Ebola Editorial Questions and Answers

1. What does Betsy McCaughey identify as a problem in her commentary?
McCaughey sates a safer strategy would be to expand capacity at the nations four bio-containment hospitals to help Ebola victims be cured without the staff members catching onto the virus.

2. What solutions does she offer?
A solution she offers is for Ebola patients to be sent to bio-containment centers in Georgia, Maryland, Montana, and Nebraska. She offers this idea because two nurses sent to two of these bio-containment centers have been treated for the virus and have survived.

3. How does infection expert Sean Kaufman view the CDC’s guidelines for protective gear in treating Ebola patients?
He views it as something negative, irresponsible, and dead wrong.

4.  What point did Rep. Michael Burgess make about CDC head Thomas Frieden?
His point was to state how doctors and nurses (from the CDC) should wear a full gear on to cover every possible part of their body while treating an Ebola victim. 

5. a) I do agree with this recommendation because it's better to keep our hospitals sanitized and the people in good health conditions because then what if they get the virus and it acts as a domino effect on the community? 

Article Summary

In the CNN article titled "Boston sets record for snowfall in last month" Ed Payne discusses how Boston has set the record for the most recorded snow in the history of the Untied States. First, Payne explains how it has only been 14 days and there has already been a whopping 70 to 80 inches of snow around the commonwealth. Next, he informs readers how one Boston resident used the hasthag #getmeoutofhere to describe his feelings about this snow. Also, Payne reported how schools were out and if the weather didn't let up, the district would soon run out of school days. In addition, Ed Payne mentions that Boston has already eaten up their snow removal budget of $18 million. Finally, the writer concludes by asking people how they felt about the snow. One citizen said "It's kind of depressing sometimes. I'm tired of it. I usually like snow, but this is just a little much."

1 paragraph about knowledge

     Today during class, we were asked to do a gallery walk. Some things I learned included how we can attain knowledge, how we use it, and how different people think. One of the things I said about attaining knowledge was the simple phrase "Trivia Crack". I also learned how ignorance can be bad because of several reasons. Some people choose to be ignorant because they are childish, can't handle the truth, or are just conceited. The experience I had today was great and I will definitely remember some of the things I learned today.

Tablets vs Textbooks

     In many schools today, textbooks are used a lot more than tablets. However, as a new generation is emerging, tablets are becoming much more popular than textbooks. Some schools have started giving out tablets to their students, but others have held on to the textbooks that they have always used. Tablets are extremely more efficient than textbooks and should definitely be used in all schools.

     One thing that you may not know about tablets is how they actually help students performance on standardized tests. Students are more drawn to the idea of learning on technology and find it a lot more enjoyable than working with a textbook. In a study done in California's Riverside Unified School District in 2012, students using a digital version of an Algebra 1 textbook on an Apple iPad scored 20 percent higher than students using print textbooks on standardized tests. This just goes to prove that students learn better digitally than on a textbook.

     Secondly, tablets are much more portable and easier to carry than textbooks are. You can fit all of textbooks for every single one of your classes in a tablet weighing less than 1.5 pounds. Try doing that with your textbooks, and you'd probably be suffering from back pain in a hospital. Literally, you would. During the 2011-12 school year more than 13,700 US children, aged 5 to 18, were treated in hospitals and doctors' offices for backpack-related injuries (5,000 in emergency rooms) such as concussions, sprains, fractures, and strains to the back and shoulders. Do you really want innocent children going to the hospital because of the excruciating back pain they receive form carrying their heavy school books? 

     Finally, some people are completely against tablets in public schools because they are concerned that students would get easily distracted by things like social media and other social apps. Well, this problem can be easily solved. Most school wi-fi networks block social media sites and other inappropriate sites from students. This way, students can focus on their schoolwork and nothing else. 

     Tablets have so many advantages over school textbooks, it's pointless to argue against it. In conclusion, tablets are better than textbooks because they are much more portable and provide a better education to students. Digital education is going to be the new era of education and an age of smarter society that will completely revolutionize the future of humanity.

Literature Analysis #3

All a child ever wants in life is to become successful and make their parents happy. Especially in Asian culture, parents expect their children to become prodigies at their talents and make them proud. All Suyuan ever wanted in life was to visit her long lost twin daughters who were lost in China many years before. Jing-Mei knew about this, and wanted to finish what her mother had started. In the end, Jing Mei did fulfill her mother’s legacy and finds her twin sisters in which her mother has been looking for her entire life.

            In her younger days, Suyuan lived in China happily with her family. There was at the time however, the rising threat of the communists and Japanese invasions that could very well threaten the survival of the family. One day, the Japanese arrived at Suyuan’s town and bombed it until it was destroyed. Suyuan had received a forewarning that the invasion was coming, so she was able to evacuate herself along with her daughters and few possessions. Suyuan traveled down the road, and every step drained little bits of her energy. First she had to leave her trunks behind, because the burden of it was just too much for her to handle. Then she left the bags of food behind. Finally, it had come down to her own daughters. Suyuan was weak, she had tried everything she could in order to get her twin daughters out of there, but she wasn’t strong enough. Suyuan couldn’t bear the idea of her won daughters dying in front of her. They were the only hope she had left I the world. In a final attempt to save them, Suyuan left her daughters on the side of the road in hopes that someone might find them and rescue them from a terrible death. Suyuan continued down the road until all she saw was darkness.

