Iris

toc

= = =Pronunciation poem= Molly went behind closed doors, And hid in her closet with all her clothes, As she sat in her closet, Balling her eyes out because of her dead dog, She stared to enjoy the enclosed space, As time elapsed, She sat in her closet, Whenever her dead dog came to mind. media type="file" key="Pronuunciation Poem.mp3" width="240" height="20" =Book Review=

Marked
//Marked // is the first book of the House of Night series by P.C Cast and Kristen Cast This book is an introduction of human’s new lives, living as a vampire. Many people always compare vampire series to //Twilight//. But //Marked// is nothing like it, it has it’s own story behind it which makes it even more interesting.

One day, Zoey Redbird is an average schoolgirl worrying about her upcoming Geometry test, which she is trying to avoid. But then, the vampyre tracker marks her, which means she’s going to turn into a vampyre if her body doesn’t reject the change. Zoey’s mum hasn’t been a real mum since she married John, which Zoey calls him the step monster. When Zoey tells her mum the news, she tries to persuade her not to tell John. But as a result, there wasn’t a mum that Zoey used to know left. Her parents gained up on her, causing her to run away from her house to her grandmother. Zoey and her grandmother have always been very close. Unlike her mother, Zoey was the most precious thing to grandma Redbird.

Zoey suffered a tremendous fall when she runs away to grandma Redbird’s house. She hits her head and becomes unconscious. She connects with the vampyre goddess who tells her she’s special. When Zoey awakens, her Mark is colored in, unlike anyone else’s. From then, she believes she’s truly Marked for a reason. With the help of her friends, she soon discovers magnificent powers within her.

P.C cast and Kristin Cast has a unique writing style is easy to understand but yet very descriptive. I find it very fascinating that they spell vampire as vampyre, which makes them even more unique. “ Then she brushed my hair aside so that the tattoos that had appeared on my neck, shoulders, and back could also been seen. I heard the dark Daughters and Sons gasp as they, too got their first look at my unusual Marks.” (Pg. 302 P.C Cast and Kristin Cast) This sentence is very simply but it’s also very descriptive at the same time. The quote above could also be one of the most important sentences in the book, because it describes the accomplishments that Zoey made.

In my opinion //Marked// is probably my favorite book at the moment. Unlike //Twilight// or other vampire genre, this book has a mixture of both //Twilight// and //Harry Potter//. In //Harry Potter//, the scar on Harry Potter’s forehead is a symbol or how powerful he is. And //Marked//, there’s also a symbol which is also on their forehead. When someone is Marked, they are supposed to leave the real world and go to the House of Night, which is a school where new vampires try to adapt to their new life. In a way this book is almost like almost like //Harry Potter// by leaving their home to go to their new school.

Best friends For Never
Book review By: Iris Hung

Best friends For Never by Lisi Harrison is the second book of the Clique series. This series talks about how girls discover their friendship through the hard times. The reader may think that this book is interesting because even though Massie was really mean to Claire when she first moved to New York, Claire still had the heart to forgive her and to help her when she was in the need for it.

Massie Block is the most popular girl in Octavian Country Day School. Throught out the book she starts to lose, while Massie is losing her popularity, Alicia Rivera tries to take over and rule the school.

None of the girls in the school had ever had a boy and girl party before, and Becca wants to be the first girl to have one. When Massie is told about this party she knows her reputation would be ruined if she weren’t the first girl to throw one. Her plan of being the first to throw the party involved Claire’s help. They needed to act if they were getting along in order for her parents to let them throw the party. So they did, and the parents did.

Lisi Harrison is a very descriptive writer. When she’s trying to describe something in the book, you can see a clear image of what she is trying to say in your mind. “Claire hated the way Layne was looking at her. Tilted head, wide eyes, crossed arms, and a do-you-want-to-talk-about-the-pain-look-her-face.” (Harrison p.88) With all these description describing the way Layne looked at Claire, you can clearly tell that she was mad and needed to talk to Claire straight away.

In my opinion Best Friends For Never had a totally different perspective of the first book. In the first book the book talks about how Claire was always picked on had if Massie didn’t like Claire, then no one would. But in the second book it talks about how people look at Claire in her own way instead of comparing her to Massie and how no one cared what Massie thought. The types of book I enjoy reading is the kind of book that surprises me. When something unexpected appears in the story, it makes me want to read the book page after page. When I was reading the first book, I had no idea that Claire would help Massie plan her party despite the way she was treated in the pervious book. The hidden meaning of the book that Lisi Harrison is trying to presents to the reader is that forgiveness can be shown if you believe people can change for the better.

=Persuasive Speech= Red cross is a well-known organization that helps people. The organization has done many things to help the situation in Haiti. But, it’s not enough. Red cross needs your help. Red cross is trustworthy because they’ve helped countless people and the government in America supports it. Red cross has spent more than $67millioin just on helping the survivors of Haiti. They are trying to provide food, drinking water, and a shelter for the homeless people. You can start helping the survivors in Haiti by donating. If you want to donate 700rmb, which is a lot of money, why not donate it to the best organization? I don’t think you have ever heard of any faults or errors Red Cross has made. You don’t even have to worry about your money being a waste because you can trust Red Cross 100%.

