Feeling of New Year

In the last few days, I chatted with my friends online on what they were doing or how they felt on Chinese New Year's Day. To my surprise, most of them said that they were no longer so happy and excited on that day as they were young. Neither did the people around them. In fact, during the last New Year I celebrated in China, I had the same feeling as them.

I still remember when I was a small child, how exciting it was to celebrate New Year. We could wear new clothes, stick couplets and have a big dinner with the whole family. And then came the most exciting thing, set off firecrackers and fireworks. When 12 o'clock came, the sky would be very colorful. And the next few days, there would be dragon dances or lion dances, guessing lantern riddles and even drama in my village. When there was a dragon dance, we children were always encouraged to run across the dragon because we would get good luck. I liked to make the rounds only to get more red packets, though it was only several Yuan or even fifty cents. I would be very happy. Walking on the street, I would hear 'May you be happy and prosperous' (Gong xi fa cai)! Every one seemed to be very happy with smile on their faces. The streets would be colorful; every house was decorated with lanterns, FU or couplets in red. We could feel that we were celebrating the New Year; We were happy and excited. But now almost everything changes. We have dinner even when not everybody is home. Looking at the street, we cannot see many differences compared with the usual. There is no dragon dance or drama any more. And I do not make rounds any more…I cannot see any difference on New Year. I do not have the feeling of celebrating the New Year's Day. It seems just like an ordinary day!

I do not know whether it is good or not.As economy improves, we are not that into celebrating traditional festivals. The feelings of festivals are fading out. And the younger generations seem to be more into western festivals than Chinese festivals. I find that overseas Chinese celebrate the New Year even more traditionally than the Chinese in China! They still have dragon dances, lion dances or something very traditional.

I do not know whether it is because I grow up so that I do not have the same feeling as I was young or any other reasons. But I do hope that we can carry on our fine cultural traditions handed from history. We are Chinese after all.

Self-discipline-Sonali-Liu Yifei

We can not always do what we want. We need self-discipline to accomplish some tough process. 

I have ever read a sentence which said: do not do anything that you know will make you regretful. The reason is self-evident however not all of us can follow this motto.We know exactly that if we sink ourselves into the internet now we will not be able to finish the task by time. We know that if we do not sleep early tonight we will be sleeping in the next day's lesson. We know that if we do not digest the new words, they will accumulate more and more till too much to remember.Are these all because of the temptation of the internet, the computer games, the idleness？

One of my classmates ever gave a metaphor connecting a physics formula with temptation: F=GMm/(r2).If the temptation is F, then there are at least 3 ways to reduce the temptation thereby to achieve the ambition. The first is to reduce the M, which means to make the temptation less attractive to you.The second is to reduce the m, which means change yourself to be less interested. The third one is to increase the r, which means to keep yourself farther away from the temptation so that it can not affect you anymore. Obviously the third method is the most effective one since it has the "to the power of 2". 

However, it seem that we have pushed all excuse of our lack of determination to an innocent scapegoat: the temptation. It is not the internet's fault to provide us with more information. it is also not the computer games' fault to give us relaxation. In my opinion, the real self-discipline is having the confidence that we will not be seduced by the temptation, on the other hand, we can use them freely and properly to maximize the value.Get proper-size happiness from the temptation, get large-size confidence for your self-discipline and finally get super-size joy for your life!

Do you have the courage to try real self-discipline? Lay your computer by your side when focusing on your text book! Put a large bag of dessert on your table when suffering from hunger! Lay the softest mattress in your bed when you need to continue your jogging the next morning!

Language mode (code-switching)

This is my oral report on Wednesday; I want to share it on my blog because I think it is funny.

Happy new year every one! Today I want to talk about language mode; it is a phenomenon or a kind of thing that happen to me. Yesterday when I went to the host family with Chen Shuyu. He suddenly talked to me in English. I just could not understand what he was saying. And after a while, I noticed that he was speaking English! What an embarrassing thing it is! And then I thought about language mode. In fact, I have met the similar things many times before. Let me explain language mode to you. Take me for an example; I speak a dialect as my mother tongue. It is a language similar to Cantonese. Cantonese and Mandarine are both my second languages. And now English will be my third language. So the problem is that when I am thinking about something n Mandarine and someone suddenly talks to me in English, I just can not react to it. I feel that I am a machine and I need some time to change to the correct language mode. I always feel embarrassed in this situation. Because the one I am talking to will think that why don’t you listen to me? I speak very clearly and loudly. You just don’t pay any attention to me! And this happen even when I am talking to my friends in Mandarine, because I will think about in Cantonese…so, wrong language mode again! And I think that some of you speak a dialect too. What I want to say is that when it happens to you next time, just be tolerant. Because the one you are talking to may just need some time to change his language mode! That is all, thank you!

