Dreams, No More: English

Showing posts with label English. Show all posts

Re Novel: Black Box

Hey guys! Im very sorry for my very long hiatus huhuhu..

So today I am going to talk about a short story that my classmates and I discussed today. The story entitled black box by Jennifer Egan. The story is about the instructions for a woman spy who is working with the country. She is collecting data from a kind of criminal ( I don’t know whether he is a drug dealer, terrorist or etc because it is never stated in the text).

So I discussed this story with my debate teammate; Faruq and Zangief. At first, I am quite blur as I read the story when I was too sleepy last night hehe. But thanks to them, I managed to recall what I just read yesterday ;)

The woman go through a lot of obstacles just to complete her mission with the aid from some technologies such as Field Instructions and ear mike. She sacrifice herself without getting paid, she portrays her patriotism to her country, which is a very good message that I learnt.

So, the question I chose for this short story is:

How did the material reflect current events?

A: The sacrifice done by the woman reminded me of the Palestinians citizens. They sacrifice themselves to protect their nation and religion from being taken by another irresponsible government; Israel. Lots of armies being shot, yet there are still a lot of youngsters that willingly to fight for the country. It emphasize the importance of patriotism in every citizen in order to preserve the emancipation of one state.

Vocabulary session

1. Eluded (to avoid or escape (someone or something) by being quick, skillful or clever)

- The robber was able to elude the police by the help from his friends.

1. Eluded (to fail to be achieved by someone)

- The cause of the disease continues to elude the scientists.

2. Goofy (crazy or silly)

- Syakir is well-known for his goofy faces when joking.

3. Cosmos (the universe especially when it is understood as an ordered system)

- The origin of the cosmos that we had been living in is still eluded the researchers.

I think thats all for today. Thanks!

Regards,

Alia.

9^th November 2016.

arigato haikk sudi bace :)

Re Novel: The Crown

Hey folks! So sorry for my long long long hiatus huhu. I don't know what had happened to me, that i don't have the desire to update my blog :'(

So, todayyyyy i am so excited as i will be reviewing one the novels by my favorite author; Kierra Cass.

Basically, The Crown is actually the last sequel of the selection series. I had read 5 of the books before i entered here, so i couldn't make the review of those books since they are at my home back in Terengganu.

Q: One lesson I learned from this novel is...

A: Follow our heart no matter what. When this book ends, i was really shocked as i expected that Eadlyn would choose Kile, her friend since they were child. But, Eadly didn't love Kile. She loved someone else who was not on the Elite. I expected Eadlyn would choose Kile because i thought Kile was the most perfect candidate as her future husband, even though she didn't love him. However, it turned out that she followed her heart that she loved Eikko and finally ther married each other. Oh so sweet hehe :D

Vocabulary session
1. Ascend (to gain or succeed to; acquired)
- Prince Henry is going to ascend the throne since he is he first prince in the royal family.

1. Ascend (to go or move upward upon or along; climb; mount)
- She needs an assistant to help her ascending the stair because she injured her knees yesterday.

1. Ascend (to rise to a higher point; rank; or degree; proceed from an inferior degree to a superior degree)
- Doctor Travis worked really hard in order to ascend to the professor level.

2. Rejoice (to make joyful; gladden)
- Her husband sang her a song to rejoice her broke heart because of her mother's death.

3. Plead (to ask something in a serious way and emotional way)
- He begged and pleaded, but she would not change her mind.

3. Plead (to try to prove (a case) in a court of law)
- Because of her financial problem, Mary couldn't afford a lawyer to plead her case.

I think that's all for today. Bye!

Regards,
Alia,
August 13th 2016.

arigato haikk sudi bace :)

Re Novel: A Sister's Gift

Sorry guys because i didn't post of novels' reviews recently. So today it is going to be about this book:

This novel is about two sisters-Hollie and Scarlett. Their mom passed away when they were little and they didn't know who their father was. Hollie had been taking care of Scarlett since their mom died and now Scarlett was in Brazil due to her job for almost a year and half.

Hollie and her husband, Richard didn't have a child because of Hollie's infertility. They had tried a lot of initiatives to have a child, but all of those attempt failed. Finally, Hollie found an effective way; having Scarlett as her surrogate. But, Scarlett was away in Brazil and she couldn't get in touch of her because she was in the jungle, looking for her seeds.

Fortunately, something happened and Scarlett was home. Hollie decided to ask Scarlett about her favor in that Christmas. Because of her need of money and her big secret in her life, Scarlett agreed. Was the surrogacy succeeded? What was the secret Scarlett had been keeping all those time?

Q: One issue discussed in the material?

