The Sinking City

1. Summary
The main reasons for the water shortage in Mexico City as follows, the city continues growing unchecked and unplanned. The first strains began to show with massive migration in the 1940s; the capital swallowing up one satellite town after another. The population keep raising and poor management of water efficiency. Because of these facts Mexico City is facing the consequence.
2. Meaning
I think the first sentence means that the chief can not accept the current situation which Mexico City is facing. The water shortage is extremely serious and without any efficient solution. Mexico City is the largest city in Latin America but it cannot supply enough water.
3. My article
http://blog.fastline.com/2010/01/28/california-water-shortage-still-a-hot-topic-in-2010/
Since we are now living in California, we should know more about our living surroundings and conditions. This article is about the water shortage in California. This shortage does not only have effects on agriculture but also people's daily lives. The water shortage is considered to be one of the hottest topics and this situation will continue in 2010. The best solution is to raise people's awareness about saving water everyday.

Animal minds

1. Summary:
Virginia Morell,tells the readers about the experiment which shows people that parrot can talk. In 1977 Irene Pepperberg started an experiment on a parrot who was named Alex. Pepperberg and her colleagues were focus on teaching Alex how to speak. They taught him words, meanings, pronunciations so far and so on. After a long time training, the result showed that Alex can talk. He can tell the shape, the color, the number. Though some sounds are hard for him to pronounce, he still managed to say something which was extremely amazing. Pepperberg's experiment on Alex tells people that animals are more smart than we expected.

2. I am not sure that whether animals have their own thoughts or not. As I have a pet
I often "communicate" with him and I think he can understand me. I don't know why, but if I feel blue he will accompany with me, just sit next to me and look at me. Usually at this time I will talk to him. I will complain or tell him why I am not happy. Then I feel better. In this case, I think that animals have feeling and thoughts.

3. http://www.animalintelligence.org/
This link is interesting you guys should check it out. It is like a blog and different people post different stories about animals. Some of them also provide the video. These stories have different focus but they all tell us that animals are smart. Do you believe that cats and dogs can be friend. They can run a friendship and take care of each other. Another story is about a cat who was raised by a cow. It is amazing. Ants, little tiny insect, they are smart too. They can predict the change of weather. They seems to have intelligent on architecture. These are interesting. Read it for fun!

Obesity

1. Summary
The soda tax is becoming a hot issue in New York city even can be a controversy. On the one hand according to the recent study by Dr. Claire Wang, soda tax can reduce consumption of sugary beverages by 15% to 20%,which can also help decrease the risk of obesity. On the other hand,as the journal report, soda tax is unfair and won't low down the consumption of sugary beverages. However, the soda tax are still under discussing.

2. The soda tax sounds completely stupid to me, because I love soda and I don not think it can make me gain weight. Maybe sometimes loss of self-control is one reason for obesity, but not the main reason. Soda tax is useless, it won't protect people from obesity. In my opinion, try to develop a healthy diet since childhood can be more helpful and efficient. Helping our children adapt to a healthy diet and used to the taste. Do not just give them tasty but rich food to eat. A healthy daily habit is very important.

3.http://cmj.org/periodical/PaperList.asp?id=LW200865382843907235
This is my article, it is a little bit long and more like a thesis, because it offers bibliography. This article is talking about obesity in China, it mentions the causes and suggested solutions. As we all know, obesity is more like an western even American problem. However, recently in China it is also a significant problem among people especially children. This article shows us how it happen and how can we solve it. Though it is long, it is quite interesting.

Being Young VS Geting Old

1. 50 out of 150

2. Summary:
Scientists have focus on extending human life span for decades and they have already found some ways to slow down the aging process. As a result, the average human life span have been increased a lot. However, there is still a question, can cell aging be halted or reversed? The article suggests several methods, like, eating less, genetic tinkering and get married. These tips may help people to live longer and healthier.

3. My opinion about extending life:
Personally, I just want to live naturally. If I can stay healthy and have a clear mind when I am 100 years old, I'll glad to continue my life. If I feel weak and lack of energy, also my brain refuses to work, I'd rather die peacefully. I want to be an independent and useful senior instead of being a troublesome old lady. Further I'd rather spend rest of my life with my husband than live alone by myself. That will be terrible. I can barely stand a lonely life. Just like what Husain said at today's class, everyone has own destiny. Maybe what we can do is just to face it and try our best to finish our destiny. Making full use of our lives is the most important thing, live longer and healthier.

