Lotteries have been called a tax on the poor. Personally, I feel that the emphasis of this quote is on tax instead of poor. Since people seldom win lotteries, they are practically giving money away.
However, I think that the poor part refers to when they become addicted, they would spend a huge amount of money. This makes the money spent like a "tax" to poor people.
"He lost almost everything to a gambling addiction — his wife, his money, and the life he once knew. " this was taken from the internet and this sentence can tell us how dangerous gambling addiction can be. Actuallty, I support lottery but NOT LOTTERY ADDICTION. Buying lottery once in a while with small bets can be treated as a form of leisure. My mother does not support gambling as she thinks that lottery is using precious money to try her luck.
Biblography:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93191168
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Sonia Sanchez
"Her poems manifest the spiritual link between art and politics" that was what her poems was descript as on the internet. Born in Birmingham, Alabamaon on September 9, 1934, Sanchez has taught creative writing and African American literature in at least eight universities across the United States and has lectured at over 500 college campuses . When Sanchez was only a year old, her mother passed away and Sanchez was sent to live with her paternal grandmother. She then lived with family and friends until 1943, when she moved to Harlem to live with her father, her sister, and her stepmother who was her father's third wife. Sanchez's language comes out of her immediate surroundings and accents her characters' lifestyles. Her refusal to use standard, academic English is a part of a political statement which undermines the use of language as a tool for oppression. During the early 1960s she was an integrationist, supporting the philosophy of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).
Actually, I do not have a favorite poet as I seldom read poems and when I do, I do not remember the poet's name. I chose Sonia Sanchez for this blog entry because I happen to see her name on "this week's highlight" on poets.org. But I feel that the poems she write consist of a lot of figurative language and the poems she write interest me, that is why I chose her for this blog entry.
The poems she write include Ballad, To Anita and A poem for my father. The books she wrote include Shake loose my skin: New selected poems and Under a Soprano Sky She has authored over a dozen books of poetry, as well as plays and children's books.
Bibliography:
http://www.afropoets.net/soniasanchez.html
http://poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/276
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonia_Sanchez
http://www.nathanielturner.com/soniasanchez.htm
Actually, I do not have a favorite poet as I seldom read poems and when I do, I do not remember the poet's name. I chose Sonia Sanchez for this blog entry because I happen to see her name on "this week's highlight" on poets.org. But I feel that the poems she write consist of a lot of figurative language and the poems she write interest me, that is why I chose her for this blog entry.
The poems she write include Ballad, To Anita and A poem for my father. The books she wrote include Shake loose my skin: New selected poems and Under a Soprano Sky She has authored over a dozen books of poetry, as well as plays and children's books.
Bibliography:
http://www.afropoets.net/soniasanchez.html
http://poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/276
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonia_Sanchez
http://www.nathanielturner.com/soniasanchez.htm
Sunday, June 28, 2009
IT Home Learning Lesson 1: Figurative Language
The poem I chose is Messy Room by Shel Silverstein
Whosever room this is should be ashamed!
His underwear is hanging on the lamp.
His raincoat is there in the overstuffed chair,
And the chair is becoming quite mucky and damp.
His workbook is wedged in the window,
His sweater's been thrown on the floor.
His scarf and one ski are beneath the TV,
And his pants have been carelessly hung on the door.
His books are all jammed in the closet,
His vest has been left in the hall.
A lizard named Ed is asleep in his bed,
And his smelly old sock has been stuck to the wall.
Whosever room this is should be ashamed!
Donald or Robert or Willie or--Huh?
You say it's mine?
Oh, dear,I knew it looked familiar!
1) Figurative language used in this poem are mainly Hyperbole.
Statements such as "wedged in the window" "jammed in the closet" "stuck to the wall" and "Oh, dear" are used as figurative language.
I think that the poet used these figurative language to exaggerate on how messy the room is.
2) I like this poem mainly because the poet has included humor in his poem. The poem was quite funny and thus, i chose this poem. The poem also has a great number of descriptive words. The poem is also closer to my daily life in the sense that I also consider my room to be a messy one. I like the way the poet ended his poem. He ended it with a twist, writing that the person that should be ashamed is not Donald or Robert or Wille but is actually he himself. In other words, the messy room was actually his!
Whosever room this is should be ashamed!
His underwear is hanging on the lamp.
His raincoat is there in the overstuffed chair,
And the chair is becoming quite mucky and damp.
His workbook is wedged in the window,
His sweater's been thrown on the floor.
His scarf and one ski are beneath the TV,
And his pants have been carelessly hung on the door.
His books are all jammed in the closet,
His vest has been left in the hall.
A lizard named Ed is asleep in his bed,
And his smelly old sock has been stuck to the wall.
Whosever room this is should be ashamed!
