Hope you are doing well! Welcome to our third activity! For this one, you will write about your reading interests in English language. Post your comments before April 16th, 9 p.m.!
1. Choose a reading from your own personal interest (60 pages at least and B2 level, as we agreed).
2. Write a creative composition (150-200 words), trying to give an answer to all the aspects or questions mention below:
a. The book's title and its author.
b. Why did you decide to read it?
c. A general abstract from this reading.
d. What did you get from it?
3. Language/writing aspects:
- Simple sentence structure: subject + verb + complement.
- Look for useful vocabulary you can need.
- Check grammar, spelling, punctuation rules, etc.
- Check grammar, spelling, punctuation rules, etc.
4. Prepare an oral presentation (5 min each) about this reading, to be presented in classes the next week. Feel free to use visual aids/useful materials.
All your writings will be welcome as comments... Thanks for participating!
A.
ReplyDeleteJacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy
by: jacqueline kennedy (author), Michael Beschloss (editor, introduction)
B.
The reason I choose this book it's because I feel inspired by the story of a powerful woman who has suffer her whole life despite being in an opulent world, the story of this woman shows me that it doesn't matter if we are poor or we are the most powerful people in the world, the problems are always there, they don't choose between religion, status etc. Also, the story of Jacqueline Kennedy shows me that we have to fight against those who want to destroy us, no matter what we always have to be with our heads held high, as she said in her own words, america wasn't ready for such a terrible crime, but neather she was, she was just a wife, a mother, a woman; everybody wanted to came for her because she was opulent, because she was a socialité, and she continued with her life being such an icon for american culture, I think that the ones who came for her because of her high end tastes, were ignorants, because the only think she wanted to show to the world was the greatness of a powerful woman, it wasn't because a whim, it was because she wanted to show to the world that despite the setbacks that life gives us, we should still demonstrating that we are powerful and not that we are destroyed.
C.
In March of 1964 and still deeply affected by the murder of her husband, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy sat down with the historian Arthur Schlesinger to record a total of seven interviews that until now had remained hidden. In the interviews, she also talks about confronting people's criticism, the fear of being killed like her husband, how she deal with pain, etc. As well she told her experience during those years of being the First Lady of USA and the role that she played in the political world.
D.
I like to read the life of emblematic people who have marked the history and this book shows me the experience of a legend and an icon, a person who suffer a lot but continued with her life, a woman who wanted to be remembered, also what I get from this book is that opulence isn't bad, I think that people who criticize opulence are idiots and hypocrites, cause that's what we all want in life; this book shows me that if you don't have money, you dont have to destroy the ones who have it, you better work to get money too and find inspiration in legends who changed the world, because the life of Jacqueline Kennedy wasn't just full of opulence, she and her husband worked together for two years to ensure that the laws were fulfilled and to help the less fortunate, so if you have money, you can help others and live for the fashion at the same time.
DIVERGENT - VERONICA ROTH
ReplyDelete*I decided to read this book because since a long time I like to read that kind of books and some people told me that this book specially it's really good.
*This book is about 5 factions in Chicago, people were divided in these groups that were Abnegation, Candor, Erudite, Amity, and Dauntless. This story is about a girl who took the aptitude test and discovered that she was a divergent but there was a dangerous because they were considered bad people and tried to kill them. So she entered to Dauntless and she probed herself to do many things that she never considered to do. One of the leaders of Dauntless was divergent too so he decided to help her to survive there without being discovered. Erudite leader tried to control Dauntless faction to start a fight with the others. Four and Tris solved this problem and now they are trying to save their faction.
*I get from this book that sometimes we need to be brave, try to do new things and also do not limit ourselves to what we always do. Maybe we can discover skills that we did not know we have.
THE STORY OF YOUR LIFE
ReplyDeleteBy: Ted Chiang
This book was a recommendation by my eldest brother, he is a physicist, and he is involved in an investigation about languages right now. In this story, alien ships appear on the earth’s orbit and try to communicate with humans, the government sends a group led by a linguist and a physicist, that idea was interesting for my brother, because in most of science fiction stories, the language problem is not presented at all, and both, science and language could have universal properties, then it completely makes sense to take them into account. Then he told me about a movie called “Arrival” based in this book, it was made by one of my favorite living filmmakers, and I liked it so much, but my brother said the book had important differences, and it went deeper into physics and linguistic concepts, then I decided to read this amazing book.
