Alex's+Reading+Journal+2

=Reading journal #2= . Generally speaking, I like Twins. . Firstly, understand this story, the killer was the wife. There is a sentence that prove my ideas at the end of the story: “She had thrown his gun, from which she had removed the ammunition the night before they started the trip, when she realized what he was planning…”. This sentence is the reason for the sentence she said when he was going to shoot her: “He reached inside his jacket and pulled out the little handgun he had bought in Detroit… She said: “It isn’t going to work” “. Then he pulled the trigger three times to kill the wife, but after that the wife was still alive and the husband didn’t appear in the rest of the story. It means that the husband was killed, and the one killed him was no one else but his wife. Everyone can use the logic to understand that the wife was the killer. . Secondly, however, there are some parts that I don’t totally understand. The first one is about the guy named Gib Porter. The author said he was the writer’s hero, then the wife’s father hired Gib Porter. I don’t know who Gib was and the father hired him for what reason: “Gib Porter was the writer’s hero […] Her father. He never liked the man she married, never trusted him, so he hires Gib Porter”. The second one is how the wife can kill her husband while the gun didn’t have any ammunition inside? (I guess that she had another gun in her pocket but I’m not sure). . Thirdly, this is a detective story and I like this genre. The characters of detective story are always smart and the plots usually have surprise endings. Sometimes you think that you know the ending of the story, who is good and who is bad, but the story just goes on and bring you from this secret to another secret, then it finally turns out that you’re wrong. Once I read detective stories I can’t stop or give up because I really want to find out the truth behind each character. For example, in Twins there are so many answers that you want to find out: Why the husband wanted to kill his wife? How can the wife know the husband’s plan? At the end could the wife be arrested for killing her husband? But you just can answer all of these questions at the end of the story.
 * Firstly, did you understand the story 'Twins'? Who was the killer? How do you know? Show proof from the story to support your idea. Are there any parts that still confuse you? Quote one part that is still unclear and explain why it does not make sense. Use these ideas to lead to a bigger question: Did you like 'Twins'? Why or why not? Do you normally like this genre of story? What type of story is it? Make sure you show specific proof from the story.**
 * Below your paragraph write five hard vocabulary words from the story with their definitions.**
 * Below your paragraph write five hard vocabulary words from the story with their definitions.**

5 words: 1. Hunch (n) the belief that something is true or will happen 2. Sanctity (n) quality that makes life, marriage so important that must be respected and preserved 3. Godforsaken (n) a place that have nothing interesting and attractive 4. Ponder (v) spend time to think carefully and seriously about a problem 5. Scrub (n) a short bush and tree


 * The End

=**Reading Journal #4**=

In my opinion, reading stories about murder in school is fine but it must depend on the detail of each story to make sure that there is no violence or scary scenes in the story. Murder stories make people have to think more so that their brains work more effective. The stories in the imaginary world have both positive and negative impacts on the real world. It has positive impact because it lets people keep dreaming and hoping about a better life somehow. But it also makes people forget their real lives, people will always be dreaming and hoping but doing nothing to change their real lives, then their real lives will get worse and worse. For example, the husband in Twins lived in his own world, he was influenced by his character so that he had a plan to kill his wife as the character in the story did. The imaginary story like Twins makes me be aware of the life, be careful with people around me because sometimes everything is not what it seems.
 * Twins shows us that we live in two worlds at the same time: the real world we live in, and the imaginary world of our minds and stories. Do you think we should be reading stories about murder in school? Could the stories in the imaginary world have any impact on the real world of your life and other students? How does an imaginary story like Twins change your real life? Remember to use evidence from the story to help you examine your ideas.**

=**Reading Journal #5**=


 * Which story starter did your group pick? What creative genre is your group choosing? What is your sub-genre? Which story are you presenting (newspaper or creative)?**
 * Focus on the genre you will be working on. Search the internet for conventions of that genre, write down three important ones in your journal. What role are you? In this journal I want you to write about how you can use your role to show these three conventions (if you are newspaper writer start thinking about the 5 Ws, write your headline etc.).**

