The influence of music to the influence of books Essay - 1

The influence of music to the influence of books - Essay Example In contrast, books also, to some extent, relax the reader. You can read whatever book you want to read adventure or love stories which will release you from all mental stress for some time and you will feel good. In a time like the one we are living in, books and music can influence a person positively and he may not give up. We can also see from the history that music (national songs) and books have influenced people to do things that one would never expect them to do. History reminds us of times when sometimes books, sometimes music and sometimes both of them have triggered the dormant passion of nations influencing them to unite and fight for their right. Books and music have sometimes transformed a crowd into a nation and that power has remained with and will always be with books and music. Books build the personality within a person giving him experience to the new fronts as well as carving the mental ability to encourage him to draw closer to the perfection that the world demands.. Books can even be used by those who are looking for answers in life. Many people report finding the perfect book to answer the burning questions in their minds. Music doesn’t answer those types of questions that books do; but music answers feeling or disturbed emotions looking for an outlet. When combined with dance, music comes to life in the dancer and audience. The fame of singing and dancing shows on TV is ample evidence for the more disciplined expressions of music. If a mentally disturbed person gets to listen to the correct type of music, he can unravel many tangles that bother him. Comparatively books answer speculative questions related to facts and figures. They increase the knowledge span of a person by letting him know what he doesn’t and enlightening his mind about the good and the bad

Mind Is Not a Vessel to Be Filled, but a Fire to Be Kindled Essay Example for Free