(Ms Sonali said that this is called code-switching)

In fact, I think my Mandarine is good enough to communicate with people. The code-switching happens more often when I am speaking English. I hope that it will disappear one day. Because it means my English is good enough...

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Hay ,friends ,happy new year,i think everyone has a special and particular way to spend Chinese new year,and so do i .today i want to talk to you about my new year in Singapore

it is very nice to celebrate spring festival with my seniors ,we ate dumplings ,watched gala through the Internet and played board game together,i feel very warm and it is like we are family ,they are all my brothers and sisters,

Next i want to share my another experience of celebrating spring festival with my host family ,they are Singaporeans and friendly to invite me to celebrate new year in their house ,it is inconceivable that they do not eat dumplings ,but they eat 捞鱼生 ,all people seated around the table to drag for luck in work and study or other fields ,and we would say 捞个风生水起,i was a lucky dog that i had get some Hongbao from them ,living in a different country ,having a incredible and special way to celebrate Chinese new year,it leaves an impression on myself and i will never forget it ,thanks to the friendly people that they give me a different experience.......may everyone happy forever

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My Bridging Courses' Plan

My Bridging Courses’ Plan
The bridging courses, as a matter of fact, is a big treasure for me. it is a god-given chance for me to let my English flourish into proficiency. I could use half a year to improve my English and kill the weakness of my English learning including speaking, writing and lack of vocabulary.

Speaking plays an important role in communicating. As English has become a worldwide communication tool, it is essential for us to speak fluent English. The key method, actually, is to speak out. In china, I did not get enough opportunities to practice speaking English. The bridging courses in Singapore provide me with many opportunities to speak in English. I will make the most of these opportunities to gain more confidence in speaking English. So, I will try my best to speak in English not only with our tutors but also with my friends in NUS during the bridging courses.

Writing is another problem I should deal with. As the proverb goes, Practice makes Perfect. I will make full use of the opportunity to write in the bridging courses. Every writing practice is a chance for me to notice my shortage and to learn other’s strongpoint and I will obey the orders of writing in every attempt: choose a topic, brainstorm, write the outline, write the draft and revise it then write the essay. I am pretty sure that if I attach importance to every writing experience, I will write beautiful essays.

Everyone wants to master as many vocabularies as Churchill did and of course I am not an exception. I have successfully enlarged my vocabulary through reading. However, I failed to use them in my own writing. I do not think my vocabulary is large enough unless I can use it. Several days ago, I learnt a new way to master vocabulary, the method is to know every detail of the word including its meaning, its synonym and antonym and its pronounce, then try to make a sentence with this word.. I will put this method into practice in the next 5 months.

A thousand-li journey is started by taking the first step. I will treasure the bridging courses and execute my plans strictly.

Paolo Maldini

He is a legend. His name is Paolo Maldini.

Maldini's father was the former captain of AC Milan, so Maldini joined AC Milan too. He joined AC Milan in 1985, when he was only 16 years old, and retired in 2009.He devoted his whole sports life to AC Milan. Also, his son has joined AC Milan teenage team.

There is no doubt that Maldini is the world's best left-back. He leaves the world the impression of the best left football defensive skills and loyalty. His most famous feature is the combination of tight marking and card phase, clear mind and strong judge. It is really amazing that he never hurt any strikers in matches. He did not argue with the referees. For his teammates, Maldini is just like a brother. Absolutely, he is the spiritual leader of the team, and even after he retired, he is still the flag of AC Milan or even the whole football area.

Maldini is also a real model for young players. He often went to night club before his marriage. But after he married his wife, he became a good father and husband and disappeared forever from the nightclub. He was a combination of two, known as the golden couple of the perfect combination. Only after them, David Beckham and Victoria was regarded as another combination of golden couple.

Paolo Maldini is another football player that I love most due to his perfect skills and his attitude of life.

