No Blind Belief

I remember once reading a blog written by a Chinese student in America. The essay is about his experience on an interview to an American company. During the interview he was asked about who his personal hero was, and the answer he gave was “Martin Luther King”. Immediately one of the interviewers asked:”What do you think about his scandal with a white prostitute before the day he was assassinated? ” It’s not difficult to imagine how he felt when hearing such a question. Perhaps he refused to believe Martin Luther King did such thing. More likely was that he just sat there, speechless because he had never ever heard of that before.

I could understand how it feels, especially how Chinese students feel, when they are told about the negative sides of the person who you admire for a long time. The perfect image suddenly collapses, leaving you confused.

Chinese people tend to draw a distinct line between “the good guys” and “the bad guys”. In China when people say someone belongs to the “good”, most time it means he is always “good”, and “good” in everything------he never made any mistakes, and perhaps never will. If someone is regarded as “bad”, people tend to doubt everything about him and he may never get a chance to be right, even when he does make right decisions. If this kind of belief on “good” and “bad” can last long enough, it may later become blind cult of personality and will possibly result in even more serious problems.

The psychology basis of such judgment is quite simple--- We human beings use what happened before (experience) to predict what will happen (the future result).  When someone made a wise decision for the first time, he might just be regarded as “smart” and no one was going follow him blindly. Yet, after that, whenever he made a right decision, people would unconsciously hint to themselves “he is right again”. After an enough long period, if he still makes no mistakes in his judgment, people slowly begin to think he will always be right, in whatever field. The reason is simple--- based on the experience (He never made mistakes ), the prediction can only be “he will never make mistakes”. Such prediction results in the situation I mentioned at the beginning of the blog, because Martin Luther King did all the things in defending human rights, people tend to think he will always be right and right in everything.

One example I can give is the Culture Revolution, during which time people regarded ignorance as the highest virtue, because Chairman Mao said “Knowledge is the tool for the Capitalism to rule Communism”. With such a belief, people burned their books and treated those who were educated as heretics.

It seems to be inconceivable today how ignorance could be regarded as a virtue. The reason was simple------“Because Chairman Mao said so”. Why did people believe in him so much? The reason is, before the Culture Revolution, almost every decision made by Mao Zedong was right and almost every one of those people who doubted him turned out to be wrong. After a long-time repetition of such situations, people came to the conclusion--- Follow what he says, and you will never go wrong. So the trust in him slowly became blind belief in whatever he said and did, which meant people lost their own judgment.

How to prevent such thing from happening? I think the best solution is to make judgment in an objective perspective and doubt everything. No one in this world is perfect so do not become superstitious about anyone. Don’t just form your opinion on what happened before. Instead, base your thoughts on what happens now.

Will Jeremy Lin represent China?

      Nowadays, Jeremy Lin is so famous in NBA that almost everyone can recognize him. However, he used to be a relatively unimportant player who seldom had a chance to show himself and nobody cared about him. Now, things really changes,not only American but Chinese concentrate on Lin,and Xinhua News, the official press agency of the Chinese government, even wrote an article to suggest the talent star playing for China. 

      Many Chinese are longing for his joining Chinese national men’s basketball team for his father was born in China,while the Taiwanese also assert that Lin can only play for Taiwan since his parents are both Taiwanese. As a matter of fact, Lin was born in America, grew up in America and studied in America. In my opinion, As an American, he has nothing to do with China or Taiwan.

       Actually, America, a country consists of immigrants, has many examples as Lin, but seldom do a country claim that some famous immigrants in America are its proud and need to represent it only because their parents or ancestors are from this country. For example, do you think it is possible for Washington to represent England? Absolutely it is impossible! Everyone knows that he is an American, so it is America rather than England that he should pledge loyalty to. It is just the same thing when it happened to an American Born Chinese, and it goes without saying that Lin should represent America instead of either China or Taiwan.

       However, Lin is still likely to join Chinese Basketball team  though he should not do it. If he says he wants to play for China, he will gain millions of audience which he will never gain in American. But if he becomes a Chinese, he will give up US citizenship which is very important and valuable.And he will go to a country which he does not attach too much importance on. Furthermore, he will lose most of the supports from America and not be welcomed to NBA any more. In my opinion, he will not take such a risk. 

     All in all, it finally depends on his own choice.  Whatever his choice is, I will not feel surprised.

Animals have life too

  I heard the news several days ago that a company in China took bear galls from bears alive. It caused an ardent argument amang many people in China. Most of them expressed their ideas that what the company did was immoral. From my point of view, everybody should respect each life because every life is valuable.

  It occurred to me that something happened many years ago. An undergraduate from a famous university poured sulfuric acid on four bears. These bears were badly hurt. When he was arrested and queried, he gave the explanation that he just wanted to know whether the skin of bears can protect themselves.

  Nowadays, similar things happened. No matter what kinds of behavior, I consider it as an aspect of lacking respect to animals. As for me, we have taken control of the whole nature, so we have the responsibility to take care of animals. On the contrary, we do harm to animals. We cut down plenty of trees, which made many animals homeless. We deprived them of their right to live in the wild and sent them to the zoos in order to feast our eyes.

  In my opinion, we must take actions as soon as possible. Every life is determined to be equal. What we need to do is to build a harmonious relationship with animals. We should take their feelings into consideration.

Four Potential Candidates For Champion Of Eastern Conference

Today is the last day of All-Star Weekend. After the midseason break, NBA’s second half this season will begin soon. From my observation in the first half, 4 teams are potential competitors for the champion of Eastern Conference in the playoffs. The four teams are Miami Heat, Chicago Bulls, Philadelphia 76ers and New York Knicks.

Miami Heat

As the best record keeper this season in the Eastern Conference, Heat’s good balance between defense and offense, the good chemical between the Big Three and ample experiences made Heat the most potential competitor.

Chicago Bulls

Because of Derrick Rose’s injury, Bulls dropped from No.1 place to No.2 before All-Star Weekend. It does not matter at all. A healthy Bulls, with Richard Hamilton’s arrival and a better Deng will be the biggest trouble maker for Miami Heat in the playoffs.

