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!

Class Discussion of Short Story

Two weeks ago I had a class discussion about the short stories each one chose to read. For my short story, I read ‘Garden party’ written by Katherine Mansfield, which was published in the book called ’50 great short stories’. From now I’ll write a summary, important passages, Remarkable words, some connections to my experiences, and a conclusion of the story.

Firstly I will write a summary.
There was a very rich family including father, mother, a young girl named Laura, and her sisters and brothers, and they were living together with many servants. One day they were planning to have a garden party at their home and they invited many people. But on the same day, near their house, a poor man who was their neighborhood was killed by a horse running toward him and he left his wife and his children. When they, the rich family heard of the news of his death, only Laura, a little girl thought they should stop having the garden party while the poor family were all sad. But the others of her family didn’t agree with her idea, they said to her that of course they were also sorry of his death but it’s natural and inevitable that people die someday somehow, so they should start the party. The girl couldn’t object to it anymore.
In the afternoon of that day, they were having a big party, everybody was enjoying, a band was giving a performance, and actually Laura also enjoyed that party much as everybody was. After the party Laura’s family gathered and her father said They should remember the death of a poor man and do something they could do for his family. Her mother proposed they should give some food to them since they had yet much food after the party. Laura wondered if his left wife wouldn’t be happy about their care or would be annoyed. But how mother just told her to go to their house and give them. She didn’t have any idea other than doing it then.
When she arrived there and knocked the door, the wife came out and told her to come into the house, then she told her she didn’t want to go into but she was kind of forced to do it by the wife thus she followed her. After she gave her a basket of food, she was also forced to see her husband, the dead person, and she couldn’t refuse. She saw him dead on the bed, seemed to be just sleeping peacefully. At that time her thought did change. Before she saw him dead she was ashamed of the party which she and her family and every guest enjoyed in the afternoon while his family were quite sad. But after seeing him peacefully sleeping, she came to think he was dreaming, away from anybody, far from all things, and the garden party didn’t matter to him at all.
When she went back home she told her family that the visit to the poor man’s house was marvelous.

Secondly, I’ll write about the important passages of the story.
For the first important passage, I chose a passage which is on the page 10, line 4. This passage describes when Laura thought they should stop the party because of the poor man’s death. I chose this passage because I thought even though her opinion was different from other people she only had a kind of common sense and had a bravery of objecting to her family. I think she was right.
For the second important passage, I chose a passage which is on the page 14, in the middle part. The passage describes Laura told her family she was wondering if it was a good idea to send a basket of food. I chose this passage for the same reason as when the first passage.
For the third important passage, I chose a passage which is on the last page in the last part. The passage describes the garden party was absolutely not a matter to him since he was already far from all things. I chose this passage because this way of thinking is very new, surprising to me. However I don’t mean that I don’t agree with her at all.

Thirdly, I’ll write about some remarkable words appeared in the story.
1. Weary (P6)
It means tiring, tiresome

2. Absurd (P10)
It means ridiculous, foolish

3. Stunning (P13)
It means fascinating, marvelous
This word appeared in the situation that her brother saw Laura wearing a Spanish-like hat and it suited her very much thus he told her this word.

Next Fourthly, I will write some connections between the story and my experiences.
• I’ve never given such a party in this story and even never seen someone I know giving a party, so I decided to connect it to what I watched in a movie.
The movie was ‘the Great Gatsby’ I’ve recently watched. In the movie the Great Gatsby was having a party every weekend almost everyday, inviting many rich people. On the other hand some people were never invited to the party or even never had their own party. There were two different classes, one was the rich class who enjoyed spending much money on big crazy parties, and the other was the poorer class, who lived normal lives not spending crazy amount of money.

• Also I connected the short story to the French Revolution, which occurred in the 19th century. Churchmen and the aristocracy lived their rich lives on money that was paid as heavy taxes by people who called ‘the third class’. This kind of situation are seldom seen today but it used to be seen worldwide.

Lastly I’ll write a Conclusion.
I thought it was unnatural that they had had that garden party when the poor man, their neighborhood, died on the day. They should have called off the party and prayed for him sincerely. If I were the member of her family I would cancel the party of course. Only Laura had a common sense, wondering what they were doing was not good, but it was surprising to me that she finally came to conclude that the garden party was not annoying, not a matter to him since he was far away from all things then. I don’t think I could agree with her but it doesn’t mean I’m thinking she was wrong. It’s because even though he was dead now I think it was not a good idea to have a loud, crazy party because the dead man’s family were still being sad.

