Tragedy behind Pet Shops

When we pass by pet shops, our eyes fall on adorable dogs in the cages, but we would never truly know how these puppies come from. They are not natively born to be purebred, look attractive and get beautiful fur. A particular male dog and a particular female dog are arranged and forced to pair. Breeding farms are not as comfortable as pet shops. We are supposed to know the tragedy behind the stores.

Ann:

I’m going to uncover the pitiable truth about dog breeding. The merchandisers know that people would buy dogs with beautiful fur colors or pure breeds. Therefore, they would intentionally match the dogs of good breeds, and the puppies would be more gratifying. The cages those dogs stay in would be decided by different breeds in order to be easily recognized by people. They would inject the drug, the aphrodisiac, into the bodies of the female dogs to attract male dogs. The duration that a mature female dog is pregnant and finally gives birth to puppies is about sixty to sixty-five days. That’s about two months. After a month of break, the merchandisers would have the female dogs injected and impregnated again. As a result, we could easily figure out that the female dogs will gradually get tired. Once the female dogs couldn’t give birth anymore, the merchandisers would put them in the cages without any food and water, just leaving them dead there, or if the merchandisers happen to leave for another place tomorrow, they will take those female dogs, put them into a big black bag and throw them away.

The puppies will be classified and checked whether they are healthy or not, and those sick puppies will be abandoned. The probability of abnormal puppies are high since the breeds of mating dogs are close. Hence, the merchandisers want to sell those healthy puppies as fast as they can because they’re not sure whether those puppies would have undiscovered disease and would survive or not. If the puppies aren’t sold out, the good ones would be kept to be the mating dogs. The others would be thrown away.

Their “homes”, the cages, are dirty and small. The space of the cage is only enough to let the dogs stand or lie prone, and the cage is easily getting hotter or colder when the weather changes. The merchandisers don’t take care of those dogs when their nails grow long, so their nails are easily stuck in the cage. When they stand in the cage, the long nails would prick in their soles. It would cause their feet to bleed.

The food is basically rotted rice bran with chicken feed. Also, the merchandisers wouldn’t clean the dogs’ excrement, so the environment is dirty and easily attracts many bugs and mosquitos to bite them. Even, when they feel bored or painful, they couldn’t bark because the merchandisers have already used a steel tube to pierce into their throats and make them hoarse.

Eileen:

My family keeps two dogs. One was a stray dog. She appeared in my elementary school when I was in my third grade. My school called 119 to take her away. I saw fire fighters put her in a big gunny, she struggling with unwillingness as well as tension. I was so young that I didn’t consider how they treated her was a blameful deed. I didn’t take pity on her. Now, I feel shame on myself badly. Later, I saw her show up again in my community. I guessed those fire fighters just released her somewhere not close to my school, but she came back as you can tell. Then, I called her and let her come to my house. I simply thought she was special and extremely cute so I wanted to keep her. When I recall the decision to let her be my family, I think without no doubt, I was right. Another dog in my house was brought back home by my older sister. He was not bought from a pet shop but adopted from an organization. My sister told me that there are many dogs that need a house to live and someone to love them.

Those puppies in pet shops are naïve and showing shining eyes but their parents are suffering great pain in other places we don’t know. If we want to stop what we see in breeding farms, please don’t get moved easily by pretty puppies in the stores. Furthermore, if we are eager to raise dogs, think about those stray dogs and please give them a sweet home.

Work smart

Now people consider “work smart” is better than “work hard”. But before receiving this idea, we should first know the meaning of “work smart”. This term signifies that people no longer just “work hard” to get every thing done but also work with efficiency, with “smart” skills and “smart” approaches to finish the work better.

But there is a developing that twists the original good meaning. Some bosses and employees change the meaning of “work smart”. Those employees would give their works to those who are new in the company. And they turn this “skill” into “work smart”. As a result, “work smart” turns out to be no responsibilities.

