Grade 10

Blog Post 3: Crucible – Putting It All Together

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In The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, Abigail Williams is known to be manipulative and selfish, as she would constantly lie and falsely accuse other people of participating in witchcraft. She often threatens other people in order to get things her own way, and would gain control over them. For example, in Act 1 when she had threatened the girls to not confess to anyone about anything that they had done in the woods, and to only say that they were dancing. If they had said anything, she threatened to stab the girls.

“Abigail: Now look you. All of you. We danced. And Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam’s dead sisters. And that is all. And mark this. Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you.” (20).

8 Things Manipulative People Do to Get What They Want - WomenWorking

Abigail had falsely accused many other people in order to protect herself, but it eventually led to her accusing other people to get things the way she wants. From the people that she has accused, most of them had gotten executed without much proof. This shows how she is the cause of many deaths, and that she has a lot of power.

“Abigail: I want to open myself! They turn to her, startled. She is enraptured, as though in a pearly light. I want the light of God, I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced for the Devil; I saw him; I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss His hand. I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!” (48).

The reason for why Abigail acts this way is because she might have realized that she can get things done her way easily—by manipulating people and getting them killed.

Similar events that I have personally experienced were often when my siblings had gotten in trouble. An example was when I had caught my sister doing something that would upset my parents, and I was told to not tell anyone or else she would also get me in trouble. As siblings, there were often times when we would tell on one another, constantly getting one another in trouble.

“Manipulation”. Nitinbhatia, 2016, https://www.nitinbhatia.in/stocks/stock-price-manipulation-pledging-shares/. Accessed 16 Mar 2021.

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible: A Play in Four Acts. New York: Penguin Books, 1976.

Frustration about blatant lies someone tells and everyone else believes

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There are often occasions where people would lie in order to make themselves feel better, or to make people believe that they are innocent. Knowing that the person is lying, yet other people are believing them makes me frustrated; I am not able to do anything about it as people would often think that I am trying to make the person look bad, or they would not believe me. Although there might be some people who believe me, other people would have their own opinions.

From my own experience, there would be times when my siblings had done something unacceptable in our household, such as breaking something. In order to not get in trouble, they would lie their way out or blame it on other people. Although I would not want to rat out on anyone, I know that I would also suffer the consequences. This situation is similar to the Crucible when Abigail was told to tell Parris about whether she had participated in witchcraft, as Parris had suspected that she had performed it during act 1. Although Abigail had told him that she and Betty did not participate in any form of witchcraft, he still found it hard to believe as he had seen them in the woods, dancing like heathens. Parris must have found it frustrating when he was trying to get Abigail to tell him the truth since he had already seen them acting strange in the forest. Abigail had to remain innocent and clueless in order to not be accused of witchcraft, as she and Betty would then suffer the consequences of them getting punished and killed. I understand how Parris had been frustrated about trying to get Abigail to confess the truth, but I also understand how Abigail did not want to confess anything so that she can protect herself and not get punished.

My Thoughts on Animal Poaching

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Animal poaching is an activity practiced around the world. The purpose of poaching is to be able to obtain the valuable goods from an animal, which could be created into decorations, clothing, medicine, and eventually sold for thousands of dollars. These activities are usually done illegally, and could easily lead to the poaches getting fined or put in jail.

Poaching had already been illegal for hundreds of years. The activity had first began around the 1700s, mainly for survival purposes, such as obtaining food as many people found it difficult to be able to provide food for themselves and their families. Throughout the years, the crisis of animal poaching worsened, leading to the population of animals to decrease. Not only do poachers illegally kill the animals in order to survive, the poachers also kill them for clothing, decor, etc., which is quite useless as other materials, that does not require harming animals, could also be used to create the same product.

In my opinion, I believe that animal poaching does not benefit us, but instead worsens the environment and the ecosystem around the world. Society has drastically progressed over the past decades, which would allow us to be able to obtain food easily, instead of needing to kill animals illegally. The medicine created by rhino horns do not have any actual medicinal values, but some patients might see results due to a placebo effect. Decorations and clothings can be created by hundreds of different materials that are not able to harm animals in any way. There are always several alternatives to switch to, instead of harming the environment.

The product that I am making for my project is a display of an elephant tusk. While presenting it to my audience, they would be able to gain a better perspective and idea about what the elephant tusk looks like. When creating the display, I made sure to produce minimal waste and to also be as environmentally friendly as I can, by using recycled paper and not buying new materials.

FLP Internship Program Reflection: Dentistry

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During the FLP Internship program, I had participated in working in two dental clinics, which gave me a better idea of how it is like working as a dentist, and what I would need to know as a dentist. Throughout the process of the internship program, the learning goals that I had worked on were mostly communication and gaining my knowledge on dentistry as I often had to communicate with my mentors in order to be able to fully understand their tasks and the different procedures that they were performing. While communicating, they had explained the use and importance for different tools that they had used during procedures, and also shared more about why it is important to practice good dental hygiene.