This is the end of my discussion report. Absolutely I enjoyed reading this short story. It was very easy to read and understand, and also worth reading, so I recommend you all to read this story.

The Eye of the Tiger – Wilbur Smith

This week I read ‘The eye of the tiger’. It’s a kind of mystery book, easy to read, and excited me much. Now I’ll tell you the plot.

There was a man and a few of his friends living on a small island. Somehow they came to know some treasures were deeply sunk under the sea and they got interested in them.

One day some strangers came to see him and asked him to take them to around the treasures. Then something happened, one person was killed. ( You should read this part by yourself. ) He also was almost killed but fortunately he survived. And this time he knew that some other people wanted to get the treasures too.

Another day he went toward the treasures, with his friends this time. To get the treasures safely they had to take many tools for doing it. Some days passed, Finally they found the treasure in the depth of the sea. Treasures were originally owned by the ancient British king, so they were very precious and would be worth much money beyond imagination. However, other bad guys were coming and knew that he and his friends got the treasures already. They fought against each other hard. After the crazy fight using guns, he saved the treasures from the bad guys but he lost his friends. This was not the end that he had wished. ……

This story doesn’t have a happy ending. It’s just a story about the man who’s searching for the treasure only for his sake. But if you read it, you’ll have fun. Try to read! 😉

The Woman Who Disappeared – Philip Prowse

For the first time in this fall semester I read ‘the woman who disappeared’. It’s a mystery story. I’ll tell you the brief plot.

There was a man whose job was a private eye. Private eye is the man who looks for somebody when he is asked to. One day a young woman asked him to look for her sister. He started to search for her but it was really difficult. He had to fight against some bad guys and got injured because of it many times and he also was caught by the police sometimes. However he didn’t give up looking for her and finally he found her. But the end of the story is not simple.

I won’t tell the whole of the story here. I think the end is beyond your imagination. I really enjoyed reading it so if you have time please try to read it.

Class discussion – Super Frog Saves Tokyo by Haruki Murakami

I read super frog saves Tokyo written by a famous Japanese writer Haruki Murakami and had a discussion about that book in today’s class. The story is a fiction, easy to read, and has some gross parts but I enjoyed reading it very much.

First I summarized the story and I will write it below.

Characters appearing in the story:
An ordinary man, The frog, The worm living underground of Tokyo

Summary:
One day a man came home to find the huge frog sitting in his room waiting for his returning. The frog said he wanted the man to help him save Tokyo from being destroyed by a big earthquake that would hit in a few days. According to the frog, the earthquake would be caused by the huge worm living underground of Tokyo and they had to fight against it to stop the earthquake’s happening. On the day of the fight they promised to meet each other but the man couldn’t get to the meeting spot because he was shot by somebody. He woke up in the hospital and was worried about the frog and the earthquake. Actually the earthquake didn’t happen. However, later, the frog came to see him to the hospital and said that the man was a great help for the fight. The frog also said they fought against the worm in the area of imagination, and that they couldn’t defeat the worm but could injure it. However the frog also got injured. When he finished telling all the story to the man, he fell asleep on the floor because he was so tired. A few moments after that, something strange happened to the frog’s body. Many big lumps formed over the frog’s body and then they all burst out with a loud pop. Then many small worms came out from his body, the frog’s body was no longer in a shape and the worms began to cover the room. All of this happened in front of the man lying on the bed, and he screamed out with fear. Soon the nurse ran into the room and at the moment the man got aware that nothing happened in front and that there were no worms nor the frog. It means even the frog was the imagination he made and it didn’t really exist.

Secondly I looked for the words I didn’t know and then looked them up in a dictionary.

1.bulk(page 1 line 4)
Meaning: a big mass or shape of something
Reason for choosing the word: It was the thing that the man was overwhelmed when he first saw the frog.

2.via(page3 line14)
Meaning: By way of, by means of
Reason for choosing the word: I couldn’t understand even it is a noun or a verb or…

3.murky(page16 line28)
Meaning: Dark and difficult to see through, Complicated and difficult to understand
Reason for choosing the word: This word appeared many times in the story.