The story starter that my group picked has been created from the idea of Maggie (3u s9): . 1. 3 types of paperclip stand for different meanings. 2. 3 people received a message with these different paperclips that told them to visit their friend MR.K. 3. One of the paper clip means that there is a people who have to die at last. . However, our group changes this idea into another plot with a little similarity with the original idea. . The genre my group chose is mystery and creative story. The sub-genre of that story is school, invention and fiction. . The convention for this genre is: 1. Questions, puzzle, mystery: because it is a mystery story so it must have questions that urge the readers keep reading to find out the answers or the secret. 2. Creativity: the creativity of the writer is an important convention because it surprises the readers and makes them interesting in the story. 3. Setting: the setting (when and where) of the story always change, the characters always move, which make the story not boring. . I’m the newspaper writer. To apply the questions or mystery to the newspaper, I’ll write a question in the headline, then audiences have to read the newspaper to find out the answer themselves. To use creativity and make people surprise, I will write the ending of the story first then go back the time to the beginning of the story. To use setting, I will describe in detail the time and place of the characters in the story.

=**Reading Journal #6**=

This is the link of the website I found. Because I'm a newspaper writer, I searched for the key words: "How to write a good article in newspaper?"

[]

This website is really helpful because it provides me the basic knowledge to write an article successfully. It is very clear for me to follow the instruction of the website. They show me step by step what to do, what I should do first and what I should do later. There are also tips and warning, which help me realized that that applying the newspaper principle to the article is not enough but I have to be careful and use the tips to make my article better. This website is easy to understand so I enjoy reading it. Now I've finished my work as a newspaper writer and I'm happy with it.

=**Reading journal #7**=

My job in the group is newspaper writer and I like this job because it is a great chance for me to practice my writing. Besides, I also can use my imagination to create the newspaper, which is very interesting.

I like working in group, I like all members in the group discussing to find the best solution for the problem, working together and having more ideas is always better than working individually. However, to be honest, I don't enjoy my group in this project a lot. Firstly, it seems like there are just a few members in my group really work, and the others are so indifferent. How can a group be successful while just half of the group working hard and the others are not? Secondly, I have a lot of conflicts with one member in my group. He thought that his idea is good and just decided everything himself. He never cared about the others' ideas. I'm feeling so stressful when I do this project because I want to make it better, make it different but I can't. That's why working in group is so hard.

The only thing that I enjoy is that I know more about 2 members in the class, who are also in my group.

Although I enjoy being a newspaper writer, I want to try on new role as the creator next time (I'm not good at acting).

Through this project, I've learned to accept. Although the members are not good, my idea is rejected and I have to follow the idea that I don't like, I still have to accept it in a good mood because I have no choice. It's working in group so I can't do what I want to do.

Next time I want to have a better preparation for the project and I'll make every effort to make it better than this one.

=**Reading Journal 8**=

Two root words of “infinitesimal” are “infinite”, which means very big, great and “sim”. Because the word is relative to big, and I don’t know the meaning of “sim” so I guess “infinitesimal” means very big or very small. . The suffix of “likeness” is “ness” (noun). Three words using this suffix are: sleeplessness, happiness, craziness. The meaning of “likeness” is similarity, the same. . I guess two synonyms of “void” are loneliness and emptiness because people are drunk when they are sad, empty and lonely, which are the feeling of the author in the poem. . In the context, “unfastened” means making something open slowly in past tense: the heaven door loosened slowly and opened. . My poem:

My cat is having an infinitesimal fear Void is coming, I see his tears Unfastened belt and bring him here Then likeness has disappeared.

=Reading Journal 9 =


 * Chapter 1:**

There are some similarities between the man in the Tom Waits’ song “What’s he building down there?” and Boo Radley in the novel “To kill a Mockingbird “ of Harper Lee. Firstly, both of them are mysterious, no one knows for sure who they are, what they are doing, how they look like. They spend most of the life staying inside the house instead of going out and talking like what people usually do. They don’t have friends or relatives and living alone, which is so weird. That is the reason why there are a lot of curiousness about them: in the video, maybe it is a neighbor who follows the man in order to find out what he is building with nails in the hardwood floor; in the novel, almost everyone is curious about Boo Radley’s life, especially the children in Maycomb like Dill, Jem and Scout. Secondly, people are afraid of them. Although people have a lot of questions about them, no one dare to ask them directly but they just guess and imagine their stories. So there are several rumours about them. People think Boo Radley is a crazy man with monster appearance and having mental problem, using a scissor to kill his parent. The man in the video is also thought to have an ex-wife and a consulting business in Indonesia. In my opinion, the man in the video is building a coffin for himself as his life has no meaning: no relatives, no friends and being suspected by everyone. Maybe the death will be better for him and release him from this unhappy life. I also guess the appearance of Boo Radley: he might not be as scary as people think. In my imagination, he will be tall, thin, tan skin with sad eyes and serious face.


