Let's Make ProGress!

What class do you think is the most difficult? I PROMISE THAT WRITING AND COMPOSITION IS THE HARDEST COURSE I'VE TAKEN IN CHESHIRE ACADEMY!!!

Firstly, let's talk about the progress I've made. In my opinion, i've improved my grammar, especially comma splices. I used to be confused by the meaning of comma and the rule of using it. After one of the grammar lessons, I finally know that the comma is used to connect two incomplete sentences. Besides comma splices, my using of vocabularies becomes better. Although I may not use as many fancy words as before, I can make sure I don't make grammar mistakes. In addition, my construction of articles is good. I can write clear begging, middle and end with interesting hooks and conclusions. It is easy for the audience to notice the places where I am going to talk about another thing or opinion while I always use some tradition words. 

Nevertheless, I am facing a huge difficulty that I don't know what to write, especially in the blog. The requirement of 500 words becomes the barrier of my writing. I am always stuck in the middle, even the starting of the article, and don't know what to write. Thus, I think I should learn to do some brainstorm and write the outline first and then fill my essay with facts and examples. Furthermore,  adjectives and adverbs are needed. In order to enlong the sentences, I should try to memorize some useful adjectives, adverbs and the way of using them properly. 

Last but not the least, I have to rebiuld the passion of writing. It seems that my desire of writing is decreasing day by day which bothers me a lot. I spent hours to finish just one article but get very low grade. One of the most important way to deal with the problem, in my opinion, is to read more books. My mother always tells me to read as many books as possible to replenish my knowledge. To be honest, I haven't read any books after I arrived here. Movies become the only resources for me to learn new things. Well, movies do deliver some knowledge while books can express things in details. Therefore, I will start to read books whenever I am free.

In conclusion, I really did a bad job in the first marking period. Nothing really went well for me and I was frustrated about it. I hope that I could do better in the next marking period since I seem to get used to the life here little by little.

Past Perfect Tense

How Many Tenses are there in English?

The simple answer to this question is that there are thirteen tenses in English. Some teachers refer to only three tenses: past, present and future that have a variety of forms. The most important thing to remember is that there are thirteen verb forms or tenses that are used for different situations that happen in the past, present or future.

The Past Perfect Tense

The past perfect tense is used to express what had happened before something else occurred in the past. This tense, while important, should be reserved for more advanced students as it's possible to communicate in English without mastering this tense. In fact, many native English speakers fail to use this tense on a regular basis. That being said, the past perfect is important to provide the reasons for decisions made in the past.

              

Basic Construction and Symbol

Positive

Subject + had + past participle + object(s) + time Expression

She had already eaten by the time the children came home.

Negative

Subject + had not (hadn't) + past participle + object(s) + time Expression

They hadn't finished their homework before the teacher asked them to hand it in.

Question

(Question Word) + had + subject + past participle + object(s) + time Expression

Where had you gone before the class began?

Symbol words

...before

already

once, twice, three times..

...by the time

said

told

thought

Examples

#1.The train left at 9am. We arrived at 9.15am. When we arrived, the train had left.

   

Practice

1.I wasn't hungry. I                 just                 (eat).

2.I didn't know who he was. I                 never              (see) him before.

3."Mary               at home when I            (arrive)?"

   "Really? Were               she                (go)?"

4.Mary's lucky pet bird, which she                               (leave) in Cairo,                                (be swallowed) by a snake.
5. They                                                    (be married) for ten years before they separated.

The Difficulty in Writing.

In our last paper, we have written about a significant moment. It contains both the description of the moment and conclusion. However, it is not as same as the usual essay we write since the conclusion was as important as the description. Do you feel confused about writing conclusion? Let's talk about it.

In my first draft, I've only wrote about 5 sentences in the conclusion. To be honest, I've thought for a long time in order to write the conclusion. It was so difficult that I could not even squeeze out a word(just like the situation I am facing now). The worst thing was that I could not state my thesis exactly which was confusing and disordered.

In the second draft, I have added one more paragraph. Unfortunately, it seems to repeat a lot since I don't really know what to add. Besides, I can not find a god way to express my emotion either. The lack of vocabulary has annoyed me for a long time. Repetition appears in my conclusion all the time.

In my last draft, more details were added to the conclusion. I realized that conclusion can also be detailed and specific, including descriptions. Brain storm is necessary since we can describe a lot of details rather than flat words without meaning.

All in all, by this difficulty, I learnt a useful way to write conclusion and how to deal with essays in the future.

