Anna Lee: Information Technology

Although the information technology was developed long time ago in Taiwan, its popularity has grown in the last ten years. The sweeping changes brought about by computing and communication technology offer Taiwan a good opportunity to become the largest computer equipment supplier in the world. Many computer professionals and workers; therefore, became wealthy. The ratio of people owning computers versus the total population of Taiwan is increasing. It’s reported that currently each family in Taiwan owns at least two computers. Email, Blog, and online learning have changed the way people communicate with each other. For the past ten years the information technology boom in Taiwan has also changed the way I search literature for my work and the way I communicate with others.

First at all, the information technology boom in Taiwan has changed the way I search literature for my work. As a teacher and a researcher, I need current and relevant references to enrich the content of my teaching and ensure the consistency and appropriateness of my research proposals and manuscripts. In the past, I had to go to the library to search books and journals in person. Sometimes, if a specific journal was missing, I needed to file a request and hoped that the librarian could find it in other libraries. However, with the assistance of a computer, now, I could stay home doing online searching efficiently and easily and never worry about the problem of missing important articles. Furthermore, I used to use a typewriter to prepare my handouts for the class and to write research proposals and manuscripts ten years ago. If a mistake was made, then I had to retype it. However, using the computer, I can easily correct mistakes and reorganize sentences. Moreover, the style of calligraphy is changeable, so I can select the most suitable letterform for my writing.

Secondly, the information technology boom in Taiwan has changed the way I communicate with others. While I was in Chicago for a short-term study several years ago, the airmail was the only option for sending oversea mails. It took more than two weeks to get a response back from my friends in Taiwan, which made me upset and worried. However, nowadays, in only one second, I can send a letter to my friend through email. Furthermore, MSN and Skype can let me hear or see my friends no matter how far the distance is. My mother lives in south of Taiwan and has no computer. The cost of sending a letter from Toronto to Taiwan is triple the cost of sending a letter from the opposite direction, and it takes about two weeks. After several weeks struggling and waiting for letters; I finally found a faster and cost-effective way to do it; that is, I email a letter to my sister who lives in north of Taiwan and she prints it out and mails it to my mother. It only needs CAD $ 15 cents and one day to deliver the letter to my mother’s house.

In conclusion, the digital revolution in information technology has changed
not only my personal life but also the whole world. It accelerates the information exchange. Although some people might think of the slow pace of the old time, the advancement of information technology is inevitable. The best way is to keep up with the pace and catch up with it.

Anna Lee: Globalization

In order to develop the relationships with other countries and expand the international trade market, the government of ROC became a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and followed the rules on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) several years ago. Since then, businesses on goods, services, exporters, and importers have become much more globalized. Globalization has increased the interconnection between Taiwanese and people from other countries. There were three major changes caused by globalization in Taiwan: job opportunities, culture, and fashion.

Globalization has changed job opportunities in Taiwan. Globalization advances progress in the field of information especially in information technology and international communication. Information flows much more easily because of innovations such as the Internet. Internet has allowed not only the government but also private corporations to communicate with international businesses more efficiently. The advancement of technology created an easier environment for financial transactions to occur in a global market. As a result, globalization should lead to more employment when the government or private corporations receive more orders and expand their business. However, the import of labor from South Asia and China makes cheaper labor possible which lowers the average salary. As a result, the job opportunities for local Taiwanese are threatened.

Globalization has changed Taiwanese culture. As the number of workers or home caregivers from Thailand, Philippine, and Indonesia increases, it is unavoidable that they transmit their own lifestyle to their coworkers or employers. They establish their own churches and stores, which make mixed culture in the community. Moreover, through mixed marriage the breed is mixed. It is estimated that the number of newborns in last year was about 200,000 in Taiwan, one tenth of which were born by mixed marriage.

Globalization has changed Taiwanese fashion. The Taiwanese are already familiar with the fashionable style of clothes, shoes, or hair from Europe or America. Recently, inexpensive clothes and shoes from developing countries have attracted Taiwanese attention. The average price of those goods is much lower than the average price of local merchandises. Some design is appealing to and acceptable by Taiwanese. One other change that globalization brought is food. Fast food such as MacDonald’s, Ken turkey Fries Chicken, Pizza, and other western food already have branches in Taiwan. Those foods are highly accepted by Taiwanese. In addition, there are diversities of restaurants provide foods from South Asia, Thailand, and Vietnam which are also welcomed by Taiwanese.

In conclusion, although some Taiwanese are worried about the job insecurity brought by globalization, there are still some people in favor of globalization. Globalization greatly influences people’s lifestyle. It is possible that one-day, homogeneity could be reached in every aspect of people’s living.

Anna Lee: Military Service

Taiwan (the Republic of China) has had mandatory military service for all males since 1949. Because voluntary enlistment has reached sufficient numbers in recent years, the compulsory service period for draftees was shortened from twenty-four months to fourteen months in 2007. Some Taiwanese believes that military service can train a boy to be a man, which means he will have the traits of responsibility, caring, and courage after the service. However, there are two reasons which make me believe that military service should not be required as a way to develop good citizens.

First al all, I think that education makes a good citizen rather than a military service. A good citizen in different countries has different meanings. In Taiwan, it means that one should be a good neighbor by caring about others, sharing time and skills with the community to make it better, cleaner and safer, conserving resources by practicing the three R’s: Reduce, Re-use, Recycle, and staying informed on issues and voicing one’s opinions by voting. We learn from family when we are little. Parents should serve as positive role-models to teach their children by showing their concern to others, making the community better, and obeying certain rules. Later, we learn from schools on how to be a good citizen. Teachers instill in us the virtue of good citizenship through diverse classes teaching activities. By the time a person goes to military service, he already has his own beliefs and values; it is not easy to change a person’s behavior by a fourteen -month military service.

Secondly, Military service doesn’t always stand for good. A military is like a small world filled with a variety of people, good and bad. Abusing recruits is commonly heard. Sometimes, the drill instructor or old soldiers would cruelly maltreat the recruit and assault him. Therefore, military service is not a good place to learn to be a good citizen. Besides, the purpose of military service is to defend the nation, so its training program is directed for that purpose. Soldiers are trained to be good warriors. They learn how to use machine-gun, how to kill an enemy, and how to camouflage. A well-known kidnapping case happened several years ago in Taiwan. The kidnapper was well trained during his service in the military. The policemen took extreme efforts to capture him because he was an experienced fugitive. He knew how to escape without leaving a trace behind. He even killed a physician because he asked the physician to do a plastic surgery on his face. His behavior was far away from a good citizen.

In conclusion, military service is needed to protect the nation from attack by other nations. Its main purpose is to train soldiers to fight for their country, not to be humble and polite citizens. Therefore, I believe that it is not necessary for someone, man or woman, to be a good citizen through military service.

Bita Khademi: A Woman's Role

Women have a big responsibility inside the family. As a wife or a mother, she should take care of every thing so that every member of family feels calm and comfortable. Raising children as well as cooking, cleaning and shopping have made a housewife’s duties more challenging. All of these affairs are time-consuming and require patience and attention. However, today, there is a tendency inside the female society toward many other responsibilities. There are several reasons which explain why women should also be active outside the home.
First of all, women have proved that they are able to participate efficiently in different positions. Taking part in different steps of business is one of them. Women either as a manager or in a lower step as a secretary have been successful. Meanwhile, many women are highly educated and as professionals appear in different organizations. In universities, many ladies are teaching and investigating in different fields, and many educational books have published by them. Furthermore, female workers and employees have a big role in running many companies, and in both production and office administration women have been working shoulder to shoulder with men. In addition, in the military service, women have found a significant position. Having been familiar with their duties as a commander or soldier, they have been successful and honoured. During the war in battle field and war- stricken zones, women’s relief work have provided a significant support. Women, as a part of these forces, have been very supportive by nursing the wounded and providing food, medicine, and other supports.
Second, choosing a career outside the home can give women a chance to enhance their abilities and skills. Intellectual growth is one of these abilities. Challenging with different problems in work helps them to decide more wisely in other affairs. Furthermore, working as professionals in any organization requires effective communication with other experts which provide them an increase in their knowledge. Moreover, being involved in a job can give them a sense of self-esteem. Financial independence is a definite advantage of having a career. It makes a woman more confident encountering any situation. In addition, any salary can be beneficial in the improvement of economic condition of the family. In fact, the more the salary, the more each family can benefit from more advanced facilities.
To sum up, although a housewife can make a home more comfortable, her occupation is more beneficial for both family and society. As they form half of the population, they have a big role in running many affairs, and this can hardly be ignored.

