The Geese Story

Walking around the lake has been a great pleasure of mine since I am in Darlington. Each time is fresh for thoughts. The reason is that every element is changing: trees, sky, grass and even the lake itself. Each of them brings me different inspiration in my thinking. This week, I am happy to see that we have new members in the lake family, the Canadian geese. As a Chinese, the first thing I think of them is an ideal material for my dinner. However, it does not take long for me to discover that they are incredible artists and abandon my initial idea. They are experts in position arrangement, not too strict and accompany with a beauty between order and disorder. The thing they benefit me the most is accompany. I can find privity-rich harmony among them. Every action is individual and at the same time in the group. Think of swimming with your company, what a pleasure. They remind me of the importance of my community, there is a Chinese saying goes “When you are in happiness, you don’t realize it.” It is often too late for us to cherish when we already lose it. I am just an international student, maybe after my graduation I will never come back again in my life. Seldom will I have chance to meet my good friends here for another time. The geese are telling me about the company. Look at the corrugations they draw, there are smiles on the water. Every little minute I spend with my friends should draw corrugations as well, and let them spread like the smiles forever.

Phantom Darkness

I have been walked alone in the chapel after dinner for some times. There was complete dark and silence. Nothing can be felt, seen or touched. However, there was something up rising from the bottom of my mind. It was the phantom of darkness---dread, solitude, misery, etc. Generally speaking, the thoughts of human should be based on realistic beings; I know they come from darkness, but in fact, however, can anyone figure out what darkness is? How to describe it? What is in it? We don’t know. Only are we able to feel those awkward thoughts from it, they are from unknown but we know how they are, they are the phantom of darkness. Human are award of their mind power, yet on the other hand, human suffer from mind too. They are strangely powerful. There were several days when I was having class, everything was normal, however, I was stuck. They arose from my heart and eroded it, isolated me from material to immaterial world. They are the phantom of darkness; you don’t know when they will come out and occupy the bright room. So powerful they are, still not undefeatable. The reason that I called them phantom is because they are not solid. The solid of a man is volition. You cannot stop phantom but you can distinguish it. Never give up when you are in bad mood, everyone is feeling bad some time. However, true volition meets no limit of time. No matter how many times you fall, the important consequence is that you get up after it. We cannot see or feel, but it exists. We cannot avoid or give up, but we are to fight. Instead of stuck ourselves in the phantom of darkness, why not get out and enjoy the true life with sunshine? Let the steel volition lead my way.

Reevaluate Emerson's Ideas on Nature

In Emerson’s essay, he suggests that all that is separated and unchanged by human. It can be air, mountains, or even arts. To get into nature, a man needs the ability of isolation, just as what the monks do. Though his perspective is strong, it is of his time. Literature is most popular at its time; arguments are most eloquent in the decades. Everything is changing. As the development of science and technology, nature can be conquered and changed by men. We make use of nature, we pollute nature, and we protect nature. From this point, we can see that some of his ideas cannot be applied to modern society anymore. However, mind and soul is not that unstable. The idea of the self-thinking to get into nature is still significant. There have been too much for our life in everyday life. People’s life has been in a kind of hush, in order to satisfy the rapid developments. Sometimes we cannot see the truth of the problems. We need to purify our thoughts and keep them away from molestation. Only in this way can we conform ourselves, find the value of ourselves and eventually build our own world, that is, be a part of nature.

Mind Power

The relationship between nature and human beings is an eternal topic. Human beings are part of nature but also distinguished from it. Based on this contradiction, there arose eloquent debaters. Emerson regards fate as a part of nature. Men are easily crushed by visitation of providence and disease. On the contrary, human beings are as powerful as nature. They are not order of the nature; they see, observe, learn and grow. Although the natural is powerful, it does not develop so fast as human. It is too ordinary, but humans think. Man thinking means changes, and changes reflect infinite possibility. In spite of the existence of fate, we are not the slave of fate. Control or be controlled, that is not a problem. We are to be the controller of our fate. Emerson suggests that “Intellect annuls Fate. So far as a man thinks, he is free.” Whatever is fated, it will take place. Yet the consequence is always changing. You are going to face the bad things happen in your life. Like him say, at least for your good. There is a Chinese maxim goes “If human don’t do things for his own good, the providence and the earth will destroy him.” As long as a human thinks, he has the possibility to control his life on his own.

