News Discussion 12/10

Last week we discussed the recent topics and told our opinions to each other.

My topic was the diplomatic problem between Japan and Korea, and between Japan and China. As most Japanese people know, Korea settled the new territorial defense area over the sea covering the Japanese area, then China did the same thing after that.

My discussion question was…
Whether do you think we could solve this problem that has long been argued between Japan and Korea or China?
To tell my opinion, we would not be able to solve this problem easily but China and Korea should have good attitude to Japan, attending to any conferences. They have seemed to avoid meeting Abe Prime Minister and talking about the problem although Mr. Abe has been trying to have a conference many times. I think their way of acting has been really bad. Even if it is not easy to get a conclusion of this problem, we should have more time to talk about it.
My friends said they had all the same opinion. They thought that their way of act was awful and quite forcing, and we should not pay much attention to it. And of course, they thought it would be difficult to solve this problem.

And talking about friends’ topics,
Sayaka was talking about the problem of India that many of very young women are forced to marry and have children for their poor family. It is a very sad thing but it is a cultural or traditional problem and we other countries could not criticize the problem much thus the India’s government should make an action to solve the problem.

Mayu was talking about the English educational score of Shanghai which is really high while the score of Japan is low. It was measured by the score of toefl and I think we also have a good education system for English writing, reading and listening but don’t have the one for speaking so we should have more time to train our English speaking skill.

Rie was talking about recent Nelson Mandela’s death. I thought all the people around the world should know the fact of apartheid and that the problem was solved by his much effort. Most people might have been moved by his great contribution to the world and his legend will be passed down from generation to generation.

This is the end of my post about last class discussion.
I absolutely enjoyed discussing the recent topics with my friends!

Never let me go

I got this book for my own because my father bought me when he went to England last summer. This book was quite long and took me much time to read. I will write the brief summary and what I think of the story. It’s difficult for me to tell about the story because it was not easy for me to understand all parts of this book but I’ll do my best.

First I will write the story briefly.
There were clones who were made as organ donors. They were told the truth of the purpose of their lives as donors and also knew that they couldn’t have their children. Without being a donor they could live their lives as normal people..like they could love others. But more the friends make donors, closer they become to death. The main character sadly lost her lover(he also was a clone) and finally she also came to make a final donor.
The story refers to the love between Kathy and Ruth. I think the important point of the story is that clones also have the right of living as normal people. They also have their heart and want to live. In the story Kathy said that she wondered what differences are there between those who make donors and those who take donors, although everybody lives to death. And this part made me feel something about life.

This story made me think about clones again. The modern technology enables us to make clones and we already have the clone sheep, but at the point of ethical problem we all consider we should not make clones. By reading this book I could see the problem of clones at the point of view of clones’ side. I think I still have much to tell about this story but I couldn’t explain it well so I recommend you to read this book someday. It will take you much time but is really worth reading.

The Great Gatsby

It was a long story and took me really long time to read through. This book became one of my best books I have ever read and I really love the story. This story is sad and doesn’t have a happy ending but is written about one beautiful love of one beautiful guy. I will write a summary of the story and then what I thought after reading it.

First I will write the story.
There was a young guy who was very rich and had a big party every weekend at his great mansion. He was searching for a girl who he had loved for a long time. She was also a rich girl and one day at his party he finally could meet the girl.
He and she had been lovers many years before. At that time, he was very poor but she was very rich. He and she wanted to get together but those days around 1920’s rich person and poor person couldn’t marry because of their different classes. It was a really sad thing. Then the man, actually after he became to be called the Great Gatsby, promised her that he would become rich and then asked her to wait for him until he comes to meet her again. After saying this, he disappeared in front of her and many years passed, the girl was married yet but the Gatsby finally reached her.
Gatsby and the girl became lovers again. First she was very surprised at his sudden appearing but then became very happy about it. She had already her husband but met Gatsby many times. Gatsby did everything she wanted. Because he had permanent wealth. He did love the girl from the bottom of his heart.
One day by somebody who hated him much, Gatsby was shot and killed. The news spread widely because he was a very famous person. But nobody came to his funeral. Everybody loved him for each sake. The girl also heard the news but she had her family so even she didn’t come to say farewell to him.
Gatsby had long wished for one dream of being with the girl forever but he sadly couldn’t reach the dream. It was just his pure and innocent love for the girl.

This book is written in the form that storyteller is a man who lived next to the Great Gatsby, and had seen everything. He only knew the whole story of the Great Gatsby and was the only person who felt sad about the death of one person who lived for one beautiful love.

After finished reading this book I thought what a beautiful story it was. This is the best love story that moved and impressed my heart. This story made me think I would be happy if I someday had such an infinite love as Gatsby had. I wish I would find somebody to love eternally.

I will not never ever eat a tomato.

It’s a children’s book but I think even this book tells us something important. It is easy to read and won’t take you much time to read through. From now I will write the plot of the story and then what I learned from this book.

First I will write the plot.
There were a little brother and his younger sister, and she hated to eat almost all of vegetables..especially carrots. One day the brother came to think somehow he should make her eat vegetables so he tried to trick her into earring them.
He said to his sister pointing at vegetables that they were not vegetables but something different, like beans were sweets which came from the stars, cabbage was something special to eat which came from Saturn. She completely was tricked and ate them not realizing that they were vegetables which she hated very much. She even told her brother vegetables were tasty. Then finally she could eat carrots. I think this brother did a really good job!

Secondly to write what I learned from this book,
I think some people could do anything they ever hate to do if they don’t realize or recognize what it is. There are many episodes like someone could eat a thing which he never liked eating it without recognizing what he was eating. I think it is one of good ways to overcome something.

( I forgot the title… )

I forgot the title of the book but it’s a book for children and very easy to read. For this post I will write a summary of the story and my impression on it.

First I will write a summary of the story.
This story is about a dog whom a girl has as a pet. The girl was taking ballet lessons and the dog had seen her doing ballet for a long time. The dog was different from any other dogs at the point of not being like a dog. The dog was like a human, he liked to watch tv, wear his owner’s clothes and ballet shoes….etc.
One day the dog gave her a body gesture to tell her that he also wanted to do ballet but everybody said that a dog couldn’t do ballet. There was a ballet show coming soon thus he wanted to make a performance on that show. On the day of the show, the girl and her family went out for watching it. Only the girl noticed the dog was following them to the concert hall.
The show had started, but in the middle of the show, the ballerina accidentally fell off the stage and everybody in the hall got confused. But suddenly the dog came out from the side of the stage and began to dance as a nice ballerina. Since he had watched the girl doing ballet every day thus he could dance completely. After he finished his ballet, a huge applause broke out. Everybody had never thought that dog could do ballet but they couldn’t help believing the truth in front of their eyes.
After that day, the dog finally got allowed to take lessons with the girl. This is a kind of happy end.

And secondly, to tell my impression of this story,
Until I read this book I had thought that animals would not think of doing what humans do. But now I think some animals especially those who are closer to humans in daily life may be interested in our humans’ acts. If it is true, it’s very interesting to me. And I’m so interested in what kind of acts they want to do.

Overall, I enjoyed this book so much!