never forget the scene in which the whole river was immersed red by the blood of dolphins.

So if you go to Dalian next time, please go to the Discovery Kingdom, the Tiger Bay or the Xinghai Square, but don’t go to the Dalian Ocean Polar Museum to see those dolphins or other sea animals perform in the places that didn’t belong to them. Though our strength is limited, as long as we try, we can still do something to save those endangered animals.

My trip to Singapore Zoo(1)

Last Thursday I went to Singapore Zoo with about over 20 SM2 and SM3 students. It was really a fantastic trip.
Here, I want to share my experience with all of you.

In the morning around 8:30, we gathered at the lobby of Eton Hall and left Eton Hall at 9:00. After about 40 minutes’ bus journey, we arrived at Singapore Zoo.

"Get ready for a total ecological adventure with over 2500 animals inhabiting our lush tropical forest. Boasting over 40 animal feeding sessions, photo opportunities, shows and rides, the fun never ends at the Singapore Zoo!"
(From the advertisement by Singapore Zoo )

The size of the ticket was somewhat like the common cinema ticker, and in my ticket, it was a picture of zebra.

Entering the gate of Singapore Zoo, we found a small money sit at the wooden bulletin. At first sight, since he did not move, we thought it was just a plastic sculpture. However, when we came close to him, he began to move around; he turned around his body and showed his long tail (from the picture below, you can never imagine the length of his tail), or just walked along the wooden bulletin.


When I turned around, I noticed that some people were gathered around a tree and their cameras were constantly flashing. Because of curiosity, I ran to them and want to know what they have found.

Oh, it was a green snake who wanted to move from one tree to another.

I had never see snake in real life, and I was a little sacred at that time because the small snake was so close to us.

She was very lovely: all of her body was in the same green and her delicate body was so nimble. She must be a very careful snake. As you see in the right picture, she sketched her head itch by itch, and tried to “climb” the nearest leaf. However, when she almost managed to put her head in to the left leaf, the right leaf could not bear her weight anymore and suddenly sharply bent down. It looked like that the small green snake would fall down painfully. However, she retracted her body at an amazing speed and then her body twined the tree tightly.

It was a so breathtaking moment.

Then, I met the most interesting part of my trip to Singapore Zoo, and I would like to share it with you in my next blog.

Taoism

In my opinion, I am a Taoist who believes in physiological Taoism but not religious Taoism. In China, I keep away from tempers and read some books about physiological Taoism in my spare time. Now I want to talk about the relationship between physiological Taoism and religious Taoism.
Although physiological Taoism and religious Taoism share a lot of similarities, for example, both of them take Laozi as their most important founders and count Tao as the collection of the laws of nature, there are great differences between physiological Taoism and religious Taoism.
The most significant difference between physiological Taoism and religious Taoism is their different attitudes towards life. According to the theory of Laozi and Zhuanzi, both of who are the most important physiological Taoists in the Chinese history, everything in the world should try their best to follow Tao, the combination of the laws of nature, and everything must experience the process of varying without any exception. As for man, every one of us are due to experience the process from living to death. This idea has great conflicts with the idea of religious Taoism that human beings can live forever if he or she practices austerities. Besides, religious Taoism put some restrictions upon its believers while physiological Taoism not because religious Taoism focuses on “Wu” mainly because physiological Taoism is centered on “Wuwei” ,which means keep everything in its natural way, while religious Taoism not.
But why is religious Taoism so different from physiological Taoism? This question keeps wandering in my mind after class because our tutor asks us a question related to Taoism. Before searching the internet, I make an assumption that there is something who introduces some ideas or notations from other schools of thought. In the beginning, I think someone has introduced some ideas from Mohism and then formed religious Taoism based on physiological Taoism. There are three reasons I come up with this assumption. Firstly, both of them share an idea namely “Jian’ai”, which means that everyone should try his or her best to help others and do justice. Secondly, the theory of religious Taoism came into being in the Xihan dynasty and during this period Mohism faded away so there is some odds in terms of time. Thirdly, some unknown assassins who belongs the Mohist dress as Taoist in the historical records such as Shiji and Zizhitongjian. However, I am wrong. According to the information in the Internet , religious Taosim is a mixture of physiological Taoism and Legalism. Unluckily, I cannot find a convincing explanation to this. I feel it necessary to spend more time to find the explanation.
In summary, religious Taoism is different from physiological Taoism and it is necessary to tell them apart.

Do we really have to protect endangered species?

When we watch TVs, read newspapers, or read magazines, we can always see advertisements or passages that call on us to protect endangered species. This is reasonable because the variety of species is helpful to keep the balance of the nature. If there are not enough species in the nature, the circle of substance and the flow of energy will break down. And human beings can’t live any more. But do we really have to protect endangered species? My answer is no.

First, it is true that endangered species contribute to the variety of species, but they only take up a minority of the total amount of species. There are also many other species in the nature. And they take most of the responsibility to keep the balance of the nature. So even if we lose some endangered species, the balance will not be influenced a lot.