Philosophy of the maples

It has been 3 months since I come to United States. Everything surrounds me is new but friendly. Although much busier, I find myself a way to live with joy and satisfaction here. The most important part of my life here is walking around the lake. It is an amazing masterpiece of the nature, graceful swans, peaceful stone walk, and the maples, which are my favorite.

From September and the first half of October, they are turning golden. I met new friends and became a member of the tiger family. The new life was not hard, the adaption moves favorably. Most often, I would take a walk around the lake after dinner by myself. It was quiet, giving me a time when I can think with pleasure. Then I started to walk with my friends. In spite of my insufficient ability in English, talking was not a tough job for me, I learnt every day. Talking with friends, sharing opinions or experience made the walk more meaningful to me.

Even though I am an atheist, I think that sometimes maples, or nature, guiding people’s destiny with their changes. In the late summer and early November, the maples were catching red. Those have been a remarkable period. Life was warm as the maples, filled to the brim happiness. It was a season of sunshine, marching into and starting my every day. The maples were breathless, not only because its invincible beauty, but also of the walking people. They taught me to appreciate life.

Then they began to fall. If they could really guide people’s destiny, they could make it both happy and miserable. The surroundings began to fall, no longer was the sunshine pretty and warm, without the maples, it became licentious and hurt. Although life must continue and I made it, I found myself become vulnerable and over thoughtful. Also did I found myself so weak that I could be completely beaten by the miserable thoughts sometimes and even made my cheeks wet. Today one of my best friends left here and everybody knew he was not coming back. When everyone’s eyes were turning red, I tried to control myself, but eventually I failed when I was back to my room alone.

Sometimes we just couldn’t stop something bad from happening. However, it does not mean to make our own lives worse. Every happy feast has an end. To too many people and things in our lives, we are just passengers. Although they are sometimes wonderful, the unchanged result is that we will separate and never get together again. Instead of cease to see them because of the fear of being apart, I would rather try not to miss and work hard to enjoy and cherish the very moments. What does man thinking mean to us? In my opinion, the man thinking is learning from life, working with life and making it better.

Beauty as they are, to be on the path. Let the reddish happiness stay. This is the philosophy of maples.

Considerations on Self-Reliance

Self-reliance can be explained as one considers himself of the sovereign principle of life. It is solid and strong. As it is so extreme, there show two very different sides.

Generally, self-reliance is more likely to be considered as a negative word. Highly concentrated in him, a self-reliant person often ignores outer factors. He doesn’t intend to listen to other’s opinion, for he is so confident of himself, or think himself as scared. As stated in Read Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Self Reliance"-“the only right is what is after my constitution, the only wrong what is against it.” The man is carrying himself to oppositions of his surroundings. Histories, especially histories about significant figures, abound with such instances. Qin Shi Huang (Emperor Qin) was the first emperor of China who united the whole mainland. However, he was also criticized for his brutal rule. He was so self-reliant that he ignored the position of the common people. In his eyes, common people only vary by obey or disobey.

Although can drive people to ignorance, at some degree self-reliance is also beneficial. Up till now, there have been several important individuals in my life who told me that the only person can help you is yourself. As an old Chinese saying goes “Far water does not put out near fire.” When encountering problems, the most direct way to solve it is DIY. It does not mean that don’t ask for any help, everyone need help some time. However, if always depend on others; one will gradually reduce his capability. It can be fatal. If you can stand, don’t ask others to help you up. Self-reliance provides the mental condition which is able to satisfy this principle. It is a way to build up independence. Cooperation works most sufficiently when the individuals are capable. Appropriate self-reliance does not contradict cooperation, on the contrast, it makes it perfect and so that benefits.

My views on Being dissocial

Humans have various moods or traits. Obviously, they varies by their qualities, there are some traits which are dreadfully harmful. In my opinion, being dissocial is one of the worst ones.