Susan Lee: Globalization in Korea

Nowadays, we can hear about globalization everyday on Tv, radio and the internet; besides, we realize that the world is changing quickly, as the countries have come closer to eachother. However, Koreans think about globalization in different ways. Some of them view it is a process which is beneficial to the future world, so they think that it is the result of human innovation and technological progress. Another group of Korean people view it with hostility, even fear, because they believe that it increases inequality between nations and threatens employment. However, I believe that globalization has greatly affected culture and Education in South korea.

The culture has been considerably changed. Frist, globalization has changed our country's food dramatically. There were many small grocery stores in a residential street before Korea became globalized. As the world becomes more global, a combination of stores which contains western food appeared and have become bigger to compete with western grocery store, as Walmart, Karfu, the Costco. Although western grocery stores could not succeed, it affected our country's distribution industry. Therefore, people could buy import items esilsy at the supermarket. Every shelf in a shop display a variety of items from all over the world even fruit and vegetables. Also, western fast food command general popularity in South korea like other countries. For instance, Macdonalds has opened over 200 store in South korea, so a lot of people could eat hamburgers and fries for a cheep price. By introducing western style restaurants, a lot of up-scale restaurants have been created. For example, T.G.I Fridays, family restaurant, has opened fifty store in South korea in a short time; futhermore, it has always fascinated people even though prices are expensive. Second, entertainment has been changed. The introduction of other country's cultural productions, which can be a entertainment, have benefited the music and entertainment industry. Despite the fact that ticket prices of the concert are expensive, many people enjoy the performances. However, the globalization has not affected all of us in a positive way. As time goes by, the computer appeared as the way of entertainment. For example, the better-known, user-friendly, multimedia side of the Internet, called the World Wide Web, grew almost 20-fold. In just few years, users created more than 3 million multimedia pages of information, entertainment, and advertising. It made people more individual; as a result, the internet makes people lonelier and increases isolation, even though it is a wide word of communication. Third, globalization has affected our fashion style. Fashion shows from other country, created a variety of styles in our fashion. Most people prefer to wear famous brands from all over the world. Also, globalization has made our traditional clothes combine with western style. For instance, our traditional dress consists of a top and a skirt, but nowadays people like wearing without top like a evening dress in the Western countries. It has been designed in european style; so that, it looks like fusion-dress which harmonized Eastern and Western.

Education has been rapidly changed in South korea by providing information of the foreign school in the world. First, studying aboard became common; therefore, the number of international students has dramatically increased. Futhermore, there are a lot of students who are anxious to study in different countries. Thus, this situation has led people to go another country automatically. A large number of people immigrate to all over the countries each year. Second, by introducing foreign method many people could learn diverse methods. For example, I learned the music method 'Kodaly method' which was introduced by Zoltan kodaly, a Hungarian composer and educator. This method has affected teachers and music curriculum in my country like other countries. In addition, lots of teaching method was introduced by globalization. Also, the number of a foreign language institutes has up sharply and they are wild spread. Besides, there are plenty of places for the kids to practice speaking English: they can withdraw play money at a pretend bank, then use it to tip their waiter at a restaurant. Likewise, they can practice English which they learned from the place as a real Canadian or American lives. Moreover, fluency in English is essential, and a working knowledge of foreign language is highly desirable in many companies in South korea.

In conclusion, as the world become global, there are many things which have changed by globalization. Especially, globalization has changed South korea's culture and education. Also, I agree that there is not only positive way but also negative way. However, it is difficult to return a wave of globalization even though there are many problems. Because, it is not just a recent phenomenon; also, globalization comes from supporting high technology which developed by man. Besides, it comes from man's passion for a better lives

Sergey Kazakov : Globalization

All of us had an opportunity to witness ugly scenes during the recent G-8 meeting when anti-globalists tried to interrupt its. Usually, their struggle against Globalization takes grotesque forms such as fighting police, firing it bonfires, and crashing stores’ windows. They claim that it is their response to Globalization which has led to exploitation of and suffering among people in the developing countries. They believe that the broken window in the McDonald’s in North America or Europe could help these people. It is difficult for me to catch the connection between those different issues. But maybe I do not understand something important which kept me from participation in this noble social movement. To answer this question we should analyze the nature of Globalization, and understand the negative and positive features which it brigs in our life.

From scientific point of view, the nature of Globalization is absolutely clear and exists in good correspondence with mutual physical laws with respect to sociology – any system without outer influences tends to reach mean level of all possible properties inside itself. From human history, we know that people in all times tried to make connections, to cooperate with habitats of different corners of the World. For example, in former days, the most successful merchants organized constant supply of different exotic goods from India to Europe, and everybody was happy to use the results of their activities. It is also clear that in our time when easy communications between different countries are possible any company would try to take advantage of world labor market. Recently it has become usual practice that big companies are moving their facilities to the East, China for example.

As any complex matter, this process has negative features. The addicts of anti-globalism theory try to prove that due to Globalisation, international companies are gaining possibility to rob “poor” countries when they buy natural resources at low prices and sell back goods from these same resources for high prices. It is inhuman and should be prohibited. We also know that salaries for the same job at developing countries are much less compared with those in developed countries. Worries exist that this process may destroy national cultural identities or local cultures. People can buy the same hamburger everywhere around the World; run-on the youth are listening the same music and prefer the same clothes fashion, and it is serious.
But we can find a lot of positive features which Globalization is bringing too. Maybe the most important thing is that it is the only one real possibility for developing countries to participate in World Market. As a result they are gaining new technologies, new factories are growing in these countries; educational level of their population is growing, too. It leads to the creation of national intelligence and improvement in society in general, although this road doesn’t promise to be easy. Due to this process many young people have had the opportunity to achieve there own high targets. Many multinational companies such as Microsoft use in their R&D departments people educated elsewhere around the world. Science has become a really international issue due to it.

This short analysis demonstrated that Globalization is a very complex, controversial, but objective event of our current life. When I see fighting of anti-globalists with police, I have strange feeling that I head about something similar before. Maybe it reminds me of Luddits who tried to destroy steam-machines to prevent poor people from loosing their job places. I have a feeling that intentionally or unintentionally they try to do the same – to struggle against unavoidable objective things of our life. We should agree that they formulated very important questions, but their approach to its resolution is absolutely wrong. – They must fight not to stop progress but elaborate approaches on how to use Globalization event for the benefit of poor countries and theirs population. History of developed countries has proved that all questions concerning exploitation and national authenticity may be solved. And let’s not forget that not only multinational corporations but also population of these countries with all their experience of struggling human rights and fighting for environment will participate in Globalization, too.

Sergey Kazakov: A Woman's Place

What does this question mean? By its inner nature it should be answered only “YES” or “NO”. But we should not forget that it concerns such complex and contradictory matter as “woman”. Due to this, a lot of people, who were asked this question, had different meaning for the same words in the same sentence. This short question may be answered in absolutely different and contradictory terms.
People, who answer “NO”, regard it as a test of loyalty to women rights. They are usually the addicts of feminist movement, which supposes equality of men and women everywhere and their mutual responsibility for raising children and running a household. Mankind history is full off brilliant achievements of women even in muscular fields, such as fight at battlefield in case of J.d’Arc. In some difficult situation they demonstrated bigger gusto compares with men. There participation in politic recently has brought them dignity.
People who answered this question “YES” are appealing to the habits and tradition, when household was women’s responsibility. Even the Bible ratifies this situation. Many women like the idea of being a “Mother” and “Wife”; it is a big pleasure for them to build a nest where their family would live. Many women till now think that life on behalf of their children and husband is the highest destiny of their life. They care about their children instinctively. They should not deprived by their rights.
Nobody argues that man and woman is equal creatures. Even Catholic Church in 1968 agreed with this. But, why women should choose between two possibilities? Why she cannot be a mother and successful businessman simultaneously? Let’s leave answer to this question to women. Our goal should be the creation of possibilities for every woman to make a free choice and support her decision.