Philadelphia 76ers

Doug Collins is an amazing coach. He deserves the title of best coach, at least in the first half. A team with no superstar has a record as good as 20-14. It is really impressive that 6 players’ average scores are double-digit. 76ers is the so-called TEAM. They look pretty good this season. We will absolutely hear their voice in the playoffs.

New York Knicks

It will take some time for Knicks to become a real team after all the talents assembled. The lineup is gorgeous. Besides all-star Anthony and Stoudemire, the rising star Jeremy Lin, Knicks have newcomers this season, including J.R Smith, Baron Davis, Chandler. No one can deny they are really competitive, but there remains two questions. One is how well will they fit in with each other before the playoffs begin. Another is in D’Antoni’s system, point guard has an extremely important role to play. I do not believe the rookie Jeremy Lin will be capable enough in the playoffs. Keeping a good balance between BD and Lin will be a crucial task for D’Antoni. They can beat any team if their chemical reaction works well. If not, they are possibly swept off in the first round.

Why not others?

We can’t expect too much of the aging Celtics this season. Magic did a good job recently, but while their biggest opponents are making progress, they seem to have no improvements this season. So does Hawks. By the way, Boston and Orlando have already been engaged in the trade rumors.

*Indiana Pacers

Pacers is somewhat like 76ers. Their record so far is not bad, while most of their wins are not as persuasive as 76ers. My observation about this team is limited, so I cannot easily draw a conclusion. Finally, I decided to put a * for them.

Make a right choice

We, as the human being, always make choices. Some trivial choices will not matter too much while some others tend to possibly change one’s life, like a choice for the future career. Here comes a question: when a student chooses the future career, what factors should he consider?

I think there are three main factors contributing to this decisive choice.

When you determine to choose a job, the first point you have to consider is what kind of occupation do you want to get, a lawyer, a businessman or a civil servant? That literally matters a lot. If you study law in university, you can choose to take one of the listed careers above after you graduate. Once you make a choice, you may not get the chances to change your occupation; that is to say, this sort of choice possibly becomes a turning point in your life and, to some extent, determines your life-route.

Secondly, your personal preference should be taken into consideration. In other words, you ought to know what you regard as most important: the salary, the working environment or the ease of life. If you believe high-income matters most, you can choose to be a chemical engineer who could earn a lot in a petroleum processing factory. If you care about the salary as well as the environment, you can choose to become an IT consultant on condition that you are never afraid of heavy assignments, which means that you cannot afford to have a free and easy life after becoming an IT consultant.

Lastly, a job should agree with your merits or advantages and better hide your weakness. For instance, if you are capable of socializing and communication, you had better not choose to work all day inside a laboratory; if you have talents in scientific research and do not like social contact at all, you are supposed to become a scientist. The premise is you should define yourself objectively.

In conclusion, before I make the choice for my future occupation, I would carefully consider these three factors and try my best to become a person what I want to be.

Mazumdar Sonali--THE RIGHT TO DIE--Liu Yifei

In today's class we discussed about human right. During the discussion, group one brought out a very interesting topic about: Do people have to right to commit suicide?

Generally speaking, suicide is an extreme action when one longer has the courage to live. I used to strongly opposite suicide and regard it as a coward action. However my mind changed after I saw a movie.

The movie < You Don’t Know Jack>, adapted from a true story of doctor Jack Kevorkian in the early nineties of America, tells us about a controversial doctor who claimed that hospitals and doctors should have the right to help patients end their lives after permission. Doctor Jack Kevorkian invented a Euthanasia machine that can let them die without pain through injection. At the same time he gave patients and their family relief, he also received media sensation, mass protests, law court and jail for murder.

“When a patient in agony dies, then a doctor’s true calling implies, one should do what is best, at the patient’s request, for humane, quick and painless demise.” This is one of Jack’s principles as a doctor. I still remember him struggling before helping his first patient, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease (the incapability of remembering things happened). When he was warned that his action may cause the media go all over his action. He said” she has the right, as a patient. It is her choice. What do we care about the media? Who cares what people think? It is what my patient’s feel” Jack did care about the right of the patients and he could understand the huge pain they were going through.

During his 8 years injection, he freed more than 150 patients from pain and endless waiting for death. The huge number may scare us. However, he turned down about 97% to 98% of patients that asked him for help. One of them was a young man whose dream was to become an Olympic skier. But he lost his leg in a car accident. He then doused himself with gasoline as a suicide attempt. Fortunately but cruelly, he was saved and left his whole body full of burned scares. Doctor Jack found the man clinically depressed and refused his request because he did take responsibility as a doctor at the same time he respected patients’ right.

I felt myself foolish after knowing Jack’s story. I haven’t gone through unbearable pain and of course had no clue about the feeling when waiting for death to come. But I guess the lost, when life has no meaning but leaves you with physical and mental suffering and burden to your family, is terrifying. To me, Jack Kevorkian was leading society into an age of new enlightenment. Sadly, he did not make his wish come true because of the public pressure of “only god can create and destroy life”. He also was sentenced for eight and a half years in prison because of his arrogance and lack in knowledge of law. After he was released, he was 79 years old and the United State Supreme Court refused to hear his case anymore.

Human is supposed to be given the right to end his own life when facing an extreme situation and when his action does not offer bad demonstration to other people. However this statement is not perfect because anything can have good and bad influence at the same time. Maybe this is still a problem that worth controversy.