Never give up✨✨✨

Giving up might be the easiest thing in the world for most people. Dreams, good habits even lives could be given up if people really want to. I have abandoned a lot of things since I always make decisions impetuously. I have tried to dance, paint, play basketball for a while according to my curiosity but gave up immediately. However, after a fight long time ago with my mom about learning piano, I realized that some things are too important to give up so I must use determination to persevere.

It was a sunny afternoon in the middle of summer, and everything seemed so peaceful. The wind was blowing over the pond downstairs and the light reflected by the water was  twinkling like stars. There were children running around the pond, nearly every child in the neighbourhood, except me.

Imagine this scene, a five-year-old girl sitting in front of a huge black piano, with tearing on her face. Yes, I was that little girl who was forced to play the piano at that time. What a boring thing for an active girl to sit at the same place playing the same tone over and over again! The phone was ringing one time by another, and I knew that was my friend calling. I turned my face to mom, "May I go out and have fun for a little while? I promise I will practice after dinner."

"No."

"Mom, please."

"No."

I stopped begging and returned my head back to the huge dark monster with tears falling out from my eyes. The piano seemed to bite my finger every time I touched it, and the worst thing was that my mom even hit my arms whenever I made tiny mistakes. I was only 5 years old!!! Thinking about that, I just cried out and kicked the piano,"I don't want to play the piano anymore! It is so boring and difficult! Beside, I want to play with my friends! Do not hit my arm again!" After that, I slammed the cover of the piano which made a loud noise and ran away. 

It was a long time before I got back home. I didn't play with my friends but sat in the garden and cried silently. The sun set, and the wind blew through the leaves in the trees. The gentle voice made by the movement was just like a familiar sound to me. Oh piano, it was the piano!  I realized how much I loved piano since I first heard it. I remembered that day I ran home quickly and told mom I wanted to learn to play the piano. She hesitated , but finally allowed. The next day, she bought me a new, shiny piano. It cost a lot at that time, but she finally made the hard decision and even found an authentic teacher for me.

I ran home immediately, seeing my mom sitting in front of the piano. I was afraid but noticed the smile in her eyes. "Come here." She said gently, moved a little bit from the bench thus I could sit beside her. She fondled my hair with her hand and said something I would never forget.  "If you have chosen something, you have to insist to it. No matter it makes you happy or sad. You are the one who control it. Never give up, ok?"

I cried out loudly, with tears running out of my eyes. It was not because of grievance but guilt. I realized that whatever the decision I made, I should assume the consequence and responsibilities, for both myself and people who care about me. Only if I insist on high standards, will I be able to achieve my goal. To be honest, I am not a patient person who can always keep passionate to one certain thing especially when it is difficult. However, the lesson my mom gave me has really helped me not only in playing the piano but also my future life. There were many times I wanted to give up dealing  with math problem during my 9th grade because it was so annoying and confusing. I even spent hours everyday in order to figure out the answer to one question. It was a really hard time that I wanted to give up since I was sleepy and tired after a whole day's study. However, every time when I thought about mom's smile that day, I could calm myself down, thinking about the reason and determination about studying hard. I had my dream and goal I wanted to achieve which is working as an investment banker. It was clear that every investment banker has to get good math grades. The only way for me to achieve this goal was to work harder than anybody else, or I would never be able to be an investment banker. After thinking about this, I would tell myself the sentence my mom said. 

"Never give up."

Never give up✨✨

Giving up might be the easiest thing in the world for most people. Dreams, good habits even lives could be given up if people really want to. I have abandoned a lot of things since I always make decisions impetuously. I have tried to dance, paint, play basketball for a while according to my curiosity but gave up immediately. However, after a fight long ago with my mom about learning piano, I realized that some things are too important to give up so I must use determination to persevere

It was a sunny afternoon in the middle of summer, and everything seemed so peaceful. The wind was blowing over the pond downstairs and the light reflected by the water was  twinkling like stars. There were children running around the pond, nearly everyone in the neighbor, except me.

Imagine this scene, a five-year-old girl sitting in front of a huge black piano, with tears on her face. Yes, I was this little girl who was forced to play the piano at that time. The phone was ringing again and again, and I knew that it was my friend. I turned my face to my mom, "May I go out and have fun for a little while? I promise I will practice after dinner."

"No."

"Mom, please."

"No."

I stopped begging and returned my head back to the huge dark monster. The piano seemed to bite my finger every time I touched it. The worst thing was that my mom even hit my arm whenever I made tiny mistakes. I was only 5 years old!!! Thinking about that, I just cried out and kicked the piano,"I don't want to play the piano anymore! It is so boring and difficult! Beside, I want to play with my friends! Do not hit my arm again!" After that, I slammed the cover of the piano which made a loud noise and ran  away. 

