Knowledge

When people hear the word knowledge, right away the usual thought is school. People believe school is the main source of knowledge, but in reality people can also gain knowledge from the news, books, magazines, t.v., movies, past experiences, and most of all the famous internet. Knowledge is the powerful gift of being able to use reasoning and skill to your own advantage. Without knowledge, people would be mislead and tricked into the scams of the world. Continuous acquisition of knowledge is important because without it, it is so easy for someone to be manipulated. Knowledge keeps us grounded and ahead of those who are ignorant.

Opinion Article

Legal Age
 
Many teens look forward to the day when they turn 18 because in the eyes of the law, you are now considered a legal adult. At age 18 teens are allowed to vote, make their own medical decisions, enroll in the army, buy tobacco, gamble, and live independently aside from your parents. However, why is it that 18 year olds are not aloud to buy alcohol due to the fact they are not fully developed, but are able to enroll themselves in the army and risk their lives. I believe the legal age for adults should be moved up to 21 when teenaged are more mature and more developed. Teenagers are given a version of adulthood that exploits them. Society does not consider an 18 year old, old enough to drink, however, the military needs strong young minds, and the government needs tax payers.

Independence at 18 is very uncommon because most teens are still attending high school and still maintain in their amateur foolish behavior. Let's face it, high schoolers tend to get into some mischief trouble because they still aren't mature enough. For example, say if an 18 year old high school student makes one dumb mistake and gets caught, they would be charged as an adult which could distinguish any plans they had for their future. Statistics show that most homeless people were foster kids because they get kicked out of the foster program at age 18 and don't know what to do with their life still. This all shows the outcome of the immaturity level 18 year olds uphold, and giving them just that extra 3 years to grow and develop could make all the difference.

Literature Analysis #3: The Joy Luck Club

Literature Analysis 3: The Joy Luck Club

            Mostly every child’s life goal is to make their mother and father proud no matter what race or generation. However in the book, The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, it deals with several mother daughter relationships, in which the conflict is the struggle of honoring their families and keeping their heritage. As for Jing-Mei, this meant to fulfill her mother, Suyuan Woo’s, legacy which was to find her lost twin daughters, and take over the Joy Luck Club her mother had created. Suyuan had died before she could accomplish her goal, but luckily her daughter, Jing-Mei picked up right where she left off and fulfilled her mother’s legacy.

            Suyuan had left her home when the Japanese began bombing the town. She had left with pretty much nothing but two trunks, little bags of food, and her twin daughters. Eventually Suyuan could not keep up much longer, and fell extremely weak and sick. She could not bear to let her twin daughters watch her die, so she left them in the streets with nothing more than a note and a positive mind in the hopes that someone genuine would find them. Soon after, she awoke in a new place with her daughters not by her side. Suyuan was on a search now to find them, and left America to go back to China. However to her disappointment, she never found her daughters before her death. Jing-Mei was to continue on her mother’s emotional path, and find her long lost twin sisters.

            Next, the creation of the Joy Luck Club was invented by Suyuan Woo in the hopes of forgetting the hardships in life; in her case, the hardship of her lost daughters. The club was shared among other Chinese mothers who would play Mah Jong, and tell happy, uplifting stories about their life. When Suyuan dies, her daughter Jing-Mei must take over the tradition. Despite the fact that Jing-Mei feels incapable of playing the role of her mother and taking over as the new leader of the club. Nevertheless Jing-Mei slowly starts to warm up to playing Mah Jong, and eventually takes that first step in finishing her mother’s legacy.

            Months after Suyuan’s death, the twins finally came in contact and they wrote to The Joy Luck Club about their lives and wanted to meet their mother. Shortly after, Jing-Mei found out about her half-sisters communication, and agreed to write them and inform them about their mother’s death. Jing-Mei had also agreed to go meet her half-sisters in person. When the day had arrived, Jing-Mei was super nervous yet excited to see her sisters for the first time, and when they stepped out of the airplane, she knew right off they were family.

            Jing-Mei has defiantly fulfilled her mother’s essence in that she found her mother’s long lost twin daughters, continued the Joy Luck Club tradition, and kept her family heritage. Suyuan’s wish can now live on, and Jing Mei can now be in peace and cherish the fact that she now honors her family.    

Latin Roots #7

Roots and derivatives
1. duc(t), duce: to lead
2. fed(er), fide(e): faith, trust
3. fin(e): end, limit
4. flect, flex: to bend

Word list
1. aqueduct: A large pipe or other conduit made to bring water from a great distance
    Romans used aqueducts to supply their homes with fresh water.

2. Conductive: tending to lead, help, assist, or result in
    The library is a conductive place to get your homework done.

3. Definitive: completely accurate, reliable, and authoritative; decisive or conclusive
    It was definitive that I had to move schools after the semester.

4. fidelity: faithfulness to ones promises or obligations, steadfast faithfulness; technological faithfulness.
    When it comes to relationships, fidelity is number one.

5. Fiduciary: an individual who holds something in trust for another; a trustee
    The bank is a fiduciary to most peoples savings.

6. Finale: a "grand" conclusion, as of a performance; the last scene of a play
   The season finale of my favorite show Pretty Little Liars kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time, and left me wanting to know what else happens. 

7. Finite: limited or bordered by time or by any measurement; measurable
    There is a finite amount of time for me to study for my finals.

8. Flexuous: winding in and out; bending or wavering
    The flexuous road is extremely slippery when it rains.

9. Inducement: anything used or given to persuade or motivate; an incentive
    An inducement for her good grades was money for every A.

