2011/12/31 (Sat) Slept from4:00-10:30 (6.5 hrs) with a short interval around 7:00. Slight game/car-like noise when I was going to sleep and rather big car-blast-like noise when I woke up around 7::0. It sounded like a game, too. I do not remember being attacked with electric shocks or not clearly. Maybe once or twice. When I woke up around 10:30, it was hard for me to open my eyes for a while because the sun shine felt too shiny and also my eyes felt tired.
I studied at the fast food restaurant from around 16:00 to 21:00. Tried to take a light sleep around 18:00. I had a fit in my right leg once, but no electric shock in my head. The place and people and other customers were all nice and warm :)
2011年12月31日土曜日
2011年12月30日金曜日
Supersonic/Electronic Weapon 不特定多数による長期にわたる原因不明の嫌がらせ（６）
2011/12/30 (Fri) Slept from 2:30-5:00 + 7:00-9:30 (2.5 + 2.5 hrs). Rather weak electric shocks to my head when going to sleep first. Rather loud game/car-like noise woke me up around 5:00, but the noises in my head were not loud. Somewhere between 5:00 and 7:00, some woman walked past my apartment building, and the game/car-like noise stopped for a while. Lots of electric shocks and fits probably every 10 seconds for a while when I was going to sleep again before 7:00. While I was sleeping the second time, I remember being half-woken up by the flashes blinking in my eyes and stress to the back of my eyes in sync with the blinking. When I woke up again, the noises in my head were loud.
Studied at the fast food restaurant from around 16:00 to 21:00. Around 17:00, I took a nap for 15 minutes or so. I remember my leg having a fit once but nothing else that I experience during sleep at home occurred.
Wore a baggy coat again. It is better for feeling secure.
Again, I shirked innocent people this evening. In front of my station, two young men were standing when I came out of the supermarket which faces the station. When I was going into the street the men were facing, one of them stepped out into my direction. Aware that a woman was approaching from behind, I turned around and went another way. The man seemed to be shocked and the other man seemed to be explaining my behavior. I often automatically escape the point where more than one people are approaching from more than one direction, for I used to, and still sometimes, be surrounded or cornered. I realized they were no harm when I started to turn around but could not stop. I am very sorry.
To f,
:)
Studied at the fast food restaurant from around 16:00 to 21:00. Around 17:00, I took a nap for 15 minutes or so. I remember my leg having a fit once but nothing else that I experience during sleep at home occurred.
Wore a baggy coat again. It is better for feeling secure.
Again, I shirked innocent people this evening. In front of my station, two young men were standing when I came out of the supermarket which faces the station. When I was going into the street the men were facing, one of them stepped out into my direction. Aware that a woman was approaching from behind, I turned around and went another way. The man seemed to be shocked and the other man seemed to be explaining my behavior. I often automatically escape the point where more than one people are approaching from more than one direction, for I used to, and still sometimes, be surrounded or cornered. I realized they were no harm when I started to turn around but could not stop. I am very sorry.
To f,
:)
2011年12月29日木曜日
Class Supplement, TOEFL Essay, The most important room in a house
☆Writing Topic
What room of a house do you consider the most important? Why does this room have such importance? Include specific reasons and details to support your choice.
☆Let’s think
The question uses the verb “consider,” not “prefer.” It is asking about the room of a house you regard as the most important. Therefore, you are supposed to tell your view, not your preference.
☆Functions of each room
the living room – communication, socializing, family events, ceremonies, memories with family
the bedroom – relaxation, concentration, creation, reflection, purification of mind, solitude/privacy
the kitchen / dining room – cooking/eating, food preservation, communication
the bathroom – hygiene, relaxation, self-check
☆Hints for points
♦ the living room: Man is a social animal. / This room is located in the best area in a house. / It is used for important purposes. / Most important things of the family are in the living room. / The simplest house designs like those of pit houses or houses of nomads are similar to a living room. This shows that it is the essence of a house.
♦ the bedroom: Everyone needs to be alone sometimes. / Personal things are in the bedroom. / The main function of a house in society is rest and relaxation. / Bedroom is often the only place where you can be involved in deep mental activities such as reflection or creation.
☆Ideas and expressions
♦Living Room (Ideas taken from http://www.findscore.com/twe/essays/397.html)
1. In my recollection, the living room reminds me of a lot of rosy memory. In the past, our living room was always a center of family gathering. All family members sit together here. Sometimes, we watched TV. Other times, we played chess. Our living room was always full of happiness and pleasure.
2. The living room is also a place for parties and guests. When our family friends come to visit, we always entertain them in our living room. Sometimes, we even buy some ornaments such as flowers to decorate our living room. The purpose for all of these is to show our sincere welcome to our guests. We always make our living room spotless. If we take our friends to a messy living room, perhaps our friends will not visit us again. Therefore, a living room always plays a very important role in our social activities.
3. In a word, a living room always plays an important role in both our family life and our social activities.
♦Bedroom (Ideas taken from http://www.english-test.net/forum/ftopic17116.html)
1. Obviously, we spend the great amount of time in our bedrooms. I not only sleep but also study and work here. It’s very important for me to relax in my cozy room after a hard working day. I can simply read a book, see movies or enjoy the beautiful scenery from the window.
2. Everyone needs a room to keep his personal possessions. All necessary things, which I use in my daily life, are in my bedroom. I have a good bed to sleep in and see incredible dreams. I have a computer here, which helps me study and get information for many purposes. I also have a piano in my bedroom, despite the fact that it takes up much space, and I could improve my musical skills any time.
3. There are many memories of my childhood related to my bedroom. I remember the time when I put my first step in to the room and smiles on my parents’ faces at that time. I still recall how I played here with my first serious toy – plastic constructor. My first touch of the piano and computer keyboards in my bedroom also will never go away from my memory.
☆Paragraph development
A paragraph of the body of an essay often develops its main idea as follows:
【Main Idea】The main function of the living room is more important than those of other rooms.
【Explanation】 The living room is for activities that have significance for the family and the society.
【Detail / Example】 Family events and meetings with visitors are held in the living room.
【More Specific Detail / Example】When celebrations such as birthday parties and anniversaries are held, family members and guests gather in the living room. Also, visitors such as sales people and representatives of the community are invited into the living room.
【Counterargument & Counter-counterargument】 Of course, the importance of these events are rather superficial in a sense. More profound events in life such as emotional interactions or self-reflection happen in other rooms. However, even when family members go through all those critical moments in life in the kitchen or in the bedroom, the living room always exist in their minds as a special place for official presentation of their attitude toward their family and society. The living room is almost always chosen as the place for a serious announcement or confession.
【Conclusion】 We see the living room as a sacred place for formal purposes and this makes it the most important room of a house.
Your test paragraph development
Now let’s practice paragraph development. Choose one of the reasons you have come up with, make it the main idea, and develop it using the following form. As this is a tentative part of your real essay, use simple words and sentences for supporting details and focus on the logic and ideas.
【Main Idea】
【Explanation】
【Detail / Example】
【More Specific Detail / Example】
【Counterargument & Counter-counterargument】
【Conclusion】
What room of a house do you consider the most important? Why does this room have such importance? Include specific reasons and details to support your choice.
☆Let’s think
The question uses the verb “consider,” not “prefer.” It is asking about the room of a house you regard as the most important. Therefore, you are supposed to tell your view, not your preference.
☆Functions of each room
the living room – communication, socializing, family events, ceremonies, memories with family
the bedroom – relaxation, concentration, creation, reflection, purification of mind, solitude/privacy
the kitchen / dining room – cooking/eating, food preservation, communication
the bathroom – hygiene, relaxation, self-check
☆Hints for points
♦ the living room: Man is a social animal. / This room is located in the best area in a house. / It is used for important purposes. / Most important things of the family are in the living room. / The simplest house designs like those of pit houses or houses of nomads are similar to a living room. This shows that it is the essence of a house.
♦ the bedroom: Everyone needs to be alone sometimes. / Personal things are in the bedroom. / The main function of a house in society is rest and relaxation. / Bedroom is often the only place where you can be involved in deep mental activities such as reflection or creation.
☆Ideas and expressions
♦Living Room (Ideas taken from http://www.findscore.com/twe/essays/397.html)
1. In my recollection, the living room reminds me of a lot of rosy memory. In the past, our living room was always a center of family gathering. All family members sit together here. Sometimes, we watched TV. Other times, we played chess. Our living room was always full of happiness and pleasure.
2. The living room is also a place for parties and guests. When our family friends come to visit, we always entertain them in our living room. Sometimes, we even buy some ornaments such as flowers to decorate our living room. The purpose for all of these is to show our sincere welcome to our guests. We always make our living room spotless. If we take our friends to a messy living room, perhaps our friends will not visit us again. Therefore, a living room always plays a very important role in our social activities.
3. In a word, a living room always plays an important role in both our family life and our social activities.
♦Bedroom (Ideas taken from http://www.english-test.net/forum/ftopic17116.html)
1. Obviously, we spend the great amount of time in our bedrooms. I not only sleep but also study and work here. It’s very important for me to relax in my cozy room after a hard working day. I can simply read a book, see movies or enjoy the beautiful scenery from the window.
2. Everyone needs a room to keep his personal possessions. All necessary things, which I use in my daily life, are in my bedroom. I have a good bed to sleep in and see incredible dreams. I have a computer here, which helps me study and get information for many purposes. I also have a piano in my bedroom, despite the fact that it takes up much space, and I could improve my musical skills any time.
3. There are many memories of my childhood related to my bedroom. I remember the time when I put my first step in to the room and smiles on my parents’ faces at that time. I still recall how I played here with my first serious toy – plastic constructor. My first touch of the piano and computer keyboards in my bedroom also will never go away from my memory.
☆Paragraph development
A paragraph of the body of an essay often develops its main idea as follows:
【Main Idea】The main function of the living room is more important than those of other rooms.
【Explanation】 The living room is for activities that have significance for the family and the society.
【Detail / Example】 Family events and meetings with visitors are held in the living room.
【More Specific Detail / Example】When celebrations such as birthday parties and anniversaries are held, family members and guests gather in the living room. Also, visitors such as sales people and representatives of the community are invited into the living room.
【Counterargument & Counter-counterargument】 Of course, the importance of these events are rather superficial in a sense. More profound events in life such as emotional interactions or self-reflection happen in other rooms. However, even when family members go through all those critical moments in life in the kitchen or in the bedroom, the living room always exist in their minds as a special place for official presentation of their attitude toward their family and society. The living room is almost always chosen as the place for a serious announcement or confession.
【Conclusion】 We see the living room as a sacred place for formal purposes and this makes it the most important room of a house.
Your test paragraph development
Now let’s practice paragraph development. Choose one of the reasons you have come up with, make it the main idea, and develop it using the following form. As this is a tentative part of your real essay, use simple words and sentences for supporting details and focus on the logic and ideas.
【Main Idea】
【Explanation】
【Detail / Example】
【More Specific Detail / Example】
【Counterargument & Counter-counterargument】
【Conclusion】
Supersonic/Electronic Weapon 不特定多数による長期にわたる原因不明の嫌がらせ（６）
2011/12/29 (Thu) Slept from 2:30-5:30 + 7:30 + 10:00 (3 + 2.5 hrs). Electric shocks, some of which very strong, when trying to sleep both the first and the second time. The game/car-like noise, which went doh doh doh doh doh doh doh doh very fast, and loud and wavy noises in my head woke me up around 5:30. Since the noises in my head become less loud if I put my head in a different position, I stretched backwards and moved my head a little father from where it was, when an old male voice making a strange noise came below my window. 20 minutes later, the noise had become less loud. Rather strong headache, but I think it is because of cold viruses.
Prepared for work and studied at the fast food shop from around 14:30 to 18:30.
Wore a short down jacket for the first time in probably ten years. I could not stand anymore wearing a buggy coat, which I had bought for the sheer purpose of covering my body from vicious stares of people, especially males. The stare would have made a healthiest young female an ice statue. But since things have become better these days, I am beginning to feel uneasy to be wearing some of my unusually loose clothes. Although it was Ok by day, on my way home, some old males stared at my legs, which in my opinion are good for nothing but the function of moving my upper body forward. I made a finger once and swore a couple of times, once to a probably innocent mother and son, sorry people, I couldn’t help and I’m short of sleep, chronically.... I never understand why males have interest in my legs, which I assume have something to do with this harassment because the way they stare is unusual and the fact that they are interested in my legs, those in rather loose slacks, called warm-pants, of a short Japanese woman in her fifties, is abnormal, and also the number of the behavior increased suddenly around 8 years ago and dropped suddenly a couple of years ago.
Downloading is still taking eons. My apartment company practically does not allow fiber optic cable contracts. Browser installation failed the other day. I’ll work on it later again.
--- To f,
Around 17:30 at the restaurant, somebody sitting behind me made a noise mixed with voice, which sounded like yours, f. Since I knew you do not live in my area, I did not look. Although for a second I thought of stealing a look at the person. Thinking, maybe for some reason you are here in the old residential area located on the other side of Tokyo from your town. - I happen to know vaguely whereabouts of your area because I remember a tutor telling you that he had seen you on the river bank near xxx station being, sort of, mobbed by middle aged women with dogs in summer. Though I still can’t tell where Gifu prefecture is - But what if he is not you, I told myself. I would give the look to a total stranger, and in such a case, the stranger is almost always a pervert, looking into my eyes, smiling. The same when I pass a tall slim person in a dark street. React, look, … oops! Well, anyway, after the person left, I was a little bit down because I, frozen, had no courage to see the person. What if he was you. I hated myself about that. I took a rest for a while and went home. Other customers were very gentle, even seemed to soothe me …
It’s none of my business, but I guess this time of year you are busy… Take care :)
Prepared for work and studied at the fast food shop from around 14:30 to 18:30.
Wore a short down jacket for the first time in probably ten years. I could not stand anymore wearing a buggy coat, which I had bought for the sheer purpose of covering my body from vicious stares of people, especially males. The stare would have made a healthiest young female an ice statue. But since things have become better these days, I am beginning to feel uneasy to be wearing some of my unusually loose clothes. Although it was Ok by day, on my way home, some old males stared at my legs, which in my opinion are good for nothing but the function of moving my upper body forward. I made a finger once and swore a couple of times, once to a probably innocent mother and son, sorry people, I couldn’t help and I’m short of sleep, chronically.... I never understand why males have interest in my legs, which I assume have something to do with this harassment because the way they stare is unusual and the fact that they are interested in my legs, those in rather loose slacks, called warm-pants, of a short Japanese woman in her fifties, is abnormal, and also the number of the behavior increased suddenly around 8 years ago and dropped suddenly a couple of years ago.
Downloading is still taking eons. My apartment company practically does not allow fiber optic cable contracts. Browser installation failed the other day. I’ll work on it later again.
--- To f,
Around 17:30 at the restaurant, somebody sitting behind me made a noise mixed with voice, which sounded like yours, f. Since I knew you do not live in my area, I did not look. Although for a second I thought of stealing a look at the person. Thinking, maybe for some reason you are here in the old residential area located on the other side of Tokyo from your town. - I happen to know vaguely whereabouts of your area because I remember a tutor telling you that he had seen you on the river bank near xxx station being, sort of, mobbed by middle aged women with dogs in summer. Though I still can’t tell where Gifu prefecture is - But what if he is not you, I told myself. I would give the look to a total stranger, and in such a case, the stranger is almost always a pervert, looking into my eyes, smiling. The same when I pass a tall slim person in a dark street. React, look, … oops! Well, anyway, after the person left, I was a little bit down because I, frozen, had no courage to see the person. What if he was you. I hated myself about that. I took a rest for a while and went home. Other customers were very gentle, even seemed to soothe me …
It’s none of my business, but I guess this time of year you are busy… Take care :)
2011年12月28日水曜日
Supersonic/Electronic Weapon 不特定多数による長期にわたる原因不明の嫌がらせ（６）
2011/12/28 (Wed) Slept from 1:00-5:00 (4 hrs). Electric shocks to head and other parts of my body prevented me from sleeping even though I went to bed before 0:00. They also prevented me from sleeping again after 5:00, when the loud game/car-like noise from the next room and the amplified noises in my head woke me up.
