Article 8

Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou wins second term 

by BBC

Taiwan’s President Ma Ying- Jeou has won a second term in office. It was a close match as President Ma received 51% of the vote and Ms Tsai received 46.3% of the vote. He promised to further improve ties with China. In contrast to Ma’s victory his main opponent Tsai Ing- wen, took her responsibility by resigning from leader of the Democratic Progressive Party. However, China still does not recognize Taiwan, regarding the island as a breakaway land. China wants unification with Taiwan. President Ma told his supporters, "In the next four years, cross-strait relations will be more peaceful, with greater mutual trust and the chance of conflict will be less." He included both economical and political bonds with China. However with China’s want for unification many Taiwanese fear that Taiwan just might become part of China one day.

When I come to think about the World, it is not as pure as the textbook makes the World to be. I guess the World itself is a hypocrite. It tells the children that you should stand up for what you believe. However, in a real society if you stand up for what you think is right you are more likely to get bullied. I think what Mr. Ma is doing is a prefect example of it. I am pretty sure that Mr. Ma recognizes the risk he is taking, however, he believes that Taiwan is not in a position to oppose a powerful country like China. I think his decision is good as a short term. Nevertheless, as a long term this just means Taiwan is becoming more and more dependent on China. I hope Taiwan like it teaches the students will have guts to stand up against China. 


jubilant 
adj- showing great joy
origin- 1660–70;  < Latin jūbilant-  (stem of jūbilāns,  present participle ofjūbilāre  to shout, whoop), equivalent to jūbil-  shout + -ant- -ant (dic.)

The jubilant students jumped up and down after the final Assembly 

retaliation

n- return of like for like

retaliation 

1580s, from L.L. retaliare "pay back in kind," from re- "back" + L.talio "exaction of payment in kind," from talis "suchlike." Originallyused both in good and evil senses.(dic.)

I panicked and attacked an opponent who immediately retaliated.

obliged

v- to require or constrain, as by law, command, conscience, orforce of necessity.

origin

c.1300, "to bind by oath," from O.Fr. obligier, from L. obligare,from ob "to" + ligare "to bind," from PIE base *leig- "to bind" (seeligament). Main modern meaning "to make (someone) indebted byconferring a benefit or kindness" is from 1560s.(dic.)

Students are obliged to study in Woodstock.

100+ College Essay Topics 9

How do you feel about Wednesday? (U of Chicago)

My least favorite day of the week is Wednesday for me. By Wednesday I have used up all my energy that I had from the weekend. I have at least one extra- curricular activities per week, and unfortunately or fortunately Mondays and Tuesdays are the hardest ones. As many friends of mine knows, if I am tried I get crazy. I jump up and down the stairs of my dorm, talk and I ask more questions in class more than usual, and I wonder about the weirdest things on Wednesdays. I think about the reason behind everything and I talk about this to everyone. Thus, my roommate tries to stay away from my nonsense ideas.

For example I thought about justice as I was reading the book Justice written by Michael Sandel. I pondered about the whole idea of justice. Who came up with the idea of Justice, that stealing is not sharing, that white lies should not be lies? If it was a group of people who came up with it, did it consider everyone? Why is it wrong to eat humans? I mean I do not eat it, but some tribes believe that it is honor to be eaten after they are dead. Nowadays, everyone thinks they know about what is wrong and right. The question is do they really know that justice is? These are some of the less outrageous thoughts I have on Wednesday.

Though I say Wednesdays are my least favorite day of the week because I get very tired. However, I also think Wednesdays are the days that I learn the most about myself. So I guess maybe Wednesday is  after all a wonderful day of the week.

100+ College Essay Topics 8

Dog and Cat. Coffee and Tea. Great Gatsby and Catcher in the Rye. Everyone knows there are two types of people in the world. What are they? (U of Chicago)

There are many types of people in the world, too many that it is almost impossible to draw a clear line between people. Although there are some clear line such as male and female, I think that does not tell others who they really are. However, according to my father there is two types of people that shows who they really are; people who learn from their mistake and others who fails to do so.