Reflection
I thought the thing I did well on timing my speech. My speech was exactly one minute which was how long it was supposed to be. I could've slowed down instead of rushing though everything. If I slowed down it would give the audience time to process the information in their brains but I just gave them a whole bunch of facts. If I have to give a speech next time I would memorize my speech, this way I can give more eye contact so my audience would know I'm talking to the. When you are giving a persuasive speech you should look confident so it looks like you know what you are talking about. In my speech I looked down a lot and it didn't look like I knew my speech well. If I moved across the room it could've also made me look more confident. But overall, I think I did okay on my first persuasive speech.

=Quarter 2 Goals= Reading: I want to improve my reading skills so I can speed up my reading when I read a book. I plan on reading a chapter of a book a night if I have time. Listening: I want to concentrate in all my classes by listening to the teachers because I sometimes don't understand the topic if I don't find it interesting, by doing this it would be easier for me to do my work in class. I plan on reading the Joy Luck Club with the audio. Writing: I want my writing to be more descriptive and be able to use more complex words. I could ask my brother to tutor me and tell me strategies on how to write better essays. Speaking: I want to be able to speak clearly on a presentation. I could practice at home by reading out loud to my parents.

Quarter 2 Goals Reflection
Reading: I'm still in the process of accomplishing the goal; the technique I'm using is reading along with the audio books. It makes me read faster and get a better understanding of the story. Listening: I've tried concentrating really hard in class but I still find some topics hard to understanding and boring. Writing: I've asked my brother for help on my writing assignments but my writing still needs improvements. Speaking: Although I haven't had to speak in front of the class yet but I don't get nervous speaking in front of the class.

=China Alive=

"Greatest Hits"
I grew in many ways during the pass week. I learned that helping giving other kids gifts makes them really happy. When I was visiting the local school I felt really lucky because I get to go to a really big school and I don’t have to walk a long muddy path just to get to the school. I discovered that making another kid happy makes me happy too, went we were playing volleyball with the younger kids, they had a big smile on their faces.

This is a picture of the pig that survived the earthquake. The pig was buried under the ground for 38 days. The pig lost a lot a weight. It was about 100 something kg before and after they found the pig it was 50 kg.
 * Picture one**

This is a picture of a hot spring that we went to. After hiking for the whole day we finally arrived at the hot spring hotel. There were different temperatures of the hot springs, so were really hot, I think the hottest one was 90 something degrees. We tried to boil eggs in one of the hottest one.
 * Picture two:**

At the very last day we did some volunteer work. We got to feed the panda apples and panda cake. We also picked up their poop, it was really big and they all had different colors based on what they ate.
 * Picture three**

We stayed at this hotel the first and the last night. It was the best hotel of the whole entire trip, the bathrooms were really nice compared to the other ones we lived in. The hotel also had room services and the food and drinks were really cheap.
 * Picture four**

We hiked for the whole day just to see the glaciers. It didn’t look very interesting because you couldn’t see the ice in the glaciers, all I could see was the tiny mountains. In a way it was interesting because I have never seen anything like that before.
 * Picture five**

In this picture you can’t really see the snow mountain because the clouds covered it. I have never seen a snow mountain or seen much snow before. I really enjoyed being able to look at it because most mountains have trees and are green, but a snow mountain is white and very tall.
 * Picture six**

=** Descriptive Writing **= I could feel the sand squish between my toes as I walked along the beach. It was a beautiful day, but the weather was pretty hot. There weren’t any clouds in the sky to shadow the orange sun. I felt like I was on a warm, distant, island as I walked along the beach. The water was a translucent, rich blue. It was so clean; I could see the **fish** swimming around in the water. There wasn’t a patch of seaweed in sight. I stopped walking and turned to face the ocean, I could feel the strong wind blowing against me, I could feel my hair getting pulled back by the wind. I opened my mouth and could almost taste the salt in the air. I closed my eyes; I could hear the ocean waves crashing against the shore. I felt the water rise to my knees pulling me back and forth, and I felt like I was going to fall on the rocks underneath the ocean. I went on the boat to put my gear on. I couldn’t believe it my parents were actually letting me go diving; I have always wanted to swim with the fish. The oxygen tank was heavy I had a hard time putting it on, I even had to crouch down a little as I walked. I jumped into the water and I could see the fish more clearly, there were so many different kinds of fish, it made the ocean look colorful. I went to the bottom of the ocean and kneeled down. I got a little scared, I didn’t know if I could go back up to the shore, but I didn’t mind I just wanted to admire life under sea for a while. My back started to hurt, and it was turning red. I was getting a sun burn; I could feel the sun on my back. I got out of the water and quickly ran into the hotel room. As I walked in I got the goose bumps, because the room was really cold.
 * Key to sentence homework : ** SIMPLE COMPOUND  COMPLEX