新聞

I start to read The Japan Times Online!! (I subscribe to The Japan Time Weekly)
It helps me to chatch up with world occasions, brush up my reading skill and know how to explain Japan in English.

I decide to do this because these 3 things are important to my TOEFL writing. But more than this, I think I should make myself involve in a grown up state. I should know more about Japan and what are happening in the world.

Bye-bye, Peter Pan!

門井先生

先生は、新たに樹立できそうである自分の単球株化細胞の写真をモノクロで撮影しようとしていた。
先生はその株化細胞の樹立を確信するまで、それらの細胞のフラスコでの像を何度も見ていたが、それを写真に撮るというのは初めてだった。写真という証拠を残すという点で、国際雑誌に投稿する事を念頭に置いている先生には、とても意味深い事のようで、とても集中していらっしゃるのがとても伝わってきた。

写真のフィルム現像というのは、暗箱の中で、現像ウィールにフィルムを巻いて、それを現像タンクに入れ、上から現像液を流し込み転倒攪拌をする。暗箱の中で見えないので、フィルムをウィールに巻く作業は失敗する事も多い。フィルムがくっついてしまい、現像液がうまく浸透せず、そのまま定着してしまうので写真にならないのだ。写真に関してはアマチュアである科学者が一番心配するのはこの点である。

先生も同様にこの事を心配していた。私も今まで何度か先生が一部のフィルムで失敗しているのを見た事があった。

研究室の電気を消して、10枚ほど撮影した後、先生は流れるようにフィルム現像の工程に入った。そこには何の迷いもないように私には見えた。現像液で反応させ、続いて定着液で反応させた後、初めて肉眼でフィルムを見る事ができるようになった。先生はいつものように、洗剤水へフィルムを入れると時に、フィルムがくっつくという失敗がないか確認した。その時、

「神様、どうか写って。。。」

三歩ほど離れていたところにたってみていた私が聞き取れるか、取れないほどの声で先生がつぶやいていた。門井先生は67歳で、生粋の日本男児で、頑固者で、エゴイストで、軽はずみに神頼みなどするような人では決して無い。
だからその時は私は、この科学者が、その細胞にこれだけの思い入れをしているということに、ものすごく感動した。その細胞は先生自身の知識欲を満たすものかもしれないし、先生の未来の科学に伝えたものなのかもしれないし、またその両方かも知れないし、もっと門井先生なりの多くの意味があるかもしれない。 ただ、その姿は何も語らなくても、多くの事を私に考えさせた。留学に対する私の姿勢、将来に関する私の姿勢についてだった。私の姿勢すべては先生に比べるとあまりにもお粗末で、子供じみ過ぎだと思った。

私は自分が67歳になったとき、門井先生のように人に影響を与える人になっているだろうか？
今は自分より優れている点を持っている人を上に眺めて、追っかけるということばかりしているから、一生なにかを追っかける人生になるのだろうか？
小泉首相が内閣メルマガで言っているように、オリンピック選手は、恵まれた才能に加え、人並み以上の努力をしている。
「少年老いやすく、学成りがたし」
私も自分は自分のしたい事の中で、どの才能に恵まれているのか、何に向いているのか見極め、それを仕事にしたいなと思った。

Addition to my New Year Resolution

Smile when greet to people.
Try to change my hand writing.

In order to be nice to pople and change my impacience.

Writing Topic 5

Your government has annouced that it wishes to build a military base near your community. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this new influence on your community. Do you support or oppose the military base?

Recently, we had some large scale of terrorisms in the U.S.A. and England. Having a military base in or close to your community might not be impossible thing to happen. But havin it in one's community has merits and demerits. If my governmetn annouced that it wants to built a base near my community, I will support the base.

Having the acutual military that is willing to save not only your community but also your country near my community makes you feel more safe because of its realty, and scince a lot of people are going to move into your community, its economy will grow. You will be able to see what solder are doing in thier base, so you can understand more about military.

On the other hand, if your community are going to have a military base, it could be noisy because of its training by guns and planes, could be severly dangerous when plane crushs happen over your community and could take a lot of land and make the place that people live smaller.

