TV Programs Worth Watching

AECP A1 Essay #1

How many hours a day do you watch TV? Do you never stop switching the remote control to change the channels when you watch it? TV is one of the most popular entertainment media in the world. Many people spend a lot of time watching TV programs; for instance, the average Taiwanese watches TV for more than seventeen hours a week. As a result, it becomes more and more important for us to choose worthy TV programs to watch. There are numerous ways to pick suitable TV programs, but I think that TV programs worth watching depend on the age of the audience, the audience’s purposes, and the opinions of experts.

First of all, TV programs worth watching depend on the age of the audience. Actually, TV programs are always designed for different ages in many countries; thus, many countries have already set up a TV rating system, especially for protecting children. There are four ranks of TV rating systems in the U.S.; for example, TV-G is suitable for all audiences, TV-PG is parental guidance suggested, TV-14 is parental guidance for children under fourteen, and TV-MA is suitable for mature audiences. If the TV rating system is complete, you can easily choose the fit of TV programs to watch.

Second, TV programs worth watching depend on the audience’s purposes. The common types of TV programs are comedy, news, education, sports, game shows, reality shows, talk shows, teenage shows, soap operas, etc. Sometimes, we can learn new knowledge from TV, such as the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, and National Geographic. If you like to travel, the Lonely Planet will be a good option; moreover, you can pick the news channels, like CNN, BBC, ABC, etc, and realize what is happening around you, in your country, or in the world. I like to watch the sports and dramas, such as ESPN, Friends, Lost, and the Nanny. By watching these TV programs, especially after an exhausting working day, I can feel really relaxed.

Finally, TV programs worth watching depend on the opinions of experts. An investigation that was made by the University of Washington in Seattle in 2006 found 40% of three-month-old babies and 90% of two-year-old children watched TV programs more than one hour a day in the U.S. Furthermore, if children are too young to start watching TV, there will be more serious effects than on older children. Other experts have said if children watch TV more than one hour a day, it will affect their attitude in school; in addition, if they watch TV more than three hours a day, they will have more problems in studying. For these reasons, parents should take care about not only what kind of TV programs their children watch, but also when they start to watch and how long they watch them.

All in all, we have different ways, like the TV rating system, your purposes, and the expert’s opinions to choose TV programs worth watching. At present, there are so many programs on TV, and in fact, you don’t want to watch most of them even once. If you want to spend a lot of time or you just have a little time to watch them, you had better have your own way to select the suitable TV programs for yourself and your children before you turn on the TV set.

The Snowy Owl

AECP A1 Assignment #2- Summary & Quotation

The Snowy owl is one of the biggest owls in the world and also the biggest bird in the Arctic area. Its length is 21-26 inches, but when it spans its wings, it could be 60-65 inches. The female owl’s body is about 20% bigger than the male’s. Although most of the owls go out for searching prey at night, the snowy owls always do that during the daytime. Their sharp claws called talons and eyesight help them to catch the lemmings and other kinds of mice for main food easily, and sometimes they eat rabbits and birds.

However, during the long and extremely cold winter in the Arctic area, it’s too hard for them to find enough food. The Wildlife Fact File (1991) stated, “The snowy owl is capable of fasting up to 40 days at a time. It survives on the thick deposits of fat under its skin” (p. 3), or they would migrate to the southern places, even to the Caribbean Sea. In the article, they indicated “they have long been rare in Europe, but a careful protection program enabled one pair to breed successfully in Scotland. In eight seasons, they had borne 23 healthy chicks” (Wildlife Fact File, 1991, p. 3).

Every May to September, the female owls that are more than two years old can lay one egg. It takes about one month to hatch the eggs; then the chicks can break the shells by themselves and stay with their parents about one and a half months before they have the ability to take care of themselves. The article says, “The owlets hatch after a 30-day incubation period, using a temporary ‘egg tooth’ to crack through their shells. At hatching, they are covered with thin, white down, which is soon replaced by a coat of sooty, black down. At 43-50 days, they can fly. After 60 days, they are able to hunt” (Wildlife Fact File, 1991, p. 2). The life-span of the owls can be up to fifteen years; on the other hand, if they are raised by humans, their life-span can be up to twenty-eight years, almost twice longer than life in the wild.

*Reference

Wildlife Fact File. (1994). Snowy owl. (Card 11, Group2: Birds), 1-4.

The Hairy Mammoth

AECP A1 assignment #3-Summary and Quotation

ps. I put it & "Snowy Owl" here because I love them and hope I did a good job in summary! Ha!

The hairy mammoths are the biggest elephants in the Earth’s history, but they all were extinct ten thousand years ago. The average hairy mammoth was 12 feet tall, and its weight could reach 13,225 to 15,450 pounds. The scientists discovered them in the Arctic area, such as “Siberia, northern Europe, northern Eurasia, and North America” (Wildlife Fact File, 1991, p. 4) and found there are many similarities between them and the modern elephants. By studying the modern elephants and the fossils of mammoths they have found, scientists can rebuild the amazing creatures now.

