School is back!

After the one-month long June holidays and the week long home e-learning, I finally returned to school yesterday. After such a long time away from school, going back wasn't easy. There were a lot of things that I forgot to bring. The habits that I had during term 1 and 2 were gone. I had to make new habits.

After three days of schooling, I find that the habits are coming back. I no longer forgetting stuff that I ought to have done or not do. As usual, there were a lot of projects and homework. Besides that, there will be a Project's Day judging next Thursday (getting nervous already). As if that wasn't enough, I will have to finish my history ACE before tomorrow.

Seems like I shouldn't have left it till the last minute. So, I will do my Project Day's project this weekend. Hopefully I will be able to finish the powerpoint slides, web report and script in those two days.

Home e-learning wasn't all that bad. Actually I think it was quite fun. Besides gaining new experience, home e-learning lets you practice on meeting deadlines. We have to submit the first batch of homework (2 subjects) by 10.30 am and the second batch in the afternoon. Sometimes the instructions are quite confusing, but in the end I managed to finish them all.
In view of H1N1 virus, there may be more home e-learning in the future. So I hope that everyone will enjoy it (I definitely will).

Please take note....

There seems to be some confusion over whose blog this belong to. So I'll make an introduction of myself. I am Goh Chih-Yang from 1A2. My index number is 5. Thank you and feel free to browse.

Lesson 5: Poetry on Gambling:

http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-central-poems-gambling-poem.htm

Go to the website and read the three poems Tom Beatty, The Green Clothes and One-Dollar Gambler. You have to do a brief comparison of each poem to a short story in approximately 100 words. Respond to at least 2 discussion threads below. Do note that you are also to comment on your friends' comments and these will be graded too.

Show how the poem Tom Beatty could be compared to The Rocking Horse Winner . In studying the poem, note that the opera house is really life and when He makes the rules it's either the Lord or perhaps the devil. Beatty suggests that everyone has about 70 years, but Paul in The Rocking Horse Winner had much less time. Explain what Paul's weakness was, how the cards were stacked against him and do you think Paul was lucky not to live to be an old man fumbling the cards, leaden-eyed and whining about his losses?

Paul was too obsessed with winning the gamble that he could not focus on anything else except the races. If Paul did not ‘know’ which horse will win, the odds against him winning were high. On the other hand, if he ‘knew’, he will most likely win. I think Paul is lucky not to live to be an old man cursing his luck and whining about his losses because his chances of winning depends if he ‘knew’ the result. If Paul grew up, his obsession with gambling may confine his life to gambling horse races, just as how Beatty’s opera house was really life. By then, no one can save him anymore.

In The Green Clothes, green is the color of envy, greed and money! This poem is thematically similar to Paper . Even though the poem takes place at a roulette wheel the gamblers from the short story and the poem have similar experiences. Explain how tips, dry lips, and all that was spent in vain could apply to the short story Paper .

The gambler in The Green Clothes was looking to get back for his losses by winning the gamble. He was so focused on winning that all he cared for was the small ball trembling in the circle. He even sacrificed his sleep to gamble. Similarly in Paper, Tay Soon gave his all to buy shares in the stock market. In the end, he spent all of his money for nothing. When the stock market started crashing, he was indecisive to sell his shares. At last, he decided to gamble by not selling his shares. His nervousness and desire for winning the gamble contributed to him suffering an emotional breakdown. Besides losing his money, he also lost his health, and died soon after.

Lesson 4: Theme: Gambling

Three short stories: Catherine Lim's Little Ironies , Paper and Lottery and D.H. Lawrence's The Rocking Horse Winner . http://www.dowse.com/fiction/Lawrence.html

In relation to Paper, you should explain exactly what the title refers to and why it is so significant to gambling, gains on the stock market and ultimately the conclusion of the story.
Tay Soon and Yee Lian who worked hard to earn their forty-eight thousand all put their money into the market shares. They earned a lot of ‘paper gains’ after a few days and could not stop buying more shares. Shortly after the market crashed, and all their profits were lost, Tay Soon suffered an emotional breakdown. Not long after that, he was hospitalized and he died. The paper house that Yee Lian made for him was ‘a delicate framework of wire and thin bamboo strips covered with finely worked paper of a myriad colours’. The paper house was seven feet tall and was made to Yee Lian’s specifications. It was burnt at Tay Soon’s funeral. The title referred to the paper gains and how it turned into a paper house for Tay Soon.

For The Rocking Horse Winner, write a paragraph of 100 words in which you point out who was responsible for Paul's death.
I think the reason for Paul’s death was mainly because of his obsession for luck. After successfully winning some money the money his uncle gave him the first time he gambled, he started to gamble more and more with bigger amounts of money. His mother’s explanation of luck also made him curious about luck and wanted to ‘arrive’ at where luck is. He ‘knew’ the winning horse of most races and won a lot of money. When he stopped ‘knowing’, he was upset and was determined to ‘know’ the result for the next race. His uncle’s and Bassett’s partnership also made him all the more determined. In the end, he had brain fever and died.