Skills Posts 1-Compare and Contrast-Last Draft

   Let's say you are planning on attending a summer camp this year. You have 3 choices available. They are Camp Big Apple, Ranch West Camp, and Head Start Splash. To find the best camp for you, you would have to consider their similarities and differences and make your decision. But first, we should think about each camp first.
   First is Camp Big Apple. This camp is a 3-week intensive academic English camp. You will study mainly about vocabulary, math skills, and prepare for tests. Classes are taught by Korean professors and students will live in dormitories. This may be a good camp since you would have a chance to meet kids from the world and you will get to use English in your daily life. Also, you can prepare for your future, and the length is a bit short. However, you don't know what degree the Korean professors have so you can't rely on them completely.
   Second is Ranch West Camp. This camp is a 4-week camp, which students can choose what subject they'd like to learn. You would dwell in a home-stay situation and classes would be taught by recent graduates. On one hand, this camp may also be beneficial since you can choose the things you'd like to learn and you can use English in your life because you home-stay with foreigners. On the other hand, classes are taught by recent graduates so they might not have teaching experience, in addition to not knowing what they graduated.
   Last is Head Start Splash which is a 5-week camp located in a shore. You will learn things you'd learn in an International School in one semester. You'd have to come with one parent and classes are taught by people who graduated with a degree and certificate of teaching students as a second language. As you can see, in contrast to the other canps, this one tells you what the teachers graduated on in university. However, it does have disadvantages such as you won't use English in daily life since you'll be staying with your parent.
   Since there are lots of advantages and disadvantages, there may also be many similarities and differences between them. One of the similarities is that every camp is an international academic English camp, which helps with your studying. In addition, they all have very fun activities such as touring around the city, horseback-riding, or snorkeling.
   As I said, there are still many differences, too. One is that they all have different lengths-3 weeks, 4 weeks, and 5 weeks. Also, in contrast to Camp Big Apple and Ranch West  Camp, Head Start Splash won't have chances to use English in your everyday life. In addition, even though Camp Big Apple and Head Start Splash has a program all students should attend to, but Ranch West  Cmp just lets you study the thing you want. Lastly, Camp Big Apple focus on building studying sills while the other 2 camps just study and play.
   I think Camp Big Apple is the best one because although it is too academic and hard for young students, the skills they teach will be important in your life, the teachers are more reliable, and you can share culture with intermational students by staying in dormitories with them.

Skills Post-Summarizing and Paraphrasing-2

 As I said before, I will summarize and paraphrase more..This time about an article that I am interested in!! I am interested in music. So I guess I'll summarize about a music article!! This article is from http://www.news.com.au/technology/listening-to-your-favourite-music-releases-dopamine/story-e6frfro0-1225984795121.

Listening to your favourite music releases dopamine

People who become euphoric over music unleash dopamine, a brain chemical that also induces the sense of reward that comes from food, psychoactive drugs and money, an unusual study says.

McGill University researchers in Montreal, Canada, recruited eight volunteers aged 19-24 among 217 people who responded to advertisements requesting people who experienced "chills" - a marker of extreme pleasure - when listening to music.

After careful selection, the volunteers were put into a positron emission tomography (PET) scanner, which is able to spot a tagged chemical, raclopride, that works on dopamine receptors in brain cells.

They were also wired up to sensors that measured them for heartbeat, respiration, temperature and skin conductance.

Listening to their favourite piece of spine-tingling music, the volunteers showed a rush of physical activity and also unlocked a release of dopamine in the striatum area of the brain.

 I will now summarize this article into a short paragraph...

 In a recent study, it shows that listening to music realeases dopamine. Dopamine is a type of a brain chemical. The study was done by McGill University, done to 217 people. These people were pit into a special type of room which could sense their reactions. Then, they connected some wires to their bodies for heartbeat and body temperature and stuff. One of their reaction was this-that dopamine came out of their bodies.

