BR:2-13 Dead Man's Island

"“I was drunk and-and I hit somebody.”"

17-year-old Carol Sanders was happy at school in England. She had lots of friends and enjoyed listening to English, especially pop music. One day, a sudden tragic accident happened to her family. During the business trip of her father, unfortunately, a plane crash took his life. That accident made them into mentally desperate situation. Then they decided to get a new job in order to mollify their broken heart. They found a job at a mysterious island. They got a job at a big house in the island, and the master of the house gave them room each. A couple of weeks went by, the girl found that locked room. Then she realized that someone uses the room frequently.

At first, in the first half of the book, I thought that the person is their father. It is because that the title of this book is "Dead Man's Island" and the lord of the house looks always sad, so I thought the man must be the one who knows something about her father's death. However, as it turns out, there are no relationships between them. As a matter of fact, the unknown person who uses the room was the master of the house.

His true identity was that one of the most famous and rich singer who was thought to have died due to a car accident. Carol was really surprised of that, and she requested him to spell the truth out in exchange for keeping secret of him. He confessed that he killed a girl with his car while he was in a state of stoned, and that's the reason why he hid in the remote island.

In the end of the story, he told her what he did for the girl, and Carol heard the truth and decided not to tell it anybody. However, I think nothing is solved. The man is a murderer and he didn't atone for his crime as well. I don't understand why the author came to the end of it. I can't  stand it.

Escott John. (2000). Dead Man's Island. Oxford : Oxford University Press.

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Nephew

The day after tomorrow, correctly speaking, on December 23rd, my older sister's baby boy is going to visit us. Last time I met him, about a year ago, he was able to stand himself and chased after my dog around in the house. The dog was really tired of take care of him. He couldn't speak a language well at that time, he was just smiling and saying "au-au-ba-" or something like that.

However, according to my sister, he recently started to speak "Mom" and "Dad". He mad a good progress. I'm really looking forward to seeing him in ages. Does he remember me? I hope he will. Anyway, is it better to prepare something fun for him? In accordance with her, he loves "Thomas the talking steam train", so I'll get a toy or something as soon as tomorrow. I hope that it makes him happy.

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BR:2-12 Martin Luther King

"“I have a dream,” he said."

I have never read a book, even children know, which written about this world famous person. Since I entered this university, I have heard his name many times every English classes. A professor said, “He is one of the greatest orators in American history”, and another said, “He is the greatest person who fought against the segregation for African American for a long time.”

I had known him when I was a junior high school student because he appears in English and History text books as the leader of the civil rights movement. There were lots of opportunities to learn about him more closely so far, but I haven't. Perhaps I had no particular reason to know about him or just bothered to find out what he has done. However, "at last", I started to know about him to read this introductory book.

In those times, in the early 20th century, African American people living in America were exposed to harsher racial criticism than today. However, how many times racists tried to intervene him and his companies, they resisted such pressures. He had a belief. Belief that it is possible to change the unfair world, even if someone who has a difference in skin color, they have a right to be treated exactly the same was as "usual" American citizen.

About 50 years have passed from his death, it seems that racial discrimination for African American people has decreasing, but a couple of months ago, the incident that an African American boy was killed by a white policeman triggered a riot all over the country. Despite Martin Luther King insisted that making anti-racism campaign without violence, it seemed some part of participants didn't follow his lecture. Will people be able to solve this problem? I have a strong hunch that it never disappear. 

Lloyd Jones Rob. (2006). Martin Luther King. London : Usborne.

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Wedding Ceremony

About a month ago, I went to my friend's wedding ceremony. I intended to post this article the next day of the ceremony, but I totally forgot about it. As you can see, I couldn't prepare the small photo. I don't like Blogger's degree of freedom of picture settings, I wonder if I should complain it to them. Anyway, I enjoyed that bridal. It was a beautiful early winter day, gentle sunshine kept visitors warm.

 

The groom was a friend from high school. He was in another faculty, but we belonged to the same tennis club, and built a good relationship. When we were in the club, he was one of the strongest players of us, and in Kumamoto as well. According to him, he hasn't played tennis recently, and plays badminton insted.

 

Because it was a tennis club member's marriage, some members gathered from around the country. Most of them came from Kumamoto, but rest of them came from Aichi, Tokyo, and Fukuoka. There were friends I haven't heard from them recently, so we enjoyed having conversation about memories of high school days.

 

The ceremony went well, and an after party as well. However, every time I attend my friends' marriage party, the happiness atmosphere put me into desperate situation. If I were they, would I behave just like them? In the first place, would I able to get married someone who loves me? Does god know?  

 

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Movie Review 6: Men in Black 1

In 1997, when MIB was shown in Japan, I was just 10 years-old. I remember this movie

well because it was the first time I had watched a movie, and I resisted going to a theater and was crying. In those times, I saw the advertisement of that movie many times, and I was afraid of seeing it since the characters appear in the movie looked really gross, and both Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones in black suits wearing black
sunglass made me scared too.

Therefore, when my dad invited me to go to the movie, I strongly objected to the idea of watching this movie. However, in the end, in exchange for buying "Pokemon game", I accepted to go there.

 Since then, I haven't seen it for nearly 17 years. Before watching it, I tried to remember

the details of the story, but I totally forgot about them. However, when the movie starts, I began to recall the story. It wasn't a bad movie, I could see many kinds of aliens such as one who can regenerate its own head even if blew his head off, one who operates
someone's body (or it may be a robot) sitting in his head, and a speaking dog-like alien,
made me enjoy myself.

 Although the CG technology that used in it was not good in comparison to the current CG technology. I understand that it can't be helped, but it seemed cheap. In the meantime, I enjoyed lots of scenes. For example, in the first part of the movie, at the trial to decide who would be the best agent, J, performed by Will Smith, shot a target with a girl painted on it while other participants shot monsters. Also when J and K,

Tommy Lee Jones, went to autopsy room, K introduced J as a doctor "White". J turned
on K surprisingly, so K must have used the word as an irony.

