When I see the topic “Drinking water improves exam grades”, I just
feel “wow! It’s amazing.” It will be the dream of every student that we only
have to drink water during the exam, and then we can get a better result in
exams. Yet, we have to be aware that drinking water does not equal to good
scores, which means if we do not prepare for our exam, we will still fail to
pass it. Though older students are more likely to bring in water to the examination
hall, the younger students (less of them bring water into the examination hall)
show a higher percentage of improvement than the older students do. We still do
not the reason why the importance of staying hydrated during exams target at
younger students in particular. Maybe it is because of that younger students
tend to be good at memorizing things.
After watching the clip of Steve Jobs’ lecture in HarvardUniversity
(2005), I thought of Lo Man-fei. The topic that connects the two figures is—death.
So, who is Lo Man-fei? Have you ever heard of her before? Lo Man-fei was a
famous Taiwanese dancer who died in 2006 of lung cancer. When she died, she was
only fifty-one years old. It’s a younger age than Steve Jobs’. And when she
died, I was an elementary school child, knowing not much about her death.
Working hard is a kind of nationality for countries such as Japan, Korean and Taiwan. Coincidentally, the three
countries mentioned above are Asian countries and are really close to each
other geographically. But, it doesn’t mean that all the Asian nations have the
same nationality. Back to the topic “Taiwan's 'overwork' culture”, I think
it is not merely culture, but it is an ingrained habit or life pattern. Through
out ordinary people’s life in Taiwan
(maybe it is a bit exaggerated), we spend our efforts working harder, harder
and harder. And if we would like to work harder, we have to spend more time on
working. I personally attribute this condition to the education system in Taiwan—the entrance
exams. We are told when we were little child that we have to study hard if we
want to get a good job in the future. The way to evaluate whether we study well
or not is through the entrance exams (for college, for senior high or even for
junior high). When entering the society, our boss will tell us: if you want to
earn more money, you have to work hard. Working hard or working overtime
becomes a doctrine in our society.
It's hard for people from democratic country like us to imagine the
life in Afghan. Afghan is now a republic country; however, what its government
and its religious council (the Ulema council) are trying to do to the country
seems like a throwback to the Taliban era (which is autocracy and
caesaropapism). The recommendation that proposed by the Ulema council is a
restrictive guidelines for women; woman's right and freedom will no longer
exist. People in Afghan divide in two: one party is the youngsters who protest
against the new law; the other party is the elders who think the law is in
accordance with Islam, their religious belief.
Recently, the headline news of a raped ten-year-old Mexico girl
gave birth to a boy baby shocked the world and again aroused the debate on
abortion. Abortion has long been a controversial issue, especially to women. It
is not only a personal decision but also a family’s care or even a society’s
concern. Pro-choicers, who support abortion, claim that abortion is the right
to choose, which means the mother can decide if she wants to keep the baby in
her womb or not. On the other hand, pro-lifers state that abortion is the right
to life (anti-abortion). That is, they think that once the embryo implantation
happens, growing fetus in the uterus starts to have the right to live as a
normal human being. Both the pros and cons parties have their own positions on
this issue and provide strong evidences to support their arguments. What on
earth is the right thing to do? As for me, I think abortion should be banned,
for it not only causes social problems but it also does harm to the mother and
baby.
Steve Paul Jobs of Silicon Valley, who passed away on October 5,
2011 as we all know, was the co-founder and CEO of Apple Inc. A surge of
Apple’s website was caused by people from all over the world to mourn for the
falling of a great man. The homepage of Apple’s official website was put on a
series of numbers “1955 -2011” ,
which represents not only the record of Job’s overall lifetime but also the
historic record of technical era. Steve Jobs, except for the identity of
Apple’s chairman, was also a technological pioneer and a convincing orator.
Now, let’s dig into the legendary life of Steve Jobs.
In order to get the whole outline of the diary and Anne’s daily
life, I watch the film about her, Anne Frank: the Whole Story. Before I watch
the film, I was always confused by the people in the diary. After watching it,
I can clearly recognize them. In my notion, vision is a lot more shocking than
words because its impact is direct and immediate. The scene that shocked me
most happened at the time when Anne was sent to the concentration camp. Germans
gave them nothing to eat and treated them like animals; they stripped off all
Jews’ clothes, making them naked, and then tattooed the number on their body.
What’s more mortified was women’s hair was all cruelly cut down like weeds.
After the mayhem had all done, Jews were sent to obsolete camp.
Students in Taiwan
study in a highly competitive environment. In order to enter a good University,
some parents spend a lot of money hiring a tutor for children. Since my parents
couldn’t afford the money, I didn’t have the experience of one on one teaching
before. However, when I entered in college, there was a project that each
student was assigned a tutor for free. After seven times of meetings with my
tutor, the tutoring project was over. Now I would like to reflect on this
project from three aspects: the whole project, the tutor, and my own learning.
Less than 3 years ago, we condemned China for producing poisonous milk
powder. Now Taiwanese food ingredients and drinks are discovered with DEHP
contamination which is much worse than the toxic chemical in poisonous dairy
from China.
How can we salvage the M.I.T. (Made in Taiwan) reputation we have
attempted to build worldwide for a long time?