We need more safety scince we recently had some large scale of terrorisms and it is easy to imagine that some of them are going to happen soon. There is a choice to make artificial land for military but it is bad for our environment at the same time. These are why I support to have a military in our community.


I did write this in 30 mins but i know that this contains a lot of gramatical, spelling mistakes... and is not flowing.
I really don't know how to write this comparision essay. The comparision ssays must have introduction, body that includes comparision part, and my idea about that. Do I have to put why I agree/disagree to the statement and write also the conclusion? Or I don't need to write the conclusion.... :(

Model Test 1 Results

BARRON'S model test 1
Section 1: Listening 45/50
Section 2: Structure 20/25
Section 3: Reading 29/45 ----oops!

Section 3--- I can't predict the meaning of underlined words by reading contexts. Vocabs. Need to read more!

Note-Writing

Three Steps for Writing Short Essays (BARRON'S)

1) A Good Begining is(THESIS)
#short---------------------Two or three sentences is enough
#direct---------------------In the case of a comparision, state both sides of the argument in your first sentence
#an outline-----------------give the reader a general idea of your plan
2) Good Comments(BODY)
#include several points-----In the case of a comparison, three reasons is a standard
#are all related-------------All of the comments should relate to the general statement in the first sentence.
#are logical-----------------The points should be based on evidence
#are not judgement--------Judgments usually use words like "good"or "bad", "right" or "wrong". Judgements are not good comments
3) A Good Ending is(CONCLUSION)
#a summary---------------The last sentence is similar to the first sentence. It doesnot include a new idea

エントロピーの法則

今日、スーパー銭湯に行った。
あたしは隅っこが好きだから、隅っこで髪の毛を洗っていた。
そうすると、次に入ってきた人があたしと反対側の隅っこに座って髪の毛を洗い始めた。

エントロピーだなぁ。。。

大学2年生のころ生物の授業でエントロピーという面白い科学の法則を学んだ。
エントロピーとは、自然界のものは高エネルギーから低エネルギーの方向へ向かうという法則である。
たとえば、お湯はほうっておくと水になる。逆に熱というエネルギーを加えない限り、水はお湯にならない。高いところにあるものは低いところに向かおうとする。逆に低いところにあるものは、高いところに持っていくなど、位置エネルギーを与えないと高いところに存在しない。

これは人間の行動にも応用できる。

向かい合わせの長いすの電車に座るとき、空いているならばだいたい人は端っこに座る。
そして次に入ってきた人はある程度先に座っていた人より離れて座る。
しかし、時々は次に入ってきた人が先に座っていた人の隣に座るときがある。
それは知り合いという特別な関係があるときである。

部屋というものは散らかっていくものである。
しかし、片付けるときれいなままである。

すなわち、知り合いという関係、片付けるという、何らかの力、エネルギーを与えなければ、電車の座席は無秩序だし、部屋のなかも無秩序となる。

人間の行動・部屋の散らかりようは、水と一緒なのか！

でもいったいなぜ自然界のものは低エネルギーの方へ行きたがるのか？
その生物の先生曰く、「科学者は理由はわからないものに対して法則とい名前をつけます」といっていた。
理由はわかんないけど、法則性(再現性)があるから法則にしよう！
この限界のある人間が、がんばって自然界を理解しようとした試みを私はかわいいと思った。

将来自分の子供が、部屋がちらかるのはエントロピーだから自然のことなんだ！とかいいて威張ってしまったらどうしようと、どうでもいい心配をしてしまった。

Lie/Lay

lie-lay-lain-lying
lay-laid-laid-laying　
何か良い覚え方知っている人いたら教えてちょ

Writing Topic 4

It has been said, "Not everything that is learned is contained in books." Compare and cantrast knowledge gained from exparience with knowledge gained from books. In your opinion, which source is more important? Why?


