War Poetry (1)

Passage A

1. Sandburg is describing cannons.

2. The "jackies" were sailors and they were singing "war chanties" because they were trying to raise their morale in battle.

3. Sandburg means that no matter how shiny and nice-looking the weapons of war may be, war ultimately entails to death. In the previous stanza, line 12 "Scooping out oblong vaults" implicates the laughing jackies are now dead because of the war. The shovels are used for burying the dead jackies. Thus, whenever there is a "gun", which means a war, there would be "shovels", which means that there is dead. Therefore, a shovel is a brother of a gun.

Passage B

4. The poem's title is significant as it tells us what the poem is about. The title seems to tell me that the soldiers, workmen and citizens follow and carry out what they are told to do, even though what they are called to do may not be right. Soldiers, workmen and citizens are just mindless servants serving the government.

5. Both stanzas contradict each other, one saying to destroy while the other says to build. This shows that the government is both caring and destructive. The persona feels that soldiers are meant for destroying things and they are heartless and emotionless. "Into loose piles of stones and lumber and black burnt wood;" However, the persona feels that the citizens are kind and constructive. "Into buildings of life and labor."

6. I feel that it is harder to build a society rather than to destroy one. Take for example the civil war in Libya. The civil war is still ongoing and destruction is everywhere. The US and British's ships and submarines fired at least a 100 missiles at 20 Libyan integrated air and ground defense systems. The US also sent a lot of air strikes over Libya and many cities and architectures have been destroyed. Up till now, the Libya has not yet recovered from the war and has not rebuilt the city. Therefore, I feel that it is much easier to destroy a society than to rebuild one.

Passage C

7. I imagine the sounds of the future wars to be silent. The guns will be silent, tanks would be silent, even the airplanes would be silent. Soldiers would have no idea who killed them and where they enemy shot them from.

8. I think a good example would be the Libyan "king" Gadaffi. He ruled Libya for 42 years, making him one of the longest serving non-royals in the world. However, there was a major political protest following the wake of the demonstrations in Egypt. They thought that his views were wrong and therefore, the Libyans sort of "kicked him under the dust".

The Merchant of Venice

Pretend for a moment that you are Antonio. Based on Bassanio's arguments, would you also have loaned him the money?

In Act 1 Scene 1 of The Merchant of Venice, Bassanio persuades Antonio to lend him a sum of money so that he can woo and marry a rich women called Portia. Bassanio used many different approaches to persuade Antonio to lend him the money. In the end, Antonio agreed to lend money to Bassanio but since all his money was out in sea, Bassanio had to borrow money from a Jew moneylender. If I were Antonio, I would lend Bassanio the money, but only after thinking over it for some time. The reason why I would lend Bassanio the money because he would be able to return all the money he borrowed and Bassanio is, simply, my friend.

With enough money, Bassanio would be able to woo and marry a rich women Portia. Being Bassanio's good friend, I know that Bassanio is a spendthrift and often spends above his means. Thus, I am not the only person he has borrowed money from. If he really manages to marry Portia, he would be rich beyond measure and thus would be able to return all the dept he owns, including mine. Even though there might be some risk involved, I believe in Bassanio to manage to marry Portia and return all the money he owes me.

Secondly, Bassanio is my best friend, how can I just leave him to bury himself in endless dept? Besides, this might be the only time Bassanio can set things straight and free himself from all of his dept. Being a spendthrift, it would be nearly impossible to ask him to save money by himself. Thus, this might be the golden opportunity to allow Bassanio get out of his dept and also a golden opportunity for me to get back the money I lent him. The saying goes, "A friend in need is a friend indeed". Therefore, I would lend Bassanio the money he needs.

However, there were a few things I had to think over before I agreed to lent Bassanio the money. Firstly, I have already lent Bassanio money countless of times and he has yet to return the money to me. If he doesn't succeed in wooing and marrying Portia, all the money I had loaned him would be going down the drain and never returned back. Thus, some risk involved partially stopped me from lending money to Bassanio.