4.maggot(page17 line24)
Meaning: It is said ‘ウジ虫’ in Japanese.
Reason for choosing the word: It was a thing that came out from the frog’s body.

5. locomotive(page18 line the last)
Meaning: Technical, Relating to movement, Railway train
Reason for choosing the word: It was a word which describes how much the man likes frogs.

Thirdly I picked up some important passages of the story.

1. Page 8 Line 3
Reasons for choosing the passage:
In this passage it became clear what help the frog wanted from the man.

Questions about the passage:
If you were the man, would you help the frog defeat the huge worm?

Answers for the question:
Yuka, Mitsuki, Mariko, All of them said no because they hate the worm and are afraid of it.

2. Page 15 Line 11
Reasons for choosing the passage:
Even though the man was unconscious, the frog said that the man was a great help for him.

Questions about the passage:
If there were an imaginary world and it could give any effects on your life, what would you think about that? Would you feel afraid of it?

Answers for the question:
They would be afraid of the imaginary world where the huge worm is living underground of Tokyo.

3. Page 18 Line 14
Reasons for choosing the passage:
The man explained to the nurse about the frog who saved Tokyo even though the story might be hardly believed.

Questions about the passage:
Do you think he thought the frog was his imagination? or the frog existed in reality?

Answers for the question:
He would be still not sure whether he had been just dreaming or it really happened.

Fourthly, I connected some parts of the story to something in our real life. There were two connections I found.

1. In this story, the main character, The man thought the imagination or what he saw in his dream had happened in reality. I think it is like we sometimes are unconscious whether it really happened or was just a dream. We sometimes mixed memories in our brains.

My friend Mitsuki said She had the memory that one day she was walking along a street and found many many worms were lying on a road, and that she couldn’t go ahead anymore then because she was very afraid of the worms. Something strange is that she couldn’t say whether the memory was true or was just a dream. She said this was a good example of our mixing memories.

2. At the middle part of the story, the man was unconsciously lying on the road alone. I think it is like we sometimes do something even though we are not aware of what we are doing.

My friend Yuka said she sometimes forget whether she has already eaten meal or not. It means she unconsciously ate meal so she forget eating it. This story she told us was so funny.

At the last of my discussion, as being a discussion leader, I asked five questions to my group members.

1. Do you think the whole story was just the imagination? Even if it means The frog didn’t exist in reality?

All the members agreed that it was just the imagination, nothing happened.

2. Why did the man see the imagination?

My friends said maybe he was so tired.

3. What do you think the writer wants to tell us through this story?

My friends thought that the writer wanted us just to have fun with his story. The story takes us to a nice strange imagination world for a while and we can enjoy the time there.

4. What do you think or how you feel after reading or hearing this story?

They said after they heard about the story they felt somehow strange and got interested in the story. They said they wanted to read it someday.

5. Which part or what point of the story did you get interested in?

They liked the first part that the man met the frog and the middle part that describes his imagination.

Pirates past noon – Mary Pope Osborne

Last time, on the day the brothers went to the ancient Egypt to see mummies, they found that the tree house belonged to the man who had all of the books in the house. I think this book is the important one of this series because the boy and the girl finally could meet the person who owned this house. I’ll tell you a brief summary of this story now.

This time they decided to go to a sunny beach in the book and they wished as usual. The treehouse took them to the beautiful beach and they enjoyed on the beach for a while. But suddenly the Pirates of the Caribbean appeared on the sea and the captain grabbed their arms, they couldn’t escape from him. The kids had to look for the treasure for the captain so that they could be free from him. Fortunately they found the treasure but suddenly the storm came near the captain and the kids, so they had to go back on the ship and to the treehouse, they couldn’t get the treasure from there. Even though it was a hard trip but they could go back to their house safely.
However something special happened after coming back to the treehouse this time. They finally got to meet the person who owned this tree house and all the books in there. The person appeared in the treehouse suddenly and said she had helped them every time the kids traveled around. She also said the kids and she were the only people who could see this treehouse. They promised each other to meet again and separated.

I was surprised that the owner of the treehouse had helped them all the time even though the kids didn’t notice that. I’m looking forward to read the next book and find how she would help the kids that time.