Anne Lee: Global Korea

Anne Lee
The development of means of transportation and communication has changed the globe into a global village. If you are an ambitious businessman, you will make your target market not only your own country but also the entire world. This unavoidable new wave has affected most of the world. Korea is also no exception in this globalization wave. Globalization has had great effects on the industrial structure, job opportunities, society and culture of Korea.

First of all, globalization of labor market and trade has dramatically affected Korean industries. Labor-intensive industries such as textile sectors, clothing sectors, once contributed to the initiative economic booming in Korea. However, rising labor cost obstructed further growth of these parts of indusries. Consequently, they turned their eye to the neighboring countries to look for a cheap labor market since neiboring countries were no longer far away countries. Alternative driving power of economic growth of Korea was IT industry. Therefore, government made great effort and investment on training IT engineers. Those highly skilled human resource did their job more than expectation of country up to the economic crisis in 1996. Combination of unrest of Korean economy and golden hello of developed countries made brain drain. Because traveling and movement of their business or residence to another country was not an impossible issue any more, manufacturers moved their factories to China, Vietnam and skilled workers moved to developed countries to receive more benefits. As a consequence of those movements, the industrial structure is forming into new one. The trend of trade also made a great impact on Korean industrial structure. Since the entire world is a marketing place, we have had to respect WTO. If we want fair competition in the trade with other countries, we should respect their expectation of fair competition in domestic market either although it has drastic downside. As a result of moving toward export-oriented strategy for development of country, changes in industries were inevitable.

Secondly, changes of industries made huge impact on job opportunities in Korea. People who do not have many skill and education used to have enough income for supporting their family from hard working in labor-intensive industries. However, many of them plunged into poverty due to job losses and lack of job opportunities. Since those industries moved their factories to China and even small sweat shops hired illegal cheaper foreign labor, there were no more job for them. People who are skilled and educated but not overseas trained or not highly educated also have difficulties to find education-appropriate jobs. Because increasing number of overseas educated or trained work forces are taking over their job places, they lower their job expectations.

Thirdly, less job opportunities for domestic people and more job opportunities for foreign work force have affected Korean society. As a consequence of lack of job opportunities for grass-roots, the number of city slummers and homeless people has been increased considerably. It brought higher crime rate and more insecure sense to the whole society. More and more hiring foreigners to do menial jobs forced our society to forget about pride of a homogeneous nation. Without foreign work force, small business cannot survive any more. As living with those people who came from all over the world became necessary, Korean society started opening our door to the multicultural society.

Finally, these changes have affected not only society but also it's culture. Nowadays, more koreans are moving to other countries with our unique culture and more foreigners are coming to Korea to live with their own culture. Consequently, Korean culture is moving toward multi-culturalism. Despite the fact that it is just beginning, it is obviously predictable move. However, there are great concern about losing Korean cultural identity.

To conclude, globalization has already made a huge impact on the industrial structure, job opportunities, society and culture of Korea, and it is still an on-going situation. If it is inevitable, we should try to gain competitive edges through analysis and research.

Susan Lee: Moving

I am very happy when I imagine that I toured another country even for only one week; how much more excited I should feel if I were to live to anther part of my country. I have already realized that I am delighted have come to Canada from my own country. I have learned so many things and could have brilliant expectations in my future life. I believe that living in a variety of places has the pros and cons. However, I prefer to move in order to improve my life for three main reasons.

Firstly, It is a good idea to live in a better climate. Enjoying nature is good for mental health. Nature, says the proverb, is the best physician. I like feeling the turning of the season except winter; likewise, gardening in the spring, sunning myself at the beach in the summer, seeing the changing leaves in the fall please me. Making snowman is also my hobby after my children were born. Also, it helps me enjoy my favorite activities in each season like swimming and skiing. Also, I agree that air quality can affect people's health. Living in less polluted places is beneficial. In the very busy city, for example, air pollution in Seoul is very serious. People suffer from air pollution, and they often get sick because of the heavy smog that fills the air. After I came to Canada, I recognized that there are less traffic jams, and its air is clean - free from pollution. Automatically, it leads to less lung disease.

Secondly, it is important to live in comfortable and useful places. A community may be considered to be an extension of a family; also, I think a good neighbor is better than a sister far off. When I need a friend, I want to go to my neighbor who is an unceremonial friend; for instance, after finishing our basement, it was really bad but my neighbor helped with the clean up. Besides, she can take care of my children when I am late to pick them up. Also, facilities are one of an important thing for a better life. For instance, greenery creates a natural gathering space for neighbors and, ultimately, stronger bonds in the community. Good community must contain entertainment facilities as well, including a theater, a golf course, several miles of bicycle trails and park.

Thirdly, it is most important to experience learning opportunities in other places. First of all, I still like to go where the language and culture are different from what I am used to. Learning new language was going to be a whole new challenge when I started studying. I really like to feel that every language has slightly different nuances. Also, I love exploring the cultures and traditions of the whole world they are learning about. Especially, experiencing variety of food culture is very interesting. I believe that if people understand the culture of each other, they will be very close.

I think that my opinion would change if I were to move more often. However, I believe that moving would expose me to new climate, new places and new learning experiences. As time goes by, I will long to see all over the country; finally, I hope I wound be a globe-trotter.

Anna Lee: Airplanes

The world’s first airplane made by the Wright brothers on December 17, 1903 was a big invention in transportation. Since then, a variety of airplanes have been produced. Some people may think taking the airplane is dangerous because the risk involved. However, it is reported that the total number of accidental deaths by other means of transportations is more than those by air. It is expected that the majority of people would take airplanes when they travel. Airplanes have changed people’s lives in two major ways.

Taking Airplanes is timesaving and promotes economic development Airplanes are timesaving means of transportations because flying is fast and easy. It takes about twenty to 26 hours from Asia to North America by air, comparing to one week by ship. Therefore, people can easily travel from one place to another place. Airplanes make touring, studying abroad, doing business, attending conferences and other events possible. As a result, it promotes economic development.

However, taking airplanes causes some inconveniences in people’s lives. It is uncomfortable to sit in a narrow seat for a lengthy trip. The muscles may become tense and joints stiff from the hours of sitting in the same position. Fatigue and discomfort may arise. Jetlag is also a common complication after traveling by air. Another problem involved the complicating process such as one needs to book a ticket in advance, and most of the time, the ticket is nonrefundable. Moreover, one needs to arrive at the airport one or two hours ahead, depending on domestic or international flight. In addition, the expensive fare is not affordable for everyone. The round-trip fare from Taiwan to Toronto is about CAD 1500, so it is surely I will not use it as often as I use other means of transportations such as buses or trains.

In conclusion, traveling by air is faster and easier which brings people closer. Although it has some inconveniences, taking the airplane is inevitable in the modern society. The good news is some companies such as the Singapore Air, recently developed much more comfortable seats for their VIP guests. Therefore, if one can afford the fare, traveling by air will be an enjoyable thing to do.

Bessie Chan: Learning from the Past

Learning about the past (by Bessie Chan) Date:6-11-2007
The present life is different from the past. Technology has improved our quality of life, and the problems we face nowadays are totally different from the past. For example, it is impossible to find any realistic solution about the predicament of global warming from the ancient great empires because they knew nothing about the problem. It sounds reasonable, right? But it is also possible to learn valuable idea from the past. Although many people think that learning about the past has no value for those of us in the present, studying the history reasonably leads us to a more successful life.