 This is my summary...I hope it's not TOO short!! Anyway, now I'll paraphrase another article..I'm gonna change my topic to astronomy, since I wanted to be an astronaut, but not now. The article is from this site: http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/space/universe/origins-universe-article/

Origins of the Theory
A Belgian priest named Georges Lemaître first suggested the big bang theory in the 1920s when he theorized that the universe began from a single primordial atom. The idea subsequently received major boosts by Edwin Hubble's observations that galaxies are speeding away from us in all directions, and from the discovery of cosmic microwave radiation by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson.
The glow of cosmic microwave background radiation, which is found throughout the universe, is thought to be a tangible remnant of leftover light from the big bang. The radiation is akin to that used to transmit TV signals via antennas. But it is the oldest radiation known and may hold many secrets about the universe's earliest moments.
The big bang theory leaves several major questions unanswered. One is the original cause of the big bang itself. Several answers have been proposed to address this fundamental question, but none has been proven—and even adequately testing them has proven to be a formidable challenge.

 Now, I will paraphraze this loooooong article into a short paragraph,,, At least, I'll try to...;;;

 The bigbang theory was first proposed by Georges Lemaitre. So people are investigating whether it is true or nor, by Hubble and cosmic microvabe radiation. The cosmis microwave radiation is thought to be the only thing left of bigbang. It is the oldest radiation ever known, and it may have something to do with the universe. However, the bigbang theory leaves questions. One of them is the cause of it. There are several answers to this, but they aren't proven. Also, testing if th answer is true would be a hard thing to do.

 It took a really long time to do this thing. It was a pretty big challenge!! But I enjoyed reading articles about ones I am interested in.

Skills Posts-Summarizing and Paraphrasing

 Today's Skills Posts is about summarizing and paraphrasing. First, I will summarize one article... About Shark Attacks.

 When people go to the beach, they may be worried if they will be attacked by a shark or not. However, it is very unlikely for that to happen. You are more likely to be struck by lightening because in 1 year, 180 people were struck by lightening but only 11 people were attacked by a shark. Also, you are more likely to drown because the percentage of drowing is 1/3,500,000%, but the percentage of being attacked by a shark is 1/11,000,000%. However, if you are still worried, you may travel in groups or stay out of water if you have a cut in your body.

 Wow!! I am done with summarizing one article~~ Now, I will paraphrase the second article, about bear attacks...

 When people go to the forest, they may be worried if they will be attacked by a bear. However, usually, the bear would run away if they see you. You are more likely to die in a car crash on your way home from the forest.  In Yellowstone National Park, they say that people are more likely to drown than to be attacked by a bear. Between 1839 to 1994, 101 people died by drowning and 5 people died by being attacked by bears. However, if you are still worried, you may travel in groups, since bears don't attack a group of 4 or more people. Also, stay calm when you see a bear because they are more likely to attack you if you try to run away.

 As you can see, paraphrasing is much longer than summarizing, I think. I guess I'll have to practice more.. I will practice summarizing and paraphrasing on my next post!!

Music I Love

 I am AmyL, and let me talk about my 2 favorite songs. They are 'Stupid Liar' by Big Bang, and 'On a Rainy Day' by Beast. I listen to these songs over and over, but I never get bored to it!! I just LOVE the songs~^^
Many Koreans know these songs because they are so famous~ Big Bang and Beast are my two favorite K-pop bands also. If you hear it, you'll know what I'm talking about.

First is Stupid Liar...♥

  
I just LOVE this song!! What a great song that would be recorded in history~~

Second is On a Rainy Day...♥

I LOVE this song!! The atmosphere and their singing..Awesome!!

I hope you agree that You love these songs... Because I love them!!

What the World Eats

 How much food do you think you eat in a week? Do you think you eat a lot? Or too little? Well, in a site (http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1626519_1373764,00.html), it shows 15 pictures of people and the amount of food they eat in a week. Of all the people, these people ate the most.