 As I criticized about the CG, but in the movie, the scene of Will Smith being attacked by baby alien was so funny. The combination of seasoned cool agent and fresh hot newbie were making good atmosphere. What's more, the performance of the bad alien was really good. His ugly appearance, the creepy accent, and the constrained weird behavior gave me a feeling of ominousness.

 Lastly, according to web pages which written about MIB, the DVD version of MIB2 and

MIB3 have already released, so I'm going to borrow them while praying that they aren't bad movies.

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Movie Review 5: School of Rock!

While I was watching the movie, I had been thinking about two things. First, the first half of this movie, I wondered if these are really students and can the main characters really sing a song or playing instruments by themselves? It was questionable whether they are truly playing the guitar, the bass, or the drums. However, as the story went on, I became sure that they were playing instruments on their own, and were really singing the songs. After watched it, I confirmed about it on the Internet just in case.

Second, I felt the difference in ability of actors' performance between American and Japanese movies. I was just thinking the same thought when I was watching American TV dramas, such as C.S.I series and Dr. House. Not to mention, there must be well-financed companies in Hollywood, and also people who want to become a famous, rich, and great actors or actresses who get together at that place from around the world.

In the Japanese movie industry, as long as using bad actor, I mean, for someone who belongs to a major talent agency like Johnny's, it isn't possible to make excellent movies equivalent to the ones in Hollywood. In this movie, the main actor, Jack Black, gave an excellent performance. He played a struggling rock musician. The first part of the movie, he acted as a bad guy who troubled his friend, and also he screwed up his friend's good opportunity to become a teacher at a prestigious elementary school. 

At the same time, he played a passionate teacher, more than his friend. Although his motive was corrupted, as the story went on, it seemed that he started to find the fun in teaching. It was true that he deceived students, parents, and teachers, and messed up study hours for students for a couple of weeks. However, he built a really good relationship between him and students, he found good points of each student. In order to achieve his goal, he gave an important role to each of them, and boost them up. 

Even if you are a true teacher, it is difficult to motivate them, and have them to be united.

There was an interesting lecture, "History of Rock", he taught pupils during the work. It

seemed really interesting, I would take it.As for me, aiming to be a teacher, this movie made me think about how I should stir students up when they are depressed or in such a situation. Of course, I’m not favor of the fact that he ruined the class partially, but actually there were some good motivating methods. I'm not good at communicating with people immediately, so I want to learn from his ability of communication. 

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Tumblr



This time, I would like to write about Tumblr. It is a kind of twitter, but the difference from the famous communication tool is that it is mainly used to post images. When people start Tumblr, first they need to follow someone's account which seems interesting. Then you can find images, gifs, and texts you like the most from their posts, and quote them. If you want to, you could communicate with someone, and they usually respond to your questions and perhaps someone asks you one day.

I met this site about...I'll check it, please wait. Well, according to archive, I started Tumblr in August, 2013. Accurately speaking, I had known this site before 2013, but I didn't feel like making an account because I felt it wasn't necessary to make it to collect pictures. I mean I didn't understand the utility of making an account. However, I noticed that if I registered it, accounts which followed by me send everything they collected every minute. After I got an account, I don't need to browse the Internet spontaneously in order to get images. It is really convenient.

The reason why I use Tumblr instead of Twitter is that my beloved Tumblr doesn't required activeness. It seems that if someone gets an account of Twitter, they must post texts or it doesn't make sense. On the contrary, we Tumblr users are rarely post texts, instead we quote from other users or lots of websites on the Internet. The best thing of this SNS is that has diversity. It is really fantastic feeling that knowing the different way of thinking or seeing pictures which I have never seen them.

I think there seem to be a change between the beginning posts and the current of it. However, fundamentally, my penchant for beautiful women, naked, fashion, and other kinds of splendid images will never change. Viva Tumblr!

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BR:2-11 Changing Places

“Let's do it!”

This story is about two men who have almost the same face each other. A man, Hal tanner works at the zoo, and he was tired of spending humdrum life. At the same time, Tim Hawkins, who is a famous actor in the world, was sickened by being attacked by fans and people almost every day. One day, Tim went to the zoo where Hal working at in order to shooting a film, and the two men met there as it happens. Then they decided to changing their places.

This story is just like a something movie. After they changing their places, they went well showing their talent that they acquired many years of experience. However, their relationship had revealed in the end. I used to dream that changing places. If I were a famous actor, I would  date with many girls, but come to think of it, even if changed the role one another, personality haven't changed, so you should not put yourself into unfamiliar position.

Hines Alan. (2004). Changing Places. Oxford : Oxford University Press.

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BR:2-10 Let me out!

“I'm not just a robot. I can feel. I feel angry.”

30-year-old John is a scientist. He finally made an artificial-intelligence robot which name is "Nolan". John made the robot every chores instead of him, such as clean the kitchen, bathroom, wash his clothes, and everything he doesn't want to do. However, one day, Nolan thought John's attitude is unfair to him in comparison to his dog, Sam. Then Nolan began out of control.

This book is really scary. In the end, the robot killed John and Sam because the master didn't treat Nolan the same way as Sam. He just wanted to be loved by John. I think Nolan was perfectly incompletion. He didn't any feelings, such as sadness, happiness, and madness except for jealous. He was jealous of the dog's  situation. He thought "Why does John only take care of the dog? Why doesn't he take me outside? Why? Why?". 

The robot doesn't understand what the feelings are and what the human being is. However, his cold-bloodness, jealous for something, and thoughtlessness were as if real human being.

Moses Antoinette. (2006). Let Me Out! Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. 

