Blog Assignment #7 "Going Nuclear"

The writer discussed that why nuclear energy is a superior form of energy in his paper. He use the counterargument that he first point out that to create electricity, fuels must be burned. However, fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas have become in scarcity and there is link between the fuels burning and global warming. Stating that other kinds of energy have their weak points so that the writer can strong the economic and environmental advantages of nuclear energy. Moreover, the writer compares the nuclear energy with other fossil fuels in the cost effectiveness part. He mentions that quantities of other fossil fuels have become depleted, compounded with soaring demand, prices have continued to escalate. This shows that the nuclear energy become extremely competitive in the energy market.

The writer uses several evidences to support his claim. He explained that how nuclear power plants are designed and how they create such enormous amounts of usable energy. And the writer uses the example that as a result of the 2005 Energy Policy Act, the nuclear energy become even more appealing in the energy market. What's more, the writer compares the steady prices of nuclear fuel with the rising and unstable costs of other fossil fuels, which shows that nuclear weapon is more economic.

The essay is persuasive because that the writer use counterargument to explain the weak points of other kinds of fuel energy witch show that the nuclear energy is appealing in the energy area. The writer use example of Fresno, California to show that the nuclear energy has economic advantages and is environmental friendly. What's more, the writer gives specific detail to explain why nuclear energy has environmental advantage over other fossil fuels. All these description makes the writer's claim clear and persuasive.

Paraphrase and quotation in "Run Up Hill: The Struggle of Student Athletes"

Paraphrase Example:
According to Stress in College Athletics,which details the causes of stress to those affiliated with college athlethics, ninety-five percent of male athletes and eighty-five percent of female athletes found such factors as making up assignments missed because of games and practices as a primary cause of stress (Humphery, Yow, and Bowden 41).

The writer used this research material in the form of paraphrase to make his article be more persuasive. What's more, the paper just gives the result of a survey which don't need to be quoted exactly. The statistics in the sentence support the former statement: "In reality, athletes carry a heavy burden in balancing their academic course load with the responsibilities that come with participating in college sports." Moreover,the paraphrase makes the readers have a further understanding of the athletes' burden in both sports and study, and it rid the bias off from the previous description of that some would say that student-athletes have been given an unfair advantage by the school in comparison to their fellow classmates.

Quotation Example:
Perhaps more telling is the comment made by an NCAA Division I Football player who said,"football practice and games are like hitting your head ten times against a brick wall and then you go try to study for a math exam." (Humphrey, Yow, and Bowden 41-42)

The writer used this research material in the form of a quotation way because that it is a sentence said by a athlete. To quote the sentence directly can make the paragraph more vivid. What's more, it gives a further explanation of the burden of the athletes, and it draw forth the idea that because of sports, athletes face an uphill battle to succeed in the classroom that would be almost impossible to achieve without extra help and guidance. This makes the readers can easily understand the writer's opinion.

Blog Assignment#5

As a Chinese proverb said,"A man should not be justified by his present success or failure." I definitely agree with that. Losing in one campaign can not always mean that the loser is not strong enough, sometimes success or failure can be depend on one's fortune. However, it is a fact that the winners writing the history. The thought that winner rules while loser be ruled is unfair, but the history was always going in that way which can not be changed in a short time. The only thing we can change is ourselves. Do not judge a loser on the basis of what we see in the history book. As that is not the whole part of the history.
For instance, Yuanzhang Zhu is the emperor of the Ming Dynasty. He is considered to be a national hero as he made a national unity although he is of humble birth. The history book record plenty of stories about his poor family, his ambition and take his life as a legend. It is undeniable that he has powerful leadership. A hero figure would formed in one's mind who is reading the history book. However, what was written in the history book is not all about him. At least we can not find his bloodiness in the history books. Yuanzhang Zhu is cruel that he even killed his benefactor when he was trying to get a higher position, and he killed a lot of ingenious minister as he is afraid of one of them would usurp his throne one day. That is because the ministers were dead, they couldn't write the history, it is Yuanzhang himself who write the history. As a winner, one would never speak ill of himself.
If we let the ministers write the history, they would definitely point out some part we can not see of the history. On the other hand, we still can not figure out what the real history is by one party as the strong points of the winner are also the truth.
I think we should have a dialectical look on the history and do not judge a person by his recorded success or failure.