4. My article:
http://longevity.about.com/od/agingproblems/Solutions_for_Aging_Problems_and_Concerns.htm

This is not a very long article but very useful. As we all know, the aging problem became global. Senior have to face a lot of concerns and problems. This article list several common questions that senior may meet at their age and also provide some suggestions and solutions, which are useful and helpful. Senior have made efforts and contributions to our society during their youth, now they are getting older and weaker. It is not fair for them to face these problems alone.

Creatiity

Summary
The Hidden Secrets of the Creative Mind is an interview. R.Keith Sawyer explained the definition and origin of creativity to us. He also gave readers several suggestions and help us to find out the hidden secrets of creativity. According to his opinions, people can be creative if you can manage some strategies, like to take risk, do not give up even if this is a bad idea, work hard in your own area and so on.

My opinion about the article
To creative sounds interesting to me. I am an extroverted person; therefore, I also want to be creative. This article show me a lot of ideas and make me feel confident to be creative, because R.Keith said that people who is creative do not need to be unique. It means that if you want to be creative you are creative. I think I'll keep day dreaming and hold my childish ideas, maybe one day I can be a great person. Who knows.

My article about creative
http://www.brainstorming.co.uk/tutorials/creativethinking.html

My reason
This article use several questions to explain the creativity and creative thinking to readers. The author also combine some vivid illustrations and chart to help us understand. There are also some persuasive examples. This article follows a logical order and explain the topic step by step. It contains much information and easy to understand.

Thank you, guys!

My dear classmates. I'm so glad to have you as my classmates! Thank you for helping me in this class. Thank you for sharing every moments with me in this class. Thank you for working with me on every group project. Thank you for being nice and friendly to me. Thank you for everything. I will be back in June.I know some of you will leave some of you will stay when I back. Keep in touch! I'll miss you! Best wishes! Love you!

Turkey

When people mentions about American food, turkey comes up first. Thanks Giving is one of the biggest celebrations in American culture. After I came here, Thanks Giving approached soon. Therefore I have a chance to taste the traditional American style turkey.

My aunt has prepared the turkey for several days. She brought it from a supermarket, and cleaned it. Then she also injected it for adding flavors. When it finished, really looks good and taste good.

My American friend told me, now they prefer to say,"Happy Turkey Day" than " Happy Thanks Giving." The reason is that "Thanks Giving" sounds more religion while "Turkey Day" sounds normal.

I enjoy turkey and Turkey Day here. There are also many other American food. I like to try different food. It's like an adventure for me. Thus I'll try my best to taste all the American food later.

Tomorrow is another day!

Though I do not know who said this quote, I like it! When I am sad or disappointed or upset or blue,etc. I keep telling myself," Candy, tomorrow is another day!"

During our life time, there can be so many sad things. You even do not know what will happen next second. Therefore, why not just let it go and wait for tomorrow. I believe every bad thing will leave, sun will raise tomorrow. My world will be bright again by tomorrow drawn though maybe now it is extremely dark. I always try to forget the negative things and keeping remind myself some positive things. It can help me feel better when I am in a bad mood or terrible situation. I like smile and sweet food, because they make me feel happy all the time.

Every time when I go through some tough situation, I will tell myself, "Tomorrow is another day, everything will be OK, trust yourself, tomorrow is another day!"

Journal 7 My Dear Friend

I am an easy-going person, so I have a lot of close friends. Some of them we have know each other for almost 20 years. We share our life together, and enjoy staying with each others. It seems there is no secrets between us.

One of my best friends is named Rainbow. She is a cute girl and very smart. We are classmates in college and lived in the same dormitory. It is so kind of her for cleaning our dorm frequently. Pink is her favorite color, and then it also became my favorite color under her influence. When we were in collage, we had many spare time; therefore, we usually went shopping together at that time. We two both like discovering delicious food; thus, we almost found out every places which offers fantastic food. We have the same taste and style, so others like to call us twins. But we always call each other "Honey". ^ ^

The third year of our college, there was something terrible happened to her. I really don't want to mention this, because at that time Rainbow went over a extremely hard time. I think, as a friend, I have done everything that I can do for her. I still remember that we had a long conversation after her went through that. She said, "Candy, you are one of the most important person during my lifetime, you are more like my family rather than a friend, I need you stay by me, always!" Than I replied, "Rainbow, whenever you need me, I'll always be there."

When she heard my plan about coming here, she is the first person who was crying. I felt em brassed and shamed, because I have promised her I would always be prepared to help her. I didn't keep my words and came here. It is far from our country and hard foe me to help her even I want to. I felt sorry to her.

Now is the Chinese New Year. and I miss her a lot!

Happy Lunar New Year and best wishes!

（VIVI & SIREESHA）

JOURNAL 4 WEATHER

NanJing is my hometown, which is the capital city of JiangSu province. In Nanjing, you can experience the obvious four seasons.