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Second 5 favorites 1-05: My favorite sport to watch

My favorite sport to watch is tennis. It is because when I was a junior and high school student, I had been belonged to tennis club. I had not contract with WowWow(if you contract with a pay TV channel, you can watch a wide range of TV programme), I couldn't watch major 4 tennis competition, such as French open, US open, and Australian open. However, there is an exception. That is Wimbledon champion matches. In the summer season, NHk broadcasts that competition, and me and my friends got together someone's house to watch it. Stars in the court gave a brilliant performance. Pete Sampras, Andre Aggasi, and Rodger Federer. As for Rodger Federer, he still playing tennis, I think it's insane. I remember one greatest mach between Rodger Federer and Rafael Nadal. In 2008, I was watching their desperate battle. They gave extraordinary performance for us, and they fascinated me.

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Second 5 favorites 1-04: My favorite animal

My favorite animal are dogs. I have an 8-year-old miniature dachshund with cream hair. With ages, he is getting calm, but he still energetic and eat lots of food. I love him and probably he loves me. Dogs have several good points for people who having dogs as a pet. First, maybe 100 percent dogs are really cute, some have so cruel face. Anyway, it is really helpful for people when they go back home, and dogs waiting them in front of the door. They welcome and heal our worn-out mind. As for my dog, he is not only smart but also fool. He can distinguish bad person and good person, he understands a person who hates dogs. I love to watch his sleeping face holding my arms, and playing with toys in my yard. I also like cats, so if I can afford to have cats as a pet, I want to have one, and have he or she play with my dog.

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Second 5 favorites 1-03: My favorite shoes

My favorite shoes are sneaker shoes, leather boots, and running shoes. I love to wear and look any kinds of shoes. I have lots of shoes in my home. In total, I think more than 15 shoes in my closet. Maybe half of them are casual shoes, and rest of them are leather shoes or boots. In summer season, I usually wear sandals because of the temperature, so I rarely wear shoes that season even sneaker shoes. However, in cold season, I usually wear them. Especially I like to wear leather boots. Their brown color and smell makes me fascinating. In casual shoes, I love to wear New Balance shoes. Their cushioning performance is incredibly good. As if I were in clouds. In running shoes, I love Minimus series, produced by New balance, the shoes fit my feet perfectly. They are very thin sole, but I prefer them rather than another comfortable thick shoes.

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Movie Review 3: Rocky

Rocky Balboa was in a bad circumstance. He's been boxing since he was 15, but because of his left-handedness, most of boxers didn't want to fight him. As a result, for a living, he had to run an errand for a loan-shark. One day, a surprising rare chance came to him suddenly. The invincible heavy-weight champion, Apollo Creed requested to fight with him in order to liven up the bout, and Rocky was willing to accept it, so then he started to do hard training.

Not a few people recommend you listen to the famous theme song “Rocky theme song” when they want to raise their spirits. Every time I see something challenging or moving on a TV program, this music is often played in it. I do agree with their opinion, this music is stimulating and stirring. However, at the same time, I couldn't agree with what they said from the heart. It is because I believe that songs or music has to have a background as part of it. To raise my feelings up, it is necessary to have something moving or or some other attracting factors in the music itself while I'm try to overcome some difficulties. So, that's the reason why I hesitated to listen to the theme. I mean, I didn't understand what kinds of messages are included in it.

Although, I may understand why people recommended this music, and now it encourages me a lot. I love it, and also this movie. It is not just an action movie, that movie succeeded to depict not only a success story but also the story of of getting-his-life back. He had a dream to become a famous, strong boxer, but his dream didn't come true until he received a super chance. If people put them into bad circumstances, and everything doesn't work well, most of them would turn to crime.

Nevertheless, he wouldn't do that. He loves little things. He takes care of a street girl. He is concerned about even a man's fingers in debt. He must be in the doom-and-gloom of his life, but he had kept his pride and integrity. Before the bout, he was in a bed with his girlfriend, Adrian, and he says “If I go fifteen rounds, an' that bell rings an' I'm still standin', I'm gonna know then I weren't just another bum from the neighborhood...”. In the game, the champion punched Rocky's nose, and knocked him to the mat over and over, but the Italian Stallion rose each time. Rocky couldn't beat the champion finally, but winning or losing isn't important any longer. He retrieved what he wanted.

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Second 5 favorites 1-02: My favorite high school memory

The school I was studying was really strict for students. For example, most of the students must not have long hair except for girls. We always have short hair even winter. There are a lot of clubs such as soccer, baseball, tennis, and so on. I belonged to tennis club, and most of the students in it was stronger than other school's students, so we beat them and participated in a convention held in Fukuoka. It can't be possible in this current educational situation, we often slapped by teachers in our classes or during club activity. One day, on the way school, a car hit me. Fortunately, I was no injuries, but after that, when I arrived the class, and I told my class teacher to the accident. Then he punched my forehead several times because of my violation of the road law. Since then I decided not to be such a teacher.

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BR:2-09 The Garden Party and Sixpence

"“Isn't life,” she hesitated, “isn't life-” But she couldn't explain what life was."

Standing in front of the book shelves, I was wondering whether I should choose this book or other one because I had known about the books' author. I learned that Katherine Mansfield is one of the most famous short story writers in the world, also is known as a writer using stream-of-consciousness technique. 

Stream of consciousness makes me depressed. In spring semester, I had to watch a DVD-version of "Mrs Dalloway" in order to write a essay of it. It was a bit difficult to grasp what the meaning of the movie. Because of it, I hesitated to read this book, but after I finished reading it, I realized  it didn't make me confusing than I expected. 

The main character, Laura, is a pristine and warm-hearted girl. One day, when she was preparing a garden party, she heard an accident which killed a man who lives in near her home. She felt sorry for the man and his family, she asked her mother not to hold the garden party. However her mother refused to the request, and eventually, the party ended up as a great success. 

After the party, her mother came up with a good idea. That is to send leftovers of the party, such as sandwiches, cakes, and puffs to the poor family. Laura nodded her idea with doubtfully, and she headed to their home. At that home, she met a weary-looking the man's wife, and a family member of him had her meet the body. When she met him, she regret that her extravagant appearance. She was wearing beautiful nice hat and dress. When she saw the man's peaceful sleeping face, she felt beauty and happiness from him.