The world "community" is essential in our life---family, neighbourhood, school, company, etc. No one can get himself out of his own community. If being dissocial, you are just pushing yourself out of life. The capability of an individual is limited, withdrawing from community will result in the difficulty or even impossibility in solving some vital problems. Besides this kind, there is another kind of being dissocial which commonly exists in teenagers. Sometimes they want to be rich in personality, or try to be "cool", and thus they try to act differently. For example, in the school, some of the students will break the dress code in purpose just because they want to look different. There are worse things happening. When there is a big event, everyone is going to fight for their team, and there are some kind of people who don't want to join. The reason is that they are selfish. They may think it does not benefit them at all or it makes him look stupid by doing so. It is truly selfish to think in that way. So being dissocial is also an origin of selfishness.

Passage Comprehension

Q:explaining the significance of the following passage.

John Locke"Secondly, In the state of nature there wants a known and indifferent judge, with authority to determine all differences according to the established law of nature, man being partial to themselves, passion and revenge is very apt to carry them too far, and with too much heat, in their own cases; as well as negligence, and unconcernedness, to make them too remiss in other men’s."


A: This passage talks about the natrual state of men. Everyone is equal towards judgement, or law. And men have common disadvantages such like extreme moods. Pointing out the basis condition of human, the writer can logically continue discussing his view on government depend on it.

Central question of english paper

Topic:Can sciense and religion harmoniously coexist?

Question:How has the science revolution impacted the view of people towards the religion?
Nowadays teenagers in decline number believe in religion in Asian countries which are mostly developing. However, religion is still playing an important role in America, which is commonly considered to be the strongest and most modern country. Why?

Knowledge and Community

This is an era of knowledge and information. As we are living in community, our community is linked tightly with knowledge. Moreover, knowledge benefits the relationship within the community.
Firstly, knowledge is essential. One ought to know some other individuals in the community. If he does not, he is not even in the community. The better they know each other, the more appropriate that they share opinions. Misunderstood often result in conflict or enmity, which negatively affect the community. Knowledge is not always academic; it can be the understanding between one another. It is not a modern factor, throughout the history, all communities has been based on knowledge. So we can easily conclude that a community cannot exist without knowledge, it is essential.
Although knowledge is essential, there’s not enough evidence to prove that it is beneficial to the community. Think of two people talking together, if one is a doctor and the other is an engineer, maybe their talk will only be about daily life. But if they are both doctors, they can share experiences of working, because they have something in common. Naturally, people don’t have the same job, but a lot of them can still talk well. It is because the expanding of their knowledge. Think of two balloons depart from each other. How can they get in touch with each other? One is fly towards each other, which means they have the same aim, just as people with same career. Another one is that they inflate till they are large enough, it is the same case when people’s knowledge increase and at last overlaps. However, there is one more way which is hybrid---they inflate towards the same direction. Referring to real life, this process can be showed as knowing the world that we live in. It is mostly practiced in an easy way. By the term “hot topics”, we can see that people would like to discuss something which is common. For instance, weather. Predicting weather or watch weather broadcasting is a way of learning the world that we are living in. Knowledge not only makes people have something to talk about but also provide them with more to talk about. One more thing that I want to state about learning the world is that it will change attitudes. Some people become atheist after learning science. What’s more is that the changes are depended on the personality of the individuals; sometimes it may bring argument to the community. However, knowledge is considered to be beneficial more than harmful generally.
We always study something about another community, which can be other people in the city or another nation. It is important for us to know other communities because we are not always living within our own community. Nowadays communication is more advanced than ever before. When making decisions, especially a large one, it is objectively better when more reasonable opinions are shared. It is important and beneficial to learn other communities because we can get other mature thoughts or useful information which we cannot get within our community. Studying others makes improvement.
After all, I can confidently draw a conclusion that knowledge has positive effect on community.

Journal of Oct B

Oct 12
Sunlight, grass and shade made today’s class warmly cozy. So are today’s topics. First we talked about how to concentrate on solely one thing. It seems hard for guys; however, if you get the feeling, which lead you into a special mental condition, is it not that hard. The next question is what we shall do if we had another month every year. For me, I will probably choose to learn an instrument. It was too late for me to realize the importance of instrument when I am in middle school. The miserable result is that up till now I don’t even know a thing about music or instrument. Finally, I discovered a great treasure—what an ideal place for sleeping!

