"Is Bottled Water A Good Idea?"

As I was looking through an Upfront article, I saw a page discussing whether bottled water was a good idea. I was astounded after reading the page. They had a column that said that it was a good idea and there was another column that said that it was a bad idea. First, I will summarize what each side said and then I will give my opinion of the question.

The article talks about the good of bottled water as healthy and convenient. It says that sales of bottled water has tripled in the past 10 years, showing that bottled water is growing in popularity in the US. It also states that replacing sugary drinks for bottled water can eliminate more than 50,000 calories per year. Also bottled water has better environmental benefits than other bottled drinks. Therefore, since bottled water is popular, healthy, and environmentally beneficial, it is a good idea to have bottled water. 

The articles also talks about the bad of bottled water; for example, it not having great health benefits, consuming lots of resources, and economically expensive. Though water bottle companies say that bottled water is healthier, tap water has to be tested frequently on its quality. Also, transporting bottled water is not efficient. It also states that bottled water uses a lot of plastic and consumes lots of oil. Finally, water bottle companies earn $12 billion dollars per year, but that money could be used to improve tap water quality. Therefore, the idea of bottled water is not good. 

I think that bottled water is not a good ides, because it isn't too much healthier than tap water. Also, bottled water is 1,000 times more expensive than tap water. It also has bad impacts on the environment and consumes a lot of oil and resources. Again, I think that bottled water is not a great idea for these reasons and many others. If you agree or disagree with me, please feel free to comment below.

"The Kite Runner"- Text to Text Connections

 

The Kite Runner is a great book from what I have read. I haven't gotten too far into the book to write another blog about, so I will make some inferences and prove it from the text. I will also elaborate more on the first two chapters of the book.The book leaves me thinking after the first chapter with one question- What did Amir do to ruin the relationship with his childhood friend or friends. In the first chapter of the book, it states, "It was my past of unatoned sins." Basically, he is saying that he made many mistakes in his childhood that he is yet to make up for. He described a phone call with Rahmin Khan as his past of unatoned sins, so I inferred that he has does something wrong in the past. After this, he starts thinking and had some alone time. The story then dives into the childhood of Hassan. In this part of the story, it talks a lot about Amir, Hassan, Baba (Amir's Father), and Ali (Hassan's father). I think that Amir did something wrong to Hassan, because it doesn't really emphasize on anyone else except Hassan.

I also think that Amir will try to make the wrong that he has done in the past right. So I thinks that Amir will make a trip to Pakistan and the story will take place there. Finally, in the third chapter, I think that there will be a fight between Amir and Hassan. I hope this happens, because I don't really like novels that are discussing too much about the past like The Lemon Tree. Then I think that the author will have an entire chapter that Amir talks about this mistake he made to his father. So far, that is all that I think that the story will be about. I really can't think of anything else.

Based on what I have read, I recommend this book to everyone who enjoys reading books about the main character correcting his past. I know many books that relate to The Kite Runner. For example, in Touching Spirit Bear, Cole, the main character, is trying to correct his anger. He caused great physical pain to Peter. So he is granted an alternate for jail- living on an island for a couple of months and resolve the damage done to Peter. Just like in Touching Spirit Bear, Amir has to resolve his past.

"The Kite Runner"

Finally, I get a good book that is very interesting. I so far have read about 21 pages of the book. The book actually had a great introduction that made my eyes glued onto the page. A lot has happened in the book.

The first chapter of the book was quite unique. This chapter talked about a mistake that Amir made as a child. The main thing that intrigued me is that he directly stated," I thought of the life I have lived until the winter of 1975 came along and changed everything. And made who I am today." The main point of this book, as obvious as it seems, is how Amir changes his past. The second chapter and a little bit of the third basically talks about Amir's life as a child. He talks a lot about two main people, who are his father, Baba and his servant's son, Hassan. Amir also talks a little about his dead mother, Hassan's dead mother, and Hassan's father. The rest of the chapter is childhood memories that he relishes. 

I really like this book for a couple of main reasons. First, the book directly goes into the problem and intrigues me, which makes me more engaged in the book. Second, it goes all the way to the beginning of the story and clearly talks about Amir's childhood. And finally, it has not boring times that basically make the reader sleep. Nearly every second of my reading, I was engaged with the book. Overall, I can't wait until I get to the part where Amir makes his great mistake. 

"Romeo and Juliet"- Act 1, Scene 5

 

In this blog post, I will be discussing about the fifth scene of Act 1. This scene is mostly romantic and it is the scene where Romeo meets Juliet for the first time. The people in Scene 5 are Romeo, Juliet, Lord Capulet, Tybalt, Nurse, Servants, and Benvolio.