Mis Yap Choo Swi Neo--WangYan--Forgiveness

      Today our tutor Zhangqizhong ask how we feel about our last weekends .And some classmates said they feel great and amazed ,but for me it is the worst weekend i have ever had .I had bought many food in Fairprice ,and i put all them in fridge that is on the third floor in hostel .Many girls bought food in fair price so we use the same plastic to pack our food .in order to distinguish from others' ,i had knotted  all my four bags together .on last saturday night ,i found all my bags had been undid .i thought there might someone can not find their own things so they took up my own.But truth was not like that .After a long and dark night ,on the sunday morning i found my six bottles of milk left only four,and another two were disappeared ! It was so surprise to me.And i went up to my room and wrote a jotter if someone  had taken wrong  food from  mine  .worse still,at night i went to take  mango in fridge,and i found the paper had been taken away.I feel very angry.There was some time that i wanted to take others 'food in the same fridge ,but finally i gave up this evil desire . I have been reading a book called 'Our Daily Bread 'now ,it told something from our virgin heart.Everyone will do wrong things and we all wish and desire others' forgiveness .If i insist on my initial idea to take food from others , i might well feel some balanced .But the same angry and unhappy feeling will convey to others. And  this terrible feeling will also cause them to do the same wrong thing like what i do in them.Then it is an evil circuit .But everything can be changed due to my deed. So i chose to forgive other's faults, not only in this little thing that happened on last weekend ,but also the faults in the past and that may happen in the future . Food is our necessities,but more for our spirits."Since we all need forgiveness ,we should always be forgiving" ,

Moneyball?

Moneyball?

My Manchester City beat Bayern Munich with 5:1 in Pro Evolution Soccer after I copied it from my friend’s laptop and David Silva contributed all the first four goals.I was amazed by the team again though in a virtual world.I will never hesitate to choose the former one when it comes to whether David Silva or Roberto Mancini plays a more significant role in Manchester City.However,when oil comes into this competition,I would have to ponder for a while.

It makes no sense to argue whether Roman or Jose makes today’s Chelsea.They are both the symbol of success when it was Chelsea’s climax,and Jose was dimissed when things seemed unusual.That is all about the story.And that is simultaneously why we Chelsea guys seldom blamed Roman though he does oppress now and then unreasonably and unarguably.Without his roubles,there was no Jose,no Didier,no Barclays Premier League Champions.The world is just transforming into Manchester City mode more and more evidently.The wealth group tells the whole world that the terrene doesn’t rotate with the sun.Just look at them and ask yourself how they humiliated Manchester United and Sir Alex Ferguson in Old Trafford.

Villas is quite unfortunate now.He used to be more promising than The One,nevertheless things are far from satisfactory in both battle fields.What makes things worse is that his boss is Roman Abramovic,whose nose touched the Big Ear on the rainy Moscow night.Roman’s thirst for the cup is no less than the temptation of fresh blood to a hungry vampire.How pathetic.It seems that these two years’ UEFA Champions League has nothing to do with the Blues any more.Almost nobody keeps the hope that poor Villas would be blessed with a second chance unless Roman unprecedentedly knows what football is about.

The Arsenals are supposed to struggle,for the defeat against Manchester City is also a battle to save the view of value in football world.The professor has dedicated all he has to his football principle,so isn’t it time for the Arsenals to reward him a Champion at least before his retirement?There is no need to tell anybody the images of reality.When there is a belief,everyone has the right to pursue it no matter whether they have a chance to win.It is not a matter of who will be the Champion.There are quite a lot of things more than only results.

We can not ignore the Madrid and The One despite their glory of “moneyball” which was soon replaced by the Middle East storm.What a tricky comparison.Jose is leading La Liga with ten points and the press are quite positive of his leaving at the end of the season,while Villas,in their opinion,is sure to be sacked with a more reasonable explanation.Jose is the only one who can defeat the Mas Que Un Club,in the past and now,or some other words more conservative like “the closest”,whereas he is The One who will never accept to be sacked by Florentino Pérez Rodríguez again like how he was treated by the Russian when Chelsea was not doing well enough.He is special enough to do as his leaving from Porto and Internazionale,with head raised to see what is above the peak.There is no need to hide the truth that to beat Barcelona and Lionel Messi nowadays needs not only Pepe but also God.Jose did it several times,including stepping on their cadaver to get the Champions with Internazionale in 2009,yet the Savor can never write in his tiny notebook that “I am positive enough to beat them this time” whenever he steps into Santiago Bernabéu or Nou Camp.Even if Florentino set up another El Movie Colegio de La Macia,there is nothing to bet,because they are called the Real and this is called football.In this fabulous world,everyone has their own way to do and to win.

Things are always changing,yet we are enjoying.Someone from last century may faint when he or she heard of how Cristiano Ronaldo came to Santiago Bernabéu,while I can always see plenty of loyal Liverpool fans wherever I am or however they play.Football is the only thing that we care about.That’s enough.

Self-examination

                           Self-examination

When the problem happens, people prefer to blame others rather than examine themselves, without feeling guilty and uncomfortable. I also do the same thing, which sometimes makes me regretful.

In the New Year's Eve, I felt very excited after visiting the kind and enthusiastic host family.I stayed in the room and waited for the arrival of the New Year.Suddenly, someone knocked on my door.It was approximately 12'clock.Who was it, I wondered.So I let her come in with curiosity.Unfortunately, it was the teacher.What was worse. I realized I forgot the roll-calling.I felt so embarrassed that I thought she would criticize me strictly. However, to my surprise, she just told me not to forget it the next day.

I was very grateful because she did not scold me.Thanks to her forgiveness, I began to examine myself instead of complaining about others.Surely I could blame my roommate for his not reminding me or the hostel for its strict rule.As a matter of fact, the only reason for my mistake was my carelessness.If others could did it, why could not I?I found it quite ridiculous to blame others.When a person merely blames others, he is going to lose others' trust.

For example, when the Watergate scandal was exposed. Nixon's first thought was to blame for the accident to his assistants.However, when he finally admitted that it was his fault, he was no longer the president of America.Angry people did not want to listen to his excuse any more.

So I really try to give up this habit.However, it is not easy.Humans are so sensitive that they definitely tend to blame others to protect themselves. Even the great people as Nixon.We do not want to be hurt from our own mistakes.I hope one day I can be brave enough to admit my faults. 

An awful day

Last Thursday, when I got up and went to my computer to copy Chen Shuyu' document to print it out, I opened it and the title of it is "What an awful day". At that time I had not realize that my awful day began with this...