Oct 16
Today we grabbed a glance on some philosophers and maxims. Among all the maxims, “No pain no gain” may have achieved the most universal and useful position. Although all of the greatest figures in the history have their unique skills or qualities, none of them would have achieved those successes without hard working. When talking about maxims of Benjamin Franklin’s, the E.T. asked about comparisons, I immediately state Confucians, which has deep and significant effects on both the thinking of by past and modern Chinese.

Oct 17
Wow, tomorrow is fall break! So exciting we are. A huge person, Benjamin Franklin, was the focused point of the day. We first reviewed his autobiography in which shows his formidable personality. He never compromised with his destiny. He was a great hard worker and pursuer of perfection. The daily life of him was seriously criticized by himself with the “fault list”. On the list, there were over 10 demerits listed. He checked on them whenever he failed to avoid them. It is so surprising for a person to make the list and followed it every day. His successes are obvious and significant: master of several languages, splendid scientist and one of the most contributing figures in the founding of US. He is a supreme example of showing one’s responsibility to his community, also an idol of us.

Oct 22
Started with the revision which discussing the differences between Puritans and the Native Americans communities, today’s class aimed on the gratitude. Unlike the intolerant Puritans, the Native Americans lived with the nature and simultaneously showed respect to it. It was a good example of gratitude. We also talked about “overwhelming gratitude”, which is the feeling that usually occurred when we get something back which is so important to us and is lost for a long time. To be honest, I am the kind of people who often feel grateful to the surroundings. Although seems somewhat naive, it does bring me as well as others happiness. However, I seldom feel “overwhelming gratitude”, maybe I get used to it already.

Oct 23
When covering some materials on Benjamin Franklin, the E.T. mentioned Deism, which means that there was a god who created the world and then cease to do any influence on it and let it grow itself. Another thing we mentioned is the scientific revolution, which was significant for the heliocentric theory. In my opinion, the purpose of mentioning these events is to show that science is able to do tremendous influence to the thoughts of human as well as religion. The accumulation of rational thinking results in the change in sensitive consideration. As a science student, I have experience it through these years. With the increasing knowledge in science, I began to think more rationally and distinguished the occasions whether to use sensitive or rational thinking. At this point, science and religion have something in common instead of conflict.

Oct 24
Today I was too tired; fortunately, I didn’t miss the important discussion on the analysis on deism. As we all know, we have atheist today. So why the people had not come out with the idea of completely overthrow the concept of god but combined it with the concept of Newton’s world machine to form deism? It may have something to do with the historical root. During the scientific revolution, people began to describe things by reason; the existence of god was seriously challenged. However, the adults at that time had been raised up in a community that every adult believed in god. So they tended to keep the concept of god. Simultaneously, it was not possible for them to avoid the facts of science. All of the above led to the forming of deism. Even till today, we do not abandon religions, but the reason is more complex. Maybe these are all supporting materials on the coexistence of science and religion.

Oct 25
Today we only did a group discussion; the details are listed below:
Q1: Why do we need government?
A1: To keep everything in order; same rights to everyone; keep the society from anarchy
Q2: What powers do we give our government that we don’t have?
A2: Legislative, executive and judicial.
Q3: Why do we forbid certain things in the country?
A3: To keep the equal rights, fairness and justice. Protect the power of government; Keep the economy grows in a correct way.
Q4: What services do you expect from government?
A4: Free education.

Oct 26
Discussing and sharing the views on government.

Oct 29
The discussion of John Locke and his perspectives on government continued. John Locke suggested the idea of “Tabula rasa”, which indicates that everyone is born with a blank mind. To judge this opinion, we import the concept of “epistemology”, the philosophy of knowledge of how to do something or that something is done. We also talked about an individual in Germany who was neither exposed to the public nor received any education until he was 18. However, people found that he was of good memory. It may have some effect on supporting the J.L.’s idea. As far as I am concerned, everyone is born with uncompleted intelligence, as we grow, we gain knowledge and skills and at the same time are led by them, i.e, limited by them. In this case, we could say that we are born with minds which holds abundant feasibility.

