„Snow falling on cedars“, by David Guterson

Task 1

The book is placed in 1954 on the island San Piedro, in a fishing village with many cedars. It is about the Japanese American Kabuo Miyamoto, who is charged for murder. The trial is the most important aspect in this story.
Kabuo is accused for killing Carl Heine. a fisherman who gets found being caught in his salmon net. Carl has a severe head injury, a cut in the hand, and the coroner finds out that he has died of drowning. His boat has been found with its lights on and a D-6 battery in it, the same as Kabuo needs for his boat, although Carl’s boat needs D-8 batteries. The night is very foggy, and everybody knows that Kabuo is the last man who has seen Carl at the harbour.
Kabuo has wanted to buy Carl’s mother’s strawberry farm, but because of 2 missing payments she has sold it to someone else. A few years later, Carl has bought the land back, but Kabuo still wants the land.
Kabuo’s wife, Hatsue, says that when Kabuo returned from fishing in the morning of the 16th of September, he was very excited, because Carl had admitted to sell the land to him.
Kabuo also says that he was fishing in this night, and then he recognized Carl who needed help, because his batteries were dead. Kabuo gave him one of his D-6. Then he returned to his boat to continue fishing. Hardly anyone believes this story, because he is Japanese, and does not seem to be faithful.
The twist of the people’s meaning comes when Ishmael takes new facts to court. He finds out that in that night a big ship came through these fishing areas which caused a huge wave which could throw anybody off a fishing boat. Carl might have climbed up the mast to save his lamp when he suddenly saw the ship passing by, then he might have not seen that a huge wave came and so he hit his head on the wooden side of the boat. Then he might have fallen into the salmon net and drowned.
Kabuo’s lawyer tells the jurors not to look at Kabuo with preconception, because he looks like an enemy soldier, but see him as an American man. After this he gets discharged.

Correction of the 1st written exam

Task 1: Describing a picture in a letter

Dear Teddy,
I want to tell you about a particular picture by Norman Rockwell. The picture depicts five people on a sidewalk and in front of an empty wall there is a little black girl in a shining white dress with school stuff in her left hand. She walks on a sidewalk and at the wall in the background you can see that someone sprayed the word “Nigga” onto it and smashed a tomato against the wall. On the left and on the right side there are two white Deputy US Marshalls with a yellow arm band round the upper arm, but their heads are not shown. These men all wear grey suits. I think it’s ironic that the white men wear black shoes and the black girl wears white ones. At the bottom you can see the signature of the artist Norman Rockwell. The picture seems monochrome, because the painter used a lot of grey shades and in my opinion it looks like a photo. I think Norman Rockwell wanted the painting to look as realistic as possible. The picture has a dreary effect on me and it seems a little bit hopeless to me, too. I can’t imagine if the painter wanted to express something with this picture. I don’t really like it because there is nothing exciting or beautiful in this picture. http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.spell.gif
Yours, Maria

Task 2: Is it art?

In my opinion this photo isn’t art at all. I think there’s nothing special about this picture. It’s just a photo, which depicts legs of an unknown woman, a shovel and a green garden in the background. I believe that art is in the eye of the beholder, so maybe this photo can be art for some people. I think art is a possibility to see things differently, so everything can be art. A flower can be art, too, apart from not knowing who designed it. Many people don’t see nature as a kind of art, because there’s no designer. If someone wanted to pay only to see an ordinary picture, he should do so, but I think it’s stupid. I think that an artist should have skill to make good art or something shocking or critical.

18.11.07 english homework LIFE AFTER DEATH

Is there some kind of life after death?

Many people believe that there’s a life after death. I don’t want to waste much time by thinking about this topic, because nobody is able to know what will happen until he or she is dead. I think it could be, that there is some kind of life after death and I would appreciate that, but I think it’s more realistic, that there’s nothing after death. There are no evidences for a life after death and I think many people have to look at this a little bit more critically. They should not believe everything what anybody says just because it’s the belief of any religion. A lot of people need something to believe in that makes their life reasonable. That is in my opinion the main reason for believing in a life after death.

