Author: EthanL

Miss Awful is a story about a substitute teacher called Mrs. Orville. She is very strict, especially compared to their full-time teacher, who lets them do whatever they want and doesn’t teach. The children call their substitute Miss Awful because of how awful she is.

The moral of the story is that you shouldn’t judge people before you know them. The students only say that Mrs. Orville is awful only because of her appearance. However, in the end, Mrs. Orville states that learning is a priceless thing. We realize that Mrs. Orville was only trying to educate as much as she can during this time.

The COVID-19 has been going on for quite a while, and we tend to think about the effects. Everybody has a setback: the children have to do remote-learning in school and the parents have to work from home. A survey was made about how adults were feeling. The results during pandemic compared to the results 2 years ago were staggering. The adults were 8 times as likely to screen positive for mental illness. Parents are being impacted a lot. Not only do they have to work from home, but they also have to help their children. This is a lot of work as parents need a lot of focus and concentration to work, but they also have to help their children.

“Seventh Grade” by Gary Soto is about a boy, Victor, who wants to impress his crush, Teresa. When the teacher asks him if anyone knows French, he tries to impress Teresa. However, since he doesn’t know a lot of French, he embarrassed himself. After this, he thinks he’s a failure. However, after class, Teresa thinks that he’s good at French and asks Victor to help her with her homework. All of this motivates Victor to learn French: the nice teacher and Teresa asking to help her with her homework.

I think the theme of the story is to not be overconfident. I think this is the theme of the story because he wants to impress Teresa too much, especially when he doesn’t know how to speak French and he doesn’t have a plan to overcome this fact.

The brain is a very important part of the human body. The brain does all the thinking. Also, the brain is very mysterious. But how does the brain change? There are three basic ways:

1. Chemical change. The brain works by transferring chemical signals. This triggers action and reactions. The chemical change supports short-term memory because it happens so quickly. One example is that during one session, you have a lot of improvement. This is a chemical change.
2. Structure change. The brain can change the connection between neurons during learning. This supports long-term memory. From the first example, however, after only one session, the changes did not affect the structural change that is necessary for long-term memory. This is because long-term memory needs more time
3. Functional change. When these brain regions are used multiple times, it gets easier to use. The brains also change how and when they are used. This can change how good people’s performance is at one time. For example, when you always practice the violin for 3 hours from 1 pm to 4 pm every day, then practice from 8 am – 11 am, your performance will probably be different.

Antarctica and Greenland are known for its ice, or ice shelves — but that might not be true after a few decades. Data from NASA’s ICESat-2 satellite, which launched in 2018 to monitor elevation changes on land (and ice) around the world by bathing the planet in laser beams, were used. “‘It’s like an architectural buttress that holds up a cathedral,’ study co-author Helen Amanda Fricker, a glaciologist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, said in the statement. ‘The ice shelves hold the ice sheet up. If you take away the ice shelves, or even if you thin them, you’re reducing that buttressing force, so the grounded ice can flow faster.'” This means that the ice shelves — enormous ledges of ice floating over the ocean — are essential to keep the ice intact. This is bad because when more water intrudes the ocean, it can flow anywhere (as long as it follows the Coriolis effect), and flooding may occur sometime soon, annihilating the place.

Quarantine is not fun, and we all know that. But what’s worse? Being in prison. Prisoners only get 1/24 of a day (or 1 hour) outside in the ADX, a famous prison known for its secureness. Now you might be like, well that’s not too bad compared to quarantine! At least you get to go outside for 1 hour, and you get to rest for basically the whole day (although everybody wants to do something now and then). In quarantine, we do countless hours of work on the computer, with not much time to rest. However, you DO get to look outside and see the brightness of the sun, and all of the grass, maybe your garden. For prisoners, they never see even plain grass or the mountains behind the prison. For the other 23 hours, even a glimpse of something living is lucky. Think about that! Also, because they can’t see much, they’re eyesight is much worse, and can’t focus on things far away. Now you see why prisons are worse than quarantine, right? But wait! There’s still more! Prisoners are tortured, which is also known as solitary confinement. This is a violation of human rights! There are not many things we can do, however, because most of this torture is happening behind prison walls, where only the government can see what’s happening, and the public has no idea about it.

By 2050, antimicrobial resistance will be our biggest killer, even surpassing cancer by about 2 million deaths! We need to act quick! However, even finding a place to start is a big question. This is because over half of the antibiotics is used by animals! Antibiotics are helpful though. This mysterious thing is used to make animals and plants grow better and faster. However, the antimicrobial resistance also grows. In fact, the cons don’t stop there! The most dangerous antibiotic factors that are dangerous to humans are antibiotics used by pets!