Oct 30
During the review of science revolution, we made our way to the dimension of astronomy. The E.T. seemed enthusiastic about it, the knowledge just burst out. This time it was also begun with light. Then we moved to the discussion about planets, stars, dark wholes and galaxies. It was not surprising that the next step was about the time. Though I had grabbed some knowledge on the subject some time ago, the vivid description was still attractive. We need to get out of literature some time, or maybe we are still in literature, aren’t we?

Oct 31
Continued discussion on more details on the structure of universe.

Imaginary Society

If I had the ability to change the government, let's say that I were in charge of it, I would give my states more freedom and at the same time impair their individual power. The reason is that development needs appropriate environment, the relationship of freedom and limit is to be adjusted when the demand of development changes. According to this principle, I consider that there's luxuriant sparks of development in my country, China. However, the power of the individual states is over-flourished, it may cause problems such like corruption. At the same time, to stop the phenomenum of over-centralized rights, I am going to give the provinces more freedom so that common people can enjoy more resources, and the productivity will increase. It is based on another principle: turning the burden of population into feasible resources as much as possible. I believed that decisions, or changes built upon these 2 principles can benefit the society.

Reaction on John Locke's 2 treatises of the government

Although having tremendous difficulties in understanding, I would like to roughly describe my reaction on John Locke's article. In the 2 chapters, he mainly debates on the inheritage right, using the sample of Adam. It is obvious that he support the opinion that father holds the most right for his begetting heirs. To my acknowlegement, John Locke was a great figure in the Enlightment and was know for the concept of "tabula rasa", which suggested that every person born with a blank mind. It may have something to do with his opinion about the heirs. He thought that children only have the right to be nourished. My reaction to this is that he over praised the power of father, however, it may also demonstrate a thought of centralized government. To conclude, I think he is a bit over-radical and principal.

Journal of Oct A

Oct 2
By sharing opinion on an early-written America poem, the problem about race is re-considered.
I remember that we talked about word power before. This time, we mixed them together. How do “black” and “white” have relative gaps of position? “White” does have a meaning of “holy, clean” in America. The reason is that the original Americans were taught language by Europeans, or white people. At that time, the Americans were enslaved, so their skin color became an insulting word. As far as I am concerned, the racial problem still exists because we are still using the definitions. We’ll work on that, definitely.

Oct 3, 4, 5&8
These days we are learning about the early American literature. The topic is mainly about religion. We talked about Cotton Mather, who wrote something on witchcraft.
We can see that religion did play a significant role in the human society. Besides the obvious influence on literature, it is most likely to have something to do with our community. In the good side, religion can be a common belief. When having a common belief, members in community are more likely to be united. They are led by the same religion to the same direction, and will be more enthusiastic about it. Another good aspect is that it helps them to improve their qualities. The God is anthropomorphic; he is an ideal human being. That is, he has the best qualities of human: tolerance, brilliance, reliability and vigor. People who believe in god regarded him as an idol, and what they will do is to be more like him. Religion also gives people hope. They believed that god will save them in the end, so they won’t give up easily.
Although providing abundant advantages, religion has serious negative effects as well. The evidences are apparent—frequent religious wars in the Middle East. Although seldom religions contain the element of intolerance, some people who practice it have. As what I stated above, religion unites community, thus, when some people opposed to another religion, the prejudice spreads rapidly. With increasing level of conflicts between ideas, it wound eventually reach a high level, which the conflicts are practiced with severe violence. It’s such an interesting phenomenon that religions create tolerance as well as tolerance. More surprisingly, other aspects of the disadvantages have the similar relationship between their references in the advantages. For instance, religion gives people hopes as well as makes some people lazy because they think that god will help them.
To conclude, if the power of one thing reaches a certain altitude, it will easily acts in 2 very opposite ways. That’s why somebody says: More power, more responsibility. You’ll have more responsibility to your community if you have more power in it.

Oct 9
After several failures in trying to open the google earth, we started to talked about the guys on the American bills. We talked about Benjamin Franklin, however, the only 2 things I know about him is the kite experiment and he is very famous in the US.
Unfortunately, I cannot come up with anything important about today. Maybe, I need more sleep.