SM3Group6Batch202012: Ms.Yap-Choo Swi Neo - Qin Difei - Tips... learning...

SM3Group6Batch202012: Ms.Yap-Choo Swi Neo - Qin Difei - Tips... learning...: Everyone has his or her own way of studying. Yet,there are some basic rules most people will choose to follow.Actually, I believe sometimes ...

Mr.Chang Qizhong-Chen Shuyu-Try to say hello

Ms Yap Swi Neo always tells us that it is an important thing to say hello to the strangers such as the cleaners or other tutors. However, I find it is really hard for us to greet the people who we are not familiar with,but on the contrary,I sometimes are greeted by the strangers.

I remember when the first day we were in the classroom, the cleaner came in .To our surprise, she said "morning "to everyone, but only a few of us replied. How could she say morning to us, we wondered, it was just the first time we met and she even did not know us at all. Another day, I was just sitting outside the room and talking with my friend. Before long, a tutor passed by and said hello to us with a smile.We were so surprised that we did not react immediately.

Why would people like to greet the strangers? In China, parents usually teach kids never to talk to strangers, so we do not say “hello” even to the neighbors on the street. Maybe it is a cultural difference, but I think it is a good manner to say hello to others. It is this behavior that makes people feels warm and happy. To be honest, when I was being greeted, first I felt surprised. But later, I felt pleased.

   

 In the end, I appeal to everyone for saying hello to others. It may be a little difficult to do at the first time, but it worth trying, isn’t it?


PS.Happy New Years.

Divorce

  On Wednesday in Ms.sonail’s class, Zhang Chi and I discussed about the topic divorce. I think this topic is really interesting and the world’s divorce rate in the recent decade is higher than ever, so I intend to write something about the divorce.

  As we all know, the divorce rate is increasing quickly, especially in the generation after 80s divorce seem to be a common thing. The high rate really makes divorce a social problem that draw people’s attention. Most people criticise them for their lack of responsibility but a few of people may think it is okay. As time goes by, the concept of people get changed, and more and more people is open to the matter of divorce which is regarded as a shameful thing in the past.

  There are many reasons that can result in the high divorce rate. I think the main one is the stress of society, work and so on. The rapid pace of society makes people feel stressful and tired. When they go back home, they are more likely to quarrel with their spouse, and the contradiction will be arisen. Another reason is the reality. A marriage must be based on the economy. If a couple does not have enough money to make their living, they will worry about the chore and many things such as buying an apartment, raising the child. When they get into those troublesome matters, most of them may be impatient, so quarrels will happen. Moreover, the consciousness of marriage becomes lighter than before, that is to say, youths do not take marriage serious, maybe some of them treat marriage just as a game. Some younger people just get married in a second and then get divorced after one minute; they do not consider the consequence after the marriage. Of course, some failed marriage may be caused by personal character, improper temperament etc.

  There must be many reasons of divorce, but should be one result, that is hurting each other. The divorce not only does harm to them but also brings a lot of damage to their child. So in my point of view, we have better choose the right person at first, and spend our whole life with the person that we choose. A Chinese old saying goes, hold you hand and grow old together with you. More tolerance and more understanding will make love maintain forever.  

Write freely

   Though I have got rid of my high school for more than 6 months, I still remember my writing experience in school. I hate it.

     When we are request to make a composition, we are always given an abstract topic like cooperation or bravery and even something more boring. Besides, the content is also restricted what means your keynote must be something positive. That is not so bad. The most terrible things are that the format and style is also restricted invisibly because our teacher keep mention us which kind of article can get higher marks and ask all students follow it. To get higher marks, we also recite all kinds of beautiful sentences though it may be meaningless and put them into our composition. Does it really improve our ability in writing? At least I do not think so. Maybe all of us heard about the saying that writing for exam is like dancing while chained. How can a dancer performance well while be firmly tied?

 In my opinion, only if your article is filled by your own inspiration and with your own style otherwise it cannot be called ‘your article’. Maybe simulate others is a way to improve our writing, but just keep simulate other can do nothing but make you lost the ability of analyse things.

       The topic reminds me that a discussion among Chinese literature fielda.it is about the lack of new-generation Chinese literature master. I remember that some interesting question was raised some question at that time. ‘Would Lu Xun became a well-known writer as he was if he born after the 1950s?’’Dose it possible for someone who was taught to write only in the given way for more than 10 years?’ NEVER! They won’t be able to write freely. Without an open mind and an open environment, a true writer will never turn up.