I had a terrible headache last night, which made me almost go see a doctor. This morning, I am all right. I have flashes is my eyes.
Went to the fast food store and stayed there from around 16:00 to a little past 21:00. Due to short of sleep, I tried to take a nap there three times. I drowsed a little during the first try. I wanted to see if the same things that happen at home happen at the restaurant. Because I did not really sleep, I cannot tell for sure, but they did not seem to happen. I noticed that small fit of legs and head occurred a few times, but they seemed rather normal fits that occur when you are falling asleep especially when you are stressed out and those unusual sensations to my brain I experience at home, like the beam-like ones that shoot between my ears or the exploding shocks or blow-like shocks, never happened. I did not hear any loud noise in my head, either, although normal rising of the noises in my head occurred when small fits occurred. Finishing preparation for work for next week and studying a little of books related to TOEIC and TOEFL, I left the restaurant. I felt a little better than when I arrived there. (added in the evening)
--- To f,
The following words in my past records have been all for you.
- The message that I say that I had deleted in the record on the 9th of November was something like I was sad that you did not seem to believe me about this harassment, although I know my story is unbelievable and I would not believe it if I were you. I wish I had been honest and simple enough to say, “Help me!” to you, when I talked about this problem to you (although what I really wanted to say was something different …) Same on the day before the day I saw you last in the office. That day, I was not busy for the first time in months but I had slept little because of the neighbor’s attacks that were toughest. I thought I looked too terrible to smile at you, so I did not look at you when I greeted to you. Inside, I was saying, “Help.”
I am not angry that you did not believe me and help me. There had been much already and this story was too much. I appreciate your kindness of talking to me and making me feel better and confident, and helping me notice some bad habit and bias in me, from around this time of last year till this spring :) -
2011/08/26 ～ 2011/08/30 Slept around 5 hrs on average. Haven’t been feeling like going to bed till late for a personal reason. …
Haven’t been able to sleep till late for a personal reason, and not been able to sleep again after waking/woken up early in the morning due to electric attack-like sensations in the brain.
2011/11/09 (Wed)
On Monday night, I deleted a part of what I wrote on the 4th of November, last Friday, to take back those words of mine, because I felt that I might have hurt someone by them. If so, I am sorry. I should not have written them. I just I missed the person. I always say wrong things and hurt the people who are nice to me. Probably I did that this time again. I am very sorry. I am sorry for my lack of trust.
2011/12/06 (Tue)
The thing that makes me angry, about myself, is that I have hurt someone and that I failed to make myself happy even for a short second, because of this lack of alertness and sensitivity to the finest feelings due to sleep deprivation and the attacks. Of course I am rather insensitive to or slow to understand some kind of feelings of others but not, I think, to the degree that I was this summer:
Early this summer, someone said that he wouldn’t be able to sleep, after having a harmless fun chat, and I took it literally and gave him advice to sleep well while noticing and wondering about his expression changing from a gentle smile to that of witnessing a monster or something. I did not realize or thought of the possibility of the implication of the expression till November, even though I had heard the expression used to mean something other than a fit of insomnia and even though I myself used the expression for that usage in this blog in late summer, which also I had forgotten until recently. (My memories are so fragmented. It is amazing that I am still barely functioning at work) This was also probably because I have been alien to love and affection directed to me, even at a level of possibility, for a long long time. Humiliation and violence are the main things everyone has been giving to me until really recently. I should have been all the happier with the gentleness of his words after all the hell I had experienced and as I had been kind of attracted by him. When I think about this I have a feeling of loss and when I think about how the man felt about my reaction I feel desperate. Most of the time when I act insensitive, there is some fault or two on the other side, but he had nothing to blame.
2011/12/21 (Wed)
Spent an hour or so looking around Ikuno, Osaka on the Google street view. My great uncle’s house was there till around 15 years ago. I often visited them and spent a month or so there during the years when I was 20 through 21. I liked the couple and I liked their neighborhood. Their adopted daughter was nice to me, too. One time, my great aunt and her friends, very kind ladies, helped me wear kimono and gave me my first make up for a snap shot on my great uncle’s proposal. I was so nerdy, actually suffering from eating disorder, that I did not know how to put on or even think of putting on makeup, much less dressing up and taking pictures for memory. Although I was not able to spot the place, I found the street view not so different from that of those days except for the area around Momodani Station. I miss my great aunt. She makes my heart warm. Her friends, too. One of them made me fried rice, which was of professional level. I also remember I was sent by my great uncle to call out for my great aunt who was enjoying herself with her friends at the neighborhood coffee shop.
2011/12/23 (Fri)
Went for a class at Shibuya in the evening. Good class. Some very nice students with beautiful smiles :)
2011/12/25 (Sun)
It seems that you are not around the office when I go there these days, although I seldom go there. I miss you. I hope you are fine… By the way, I type the initial letter of your name in the lower case f, not the upper case F, because I think the letter looks like you, slim, smart and gentle, and F looks to me too arrogant and authoritative to represent you, so please do not get offended if you read this :)
2011/12/27 (Tue)
Today is my last work day this year. I think I’ll stay at the fast food restaurant at my station on my way home again today because I feel calm there. Most customers do not harass me and many of them make me feel secure :)
I had a terrible headache last night, which made me almost go see a doctor. This morning, I am all right. I have flashes is my eyes.
Went to the fast food store and stayed there from around 16:00 to a little past 21:00. Due to short of sleep, I tried to take a nap there three times. I drowsed a little during the first try. I wanted to see if the same things that happen at home happen at the restaurant. Because I did not really sleep, I cannot tell for sure, but they did not seem to happen. I noticed that small fit of legs and head occurred a few times, but they seemed rather normal fits that occur when you are falling asleep especially when you are stressed out and those unusual sensations to my brain I experience at home, like the beam-like ones that shoot between my ears or the exploding shocks or blow-like shocks, never happened. I did not hear any loud noise in my head, either, although normal rising of the noises in my head occurred when small fits occurred. Finishing preparation for work for next week and studying a little of books related to TOEIC and TOEFL, I left the restaurant. I felt a little better than when I arrived there. (added in the evening)
--- To f,
The following words in my past records have been all for you.
- The message that I say that I had deleted in the record on the 9th of November was something like I was sad that you did not seem to believe me about this harassment, although I know my story is unbelievable and I would not believe it if I were you. I wish I had been honest and simple enough to say, “Help me!” to you, when I talked about this problem to you (although what I really wanted to say was something different …) Same on the day before the day I saw you last in the office. That day, I was not busy for the first time in months but I had slept little because of the neighbor’s attacks that were toughest. I thought I looked too terrible to smile at you, so I did not look at you when I greeted to you. Inside, I was saying, “Help.”
I am not angry that you did not believe me and help me. There had been much already and this story was too much. I appreciate your kindness of talking to me and making me feel better and confident, and helping me notice some bad habit and bias in me, from around this time of last year till this spring :) -
2011/08/26 ～ 2011/08/30 Slept around 5 hrs on average. Haven’t been feeling like going to bed till late for a personal reason. …
Haven’t been able to sleep till late for a personal reason, and not been able to sleep again after waking/woken up early in the morning due to electric attack-like sensations in the brain.
2011/11/09 (Wed)
On Monday night, I deleted a part of what I wrote on the 4th of November, last Friday, to take back those words of mine, because I felt that I might have hurt someone by them. If so, I am sorry. I should not have written them. I just I missed the person. I always say wrong things and hurt the people who are nice to me. Probably I did that this time again. I am very sorry. I am sorry for my lack of trust.
2011/12/06 (Tue)
The thing that makes me angry, about myself, is that I have hurt someone and that I failed to make myself happy even for a short second, because of this lack of alertness and sensitivity to the finest feelings due to sleep deprivation and the attacks. Of course I am rather insensitive to or slow to understand some kind of feelings of others but not, I think, to the degree that I was this summer:
Early this summer, someone said that he wouldn’t be able to sleep, after having a harmless fun chat, and I took it literally and gave him advice to sleep well while noticing and wondering about his expression changing from a gentle smile to that of witnessing a monster or something. I did not realize or thought of the possibility of the implication of the expression till November, even though I had heard the expression used to mean something other than a fit of insomnia and even though I myself used the expression for that usage in this blog in late summer, which also I had forgotten until recently. (My memories are so fragmented. It is amazing that I am still barely functioning at work) This was also probably because I have been alien to love and affection directed to me, even at a level of possibility, for a long long time. Humiliation and violence are the main things everyone has been giving to me until really recently. I should have been all the happier with the gentleness of his words after all the hell I had experienced and as I had been kind of attracted by him. When I think about this I have a feeling of loss and when I think about how the man felt about my reaction I feel desperate. Most of the time when I act insensitive, there is some fault or two on the other side, but he had nothing to blame.
2011/12/21 (Wed)
Spent an hour or so looking around Ikuno, Osaka on the Google street view. My great uncle’s house was there till around 15 years ago. I often visited them and spent a month or so there during the years when I was 20 through 21. I liked the couple and I liked their neighborhood. Their adopted daughter was nice to me, too. One time, my great aunt and her friends, very kind ladies, helped me wear kimono and gave me my first make up for a snap shot on my great uncle’s proposal. I was so nerdy, actually suffering from eating disorder, that I did not know how to put on or even think of putting on makeup, much less dressing up and taking pictures for memory. Although I was not able to spot the place, I found the street view not so different from that of those days except for the area around Momodani Station. I miss my great aunt. She makes my heart warm. Her friends, too. One of them made me fried rice, which was of professional level. I also remember I was sent by my great uncle to call out for my great aunt who was enjoying herself with her friends at the neighborhood coffee shop.
2011/12/23 (Fri)
Went for a class at Shibuya in the evening. Good class. Some very nice students with beautiful smiles :)
2011/12/25 (Sun)
It seems that you are not around the office when I go there these days, although I seldom go there. I miss you. I hope you are fine… By the way, I type the initial letter of your name in the lower case f, not the upper case F, because I think the letter looks like you, slim, smart and gentle, and F looks to me too arrogant and authoritative to represent you, so please do not get offended if you read this :)
2011/12/27 (Tue)
Today is my last work day this year. I think I’ll stay at the fast food restaurant at my station on my way home again today because I feel calm there. Most customers do not harass me and many of them make me feel secure :)
2011年12月27日火曜日
Supersonic/Electronic Weapon 不特定多数による長期にわたる原因不明の嫌がらせ（６）
2011/12/27 (Tue) Slept from 4:30-7:30 + 8:30-9:00 (3 +1 hrs). I will write the details after I come home.
Today is my last work day this year. I think I’ll stay at the fast food restaurant at my station on my way home again today because I feel calm there. Most customers do not harass me and many of them make me feel secure :)
Finihsed work at 18:00 and came back to my station around 19:30. Stayed at the fast food shop till a little past 21:00.
Very sleepy all day. Also, the feeling of concussion after the last class, although I do not remember if I had it when I woke up and I did not have it before the last class. It felt like I had been hit by a soft thin metal slip repeatedly all through the class.
The game/car-like noise when I went to bed around 2:00 till I fell asleep around 4:30. Electric shocks to my chest and back. Some of them made me huff. (I had put an LED in my ear hole. The same thing happened yesterday or the day before yesterday and also I was wearing an LED or putting my head in the pot.) Around 7:30, a very loud noise woke me up. It seemed to come from the next house of my building.. I opened the window and tried to spot the source but could not. It sounded like the air conditioner or boiler but much louder and irregularly wavy, sounding like Won Won Won Won Won Won Won Won duhduhduhduhduhduhduhduhduh…. I drew an arrow and wrote “an amazing noise” on a sheet of scratch paper and placed it near my head with the arrow pointing the direction of the next house. The ear muff did not shut off the noise, so I pushed my ear holes with my fingers. After a few minutes, the noise had become the normal level. It sounded like a normal boiler or something. I had never heard that type of loud noise since I moved to this apartment.
On the train to and from the office, many more people than these days looked at me harassingly. It has become my habit to look away when someone passes me because of unpleasant experience of being looked in the eye in a vicious way by almost all people passing me, but sometimes I am defenseless or have to look at somewhere and meet disgusting stares. Today, this happened more often than the days over the past few months. Probably because I commuted in different hours on a different day. I had forgotten to cover my chest, probably for weeks, till a businessman who came down the stairs piercingly looked at my chest with a vicious and nasty smile when I as moving up on the escalator.
I did not swear at anybody who were nasty to me, today. Maybe just because I was too sleepy to swear.
Today is my last work day this year. I think I’ll stay at the fast food restaurant at my station on my way home again today because I feel calm there. Most customers do not harass me and many of them make me feel secure :)
Finihsed work at 18:00 and came back to my station around 19:30. Stayed at the fast food shop till a little past 21:00.
Very sleepy all day. Also, the feeling of concussion after the last class, although I do not remember if I had it when I woke up and I did not have it before the last class. It felt like I had been hit by a soft thin metal slip repeatedly all through the class.
The game/car-like noise when I went to bed around 2:00 till I fell asleep around 4:30. Electric shocks to my chest and back. Some of them made me huff. (I had put an LED in my ear hole. The same thing happened yesterday or the day before yesterday and also I was wearing an LED or putting my head in the pot.) Around 7:30, a very loud noise woke me up. It seemed to come from the next house of my building.. I opened the window and tried to spot the source but could not. It sounded like the air conditioner or boiler but much louder and irregularly wavy, sounding like Won Won Won Won Won Won Won Won duhduhduhduhduhduhduhduhduh…. I drew an arrow and wrote “an amazing noise” on a sheet of scratch paper and placed it near my head with the arrow pointing the direction of the next house. The ear muff did not shut off the noise, so I pushed my ear holes with my fingers. After a few minutes, the noise had become the normal level. It sounded like a normal boiler or something. I had never heard that type of loud noise since I moved to this apartment.
On the train to and from the office, many more people than these days looked at me harassingly. It has become my habit to look away when someone passes me because of unpleasant experience of being looked in the eye in a vicious way by almost all people passing me, but sometimes I am defenseless or have to look at somewhere and meet disgusting stares. Today, this happened more often than the days over the past few months. Probably because I commuted in different hours on a different day. I had forgotten to cover my chest, probably for weeks, till a businessman who came down the stairs piercingly looked at my chest with a vicious and nasty smile when I as moving up on the escalator.
I did not swear at anybody who were nasty to me, today. Maybe just because I was too sleepy to swear.
Supersonic/Electronic Weapon 不特定多数による長期にわたる原因不明の嫌がらせ（６）
2011/12/27 (Tue) Slept from 4:30-7:30 + 8:30-9:00 (3 +1 hrs). I will write the details after I come home.
Today is my last work day this year. I think I’ll stay at the fast food restaurant at my station on my way home again today because I feel calm there. Most customers do not harass me and many of them make me feel secure :)
The details and the rest of the record: http://junglecrowsister.blogspot.com/2011/12/20111226-mon-slept-from-230-630-930.html
Today is my last work day this year. I think I’ll stay at the fast food restaurant at my station on my way home again today because I feel calm there. Most customers do not harass me and many of them make me feel secure :)
The details and the rest of the record: http://junglecrowsister.blogspot.com/2011/12/20111226-mon-slept-from-230-630-930.html
Supersonic/Electronic Weapon 不特定多数による長期にわたる原因不明の嫌がらせ（６）
2011/12/27 (Tue) Slept from 4:30-7:30 + 8:30-9:00 (3 +1 hrs). I will write the details after I come home.
Today is my last work day this year. I think I’ll stay at the fast food restaurant at my station on my way home again today because I feel calm there. Most customers do not harass me and many of them make me feel secure :)
The details and the rest of the record: http://junglecrowsister.blogspot.com/2011/12/20111226-mon-slept-from-230-630-930.html
Today is my last work day this year. I think I’ll stay at the fast food restaurant at my station on my way home again today because I feel calm there. Most customers do not harass me and many of them make me feel secure :)
The details and the rest of the record: http://junglecrowsister.blogspot.com/2011/12/20111226-mon-slept-from-230-630-930.html
2011年12月26日月曜日
Supersonic/Electronic Weapon 不特定多数による長期にわたる原因不明の嫌がらせ（６）
2011/12/26 (Mon) Slept from 2:30-6:30 + 9:30-12:30 (4 + 3 hrs). Game/car-like noises and electric shocks when I was trying to sleep both the first and second time. Feeling of after concussion all day.
