During the American civil war, a group of soldiers crossed the mountain to help their fellows. They chose the nearest mountain road to get to their destination faster. However, that road is known for its tortuous and complicate forked road. By the way, there were only a few numbers of people successfully coming back. But the confident soldiers never put that in mind; they still set out on the journey

With their enthusiastic morale, they left for their hometown. They walked and sang in a high spirit at the same time…

“The Army’s on its way,
Count off the cadence loud and strong:
For where’re we go, you will always know
that the Army goes rolling along.

Men in rags, men who froze,
Still the Army met its foes,
And the Army goes rolling along.
Faith in God, then we’re right.
And we’ll fight with all our might
As the Army goes rolling along.”

Further on the quest, the soldier took great pains to proceed toward their destination. They trekked over mountains, tramped through jungles, and waded across streams. It was a ling and painful journey for any hikers, and they would have taken it easy. But as their mission concerned the safety of their entire village, this quest took on gravity and urgency.

However it seems that the sun didn’t hear their morale. With the sun went down, the forest become darker and darker. On the moonlit night, they found that they were losing their way. After kept walking few miles, they saw a thread of smoke.

“There must have some inhabitant” one of the soldiers said.

        They kept marching for the smoke. Finally, a mansion was in their sight. The mansion just looked like it was haunted. The soldiers stood watching the awesome mansion. The mansion had the appearance of a medieval stone castle. Ancient, gloomy, and forbidding. And also deserted, maybe for quit a long time. The tall walls that surround the mansion were signs of distance and isolation.

        There was no doorbell. Since knocks on the rusting iron gate wouldn’t do much good, one of the soldiers, Jackson , cupped his hands and shouted,

“Hello, anybody there.”

They tried several times, but there was not a single response. Only silence. For a moment, a creepy feeling struck them. Could it be that house was haunted? They thought. No, they never believed in ghosts; they believed only in God.

“Well, nobody home. Let’s go.” Jackson came to a sudden conclusion.

        However, just as they turned to leave, the gate gave a creaky noise and the gate swung open by itself. They all watched in astonishment. There might be good reason for the gate opening by itself. Maybe the door was electrically controlled or a wind or a quake caused it, they persuaded themselves.

As they drove on through the gate, they saw a dead lake that had nothing whatsoever alive in it but, if anything, a strong odor. Weeds thrived in the yard, under the wall, and around the mansion. Suddenly, a chilly wind sent a shiver through them. They went to the entrance and Jackson’s good friend, Michael, knocked on the door. There was still dead silence. Michael and other soldiers ran around to take a look at the back of the building. They got a shock. A cemetery with hundreds of tombstones.

Suddenly a thunder and lightning struck out of the blue. Then a great shower of rain pulled off. They had to take cover under the eaves. At that very moment the door opened. And after few seconds all the lights were turned on immediately. It was a middle age man, he kindly said,

 “Hello, I’ Sam. Welcome to my dumping restaurant. I am sorry. I just at upstairs so didn’t hear the sound. What can I help you? ”

“Oh , that’s ok. We are soldiers from the foot of the hill. We just lost, and could you let us to stay for one night? ” said Jackson still has some suspect.

“Sure, no problem. I just made some fresh delicious dumplings. Fellow me.”

       During the dining all the soldiers had releasing their suspect. They found Sam was a kind, hospitable and father like man. And his good craftsmanship at making dumplings had very high praise by the soldiers. They all had a good night.

        The next day, they intended to work on their journey. But strangely, here came a heavy snow. Sam ardently invited them to stay. The soldiers had no choice but to accept this proposal. It was very bored for them to stay at such huge mansion. So one of the soldiers thought up a good idea.

“Why don’t we ask Sam to teach us how to make the delicious dumplings?”

        So, they went together to ask Sam. Sam opposed their idea with excited anger.

“You guys just eat my dumplings. Don’t even think about my recipe. It had been handed down in my family for generations.” said by Sam.

        The soldiers couldn’t but just leaving. Seeing them leaving, Sam took on an evil smile behind them.