It is difficult to understand what the meaning of the story, but I want to try to express what I thought. I think this story is criticizing people's thoughtless. In this story, her mother doesn't care the man's death, and Laura was enjoying and showed off her gorgeous dress and hat as well. However, in front of him, she found that she is as mindless person as her mother or family members. Taking advantage of genuine girl's movement of mind, the author may tried to depict having respect for the indignity of one's death. What's more, the writer wanted readers to think about how they are going to live. 

Mansfield Katherine. (2007). The Garden Party and Sixpence. Helbling Languages. 

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Second 5 favorites 1-01: My favorite drink

My favorite drink is coffee. I have realized that I'm a something of coffee addict recently. I don't need to drink it at breakfast or lunch, but when I would like to concentrate on lots of homework, papers and studying involving with English. Coffee must hot and non sugar, lukewarm coffee is terribly bad taste. It is good combination of a cup of hot coffee and a bar of chocolate. Sugar and caffeine are run through my body and wake my brain up then I can keep concentrate on studying. Without caffeine and something sweet, I always start to get on my nerves, so I hope that I want to bring a bottle of coffee, but you know, if I keep bring it, it definitely getting cold. I had been thinking of that, and I found that there is a way to keep warm it. It is a thermos bottle. I will buy it soon.

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First 5 favorites 1-05: My favorite TV show

I have some favorite TV shows. The first one is "Ikari Shintou"(Angry new party). It's a popular variety programme. Two famous TV stars, Ariyoshi and Matsuko DX are on it. They talk about many kinds of themes that viewers send to them. Their contents of the letter is almost complain to other people, social structure, way of thinking, and so  on. And the two men, one is gay, talk about them funnily. People love to empathize with others' moaning. The next one is news programme. I like to see 10 o'clock news programme "Houdou station". I can get lots of information about domestic politics, economy, and also world. It is really helpful to grasp what is going on in the world. I like NHK news programme as well because everybody can listen to the simultaneous interpretation at 7 and 9 o'clock news.

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First 5 favorites 1-04: My favorite car

I have some favorite cars. The first one is Aventador, Lamborghini. Of course I will ever buy that really expensive car, but I love to watch it on the Internet for a long time. That space-ship like body, really noisy sound, everything attract me. This Italian super car often appears on the famous British TV programme, Top Gear. In the show, a person who is a member of the programme drove the car excitingly and happily in a circuit. I was really envy him. Then another one is also made by Lamborghini, Miura. It's a classic car, but the design is not old. I love that big eyes and the shape. If I have a chance, I want to go the shop which sells Lamborghini with pretending a rich man, and take it for a test drive.

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Movie Review 4: Romeo and Juliet

 
Nearly two decades ago, when I was a kindergarten student, me and my classmates played "Romeo and Juliet" in front of our parents. Of course, I played Romeo and a girl, who I liked the best at that time, played Juliet. After the play, everybody gave us a long standing ovation with crying. It was sweet and just like dreamy memory....yes, it is a dream.

Actually, I played some grass. I had been hiding behind a cardboard grass during the play. A role of a grass? I still it doesn't much make sense about my role. Anyway, every time I see "Romeo and Juliet", which reminds me of that memory, and also I didn't exactly know the detail of the plot of the drama and the end of the story. I only knew Juliet's lines, "Oh, Romeo, Romeo, why do you have to be Romeo?" Most of students around me only knew those lines as well, so we often talked about it as a conversational topic. Which means, the words in Japanese, sound a little bit funny (or weird) for us who don't know the surrounding words of the lines, I mean the context. I

think it is a translation problem.

Anyhow, thanks to the movie review, it was given the opportunity to see the drama, I understood the meaning of "Oh, Romeo, Romeo, why do you have to be Romeo?" It is really tragic story. Because of the long-standing bloody battle between two prestigious families, young beautiful woman and handsome man must be destined to die. If Romeo wasn't a members of the opponent’s house, they would have spent a happy life. lines may be include that kind of meaning in it, I guess.

In addition, I have a question about making Juliet in a state of apparent death. A padre attempted to allow the couple to escape secretly, which was in vain eventually, but was it really necessary to camouflage her death? I thought the priest just let her go to the place where Romeo had stayed. I find it doubtful about that point, so if I have a free time I want to check why did he do that. What's more, I thought, this is William Shakespeare. While I was watching the movie, lots of interesting and fantastic expressions came from the characters’ mouths. I wonder

if it is difficult to understand the lines in English? Either way, I want to read or watch that masterpiece again.

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BR:2-08 Buddy, the first seeing eye dog

“But you must learn to pay attention to Buddy at all times. Your life may depend on it.”

I don't like to watch, read and listen to animal's death story, especially dogs. That makes me cry all the time. This book is written about the first seeing eye dog, "Buddy". The dog is a female German shepherd, and she is really friendly and smart. She understands many commands, such as Sit, Come, Forward, and so on. Also, she avoids her master from any kinds of dangerous.

Fortunately, most people can see everything. We can enjoy beautiful sights, we can choose many informations from surrounding media, and we can escape from menaces through our eyes. On the contrary, for blind people, reality is full of dangers. Seeing dogs are eyes for them.

Few months ago, I heard awful news that someone stabbed a seeing dog with sort of fork. The dog's master had never noticed until his colleagues told him about the injury. The reason why he didn't notice was the dog had never reacted someone's attack. I don't understand why the culprit did that base action, and I really felt sorry for the dog as well.

For blind people, lots of seeing dogs deserve their lives. I don't mean to blame the system of this guide dog, but are they really happy with spending their lives for people? I understand that I should not say such things...It is so sad. I hope that more high-tech devices, which help blind people will appear in the future.

by Moore Eva ; illustrated by Bolognese Don. (2003). Buddy, the first seeing eye dog. New York : Scholastic.