Mark Zuckerberg is pursuing a new "personal challenge," as
he calls it. "The only meat I'm eating is from animals I've killed
myself," says the Facebook founder and CEO. Only Zuckerberg himself can
explain what this is really about. He sent Fortune an email detailing his
thoughts:
No one can choose his parents and his family of birth. Parenting
style is different from family to family and culture to culture. Parents have
their own ways to teach their offspring, which will bring up children of various
kinds. Sometimes, even father and mother have their own point of views on parenting
respectively. In order to have a clear understanding of parenting styles, we
can group them into three types: helicopter, drill sergeant and consultant.
I do not know what the date of World Earth Day is. So, of course I
search the Internet and find that the World Earth Day has already passed for
many days; it's on April 22. I only had one course on April 22, and I spent
rest of my time staying at home, turning on the air-conditioner and using my
laptop computer. It is obvious that I do not do all the things above to protect
the earth in my daily life.
If
I were a boy
Even just for a day
I'd roll outta bed in the morning
And throw on what I wanted then go
Drink beer with the guys
And chase after girls
I'd kick it with who I wanted
And I'd never get confronted for it.
Cause they'd stick up for me.
If I were a boy
I think I could understand
How it feels to love a girl
I swear I'd be a better man.
I'd listen to her
Cause I know how it hurts
When you lose the one you wanted
Cause he's taken you for granted
And everything you had got destroyed
If I were a boy
I would turn off my phone
Tell everyone it's broken
So they'd think that I was sleepin' alone
I'd put myself first
And make the rules as I go
Cause I know that she'd be faithful
Waitin' for me to come home (to come home)
If I were a boy
I think I could understand
How it feels to love a girl
I swear I'd be a better man.
I'd listen to her
Cause I know how it hurts
When you lose the one you wanted (wanted)
Cause he's taken you for granted (granted)
And everything you had got destroyed
It's a little too late for you to come back
Say its just a mistake
Think I'd forgive you like that
If you thought I would wait for you
You thought wrong
But you're just a boy
You don't understand
Yeah you don't understand
How it feels to love a girl someday
You wish you were a better man
You don't listen to her
You don't care how it hurts
Until you lose the one you wanted
Cause you've taken her for granted
And everything you have got destroyed
But you're just a boy
I have envied my younger brother for over ten years. When I was
still a little girl, I always dreamed of being a boy. I think the direct reason
why I would like to become an opposite gender is because of family environment.
Since Taiwan
is a patriarchy society, the elders always favor boys more than girls. Of
course, there is no exception in my family. For instance, my grandparents only
buy gifts or snacks for their grandsons. Besides, when my brother does
something wrong, my mom doesn’t punish him for his own fault. Instead, she
always blames me for setting a bad goal. After those years of undergoing such
unequal treatment, I start to imagine that what my life would be if I were a
boy.
I think there are three specific advantages of being a boy. First of
all, I would not have menstruation and pregnancy if I were a boy. For women,
the pain of menstrual cramps and childbirth is hard to endure, and men never have
to experience it. So if I were a boy, I would not have to suffer from this
pain. The second benefit is that males feel less emotion than their counterpart.
They are rarely influenced by their moods; thus, most of them can objectively
make decisions and map out their plans soon. It is always said that men are
rational creatures, not emotional one. Finally, men have more opportunities
than women in the patriarchal society. In Taiwan, it is easier for a male to
get promotion than a female; such circumstance is so-called Glass Ceiling
Effect. Though the government ceaselessly advocates gender equality, patriarchism
is rooted in Taiwan;
it’s hard to entirely eradicate it. Therefore, I think it is better to be born
as a man than a woman in this type of society. If I had the chance to become a
boy, even though for only one day, I would feel fulfilled and satisfied. However,
the truth is I am a girl indeed.
Having a creative ceremony, no matter in junior high schools, senior
high schools, or universities, seems to be a trend in these years. However,
recently our ministry of education enacted the regulation of graduation
ceremony, which provides standards on planning graduation ceremony, warning
that students should not “overdo”. Some scholars approve of this regulation,
while some others think our ministry of education is over-conservative.
No one is born to be a bully. However, bullying in school appears to
be a troublesome problem that needs to be dealt with instantly. A bully is
someone who abuses one’s power to threaten or insult others who are compared to
be weaker. The society should put attention on those misbehaved teenagers lest
there should be more innocent victims under the bullies’ self-complacency. The
three main possible reasons which contribute the bully behavior of a student
are peers, family conditions, and the mass media.
Bullying consists of three basic types of abuse – emotional, verbal
and physical. It involves repeated acts over time attempting to create or
enforce one person's (or group's) power over another person (or group), thus an
"imbalance of power". The "imbalance of power" may be
social or physical power. –Wikipedia
We all know what happened to Japan recently; and in fact, the
disaster has not reached to its end. Except for showing our sympathy for the
victims, what have we learned from this historically devastating tsunami? We
have heard people talking about the amounts of money people donated, e.g.,
President Ma and Mayor Hao. Some people also started to prepare for emergency
begs (with water, food, and flashlights) under the bed. But when one is facing
a life-threatening situation like this, what do you care the most?
When there are so many less expensive alternatives to choose from,
people are still willing to pay much more money to purchase products with this
trademark and to wait for months to before enjoying the items. What is the
psychology behind it?