A: Trust. Hollie trusted her little sister a lot, that she was willing to let her sister to sleep with her own husband. But, unfortunately, Scarlett betrayed her trust. This shows that we should not trust someone too much, even though they are our own siblings. Our world nowadays is full of lies and liars. In spite of that, as a human being, we should be honest and don't break someone's trust. Because trust is like a paper. Once it is crumpled, it would never be perfect again.

Vocabulary session

1. Cajole (to persuade by flattery or promises)
-John hoped to cajole his wife into selling her late parent's house.

2. Vulnerable (susceptible to physical or emotional attack or harm)
-The rude prime minister often take for granted on the vulnerable people.

3. Jettison (to cast (goods) overboard in order to lighten a vessel or aircraft or to improve its stability in an emergency)
-Six aircraft jettisoned their loads into the sea during the training.

3. Jettison (to throw off (something) as an obstacle or burden)
-If I knew this problem will happen, i would jettison her from this project.

Okay, i think that's all for today.
Regards,
Alia.
June 26th 2016.
21st Ramadhan 1437H.

arigato haikk sudi bace :)

Re Movies: Jurassic World 2015

Adios people!

I watched Jurassic World yesterday, on my way to Big Bad Wolf at The Mines, Seri Kembangan. Since it is an english movie, so why not i review it right?

This movie is the best! Even it is half-fiction, i enjoyed watching it so much! This movie is about a dinosaur park, Jurassic Park. A dinosaur had been invented, by mixing the DNAs from several different animals to enable it to attract people's interests. However, the new dinosaur created a huge chaos to Jurassic World. It escaped its cage by hiding itself from the detector inside its cage.

It killed a lot of dinosaurs as a sport, it broke the birds' cage and it destroys almost all of the infrastructure in the park. Finally, a hero came and saved the world from a bad phase. Who is it? Nah, you should watch it!

Q: One issue discussed in the material is...

A: Wisdom. When Claire approved the invented DNA, she should study back what is the identity of the new dinosaur. If it can bring a lot of consequences, then she should not allowed the DNA to be born. But, when she only thinks about the new creation will bring a huge amount of money without thinking about other problems possibilities and prevent it, then the incident in this movie will happened.

Vocabulary session

1. Legit (legal; conforming to the rules)
- Is this car legit?

2. Camouflage (V: hide or disguise)
- T-Rex cannot camouflage itself from the man.

2. Camouflage (N: the disguising of military personnel, equipment, and installations by painting or covering them to make them blend in with their surroundings)
- The traps were covered by the leaves, which served for camouflage.

3. Tense (Adj: (especially of a muscle or someone's body) stretched tight or rigid)
- After four hours in the exam hall, she tried to relax her tense muscles.

3. Tense (V: become tense, typically through anxiety or nervousness)
- Thinking of the test tomorrow, her body tensed up.

3. Tense (N: a set of forms taken by a verb to indicate the time (and sometimes also the continuance or completeness) of the action in relation to the time of the utterance)
- Miss Marlee teach us about tenses; past tense and present tense.

4.5/5 for this movie. Yeayy!

Regards,
Alia.
May 29th 2016.

arigato haikk sudi bace :)

Re Novels: Lullaby

This one is my novel review for this week. The previous one is my last week review actually. But, i forget to post that..

So this novel is a sequel for Wake in watersong series.

Generally, Lullaby explains Gemma's life as a siren. She lived at Sawyer's home with Penn, Thea and Lexi. Gemma faced a lot of problems to adapt the new life; she lose her appetite, she did not swim anymore. The worst thing ever she almost died! Then, Penn forced her to swim and she recovered. One thing that she regret was she ate a man's heart. Sirens needs to eat 4 times per year, but she never imagined that she would done that disgusted thing.

Then, Daniel saw in the newspaper that a man had died with his stomach tore apart. He knew that this might be a hint on where Gemma was. When Harper saw that, they immediately went there with Alex. Finally, they found Gemma and took her home.

Gemma stayed home until Penn came. Penn allowed her to stay. But, when she comes back, Gemma must follow them. They agreed on that. Then, the story continue in the next book.

Unfortunately, we don't have the sequel in library :'( so i might have to buy on my own :'(

A question for this sequel: Would i make same choices as the villain? Why?

A: If i were in Gemma's shoes, i don't think that i would run away from them. This is because i know Penn can hurt my family in a second. So, i would not put them in a dangerous zone. I would protect them even i have to be away. For me, Gemma was a brave girl. She was extremely willing to take the risk to be beside of her family.

Vocabulary session

1. Pastor (a minister in charge of a Christian church or congregation)
- The pastor asked us to give a last speech for Anne before he buried her.