We had to print our paras out and my roommate said he can help me print it out, so I just let him print Chen Shuyu's para,too. He planed to print them as soon as we arrived at the central library. And  I waited him in my classroom. Ten minutes later he turned out at the door of the classroom with a sweaty shirt. However, he said he cannot print my para out because my para is created by WPS, not Micro Word with only Shuyu's para on his hand. He also said that he can help me change the format and I can go to the central library myself with his EZ-link card. Ninety minutes later I went to the central library with Huang Chunlin and when we arrived, we found that we cannot get into because we forgot to bring our term card. So we had to go back and planned to go there during the lunch time. After lunch, I found someone who also went there to print and give them our paras. I thought this time my printed para would be presented to me after so many times failed, but things always get worse. When they came back there was only 5 minutes left before beginning our classes and what they brought back is Huang Chunlin's para and Chen Shuyu's para! They print the wrong para! You can never know how I felt at that time exactly. Anyhow I had to hand in the paper and the only way left was to print it out at the afternoon's break. This time I asked my roommate to help me to ensure I can print it out, but it turned out to be not very right. When we got there wo found that we forgot to bring the term card again and after we fetched the card and seated in front of the computer, we cannot get access to the computer and finally after trying many times we found the USB driver did not work. We had to change a computer to do it. This time we were very "LUCKY" to print my para out successfully, in spite of the fact that we were both late for class... 

Never Turn Your Head

Never Turn Your Head

There once was a little girl named Mary. Her younger brother, Jack, fell down from the balcony on his fifth birthday when their parents went out to buy him a birthday cake.

Jack died on the spot.

The poor parents were heart-broken, but what made them even more worried was their daughter who looked in shock. Since the balcony railing was too high for a five-year-old child to fall off, the parents asked the sister who seemed to be the only one knowing what had happened. However, Mary’s answer was quite terrible: “I … I only saw an old granny standing beside Jack, and the next moment, Jack flew away from the balcony …”

The parents were frightened, too, especially when Mary described the strange old woman in detail; they found out that her appearance was exactly the same as Mary’s grandmother, who have been dead for more than ten years!

Soon Mary was taken to Doctor White, who was old but experienced. He listened to Little Mary’s story patiently and had a careful check throughout her. Then he was busy analysing the results of examination when Mary burst out laughter abruptly. Doctor White asked kindly, “What are you laughing at, my sweetie?” Mary answered without a thought, “The boy dancing around you is so funny! How can you work with him singing strange songs to you, Mr White?” “What? There is no boy at all! Don’t say such silly things!” Her father shouted at Mary tensely. Mary felt wronged and cried, “He is just here! How can you ignore him? He has red hair and green skins, and his eyes are so big …” Mary cannot continue because Doctor White turned pale and lost his breath suddenly. Soon he died of a heart attack before any first aim could be done.

Mary’s parents seemed close to despair. They had no choice but to take her to Father Smith, who was a respected figure in this small town. Father Smith had already heard of the stories about Mary. Though he regarded it evil, he believed that God loves everyone. So he told the poor parents that all they can do and they should do was waiting, waiting for God’s grace. “As a matter of fact, it’s not strange for children to see something adults cannot see. It would be better as she grew up. You should have confidence.” The two adults left gratefully with hope. Just then, Mary asked naively, “Why the aunty in white seized Father Smith by the throat all the time?” Her words became a huge stone in their minds.

Though things didn’t seem to change, her parents still tried their best to bring Mary up. Fortunately, other kids in the town seemed fond of playing with Mary, because they like listening to her discoveries, which would become interesting ghost stories afterwards. Mary then became very popular in school and was appointed as the monitor of her class.

Everything went well until one day there came a new boy in Mary’s class. His name was John, and his family moved here because of a job change. When John was introduced on that morning, Mary welcomed him warmly on behalf of the class. However, when John saw Mary, he revealed scary. Mary took a step forward, John took two back immediately; Mary was confused and took another step forward, then John took two steps back again.

Mary was embarrassed. Suddenly she screamed out, “Never turn your head!” All students and even the teacher looked at the boy and the girl with not only worry but expectation of a new scary story.

“It’s you that should never turn your head!” To everyone’s surprise, the trembling boy also cried out, “There is a boy with blood on your back! And he … he keeps sobbing, ‘Why did you push me away from the balcony, my dearest sister?’”

Nurture Matters More

Was Barack Obama, the one with one of the highest intelligence quotient (135) among all the presidents ever in American history, born with such a brilliant brain? Certainly, such an impressive IQ does have something to do with his gene, but is gene the decisive factor? There are some people who believe that those who are successful were just born to succeed--- it is all written in their gene. However, compared to nature (what we were born with), nurture plays a more important role in one’s intelligence.

One reason why I believe so is that it is education, one of the most important parts of nurture, rather than their nature, that shapes people to be who they are now. Apart from their race and sexuality, is there a world of difference between people when they were born? The answer is NO. Nobody was born with the ability to speak a certain language or with skills of dealing with equations. However, after several years, there is distinct difference between them. Some can be the elites that lead the world, while some may have difficulty in finding a stable job. What makes such difference? Education! While no one was born with unique ability, those who receive better education surpass their peers. In other words, it is education that makes the difference possible.

Another reason why I think nurture matters more is that, through hard work, people can compensate for the gap in nature. Think of Albert Einstein, who was not able to speak his first word until 6 years old and who was always regarded as the slowest student in his early years. Judging from his nature, who would think he can become a physicist? Who would think his theory will one day completely change the way we see this world? It is because of his perspiration that he made all these happen, not his nature. Albert Einstein’s story is the best illustration of the importance of nurture.

There has long been debate on the importance of nature and nurture and everyone wants to be called a genius. However, while nature does play a role in one’s success, when you consider education and how nurture can change one’s nature, nurture clearly matters more. 

(Just try to write an essay in the same the way as those essays in the textbook are...)

Healthy biological clock

Yesterday I read an article on a website which was about a healthy biological clock. I found it very useful so I want to share it with my friends.