This story was incredibly touching for me, because it deals with subjects I am very interested in. I’ve been watching science fictions movies recently, and I am amazed by them. Also, the fieldwork of a monolingual procedure, as my interest in languages in general, kept me motivated. The whole story is actually a metaphor about the physical “Fermat’s principle” (which explains the light spread upon a reflective surface), the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (which explains the language we learn determine the way we conceive the world) and the human’s perception of time.
Human’s perception of time is lineal (as english writing), but when the linguist protagonist learns the alien language, she begins to feel the time in the way the aliens do, and she is capable of seeing the future as if it was a past memory; she discovered she was going to have a daughter who would die very young,.. From the beginning of the story she knows that. The story began the night this daughter is conceived. That is how the protagonist started to tell the story to her future daughter while she wondered about having the baby or not.
Something amazing about science fiction is that it helps us to reflect about our own humanity, because we do not need to have a special ability to know everything in life comes to an end, though we decide to live by avoiding this fact, and enjoying the moments we can have with the people we love.
Rebecca
ReplyDeleteI decided to read this book, because I like the stories about mystery, investigation and love, and this story has some things about that. “Rebecca” by Daphne du Maurier treats about a story of a young woman who had a boring life with an old unpleasant woman. But one day, the young lady meets Mister de Winter, who is a rich and important man in England with an unhappy love story behind him.
With the passage of time the young lady and Mr de Winter fall in love. Mr de Winter proposed to her marry with him and live in Manderlay, where he has a beautiful mansion to live together and have a happy marriage. There, in Manderlay, all problems begin to appear for the young lady, because of the ghost of the last Mrs De Winter, Rebecca, begins to torment her. The young lady thought the last Mrs Winter still dominates her husband. At the end she discovers the truth about the Rebecca's death, and her worries end with it.
This novel makes understand that is important to have high self-esteem and self-love to not let others harm us and, so, in this way do not make bad decisions especially about our life.
REFLECTIONS -- Author: Hermann Hesse
ReplyDeleteI decided to read “Reflections” because it is different from other books that I have already read. This time I did not want to read a novel or a specific story, I wanted to read something that would make me analyze the reality from another point of view, in this case from the thought of Hesse. It is s a book that explains some topics of the life in an easy way. It leaves behind the complicated writing and worries about securing the reader's understanding.
"Reflections" show the ideas that Hesse expressed throughout his life, regarding politics, society and the individual, happiness, love and death. He writes about the love like something that is a link to the happiness, where "the happiness can be possessed only so long as it is unseen." He writes about the immense fear that the human being has to be forgotten, of the fear of death. Death for Hesse becomes sweet when we say yes to it, when we accept it as one of great and eternal forms of life and transformation.
He also writes about the war, he said the war does not advance the world, it merely postpones, merely provides men's passions with ephemeral new goals. There has always been war and probably never will ceased to exist, the point is in what we can do every day for decrease the conflict. We should change our impatience, our egoism (including intelectual egoism), "our sense of injury, our lack of love and forbearance". Moreover, it is posible to derive more satisfaction and to learn more from opponents, even declared enemies, than from those who share our convictions.
With this book I learned that as there are people with totally different ideals to ours always exist people who agree with us and fight for the same ideals. We don't have to worry about going against others for the simple fact that we disagree with them. We must find a way to share our ideals in a constructive way.
The end of the fucking world by Charles Forsman
ReplyDeleteI decided to read this book because I saw a series that was based on this book, I liked this series a lot. I wanted to find the original book to find out more about the series and about the characters in the book.
The story is about a boy, his name was James and he lived alone with his father, he was a very strange boy who thought he was a psychopath and one day he met Allyssa and thought that maybe he could kill her, and then the kid be in love with her. Alyssa was also a very strange girl she had a very bad mood, and hates to live with her mother and her perverted stepfather, so one day she decides to escape with James. In the middle of the adventure, and they stay without permission in the house of a teacher who was not in the house, they discover that the teacher was satanic and that it hurts people, and when he arrived home James murdered him with a knife. After this, they escape from the police.
I learned new vocabulary and can learn more about the story by reading the original book, and I realize that English is a good tool because the book was not translated into Spanish so I had to read it in the original English language.
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind
ReplyDeleteI decided to read this book because it's a book full of analogies and mysteries. In my opinion it's a very deep book that makes you want to analyze it in detail. It's a book that, through a not very used theme such as smells, deals with a topic such as social exclusion and the need to be a normal person.