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First 5 Favorites 1-03: My favorite book

My favorite book is "Juuni Kokki series (The Tale of Twelve countries)". I met this novel when I was in junior high school student. At that time, I was really concerned about the relationship between my friends in the school. To be honest, I didn't want to go there. Some students were really nice and kind to me, but some of the bad boys were really bad to me. During the situation, I went to a bookstore by chance, and I happen to found the novel. I had already knew the presence of the book because the novel's animation had released on TV. The TV version wasn't good, due to the bad quality of the drawing. However, as to the content, it was so interesting, so I bought it and obsessed with the series.

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First 5 Favorites 1-02: My favorite elementary school memory

When I was in elementary school, I was a more brisk and active boy than now. I belonged to the soccer club in the school. I was a defender. Because of the J league that had started at that time. I admired a lot of soccer stars, such as Kazuyoshi Miura. The school is located near my home, it takes about 5 minutes from my home to there. While I was in the school, I enjoyed swimming in the pool, and went to catch bugs, like beetles, cicadas in the summer. In the winter season, we held a little festival at the school court yard, and we ate yakiimo. It was really delicious. I still remember the smell of it. What's more, the students went through some incidents.[128/4971]

BR:2-07 Lost in New York

“‘Be quiet !’ Jake said. ‘We'll take you back later.’”

Around 15-year-old English boy, Nicky, visited New York for the first time without his parents. Through the trip, he had some unexpected experiences including very bad thing. 

I don't like this book, actually, the boy. He came to New York to see his Aunt Carrie. She was supposed to wait him at JFK airport, but there she wasn't. Instead, her friend was there to pick him up. The friend got him on a taxi, and went to the center of New York.

On the way her place, Nicky had to got out of the taxi because of the friend of aunt's personal business. While he is waiting on a street, he found a bike gang then they came over to him interestingly. They demanded for him to ride in their sidecar. He refused to get it in, but they pushed him inside the car and went away in the end.

The bad boys dragged him round, and they made him steel some goods around the city. There were a lot of chances to escape from them as he was kidnapping. However, strangely, he didn't leave from them for fear of being lost, despite he's already lost. As a result, he was about to catch by the police.

In general, if people plan to go to foreign countries, they must be prepare for the trip, which means money, knowledge, and sort of wariness. Nevertheless, he had a minimum of budget and lack of security himself. I think he should start to visit to his own country.

By the way, the name of the title "Lost" reminds me of an experience when I went to Gold Coast, Australia. That was the next day I had arrived the country, my host mother showed me around the city near our home. During the short trip, I tried to remember all the location, and I felt sure I succeeded to memorize where I live. But reality doesn't work out well. As I went back to the home from a language school, I completely lost. The sun was going to set soon, and the temperature was getting lower and lower. I was about to start crying and screaming with alone. 

Finally, I got into a convenience store, and I said to a salesperson "I'm lost. Please help me." It was one of the most miserable moments I've ever experienced before.

Escott John. (2000). Lost in New York. Harlow : Pearson Education

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BR:2-06 Frida Kahlo : Mexican painter

“Her leg had to be removed. But through it all, she continued to paint.”

Frida Kahlo is known as a famous Mexican woman painter. She left behind over 200 paintings for her life. Most of the theme of her works were her self-portrait, and those portraits were painted minutely and intensively.

I picked up this book at randomly, therefore I didn't know about her until I read it. Surprisingly, I like to see paintings or paints, such as Vincent Willem van Gogh, Gustave Caillebotte, Hasui Kawase, and so on.

Great paintings draw people into their world. People can see, feel, smell, hear something as if they were actually be there. Frida Kahlo's paintings were draw my attention into her world as well. According to this book, since she was a child, she usually gets sick, and also she had a car accident when she was young. Because of the injuries, she had been suffered from severe pain. 

I think that her paintings reflect the effect of her pains, sufferings, and anguishes. Exactly, her paintings are very good, but if someone asks me that "Do you like her paintings?" I would reply "No." Her works have a big impact on everyone who sees her paintings, but have a bad feeling on them as well. Abnormality is hard to understand. 

Woronoff, Kristen. (2002). Frida Kahlo: Mexican Painter. Boston : Thomson Heinle.

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BR:2-05 Audrey Hepburn

“The director loved her happy face. He said, “A little sun is shining in her eyes.””

Judging someone's personality from their appearance from the first without knowing them specifically is my bad habit. As for her, I assume that she is a conventional and selfish woman until I read the book. I only knew the name of two famous movies that she played in it, Breakfast at Tiffany's and Roman Holiday. 

Because of that well-known movies, I considered myself that she succeeded to become a star easily in Hollywood. However, that wasn't a true. In the first place, she isn't an american. She was born in Belgium, in 1929. By the age of 10, she went through her parents divorce and move to avoid WWⅡ. In addition, when she was 18, she learned ballet dream of becoming a professional ballet dancer in London, but due to her high height, she had to abandon her dream. 

In order to survive, she had small parts in some movies. During the tough time, she smiles every time, and some big names in a movie industry noticed her talent. After that, she got a lot of main roles in many movies. Since she became an actress, she went through a lot of difficulties. She had lost babies, and had divorces. 

When she got older, around 1980, she decided to devote her life to poor people. The memories of her poor and hungry experiences during the war made her to do that. I often heard that movie stars, such as Angelina Jolie and George Clooney, goes to poor countries, and they donate money or sometimes insist the situation of those countries. Perhaps I thought she is the beginning of such  great activities. 

By the way, while I was watching some her gifs, I thought that sunglasses really suit her, but on the contrary, 90 percent Japanese don't look in sunglasses, especially women who are wearing them in a room. They MUST take them off unless they stay outside. 

Rice Chris. (2000). Audrey Hepburn. Harlow : Pearson Education. 