 * Chapter 2:**

The worst trouble that I have ever met in my student life happened last year when I was in grade 12. I got zero for my chemistry test because of cheating. As that chapter was so difficult and I was lazy so before the test I had written some formula on my table in pencil. Unfortunately, when the sun shone on my table and from a special angle, my teacher saw them. She was so angry because I was always getting good marks on the previous tests and quizzes. She deemed that my high scores were made because I was cheating all the time, which is not true at all. That test was the first and also the last time I cheated in exam. I explained but she didn’t trust me and gave me zero for that test, she even hated me and looked at me as a liar, I knew that it was my fault. Then in the final exam, I made the great effort to study and got the full mark, my teacher also realized that I told her the truth and forgave me for that silly action. Luckily my parents haven’t known anything about that accident, if yes, they will get mad too. Scout’s problem and mine are the same somehow as the teachers didn’t believe their students. But I think my trouble is worse than Scout’s because that was my fault, my teacher didn’t believe me as I lied her once, she had the reason to suspect my previous conduct. Scout’s trouble is just a misunderstanding, sooner or later Ms. Caroline will find out and Scout is still innocent.

=Reading journal 10=

Write one text-to-self connection in your reading journal about Burris Ewell in chapter 3. Compare your life to his. In this journal you have to use four of the following vocabulary words:
 * reckoned, deliberately, mortification, illicit, gouges, 'ya hear?'**

I used to have a small similarity with Burris Ewell but generally, my life is totally different from his life. When I was small, I used to be a stubborn girl. In grade 1, one day I went to school but I didn't want to study, so I used **gouges** to make holes **deliberately** on my desk. Later on, I had nothing to do so I made an **illicit** talk with the girl sitting next to me, which made my teacher furious. She told me: "Go to the corner and stand there till the end of the class". I **reckoned** for a while then decided to go to the corner instead of apologizing my teacher. I feel that at that moment I was similar to Burris somehow because I was rude, annoy all the class and made the teacher angry. Although my teacher didn't cry like Ms. Caroline did but I know that I made her feel so sad and terrible. However when I've grown up, because of my family's reputation, I become a nice person: not being rude, saying bad words, taking care of myself so that I am not filthy, mean or fierce like Burris. The family reputation of Burris is also different from mine: my parents never want their children to go to school for the first day then absent the whole year after or live, behave like animals as Burris's family.

=Reading Journal 11=

1a) The one I do not like is my classmate in secondary school because she just followed the others and it seems impossible for her to be her own. If she found someone in class had just bought a nice dress, she would have the same one on the next day; if someone had had a new lovely hairstyle, she would also change her hair to the same style with that person. I found it was so weird for her to keep doing the things that people have done and trying to be other’s personality. However when I put myself in her position, I think that her behavior was reasonable. She might feel lonely so she tried to attract others with the hope that they would compliment on her new stuffs as they did with others.

2) No one is born as evil, so the affect of the environment they live in can make people become evils. An example of pure evil in the world today is people who kidnap children, kill them and take their internal organ for sell. There is the link to a newspaper article about pure evil: []. According to your article, this evil comes from two ways. Firstly, it is the social matter: “how stable an individual's childhood is, for one thing, or how much pressure there is from environmental forces” people are born as pure but life makes them become evils. Secondly, “fatigue, anger, drinking or other fleeting factors” can cause disruptions of empathy circuit, make people become evils too.

=Reading Journal 12=

Chapter 9/10: Their evil come from the discrimination with the Negro. They hate the Negro, so they call them Nigger. They also look down on the people who are for and help the Negro and call them Nigger-lover. This darkness is not in me.