In spring, the weather is not very warm at the very beginning. It is still cold until April. After that, the weather can become hot very quickly. People in Nanjing always complain the short spring, because you don't have enough time to enjoy the beauty of spring, then summer cannot wait coming.

Summer is the most terrible season in Nanjing. It can be extremely hot in summer. If you walk outside just for a short while in summer, you will keep sweating. What's worse, in summer the rain is also can be seen frequently. It can keeping raining for more than 2 weeks without any short stops.Summer usually last for more than 4 mouth.

Fall is the best season. The air is fresh and there is not much rain in fall. The sky is blue and bright.

In winter, it's cold and wet. I really hate the winter in my hometown. This is one of the reasons why I decide to come here. I enjoy the sunshine here.

(Sue)

JOURNAL 3 OLD FEAR

I used to be a brave girl, more like a boy. During my childhood, I used to stay with boys and enjoy many boys' activities.

When I was in elementary school, I kept a snake as my pet. One day, I brought my snake to school and showed it to my classmates. They were really scared and told our teacher. As a result, the teacher asked my parents to come to school. As a punishment, my parents never allow me to keep any pets since that time.

It seems that, the punishment from my parents was the only thing I feared during my childhood.

(Sue)

Journal 6 Communicate with my Bear

Don't be afraid when you are going through my title. I am not keeping a bear as my pet. Bear is my dog's name. He is a smart dog, he can tell your emotion from your appearance; therefore, he can make proper reaction to draw your attention.

If one day, I can talk to Bear, I want to ask him a lot of questions. Where are you from? Who do you like best in this house? What is your favorite color? Which dishes do you like best? Chicken of steak?

I cannot imagine if he can talk to me, how much time I'll spend communicating with him. One day, several days or everyday, I don't know. Bear is so cute. Everyday, when I have meal, he stands near me, and stare at me, seems like he is hungry and wants something to eat. When I come back home, he runs to the front door immediately, making some noise and jumping, seems like he is saying hello to me. When I sit in sofa and watch TV, he stays close and jump onto the sofa, then stay in my arms.

Bear is crazy for food, whenever you eat ,whatever you eat, you can find him staying next to you and looking at you. If you ignore him, he'll try his best to get your attention, like scratch you on your legs, make some noise or keep running around you. He won't stop until he get some food from you.

I hope one day in the future I can talk to Bear, I love this dog!!

(VIVI AND LIEN)

Journal 5 If we ever meet again

If we ever meet again is the song I am listening frequently these days. The reason is very simple. One day, when I went shopping with my husband, we heard the song in a store.(I won't tell you the brand of this store,because I don't wanna advertise for the brand.haha^ ^)I thought the rhythm and melody are good, and easy to remember. Then I found the singer is called Timbaland, and the MTV is well created.I like his changeable expressions, especially his eyebrows~~ and the plot is interesting with a special beginning. I like this song, hope you enjoy it.

( Quynh and BomiSon)

Journal 2 New year resolution

My plan for new year is simple. First,continue my study in ALP until March, and then take a short break for two months back to China. Meet my relatives and friends, enjoy a lot of delicious food and snacks. Then I'll back to U.S and enroll in the summer course of ALP. After that I'll start my master as an education major here in fullerton. All I need to do is to concentrate on my study and try to do well in my major.
Maybe, I'll travel around U.S during vocations with my husband, because both of us enjoy travelling and really have fun during the trip. We plan to go to Sandiago,San Francisco ,Yellow stone National Park,etc. We wish we can experience different scenery and culture in U.S, we are looking forward.
I also have best wishes to my parents, I hope they can live more healthy and comfortable in the new year, and I hope everyone who I am concerned can be happy and successful in 2010, which Chinese consider as the year of Tiger.

Journal 1 All about Candy

Hi, my name is Tan Ying, you can call me Candy. The reason why I picked up Candy as my English name is first I like every kind of sweet food,like choclate, icecream, candys, pie, etc.;second is my family name TAN, in China espacially in my hometown, the pronunciation of Tan is similar to candy (tang). So far I've metioned my hometown, Nanjing, the capital city of Jiangsu province. There is a long history of my hometown and six dynasties considered Nanjing as the capital. I graduated in 2007 and got my Bachelor Degree, than I have worked as a high school teacher for 2 years. After that I felt there are still numerous things I need to learn. Therefore, I made a decision to come here and recieve the further education. I'm happy to meet a lot of great friends here in ALP, they are kindhearted and easygoing. I really enjoy my study here and glad to know all of you guys! As you know, this is not the whole story about Candy, I'll update more information about Candy, I'm sure we'll know each other well. Have a nice weekend ! ^@^