7:30-Get up. Study shows that people who get up before 7:21 have more possibilities to get cancer.
8:00~8:30-Have breakfast.

9:30-Begin to do the most difficult work.
11:00-Eat some fruit.
1:00~1:30-Have a rest in noon. Doing this after a whole morning’s hard work can make us more energetic in the afternoon.
16:00-Drink a cup of yogurt.
17:00~19:00-Do exercise. According to the biological clock, this is the best time for exercise.
23:00-Enjoy a shower. A shower can help us relax and make it easier to fall into sleep.
23:30-Go to bed. If we get up at 7:30, go to bed at this time will make sure that we have an enough sleep.


When I read this article, I was very surprised. I know that sleep too late is bad for health, but I never heard that getting up earlier is also harmful for our body before.


After reading, I made some changes of my own biological clock. For example, I will have a noon break, every other day I go for exercising at dusk, and I will go to bed earlier if I have nothing important to do. However, I don't think it's a wise choice that living in the same biological clock in the article. There is no need for everyone to do all the same according to the article, because we have our own lifestyle and prefers. We cannot deny that a healthy biological clock is beneficial for our study, work and even life, and what we need to do is change our biological clock into a healthier one.

Forever Melancholy Prince

   Today is a famous handsome Italian football star’s birthday. His name is Roberto Baggio, one of the greatest Italian football stars.
   In 1994, the 15th World Cup was held in America. Italy got into the final because of Baggio’s fantastic and heroic performance. In the final, Italy had a hard game against Brazil. After 120 minutes, the score was still 0 to 0, so they had to take penalty kicks. Before Baggio shot, Italy was fall behind by 3 to 4, so his shoot determined the result. As the soul of Italy national team, Baggio beard the whole Italy’s expectation. Sadly, he lost the chance. His unforgettable melancholy view of the back lived in football fans’ hearts forever. Afterwards, he got the unique nickname called ‘Melancholy Prince’.
   Baggio retired in 2004. After that, he devoted himself to the charity work and got the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010.
   Maybe many people think Baggio is ugly because his right leg is obviously thinner than his left leg. In fact, the reason is that he had a terrible accident in a match when he was 17, which almost ruined his whole football life. His right knee was so seriously hurt that every match or training could be his last time to play. Whenever in the matches or just daily trainings, Baggio suffered large pain. Many players like him choose to retire in such a situation. However, Baggio insisted on fighting. The injury can never beat his strong mind!
   Though Baggio’s football life is imperfect and unlucky, his quality and personality inspires me and the world.

Silent Love

This story happened in a small city in the northeast China. The two families had been the neighborhood ten years. They were no agnate though they have a same family name. Each of them had a child. One was a girl and another was a boy. They had a similar name Lin Ke. The boy was one year older than the girl. When they were children, everybody around them said jokingly that they were childhood sweethearts. As time passed this became true when they were in the senior high school.

However, unpredictable things always happen at this moment. The boy hurt his soundtrack in an accident. The doctor said he was not able to speak for the rest of his life. The boy thought he was not good enough for the girl, but the girl did not think it was necessary. She just wanted to be together with him, so they kept their relationship and the boy hid his shame. At that time the boy is grade 3 and the girl was grade 2. In the rest of the year they spend together in the high school. They learned sign-language and made a deal that they will meet in an equivalent university. Then the boy went to his city. They lost the contract the whole year after they separated. Fortunately, the girl was accepted by the same university as the boy. She could not wait to meet the boy, so she came to the city a week before her school started. However, she cannot find the boy. A university teacher told her that the boy did not register last year. Girl became very depressed. It seemed that part of her life lost.

Meanwhile, in the girl`s family her parents were worrying about the girl`s tuition. A man came in and said he will support the girl to finish her university. Nevertheless, he did not want the girl to know. When the news came to the girl she was told that there was a distant relative who wants to support her. However, first thought appeared in her mind was "it is the boy". She begged her mother many times to prove. Finally, her mother told her the truth. She was very happy that moment and made a deal with herself. "When I finish my university I will marry him" she promised. Each holiday the girl came home early to find the boy. But the boy disappeared. Four years later, the girl finished her study. She got a degree and a qualification for a job in a foreign company. She believed that the boy will appear this time. However, he hardly left her a message, "I will support you forever in the dark".

Life must continue. Girl came back to her city to find the boy. A year passed she found nothing. During that time she got a terrible cough. The doctor told her that there was a tumor in her throat and must remove immediately. When she was waiting for the operation the boy appeared. He looked worried and weak with bondages around his neck. "What happened to you" boy asked the girl in sign-language. Girl gazed at the boy said:" I got a tumor in my throat. I will lose my voice like you after the operation. What happened to you? I find you many years. Where have you been?" "You will not leave me again, will you?" girl asked. Boy shook his head and gave her a hug.

The operation was successful. After that they got married. Even though their life was without any sound, they have a happy life.

Till now the story seems over. However, unfortunate thing happened again to this family after 3 months they married. The boy died in an accident. During the boy`s funeral. Girl cried:" Why God is so unfair! I hide my voice really wants to marry him. Why you part us again?"

One year later the girl went to see the boy in the cemetery. She found a letter on his tomb. It was written by the boy`s workmate. It said:" It was a year since Lin Ke died. I believe I must tell you some truths. Do you remember the first time you met him in the hospital? He was bandaged. That was not an accident. He was presently after his operation, which can make him speak again after cured. He had no time to celebrate because he does not want you to undergo what he had undergone." After the girl finished the letter tears filled her eyes. She cried voicelessly.

Thanksgiving

  At the night of the Lantern Festival, Su Junjing shared me with some sweet dumplings. I felt very touched. Thanks for his generous. It occurs to me that many people around me have helped me.

  I can still remember the first meeting which I attended as a member of SM3 scholars. One of the interviewers, a headmaster of a middle school, said to us affectionately: At first, be grateful to your alma mater, Nanjing University and the teachers from admission office. Without their effort, you can’t be admitted to this university and have the chance to take this exam. …  When he finished his speaking, I applauded enthusiastically.