What we learn from our experience are practical things.
we can apply what we learn from our exparience to new things. One of my friends got a waitress job for the first time in her life. She didn't know not only what to do but what the costmers wanted; good services, impression. As she kept doing that job, she began to know what kind of words she had to use to make costmers feel good about the restaurant, and at what situation she should smile to them to give them a good impression. After she gets the whole waitress experience, her character changed in a good way. Now she knows how to make her friends feel good, and she can think about what her friends might want, just like in a way to think about the restaurant's custmers.

we can get more successed cases when we use the knowledge from our experience than when we use the knowledge from books that we have read. A sister of one of my friends is a doctor. When she tries to get a blood sample from one of her patients, the only thing that she thinks about is to get a blood. She palpates the blood vessel and stick a needle in the angle that she thinks it's going to hit the vessel. And most in this kind of cases, she can get blood samples. In the textbook that she used when she was in medical school, it is said that when one tries to get a blood sample, one has to insert the needle in 45 degrees and then pull the inner cylinge tp obtain the blood. But what she says is, nobody has the same shape of blood vessel, depth of

だめだ！！30分じゃ終わんない！
そんなにポンポン良い点が浮かばないから、良い例えも浮かばない…
良い方法はないか…？？？

Writing Topic 3

Nowadays, food has become easier to prepare. Has this change improved the way people live? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.


In the 20th century, a lot of useful electric home products, such as microwaves and refrigurator/freezer were invented. And that led the invention of conveinient foods such as frozen and instant foods and those new type of foods changed our ways to prepare foods and improve our lifves remarkably. Although we should not ignore the fact that taking too much of conveinient foods are sometimes bad for our health, but the precious time that we can save by useing them is also the fact that we have to appriciate.

Scince frozen and conveinient foods are frozen "cooked" foods, "boiled" vegitables and "cooked-freeze-dry" foods, all we had to do to cook these kinds of foods are heating them up or boiling them in a few minutes. This is why we can make our cooking time shorter than we used to do when we did not useing them. For examples, when my friend tried to make lasagna after she came back from colledge, she had to make pasta and tomato sause, and make layers of them in a plate and bake it in oven, and it took her about 2 hours to make it. And she also had to clean up cooking tools and plates that she used. After finished doing that she was so exhausted that she couldn't do any other things that she had to that day, such as her homework. By this lesson, now she eats frozen lasagna when she wants to eat it. When she makes this, all she has to do is to put frozen lasagna in a microwave, press the button and wait a few minutes. She doesn't need to wash any plates, cooking tools after she eats it and it only take her a few minutes to make it so she will have plenty of time to do other stuffs that she has to do in that day.

On the other hand, there are also the fact that taking too many conveinient foods has bad effects on our health. 2 years ago, a single old lady has died in Japan of malnutrition. She lived by herself and only could buy cheap instant noodles to eat. Becouse she couldn't take balanced nutrition from the foods she die of it. And almost a half of resent Japanese children have less ability to recognize the difference of salty and bitter than the old Japanese children had becouse they take more amount of conveinient foods which have simplified taste than the old children did.

However, these bad effects on human health by conveinient foods only happened when there is an exclusive and continuous consumption of them. Our lived has improved in a way that we can spend our time to other thing than just cooking. But to make frozen and conveinient foods bad for our health or make them useful for our lives is up to our way of taking them.

夏目漱石

Will君の影響で、「夏目漱石が面白いほどわかる本」という本を、日本に着いてすぐ読んでみた。

　夏目漱石という日本の旧千円札の顔としても有名な日本を代表する作家は、実際のところ名前とその作品名のみが、日本人の多くの人生のなかを一人歩きしているといっても過言じゃないと思う。外国人に指摘されて始めて、どんなに自分がそこまで自分の国で誇れるものに気を止めないで生きてきたかがよくわかった。

　この本をチラッと読んだだけで、夏目漱石がどんなアンビリーバブルな、そして芸術家らしいストレスフルな人生を送っていたかがわかる。そして読み進めていくと、夏目漱石が自分の作品で何が主題として言いたかったのかが、少しずつわかっていった。