        When returning to their room, they still couldn’t bear their curiosity. So they decided to peep at Sam making dumplings. Walking to the kitchen, they found that the door was closed. They had no choice but peek at the key hole by turns.

        They could hear Sam keep mincing the meat. And there was a very huge meat hanging on the wall.

“The meat is not like pork, beef or other livestock. What is it? ” Jackson wondered.

        He kept searching for something special. He suddenly found that there were tow bloody bulbs of eyes putting on the table. He astonished and stammered to his mates what he saw. At this very moment, Sam, in the kitchen, heard something. He looked at the key hole directly. And Sam soon took on his knife, opened the door to scratch. But all the soldiers had already gone.

        All of them ran separately. They even couldn’t found any of them. But, unfortunately all the roads came to one place. And Sam had already waited them at their. He used his anesthesia gun to scratch them and bring them to his restaurant. He tied all of them together. Until they woke, he claimed that,

“Since you want to know how to make dumplings and my meat is just used up. Then how about let me pick up one of you to be my meat. Ha, ha, ha, what a wonderful idea!!”

“Mm… I think …, Jackson, it’s you! I saw you peeking.”

        Then, Sam grabbed Jackson. At that very moment Michael got agitated and struggled. Sam yelled at him and asked him to shut up. Michael brought up an idea, he said,

“Sam, I pray to you. Let Jackson go. Let me substitute him. He is my best friend, don’t hurt him.”

        Sam made a sinister smile; he took both of them downstairs. There was two juniper barrels taller than them. He made two of them into the barrels and turned on the faucet, kept maltreating them continued and told them only when they couldn’t bear it anymore, they pulled the rope above their head the disaster would gone. All the water would follow back to the other one’s barrels. With the time being, the water kept accumulating from their foot to their neck. The pressure enhanced their pain and panic. They tried their best standing on their feet, jumping highly to keep away form the increasing water. After few times of maltreat, Michael gave up. He pulled the rope, let it flooded Jackson. Sam and other soldiers spurned Michael’s weak and betray. So that Sam killed Michael immediately. All the soldiers viewed the whole process was in great fear.

I remember that cloudy Sunday afternoon. When I was wandering on the street, I saw a man around forty-five years old moving lots of objects. He had a beard and wore a cap and short. I think it’s not easy for him moving such heavy stuff. So, I went forward to help him. Finally all the stuff were on the truck. The man was about to leaving. At that very moment, a group of people and a police came. They angrily yelled at the truck and asked it to stop. But the truck was gone. While I was very confused about what happened, the police sent me into the police officer. He took me into a narrow room and asked me what’s the relationship between the man and I. he said the man was a thief who stole the residents’ money, television and other expensive things. I was very shocked that I just helped a thief! Oh, how stupid I was. Fortunately, the police knew I was not on purpose, and then he finally released me.

     First, about your school work, you should build strong academic, language, mathematics and critical thinking skills by taking challenging courses. Study hard and get excellent grades, strengthen your vocabulary by increasing your reading. And use your free time to browse through college literature or surf the web to get information of what kind of schools may be of interest to you. Then, check out what high school courses colleges require. And never forget to keep an academic portfolio and co-curricular record!

     Second, as you know high school is the phase you can find yourself. You need to get involved with whatever you can in your freshman year. This includes sports, student government, key club, interact, or any extracurricular activity that might interest you. Try to choose something that you will keep into for the entirety of your high school career. This will help you stay on track and keep focused on school. And it also is the best way to learn some extracurricular experience like how to get alone with people, how to hold activities or something, to prepare for the future from it.  

     Therefore, learning is never end. Seize every moment. Everything in our life has helped us become who we are today. I know everyone says this, but high school goes by so fast. Remember this: “How we spend our days is how we spend our lives.” So spend your days doing the things you love, and don’t waste this opportunity to learn. Work and play as hard as you can, never forget enjoying your high school life. It will be the wonderful memory for you.