The book tells the life of Jean Baptiste Grenouille who has the most gifted nose in the world but he's a man who doesn't produce any kind of feeling to others, his lack of body odor is the biggest challenge of his life. He works as a perfumer and makes the best essences of Paris, but for this he has to kill animals and even girls... At the end of the book he's caught for his crimes but, by using the master scent he has created, he's believed innocent by all.
The author, through the descriptions and details that he relates, tries to explain that man always wants to be recognized by something and this need to be recognized and loved by others is what really helps us to survive.
The Graveyard Book/ Neil Gaimon
ReplyDeleteI opted to read this book owing to I’ve heard of Neil Gaimon, who wrote Coraline, stardust and the Sandman comic, so I had a lot of expectation. The graveyard book achieves connect the fantasy, horror and gothic genres without being too many intense. Although it involves us in the story since the first page.
This book starts when a family is murdered by a secret organization. The baby of this family accidentally arrives to the graveyard and the ghosts decide to protect him and to adopt him.. This child is named Nobody Owens and he is raised by the ghosts in the graveyard, he has some ghost’s abilities inside the graveyard. He lives through a lot of adventures and finally, he defeats the secret organization that killed his family.
This book provokes the reader to rethink the existence of supernatural beings. It teaches us that everybody has a different childhood, but it can be lived with happiness and adventure. Also, we learn to be brave and cleverly in unfortunate and opposite situations. Also in this story about a spiritual world we learn to leave away the material things in our lives and to think in the neighborhood.
WHEN SUMMER COMES- HELEN NAYLOR
ReplyDeleteI found this novel because of an recommendation that I saw in a blog, and I decided to read it because long time ago I didn’t read love stories.
Stephen and Anna were a couple from London that one day decided to escape from the stress of the city and their jobs. Anna was a nurse and Stephen worked for an advertising agency. They decided to travel to Polreath where they had rented a cottage from a local fisherman, Tristan Goddard was his name. Their holiday started well but after just one day Stephen was call back to London for a crisis meeting in the office. So, Stephen left and Anna stayed in Polreath with Tristan. But by passing time, Anna started to felt attraction for Stephen as they spend most of the time together. As a result the attraction between them started to increase and Anna started to feel so confused. She didn't know what to do, if stay in Tristan's hut and continue with the attraction and others feelings, or go home with her husband and forget those emotions of love on holiday...
This novel made me understand that we don't have to plan everything of our lives because we don't even know what the future has for us and life can give you surprises...
Also with this novel i learned much new vocabulary, furthermore i realized that read by the original language is a great tool and a good way to learn and practice more of the language.
Don’t hang up
ReplyDeleteBy: David A Hale.
I decided to read this book because I have a friend who likes to read suspense books and he buys every month a new one. In February, he bought “Don’t hang up” and after he read it, he told me it is an amazing book a have to read. I do not read books frequently; however, I decided to try to read it. I started reading it but when I was in the first chapter, I took care of doing the University activities and I got tired for continue reading it, so, I stopped. Coincidentally, as this activity is about reading a book, I finished the reading and I am going to describe it for being the last one I read.
This book is about a teenagers group who spend part of their time making telephone pranks which can be lethal. One night, while they are doing it, one of their victims decides to make the same against them, so the roles are going to change. They are bound not to hang up the telephone; otherwise they are going to see the consequences.
Regarding the activity of reading, I learned a lot of grammar, vocabulary and some expressions used by natives; I focused on the use of punctuation rules when I write a formal text and regarding the personal point of view, this kind of books can offer to the reader a teaching about the value of respect and to do not make fun of the people.
THE THIRTY NINE STEPS-JOHN BUCHAN
ReplyDeleteI chose to read this book because it seemed interesting to me how the author exposes feelings such as loneliness, fear and impotence that a person can feel, while developing a plot of espionage and danger.
After having dinner, Richard Hannay went back to his flat in London, there he met his neighbor Mr Scudder who tells him about a conspiracy created by Germany and Russia against Great Britain; also, Scudder talks of a group of spies that want to murder him; for that reason,Hannay allows him to stay in his flat. Some days later, Hannay finds Scudder was murdered and as he could not call the police because he will be the main suspect of the crime, he decided to escape.
While he is escaping, he meets some persons who will help him; but also, he notices police will not believe what he is saying; however, he is determined to reveal the conspiracy and avoid a world war.
About the language learning, this book allowed me to acquire new vocabulary and to know what kind of structures are used when writing a literary novel; and regarding the content of the novel, although it develops a fictional plot, it allows us to reflect on the current situation in the world, showing that the destiny of all people around the world can not be in the hands of the governments which only think about getting power.
