Wu,CuiYing Women Lit
4/27/06 PD 8
Do you know the relationship between beauty, power and self worth? The story “Where are you going, where had you been” by Joyce Carol Oates is talking about a girl called Connie was very pretty and the other story“Beautiful & Cruel” by Sandra Cisneros is talking a girl who was so ugly. After you read these two stories, you will find that beauty is power to some, it also can measure self worth to others. Power can be authority and influence, self worth is how important you think you are.

In the world, there are numerous beautiful people. They influence many other people. Beautiful girls can attract lots of people who knew or did not know them. .“I took a special interest in you, such a pretty girl, and found out all about you”, this quote comes from“Where are you going, where had you been”. This sentence is a man said to Connie ,because Connie’s beauty, he was attracted deeply by Connie. Most of the time, beauty faces always get more attentions from others. People like to see beautiful things and want to known more about it. People also would be attracted by beautiful things first. In daily life, beautiful girls always welcome to boys, then boys would follow them or do something for them. Beautiful women can drive and laugh men. “In the movies there is always one with red, red lips who is beautiful and cruel. She is the one who drives the men crazy and laughs them all away” from “Beautiful & cried.” From this quote, we know that men would like to listen to beautiful women, the charm of these women made them lose directions and ideas. They were controlled by beautiful women.

Beautiful person not only can influence others, but also can influence themselves. Beauty makes women felt self-respect, they would be very proud of their beauty and though nobody had it except for her. “She knew she was pretty and that was everything” from“Where are you going, where had you been”. We can know how important beauty is to Connie. She thought beauty was everything to her, in other words, if she loses beauty, she will have nothing. So she could get her self-respect from her beauty, and her self-respect also from people who said she was pretty. Beautiful people would feel confident for their beauty. These people though they could what they wanted because they were pretty. In “Beautiful & cruel”, it said “she wants things all her own, to pick and choose. Nenny has pretty eyes and its easy to talk that way if you are pretty”. It means that if you are pretty, you will have more chances and chooses. Nenny was beautiful so she had confidence to said these. Even if she fails, at least she says I am pretty.

Both main characters of “Where are you going, where had you been” and “Beautiful & Cruel” were affected by beauty. They knew that beauty was very important. Connie was pretty so she wanted to take advantaged of her beauty. However, the other one was ugly, she could still could feel the power of beauty from others.

In the world, most of people are seeking beautiful things, they are trying to make the world more beautiful. Beauty is power to some people, it can measure self worth to others.

4/18/06 ESL6 Wu, Cui Ying Pd6
There are many similar experiences for immigrates, in the other hand, immigrates also have many different experience. I think everyone has own life-style, hobby and taste so there must cause difference.
The author lived in America, but her mother forced her and her brother to learn Chinese when she was child. They felt very unhappy about that/ Their mother didn’t care about their feelings and insist on sending them to Chinese school every day instead of playing with their friends. She didn’t like it very much and she was very afraid of the stern principle so she though the school was terrible. She also recognized him as a repressed maniacal child killed. She though it was not necessary for her to learn Chinese. When I came to America, I didn’t be required to learn Chinese and go to Chinese school because Chinese is my first language. I know I need to improve my English since I lived in America. If I can not speak and write English very well, I will have lots of problems in my life. However, I still have one Chinese class at school. I’m Chinese and Chinese culture is very important to me. Actually, I enjoy my Chinese class so much and very proud of Chinese culture. I also feel cordial to see Chinese culture somewhere in America.
The author thought the language was a source of embarrassment. She disliked her grandma’s sound. She had tried to disassociate herself from Chinese language. It was kind of boring for her to balance Chinese and English. She did not want to hear Chinese in her life. To her, Chinese seemed meaningless and useless. Therefore, there was no reason for her to learn Chinese. However, I was preferred to learn different language. I think knowing more languages will help you know more different people. You can talk with them and learn more about their lives. You also can help more people. When I saw some Chinese who could not speak English, I would be able to translate Chinese to them. I also can tutor Americans to speak and write Chinese. I really very enjoy it. I felt so happy I could balance these two languages.
The author said when her spoke English, people nodded at her, smiled sweetly, said encouraging words to her. She was proud of speaking English well and people commended her for that. She could get confidence from speaking English. Even though my English was not so good, I still was very happy I could talk with Americans and they understood what I said. When I asked or spoke English to Americans, my family always smiled and listened to our conversation quietly though they did not understand what we were talking about. I was gratified that they appreciated what I did. I did not disappoint them. This was also my motive power to learn English well. English was very important to my life in America.
My parents could not speak English. My father could not remember 26 letters now. The author’s mother’s pronunciation was bad, so her brother always corrected her, but she could not do it well even she tried her best. My patents never learned English before and they were not young. It was no wonder, they got a big trouble in English. The author, her brother and her father made joke on her mother about her pronunciation. Sometimes, my sister, brother and me also made joke on my parents. I really wanted to teach them more English sincerely. I think if they can speak English, they will be easier to live in America.
I think there are many difficulties for immigrates, but there are many interesting things. Everything would have both good and bad sides. We must learn to balance it in our lives and we will have better lives.