After so many lessons employees have learned from the bussiness environment, they start to understand the undefined “rule”. Everybody tries to “work smart”, the surviving principle is to work as less as you can. And gradually the whole system lost its positive, active energy, and the fair value is twisted.

Following the idea of “work hard” is a wrong thing, many new, fresh college students take over the responsibolities of working hard. But there is always someone that standing out from his group. We observe those who become successful and realize they’re “work smart” people.

For example, when being asked to investigate the market price of watermelons, they not only asked one store how much was it, but also investigate others and wrote down the weight of watermelons and prices from each store, plus some analysis and recommandetions to give some valuable suggestions.

From this example, we can see they don’t just do what the boss told them to do, but they understand the need of the question, and hold this important information to search deeper and more accurate. They aren’t just blindly searching for information, but search for what they need to make the searching range smaller and make the searching process faster.

Actually back to the original purpose, we should encourage everybody to work things right and do their best. “Work hard” is good, but work in a more effiecient way to finish the work is better. And the idealst situation is to work with hard-working spirit and use the smart approach, it is to “work hard” and also “work smart”. 

Two interviewees

Today I went to the Microsoft Company to have an interview for the internship. We have a group interview therefore you can see how other people introduce themselves and their performance. When I was in that occasion, it was easy to see who had a better performance judged by three perspectives, confidence, experience and the ability to deal with unexpected situation. At that time, I noticed a girl who is really tall and beautiful.

At first, the interviewer asked us to introduce ourselves one by one. When it was my turn, I was very nervous. As a result, I couldn’t express my ideas clearly. I lost the confidence when I tried to introduce myself in English in 30 seconds. The thing that I am most confident with, speaking English, was not working. I was very disappointed at myself. The other tall, beautiful girl was other way around. She was obviously prepared well that her confidence showed through her speech. She spoke of her club expierence smoothly and steadyly. That was the moment I realized there are many other people who have more clubs expierence than I have, and their clubs’ attribute is diverse. She had expierence of the assitent working in the bank, and helping taking care of guests who are from other countries working for their governments. My club expierence at that time seemed very few, but I did learn many things from there. I tried to express how much and what I had learned from the club, but being nervous made me speak with nonesense. There were no order and clear main ideas in my speech. I lost my tempo and confidence.

When an interviewee finished his introduction, the interviewer started to ask you some questions. That was the moment to test your ability to deal with unexpected situation. After I finished my introduction, the interviewer asked me how well is my English. I answered I can have a coversation with foreigners, so he asked me whether I can have a short 30 seconds introduction of myself in English. At first I spoke about three sentences, and I froze. I didn’t know whether he wanted me to translate what I just said in Chinese into English, or I should just simply introduce my hobbies and other things. I froze like about 5 seconds, and I said out that I am nervous which was the biggest mistake. Never show them that you are nervous, at least try to hide this feeling. When it was the girl’s turn, I could tell that she was also nervous, but she hid the nervous part and calmed down. She answered every question he asked confidently and without haste. It was like she overcome all the obstacles steadyly and not afraid to face them.

After I got home, I thought about the interwiew again and again. At first I was very down because I didn’t do well. But then I fought back again, escaped away from this low atmosphere and frustration. I learned many things from this interview. If there won’t be a result as I hope to be, I would except it and keep working hard. In short, I’m glad I have this special expierence.

Make up with Eileen

Make-up is something that can make you more beauteous. Some people may not look good, but make-up makes them pretty. Some people are born to be lovely and make-up makes them more attractive. That is why make-up has its importance of existence.

Ann and I are interested in cosmetics. Especially, Ann has done more research on it. We usually use make-up to make ourselves look more energetic and certainly, prettier. In the following, Ann is going to show how she usually applies make-up and I am going to be the model for this demonstration.

I wash my face first before I put on make-up. Also, I will apply freshener and moisturizer. These are daily skincare after I wash my face.

