Tong+Hyun

=**English Speech**=

Topic : The first sign of corruption in the live society is that the ends justifies means.

In a movie called “13: Game of Death”, the main character of the movie said “People hide their morality. Morality is just a huge mask. And this is what I am afraid of because I do not know when they will take off their mask.” In this movie, the main character had to choose between morality and money, and finally he dies by choosing morality. The main character is justified to kill other people and this gives us new perspective. Do you think that murdering can be justified? Do you want to commit a murder if you were given millions of dollars? Do you want to accept a death penalty for criminals? If yes, then you are justifying killing people. According to Georges Bernanos, “The first sign of corruption in a society that is still alive is that the end justifies the means.” I want to say that this quote is totally true because morality is what maintains our society and justification is what corrupts our society.

Society maintains when people do not lose their morality. Morality is not an optional, but essential rule for people. By learning it, we all have to know what we should do and we should not do. Morality is a guideline that maintains society, but if people do not follow this guideline, the society will corrupt eventually. For example, suppose that every person in society pursue money and they are willing to do anything in order to obtain money. They will commit every kind of serious crimes such as murder, robbery, kidnapping and justify their crimes by saying that “I am really desperate to earn money”. Do you really think that this society can maintain forever and ever? I think the society will eventually corrupt if this situation continues. In Animal Farm, another example, Napoleon killed animals that confessed their vices and justify those killings by saying that he killed Snowball’s secret agents. Animals could not believe what happened because they never thought that killing would happen. But they accepted this killing because it was the way to maintain their society. However, what was the ultimate result of the Animal Farm? The result was that the society was totally corrupted. Furthermore, we can find example of corruption in our history. In our history, there were many times when people were justified to kill other people and this is called “war”. For instance, during the Korean War, North Korea first attacked South Korea, declaring war by saying that South Korea was the one who first attacked their nation, which was a total lie. In similarity, South Korea responded to North Korea as war by saying that it is invasion. This justification led into massive bloodshed called “war”. During that time, the society was totally corrupted because every kind of crime was allowed.

Justification, this is what we must consider. The time, when the entire world justifies means come, it is not the sign of corruption but sign of collapse.

Why do you think it was successful?
The reason why I think it was successful was because I made interesting hook on my speech to grab attention from audience. Also, I questioned to audience so that they could think of my answer of my question.

How do you could have improved it?
I could have improved my speech by using more examples on my main points. Also, I could have used gesture more to get attention and keep interest for audience.

= **Poem Analysis** =

The poem “Geography Lesson” by Zulfiker Ghose is describing the impression of earth and realization by looking down on the ground on perspective of person who is taking on the jet. On the first stanza, the jet just sprang into the sky and the writer could clearly see the whole city. Since the jet has just went up, the height is not that high so only he can see is the city. By looking at the city, he got the feeling of disorganization from the city. The reader can guess that the city is not developed well yet and it was build quite unplanned because the writer explained the city as haphazard of the terrain. Also, the reader can notice the repetition of first and last line on the stanza: “When the jet sprang into the sky”. This repetition gives focus for reader to be conscious about the jet that it is just the beginning of the flight and he will continue his flight. On the second stanza, now the writer went to the height of ten thousand feet, which he can recognize the terrain of the country. He demonstrates his realization of the reason why people gather on cities because cities were crowded near river. By this realization, the reader can learn the logic of geography that the land with water is populated while land without water is not quite popular for humans. Furthermore, the writer used repetition of first and last line again to make aware of reader that his flight is still continuing. On the last stanza, the writer gave a variation to compare with other stanzas. The writer repeated first and last lines, but he did not repeated on the last stanza. Instead of repeating it, he said he is not sure of the human beings. he always had a realization of new things on first and second stanza, but on last stanza, he doubts why humans fight against each other. In addition, on the height of six miles, he could look at entire earth and was impressed at the beauty of earth, the harmony of land, sea and cloud. However, after the impression, it was impossible for him to imagine humans to have fight or hatred against each other on the beautiful earth. Therefore, the writer symbolizes the earth as peace that he craves the human beings to not have bad feelings and understand each other. Moreover, the writer wrote “It was clear” on every second line on every stanza. This demonstrates that in every stanza, the writer could make sure he doubted before like he could know the reason why people gathered on the land with water. On this poem, the writer is mainly explaining about his recognition and discoveries. Lastly, by giving both doubt and sadness to the reader that people dislike each other and fight over on the beautiful earth, it gives the reader of regret of not having thought of peace.

= Four main goals during quarter 4 = Reading : I would develop my reading skill by reading books written in English. Also, I would keep memorize vocabularies. Listening : To develop my listening skill, I will watch English movies or dramas more often than right now and concentrate more on my school life since every class I take is based on English. Speaking : I would make more foreign friends to enhance my speaking ability and have conversation with teachers more than right now. Writing : I would consistently get help from Mr.Nordemeyer to improve my writing skill.

Book Review - The Higher Power of Lucky, April 25th
The book “The Higher Power of Lucky” is about a girl named ‘Lucky’ searching hope, courage and love to live her life. The book gives the reader of impression to live the life bravely even though in miserable situation. She was abandoned from her parents when she was only 11years old and lives with her guardian, Brigitte’s mother, in “Hard Pan”, which is a camp for poor people in California. Sometimes, she eavesdrops to adults’ life of finding the higher power to live life. By listening their stories, Lucky dream of finding her higher power in herself. Then one day, she accidentally finds a bunch of paper in her guardian’s desk. And she misunderstood that Brigitte’s mother will leave her alone and go back to France. Lucky felt very depressed and she decides to leave the camp without anyone noticing to stop Brigitte’s mother going back to France. Later, people in Hard Pan find Lucky in a cave. Every person in camp felt relaxed by finding Lucky and gave a song to Lucky. Also, Lucky found out that actually Brigitte’s mother was trying to adopt her as her child and live in France. Now, Lucky found her higher power by realizing people’s love. By having survival trip of sand storm, Lucky realized Brigitte’s love and appreciation for neighbors. Lucky can now live her life in courage and love by living with Brigitte’s mother together. The book impressed me a lot and motivated me to live my life with hope and courage. I often felt depressed and discouraged by the reality and never believed the hope. However, by reading this book, it made me to find my higher power to live with courage, hope and love. So, I look forward to find my higher power someday to overcome my depression and live my life hopefully. I recommend this book for people who are despaired in their life to find their higher power to overcome the hardship by reading this book.