No matter whether or not you’re into classical music or not, you’ve probably heard about Beethoven, then Mozart. These were the pioneers of classical music. However, there were differences, and it was pretty obvious.

Mozart

Mozart was born in 1756 in Salzburg. He started playing the piano when he was 4 years old. Mozart was a child prodigy, and when his father realized that, they went to multiple countries, and Mozart was a leading figure in most countries. Mozarts’ music is known for its smoothness. Everything just seems to go the right way and in the right order.

Beethoven

Beethoven was born in 1770 in Bonn. He also started playing the piano at 4. Beethoven was also a child prodigy. Beethoven’s pieces were mostly based on Mozarts, but there were surprises where you wouldn’t expect it. For example, just when you think you’re about to get some relaxing music, you get a sudden surprise.

Summary

I believe that both composers had complicated lives, composing many different pieces. However, I like Beethoven more than Mozart because his music is like an adventure. There will always be surprises, which I think is perfectly timed in Beethovens’ pieces. On the other hand, Mozart’s pieces are enchanting, but after hearing multiple pieces, it gets pretty dull. There just aren’t enough different patterns. Beethoven’s pieces always have some surprises, and they can vary.

Did you know that Mozart only lived for thirty-five years? Mozart is a famous composer who is known by many, whether or not they’re interested in music or not. He composed many pieces during his lifetime, including short pieces, concertos, symphonies, and operas.

Early Life

Mozart was born in Salzburg in 1756. At the age of four, his father, Leopold, taught him clavier pieces. Leopold was a professional musician. Soon, Mozart taught himself the violin, and he also composed many little pieces. After Leopold realized that Mozart was a child prodigy, they toured Germany, France, and England. However, the road was tough, and they could only use horses to carry the wagon. This caused them to suffer from sicknesses

Middle Life

Not very successful Middle Life

At the age of 17, Mozart got a job as a court musician for the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg. However, he soon got bored of having to compose so many symphonies and concerts, so he went to Paris 4 years later. However, the people in Paris didn’t pay much attention to him, so he came back to Salzburg. During 1781, he went to Vienna so he could be freer.

Very successful Middle Life

In just a few months, he got a very high reputation. In fact, he was playing for the emperor! Soon, he married Constanze Weber, and he started writing a lot of concertos. These concertos were very popular; they’re still played today! In 1786, he composed an opera.

Decline

Mozart and other musicians were finding that it was very hard to survive. This is because Austria was at war. Mozarts main source of money was the nobility, who was focusing more on the armies than Mozart. The nobility also doesn’t like Mozarts’ newest operas. During 1786, his fame started vanishing because he performed less and less. This is because he wasn’t getting a lot of money from the nobility. At the end of the next year, he had to become a chamber musician for the Emperor to earn just enough money. Mozart went to other countries to regain his fame, but he just couldn’t regain it.

Hope

At 1790, things started becoming more hopeful. He furiously composed pieces, and finally his financial situation improved. Most of Mozarts’ famous pieces are from this time.

Death

In 1791, Mozart had a sickness, and he was stuck to his bed, aching and vomiting. He was composing his last piece: Requiem, meaning a mass for the dead. Mozart was convinced that he was writing his own funeral piece. On December 5, 1791, Mozart passed away, and he was buried in Vienna.

Being defensive is a part of an average person’s life. Everybody gets angry and frustrated unless you’re a complete optimist who can even find a positive point about accidentally falling off a cliff and dying. However, defending yourself from others isn’t a good thing. In fact, you’re not even defending yourself from somebody else! You’re defending yourself from your fears that you don’t want to be with. A recent study at Purdue University has shown that the more collaborative and friendly you are, the better your chance of survival is among your group. If you do not trust others, you will probably get into a fight. This means your survival chances are very low, for both you and your community/society. Also, when you get defensive, you start to have more stubborn thinking, and then you just become stupid. You can’t do anything that requires high IQ, like problem-solving. Once you’re defensive, you won’t be able to see the world positively.

Now that we know that being defensive is bad, how do we not be defensive, or how do we notice and stop it as soon as possible? Make a warning system! Figure out the signs of you getting defensive, then use that as a warning that you are becoming defensive. When you realize you’re getting defensive, calm down, take a walk, listen to some nice classical music, or do whatever you want that helps you relax.