"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!