Wow...Isn't it so much? Bananas, oranges, pizza, beer, butter, bread, yogurt, meat...There are so many kinds of food, it may be hard to say them all. It says these four people eat all this in a week. These all costs $500.07. This is how much money they spend just on some food. I mean, don't you think this is too much? At least, our family don't eat that much... We eat just the right amount!!
 There are people out there in Africa who can barely eat. One of the pictures showed an African family of 6 people who only eat a few kind of grain, a bottle of water, and other things, which are nothing compared to this family. The African family uses $1.23 in a week. The Barteheide family(in the picture) eats about 500 times more than the African family.
 So this is what people meant...Poor people becomes poorer, and rich people gets richer. I feel sorry for them. I think the Barteheide family should just eat the right amount of food, so that they can survive. There are more people out there who can't survive, but if rich people eat all the foods, there would be no food left for the other families. That means death to the poor families. People are all the same. There shouldn't be any distinctions between them.

Chain Writing

 In writing class, we did an activity called 'chain writing'. The story is very weird though....

 There lived a small fish named 'Jonnie' in an aquarium. He was the son of the president of all fish, but no one knew that, even Jonnie himself.
 One day, his mother called Jonnie and said "Find a broken knife under the heart shaped shell." So Jonnie went to find it. He found it, but it was stuck to the shell and didn't come off. He asked for help to the old turtle who was passing nearby, but he looked at him weirdly and said, "Who are you?" Jonnie introduced himself and let the turtle go. But he was still stuck with how to get the knife off.
 Just then he thought of an old story his mom used to tell every time Jonnie slept. So Jonnie did what his mother had told him. And it worked as Jonnie wanted it to be.
 But it turned out it was not the knife he was looking for. So when he went to the other side and pulled the knife off, the knife was poked on his head, but he didn't know. He was a psycho!! He was crazy.
 His nickname was Brian and he forgot how to breathe so he died. However, he became alive again and choked Seoon.

Isn't that a horrible story?! I was shocked when I read my chain writing..;;

Skills Posts-Compare and Contrast

 To improve our English skills, let's say our classmates have to all attend one camp. The names of the camps are Camp Big Apple, Ranch West Camp, and Head Start Splash.
  First, let's look at Camp Big Apple. This camp is a 3-week intensive academic English camp, that focus on vocabulary, math skills, and preparing for important tests. Students would be taught by Korean professors and stay in dormitories. Students will have chances to meat students from other countries. Also, they will do activities such as city tours, museum trips, and going to Broadway Shows.
  Ranch West Camp is a 4-week camp in rural Canada that lets students choose a subject, since they think that students will learn English best when they are doing something that interests them. Students are taught by recent graduats. Students will stay in home-stay situation and students will get to have many outdoor activities such as horse-back riding, rafting, hiking, canoeing, or mountain biking.
  Lastly, Head Start Splash is a 5-week camp on the island of Cebu fin the Phillippines. Students are taught by teachers with Bachelor's degrees and certificates to teach English. Students would have to come with on parent and they would be given a small apartment. Outdor activities are snorkeling, fishing, visiting local butterfly garden, and visiting local exotic animal refuges.
  I have found some similarities while reading these camps' ads. First, they all are an International English Camp. There will be kids from other countries to learn English. Also, they all have exciting outdoor activities that are usually hard to do in normal days. So all the camps would make a good experience.
  Although they have similarities, they still have differences. Some of them are the length of the camp and their studying styles. Camp Big Aple is a 3-week camp. However, Ranch West Camp and Head Start Splah are eac 4-week and 5-week. No other camp studies harder than Camp Big Apple, and no other camp chooses subjects as Ranch West Camp.
  Now let's look at the other differences such as the teachers or the way they live. Compared to Camp Big Apple, the teachers of Ranch West Camp and Head Start Splash aren't as professional. Still they do have better activities. Also, in contrast to the dorms of Camp Big Apple, Ranch West offers a home-stary and Head Start Splash gives you a small apartment to live with your parent.
  My class decided that Camp Big Aple is the best camp, since it's short so you won't get homesick, have better teachers, and study harder. If there is a thing like Camp Big Apple, I would be happy to go there.