  I can still remember the first day I arrived in Singapore, my befrienders came to help me adapt to the new environment. They showed me around the NUS and Jurong Point. They held activities to let us know each other and have fun. They help me with no pay.

  At last, I want to express my gratitude to all of those who helped me before no matter when and where. When I was in trouble, my parents, my sister, my friends, my classmates and many strangers gave a hand tome. Thanks for their kindness.

Mazumdar Sonali--Liu Yifei

The storytelling contest this Tuesday was for me a really exciting and unforgettable experience. Even though I was not the winner,  I did enjoy the whole process of my creating the plot in my mind, my writing the long long story, my rewriting it again and again...and my adding music as background. However there were a lot of aspects that I did not pay attention to. For example, I did not distinguish the difference between telling a story and writing a story. That led to my too draggy boring speech-like telling.


Whatsoever, I still want to post my story here again as one of my blogs, to share with you as a short story (maybe not as short as you expect)! If you do not think it would bother you, please continue!

-Chapter one-

An island, lying peacefully on the Atlantic Ocean, holds an empire full of harmony and civilization. Laughter, chitchat, sounds of bargain, with the call of seagulls, breath of sea wind can be heard everywhere, from the sunrise, till the sunset.

All citizens are moving on to the national ceremony the next day. At the same time a new braver will be knighted in front of the whole public, as a hero of the country.

“Lord Harris, here is your apparel for tomorrow’s ceremony.” a boy walks in Harris’s room with delight on his face.

“Do not call me Lord. I am still your mister.” Harris smiles back at his domestic. He was sitting in the table reading congratulatory letters from his fellow soldiers.

“We all know you will be awarded as knight tomorrow! And we knew that a long time ago. Your bravery and loyalty is the language spoken by everyone on this island!”

“Harris! My brother!” a man at the same age rushed in. Dalton and Harris grew up inseparably. They are nearly equal in battles. But only Harris was going to be knighted.

“Dalton!” Harris gets up from the chair, extends his arms to welcome.  “Glad to see your wound has been healed from the last battle! “

Dalton laughs out as hearing a joke: “Strong enough to survive from the graze, but not as strong as you are, THE NEW YEAR’S OWNER OF THE SOWRD OF POWER AND LOYALTY!” His smile seems to be still on his face, “I will be down on knees looking up at you for the rest of my life.” His eyebrows slightly frown, however all are out of the consciousness of Harris.

PHarris asks:”Have you heard? Tomorrow’s ceremony will come as a surprise. All the singers will be on board after midnight and ships will be surrounding the island by morning. Their sound of singing can be heard on every location of the island in company with the first stream of sunlight!

Harris conceives the magnificent and remarkable scene. His is thinking of Tilda, his lover, who is also one of the singers.

Dalton sees the passionate flame in Harris’s eyes and suddenly feels inhibited. It hurts him. He cannot figure out why he can get everything he wants. Harris is a model he respect, but also a robber who takes away every possibility of his happiness! He got fame, status and respect from the king, and Tilda. Dalton cannot forget the day when she refused his courting. He cannot forget the way Tilda and Harris look at each other.  Envy is engulfing him, deeper and deeper. He simply makes a response to Harris then rushes out of the room.

-Chapter two-

Late in the evening, Tilda is waiting for Harris outside. Harris’s attention was soon arrested and he walks towards her, strokes her hair affectionately behind her ear and says:”I have talked to your father”

Tilda grinned,” So? I talk to him every day?”

Harris is a little embarrassed, “You know what I mean. And I’ve heard you are all going to sing on the sea. Tell me which ship you are going to sing on”

“I do not want to tell you.” Tilda answers “I want you to find me by yourself, I want you to distinguish my voice from thousands of us! Remember I will be singing for you. ”After saying that, Tilda skips away like a deer, disappears in the darkness of night.

-Chapter three-

Time seems to slow down before excitement. Everyone get up from bed when it is still dark. They gathered together with candles, the firelights on which cast beautiful orange veils over their smiling faces.

The night slowly fakes, but there is still fog surrounding.  Everything is in completely silence. As people are guessing what will happen, a clear girl’s voice suddenly flies onto the island from the mysterious fog. Meantime, a stream of sunlight penetrates the clouds. Later, more and more voices add in. people involuntarily move to the coast. All the candle lights rim a hazy shining contour of the island.

Harris closes his eyes, drunk in the music like everyone. His heart is filled with love, love for the country, love for the citizen and love for peace. Then he opens his eyes. The fog is still thick, but he sees a vague light appears on the sea, coming closer and closer to the harbor.

Strange! Harris suspects. He looks at Dalton who stands behind him. Dalton is also alert. Just after they realize what just happened, all the lights on the sea explode into the sky, like fireworks, passing through the dark night, right towards the island. The song suddenly stopped, as was frightened. People are confused but amazed by the beautiful scene, until a scream tears the silent. “Those are arrows with fire!” People start to scream and flee in disorder with panics. “It was fire attack!” Fire from an enemy battleship, from their neighbor empire, a more powerful and prosperous country! With the fog fading, huge battleships slowly emerge behind.

It is a sneak attack! After the fire arrows stop, thousands of soldiers land on, taking advantage of the random situation. They wave their swords at soldiers and innocent citizens. It was like a nightmare.

Harris yells Dalton’s name to cover him. he pulls out his sword in the scabbard, rushed in to the fight. Dalton stands on the highlands, using his bow and arrows to help Harris killing enemies around him. They are always best partners in battle.

But a scream of a girl break Harris’s concentration. He hears a voice calling his name from his back. It is Tilda. She is trapped on her ship. Harris cannot think more but still waving his sword at enemies. He cannot abandon his country for a girl. Dalton is also distracted by that. Tilda’s scream awaken his envy and hatred to Harris. He sinks deeper and deeper in his thoughts. Every time he kills an enemy around Harris, he feels he is holding Harris up nearer and nearer to the glory while pushing himself farther and farther away from Tilda. That is not fair.