Lovecraft's tales.
ReplyDeleteAuthor: H. P. Lovecraft.
I decided to read these tales because I have always been curious about the famous Cthulhu and the whole world where these stories take place. He is one of the most famous horror literature authors and I wanted to know why and which one is the origin of this awesome monster known as Cthulhu. Also,the tales date from the twenties and the style of writing is very different from the modern style, with lots of unknown and even French words.
The Call of Cthulhu is the story of the nephew of the Professor Angell who, after the professor's death and being his only one heir, found among his uncle's heredity a bas-relief with some prehistoric writing and a figure of a monster with parts of an octopus and a dragon, along with a manuscript, notes and paper cuttings. All of these documents had a topic in common: The professor's research of inexplicable dreams dreamed by many in which they had visions of strange landscapes and a Titanic figure. In his investigation to find out why his uncle was so interested in these particular events, the main character discovered an ancient cult that believed in gods that came from space and because of the practice of black magic, were condemned to live in the blackness of the sea waiting for their freedom to reconquer the earth.
The Colour out of Space tells the story of an engineer, who attempts to uncover the secrets behind a shunned place referred to by the locals of Arkham as the "blasted heath". In this place, vegetation and animals are poisoned, causing malformations and grotesque shapes in them, affecting too the population of the place, who are driven mad en eventually die. The reason of the unusual characteristics of this place is that years ago a metheorite landed there, drowning a strange creature into a well who apparently is the author of the state of the environment.
Dagon, Azathoth and Nyarlathotep are the stories of three witnesses who had awful encounters with these three other gods in Lovecraft's world. Each one of them has the same origin of Cthulhu and as him, their characteristics are horrific along with their evilness.
I got from the readings: joy because it have been a long time since I don't immerse myself so much in a reading and inspiration for future drawings and writings.
Many lives, many masters
ReplyDeleteAuthor: Brian L. Weiss
I decided to read this book 'cause a friend are studying psychology and said me that this book is very nice, and made you feel different and built new perspectives, and also i like stories based in real facts, 'cause sometimes that stories overpass the fiction
Brian Weiss was a psychiatrist of the hospital Sinai in Miami when he knew to Catherine, a woman that suffered of depression, she had a lot of phobias and some of them were difficult to understand the reason, also had a bad relationship, and she couldn't sleep. Brian started to help to Catherine, he used the hypnosis and discovered that she had had more than 83 lives over the course of the history in different cultures, sometimes was a man and sometimes a woman, and also sometimes, a part of his family, friends and other important people was with her, like if their lives were connected, besides "the masters" (a kind of super-people mades of light and with a lot of knowledges) started to use to Catherine for talk with Brian about relevant facts according to reincarnation, who decided why you are here, and which one is your purpose in that world, in that life, and in that moment.
I got from this readings a lot of new vocabulary according to themes like psychology, medicine, history, and obviously a lot of new information about psychotherapy, and reincarnation. This book made me think different about purposes, and why this live, is my live.
A) - SHADOWHUNTERS ‘CITY OF BONES’ – CASSANDRA CLARE
ReplyDeleteB)The reason why I decided to read this book was because it handles topics such as fiction, fantasy and mystery. These are some of my favorite genders in terms of literature. Mainly because it keeps stories but with unexpected happenings. Another reason was because I thought it was a good choice for increasing my vocabulary and enjoying a story, having fun and taking new ideas and visions of the world, because each book represents somehow a way of thinking or a point of view of the world.
C)The main topic of this books deals with a hidden world of demon hunters as well as a world of ‘mundies’ or human beings who did not have any super power. Demon hunters or shadow hunters were in charge of protection human dimension of demons o malefic hunters. They were a mix between angels and humans. All this story turned around a girl who discovered that fantastic world and learnt a lot from some happenings going on in her life. She discovered her mother was once a shadow hunter and she was been searched once she left that world because she was protecting a cup that could open new dimensions and turn a person into an angel. She met a boy whose name was Jace and she ended up falling in love with him, however some unexpected situations will keep them together and is not necessarily that love.
D)I found some difficulties on vocabulary because it had new words which are still complex for me, on the other hand I got that many people have different views of the world as the Author of the book, I think it is important to keep an open mind to new ideas. I got from it that life is not always as we think it is and unexpected situations may happen in the moment we less expect. We are the ones making decisions about what goes on or what actions we take to overcome difficult situations.