新的体验
渐渐地，我看到越来越多的小屋子，到了吗，到了吗。。。这里是吗，这里是吗。。。我一边嘴里念着，一边向四周张望着，这也难怪我那么着急，毕竟是我的第一次露营，好奇之心一直跟随着我。 终于到了，我觉得汽车已经走了一天一夜了，我迫不及待的下了车，拿好自己的行李。我不由自主地深深呼吸了一下，清新的空气唤醒了我全身的细胞，驱走了所有的疲倦。远离了大城市的喧哗与繁闹，内心充满了平静与轻松之感。这里因为没有高楼大厦的遮挡，视野显得特别的开阔，天与地之间的距离也缩短了，周围的树木也显得更亲切。我们一百五十多名学生早已被分配到各个小组和宿舍，于是我们先各自回到自己的宿舍。我们的宿舍是美国式的小木屋，三角形的小屋顶，长方形的屋身，前面有条小木梯，而且两个小木屋是连在一起的，可以互通的。在我们整理好自己的东西之后，我们就去吃午饭。一路上的景色没有什么特别，周围大多数是已经战胜严寒，迎来了新生命的树，有的树的枝头长出了几片嫩绿的叶子，有的还在耐心的等待着。大约走了两三分钟后，我们来到了饭堂，首先引人注目的是饭堂前面那个接近圆形的小湖，树木环绕在它的旁边，它象一面平滑的镜子，蓝天白云和树木的倒影清晰可见。在饭堂里面，你一抬头就可以看见上面挂着十几个不同国家的国旗，里面的摆设也算整齐。
午饭之后，我们在离饭堂不远的小操场上自由活动，你可别小看这个操场小，它可包挂了篮球场，足球场，排球场，还有几个秋千。除了小数人去散步外，其他的都集中在这里进行各种运动。过了大概半个小时，我们就全体集中在那里，各个小组开始自己的活动。我怀着既兴奋又好奇的心情跟着小组绕过一条小沙路之后，来到了一个树林，在这里设有几个活动项目。我们小组就站在一个简陋的墙前面，它被绳子系在两棵坚固的大树之间，墙的下边的构造是两条小梯子系在两侧，中间是三条平行绑着的木条，它们的间距大约有60多厘米，上面一侧挂着几个可以滑动的车轮，另一侧挂着会滑动的短木条。看上去，我觉得要爬上去没有什么难度，而且工作人员会协助我们的。我们小组的组员虽然都可以爬上去，但并不是想象中那么容易，他们是挺吃力的。终于轮到我了，开始是我充满了信心，在工作人员的帮助下，我总算比较轻易地爬过了梯子和前两条横木。可是到了第三条横木时，我尝试了不同的途径去征服它，并且用尽了全身的力气，但都没有成功，已经筋疲力尽的我只能停留在第二根横木上，只有我爬不上去吗？我就这样放弃吗？这就把我难倒吗？这些问题不断地撞击着我的头，我在那里挣扎了两三分钟，当我决定再次尝试的时候，可是我的手和脚好象不听我的指挥，我没有能力去支配它们了。我的自信心受到了猛烈的打击，我还是不可能爬上去了，于是我对工作人员说我要下去，同时我听到了组员对我的鼓励支持之声，这就象一股热血输直往我输送，输送到我身体的每一部分，我顿时觉得自己充满了力气，加上工作人员的帮助，我爬上了，我爬上了，我爬上了第三根横木了，接着我也就比较轻松地爬过了滑动的短木头。完成之后，组员给我送来了热情的掌声，我的心里洋溢着欣喜和感激。 我从这次露营中收益匪浅，体会到了生活中不少可贵的经验。有些东西或许你早以知道，可是亲身经历之后你才是真真正正地懂了。