     Just write freely. Writing should not be a burden. Write whenever you manna do so. Write whatever you like. Write for yourself and enjoy your writing!

Goodbye,2011-Hello,2012

At first, I want to say thank you, for visiting my blog and HAPPY NEW YEAR.

The Year of the Dragon is coming. For most of us Chinese The Spring Festal is the authentic alternate of the year. At this time of year, we all try to stop for a moment to take a look back at what we have accomplished over the last year and where we have to improve in the next year. At this time of year, most families get together and prepare for the New Year. At this time of year, we have already cleaned our house and bought our new clothes. We are ready to say goodbye to 2011 and say hello to 2012.

Goodbye 2011.In the year of 2011, we had an experience of University Entrance Examination. We had a short but great time in a University of China. We had these unforgettable days to prepare for the SM3 program. We had lots of sweet memories with befrienders and friends. Also we had many serious frustration and defeats. Occasionally we also felt lonely and disappointed. Just say GOODBYE to them. Nevertheless, DO NOT FORGET them. They are the value of our lives.

Hello, 2012. I think everyone has already had a general overview of your life in 2012. In the year 2012, we will be graduate from the Bridging Course. We will be university students. We will be the seniors to welcome the new SM3 students. We will go back to China. Coming days are uncertain. That, I think, exactly the motivation of life.

At last, May the New Year bring many good things and rich blessings to you and all those you love!!!!!

Ms.Yap-Choo Swi Neo - Qin Difei - Tips... learning

Everyone has his or her own way of studying. Yet,there are some basic rules most people will choose to follow.Actually, I believe sometimes the simplest way may just help us a lot. Allow me to write about just what I think is the most important 2 rules in my first blog.

Personally, I will attach the greatest importance to time. Let me just take all of us for example .Most students have noticed that every morning,it takes us around 30 minutes on bus before we arrive at NUS. So, what do you do in this period? Check Facebook or review your vocabulary notebook?

Every day consist of 24 hours.Why some students can have a methodical schedule while others may complain that time is too tight? The reason may be that they know how to make use of our most limited resource --- time. While you have to spend a whole hour after school struggling with your math problem, some of your classmates might just need to spend anther 15 minutes. The reason is that the break time ,which you wasted on Facebook earlier that day,is highly valued by your classmates. And they use it on their homework --- that's why they always seem to be methodical,because they know how to use time, how to make the most of our limited time.

Actually, it's not so difficult to know the importance of making use of our time, just like what happen to the boys in RV high school Hostel...

On the very first day of our bridging course, I saw all boys taking a notebook in hand, trying to memorise the key words and other important sentence structures.In fact, this good learning atmosphere survived the first week. But, when it moved to week 2, there seemed to be some subtle difference...And on the first day of week 3, there still existed a few guys holding notebooks ,fighting against the call of sleepiness. Eventually, this morning,the last day of week 3, only one was still working on his vocabulary notebook,while the rest of us chose to either take a nap or check Facebook...

So, I guess we all see where it goes wrong: No perseverance! 

We all know how difficult it is when you have to fight against laziness.Yet,every time when you think it's your limit, just encourage yourself to persist for another day. Once it forms into a habit,you will naturally follow it.

My discovery of Singapore

I love studying. But I am a person spending a lot of time outside discovering this new land. I think we should not always stay in our hostel and waste a nice sunny day on TV series, no matter how fanny or attractive the soap opera are. We are at the ages of energy. Wake up yourself and breathe the fresh air! Today I decided to recommend you some charming places of interest in Singapore although I am a junior and just came to Singapore. Trust me! I will not let you down!

First place: Sky park( I took a picture from it)

Sky park located on the top of Marine Bay Sands. Maybe you do not know what it is. But if you are a fan of some romantic TV series of Korean and Taiwan you may have seen it on TV. It is a charming park in the 57th floors of MBS. You can catch sight of the whole scenery of Singapore from Sky park. When the lights are shining at night, you can see the flourish of Singapore. You may scream at the amazing view. Last but not least, there is a big swimming pooh at the margin of the sky park. Can you imagine the significant location of that pooh? It makes people can swimming as if they were in the sky. Looking at it from air plane, you can see the water flying among a lot of modern building. You can't miss it. You should go there before 10:00p.m.