Went to Shibuya branch for a private lesson. Came back to my station a little before 19:30 and stayed at the fast food shop till around 20:00.
Trying to go to bed earlier than usual because tomorrow’s lesson starts at 12:50.
Went to Shibuya branch for a private lesson. Came back to my station a little before 19:30 and stayed at the fast food shop till around 20:00.
Trying to go to bed earlier than usual because tomorrow’s lesson starts at 12:50.
2011年12月25日日曜日
Supersonic/Electronic Weapon 不特定多数による長期にわたる原因不明の嫌がらせ（６）
2011/12/25 (Sun) Slept from 3:30-8:00 (4.5 hrs). Rather loud game/car-like noise and strong electric shocks and fits prevented me from going to sleep till around 3:30 although I went to bed around 3:00. Loud and wavy noises in my head and game/car-like noises woke me up around 8:00. I tried to sleep again but the same noises and the noises from the construction on the other side of the street kept me awake. I gave up sleeping around 10:00. The loud noise in my head had become normal when I ate breakfast.
Stayed in the fast food shop at the station from around noon to past 18:00 and finished marking the writing class essays. Took copies, did some shopping, came home, worked on teaching materials on my PC for a while. Feeling of after concussion and sleepiness all day.
The contrast of the customers who came to the shop earlier and later today were remarkable. For the first half hours, most other customers were loud and aggressive, and many of them looked at me with strange, vicious smiles. (Though some customers were nice and polite.) My chair was kicked, which had never happened since I started visiting the shop this autumn but which used to happen very often anywhere till a few years ago. I changed seats a few times. The latter half hours were full of gentle, nice people and I felt calm. :) Sorry if I was making noises while I was concentrating on my work.
Even though I still get bothered by some people with unusual behaviors, it is better to stay outside than to stay home now. I want to stay away from my neighbor and the thing that exerts the electric thing. I think I feel better when I stay outside than when I stay home.
… To f,
It seems that you are not around the office when I go there these days, although I seldom go there. I miss you. I hope you are fine… By the way, I type the initial letter of your name in the lower case f, not the upper case F, because I think the letter looks like you, slim, smart and gentle, and F looks to me too arrogant and authoritative to represent you, so please do not get offended if you read this. :)
Stayed in the fast food shop at the station from around noon to past 18:00 and finished marking the writing class essays. Took copies, did some shopping, came home, worked on teaching materials on my PC for a while. Feeling of after concussion and sleepiness all day.
The contrast of the customers who came to the shop earlier and later today were remarkable. For the first half hours, most other customers were loud and aggressive, and many of them looked at me with strange, vicious smiles. (Though some customers were nice and polite.) My chair was kicked, which had never happened since I started visiting the shop this autumn but which used to happen very often anywhere till a few years ago. I changed seats a few times. The latter half hours were full of gentle, nice people and I felt calm. :) Sorry if I was making noises while I was concentrating on my work.
Even though I still get bothered by some people with unusual behaviors, it is better to stay outside than to stay home now. I want to stay away from my neighbor and the thing that exerts the electric thing. I think I feel better when I stay outside than when I stay home.
… To f,
It seems that you are not around the office when I go there these days, although I seldom go there. I miss you. I hope you are fine… By the way, I type the initial letter of your name in the lower case f, not the upper case F, because I think the letter looks like you, slim, smart and gentle, and F looks to me too arrogant and authoritative to represent you, so please do not get offended if you read this. :)
2011年12月24日土曜日
Supersonic/Electronic Weapon 不特定多数による長期にわたる原因不明の嫌がらせ（６）
2011/12/24 (Sat) Slept from 1:30-4:30 + 5:00-10:00 (3 + 5 hrs). Strong electric shocks to head, sometimes accompanying flashes in my eyes, from around 0:30 till I fell asleep around 1:30. Around 4:30, woken up by big game/car-like noise from the next room. The tempo was faster than usual and the note went up and down sometimes. While trying to sleep again, I got at least one big fit of my head, which shook violently. When I got up, I had a feeling of after concussion and it lasted for a few hours.
I went to the fast food shop at the station, where I stayed from around 14:00-17:00. Took copies, did grocery shopping, came home, and worked in PC for a while.
I went to the fast food shop at the station, where I stayed from around 14:00-17:00. Took copies, did grocery shopping, came home, and worked in PC for a while.
Supersonic/Electronic Weapon 不特定多数による長期にわたる原因不明の嫌がらせ（６）
2011/12/23 (Fri) Slept from 1:30-5:30 + 7:00-10:00 (4.5 + 3 hrs). Rather loud game/car-like noise woke me up around 5:30. The noises in my head were also loud, which became slightly less loud when I got up and in 10 seconds became much less loud. I wore ear muffs to avoid the game/car-like noise, but beeping noise that sounded like an electric alarm clock prevented me from falling asleep around 6:30. Also, an electric shock did the same around 6:46. I think I fell asleep again around 7:00 and slept rather well until I was woken up by the apartment gate auto-lock bell rang by a woman, and someone behind her I could see in the monitor, who recommended reading Bible and left a pamphlet in the mail box.
Went for a class at Shibuya in the evening. Good class. Some very nice students with beautiful smiles :) …Wish there were no students who try to distract my attention when I am speaking some tricky sentence like inversion. It’s like those fans who flash a laser gun into the player’s eye when he is about to make a penalty kick ;) I know making a mistake is my fault, lack of practice, but still, you usually fail it, I think, when you get distracted, especially after a long break and having forgotten that there are some types of students who want to experiment with their teachers in some “creative” ways.
The next class, a private lesson in Chofu, was cancelled and came home around 20:30. Eye sore all day.
Went for a class at Shibuya in the evening. Good class. Some very nice students with beautiful smiles :) …Wish there were no students who try to distract my attention when I am speaking some tricky sentence like inversion. It’s like those fans who flash a laser gun into the player’s eye when he is about to make a penalty kick ;) I know making a mistake is my fault, lack of practice, but still, you usually fail it, I think, when you get distracted, especially after a long break and having forgotten that there are some types of students who want to experiment with their teachers in some “creative” ways.
The next class, a private lesson in Chofu, was cancelled and came home around 20:30. Eye sore all day.
2011年12月22日木曜日
Supersonic/Electronic Weapon 不特定多数による長期にわたる原因不明の嫌がらせ（６）
2011/12/22 (Thu) Slept from 3:00-8:30 (5.5 hrs). Lots of electric shocks when trying to sleep for an hour or so and some shocks after I woke up around 8:30 and trying to sleep again for a few hours. Every time I was about to fall asleep, the shock came. One of the shocks made my whole body shake.
I was thinking of going swimming but ended up working on PC making teaching materials all afternoon. After working on PC for an hour, I felt funny in the head. But after that, I did not feel much change.
I was thinking of going swimming but ended up working on PC making teaching materials all afternoon. After working on PC for an hour, I felt funny in the head. But after that, I did not feel much change.
Class Supplement, TOEFL Essay, Stability or change? -partly rewritten-
☆Writing Topic
There are some people who like adventure and new experiences. They are not afraid to take risks, and they enjoy change in their lives. Other people prefer stable and predictable lifestyles. They do not often change their habits, and they value safety. Compare these two approaches to life. Which approach do you prefer? Explain why.
☆Let’s think
This writing topic has three parts: premises, a direction, and a question.
♦Premises: Introduction of two types of approaches to life: adventurous or safety-oriented.
♦The direction: You are required to deal with both types and compare them.
♦The question: The question is about your “preference” not “objective judgment.” Therefore, you can be subjective as well as objective when you make your choice.
In reality, the life of an individual is usually a mixture of both approaches. You try to protect what you have already got while there are times you want change. Thus, you might well be tempted to write, “I cannot say which I prefer.” To be sure, to not choose and to explain why you do not is a way to answer a choice question, although the essay may become predictable; it is like explaining why you cannot choose when asked your choice between a pet dog and a wild bird as your reincarnation. In this case, the topic can be interpreted as a question about your way of life, your philosophy. Therefore, committing either might make your essay more interesting. Think of a critical choice like one between going overseas to further your study and accepting a job that you liked a lot when you tried it as an intern. Which would you chose? The reason for the choice would help you answer this question.
☆Hints for points
♦Adventurous approach to life: varieties of experiences, can meet many different kinds of people, strong interest in new things, life full of excitement and surprise, introduce new things into society, make an unexpected discovery, flexible, liberal, more tolerant to different ideas and tastes, progressive, often misunderstood by others full of danger and loss, “A rolling stone gathers no moss.”
♦Safety-oriented approach to life: safe and peaceful life, satisfied with what they have and want to protect it, can know one thing/person really well, cautious of uncertainty, skeptical of new and strange things, can miss opportunities, old-fashioned, can be considered boring, cannot adapt to inevitable changes, You cannot say that you are really living if you keep avoiding new things: “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” (Neale Donald Walsch)
♦Decisive reason for your preference: way of life (offensive / defensive), character (active / passive), role model (family member, the person you admire, famous people)
☆One-paragraph essay
Now let’s write a one-paragraph essay so that you can use it as the framework of your full essay:
【Main Idea = Outline】
【Adventurous approach to life】
【Safety-oriented approach to life】
【Your preference】
【Conclusion = Wrap-up】
☆Essay for ideas and expressions
It is true that some people have a more positive attitude toward change and anticipation of danger than others, who put more effort into maintaining what they already have. I think both are reasonable approaches to life, but I consider myself more on the side of the former because I cannot help trying something new by nature.
Adventurous people face changes like a child spotting a new ride in an amusement park. They want to get the most out of life and feel that staying the same is the end of life. They are usually very interesting and have the strength and grace of a person who has dared to take risks. They often bring about change to society. Entrepreneurs, explorers and probably the first humans who used fire are people of this type. They contribute to evolution and revolution.
People who stick to their habits and value safety and stability can avoid big mistakes and embarrassment. They never gamble and lose money. They never stand out and become a target of bullying. These people are keenly aware of the negative effects of changes and human weakness―well-intentioned new attempts often go awry like the failure of communism in Russia. Their priority is to protect what has been proved secure and beneficial. They help retain culture and tradition.
Of course there are drawbacks in both approaches to life. Adventurous people often face great dangers and losses like bankruptcy or death, while safety-oriented people tend to lose opportunities, for luck and fun are often in the new and strange. In either case, whether you feel that you are really alive with the approach or not might count, and it seems to depend on personalities. Some find true joy of life in peaceful and warm everyday life, others feel alive only when facing something new and extraordinary.
As for me, changes and adventure make me feel alive. I become full of energy and enthusiasm when changes come to my life and repetition makes me start thinking about something else. A new job always makes me focused and when I have established the routine of the work, I cannot stand following it and before I know I alter some part of it. I enjoy seeing more and more foreigners coming into my country just because they are people I am not familiar with, and I am all for new ideas and systems if I find them fundamentally good. In fact, if I could, I would keep traveling or working for new projects of good causes and might forget to come home.
Nothing stays the same forever. The essence of life is change. Then appreciating changes, rather than resisting or just accepting them, would help make life more enjoyable. If you take one step further and risk your life in something for a good purpose, no matter how tiny an experiment it might be, I think you will go through a meaningful moment of life.
There are some people who like adventure and new experiences. They are not afraid to take risks, and they enjoy change in their lives. Other people prefer stable and predictable lifestyles. They do not often change their habits, and they value safety. Compare these two approaches to life. Which approach do you prefer? Explain why.
☆Let’s think
This writing topic has three parts: premises, a direction, and a question.
♦Premises: Introduction of two types of approaches to life: adventurous or safety-oriented.
♦The direction: You are required to deal with both types and compare them.
♦The question: The question is about your “preference” not “objective judgment.” Therefore, you can be subjective as well as objective when you make your choice.
In reality, the life of an individual is usually a mixture of both approaches. You try to protect what you have already got while there are times you want change. Thus, you might well be tempted to write, “I cannot say which I prefer.” To be sure, to not choose and to explain why you do not is a way to answer a choice question, although the essay may become predictable; it is like explaining why you cannot choose when asked your choice between a pet dog and a wild bird as your reincarnation. In this case, the topic can be interpreted as a question about your way of life, your philosophy. Therefore, committing either might make your essay more interesting. Think of a critical choice like one between going overseas to further your study and accepting a job that you liked a lot when you tried it as an intern. Which would you chose? The reason for the choice would help you answer this question.
☆Hints for points
♦Adventurous approach to life: varieties of experiences, can meet many different kinds of people, strong interest in new things, life full of excitement and surprise, introduce new things into society, make an unexpected discovery, flexible, liberal, more tolerant to different ideas and tastes, progressive, often misunderstood by others full of danger and loss, “A rolling stone gathers no moss.”
♦Safety-oriented approach to life: safe and peaceful life, satisfied with what they have and want to protect it, can know one thing/person really well, cautious of uncertainty, skeptical of new and strange things, can miss opportunities, old-fashioned, can be considered boring, cannot adapt to inevitable changes, You cannot say that you are really living if you keep avoiding new things: “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” (Neale Donald Walsch)
♦Decisive reason for your preference: way of life (offensive / defensive), character (active / passive), role model (family member, the person you admire, famous people)
☆One-paragraph essay
Now let’s write a one-paragraph essay so that you can use it as the framework of your full essay:
【Main Idea = Outline】
【Adventurous approach to life】
【Safety-oriented approach to life】
【Your preference】
【Conclusion = Wrap-up】
☆Essay for ideas and expressions
It is true that some people have a more positive attitude toward change and anticipation of danger than others, who put more effort into maintaining what they already have. I think both are reasonable approaches to life, but I consider myself more on the side of the former because I cannot help trying something new by nature.
Adventurous people face changes like a child spotting a new ride in an amusement park. They want to get the most out of life and feel that staying the same is the end of life. They are usually very interesting and have the strength and grace of a person who has dared to take risks. They often bring about change to society. Entrepreneurs, explorers and probably the first humans who used fire are people of this type. They contribute to evolution and revolution.
People who stick to their habits and value safety and stability can avoid big mistakes and embarrassment. They never gamble and lose money. They never stand out and become a target of bullying. These people are keenly aware of the negative effects of changes and human weakness―well-intentioned new attempts often go awry like the failure of communism in Russia. Their priority is to protect what has been proved secure and beneficial. They help retain culture and tradition.
Of course there are drawbacks in both approaches to life. Adventurous people often face great dangers and losses like bankruptcy or death, while safety-oriented people tend to lose opportunities, for luck and fun are often in the new and strange. In either case, whether you feel that you are really alive with the approach or not might count, and it seems to depend on personalities. Some find true joy of life in peaceful and warm everyday life, others feel alive only when facing something new and extraordinary.
As for me, changes and adventure make me feel alive. I become full of energy and enthusiasm when changes come to my life and repetition makes me start thinking about something else. A new job always makes me focused and when I have established the routine of the work, I cannot stand following it and before I know I alter some part of it. I enjoy seeing more and more foreigners coming into my country just because they are people I am not familiar with, and I am all for new ideas and systems if I find them fundamentally good. In fact, if I could, I would keep traveling or working for new projects of good causes and might forget to come home.
Nothing stays the same forever. The essence of life is change. Then appreciating changes, rather than resisting or just accepting them, would help make life more enjoyable. If you take one step further and risk your life in something for a good purpose, no matter how tiny an experiment it might be, I think you will go through a meaningful moment of life.
Class Supplement, TOEFL Essay, Age restriction on university study
☆Writing Topic
Consider the following statement. People of all ages, including middle-aged and elderly people, can benefit from studying at university, and there should be no age restrictions on university study. Do you agree or disagree with this idea?
☆Note
Although the topic says, “People of all ages,” the focus is on senior citizens, not the rare geniuses who take university courses at the age of nine, for whom society is doing favor. Nor do you have to write about young people because they are the people you usually think of when you picture university students and therefore they cannot be subject to age restrictions.
☆Let’s think
In aging society, the number of healthy and active seniors is increasing. Many of them are not satisfied with the conventional retirement life. They want to keep improving themselves and contribute to the society. Going to university is a choice that these people make when they give their answer to their plan for the second half of life. At the same time, it is usually the young that go to school because they need to equip themselves for the future. Now, is it OK for the elderly to benefit from attending university which is subsidized by tax money?