Mind Is Not a Vessel to Be Filled, but a Fire to Be Kindled Essay â€Å"Education† may be an ordinary word to most people, but very few actually understand the deep meaning beneath it. In this dynamic world, we need to be equipped with the necessary skills and hard work to survive. Understanding the education system is integral to allow students to understand the purpose of studying, the purpose of going to school everyday. Is education in Singapore really â€Å"holistic†? Are there flaws? What is education? By definition, it would be something along the line of â€Å" transferring knowledge†. I beg to differ. In my opinion, education consists of more than just knowledge. From Kindergarden to University, students are put through the daily routine of waking up early in the morning, going to a place where teachers teach â€Å"the same old stuff†. By that, I am referring to knowledge. Knowledge is power, you might say. Indeed, being knowledgeable helps you stand out among the rest during the tests and examinations. But is that all about education ? Acing the tests and getting a degree? I’m afraid no. Years after years, Singapore universities and institutions are well-known on the global front for being able to produce students with top grades. These results just keep getting better and better. Foreigners come to Singapore for education. Most people might therefore think education in Singapore is perfect. I also acknowledge that these are true, but only to a certain extent. On the other spectrum ( which is usually not shown), there are students who are not performing as well as their peers, students who are doing well but facing a lot of unnecessary stress. This is prevalent as well. The obsessive reliance of tuition to produce grades, online forums to discuss ways to â€Å"headstart my child in education†. I find no meaning in these. This is passive learning. Similarly, there are exceptional cases which bring out the ugly truth about education in Singapore. Students faking degrees to earn scholarships, jobs , graduates saying vulgarities during graduation ceremony to ‘rejoice’ over the achievements, even local scholar prosecuted overseas for doing unethical things such as watching child pornography. If education in Singapore is so perfect, why would such disgraceful incidents occur? Let us look at some possible reasons. Memorizing dictionaries, memorizing textbooks, doing thousands of assessment books, attending endless tuitions and supplementary classes†¦ These are some things most pupils in Singapore are going through. They have my sympathy. Everything I have described until now is about passive learning, which revolves around results and lacking in true meaning of education. Now, let us zoom into another aspect. Imagine this : a child who does his work consistently, revises on daily basis, reads newspapers everyday. Everything without being told. Seems like a utopian child? No. It is possible. The only thing he has compared to other students is the passion. The burning passion inside him to learn, to absorb knowledge. This drive pushes him to do everything on his own. There is no tuition, no supplementary classes, reasonable number of assessment books. Yet, this child is scoring ‘A’s for his subjects. In Singapore schools, Ministry of Education is encouraging a whole new approach towards â€Å"holistic† education. Co-curricular activities, Community Involvement Program, Civics Morals Education†¦ these are programmes put in place after much effortful planning of the education ministries. There are even more recent policies such as not revealing top students for national examinations such as Primary School Leaving Examinations. I respect them for that. However, there are rooms for improvement. CCA, short for co-curricular activities, is a word that is often hung in the pupils’ mouth. Whether they say it out of pride in a good way or bad way, I do not know. This brings me to the point of CCA mismatch. Students who feel they are â€Å"not good enough† for a CCA only after a few years in that CCA, students who feel indignant as they feel they could have gotten into â€Å"better CCA†. What are the consequences of this? Students not attending CCAs regularly, students complaining about how ‘ sien ‘ ( boring and uninteresting) their CCA is. This leads to stereotyping about CCAs and split between different CCAs, especially Sports vs Non-Sports. While you might say it is good that CCAs are bonded together as a team, the purpose of bonding is wrong. They are making fun of other people and things they do. In the long run, this will not work. Another thing is when pupils do not attend CCAs, the school has no choice but to use deterrence methods such as demerit points. To tackle this whole situation, there is Direct- School- Admission put in place to reduce scenarios like this however the success is limited. After talking about limitations of the current education system put in place, I have some suggestions. What I will say is also something simple : passion. Again, a simple word yet deep meaning behind it. If a student is an active learner, problems such as late/no submission of work, lack of focus during lessons, loss of notes, game/social networking addiction etc will all be eliminated at once. Students will not complain ‘ Life is Tough’ or ‘ There is too much work yet too little time’ etc. Teachers no longer have to chase after the students for work, give students boring supplementary classes. Teachers no longer have to scold students, which deviates their focus on teaching that will result in drop in productivity. This will lead to more supplementary/remedial classes which make students get tired of learning. Ultimately, they lose passion in learning. This evil cycle of mad chase, forced homework, drilled practice will keep on going until the students change their attitude. If the students take charge of their own learning, they will automatically focus during lessons and give constructive feedback that can engage the whole class in a positive manner. This will accelerate learning so much that the teachers will be more willing to teach and even plan fun activities for pupils to play and learn at the same time. At the same time, the students will strive to do their best in everything including daily worksheet, assignments. Ultimately, success ( which is good grades people chase after) will follow them. Therefore, I strongly feel that passion is much more important than knowledge. To put this passion in them, I think teachers, parents and students themselves all play a crucial role to ‘kindle the fire’ within them. They can help create encouraging environment to allow pupils to share their opinions on certain topics and letting them think ‘out of the box’. They can reduce things such elitism stereotyping to encourage the pupils to exchange feedback healthily and letting them learn from one another. Occasionally, having useful motivation courses in schools by professionals also might help. Once this fire is lit, the action will follow. Students will start finding joy in learning and unknowingly, they will get good grades without even getting stressed or tired.

Essay on Nonsense Language in Carrolls Jabberwocky -- Carroll Jabberw

The Importance of Nonsense Language and Sounds in Carroll's Jabberwocky  Ã‚      "Wn a bby fst ts 2 kmnikt the wrds snd gibberish. " No one knows what the baby is trying to say. The poem, "Jabberwocky," written by Lewis Carroll, uses meaningless speech to either frustrate or amuse the reader. When trying to pronounce the nonsense words in the poem, the sounds of the words come out as gibberish. The sounds are the important element of the poem. Often, people like to hear poets read in languages they cannot understand. A woman leaving a reading by the Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz said she was glad he'd read some of his work in Polish because the language sounded exciting, like horse hooves over cobblestones.    Sometimes a poem can mean little or nothing, yet the stimulus of words alone wins our attention. Some poets can even invent words themselves. Carroll combines two words (portmanteau) into one word to compose those weird sounds and words in the poem. In a unique way the meaningless words combine with recognizable words to create a poem almost comprehensible. The language and sounds allow a reader to reflect back on the concept of how to communicate Carroll's theme of survial of the fittest, and besides the battle between animals, Carroll creates a battle for the reader to understand the language and sounds.    For an animal or reader to survive in Caroll's poem it must kill before being killed, or understand the language before reaching the end. The setting of such survival is the forest, and Caroll's forest is a fantasy land where words are foreign to the reader. "He left it dead, and with its head He went galumphing back," (Carroll, 36) has reference to survival of the fittest. The head becomes the trophy of ... ...tree," (Carroll, 36) describes the actual skill of using a tree for camouflage. The tree is the Dumdum and covers up the hunter's stupidity. Is the Jabberwocky harmless? The forest people could have invented a wise tale about the creature for amusement. What the hunter killed was part imagination and part real; the way Carroll's poem is.    The sounds and nonsense language are important elements of the poem. At the same time, we can use the grammar of the sentence to help us imagine the meanings of the nonsense words. The poem is playful and frustrating at the same time. We might say it "plustrate." Works Cited Carroll, Lewis. "Jabberwocky." The Discovery Of Poetry. 2nd Edition. Ed. Frances Mayes. Orlando: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1987. Hunter, Paul J. Footnote. The Norton Introduction to Poetry. 6th Edition. Chicago: Norton, 1996.      

