Task 2

1)Point of View

Point: It is from a soldier who had been diagnosed with unexplained health illnesses, he was angry with the America which used different Agents in the Vietnam war.

Evidence: 1) "America did not foresee"
2) "Green, pink, purple and other colors death potpourri!"
3) "Now thinking twice?"

Elaboration: The above three evidences shown that the poet who is a solder was angry with the American who had used Agent Orange during the war. The poet thinks that the American did not bother to care about the future with the use of Agent Orange. They did not care how those Agents is going to affect other's health, they just want to win the war because of their selfishness. The American should have think twice before launching the attack, they should have think of the consequences and the damages the Agent Orange will cause.


2) Situation and Setting

Point: Sad

Evidence: 1) "Toll on the innocent and unborn,"
2) "Generations untold WILL pay"

Elaboration: The setting of this poem is rather sad as tension is built up by showing how the future generations of Vietnam will suffer the consequences of Agent Orange. Many future generations will also suffer from the attack of Agent Orange as the diseases might passed down from generations to another generations. Hence, the consequences are very serious.


3) Language/Diction
The title of this poem is ironical. Rainbow also stands for happiness and joy, but in this poem no happiness was shown. Instead, fear, anger and suffering was shown in it. Strong words like deceit and nefariously are used in the poem too. This shows that the poet thinks that America is a cruel country that uses terrible and cruel means to win the war, not even thinking of the consequences.


4) Personal Response
I fell sorry for the soldiers who had suffered those illnesses from the war. The poet tells me how countries use different cruel methods just for the sake of winning a war.It was because of their selfishness that led to such consequences.

Task 1

Task 1 Based on your understanding of the selected poem, perform extensive web research and write a report detailing the conflict represented in the poem(s) of your choice. Bear in mind that this piece of background information will allow your blog audience to further understand the poem as well as your analysis of the poem in Task 2. Be sure to include your references and credit your sources.

Rainbow Death
America did not foresee
Green, pink, purple and other colors death potpourri!
Expecting others to pay a high price.
Now thinking twice?
Toll on the innocent and unborn.

Omnipotent and disregarding who will mourn.
Reflective about all the illness, birth defects and prematurely dead.
All the deceit continues to spread.
Nefariously America led astray -
Generations untold WILL pay -
Execrable effects of agent orange spray!
by Hubert Wilson

Short Introduction of the Poet(Hubert Wilson)

He was a Vietnam War veteran (as his four brothers) who served in the USAF Security Service. He, along with a dozen or so intelligence school grads, prepped for about 14 months at Kelly AFB in San Antonio, Texas, before anticipating being sent to Vietnam or elsewhere in southeat Asia in 1970. About half ended up in Da Nang (an Agent Orange hotspot) in the 6924th Security Squadron. The rest of them were assigned to Shemya Island, Alaska, with the 6984th Security Squadron, and what eventually was a MORE contaminated environment than Da Nang! His health problems started approximately 15 years ago with unexplained headaches and limb pains. Four years ago his central nervous system radically deteriorated with Parkinsonian type tremors, severe headaches, progressive limb pains, etc. No physician has ever diagnosed the specific illness. NO VA physician has ever rendered ANY medical assistance! His number one educated guess is the heavily contaminated drinking water at Shemya during his year there as an intelligence analyst. Organo-phosphate toxins may not run their toxic course until 20 to 30 years after initial exposure. Since his brain still functions moderately well (and he have mobility issues), he have turned to writing just like his late Father and the late singer (and writer) Johnny Cash.


Background
This small poem speaks of a modern day ingredient of warfare that has caused appalling death and suffering – not only to its intended victims, the Vietnamese people, but also the service personnel that used or even just came into contact with “Agent Orange”. Agent Orange is the code name for an herbicide and defoliant which was contaminated with TCDD and was used by the U.S. military in its herbicidal warfare program during the Vietnam War. This caused many people to die and many children to be born with defects.

This poem may remind us that wars aren’t over when the wars are over. Although the war had already ended for a long time, its impact and remains are still present now.He hopes to show and tell the readers about the devastating effects of war and probably to deter them from starting a war.


Source: http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/2010warpoetry.html#Rainbow

Field Trip

Geography Field Trip to Changi Airport:

During the March holidays, our Geography teacher Mr Lim brought us to the Changi Airport to learn about the meteorologist.

After a short break, we were accompanied by a lady and she brought us to the MET office to see how they work. First of all, we were given a short briefing about the MET which people were monitoring about the weather conditions such as haze, thunderstorm, rain etc. They have graphs which display the climate change, the type of weather climates occurring in Singapore. The briefing gave us the basic knowledge about the different processes the MET used to collect the data about the climate.