Scene 5 starts out with the servants talking and then Lord Capulet enters the scene. Lord Capulet just talks a little bit about the party. Then Romeo enters the scene. He sees Juliet for the first time and says that she is very hot and starts reciting and comparing her to different thing. For example, he says," O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!" This statement that Romeo talks about is about how pretty and beautiful he thinks that Juliet is. He keeps reciting similar things and then Tybalt find out about Romeo being a Montague and coming to the party. Tybalt tells his uncle, Lord Capulet, about Romeo being at the party. Lord Capulet tells him to ignore Romeo and not to cause a mutiny at the party. After some protest by Tybalt and some forceful orders from Lord Capulet, Tybalt finally agrees to ignore him.

Romeo goes up to Juliet and starts talking about how he think that Juliet is very pretty. Juliet likes him back at the first sight of him as well. They start talking and soon they both begin to kiss in an uncrowded room. After that, the Nurse calls Juliet and tells her that her mother is calling her. She leaves Romeo and walks towards the Nurse. After Juliet leaves to go to her mother, the Nurse starts talking to Romeo and talks about Juliet on the matter of who her mother is and how rich she is. Romeo then realizes that Juliet is a Capulet. Then once Romeo is leaving, Juliet and the Nurse talk about Romeo and the nurse tells her that he is a Montague. The party ends and then the scene ends.

In this scene, a lot of important events take place. For example, Romeo and Juliet meet each other for the first time and they fall in love with each other. Another important event is they both realize that their parents are both enemies. These events are the main events that propel the story to the conclusion. Without these events in this book. There really wouldn't be a story. Essentially, I think that this is the most important scene in the story, because of the reasons I have already stated. I have many predictions to make on this book. I think that  that Lord Capulet and Lord Montague will find out about their love and separate them. I also think Paris, the guy who she is supposed to marry, will figure out that Romeo and Juliet both like each other and he will help them run away. I know they will run away, because it stated that in the Prologue. I just can't wait to figure out whether or not my predictions are correct.

"Romeo and Juliet"- Act 1, Scenes 2-4

After reading a little bit more of The Lemon Tree, I just couldn't bear it, because of the great deal of information it throws at you and the lack of a developed plot in the third chapter. My friend who read the book said that the first 7 chapter, excluding the first chapter, is all about the history of the conflict. Just like The Great Gatsby, I am going to abandon The Lemon Tree. I discourage anybody to not read it. I bet it is even hard for historians to read the book. I think that my next book will be Divergent.

Putting that aside, in class, we read Romeo and Juliet from scenes 2-4. After reading it, the book is not as hard as I expected. Reading Elizabethan is that hard to read. It just takes time to understand the text. I very much prefer reading Romeo and Juliet over The Lemon Tree. Here is a basic over view of the scenes.

In Scene 2, Lord Capulet asks Paris if he would marry Juliet in two years. In the mean time, Lord Capulet asks him to start "wooing" her, so Lord Capulet sets up a party for him to "woo" her. Lord Capulet then send out a servant to invite some guests and leaves. However, since the servant didn't know how to read, he asked the nearest people, who is Romeo and Benvolio, to read it for him. Romeo reads it to him and the servant invites him to the party.In Scene 3, Lady Capulet basically wants to talk to Juliet about marrying Paris; however, the Nurse keeps going off in a tangent. Then Lady Capulet finally gets a chance to talk about marrying Paris. Juliet said that she thought that marriage is is "an honor that I dream not of." However, she said that she would try to love Paris. In Scene 4, basically Romeo, Benvolio, and Mercutio are going to the party and Mercutio gives the famous Queen Mab speech.

I had a couple of predictions that would happen later in the book. One prediction is that Romeo and Juliet will meet somewhere incidentally. Then they will hang out with each other. Another prediction is that their parents will find out and they will fight even more. Overall, I think that Romeo and Juliet is a very interesting story.

"The Lemon Tree"- Chapter 2

 

Not too much has happened in chapter 2 of The Lemon Tree. I will quickly give a synopsis of this chapter and talk a little bit of the setting in the book.

Basically, in the beginning of chapter 2, Bashir's father, Ahmad, is building a house apart from his joint family. Then the story slowly fades into the connection between the family and the city and how the Israeli- Palestine war has begun. It also dives into the origins of the conflicts between the Israeli and the Palestinians.

I think in this chapter too much information is thrown out to you. I agree that the book is non-fiction; however, the story cannot throw out that much information. Also the book doesn't really describe some of the terms mentioned in the book, making it difficult for any other reader or me to understand it. I think that this book would be very good, if it was a little slower. The author should have made it into two or three books, so that the reader can easily understand it. Literally, I think that the author is just straight-out telling the fact rather than conveying them in a clear manner. I really wouldn't listen to the praises of the book, because I am pretty sure that they were very modest.