☆Ideas and expressions
1. As society ages, senior citizens’ demand for university education for their second career or a place for self-development increases.
2. People who missed opportunities to get higher education when young for various reasons such as work or child-rearing and are ready to learn after retirement will be happy to take advantage of programs available to them.
3. Although young students, whose brains are young, are more advantaged in learning, learning takes more than biological factors. Other factors such as curiosity, natural inclination, aspiration, determination, or sense of responsibility are often stronger drives for leaning, and motivation could fall upon one at any point of one’s life.
4. As a matter of fact, universities usually do not deny people of middle age or older. Many senior citizens have actually been studying among young students and there have been no reports of problems for that.
5. Now that e-learning is in place and many universities have e-learning courses, the environment is more favorable for senior citizens to get degrees.
6. The primary purpose of university is the pure pursuit and accumulation of knowledge. In this sense, whoever wants to learn something can benefit from participating in it, for learning is a joy and learning in a good environment will give one happiness.
7. Studies at universities are also done for the profit of society. People who start learning after turning fifty could contribute to research and development in different ways from young students do mainly drawing on their experience and time. Making contribution to society can give them confidence and reason for carrying on.
8. Universities are also for producing well-educated workforce. If the goal is practical, senior citizens can complete training for their second career of their interest. This is good for those who love to work or need to work.
☆One-paragraph essay = the framework of the full essay
Now let’s write a one-paragraph essay before writing a full essay. You could use each sentence as the main idea (topic sentence) of each paragraph of your full essay.
Sample one-paragraph essay:
【Main Idea】 I find no problem in keeping university open to people of all ages because age restrictions on university study makes no sense.
【Reason 1】 University should be open to whoever wants to learn.
【Reason 2】 Aging society welcomes no age restriction on university education.
【Counterargument & Counter-counterargument】 It is true that more tax money is necessary to accommodate the elderly but they will pay it back through their tuitions.
【Conclusion】There should be no age restrictions on university education when there is no problem in it.
Note: A counterargument is an expected rebuttal. While writing an essay, sometimes you ask yourself, “Well, but what about this case? My point is vulnerable to this case.” Then this “case” is the counterargument. Hitting a counterargument is a chance to grade up your essay because you have found an untied end of a rope (your logic). If you can tie it well, you can confirm your point, making your essay more persuasive. Thus, taking up a counterargument when necessary is important to get a higher score. You can deal with a counterargument in an appropriate part of a paragraph or use a whole paragraph to deal with it
Your one-paragraph essay:
【Main Idea】
【Reason 1】
【Reason 2】
【Counterargument & Counter-counterargument】
【Conclusion】
☆Paragraph development
Sample
【Main Idea】 Aging society supports no age restriction on university education.
【Explanation】 As the number of seniors increases, their demand for higher education increases.
【Detail / Example】 Society has clearly been reacting to this change.
【More Specific Detail / Example】 An 80-year-old college graduate is so common now that he seldom makes news anymore.
【Counterargument & Counter-counterargument】Some might say that people should do what is appropriate for their age and seniors should enjoy leisure time with their families and friends, but lifestyle changes as society changes. If the supply of comic books for adults increases as more adults enjoy them, why is it unnatural for university to accept seniors who are eager to learn?
【Conclusion】 Keeping university open to people of all ages is a natural response to public demand.
Your paragraph development: Choose one of the reasons you have come up with, make it the main idea, and develop it using the following form. As this is a sketch of a part of your real essay, use simple words and sentences and focus on the logic and ideas.
【Main Idea】
【Explanation】
【Detail / Example】
【More Specific Detail / Example】
【Counterargument & Counter-counterargument】
【Conclusion】
☆To increase the volume of your essay, find the shortest paragraph and …
1) develop or describe the main idea well: If a paragraph has only one or two sentences, chances are that you have not developed or described well enough. Make sure that there is no gap in logic between two sentences and make examples as specific as possible using names and numbers.
2) develop or describe each sentence well: A statement usually has some exception or needs some condition or concession. Look for a sentence that you can add a reason, condition, concession, or any other additional information, and add “except …”, “as long as …”, “although …”, etc.
3) describe words well: Which of the following sentences gives a clear picture of someone’s pet?
A) I have a pet. B) I have a cute cat. C) I have a little fluffy kitten. With two adjectives and a specific noun, Sentence C) depicts an adorable pet well and it happens to be the longest of the three. Also, use transitions such as Fist, Also, Moreover, Finally, or Therefore, when necessary.
4) discuss other choices: Even if the Writing Topic does not say, “Discuss the two views” or “Compare and contrast the choices,” you can write about other choices. Doing so will make your essay more convincing and longer. Make sure that you do not digress.
5) take up counterarguments if necessary: While you are writing, sometimes a counterargument, “Well, but what about this case?” comes up to your mind. Then it is better not to ignore it but take it up and give a counter-counter-argument or two. By doing so, you can confirm your argument. If you can do it well, you will get a high score.
The key to remember is to try to put what you want to say into words as accurately as you can. Then you cannot help adding some more words and sentences, and some more... In the end, your essay will have many words.
Consider the following statement. People of all ages, including middle-aged and elderly people, can benefit from studying at university, and there should be no age restrictions on university study. Do you agree or disagree with this idea?
☆Note
Although the topic says, “People of all ages,” the focus is on senior citizens, not the rare geniuses who take university courses at the age of nine, for whom society is doing favor. Nor do you have to write about young people because they are the people you usually think of when you picture university students and therefore they cannot be subject to age restrictions.
☆Let’s think
In aging society, the number of healthy and active seniors is increasing. Many of them are not satisfied with the conventional retirement life. They want to keep improving themselves and contribute to the society. Going to university is a choice that these people make when they give their answer to their plan for the second half of life. At the same time, it is usually the young that go to school because they need to equip themselves for the future. Now, is it OK for the elderly to benefit from attending university which is subsidized by tax money?
☆Ideas and expressions
1. As society ages, senior citizens’ demand for university education for their second career or a place for self-development increases.
2. People who missed opportunities to get higher education when young for various reasons such as work or child-rearing and are ready to learn after retirement will be happy to take advantage of programs available to them.
3. Although young students, whose brains are young, are more advantaged in learning, learning takes more than biological factors. Other factors such as curiosity, natural inclination, aspiration, determination, or sense of responsibility are often stronger drives for leaning, and motivation could fall upon one at any point of one’s life.
4. As a matter of fact, universities usually do not deny people of middle age or older. Many senior citizens have actually been studying among young students and there have been no reports of problems for that.
5. Now that e-learning is in place and many universities have e-learning courses, the environment is more favorable for senior citizens to get degrees.
6. The primary purpose of university is the pure pursuit and accumulation of knowledge. In this sense, whoever wants to learn something can benefit from participating in it, for learning is a joy and learning in a good environment will give one happiness.
7. Studies at universities are also done for the profit of society. People who start learning after turning fifty could contribute to research and development in different ways from young students do mainly drawing on their experience and time. Making contribution to society can give them confidence and reason for carrying on.
8. Universities are also for producing well-educated workforce. If the goal is practical, senior citizens can complete training for their second career of their interest. This is good for those who love to work or need to work.
☆One-paragraph essay = the framework of the full essay
Now let’s write a one-paragraph essay before writing a full essay. You could use each sentence as the main idea (topic sentence) of each paragraph of your full essay.
Sample one-paragraph essay:
【Main Idea】 I find no problem in keeping university open to people of all ages because age restrictions on university study makes no sense.
【Reason 1】 University should be open to whoever wants to learn.
【Reason 2】 Aging society welcomes no age restriction on university education.
【Counterargument & Counter-counterargument】 It is true that more tax money is necessary to accommodate the elderly but they will pay it back through their tuitions.
【Conclusion】There should be no age restrictions on university education when there is no problem in it.
Note: A counterargument is an expected rebuttal. While writing an essay, sometimes you ask yourself, “Well, but what about this case? My point is vulnerable to this case.” Then this “case” is the counterargument. Hitting a counterargument is a chance to grade up your essay because you have found an untied end of a rope (your logic). If you can tie it well, you can confirm your point, making your essay more persuasive. Thus, taking up a counterargument when necessary is important to get a higher score. You can deal with a counterargument in an appropriate part of a paragraph or use a whole paragraph to deal with it
Your one-paragraph essay:
【Main Idea】
【Reason 1】
【Reason 2】
【Counterargument & Counter-counterargument】
【Conclusion】
☆Paragraph development
Sample
【Main Idea】 Aging society supports no age restriction on university education.
【Explanation】 As the number of seniors increases, their demand for higher education increases.
【Detail / Example】 Society has clearly been reacting to this change.
【More Specific Detail / Example】 An 80-year-old college graduate is so common now that he seldom makes news anymore.
【Counterargument & Counter-counterargument】Some might say that people should do what is appropriate for their age and seniors should enjoy leisure time with their families and friends, but lifestyle changes as society changes. If the supply of comic books for adults increases as more adults enjoy them, why is it unnatural for university to accept seniors who are eager to learn?
【Conclusion】 Keeping university open to people of all ages is a natural response to public demand.
Your paragraph development: Choose one of the reasons you have come up with, make it the main idea, and develop it using the following form. As this is a sketch of a part of your real essay, use simple words and sentences and focus on the logic and ideas.
【Main Idea】
【Explanation】
【Detail / Example】
【More Specific Detail / Example】
【Counterargument & Counter-counterargument】
【Conclusion】
☆To increase the volume of your essay, find the shortest paragraph and …
1) develop or describe the main idea well: If a paragraph has only one or two sentences, chances are that you have not developed or described well enough. Make sure that there is no gap in logic between two sentences and make examples as specific as possible using names and numbers.
2) develop or describe each sentence well: A statement usually has some exception or needs some condition or concession. Look for a sentence that you can add a reason, condition, concession, or any other additional information, and add “except …”, “as long as …”, “although …”, etc.
3) describe words well: Which of the following sentences gives a clear picture of someone’s pet?
A) I have a pet. B) I have a cute cat. C) I have a little fluffy kitten. With two adjectives and a specific noun, Sentence C) depicts an adorable pet well and it happens to be the longest of the three. Also, use transitions such as Fist, Also, Moreover, Finally, or Therefore, when necessary.
4) discuss other choices: Even if the Writing Topic does not say, “Discuss the two views” or “Compare and contrast the choices,” you can write about other choices. Doing so will make your essay more convincing and longer. Make sure that you do not digress.
5) take up counterarguments if necessary: While you are writing, sometimes a counterargument, “Well, but what about this case?” comes up to your mind. Then it is better not to ignore it but take it up and give a counter-counter-argument or two. By doing so, you can confirm your argument. If you can do it well, you will get a high score.
The key to remember is to try to put what you want to say into words as accurately as you can. Then you cannot help adding some more words and sentences, and some more... In the end, your essay will have many words.
Supersonic/Electronic Weapon 不特定多数による長期にわたる原因不明の嫌がらせ（６）
2011/12/21 (Wed) Slept from 2:30-5:30 + 7:00-11:30 (3 + 4.5 hrs). Incessant electric shocks, some of which causing fits, when I was going to sleep. Woke/Woken up around 6:00 to the loud noises in my head. A few electric shocks. One of them made my right thumb, which incidentally was slightly touching my bust, have a fit.
I have no class today, so I am going to study for a while and try to sleep again later. (6:23)
(Last week’s lesson was a trial. I was told that if the student sign up I would have lessons at the same hours. The student has signed up (for 6 slots) but the lesson days and hours have not been decided.)
Slept again in the morning. Went out to the fast food restaurant at the station and finished preparation for lessons on next Monday and Tuesday at Shibuya. Studied till around 1930.
(Spent an hour or so looking around Ikuno, Osaka on the Google street view. My great uncle’s house was there till around 15 years ago. I often visited them and spent a month or so there during the years when I was 20 through 21. I liked the couple and I liked their neighborhood. Their adopted daughter was nice to me, too. One time, my great aunt and her friends, very kind ladies, helped me wear kimono and gave me my first make up for a snap shot on my great uncle’s proposal. I was so nerdy, actually suffering from eating disorder, that I did not know how to put on or even think of putting on makeup, much less dressing up and taking pictures for memory. Although I was not able to spot the place, I found the street view not so different from that of those days except for the area around Momodani Station. I miss my great aunt. She makes my heart warm. Her friends, too. One of them made me very good fried rice. I also remember I was sent by my great uncle to call out for my great aunt who was enjoying herself with her friends at the neighborhood coffee shop.)
I have no class today, so I am going to study for a while and try to sleep again later. (6:23)
(Last week’s lesson was a trial. I was told that if the student sign up I would have lessons at the same hours. The student has signed up (for 6 slots) but the lesson days and hours have not been decided.)
Slept again in the morning. Went out to the fast food restaurant at the station and finished preparation for lessons on next Monday and Tuesday at Shibuya. Studied till around 1930.
(Spent an hour or so looking around Ikuno, Osaka on the Google street view. My great uncle’s house was there till around 15 years ago. I often visited them and spent a month or so there during the years when I was 20 through 21. I liked the couple and I liked their neighborhood. Their adopted daughter was nice to me, too. One time, my great aunt and her friends, very kind ladies, helped me wear kimono and gave me my first make up for a snap shot on my great uncle’s proposal. I was so nerdy, actually suffering from eating disorder, that I did not know how to put on or even think of putting on makeup, much less dressing up and taking pictures for memory. Although I was not able to spot the place, I found the street view not so different from that of those days except for the area around Momodani Station. I miss my great aunt. She makes my heart warm. Her friends, too. One of them made me very good fried rice. I also remember I was sent by my great uncle to call out for my great aunt who was enjoying herself with her friends at the neighborhood coffee shop.)
2011年12月21日水曜日
Supersonic/Electronic Weapon 不特定多数による長期にわたる原因不明の嫌がらせ（６）
2011/12/21 (Wed) Slept from 2:30-5:30 (3 hrs). Incessant electric shocks, some of which causing fits, when I was going to sleep. Woke/Woken up around 6:00 to the loud noises in my head. A few electric shocks. One of them made my right thumb, which incidentally was slightly touching my bust, have a fit.
I have no class today, so I am going to study for a while and try to sleep again later. (6:23)
(Last week’s lesson was a trial. I was told that if the student sign up I would have lessons at the same hours. The student has signed up (for 6 slots) but the lesson days and hours have not been decided.)
I have no class today, so I am going to study for a while and try to sleep again later. (6:23)
(Last week’s lesson was a trial. I was told that if the student sign up I would have lessons at the same hours. The student has signed up (for 6 slots) but the lesson days and hours have not been decided.)
2011年12月20日火曜日
Supersonic/Electronic Weapon 不特定多数による長期にわたる原因不明の嫌がらせ（６）
2011/12/20 (Tue) Slept from 1:30-7:30 (6 hrs). Electric shocks when going to sleep, one of which gave my right toe fits three times in a low very quickly. While I was sleeping, there were shocks that felt like a blow on my head several times. When I woke up, there were males speaking loudly in unpleasant ways in front of my apartment, for which. I wore earmuffs.
Did house work and when to the fast food shop to prepare for work and study in late afternoon.
Did house work and when to the fast food shop to prepare for work and study in late afternoon.
Supersonic/Electronic Weapon 不特定多数による長期にわたる原因不明の嫌がらせ（６）
2011/12/20 (Tue) Slept from 1:30-7:30 (6 hrs). Electric shocks when going to sleep, one of which gave my right toe fits three times in a low very quickly. While I was sleeping, there were shocks that felt like a blow on my head several times. When I woke up, there were males speaking loudly in unpleasant ways in front of my apartment, for which. I wore earmuffs.
Did house work and when to the fast food shop to prepare for work and study in late afternoon.
Did house work and when to the fast food shop to prepare for work and study in late afternoon.
