HP JQuiz Exercises

AWL exercises - sublist 1b, 1c, 2a

Experience with CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning)

I have just found out that I have been using the CALL materials all the time without knowing that they are CALL materials. Online dictionaries, news websites, and online multimedia tools are what I find very useful for me to improve my English learning because they are easy to access and to be used. However, things were not that convenient when I was a junior and senior high schooler in Vietnam. Back in the early 2000s, computers were rarely seen in my remote hometown, and not to mention the internet connection service (which I remember that it was started to be installed and later commonly used in 2008). At that time, the studying of English relied on reference books and raw documents, which was a disadvantage in terms of learning materials and studying time.

When I was in 7th grade, I was chosen along with a few students to form a representative team for an English competition. We had to prepare months before the competition. Our English teacher gave each of us a pile of exercise documents which was about identifying and determining the correct stressed syllable of each word given (the assignment was very tough and tiring). I had to look up every page of a small, old and worn dictionary to check every single English word. it was such a time-consuming and tiring exercise I have ever did, and yet, I didn't finish all of it by the time of the deadline, even though I tried all my best. If I had had a computer connected with the internet at that time, I would have finished the exercise even before the deadline without wasting too much time on it.

Now, I can check any English word in an online dictionary and it is free of charge. What's more, I often practice my English listening skills through Youtube and improve reading skills on news and magazine websites.

Money Can Buy happiness (Revision)

Money Can Buy Happiness

Some thinkers believe that money does not make one happy; others consider that money can be used to purchase almost everything even happiness. While many people disagree with the former, in the current economic-driven society, money can bring happiness to people because it satisfies human beings’ needs, solves most people’s problems, protects one’s life, and even helps one aid another with itself.

Everyone needs money to satisfy their necessity. Foods, clothing, accommodation are among human’s basic needs that people hardly afford them without money. People spend a large proportion of their money on eating and drinking, clothing, and housing. Besides material needs, men and women need money to satisfy their mental needs such as knowledge learning, recreation, and entertainment. Based on the data of the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2014, it is shown that an American spent an average of about 4 thousands US dollars for education, entertainment, and recreation (cnbc.com). From material to mental needs, money plays a significant role in helping consumers acquire them.

Money maybe is not an almighty thing, but it is an effective solution for most of humankind’s troubles and issues. Nowadays, many groups and companies use the incentive money to encourage their employees to work harder; the more employees work enthusiastically, the more profits the companies make. What’s more, money is also used to promote health care and improve living standards. 6.5 trillion USD was spent on health care worldwide according to WHO, based the 2010 data. In the last 20 years, the living conditions of people in the world have been improved positively: the extremely poor population has been reduced to a half; a half of child death under the age of five has been cut off; life expectancy has increased 5.2 years around the world estimated in 2014; more children, especially girls have had the chance to go to school (unfpa.org). Without or less money, those achievements are barely to succeed. By utilizing money reasonably, human beings may solve their problems quickly and effectively.

Having strong financial support shall guarantee ones’ life and keep them safe from external and sudden impacts. Life is unpredictable that one never knows what will happen; it is the reason why people coming up with the precautions against the worst situation which can occur anytime. In fact, the life insurance program is invented with the money that people save in case of an emergency relating to health or even life and death. According to the Swiss Re Institution’s research, people paid USD 4892 billion for the life insurance premium worldwide (swissre.com). Furthermore, possessing enough money makes ones do not worry about it. Indeed, the awareness of the money gives a person the assurance and the feeling of safety not only for himself or herself but also toward their loved ones. As a result, they shall be content and felicitous.

Giving away makes people happy. The feeling of aiding the disadvantaged ones satisfies the givers’ conscience and moral. Morally speaking, providing financial support is the obligatory act of human beings. Many philanthropists such as Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Jack Ma have been donating part of their wealth to help people in need because they are aware of the responsibility of redistribution. In addition, the joy of giving away money tends to be more powerful than spending it for personal purposes. Liz Dunn, a social psychologist, and her partners had conducted a survey involved over 600 Americans and had found out that people were apt to feel happier when they gave away their money to the others than spending for themselves (psychologytoday.com). The main point here, generally speaking, is how humankind cultivates and nurtures happiness through money’s values.