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College Life

Since I entered again this university, I managed to keep up with classes. Most of professors, in this college, are really kind and nice to me. Also, they are very smart, and there are a lot of things I want to learn from them. In addition, the library is really lucrative facility for me. Over thousands of books make me happy and encourage me to read many genres of books. Especially, I have become to love to read English picture books for kids. Those books that I reading are so low level, but I think that to read from first level book to advanced level book is necessary to understand English for me. Then I hope that nobody sees this blog, I have one thing that I confess. A short while ago, I just had a severe heartbreak. I knew that she is so cute, so inevitably, she has a boyfriend. Hah.., even if someone looks what I wrote, please let me out for a while, please.  

[167/3913] 

Dating/Marriage/My Future Family

I'm going to write about my ideal dating, marriage, family. First, I want to date with a woman who is kind, intellectual, and active. I'm not a strong person mentally and physically, so when I depressed, I want her to kind to me. Then if I have a question, or face something difficult, I hope that a kind woman helps me. And I love to do workout, such as running, swimming, tennis, and I do other activities, so if I invite her to do something workouts, I want her to go with me. Second, I want to get marriage with ideal woman that I mentioned before. I want to have 1 boy and 1 girl, maybe it's enough. In our free time, go to a park, and eat lunch in a beautiful Autumn atmosphere. What's more, in Summer season, I want to take them to beach.

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Travel and Other Countries

I have several countries that I want to visit in this world. First, I would like to go to United States. That country has a lot of metropolitans, such as New York, San Fran cisco, Chicago, and so on. In addition not only cities but there are also abundant nature. Grand Canyon, Yellow stone national park or something. Second, I want to go to Taiwan. Taiwan is as large as Kyushu, and there are so many sightseeing spots there. I heard that there are a city which modeled by “Spirited Away”. I only see that town as a picture, but it looks mysterious. Third, I want to visit Germany. As you know, Germany is famous for beer, sausages, and a lot of beautiful buildings and castles. Maybe on October, a huge world famous festival hold in a city. It calls October Fest, and so many people gather in the city to drink a beer. 

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Movie Review 2: Mission Impossible Ⅰ

Ethan Hunt is a special agent of the IMF (Impossible Mission Force). 6 agents including Ethan were ordered to carry out an operation in Prague. The purpose of the operation is to prevent a classified list of spies from falling into the hands of an underground society. However, during the mission, all members of the team were killed by someone unknown except for Ethan. That operation's true aim was to find someone who leaked the IMF's crucial information, and as a result of Ethan's survival, another team decided that he was the culprit.

I already knew only the very famous action scene, which is, to withdraw important information from the CIA's computer room which was strictly guarded by several kinds of security technologies. Tom Cruise tried to hack the computer while suspended from the ceiling dangling horizontally. To tell the truth, I surely understand the mastermind of this movie the moment I saw Jim Phelps (who is the leader of the Prague's operation) was killed by someone on a bridge. Despite the fact that he had a diminutive video camera somewhere on his body, and he must be a cool agent, he didn’t take a video of the assassin and didn’t resist.

I wondered if I would be able to enjoy the rest of the movie because of the barely understandable scene. However, fortunately, some action scenes were really interesting, not to mention, the suspension scene. Those scenes thrilled me with their tense atmosphere. As I watching the movie, I was disgusted by myself. Since I entered again this university, I had to write a lot of reports or home works about movies and books. Through the training, I learned how to read the meaning or messages behind those works. I have became to enjoy them more than in the past, but as for some movies, like typical action movies, I could not have enjoy them any longer as well. I want to see more movies which go against my expectations.

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BR:2-04 YOTSUBA＆

“That's girl's able to enjoy anything and everything. Yotsuba is invincible.”

Yotsuba is a five-year old little girl. She is so powerful, cheerful, energetic, and a little bit different. She loves to doing activities, mindless chatting with her daddy or neighbors. (Correctly speaking, it seems meaningless, but also that conversation might has a meaning.) The cute girl interested in everything, and who noses into looks interests around her circumstances.

The book contains 7 chapters in it, and the chapter 3 was really funny story for me. The title is “Yotsuba & Global Warming”, in this chapter, Yotsuba knows the existence of A/C at her neighbor's house, and the machine is one of the causes of Global Warming as well. Then she went back home, and noticed the A/C is also attached her house. She accused her dad of the enemy of the earth! In the minor quarrel between them, she can't say Global Warming correctly. She says “Global Wanging” or something. 

Eventually, she understands the advantages of A/C, and forgives her daddy. This story made me laugh because about a week ago, I met a 6 year-old nephew at a funeral of my paternal grandmother. He was vigorous and fast speaker, and he also made an almost the same mistake like Yotsuba. When I had supper with my cousin's family, the nephew, Yudai spoke to me about a drama. The name of the drama was “Nube”. It started about 2 weeks ago, and in the drama, the leading male character has a strange left hand which can beat a ghost. The left hand calls “Oni no Te”（which means hand of Japanese devil）. The kid said to us that “Hey guys! look at my 'Oni no Se!”（which means the back of Japanese devil）. He repeated over and over, and we tried to revise his slip of the tongue, and he managed to understand what we say finally.

Azuma Kiyohiko ; translation, Forsyth Amy  ; lettering, Delgado Terri. (2009). YOTSUBA＆.New York, NY : Yen Press.

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BR:2-03 X-Men

“'Soon,' he thought, 'the world is going to be ours!'”

Humans have been concerned about people who have a special power, they called “Mutants”. Most of them have almost the same looks as usual people, but a man who can change his body to flame, and a woman who can control weather as she likes. Governments in the world frightened the presence of them. Large number of senators claimed that mutants must be controlled by authorities while some mutants want to coexistence with human being. In the groups of mutants, there are two big groups. One side aim to find a way to live normal people together, and the other side purpose is to become a ruler instead of old-fashioned humans. Confrontation between them have been continuing involving with all around the world. 