Supersonic/Electronic Weapon 不特定多数による長期にわたる原因不明の嫌がらせ（６）
2011/12/19 (Mon) Slept from 2:00-5:00 + 6:00-11:00 (3 + 5 hrs). Electric shocks every 10 seconds when I was about to sleep around 2:00. Some were strong, others not. When my head was placed sideways, I could clearly feel that the shocks came from below and moved up through my head. Loud noises in my head woke me up around 5:00. While I was trying to sleep again, once right after I put my right hand in my futon, a shock came and my hand had fits three times very quickly. Every time I was about to fall asleep, electric shocks came and my head, legs, including my knees, had fits. At 5:48, a cough mixed with middle-aged male voice in front of my apartment building. I think I heard the same things a few more times when I was falling asleep.
Went to the fast food shop and prepared for work and studied till 6:30. Worked on my PC for a couple of hours in the evening.
Went to the fast food shop and prepared for work and studied till 6:30. Worked on my PC for a couple of hours in the evening.
2011年12月18日日曜日
Supersonic/Electronic Weapon 不特定多数による長期にわたる原因不明の嫌がらせ（６）
2011/12/18 (Sun) Slept from 1:30-6:30 (5 hrs). (Plus stayed in bed till 11:00 and may slept for a short time.) Very strong electric shocks to my head every 10 seconds at least around 10 times right after I went to bed. They felt like shooting my head through and were accompanied by Goh sound. Some noises that sounded like somebody bumping into the walls of my room facing outside. When I woke up, around 6:30 the game/car-like noise were heard slightly.
Stayed home all day and did household work and made class supplements.
Stayed home all day and did household work and made class supplements.
Class Supplement, TOEFL Essay, One aspect of my hometown I would like to change
☆Writing Topic
Suppose that you had the power to change one thing about your hometown. What aspect of your hometown would you like to change, and in what way? Support your ideas with specific details and reasons.
☆Let’s Think
If you are bothered by the presence of a huge factory in your hometown every day, it is easy for you to find a topic for this essay, but as it is said that every bird thinks its own nest charming, it is often not easy to think of things to be improved about your hometown. To find it, becoming an outsider might be one way of finding the answer. That is to remember other towns and cities you know and compare them with your hometown. Is your hometown as beautiful as they are, as convenient as they are, or as exciting as they are? Another way is to think of your ideal town and find what your hometown lacks to be it.
Here are some things that can be the hint for the change you could write about:
1. facilities: hospital, community center, library, swimming pool
2. system: events, neighborhood watch group, disaster planning
3. environment: green, pollution, littering, relationships, manners
Now let’s ask ourselves some questions about the change and answer them.
1. Problem: What is wrong?
e. g. Senior citizens do not have places to get together. Some of them gather at local coffee shops but it is rather expensive to do it every day.
2. Goal: How would you change it?
e. g. I would make all coffee shops in town free to the elderly and also have them have nurses and counselors on call. The expenses would be subsidized by the municipal office, in other words, tax money.
3. Expected Benefits: How will it benefit my hometown?
e. g. All seniors in town will have chances to enjoy themselves, their safety and health can be monitored easily, and the fact that my town has places for the elderly is something to be proud of in itself.
☆Essay for Ideas and Expressions Barron’s Writing for the TOEFL iBT, pp. 247-248
If I could change one thing about my hometown, I think it would be the fact that there is no sense of community here. People don’t feel connected, they don’t look out for each other, and they don’t get to know their neighbors.
People here don’t feel connected to the community. They come and go a lot. They change jobs frequently and move on. This means that they don’t put down roots in the community. They don’t join community organizations and they don’t get involved in community issues. They don’t participate in the schools or try to beautify the neighborhoods. They don’t feel like community members.
People don’t try to support others around them. They don’t watch out for each others’ children or check in on elderly neighbors. They may not know if a neighbor loses a loved one. There’s not a lot of community support for individuals.
Neighbors don’t get to know each other. When neighbors’ children ride their bikes through someone’s garden, there’s not casual, friendly way of mentioning the problem. A simple problem becomes a major disagreement.
My hometown is a nice place to live in many ways, but it would be much nicer if we had that sense of community.
☆To increase the volume of your essay, find the shortest paragraph and …
1) describe/develop the main idea well: If a paragraph has only one or two sentences, chances are that you have not described/developed well enough. Make sure that each paragraph has its main idea, supporting details (examples), conclusion, and additional supporting details like counter-argument treatment if necessary.
2) describe/develop each sentence well: A statement usually has some exception or needs some condition or concession. Look for a sentence that you can add a reason, condition, concession, or any other additional information, and add “except …”, “as long as …”, “although …”, etc.
3) describe words well: Which of the following sentences gives a clear picture of someone’s pet? A) I have a pet. B) I have a cute cat. C) I have a little fluffy kitten. With two adjectives and a specific noun, Sentence C) depicts an adorable pet well and it happens to be the longest of the three. Also, use transitions such as Fist, Also, Moreover, Therefore when necessary.
4) discuss other choices: Even if the Writing Topic does not say, “Discuss the two views” or “Compare and contrast the choices,” you can write about other choices. Doing so will make your essay more convincing and longer. Make sure that you do not digress.
5) take up counter-arguments if necessary: While you are writing, sometimes a counter-argument, “Well, but what about this case?” comes up to your mind. Then it is better not to ignore it but take it up and give a counter-counter-argument or two. By doing so, you can confirm your argument. If you can do it well, you will get a high score.
The key to remember is to try to put what you want to say into words as accurately as you can. Then you cannot help adding some more words and sentences, and some more... In the end, your essay will have many words.
Suppose that you had the power to change one thing about your hometown. What aspect of your hometown would you like to change, and in what way? Support your ideas with specific details and reasons.
☆Let’s Think
If you are bothered by the presence of a huge factory in your hometown every day, it is easy for you to find a topic for this essay, but as it is said that every bird thinks its own nest charming, it is often not easy to think of things to be improved about your hometown. To find it, becoming an outsider might be one way of finding the answer. That is to remember other towns and cities you know and compare them with your hometown. Is your hometown as beautiful as they are, as convenient as they are, or as exciting as they are? Another way is to think of your ideal town and find what your hometown lacks to be it.
Here are some things that can be the hint for the change you could write about:
1. facilities: hospital, community center, library, swimming pool
2. system: events, neighborhood watch group, disaster planning
3. environment: green, pollution, littering, relationships, manners
Now let’s ask ourselves some questions about the change and answer them.
1. Problem: What is wrong?
e. g. Senior citizens do not have places to get together. Some of them gather at local coffee shops but it is rather expensive to do it every day.
2. Goal: How would you change it?
e. g. I would make all coffee shops in town free to the elderly and also have them have nurses and counselors on call. The expenses would be subsidized by the municipal office, in other words, tax money.
3. Expected Benefits: How will it benefit my hometown?
e. g. All seniors in town will have chances to enjoy themselves, their safety and health can be monitored easily, and the fact that my town has places for the elderly is something to be proud of in itself.
☆Essay for Ideas and Expressions Barron’s Writing for the TOEFL iBT, pp. 247-248
If I could change one thing about my hometown, I think it would be the fact that there is no sense of community here. People don’t feel connected, they don’t look out for each other, and they don’t get to know their neighbors.
People here don’t feel connected to the community. They come and go a lot. They change jobs frequently and move on. This means that they don’t put down roots in the community. They don’t join community organizations and they don’t get involved in community issues. They don’t participate in the schools or try to beautify the neighborhoods. They don’t feel like community members.
People don’t try to support others around them. They don’t watch out for each others’ children or check in on elderly neighbors. They may not know if a neighbor loses a loved one. There’s not a lot of community support for individuals.
Neighbors don’t get to know each other. When neighbors’ children ride their bikes through someone’s garden, there’s not casual, friendly way of mentioning the problem. A simple problem becomes a major disagreement.
My hometown is a nice place to live in many ways, but it would be much nicer if we had that sense of community.
☆To increase the volume of your essay, find the shortest paragraph and …
1) describe/develop the main idea well: If a paragraph has only one or two sentences, chances are that you have not described/developed well enough. Make sure that each paragraph has its main idea, supporting details (examples), conclusion, and additional supporting details like counter-argument treatment if necessary.
2) describe/develop each sentence well: A statement usually has some exception or needs some condition or concession. Look for a sentence that you can add a reason, condition, concession, or any other additional information, and add “except …”, “as long as …”, “although …”, etc.
3) describe words well: Which of the following sentences gives a clear picture of someone’s pet? A) I have a pet. B) I have a cute cat. C) I have a little fluffy kitten. With two adjectives and a specific noun, Sentence C) depicts an adorable pet well and it happens to be the longest of the three. Also, use transitions such as Fist, Also, Moreover, Therefore when necessary.
4) discuss other choices: Even if the Writing Topic does not say, “Discuss the two views” or “Compare and contrast the choices,” you can write about other choices. Doing so will make your essay more convincing and longer. Make sure that you do not digress.
5) take up counter-arguments if necessary: While you are writing, sometimes a counter-argument, “Well, but what about this case?” comes up to your mind. Then it is better not to ignore it but take it up and give a counter-counter-argument or two. By doing so, you can confirm your argument. If you can do it well, you will get a high score.
The key to remember is to try to put what you want to say into words as accurately as you can. Then you cannot help adding some more words and sentences, and some more... In the end, your essay will have many words.
2011年12月17日土曜日
Supersonic/Electronic Weapon 不特定多数による長期にわたる原因不明の嫌がらせ（６）
2011/12/17 (Sat) I got home around 23:30 last night. Slept from 6:00-9:30 (3.5 hrs). Although I went to bed around 3:00, incessant electric attacks and coldness kept me awake. Some attacks were so violent that I huffed. Also, they caused fits of my legs hands and head as usual. Many of them caused very big jolts. When I woke up around 9:30, the noises in my head were loud.
I went to the fast food shop and prepared for lessons for the next ten days in Chofu (Wed) and Fri) and Shibuya (Fri and Mon & Tue after the next). After I got home, I worked on my PC. Very sleepy all day.
I went to the fast food shop and prepared for lessons for the next ten days in Chofu (Wed) and Fri) and Shibuya (Fri and Mon & Tue after the next). After I got home, I worked on my PC. Very sleepy all day.
Class Supplement,TOEFL Essay, Knowledge gained through reading or experience?
Writing Topic
Some people stress the importance of learning from books, while others feel that first-hand experience is far more important and valid than knowledge gained from books. Discuss the differences between the two sources of learning and compare the merits of knowledge obtained from experience and that gained from books. Which source do you feel is more important, and why?
☆ Let’s think
This writing topic has three parts. The first part introduces two sources of leaning: reading and experience. The second sentence gives you two assignments. You are required to 1) tell the difference between the two and 2) compare the good things about knowledge gained from them. The last sentence is a question about which is more important. Thus, as well as writing about the way you think is more important, you are supposed to deal with the other way, which means that you have to deal with both.
Most of us value both kinds of knowledge and prioritize either or both depending on what you want to know and the conditions you are in. If you want to know what it is like to be on Mars, you will consult books on Mars because you cannot go to the planet and see and feel the actual environment there. Also, you would not want to experiment with all the elements on the periodic table unless you want to be a chemist. Reading is enough and efficient to gain general knowledge about them, especially when some of them have very nasty properties. If you are interested in skiing, you might give it a try and see what it is like to go down the snow slope with long thin boards. The difficulty and excitement of the activity cannot be learned without actually doing it. The thrill of slippery slope and falling is knowledge you gain only through experience. Still when you are interested in a particular place, you do research about it beforehand and then visit there to see some part of it with your own eyes.
Now what about gaining knowledge about globalization? The subject has many aspects and people who read have a lot to talk about it. However, if they have never felt sorry for the countless numbers of people suffering from its results, it could hardly be said that they really know what globalization is. On the other hand, if you have made friends with someone whose father has lost his job because of free trade treaties, which is the driving force of globalization, you would sincerely feel that something is wrong with this on-going change and might feel the urge to do something. However, if you do not read, you would not see the whole picture of globalization and would never know what is causing its problems and how it can be fixed. Furthermore, if people who have seen only the good results of globalization never read about bad results of it, they might not question the goodness of globalization. From these cases, it seems that reading supplements experience which is the main source of our decisions.
☆ Hints for points
♦learning from books
Humankind has dominated the earth by sharing knowledge, and revolutions related to information-sharing always expanded our ranges of activities. Gaining knowledge by reading is taking advantage of the shared assets of information humans accumulated through thousands of years. The merits of knowledge gained by reading are …
1. it is of wide-range and less slanted (less personal).
2. it is knowledge about things that cannot be learned by actually experiencing them.
3. it is gained in rather short time compared to actually trying everything.
♦learning through experience
As saying goes, seeing is believing. Hands-on experience is the data obtained by your own senses and processed by yourself. In terms of reality, no other information can beat your own experience. The merits of the knowledge obtained through experience are …
1. it is convincing to you and stays in your memory easily and forever.
2. it motivates you to learn more or to take actions from the bottom of your heart.
3. it is often not written in books and cannot be copied by others.
☆ One paragraph essay
Let’s write a one-paragraph essay on this topic before writing a full essay. You could use it as the framework of your full essay.
Sample 1
【Introduction】 I think knowledge from experience is more important because it is connected to your heart.
【Merits of knowledge from books】 Knowledge from books is extensive and less partial.
【Merits of knowledge from experience】 Knowledge from experience is precious sense data of your own and it is deeply connected to your existence.
【Your decision on which is more important】I think knowledge from experience is more important because without it you cannot organize other kind of knowledge.
【Counterargument】Knowledge gained from experience lacks balance in terms of more accurate world view, but as long as you keep supplement it by reading or listening to others, you have less chances of becoming biased and making bad decisions.
【Conclusion】 Experience is more important than books for you to approach life actively.
Sample 2
【Introduction】 I think knowledge obtained through experience is more important because society values experience more than book learning.
【Merits of knowledge gained from books】 You can gain a large amount of information in comparatively short time from books.
【Merits of knowledge gained from experience】 However, in any field of discipline, students are required to try out what they have learned from books in practice.
【Your decision on which is more important】 I think knowledge from experience is more important because without it one will never gain practical knowledge.
【Counterargument】Some scientists and artists come up with great ideas with scant experience. However, they are exceptional people with extraordinary imagination that enables them to experience reality through reading, and their imagination has developed from their experience. No one can gain knowledge without contact with reality, experience.
【Conclusion】 Experience is what makes your knowledge from reading real.
Your one-paragraph essay
【Introduction】
【Merits of knowledge gained from books】
【Merits of knowledge gained from experience】
【Your decision on which is more important】
【Counterargument】
【Conclusion】
☆ Essay for Ideas and Expressions
Barron’s Writing for the TOEFL iBT, p. 248
“Experience is the best teacher” is an old cliché, but I agree with it. We can learn a lot of important things from books, but the most important lessons in life come from our own experiences. Throughout the different stages of life, from primary school to university to adulthood, experience teaches us many skills we need for life.
As children in primary school, we learn facts and information from books, but that is not all we learn in school. On the playground we learn how to make friends. In our class work, we learn how it feels to succeed and what we do when we fail. We start to learn about the things we like to do and the things we don’t. We don’t learn these things from books, but from our experiences with our friends and class mates.
In our university classes, we learn a lot of information and skills we will need for our future careers, but we also learn a lot that is not in our textbooks. In our daily lives both in class and out of class, we learn to make decisions for ourselves. We learn to take on responsibilities. We learn to get along with our classmates, our roommates, and our workmates. Our successes and failures help us develop skills we will need in our adult lives. They are skills that no book can teach us.
Throughout our adulthood, experience remains a constant teacher. We may continue to read or take classes for professional development. However, our experiences at work. at home, and with our friends teach us more. The triumphs and disasters of our lives teach us how to improve our careers and also how to improve our relationships and how to be the person each one of us wants to be.
Books teach us a lot, but there is a limit to what they teach. They can give us information or show us another person’s experiences. These are valuable things, but the lessons we learn from our own experiences, from childhood throughout adulthood, are the most important ones we learn.
Some people stress the importance of learning from books, while others feel that first-hand experience is far more important and valid than knowledge gained from books. Discuss the differences between the two sources of learning and compare the merits of knowledge obtained from experience and that gained from books. Which source do you feel is more important, and why?
☆ Let’s think
This writing topic has three parts. The first part introduces two sources of leaning: reading and experience. The second sentence gives you two assignments. You are required to 1) tell the difference between the two and 2) compare the good things about knowledge gained from them. The last sentence is a question about which is more important. Thus, as well as writing about the way you think is more important, you are supposed to deal with the other way, which means that you have to deal with both.