In conclusion, money can create or “buy” such an abstract thing as happiness. It ensures a comfortable life for human beings, fixes problems, keeps people safe from unexpected harms, and can be used to help the ones in need. It is irreplaceable.   

Works Cited

Kathleen Elkins, “Here’s how much Americans are spending on housing, food, and alcohol every year.” cnbc.com. May 31, 2017.

Rebecca Zerzan, “How Has the World Changed in the Last 20 years?” unfpa.org. 7 April 2014.

Swiss Re Institute. Sigma No 3/2018 “the global insurance sector.” Swissre.com.

Allen R McConnell Ph.D. “Giving really is better than receiving.” Psychologytoday.com. Dec 25, 1010

English Major Graduates Can Do More Than Being a Teacher (term report)

English Major Graduates Can Do More Than Being a Teacher

Conventionally, people always assume that the only thing the English major graduates can do is teaching, and that old school, the narrow-minded assumption still exists superiorly among communities. Graduated students, however, whose major are English, have proved that they can be more than being teachers with their capabilities such as critical thinking, academic writing, analytic prowess, and linguistic skills.

Criticizing is what the English major students do in all of their academic training time at university. Due to the nature of the field involved with language, English major students ought to deal with myriad kinds of knowledge from an astronomical amount of literary works. Literatures is a type of art which rarely has the exact and unique meaning, for that reason, the students shall be trained by their instructors or professors to understand, appreciate, and then to give their own criticisms. Through the process of criticizing, the students learn how to think and perceive the issues from different perspectives to draw out the conclusion for them. This skill, therefore, is very suitable for those who want to be the literary critic after graduation. Of course, it is not easy to become a literary critic because one must possess a great deal of knowledge of literature. In fact, the literary critics usually are the writers or poets who are masters in this field. Edgar Allan Poe (Jan 19^th, 1809 – Oct 7^th, 1849) and John Updike (Mar 18th, 1932 – Jan 27^th, 2009) 2 American famous poets and writer in 19^th and 20^th century respectively, not only prove their talents by many poetry and literary works but also leave their remarks in criticism (Wikipedia). Also, both of them graduate with an English degree and they do not become a teacher as people often assume that one can only be an educational instructor with a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in English. 

There is a saying “language is a dress of thought,”¹ emphasizing the language’s function is to arrange, to shape, to sharpen, and to express one’s thoughts; the relationship between language and thought is as the same as that between academic writing and critical thinking. Without academic writing skill, ones barely transmit their thoughts and ideas into words clearly and sophistically. Indeed, good writing shall make the papers more engaging to the readers. What’s more, possessing a good academic writing skill shall help ones strengthen their ideas, to prove ones’ points and convince their counterparts to agree to them. These two advantages mentioned above are necessary for ones who want to pursue future professionals such as journalists, screenwriters, public relation specialists, content strategists², and speechwriters. Moreover, jobs such as technical writers, attorneys, legislators, and even medical assistants need the writing skill of English’s degree holders who can write and demonstrate any ideas succinctly and coherently. Lastly, it will be inadequate, if the professional of a writer is not mentioned. To become a writer, ones must have creative writing skills. More or less, the English’s degree holders own the skills, and they might consider it as their future careers. Stephen King, the American prominent author of horror, science and fantasy fiction, whose books have been sold more than 350 million copies around the world, also graduated from the university with a degree in English (Wikipedia). Doubtlessly, he is the ideal role model for ones wishing to pursue the writing career.   

As critical thinking helps students of English Department approach the issues from a different perspective, analysis prowess supports them in segmenting and dissecting any factors of a particular issue. As a result, English’s majors who have been honed their analysis skill during the time at university, can grab the key points of any subjects quickly and then, identify the strengths or weaknesses effectively. Editor and technical editor are two professionals longing for this prowess because these jobs’ duties are finding the mistakes and fixing them rightly. Reasonably, they ought to have this skill to pick out any mistakes and errors of the matters.  Furthermore, another advantage of the analysis prowess is to evaluate or assess a subject to understand it deeply. Marketing analyzers, who deal with the variableness of market daily, need strong analysis ability to analyze and assess the raw data so that they can predict and make appropriate decisions.