The hairy mammoths were vegetarians; therefore, they had big flat teeth to chew the plant that had a lot of fibers. They lived in one of the severest cold areas in the world, so they had to eat a large amount of food to maintain their fatty body and had hair to keep them warm. The Wildlife Fact File (1991) stated, “Their fat, which was especially thick around the shoulders, was used as an emergency store of food” (p. 3). Although they were the biggest animals at that time, they still had some predators, such as humans, Saber-toothed tigers, and wolves. Humans hunted the mammoths with spears and axes for food and clothing. The scientists guessed that only humans and wolf groups could hurt the adult mammoths because they hunted the mammoths in groups or with tools; on the other hand, the Saber-toothed tigers would prey only on the young mammoths.

The female mammoths could be pregnant after they were ten to twelve years old; furthermore, it took twenty-two months to gestate and just have a newborn from a conception. They liked to live together; thus, the pregnant and young mammoths could get good protection from other adults, and their lifespan could be up to sixty years.

*Reference

Wildlife Fact File. (1991). Hairy Mammoth. (Card 4, Group7: Prehistoric & Extinct Animals), 1-4.

The Grand Canyon

My AECP A1 assignment #1--Describe a Place(2nd draft)

During this winter break, I went to the south rim of the Grand Canyon with my friends. This was my second time there, and I still enjoyed the scene very much. First, we went to the desert view. There is a tower that is the highest place of the south rim and was built by the Native Americans. The first floor is a shop where they sell all kinds of regular souvenirs with the Grand Canyon logo, such as mugs, T-shirts, postcards, etc., but they also display some handicrafts that were made by the Native Americans. For example, they weave a kind of special blanket with colored twine. They make rocks and minerals of different colors into sand and use the sand for painting symbols on rocks or walls that are called rock art. After I went up to the tower, the walls of the tower were painted with all kinds of symbols. Each symbol has a specific meaning, such as the sun, the moon, rain, and all kinds of animals. When I arrived at the highest floor, the fourth floor, I saw the beautiful valley of the Colorado River. Because of the continent uplifting, the river water had the potential to erode the ground and made the sharp and deep valley of the Grand Canyon. The deepest location from the rim to the river could be over one mile deep. Most of the upper formations of the Grand Canyon are limestone, and their color is red-brown because of the large amount of iron. After that, we went to the Bright Angel, which is also an amazing place. When I was on the rim, I saw some small houses in the valley, and they all were covered with bright-white snow. A man told us that it takes about 8 hours to arrive at the houses. We tried to take a walk along the trail, but the trail was covered with snow. Although it was the first time I could touch snow and I felt extremely excited, it was too cold for me to walk on the icy trail for a long time. After about 30 minutes, I gave up and went to the nearest shop and bought some useful books about the Grand Canyon. When we left there, we saw the beautiful sunset. The sunlight made the walls of the canyon reflect red, orange, rose, and some amazing warm colors. It was a wonderful trip for me, and I want to go there again.

My Silly Journals 4

[Living in Another Country]
I lived in China for two months and live in the U.S. now. I didn’t have any special feeling about living in another country, although I have to spend some time to know the culture of them at the beginning. I like to try the different life style, so I came here and try to get close to the American life. I think the most interesting things are the ways people celebrate holidays in the U.S. and the special social behavior in China. Last month, I went to the downtown Tempe with my friend on the Halloween, we were so surprised about people’s dressing. It was our first time to join the real Halloween “party”, and I really like it for people’s rich imagination. During my first trip to China in 2000, I was so surprised about their behavior in the public especially in scenic spots. No matter what places, there were more than hundred and hundred people around you. When you want to take a picture, you have to keep saying: “excuse me” or you will see some people you don’t know in the picture. When you want to buy something to eat, you have to keep going in the line and tell the waiter what you want loudly or you will have nothing to eat, because the waiter and the people who beyond you will ignore you. I very enjoy living in another country because I can experience different cultures!


[My Favorite Season]
My favorite season is autumn. Someone may say: “autumn makes people sad because of the falling leaves.” I like autumn for the cool temperature. When I came to Tempe this August, it was so hot and the shining sunshine even made me couldn’t open my eyes. During the summer time here, I always stayed inside the buildings. I went to school in the early morning, and went back my apartment in the evening. I also don’t like the summer in Taiwan for its hot and humid weather. Now, it is autumn in Tempe. After class, sometimes I like to take a walk or ride bicycle from ASU to the Salt River and take some pictures for my friends, because they always ask me to introduce Tempe to them but I didn’t want to go outside in summer. I really enjoy the cool weather now, and finally I can go outside and take some beautiful photographs to introduce my friends how beautiful Tempe is.


[Hot News]
Most of the narcotics are illegal in Taiwan, but recently, there are several famous people who have become suspects for taking in the narcotics such as hemp, cocaine, amphetamine, MDMA, etc. Before that, some of them just finished the imprisonments, but they still keep taking drugs. They are TV stars, singers, or sport stars, and they also have a lot of young people as fans. It’s a big problem to Taiwan’s society, because it’s not only a crime but also affects other people especially the adolescents.

The Mid-Autumn Festival in Taiwan

[My I2 Writing-2]  This is an exercise about a descriptive paragraph. Describe a national or traditional holiday in your country.

