Home Learning: We Slept With Our Boots On

The speaker is most probably a soldier fighting in the war, he is very involved in the action and he is very aware of the danger around him. He realises that he could die anytime and is prepared to go. He offeres a very realistic view, not one that is influenced by other means, he gives the reader the facts as they are.
Although there is not much information provided about the speaker, it is very clear that he is a soldier and he is fighting like all other men, not one of those behind lines simply giving orders. He does not know where he is fighting or who he is fighting but fights solely for his survival. I feel that the poet's description of the speaker is one that is unprejudiced. He does not make the speaker seem like a patriotic character, and neither does he make the speaker seem like one who is uninvolved in the action. The speaker is made to fight aimlessly, and he is so numbed to war that there is no longer any emotional response to the killing.
There is a slight change in tone when the speaker describes the mountains in the area, making it seem a little calmer, however it only makes the fighting worse, as it now takes place in even the calmest of areas.
There is some religeon involved in this poem, and the speaker makes references to heaven and God. The area he was fighting in was compared to God, where the fighting was compared to hell.
He knows he will die sooner or later and has prepared what he wants to say when he reaches heaven. He remembers all his friends lost and killed in the action.
The form of this poem is that the first line the poet writes always rhymes with the second line. This gives the poem a very monotonous feel, like a chant, and this is in line with the nature of the poem, where the speaker is almost like a zombie.
This poem is very vivid in terms of sound. There is the sound of constant artillary, weaponry, the sounds of metal hitting the ground and the splattering of mud. All these add to the realism of the poem and how it absorbs the reader as though the reader is in the battle itself.
The tone in this poem is very straightforward. The speaker deliveres the poem in the same way as his attitude is to the fighting, unfeeling and indifferent.

Home Learning assignment: Naturalist

The Blue Mockingbird (Melanotis caerulescens) is a species of bird in the Mimidae family. It is endemic to Mexico, but has occurred as a vagrant in the southern United States. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests, subtropical or tropical moist montanes, and heavily degraded former forest.
The Blue Mockingbird is uniformly blue on its back, tail, wings, head and underbelly. This color is a result of feather structure rather than pigment, and therefore can look gray in the shade. It has a black "mask" surrounding its reddish-brown eyes. It has a rather long, slightly graduated tail, and dark blue streaks over its breast. Its bill is long, thin and slightly curved, and its legs and feet are black.
I think that the surroundings of Maycomb would probably have a small forest, no lake or water body but a large open space.
I think the mockingbirds live in Maycomb because they are native to Maycomb, I also suspect that they are blue mockingbirds as blue mockingbirds are native to southern states and Maycomb, though fictional, was stated to be in Alabama, which is in the south of the United States.

Home Learning Assignment: Intrapersonal a.

I would like to be friends with Dill. In the novel Dill has been portrayed as a very fun character and it also said that Dill was always preoccupied with the Radley house, a sign that he was braver than Jem even though he was younger. Jem and Scout constantly warned him of the dangers but it did not stop him at all and he was constantly thinking of making Boo Radley appear because he wanted to see what he looked like, he even dared Jem later to touch the Radley house.
Dill was a very fun character as Jem and Scout always looked forward to the summer where Dill would come down from Meridian and spend the holidays with them. Among the activities they did together they especially loved to enact stories, and Dill was an expert at acting, and Scout said Dill could fit into any character's part with ease, making himself appear tall if he needed to play the villian.
At times Dill was mischievous and disobedient. He knew very well Atticus did not want Jem, Scout or himself for that matter to harrass Boo Radley. However, he still insisted on trying to make him come out, for instance the time he wanted to pass the note to Mr Radley to try and make Boo Radley come out of his house so he could see him, in the end he was scolded by Atticus but that still did not stop him.
In view of this I feel that Dill was probably the most fun character in the book and thus I would like to be friends with him.

Casino in Singapore, the effects

I feel that the casino being built in Singapore is not a bad thing to the people.
During such times like now, it is good that the government has made the decision to build the casino. Though many have spoken against it, it provides more good than bad to the country.
The increase of money from tourism, more jobs, and ultimately, more revenue for the country.
Of course gambling is bad, but in the end, the decision to gamble is made by the person himself or herself. The casino does not force the person to keep gambling, it merely provides the country with an added form or source of entertainment.
Gambling is bad because it causes people a lot of harm. Broken families, heavy debt, the list goes on.
But that is a story from one point. The gambling addict. Take another poor man with a family, for example, who has always been good at dealing cards. The casino employs him, and gives him a handsome pay, all of a sudden this man can have a stable job and he can put good food on the table for his wife and children. Indirectly the casino has brought him out of his misery as a poor man and he will be thankful for the job that was given to him.
Again, back to my point, gamblers are gamblers because of their greed. Money is what drives them to gamble, and gamble until they cannot stop or are broke. The choice lies within the person himself or herself. If that person has the self-control to tell himself, "Stop, I've spent too much here. If this continues I'll be in deep trouble, " and corrects his behaviour, this person has enjoyed his game there, yet he knows that he will not be debt-ridden, or have to face an angry family when he gets home.
I am for the casino. If you were to argue, for that one person's job, how many have completely ruined their future, I would again say that a gambler can change his lifestyle with help and his sheer willpower, but a lack of jobs cannot be overcome by sheer wilpower, a company has to be opened, a business started, and someone has to give these people a place to work.

Robert Frost's Poems

Fire and Ice
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

Robert Frost's Poems

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Robert Frost's Poems

The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.