If academic writing is the most practical and essential capability, linguistic skills are as important as it is. Linguistic skills provide several advantages to the English majors in finding future jobs. First, the students shall be able to communicate efficiently. For the non-English-speaking English major students such as Taiwanese, Vietnamese, Korean, and other non-speaking-English students, being able to speak English as the second language helps them greatly for future careers, and creates more job opportunities. In Taiwan, English is considered the essential skill that many universities set the teaching of English is at the top priority. According to the 2018 annual official report of Soochow University’s English Department studying the English graduates’ professional status after 3 years of graduation, the percentage of English graduates involving in the educational domain was over 12 percent, but the highest rate was the number of graduates students working in the marketing and sales area by the rate of over 24 percent. Furthermore, the report also showed the variety of professional choices of the English graduates such as business management, information technology, public services, art, and video production. As the world is under the process of globalizing, proficiency in communicating in English is an essential demand that the employers require from the job seekers. Therefore, tour guide, flight attendant and interpreter are the three most suitable jobs for the non-English-speaking English major graduates. Besides, having an excellent English communicating skill shall be an advantage for those who long to become the social workers, multinational recruiters or consider studying Law after getting a bachelor’s degree in English.

Second, those who can master the linguistic skills will master the pragmatic uses of the English language. Indeed, the pragmatic uses of English are the crucial requirements that English’s degree holder is expected to have by the recruiters. Specifically, the pragmatic uses are the knowledge of the practical uses of English such as how to speak and write in English based on different situations, how to apply the English into a real conversation and workplaces, and how to make the English more engaging. Thus, translator, interpreter, and content strategist are in need these linguistic skills. To non-native English majors, interpreting and translating are two jobs that strongly require the pragmatic uses of the English language. To native English majors who have enough knowledge of linguistics, a content strategist is a good choice of the future career. While most English’s degree holders are eager to develop their future careers in business except for the educational field, a few of them want to study more about the English language. For that purpose, becoming a linguist is a perfect choice for them. Last but not least, the linguistic skills level up English major graduates’ reading ability in term of speed, accuracy, and productivity. Whoever the English major graduate acquires this reading skill, the editor and proofreader are two most suitable professionals for them, because these jobs require ones to pick out the errors and mistakes in plenty of texts and to correct them quickly and effectively under the pressure of limitation of time.

In conclusion, English’s major graduates’ choices of future careers are various and promising. Except for being an educational instructor, English’s degree holders who equip themselves with critical thinking and analytic competence, academic writing and linguistic skills are also able to take part in other fields such as Law, Business and Finance, Art and Literature, and many different kinds of Services. Simply put, future careers and job opportunities for English major graduates are equal to other majors, but whether the English’s degree holders can successfully seize those opportunities or nor, it depends on them.

Works cited

Soochow University. scu.edu.tw/career/file/7619.  p.45. 19 July 2018.

Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Updike. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Allan_Poe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_King.

Notes 

¹By Dr. Samuel Johnson (18 Sep 1709 – 13 Dec 1784). He is an English writer, poet, essayist, literary critic, and lexicographer. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Johnson

²Content A strategist is the one who creates and develops content for a branded website. More reference mediabistro.com

The Summary and Response of "Breakdown"

“Breakdown” is a Hollywood’s thrilling, and action movie starring Kurt Russell, released in 1997. The film is about a married couple of Jeff (Kurt Russell) and his wife Amy, on the way to San Diego, California caught up in a taking hostage situation. The plot is not new to movie fans these days, but it was fresh taste back in the 90s. Their car suddenly breaks down. Amy takes a lift from a truck to get to the Belle’s Dinner to make a call, while Jeff stays trying to fix his car. Unfortunately, it turns out that the truck driver is a gang's boss and the mastermind behind the criminal group, targeting long-journey travelers on the road. They abduct Amy and extort money (90,000 USD) from Jeff. Not having enough money, Jeff is desperate to save his wife alone.

