Entry 1_Trần Thị Thu Cúc_09E2
Item 1: Cartoon
Metonymy: the man represents human beings
Metaphor:
The flower – the Earth; the petals – earth’s resources; the man is picking the last petals - mankind is harnessing resources on earth to exhaustion.
He is so happy and shows no sign of worrying- the indifferent attitude of human
Message: human beings are depleting the earth resources without worrying.
Item 2: Story
The Emperor's Seed
He called young people in the kingdom together one day. He said, "It is time for me to step down and choose the next emperor. I have decided to choose one of you."
The kids were shocked! But the emperor continued. "I am going to give each one of you a seed today, one very special seed. I want you to plant the seed, water it and come back here one year from today with what you have grown from this one seed. I will then judge the plants that you bring, and the one I choose will be the next emperor!"
One boy named Ling was there that day and he, like the others, received a seed. He went home and excitedly told his mother the story. She helped him get a pot and planting soil, and he planted the seed and watered it carefully.
Every day he would water it and watch to see if it had grown. After about 3 weeks, some of the other youths began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow. Ling kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew. 3 weeks, 4 weeks, 5 weeks went by. Still nothing.
By now, others were talking about their plants but Ling didn't have a plant, and he felt like a failure. 6 months went by; still nothing in Ling's pot. He just knew he had killed his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing.
Ling didn't say anything to his friends. He just kept waiting for his seed to grow. A year finally went by and all the youths of the kingdom brought their plants to the emperor for inspection.
Ling told his mother that he wasn't going to take an empty pot but his Mother said he must be honest about what happened. Ling felt sick to his stomach, but he knew his Mother was right.
He took his empty pot to the palace. When Ling arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by the other youths. They were beautiful, in all shapes and sizes. Ling put his empty pot on the floor and many of the other kinds laughed at him. A few felt sorry for him and just said, "Hey nice try."
When the emperor arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted the young people. Ling just tried to hide in the back. "My, what great plants, trees and flowers you have grown," said the emperor. "Today, one of you will be appointed the next emperor!"
All of a sudden, the emperor spotted Ling at the back of the room with his empty pot. He ordered his guards to bring him to the front. Ling was terrified. "The emperor knows I'm a failure! Maybe he will have me killed!"
When Ling got to the front, the Emperor asked his name. "My name is Ling," he replied. All the kids were laughing and making fun of him. The emperor asked everyone to quiet down.
He looked at Ling, and then announced to the crowd, "Behold your new emperor! His name is Ling!" Ling couldn't believe it. Ling couldn't even grow his seed. How could he be the new emperor?
Then the emperor said, "One year ago today, I gave everyone here a seed. I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today. But I gave you all boiled seeds, which would not grow. All of you, except Ling, have brought me trees and plants and flowers. When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another seed for the one I gave you.
Ling was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one who will be the new emperor!"
If you plant honesty, you will reap trust.
If you plant goodness, you will reap friends.
If you plant humility, you will reap greatness.
If you plant perseverance, you will reap victory.
If you plant consideration, you will reap harmony.
If you plant hard work, you will reap success.
If you plant forgiveness, you will reap reconciliation.
If you plant openness, you will reap intimacy.
If you plant patience, you will reap improvements.
If you plant faith, you will reap miracles.
But:
If you plant dishonesty, you will reap distrust.
If you plant selfishness, you will reap loneliness.
If you plant pride, you will reap destruction.
If you plant envy, you will reap trouble.
If you plant laziness, you will reap stagnation.
If you plant bitterness, you will reap isolation.
If you plant greed, you will reap loss.
If you plant gossip, you will reap enemies.
If you plant worries, you will reap wrinkles.
If you plant sin, you will reap guilt.
Parallelism: If you plant st, you will reap st
Metaphor: the seed –a difficult problem, the competition – life where our morality is challenged, the throne (the prize),
Message:
Facing a difficult problem, each person has their own way to deal with it. Some people lie, but in the end, honest people will be compensated.
àThe story gives us a lesson of honesty. But we can infer in a broader sense, you will receive what you did like a Vietnamese proverb “gieo nhân nào gặt quả đấy” from the poem.
Item 3: Poem
The fox who longed for grapes, beholds with pain
The tempting clusters were too high to gain;
Grieved in his heart he forced a careless smile,
And cried, ‘They’re sharp and hardly worth my while.
(by Lafontaine- translated by Aphra Behn)
Thấy chùm nho mọng trên giàn
Cáo tìm mọi cách hái ăn đỡ thèm
Nhảy lên tụt xuống mấy phen
Bực mình chẳng được, cáo bèn chê bôi:
Nho còn xanh quá đi thôi…!
Metaphor: The fox (human), the grapes (opportunities, what we want)
Rhyme: “pain-gain”; “smile-cried-while”
Irony: the fox smiles but in fact it is very disappointed
Message: The fox is like AQ in Lo Tan’s story. It can not reach the grapes so it deceives itself that the grapes are still unripe. Sometimes we act the same. When we can not gain what we want, we lie to ourselves that it is not good.
à We need to try our best to realize our dream, don’t cheat ourselves. If we give up like the fox, we just receive nothing.
