Sound Poem

I heard the owls hooting in the dark
I heard the sheep bleating beyond the hill
I heard the wolves howling in the dark
I heard the dogs barking in its kennel
I heard the horses neighing in the stable
I heard the bulls bellowing on the field
I heard the bees buzzing around their beehives
I heard the frogs croaking on the lily
I heard the mice squeaking in a mouse-hole
I heard the roosters crowing during dawn
I heard the turkeys clucking while gobbling seeds
I heard the pigeons squawking when pecking bread
I heard the ducks quacking when swimming
I heard the pigs oinking in the mud
I heard the cats meowing in the basket

Reflection of things I have learnt throughout the year

Well, for these 3 exciting terms with this new subject, LA, I feel that this subject is much relaxing than my primary school's English as I do not really focus on a lot of components in LA compared to English. For the 3 terms, we focus mainly on Comprehension, Literature and Situational Writing.

For comprehension, Mr Lundberg, my LA teacher, mainly focus on our comparative questions and summary as we are the weakest on these 2 components due to we are new to these 2 components in comprehension. He taught me various tips to score well for summary such as giving more points than the requirements, how to rephrase my sentences properly etc. After mastering these tips, I tried out in my comprehension test this term, and I have not get the results back yet but I think I will do better in the test than the previous assignment.

As for Literature, I do not have much worries for the past 2 Literature test and I did surprising well with both of the test scoring an A1! As long as anyone knows the sequence on how to write and read through the book or article before, and knows the characters inside plus their feelings, actions, attitude, anyone could score high for that. But for this term, it is a poetry, an unseen one still, I do not have the confidence that I could score as high as before but what I could say is that I will do my very best to get a good result!

For Situational writing, Mr Lundberg taught us various types of situational writing and how to write for which kind of situational writing, as I have done before situational writing in primary school frequently before, plus tips given by my LA teacher, I did well for my situational writing test in term 2. ^^

Reflection of my Literature test

Well, I did exceptionally well this time compared to the class for Literature test. I score a 21/25 for Literature test and is considered an improvement from my last Literature test which was 19/25. For Literature test for these 2 terms, is just a standard format that we have to follow and answer accordingly, I was very happy when I see Literature tests were not very difficult after all, but when my teacher, Mr Lundberg says, that this type of Literature test will not come out in my final exams, I was totally shocked! He said that we would be learning poetry and it will be tested in final-year exam. I have always dislike poems and now still asking me to make sense of the poem, is as thought as making me go crazy....... Poetry is a very difficult topic and I am doubting my ability of doing well for my next Literature test as I do not know a single now about poem although my teacher had already taught quite a lot on this topic? Will I remain my standard, or will I fall, is a big question to ponder on. But whatever it is, I will still work hard for that and try to score as high as possible so as to continue my trend of A1s for my Literature tests.......

Reflection of Comprehension assignment

Well, I did quite badly for this term's comprehension assignment, I scored 25/45 for my comprehension assignment. See how bad is this? I have look through all the mistakes I am wrong at, only the summary is terribly bad. I think I have awkward phrasing in my sentences and I just cannot find the relevant points in the passage that meets the question's requirement. I think partly is because I am new to this sort of question and the lack of practice of it, but most importantly, I think I was too complacent already, thinking that scoring a 74 for LA last term was very good, therefore, did not work hard for my assignments. I had always had this problem since I was primary 3, but I had changed a lot since primary 4. I think I should do more practices of summary in the reading rites book I have, which I did before my makeup test for comprehension. For this test, I do not have the confident that I will scored quite well but I had already tried my best, if I really could not score well, I will just practise again and again till I can perfect it........ Wish myself all the best for my this term Comprehension test, and to all my upcoming tests...... A phrase for myself: "Don't be too complacent!!!! Or else, IT WILL 'KILL' ME!!!!"

Puppy dog

There was once a puppy dog,
Own by a cat lover,
Be it tiny or tall,
Or adores by all,
Still, it's the kittens that it despises.

Poetry on sound of bees

I heard the bees buzz and bzz wherever they go,
When they are collecting nectar, they still go bzz and buzz,
Whoosh, the wind blows, the bees still continue collecting nectar,
Still buzzing and bzzing happily,
Buzzing and bzzing, buzz and bzz,
There they are off, back to their beehive,
Buzz.........