Edison once said,” Failure is the mother of success.” Nevertheless, failure can only be the mother of success, if the person learns from his mistake. My father told me about it over and over again when I was young. I took this to my heart and tried not to make the same mistakes. Although I try my best not to make the same mistake, sometimes I do make the same mistake. For example, I tried not to get behind homework this vacation, for I learned how hard it is to catch up with it last vacation. For couple of weeks I was doing okay with it, but I got in to the typical vacation mode. So here I am try to post a blog everyday for this week, so that I am up to date.

So, I guess I fall in to the second category; not learning from the mistake that I made in the past. Or am I in the third category; where I did learn about my mistake, but fail to make a change? Some might say that is the same as the second category, but some might say it should be the third because at least I know the mistake and I tried to change it. This is the reason I said there can not be a clear line made between people.

Article 7

Roundup: North Korea’s Kim Jong-Il dies

by CNN

On 17th of December 2011, North Korea’s dictator passed away in a train. His death was due to a hearth attack, he was sixty nine when he had a heart attack. The North Korean government tried hard to keep his death as a secret, but the secret spilled out on 19th. This was due to the announcement from the Working Party, which stated the Kim Jong- un, Kim Jong Il’s son, will replace his father as the country’s leader. Though some might think that the death would bring positive effect, it actually had more negative effects. This could be seen through the reaction of the other countries went on a crisis situation such as United State, who called for closely monitoring. South Korea was no exception to this action, South Korea went on a South Korea- U.S Combined Forced Command; ensuring their alliance with United State incase of an emergence. South Korea also increased monitoring efforts along the border.

As a citizen of South Korea, I was very much effected by Kim Jong Il’s death. When the new of his death came out, it spread like a forest fire. It quickly became what Koreans call ‘hot issue key word.’ Some Korean thought a war might just break out and some companies were even shut down for the day. People were buying tons of Korean noodle just incase the war broke out and the stock market of South Korea was falling. In the mist of this situation, I thought how much impact Kim Jong Il had on the world. Though some said he has no power, for he is a ruler of one of the poorest countries in the world, when he passed away world became a mess for a while. At least South Korea did, for after all they called in most of the ambassadors back to Korea for emergence meeting and enforced the border line. I guess in world there are many hypocrites and as usual I am no exception, as I said what most people said and was scared of what most people were scared of. 

Regime

(n) a mode or system of rule or government

1770–80;  < French régime  < Latin regimen regimen (dic.)

There is no regime in Woodstock for it is a school not a country.

Cohesion

(n) the act or state of cohering,  uniting, or sticking together.

1670–80;  variant of cohaesion  < Latin cohaes-  (variant stem ofcohaerēre  to cohere) + -iōn- -ion (dic.)

One of the properties of water is Cohesion.

Authoritarian

(adj) favoring complete obedience or subjection to authority  asopposed to individual freedom:

1879 (adj.), "favoring imposed order over freedom," fromauthority. Cf. authoritative, which originally had this meaning toitself. Noun in the sense of one advocating or practicing suchgovernance is from 1883. Related: Authoritarianism (1909). (dic.)

I hope the new principle of our is not authoritarian person.

100+ College Essay Topics 7

Are we alone?

This question is a tricky question, who is the "we" in the question. Due to the grammatical mistake I can not answer the question. This is what I would like to say. However, this is after all it is homework, and this is one of the questions, I will give another opinion of mine. In the world there are many species, and there are still more being discovered though researches. Thus, I think it is fair to say that we, humans, are not alone in the plant. Although I think this is pretty clear some of human on the plant act like there is no other organism or treat the organisms not significant enough to care.