Learning from others' successes directs us to the way of success. It is true that ¡§Every man I meet is in some way my superior¡¨ (Ralph Waldo Emerson). Great people of the past are our superior. The reasons for their success give us hints to the way of success. Their characters and attitudes are the model that our youngster should imitate and learn. Furthermore, it is commonly known that student who studying ¡§Political¡¨ should have a deep knowledge about the history. Every government facing predicament will ask the ¡§Wh¡¨ questions such as ¡§What would the previous brimming government have done if they are faced the same problem?¡¨ A successful government learns the secret of success from the previous rulers.

Learning from others' failure keep us from making the same mistake again. No one wants to taste the bitter experience of failure. It is true that ¡§He that plants thorns must never expect to gather roses¡¨. So, what we should do is not making the same mistake that led to failure. Moreover, the society is more likely to give a second chance for those juvenile offenders but tends to agree to have a harder retribution on recidivist. These imply that everyone is expected to learn from the failure and won¡¦t make the same mistake again. I believe that ¡§Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it¡¨.

To sum up, although learning about the past does not necessarily lead to a successful life, there can be little doubt that knowing more about the success and failure of the past directs us to a brimming life with less regret.

Susan Lee: A Decision

The story of 'The lotus eater', written by Somerset Maugham, tells the story of Thomas Wilson who visited Capri Island located at the Bay of Naples. He was so enchanted with the place that he resigned from his job, sold his house and then used his savings to buy the annuity. He decided to live which would enable him to live the rest of his life without any cares on Capri. He saved just enough money to survive for a set period; and, he lived happily for twenty-five years in a cottage. After his annuity expired, he remained in the cottage until the owner finally told him that he had to leave. Then he tried to commit suicide unsuccessfully by setting fire to the cottage. Assunta, the land lady, and her husband helped him to survive. Finally, he became misfit and antisocial; after six years later, he died under the beautiful moonlight. The Thomas Wilson's tragic end was the result of his choice.

Tomas Wilson may have wanted to avoid boring lifestyle, so he was in pursuit of leisurely life in Nature. Wilson's life led in his adopted home of Capri was a boring daily routine. He was a common place bank manager and he wanted to escape the monotonous life. Also, before his wife died, he had never left his home because his wife did not like travelling. Also, he thought that he felt lonely until he was thirty-four years old; therefore, he could not do exactly what he wanted. He was really cautious about his decision to go to Capri and then he settled the matter after he read a history book, Marion Crawford. He fell in love with the beautiful place at first sight and made up his mind to leave his London life and income behind in exchange for enjoying a leisure time on Capri.

However, Tomas Wilson suffered from very difficult time as a result of his decision. He lost living expense when his annuity expired but he could easily borrow money for some years. As time went by, he could not have any credit anymore; besides, it made him lose his dignity in his relationship with other people. He had no mental capacity, so he was taken to the hospital. After that, he lived in horrible condition. Assunta, the land lady, and her husband took a pity on him, so they let him stay in a woodshed and shared their food to repay his kindness. However, Assunta's husband drove him too hard as a servant so that Wilson had to carry water and clean up the cow-shed and other hard work. Futhermore, he became the antisocial.

Maugham describes Wilson as enjoying his life on the island for the first fifteen years; however, he never shows any sign of regret for the fateful decision that which he made . However, I think that the Wilson's choice to spend his life following a life of leisure on Capri brought his tragic end. Life cannot be led without money or circumstances. In fact, many people can take controll of their lives by managing money and mastering their circumstances. From this point of view, Tomas wilson could not control all his possession.

Anne Lee: Shame

Why did Richard feel ashamed in the story "Shame"?
Anne Lee
The story "Shame" is about how Richard Gregory learned shame in his childhood. Although Richard had a single mother and suffered from poverty, he did his best to keep his pride. He also wanted to look nice to Helen who was his classmate and had everything everybody wanted. However, his naive intention ended up bringing shame to him in front of Helen and other classmates. After he learned shame in his class, Helen became his driving force to get out of poverty for the next twenty-two years. As far as I understood, Richard felt shame because everybody pitied his poverty, and he was too late to help other when he can do.

Richard was ashamed when his whole class felt sorry for his poverty. He always tried to look like a normal boy, just like other children in his class. Despite the fact that he did not have water to wash his only piece of clothes and heat to dry it up during winter, he managed to wash it everyday to look clean before Helen. Although his father was not there to support his family and even his donation, he shined shoes for his family and "buying a dad" for donation. Moreover, he did not want others' sympathy but respect. He felt good when he thought he could donate money to top Helen's. Friday afternoon's washing the blackboard in his classroom made him feel important. However, he could not pretend to be a normal boy anymore due to his teacher's insensitive mention about his being on relief and his having no dad in the class. From that time, he was a miserable poor boy with no daddy, relying on other's help. He was so ashamed that he did his best to impress Helen.

In another way, Richard felt sick about himself when he was too late to help a wino when he was capable to do so. After his bitter lesson, when he encountered the opportunity of helping a more pitiable wino, he waited too long to help him. The wino had already paid with his blood and shame. Richard had suffered that kind of embarrassment long time before, but he could not help another poor person properly. It is like that his teacher and classmates intended to help him but made him ashamed. Therefore, he was ashamed again about himself.

To sum up, Richard was a kind of independent boy with high self-esteem. His ego could not allow others' sympathetic help. When he felt others' pitiable eyes on him, he felt shame. When he could not offer his help in an appropriate way, he was ashamed. Anyway, it is admirable that he had that kind of strong soul which could turn shame into power..

Sergey Kazakov: The Lotus Eater

Sergey
Why did Thomas Wilson choose to live a life of happiness and what were the consequences?

Somerset Maugham in his novel "the Lotus Eater" has aroused old philosophical question – how to live ours lives? Great majority of us, despite being unsatisfied with our lives, think that it could be only one way - as it goes. But only few of us are really trying to change it, to take our fate in our own hands. Is it possible to reach this goal? Author analyzed this not very common situation in example of Mr. Thomas Wilson, an absolutely ordinary person, who seems to be one of us. Mr. T.Wilson had tried to solve this problem by cutting off all boring things of his life. He took all advantages of time for preparation his "happy life" – he analyzed the situation from different points of views and made his decision in absolute agreement with his desires. But despite Mr.Wilson’s reasons to live a "happy life", his approach could not be regarded as absolutely successful.
Although this question had not been discussed in the novel in full details we can suggest that it was only one of many possible ways to build up a "happy life", which in the biggest way was up to Mr. Wilson’s personality and suit his mentality. His dull life in grey smoky London, his everyday boring duties went in contradiction with beauty and splendor of southern Italy – gorgeous nature, lovely weather, friendly people and atmosphere of leisure and joy. According to the story this occurred not long after his wife’s death and maybe it was his first visit abroad. He was charmed, fascinated! An other reasons which influenced his decision, had to do with his character – he was selfish. Even his daughter’s death did not disturb him a lot; despite the fact that he spoke about his wife with respect, he did not felt any remorse because of her early death; he hated and despised his mother-in-law. He was an ordinary man, "common place", as S.Maugham characterized him, without any bright abilities and without any tiny will to achieve something which needed a scruple of efforts. He did his work only for living – the only one thing which he mentioned during his long conversations was remark that he needed 37 minutes to reach his work by walking. So this ordinary, unsatisfied, unambitious person without any close relationships in the whole world had chosen his own way of living – he decided not to struggle with obstacles, but to cut them off, to build up "happy life", which totally consist of pleasurable things.
Full consequences of his decision became evident not so fast. At first he was quiet happy with his life – all had moved in accordance with his plan. He enjoyed food, his tiny living place, small measure of pleasures such as books, tobacco and wine. He did not allow anybody even women to disturb his peaceful and quiet existence. I suppose that during this period he was quite happy in his own way. But as time passed his troubles began. And the main problem was the lack of money. Consequences were dreadful –a once respectful man became a "vegetable". He lost all his dignity, self-respect. The finish was expectable – death in the dirt. I even felt a relief that this had occurred at last – it is difficult to see a man without any trace of humanity. We feel that it was reasonable – T.Wilson was not able to take into account all consequences of his idea of "happy life".
But can we be sure that it was the only one possible way of events? No. We can imagine that he would be wiser and he would not be in such kinds of troubles. Would he be successful with his idea in this case? Can "happy life" be built by this method? The supposed answer should be "No". When you are cutting some troubles from your life, other ones became troubles which you had not regarded as troubles before.