New Words...

preeminent: adjective surpassing all others, very distinguished in some way.

sarcasm: noun the use of irony to mock or convey contempt

furious: adjective 1.extremely angey
2.full of anger or energy; violent or intense

Blog Assignment#4 From 2 Years in the Melting Pot

Part one:
It is an common scene here to see a couple of international students hunging out with the peers from their own country. As I see, it is reasonable for some alien students to be fond of being with the friends who come from the same culture, but it is not a appropriate choice to dodge the difficulties rather than solve it.
Culture shock do exist to an international student. We have different culture, different language and different thought with American people, I think that's why Liu finaly choose to stay with other Chinese, the same reason as why majority of us make the same choise. Undeniable, people here are really friendly to us, that makes me haven't had the same feeling of loneliness as Liu had, they are always ready to help and always have a smile on the face. But I totally understand him, it is not enjoyable when we cannot join the group of people who are talking gleefully just because we cannot understand all of what they are talking about or don't know how to express our idea properly. But being with Chinese people, even if they are stangers we can always have something to say as we have the same culture and can use a language we are proficient when walking with each other. I also aware that I'm not good at remember names and faces, so sometimes it makes me feel embarrassed when someone greet me with my name on the street but I totally forget anything about him/her and can just reply them with a "Hi" without trying to continue any conversation.
I do want to make friends with the Americans here, I'm trying although I know it is hard. We flyed for about 20 hours oversea to study in another country for the reason that we want to experience another culture,so it is important to us to overcome the difficulties rather than trying to escape reality by staying with people who we are familiar about.

Blog Assignment#3 Nonberbal Communication

In terms of nonverbal communication, differences do exist between China and USA in the social life.

For instance, people in America are friendlt enough to greet someone in the street even though they do not know each other, this phenomena really left a deep impression on me when I just came to USA. American take eye contact as an important thing when talking with other people to show respect. However, people in China tend to be shy when communicating with each other, they use less facial expression to show their feeling so we can never see people greet with some strangers in the street in China and some Chinese may avoid eye contacting even when talking with thier own fellows which can be taken as an unconfident action.What's more, it seems common here for teenagers to hug with a heterosexual friend, but in China, people often keep a certain space with each other, they would not greet a friend like this unlss with their best friends.

However, as I see, there are more common grounds than differences between these two cultures. For example, a smiling face will always show friensliness and happy feelings, and the gesture "V" always means victory both in America and China. American people seems to be mroe outgoing, some gestures such as a short piece of dance can also show their happy mood.

By now there are some gesture of which I still cannot understand the meaning, but I will try my best to figure it out as the nonverbal communication is just the most important way for people to show their feelings during sommunication.

Writing Assignment 2# Option 3

It is true as the writer says in the essay “The First Four Minutes” that people always judge a person with thier first impression.So the first 4 minutes do important to us to form a long-term friendship with someone else.But,exception do exist.
The first time I met Wenbo Yuan is in the music room of our school, she was playing piano unskillfully at that time and I can't catch a friendly feeling from her eyes.She just sitting there speaking loudly with her friends, I thought she is an over extroversion person and even felt it unfortunate when I got to know that we were streamed into the same class.However, dramatically she became one of my best friends at last.
As time goes by, I gradually found that she is such a thoughtful person that she always trying her best to think on her friends' position.Compared with me, she is more lively, that makes everyone around her feels happy all the time. Some of my classmates don't like her as she speaks a lot, but as my point of view, as least she is brave enough to show her own emotions easily to us.It's better than the people who hide their feelings and don't let go the truth.
We come through the most tense time for students in the preparation for college entrance examination together and we are still friends now.The memory with her is what I'll treasure for a life-long time.
First impression is important to us, but it is not the most important thing as we all konw that a
long task proves a man.