10. Inflection: a slight change in tone or modulation of the voice, as in a point of emphasis
    By the inflection in her voice, everyone knew she was nervous to give her speech.

11. Perfidious: characteristic of one who would intentionally betray a faith or trust; treacherous
    The women's perfidious actions drove her husband to divorce,

12. Traduce: to speak falsely of; to slander or defame; to disgrace another's good name; to vilify
    Magazines usually always traduce the readers on lies about celebrities lives.

Leopard Man Questions

9. Tom leopard is called leopard man because he tattooed his entire body with leopard print, and he lives in the wild and acts as any other real leopard would.

10. The author thinks people with tattoos and piercing are just attention seekers. He thinks this because he believes some people are psychologically dependent on others opinions.

11. Leopard man is different from other tattooed and pierced people in that he doesn't live for other peoples reactions, rather he does it because it makes him happy.

12. Leopard man lives in a small cabin in the Scottish wilderness.

13. According to Feys, society fears loners because they pursue their own values without seeking others permission.

14. The "worlds most common but dangerous psychological disorder" is conformity. Fey argues that people try so hard to fit in, it leads to suppression and destruction of ones self.

15. Leopard man is so happy because he is doing what he loves, and not what others want him to do.

Latin Roots #6

Roots and Derivatives 
1. Corp(or): body
2. Cred: To believe
3. Cur(r), Curs, Course: To run, to flow
4. dic(t): To speak, to say

Word List
1. Benediction: the invocation of a divine blessing, as at the close of a religion service; a blessing or state of blessedness
   After every Sunday Mass, the priest offers a benediction.

2. Concourse: a running or flowing together; a broad public walkway or hallway; a crowd or throng
   The securities job was to monitor the concrete concourse area of the football stadium.

3. Concurrent: occurring at the same time; meeting or acting together
   Hannah Montana lived a concurrent life; her ordinary life and her famous life.

4. Corporal: related to the physical body
   There would definitely be less troubled students and better behavior if schools used corporal punishments.

5. Corpulent: very stout; fleshly and obese; fat
   After the guy from super size me experimented from overeating McDonalds, he became rather corpulent in size.

6. Credibility: the quality of being believable or trustworthy
   Once somebody has lied to me once, their credibility has gone out the window.

7. Credulity: the willingness to believe too easily without proof.
   The con artist was able to sell was able to easily sell his products to credulous buyers.

8. Cursory: done is a superficial or hasty manner
   Before my test, I cursory looked over my notes instead of studying the night before.

9. Dictum: an authoritative saying or maxim
   My mom always tells me cheesy dictums that her mom once told her.

10. Incorporate: to form into one body or functioning unit; to combine several different things into a whole
   Artist like to incorporate their own personality in their paintings.

11. Incredulous: not believing, skeptical, or doubting
   It was obvious the jury did not believe the defendants incredulous alibi. 

12. Indicative: characteristic of or very much like; suggestive
   My brothers wedding ring is an indicative of his wives love.  

Lit. Analysis #2 response: The Giver

1. The Giver by Lois Lowery is in a futuristic community wheres theres no color, no feelings, and everyone is pretty much the same. The main character, Jonas, however has always felt like he's different from everyone else, but doesn't quite know how to describe it. At the age of twelve, every twelve year old in the community gets placed in a career that the government assigns them for the rest of their life. Jonas was the last one called, and finally he was called up to be the new Memory of receiver because he's "different" from everybody else. On his first day, the receiver gives Jonas a happy memory, and Jonas wonders why the government took this away from everybody. Throughout the book, The Giver shares sad, happy, exciting nervous, traumatizing, and horrid memories of the past. Jonas isn't aloud to share these memories of the past with anybody because it causes pain and indifference. He didn't think this was right and wanted to create a plan to cross the border of his community and release all memory back to the people. Jonas and the Giver plotted a scheme for Jonas to escape and risk his life. After almost getting caught, and escaping a near death experience, he lived a memory that the Giver gave to him to give him strength. Jonas crossed the border, and finally all the memory was released.

2. The theme in this book is, memories and individuality is what makes the world unique. I believe Lowery chose to write about this because so many people want to be like each other or copy one another such as celebrities. However, if everybody was the same the world would be so boring. Also, I think Lowery wants us to cherish and share our memories especially the happy one, so that they will never be forgotten.

3.The protagonist is a dynamic and round character because he changes throughout the course of the story. For example, in the beginning of the book, Jonas had no problem with his community, however by the end he though it was wrong and awful, which made him set a plan to change the community. This sparked after the Giver had shared with him all the past memories of the world that nobody knows about.

4. The major symbols in the story include the senses such as hearing, seeing, and feeling. No one could see color or feel feelings such as frightfulness and happiness except for Jonas. Another huge symbol was Jonas's first memory of him sledding down a hill in the snow because by living this pacific memory, is how Jonas escaped his society.

5. I chose this book because my friend had read it and told me good things about it. Also, it had recently came out in theaters and the previews had appealed to me. However, I wanted to read the book first, so that I'm able to compare the book to the movie. When I began the book, it made me want to keep reading because it started as a sort of suspense of why Jonas was different from everybody else and I wanted to find out why.

6. It's hard to personally relate myself to this book because I and most everyone around me can see color as well as have our own feelings. However, everybody is different in looks and personality kinda how Jonas felt toward everybody else.

7. A part I expect to remember was when Jonas took Gabriel, the baby who has the same "ability" as him, with him when he escaped. Jonas could have gotten away a lot easier and faster, but instead he saved from dying and took him with him. "For Gabriel there would have been no life at all. So there had not really been a choice."