Wang-Tai Lee: Think Before Choosing Home Schooling

Think Over Before Taking Home Schooling

In the ancient time, education stemmed from home; people learned things from their parents and siblings while farming, hunting and cooking. Being dissatisfied with that, people went to churches, wizards’ places, or some wise men’s houses to learn more. Schools, therefore, were developed gradually. They have played a great role in civilization history for thousands of years. Until recently, again, people were dissatisfied with the school systems, and some children are being taken out of school. Home schooling is becoming an issue in the education arena. Still, I never think home schooling is a good idea for three reasons.

First, a huge sense of alienation is widening everywhere because of urbanization and computerization, and the idea of home schooling will worsen them. People made conveniences of the inventions of modern technology in their lives wind up isolating themselves from the society. In addition, most of the families have one or two children now, so the kids are very lonely and isolated at home. However, human beings are social animals; both individual’s success and civilization developments depend on effective team works. A nice teamwork depends upon nice people skills. Thus, it is a good idea for parents to start looking for peers for their children, and even a little bit peer pressure in classroom is becoming useful for children’s growing up under such circumstance. Actually, schools provide good places to train children and practice team works. Home schooling doesn’t have such functions.

Secondly, political and economic stability depend on some major ideas, and home schooling cannot help to build them up. Those ideas such as majority rules and respecting minority, rule of law, team works, among others are necessary and extremely important. Without them, no government, company, international organization can operate efficiently; besides, the people in developing countries will keep suffering from dictatorship and despoliation. Those ideas are easier to know than to do; therefore, children need to be trained not just taught. In another words, in order to build up those basic ideas, our children need to be trained in schools for years through many different kinds of classes. People can learn some ideas in groups not just by one-on-one teaching method. Schools are the most supportive system in this world and can hardly be replaced.

Thirdly, the need of home schooling will be eliminated gradually because of the changing methods in schools. There are two main reasons for home schooling; one is the common use of modern IT (information technology) at home; the other is the unity teaching components in school. Now, distance education can provide flexible places and flexible time for teaching and learning activities. Moreover, school systems have become more varied. More and more schools allow different classroom philosophy so that parents can choose the most suitable one for their children accordingly.

As a matter of fact, our world is becoming a global village; globalization plus urbanization put a lot of strangers and foreigners together in the same community. School systems are one of the inevitable venue for parents and students to meet together. What’s more, there will be a device letting us to carry whole library’s knowledge in our palms; we can get it almost instantly by just using one finger only. Therefore, everyone is knowledgeable in the foreseen future, but I still believe the diverse schools are even more in need instead of none at that time.

Bessie Chan: Wilson's Choice

Wilson’s choice (by Bessie Chan) Date:12-10-2007
In W. Somerset Maugham’s story “The Lotus Eater”, Thomes Wilson decided to follow a life of pleasure but he confronted a sad ending. Wilson, a commonplace bank manager who had boldly taken the course of his life into his own hands, decided to have his early retirement at the age of thirty-five. He chose to live a life of happiness for twenty-five years on the beautiful Capri. At the age of around sixty, he committed suicide unsuccessfully and died six years later. He, on the whole, got what he deserved.

There were a few reasons for him to make this decision. First of all, he had great passion for the beauty of nature and happiness. He fell in love with the little island of Capri at first sight when he was having his summer holiday at the age of thirty-four. He also realized that “Leisure” was the aim of his work and his life. In addition, he had no one dependent on him any more. His wife had died when he was thirty-one. His kid went to live with her grandmother. The only one that he was responsible for was himself.

The consequences of his choice were amazing. He chose to live a life of happiness for twenty five years in the beautiful Capri. He had his own little place to live. He had a servant to look after his house work. He had leisure life to read a great deal on all sorts of subjects. He had time and patience to play piano. He had enough money to enjoy tobacco and wine.He had energy to walk on the mountainside in the moonlight, He had the serenity to enjoy the beautiful scence of Capri…. However, he faced a sad ending in the last few years of his life. When he was sixty, his annuity expired. He managed to hang on borrowing money from others for something over a year. Afterward, he could get no more credit; no one wanted to lend him any more money. Then, he committed suicide by burning charcoal in his tiny badroom. He was found alive and was taken to the hospital but finally recovered. He, no longer in his right mind, “endured to live like a hunted animal for six years”. He was found dead lying peacefully on the beautiful mountainside after a full-mooned night.

As said by the author, W. Somerset Maugham, “on the whole we all get what we deserved”. Wilson got what he deserved too. He lived the excellent life while he still had the capacity and the vigour to enjoy life. His passion for the beauty of nature was fully satisfied. Life offers happiness to everyone in the simple and natural things, and he successfully found it. He had attained his only objective of life-his own happiness. He was such a wise man that had enjoyed happiness, which very few people know where to look for and fewer still find it for twenty-five years. In my opinion, the only thing that he might possibly have regretted was the moment he hesitated after he committed suicide.

Bessie Chan: EQ

Emotional Intelligence Date:19-9-2007
Emotional Intelligence , or EQ,includes skills such as understanding one’s emotions and relating well to other people. According to psychologist Nancy Matz, there are five components of the EQ. They include “Self-Awareness” , “Self-Control” , “Self-Motivation” , “Empathy”,and “People Skills”.In my opinion, “Self-Control” , “Self-Awareness” and “Empathy” are the most important in Emotional Intelligence.

“Self-Control” is a kind of intrapersonal relationship that reflects the ability of handling one’s emotions. It is a fact that everyone faces disappointments everyday. We must all learn to deal with setbacks. When things go wrong, we will get depressed. Someone will allow themselves to dwell on failures for a few minutes, the whole day or even the whole life. It is obvious that no one can control one’s thoughts. One should tell himself that it is time to stop being depressed and think positively. For example, I was very disappointed when I failed my driving road test. After feeling upset for a few minutes, I told myself that the world won’t change eventhough I keep on feeling depressed. Afterward, I discussed other social issue with my driving teacher. It was apparent that I didn’t feel so disappointed when my focus changed.

“Self-Awareness” is a kind of intrapersonal relationship that reflects the ability of understanding oneself. When things go wrong, we must keep going and not let the problems stop us. In the example mentioned above, I studied the results sheet carefully and figured out the mistakes that I had made in the road test. I decided to pay more attention to those weak aspects when I drive the next time.
“Empathy” is a kind of interpersonal relationship that reflects the ability of understanding others’ emotions .It is true that no one is an island. One cannot live by himself and ignore others. Everyone must deal with others and have interpersonal relationship with others. The most effective way to understand others’ emotions is to project yourself into others’ situation. Once again, in my example of driving road test, when my friend told me that she failed two times in her driving road test and had the same feeling as me, I suddently felt that she was like my old friend and understood me a lot.

Can anyone be trained to develop their EQ? It depends on how one can control his/her emotion, how one has his/her self-awareness and how one can show empathy towards others. If someone can control his/her emotion,he/she will not dwell on failures forever. If someone is self-aware enough, he can improve himself and escape from failure. If someone knows how to show empathy towards others, he can probably heal others’ sorrows and relate well to others. After doing all of the above, there is no doubt that one can upgrade his/her EQ.

Bessie Chan: Home Schooling

The Idea of home schooling Date:24-9-2007

What is home schooling? When childern are educated at home or in places other than a traditional setting as in a school,it is called home schooling.The idea of home schooling is detable as it has adventages and disadventages.

