What makes a good character?

Zoe Zeng is a 15 years old girl. She has black short hair, blue eyes, and is 173cm tall. She was born in China and she grew up in England. Hew mother is an English and her father is a Chinese. Her mother is a pianist and her father is a photographer. Their jobs are very busy and they only stay with Zoe during the holidays so Zoe lives with her grandmother and her sister, Caroline. Her sister Caroline is 2 years elder than her. However, they look very different. Caroline has blonde hair, black eyes, and is 186cm tall. She went to France for high school and become a model. Zoe is a very open and optimistic student, her grades are at the average level, and she is extremely good at tennis. She started to learn tennis since she was 7 years old, and she won some games. In contrast, she is very bad at anything related to music, like singing or playing piano.

When are people most alone?

Since I am a single child, I felt lonely at home during the summer, when both of my parents went to work and when all my friends in the community have other activities and cannot play with me. I also feel alone when I sit in the cafeteria, when all of my friends did not come, and other tables around me are full of people. These are situations when I feel lonely.

I also enjoy being all alone.
I like to be all alone when I am studying. I don't want my parents or my nephews walking all around when I am writing my homework or preparing for tests.
I also like to be all alone when I am reading. I like to sit in my room, open the air conditioner (if it is summer), turn on the music, and relax myself.

However, I feel most alone when I entered a new school. I still remember my first day to Pacific American School, I still remember my first day to my middle school, I still remember my first day to my cram school, and I still remember my first day when I go to my summer camps.
I really believe that people are most alone when they entered a new condition. They don't know any people, not familiar with the environment, and not sure what to do.

How Do Dreams Inspire You?

I have a really really bad memory and I can’t remember what I’ve dreamed about when I was asleep. Sometimes, when I luckily remembered that I did have a dream, I cannot remember what actually happened. What I usually remember are nightmares, which are scary, dangerous, and are bad memories. I really don’t think these dreams did inspire me in any way.

Sometimes I actually remembered some dreams which are relatively realistic and did helped me. However, I can’t remember what the dreams are, now. I remember that I once dreamed about something that did helped me, but I just can’t remember what the dreams are.

Maybe because this hugely problems me, I dreamed about this journal question when I was asleep last night! Because I can’t remember any specific dreams that did helped me, so I dreamed one. The journal question turns from “Hoe do dreams inspire you?” into “How did good and bad dreams inspire you?” and I have ideas for how to write this journal.

Sometimes when I have questions that really problems me, I will have dreams about it, and figure out some ways to solve the questions. This, is how my dreams inspire me.

How does Evil/ Heroism maintain themselves in Beowulf?

Q: How did evil and heroism maintain themselves in Beowulf?

A:

"Evil" in Beowulf is presented as the devils. First, although the author only used little lines to describe, it mentioned that the devils split into a thousand forms of evil, which includes spirits, fiends, goblins, monsters, and giants. The antagonists in the epic are monsters, which are Grendel, his mother, and the dragon. First, Grendel went into the hall again and again to eat people. He enjoys killing the people and cannot satisfy. Grendel bought death, tragedy, sadness, and fear to the Danes. After Grendel was finally killed by Beowulf, his mother came for revenge. Although Grendel’s mother killed people for revenge, she did take away many lives. In the epic, the dragon is also considered evil. “Evil” in the epic is anything that is against human and took away people’s lives. Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon are defeated by Beowulf because they attacked human and killed people. Devils are described in the epic as “A brood forever opposing the Lord’s/ Will” and will be “again and again defeated”.

Beowulf is the hero in the epic. He represented the heroism and he has all the properties that usual heroes have. He is young, have power, have responsibility, and is really brave. He defeated the monsters again and again (Grendel and Grendel’s mother). He protected the people living in the hall, saved a lot of lives, and brings peace back again and again. Even when Beowulf turns old, when he knows that another monster (the dragon) had appeared, he went to defeat the monster. This shows his courage and his responsibility of protecting his people. To me, having the responsibility of saving other people’s life is also a very important property for a hero. Beowulf appeared in the epic as a hero, and fought the evil till his death. Heroism maintained itself into the epic by showing the properties of a hero by Beowulf.

Evil: My definition

Q: What does evil mean to you?

A: To me, a quality of evil is lust.

Of course, everybody have wishes and things that they want, but kind people will use their own effort to get to their goal. However, evil people controlled by lust will use any way to get what they want. People that want money will steal, rob, play telephone fraud, or even kill their relatives.

For example, recently, there is a girl who wants to get money from her parents but can’t. She killed her mother who she lives upon only to get money.

It is the same idea for people who love to gamble. They gamble to fulfill their lust of earning money and getting excitement.

There are also lust of love and winning.

Lust of love may motivate people to do evil things to their rival in love.

Lust of winning might motivate people to cheat by doing evil things to their competitor.

Lust motivates people to fulfill their wishes through wrong or illegal ways.

Lust is a quality of being evil.

Late Policy

Q: What do you think is an effective late policy? Why?

A: Consider students late if they come into classroom 30seconds after the bell rings. If students come in late, ask them to leave classroom 5 minutes later than other classmates. If the student is late for five times, ask him/ her to write an 500 words essay about the reason why he/ she is late, and how he/ she will improve it.

First, I think the teachers may start to consider students late 30seconds after the bell rings. The previous class may dismiss late, the students might went to the restroom, the students might be talking to other teachers, and the students might be called to the office so they might not be aware to the time that's left.

Second, to me, leaving the classroom 5 minutes later than other classmates is a really heavy punishment, and I think this might be effective.

Third, if people continues to arrive the classroom late, there might be reasons. I think writing a 500 words essay is also a very heavy punishment, and it can let people think about how they can improve.