The Giver- Essay

Francesca

7a

Language A

February 2012

Pro’s and Con’s of living in a Community

From the book: The Giver

by Lois Lowry

In the world there are many types of communities, based in laws and culture; nevertheless some communities are very strict. The one where Jonas lives, in the book “The Giver” by Lois Lowry is one of the strictest. People of that village didn’t know that they were the only ones; they didn’t know that there were feelings. Today I am going to list you some good things (pros) and bad things (con’s) of living in that community.

          One pro is: everything is organized. You don’t have to think about anything, the elders (chiefs of the community) have set a rule that you can’t break. That leads me to say a con: all is restricted, and, people have no choices. They can only follow the example of the elders.

          Also, in the community there are no colors, you cannot differentiate the colors so you don’t need to worry about your look (pro). Though that is also bad because people are all the same and the habitants don’t know the truth, what is beyond that community.

          Judging people and telling lies is prohibited which is good, so nothing in the community is unpleasant. However there are no feelings like joy, happiness, fear, excitement, sadness and others.

          As you can see. The community of “The Giver” has pros and cons.

Essay- Outline, rough draft, final copy

OUTLINE

Thesis Statement- (I think) These holidays are the ones that need to be the most exciting! Summer holidays are the best because they can be spent at the beach, in a forest or you can chillax at your house.

1^st Paragraph:

(TS) The beach is a wonderful place to go over the summer.

·         Play beach tennis or beach volley

·         Fishing

·         Swing and explore the sea

2^nd Paragraph:

(TS) Spending your summer in a forest is a great experience.

·         Interesting plants

·         Photo camera with you

·         Pick up garbage

3^rd Paragraph:

(TS) Spending your summer holidays in your house is a fantastic idea.

·         Sleep how much you want

·         No homework

·         Invite friends over

Conclusion:

As you can see there are different ways to spend your, summer at the beach, in the woods, or at your house. 

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ROUGH DRAFT

Summer holidays are the longest holidays[f1] ; they[f2]  separate two school[f3]  years. Holidays are the best time for students and children. These holidays need to be spent the way a person likes. These[f4]  holidays are the ones that need to be the most exciting! Summer holidays [f5] are the best because they can be spent at the beach, in a forest or you can chillax at your house.

The beach is a wonderful place to go over the summer. At the beach you can do many things: play beach tennis or beach volley, go fishing out at the sea or swim and explore marine animals and plants. To stay fit and healthy over the summer you have a chance to play sports; beach tennis is a very dynamic and interesting sport. Meanwhile beach volley is quite tiring but fun. Going fishing is a very interesting hobby and entertainment, what some families do is eat the fish[f6] . Another activity is going swimming and look[f7]  for inquiring[f8]  types of fish and plants.

Spending your summer in a forest is a great experience. During the summer holidays another option is going in the woods, you can do a camp-like activity. You go search for interesting plant. You can take a photo camera with you, and take pictures of friends, landscapes (sunset is very nice) [f9] and also the meticulous things you find. If you are Earth friendly, picking up garbage is a great idea!

Spending your summer holidays in your house is a fantastic idea. Even though for some people staying in your house all summer might sound boring, it’s not! You can sleep as much as you want; there are no alarms to wake you up. You also have a chance to use what is in your room, and not stay all day with a google-[f10] document in front of you or a heavy book on your lap. A third thing you can do, is invite friends over: you can listen to music, do karaoke or play fun games like truth-or-dare!

As you can see there are different ways to spend your,[f11]  summer[f12]  at the beach, in the woods, or [f13] at your house.

---

 [f1] For whom

 [f2] these

 [f3] consecutive

 [f4] Summer

 [f5] They

 [f6] After it has been caught

 [f7] search

 [f8] Inquiring or curious???

 [f9] Like the sunset

 [f10] Google document

 [f11] (delete)

 [f12] ***,

 [f13] simply

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FINAL COPY

Summer holidays are the longest holidays for school student; they separate two consecutive school years. Holidays are the best time for students and children. These holidays need to be spent the way a person likes. Summer holidays are the ones that need to be the most exciting! Summer holidays are the best because they can be spent at the beach, in a forest or you can chillax at your house.

