Sunday, August 5, 2007
Chinese Valentine's Day
Chinese Valentine's Day
Qi Xi (七夕; Pinyin: qī xī; "The Night of Sevens"), sometimes called Chinese Valentine's Day or Magpie Festival, falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month on the Chinese calendar; thus its name. Young girls traditionally demonstrate their domestic arts, especially melon carving, on this day and make wishes for a good husband. It is also known by the following names:
- The Festival to Plead for Skills (乞巧節; qǐ qiǎo jié)
- The Seventh Sister's Birthday (七姐誕; qī jiě dàn)
- The Night of Skills (巧夕; qiǎo xī)
- In 2007, this festival falls on August 19.
The Story of Chinese Valentine's Day
Chinese Valentine's Day is on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month in the Chinese calendar. A love story for this day is about the 7th daughter of Emperor of Heaven and an orphaned cowherd. The Emperor separated them. The 7th daughter was forced to move to the star Vega and the cowherd moved to the star Altair. They are allowed to meet only once a year on the day of 7th day of 7th lunar month.
The story began from the good-looking poor orphaned boy living with his elder brother and sister-in-law. After his parents past away, his brother inherited the house and the land. The boy owned an old ox. He needed to work on the farm's field with the ox everyday. So he was called a cowherd. His daily life was just like in a Cinderella story.
The 7th daughter of Emperor is good at handcrafting, especially weaving clothing. So she was called a Weaving Maid. The Emperor likes her skill to weave clouds and rainbows to beautify the world.
The ox was actually an immortal from the Heaven. He made mistakes in the Heaven and was punished as an ox in the Earth. One day, the ox suddenly said to the cowherd, "You are a nice person. If you want to get married, go to the brook and your wish will be come true." The cowherd went to the brook and saw all 7 pretty daughters of Emperor came down from Heaven and took a bath in there. Fascinated by the youngest and also the most beautiful one, he took away her fairy clothes secretly. The other six fairies went away after bath. The youngest couldn't fly back without her fairy clothes. Then the cowherd appeared and told her that he would not return her clothes unless she promised to be his wife. After a little hesitation and with a mixture of shyness and eagerness, she agreed to the request from this handsome man. So they married and had two children two years later.
One day, the old ox was dying and told the cowherd that he should keep his hide for emergency purpose.
The Emperor found the sky's not that beautiful as before without the 7th daughter weaving clouds and rainbows. He wanted his daughter's grandmother to find the missing daughter and to bring her back. . While the 7th princess was flying to the Heaven with her grandmother, the cowboy wore the ox hide, took his children in two bamboo baskets with his wife's old fairy clothes and chased after his wife in the sky. The grandmother made a milky way in the sky with her hairpin, which kept them separated. The 7th princess was moved to the star Vega (The swooping - Eagle) in the Lyra (Harp) constellation. And the cowherd with his two children stayed in the star Altair (Flying one) in the Aquila (Eagle) constellation. The star of Vega is also known as the Weaving Maid Star and the star of Altair is as the Cowherd Star in China.
Magpies were moved by their true love and many of them gathered and formed a bridge for the couple to meet in the evening of the 7th day of the 7th lunar month, which is the day the Emperor allowed them to meet once a year.
They said that it's hard to find a magpie on Chinese Valentine's Day in China, because all magpies fly to make the bridge for the Weaving Maid and Cowherd. The one thing to prove that is the feathers on the head of the magpies are much lesser after the Chinese Valentine's Day. If the night Chinese Valentine's Day rains, the rain are the tears of the Weaving Maid and Cowherd.
The Bourne Ultimatum
My first movie this summer - The Bourne Ultimatum was an excellent movie. I highly recommend it! ^o^
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Final Essay
What are the advantages of studying English in America?
These days everyone is speaking English. English is the global language. More than a billion people are in the process of learning the English language. Everyone knows it is very important to study English, but why are there nearly 100,000 students coming to America to study English each year? There are a lot of benefits of studying English in America. First are the opportunities. There are full environment to provide more chance to practice. In addition is the correct English. You can learn English with native speaker. Furthermore, meet many international classmates. You can study together and encourage each others with classmates from other countries. These are all very helpful to studying and enjoying learning English.
First, life in America will give you a lot of chances to practice your English. All information is in English, and you have to read about America every day in the newspaper, watched Hollywood movies, listened to English songs and music videos. Only by living in America, you can truly become more fluent in English, because you have to speak English in daily life, such as when you go shopping. In the store, you can talk to the store employees about the product detail or what you need. When you go to a restaurant, you need to order your meal with the waiters. Also, when you are studying in America, you will have many opportunities to join planned and informal activities with other students. For example, students can go hiking, skiing, visiting museums, and traveling to new cities. This interaction with other students will enhance your language skills and increase your enjoyment.
Second, studying in American is the best way to learn correct English. You can study English with native speaking teachers. They are not only teaching you the grammar or composition, but also improve your pronunciation. While you are students in America, you can read many books in correct English, and then you will know more about the right way to speak or write it. Besides, when you have talk to native speaking friends, you can get feedback to make great progress in your conversation. For instance, I was talking with Mr. Ewing after class last week, and I felt kind of nervous at the beginning, but after few minutes I was surprising that I can talk faster then before, also made long sentence when I tried to describe my thinking. During our talking, Mr. Ewing corrected some of my spelling and changed some verbs from the present into the past tense directly. I got a lot of feedback from this conversation, and it is very beneficial for me.
Third, the students in America are incredibly varied. Wherever you choose to study in the United States, you will meet a lot of international students. So you can learn about many different accents of English with those classmates. They are all come from different countries to study English in America. You might have similar problem in learning the second language. While you study, you can share the experiences and learn from each other’s mistakes. Also, you will have some close relationships with classmates, the friendship between international students is very helpful, when you feel upset or confused, you can encourage each other, not only in your studies, but also in life.
In conclusion, there are many advantages of studying English in American. These include a lot of opportunities to practice often, you can study the correct English, and to know many international classmates to encourage and learn from each other. What are you waiting for? Studying English in America will not only can enrich your life experience, but also broaden your view of the world.
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