With my experience of the internship program, it broadened my idea of whether or not I would want to consider dentistry as a future job. Although it might not be the most suitable job for me, working as a dentist still seems quite interesting and fun as I would be able to learn more throughout the process of working, and also create new relationships with the people around me. What I had expected from this program was that I would be able to learn more about dentistry and the important details about it, and what I did not expect from it was that I was able to actually observe and watch dental surgeries. From what I had observed, the surgeries were really fascinating and it surprised me that a lot of the patients did not feel any pain from their teeth getting pulled out.

Some of the skills and abilities that I had to put in during the internship process was communicating, being professional, and learning. For communicating, I had to communicate with the mentors so that I would be able to learn throughout the process and procedures; sometimes, I had to also communicate with the patients, answering any question that they need, or giving them direction on what they should do. This helped me learn more about how it is important to have a good relationship with customers / patients and how it would benefit us. While working on these skills, I had to also stay professional, keeping the patients comfortable by not creating a nuisance.

Overall, this internship program had taught me a lot that I would definitely have not been able to teach myself. It increased my knowledge about dentistry, and gave me a clearer mindset about the future jobs that I would want to consider taking, and what I would want to study when I get into college.

The Hate U Give: Finding Light in Darkness

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Through the process of learning and understanding the way of life, many people would often face difficulties and complexities to find different ways through their obstacles. A few examples could be feeling sorrowful after losing a loved one, or even as simple as struggling on school assessments. These situations would often bring despair or frustration, feeling as if the problem cannot be solved, and that it would affect our lives forever.

In the novel, The Hate U Give, written by Angie Thomas, demonstrates similar events that show the main character, Starr Carter, finding her way through adversity. The novel portrays a range of events that shows Starr searching for the good, while struggling to escape from the bad after experiencing a tough situation. The events are often shown by the use of imagery, different tones, and dialogues, giving the readers a clearer idea of how Starr feels as she tries to recollect and find the light in the darkness.

One of the events shown in the novel, conveying how Starr had found light in the darkness, is when after she had witnessed one of her best friends, Khalil, dying, due to police brutality. Although she felt melancholic and mournful after Khalil’s death, she still decided that it is best for her to not stay silent; to get justice for Khalil after the incident that had happened. There were movements and protests that she had spoken out in, in order for the society to gain awareness about the actions that the police had done to Khalil.

“Once upon a time there was a hazel-eyed boy with dimples. I called him Khalil. The world called him a thug.
He lived, but not nearly long enough, and for the rest of my life I’ll remember how he died.
Fairy tale? No. But I’m not giving up on a better ending.” (Thomas 436).

Angie Thomas had used imagery and Starr’s internal dialogues, showing that although she had just recently lost someone who she had a close relationship to, she is hopeful that she can create a better ending instead of focusing on the negative events that had happened. The quote portrays an optimistic tone, which shows that Starr is positive and determined to get a better ending, doing her part to spread awareness about Khalil and his death. The purpose of Thomas conveying Starr’s internal dialogues through the use of the different devices is for the readers to be able to understand better about how Starr feels, letting the readers connect to the main character, as well as the themes shown throughout the novel. Overall, this quote is relevant to the main topic, about how Starr has been trying to find the light in the darkness, by staying positive and optimistic, and doing anything she could to serve justice for Khalil.

Devastating Effects of Animal Poaching

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Animal poaching plays a huge role in the causes of driving animals to extinction. It affects various species of animals as the poachers would target to capture the animal, either for them to keep or to sell. It might seem uncommon, but animal poaching happens around the world everyday.

What is animal poaching?

Animal poaching is an activity where people would hunt and kill animals, mainly to get hold of a valuable part of an animal; such as an elephant’s ivory, or animal fur, which would then be made into jewelry, decorations, and even traditional medicine. Traditional medicine made from animal poaching products does not actually have any medicinal effects on patients, but patients see results due to a placebo effect. Many people poach animals illegally, sometimes as a hobby as it can help them earn a lot of money when they sell it on the black market, but it would simultaneously kill off the population of the species that is getting poached.

The history of animal poaching

Since the 1700s, animal poaching has already been a huge activity. It was mainly done for survival purposes, allowing people to have access to food and clothing. Although it has been practiced for many years until now, it was already illegal since around the mid-1800s. However, poaching still continues and people are still selling animals through the black market, earning them a few thousand dollars.

Where does animal poaching occur?

Animal poaching occurs globally; however, there are some areas in the world where animal poaching is carried out more than others, such as in Asia and Africa as there are the most exotic animals available in those continents. Countries with the highest rate of poaching include China, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. Each country poaches different species of animals.

How does animal poaching affect us?

There are multiple ways of how animal poaching is able to affect us. Since animal poaching is able to drive animals to endangerment and extinction, food chains would eventually get destroyed. Other species of animals would find it harder to find food. Ultimately, this would lead to a shortage of food for us if animals of different species continue to die off.

Although illegal animal poaching might not be heard in everyday conversations, news, articles, it still happens everyday, affecting the lives of animals and decreasing the population of their species. The awareness of poaching can be raised by sharing your knowledge and information about animal poaching to your friends, posting on social media, and also donating to companies who fight to reduce animal poaching.