Some People Think That Convention in Our Society Obstruct

Chosen topic: Some people think that convention in our society obstruct progress while others think that taboos help maintain social harmony. Choose one position and support it with evidence and examples. As a result of globalization, the world is getting smaller and smaller. Some people have even said that the world has become a ‘Global Village’. With the integration of people coming from different financial, ethnic and social background, there are conflicts between interest groups.For example, the huge income disparity, large amount of new immigrants and the different point of views towards social issues may lead to a less harmious society. Apart from these, convention in a society may also be one of the factors affecting social harmony. â€Å"Social  harmony is a more complex  social  psychological phenomenon which is determined by the interactions among  social  values, people, and society. People achieve  social  harmony  when they feel their values and desires are attainable in society. â€Å"(Ai Han, 2008, Building a Harmonious Society and Achieving Individual Harmony, para 1)Traditions might lead to unfairness to the public. Take Hong Kong as an example, Hong Kong is a superstitious city and people care a lot about taboos and traditional practices. The pronunciation of the number, four, in Cantonese is similar to the pronunciation of death in Cantonese. Therefore Hong Kong people avoid saying ‘four’ in happy or critical occasions. There is also a tradition of omitting certain (4th, 14th and 24th etc. ) levels in building in Hong Kong. At the same time, the pronunciation of ‘eight’ is similar to the word of getting rich in Chinese. Many luxury buildings were built in Hong Kong in recent years.Property agencies make use of Chinese’s mindsets to increase revenue. We can easily find that the 8th floor, the 18th or the 28th floor are always being sold at a more expensive price. This phenomenon h as aroused public resentment. The general public believes that price should not only be determined by the number of floors but also many other impacts that many property agencies did not take into account. Such kinds of arguments do not only happen in Hong Kong but globally. From Asian to Western countries, there are always conflicts between conventions and the new enlightenment.The progress of might be hindered if we cannot balance the interests of different stakeholders in an issue. Homosexuality was said to be a taboo. However, as reported by Bohan (1996), in reality, homosexual individuals wish to enjoy freedom of love and belong to social groups that support them. In aspects of religion, a number of religions (e. g. Christianity and Catholic) said that homosexuality was not acceptable because it violated the original meaning of God’s creations. In traditional Asians’ eyes, they might even think homosexuality is an insult to their family and reputations.This topic is a shock for many of the older people in society or followers of religions. Both parties stand strong and do not appear to accept each other’s points of view. It is a topic that society had to deal with before achieving social harmony. Tragedies might occur when the convention clashes with the law or the value of society at that time. Chinese believe that having at least a son is essential for a family to continue their family lineage and to glorify their family. In Chinese history, people thought families that have no children or have daughters only was disrespectful to their ancestors.Since 1978, the Chinese Government has implemented the one-child-policy to control the soaring birth rate in China. Such kind of unfair law made many Chinese eager to have a male child directly. Barrett & Li (1999) pointed out that the problem of female infanticide and sex-selective abortion became more common after One Child Policy was established. When they found that their child was a fem ale, some of them may even abandon them, resulting in the increasing number of tragedies. At the same time, it has caused moral problem. Conventions sometimes hinder the balance of society and limit the development of society.Bengtson, Biblarz and Roberts (2002) reported that the family has traditionally been one of the most important sources of influence on children’s aspiration. Parents always have a thought that children would be more likely to success if they were professionals, in tradition’s thought, for example, doctors, lawyers, businessmen and accountants. They spent much effort and money on equipping their children. In reality, society does not only need these types of people but a diversity of skills. This kind of mindset has resulted in a bad social phenomenon so that many of the other industries (e. g. ulture, music and arts) cannot develop well and the social lacks a balance of strengths. With the aid of the above examples, it is shown that conventions wi ll obstruct the progress of society. Conventions and traditions would hinder people’s creativities and impose limitations on society. We need a breakthrough. Try to analyse from a slight different perspective and we might find new inspirations that is beneficial to ourselves or even our society. At the end, social harmony can finally be attained. Reference list: Ai, H. (2008). Building a Harmonious Society and Achieving Individual Harmony. Journal of Chinese Political Science, Vol. 3 Issue 2, p143-164. Retrieved on 23rd, October, 2012 from http://ehis. ebscohost. com/eds/detail? sid=2f313359-d4a8-40f3-80e2-aaeb1112a54e%40sessionmgr114&vid=1&hid=101&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=35567271 Barrett. R. E. , & Li, F. (1999) Modern China (pp. 65). United States of America: R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company. Bengtson, V. L. , Biblarz, T. K. , Robert R. E. L. , (2002). How Families Still Matter (pp. 60). United States of America: Cambridge University Press. Bo han, J. S. (1996) Psychology and Sexual Orientation (pp. 205). Great Britian: Routledge.

