A. Write about a recent movie you have seen that you enjoyed, and why you liked it.
Recently, I saw this movie called "Me Before You." This is an inspiring movie about a girl who has a different kind of relationship with a recently-paralyzed man. At the end, though the girl tried to convince the man to continue living, he still chose to die because he was paralyzed and couldn't do the things he loved to do - sports. I like this movie because it tells us that we should cherish every moment of our lives before we lose them.
"You only have one life, it's actually your duty to live it as fully as possible." -Me Before You 2016

B. Write about a learning goal you have for yourself over the next year.
I would like to read "The Book Thief." I bought this book a few months ago because I saw that the book was a best-selling book, but when I opened the book and wanted to start reading it, I found that I had to check a lot of words up in the dictionary and it's kind of annoying since I couldn't finish one paragraph without looking up hard words every two or three lines. I hope I can start reading it over the next year because my cousin told me that the book is really good and I can't wait to read it myself.

C. What effect do you think playing sports has on learning? How much do you think the mind and body work together? 
I think the mind and body work together, and when your body performs well, so does your mind. For example, after dancing practices I feel that my mind works better since my body starts to be active. To me, I feel that people should not only use their minds, sometimes the body helps too.

D. What effect do you think playing a musical instrument has on learning a foreign language? What are some things you have noticed about good language learners? 
I think the effect is that when playing a musical instrument, you need to have patience because you need to learn from the basics first, and then start to build up strategies. For example, you'll need to know how to play the instrument first, and the the major and minor keys. Also, your mind and hands needs to be working at the same pace, so you'll have to think about two things at the same time. This is the same as learning a foreign language, so you need to think about two languages at the same time and translate it.

E. Would you be willing to use an audio book plus a PDF file to read any of the following books next semester?
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- Lord of the Flies
- Lord of the Rings
I would prefer reading from a physical book because I think it gives me more of a reading feeling, though I do think that maybe we could have some audio books in our classroom computer so that we can just listen to the audio book if we want to. A PDF file would be great because sometimes I forgot to bring my book home, so with a PDF file, I can just read the book in front of the computer. 　

My Hobby

My hobby is playing flute and studying Spanish in my free time.

I like to play flute because of its beautiful sound and when I play it I will feel very relaxed. I like studying Spanish because I want to learn how to sing spanish songs.

Favorite food for Mid-Autumn Festival:

1) sweet moon cakes

2) moon cakes with an egg inside

3) sun cakes or other other sweet things

4) zong zi (sticky rice wrapped in bamboo)

5) Big Mac

6) bar-be-qued chicken

7) bar-be-qued corn 

8) hot dogs

9) I'm on a diet so don't ask me!

My favorite food for Mid-Autumn Festival is barbequed corn because I prefer corn than chicken.

  Ender's Game

Right now in literature class, we are reading a book named "Ender's Game." I think this is an amazing book and I really enjoy reading it. The author's word choice really impressed me because just by reading the book, we can have a good image in our heads of what's happening. Every movement and expression any character makes, we can know it very clearly since the words are well-put-together. Also, when you start reading it, you won't want to stop because the plot of the book gets more and more exciting. The part that I like the best is when Ender plays mind games and got to Fairyland because he jumped into the Giant's eyes. At first, people at the International Fleet didn't think that he would have got that far, and didn't think he would jump into the giant's eyes, but his intelligence suggested that it's possible for him to do things that people think are impossible.  

1) Compare what you have seen or read in the Ender's Game book to whatever you have seen in the movie. Can you say a few differences in a scene or in the whole thing? What are some things the movie can do that the book cannot easily do? Or what are some things the book does better, in your opinion?
  The book explains things clearer than the movie. When Ender was fighting with Stilson, the bully, he kicked Stilson in his breastbone, in the ribs, and in the crotch, but in the movie, Ender only hit Stilson in the face, and kicked his stomach. In my opinion, the movie can emphasize the feelings, expressions and the character's feelings better than the book. On the other hand, the book lets us understand every movement of the characters clearly since the movie isn't able to show everything from the book. 
  So, I prefer the reading the book to watching the movie. 

2) Oh - all right. I want to ask you a harder question, so let's get to it. There are number of THEMES in Ender's Game that keep coming up. So we may as well get you thinking about them now. Again, you can post about this here and come back later and update it, but first, there are online lists of the themes, like at Spark Notes and Shmoop, but I like the second one at Shmoop better. Notice the hyperlink I put there the second time I wrote "Shmoop" - can teach you how to do it in the computer lab Tuesday. Anyway, let's pay attention to two of those themes:

A) Manipulation - Why do adults always seem to lie to Ender in the story? Do you think adults always do this in real life? Is lying to people, especially younger people, a helpful thing?
  Adults seem to lie to Ender probably because they know that Ender has a soft heart, and if they tell him the truth, he might not want to be the leader and kill a whole species. I think the reason adults are more likely to lie to younger people is because they don't want them to know too many things that they don't need to face at young ages. Also, the more truth you know, the harder your life is going to be. 

B) Competition - What is the purpose of organizing the young people into "armies" and having them fight each other in groups at battle school? Do you think competition against classmates is helpful?
  I think they organize the young people into "armies" because when we compete with each other, we can improve our weak skills and at the same time, know how to use skills that we are better at to win the competition. To me, competing against classmates can make us cooperate with each other. However, when relationships between you and another person fade, it's not really a helpful thing anymore.