Mount Titlis ( First Version)

"It will be a wonderful paradise," I told to myself when I was sitting in the bus, and I knew that even though I hadn't been there. This was a sunny day and our bus was traveling in the tranquil champaign. The air was fresh and chill. The champaign was green and live. The sky was enormous and azure. My heart was excited and glad. I was in Switzerland! The bus was still heading for our destination, Mount Titlis, to see the glacier.

As a Taiwanese, I had never seen the snow before. Because Taiwan is a tropical country, people are hardly to see the real snow. Let alone the glacier! As a result, it would be my first time to see the glacier. The elated feeling was beyond description, not only to me, but also to my friend and my younger sister. After the two-hour distance, finally, we arrived at our destination, Mount Titlis.

When I arrived at Mount Titlis, I found the scene were very different. The landscape of the foot of the mountain was bright and beautiful. The grass and the trees are virid. I even saw the animals, such as pigs, cows, horses, on the hillside. And then, when I was on the half way up the mountain, the view changed a lot. The grass and the trees were disappeared. The mountain was bald and sometimes I could see the white pieces of ice cap scattered on the mountain just like the pattern of a milch cow. Eventually, when I arrived at the mountaintop, the only thing I could see was the glacier and the fog. It was my first time to see the glacier! It was also my first time to realize that walking on the ice was not an easy task at all. Because it was so slippery, people might tumble easily.

When I saw this view, I was really moved. I realized that the Creator was so mighty that it created various landscapes on the earth such as deserts, oceans, glaciers, mountains, streams, and so on, and each of them had their own features. This time, I knew more about the glacier, not from the textbooks, but from my personal experience. Until that moment, I started to understand why some people say “He that travels far knows much.”

Footprints on the Flag

Organization and Ideas

1. She values the flag because the flag represents the country that can't be trampled. So I think she is patriotic. In addition, she is also a careful and patient person that each time after a viewer left, she would take off her jacket and wipe the flag clean.

2. I think most of the conflicts are between the United States and China. First, the United States is full of freedom, while China is repressive and less freedom. The second one is the antagonism between the USA and China. The writer was taught how to resist the Americans, not only the skills to kill Americans but also remoulded people's ideology. And then, the third conflict is between Min and China because she had denounced the Communist China.

3. I think the most important conflict is Min and China. Because she denounced the Communist China, she left China and went to the USA for seeking the shelter. When she lived in America, she realized how good to enjoy the freedom so that this essay could be developed.

4. The essay's thesis is " Freedom is indispensable and we should treasure it." I think she not only learn the feeling of being free but also have to cherish it because it has not come easily.

5. In paragraph 4, I think Min's tone is pretty emotional and agitated.  Because she said " I was emotional because if it were not for America I would not have been alive today." I can feel that when she wrote this sentence, she was very grateful to America and not wanted to see anyone burnt the symbol of America--flag. In paragraph 5, I think Min's tone is realistic because it just describes what she had experienced in China.

Time to Look and Listen

Organization and Ideas

1. At first, she uses an authentic event, the TWA plane was diverted to Beirut and the U.S. Marine barracks was bombed by Arabs, as the prologue to mention why she is discriminated. Then, she recreats her experience as a seventh-grader well by depicting the conflicts in her mind. For example, she tried to forget the Arabics she knew, thinking the food she ate was "weird", being embarrassed about the accent, and so on.

2. I think education is the most important. Because in the last paragraph, the author wrote "Education is the key to understanding." In addition, in order to let the children know more about the Arabic culture, the author's mother even went to the school to educate them. After that, those children seemed to accept the culture of Arab.

3. Her statement about that subject is "Education is the key to understanding." She said that as Americans, we need to take a little time to look and listen carefully to what around us instead of judging it without knowing everything. She also mentioned "It is collective differences that unite and make us unique as a nation."

4. Actually, the writer tries to persuade the reader should not discriminate the religion and the race that are exclusive from the majority. Besides, she also mentioned she is an immigrant who came from the Middle East.I think there are some combinations between them. Because she is an immigrant, she confront many discriminations. However, she still can't forget her origine and should be proud of it. Because all of these aims are important, no one can dominate another.

5. Because this essay was dated nearly Thanksgiving, the holiday that is full of love and the feeling of grateful, I think maybe she wanted to published the essay to thank her mother country--Arab.

Learning, then college

Organization and Ideas

1. In first paragraph, the writer mentioned "taking time off before college" so that the readers can expect the following paragraphs will be related to the gap year.

2. Paragraph 1：When the writer was 17 years old, she decided to take time off before college rather than going to college directly.
    Paragraph 2~9：Gifford explained what the gap year is and analized its advantages and disadvantages. And then, she talked about the feelings of making this decision. Then, the she mentioned what skills did she learn during the gap year. All of these things happened when she was 18 years old.
   Paragraph 10~11：When Gifford was 20, she attended college.

3. She discovered life skills, found independence and a new self-esteem, got jobs to get the experiences, and explored what she needs.

4. Pros：Gifford wrote this essay in time order and gave a lot of good examples and ideas.
    Cons：Some paragraphs are too short that should be combined with the other paragraphs.
    Thesis Statement：What did she learn by choosing the gap year.

5. To me, the most persuasive part is that we can get jobs to acquire the experiences in the gap year.
    Because there always some differences between what we learnt from university and how to apply this knowlwdge to the work place, I think getting a job can let us know what kind of skills or traits we don't have. After getting jobs, we can improve ourselves and be more competitive.

A Fowl Trick to Play on a Lawn Tractor

Organization and Ideas

1. The narrator portrayed the peahen detailedly and focused on the interaction between them. The narrator also depicted the movement so vividly that  the reader can even imagine the emotion of the peahen. Because of that, we can know that the peahen is very curious about the machine.

2.Dexter is skilled in using the humorous tone to narrate what things happened. He characterized his tractor by using a lot of ironic words to reinforce the reader's feeling so that we can know Dexter thought  that machine is very noisy.

3. I think there are three different conflicts in this essay. The first one is between the peahen and Dexter. Second, the conflict is between Dexter and the tractor. The last one is the peahan and the tractor.

4. When Dexter turned off the red light of the compactor, the peahen started to launch a terrible voice and let Dexter realized that the tremendous sound was not from his tractor, but this peahen! I think the resolution is very successful because it is completely out of the reader's expections.

5. Don't judge things or people only by first impressions because the first impressions are strongest and most lasting that may mislead you.