Second, according to the theory of natural selection, we needn’t to protect endangered species. The content of the theory is that the species which are strong enough will go on living on the earth, and the species which are not strong enough will die out from the earth. The endangered species are not strong enough to live on the earth, so they should not live on the earth. We should let nature take its course, but not interrupt the tendency of the nature. Even though we spare efforts to protect endangered species, since they are not strong enough to go on living on the earth, they will extinct one day.

Some people claim that we should protect endangered species because they have some potential values. However, to protect endangered species, we have to spare a lot of efforts and money, but compared to the investment, the reward may be very little.

To summarize, we don’t have to protect endangered species. We should let nature take its course.

Plan for our health

Nowadays, a lot of people are facing health problems. Some are weak; some are fat; some even suffer from illness. If we don’t want to become one of them, we’d better plan your health from now on!

First of all, we need to keep a healthy diet. Food is one of the most significant factors which contribute to human’s health. In China, food could even be considered as a medical treatment. Some kinds of food are good for our health. Cabbages, the kind of vegetable we eat most, is full of nutrient, especially abundant in vitamin C. Carrot, another kind of vegetable we usually eat, is full of renieratene and vitamin C. Most of the vegetables are very rich in such nutrition that we cannot get from meat, so we’d better eat vegetables every day to make sure we get what we need. On the other hand, some foods cannot be eaten together, for example, we’d better not have carrots and alcohol together; we mustn’t eat persimmon and seafood together. Likewise, we’d better keep an eye on what we eat, otherwise, we may get poisoned.

Exercising is another important thing besides food which contributes a lot on our health level. With the development of high tech product, less people are taking exercise as a way to relax. Thus, people are getting weaker and fatter. That’s one of the reasons why people nowadays are easier to get sick than those in previous times. Fatness is a serious problem. It is not only bad to one’s appearance, but also a problem which can lead to vessel or heart diseases. So, we’d better keep exercising in our daily life. There are many ways for exercising, basketball, football or badminton. Whereas, some of us may not like to play ball games, then, we can do up and downs to strengthen our muscle or take running as a way to keep fitness. Besides walking for a long time is also an effective way to exercise.

What’s more, our actions may also affect our health. In our health courses, Dr. Ten suggested us not to bend our waists to pick up things when we are young, or we’ll suffer great pain when we are old. Such actions like bending our waists can damage our backbones. Similarly, when we bend over on our desks in CELC, damages are being done to our backbones. So we’d better not sleep on the desk. If we really want to sleep in the classroom, we may bring a pillow.

To conclude, food is the main way we gain nutrients, which we should pay a lot attention. Exercising is good for our body fitness, so we should keep a habit to work out. And action may influent our health; thus, we should better keep an eye on it. If we pay attention to these three points, we will be in good health.

Leigh Anne Tuohy

When Mr. Tuohys drove home, they came across seventeen-year-old homeless and traumatized big Mike who was in a worn-out T-shirt in the chilly winter night. Ms. Leigh Anne Tuohy pulled over the car, stopped him and walked out to the unknown, poor and trembling boy.

That was the turning point of Michael life. Because of the kindness of Ms. Tuohy and her family, he got a chance to continue school, become a successful American football player, and more important, have a loving family. We could say that Ms. Tuohy changed his life, however, what Ms. Tuohy told her friends was “He changed mine.”

That is what impressed me most in the movie The Blind Side which is based on the real story of American football player, Michael Oher. Leigh Anne was a powerful and independent woman but she was not arrogant or selfish, instead, she cared a lot about others and was as kind as many other mothers. Taking Michael to go shopping, giving him a bedroom, hiring family tutor to help him with the school, cheering for him at every match and trying hard to find his biological mother showed that Leigh wanted to help this poor boy from the bottom of her heart. And she felt true happiness after every single thing she had done for Michael. Although her friends did not understand and even teased her at first, she followed her heart to stick to what she wanted to do. I think while helping Michael accomplish his achievement, Leigh found the meaning of her life, too.

What Leigh did enlightened me about the meaning of life. We came to this world nakedly, and when we leave, we take nothing away. The only way we can prove our existing is to influence others. So that when we are dead, people still remember us. Thus, the meaning of life lies in how we influence others. About this question, I share the same answer with Leigh: trying to help others as much as we can. This is the true meaning of life and it brings the fulfillment and happiness you can never have from money, success or other things. Some may think enjoying oneself and having fun are more important. However, those enjoyment and fun are temporary. When it is gone, you will never feel it. Only the happiness of helping others can last life-long time.

I learned from Leigh that when we help others, we are helping ourselves as well. And if she can do it, we all can.

tv dramas do not suck

Why do people always think watching tv drama is a waste of time? In my opinion if you watch it correctly and carefully, you can also learn a lot from it, as dramas come from life and just a little different from reality. Watching romance you can refresh your values of love. You can learn from the character’s experience. Watching some detective dramas you can learn to distinct crimes. Even some sitcom is also good for us because as non-native English speakers, those dramas can help us acquire more pure idioms and improve our listening and communicating skills.