At the Mid-Autumn Festival, we eat many delicious foods. This festival is on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month to memorize the goddess of the moon, and it’s also one of the three most important religious holidays in the Chinese societies. We hold wonderful barbecue parties and eat moon cakes and pomelos. Families like to get together and have a barbecue party. We prepare meat slices, all kinds of vegetables such as green pepper, golden pumpkin, and eggplant, and beverages. We arrange the party in front of the house, on the rooftop, or in the park in the afternoon and wait for the others who live far away from home to come back. We start the party around 6:00 p.m., and it’s an important time to show who can light up the wood coal first. After lighting up the fire, everyone leaps at the toaster because we all like to barbecue. We have the juicy meat and the colorful vegetables for dinner. Then we eat the moon cake and the pomelo and watch the moon. The moon cake is a kind of pastry, and it looks like a mini cake. The brown exterior of the moon cake is made of oil, flour, and sugar, and the interior of it is the sweet and fruity legume stuffing. The pomelo is a kind of fruit that looks like a big orange, but its peel is olive green. We like to cut off the peel of pomelo and put it on children’s heads to wish them health. I like this holiday very much, but I couldn’t come home this year. My family still celebrated the festival, and my dear sister emailed me the photographs of their barbecue party. I really wanted to join them at that moment.

My First Time to Leave My Hometown to College

[My I2 Writing-1]  This is a narrative paragraph which describes a story by time order. It's also an unforgettable story in my life because it makes me recall my dear mother.

I will never forget my first time to leave my hometown to college. Before I became a college student, I had never left my hometown — Kaohsiung, the biggest city in southern Taiwan — for eighteen years, so I decided to choose a school which is far from there to meet the new world. On that day, I left my home with my mother and elder sister May. We took a train at midnight and arrived at dawn in Taoyuan where is three hundred kilometers away from Kaohsiung. I remember a typhoon was attacking Taiwan that day, so just a few people were on the streets. We took a taxi from the railway station to my school. About an hour later, we arrived at my dormitory, and I met one of my roommates Lee. My mother and May went to a shop in campus and bought some things for me. They helped me to set up my bed and desk; then, we went to a restaurant and ate some noodles for lunch. We didn’t talk too much, and they went back home in the afternoon. I could tell that my mother worried about me pretty much, but she never told me that and just wanted me to call home sometimes. I had three roommates, and we always talked about the new life in college, hobbies, classes, and our hometowns and families. I met many new friends and joined a lot of activities held by my department. I really loved the new life in college, but sometimes I still felt lonely because I missed my family, friends, and my dog in my hometown.

An Important Event in My Life

[My I1 Writing-Essay]   This is the story about Tau my favorite dog in my life.

After I had finished my B.S. degree and worked in Department of Earth Science of National Central University from 1994 to 2000 in Taoyuan, northern Taiwan, I changed my interest from earth science to ecology. Then I studied very hard by myself for two years to pass the entrance exam of the Graduate Institute of Natural Resource Management of National Dong Hwa University in Hualien in 2000. It was a marvelous experience for me, because I never thought that I could be a graduate student in ecology, especially because ecology is such a different field of study from earth science. Before I started to move to Hualien for my first semester, my father died. I began a new life in Hualien, but I always felt sorrowful because I missed my father so much. Then Tau, my dog, came to my life and changed me.

One day, my classmates and I wanted to go to the playground to do some exercise. Halfway there, a little, ugly, stinking, homeless doggy followed us for a long time. We played with her for awhile, but we didn’t want her to keep following us, so we ran and left her far away. Then we arrived at the playground and jogged. About a half hour later, we started to go back to our dormitory. Suddenly, the little doggy appeared in front of us and kept following us. We felt very sorry for her, so my friend Abowl and I decided to find someone to keep her. We named her “Tau”, which in Chinese means a horse that carries something on its back. We wished she could be like a horse: be strong and take care of herself.

We posted an ad to find someone who wants to keep a doggy. We took her to see a veterinarian and treated her skin disease. After a few days, a girl e-mailed me and told me she want to see Tau, because her dog had died a few weeks before. Then she came to my dormitory and played with Tau for awhile, and she wanted to keep Tau because Tau was like her dog so much. We made an appointment with the girl, and I kept looking after Tau for a few days, but my classmates and I all liked Tau, and we couldn’t bear to part from her. On the day the girl would come to take her away, we felt so sad and took all the time to play with her. But the girl never appeared! We were so angry that she didn’t keep her promise, but I was happy to keep Tau again.

After a long discussion with Abowl, we decided to keep Tau, but it was really a tough challenge to look after a doggy. Abowl always left Hualien to Ilan for field experiments for a long time, so I had to spend a lot of time to take care of Tau by myself and cooperated with my roommates to prevent the housemaster from detecting that I was breaking the rules about not having pets in the dormitory. During that period, my life was alarmingly dangerous, and I almost failed my accomplishments that semester. As time went by, Tao grew up from an ugly doggy to a beautiful dog. She brought me a lot of troubles, but she always made me happy because she looked happy all the time and she took most of my sorrow away.