what I learned in ESL 114

After several days, the first semester that I learned in U.S will step into an end. I am willing to summarize what I have learned during the term. Only for ESL 114, I have learned many things that will be useful to me in the future. From this class I understand how to write a composition, a research paper, and to make a presentation; I even learned how to express myself and work with others.
Firstly, as what we were taught in the course, I have learned the writing skills and principles of dealing with essays, research papers and presentation. I learned how to organize an essay with introduction, body and conclusion; I learned how to express my ideas during writing with thesis statement and topic sentences; I also learned some grammar during writing like the function of “or, and...” and the classification of “a, an and the”. Of course, I achieved the knowledge of the ways to deal with different styles of essays, like the pattern of cause and effect. While doing with my research paper, I understood the way to find quotes and academic information. At last, I knew how to make a good presentation with speech and graphs.
Secondly, I tried to cooperate with others, which improved my skills of express myself and work with others. We had all kind of activities like group discussion and group game. I thought I could be better to show my talent after this class.
In conclusion, this class is so perfect that I learned a lot and help me fit into American society.

Living in a big city

Different individual with different characteristics would choose variable ways to express their life when talked about living. For most of us who fit ourselves very well in urban life usually take conveniences for granted that we don’t really appreciate the advantages we have when living in a big city. However, I would like to illustrate several great benefits of living in a metropolitan area.
First of all, according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the very basic one is the physiological need. Among many of the physiological needs, food is what I care the most. However, eating must be the essential advantage for people who live in a big city. The living pace in urban area is usually fast and sometimes irregular; consequently, the food must be served fast, readily and some restaurants will open up late to satisfy the customers. Other needs such us business meal and banquette places are relevant to the amount of demands in a big city contrary to that in a country area.
In the second place, the artistic and culture resources are abundant in the metropolitan area. Theaters, museums, concert halls and all other vibrant activities are available in the urban area which would attract people even from rural part of the country and would satisfy the different tastes of picky audiences. It is indisputable that the delicate and crateful creative artistic works that give the city a different look in contrast to the countryside. The flourish varieties of literature and art activities really are the most attractive advantages for me to live in a metropolitan area.
Last but not least, many of the advantages could be counted; consequently, to live in a big city has several disadvantages as well. The pollution of all kinds is very obviously in a big city. For instance, who can ride a bike or motor without getting a black face after you go home? Who can drink the water directly from the tap without at least boiling first? These may be the reasons for those urban haters who would claim as disadvantages to live in a big city.
In summary, although several disadvantages are listed above, there is no doubt that the convenience to live in the urban area is a great benefit for many of us. The benefits such us eating and the access to different kinds of activities are all essential to constitute to a colorful life in the metropolitan area. Those details of life are the advantages to live in a bid city.

Advertisements' misleading

Advertisements, one of the symbols of the modern society, are prevailing in every part of the world. Widespread and influential, advertisements are capable of convincing people to purchase commodities which they do not need. Among various factors that contribute to the phenomenon is the temptation of seeming lower price, the influence of celebrities and, in some case, the exaggerated functions of the products.
The foremost reason for the misleading of advertisements is that hardly anyone is able to resistant to the temptation of low price, which a trick is played by the sly and shrewd merchants. For example, there are always so many products on sale that few of us are able to be sensible and rational enough not to be lured by the huge price tags with" on sale” on them. As a matter of a fact, the buyers are hooked by the seeming discount. By frenetic and irrational shopping, people would be stock up piles of items that they actually will not be in need of in the foreseeable future or even for the rest of their lives.
Another sublet explanation rests on the fact that celebrities, who have been paid a considerable sum of money, play an important role in the effect of advertisements. Some famous stars are so influential that many companies focus their attention on them and best use of their fame. As a result, a group of loyal fans would rush into stores and go into rapture if they are fortunate enough to possess one. Consequently, both the stars and the sellers are benefit from the commercial game regardless of what the consumers obtained.
The third convincing reason point I would like to mention is that the exaggeration made in the advertisements by the merchants. There is no doubt that confusing and puzzling for ordinary consumers to distinguish the unqualified one from millions of products presented in front of them. In addition, a majority part of the merchants are in the disguise of appealing appearances. Consequently, if is of no wonder that consumers would buy products preached to be perfect, a number of them are nothing but a waste of money.
All in all, the minor merits which the advertisements hold will never prevent us from concluding that advertisements attract consumers to buy unless products, because of their so called discount, the effect of celebrities and the boastful description. Consumers should pay attention to this phenomenon, save their money and use it into a better way.