Most of us value both kinds of knowledge and prioritize either or both depending on what you want to know and the conditions you are in. If you want to know what it is like to be on Mars, you will consult books on Mars because you cannot go to the planet and see and feel the actual environment there. Also, you would not want to experiment with all the elements on the periodic table unless you want to be a chemist. Reading is enough and efficient to gain general knowledge about them, especially when some of them have very nasty properties. If you are interested in skiing, you might give it a try and see what it is like to go down the snow slope with long thin boards. The difficulty and excitement of the activity cannot be learned without actually doing it. The thrill of slippery slope and falling is knowledge you gain only through experience. Still when you are interested in a particular place, you do research about it beforehand and then visit there to see some part of it with your own eyes.
Now what about gaining knowledge about globalization? The subject has many aspects and people who read have a lot to talk about it. However, if they have never felt sorry for the countless numbers of people suffering from its results, it could hardly be said that they really know what globalization is. On the other hand, if you have made friends with someone whose father has lost his job because of free trade treaties, which is the driving force of globalization, you would sincerely feel that something is wrong with this on-going change and might feel the urge to do something. However, if you do not read, you would not see the whole picture of globalization and would never know what is causing its problems and how it can be fixed. Furthermore, if people who have seen only the good results of globalization never read about bad results of it, they might not question the goodness of globalization. From these cases, it seems that reading supplements experience which is the main source of our decisions.
☆ Hints for points
♦learning from books
Humankind has dominated the earth by sharing knowledge, and revolutions related to information-sharing always expanded our ranges of activities. Gaining knowledge by reading is taking advantage of the shared assets of information humans accumulated through thousands of years. The merits of knowledge gained by reading are …
1. it is of wide-range and less slanted (less personal).
2. it is knowledge about things that cannot be learned by actually experiencing them.
3. it is gained in rather short time compared to actually trying everything.
♦learning through experience
As saying goes, seeing is believing. Hands-on experience is the data obtained by your own senses and processed by yourself. In terms of reality, no other information can beat your own experience. The merits of the knowledge obtained through experience are …
1. it is convincing to you and stays in your memory easily and forever.
2. it motivates you to learn more or to take actions from the bottom of your heart.
3. it is often not written in books and cannot be copied by others.
☆ One paragraph essay
Let’s write a one-paragraph essay on this topic before writing a full essay. You could use it as the framework of your full essay.
Sample 1
【Introduction】 I think knowledge from experience is more important because it is connected to your heart.
【Merits of knowledge from books】 Knowledge from books is extensive and less partial.
【Merits of knowledge from experience】 Knowledge from experience is precious sense data of your own and it is deeply connected to your existence.
【Your decision on which is more important】I think knowledge from experience is more important because without it you cannot organize other kind of knowledge.
【Counterargument】Knowledge gained from experience lacks balance in terms of more accurate world view, but as long as you keep supplement it by reading or listening to others, you have less chances of becoming biased and making bad decisions.
【Conclusion】 Experience is more important than books for you to approach life actively.
Sample 2
【Introduction】 I think knowledge obtained through experience is more important because society values experience more than book learning.
【Merits of knowledge gained from books】 You can gain a large amount of information in comparatively short time from books.
【Merits of knowledge gained from experience】 However, in any field of discipline, students are required to try out what they have learned from books in practice.
【Your decision on which is more important】 I think knowledge from experience is more important because without it one will never gain practical knowledge.
【Counterargument】Some scientists and artists come up with great ideas with scant experience. However, they are exceptional people with extraordinary imagination that enables them to experience reality through reading, and their imagination has developed from their experience. No one can gain knowledge without contact with reality, experience.
【Conclusion】 Experience is what makes your knowledge from reading real.
Your one-paragraph essay
【Introduction】
【Merits of knowledge gained from books】
【Merits of knowledge gained from experience】
【Your decision on which is more important】
【Counterargument】
【Conclusion】
☆ Essay for Ideas and Expressions
Barron’s Writing for the TOEFL iBT, p. 248
“Experience is the best teacher” is an old cliché, but I agree with it. We can learn a lot of important things from books, but the most important lessons in life come from our own experiences. Throughout the different stages of life, from primary school to university to adulthood, experience teaches us many skills we need for life.
As children in primary school, we learn facts and information from books, but that is not all we learn in school. On the playground we learn how to make friends. In our class work, we learn how it feels to succeed and what we do when we fail. We start to learn about the things we like to do and the things we don’t. We don’t learn these things from books, but from our experiences with our friends and class mates.
In our university classes, we learn a lot of information and skills we will need for our future careers, but we also learn a lot that is not in our textbooks. In our daily lives both in class and out of class, we learn to make decisions for ourselves. We learn to take on responsibilities. We learn to get along with our classmates, our roommates, and our workmates. Our successes and failures help us develop skills we will need in our adult lives. They are skills that no book can teach us.
Throughout our adulthood, experience remains a constant teacher. We may continue to read or take classes for professional development. However, our experiences at work. at home, and with our friends teach us more. The triumphs and disasters of our lives teach us how to improve our careers and also how to improve our relationships and how to be the person each one of us wants to be.
Books teach us a lot, but there is a limit to what they teach. They can give us information or show us another person’s experiences. These are valuable things, but the lessons we learn from our own experiences, from childhood throughout adulthood, are the most important ones we learn.
2011年12月16日金曜日
Supersonic/Electronic Weapon 不特定多数による長期にわたる原因不明の嫌がらせ（６）
2011/12/16 (Fri) After the record of yesterday, I went to the fast food shop and stayed there till 16:00, preparing for today’s class, came home, cooked, spent some time in front of PC and went to bed.
Slept from 0:30-6:30 + 8:30-10:00 (6 + 1.5 hrs). Attacked very violently almost all night. When I got up, I had a feeling of after concussion for the first time in weeks, I think.
details: Right after I went to bed, a strong shock that felt like my head was shot sideways accompanied by Goh noise, which swang my head sideways. The same shocks continued with 2 -3 minute intervals. Until I fell asleep probably around 8:30, everytime I was about to sleep, shocks caused strong fits of my head, hand, foot, surface of my face, especially mouth, also giving the same shooting shocks to my head. I heard sounds of somebody moving in the next room many times. After 10:00, when I was lying with my front down, a strong shock shoot my torso and shook it.
During sleep, when I was woken up by attacks, I put a small LED light bulb in my ear and the shocks became weaker. I did that twice.
Now it is 15:00 and I am leaving for Chofu for 60 minutes x 2 private lessons which starts at 19:00.
Slept from 0:30-6:30 + 8:30-10:00 (6 + 1.5 hrs). Attacked very violently almost all night. When I got up, I had a feeling of after concussion for the first time in weeks, I think.
details: Right after I went to bed, a strong shock that felt like my head was shot sideways accompanied by Goh noise, which swang my head sideways. The same shocks continued with 2 -3 minute intervals. Until I fell asleep probably around 8:30, everytime I was about to sleep, shocks caused strong fits of my head, hand, foot, surface of my face, especially mouth, also giving the same shooting shocks to my head. I heard sounds of somebody moving in the next room many times. After 10:00, when I was lying with my front down, a strong shock shoot my torso and shook it.
During sleep, when I was woken up by attacks, I put a small LED light bulb in my ear and the shocks became weaker. I did that twice.
Now it is 15:00 and I am leaving for Chofu for 60 minutes x 2 private lessons which starts at 19:00.
2011年12月15日木曜日
Supersonic/Electronic Weapon 不特定多数による長期にわたる原因不明の嫌がらせ（６）
2011/12/15 (Thu) Slept from 2:00-6:30 (4.5 hrs). Incessant electric shocks that gave me flushes in the eyes and shocks to the head when I was going to sleep. Woke up to the loud noises in my head around 6:30. Tried to sleep again but unable to do so. Shocks when I was about to fall asleep. Gave up trying to sleep at 9:00.
(…Last-minute-notice (assigned yesterday) job at Chofu tomorrow. Probably a lesson or two from the last term TOEFL reading text, which I did not teach, to a student who is taking Julliard entrance exams, which means that I have to prepare today. And I had thought the lesson was next week…Thank god I checked the follow-up mail now…)
(…Down loading is sluggish over the past several days for the reason I cannot detect. It takes forever (actually 3 to 4 times as long as usual) for my PC to download a YouTube video. (as of 9:30 ))
(…Last-minute-notice (assigned yesterday) job at Chofu tomorrow. Probably a lesson or two from the last term TOEFL reading text, which I did not teach, to a student who is taking Julliard entrance exams, which means that I have to prepare today. And I had thought the lesson was next week…Thank god I checked the follow-up mail now…)
(…Down loading is sluggish over the past several days for the reason I cannot detect. It takes forever (actually 3 to 4 times as long as usual) for my PC to download a YouTube video. (as of 9:30 ))
2011年12月14日水曜日
Supersonic/Electronic Weapon 不特定多数による長期にわたる原因不明の嫌がらせ（６）
2011/12/14 (Wed) Slept from 2:00-4:30 + 5:30-8:00 + 9:00-10:30 (2.5 + 2.5 + 1.5 hrs). Noises of somebody/something moving and bumping into the wall and a male vice probably on the phone from the next room around 0:00. Noises in my head loud and wavy when I woke/was woken up around 4:30. When I was about to fall asleep again around 5:00, a shock caused a big fit of my upper body and woke me up. Again around 8:00. A fit of my upper body woke me up. When I was about to sleep around 9:00, the noises in my head were loud.
I went to Chofu Branch of my school for an evening private lesson.
I went to Chofu Branch of my school for an evening private lesson.
Supersonic/Electronic Weapon 不特定多数による長期にわたる原因不明の嫌がらせ（６）
2011/12/13 (Tue) Slept from 3:00-6:30 + 7:00-11:00(3.5 + 4 hrs). Electric shocks when going to sleep. The noises in my head were loud and wavy when I woke up around 6:30. At least one shock and fit of my hand while I was sleeping the second time. Funny feeling in my head and teeth when I was washing kitchen cloth. It lasted into the time I was tidying up my room.
Went to the fast food shop in the late afternoon and studies for about three hours.
Went to the fast food shop in the late afternoon and studies for about three hours.
2011年12月12日月曜日
Supersonic/Electronic Weapon 不特定多数による長期にわたる原因不明の嫌がらせ（６）
2011/12/11 (Sun) Slept from2:00-10:00 (8 hrs). Electric shocks to my head that caused fit so my hands, legs, and feet. Often I felt like I was hit in the head and the numbing feeling run from my head to my mouth once or twice. The shocks and fits woke me up many times during sleep.
I took marked English composition that I finished before I went to bed last night to Yotsuya Branch of my school and studied some hours at the fast food restaurant at my station.
2011/12/12 (Mon) Slept from 2:00-6:00 + 8:00-10:30 (4 + 2.5 hrs). The noises in my head were loud and wavy, my legs felt a little funny, and a slight game/car-like noise was heard when I was trying to sleep the first time. Somebody made noises and left the nest room around 7:00 or 8:00. When I was woken up by a fit of my hand, the noised in my head were loud.
Funny feeling in my head when I started wiping the floor till I finished vacuuming.
Studied at the fast food restaurant in the afternoon.
… To f,
I still do not understand why you got so angry that day, the day I gave you the paper on which I wrote the answer to your question about my hair-cut. Although I know I had not been doing well and not been meeting your expectation, if anything, I cannot think of having done anything that deserved that degree of anger. What I had done was the best I believed I could in the situation. (I also apologized in the writing for writing such a thing in such a way on such paper.) And not doing anything was also not much problem in that situation, I believe. Thus, I still wonder why you, who looked rather happy first and continued to be happy the following hours, became tense right before you left the office and looked at me with the expression as angry as that of Zeus loathing a mean spirit although not cold nor aloof. I think there was some misunderstanding.
I took marked English composition that I finished before I went to bed last night to Yotsuya Branch of my school and studied some hours at the fast food restaurant at my station.
2011/12/12 (Mon) Slept from 2:00-6:00 + 8:00-10:30 (4 + 2.5 hrs). The noises in my head were loud and wavy, my legs felt a little funny, and a slight game/car-like noise was heard when I was trying to sleep the first time. Somebody made noises and left the nest room around 7:00 or 8:00. When I was woken up by a fit of my hand, the noised in my head were loud.
Funny feeling in my head when I started wiping the floor till I finished vacuuming.
Studied at the fast food restaurant in the afternoon.
… To f,
I still do not understand why you got so angry that day, the day I gave you the paper on which I wrote the answer to your question about my hair-cut. Although I know I had not been doing well and not been meeting your expectation, if anything, I cannot think of having done anything that deserved that degree of anger. What I had done was the best I believed I could in the situation. (I also apologized in the writing for writing such a thing in such a way on such paper.) And not doing anything was also not much problem in that situation, I believe. Thus, I still wonder why you, who looked rather happy first and continued to be happy the following hours, became tense right before you left the office and looked at me with the expression as angry as that of Zeus loathing a mean spirit although not cold nor aloof. I think there was some misunderstanding.
Class Supplement, TOEFL Essay, Should smoking be illegal? - partly rewritten -
Writing Topic
Some people think that smoking cigarettes should become illegal, since it provides little benefit and a great deal of health risk, others feel that individuals should be free to smoke cigarettes if they choose to do so. Do you think cigarette smoking should be stopped by making it illegal or should it remain legal?
☆ Writing Topic with hints
The question itself is simple: Should cigarette smoking be illegal or not? However, before the question, this topic has hints for you to consider. You could either discuss the topic focusing on the hints or add your own view point, although it might not be wise to entirely ignore the point of the hints. In this topic, the point of the hints is the choice between prioritizing individuals’ health and respecting freedom and personal responsibility. In other words, this question can be translated as follows: Should cigarette smoking be illegal to protect one’s health or legal to respect one’s freedom and personal responsibility?
☆ Hints for points
♦Cigarette smoking should be illegal because …
1. it is toxic and causes cancer and other serious diseases.
2. it is addictive.
3. there is the problem of second-hand smoke/smoking.
- Counterarguments: 1) There are measures to take to prevent second-hand smoke such as separate-smoking and ban on smoking in public areas. (Smoking will remain legal while smoking in certain areas will be illegal.) ⇔ These measures are not practical because there are many smokers who do not comply with the rules and you cannot catch or shut up smoke completely. 2) Banning smoking will undermine the economy. ⇔ Some estimate shows that the smoking related loss, mainly medical costs, surpasses the loss caused by tobacco ban. Even though the estimate is not flawless given other factors such as unhealthy lifestyle and environmental pollution, it is intuitively convincing, since fixing something costs more than destroying it in general.
- Conclusion: To protect public health, individual freedom can be limited.
♦Cigarette smoking should not be illegal because …
1. you have the right to do whatever you want to do even if it endangers your health.
2. other dangerous things such as alcoholic drinks or mountain climbing are not illegal. Also, there are indulgence that we do not like or that are not good but requires tolerance. For example, smelly food, death metal, saggy pants, or binge drinking.
3. smoking is a necessary evil like drinking and gambling because
a) it helps smokers release stress
b) it is an established part of economy. If cigarettes are banned, the economy will be affected. e.g the tobacco industry, coffee shops, music clubs, etc. and tax revenue (1 trillion yen in 2009 to 23 billion yen in 2010: 63% decrease after tobacco tax raise) Cigarette industry would go underground if banned. As in the case of cannabis, making it available to the public will reduce the number of addicts and dealers.
- Counterarguments: 1) Secondhand smoke herm other people. ⇔ Only public smoking should be banned. 2) Tobacco ban will protect the young. ⇔ Many young people are attracted to things banned by the authorities. If smoking stays legal, most young people will choose not to smoke through informed decision or after experimenting with it a little.
- Conclusion: As long as measures are taken to prevent second-hand smoking, the choice between health and fun should be left to each individual.
☆One-paragraph essay = the framework of the full essay
Now let’s write a one-paragraph essay so that you can use it as a framework of your full essay.