Learning and Determination Essay

What keeps you motivated to go the extra mile even when you want to give up? What helps you get through hard times and accomplish everything you want? Determination is why we get up in the morning. It is what drives us to do what we want to do. Everyone is driven by his or her own determination to be successful in life. The people that are determined to achieve various goals in life are known to succeed in all areas of their life. Determination isn’t a word that you can define with a sentence, it is a word that has plenty different meanings. People will always tell you that you can’t make it, and that you aren’t good enough. They will try to bring you down, so you won’t reach your highest potential. When I was in middle school, one of my teachers told me that I wouldn’t pass eighth grade and that I didn’t have it in me to make it to college. I believed her at the time. Throughout middle school, I was in a program where they helped students with learning disabilities. I was in this program, called Discovery. I always thought that I was unintelligent and couldn’t do anything on my own. Hence, I believed my teacher and had that mindset throughout middle school. As I got older, I learned that people learned differently from other people. It might have taken me longer to learn the subject, but I eventually learned it. Since then, I have been determined to prove that teacher wrong and to prove to myself that I can make it as I long as I put the work in. Determination means to have a strong intention to achieve a certain purpose; to have a strong will power to finish anything you put your mind. Determination is putting everything you have to make yourself better. Determination is putting the extra work in to further yourself. In my family, every person is musically gifted. My parents believe that each kid should know how to play one instrument, if not more. Therefore, when I was in fifth grade, I was obligated to start playing an instrument. I chose to play the clarinet. Learning to play the clarinet was very hard. I was the worst player out of the clarinet section; I sucked. The other students in the band were learning their instrument pretty fast. I started to feel left out because I couldn’t keep up with them. At times I wanted to quit, but I didn’t. I stuck with it. I started to practice every single day. I asked my mother if she could arrange for me to have private lessons. I was determined to get better, so I did everything a fifth grader could. All the extra time I put in, started to pay off. I was working my way to being the first chair in the clarinet section and just becoming a great musician. Determination is one of the greatest assets we can possess. It can bring the best out in us. Determination is the tool we use to defeat discouragement. My teacher told me that I would never be anything. So, I am determined to put everything I have into school and every aspect of my life. Determination is the instrument we use to overcome brief failures to prevent failures from becoming permanent. Determination is what we have to set goals and achieve them. I wanted to be a great clarinet player, so I put the work in and reached my goal. I was determined to be the best, and that’s what I achieved. Determination is the key to be successful. It drives us to be the best person we can possibly be.