2. Beneficiary (a person who derives advantage from something, especially a trust, will, or life insurance policy)
- The lawyer stated that this house will be Adam's, as Justin's beneficiary.

3. Pedophile (a person who is sexually attracted to children)
- The pedophile had been arrested yesterday because he raped a six-years old girl at an old house.

I hope A found Tidal and Elegy someday :'(

Regards,
Alia.
May 26th 2016.

arigato haikk sudi bace :)

Re Novels: Wake

Today i will recount some part from this novel :)

Actually, i am very obsessed with fiction novels. Some of the authors that i adore are Kiera Cass and obviously Amanda Hocking. AH wrote a lot of series. This watersong series is one of my favourite from her.

This novel tell us about Gemma Fisher, an ordinary girl who lived with her elder sister, Harper and her father. Her mother had a mental sickness, so she could not stay with them. She went to a welfare home so that somebody could take a good care of her.

Gemma's life was just the same (except for dating her neighbour, Alex) until Penn, Lexi and Thea forced her to drink something thick from a flask. Those three girls were actually the sirens. Gemma realised a bit changes in herself after that, when she kissed Alex-she was about to bite his lips. She also could hear the ocean were like calling her to swim until she was like getting mad.

One night, Penn came. She explained what was happening to Gemma, since she knew that Gemma had realised something was wrong about herself. Penn said that she changed to a siren when Gemma drank that liquid the other time. Being a siren, Gemma had to leave her family, friends and Alex, she had to eat boys in order to survive, and live with those three crazy sirens. Gemma was in dilemma. If she refused, she would die! But, if she follow them, she will be a monster. Finally she had to follow them to protect Alex and Harper.

So, a question i chose for this novel is: Which minor character is my favourite?

A: Daniel. Daniel is a man lived in a boat, near Gemma's father docks. He was a wise, kind and sweet man. He liked Harper but Harper insisted and chose not to date anyone because for her, family is her priority. She didn't have time to waste on boys' stuffs. Despite of that, Daniel always helped Harper when she needed. He helped her find Gemma when Gemma lost and more. I hoped Harper will accept Daniel one day.

Vocabulary session

1. Exasperated (irritate intensely;infuriate)

- Her fussy behaviours sometimes exasperated me.

2. Shrug (V: raise (one's shoulders) slightly and momentarily to express doubt, ignorance, or indifference)

- John shrugged his shoulders when Mom asked about his brother's bag.

2. Shrug(N: a woman's close-fitting cardigan or jacket, cut short at the front and back so that only the arms and shoulders are covered)

- Sue bought a knitted shrug during the Arts Week.

3. Furrowed (make a rut, groove, or trail in (the ground or the surface of something))

- Mary furrowed her brows when Mister Peter mentioned about the Newton's First Law.

As conclusion, i would love to rate 3/5 for this book. The beginning is quite bored and the important part starts at the middle of the book. But in overall, the story is nice!

Regards,

Alia.

May 29th 2016.

arigato haikk sudi bace :)

Re Movies: The Mortal Instruments

So tonight i am going to summarize some things about this movie. Anyone had watched this movie, put your hands up!

This movie is a fiction-genre. Basically it is about shadow hunters that are searching for their holy cup, which is the Mortal Cup from being taken away by their enemies, led by Valentine. The main character is Clary, a great shadow hunter. But, she did not acknowledge that she was one of them. After Valentine had kidnapped her mother which was also a shadow hunter, then she knew about it from Jace. Jace is the guy next beside Clary in the poster. Behind him are Alex and Isabelle, his friends from the Institute. The cute guy is definitely Simon, Clary's best friend.

The movie then revealed how Clary finally found the Mortal Cup by using her amazing ability, inherited by her mother.

A question i chose to answer for this movie is : If i met the main character, would i become friends with them?

So, definitely yes! If this shadow hunters-stuff is really exist in world, then it is a great thing to be friends with Clary and Jace. I would love to see them use their amazing powers, such as Clary can get a drawing out of the paper. Urgh, it would be great if i can see she doing it in front of my eyes lol.

Vocabulary session

1. Eccentric (unconventional and strange)
- Even he is known as an eccentric person, but he is quite genius.

2. Summon (order to appear in a law court, call to a meeting, send for)
- My father is summoned to go to the court this Friday because of the past accident.

3. Immense (extremely great)
- Shadow hunters have an immense power that can't be beaten up by any other creatures.

As the conclusion for the movie, i would rate it as 4/5. It is just because the ending is quite spoiling the entire movie. Why? Then you should watch it! I hope there is a next one to explain the ending lol.

Last but not least, Simon is just too cute to handle lol.