The beach is a wonderful place to go over summer. At the beach you can do many things: play beach tennis or beach volley, go fishing out at the sea or swim and explore marine animals and plants. To stay fit and healthy over the summer you have a chance to play sports; beach tennis is a very dynamic and interesting sport. Meanwhile beach volley is quite tiring but fun. Going fishing is a very interesting hobby and entertainment, what some families do is eat the fish after it has been caught. Another activity is going swimming and search for inquiring types of fish and plants.

Spending your summer in a forest is a great experience. During the summer holidays another option is going in the woods, you can do a camp-like activity. You go search for interesting plants you can take a photo camera with you, and take pictures of friends, landascapes like the sunset and also the meticulous things you find. If you are Earth friendly, picking up garbage is a good idea!

Spending your summer holidays in your house is a fantastic idea. Even though for some people staying in your house all summer might sound boring, it’s not! You can sleep as much as you want; there are no alarms to wake you up. You also have a chance to use what is in your room, and not stay all day with a Google document in front of you or a heavy book on your lap. A third thing you can do, is invite friends over: you can listen to music, do karaoke or play fun games like truth-or-dare!

So as you can see, there are different ways to spend your summer, at the beach, in the woods, or simply at your house.

Direct vs. Indirect Speech

Direct Speech: 
"Saying exactly what someone has said is called direct speech (sometimes called quoted speech)"


Indirect Speech:

"Indirect speech (sometimes called reported speech), doesn't use quotation marks to enclose what the person said and it doesn't have to be word for word.

When reporting speech the tense usually changes. This is because when we use reported speech, we are usually talking about a time in the past (because obviously the person who spoke originally spoke in the past). The verbs therefore usually have to be in the past too."

Examples:

From the site:

http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/reportedspeech.htm 

Quotes on Good Writing

2- I really like this quote because it is very appealing for me because it is meaningful, interesting and also developed. First, it is meaningful; it says the truth, by writing, your ideas can change. So if you had a thought in mind, it can change and be very different from the initial idea. Also, it is interesting because the word: Polaroid makes you read it and ones you read it you see how meaningful it is and you could use it as a role model for your writing. Last it is developed because it explains everything well, and as I mentioned before it says the right thing. So as you can see, this quote is meaningful, interesting and developed.

3- I really like this quote because it is very interesting for me because it is meaningful, well explained and I also agree to it. It is meaningful because it is true, it really gives you a nice description of how narrators are. Second it is well explaining, it illustrates you of how a narrator is and how he contributes to the story. Lastly I agree to this quote it says: “Nothing is as important as a likable narrator. Nothing holds a story together better. …” I really agree, the narrator plays a very important part in the story. So this quote is meaningful, well explained and I also agree to it.

10- This quote is my favorite one because it gives you hints on how the events in your story should go. This quote is funny and useful. Funny because of the way it is set up and the phrases. Useful because it is saying how the plot should go. The quote starts like this: “Some hints for good dialogue: …”. Also It is explaining how two opponents can found themselves together (eg: extreme adventure), and you have to find a way to resolve that problem. As you can see, this quote is funny and useful at the same time.

Persuasive Paragraph

The Importance of Knowing and Studying Foreign Languages

Studying and knowing foreign languages will open up your mind, it will help your knowledge and it will be useful when traveling.

          One of the main reasons of why knowing a foreign language is important, is because it opens up your mind. You will then know the difference and similarities between the different cultures, because usually if you know a language you will then get to know the culture of the country the language is spoken. Also you might be interested in the culture because you know the language.       It also opens up your mind because you get to know different people who have different rituals.

          Now-a-day traveling is very common and important. Wherever you go a different language is spoken, and it might be useful to know some of the most spoken languages in the world. Now the first spoken language in the world is Mandarine, the second largest is English and followed by English there is Spanish. A very simple example is when you are planning a tour of a city, if any problems occur you at least know a different language to speak in.

          Last but not least a reason of why knowing different languages is important is because that will favor you knowledge, you’ll get to know more people and each with the different uses. Once you know a language you will need to be able to connect the two languages, this will make you think.

          To conclude it is important to know and study foreign languages, like that your knowledge will expand, it will be useful now-a-day because of traveling and it will also expand your open-mindness.

