I&S: Constitutional Monarchy Essay

Should We Keep or Abolish Constitutional Monarchies?

This essay also contributes to the investigation mark. We were provided with 6 sources where opinions and supporting facts, details, and examples are available. We were not required to look at other sites or sources. I read all the sites and decided what information justifies why or not we should abolish constitutional monarchies. Then, I take those points down in my research notes. We were supposed to have different sections for the research notes from each source. I completed my research part without asking a question or checking if I was on the right track.

My high-lighted research notes and my essay planner

What I then do was chose my side by deciding which side of the argument was more convincing. I decided we should keep constitutional monarchies. Next, I picked out all the points that convinced me, making sure I not only had the reasons, but also the facts. I categorised the points into three for my three main body paragraphs. Afterwards, I picked out some reasons we should abolish constitutional monarchies. The ones I picked out were relevant to my main points. This way, I was looking at both sides and using my reasons and facts to blow their point. Once again, I went through this process without any help. All I did was the process I mentioned.

The day the essay was due, we were to write the essay from start-to-finish in an 80-minute class.

   

I got 8/8 for Investigating, 7/8 for Communicating, and 7/8 for Thinking Critically. I thought it was a really good grade for an essay to be researched and planned in a week and written in a class. I am not a very quick person, but I completed it well all by myself. My self-confidence once again increased.

Science Fish Kill Essay

Fish Kill Essay (Final Draft)

By me,        Date: 28-11-2013

For xxx teacher

Have you ever gone to Mana Mana? The sand you are stepping on may be the sand that tons of dead fish once lied on. Some people say that there was a fish kill in Mana Mana before. Why are there fish kills? How does it affects us? How can it be solved?

Firstly, why are there fish kills? Fish kills may be caused by water pollution, oxygen depletion, infectious diseases, parasites. There are a lot of possibilities, but water pollution includes a lot of the possibilities and is probably the most possible and common reason.

Water pollution, what is water pollution? It is a pollution which occurs when too much foreign substances go into water, damage the water quality and make the water non-potable- undrinkable or dangerous for organisms to live in. Pollution can go into water in many ways- acid rain, inroad soil, runoff containing fertiliser or other substances, chemicals released from industries, sewages… Water is easily polluted and is really hard to be cleaned. It is because water is the “universal solvent” which means it dissolves many things. This causes water to dissolve almost everything that gets in its way, and by the time it damages the quality of itself and get polluted. This also causes water to become difficult to clean.

This ability of the “universal solvent” causes itself to dissolve almost everything that gets in its way, and by the time damaging the water quality and gets polluted, and difficult to clean. This ability of the “universal solvent” causes aquatic life to always be difficult. The reason is that water is too hard to keep itself clean and the aquatic life is then dangerous when that lot of variety of chemicals dissolved in water- which may be harmful- flowing around in water reaching different water areas easily, without being seen. Therefore, it is really important to keep water resources clean.

People in developed places don’t treasure water as they can get it by only turning on the tap. They over consume, waste water, and pollute water. You may think  it doesn’t matter, but have you ever think of how the water pollution affect all of the natural environment? Water pollution is a serious problem now, not only because water is very polluted, but also because it affects the natural environment and wild animals, a lot. Water covers 70% of Earth’s surface and covers 99% of the living space on Earth. It provides nearly 50% of Earth's oxygen and 20% of the world's protein supply, and supports 50% of the animals living on Earth. Now 2/3 are endanger because of water pollution.

You may not care about the natural environment as long as you are safe, but do you know that water pollution also affect us, humans, and you may not be safe? For us, living in developed places, we may not care, but over a billion of people can’t get clean water as easy as us, so they drink water that is not clean and then get sick or die. You may be a murderer. If you don’t care about others’ health or life, I bet you still care about yourself. Are you having fish for dinner today? Look at the fish you’re eating, it may be a fish that’s from a river or sea filled with oil of the boats, filled with rubbish and all that harmful materials you flush or wash away. You may be eating a fish from that horrible environment you created yourself. You don’t eat fish? Beaches, beaches that have water pollution gives you rashes, ear aches, pink eye, respiratory infections, hepatitis, encephalitis, gastroenteritis, diarrhea, vomiting, and stomach aches. That’s no day at the beach, is it? So you are not going to stay safe forever with water pollution.

