16/3/2011
Lessons in Life

(Kar) The book I read is “Lessons in Life”, written by Elsie Tu. She was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, and has lived in Hong Kong since 1951. Elsie Tu was a teacher and former member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong.
This book contains 40 varieties of essays on politics, moral, ways in preserving the Earth, saving our culture and Heritage, the changes of old and new Hong Kong and so on. She was not only to share with readers in her experience of life. She also taught young people to tolerate, care of others, treasure their family members and learning from hardship. Besides, she advised us to consider the effects of industrial progress on the environment, and how to save the world’s natural resources.
For study, Elsie Tu encouraged students to read outside the school syllabus to widen their minds and views. She advised pupils to work hard in English, write correct tenses and analyze the structure of their sentences carefully. At the same time, she pointed out English uses tones, how to emphasize with right syllables and how to speak with correct intonation. She suggested students every day by reading with their eyes as well as mouth.
The book is very good and useful indeed to read, I know many old Hong Kong’s history after reading. For examples, there were plenty tin or wooden huts on the hills surrounding us and some newcomers even lived in cardboard shelters on the pavements. We could see some rickshaw pullers and sedan chair carriers still plied their trade on the roads during 1950s to 1970s. In addition, there were mainly in street markets but no shopping malls for people to shop. Mothers and children usually worked at home, such as doing embroidery, making flowers, packing boxes of matches etc, in order to earn their rice. It is difficult for teens today to conceive what life was like in those days.
I fully agree with the writer’s views that we should tolerate each other’s customs, nationalities, religion and political opinions if we want peace to live with others. Actually, life is not of all fun, we should keep a sense of humour to manage hardship whenever we face problems. On the other hand, we should give a hand to help the people in need.

Treasure Island

9/3//2011
Treasure Island

(Kar) The book I read is “Treasure Island”, retold by Angela Wilkes. The main character named Jim Hawkins who was wise, valiant, accommodating and experienced his fantastic adventure on Treasure Island. There were a lot of characters, for examples: the considerate old sea captain, Billy Bones. He gave Jim a silver coin for looking out a sailor with one leg. Squire Trelawny was aggressive and the clever doctor, Livesey. During the journey, Jim met many people whom he had never met before included Captain Smollett who was serene, ingenious, sensible and brave and led the sailors to fight against the pirates. Long John Silver was Captain Flint’s second-in command. He was cruel and proposed to kill Smollett and his friends after he got the treasure. And other pirates named Ben Gunn and Israel Hands and so no.

The beginning of the story, it mentioned Jim helped his mother to manage the Admiral Benbow Inn. It was an unusual morning for him to meet Bones. Jim’s life had charged since then. One day, receiving a message from a blind man, Bones was very frightened to fall to the floor. After Bones died, Jim and his mother found a bag of gold and papers in his chest and took it to Squire Trelawny. Dr. Livesey, Squire’s friend, was smart that he discovered a map in the papers and it showed where the Captain Flint’s treasure was buried. Having an idea to find the treasure, Squire planned to Treasure Island with Jim. Later, Squire hired a ship called Hispaniola for voyage. Captain Smollett said that the whole crew looked tricky. Nevertheless, there was not enough time for Squire to find another one to replace them.

At one night, Jim told everyone in captain’s cabin about Long John’s trick. However, Smollett said that they could not give up and be ready to fight. Jim saw Long John killed a sailor for not joining the pirates on the island. He was shocked and ran away. Jim met Ben Gunn, in the forest, who had been left by his pirate friends. After that, Jim told Squire, in a logs fort, about Long John had done. The next early morning, Long John came and asked Squire to give him the map. Squire did not and fought against the pirates. Finally, Squire and his friends defeated the pirates. Moreover, Dr. Livesey had cheated Long John with the treasure map and distracted the pirates. He also knew Ben had found Flint’s treasure. Eventually, Jim went home with his share of the gold.

The book is very interesting for me to read. I like the character of Jim Hawkins very much. He was so courageous and adroit that he rowed Ben’s boat to Hispaniola. Even though attacked by the pirate, Israel Hands, Jim killed him and was safe at last. If Billy Bones had not died, Jim would not have had an incredible expedition on Treasure Island. For Smollett, facing in danger, he told his friends that they could not abandon and had to find out who was on their side and be ready to fight. I think that he was very competent to lead the sailors to vanquish the pirates. On the other hand, disliking other one of Long John Silver, I think he was brutal to do for getting the treasure. Actually, sometimes we meet somebody who is unscrupulous and we may be cheated money as well as our lives. If there are less crooked, it will be easy for us to keep trusting and in peace with others.

After reading, I can learn a lot from some of the charters in the story such as Jim, Smollett, and Dr. Liversey. It is necessary that we should confront difficult situations with positive attitude and never give up whenever. We will gain success if we are active and intrepid to face hardship.

Princess Diana

2/3/2011
Princess Diana

(Kar) The book I read is called Diana Princess. She was very beautiful, kind and accommodating. Diana was also popular with persons in the world. Furthermore, she had a fairytale romance with Prince Charles and married him. Later, she gave him two sons, and her first son, Prince William, who will be a future king of England. Her family seemed complete and happy, and was even the luckiest woman in the world.

However, in fact, she was quite lonely, unhappy and angry for her husband’s lack of attention. Eventually they divorced. What did cause of their marriage ended in divorce? Personally, I think it might be less confident of Prince Charles to face Diana because she was very charming and popular with people over the world. Wherever they went, Diana was very attractive. He might be unhappy. Therefore, he had not loved his wife since then, and was even unfaithful to her to fall in love with Camilla.

If I were Diana, I would ask Prince Charles what wrong with our marriage was and told him that he was very important to me. I would forgive him if he stopped falling in love with Camilla, and support him to develop the relationship of family. After that, I still loved him. It was good for our family, especially my sons. I thought they would be very sad if their parents divorced.

If Diana’s marriage had not ended in divorce, she would not have died in the accident, Paris.