The skin of Eileen’s forehead and nose is the oil part, and the skin of her chins is dry and sensitive. If we don’t take precautions to prevent her skin from being exposed to the sun, the ray will do harm to her skin. Therefore, use the sunscreen first. Here I choose these two kinds of sunscreen. Each has a different function. I would use the pink one on the oil part of her face and this can help her to control and delay the time that the oil comes out from her face. The white one is good for the dry part of her face because it is moisturizing.

The next is the foundation. The foundation can hide her pores, make her face smooth and the color of her face skin would be even. It is essential to decide which color of the foundation you are going to use. We need to choose the same color as your skin color instead of choosing the whiter one, or it would be odd and the color would be different from the skin color of your neck. Put the foundation on the back of the hand. We don’t need to use too much of the foundation. A shape like a yellow pea is enough. Put the foundation on her face, use the fingers to spread it and the temperature of my hand would make her make-up stay on her face perfectly.

Use light powder foundation to control the oil of her face and also conceal the blemish on her face.

Then, use the loose powder. Take the brush to wipe over her face lightly.

Finally, put on the light blush to give her a feeling of vividness and freshness.

As for the part of her eyes, she luckily has long eyelashes and big round eyes, so I don’t want to put on any make-up on this part.

To give her a bright spot on her face, her lips are definitely an important part. Now we are still students, so I choose to use the lip balm to moisturize her lips and give her face a look of energy.

After putting on make-up, I feel prettier since my pores, acnes and blemish are concealed and I feel that I can walk on the street confidently. When I get up early in the morning, I tend to have a sleepy face. Make-up does me a favor. I look more energetic under the magic of cosmetics. Make-up is like clothes, shoes or other things that we wear. We put on those fascinating clothing to make ourselves look pretty girls. By the same token, we put on make-up to make ourselves beauties.

One of My Important Choices

  We would make many decisions in our life. Some were forced by your family because they want you to live a better life. But we can't be always sure because we have different personalities; perhaps I have that strong determination to persevere and choose the other one that our families think it's too hard for me. I would enjoy and live with passion because it's my choice.
  I remember when I struggled to choose which college I should apply. There were two schools that I hesitated. One is Soochow university, another is in Hsinchu which my mom used to study there. It's easily to guess and know that my mom preferred me to study there instead of Soochow university. But I chose to study in Soochow university, and there are two reasons. One is because this school is in Taipei, the capital of this country. I wanted to see this world more, the bright side and the dark side of people. I believed to learn something really fast would be to throw you into a total strange environment where the life style is really fast. If you don't work harder, you would be easily replaced by another one. And that will urge me, because I know I am a passive girl.
  The other reason is to prove I was wrong. I used to hear my friends saying how arrogant and selfish people who live in Taipei are. They are arrogant because our government put all their main constructions in Taipei, and that makes people who live in Taipei to think they are better than those in the south because they have a better quality in life. And they are selfish because they care their benefits more and would harm other people to get what they want. At first I was a little bit scared, because I am not that smart. And I hate being fooled. It needed lots of courage for me to leave the sweet home to a total strange place which many people warned me before. But as I got here, I fell in love with this city and people here. There are many protesting activities and here you can hear many different brave people expressing their feelings. You would learn to dare to be yourself because here nobody appreciates people with no personalities. This city is a city that dares to ask for freedom and democracy. And I have met many nice people who were born in Taipei. They overthrow the stereotype and the average impressions. They are hardworking people who move forward to their dreams. They aren't afraid to chase what they want.
  Actually there are many other reasons, but these two are the main reasons. I don't regret what I chose. Even though sometimes when I looked back to some other choices, I would wish that the time can just go back. But I choose to look forward because these choices are made of who I am today. All you can do is to change your mood and to choose more carefully next time. Most of all, don't be afraid to choose what you want, let your instinct leads you, don't fight it.