5 paragraphs

Paragraph Topics:

1)   Your biggest role model

2)   Define hero/heroine, who is your hero and why

3)   A moment from your childhood

4)   Something I would like to change in my life

5)   What are you trying to get better at, this year

                                                                                      

1)    I don’t have an actual role model though I follow myself.Iam my own role model. It is because when I have a doubt about something I always do what I want, and I do not take the example of a friend, parent or famous person. I think I am more than enough to be a role model for myself. I am a risk taker and curious, I am caring and kind, I am flexible. When it comes for a new situation I never take a step backward I always take a step forward, that shows that I am a risk taker. When someone needs help or anything like that, I always help them. I do not only care about humans or only my friends, I am very open-minded to animals. This is why I find myself caring.

I find myself flexible because (mostly) at each thing I do I never say no. If a friend asks me a favor I say yes! If I need to stay in the current lesson 5 more minutes I understand and accept it. So as you can see, I am a very kind person towards people and animals, I am flexible because I always accept the situation I am in, and, I am risk taker and curious person because I have no fears.

2)   A hero is usually a person who means a lot to you, who does the right things for right reasons. My hero is Steve Irwin, an Australian geologist and animalist, born the 22/02/1962 and died the 04/09/2006. His nickname is the “Crocodile Hunter”. He was a courageous, caring, and an eager person. I find him courageous because he has never been afraid of animals since the age of six, and he has always been. He was the most caring with reptiles, crocodile specially. He was a kind person towards both humans and animals, when he was in his trips and found a crocodile he never wanted to kill it or anything bad. He came there with good intentions. He was eager because he never quit in his job and he always was there to help animal kind. So, Steve Irwin was a great man who was eager in his job, a kind person towards everyone and very courageous.

                                                                          

3)   A wonderful moment of my life that I will never forget is when for the first time I went skiing. It was the one was one the best week I have ever passed. I was kind of scared because it was a new thing. Luckily there was the slope for beginners, intermediate and expert. My first teacher was a man named Pino, he was fun and in a week I learned the basics. Though before starting the week we had to rent ski, ski boots and helmet. The first time I went on the slopes with my skies on and ready to ski I felt scared, though a gentle snowflake landed on my nose and then it started snowing. It was a great thing that happened to me on my first time skiing. I went skiing (and I still go) in Italy near Bolzano, the place was called Maranza. It is just right at the border between Italy and Switzerland. It is a very small city but it is perfect to spend a week.  So my first time I went skiing was the best one and I’ll never forget it.

4)   In my life there is only one thing I would have liked to change: I would like to be born in the 70’s more precisely in 1972. I would like to be born in 1972 because like that I would be able to listen the 80’s music, especially in Italy during the 80’s the music changed totally. And I like that type of music. And that is the only thing I would like to change about myself. But, I would like to change a lot of things in the world. Starting from pollution: air, water and land pollution. I think that all problems are connected one to the other: like a chain.

No recycling à pollution (land, water, air) à more diseases à no one cares à electricity and water is wasted

Those are main ideas, we all need to work in making this world a better place to live. I think that many people are of that idea but they actually don’t do anything about it. I think that the most things that are wasting water are:

v  Spa

v  Pools

v  Sauna

v  Expensive and extra large Jacuzzis

So as you understood, in my life I only want to change the year I am born but in the world I want to change one big thing.

5)     During this following school year I want to improve in two things. I would like to improve my writing, and even (if possible) I would like to write a story. Also I would like become a PC ‘master’, to know every setting in a computer and use them. I can only improve my writing by reading, by enriching my vocabulary. So what I need to do is READ! I can become a PC ‘master’ by asking help when I need it, and if necessary I can lso ask some which is an expert.

So there are two things which are my goals for the year. Improving and doing my best at writing and becoming an expert in PC’s.

Goals

Hey everyone, in this post I will only tell you my goals for the year. The writing in blue is the goal and the red is the explanation.

• Do my best on tests / quizes
• If I know there's a test coming always be prepared and don't be an anxious.

• Be prepared for class
• I will do my best to remember what to bring in class.

•  Learn more new words. Enlarge my vocabulary.
• Read books, and when ever I see a word I don't know I will search it on the internet for the definition.

 So as you can see those are my goals for the year!