It was a long time before I got back home. I didn't play with my friends but sat in the garden and cried silently. The sun sat and wind blowed above the leaves in the trees. The gentle voice made by the movement was just like the sound familiar to me. Oh piano, it was the piano!  I realized that how I loved piano since I first heard it. I remembered that day I ran home quickly and told mom I wanted to learn to play the piano. She hesitated , but finally allowed. The next day, she bought me a new, shiny piano. It cost a lot at that time, but she finally made the hard decision and even found an authentic teacher fo

I ran home immediately, seeing my mom sitting in front of the piano. I was afraid but noticed the smile in her eyes. "Come here." She said gently, moved a little bit from the bench thus I could sit beside her. She fondled my hair with her hand and said something I would never forget. 

"If you have chosen something, you have to insist to it. No matter it makes you happy or sad. You are the one who control it. Never give up, ok?

I cried out loudly, with tears running out of my eyes. It was not because of grievance but guilt. I realized that whatever the decision I make, I should assume the consequence and responsibilities, for both myself and people care about me. However, I can choose to accept it happily or being forced to do it. Because of this, I should not give up a thing easily without thinking.

To be honest, I am not a patient person who can always keep passionate to one certain thing especially when it is difficult. However, the lesson my mom gave me has really helped me not only in playing the piano but also my future life. There were many times I want to abandon playing the piano, dealing with annoying math problems and getting up early. Nevertheless, every time when I think about her smile that day, I could calm myself down and think about the reason and determination about doing the thing. I would tell myself the sentence my mom said. 

"Never give up."

Never give up✨

Giving up something  might be the easiest thing in the world for most people .  Dreams, good habits even lives could be given up if people really want to. However, after a lesson my mom gave me long time ago, I realised that there are always something we can not give up and we should always insist to the decision although it might be painful.

It was a sunny afternoon in the middle of summer, and everything seemed so peaceful. The wind was blowing over the pond downstairs and the light reflected by the water was  twinkling like stars. There were children running around the pond, nearly everyone in the neighbour, except me.

Imagine this scene, a five-year-old girl sitting in front of a huge black piano, with tears on her face. Yes, I was this little girl who was forced to play the piano at that time. The phone was ringing again and again, and I knew that it was my friend. I turned my face to my mom, "May I go out and have fun for a little while? I promise I will practice after dinner."

"No."

"Mom, please."

"No."

I stopped begging and returned my head back to the huge dark monster. The piano seemed to bite my finger every time i touched it. The worst thing was that my mom even hit my arm whenever I made tiny mistakes. I was only 5 years old!!! Thinking about that, I just cried out and kicked the piano,"I don't want to play the piano anymore! It is so boring and difficult! Beside, I want to play with my friends! Do not hit my arm again!" After that, I slammed the cover of the piano which made a loud noise and ran  away. 

It was a long time before I got back home. I didn't play with my friends but sat in the garden and cried silently. The sun sat and wind blowed above the leaves in the trees. The gentle voice made by the movement was just like the sound familiar to me. Oh piano, it was the piano!  I realized that how I loved piano since I first heard it. I remembered that day I ran home quickly and told mom I want to learn to play the piano. She hesitated , but finally allowed. The next day, she bought me a new, shiny piano. It cost a lot at that time, but she finally made the hard decision and even found me a really authentic teacher for me.

I ran home immediately, seeing my mom sitting in front of the piano. I was afraid but noticed the smile in her eyes. "Come here." She said gently, moved a little bit from the bench thus I could sit beside her. She fondled my hair with her hand and said something I would never forget. 

"If you have chosen something, you have to insist to it. No matter it makes you happy or sad. You are the one who control it. Never give up, ok?

I cried out loudly, with tears running out of my eyes. It was not because of grievance but guilt. I realized that whatever the decision I make, I should assume the consequence and responsibilities. Not only for myself but also people who care about me. However, I can choose to accept it happily or being forced to do it. Because of this, I should not give up a thing easily without thinking.To be honest, I am not a patient person who can always keep passionate to one certain thing especially when it is difficult, but the lesson my mom gave me has really helped me not only in playing the piano but also my future life. There were many times I want to give up playing the piano, give up dealing with annoying math problems, give up getting up early. But every time when I think about her smile that day, I could calm myself down and think about the reason and determination about doing the thing. I would tell myself the sentence my mom said.

"Never give up."

Never give up

It was a sunny afternoon in the middle of summer, and everything seemed so peaceful. The wind was blowing over the pond downstairs and the light reflected by the water was  twinkling like stars. There were children's running around the pond, nearly everyone in the neighbor, except me.