Now I am going to share about the different instruments that I have learnt during the briefing. The first one is the weather radar. It is huge in size with four legs on the ground and a spherical ball shaped object on the top. The object has a diameter of eight metres. Another one is the satellites which help to capture the pictures of the earth, it is used in recording of weather climates. The data collected is processed and analysed in computers by the staffs working in the MET. It is then sent to places which have agricultures, transport etc. Lastly we also get to know places such as Upper Air Observatory. At that place, balloons were released to the sky as they carried machines to collect different data. It is carried out twice a day, 0730 and 1800.

We were also showed a video which displays a big storm happened in 2001. It is rare which happens once in 100 to 400 years. The storm was travelling from Sea towards Singapore. But when it reached the shore, it starts to die down. After the briefing, we also get to know many weather equipments such as barograph, rain gauge, sunshine recorder etc.




What I have learnt:

From this field trip, I have learnt about the different types of weather equipments, graphs etc. I have also learnt the safety precautions when I encountered a thunderstorm in an open space. When the sky turns grey, it is best to hurry or find shelter as a thunder storm is approaching. When it starts to pour, do not seek shelter under a tall, isolated tree as you may get shocked. Instead, find shelter under small clumps of trees. Stop swimming or carry out any activities during a thunderstorm. Do not use any electrical appliances as well, especially telephones with cords. When your hairs stand up, a lightning might be about to hit you. Immediately crouch down on the balls of your feet and try to make yourself as small as possible.

Intrapersonal

Which character would you like to play in the movie version of the novel.

I would like to play Bob Ewell because Bob Ewell acts as a bad guy in the novel of "To kill a mockingbird". I would like to play a "bad guy" because it is very interesting as you will be acting of a character which has the totally different personalities as me. Playing a role of a bad guy is not going to be an easy task and it will be challenging, hence I would like to play the role of Bob Ewell.

Naturalist

Source:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Chilean_Mockingbird.jpg

Introduction of mockingbirds

Mockingbirds are a group of New World passerine birds from the Mimidae family. They are best known for the habit of some species mimicking the songs of other birds and the sounds of insects and amphibians,often loudly and in rapid succession.


Habitats of mockingbirds

Their favourite nesting habitat is dense, low shrubbery adjacent short-grass areas where they can catch the insects that make up most of their summer diet.They are also common birds in farming areas, where they often set up housekeeping in fencerows, on pasture edges or around thickets surrounded by open fields. Mockingbirds have benefited from man’s settlement and are rare or absent in heavily forested areas. There are many more mockingbirds in Arkansas now than when DeSoto became the first European to see this land in 1541.

Maycomb

I think that Maycomb has lots of open areas as well as many fruit trees as the Mockingbird prefers living in an open area and feed on fruits and berries.

Multiple Intelligence test

The multiple intelligence test showed that my highest scores are Naturalistic and Visual followed by Logical. I think that it is true because I enjoyed learning Geography which talks about the Earth's nature and Maths which consists of pictures and numbers.

I myself loved learning about different types of flora or fauna, which includes my favourite flower, the Rafflesia which is the largest flower found on the planet. I also enjoyed doing Maths because it gives me a sense of sastifaction when I am able to solve a real difficult question.

Book Review(4)

Title : Charlotte’s web

Author: E.B.White


Charlotte’s web is a very interesting story. The story is mainly about how a spider calls Charlotte saves the life of a pig names Wilbur. The book is not very long and it attracts my attention easily and I finished reading it in a few hours. I highly recommend this book to others as it is a very touching story.

There was a young girl named Fern. She saved a little pig called Wilbur when her father was planning to kill it as Wilbur was too small to be sold. Fern kept Wilbur as a pet. Fern spent her free time with Wilbur the pig that she loved and the other barn animals that played a large part in the life of Wilbur. Soon, Wilbur grew older and bigger. Fern had also grown older and was more matured. She had more friends now and did not pay as much attention as before. As Wilbur had increased in so much size, Fern’s father decided to kill Wilbur. Charlotte, the large grey spider, befriended Wilbur and helped him deal with the shocking news that his life would end as bacon on someone’s plate. Charlotte went as far as coming up with an interesting plan that only this spider could carry out with the help of Templeton the rat (who never went anything unless there was something in it for himself) to help Wilbur escaped death. In the end, Charlotte was dead after giving birth to her baby spiders. But Charlotte was always remembered in Wilbur’s heart.