Vladislav Svidruk

Romeo and Juliet

MS.Cunningham

 My bounty is as boundless as the sea, My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite. In the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare two teenage lovers who found out they love each other. This book explores the love they have for each other and the difficulties their families had went through to keep them away from each other. The reason why Romeo and Juliet  died was from the ball room in the beginning. The second setting was the fight between Tybalt and Mercutio. And this event just pushed them to there death.

The reason for their death can be anything. One event that stood out was when Romeo decided to go to the Capulet party. After he entered that party everything went downhill for him. In the play Romeo and Juliet Act 1 and scene 1- 2 It said Capulet walks with Paris Discussing to marry the Capulet's daughter Juliet. Soon The Capulet tells Peter to invite everyone on the list and makes a mistake and invites Romeo from the Montague family. Peter is one of the servants that Capulet has, and he cannot read so he asked if Romeo can tell him what it says. After he had done that favor Peter asked Romeo to come if he wasn’t a montague (Act 1 Scene 2 76-84). It started from there, and he went to the party to check if he can compare Rosaline to any other Verona women. Additionally  he came to the party hoping to find a women as beautiful as Rosaline.

Another reason to blame for Romeo and Juliet's death is the Fight scene. In Act 3 scene 1 Tybalt suggested to sword fight Romeo but Romeo didn't want to fight tybalt for important reasons such as Juliet. In Addition Mercutio pulls his sword out of anger and decides to fight tybalt. After they started Romeo jumped in between them and Tybalt stabbed Mercutio right through Romeo's arm. In the play Act 3 scene 1 lines 93-98 Mercutio is on the floor and Romeo is trying to persuade him saying t doesn't hurt that bad. The play stated “Courage, man, the hurt cannot be much” When Romeo went through that he changed as a person. He was banned from Verona and he couldn't come back. He had to send messengers for Juliet to get his letters. Further on Romeo and Tybalt fight, Romeo didn't want this to happen but after what happened in act 3 scene 1 lines 130-138 he had basically no choice. To conclude this fight was one major Montagues Event that triggered the death of both Romeo and Juliet. If he wouldn't have fought he wouldn't be banned and the letter wouldn't have to get sent. So Romeo would know that Juliet didn't die.

On the other hand most other scene can't really be the reason why Romeo and Juliet died and we can't blame anyone in that scene. In act 1 scene 3 you can't really blame anyone. For example Lady Capulet can't be blamed because she hasn't done anything. Even if she made Juliet think about who she would marry and force her to think because her mother got married in an early age.  In act 1 scene 3 lady Capulet says “”Marry  is the very theme. I came to talk of -Tell me, daughter Juliet… she is just trying to help hr find a man quick enough so she wouldn't have to to-get married in a late age.

In conclusion there is multiple people and settings that is to blame for Romeo and Juliet's death. There isn't no specific person nor place. The deaths could have been prevented if the things that happened in the scenes could have started differently.  

Vladislav Svidruk              

ELA

“If you connected all of the practice test I’ve taken over the past three years, they would wrap all the way around the world” In the article “China’s Cram Schools” by Brook Larmer explains the difficulties that Chinese students have. Brook Larmer talks about harsh climate and the hard work that is being put in to prepare for the great Gaokao. How stressful it is for students when this very important tests comes up. At the end It isnt fair that so much is riding on a single test for millions of chinese students

In the article many students put their life into studying for this test. Many students are losing their lives because of this test. In the article the following quote was stated “ With so much at stake, its easy to see why the gaokao, taken by more than 9 million students each year,its such a big deal to young people…”The country should take responsibility in killing these young teenagers that are losing their lives because they think its too stressful. This huge exam is coming under fire in china. People are now questioning the exam if its more important than 9 million lives. The article also talks about real life situations like this one, “ A student posted a shocking photograph online: A classroom full of students hooked up to intravenous dripping to give them the strength to keep studying” It came up to the point where they had to use equipment the drips to help them study.

The article talks about some very good things that can happen if you do good on the gaokao test. For example the article stated “ Xu scored 643 out of a possible (but never achieved) 750...to get into Tsinghua University in Beijing, one of China's most prestigious schools”. Xu was the bad kid growing up. He skipped school, never studied, never did what was asked of him. After a little he went back to the great Maotanchang to try and get into a university so he didn't have to work hard. After studying day and night he completed the test and got one of the highest score from the Maotanchang students. “It wasn't enough to qualify for a first tier university in Shanghai, but it would win him a spot at one of Anhui’s best second-tier universities” explained Xu after he gotten his test scores back.             