143 words

homework 26 september

Dear editor!

Yesterday I read the article „Giuliani forced into climbdown“ about the row between the mayor of New York and the Brooklyn museum. It was about a shocking picture which depicted a Virgin Mary adorned with elephant dung. I think it was a little bit exaggerated. In my opinion Giuliani overreacted when he threat to withhold funding. I agree with the opinion of the museum, because I think art has to be free and everybody has the right of free speech. I can’t understand why Giuliani wanted to forbid the picture just because it’s shocking. My opinion about art that shocks is that this kind of art is much more conspicuous. I think only if a painting is shocking it doesn’t have to be art, but it can be. Actually it can be good art.

Yours, Maria

138 words

Bericht: Oliver Twist

Is there a children pick pocketing gang in London?

By Maria and Maria

Yesterday happened something terrible in front of the bookstore “THE BOOK” in the London Avenue. A young boy was taken to court because a customer of the bookstore accused the boy Sam Waters of stealing his handkerchief.

It was the 5^th of April, a totally normal day, when this wicked delict took place. George Smith, a big rich man, visited the bookstore to buy some new books for his collection. The owner of the bookstore Mr. Miller saw some little boys hanging around at “THE BOOK”, like the other customers. After a few minutes Mr. Miller noticed that 2 boys stole an expensive beautiful handkerchief from George Smith’s pocket. The boys ran away and at this moment Mr. Smith descried that someone has stolen his beloved handkerchief. He looked around and saw a little boy who was standing behind him and then suddenly ran away. All people on the street chased this little boy and after he was caught, he was taken to court. The judge wanted to punish the boy, who was called Sam Waters, badly, but suddenly Mr. Miller arrived at the court. He explained, that it had not been Sam Waters, who had stolen that handkerchief, and that he had seen, that two other boys had stolen it out of Mr. Smith’s pocket. Mr. Miller told us, “How could I permit, that a little boy should come into jail, if he didn’t do anything wrong?” So, the little boy got free, but the real committer of this crime has not been found yet. The question, if there’s a pick pocketing gang of young boys in London is not resolved yet too. If something new happens we’re going to inform you as fast as it’s possible.

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Interview

A: Hello Mr. Greenwich, I’m Amanda Thompson from the Wall Street Journal and I need some information about the Victorian time, because I’m going to write an informatial article about it. Would you, as an expert in this topic, be as kind as to tell me something about it and answer a few questions about the Victorian time?

B: Oh yes of course. What do you want to know about it?

A: First tell me the most fundamental aspects of the Victorian time.

B: Okay, let me think… The phrase “Victorian” describes things and what all happened between the years 1837 and 1901. This was the time of queen Victoria’s reign. The economic system boomed, mainly because of the ascent of the industrial revolution. There are some innovations, which the Victorian time created, for example democracy, feminism, Marxism and socialism. In this time also appeared first doubts in religion.

A: Could you tell me about the child labour in the Victorian time? I want to set the main focus of my article on this aspect.

B: The dispersal of child labour was very wide. Most of the kids had to work very hard and they had to work under extremely iniquitous terms. Many of them got ill or had bad accidents, but for the people in this time, it was ordinary to let the children work so hard, and to let them do the nasty jobs and to exploit them. Some Christian people thought it was wrong to treat children so badly, and they wanted new laws, which would ban the exploitation of children. Queen Victoria legislated, that it was illegal to employ children, but when she died in 1901, there were still a lot of children over the age of nine, which had to work. That’s indeed unhappy, but first appendages of the human rights were set and that’s of course a good thing.

A: Yes, I think so too. Thanks a lot Mr. Greenwich! You helped me a lot!

B: You’re welcome. I’m glad that I could help you. Goodbye!

A: Bye!

345 words