In conclusion, even though there might be some negative consequences of lending money to Bassanio, the benefits still outweigh the negative consequences, thus I would decide to lend money to Bassanio.

Descriptive Narrative Prose

Write several paragraphs (200-350 words) of descriptive narrative prose, but without using adjectives or adverbs.

One by one, they wrestled us to the floor. Well, it wasn't really much of a wrestle. We were clearly no match for them. A punch from one of them will be able to knock the living day-lights out of anyone of us. The three of us were stood side by side, arms at the ready, but we had completely no chance. They got us surrounded.

Yet the most worrisome thing wasn't them, it was how they found us. I didn't have much time to think before a few punches and everything was a blur...

When I came to, all three of us were on the floor, mouths gagged, of a hut. The thing that most likely have woke me was the smell. The smell slapped me straight in the face. It smelt like dead carcasses, rotting in a corner. They must have slung us to this place when we were unconscious. I could hear mutterings of different languages all around me. Were these people police or kidnappers? The place was dark and I could only make out a few figures. I looked around and saw that we were in a house. It was in a mess. Chairs were all over the place and the place felt damp.

Just then, a man came out from the darkness and pushed a table forward so that the table was just in between us and him. He slammed the table with his hand and the sound echoed, making it sound tenfold.

"Where are the goods?" he boomed. We stared blankly at each other. He shouted louder, "WHERE ARE THE GOODS?"

"I don't know what you are talking about," I said. The man muttered something and then boomed, "Which one of you is Mr David?"

"None of us are," I replied, still unsure with what is happening. The man, furious, turned around and muttered to someone at the back. He raised a threatening finger at us and said,"We would find out sooner or later. You just wait and see." With that, he backed into the darkness, slammed the table once more and flipped it, making it do cartwheels before crash landing. I had a weird feeling that we would not get a chance to see sunlight again.

7-word Sentences

The lock opened with a soft 'click'. Two crafty thieves laughed softly. They opened the door and went in. One of them closed the door. They were both male. Both of them were tall and well-built. Still they broke in silently. The nearby clock tower chimed midnight. They did not waste a second. One of them checked the living room. The other checked the rooms. Many people were sleeping in the house. They had to be quiet. Accidentally, one of them pushed a vase. The vase fell with a 'CRASH'. The thieves rushed to the windows. They slid out before anyone was awake. It was such a close shave.

Gender Imbalance

What will be the effect on Asian society by such a large gender imbalance if this trend continues? Write in SEE format.

In less than 15 years China would have 30 million more men than women resulting from the one-child policy. In China, it is seen that a son is a legacy, who would eventually carry down the family's name. In other rural countries, where social security system is limited or virtually non-existent, a son is often seen as a support for parents in their old age. Daughters, on the other hand, is seen as a family burden. They have to be fed and brought only to be sent into her husband's family when she grows up. This seems unfair to parents as they feel that they are at a lost raising up a girl. However, if no girls are born, many problems will rise. I would be explaining about the consequences on Asian society if large gender imbalances continue.

Firstly, gender imbalance could destabalise society. Research has shown that the suicidal rate of unmarried men are higher than that of married men. This is because they would be lonely and depressed due to the lack of a wife and they would slowly grow crazy due to the lack of company. Lonely and depressed men also develop anti-social and violent attitudes. This may threaten the stability and security of the country.

Secondly, the security and welfare of women might be threatened. Research has shown that 90 million women have gone "missing". One possible reason is that they got abducted by smugglers. Research has shown that men in China are so desperate that they pay smugglers to abduct women to become their bribes. Other women get kidnapped and forced to be sex slaves. Men in China have little outlet for sexual energy, thus they must resort to these methods. This shows just how severe the problem is.

Lastly, the economy of the country would decline. As less men get married and have children, the number of babies born would decrease. This would ultimately result in a smaller workforce and thus less economy growth.

In conclusion, many problems arise when there is a huge gender imbalance. However, the China governments have set up some campaigns to promote more female births. An example would be significant bonuses would be given to parents of girls. I hope that this problem would be resolved quickly.