Your one-paragraph essay:
【Main Idea = Outline】 I agree/disagree with --- because …
【Reason 1】
【Reason 2】
【Counterargument & Counter-counterargument】
【Conclusion = Wrap-up】
Note: A counterargument is an expected rebuttal. While writing an essay, sometimes you ask yourself, “Well, but what about this case? My point is vulnerable to this case.” Then this “case” is the counterargument. Hitting a counterargument is a chance to grade up your essay because you have found an untied end of a rope (your logic). If you can tie it well, you can confirm your point, making your essay more persuasive. Thus, taking up a counterargument when necessary is important to get a higher score. You can deal with a counterargument in an appropriate part of a paragraph or use a whole paragraph to deal with it
☆ Essay for Ideas and Expressions
A heavy smoker’s family loses him twice. Long before he dies of a disease which seems to be related to this unhealthy habit of his, when they realize that they are helpless in making him quit smoking, they start a silent but desperate mourning of his early dearth. It is the same sadness that they share with families of drug addicts. It is the sadness to see him die day by day. Still, this is actually a minor aspect of the tragedy of tobacco. Even though it might be difficult to put in practice because of smokers’ feelings and economic circumstances, cigarettes should be made illegal to protect younger generations and to solve the problem of second-hand smoke.
By making smoking illegal, the number of those who start smoking can be greatly reduced. Smokers find it difficult, and many of them believe it unnecessary, to quit smoking even though it has been scientifically proved that smoking causes lung cancer and other diseases. This is because smoking is addictive. When some toxic substance is addictive, making it illegal is one of the effective ways to reduce its harm. This is especially effective in preventing those who are not addicted, mostly the young, from initiating the use, since people usually stay away from things that are illegal.
Smoking seems to be a necessary evil and a matter of self-responsibility just like drinking and gambling, but the problem of second-hand smoke separates it from other indulgences. Cigarette smoke directly harms those who are around. Children of smokers are more susceptible to respiratory diseases than those of non-smokers, and many people are sensitive to smoke. Although separate-smoking and public smoking ban are promoted, many smokers do not conform to the rules and it is impossible to block the contaminated air completely. When some toxic fumes are around in everyday scenes, it is natural for the government to regulate them.
Banning smoking is difficult but possible. It seems that cigarettes stay legal because their social influence is not as drastic as that of drugs and they support the economy. Cigarettes do not make the user dangerous the way drugs do and smokers can keep functioning for decades. Also, the cigarette industry is an established part of economy and produce tax money, so that it is very difficult to terminate it. However, efforts toward changes necessary for public health have been made in the past. Coal was replaced by oil, which is cleaner than coal, and now oil is being replaced by much cleaner energy sources. Cigarettes themselves were a replacement, advocated by the government, for chewing tobacco, which was found to be contributing to the transmission of tuberculosis through saliva spat on the ground by the users. When the public health is at risk, the government should and can take measures.
Society is ultimately to be totally smoke-free to protect the health of citizens, especially younger generations, although care should be taken for smokers and those involved in the industry.
Some people think that smoking cigarettes should become illegal, since it provides little benefit and a great deal of health risk, others feel that individuals should be free to smoke cigarettes if they choose to do so. Do you think cigarette smoking should be stopped by making it illegal or should it remain legal?
☆ Writing Topic with hints
The question itself is simple: Should cigarette smoking be illegal or not? However, before the question, this topic has hints for you to consider. You could either discuss the topic focusing on the hints or add your own view point, although it might not be wise to entirely ignore the point of the hints. In this topic, the point of the hints is the choice between prioritizing individuals’ health and respecting freedom and personal responsibility. In other words, this question can be translated as follows: Should cigarette smoking be illegal to protect one’s health or legal to respect one’s freedom and personal responsibility?
☆ Hints for points
♦Cigarette smoking should be illegal because …
1. it is toxic and causes cancer and other serious diseases.
2. it is addictive.
3. there is the problem of second-hand smoke/smoking.
- Counterarguments: 1) There are measures to take to prevent second-hand smoke such as separate-smoking and ban on smoking in public areas. (Smoking will remain legal while smoking in certain areas will be illegal.) ⇔ These measures are not practical because there are many smokers who do not comply with the rules and you cannot catch or shut up smoke completely. 2) Banning smoking will undermine the economy. ⇔ Some estimate shows that the smoking related loss, mainly medical costs, surpasses the loss caused by tobacco ban. Even though the estimate is not flawless given other factors such as unhealthy lifestyle and environmental pollution, it is intuitively convincing, since fixing something costs more than destroying it in general.
- Conclusion: To protect public health, individual freedom can be limited.
♦Cigarette smoking should not be illegal because …
1. you have the right to do whatever you want to do even if it endangers your health.
2. other dangerous things such as alcoholic drinks or mountain climbing are not illegal. Also, there are indulgence that we do not like or that are not good but requires tolerance. For example, smelly food, death metal, saggy pants, or binge drinking.
3. smoking is a necessary evil like drinking and gambling because
a) it helps smokers release stress
b) it is an established part of economy. If cigarettes are banned, the economy will be affected. e.g the tobacco industry, coffee shops, music clubs, etc. and tax revenue (1 trillion yen in 2009 to 23 billion yen in 2010: 63% decrease after tobacco tax raise) Cigarette industry would go underground if banned. As in the case of cannabis, making it available to the public will reduce the number of addicts and dealers.
- Counterarguments: 1) Secondhand smoke herm other people. ⇔ Only public smoking should be banned. 2) Tobacco ban will protect the young. ⇔ Many young people are attracted to things banned by the authorities. If smoking stays legal, most young people will choose not to smoke through informed decision or after experimenting with it a little.
- Conclusion: As long as measures are taken to prevent second-hand smoking, the choice between health and fun should be left to each individual.
☆One-paragraph essay = the framework of the full essay
Now let’s write a one-paragraph essay so that you can use it as a framework of your full essay.
Your one-paragraph essay:
【Main Idea = Outline】 I agree/disagree with --- because …
【Reason 1】
【Reason 2】
【Counterargument & Counter-counterargument】
【Conclusion = Wrap-up】
Note: A counterargument is an expected rebuttal. While writing an essay, sometimes you ask yourself, “Well, but what about this case? My point is vulnerable to this case.” Then this “case” is the counterargument. Hitting a counterargument is a chance to grade up your essay because you have found an untied end of a rope (your logic). If you can tie it well, you can confirm your point, making your essay more persuasive. Thus, taking up a counterargument when necessary is important to get a higher score. You can deal with a counterargument in an appropriate part of a paragraph or use a whole paragraph to deal with it
☆ Essay for Ideas and Expressions
A heavy smoker’s family loses him twice. Long before he dies of a disease which seems to be related to this unhealthy habit of his, when they realize that they are helpless in making him quit smoking, they start a silent but desperate mourning of his early dearth. It is the same sadness that they share with families of drug addicts. It is the sadness to see him die day by day. Still, this is actually a minor aspect of the tragedy of tobacco. Even though it might be difficult to put in practice because of smokers’ feelings and economic circumstances, cigarettes should be made illegal to protect younger generations and to solve the problem of second-hand smoke.
By making smoking illegal, the number of those who start smoking can be greatly reduced. Smokers find it difficult, and many of them believe it unnecessary, to quit smoking even though it has been scientifically proved that smoking causes lung cancer and other diseases. This is because smoking is addictive. When some toxic substance is addictive, making it illegal is one of the effective ways to reduce its harm. This is especially effective in preventing those who are not addicted, mostly the young, from initiating the use, since people usually stay away from things that are illegal.
Smoking seems to be a necessary evil and a matter of self-responsibility just like drinking and gambling, but the problem of second-hand smoke separates it from other indulgences. Cigarette smoke directly harms those who are around. Children of smokers are more susceptible to respiratory diseases than those of non-smokers, and many people are sensitive to smoke. Although separate-smoking and public smoking ban are promoted, many smokers do not conform to the rules and it is impossible to block the contaminated air completely. When some toxic fumes are around in everyday scenes, it is natural for the government to regulate them.
Banning smoking is difficult but possible. It seems that cigarettes stay legal because their social influence is not as drastic as that of drugs and they support the economy. Cigarettes do not make the user dangerous the way drugs do and smokers can keep functioning for decades. Also, the cigarette industry is an established part of economy and produce tax money, so that it is very difficult to terminate it. However, efforts toward changes necessary for public health have been made in the past. Coal was replaced by oil, which is cleaner than coal, and now oil is being replaced by much cleaner energy sources. Cigarettes themselves were a replacement, advocated by the government, for chewing tobacco, which was found to be contributing to the transmission of tuberculosis through saliva spat on the ground by the users. When the public health is at risk, the government should and can take measures.
Society is ultimately to be totally smoke-free to protect the health of citizens, especially younger generations, although care should be taken for smokers and those involved in the industry.
2011年12月11日日曜日
Supersonic/Electronic Weapon 不特定多数による長期にわたる原因不明の嫌がらせ（６）
2011/12/09 (Fri) Slept from 2:00-6:00(4 hrs) A strong electric shock accompanied by Goh noise caused a fit which stretched my right toe right after I lay myself in my bed and while I was still awake. Electric shocks many times, every time I was about to fall asleep. Shocks that caused fits of my hand placed on a small heater which was on my belly at least twice while I was asleep. An electric shock causing a fit of my legs woke me up around 6:00. Judging from aggressiveness of the harassment, I decided that I would not be able to sleep again and got up.
Went to the station fast food shop and stayed that for 4 hours or so in the afternoon. Very sleepy.
2011/12/10 (Sat) Slept from 1:00-5:30 + 6:00-10-:00 (4:30 + 4 hrs) Noises in my head were very loud when I woke/woken up around 5:30.
As today was my last day this year at Yotsuya branch of my school, and because I had told my students that I would leave all their English compositions marked by the end of today, I stayed in the office after class and tried to finish marking English compositions and making wage reports, but around 21:00, people started going home and it seemed that there were only one woman left other than myself. (At Shibuya branch, there are 2 or three people around 22:00 and some still stay even after 23:00, so I kind of took it for granted that people of this school just do not go home…) I asked her if she was finishing and she said she was about to. So I stopped work, explaining to her why I stayed there so late, saying that I would send the documents by Monday. Then the woman kept talking to me and we kept talking about students and many other things related to school business till 22:00. I got home around 23:30, when I left the office. I am typing this at 1:20 on December 11th.
Went to the station fast food shop and stayed that for 4 hours or so in the afternoon. Very sleepy.
2011/12/10 (Sat) Slept from 1:00-5:30 + 6:00-10-:00 (4:30 + 4 hrs) Noises in my head were very loud when I woke/woken up around 5:30.
As today was my last day this year at Yotsuya branch of my school, and because I had told my students that I would leave all their English compositions marked by the end of today, I stayed in the office after class and tried to finish marking English compositions and making wage reports, but around 21:00, people started going home and it seemed that there were only one woman left other than myself. (At Shibuya branch, there are 2 or three people around 22:00 and some still stay even after 23:00, so I kind of took it for granted that people of this school just do not go home…) I asked her if she was finishing and she said she was about to. So I stopped work, explaining to her why I stayed there so late, saying that I would send the documents by Monday. Then the woman kept talking to me and we kept talking about students and many other things related to school business till 22:00. I got home around 23:30, when I left the office. I am typing this at 1:20 on December 11th.
2011年12月9日金曜日
Supersonic/Electronic Weapon 不特定多数による長期にわたる原因不明の嫌がらせ（６）
2011/12/08 (Thu) Slept from 1:00-7:00 + 7:30-10:30 (6 + 3 hrs). Electric shocks to my head many times. After doing the dishes after breakfast, there was a slight funny feeling in my head.
Studied at the fast food shop from 15:00-18:00. When I started studying, I had difficulty in reading because letters danced up and down in the rhythm of the blinking flashes I often seen at night. In other words, my eye balls were probably moving up and down or the blinking flashes phenomena still had effect on my retina then.
It’s 1:15 am on December the 9th. I hear a male voice that sounds like someone talking on the phone from the next room. A little while ago, an old man made a loud cough below my window.
Studied at the fast food shop from 15:00-18:00. When I started studying, I had difficulty in reading because letters danced up and down in the rhythm of the blinking flashes I often seen at night. In other words, my eye balls were probably moving up and down or the blinking flashes phenomena still had effect on my retina then.
It’s 1:15 am on December the 9th. I hear a male voice that sounds like someone talking on the phone from the next room. A little while ago, an old man made a loud cough below my window.
2011年12月7日水曜日
Supersonic/Electronic Weapon 不特定多数による長期にわたる原因不明の嫌がらせ（６）
2011/12/07 (Wed) Slept from 2:00-7:00 (5 hrs). Since I noticed that fits of hands and arms usually occur when they are in futon, I put gloves on and slept with them outside of futon. It is too cold to do so without gloves. Only electric shocks to my head occurred. A strong shock accompanied by a Goh sound woke me up around 7:00. While kept sitting in futon with my face down, I got hit by electric shocks in the head one after another.
Went to Shibuya to submit some documents, dropped by an appliance shop, came back to my station, and studied in the fast food shop till 19:00.
The book I finished yesterday was about insanity (Winter in Flanders by Otohiko Kaga). The place is an asylum in France. The chilling part of the last scene is the reaction of the doctors and the administrator when one of the doctors, a renowned psychiatrist, acknowledged, without emotion other than euphoria about the experience, the accusation that he had been molesting one of his patients, a beautiful young boy who is diagnosed as an idiot and habitually steels ticket machines. The focus of the attention of the people is not on the victim but on the sanity of the doctor and the reputation of the hospital. None mentions the feeling and healing of the boy, despite the fact that the allegation was originally made by the boy himself. They are relieved by the molester’ s explanation that the boy’s father, the accuser, is a drunk and no one would believe in him. And all the people are described in the book as fundamentally good in nature. One who cannot speak for oneself is made little of and taken advantage of.
The book actually does not focus on the insanity of the mass, but I am intrigued by that part. And the author has written well enough to also show that part of humanity. Another example is the image people in town have about the boy’s sister, a young beautiful nurse with distinct opinions who works at the asylum. People in the whole town believe that she sleeps with anyone－to be precise, a rich old lady of authority sais so to her lover and a doctor who would commit suicide later tells a lie that she has his child to his ex-partner, who is a reserved but individualistic person－but her virginity was proved by her lover, another alienated person, a Japanese doctor who was on a prolonged study at the asylum, at the end of the story. The mute and the minority tend to fall victim to the insanity of the “normal” people. Same old story, but again chilling and sickening.
If I had not started to speak out what was done to me when I was harassed so that others would know that some of them were doing nastier things than them, chances are that I would still be suffering from those harassments. I could have shouted much earlier but I did not because I thought they had family and life. I did not start shouting till 99.999%, including their daughters and wives and mothers, of the people I meet started harassing me, often in concert.
It is sickening to realize that there are people whose mute status is taken advantage of and who are suffering in various degrees in various ways.
It is one year since WikiLeaks angered the US government for their action which was a result of trying to help the oppressed, those who are taken advantage of. WikiLeaks did not target America in the beginning, and has not throughout. It is just because the US is involved in almost all the vices happening on this planet that WikiLeaks ended up releasing documents that revealed the dark sides of America.
Transparent governments, not transparent individuals, said Julian Assange, one of the most beautiful minds living now.
Went to Shibuya to submit some documents, dropped by an appliance shop, came back to my station, and studied in the fast food shop till 19:00.
The book I finished yesterday was about insanity (Winter in Flanders by Otohiko Kaga). The place is an asylum in France. The chilling part of the last scene is the reaction of the doctors and the administrator when one of the doctors, a renowned psychiatrist, acknowledged, without emotion other than euphoria about the experience, the accusation that he had been molesting one of his patients, a beautiful young boy who is diagnosed as an idiot and habitually steels ticket machines. The focus of the attention of the people is not on the victim but on the sanity of the doctor and the reputation of the hospital. None mentions the feeling and healing of the boy, despite the fact that the allegation was originally made by the boy himself. They are relieved by the molester’ s explanation that the boy’s father, the accuser, is a drunk and no one would believe in him. And all the people are described in the book as fundamentally good in nature. One who cannot speak for oneself is made little of and taken advantage of.