Finally, Dalton is totally enraged! If I kill him now, no one will find out and Tilda will be mine, so do all Harris’s achievements! He retargets his arrow at Harris and shoot through his heart.

No! Tilda cries on the ship seeing Harris collapsing down! She feels no strength in her body, like her soul has been taken. Then she sees Dalton holding his bow, his eyes shining with excitement. At the same time, the ship rocks and she falls down into the sea.

-Chapter four-

Dalton is in panic while finding out Tilda is no longer in his sight. He makes a mad dash to where Tilda fell. When he rushes to her, he only sees Tilda’s body floating by the seashore. His bow is dropped on the ground, he feels his heart broken into pieces. “What have I done… it is not what is supposed to be… what have I done…”

He staggers through water to Tilda, holds her body and cries. “you are not dead…you are not dead… do not die…” but he can no more feel Tilda’s breath. He cries desperately, shouting  “You are mine! You are still mine! No one can take you away from me. We are going to leave here together. He picks up a sword with him, carries her body on a boat anchored next to him. He quickly unties the rope and rows it away from the harbor which is being swallowed by fire. He keeps rowing and rowing until they are in a distance away from the island.

He hugs Tilda tightly, bending on his knees. “I don’t care if I have betrayed the country. I just wanted to be with you! But why! I lost everything, my country, my friend. I cannot let you go!” The crackling sound of fire seems to keep reminding him he has become alone. He buries his head in Tilda’s body, can’t help crying.

Suddenly a shriek of the wind pierce through his noise of grief, so does it stab into his heart. Everything abruptly seems to be silent to Dalton. He can feel an ice-cold sword in his body.  Shocked and frightened, his eyes opened widely. The body besides him slightly moves, but he dare not roll his eyeballs to look at the girl who he thought has dead. He feels no ache in his wound, but a huge pain in his heart, his throat, his eyes and brain. With a harsh sound, the sword was pulled out from his body and he collapses on his knees, facing down.

Tilda stands up, with the bloody sword in her hand. She was not dead. She could not die before revenge. She faces to her homeland, to her lover, with no emotion on her face, but the image of the crazy fire swallowing the land reflecting in her eyes. The crackling sound of fire slowly tears her up, she finally cannot bear it anymore and collapses on her knees.

-Chapter five-

On the island, some children huddle together in a temporary refuge, hoping not to be discovered by soldiers passing by. Turbid tears slide down their cheek. They keep biting their lips, trying not to make a sound. In desperation, a faint but bright girl’s voice awakens their hope. It seems to come from the sea, staunchly cross a long distance. They raise their head, listen carefully, forgetting sorrow, pain and death. The song lasts, until finally buried in the crackling noise of fire.

Last Sunday

It was in last Sunday. I made up my mind to keep fits by exercise. So I went to NUS swimming pool to have a good afternoon. My friend told me that if we bought the tickets, we could swim. I arrived at the gate and told the man in charge that I wanted to buy a ticket. He said that he felt so sorry that the ticket office was close. What's more, he had some tickets which he was not able to sell. At first, I was unhappy and thought that in China, if I could persuade him to sell the ticket to me. The man said that those tickets were from people who bought from the tickets office. I tried to persuade that I could pay for him then he could hand over the money to the ticket office. But he rejected me and said he should obey the rules. Then he said he may allow me to swim in the smaller pooh where he could see me. He said that actually it was fine that i do not have a ticket. All he wanted to do was to prevent everyone from accidents. He said that NUS would record everyone in case of accident and that is the reason why I had to buy a ticket for I was not a full-time student now. But I did not want to get him into trouble. So I thanked to him and prepared to leave. Suddenly he asked me and told me he had talked to an old man who had some tickets for himself and the old man promised to sell me one ticket. I was surprised and jumped from the floor. I went swimming as soon as possible I bought the ticket from this old man. I was touched by Singporean and the system here. In China, the security do not care too much about the safety of people. But in Singapore, they record everyone in order to make sure everyone is safe! Besides, people always want to make some extra money. However, in Singapore, they follow their principle and take responsibility of their own behaviors. Last, this man in charge was so kind and tried to make everyone happy, he do not just do his own job but help me find the solution. I was really moved by the high civilization of Singapore.

inner peace

Last week, I watch the movie Kongfu Panda Ⅱ. It is really a good movie, with interesting plots, cute animals and vivid scenes. But what impressed me deeply were not these things but the key word- inner peace. In the beginning of the movie, master shifu told Po the importance of the inner peace and the difficulty to train it. Later, the things he came across inspired his inner peace. At the end, Po defeats the enemies using his inner peace.

Inner peace is important not only to the Kongfu masters but also to all of us. The famous Chinese literature master Wang Gouwei once regarded the inner peace as the highest level of one’s life. The inner peace means people can concentrate on what they do and not to be distracted by other things. A person with inner peace can immerse themselves into the things he is doing totally and never be disturbed by the surroundings. One of the many examples is the story of Chairman Mao, reading in the downtown. When he was a student, he read in the downtown to cultivate his inner peace so that he can concentrate on one thing totally. With the technology develops, there are more and more temptations distracting our attention, such as the internet, computer games and so on. And I think all of us will have this experience that we often do something else when we study. So it is necessary for us to develop the inner peace. At first, we can force ourselves to concentrate on one thing. Little by little, we will be accustomed to the peace inside and enjoy what we are doing.

   After watching the movie, I stick a paper in front of my desk with the words “inner peace” written on. I think whenever I see it, I will focus my attention on what I am doing and enjoy it. With time going by, I hope I can become a person with great inner peace. 

Cry for help on the internet (Chinese version)

All of us have read the story of a Finnish girl asks for help on internet and a boy in America save her. When I finish reading the story, an interesting idea suddenly comes into my mind: what if the story happened in China? As far as I know, the ending may not as good as the original one.

Susan’s illness struck her again and the only way she can use to ask for help is the internet. Accidently, she entered a chat room in China. She shouted in the chat room, “Help me. I’m in trouble breathing. I can’t feel my left side. I can’t get out of chair.”

“So what? You think we will believe you?” someone said.