ACT Reading

How Science/Math People Can Do Well on SAT/ACT Reading SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips The reading sections of the SAT and ACT can be intimidating at first glance if you’re more inclined towards math and science than the humanities. All those passages! The horror! Fear not, my number-loving friend. The reading sections of these tests are actually more logic and evidence-based than you might expect. In some cases, your science and math skills can even help you find the correct answers. This article details three strategies for approaching SAT and ACT Reading if you consider yourself a more math and science-oriented student. Strategy 1: Understand the Fundamental Rule It’s crucial that you understand the one fundamental rule of SAT and ACTReading before you take either test as a self-described "science and math person". This rule is that there is only one unambiguously correct answer for every question, and you will be able to find direct evidence in the passage leading to elimination of all other choices.Eliminating answer choices should be a key aspect of your overall strategy. If even one small part of an answer choice doesn’t fit,you have to get rid of it!If you do this right, you should be left with only the correct answer every time.As someone who is more math and science oriented, it may actually be easier for you to eliminate answers that don't line up with evidence in the passage. On the SAT and ACT,you'll never have to do any deep literary analysis of any of the passages. Your approach to the reading sections should be different from the way you approach reading in your English classes. In this case, you can take each passage at face value. Though you'll run into some questions that ask you to look a bit beyond the literal facts of the text, there will always be a chain of direct evidence leading to your answer. Here's an example of an ACT inference question to show you what I mean: It can most reasonably be inferred from the passage that when the narrator says, â€Å"I didn’t see the red, yellow, and purple clusters that meant flowers to me† (lines 30–31), she is most nearly indicating that: A. from her current position, she couldn’t see the old woman’s flowers, which were still growing near the house.B. the flowers grown by the old woman had died because the narrator had stopped watering them.C. the flowers grown by the old woman had been cut down when Eugene’s father mowed the lawn.D. the weeds that had grown up in the old couple’s lawn had intertwined with the flowers, making the flowers hard to see. Despite the fact that this question is asking us to make an inference, we can still eliminate most of the choices because of the evidence found in the passage. The full sentence referenced in the question reads: The father had spent several days mowing, and when he finished, from where Isat, I didn’t see the red, yellow, and purple clusters that meant flowers to me. The information in this sentence allows us to discard three out of the four answer choices. Choices B and D are not relevant to why the narrator can no longer see the flowers, and choice A is possible, but not likely given the sequence of events presented in the sentence.Choice Cmakes the most sense given the context. If you're astudent who gravitates towards science and math, this is actually your kind of reading test because there is no subjectivity. The units and data in the reading sectionsjusthappen to be words instead of numbers. On the SAT and ACT, you have to mow down all the incorrect answers to reveal the perfectly groomed correct answer lawn beneath them. Shut up I know it's not a perfect metaphor. Strategy 2: Focus on the Evidence Reading questions on both the SAT and the ACT are always evidence-based, even if they seem subjective.Because these are standardized tests, the answers to questions must find a way to restate something that is explicitly referenced in the passage. This prevents any of the questions from opening themselves up to more than one interpretation, which would destroy the integrity of the test as an assessment tool.Every reading question must be answered using evidence in the passage or sentence. If you don’t see evidence for an answer choice, it’s incorrect.This goes back to the fact that in SAT and ACT reading questions, words are just another form of data. Let’s look at a sample SAT question to prove my point: The author of passage 1 mentions Isaac Newton (lines 37-40) in order to: A. emphasize the rapid rate of technological innovationB. acknowledge the impact of a profound thinkerC. criticize the inflexibility of Newton's contemporariesD. highlight the value of scientific curiosity The relevant lines read: Technological advances build upon each other, increasing technological abilities faster than most people anticipate. Imagine, for example, how astounded even a great seventeenth-century scientist like Isaac Newton would be by our current global communication system, were he alive today. From the evidence in these lines, we can see that Isaac Newton is mentioned as an example to demonstrate that even the greatest scientists in history would be amazed at the level of human technological change that has occurred over time. Based on this, we can confidently pick choice A as our answer. The middle two answer choices are too invested in Newton specifically rather than his place in proving the author’s larger point, and choice D doesn’t actually have anything to do with the point being made in these lines. The point is spelled out very directly; technological abilities have increased much faster than anyone could have ever anticipated. This is virtually synonymous with choice A: emphasize the rapid rate of technological innovation. If anyone drops another MacBook on my head I swear to God... Strategy 3: Read Smart The one aspect of the SAT and ACT reading sections that often poses a big problem for less reading-oriented people is finishing the passages in time. This is particularly true on the ACT, where you have only 35 minutes to read three long passages and a set of paired passages and answer 40 questions total.If you’re a slow reader and you try to read every passage closely, you may run out of time and lose easy points. That’s why you should figure out a good passage reading strategy before the test. Think of this as an experiment (except this time it's not about the material itself, it's about figuring out the best way for you to approach it). Try different methods so you can start collecting data about what works for you. Method 1: Read the Questions First, Skim the Passage Later You won’t be able to answer every question right away with this strategy, but there are many questions thatreference specific line numbers in the passage. This is especially true on the SAT, where almost every question provides you with the line numbers you need to read in order to answer it. As you answer these types of questions, you'll start to get a sense of the main ideas presented in the passage.If you need to read some parts of the passage more closely for specific questions, you can do that on a question-by-question basis. This strategy will probably also reduce your test anxiety.If you’ve been able to answer a couple questions about the passage already, you’ll feel much less pressure going forward. Method 2: Skim the Passage Before Reading the Questions This method requires knowledge of how to skim efficiently. Irecommend reading the introduction and conclusion of the passage and the first and last sentences of every paragraph so you’ll understand the thesis and main arguments. Skimming in this way should give you most of the information you need to answer big picture questions about the passage.When you come across questions that reference specific lines and words, you can go back and read more carefully. These methods take practice, so don’t go into the test unprepared if you struggle with time on the reading section!Try out these strategies on timed practice tests first to see what works best for you. Again, think of this as a science experiment where you're collecting data on the most efficient way for you to take the test. Summary Even if you consider yourself more of a science and math person, you CAN do well on the SAT and ACT Reading sections.SAT and ACT Reading will potentially be easier for you than the reading tests you've taken in school because each question has one objectively correct answer that is supported by evidence in the passage. Above all, remember to: #1: Understand the fundamental rule#2: Focus on direct evidence#3: Formulate a passage-reading strategy Don’t let the reading sections freak you out just because you think you won’t be good at them!You’re just as capable as any word nerd of doing well on reading as long as you know what you’re up against. What's Next? For more strategies to help you with the Reading sections, check out our articles on how to get perfect scores on SAT Reading and ACT Reading. If you're not quite ready to aim for a perfect score on SAT Reading, start with our more basic article on strategies to improve low reading scores. If you're still trying to decide whether to take the SAT or the ACT and want to know which one is better for you, read about which students should take which here. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Who Is I essays