　夏目漱石は養子に出され、あまり良い幼少時代を送らなかった。ロンドン留学時代にノイローゼや胃潰瘍による吐血などを、その後の人生でも繰り返し、晩年の10年という短い年月を執筆活動で過ごしてしていく。
　自分の幼少期の影響から、自分はどこからきて、いったい何者なのかという疑問や、どうやっても理解できない人間同士がそれでも愛し合っていくといった、人間の根底に迫る問題が夏目漱石の文学の根底に主題として存在していくようになる。人間というものはいつもは善人なのに肝心なときになって悪人となる、人間というものはどうしても理解しあうことができない、人間というものは自分の人生を左右する瞬間を自分で決めることができないなど、現代にも通ずる問題である。
　そして夏目漱石の文学の根底にあるもうひとつは、明治という時代特有の考え方である。漱石が生きた明治から大正の時代には、日本の開国による西洋文化の到来、日清戦争と日露戦争という二つの戦争、明治時代の終焉(明治天皇の崩御)などがあった。ここで明治の知識人たち、かつては武士階級であり、日本の藩、家といった集団に仕えることに重きを置き日本を動かし、日本の未来を考えてきた人たちは、西洋に追いつこうと必死に進歩を遂げる日本の成長が、西洋の模倣でしかないむなしさを理解しており、また封建制度なうすれつつある時代の中で、自我を見つけていくことに苦悩している。
　この明治の知識人たち誰もが抱いていた、人間とは何なのかというものを文学作品として残したのが、明治時代の作家である。そのなかで、人間の感情をしっかりと頭でとらえ文章にするのに長けていたのが、夏目漱石なのである。

　この本は出口ひろしという現代文の先生が書いたもので、あくまで漱石文学のアウトラインとして書かれている。今度は、自分に彼の文学世界がわかるか、楽しめるか実際彼の作品を読んで見たいと思った。高校の教科書に「こころ」がでできたときに、学校の先生が明治という、現代と異なる時代の面白さ、また変わらない人間のテーマについて説明してくれたなら、彼の作品を煙たがらずにもっと興味をもてたのにとくやしく思った。

　また、「時代」によって人の考えはこんなにも変わるのかということを歴史の年号を覚えていたころにはわからなかったことが、皮肉に思えてならない。私たちは現代に生きているから、「現代」しかないように思われるが、過去の時代を理解する努力は簡単にできると思う。もしかしたら、過去の時代が、社会の教科書の一ページにしか存在しないというような価値しかないから、今の日本が巻き込まれるかもしれない戦争の恐ろしさを理解できないのかもしれない。

Writing Topic 2

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Parents are the best teachers. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Brainstorm
I diagree because
1. they tend to divorce these days---Yoshie
2. kids are rised by the way that the parents want ---Mio, Ryo
3. parents only by themselves can't give enough education to their kids--General


　　Teachers are people who give us advanced knowledge than we already have and sometimes give us a hint to change our lives to better good. Parents are the first teachers that we meet in our lives, but we can't say that they are always the best. Therefor I disagree to the given statement that says "Parents are the best teachers."

　　In resent Japanese society, women have been able to get a lot of oppotunities to get a job. So women have been able to think what they want to do in their live becouse they have been able to earn enough money by themselves to discuss about their possibilities. That's one of the reasons that we can see much more devorced parents these days than we used to. If they have children, a devorce could have bad effects to their children. One of my friend's parent got devorced when she was 6 years old, that was why she couldn't depend on to their parents as a child because they had their problem already at that time and the fact made her to be too strong that she could. And that is why she still has personal problems to make good relationships with other people.

　　I read books about anorexia. Anorexia is a disease that makes you unable to eat because of your mental problems. In all books, it is said that most of all cases of this disease's cause is his or her (who is suffered from this disease) parent. It is also said that parent's too much expectation to their child and not recognize it as a big problem to their children's mental development tend to lead their children to be mental patient and sometime to be anorexia. In these case, what did change their lives and made them to be able to spend their live nomally was, it is depend on the cases, his or her wife and husband, thier friends and doctors who treated them.

　　There is a famous story about Albert Einsten. His school teacher gave him bad grades because of his strange answers in classes but her mother believed in his possibility and let him learn whatever he wants to. And that is one of the things that led him to become one of the greatest physicists in the world. By this story, we can see that his mother was his best supporter, but not the best teacher.
　　
　　The best teacher is different from each others. Sometime that would be their teachers, their friends and peaple that they know. I disagree to the given statement

Resolution of 2006

1) Brush up my written English skill
2) Choose 8 colleges I will apply
3) Read 10 English books
4) Get 600 on my TOEFL
5) Break up with Chyongu