Serious or Entertained

With the progress of the society and the development of economy, increasingly, people tend to pay more attention to enjoyment: watching a movie becomes popular. However, different people love to watch different kind of movie. Someone choose to watch serious movies which lead them to have a better idea of their lives, the others think it is an excellent idea to achieve happiness and relax them by watching entertaining movies. In my view, I prefer to watch the movies which are designed primarily to amuse and entertain for the following reasons.

  First of all, with the buildup of the pressure from our work and study, we badly need to relieve our burden and give vent to our emotion. Obviously, it is a better choice to watch entertaining movies rather than serious ones, from which we are able to relax ourselves physically and psychologically. For instance, every weekend, I would like to stay at home to enjoy love romantic movies and cartoons, rather than go out play football or something else. To me, this is my favorite method to release tension out of my body and delight my spirit. Also, after watching this type of movie, it will be easier for me to devote myself back into my work and study, and the efficiency will be higher as well.

Furthermore, the pace of our living is becoming faster and tenser in the current society, so that we even do not have enough time to communicate or exchange emotion with our family members. Watching movies, especially entertaining movies, provides us with a sweet atmosphere to share happiness with our parents and children. Entertaining movies always bring us some laughter and happy moment during discussing the characters and the storylines in the movies. Also, we are given proper opportunities to realize family reunion and tell them how much we love each other.

What is more, when I am tired of working, I will not choose serious movies to relax myself, since these movies always make me think about some unhappy things, such as wars, political events and death. I cannot imagine how terrible it is to sit in my sofa and watch a serious movie with sadness even gloom, even though these movies seem to be more elegant and artistic.

Overall, I cannot deny serious movies can make us think more about our living. But taking into account of all the aspects above, I prefer to watch entertaining movies to relax myself. Rather than crying, I want to be happy.

essay outline

Thesis statement: I think censorship should not be allowed.
support 1: Due to the cut-outs, people can't follow books and movies plot.(fact)
support 2: People miss out excellent movies when there is a full censorship.(fact)
support 3: Adults are free to choose what they want to see.(opinion)

Chinese Universites and American Colleges

Thesis Statement: University, an educational institution offered an advanced education and research to human, operated in a different ways between Chinese colleges and American ones in terms of its enrollment, teaching method and graduation.

Topic sentence 1: Chinese universities and American ones take divergent ways of acceptances.
Example: ---in China, students will take entrance examination for universities every year, the level of grade determines the universities students would study in.
---in America, students will have exam of SAT, but the statement students sent to universities are very important access of universities, which is different.

Topic sentence 2: huge differences present between Chinese universities and American ones.
Example: ---in China, most courses will be fixed; students don’t have much space to choose their own.
---in America, majority courses are elective, like in my major of economics, there are approximate 80 credit hours elective, can be chosen by students themselves.
By the way, attendance points don’t occupy too much in the final grade of college students in China, which is contrast to American students.

Topic sentence 3: there is some dissimilarity in choice making of students after graduation in Chinese and American college.
Example: -----most of Chinese students would like to be a graduate student after graduation. (Data: in 2010, 1.4 million of persons in China enrolled to attend the exam for graduate school)
-----most of American students will choose to work other than achieving a higher degree.

smilarities and differences

Both pictures show a view of famous works of art. As the left picture represents a twisted clock, the right one displays same object. And actually we could find the object in left picture, which built later, is the copy of the object exhibited in the right.
In contrast, they have different meanings. While the painting shows a broken clock, implying that the time is broken, the sculpture is smoothly twisted while is being slowly melted, suggesting that the time has a expiration date. Besides, the support is also different, the sculpture is held by a tree branch whereas the clock painting is leaned on the edge of a cube. To conclude, the clock painting is framed in a surrealistic place, as the rest of Dali pictures, on the other hand, the sculpture is placed in a public place only by itself.