Who Is I essays In Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand provides a well-written explanation of objectivism in a monumental novel about those who hold the world on their shoulders. Her characters are a myriad of individuals, ranging from the highest achievement possible: a human, to one of the most horrid creatures on this planet: a once-human imbecile. She gives the reader insight into the psyche of society and the motivations behind our actions. In this novel, Rands most righteous characters are those with the most internal conflict. They must shed their conditioning that has been imposed on them by the earths people and leave behind what they value as most precious. There is one character that is held higher than the rest. A man of morality, introspection, and enigma, he begins the book and finishes it. So, who is John Galt? John Galt is Rands brilliant character that blends imagination and intelligence. John Galt can be described as having the same opinion on life that Henry David Thoreau does. They both believe you shouldnt carry the world on your shoulders; they realize that in fact by giving things to the needy (Rand would use the word unworthy) you arent enabling them to become better people, but merely allowing them o feed off of others success. Their opinions differ in that Thoreau had good intentions for all and Galt is only interested in the very best for the competent and likes the idea of leaving saps in the dust. Galt brings Atlass people from the earth into their Olympus, Galts Gulch. There, these remarkable competent people are able to create their own utopia of industry and live without the weight of the earths incompetents. He, like Dagny Taggart, Francisco dAnconia, and Henry Reardon, is a person of high ideals and standards. He values the dollar because he knows that the dolla r is the highest commodity of respect a human can give to anothers ability. The actu...