Oct 10
The google earth is finally done. It is so funny to move the earth by mouse as if moving a ball with hand. How is geography or does it affect your community? The answer is positive. The most apparent instance is food. It is so surprising when the teacher said banana is one of the most-eaten foods in the world, which is my favorite fruit. As a Chinese saying goes, “Foods are the sky of citizens”, we can see that foods are playing a fundamental and crucial role in the human society. No food, no community. However, there is something else. Geographic separation results in cultural differences. Although we are in an era of combination of cultures, as an international student, I can still witness the great difference between the east and west, and even within the same country.
Oct 11
Last night’s homework was to find out the similarity among what we had learnt so far. In this case, today’s discussion mainly combined these elements together: community, responsibility, environment and religion. Honestly speaking, it is the environment that generating the most fundamental influence in the society. First, the relationship between individuals in the community depends on the environment. We there are rumors, depression, lack of food or other bad conditions, it is usually hard to keep the harmonious relation rather than destroy it. Secondly, the environment controls the religion. Although many religions have something in common, different social condition and culture determine the form of religion and eventually makes diversity. Totally, the underlined statement can be demonstrated by the Marxist philosophy view of substance determined consciousness.

The Chinese belief of Mid-Autumm Festival

The Chinese have a custom of celebrating the Mid-Autumm Festival, of which date is Aug 15th of the Chinese lunar calender, on which the moon is usually full. The origion of the festival is the festa for the moon god. We believe that the family should get together and enjoy the pure and pretty view of the view. As time passes, many aspects of it have been changed, however, the "moon enjoying evening"always exists. The reason is that Chinese always believe in the neccesity and pleasure of family collection. Surely, what is more important to me is the mooncake!

Essays on global warming(Sept 24& 26)

Another Disillution?

It has been a time since the topic “global warming” begins to play an important role in the international concern. As the phenomenon begin to act more and more vividly, it’s not hard to image what the world would be if no further action is taken. However, even in such a common recognizing, we can see limited improvement. When world-wide meeting and other environmental movements are in increasing frequency, no real effective action is taken. More sarcastically, the actions are controversial, often considered to be economically or politically beneficial. What is worse is that some extreme situations emerge. Anti-environmentalists appear, and they announce that the global warming disaster is a great lie.
All above is the very concise realistic condition and it obviously and accurately reflects the instinct of human. Why so ridiculous? Because we are too human. We are selfish; we are used to stability; we don’t want to change; we intend to make more money; we desire to live longer. Thus, while we accept the evidence for climate change intellectually, we reject it emotionally. One’s greatest rival is himself, is he able to beat him? Or does he want to beat him? That’s really a tough question.
Although all the things seem to be a foreboding, it is not the first time we are facing similar condition. Disasters are always a catalyst of inspiration. At the time of wars, we could see abundant unique qualities of human—selflessness and bravery. It is how we overcome the difficulties. However, differences are more than similarities. If we are to be eliminated, we would lose eventually. No definite point of view is anyone on the earth able to draw now.
The day is approaching, and we are looking for another disillusion.


Challenging the Global Warming

Although the majority of people believe the theory of global warming, there are some eloquent challengers.
In the interview of Fred Singer, he objects the theory of global warming. First, he analyzes how it comes, and indicates some unreasonable points in it. To demonstrate his idea, he moves the focus of arguing to the evidences. Some ignored evidence in contravention with the theory is ignored, he says. We all know that science is based on facts, so the argument is strong and convincing. Then he talks about the policies in relation to the theory. He says that the policies are way too costly and unrealistic. And he is holding the idea of “Look before you leap!” instead of the precaution principle.
Let’s stop here and see. It seems that Singer’s claim is somewhat believing, because the attitude is more realistic. However, when you are discussing something realistically, it is easy to fall into the over-consideration of money. Throughout his argument, the focusing on money is self-evident. He talks about the pay of the polities and the return. In his opinion, the pay is large and eager when the return is not clear. It is not morally praised, whereas it is relatively closer to our life. Scientific debating should be realistic and objective, yet how can we make sure that his words are not subjective? Always care about the personal interest is one of the qualities of men. So it is possible that he is making the claim to maintain his advantage. No one is tired of getting more money. One more thing, even though he emphasize the importance of reality, to such a topic, creation is essential. If you are over-relied on the evidence, it is harder to find what is implying, and it is impossible to always depend on the nowadays world in discussing a future problem.

