Term 1 Week 9a: IT Home-Learning assignment

This is for HCI Home-based Learning LA, Monday, March 1. The assignment chosen is from the musical section, part a) Select a piece of ambient music that is suitable for the opening scene of "Lamb to the Slaughter." If the music is available legally online, please provide a link to it. Explain the reasons for your choice.

Looking through my album of classical songs (which definitely fits the beginning of Lamb to the Slaughter) I found one which at least the beginning suits the entrance of the TV play. It is titled "Waltz" by Tchaikovsky. The beginning had a rather homely atmosphere which suits the purpose as a replace the piece of music already in the play.

Here is a video of the above mentioned song. Feel free to compare with the TV play. Just play until 0:50 in the video. And there is some empty, soundless space in front so make sure you play this video a bit earlier.



Jordan also suggested me to find another piece for the part when Mary killed Patrick. I found it a good suggestion and tried the challenge.

I could find none in my library (it is very small) but I soon thought of one that would be suitable, remembering how it had a spooky beginning which I am sure many have heard. It is named Toccata and Fugue in D minor, created by Bach.

You can do another comparison here with this video.



Because I think the entrance of this song is rather spooky which suits that frightening feeling when you witness Mary kill Patrick makes this song suitable.

That is it for now. See later this week with another blog post.

Term 1 Week 8c: Explaination

I chose this gruel ending to the story because personally, I will point to the door with the tiger behind it, because if I were in the princess's shoes, I would feel that to let him die would be better than to let him marry to another woman. If I were to let him die, then at least he can wait in his afterlife and then later marry each other when the princess dies herself. To let him marry someone else would have been emotionally stressing because the princess will know that her love is lost forever. I was sure that long-waited love would be much better than lost love.

Also, seeing how the princess hates the woman inside one of the cages, I would understand the choice she will make.

That is it for this week. See you with more blog posts, next week.

Term 1 Week 8b: Weekend Homework

(Ending to "The Lady or The Tiger?", the tiger comes out)

Immediately the orange and black-striped monster pounced towards the lover of the princess, all ready for a quick and bloody kill. The youth, knowing that the princess had betrayed him, cried out in anguish and terror as he tried with all he can to avoid a gruel death but to no avail. The audience looked on in disgust as the ferocious beast shredded the youth into bits and pieces. Heads hung low as the youth managed to shout out to the princess, "Bye, my lover! We shall meet in Heaven!" before his head got brutally clobbered and torn off. Of course the princess could not bear to watch it, her lover having to meet such dire a fate. The semi-barbaric king however, watched in excitement as the red blood of the princess's lover stains part of the arena floor. His eyes widened as the youth, convicted guilty, was killed by the big cat as what he thought of as retribution to his crime, an obvious contrast to the masses. The iron bells sounded, sounding mournful as ever while the crowd, commemorating this fair youth, dispersed, and then all was quiet.
The princess, sinking back into her bed, with the gory scenes still fresh in mind, wondered wether it had been worth it. All the terror just to win over the other woman? The question floated in her mind as she slowly fell asleep.

To be continued with the explaination for the ending.

Term 1 Week 8a: A bit of Narrative Writing + Comprehension 2

This week Mr Lundberg carried on with a little bit of narrative writing before continuing with comprehension. The comprehension was about description and its methods.

1. Try to include all five senses - touch, taste, sight, smell, sound - into the descriptions.
2. Adjectives may have the same meaning but they usually have different a positive or negative description of the object (connotation). Use them wisely because when you use the wrong word marks can be deducted for composition tests.

Then he continued with comprehension. I actually failed my first compre assignment. A very bad way to start off with the lessons. Then Mr Lundberg went through the whole assignment. Now I know my mistakes: -

• Too vague
• Not answering to question
• COMPARITIVE QUESTION: MUST EXPLAIN AND GIVE EXAMPLES FROM PASSAGES

Also he gave us a new assignment and wanted us to complete that by Friday. I am determined that I will be able to do better this time, having noted my errors and flaws.

Here is a video which teaches you skill about how to understand the passages.



To be continued with weekend homework.

Term 1 Week 7: Socratic Seminar

This week the first Socratic Seminar took place on Friday. The topic was "What it means to be Singaporean". Leader Timothy Chong started off the discussion with a summary of the given articles but apparently he had not prepared well, as I, his observer, could clearly see. Then the discussion started of with a question : "What do we possess that is Uniquely Singaporean?"

The Socratic Seminar basically covered what it means to be Singaporean as well as the unique things Singapore has. The discussion had many breaks (I am sure teachers won't be happy with this) with the TIC (teacher-in-charge) making all the questions and discussions. One of the discussions (the main one actually) was about citizenship and patriotism. The definition, as we were discussing, citizenship was an official identification of your loyalty to a certain country while patriotism is more like where one's heart belongs to. Then we also discussed about what makes someone Singaporean. Factors like work, migration and more were discussed.

The seminar left me more perplexed towards the situation - many things, as discussed, can identify one as Singaporean! It left me with questions as I reflected on the Seminar. There has to be just one thing that will identify someone as Singaporean, then why all the debate? Why does Singapore want to stand out from the rest as uniquely diverse?

The good thing about the seminar was that a few of the participants were able to voice out their ideas clearly. But then the discussion was overall unsatisfactory, the panellists unable to speak up coherently, several of them coming unprepared.

The seminar had a few connections with a given article "What it means to be a Singaporean". The discussion's main topic, about citizenship and patrionism, has some of its ideas in the above mentioned article, the writer feeling a deep sense of homeliness. As he watched the parade he felt very lucky to be a Singaporean and the felt proud of our homeland. This has some relation to the patrionism mentioned in our Seminar.


See you next week with another blog post.

Meanwhile you can view this video about how Socratic Seminars should be properly held.