Poetry on extended life metaphor

Life is a Christmas Tree, its thin branches
covered with frost and snow,
its brightly lighted lights warm up the atmosphere.
When winter wind blew across,
yet all it returns is a smile.
When winter ends, kept away with dismay,
Anticipating the next winter.

Figurative language

If You Forget Me by Pablo Neruda

I want you to know
one thing.

You know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.

If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.

If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.

But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine

Well, this poem uses lots of figurative language such as "if I touch near the fire the impalpable ash", "everything carries me to you, as if everything that exists, aromas, light, metals", "leave me at the shore, of the heart where I have roots","I shall lift my arms, and my roots will set off, to seek another land". There is still quite a number, I only listed a few here. The poet chose these few words to express how deep is his love for the girl he likes and how much he thought for her, most importantly, is his choice of words are all hinting the girl to decide whether to remember him or not.

I like this poem as this poet really uses his emotions to write this poem, therefore, all his words can get deep down to the reader, putting the reader to be at his place, as if the reader really lost his beloved therefore writing this poem. This poem also reflected me as I have been through such situations before, so I know the poet's feeling when he was writing this poem. Although he himself get hurt, he always think his beloved before him, this is his feeling and thoughts, I suppose........

Urbanisation

After reading from all the different websites on urbanisation, I feel that urbanisation has more bad points than good points. Although urbanisation occurs naturally from individual and corporate efforts to reduce time and expense in commuting and transportation while improving opportunities for jobs, education, housing, and transportation. At the same time, city populations are growing faster than city infrastructure can adapt, therefore, lack of housing,lack of infrastructure services,lack of property rights, air quality worsens in urban areas and traffic increases which lead to more car accidents. All the bad points seemed to have more serious effect on everyone, just take air pollution as one case. With bad air purity, when people breathed in the air, they may likely get a disease or become sick easily. When many people get sick, they will not be able to work and it will cause the whole development of the country to slow down drastically, the consequences are much higher. I am not saying that urbanisation is totally wrong, but many people are pushing too hard, everyone wants to have a job, but have you ever thought of the country, will it be able to 'hold' so many people at a goal? And what about the environment, will it be able to take this ever-lasting situation?

Urbanisation Arrives in Thul

Urbanisation has arrived in the fishing village in india. The government in India wanted to build a factory in Thul but the villagers main source of income are fishing and agriculture as they have not worked in factories before. The youngsters were jumping with joy over this information received as they were finally able to get jobs to earn money to support themselves and their family. The elderly people in Thul are totally against this proposal. These factories built will release toxic waste into the sea causing the water to be polluted and causing the population of fishes to decrease drastically, thus affecting most of the villagers who depend on fishing as a livelihood as the number and quality of the fishes they get will be affected significantly.This will also cause spread of diseases as the fishes consume toxic content and the villagers will be sriously ill after comsuming them.There are also air polution which will also affect the villages' health as toxic gases are release from the factories.

PIctures of Lila's reaction in different situations

http://images.google.com.sg/imglanding?q=crying%20smiley%20face&imgurl=http://www.sl-designs.com/images/free-backgrounds/0smiley-crying_sl-designs-sm.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.sl-designs.com/free_wp/sad-smiley_wallpapers.htm&usg=__ufBFexiy_uNSYRDK_4YQiFqS2tw=&h=150&w=200&sz=10&hl=en&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=tl7g-31Zly690M:&tbnh=78&tbnw=104&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcrying%2Bsmiley%2Bface%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&tbs=isch:1&start=4#tbnid=tl7g-31Zly690M&start=8

When Pinto is poisoned, Lila was very worried but when Pinto died, she was very sad and she cried as they were the closest together in the family.