The adventages of home schooling are enormous. It is believed that the emotion of a child affects his/her learning.Bullying from other students will kill the motivation of learning in a young child. It is obvious that there is less bullying in home schooling. Teenagers who are easily affected by peer pressure will absolutely have less negative peer pressure when they are educated in home schooling. Also, it is apparent that children are internally motivated to learn in home schooling as they can choose the subjects they are interested in. Teaching methods and teaching materials are some of the external factors affecting children’s learning. The parents, acting as the teachers in home schooling , not limited by school curriculm, provide flexible teaching methods and immense teaching materials to their childern. Children learning under these global curriculum will absolutely have an open-mind about the world. As students spend long periods of time with their family in home schooling, the relations between family members will probably become closer.

The disadvantage of home schooling are undoubtly numerous. It is believed that students teaching and supporting each other with their own language and methods raise the learning effectively.These emotional factor of positive peer encouragement can hardly be found in home schooling. There has external factors affecting children’s learning. Unlike traditional school, home schooling is not subsidized by the government. Those un-organized home school and unwealthy parents may find it difficult to provide enough learning materials and resources for their children to learn. Relationship with others is another aspect that we should consider. As students spend short periods of time dealing with other classmates in home schooling, it is possible that they will become more self-centered and less social-skilled persons.

In conclusion, I believe that in home schooling, as with any debatable issue, the adventages and disadvantages are neither simple nor one-sided. The most important thing is how people apply the idea of home schooling by taking its advantages and diminishing its disadvantages.

Susan Lee: The Internet

A large number of people say that the Internet provides people with a lot of valuable information. I firmly agree that the Internet has made our lives much more convenient and efficient by providing a lot of valuable information.

First, in my view, students find a lot of information on the Internet very easily. Before the Internet was common, students had difficulty searching for information they needed. The only way was looking in their textbooks or other books by visiting libraries or buying books at the bookstore. This way not only wasted too much time but also was inefficient. On the contrary, nowadays, students can access various information all over the world at just one or two clicks of a mouse . From my personal experience, when I was a freshman in university, I had to make a presentation about early music education in two days. At first, I was at a loss how to gather proper information. Fortunately, thanks to the Internet, I was able to get much data by accessing the international libraries. In addition, I also had a chance to listen to on-line lectures provided by famous educational institutions across the world.

Second, companies benefit from the internet. If in the past, companies found information without Internet, they not only had to hire more employees but also wasted so much time searching for it than now. However, nowadays, companies are able to find the proper information with a few office workers. For instance, a company selling dresses can easily get the list of companies specializing in parties or events if one employee knows how to use the Internet. Besides, if one employee has the ability to create web site , then the company can generate profits consistently. Futhermore, companies can search for and contalk more offerr by having the internet, and then there are many chances to give and take its own services to them . Also, by using the Internet, it is possible for a company to advertise many advantages of items.

To summarize, although the Internet cannot be said to be totally perfect, the advantage of providing a lot of valuable information to both students and companies outweigh its disadvantage. For this reason, the Internet can surely be said to not only benefit individuals but also our society more progressively.

wang Tai Lee: What Are We Deleting From The Developments Of Email

The inventions of modern technology are playing an important role today. They have changed our daily lives and the whole world a lot. The email, for example, is one of the wonderful developments in this computerized era. We have taken a great advantage of using it everyday since it was popular everywhere. However, I think we are losing the enjoyment of handwriting, reading, and delivering letters; in fact, those are the three ways the email has diminished our quality of life.

First of all, we send email by typing instead of handwriting; actually, an increasing number of people don’t use pen to write a letter any longer. It seems we lose nothing when we enjoy the convenience and speed of typing on the computer. There is a variety of arts and skills for us to use in the computer typing. We can choose different types of fonts in computer which are as beautiful as handwriting. However, we are losing the enjoyable process of writing by hands. Human beings have been using handwriting for several thousands of years. We can show our skills, arts and character traits through handwriting. There is so much happiness and satisfaction when we write the words with our hands one by one. In addition, people’s handwritings are changeable when their emotion and life experiences change. As a whole, those are our valuable cultural heritage.

Secondly, the experiences of reading the traditional letters can hardly be replaced by reading email. The messages in email are mostly short and simple. The main purpose of email is information exchange. Computers can make the email not only neat but also colourful; furthermore, we can even email our letter with sounds and pictures. Email system tries to satisfy the user by doing all that it has been ordered to do, but we lose something. For one thing, people lose the passion to write a letter like writing a literary works; that is, people express their feelings and emotions in traditional letters more than in email that makes a difference when we read them. In addition, the places where we read the letters are more varied. Lovers hid and read their love letters under the quilt and cried. At wartime, mothers received their children’s letters from battlefields; they then carried the letters to anywhere they went and read them again and again whenever they had time; it seemed to them that they could hear the terrible sounds from the wailing bombers while they read the letter. Even the ordinary friends can feel the sincere concern from the familiar handwriting of the letter he got.

Thirdly, mailmen used to play the Santa Claus role in many cultures to some extent. They not only delivered the letters but also distributed the loves, concerns, care, and relationship from door to door. People expected their arrival at the same time everyday. The pictures of some nice mailmen greeted everybody kindly in the village still vivid in my mind. As a matter of fact, it can’t be seen nowadays. Today, Post office is becoming less important and mailmen have become cold. They deliver some trashy flyers and cold documents only. They will lose their job, and we will lose a precious life experience in the near future.

Everyone looks forward to enjoying the lives of high technology, and every country pursues the same goal of modernization. One of my standards to judge a country’s or a person’s quality is whether or not they allow people (or allow himself) to keep their past wistfully while they move to the high-tech society. Therefore, most nice countries have varieties of reservation areas, heritage parks and historical museums; and for individuals, it is always a good idea to spare themselves a small mental room to stay in the past and keep their lives balanced between the future and the past.

Susan Lee: Emotional Intelligence

Theses days, many people say that having emotional intelligence is one of the most important abilities in success. What is emotional intelligence? In brief, Emotional intelligence includes five sub-skills, including how we monitor our own and other's feelings and emotions, how we discriminate and assess and how we use knowledge to guide our thinking and actions. It includes self-awareness, self-control, self-motivation, empathy and social skills. In my opinion, among them, self-control and social skills are most important components of emotional intelligence.

Firstly, I believe that self-control is an important part of emotional intelligence. Self-control helps people to build up ability to manage emotional states. It helps people to know what their feelings are and foster ability to choose how they feel and help people able to relieve their stress and tensions. Futhermore, self-control leads people to make correct judgements. When people need to make judgements, it always helps them to make effective decisions for better outcomes for themselves and others at a proper time. Sometimes, people should handle emotions when they are under some conditions as impatience, immediate gratification, fear, desire and uncontrollable anger; also, they need to solve problems while they are in those situation. Also, self-control guides people to find the best solution to solve problem.

Secondly, I realize that social skills are also an important component of emotional intelligence. Sucess today is closely linked to how people deal with others; in other words, a certain level of manners is required for normal social intercourse. Understanding and conceding to each other , it helps people to make a progressive society where we respect each other. From this point of view, having social skills is a requisite for workplace and school. Social skills cultivate the ability of cooperation which is needed to complete the task or avert a possible crisis. No matter how develop an individual system may be, all coworkers and peers keenly feel the necessity of mutual cooperation in the workplace and school. Social-skills conduct people to work in teams more productively and harmoniously.

In conclusion, having self-control and social-skills are more important than having self-awareness, self-motivation and empathy of Emotional intelligence. Of course, those cannot said to be unimportant components. When these skills are well-balanced, they not only help people to communicate and solve problem, but also lead to win-win outcomes in any situation

Bessie Sui-lan Chan: The Computer

A few decade ago, no one would imagine that he could wear his pyjams and work in his home office. No one would imagine their children prefer to stay at home and not want to go out to the playground to play. It was just after the personal computer was introduced to our households that changes began. Personal computer, at the same time, improve and diminished our quality of life.