Second place: Singapore Flyer.
It is said that Singapore Flyer is the largest one in the world. If you buy the ticket , you can spend half of an hour on it. I visited it at dawn, so I am lucky to enjoy the view of Singapore both in the day and at night. It's so fascinated because the space of every box is quite large and it contains 25 people.

Third place：Botanic Garden
First, you can go there for free. I bet it is one of the best botanic gardens in the world. Thousands of plants are planted there and a lot of little animals enjoy the peaceful life there. I never see a larger space planting grass. People always bring their food and drinks then have a picnic there. Children laugh and run on the grass with their parents. Old couple hand in hand and walk around the lake with happy smile.


There are some places which I think is worth visiting. They are just a small part of this beautiful land. I hope you all will enjoy them. Youth is a period of passion. Start going out when you are free. I guess you must create the best memory of your life.

Befrienders and our Orientation Camp

Well, when I was thinking about what to write in my first blog, the Befrienders came to my mind. Before I came to Singapore, I did hear something about the Befrienders, but I simply thought that they would just tell us what we should do and we should not do. But the first day I arrived in Singapore, their smile made me feel less nervous.

The second day, they brought us to Jurongpoint and city hall. There is nothing important about the trip, what impressed me was the talk with Befrienders, we just asked them many many questions about Singapore. After this trip ,I got to know more about Singapore.

What impressed me most was the camp held by the Befrienders. I was in Group 1. As we all sm3 students know, we played some games at first, and then we set out to west coast to made and flied kite. I still remember the kite of our group 1; we put the photo of President Joshua Lee on the kite, which was very funny. Because we cut a photo of David Beckham and replaced the body with President Joshua Lee. Though the kite did not fly very high, we enjoyed the process. In fact, I think the meaning of the camp is not only the games itself or just having fun, its true meaning is to help us know better of each other, to adjust ourselves to Singapore.

The most exciting thing of the camp must be our performance. Though my group practiced very hard(there is one thing that I am deeply moved by it ,every night after we group 1 practice or attended an activity, our group leader would send a message to us :Thank you today. You practice very hard. Rest well :D) I still think that we did not perform well that night .But it is ok. the other groups performed very well. I enjoyed myself in the party. I felt that our sm3 students and our Befrienders are a big family, I felt warm and comfortable in this family.

At the end of our performance, Befrienders sang a song share to us. Just at that time, I thought I started to understand why they hold a camp for us. Just as president Joshua Lee said: we can not shake hands when there is just one hand .And we think that if we reach out our hands, the others will reach out their hands too, and then we can be friends. And we want to reach out our hands to you first, that is why we hold this camp and that is why we need you to attend this camp. Thanks for him. We all know the reason now. And I am more thankful to their kindness.

Thank you all Befrienders, you have done a great job!

Yap-Choo Swi Neo-Su Junjin-The Orientation camp

After a one month’s study, every one of us have accustomed to the language environment of Singapore. But as for life, someone may think that the life is still boring. Considering this, the MOE and the VCF have arranged an activity named the Orientation Camp for us to help us make new friends and adapt to the lifestyle as soon as possible, the preparation of which started half a year before the activity. All of us SM3 NUS students participated in this activity and I found that it is really helpful to us.

First, the Orientation Camp helps us make new friends. We can make friends with the every “befriender”. And with so many enthusiastic “befrienders”, we all feel happy and found it easy to make friends with them, which increased our confidences to make friends with locals. It helps us make new friends not only during the activity, but also after the activity.

Second, the Orientation Camp helps us get more familiar with the university. During the activity, we go to many places inside and outside the campus. And we also use some public facilities, which we may use in our study later. It can also help us get more familiar with the people and the school life in the university, which is much more important.

In all, the Orientation Camp is helpful to us. For me, it helps me make friends not only with the “befrienders” but also with some other SM3 students and known more about the university. They are very important for me. And I believe it is also important for every student who participated in the activity. Anyhow, this is the beginning of our life in Singapore and we should really value this experience.

Mrs Yap-Choo Swi Neo-Xiao Yanni-Prevent "Computer Disease"

I usually find I have been sitting before computer too long,sometimes I watch movies and teleplays,sometimes I chat with my friends,sometimes I just view websites without any purpose.When I finish surfing on the Internet,I always find my face greasy,my neck and vertebral column are very uncomfortable.After some time,pimples begin growing on my face because of radiation,my weight increasing because I don't make time for exercise...


