Pastime

Solving puzzle game in the New York Times is my interest lately. My philosophy teacher introduced this interesting game to my class and allowed us fifteen minutes in class to solve it. Although it looked easy, it was really hard to figure out. After fifteen minutes, my teacher taught us the smart tips, deduction and induction. He told us that you had to gather the information you had to infer the correct answer. By using the methods, I finally solved the puzzle. Solving puzzle with friends is really interesting. It is just like planning the group presentation. Everybody will write down his/her own ideas and discuss it. Sharing ideas is a good method to learn because two heads are better than one. I have learned a lot from the discussion I joined. My view point is quite limited. However, with the group discussion, I can see the world or issue through other’s eye and find out some aspects that I do not notice. I also like to play the crossword puzzle with my friends because one of the English teachers told me that playing crossword is also a way to learn English. I would always peep at the answer with consideration when I can’t solve it. On the other hand, playing with friends will not only prevent me from peeping answers but also hasten the finishing time. The most important is that my English vocabulary improves a lot.

University Life!!

Everybody must experience university life once in his/her life. University life is diverse and interesting. My most recent school is a small size college of languages. Resource and facility are very limited. Since the campus new construction is in progress, the space students can use is even smaller. Therefore, the abundant resource and great facility in Stanford attract me a lot. Last year, the students who took the course English Composition (2) were required to write a research paper. I decided to write the topic about allergic rhinitis because my family all have this problem. When searching for books and magazines related to allergic rhinitis, I encountered a big problem. The books related to medical science were few. My first idea was to abandon this topic and think a new one. However, because of inclination of interests I had, I decided to keep my original topic. I went to every public library in my city and I finally found some useful information, but some of the documents were written in Chinese. I had to translate and paraphrase the data myself. It was really a big pain. On the other hand, the library of NCHU owned a great number of books. The facilities in library and abundant books attracted me a lot. The resources allow students to learn more easily and efficiently. Moreover, reading books and magazines are good methods to renew ourselves and keep growing. Good library could provide people motivations to read because it is free and convenient.

Class review

I had a class about the environmental protection this year and I got some reflection. A lot of great disaster happened in the last two to three years. Hurricane Katrina gave me the greatest impact because the giant America suddenly became a helpless child. It was indeed one of the worst natural disasters in American History. Although I was not at U.S. then, through the TV screen, I can feel how terrible the catastrophe was. Flooding last for couples of days, people starved to death, and epidemic spread out because of contaminated water. Hurricane Katrina gave America a huge influence and revealed how divide the country was. The image between the united American after September 11 and the desperate African American waiting for help is really a huge difference. According to the article, Black Poverty’s Human Face, Business Week, September 15, we really have to consider the question Katrina played out. Would the response to the destruction faster if the victims were not poor people of color? Or was government unable to react quickly to crises at home? Government’s responsibility was huge. If government can face the problem and direct proper policies quickly, the situation will not be that worse.

Hurricane Katrina allowed me to recall the earthquake happened in September 21, 2000 in my hometown Taiwan. The disaster occurred at midnight, so lots of people were killed and buried when slept. Thousands of people were killed and a great many were injured. Moreover, a lot of houses and road were demolished. Shortage of living space and food and bad sanitation condition became big problem here. Situation in this region spread through press quickly. Government and Red Cross originated a donation in order to help people in the disaster area. Red Cross used the donation to purchase the commodity and food immediately after they received it. However, the government distributed the donation four months after they received it. Government’s explanation for spending so long to handle donations was the red tape they had to get through. Since it was an emergency, why can they omit or lessen the complex procedures and allowed victims to receive the funds quickly.