Through the big bang theory which tells about the interesting life of four physicists, I learned a lot about interesting physical phenomena and some fascinating puns. Through gossip girl, I learned a lot about modern pop culture, arts and fashion and get to know the city of New York better. I learned some strategies to survive from schemes and how to avoid sabotages. Besides, they make me think about life.

After watching the vampire diaries, I was thinking if now I am provided with a chance to be frozen in my golden age and to be immortal forever. Would I take it? Despite whether these good-looking, transcendently intelligent creatures exist or not, throughout the history of human beings, there are dozens of people trying to find out a way to be immortal like them. But of all the stories I have came across, those immortal creatures would rather be mortal. If we are immortal, first of all, we would die at our golden age. We throw our parents and friends into great grief. Besides, we have to walk away from our past lives. We have to endure the eternal loneliness. Years later, we have to take the grief of the death of our love. You can have enormous time to do whatever you like, but that also makes your life meanless. You will feel bored forever. You exist as a secret or rather you do not exist at all. So cherish our lives and make everyday count. It is because of the finiteness of life that makes our lives more precious and interesting.

Where there is some supernatural creatures, there in the story will always be some opposite species as their enemies, for example the witches. Witches are told to have the power to integrate different elements of nature and make some great impact to the world. But great power comes with great responsibilities. It tells you that you may play some magical tricks or lead the way of things. But your capability of doing them demands you to use it wisely and not back off in face of danger. Like Spiderman, accidently he is empowered with supernatural power, he then has to pike up the burden of taking good care of whole human beings. It goes the same with our daily life. Once you are in empowered, for example, in a high social status of in charge of big project, it does not mean that you can now sit there casually and just give commands. Rather, you have to take the trouble to make everything run smoothly.

Every works has its own precious values. Some say that tv dramas are just some soap opera for housewives. Some say that films are just videos to sell for money. But I think it depends on the audience. If the audience has the ability to think, to discover the beauty of life, he /she will find it anywhere. But on the contradictory, someone who can not appreciate will find everything valueless. Some people would mock those who love tv dramas because they think we are superficial, but whether you can see the meaning behind these scenes would decide whether you are superficial or not. Do you agree with me?

Translate Chinese Poems into English Poems

As the linguistics develops, it seems that humans are not satisfied with the communication any longer; they also try to work on translating some literary things such as poems.
As we all know, Chinese poems are the soul of Chinese culture and Chinese literature and they are the pick of this kind of language. In the translation, translators should not only keep the characteristics, but also make them be concretely interpreted in English. Therefore, it is quite difficult for people to translate Chinese poems into English ones. Firstly, Chinese poems have very strict rhythm and the number of words in each sentence is fixed. However, English is a unique language with the special grammar. So it is quite difficult to keep the rhythm during the translation. Secondly, the ways that Chinese think generally compared with English are completely different. English are used to describe simple things which are easy for others to understand while Chinese are used to describe abstract thing and they often imply their emotions among the words and sentences. Thus, directly translating Chinese poems into English may be difficult for foreigners to understand. Thirdly, in order to use fewer words to express deep meanings, omitting the subjects is very common in Chinese poems. But subjects are very important element in English. So choosing a proper subject is also very important.
From my perspective, translating Chinese poems into English poems is very difficult; however, we can have a better understanding of these two languages through it. We should follow the English rules as well as keep the soul of Chinese poems. I believe a good translation of a Chinese poem can promote the prevalence of Chinese culture.

Benefits or reading poetry

Nowadays, when talking about poems, many people, especially young people, consider reading as killing and poetry has become less and less popular. I think it is very regrettable for poetry to lose its readers, because it can really benefit us in many ways.

First of all, reading poetry can help us improve our imagination. As we all know, the images appear in poems are usually very abstract, and the things we can learn only from the words are always a small part of what the poets try to express. The other part needs the readers themselves to imagine.

Second, poetry helps us think more deeply. The idea of a poem is not easy to comprehend. Most of the time, readers have to think carefully to figure out the poet’s real thinking. Sometime, we even need to refer to the circumstance the poet is in to help us understand.

Third, poetry helps us to concentrate. Every part of a poem is not redundant. So we can never use the skim skill we learnt to read a poem, or we can never get what the poet sets forth for us. In this way, poetry teaches us to pay attention.

Fourth, poetry helps us create good conversation. Sometimes, between friends or other kinds of relationships, it may be hard to find something to talk about. Then, poetry is a perfect thing because the understanding of poetry varies from person to person. So there must be a lot to argue.

Fifth, poetry makes us happy. I don’t know much about foreign poets. However, as for Chinese poets, most of them have miserable lives. When I read the miserable experiences written by miserable poets, I will feel grateful for what God gives me and become very happy.

Last but not least, poetry makes us romantic. It’s very useful when you are pursuing girls or boys. If you come up with some words from poems now and then, there is a high chance that you will achieve your targets.

Now that reading poetry has so many benefits, we should read some poems and enjoy them.