http://images.google.com.sg/imglanding?q=relieved%20smiley%20face&imgurl=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGrIlysvTjOxixSylMwCEWPdCa1O-5DFOjYEynrs9048cAEL1miYC8T5NtZXjPgrTgGBVT5a3NYKOD_OATteRoRZ6GXzrg8hpNdfUv1HwhCRPWr1VKcGz-VUgJqQb1yd0vsehM_Mzuruo/s1600/smiley_face.jpg&imgrefurl=http://foxywaitingroom.wordpress.com/&usg=__f4N5kGQxsMwyFBbcbKkyexN-uIw=&h=320&w=320&sz=14&hl=en&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=Pkm7IfDvyfe9cM:&tbnh=118&tbnw=118&prev=/images%3Fq%3Drelieved%2Bsmiley%2Bface%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&tbs=isch:1&start=0#tbnid=LmIKdlZ3pYLW4M&start=23

When the medicine man came to help her mother, she is relieved that her mother finaaly received some treatment and maybe he could her mother to recover better.

http://images.google.com.sg/imglanding?q=bowing%20and%20praying&imgurl=http://www.recacenter.org/gfx/Newsletter/06Feb/TNY_praying.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.recacenter.org/newsletter02_06.htm&usg=__FplhrvKZt2mE7V6NcjceTZdhaqI=&h=465&w=700&sz=95&hl=en&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=xFxR5NesED5TKM:&tbnh=93&tbnw=140&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbowing%2Band%2Bpraying%26start%3D20%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26ndsp%3D20%26tbs%3Disch:1&start=33&um=1&sa=N&ndsp=20&tbs=isch:1#tbnid=xFxR5NesED5TKM&start=37

When Lila is offering the flowers to the sacred rock in the sea, she gave a bow, which means that she is respecting the gods that she is praying to and hope that the god will bless her and her family.

Chapati, Jalebi, Roti Prata and You Tiao

Preparation of Chapati:
3 cups of fine wholemeal flour/roti flour
1 1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of oil (optional)
1 cup of Lukewarm water

Recipe of Chapati:

Put flour in mixing bowl, reserving about half cup for rolling chapatis.

Mix salt through the flour in the bowl, then rub in ghee or oil, if used.

Add water all at once and mix to a firm but not stiff dough.

Knead dough for at least 10 minutes (the more it is kneaded, the lighter the bread will be).

Form dough into a ball, cover with clear plastic wrap and stand for 1 hour or longer (if left overnight, the chapatis will be very light and tender).

Shape dough into balls about the size of a large walnut.

Roll out each one on a lightly floured board (using reserved flour) to a circular shape as thin as a French crepe.

After rolling out chapatis, heat a griddle plate or heavy-based frying pan until very hot, and cook the chapatis, starting with those that were rolled first.

Put chapati on griddle and leave for about 1 minute.

Turn and cook other side a further minute, pressing lightly around the edges of the chapati with a folded tea towel or an egg slice.

This encourages bubble to form and make the chapatis light.

As each one is cooked, wrap in a clean tea towel until all are read.

Serve immediately with butter, dry curries or vegetable dishes.

Preparation of Jalebi:
2 cups of maida flour
4 teaspoon of rice flour
1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
4 teaspoon of curd
1 1/4 cup of warm water
1/2 teaspoon of saffron threads
3 cups of sugar
2 cups of water
1/2 teaspoon of cardamom powder
4 teaspoon of rose water
Vegetable oil for frying

Recipe of Jalebi:
•Mix the flour, semolina or rice flour, baking powder, curd and 3/4th cup of the water in a bowl (preferably a ceramic bowl). Mix well with a whisk.
•Mix well and then add remaining water and 1/8th tsp. of saffron powder, and whisk until smooth.
•Set aside for about 2 hours to ferment.
•Whisk thoroughly before use.
•Prepare string syrup by dissolving sugar in the water. Just before the syrup is ready add saffron and cardamom powder.
•Heat oil in a kadhai. Pour the batter in a steady stream (or coconut shell with a hole) into the kadhai to form coils. Make a few at a time.
•Deep fry them until they are golden and crisp all over but not brown.
•Remove from the kadhai and drain on kitchen paper and immerse in the syrup.
•Leave for at least 4-5 minutes so that they soak the syrup.then take them out.

Difference between Chapati and Roti Prata:
The chapathi is made from whole meal grain and it is the staple food of some countries in Asia while the Roti Prata originates from India and it can be eaten all day long gyowever it is mainly eaten in the morning or for supper late at night .