Nowadays,because of the development of Internet and the needs of work and study,more and more people use computers frequently.There is no doubt that computer is a convenient and practical tool,however,sitting a long time before computers can cause plenty of health problems.

If you google or baidu "computer disease",you can find so many theories like "Using computers too long,placing computers in an unscientific way or using computers in a frowsy environment can make people feel dizziness, headache, fatigue, insomnia or nightmares, memory loss and depression."

Lots of people do know that their methods of using computer is harmful to their health,but some of them say it's very hard to remember correct posture when too many things on the agenda overwhelm them, some others say when they are playing computer games or surfing on the Internet,it's very easy to forget time,so when they finally find that they have spent so much time on it,it's just too late.

Therefore,the most important thing to prevent "computer disease" is realize what will happen if you don't pay enough attention to how to use computer correctly.Only when you build a correct viewpoint and have the will to protect your own health,there are possibilities to change.


To make changes,you just need to stand up and move your body for minutes frequently,wash your face when you have used computer for an hour,spare more time for other activities.


Just some small changes can help us prevent "computer disease".

Mr.Chang Qizhong-Zuo Mingxue-What a terrible day!

I felt so terrible on this Monday, you can not imagine how out of luck I was!
In the morning, I intended to begin my new day with a new pair of jeans. Thanks to the new jeans, I had to untie a new button of the jeans with all of my strength(to be honest, I do not overstate the difficulty of untying this button).Then—MY NAIL OF THUMB CUT OUT A LITTLE FLESH OF MY LITTLE FINGER…It was first time that I found how sharp my nail was…
After breakfast, we went to NUS and attended class.Unfortunately, I found that MY E-DICTIONARY DID NOT WORK! What! I had put a new battery into it and turned it on once just before I came to school! So, I only can use a bad dictionary of my mobile phone…
But I just looked up 3 words, then MY HANDPHONE TURNED ITSELF OFF. After I checked, I found amazedly that it was out of electricity. In fact, I had changed a new battery in the morning! However, I was putting my phone in my pocket all the time, and the temperature in the pocket was very hot. Maybe you know, high temperature would speed up chemical reactions of battery, so my mobile phone was out of electricity just 3 hours.
The last way to use dictionary is by my pad. BUT! I suddenly found that MY PAD COULD NOT SURF THE INTERNET! The dictionary which I downloaded must use the Internet, otherwise it was a vase.
After class, I came back to dormitory and started to watch by my laptop. But MY WIRELESS MOUSE DID NOT WORK!!
What a terrible day! I was out of luck from morning to the evening! Maybe next week I will be very lucky.

A Whole New World

Sometimes, I cannot believe that I have already left my own country land and come to this strange island for more than a month. What even depresses me more is the news that I have to wait a whole year till my returning to my hometown again.

The life here is quite different from that I had before. The most troublesome thing is the change of language. When I got used to express everything in Mandarin during so many years, I am not surprised to find myself keeping getting into embarrassment with the month open but no word in the brain.

That gives me a lot to think about. What is the difference between the Mother Tongue and a Second Language? How can children learn a language so fast while adults usually cannot or have to spend huge amount of time to succeed?

For me, I am really into reading. When I was studying in schools back in China, I spent almost all of my spare time in reading various books. I enjoy interesting novels as well as something not so joyous like works for science popularization. I always didn’t understand why few people are reading books nowadays, since the world inside words is so attractive and wonderful.

However, the answer seems to occur to me now. Those who are not fond of books must lack of reading when they are young, which later makes them too tired to enjoy the story when they read it. I am getting into the same situation today, with little interest in reading English books because of my poor English and lack of English reading experience. This fact really makes me sad.

Just like reading, learning a language may have a similarity. We ought to draw more attention to the beginning and form a good habit so that there will be a positive circle. Maybe I have missed the best opportunity, but this kind of things is never too late to do, isn’t it?

So I make up my mind to work harder to solve this problem. I would try to read certain pages of a book every day in order to develop my reading skills generally. (I’d like to begin with the novel Life of Pi, of which I read the Chinese translation version in primary school.) Practice of spoken English is also necessary not only for daily life but also for English improvement.