Animal Story(Sept 18)

Animal Story----Dragon

Although regarded as a kind of monster in western culture, dragons are a scared, vigorous symbol in Chinese culture. Dragons, considered as scared creatures from the heaven which have divine power. The emperors always linked themselves to dragons to show their power and authority. Thus, dragons received common respect in ancient China. There is an interesting story on it.

Ye Gong was a rich merchant, he admired dragons deeply. He retained the greatest painters to draw dragons on the wall of his house to make them perfectly lifelike. Moreover, there were engraving of dragons on the columns and the ceiling, and even Brede on all of his clothes. Knowing the religiosity of him, the dragons in the heaven were inspired deeply. They decided to descend to the land to visit Ye Gong.
Turgidly swimming between the trees and clouds, the dragons came. After their arrival, the dragons laid their gorgeous and long tails on the hall of Ye Gong’s house and stuck their heads in through the window, making warm greeting to him. Surprisingly, his face lost color, and he fled rapidly with fear. Originally, what Ye Gong admired were not the real dragons.

What’s the moral of this fable?

Creation Story (Sept 18)

When there was even not the concept of time, neither did the space have. The unique existence is an aggregation perfectly centralized sensibilities, with the title of “The genesis”. He kept on thinking, at the same time optionally created things to continue his reasoning. It had been a long period until “the turn”.
The genesis did his routine work; he began to create new elements. The new element was called “Aqua”, thus a sphere of water came into being. Then he tried the combination with old elements, eventually, the unique combination of “Air-Aqua-Earth “was completed. It was the first time that he managed to do a tri-element combination, and he gave it the name “earth”. The genesis then brought ”light” and “heat”, which were the elements from its most successful production- the Sun. Miracle took place, “living things” came into being, they were the first thing which were able to grow, he was never so delighted, he divided them in to plants and animals. However, he gained a new kind of mood very soon, which was loneliness. Stopping, the greatest reasoning center was absorbed in a deep thinking process; he wanted to figure out how to solve the problem.
Nothing was undefeatable under the magnificent power of the genesis, he got the answer, and, “the turn” was finally unlocked.
Vouchsafed the similar and far more limited power of the genesis, a new kind of living thing appeared. In the past, only could the genesis think. Now he created them, so there were other individuals with sensibility. He decided to watch what they would bring to the earth. A world without consciousness ‘’turned’ into a one which had.
Day by day, the human grew, living in the nature with plants and animals harmoniously. The genesis was very pleased. However, as they grew stronger and smarter, things got changed.
They began to conquer, the killed animals and burn trees to expand their territory. It did not take a long time for them to conquer the whole world. Though could not understand, the genesis found it very interesting, so he didn’t make any change.
Soon the world was filled with human. Again, interesting things happen, they began to fight each other, the genesis finally got shocked: Is this the true aspect of me? He realized that he had to stop this before he got the answer. Here the grandeur of his power came. Just by a powerful shout, the immense pieces of ground fissured. Water flew everywhere, drowning people as well as land. The shout caused unbelievably strong wind; the water evaporated rapidly, with bodies of human, and then it became clouds. The human were so afraid that they dropped their weapons and looked at the sky. But it was not ending. The sound kept on shaking the ground, making the lava burst out and later became mountains. With the boundaries between lands and on lands, the genesis thought that won’t be any fights again, so he calmed down. However, the living things died out because of the roar. So he brought them into being again.
Unexpectedly, fights still occurred even they were less frequent. He finally found the answer. The human were his desire. He created them because of desire; he wanted to watch them because of his desire. He was able to create such an amazing planet because of his power was combined with desire, which made a new kind of power.
With his desire, the genesis kept on thinking, he left the earth and keep on expanding the space, only left the human the concept of “the god”.

Journal (Sept2)

Sept 20

Sept 21
Today is parents’ day, we had a short class. Instead of discussing something new, we showed what we were doing here to Luca’s parents. During the very short 20 minutes, my country China became a heated topic. Like other foreigners, they admitted China’s strong and fast-growing, so as to say that there’re some moral problems in China, too.
The talk is of profound value, as a Chinese, I’ll keep thinking about it.