Difference between Jalebi and You Tiao:
Jalebi is a dipped fried pretzel shaped dessert that is soaked in syrup and it has a chewy texture. IT has originated from the Middle East and North Africa. The You Tiao which is used with soy milk or congee mainly eaten for breakfast.

Lila's Journal

Father is drinking again, coming back scraming and shouting as usual. I led all my sisters into the room. As always, mum will ask him stop to drink and get a job, only thing he does is to shout at mum and hit her up, how poor thing and futhermore, mum is getting sicker as every single day past. Luckily, Hari is growing up, not like a small boy anymore. He knows he need to find a job and earn money in order for everyone to survive. As he is one year younger than me, I would not expect him to work as a man and earn big money but at least he really know that our family is struggling very hard to live on. He is trying very hard to get an opportunity to go to Bombay, the city, to find a job to support the family. And I am left alone now, how should I cope with the family? Just go through each day as it is> Or should I look for a job and support family too? I am totally lost, what should I do?

Reflection on Literature test

I am totally dead for my Literature test; I did not study very hard for it and did not practise at all. Although I know the method to write the Literature test, I am just very worried that my grade will drop. My grade is already a B4, worse of all, is a very low B4, if I do not do well, I will drop from B4 to a C5 and my whole MSG will be done for. Isn't Literature test for us sec 1s a bit too challenging? I mean, we have not been exposed to Literature test from our primary school life and just test us immediately. I am not trying to whine or so, but will it be a bit unfair to us? Since this already happened, what I can do now, is to work harder for the Literature test in week 9, and improve from this test. I have not get back my Literature test yet but I will definitely look through what I have got wrong in the process and seek clarification from my LA teacher. After all the questioning, I will keep on practice till I am very good in Literature so I could get a MSG that is below 2.

Journal according to investigator

Hmmm....... It's kind of unbelieveable that the murderer does not leave a single, minute evidence behind. First, the whole house is messed up, and Patrick was killed, how could I imagine that who has such an ability to crawl up to Patrick without any noise and hit him hard on his head. How did that person even be able come in to his house, the funniset part is Patrick was hit on the head and no blood stain was left behind at all! This is really interesting, my first instinct would be Mary, but she had prove that she was away when Patrick was hit. No one else has the key to his house, could it be that Mary found out his affair and killed him, leave the scene immediately to the grocer? Even it is her, what weapon could she used that has such strong blow on Patrick that cause death? Too much fishy points to this murder case, I shall go back to the scene tomorrow and see if I could find more evidence to this case.

The reason of my ending

I ended the story with the tiger tearing him into pieces. From what I think and some evidence from the passage, she would most probably ask him to choose the door with the tiger as she herself could not bear to part with nor she want him to be married to another person. With some struggle there, I could see that jealousy and selfishness had deeply affected her decision to which doors she directed him to go. Therefore, I chose the door with the tiger as in a girl's point of view, who would want to see her lover to leave her, maybe death is a better option to both of them. In the end, I decided to make a twist, so I stated in my ending her feeling and why she decided that door for him. Again, in a girl's point of view, seeing her lover dying in front of her also cause a lot of hurt to her till she would want to commit suicide, and added the fact of her selfishness, she would think that she would not leave her lover to die himself, therefore, I said that the princess also committed suicide in the end. This kind of situation also happens in reality too and the ending of most of these people will be like what I have written.

Ending of Lady or Tiger

Could the audience believe their sight of that, the prowling of the tiger tore him into several pieces, blood was spluttered everywhere. The king gasped a deep breath and said," Well, that means the youth is fated not to have a wife. " The king left after he finish him speech and so does the audience, all of them sighing. The princess was the only one left, staring blankly on the amphitheater, seeing his lover's body separated into parts and his blood stains all over the ground, gradually, her eyes got watery and she cried uncontrollably, in her heart, she was muttering," I could not stand watching you marrying another person, which I hated so much, other than me, forgive me for my selfishness, but I thought you would have the same thinking as me, right? You also cannot bear to part with me right? Although you have leave me, but you will never be lonely, I will definitely go together with you." After an hour, she returned to his father, his father console her," Dont be too sad, my daughter, he is not a person that you should love, the result just now showed us clearly, you should start clearing up your feelings ok?" She nodded her head and went back to her room. Just that night, she committed suicide.