The Night Land
ReplyDeleteby
William Hope Hodgson
I found this macabre book because a friend of mine, who is really interested in horror, just as me; told me about it. When I had to think about what to read for this activity, I remembered how excited he was about this story, and this was a great opportunity to finally read it.
All begins in the 17th-century, with a depressed man, crying for his loved wife: Lady Mirdath. But something weird happens, he has a vision of the future, which looks like a dark fantasy, it was a lonely and scary planet; where monsters, remains of human kind and hybrids live all together.
I took from the story, the importance of being able to watch life in different ways, it all changes depending on the view, if you want to treasure every moment and be happy with it, it’s up to you. But if you want to be grumpy all the time, think that everything is awful and complain about your life, it’s up to you too.
THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY BY OSCAR WILDE
ReplyDeleteI chose the book the picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, because several people recommended me and besides this, it is a modern classic of western literature.
The protagonist was Dorian Gray, a very nice painter to whom a friend of the profession paints his picture, when this happened, he approached a friend of his and started talking about beauty. Because of this, Dorian wanted to be always as in the picture and not grow old. He met a very beautiful artist and decided to marry her, but the day he went with his friends to see her perform, she played the role of emotion in a disastrous way, so she broke the engagement because for him, her beauty was in art, she committed suicide and because of this, the image of Dorian began to deform, therefore every sin or vice made by him would be reflected in his picture, until one day, Dorian irate, stabbed his picture, employees found the picture young and impeccable, while on the floor they found an old decrepit who, thanks to his ring, could identify himself as Dorian Gray.
In general the book talks about many things, narcissism, a bit of fantasy when it comes to eternal youth, however, is something that our society sells us and that in turn portrays a current phenomenon of his time as is the decline of society and the vices or desires that are allowed out of curiosity, which does not sound old and is currently quite applicable.
Naturally, you learn a bit of history when you situate yourself in the moment, besides this you can reflect a bit on our actions and how they are reflected, in our physique or in our thinking, or if, on the contrary, we manage to hide our actions from the others and demonstrate something completely different from who we are and what we do.
A. Animal farm by George Orwell
ReplyDeleteB. I decided to read this book because one friend who readed it in spanish said that is a really good book and is the book´s kind that i like, i read the summary and i was so intereted to read it.
C. Orwell uses the turmoil faced on the farm by the animals as a metaphor for the Russian Revolution itself. It shows how a people's fight for freedom can so quickly morph into a power play as chaos ensues. There are lies and illiteracy throughout the novel to explain the oppression, propaganda and elaborate excuses that led to the rise of the Soviet dictatorship. It is about a satire of the descontroled power of the humans.
D. The novel is an exceptional way of showing what happens when you give it more political power to some people than they deserve do and how humans can distort their true objetives. It shows the reality of "If you think you know someone, just give them power ".
AMERICAN CRIME STORIES
ReplyDelete-RETOLD BY JOHN ESCOTT
I decided to read this book because I like classical films, specially film noir and thriller movies; but in fact, at first I did not know this book, I was just looking for a book in order to fulfill this assignment. However when I found it, I was surprised when I looked its cover page, since it alluded quite to the 40s and the golden age of Hollywood and cinematography, in addition to the named movies genres. But not only surprised, but also amazed, inasmuch as after reading the first story, I realized it was like being in that time, and even in that dark and somber atmosphere worthy of film noir and crime thriller; it was a very cool sensation, then for that reason I wanted to continue reading the book.
American Crime Stories is a compilation of stories by seven well-known writers, they show us the great diversity of crime in the United States that is much the same in any other place. From murders of passion and revenge, murders that look like suicides or accidents to robbery and muggering. You can find the innocent and the guilty; sometimes it’s clear, sometimes it’s deductible but other times you are intrigued, insomuch as the guilty is not explicit nor deductible. Besides there are the stories behind each character, which show their most human side but also their twisted minds. So you can encounter a very varied set of feelings in each character, which will make you identify with someone and will allow you to better comprehend the criminal mind.
By last, what I got from it in general aspects was that people are a surprises box. You can think that a person is in a certain way, but actually it’s the opposite. I realized about the importance of the gaze in people and the way of speaking, being that these ones say a lot of things. I also learned that cheat people is not so difficult and that the human being can be very creative when he proposes to do something, from the simplest things like performing daily activities and even lie to things like crimes. In these cases, the manners of murdering, hiding a corpse, stealing an establishment and even trick a seller. And in a more practical sense, of course I learned new vocabulary and some expressions, as well as understand a bit better the american society.