Unlike other typical Hollywood’s 90s action films in which the main characters are supposed to be strong, muscular, and cold, Kurt Russell’s role as Jeff in “breakdown” is completely different. He is just a normal guy trying to start a new life with his wife Amy in California. No fancy cars, no special skills, no guns, and hot chicks accompanying side by side, Kurt Russell’s character stumbles and struggles in desperation to get his wife back. From my perspective, the film’s direction is not bad. The director knows how to guide the storyline in his own ways, so as to create the thrilling, intense, and suspend atmosphere for the film. Moreover, the scenes in which Jeff goes to the bank to get the money, are the ones that I like the most. Thanks to the excellent acting of Kurt Russell combining with the cinematography, I can feel the tension is being escalated up on another level. Finally, the climax of the film once again is on the pinnacle with the saving Amy of Jeff and the car chase scenes at the end of the movie. If you are sick and tired of action-packed movies these days, trying to seek for some Hollywood classical action ones, “Breakdown” is worth to give it a shot.

Money Can Buy Happiness

Money Can Buy Happiness

Some thinkers believe that money does not make one happy; others consider that money can be used to purchase almost everything even happiness. While many people disagree with the former, in the current economic-driven society, money can bring happiness to people because it satisfies human beings’ needs, solves most of people’s problems, protects one’s life, and even helps one aid another with itself.

Everyone needs money to satisfy their necessity. Foods, clothing, accommodation are among human’s basic needs that people hardly afford them without money. People spend a large proportion of their money on eating and drinking, clothing, and housing. Besides material needs, men and women need money to satisfy their mental needs such as knowledge learning, recreation, and entertainment. Based on the data of the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2014, it is shown that an American spent an average of about 4 thousands US dollars for education, entertainment, and recreation (cnbc.com). From material to mental needs, money plays a significant role in helping consumers acquire them.

Money maybe is not an almighty thing, but it is an effective solution for most of humankind’s troubles and issues. Nowadays, many groups and companies use the incentive money to encourage their employees to work harder; the more employees work enthusiastically, the more profit the companies make. What’s more, money is also used to promote health care and improve living standards. 6.5 trillion USD was spent on health care worldwide according to WHO, based the 2010 data. In the last 20 years, the living conditions of people in the world have been improved positively: the extremely poor population has been reduced to a half; a half of child death under the age of five has been cut off; life expectancy has increased 5.2 years around the world estimated in 2014; more children, especially girls have had the chance to go to school (unfpa.org). Without or less money, those achievements are barely to succeed. By utilizing money reasonably, human beings may solve their problems quickly and effectively.

Having strong financial support shall guarantee ones’ life and keep them safe from external and sudden impacts. Life is unpredictable that one never knows what will happen; it is the reason why people coming up with the precautions against the worst situation which can occur anytime. In fact, the life insurance program is invented with the money that people save in case of an emergency relating to health or even life and death. According to the Swiss Re Institution’s research, people paid USD 4892 billion for the life insurance premium worldwide (swissre.com). Furthermore, possessing enough money makes ones do not worry about it. Indeed, the awareness of the money gives a person the assurance and the feeling of safety not only for himself or herself but also toward their loved ones. As a result, they shall be content and felicitous.

Giving away makes people happy. The feeling of aiding the disadvantaged ones satisfies the givers’ conscience and moral. Morally speaking, providing financial support is the obligatory act of human beings. Many philanthropists such as Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Jack Ma has been donating part of their wealth to help people in need because they are aware of the responsibility of redistribution. In addition, the joy of giving away money tends to be more powerful than spending it for personal purposes. Liz Dunn, a social psychologist, and her partners had conducted a survey involved over 600 Americans and had found out that people were apt to feel happier when they gave away their money to the others than spending for themselves (psychologytoday.com). The main point here, generally speaking, is how humankind cultivates and nurtures happiness through money’s values.

In conclusion, money can create or “buy” such an abstract thing as happiness. It ensures a comfortable life for human beings, fixes problems, keeps people safe from unexpected harms, and can be used to help the ones in need. It is irreplaceable.   

Work Cited

Kathleen Elkins, “Here’s how much Americans are spending on housing, food, and alcohol every year.” cnbc.com. May 31, 2017.

Rebecca Zerzan, “How Has the World Changed in the Last 20 years?” unfpa.org. 7 April 2014.

Swiss Re Institute. Sigma No 3/2018 “the global insurance sector.” Swissre.com.

Allen R McConnell Ph.D. “Giving really is better than receiving.” Psychologytoday.com. Dec 25, 1010