            When Suyuan woke up, it was in a different place. She was in America and wrote letters to China trying to find her daughters. For years Suyuan had searched, but she never had any luck. It wasn’t until before she had died, did Suyuan locate her twin daughters’ address.

            Suyuan’s love for her daughters had proved to be very strong, and although Jing-mei never fully realized it, Suyuan loved her very much too. On page 39 of The Joy Luck Club, Jing-Mei’s Auntie Ying told her, “Your mother was a very strong woman, a good mother. She loved you very much, much more than her own life. And that’s why you can understand why a mother like this could never forget her own daughters. She knew they were alive and before she died she wanted to find her daughters in China”. This quote shows us how Suyuan’s main mission in life was to find her daughters. After Jing-Mei’s aunt tells her this, she then gives her a check for $1,200 to go to China and find her half-sisters.

            Jing-Mei was astonished by the generosity the mahjong club had shown her, but she did not know what to tell her sisters about her other. On page 40 of The Joy luck Club, Auntie Ying tells her, “You must see your sisters and tell them about you mother’s death, but most important, you must tell them about her life. The mother they did not know, they must now know.” This was the beginning of Jing-Mei’s journey.

            Jing-Mei bought her tickets and was on her way to see her sisters in Shanghai, but prior to her arrival, she was very anxious. Jing-Mei’s anxiety was building up, but when she arrived at the airport and spotted her sisters, all of that went away. They immediately recognized her and tan straight up to her with joy. Their father captured the moment on camera and Jing-Mei was able to see the resemblance of her mother in both of her sisters faces. Jing –Mei went a long way and she did eventually fulfill her mother’s legacy. The last words of the novel are, “Together we look like our mother. Her same eyes, her same mouth, open in surprise to see, at last, her long- cherished wish.”

Leopard man questions

9. Tom Leppard is called Leopard man because his body is covered in leopard spot tatoos.

10. The author thinks that people with a lot of piercings and tattoos are desperate attention-seekers and he has these opinions because he sees them in society displaying their freakishness obsessively.

11.Leopard Man is different from other pierced and tattooed people because he doesn't show himself off in society, he lives alone in the wilderness.

12. Leopard man lives in a small cabin isolated in the Scottish wilderness.

13. According to Feys, Society fears loners and non-conformists who do their own thing becuase society is scared of the unknown.

14. The world's most prevalent and pernicious disorder is conformity (which means doing the same things as others in order to fit in) barbecue it has spawned self inflicted disorders such as alcoholism, eating disorders, panic attacks, and depression.

15. Leopard man is so happy because of several reasons. He does his own thing and doesn't conform to society. He lives in the place he wants to be and is independent. He doesn't really have any conflict in his life which probably makes him happy.

Diction handouts

1. The cigar dropped out of my gaping mouth with a tiny plop and a short hiss quite audible in the absolute stillness of all things under heaven.

2. Opaque:(adj.) Impenetrable by light; neither transparent nor translucent.

Phosphorescent:(adj.) Persistent emission of light following exposure to and removal of incident radiation.

Elongated:(adj.) Made longer; extended.

Cadaverous:(adj.) Suggestive of death; corpselike.

Paraphrase: The ship casted a shadow that revealed something on the side of the ship. I saw something by the ladder. At first I thought it was just a reflection of light, but then I saw what looked like a man. I went down and grabbed the ladder. I then saw something that surprised me, a headless body! My cigar fell out onto the ground. I leaned over the railing to look at it, and he hung on the ladder drifting with the water.

3. The use of elevated language in the passage creates a tone that is somewhat eerie and also very descriptive. It definitely does take a very high educated audience to understand this kind of literature. On the other hand, my paraphrased version of the passage creates an easier feel probably especially towards younger audiences.

4. Example 1: But I saw at once something elongated and pale floating very close to the ladder.

Example 2: with a gasp I saw revealed to my stare a pair of feet...

Example 3: the cigar dropped out of my gaping mouth with a tiny plop...

Example 4: I only climbed on the spare spar and leaned over the rail as far as I could...

5. I think that the author would leave the captain, crew, and ship unnamed so he could build up more suspense for when the climax of the story happens. Maybe he also did it in order for the readers to focus more on the dialogue and details rather than the characters themselves.

6. The denotative meaning of The Secret Sharer is an unknown person who gives things without telling who it's from.

Word                               Denotation                         Connotation

Cadaverous                      Suggesting of death                Cold blooded, heartless

Darkling.                                In the dark.                             Blind, unaware

Pale.                                Whitish in complexion.                    Corpselike

Phosphorescence.      Emission of light without heat.         Lies; not truth

Ghastly.                           Paranormal; terrifying.          Sinister; foreshadowing death

Headless.                             Without a head.                  Without feelings or emotions

Fishlike.                                    Like a fish.                   Struggling for life or near death