Imagine this scene, a five-year-old girl sitting in front of a huge black piano, with tears on her face. Yes, I was this little girl who was forced to play the piano at that time. The phone was ringing again and again, and I knew that it was my friends. I turned my face to my mom, "May I go out and have fun for a little while? I promise I will practice after dinner."

"No."

"Mom, please."

"No."

I stopped begging and turned my head back to the huge dark monster. The piano seemed to bite my finger every time i touched it. The worst thing was that my mom even hit my arm whenever I made tiny mistakes. I was only 5 years old!!! Thinking about that, I just cried out and kicked the piano,"I don't want to play the piano anymore! It is so boring and difficult! Beside, I want to play with my friends! Do not hit my arm again!" After that, I slammed the cover of the piano which made a loud noise and ran  away. 

It was a long time before I got back home. I didn't play with my friends but sat in the garden and cried silently instead. I was wondering why mom was so strict with me. I knew that i promised her i would play the piano well in the future, but i am just a little girl now! The sun sat and wind blowed above the leaves in the trees. The gentle voice made by the movement was just like the sound familiar to me. Oh piano, it was the piano! I realized that how I loved piano since I first knew it.

I ran home immediately, seeing my mom sitting in front of the piano. I was afraid but noticed the smile in her eyes. "Come here." She said gently, moved a little bit from the bench thus I could sit with her. She fondled my hair with her hand and said something I would never forget.

"If you have chosen something, you have to insist to it. No matter it makes you happy or sad. You are the one who control it."

I cried out loudly, with tears running out of my eyes. It was not because of grievance but guilt. I realized that, whatever the decision we made, we should assume the consequence. However, we could choose to accept it happily or being forced to do it. As for me, I decided to love piano and never give up.

In-class writing

On a weekday morning after Christmas, the author and her friends were playing in the heavy snow and having fun by throwing the iceball. They hit their target with the soft snowball since they thought the adult would not really care about it. Nevertheless, the driver came down from the car and chased them for ten blocks until caught them. She was exhausted but happy because she felt herfelf was needed by the man who chased them.

As for me, the most significant thing the author learnt from this experience is that people have to assume the mistakes they made earlier rather than escape and being caught. In the story, the author and her friend tried to escape from the angry man. However, they man was so insistent that they finally got caught. It may indicated her that running away was not useful at all, if she did something wrongly, she had to prepare to assume the consequence.

"We could have run through...to prolong the chase and cap the glory...or stake us to anthills.(4) In this quote, the author imagined what would happen if they still trying to escape and noticed that the further they ran, the harder the punishment might be. 

how to be a better writer?

It is inevitable that people always make some grammar problem during writing process especially international students like me. There are mistakes about tense, vocabulary, noun, verb, subordinate clause, pronoun and so on.  However, it is not easy for us to find out our own mistakes although we may check for a couple of times. 

As for me, grammar problem has been the biggest trouble in my writing. There are often a lot of grammar mistakes in my writing. Firstly, my using of vocabulary is always improper.  For instance, "how aesthete the scene is". In fact, I do not really know what "aesthete"mean and how to use it. After looking up in the dictionary, I finally knew that aesthete is a noun rather than an adjective, so I changed "aesthete" to "nice". Besides, I will set "appreciate patiently" as another example. People don't often use appreciate to express the meaning "enjoy". However, I just wanted to make my vocabulary more fancy and different at that time, but actually i just made my sentence confusing and weird. Second, using phrases correctly is another big puzzle for me. Is it Insist on or to, Devote in or to, Provide for or with? I am totally confused by those phrases and i believe that there are a lot of people who have the same problem as(or like?)me. 

In order to solve these mistakes, I have done a lot of efforts, although it seems not useful. When I was in China, my english teacher used to give us a list of phrases and ask us to memorize it. However, I hardly did that since I can always get good grade because of my "sense of grammar". Unfortunately, nowadays my "sense of grammar" seems can not save me anymore, so that maybe I have to pick up the way that my teacher taught before. I will write down the phrases I am not sure in my notebook after looking up in the dictionary and memorize them before going to bed. As for vocabulary, I will look up on the dictionary for the characteristic or property of the certain word and make sure I can use it correctly. I will also use the certain word in the next writing as much as possible so that I could strengthen my memorization. 

In conclusion, there are a lot of errors in grammar. We should always be careful and check the grammar after writing. Concentrating on the writing is really important and keeping focus on the screen of ipad is necessary. I believe that as long as I focus on grammar and try my best to solve it, I will finally get over grammar problem.