First, a good leader should use his/her specialty to lead the whole group to success. It means he or she should make the right decision by his/ her judgment and execute it correctly. An American business magnate, Donald John Trump, he is the Chairman and CEO of the Trump Organization. He knows how to use his own intuition to make huge profit for his company. It leads him build up his real estate kingdom in United States.

Second, to be a good leader should make his/ her follower trust and respect him/ her. The way to achieve this step is to show your sympathy for them with action. Eleanor Roosevelt was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and assumed a role as an advocate for civil rights. She often visited the basic level and slum to take care of  them. She let people know she would always stand by their side. Her action encouraged people. As a result she helped her husband Roosevelt and all Americans come through the hard time.

             Third, I think a good leader should have the foresight and stay calm in face of crisis. It’s the most difficult but important one. In the winter of 1978, Taiwan just broke off diplomatic relations with America. Sun Yun Syuan, the Taiwanese prime minister at that time, announced to all the Taiwanese that government would take charge of it. And he also declared to the world Taiwan wouldn’t give in, we would have the tactic to face it. Because he was full of confidence, he inspired thousands of people. He also transformed Taiwan from being a mainly agricultural economy to an export powerhouse; and got through the difficulties

     Therefore, I think these are the three significant characteristics for being a good leader. But there are still numerous traits and great examples for us to learn. As long as we learn continuously, we will become a better leader.

     I haven’t see you for the whole summer, how’s everything going? Hope everything is fine. Guess what? I’m almost the 12th grade student. During this summer vacation I have to review and prepare for the coming college entrance exam in January. All my life was filled with studying, studying and studying. As you know, the library, school and cram school are the place where I stay for long hours.

     Though it seems that I work pretty hard, sometimes I just can’t help but feel nervous about my future. I doubt is the effort will be repaid. Can I get what I want? Sometimes I don’t have any confidence about myself. What should I do? Should I give all things up, or just bear is? What do you think? Please give me a reply if it’s possible.

Take care yourself.

Love

Mary

                                                    July 30^th, 08

          I like the story very much because in this movie, the filmmaker not only described the view of sea real but also made the story very touching. Nemo and his father learn a huge lesson on it. That is, parents should give their children more freedom. And children also have to “be good” instead of worrying them. Nemo’s father tried his best to find him. Nomatter how hard and dangerous it was. I think our parents must be as him. Therefore after seeing this movie, I totally understand their love and know how treat to them. So it’s the best movie that I have ever seen.

Last semester I wrote an essay about the females in Odyssey and Cold Mountain. Before doing it I just thought Cold Mountain was somewhat like Odyssey. On account of the deadline, I didn’t finish reading the entire book. I just expeditiously searched the part about my essay and didn’t appreciate it. So, by this chance I can enjoy the blossom in Cold Mountain again.

Cold Mountain is a story about love, war, life, and death. The main character Inman is a wounded deserter from Confederate army near the end of the American Civil War. He walks for months to return to his love Ada Monroe. The novel alternates chapter-by-chapter between Inman’s and Ada’s stories. And as we know Ruby is another important role in the story. Because of her family background (… read my essay than you will know : )) she is more independent than Ada. And I do fancy the interaction and emotions between Ada and Ruby!! They sow; they plow and support each other. This time I deeply touched, we see those remarkable females grow up by themselves bit by bit.

It’s hard to be the mainstay to anyone; and it is the harder process to realize that we have to live for ourselves. I thought because of the American Civil War, they no longer live for the male society, they find their own ways. War must be over, but life still goes on; all of them face the hard time and work by sweat, tears and blood. It makes me want to cherish everything I had. Seeing these two courage women, I thought no matter how dark here is; only courage will lead us to the bright. The tough road they went though is billions huge than I had, how couldn’t I be positive?

     The mood changing earphones will choose automatically music according to your mood and use electromagnetic waves to excite your nerve system and make you feel much happier.

     First, turn on the red and circle botton in the middle. Second, put the mood changing earphones on your ears. Don’t be so nervous, just waiting for ten seconds. Then, it will search for the best music automatically by the latest technology to match your feelings. Finally, after listening to several songs. Your mood will get better and better.