"The Gift of the Magi"

        "The Gift of the Magi" is a warm story about a married couple. The setting is in New York during Christmas. Both Della and Jim were poor, but they were desperate to buy each other a gift for Christmas. It is so romantic because they both sacrificed one valuable thing they each possessed to benefit each other. Della sold her precious hair and Jim sold his expensive watch. However, what happened then made me laugh so bad and made me think that they were two idiots. The wife bought a chain for the watch, and the husband bought a comb for his wife's hair. Guess what? The gifts they bought were useless! This is hilarious and ironic. You might think they are hopeless and foolish. But in fact, that is not exactly true. They exchanged the most important gift that outweighs any gift they would ever give each other. It is love. In my opinion, this is what the title "The Gift of the Magi" means.

"A Sound of Thunder"

       The story, “A Sound of Thunder," is my second favorite story I have read. The thing different from all other stories is that it contains science-fiction. Moreover, it is adventurous, which is what I liked the most. It is very creative and imaginative. The author's unique style of writing and the use of diction and figurative language really attract me to read this story. "A Sound of Thunder" talks about time travelers going back to the past to hunt a dinosaur, but a mistake (stepping on a butterfly) made by the person named Eckels changed the future. Through the story, the author wants to emphasize the dangers of technology and also to warn us to be aware of our actions. I cannot believe that such a small mistake can cause a huge effect in the future. It is quite scary that just killing a tiny butterfly could cause such a significant result. In the end, Travis, the Safari leader, shot him for what he had done. I felt sorry for that poor dude since he didn't mean to step on that insect. Eckels accidentally killed it when he was terrified by the T-rex. This teaches me to be very careful in what I am doing at any time, because who knows what would happen next?

My 2010 Science Fair! "Save Save Save!!!!"

        Learning about plant life is one of my favorite things in science. From the past two years, I have been researching plants for my science fair. This year, I chose to research how an oil spill can affect plants. I believe that if oil is spilled on plants, the plants would start to grow slower or die, because cells are damaged or photosynthesis is stopped. I set up an experiment where I watered beans with water and mixtures with motor oil. The first group was treated with pure water, the second group had water mixed with 10% oil, the third group was mixed with 50% oil, and the last group was mixed with 80%.

        Over two weeks of observations, I saw that those treated with motor oil grew much shorter and slower than the group with water. I also used a microscope to observe the leaves and stems. I saw that the plant cells aren't severely damaged, but the plant leaves were covered with a layer of oil. Therefore, I can conclude that oil spills do not affect plants by damaging their cells but by coating over their leaves. I think that when the plant roots absorb the oil, it transports the oil up to the leaves and covers them. This prevents them from receiving sunlight and carbon dioxide for photosynthesis. After discovering this, I would suggest that people stop using fossil fuel as an energy source so that not only plants, but also marine life can be protected. Lets work together to save our environment!

"Byzantium, the Lost Empire- Forever and Ever"

        The ancient empire of the Byzantium had once been a beautiful and sacred empire. It had magnificent architecture, art, and a unique culture. But unfortunately, it was completely destroyed and conquered by the Turks for the land. Although the empire was gone, it was not forgotten. Descendents of the empire had spread the philosophy of Byzantium to parts of Europe and left some valuable memories of the great empire for today. I wonder why the Turks have to use such violent way to get the land of the Byzantine empire? It is foolish to do that just because of greediness. If war does not exist, then so much precious art, culture, lives, religions, and things for modern studies could have been preserved. People should be satisfied with what they have already and live peacefully with each other. I hope that such important things that would cause tragedies in the world won't happen anymore in the future.

"Forget What You Know About Good Study Habits"

        I have read many different articles from the New York Times this year, but this article is my favorite of all. Throughout my life, I have heard of many different kinds of good study habits. Examples would be keeping up with your homework, reviewing the textbooks continuously, or working in a quiet workplace. Psychologists have researched and found out better study habits. These good study habits include studying mixed sets of problems and reviewing stuff overtime. For some reason, psychologists had found out that the brain somehow relearns the things it had absorbed in some time earlier. Therefore, having pretests and quizzes before tests helps you learn better, especially hard ones. The reason is that the harder the questions are in the test, the harder it is to remember what you have learned. So, it would be harder to forget it later after the test. Although these are good ways to study and learn, I still might not change my study habits. Overall, I believe that it is my own motivation that makes me study well.

Research Paper Subject

This year's science fair topic is about savings. So, I have decided to do some research about water pollution. In my research, I will include informations on the causes, types, and effects of water pollution. Moreover, I may also talk about recent events related to water pollution.

The Most Dangerous Game

        Of all the stories I have read this year in my literature class, "The Most Dangerous Game" is my favorite. It is about a hunter named Rainsford who came to the mysterious island called Ship-Trap Island. Because he heard gunshots from the forest, he lunged on the rail of his yacht and accidently fell into the water. Later on, he swam to the island's shore and walked into the forest. There, he investigated the truth of the most dangerous game. Rainsford met General Zaroff in his chateau in the forest and was welcomed with a dinner and a good bed. That night, Zaroff revealed that he was hunting men. The next day, Rainsford was invited to hunt with him but he refused. Then he ended up being hunted for three days by Zaroff. If he were able to escape from him for three days, then he would be freed. I think that Zaroff would still kill Rainsford even though he did win him. On the last day, he escaped by jumping into the sea. Rainsford swam back to Zaroff's chateau and waited for him to return. He might have then dueled with Zaroff and killed him.

        The reason I like this story is mainly that it is very adventurous. It includes fighting and some mysteries. Besides that, the story has a spooky background in the beginning that made me enthusiastic in it. The foreshadowing in the story also made me more interested while reading. Moreover, the story had taught me things about human evil. 

The Interlopers

In my opinion, the story "The Interlopers" is a story worth reading and I quite like it. It has a serious and a little scary background. Two foolish men fought for just the borders of their land and they end up being trapped in the forest. What I liked the most about this story is its surprising and funny ending, which might have ended up the two men being eaten by wolves when they thought their men are coming to rescue them. Suppose I thought that there would be a happy ending, but it turned out to be ironic and kind of creepy.