I sincerely hope that I won’t feel so blue once I adapt myself to the new life in this foreign land. I occasionally think of this song from Disney, which is exactly the feeling what I want to share right now:

A whole new world
A new fantastic point of view
No one to tell us no
Or where to go
Or say we're only dreaming
A whole new world
A dazzling place I never knew
But when I'm way up there
It's crystal clear
That now I'm in a whole new world with you

Yap-Choo Swi Neo-Wang Mingda-2011/12 SEASON, A TURNING POINT FOR MINNISOTA TIMBERWOLVES

Micheal Wibon, a featured columnist for ESPN, once commented “ Rubio’s creativity on the move has made the Timberwolves worth watching for the first time since Kevin Garnett left.” It is not an exaggeration. Rubio really has changed something. Target Center drew a midweek sellout, the team’s first non-opening night sellout since March 31, 2004. Along with coach Rick Adelman’s arrival, 2011/12 season will definitely be a turning point for T-wolves.

I mainly ascribe the change to Rubio. When he is on court, Timberwolves’ attacking style is totally different. The pass-first Spanish has an amazing ability to discover his teammates’ movement perfectly at any time. His pinpoint pass often leads to an opportunity to score in the end. Meanwhile, he owns a big heart already. He can shoot from distance as well. More surprisingly, his defense is also excellent. Monty Williams, the coach of Hornets, praised him that his defense had already surpassed most guards.

The statistics tell everything. With relatively few minutes on court, he contributes 8.3 assists, 2.3 steals, plus 10.7 points and 4.6 rebounds per game so far!

Adelman plays a key role, too. His experiences are quite essential for this young team. He can utilize players well, especially Rubio. Few people believed Rubio would reach double-digits in assists so often at the beginning of the season. It’s Adelman who gave him so much confidence and trust, which helped Rubio quiet all the criticism.

Once you go through the roster of T-wolves, you will find a noticeable feature that nearly half of the players were selected with rather preceding picks, like Derrick Williams(2011) with first round 2^nd pick, Micheal Beasley(2008) with first round 2^nd pick, Darko Milicic(2003) with first round 2^nd pick, Wesley Johnson(2010) with first round 4^th pick, not to mention Kevin Love and Ricky Rubio.  

It is obvious that Rubio, Love and Beasley will play an important role for Minnesota in the future. Rubio’s rookie teammate Williams and Johnson are worth expecting as well. It is also a good news for Wolves that J.J Barea has brought championship experience. Don’t forget that Wolves still have financial space to buy more players.

Though Wolves’ standing is not ideal so far, they simply need more time. They are so potential that I just can’t wait to see how well T-wolves will do in the next few years. Maybe they will become another Oklahoma City Thunder, or maybe they will do even better!

Ms Yap-Choo Swi Neo-WangYan-Unreal Life

     Hello  everyone ,today i want to talk about some thing that are not exist in our daily life    

    My favourite(favorite) movie is The Vampire's Diaries .Two handsome gentlemen--Damon and Stefan,a beautiful and charming girl --Elina. a werewolf and  a sexy witch ……….it caught my eyes deeply   

    May be , there are many girls who want to have their own vampires, own a man who can do anything and keep a handsome appearance,a man who can protect you whenever you are in danger, a man who will love you forever and would not cease a love heart in you …..

    Absolutely ,it sounds a little ridiculous . as we all know ,there is no superman in reality and no vampire either, but it does not matter whether they are exist or not ,just like there are someone who  love chocolate ,and she /he know it may put on weight if she/he  eat too much ,but she /he will eat it without hesitation .

     Life is just like a chocolate box,and you never know which colour  will you get from that box.( may be a gun's mother has said about that)

    It is the same to my life ,even though i know there are some things not available ,i would be addicted to them,and sometime i may be lost myself in unreal world . everyone has his own life style ,someone like live in a exact real world ,others may be on the contrary. obviously  i belong the latter,  and i also want to say, sometime ,when you feel lonely ,upset ,miserable ,even  happy ,excited ,crazy or other emotional mood,you could keep yourself in an unreal world ,something like fall in love with fictional movies or others ,you may feel not bad and better-off.

    Keeping our mind in an unavailable field  not mean we should separate ourselves from actual lives,but relax ourselves in our own worlds where others can not arrive,giving relief to our sorrow and painful .after than we will feel better ,

    At least i think well of it .