Donald or Robert or Willie or--Huh?
You say it's mine?
Oh, dear,I knew it looked familiar!
1) Figurative language used in this poem are mainly Hyperbole.
Statements such as "wedged in the window" "jammed in the closet" "stuck to the wall" and "Oh, dear" are used as figurative language.
I think that the poet used these figurative language to exaggerate on how messy the room is.
2) I like this poem mainly because the poet has included humor in his poem. The poem was quite funny and thus, i chose this poem. The poem also has a great number of descriptive words. The poem is also closer to my daily life in the sense that I also consider my room to be a messy one. I like the way the poet ended his poem. He ended it with a twist, writing that the person that should be ashamed is not Donald or Robert or Wille but is actually he himself. In other words, the messy room was actually his!
Saturday, May 16, 2009
HOOT by Carl Hiaasen
This blog post is for English ace assessment. This is my fifth and the last blog post for this term. In this blog entry, i will be sharing with you one of my favourite books. It is titled "HOOT" and it is written by Carl Hiaasen. I received the book as a prize in my primary school. It's main characters in the book is Roy and Napoleon. Roy's father's job needed him to move from country to country, so his family always follows him. Thus, Roy does not have a fixed home and he is always transferring school. When Roy's family moved to Florida, he finds himself involved in a adventure trying to prevent a "Mother Paula's" restaurant from being built on a plot of land which is inhabited by burrowing owls. Together with Napoleon, they do all kinds of things like releasing snakes, removing seats from machines, and Napoleon even buried him self to stop the restaurant from being built. After all, they managed to succeed and stopped the restaurant from being built. Personally, i feel that it is a very good book. Another book written by Carl Hiaasen is "Flush", which is also a nice book. This is all for this term, thank you for taking time to read my blog.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Saving The Environment
This blog entry is for English ace assessment. This is my fourth blog entry for term two. If you have noticed, this blog entry was posted on the same day as the previous one, this is because i am trying to finish all my blog entries during this weekend. In this blog entry, i will be talking about global warming how Singaporean are doing their part to save the environment. As many know, global warming is causing the temperature on earth to rise by the day. Let me give a brief introduction on the effects of global warming. Firstly, global warming will cause the ice caps at the north and south pole to melt. This will cause the sea level to rise and many countries, including Singapore, will be submerged under water if this happens. Another reason is that forest fire will happen easily with the rise in global temperature. Many animals will also die as they are unable to adapt with the sudden increase in temperature. Singaporean are doing their part to save the environment as well too! Recycling bins can be seen at the void decks of HDB flats, campaigns are set up to encourage people to reduce the use of electricity, electrical appliances with energy efficient labels are chosen...All this actions shows that Singaporean care for the environment.
A Book That My Mother Remembered
This blog entry is for English ace assessment. This is my third blog entry for term 2 and it is one of the required blog entry for this term. I will be talking about a story that my mother remembered the most. As it is a book in Chinese, I will be translating it into English, so do pardon any vocabulary or grammatical errors. The book's main character is a girl from a very poor family. Her father passed away when the girl was still very young, thus the girl had to work for a rich family as a maid to earn money. When the girl's mother passed away, the rich man adopted the girl as a daughter and paid for her education, seeing that she was a nice girl. After some time, the rich man decided to marry his adopted daughter to his own son but the rich man's wife disagreed with the marriage as the girl came from a poor family. The girl had a good relationship with the rich man's son as they were studying together. As time passes, the rich man's wife was persuaded to let her son marry the daughter and the couple lived happily ever after.That is all for this blog entry. If you have any comments, please feel free to comment on this blog entry. Thank you for spending your precious time on reading my blog.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
My Ending For The VIllage By The Sea
This blog entry is for English ace assessment. This is my second entry for term two and I hope that I will be able to finish all the blog post within this week. Three months later, the family was now staying in a brick house where their old house once stood. Although it was not very fancy, there was enough space for the family. Beside the house was a big chicken coop and in it, there were five big hen and two roosters. "Hari-bhai, there is a man at the door!" Bela said to Hari, who was feeding the chickens. When Hari approached the man, he said," Are you Hari? Can you fix my watch?" Hari nodded confidently and the man handed him his watch before going away. Hari told him to collect his watch the next day. Just then, his father came back from his work at the factory and he was carrying a dog exactly like Pinto. "Pinto!" Bela and Kamel exclaimed excitedly. "Found him beside the road and thought you might like him. I am sorry that I made you lose your last dog." their father said. Then he turned to Hari and said, "A friend of mine from the factory wanted to buy half a dozen of eggs from you. He asked how much do you charge for your eggs." "Two eggs for a rupee," Hari replied, eyes glinting in excitement. he had a feeling that their lives from then on was not going to be hard anymore.
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