Sept 22


Sept 25-26
The topic throughout these 2 days is related to the environment problem.
We read 2 articles on the global warming. The first one is discussing who is responsible for the problem, and the second one is an interview that objects to the global warming theory.
In class, we have a talk on how the every little thing around us affects the earth. One of the most brilliant points we pointed out is the conflict between economy and environment. We are human, an animal with mood and desire. Everyone wants to have more money, and few of us can bare the chances our lifestyle in order to protect the environment. Things get worse just because we are too human. So we return to the central question: what is your responsibility to your community? I see some light of future.

Sept 27

Sept 28
Today we talked about several novels, including the lord of rings. During the talk, we re-considered the question of “why literature is timeless”. During the discussion, a new important term—human condition is mentioned. Do the authors of books REALLY write what is in the novel? Or are they trying to express something else? In my opinion, the writer will combine the story with his own feeling or the spirit of his time at some degree, and that’s how human condition acts on literature. It will also act in other things that human does.

Journals of Eng3

Sept 12
Today our topic is common elements of American creation stories; the result is creator, human and animals. Then we move to discussing the relationship between human and nature. We talk about the responsibility between each other. Naturally, we take “community” into consideration as well later. Now, the word “community” is re-defined, or enlarged. Are animals in our community? What is my responsibility of my community? What is my community's responsibility to me? The heated conversation is to continue with more profundity and extent. However, is it a question? Does it need to be considered? Or we should just say “Surely enough, human beings ought to be XXX towards the nature. “ without doubt?

Sept 13
The class was taken outside, cool.
We continue the question of community. The center of the day is: what determines the members of the community? The E.T. began it with a discussion of religion. Do you believe in god? Will you kick people out of your community because they don’t believe the same religion or even don’t belie in any religion? Acuity questions kept on emerging. As an atheist, I introduced the motto of Chinese government to the class. The conversation did not get to an end; however, it had some results that we exchanged our opinions.
Today’s question is:”What is the color community?” ”Who is a colored person?”
The answers are below.
Interviewee
Opinion on color community
Opinion on colored person
History teacher
People from all nationality
Black person
Korean peer
Not white
Not white
American peer(White)
African American
African American
Interesting, the one theoretically more broad-minded gives the answer of the smallest range. Maybe he is affected by the native history.
Everything is not clear yet; we’ll take a look at it tomorrow.

Sept 14
The E.T. was so popular that he missed 2/3 (29 out of 45) of the class. We did a thesis workshop instead. Then he came, moving on talking about some question mentioned before. Than his complot was exposed—an animal story assignment!
So far, I feel fortunate to be in Mr. Maddox’s class. The course”English” in my eye is actually the “American culture & literature”. He did do a good job—active, enthusiastic, creative and understanding. They were all good qualities of American, which I attempt to learn for my studying here.

Sept 17
What is the purpose of creation story?
To find out the answer, we began to share our own creation stories. Eventually, we surprisingly found that there was one element universal—the anthropomorphic god. The creation stories are not supposed to be written for the people in the future, while more probably to make his own claim. Thus, the authors of these stories, no matter the ancient people or us are likely to draw a parallel between human and god, or simply humanize the god. Creation stories should be treated by literature more than religion.

Sept 18
This class is like a prose, wandering about but never loses the destination.
Written and spoken are the 2 major aspects of every language. Deciding which of them is better is hard enough; however, we discussed written and oral history. As we all know, history is an acuity topic, and especially in such a diverse community. Which is better? Which do you prefer? Why? I tried to suggest that the written one is objective. However, it was soon beat. It seemed that any absolute definition of history does not work. It’s been a tough thinking class, I didn’t find out what is important, maybe all of it, because it’s tough.

Sept 19
We continue the topic, but we focus on true or false this time. Are the news and history you know true? To the Vietnam War, which one is correct, America version or Chinese Version?
We are in an era of information, we have numerous of sources. However, which one is right? Who is right? What if you are following the wrong direction of your teacher? We keep on discussing the topic of truth.
In my opinion, practice is the unique criterion of proving a truth. Though there will not always be chances.
The class is of heavy thinking, but that’s where its value is.