The use of personal computer in business has become more and more important nowadays. Many people work at home so that they can arrange their own pattern of life. They can take care of their own children as well as meeting their boss’s mission. It is also some kind of energy conservation as you don’t need to drive to and from your office. However, workers don’t need to deal with others and this leads to isolation and low team morale. Since the commercial internet service became available, people have been able to pay bills through personal banking. The stock market no longer belongs only to those stock-exchange agents;everyone can access it through their personal computers. Many people don’t have to line up in the bank to wait for their services anymore. Nevertheless, personal interaction and jobs opportunities decrease arise many social problems such as isolation and unemployment.

The use of personal computer in education has made great changes.Those who live in remote areas, in bad weather or even in serious conditions can continue their study through distance learning. For example, when “SARS” was a social disaster in 2003 in Hong Kong, students continued their studies through distance learning. People can search a wide range of information through their personal computers. Distance learning, on the contrary, provides little or even no teachers-students interaction. Self-learning at home with the help of CDs and DVDs widen further study, but decrease human interaction. Parents tends to buy learning sofeware for their children instead of teaching their children by their own.

Personal computer also diverges people in their way of entertainment. The games that go in the first place are no longer those traditional ones but on-line games. We have a wide variety of games to choose from; in addition, we also have different levels of competitors to meet our needs. Once again, no real and direct interaction with others creates many social problems. Our children become less and less skillful in interpersonal relationships. Family problems arise. Downloaded movies through our personal computer provide wide variety of choice. We can enjoy our favourite old movies as easily as those new one that just come on market. In contrast, copy-right problems became more and more serious recently that it came to international discussing level.

Technology in personal computer developed in a high speed, and in no doubt that it will continue to improve in a profounded way. Is personal computer a blessing or a curse? It depends on how you take its advantages and diminished its disadvantages.

Maryam Karamy: The Internet

The internet is the virtual world that has made an amazing difference in our lives. People from around the world can come together in this global meeting place. This comfortable service which is available on the computer is used for many purposes such as email, newsgroups, chat rooms, shopping, and more. The internet provides opportunities galore that have increased the quality of human’s life in several ways, but there are certain dangers in using the internet which cannot be ignored.

The internet can be used for a varity of useful purposes. For example, any kind of news and information are available on the internet. It looks like a huge library where every body can easily find any subject that they need. Furthermore, online shopping is the most comfortable way for shopping. People can not only look for products but also use their credit cards to shop from the convenience of their computers. Finally, the electronical message system, email which serves as a high speed mail system, delivers mail around the world in a second.


On the other hand, there are some illegal activities which are really bothering the internet users. First, the internet is the source of pornographic sites which are detriment for children to access. Second, the computer could be invaded by spasms. These spasms can plug up the entire system. At the end, the internet makes people lonelier and increases isolation, even though it is a wide word of communication. As the usage of the internet turns to an addiction, the internet user, to satisfy his compulsion, spends more time surfing the web and less time getting together with other family members and friends.

In spite of the disadvantages of the internet, the bright side of this incredible technology outweigh the dark side. Everyday, people enjoy many benefits of the internet. However, it is very important to make an effort in order to prevent the internet illegal activities, so we can have a much safer internet environment.

Susan Lee: The Razor's Edge

Maugham, as a narrator and a character in the Razor's edge, described to readers a story of his friends, Elliot, Isabel, and Larry’s different but unique life styles. The story shows how each character tried to achieve their life’s same ultimate goal, happiness, through different ways.

Larry is non-materialistic figure in the movie. He always wanted to find his own truth happiness of life. Larry felt that money and fame won’t full-fill his life. He thought these things were empty and incomplete and would not last forever. During fighting in World War I, Larry faced the most shattering experience of his life time through his fellow soldier’s death. This incident made him think about the true meaning of life and what it is all about. After he returned home from war, he became deeply concerned whit death. He tried to look for the answers and decided to leave for a journey to look for the answer. In India, Larry studied the spiritualism for many years. He searched for the true meaning of life that would satisfy his soul. He learned the spiritual knowledge and used it to heal others; in other words, his happiness was helping other people after he trained his mind.

Isabel, who is Larry’s fiance, refused to marry him when she learned that Larry won’t be able to satisfy her materialistic needs. In my view, Isabel symbolizes the materialism of the young generation in the movie. It was the wealth and the social position that it was extremely important in her life and what determind her happiness of life. She did not understood Larry’s desire for spiritual happiness. She thought that it was odd and a waste of time. With her desire for wealth, she decided to marry Gray, who is rich stock broker and could full-fill her wealthy life style. Her character was not only very materialistic but also very possessive. She married Gray because of money; futhermore, she still wanted to believe that Larry loved her when he decided that he would marry Sophie. I just thought that she seems likely to beg for love when I watched last scene.

Elliot, who is Isabel’s uncle, symbolizes the materialism of the older generation. He is described as a social butterfly in the movie. Social popularity brought him the ultimate happiness of his life. Making new relationship with high society people and being a greater entertainer at a party gave him pleasure in his life. As he grew old, his social popularity eventually declined. He was so dedicated to his party-life style that even on his death bed he showed his endless passion and desire for parties. Through social activities, he achieved his life happiness. Although, he died happily by receiving a fake invitation from one friend, but, I saw his meaningless life when he died.

In conclusion, this movie made me think about happiness and love. I believe that happiness consists in contentment. Three main characters, Larry, Isabel and Elliot's pursuit of happiness were different, but I felt that they were satisfied with their circumstances. Incidentally, if I were Isabell, I would not break a sweet love for money. I think love is more important than money.

Susan Lee: Gotta Dance

"Gotta dance"
The story of "Gotta dance" written by Jackson Judie Daviss, is about how a young girl, katie, could set and achieve her goals. katie had a new plan to become a dancer, but her family opposed her decision. In fact, she had a compulsion for dancing. Therefore, she left her family and started a tour for her future life with the memory of her dead brother and role-model, Mutts. She took a long-haul bus where she met a rebellious boy who was like her. She went to a far away town where she gracefully danced in front of a large audience; however, she was still on tour for a successful life. In my view, hard work, responding to the inner child and setting goals well were the primary factors in katie's life.
Frist, her character as a hardworking person assisted her in achieving the success. Also, she had so much passion and love for dancing. She practiced famous dancer's step with perseverance. In other words, she worked so hard by herself with patience, passionate love and belief that she can make it no matter what.

Second, she could respond to inner child while she was in the long-haul bus and it made that she could complete her plan by compulsion. She had to persue her dream as a dancer since she lost her brother, Mutts. Her motive in becoming dancer was the memory of Mutts which was a escapeway from the sorrow of Mutts's death. Also, the rebellion in her heart pushed her to leave to achieve her goal. She had a kind of anger towards her family members who didn't support her.
Finally, she made steady progress toward her goals. She concentrated on what she wants and was very ambitious. She made her own opportunity for setting her goals and performed very well. Besides, she went on a tour with very positive attitude. Now, she still on the road to success in her future life.
In conclusion, hard work, responding to the inner child and well setting goals were cause of in katie's successful life. In my opinion, she will overcome all the challenges when she stays in a long-haul bus for a successful life in the future.

Anna Lee: Gotta Dance

The story “Gotta dance” was written by Jackson Jodie Daviss. The main idea of this story was about a young girl named Katie who had a self-motivated goal and plan on tapped dance. Her perseverance made her dream come true, even though most of her family members and relatives didn’t agree with her plan. Katie left home to pursue her dream and did an excellent performance in front of a group of theatergoers. Katie held three main qualities that I believe make her a successful person.

The first quality was passion. Katie had a natural inclination for dancing. In order to fulfill her dream being a good dancer, she learned dancing from tapes and VCR and wore out a few sets of tapes. She practiced perseveringly until she had several famous contemporary dancers’ steps. She danced as best as she could, so she could dance like “everyone you’ve even seen and even better.”

The second quality that Katie held was responding to her inner child. Katie was proud of her ability of dancing, and had compulsion and self-motivation in dancing. But the only person who supported her dancing goal was her brother who died before he could make his own dream come true. Katie realized that she had to take some steps for her and her brother before it was too late. So, she rebelled against her family and relatives’suggestion and made her first step to fly away from home.