PS:The Vampire's Diaries is really a good film

Bonsoir,Maintenance Time

Every human being possesses 24 hours a day so that spending our time is an art of balance among committed time,discretionary time and maintenance time.It goes without saying that each part of them is indispensable.

Yesterday I finished my lunch with about 20 minutes and come back to our tutorial room to find that our Monday tutor,Qizhong was sitting in front of the computer.He was so surprised at my fast lunch that he even considered whether Monday lunch time ought to be shortened.I am quite positive that I will feel sorry for my group mates if the consideration is turned into reality ultimately,which leads to depression of crew who regard wandering to arts faculty for a desirable lunch as a way to enjoy life.Despite my 20-minute-lunch,I am not describing myself as a workaholic who grabs a bite during the only two meals of a day and devotes fully back to work without any recess.I was just fed up with the crowds in engineering canteen every week day noon,resulting in extreme difficulties to find friends or moving closer to them unless crawling even if you have seen them.As a consequence of this,I just got a seat and my partner fetched two portions for us,then we focused on finishing our lunch smoothly and slowly enough without any distraction.Don’t you think 20 minutes is quite adequate under this circumstance?There is no doubt that I would spend tenth longer time if I was attending a cruise banquet and tasting featured French dishes together with my soul mate.Supposing that the case is like this,how can we name it as a period of maintenance time?

Socrates once said that some people survive to eat while he eats to survive.It is also said that Leonardo Da Vinci,Nikola Tesla slept for two or three hours a day,of course utilizing some specific methods like sophisticated machines which serve as catalyst to deep sleep. So it is with Sir Alex Ferguson,who devotes all his life to Manchester United.Am I such a bizarre person holding similar viewpoint on maintenance time to the legends mentioned above,as you are thinking now?Yes,you got it friend.That’s why the lecture of Doctor Tan last Friday exerts quite a favourible impact on my mind,claiming that a normal person needs 6 to 8 hours sleep every night,while my dear mum always tries to persuade me to maintain at least 8 hours.

Anyway,basic maintenance time has to be kept for anyone.After this,I will try my best to shorten it to leave more for committed and discretionary time.From my own perspective,life time is too limited for me to achieve everything that I want to explore unless I come up with a method to convert myself into a vampire.It makes no sense to worry about my health or possibilities of early death concerning that you are aware of how a fellow fond of all categories of sports survives a couch potato.If I am crazy enough to regard life experience of the Apple legend,Steve Jobs,who led a short life,as the biggest tragedy which is likely to happen,then it is worthwhile for it is the man who has already changed the planet regardless of life length.

So that’s it.Forget my mad paradox and,bonsoir,for your maintenance time.

Mazumdar Sonali-Liu Yifei-Sensory Links in Vocabulary Learning(Part 1)

The motivation of learning vocabularies is to understand what people mean and to express ourselves fluently and clearly.In the first part I would like to talk about how to understand vocabularies well.

What I am going to cover is based on the premise that understanding English essays or conversations is a period of integrating words and their meanings to comprehend what we see or hear.

There are mainly two senses functioning when we need to understand essays and conversations in English:The sense of sight and hearing.(am I being too formal? If so, please laugh!)

When we read in English, eliminating the possibility of guessing the meaning of a new word according the context, we realize the meaning of each word by seeing the structure of them.That requires us to develop the links between sense of sight and the memory of their usages in advance and of course memorize them.Or else,we are just watching 26 symbols lining in a long queue randomly.

When we listen in English, we realize the meaning of each word by hearing the pronunciation of them, which requires us to develop the links between sense of
hearing and the memory of their usages in advance and memorize them too.

It ever happened to me that sometimes I talked to people in English, I could not understand a word used in the conversation unless I picked it out and imagined the structure of it in my mind.I then realized maybe it is because I had only formed a link between sight and usage rather than between hearing and usage.

How could this happen? I guess one reason is that as I grew older and older, I preferred to memorize new words by reading rather than speak it out to hear my own voice pronounce each of them.It resulted in the fact that for some of the words, my links between sight and thoughts was stronger or at least functioned faster than the links between hearing and thoughts.

So I guess improving your listening skills is quite important in our vocabulary and English study. Otherwise, we would be a giant in reading but a short in conversation.

-Liu Yifei

-17,01,2012