In conclusion this affects the world in many different ways, one example is the fact that we all had tests to study and big exams so we know how it feels but not go out of the way study for 10 hours then wake up early study for more

Vlad Svidruk

MS.Cunningham

808

The classic book Alice in the Wonderland by Lewis Carroll challenges the structure of the victorian era. The Victorian Era was from 1837 to 1901 made by a  British Queen named Victoria It was a big change in the British history. Where rules were really strict and everything needed to be perfect. In Alice in the Wonderland a Little innocent girl fell into a little rabbit hole . When she woke up she woke up in a time period called the Victorian era. Alice's experience in the Victorian era showed that there were rigid and hard problems that needed to be fixed by.

        Throughout the story Alice encounters a series of setbacks. Some of these setbacks are minor but are also a big problem.  One big problem she had was in the beginning in the story where she couldn't fit inside the door to the garden. In the book she had the feeling like she didn't fit in like everybody else. In the book she struggles to maintain a physical size. She gets upset after she couldn't get the perfect size to get in the garden. Also in the book she gets frustrated because she can't find a logical solutions to her problems. This appears a lot during the story making it a frequent problem.

Further in the book  Alice always seemed to be confused when she enters the victorian era. She feels puzzled,  A quote from the book expresses this. “seem to have no clear solutions, which imitates the ways that life frustrates expectations” its basically saying the setbacks she encounters will make a certain kind of sense in the future and it frustrates her even further when she can't figure out the Wonderland she is in. Further on a different quote that has to do with this is “ As the Queen screams “Off with its head!” she understands that Wonderland may not merely be a ridiculous realm where expectations are repeatedly frustrated”. The Victorian era was a different time period which made things hard to comprehend, rules and stricked laws were in effect

In conclusion problems occur everywhere anytime of your life and sometimes getting a solution may be very hard for some people it reflects a lot of people in life. .  

Vlad Svidruk

Ms. Cunningham

Dear Ms. Berner

“Censorship is the enemy of truth”- Bill Moyers, an American journalist that has been known for very wise words. Hiding things from children can be dangerous.  Banning books are preventing kids from knowing the truth about our society and the world we live in. If you ban books, children will never gain the knowledge to survive in the real world . I believe that banning books isn't right and no one should limit a student's option to read what they want..

We the student body believe that keeping books away from children can cause a loss of useful information in the future. A big portion of their knowledge from books can just disappear.With the loss of knowledge that is not present can cause a missing of information in the minds of young adult readers.  In the article “ Has Young adults fiction became too dark?” by Mary Elizabeth Williams wrote, “In the case of self-harm, may even spread their plausibility and likelihood to young people who might otherwise never have imagined such extreme measure.” The author also argues that its not anybody's choice to make distinction in any teens life. Also, the author later writes “ The “adult” aspect of reading is scary for many of us. Its our job as parents to protect our kids,even as they slowly move out into the world and further away from our dictates...raising them with tales of big bad wolves and poisoned apples, and then deciding at a certain point that the literature is too dark for them to handle… kids are smarter than that”.  If parents aren't doing their job, like reading fictional short stories about real life things it may end up in losing little but important information in life.

Some students love reading young adult books because it might reduce stress. In the article “ Reading ‘can help reduce stress’ by University of Sussex Research stated “...Because the human mind has to concentrate on reading and the distraction of being taken into literary world eases the tension in muscle and the heart.”Students face a load of stress during school time, and if you're in a  certain grade and your choosing your next school, having a lot of stress can hurt you. Reading about things that you're interested in is crucial according to the article, it makes it harder for student to read things that are banned and its taking the reason why there is books about certain things. The student probably wants to read about something they're sexually interested in your bout something physical and sometimes the answers are in a book. Another detail that stood out to me was “Reading worked best, reducing stress levels by 68 per cent, said cognitive neuropsychologist Dr. David Lewis.” If the stress is reduced at that level we the student body think that banning books can probably help us. Furthermore banning books is still isnt right because at the end of the day its going to help reduce stress.

Despite all this book banning, on the other hand book banning can help certain individual that can't handle certain books. In the Article “Darkness too Visible”  Meghan Cox Gurdon stated, that books for teens are “ So dark that kidnaping and pederasty and incent and brutal beating are now just part of the run of things in novel directed.” Seeing all these murders and kidnapping stories can probably lead you to something horrible. Another quote that stood out was “If books show us the world, teen fiction can be like a hall of funhouses,mirrors, and constantly reflecting back hideously.”If books really show us the world then it would be filled with all that excitement.

In conclusion many kids suffer from trying to read books that are banned on certain grounds and it may be for their benefit, but most teens don't agree with it. Taking these unhealthy books can actually destroy them, Now They will now know that they aren't alone in the problem they're facing if the book relates to it.