The last quality that I think Katie held was setting goals. Katie focused on what she wanted to accomplish. The transportation she chose to travel to another city and the diner she chose for observing potential audience were two examples of Katie’s drive in achieving her goals. Katie wanted to be a good dancer and was pretty sure that she was a fine dance who could dance anywhere and anytime. Katie made her first performance and obtained a great deal of compliments from the audience. She had not only the talent but also the knowledge to choose the right audience and the right place to perform her dance. Being optimistic toward the future is also an important quality for a successful person. Although her brother could not accompany with her, Katie made her next trip to another city and looked forward to the tour.

A famous saying says that 99% of endeavor plus 1% of talent makes a successful person. Although Katie was a natural dancer, without the three main qualities that mentioned earlier, she could not be so successful. The story of “Gotta dance” did stir me up in learning English, so I will follow her model to reach my goal.

David Liu: Razor's Edge

The Razor’s Edge, a novel written by W. S. Maugham, tells us a story the pursuit of happiness by two generations of American’s during the period of the 1910s and 20s. Larry, Isabel and Elliott are the three main characters, each of whom has a different way to lead their lives. The author, through comparing the three characters’ philosophy in his story, encourages readers to think about what kind of life is the real happy life.

The first character is Larry Darrell, a young man who was a soldier during the WWI. His fiancée Isabel is the second character, who was raised by her uncle and waited for Larry for many years to get married to him as soon as he returned. She was dying to lead a stable and rich life just in Chicago. Surprisingly, Larry had no intention to settle down at once but had planed to go abroad. His decision not only hurt Isabel but also frustrated her uncle Elliott, a third character who is a wealthy snob. However, Larry insisted that he had to travel and find something that he had been searching for since the end of the war. After saying good-bye to Isabel, Larry left America determinedly and began his journey while the other characters also started their own lives. Almost ten years later, when Larry met Isabel and her uncle Elliott in Paris, he had already become a totally different person full of goodness, power and a sense of fulfillment. He also seemed extremely satisfied with his new life despite the fact that he had neither enough money nor a family. On the contrary, his former fiancée, Isabel, who married a then millionaire when she turned her back to Larry ten years ago, unfortunately lost her whole fortune; and even her husband fell ill. Besides, Isabel’s uncle Elliott, although still rich then, was forgotten and abandoned by the nobles whom he had treasured for his whole life and finally died lonely. Below are the reasons why Larry Darrell can finally becomes a strong and happy man but Isabel and Elliott cannot.

Firstly, the method to pursue a happy life is different. Larry’s ‘new body’ made him continuously find out the truth of real life. At the beginning of the story, Larry couldn’t help thinking what the real meaning of life was, and he shouted at Isabel that ‘life is a stupid blunder’; ‘I don’t believe in anything’. That is because he experienced the cruel war, and his ‘new body’ was given to him by his fellow soldier in the battle field of WWI. Absolutely, without other people’s sacrifice for him, Larry could have lost his life forever. This event deeply affected Larry and made him decide to reject a well-paid job and even Isabel’s love to ‘loaf’ in the world to ‘find something’. Then, as he determined, he ‘loafed’ in France, Germany and India, working whole day in a Paris’s coal mine, spending a large amount of money and time on books, practising austerities in India, and eventually, he found the ‘something’ in a place on the top of a mountain guided by an old monk. Finally, Larry ‘got the second chance’ and became an unusual man.
However, Larry’s fiancée Isabel is a selfish woman. Although she urged Larry to take a job to serve the country as other men do, her intention is to want Larry to make much more money for their own little family’s happiness but not for any other people; she even did not care about one of her best friends Sophie when she fell into depression. Besides, she only thinks about the normal daily life itself but not the true meaning of it. Therefore, she always pursues endlessly women’s common lives like man’s love, marriage, babies, clothes and dance. In comparison, Isabel’s uncle Elliot is an old snob man only paying attention to his fame and social position. He also constantly pursues man’s common lives such as honor, reputation and vanity but never mentioned how to contribute to the country and other people.

Secondly, the attitude towards life and love is different. First of all, since Larry found the true meaning of life (which most of it is ‘to give what you have to other people ’ as his fellow soldier did to him), he began to unconditionally contribute his heart and soul to other people. He cured Isabel’s husband (Gray) of his illness with his super power and made their family life happy even though he knew that it was Gray who took his former Fiancée; he created a ‘fake’ invitation card which was the Elliot’s last will and gave his best wishes helping Elliot pass away peacefully; he did his best to get Sophie out of depression and even helped her give up the life of debauchery. And then, Larry had a strong mind of suffering instead of enjoying. He volunteered to work under ground in a coal mine but not in the surface; he preferred to be a taxi driver but not an office clerk. In addition, he dared to choose to sacrifice himself instead of obtaining from other people. The typical action is that he makes up his mind to get married to Sophie, a then middle-aged drunk woman wandering around from one bar to another without any assets and honors, intending to share her sadness and pains due to the deaths of her family members several years ago and to make the rest of her life happy.

On the contrary, Isabel is a woman who always thinks about how to ‘take’ what she needs from other people but never ‘gives’. She asked Larry to make as much money as she wanted when she was still Larry’s fiancée; she discarded her true love just for
the purpose of obtaining ‘a square-cut diamond’; she even dared to scheme to deprive Sophie from her ‘last chance’ to be reborn in order to recover the love from Larry. Besides, she is a woman who only knows the pleasure and how to enjoy life. She wants ‘to have fun’, wants ‘to do all things that people do’, wants ‘to go to parties,’ and wants ‘to play golf and ride on horse-back’. Furthermore, she is also a materialistic woman. She needs a gorgeous house and nice clothes. ‘Can’t imagine what it means to a girl not to be as well dressed as the rest of her crowd?’ is the real intention from the bottom of her heart.
As for Elliot, we have to recognize that he is a generous man. However, the difference between Elliot and Larry is that Elliot’s contribution to other people is limited and conditional. He only donates his money to churches to win his family title. He spent so much money on parties to get close connection with the rich and the nobles to gain popularity. Meanwhile, Elliot regards money, house and social position as the three most important matters in his life and never stops seeking them until he takes leave of life. Besides, Elliot is a snob of vanity which is one of his unique features. The most impressive scene is that even though he was dying on his bed, he dictated a reply with his last breath when he received the fake invitation letter, telling the inviters that he deeply regretted not being able to attend the party.

Thirdly, the life style is different. Larry makes great efforts to ‘loaf’ in the world to make his dream come true. And he always leads a simple and artless life. He stayed at a poor apartment in Paris and ‘had no evening clothes’. He even did not invite Elliot and Isabel to have lunch with him when he met them the first time in France. What is more, Larry makes light of money. He thinks that 3,000 dollars annually is enough for both him and Isabel. ‘To me, money means bondage’. In addition, he is a hard-working man, even spares no effort to take the most dangerous and dirtiest job instead of just sitting in a gorgeous office building.
However, Isabel has a strong desire of a stable family life in a big city with a wealthy husband. She has got used to a gorgeous and joyful life style and cannot suffer any damage like bankruptcy. She values money and materials, so, she could give her body to a man whom she never loves.
Compared to Larry, Elliot is absolutely an old man with a traditional life style. He never moves around to search for something like the truth of life. The only thing he is interested is party. He not only finds the value of his whole life in the ‘party’ but also dies of the ‘party’. However, finally, the ‘party’ did not appreciate his efforts but threw him away—the nobles even do not give him the pass that can lead him to his heaven.

About three hundred years ago, ‘to be or not to be, that is the question’ which led Hamlet a hero prince; however, one hundred years ago, this question became ’why to be and how to be’ which created Larry an American superman. Actually, life is like walking on the razor’s edge. Normal human beings can easily be hurt if they don’t try their best to find the truth of life and discard their selfishness. Only people with great goodness which brings them super power can dance freely and happily right on the edge without any pains. However, the real life is not so simple, and now the question turns out to be: ‘how many people can become such a man with super power like Larry in the modern society?’