I like X-men series since I watched the first episode of the movie, it had released about a decade ago. In this book, I like Magneto the best. Through the series, he is standing on the bad side, and acting bad man as a boss of its. However, I love his special power. He can manipulate iron, even its huge bridge, and streaming in a blood in a human body. During the book, Jean Grey, telepathetic woman says that Wolverline has a above-averge regenerate power, but he also has a sharp long metal claws on his hands. Does he have a two special powers doesn't he? That's book reminds me to outline of the story, but I forgot the details of it. If I have time, I'll watch the movie again.

based on the novelization by Bergen Lara; based on the screenplay by Hayter David. (2009, c2007). X-Men. London : Scholastic.

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Spiders

I loathe any spiders. My home is in a countryside, so various kinds of spiders are inhabit in and out of it. The other day, I came back home from my part-time job, and had a late supper, then took a shower. After that, I was going up stairs so that I had to get ready to my bed, and on way up stairs, I found a presence of big spider.

I couldn't move, and look aside from it. I wonder why they are so yucky? I assume that they don't match not only a insect but also other living things around our living area. I ended up driving the spider away by using a stick. I could kill it, but didn't do it because cleaning up the body after smashed it makes me nervous as is the case with cockroaches. 

What's more, tiny spiders appeared when I cleaned my room last week. They were tiny, and also jumping when they flee. Their existence brings me a feeling of anxiety and gets me irritated. They moved swiftly and randomly, so it was really difficult to guide them in a exit direction. Finally, I decided to confine them in an empty case of yoghurt. I approached them slowly, and put the case on them eventually. Then I had left it as it was for a week, and saw its inside a couple of days ago. I expected that there should be bodies inside it, but nothing left in it. 

Did I miss to catch them? No, that's unlikely to occur, but they were gone actually. They must be  lift the case, and escaped from it. Finally, two days ago, I caught the same tiny spiders again with the same way, and put a weight on it this time. Is there likelihood of them escaping from it? perhaps, perhaps not. It's a state of Schroedinger's cat. 

[314/2536]

BR:2-02 Oliver Twist

“I don’t want you to suffer like me.”

Oliver Twist had been in miserable circumstance since he was born. When he grew up, his mother had already passed away, and he obligated to work for his master of a workhouse in order to get an awful meal, and place to rest. However, one day, he was sold for a man who runs a funeral company. After a while, he ran away from there could not be bullying from that man’s son. He fled to London aimlessly, and met a group of thieves mainly consist of children the same age as Oliver.

They taught him several skills to steel valuable things from wealthy people around on a street. After he had taken some training, a boy took Oliver to a market to have him steal something. During the mission, he got caught by civilians instead of other brat who actually stole valuables from gentleman. However, surprisingly, the rich man adopted him without blamed what he did. The boy spent a happy days for a while, but the head of the burglars found and caught him while he was on an errand, and the bad man tried to break into the gentleman's house took advantage of Oliver...

I already watched the story as a movie several years ago. Someone told me that the movie is one of the masterpieces. In that movie, characters are wearing old traditional British clothes, these are the parts of attractions in it. Besides, an old man appeared on the book as a role to teach stealing skills for Oliver and other kids. There's no spotlight on him in the short book, but on the contrary, in the movie, the funny old man plays important role. In order to fill the lack of the contents in this book, if you have a time, borrow the movie.

Dickens Charles; retold by Sebag-Montefiore Mary ; illustrated by Ablett Barry. (2007). Oliver Twist. London : Usborne.

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Movie Review 1: Raiders of the Lost Ark

Indiana Jones is a handsome and intelligent man who is popular with female students. He teaches archeology at a university, but in this movie, the man goes to many placesincluding the jungle, Nepal, and Cairo, Egypt to look for precious treasures, and he gets involved in big problems wherever he goes.

I have never watched this “Raiders of the Lost Ark” before because the film seems very old (it was released in 1981, 6 years before I was born!) and boring. In addition, the actor, Harrison Ford also discouraged me from watching the movie. When I saw a movie which the man acted as a main role in it was “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”. I watched the movie on TV by chance, but it was dull from start to finish, so I didn’t expect I would watch a movie like that and have to write a review.

However, it was more interesting than I thought. I think there are several reasons for this. The first reason is Harrison Ford’s youthfulness. In the newest Indiana Jones’ movie, I felt that he was too old to act as Indiana Jones, but on the contrary, I could see his energetic and very physical shoot in the old one. In the story, he was about to be flattened by huge rock ball, and also he fought a nazi soldier on a plane’s wing. Then the second reason is CG. Of course, that high technology was used in the film which I saw this time, but its frequency in this movie was minimized. On the other hand, the newest one also used CG in its movie, but it was too sophisticated to watch.

What’s more, the characters that appeared in this movie also attracted me. A woman who likes Indy was really cute and hot, and some actors who were acting as the enemy also gave a good performance, especially the man wearing glasses. In conclusion, that old movie made me to reconsider the way of thinking to vintage, superior movies which released before I was born.

[347/1910]

Description of an Entertainer or a Manga/Anime Character

I'm going to explain about my favorite character "Yoko Nakajima". She is a character of "Juuni Kokki (The Tales of Twelve Country). This anime was broadcast about ten years ago. It was based on a novel which written by Fuyumi Ono. That anime must be broadcast from NHK, when I was a high-school student. At that time, I had some trouble with school life, and the programme helped me mentally. One day, the girl, Yoko was kidnapped by an unknown man, and she took away from her real world to another world. Before she went to the strange world, she spent her life for not making dispute with her friends, but after that, she went through a tough experience, and during the hard trip, she against herself in her mind.

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Something precious to Me

There are several precious things for me. The first one is my lovely dog. He is 8 year-old male Dachshund with cream hair and has cute eyes. He has been living with my family for about 8 years since I was in high school. He got old, so he has a problem of his back, so I have to take care of him more. Then I love to wear and collect clothes. In my house, I have a number of clothes, shoes, T-shirts, trousers, shirts and so on. About one third spaces are occupied with clothes in my room. I haven't been bought some clothes recently because of a lack of savings, so in the future, if I get a job, I want to buy clothes. Besides, I have an account of Tumblr. It is a sort of Twitter, I quote a lot of  interesting, fascinating, and funny images, and sometimes quote sentences too. I have posted over 1,000 favorites so far, I like to see them sometimes. I'm keep posting.