She began to feel nervous, “I assure you this is no hoax. Help me!”

 “Yeah, yeah. My mother has gone and my father is paralyzed. What a poor guy I am! Can the generous lady give me some money? I assure you this is no hoax. Help me!” another guy answered her in a sarcastic tone and the whole chat room burst into laughter. “So what are your bank account number and how much money you need?” someone continue teasing her.

She almost got crazy and spent much time to explain all the things and persuade that it was not a prank. She told them all she needed them to do was to call the police.

 One boy did call the police, but the police just didn’t believe him. Another man called the police to help the girl in Finland, and the police just continuously require the man to give him useless details such her name, her age, her family address and those information about the man. At last, the police man asked the man to wait a while and he would contact with Finnish police as soon as possible (but in fact, he has already wasted more than half an hour to collect those information which made no sense).

After another three quarter hour (no one knows how can it be that late), Finnish police finally found the girl. It had been more than 2 hour since Susan’s first message.

I do not know if she can still survive in this kind of situation but I really wanna say that she is lucky because she is not born in China.

Ps 1: Last year, a girl had an accident (I forgot what kind of accident it is) in some place in china. A passer-by call the police, but the police just continuously asked irrelevant questions and take action in a slowly pace. At last, the girl dead because the police comes too late.

Ps 2: There once a bank robbery in my home town. The interesting thing is that the bank is only 5-minute walk from the police station but the police get the bank 40 minutes later after those robbers had ran away.

Mr.Chang Qizhong-Zuo Mingxue-The strange sound

It was a rainy afternoon in the weekend, my roommates all went shopping and just left me in the room.
When I was listening to the music, I seemed to hear some strange sound, just like someone was clapping his hands quickly but regularly. But I did not take off my earphone, because I thought maybe my roommates came back and did something in the living room. Therefore, I still listened to my music.
Minutes later, the strange sound was still playing. I wondered what they did do, so I took off my earphone and listened to the sound carefully.
However, I found the sound was not outside. It was from the corner of the ceiling in my room. Then I guessed, maybe someone was doing something upstairs. Yet I thought over again: no one lived in up stair!!! I felt a little scared and comforted myself: maybe auntie called some workers to fix up the upstairs room.
When my roommates came back, I told them the strange sound that I heard. One of my roommates said: “One night, you all had slept when I was studying, then I heard the strange sound as you described, I was very scary and wanted to wake you up. But seconds later, it stopped.”
Now, we still could hear the strange sound sometimes and we are curious about where the sound comes from yet.

Linsanity, Again and Again AND AGAIN!

Air Canada Centre witnessed Jeremy Lin’s another overwhelming performance today. Lin’s decisive 3-point shot with 0.5 seconds to play declared Raptors the sixth Linsanity’s victim. UNBELIVABLE! His performance is persuasive in each of his latest six games. To everybody’s surprise, he sets a new NBA record in the meantime. In his first five starts, he has scored an overall 136 points. The former record was belong to O’Neal(126). More importantly, here are six consecutive wins for New York Knicks and baby Lin.

Linsanity burst out about a week ago. D’Antoni sent him on court in desperation, but Lin ended up with 25 points and 7 assists against Nets. I checked that database and shared the news with my fellow instantly simply for fun. From my perspective, it was a lucky game for him and his good luck will definitely not last for long. In the following match, which he experienced his first NBA start, his 28 points and 8 assists performance conquered Madison Square Garden for the first time. Even after his third big game against Wizards with 23 points and 10 assists, I did not give him adequate respect and I thought it was time for his crazy luck to come to an end.

Another 3 games passed, I gradually realized I was a fool.

He is a truly excellent player. In the third start in his career, he helped Knicks beat Lakers without Amar’e Stoudemire and Melo. A career high 38 points, along with 2 steals and 7 assists sank Kobe’s 34 points. All the criticisms and doubts for Lin became jokes. He has been driving people mad! People who doubted him became his fans. Korean endeavored to convince others that Lin had somewhat Korean descent. His T-shirts becomes the most welcome product. His tweeter followers increased more than 50 hundred in 3 days. The official site of New York Knicks seems to be designed for Lin. People who never concerned about NBA began googling and youtubing him. He just continuously shows how potential he is.

Maybe you cannot imagine how tough his basketball dream once was. His applies for scholarships were refused by all the Ivy League universities. He suffered endless discrimination when he took part in high school basketball league. He was undrafted. He was swept off by two NBA clubs before he received an unfixed contract. All of these only make Linsanity even more than a miracle.

After Knicks extends their winning streak to 6 games, their fans even no longer missed BD and Melo. For them, LInsanity is everything. Though, there are a lot of uncertainties in the rest of the season. Hopefully, Jeremy Lin will give us more surprises.

Let’s go, Linsanity!!

Mrs Yap-Choo Swi Neo--WangYan--The Valentine's Day

    Tomorrow is an unusual day ,it is the festival to


 celebrate with people who we love and who love us,


 it is the day for couples , for girl friends and boy


 friends, for gay, for homosexual, and also for our


 singles .


     romance is full of the whole world,everyone


wants to wander through a deep path with his or 


her love ,may be there is no firework sparkling in 


the sky,it is well that you are stand by my side , the 


moonlight is not as charming as the last night  ,it 


does not matter as long as you are here with me ,

      Standing against the chair with a cup of black or 

white wine is a great way to enjoy the lovely 

scenery ,the wind breezes;the leaves make little 

noise ;lovers say many sweet words  in the street 

,but for me ,how to spend my own valentine's day? 

to this easy question ,i can also give a easy answer--

---study as same as usual .

      But it is valentine's day,how could i only do 

study! Even though i am a single now ,i can still 

share my love with my family and friends,i can also 

enjoy my moonlight through the window in my 

dormitory ,and eat sweet chocolates to feel the 

romantic atmosphere ,because i know the people 

who i love are still love me in the far away ,i will 

stand in the count facing to my hometown ,and pray 

for my dear mom and dad deeply ,may the love be 

with them and remains in their hearts forever .