摸摸頭髮...哇!少了好多
摸摸肚子...YA!小了好多

這個E.S.L.的功課不只奪走我兩個星期的時間,還奪走了我的頭髮和脂肪(那我應該高興才對吧...) 但皇天不負掉髮少脂人,我終於寫好了,而且還拿了個A+

如果這個把我害慘的功課只給老師看,那不是太不值得了嘛?
所以我這個大好人決定公開我的功課,與大家分享
看完後,請告訴我感想唷!一個字也行,告訴我寫的好不好,或哪裡要改進!(唉~台主我竟然落魄到連一個字的回應都行...我的等級未免也太低了吧! = =)

Break of Day Becky wang 8A
By Tony Palmer

PART A

BOOK SUMMARY
In early 1940s during the WW2, Murray Barrett has followed his brother William to the war. He was attached to the 39th Battalion, at the Kokoda Track, things were looking bad for them and there was talk among the soldiers that it will be a slaughter as they dig in and wait for the Japanese to arrive.

There were secrets and heartbreaks of Murray and Will’s that threatened them both. For Will, the imminent marriage between his childhood sweetheart Ada and Sid Archer had driven him away from his home to the battlefront. For Murray, the abandonment of his brother Will, the death of his father from a fire through the family farm and the death of his uncle Jack from a cancer, and the insinuation made by Sid that his uncle had been a coward in WW1 keep annoying him.

THEMES
Family Secret: The secret of Uncle Jack’s WW1 experience had an enormous impact on Murray and Will. As they grew into men they made their own ways into war. Even at the brink of death, Murray was still concentrated in finding out what Sid knows about their uncle.
Bravery and honour: Murray assumed that his uncle had run away from the war, and that was how he was labeled as a coward. Do you think that Murray was a coward when he abandoned his battalion and ran away? As it turned out, Murray showed great bravery in holding his ground and fighting the Japanese rather than abandoning the gravely injured Sid. Just as his uncle had done at Peronne in 1918.
Death: Death and serious injured are necessary in wars. No matter it’s because of the diseases, hungers, or killed by ordnances, certainly there would be thousands of innocent people died and this is exactly what happened to Murray’s uncle, too.

WRITING FEATURES
1. The words “bugger it!” and “bastard” had appeared many times in the novel. E.g. “Bugger that, everything’s uphill in this bloody country.”
2. The story starts at the war, and then there are bits and bits of Murray and Will’s before-war life flying through the course of the book.
3. The way that the author predicts the sceneries in the book to the readers is greatly impressive. E.g. “A wide circle of sunlight covered the expanse of dry summer grass. It was so bright you couldn’t look at it, but you could smell its heat.”
4. The author used some letter-forms writing in the book. E.g. 23.9.42, Eileen Barrett, RMB 4400, South Haven Road, Hammersley, Dear Murray……..
5. An interesting start usually captures readers’ eyes. The first sentence of the novel, “Bugger it, Murray! The next village – what’s it called?”

RECOMMENDATION:
What are people looking for in books? Knowledge, inspirations, funs? You might need to read a pile of books to get that information, unless you read Break of Day. It is a powerful, insightful novel about love, war and duty, and a legendary piece of Australian history.

Break of Day is Tony Palmer’s first novel, but there has no evidences can prove that. The way he wrote is interesting, the vocabularies he used are sophisticated, and the title is really meaningful. To tell the truth, the truly major reason that I had chose this novel, was because of the word “Break of Day”. What a strong title! I was fascinated. After all, this book was greatly succeeded; it is not as insipid as other war-novel. Enjoy it!

PART B

CREATIVE STORY (about bravery)

THE FLIGHT
8A Becky Wang
“Would you like to have some drinks, Sir?” a sweet voice emerged beside my ear forced me to wake up. “Eh…. Thank you. Coffee, please.” This is the forth cup of coffee I drank today. Though I knew drink too much coffee is unhealthy but now, I really do need lots of caffeine to keep myself awake.

I must admit that aircrafts are very great inventions. They short cut the distances, brought the world in together, and saved a lot of time. Even though, I still consider that airplane is the second bad transport, better than the ship. That tiny seat was one of the reason, but the truly thing is that I would have horrible nightmares. All the disasters appeared in my dreams, the airliner crashes into something, stalled by the storm and fall strait down into the ocean without any sign, or the person in the next seat is a terrorist. Although the possibility to have those things happening is about one in a billion, but there were plenty of those kinds of incidents appeared on the “News” every time I turned on the TV. How weird was that!

After I finished the coffee and about to have my fifth one, the sweet voice that had woke me an hour ago raised again from the broadcaster, “Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Flight number KC 926 is preparing for landing now. Please, go back to your seats and put the seatbelts on. We’ll be arriving at Japan Narita Airport soon. Thank you.”

“Great!” I whispered to myself, “Finally I could get off this damn airplane.” I quickly followed the instruction back to my seat, put the seatbelt on, and waited for the landing. While the airplane was gliding on the runway, airhosts and airhostesses were making announcement and instructing people what to do, and I was waiting for the moment to leave the plane, an old woman who was apparently not a terrorist stood up and spoke out loud. “Listen to me, everyone! This plane is going to explode. The fuel is coming out from the tank, it’ll cause an explosion! Quickly get off!” A kind of loud murmuring started to spread all over the space. “Jesus Christ! Please tell me I’m just in a nightmare! Somebody wake me up!” I tried to bamboozle myself. “Stop fooling yourself, you idiot. Run! Hurry up! Run! Before it explode.” A small sound came from my heart brought back my mind.

While everyone was hustling, shouting, and even crying, and airhosts were trying to calm the crowd, I was already standing at the front of the gate, becoming the first person who escaped. I ran and ran and ran. I ran as fast as I could and as far away from the plane as possible. The massive voice came from behind indicated that other people had also stepped down the ladder one after another. I turned my head back, willing to see everyone was safe, but what I saw was a man falling down without anyone’s help.

I didn’t have much time to think, the airplane could detonate at any second. “If I go back, the percentage of me dieing would be 99.99% which means the percentage of me surviving would be 0.01%. But if I do go back, there still got chance to have all of us survived, then why don’t I try it?” My brain was turning quickly and had made the decision.

I ran and ran and ran. I ran as fast as I could and as near that helpless man as possible. I carried him on my back straight away at the moment I reached him and started to run. I said nothing but gasped. I could feel everyone had their eyes on me as I ran towards them. But I noticed that their eyes were actually flying over me to the airplane. Then I heard it, the big bang of the detonation.

I felt nothing but I knew I was seriously injured. I was lying on the stretcher in the ambulance, surrounding by doctors, nurses, and----that man. The man I saved. I heard him said something beside my ear before I had totally lost my mind. He whispered, “Thank you. Who ever you are, you saved my life. It is me now to give you the return. ”




我要說,想不到你這麼有耐性看完這篇整整3頁1247個字的英文作業,我也算配服你了! 那可不可以拜託寫一個超過兩個字的回應呢? 哈