One of the acts of humans that make me really mad is the cutting trees due to economical reasons. Not only are we killing the organism just because they can not move, but we are also destroying the habitat that other animals and plants live. This is not even the main problem, the resource that we receive after all that is wasted. We do know that happens to those areas yet, like hypocrites we only saying things. Some says they do not have the power to change the world, but one can take small step at a time. I am pretty sure they are well aware of this, but we still don’t do anything about it.

I am no exception, here I am criticizing everyone, but doing nothing in my own life to make a change. I excuse are similar to others, I don’t think I can make a change. I hope after writing this essay I would actually change and recycle more, waste less and consume less. This is my goal the habit that I would make for the 30 day change, and hopeful for rest of my life. 

Article 6

India set for all-party meeting on anti-corruption bill

by BBC

published on 14/12/2011

accessed on 14/12/2011

      Thanks to Anna Hazare, who sparked the anti- corruption activists in India, India is now setting for all- party meeting on anti- corruption bill. The corruption in India has led to billions of dollars in India. Hazare has threatened to go on huger strike if the bill is not passed during this parliament session, and his 12-days fast and other supporters are the main factors that made this meeting possible. The activists and opposition parties’ demand for this bill is to include everyone in the government, if prime minister to lover level bureaucracy. his bill will hopefully lead to more justice in the country than now. The Indian government is now drafting a anti- corruption bill, some still believes that the bill is too weak and should be enforced even more.

      I think this is a good lesson that everyone can learn from, if you believe in something than instead of just complaining, one should put it in to action. The actions of the activists and Hazare did for corruptions that are present in the country can be one of many examples. People complain about not having the chance to change thing, but the truth is the chances are everywhere. Just last month there was a chance for everyone in senior school, we the chance to change to school system to get rid of exam that everyone complained about. Surprisingly not many students went stand up for what they believed in, yet they still complained about the exam. Unfortunately, one of the students that complained yet did not go to the peace garden to make a change was me. Though I could give many reasons like I had Hindi work to do, and other homework, but I will be honest, I thought it would not make a change in our school and that no teachers would listen to us. Now, after reading his article I will try to make a change in the world though I don’t know how yet. 

Vocab-

ombudsman 

a government official who hears and investigates complaintsby private citizens against other officials or government agencies.

Origin: 
1910–15;  < Swedish:  legal representative, equivalent to ombud agent, attorney + -s ’s¹  + -man -man (dic.)

There is no ombudsman in Woodstock, for hopefully there is no corruption in school.

envisages

to contemplate; visualize:

Origin: 
1810–20;  < French envisager. See en-¹ , visage (dic.)

In woodstock there is no one who envisages an era of anything. 

whistleblower

a person who informs on another or makes public disclosure of corruption or wrongdoing.

Origin: 
1965–70

whis·tle-blow·ing, noun (dic.)

In high school the head of the school is a whistleblower, for he informs everyone about one's suspension. 

100+ College Essay Topics 6

If you had the gift of telepathy, the ability to read other people’s minds, would you use this gift or not?

             I watched the X-men First Class during AP biology movie night. While walking down to dorms from school in the dark, my friend and I talked about the power that we wanted the most. There are many supernatural powers shown in the movie so there were plenty of options to choose from.  Thus, the answers varied, some said the power to control the metals, some said to fly, and I said I wanted to read people’s mind. So, yes if I had the gift of telepathy I would use it to read people’s mind.

             Everyone wants to know more than what they already know. This is the motivation behind all those researches that makes our education courses harder. I am no exception to this and that is the reasons that I try various things such as Hindi, Indian Music and taking harder courses than needed for my diploma.

             I think learning other points of view is also very interesting, that is the reason that I want to have to power to read people’s mind. I can read people mind and compare to my point of view regarding to issue. That is another reason that I take Model United Nation, for doing that activity I learn other point views of around the world. Though some times I disagree with their point of view, I still know about their stand and the reason behind it.

             Also, if I have a chance to get something that everyone would not have, then why would I refuse it. I would use it just to show off a little bit to my friends and scare them a bit.