“Buyer Beware | Pages | WWF”. World Wildlife Fund, 2020, https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/buyer-beware. Accessed 1 Dec 2020.

Citations

  • “Illegal Wildlife Trade | Threats | WWF”. World Wildlife Fund, 2020, https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/illegal-wildlife-trade. Accessed 1 Dec 2020.
  • “Poaching Animals, Explained”. Nationalgeographic.Com, 2019, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/reference/poaching-animals/. Accessed 1 Dec 2020.
  • “Poaching | Description, History, Examples, & Control”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 2020, https://www.britannica.com/topic/poaching-law. Accessed 1 Dec 2020.
  • “Traditional Chinese Medicine And Wildlife”. Nationalgeographic.Com, 2019, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/reference/traditional-chinese-medicine/#:~:text=In%20some%20cases%2C%20poaching%20animals,poached%20between%202000%20and%202013. Accessed 1 Dec 2020

ILOHL Blog 2: Misunderstanding

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People often misunderstand an idea that an individual might want to convey, it is common and would lead to people getting the wrong idea of an information. There were often times when I misunderstood something; for example, not listening to instructions properly and doing the opposite of what I am supposed to be doing, or even mistaking someone as someone else. In the book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, written by Rebecca Skloot, Skloot mentioned that there were articles being published about Henrietta Lacks and her cells that has helped lead to new discoveries and helped the lives of many patients. However, each of the articles had used different names such as Helen Lane or Helen Larson, instead of her real name, Henrietta Lacks. This led to some misunderstanding about where the HeLa cells had come from, and it was also difficult for journalists, scientists, and doctors to be able to track Henrietta’s family to interview them.

Misunderstandings often lead to making the situation more difficult than it should have originally been. It makes people more confused as to what they are supposed to know and do, and I can sometimes relate to this as well.

Believing certain people do not know what is best for themselves

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I believe that there are some people who do not know what is the best for themselves. They would often ask people to make their own decisions so that they would know what to do. In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, written by Rebecca Skloot, Henrietta would often prioritize spending time with her family instead of taking full care of her health. Only when she was really sick, was when she decided that she should visit the hospital to get herself checked up.  I have several personal experiences that I have encountered that really shows how certain people are pretty clueless about what they think is the best for them. There was a time when my friend did not know whether to have a day where she can just relax, or if she should complete her late assignments that day. To me, I know that I would prefer to complete my late assignments, but to her, she did not know which was better for herself.

Sometimes similar situations would also happen to myself as I am also quite indecisive, sometimes I would need my parent’s guidance for me to know what is best for me; however, my parent’s guidance might not always be right for me. Thinking about which classes I should take next year, what I should study in university, are all examples of not knowing what is the best for me. Sometimes I would also ask my parents and all they would say is “up to you” or “ask your friends”, I feel like this just makes it harder for me to pick what the best for me is. I would often do research on what would benefit my future and see if I would be happy with the outcome, which sometimes might help, but sometimes different websites provide different information; therefore, I feel like it would be better to talk to someone who has experienced what I am interested in. I need to eventually learn to make my own choices and know what is the best for me, in order to gain new knowledge and opportunities.

It is typical to know and not know whether or not something is best for you. It depends on what the outcome would be for the choices you picked, some may be more difficult to choose than the other. Guidance from mutuals or acquaintances might help, as some may have more experience and would know what they are talking about; even so, sometimes it would also be ideal to just decide on your own to see what is the best for you by thinking of advantages and disadvantages. Every choice made would affect your future; thus, it is understandable to not know what is best for yourself.

Indecisiveness Can Cost You Your Business l Talk Business With Howard

“Indecisiveness Can Cost You Your Business L Talk Business With Howard”. Talk Business With Howard, 2017, https://www.talkbusinesswithhoward.com/indecisiveness-can-cost-you-your-business/.

Economics

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SOI: Understand that businesses operate within a system whose structure is influenced by (causality) external factors.

The supply and demand in a market is influenced by the amount of product is produced and if the customers are willing to buy it or not. These factors would cause either the supply curve to shift or the demand curve to shift. Usually when a curve shifts to the right, it means that it increased, but when it shifts to the left, it decreases. When the quantity demanded and quantity supplied is equal to the price, the equilibrium is reached in the market. The price usually depends on either of the curve shift, which would eventually cause a surplus or a shortage. If a surplus occurs, the price of the product would decrease to get more customers to buying the product, and if there is a shortage, the price of the product would increase.

Economic sectors can relate to each other by creating a chain of production. The chain of production is the process of a product, from raw materials to the final product. In the beginning, there is a primary sector, which is to collect and assemble all the raw materials needed for the product. The second part is the secondary sector, when the raw materials are put into use, to start creating the product. Finally, the tertiary sector is when the final product is already created and is being sent out to stores.

There are many companies that indirectly compete with another company. Indirect competition is when different companies, that does not sell the same products or goods, can satisfy the same customer’s needs or wants. An example is when a store sells burgers, and another store sells sandwiches. They are both different, but it can still satisfy the customer’s needs or wants since they are also similar, both contains bread and consists of some meat, or vegetable.