TOEFL Essay

19. Should governments spend more money on improving roads and highways or should governments spend more money on improving public transportation (buses, trains, subways)? Use specific reasons and details to develop your essay.

                Silom road, one of the busiest streets in Bangkok, may give chills to office workers when the name is heard. Why? It’s disastrous. During rush hours, the traffic jam is egregious. Cars stay in place without moving for hours. Horns honk furiously at each other. Statuses posted on Twitter and Facebook how bad the traffic is. What did you expect? It’s Bangkok! For some reason the notorious demagogues handed first car policy in which owners that never purchased a car will have lower prices than the ones that did. As a result, the number of cars increased dramatically. Because of that, people began to question the government that why don’t they improve public transportation instead of creating highways or giving out new policies that will just cause problems? Improving roads and highways will just result in a higher number of cars. And once again, it will cause problems.

                One of the very first problems that will result after the improvements in highways/roads is pollution. With many cars travelling on highways and roads, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide are released from them into the atmosphere. These gasses create the greenhouse effect. And with that, the city will become much hotter and hotter.  When the city becomes much hotter, people rely more on air conditioners. The air conditioners also use more electricity. Electricity requires more energy. Therefore, coals are being burned, causing pollutions again. It’s like a cycle. And also, the ashes from the burnt coals float all around. The area around where the coal is being processed into electricity is not immaculate. Again, causing pollution. So this is another reason why we should not improve highway or roads.

                The second reason why government should improve public transportation is because there would be fewer accidents. Why? Most accidents that happen in Bangkok are mostly motorcycles and car crashes. It is often caused when people are trying to outpace the vehicle in front, and they can’t break their vehicle in time. Why do they have to outpace the vehicle in front? Well because there’s so many cars and humans have limited patience. So we want to go faster. That’s why it causes vehicle crashes. But on the other hand, using public transportation like BTS and MRT will reduce road accidents. There won’t be anything to outpace. There won’t be anything to crash into (well, of course except for train crash). With less accidents, less people get hurt. And that’s a good thing for Thai residents.

                Lastly, convenience and connections. When Thailand’s subway is being compared to other Asian countries, it’s really pitiful. Sometimes I felt taunted when I go to Hong Kong and feel the fantastic subway connections. Every subway station can walk to a place. The underground is totally connected with subways. The convenience make it possible for every Hong Kong resident to go around without paying much. It also improves quality life too. People get to walk every day , so therefore people tend to have better health too, not sallow looking. On the other hand, sitting in a car would gain you nothing except for the building up of fats.

                In conclusion, improved public transportation is a better idea than improving highways and roads. Developed countries tend to develop a more organized and variety of public transportation. There are more pros than cons for public transportation as on the previous paragraphs. Improved public transportations would most likely be the answer to solve the boring traffics in Bangkok. So, improved highways and roads are no better than a well-improved public transportation.

                

Hamlet Act 2 Scene 1 and 2 Podcast

Hamlet Act 2 Scene 1
Kanyarak - Ophelia
Nattaporn - Reynaldo
Parima - Polonius
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Hamlet Act 2 Scene 2
Kanyarak - Claudius
Nattaporn - Volt.
Parima - Gertrude
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Hamlet Response Journal

Response Journal for Act 1 Scene 1 to Act 1 Scene 5

1. How does the play make you feel at this point? Record your emotional response(s) in a few sentences and then explore them for a few minutes, trying to figure out why you feel as you do.

Personally, I'm a big fan of regal drama fictions. I like to indulge myself with the words authors use to describe the castles, characters, and many other things. This play, it is different. The characters are just mysterious. Their real emotions not really opened up by the author (because it's a play, I'm quite familiar with reading third-person view). I really tried to keep up with the words Shakespeare used, but it's just so hard. Sometimes, the words he used has two meanings. So it's just difficult for me to identify what he meant in each lines.

2. In what situations have you felt similar to the characters? What persons, places, or ideas, from your own experiences came to your mind while you were reading this portion of the play? Try to list at least three associations, but don't worry about trying to figure out why they came to mind. Just accept that they occur.

a. At Elsinore Act 1 Scene 1, Barnardo calls out who's there and Francisco answered it's him. I can relate this to my experience during Pathfinder camps. I got punished due to disobedience. My punishment was to 'stay in the dark'. Every 'Eisian' Pathfinder knows what's 'stay in the dark'. The Pathfinder instructor will lead you to a dark place within the camp, and put you there. It's dark, not lights, and it's creepy. So there was this time I got punished by staying in the dark. I'm scared so I wandered off from my post and saw some figure beside a tree and I called out, "Who's there?" The figure turned to me and answered, "It's me!" So it's just my friend after all. 