The story for now doesn't really have a setting, all it does is explain the war incidents. It gets really confusing, because they keep changing the setting. Once it is in al-Ramala and then it explains an event in another part of Palestine. Overall, I am just trying to say that this book is hard to keep up with. Only if you have a high comprehension level or you have a lot of prior knowledge of the war and if you know some technical terms, then it is really easy to understand. If you do not have any of the qualities above, I strongly discourage you from reading this book.

"Romeo and Juliet"- Act 1, Scene 1

We have actually began reading Romeo and Juliet in class; we read Act 1, Scene 1.  In this post, I will tell what I understand from this book and my view on the book. So here I go:

In Act 1, Scene 1, the servants of the Capulet house show their hatred towards the Montague family. They start brawling and then the Prince commands them to stop fighting. He also tell them that their quarrel has driven the city mad and that if they don't stop the fighting, then he will execute them. 

After the incident, Lord Montague and Benvolio, Romeo's cousin, starts to talk about Romeo and how gloomy he was recently.  They talk after a while and Benvolio says that he will talk to Romeo. Romeo walks in and Lord Montague departs and leaves the two with privacy. Benvolio talks to Romeo about why he is so gloomy. Romeo tells/ hints that he is in love. Benvolio asks why Romeo doesn't just go and ask her. Romeo replies that she doesn't want to marry anyone. Benvolio tells Romeo that he will help him. And the chapter ends there. 

This chapter seems very easy to understand. I think that this is a great start to the book, despite the confusing beginning and the Elizabethan English. Overall, this is the basic translation of the first part of the story. Based on this part of the story, I think that it won't be too hard to understand, because I already know the layout of the story and it isn't too hard to understand, especially with the guides on the side of the textbook. In conclusion, Romeo and Juliet isn't as bad as everyone seems to say. I think that it is totally understandable with the knowledge of the story and some familiarity with common Elizabethan words. If you have some difficulty understanding the story, then you might want to watch the video.

Shakespeare

 

Unfortunately, I haven't read enough of The Lemon Tree to write a detailed blog on it. Therefore, I will discuss about what we had learned in English 1A. In English class we are going to read Romeo and Juliet. In order to understand the book, we had to research a little about certain topics that are present in the book. For example, I was assigned to research about the Elizabethan Era. We will also talk a lot about Shakespeare and his writing style. Most of this blog will talk about the Elizabethan Era, but I will also discuss a little on other topics.

The Elizabethan Era

In the Elizabethan Era there were two major areas that differ from today which include the politics/ social order and technologies and scientific discoveries. The Elizabethan Era lasted from 1558-1603. This period of time was also known as the Golden Age of England. During this time, the queen was regarded as God's representation on Earth and the ranks were formed to show God's blessing to each rank. In the Elizabethan Era, everybody was distributed into classes, also known as a hierarchy. The order was the monarch being the highest authority, the nobility, the gentry, the merchants, the yeomanry, and finally the laborers were last in the order. The Parliament used the rankings to regulate clothing, or what each rank wore. Therefore, the clothing worn by people told their social class. There was a law called the Sumptuary Laws that limited food, beverages, furniture, jewelry, and clothing to the people. The law also dictated what color and type of clothing each rank worn, in order to identify their social class.

Another important part of the Elizabethan Era was the scientific discoveries and the inventions. Many scientific discoveries were made in the Elizabethan Era. One was by Andreas Vesalius, who is known as the founder of modern anatomy. He dissected a human body and wrote a book on it. He also gave a detailed description of the central nervous system, which is now known as "pons Varolii". In 1580, the first person sailed around the world in three years. His name was Sir Francis Drake. Galileo Galilee invented many things including the thermoscope, hydrostatic balance, and a telescope that he began work on in 1602. Many other inventions included the graphite pencil, the modern calculator, time bomb, and the wind-powered sawmill. Lots of new discoveries and inventions were discovered in the Elizabethan Era, which currently shapes our society.

Shakespeare

Shakespeare was a great playwright, who constructed many plays including some of his famous ones, which are Hamlet, Macbeth, and King Lear. Shakespeare was an influential playwright. Some of his influences include his timeless themes, romance, and his creation of flawed character that people could relate to. Shakespeare is well known for his tragedy. His most famous tragedies are King Lear, Hamlet, Macbeth, and Othello. Also the main character that he created was likable, despite his devilish characteristics. Shakespeare had tragedies that was centered around one character who experiences tragedy. Finally, he emphasizes on death in the plots of his plays. 

I think that Shakespeare is an amazing playwright, but he only problem with his writing is the language. If we understood that language a lot better I think that we would easily admire it. Many people say that it is very boring and that it is very hard to understand. As I stated before, his language is unlike modern English; therefore, it makes his writing harder to understand and love. I read A Midsummer Night's Dream in 8th grade. I agree that it is very hard, but I got the hang of it after a while. I think that exposure to this type of writing can help us a lot in English. I look forward to reading Romeo and Juliet and hopefully it is easy to understand. 

Click for a link of Shakespeare's works.