diagnostic 01/31/2013
Diagnostic
Every country has their specific culture whether the country is big or small. When we talk about culture, some people would like to contact with history. However, culture not only refers to the culture in the past, but also refers to the culture in present. Different culture always makes different values.
People who live in the United States show their values by the way they act. Robert Kohl wrote a description of Americans, and he listed thirteen basic values. For example, “most Americans believe that people should be treated equally. Men and women should be treated the same, especially at work.” By the way they act it is accepted for women to work as doctors or construction workers and for men to work as secretaries or housecleaners. People in the United States can try any work they want. We can easily find some top executives are successful females. Moreover, there are many fathers take care their children.
In addition, “most Americans prefer new things and new ways of doing things. They usually buy a new car every three or four years. They like to have the latest technology in their homes.” When I came to New York City, I felt so strange because there was much old electrical equipment on the side of the street. I think most of them are not broken just old. When the new products come into market, there is a strange thing that Americans will throw the old one and buy new one. Actually, the electrical equipment in my country are luckier than in America. People always change new appliances when the old one broken.
For me, the two examples which are held above are easily to find. In a word, the values are “deeply ingrained” in most Americans. Different countries always have different culture, and different culture makes people have different values. The people in America show us this point pretty clearly.
Hela 02/21/2013
This is story with many layers. Though it’s not told chronologically, it is divided into three sections. Discuss the significance of the titles given to each part: Life, Death, and Immortality. How would the story have been different if it were told chronologically?
When a person is on the social top, such as president, Multinational Company CEO or mafia boss that they already had near-absolute power and wealth, so the last thing they want is immortality. They want to keep alive to keep power and wealth which they spent several decades to get. The topic of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is also “Immortal”. Henrietta Lacks uses her own way to make other people’s dream come true. Even though she died, her cells continue her life. Her cells are around the world and even in space. If the story was told chronologically, the article will become a boring story about biology, it won’t hook readers. The book uses “narration interspersed with flashbacks”. This method can complement the characters and events; makes the article content more enriched; and makes plot twist and interesting.
The first part we already read is “Life”. It talks about Henrietta’s condition and treatment. And then, the author recalls her childhood and marriage’s life. Henrietta is a normal black person at that time. She was poor, not well-educated and unhealthy. Even though her cells made a great contribution to science, no one cared about her name and background, even her family did not get any interest. This is strong racial discrimination let the result. Maybe there is no difference between her life and death for society. However, her cells gave the progress of science make people reflection.
At first, the story tells the condition before she was diagnosed her cancer. And second, the author flashed back to Henrietta’s childhood. At third, the story continued explains Henrietta’s condition. And then, the story completed the cancer’s explain and “cell develop”. Finally, Henrietta died because of cancer. If it were told chronologically, the story won’t be completion like now. However, the author uses” narration interspersed with flashbacks” to make the article much better.
03/04/2013
Describing your parents
In my opinion, parents always are the most important role model for every child. My parents are also. People’s behavior is divided into “Nature and Nurture”. The part of nature we cannot decide. On the other hand, the part of nurture mostly depends on parents because parents are the first teacher for children. My parents are really different for me. My father is always serious and seldom praises me. I think his only hobby is reading the newspaper. However, my mother is like every good mother in the movie and daily life. She is good at cooking, likes celebrations and is smiley. My parents are like a sailboat for me. My father is like the boat that bears me on the ocean and my mother is like the sail that shows me the way. Both of them have indispensable roles in my live, so I love them.
In my opinion, parents always are the most important role model for every child. My parents are also. People’s behavior is divided into “Nature and Nurture”. The part of nature we cannot decide. On the other hand, the part of nurture mostly depends on parents because parents are the first teacher for children. My parents are really different for me. My father is always serious and seldom praises me. I think his only hobby is reading the newspaper. However, my mother is like every good mother in the movie and daily life. She is good at cooking, likes celebrations and is smiley. My parents are like a sailboat for me. My father is like the boat that bears me on the ocean and my mother is like the sail that shows me the way. Both of them have indispensable roles in my live, so I love them.
03/21/2013
A Common Read Event
This week, I attended some presentations during class time in college, such as “Red Nails and Be-Bop”, “Human Guinea Pigs: Involuntary Medical Experimentation- A Global Perspective” and “Human Subject Research”. All of these are college level. I mean the professor talked very fast and the students’ responses were very positive. I think it is very helpful for each capitalize student.
The presentation named “Human Subject Research” left a deep impression. We attended this presentation from 1:10Pm to 2:00 Pm in S112. The presenters were Paul Marches and Cheryl Bluestone. This presentations included many parts, such as “Nazi Experiments”, “Japanese Experiments”,” Tuskegee Syphilis Study”,” Monster Study” and so on. I was interested in this program because this presentation was revelation with our book. For instance, the part of “Tuskegee Syphilis Study” was not strange for us, because we saw a movie before that is based on the Tuskegee experiment. The presenter talked a lot about this experiment. For example, doctors took all the syphilis patients to the hospital for new medical research but they did not do any treatment for patients. They just put some oil on their backs. The presenter also showed a picture about this to us. In this experiment, there were 412 black men who joined in at first, but just 127 of them were still alive at the end. How cruel this experiment is! The protections of human subjects for research did not exist at that time.
In addition, the part called “Japanese Experiments” real shocked every student there. During the war time, a lot of Japanese broke into Chinese territory. They not only wanted to occupy China but also did too many experiments in Chinese territory. The Japanese armies were responsible for over 20,000 deaths of prisoners and civilians. The number is very alarming, but I learned from our history that the deaths number is more than this. The Japanese army did the Biological and chemical weapons, vivisection, Amputations and Explosive testing on some civilians. This should not be the behavior of humanity. That is crazy behavior.
We are lucky because we live in peaceful times, so we do not have to worry about being implicated in these types cruel experiments. However, we should remember the history and not let history repeat.