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BR2-01: Of Mice of Men

“You know the story, so you tell it, George said.”

In 1930s, there were two men in California. One man was small with dark face and the other man was different. He was tall and wide. The small man, George and the tall man, Lennie were trying to find a job, and get it at a farm eventually. Both of men had the same big dream which was to have a farm, animals, and vegetables.

However, they had a problem, correctly speaking, Lennie had. He was a crazy man who makes some troubles so far because of his mental disability. He was an innocence in a sense, he loves animals and soft things, but he often hurts things, and it led to a catastrophic result.

A year ago, I watched the ending part of the story on a video in a class. Since then, I wanted to see or watch the story because it is well known to people for its masterpiece. This book was written in 1930s, at that time, America must be covered with a sense of stagnation because of the influence of great depression. Lennie was not only crazy and hopeless, but he was also genuine and innocent. I think the death of Lennie implies the end of futures in America in those days. It's very sad and helpless story.

Steinbeck John ; retold by Hinkle Kevin. (2001). Of Mice and men. Harlow : Pearson Education.

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Money

I love money, and I think there is no one else who doesn't like money. Money is necessary for our daily life to spend days. Without money we can't live this world at all, precisely speaking, someone can live, but they can't hope adequate life. I have enough money to buy something expensive because I still college student, and I have only one part-time job, so in the future, if I could become an English teacher, I want to save my salary, and use it my hobby. For example, car, running, date, and so on. In addition, I want to start something blog. I heard that some people use Internet site, and they earn money from ads which attach their sites.
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Cars and Other Kinds of Transportation

When I go to KGU, I usually use my bicycle. There are some good points. First, conserve gas fuel by using it instead of a car. Second, to use the bicycle, I can lose my extra weight, it is really useful way, and it gives me a good health. Then bicycling is remove my stress. Riding in the chilly weather is so comfortable. By the way, I bought a new car, AQUA recently. I had been used other really old car, so when the car came my home, I drove soon with my dog and my parents. The car is absolutely silent. It doesn't make any adequate noise. Also, it doesn't use gas fuel. It's so eco-friendly car. I want to go to Aso or other place with this car. And,
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Clothes and Shopping

I love clothes. I began to buy fashionable clothes since I was 18. I was a freshman in KGU, and there were a lot of students who are wearing cool clothes. Until then, I was interested in fashion, but I had enough money to buy expensive clothes, so I always wore UNIQLO or other unknown brands. So, first, I got a part-time job, and earned money. Second, I started to go to Down town area, and went to select shops, such as BEAMS or SHIPS. Then about a year later, I found a very nice boutique. The shop selects a variety of clothes, shoes, accessories, and so on. Employees who were working there was so fashionable. I admired their fashion. And since then, I keep buying good clothes at the store.
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My favorite shoes

I have more than 10 shoes in my house. Nike, adidas, vans, and some leather boots. I love to wear them, but I don't usually wear them because I don't like them to dirt. In my free time, I clean them up. Most of them are little bit expensive, and I wear cheap shoes, such as converse or cheap sandals. In addition, I work at sports shop in CLAIR, and I love to running, so I sometimes buy running shoes by using employee’s privilege. I can get them cheaper than proper price. As for running shoes, I like New Balance, they fit my feet perfectly.
[107/657]

Something special I did during this vacation

As I wrote on Vacation 1, I went to welfare facility in the latter half of August for 5 days. In those days, I helped people living in the facility with the staffs who are working at. Most of the users were well advanced age and also they had dementia. Because of the disease, they forget everything that I explained few minutes ago. And I had to tell them everything from scratch each time. Of course, I didn't say about that to them, and I didn't write even reports, but to tell the truth, I felt I'm gonna go insane. I had to tell the same story to them more than 30 times.
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Good and bad points about summer

There are 3 good points about summer. First, you can go to a beach or a river, and play with water under the sun with your friends. Next, there are several summer festivals in Kumamoto. A lot of stalls must be there, and you can eat delicious foods and enjoy some interesting shops, also fire works will make you excited. Third, long university vacation allow students to chance to study. Then the only bad point about summer is hot. When I go to somewhere else, if sunny day, I use my bicycle to conserve the gas. Because of the sun, I sweat and sometimes feel dizzy. I love fall and winter.
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How I study during the vacation

First, I have to set a clear goal. For me, that is to get grade pre-1 and 1 on STEP and over 900 on TOEIC. Second, I need to prepare some good reference books for the test. Then I must tackle with those books intentionally. In addition, in order to get used to long English passages, reading English newspapers are indispensable. Besides, it requires English hearing ability to take the exam, so I need to listen to English web radio as much as possible. However, watching American TV dramas sometimes would be better. Daily natural English conversation with English subtitles could be help my comprehension.
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What classes I will take next term

First, I'm going to continue to take some classes that I have to take for my graduation, such as English speaking, writing, and reading. In addition, I intend to take The Method of Translation, Introduction to English Studies, and The Measurement for TOEFL and TOEIC. There are also some classes along with teacher's license. Before start autumn semester, I must change or adjust some classes that I was thinking to take this semester because I took too much classes in spring semester. As a result, I couldn't get good grade. To avoid the same mistake, I need to choose what classes are relevant or irrelevant.
[108/217]

My vacations plans/preparation

More than a month have already passed since the summer vacation began. I'm totally forgot to write typing homework. So, I'm gonna write about what I was planned to do before the vacation. I had been thinking about studying TOEIC and STEP, and actually it went well at first. However, in the latter half of August, I had to go to a welfare facility near my home as a part of getting teacher's license. That made me engage it for five days, and after the experience, I had to write report about that. And now I started studying again to prepare for the next STEP test.
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