Reflection on composition

Haizzz, my composition really is terrible. I do not know why my english teacher says my composition is not considered is terrible, but what I saw in the composition were red underlines and red underlines, worse is, lots of bad comments. Still, I would take this a lesson and I would improve my composition according to the comments given. Even so, composition is not an easy component in english that is easy to improve, you have to keep on writing continuously and read lots of books to improve our vocabulary. I have heed an advice from my cousin that the main about composition is the clarity of it and the reader must understand what is happening. Maybe that's what lack in my composition. Since clarity comes first in priority, I must make sure that the next composition I write is clear and a usage of adequate vocabulary, I really wonder how I did for my composition assignment......

Reflection on Lesson 6

Well, this week we have been doing on composition and comprehension because next week is our test. I am really worried about my comprehension as that is the worst section I am at in english. But luckily, it is only a 20% of our total score. Since the composition has a weightage of 80%, I am quite worried for it too because once that is badly done, my whole msg score will be pulled down because of english, the worst is that, the test is held just after the chinese new year, how bad!!!! I cannot believe that they expect us to revise during chienese new year, how are we suppose to have that energy and mood to revise? I could not really understand my teacher on why he chose this date for the test? Even my chinese teacher postponed the date of our chinese test to a later date, why could not he do the same thing? Everything seems to be a question mark to me.......

Reflection on narrative writing

This week, we learn narrative wrting which include protagonist and antagonist. We read a very interesting story named ' The lamb to the slaughter'. This story is about a policeman having an affair with another woman outside despite having a wife. The wife was totally shocked and kept on begging him not to go but he provoked her with just two words 'Try me'. She took out a lamb leg from the freezer and hit hard on his head. He just fell dead instantly but the most interesting part is that his wife was exceptionally clever which planned an alibi so perfectly that when the police come, they could not find the weapon and they did not even suspect her as they tought that she herslef as a policeman's wife would never commit a crime. Guess where the weapon went? It was already inside the oven. The funniest part is, they actually ate the weapon. How stupid they are! I think that the policemen are too reckless as they should not judge a person by her status but most importantly is, they too trusted her......

Mary Maloney's point of view

The police here are so stupid, they have already eaten the murder weapon and they still want to find it! My alibi works perfectly and the police had never even thought of me being the murderer. Anyway, Patrick deserves to die! Who ask him to have another woman outside, but I would not have killed him if he returns to me but he not only did not do so, he also dared him to stop him. My anger had reached the maximum limit and I just took the lamb leg and hit him hard on his head. That is the perfect weapon and he himself died because he thought I am a very weak woman which he need not defend against. The police are so reckless, just because I am a policeman's wife, they never take me as an suspect but ven they think I am, I have a witness which is the grocer, Sam. This case will never resolved anymore......

Reflection on Blogging

Well, for this whole week, we have been learning on the correct usage of blogging. The most important thing I have learn is to not to post comments that will hurt others. I have also done on an article about a boy, just because of his ignorance and thought only his close friends could read his blog, he posted a very bad comment on other race. This comment just got circulated in the internet and he was caught and brought back to police station for interrogation. From this article, I not only learn that how hurting can be a comment to other people, but also the very harsh consequences if you do that on purpose. I hope this would let everyone know that be very careful when you post any comment, it may seem nothing to you, but it could others very deeply. Just put yourself into that person's shoes, if someone also post something that hurt you deeply too, how would you feel? So please think of other people's feeling first before you post any comments.

Circular Chart Reflection

From the results, I am best in people smart and number smart. From young, I am very shy to talk to people, when I went into primary school, our teachers make us talk to the friends around us more, slowly, I open up and get to know many friends, at that point of time, I suddenly realised that making friends is something good. All of us help each other out in srudies, project works and it is really FUN! As for number smart, I have a very strong interest in maths since i was young, so I got very interested in those critical thinking problem solving questions and I try to solve this kind of questions every now and then, therefore, I became quite good in maths.