If you don’t care about health, do you care about money? Water pollution can damage economy as it is expensive to treat and clean the water in order to make it potable, and it’s also expensive to prevent water contamination. I bet you won’t like to pay for ten dollars for a bottle of water. People are sick because of drinking polluted water, they need medication. Medication uses a lot of money and resources. Also, beaches which may be tourist attractions are closed- because the water pollution at the beach gives people health problems like -and may decrease tourism. For example, thousands of beaches are closed in the US every year. Water pollution affects everything. Therefore, bear in mind, water pollution is a serious problem and it is really important to keep water resources clean.

Anyway, worrying is useless, why not think of a solution to solve the problem? How can we solve the problem of water pollution? There’s always a solution. We should start with personal little things. Firstly, we still have a lot  of clean water, save them, treasure them, use them in an appropriate way. Secondly, don’t dump junks into the sea, no matter when we’re on a boat or on the shore. Thirdly, we can volunteer to pick up rubbish on the beach which may go into the water and pollute them. Factories are one big part of water pollution too, and they’re now working new ways and policies to help with the water pollution. Many countries now have laws to protect water. Also, there are organisations now to tell people and clean water and save marine life. Also, instead of dumping everything from the sewage into the ocean, we can make recycle the water like how Singapore does, making potable water again. Although it may cost quite, it is an action we should take for a better future of us humans, animals, environment and economy… There are a lot of things companies and factories can do, but it is always a responsibility of all of us.

Back to fish kill in Mana Mana. What do you think causes that to happen? As you should know, Mana Mana is in Singapore, Singapore have always been reclaiming land. When they reclaim land, the waste of the machines may be releasing harmful materials into the water and this may be the cause to the fish kill. Singapore is also a trading country so ships are going in and out, and that may cause an accident of oil leakage.

Water pollution is almost the most serious problem, it affects us environmentally, affects our health, affects our economy. If water pollution is going to go worse, many bad and sad things are going to happen. For example, two-third of the endangered marine animals may all die leaving one-third of all the marine animals existing now; Water will be high-priced; More people will catch diseases due to water pollution… So bear in mind and be optimistic with working for a better future of water pollution.

Bibliography: (1135 words)

http://www.grinningplanet.com/2006/12-05/water-pollution-effects.htm

http://chinawaterrisk.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/The-Social-Impact-of-Water.pdf

http://eschooltoday.com/pollution/water-pollution/effects-of-water-pollution.html

http://www.nrdc.org/water/

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_sea_animals_die_each_year_because_of_the_sea_pollution#slide2

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-do-factories-do-to-help-stop-pollution.htm#

http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/ocean_life.html

Essay- What Can We Learn From Parvana

This is one of our big/ important essays we wrote at the beginning of the year. "Parvana" was a book, and the girl which is the main character from the story is called Parvana. She and her family are Afghanistan people, and they are fighting for freedom. There are a lot of morals and themes in the book, and we learnt a lot from it. We learnt especially from the girl Parvana, so we wrote an essay about it.

What Can We Learn From Parvana?

By Rex


Everyone has had a tough time, but can you imagine being in a condition where your father is arrested, you cannot even step out of your door or you will be beaten by soldiers, and you have to change your identity to be the bread-winner for your family's living? The book “Parvana” by Deborah Ellis is about an eleven-year old girl called Parvana. In the story, the Taliban have taken control of Afghanistan and their beliefs were that females- except for little girls- could only go out with their husbands, or their husbands’ note explaining why the women could go out. They did not like people receiving any education. Parvana's father was arrested because he had gone to a university in England. Due to the strict rules of the Taliban, Parvana had to cut her hair and change her identity into a boy to earn money and buy and get things home for the family's survival, like her father did. She was successful in solving her family's problems. What can we learn from Parvana? Parvana teaches us to take risks, she teaches us to be brave and face our problems and not to run away from them. She also teaches us not to give up our hopes and dreams but to take action to see them came true.