b. Ofttimes, Hamlet reminds me of myself. I usually brood and ponder around during the day. I like to think about problems that are happening to me. Not to be a creep, but I like to talk to myself. You see, talking to myself helps me figure out solutions to problems. Sometimes while doing Algebra 2 homework alone in my room I talked to myself, babbling x and y equals to blah, blah, blah. That's just my way of working and staying alone.

c. Act 1 Scene 5 where the ghost appeared reminds me of one episode in the Vampire Diaries. There's this spooky girl who was the guy's ex-girlfriend, but she died. So she came back to warn him about the danger that's creeping through the darkness and something bad is going to happen. She's not malevolent, she just wants to help. Both the girl and the ghost who came back to Hamlet are unrested spirits. They came back to warn the people they care about that something fishy is going on.

3. What portions of Shakespeare's language attracts your attention? These might be individual words, phrases, lines, scenes, or images. Make note of whatever features draw your attention. Speculate for a few minutes about what you think they might mean.

Okay, not trying to sound like a creep here, but I actually like the part where the ghost of Hamlet's father was revealing the secret of his death. He mentioned about Claudius in Act 1 Scene 5 lines 47 and 48:

"Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast, With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts- "

 The adjectives and nouns used in the excerpt above fits perfectly together. It creates a vision how Claudius is like. It's so poetic and really narrative. The excerpt above caught my attention at first sight.

4. Make note of any portion of the play, its language, or events that cause you problems. Note any questions that you might ask.

I expected that my problem reading Hamlet is its language. I'm not a vocabulary freak, who knows every single word, and who has a wide knowledge of old English. So I had problems with those poetic phrases which has two meanings. Makes it hard for me to browse through the dictionary one by one, since most of the words I read in one page is alien for me. Other than that I've got no problem with the play. Just the language.

Questions that I might ask? Can it be something about the setting? If yes, I would like to know how the old Dane royal palaces and castles might look like. Since I've seen in movies, the old English palaces and castles look so mysterious like Hogwarts. I'm kind of a person who likes to imagine the setting and the character's appearance. Because if there's no description how the character looks like, and how the setting is, I can't really imagine what's going on. So I really want to know how the royal palace or castles looks like, and how the characters in the dresses and looks like.

Spectator Sport - Bit-Tec Food Court

Noises, noises everywhere. Metallic utensils’ clang, footsteps sounds, people talking, the crunching of food, and so many other noises. Well, the Science fair sure is a large exhibition. All around me I see people in diverse flamboyant polo tops. Students from different provinces come here to attend the exhibition. Of course when people come, they need food. I also need food. So here am I, sitting boringly in the food court, with different noises.

 




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At first I’m not hungry. But now, the scent of the savory dishes’ chemicals fly like birds through my nose, and into my chemoreceptors. My stomach grumbles like an old grumpy grandpa. I couldn’t bear this torturing my stomach sends to my brain, so I stand up, and walk to one of the food booths. The smell, the smell! Noodles with boiled meatballs and boiled-mouthwatering pork slices. It looks really delicious too. And there's Tom Yum Koong! Look at those prawns floating on the orange-looking soup. The other booth is some sort of Indian food. Even though I'm not a big fan of Indian food, but the scent of spices and chili strikes me badly. 

Picking one of these foods is like the hardest decision in my life. I look up hungrily to one of the menus and gape. Fifty baht for one bowl of noodles! Are you kidding me!? So I glanced at the chef who's cooking the noodles and the assistant chef who's adding scallions and vegetables for the noodle bowl. But the appearance of the food sure does looks good. I hesitate, but still couldn't resist the smell! The smell of boiled pork slices makes my mouth water like some hungry drooling dog. Oh well, fifty baht for a nice bowl of noodle with boiled pork slices wouldn't kill me. So I order the noodle with boiled pork slices and soup. After for a while, the chef gives me the noodle and I pay him fifty baht.

 

 

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I walk back to my seat, eager to taste the boiled pork slices. It seems like my salivary glands aren't working right. It seems to be producing so much saliva more than normal occasions. I sit down, and clean the spoon and fork (yes I eat noodles with spoon and fork) then dip it into the noodle bowl. Eager to satiate myself with the noodles, I stir the noodles to make the spices and scallions' taste mix with them. Then I taste  the noodle and then proceed to the soup. The assertive taste of noodle and the soup's mellow aroma make me feel how lucky I am to sit here and eat it without having other worries. I quickly finish my noodle because the taste is so undeniably excellent. I would like to say that this, is the best meal I have in about one month! I smile gladly because it was the right decision to buy the noodle bowl after all!