Kinds of Friends

In our growing process, we meet many people, and we make friends. Often we make friends from our schools. And why making friends is so important? Because we can share same values, and we can learn different experiences from each other’s various backgrounds. We help each other to ease the sadness, and make the sweet things sweeter.

In my life, I split my friends into three categories. “Very close friends”, who can tell and share the secrets; “good friends”, friends that we share some information and know each other but not closer than the very close friends. Finally, “just friends”, friends whom I only say hi and know a little about them.

I am very lucky to have many very close friends. And I met them in different levels of my life. Some I have known for years, some I just met at college. And no matter how long I have known these people, the reason why they become my very close friends are because they would stay with me and listen to me whenever I am sad or happy. They would listen to my problems and give me some good advices. And they would share with me their daily details, secrets, and diverse views. I learn many things through our chatting. And we have the strong feelings that we trust each other. Often we don’t need to say much and we know each other’s thoughts. They make me feel safe and happy.

If the very close friends are ten percent of my category, then good friends would be fifty percent. These friends are mostly nice to talk to, and we would also share some problems from our life, but we wouldn’t tell each other everything, mostly we just tell the happy things to make the atmosphere better. We still have our secrets. And we usually go out with a group of friend. We are just not as close as the very close friends.

Finally, just friends. I’m glad I only have a few of them. Usually people in this category are boys. I don’t know why I have this tendency, I usually get nervous when I talk to guys. In this section, we usually just say hi, have some jokes and talk a little bit about daily lives. It’s just a regular asking to update each other’s new information. There are some shallow aspects that we only want to maintain this awkward “relationship”. But there are some exceptions that I still have some good male friends.

Although there are classification in friends, but not all are so accurate. Nobody can be put into a category. Everyone is unique, and it’s because there are many special, different qualities that these friends are precious. My life’s rich part is part from my friends. And I will cherish them as my most cherished treasure.

 
 
 

Český Krumlov Known as the Most Beauteous Ancient Town in Europe

When people ask, “Where do you want to go in Europe?”, my friend, Ann, and I’s answer will be Český Krumlov. We love travelling and even make a list, the top ten places we must go in our lives. Český Krumlov is on our list beyond question. It is a small city in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. Vltava wanders through this city and it forms a beautiful scene. More importantly, fine architecture makes it become the most fascinating old town in Eurpoe.

    We can sum up the art of architecture in Český Krumlov in four categories. Gothic, renaissance, baroque and neoclassical. It seems very difficult to distinguish these architectural features so we are going to tell you some simple ways to tell them. Here are explanations:

The Gothic architecture is easy to distinguish by the tall and pointed arches. You can see that in the following picture.

Next is the renaissance-style. Renaissance was boosted in the 16th century and it happened in Florence, Italy. Some Czeches studied there. When they went back to their country, they brought the idea of Renaissance. The traits of the renaissance buildings were grace, symmetry and decoration. Then, they combined the renaissance-style with the local style and created a special “Bohemian Renaissance.” The most special feature of the renaissance-style they learned from Italy is to “scrape.” They use this skill on the facade of the building. It appears that there are a great number of envelopes on it.

How to distinguish the baroque-style? The easiest way to distinguish the baroque building is that when you see the symbol of “@” at the corner of the building, this building would be baroque. This special symbol was often used on the buildings in the Baroque age. “@” is like the identity of the baroque-style.

Lots of faux columns and rows of windows are the characteristics of the neoclassical building. The classical Greece and Roman architecture inspired the neoclassical architects so that was how they got their idea. The protruding windows on the facade of the building is also a characteristic of the neoclassical building.

    Český Krumlov is appealing on account of the art of architecture. That is also why this town attracts us a lot. How can we miss the chance to see its beauty with our own eyes? Someday, we will stand on the land of Czech Republic and gasp at the wonderful view. We deeply hope to visit the most beautiful ancient town in Europe at least once in our lifetime.