The Maycomb Tribune

This week, my teacher asked me to do a straight news article. I have written two regarding To Kill A Mockingbird on Bob Ewell's attack and Mrs Dubose Demise. I have linked the published work here, for your reading pleasure. Enjoy~

http://www.scribd.com/doc/54270406/The-Maycomb-Tribune

http://www.scribd.com/doc/54324765/The-Maycomb-Tribune-Article-Mrs-Dubose

Task 2: Diary entry

Imagine you are a character living through one of the 20th century Wars. You can be either a civilian or a soldier. (Consider the age, gender, social class, occupation etc of the character.) Write a diary entry from the perspective of this person. 

A day in the life of the lost war

Dear Diary,

World War 2 had erupted for some time now, and since then our country has been suffering consecutive defeats. Yesterday, France  surrendered.

Now, these arrogant German soldiers are pillaging and ransacking our homes like it is nobody's business. Life is tough, danger is abundant, and I just had a narrow shave yesterday......

It was morning. I was at home, preparing a meal for my family in our newly bought flat. The announcement of France's defeat blasted through the radios. Victorious songs in the name of Hitler was played relentlessly.

This was just like a nightmare come true. Could France really have lost to Germany? Weren't we promised that France would crush the pathetic German army?

 Just then, a truck cluttered noisily to my flat and screeched to a halt. Fear engulfed me, what could they possibly want? An eerie silence descended onto the once lively and cheerful flat. All I could here were shouts and commands from the commanders in their gibberish language. German soldiers started alighting from the truck, and in no time, the whole flat was crawling with these pesky insects.     

"Seize them! " shouted one of the commanders.

Finally, I understood something they said, but this was just more bad news. Just then, a blood piercing scream broke the silence in the room.

They were in the flat beside us. Rampant knocking on our door soon followed.  Having no choice, I opened it.

Books, cupboards, shelves and drawers were not spared. Not a stone was left unturned. Worst of all, they had taken my priceless, antique music score which I had treasured so much. Before they left, my mother and I were not spared. We were taken away from our homes.

We were separated, and I was taken to this warehouse, filled with rusty oil barrels, cobwebs and termite infested wooden tables. They tied me to a chair blindfolded me, then asked me to wait. Death seemed inevitable and all I could do was pray for the best.

Time seemed to move so slowly. A minute seemed like eternity. Flashbacks of what I did in the past seemed to whiz pass my brain. I remembered the time when I first picked up my instrument. I remembered the first time I had met her. I remembered the smiles on her when she sat through my first concert. Memories of happiness and joy soon seemed to drift me further and further from this world. A crash suddenly brought me back to the world.

Just then, the smell of buttered escargots drifted to me. Could this be a dream? Escargots is my most favourite food. I opened my mouth, and took a huge bite, but ended up biting my own tongue. Darn, that fragrance was unbearable. How long have I been tied here already?

The dream before the nightmare, I told myself. Footsteps clicked.

My blindfold was taken off. I looked up and to my amazement, a German soldier was actually smiling at me. "Release him!" he ordered.

I found out that it was actually my old friend at the national university. Relief seemed to set itself upon me. I was saved.

It was already night. I chatted with him as him settled a plate of escargots on the table. I told him about the abduction of my mother, but soon found out that she was now safely at home. This was really a blessing in disguise!

It's getting late, that's all for today.

Regards,

Nicholas

Online Lesson (Term 2, Week 5): A personal response to War

Story behind the picture:


A few moments ago, we were ambushed, and my commander was hurt. "Quick," I cried, "bring him to safety, let us run for our lives." I looked up and saw a bullet skim pass my face. Behind us, a solid wooden kind of barricade stood. When we were safely behind the line of fire, I could finally look at my commander's wound 


Task 1:


Select one of the photos / images and write a descriptive paragraph on it. Engage your 5 senses -- this means you should describe not only what is seen, but what is heard, smelt, tasted and felt. Use literary devices (sound, imagery, diction) to bring the scene to life.


The powerful legs that carried him through battle lay stretched before him, his shrieks of pain filled my ears. I looked at him, sorrow and grief engulfing me. Although we survived, a bullet had ripped through his spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. In the distance, bullets cracked, and impending doom was certain to us. The stench of rotting flesh and dried blood soon overwhelmed us. The world was at its end. The seas had dried, the sun has faded, and the night was approaching. We had no medical treatment nor equipment, we had no way of getting out of this predicament.

Blog prompt: Essay - no.22

Celebrities are now more important than parents and teachers in guiding people's ambition - and this is a bad situation. What do you think?


People are treating their famous role models as "pseudo friends", a research found. However, when hero worship turned into obsession, fans could be left feeling isolated and lacking in social skills, the psychologists concluded. The ambitions of a person's are getting more influenced from celebrities, , and the influence of parents and teachers in guiding people's ambition is getting weaker.

Parents are having less and less control of their children. With both parents working, there is less time to spend with their children. Their children never gets a one-on-one time with each parent every day, so they do not know how much they are loved and valued as an individual. They are never taught the values they require. As such, they turn to other people for guidance, and slowly but surely, their ambition will be influenced by the person they take as a role model.

Teachers do not have a stake in their student's lives. Teachers are paid to teach, and to help develop the child academically. They have little influence over the child as the teacher never really makes individual sessions with each child. Teachers more often than not, teach things that are exam-oriented. Therefore the child's holistic development of values are not instilled by the teachers. As teachers get more and more distant from the child, their growth and ambitions are therefore not affected by the teacher.

People are getting more and more attracted to celebrities. Dr John Maltby, of the University of Leicester, said: "Psychological theory suggests that people can make attachments to a number of different people as well as their parents." Since people do not get enough attention from parents or teachers, they have to turn to someone else. Therefore, people turn to celebrities. People find celebrities attractive because everyone normally compliments them and they are exposed and shown so much on the media. These celebrities affect the way people think and their ambitions.

Imitation of celebrities are abundant. People grow up with the ambition to be and live like a celebrity that they admire. Celebrities influence fans to be destructively thin or put harmful substances in their bodies. For example, Lady Gaga's way of dressing, the lyrics she sings, is having a negative impact on people's ambition, and people who admire her picks up all her bad habits. Although Lady Gaga has never made her appearance in China, there are several celebrity followers here. For example Chinese actress Zhao Wei shoots a photo spread featuring Lady Gaga's hairstyle. The calamity of having mindless imitators comes to light when they join the workforce. They would not be well liked and might get fired if they behave with such habits.

Celebrities are now more important than parents and teachers in guiding people's ambition, and therefore they should now really think of really being a role model since they are so highly sought after.