Firstly, Parvana teaches us to take risks in order to solve our problems. Parvana, as a girl, was not allowed to go out in Afghanistan. However, she overcame her fears of being caught by Taliban soldiers and changed her identity into a boy to be able to go out to earn money and get all the needs, for a better life of her family. After talking about the plan of Parvana to become a boy, Parvana said, “All right, I’ll do it.”(Ellis 68). This showed that Parvana was willing to take risks. It was really dangerous going out disguised as a boy. There was always a possibility of people finding she was a fake. Nevertheless, she overcame her fear and took this big risk for her family. Parvana also wanted to buy trays to sell stuff around the market. She was told that digging up bones could make a lot of money. Though that sounded like a really horrible, disrespectful job, Parvana went there at last to make money to buy trays and did what she wanted. Although it was tough, she earned enough money to buy a tray and succeeded at last. The book said, “Getting left behind did not sound so terrible to Parvana but she obediently fell in behind Shauzia as they ran to catch up with group.” (106). It says that Parvana did not really care about being left behind, but she still went to dig up bones. This shows that there was not other factors that made her go, but she went to dig up bones because she thought that risk might be worth it. She was a risk-taker, we can see Parvana was a risk-taker, and it always turned out good for her, she succeeded and reached her target. We should be a risk-taker like how we learnt from Parvana because it can turn out good.


Moreover, Parvana teaches us we should never give up our hopes and dreams but take action to see them come true. Half a year after her father was arrested, she was called to leave Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, for her elder sister's wedding. She strongly refused because she believed that her father would come back. When she was told she had to go, she exclaimed "We can't leave Kabul! What about Father? What will happen if he gets out of prison and we're not here? He won't know where to look for us!” (138-139). She believed her father would come home. She waited and she refused to leave because her hope that her father was going to come back home. This showed that she was keen that her hope would come true. This proves Parvana never gives up hope. Another time, Parvana brought home a girl who told Parvana Mazar- the place where the rest of Parvana’s family were going- was under the Taliban’s control- it was not before- and the Taliban were killing everyone they saw. Some days afterwards she brought the girl home, when Parvana's father finally came back, Parvana was very excited. She did not worry anymore, she was filled with hope and was looking forward to reuniting her family. Parvana said "I feel like I'm working for something now. I'm working to get my family back” (159-160). Parvana was working for her family, she was working to get her family back. What she hoped after knowing that the rest of her family was in danger, was to have her family back, to help their family, to save them, to reunite them. This shows she was working for it. This shows that she was taking action for her hope and never stopped and never gave up. So remember, Parvana teaches us we should never give up our hopes and dreams but take action for them.


Last but not least, Parvana teaches us to be brave and face our problems and not to run away from them. Once, her family had a plan to turn her into a boy so she could go out and earn money and get the needs home. Parvana could refuse and stay at home all day long expecting the rest of her family to do the job, but she faced the problem. She achieved this challenge and went with that plan. The story said, “They could hold her down and cut off her hair, but for anything more, they needed her cooperation. In the end, it really was her decision" "All right, I'll do it." (68). After hesitating for a while. She said she would go along with the plan. She agreed to accept the challenge herself instead of being forced. This is a really good example of facing a problem and accepting a challenge. There’s another example of Parvana facing her problems bravely. After the first day of digging up bones, her mother asked her where she was. Parvana said, “I was digging up graves.” (116). She told the truth, she faced the problem that she did something bad. She did not hide from it and tell a lie. This is a good example of facing a problem, bravely, instead of hiding and telling lies. Afterwards, her mother got mad and scolded her angrily. Parvana could be ashamed and never dig up bones and stop talking about it again. However, she really wanted to buy a tray and she knew that the family couldn’t make enough money for a good living. She shouted back and fought for herself. "I don't want to quit yet. I want to buy trays, and things to sell from the trays. I can follow the crowd the way, instead of waiting for crowd to come to me. I can make more money” (118). This was how she shouted back at Mother and stood up for herself, and for her family. At last, Parvana got what she wanted. Therefore, this is a good example to face a problem the way you believe it’s right, too. So, be brave and face the problem the way you think is correct. Learn this from Parvana.


Parvana teaches us to take risks. She teaches us to face our problems and not to away from them. She teaches us to never give up our hopes and dreams. These things that Parvana teaches us are very important as they are some basics of our life principles. What we learnt from Parvana can affect our attitudes and even our lives. Therefore, what we learnt from Parvana is enormously important. Therefore, always keep in mind of what parvana teaches us!