The book actually does not focus on the insanity of the mass, but I am intrigued by that part. And the author has written well enough to also show that part of humanity. Another example is the image people in town have about the boy’s sister, a young beautiful nurse with distinct opinions who works at the asylum. People in the whole town believe that she sleeps with anyone－to be precise, a rich old lady of authority sais so to her lover and a doctor who would commit suicide later tells a lie that she has his child to his ex-partner, who is a reserved but individualistic person－but her virginity was proved by her lover, another alienated person, a Japanese doctor who was on a prolonged study at the asylum, at the end of the story. The mute and the minority tend to fall victim to the insanity of the “normal” people. Same old story, but again chilling and sickening.
If I had not started to speak out what was done to me when I was harassed so that others would know that some of them were doing nastier things than them, chances are that I would still be suffering from those harassments. I could have shouted much earlier but I did not because I thought they had family and life. I did not start shouting till 99.999%, including their daughters and wives and mothers, of the people I meet started harassing me, often in concert.
It is sickening to realize that there are people whose mute status is taken advantage of and who are suffering in various degrees in various ways.
It is one year since WikiLeaks angered the US government for their action which was a result of trying to help the oppressed, those who are taken advantage of. WikiLeaks did not target America in the beginning, and has not throughout. It is just because the US is involved in almost all the vices happening on this planet that WikiLeaks ended up releasing documents that revealed the dark sides of America.
Transparent governments, not transparent individuals, said Julian Assange, one of the most beautiful minds living now.
2011年12月6日火曜日
Supersonic/Electronic Weapon 不特定多数による長期にわたる原因不明の嫌がらせ（６）
2011/12/05 (Mon) Slept from 2:00-6:00 + 6:30-9:30 (4 + 3 hrs). Incessant electric shocks. Frequent flashes and fits. Used the pot to cover my head. Woke up by the game/car-lake noise around 6:00. Went to bathroom, took medicine, and tried to sleep again around 6:30, when a very strong shock caused very big fits, three times in a row, of my left arm which was in my futon placed on the small heater on my stomach. When woke up around 9:00 by my alarm clock, the noises in my head were loud. Several minutes after I got up, the funny feelings in my head occurred.
On my way from work, I was sitting in the train on the Hanzomon line. A thin, small, rather old man was standing in front of me. I thought of giving up my seat, but he did not look thus old or tired. Remembering a man was offended when I offered my seat long time ago, I stayed in my seat. After several stations, the woman next to me left and the small man in front of me sat in turn. I stayed in my seat. This I had never done probably for ten years because I was harassed, mainly touched, by the males sitting next to me almost without exception. I still jump out of the seat when a male, if not a child, sits next to me, but the small man had shown no sign of harassing me all the way. He did not harass me after he sat next to me, either. Moreover, it seemed that he was making sure any part of his body not touch my body. I had been reading my English dictionary and kept reading it until I came to my station. When I looked up when the train came close to my station, I noticed some males standing near me were tense and one of them was staring at the space between the small man and me. He seemed to have an intense interest in that space.
I had felt good that I was able to sit with another passenger like I used to do before this harassment started, just like other people do, sitting side by side with another passenger regardless of the difference between the person and me, and therefore I was a little surprised by the direction those men ‘s attention went to: whether my body was touching the body of another male or not. I had expected that other passengers who were standing around me and saw I did not get away from the small man had been feeling peace because I showed that I am not so agitated anymore by the harassment people have done to me.
I would have been shocked, instead of being surprised, by the finding but I am too used to finding the sickening reality to get really shocked and disenchanted. I am recording this just to put what I saw into words.
2011/12/06 (Tue) Slept from 3:00-4:00 + 7:30-10:00 (1 + 2.5 hrs). As I felt that I was not going to be able to sleep partly because I felt as if there were some excited people in the next room, I started reading a Japanese novel that I had been reading in this early summer on my way from Funabashi and had stopped because of eye fatigue. My eyes got tired around 3:00 and I was taking a rest lying face up with my right arm covering my eyes and left arm in the futon placed on a small heater on my stomach, and in a few minutes a strong beam-like electric shock hit the area between my ears and a second later a big fit occurred to my arm in the futon. I tried to sleep but an anger caught me. I got up and kicked the wall I felt I heard a noise Goh when I had the shock and fit. My phone fell. I placed it back but did not notice the line, whose plug is broken and loose, was off until after I got up in the morning.
I slept about an hour and woke/woken up by a noise or a shock. I read the rest of the book and went to sleep again around 7:30. I think I was attacked by the electric shocks because I remember covering my head with the pot I often use to avoid attacks during sleep.
Somewhere between the second sleep and the time was woke up again and stayed in futon, blinking flashes started in the back of my eyes, I pulled out my head from the pot but it continued. I moved my body but it still continued, in addition to the light, I felt some pressures, which occulted in sync with the blinks, in the back of my eyes. I moved my body again and in ten seconds the blinking and the pressures stopped.
I got up, ate, and got ready to leave home as soon as possible. I had an appointment for the dentist’s but had one and a half hours, so I went to the fast food restaurant in the station, where I carelessly ordered food even though I remembered the appointment. I think my brain was still sleeping. I did not notice my mistake until the dentist dug up a piece of cream out of the area between back teeth. I apologized profusely. I should have been embarrassed but as I have the same kind of experiences since this harassment especially the noise one started, I am used to my losing dignity.
The thing that makes me angry, about myself, is that I have hurt someone and that I failed to make myself happy even for a short second, because of this lack of alertness and sensitivity to the finest feelings due to sleep deprivation and the attacks. Of course I am rather insensitive to or slow to understand some kind of feelings of others but not, I think, to the degree that I was this summer:
Early this summer, someone said that he wouldn’t be able to sleep, after having a harmless fun chat, and I took it literally and gave him advice to sleep well while noticing and wondering about his expression changing from a gentle smile to that of witnessing a monster or something. I did not realize or thought of the possibility of the implication of the expression till November, even though I had heard the expression used to mean something other than a fit of insomnia and even though I myself used the expression for that usage in this blog in late summer, which also I had forgotten until recently. (My memories are so fragmented. It is amazing that I am still barely functioning at work) This was also probably because I have been alien to love and affection directed to me, even at a level of possibility, for a long long time. Humiliation and violence are the main things everyone has been giving to me until really recently. I should have been all the happier with the gentleness of his words after all the hell I had experienced and as I had been kind of attracted by him. When I think about this I have a feeling of loss and when I think about how the man felt about my reaction I feel desperate. Most of the time when I act insensitive, there is some fault or two on the other side, but he had nothing to blame.
After the dentist’s, I went back to the fast food restaurant and stayed there working till around 20:00. I think I was a little nervous about other customers probably because I was short of sleep.
On my way from work, I was sitting in the train on the Hanzomon line. A thin, small, rather old man was standing in front of me. I thought of giving up my seat, but he did not look thus old or tired. Remembering a man was offended when I offered my seat long time ago, I stayed in my seat. After several stations, the woman next to me left and the small man in front of me sat in turn. I stayed in my seat. This I had never done probably for ten years because I was harassed, mainly touched, by the males sitting next to me almost without exception. I still jump out of the seat when a male, if not a child, sits next to me, but the small man had shown no sign of harassing me all the way. He did not harass me after he sat next to me, either. Moreover, it seemed that he was making sure any part of his body not touch my body. I had been reading my English dictionary and kept reading it until I came to my station. When I looked up when the train came close to my station, I noticed some males standing near me were tense and one of them was staring at the space between the small man and me. He seemed to have an intense interest in that space.
I had felt good that I was able to sit with another passenger like I used to do before this harassment started, just like other people do, sitting side by side with another passenger regardless of the difference between the person and me, and therefore I was a little surprised by the direction those men ‘s attention went to: whether my body was touching the body of another male or not. I had expected that other passengers who were standing around me and saw I did not get away from the small man had been feeling peace because I showed that I am not so agitated anymore by the harassment people have done to me.
I would have been shocked, instead of being surprised, by the finding but I am too used to finding the sickening reality to get really shocked and disenchanted. I am recording this just to put what I saw into words.
2011/12/06 (Tue) Slept from 3:00-4:00 + 7:30-10:00 (1 + 2.5 hrs). As I felt that I was not going to be able to sleep partly because I felt as if there were some excited people in the next room, I started reading a Japanese novel that I had been reading in this early summer on my way from Funabashi and had stopped because of eye fatigue. My eyes got tired around 3:00 and I was taking a rest lying face up with my right arm covering my eyes and left arm in the futon placed on a small heater on my stomach, and in a few minutes a strong beam-like electric shock hit the area between my ears and a second later a big fit occurred to my arm in the futon. I tried to sleep but an anger caught me. I got up and kicked the wall I felt I heard a noise Goh when I had the shock and fit. My phone fell. I placed it back but did not notice the line, whose plug is broken and loose, was off until after I got up in the morning.
I slept about an hour and woke/woken up by a noise or a shock. I read the rest of the book and went to sleep again around 7:30. I think I was attacked by the electric shocks because I remember covering my head with the pot I often use to avoid attacks during sleep.
Somewhere between the second sleep and the time was woke up again and stayed in futon, blinking flashes started in the back of my eyes, I pulled out my head from the pot but it continued. I moved my body but it still continued, in addition to the light, I felt some pressures, which occulted in sync with the blinks, in the back of my eyes. I moved my body again and in ten seconds the blinking and the pressures stopped.
I got up, ate, and got ready to leave home as soon as possible. I had an appointment for the dentist’s but had one and a half hours, so I went to the fast food restaurant in the station, where I carelessly ordered food even though I remembered the appointment. I think my brain was still sleeping. I did not notice my mistake until the dentist dug up a piece of cream out of the area between back teeth. I apologized profusely. I should have been embarrassed but as I have the same kind of experiences since this harassment especially the noise one started, I am used to my losing dignity.
The thing that makes me angry, about myself, is that I have hurt someone and that I failed to make myself happy even for a short second, because of this lack of alertness and sensitivity to the finest feelings due to sleep deprivation and the attacks. Of course I am rather insensitive to or slow to understand some kind of feelings of others but not, I think, to the degree that I was this summer:
Early this summer, someone said that he wouldn’t be able to sleep, after having a harmless fun chat, and I took it literally and gave him advice to sleep well while noticing and wondering about his expression changing from a gentle smile to that of witnessing a monster or something. I did not realize or thought of the possibility of the implication of the expression till November, even though I had heard the expression used to mean something other than a fit of insomnia and even though I myself used the expression for that usage in this blog in late summer, which also I had forgotten until recently. (My memories are so fragmented. It is amazing that I am still barely functioning at work) This was also probably because I have been alien to love and affection directed to me, even at a level of possibility, for a long long time. Humiliation and violence are the main things everyone has been giving to me until really recently. I should have been all the happier with the gentleness of his words after all the hell I had experienced and as I had been kind of attracted by him. When I think about this I have a feeling of loss and when I think about how the man felt about my reaction I feel desperate. Most of the time when I act insensitive, there is some fault or two on the other side, but he had nothing to blame.
After the dentist’s, I went back to the fast food restaurant and stayed there working till around 20:00. I think I was a little nervous about other customers probably because I was short of sleep.
2011年12月4日日曜日
Supersonic/Electronic Weapon 不特定多数による長期にわたる原因不明の嫌がらせ（６）
2011/12/03 (Sat) Slept from 3:00-7:00 + 8:20-10:20 (4 + 2 hrs). The game/car-like noise when going to sleep. Also, flashes blinking to the noise in my closed eyes. I woke up at 7:00 because the noises in my head became loud, the tone going up and down suddenly. It was like those shocks between ears I usually have occurred slowly. In other words, the magnetic fields influencing the electric currents in my head changed its voltage slowly. When trying to sleep again around 8:20, attacked by electric shocks incessantly. When I got up, my eyes were very tired, and I still saw blinking flash, which lasted till late afternoon, around 16:00.
I had little time for lunch got food at the coffee shop in the same building my office is in. I seldom go there partly because it costs more than twice as much as the noodle shop where I usually have lunch and partly because I used to get harassed by other customers there, but today no one harassed me. Also, often, one time twice or three times in a row, had upset stomach exactly thirty minutes after eating the sandwich there till last year or the year before last. (My diet and clothing were the same as other days. No strange food nor too tight waist.) Though I remember the senior person of the shop at that time was not evil. Today, I decided to trust them and ate their sandwich for the first time in a year or two. I did not have upset stomach. The sandwich tasted very good!
On my way home on the platform of Hanzomon-line at Nagatacho, I was walking alone while many people were coming from the other side, when I was a few meters from a column and saw a young man coming from the other side and at a couple of meters before the column, I suddenly turned around, walked back about 5 -8 meters to the place with more space, where I turned around again and made for the direction I was first in.
I used to do this to escape harassment. Most people, especially males used to unnecessarily come near me with vicious smiles often looking into my eyes, almost brushing me or sometimes actually brushing or bumping into me when I was careless or upset, when I passed them. Many males made a few big strides toward me with scary smiles and made an action of bumping their body to mine or looked into my eye when passing, often holding their mobile phones up near in front of their faces. And that almost surely happened when I was walking between some large structure and a mass of people.
The young man I avoided passing today did not look dangerous. He had no sign of harassing me, even looked calm and nice. I recognized it and did not feel scared, at least on the conscious level, but my body automatically got away from passing him, from the same situation I used to have bad experience in.
I feel sorry for doing this and want to apologize people whom I avoided despite no threat on their side.
Sometimes, till very recently, when someone coming from the other side is looking down and looked Ok harassed me when we passed each other. Most of them were males.
2011/12/04 (Sun) Slept from 2:30-7:30 + 8:00-11:00 (5 + 3 hrs). A big fit from head to chest right after I started trying to sleep. After that, incessant shocks mainly to head. Weak electric shocks when I woke up around 11:00. Funny feeling in my head and teeth for a short time when I was using the washing machine. No funny feeling when I did dishes after that.
I had little time for lunch got food at the coffee shop in the same building my office is in. I seldom go there partly because it costs more than twice as much as the noodle shop where I usually have lunch and partly because I used to get harassed by other customers there, but today no one harassed me. Also, often, one time twice or three times in a row, had upset stomach exactly thirty minutes after eating the sandwich there till last year or the year before last. (My diet and clothing were the same as other days. No strange food nor too tight waist.) Though I remember the senior person of the shop at that time was not evil. Today, I decided to trust them and ate their sandwich for the first time in a year or two. I did not have upset stomach. The sandwich tasted very good!
On my way home on the platform of Hanzomon-line at Nagatacho, I was walking alone while many people were coming from the other side, when I was a few meters from a column and saw a young man coming from the other side and at a couple of meters before the column, I suddenly turned around, walked back about 5 -8 meters to the place with more space, where I turned around again and made for the direction I was first in.
I used to do this to escape harassment. Most people, especially males used to unnecessarily come near me with vicious smiles often looking into my eyes, almost brushing me or sometimes actually brushing or bumping into me when I was careless or upset, when I passed them. Many males made a few big strides toward me with scary smiles and made an action of bumping their body to mine or looked into my eye when passing, often holding their mobile phones up near in front of their faces. And that almost surely happened when I was walking between some large structure and a mass of people.
The young man I avoided passing today did not look dangerous. He had no sign of harassing me, even looked calm and nice. I recognized it and did not feel scared, at least on the conscious level, but my body automatically got away from passing him, from the same situation I used to have bad experience in.
I feel sorry for doing this and want to apologize people whom I avoided despite no threat on their side.
Sometimes, till very recently, when someone coming from the other side is looking down and looked Ok harassed me when we passed each other. Most of them were males.
2011/12/04 (Sun) Slept from 2:30-7:30 + 8:00-11:00 (5 + 3 hrs). A big fit from head to chest right after I started trying to sleep. After that, incessant shocks mainly to head. Weak electric shocks when I woke up around 11:00. Funny feeling in my head and teeth for a short time when I was using the washing machine. No funny feeling when I did dishes after that.
2011年12月2日金曜日
Supersonic/Electronic Weapon 不特定多数による長期にわたる原因不明の嫌がらせ（６）
2011/12/02 (Fri) Slept from 1:00-5:30 + 6:00-9:30 (4.5 +3.5 hrs). Electric shocks came to my legs and head when going to sleep. I was woken up around 5:30 by the game/car-like noise and the noises in my head became/had become loud and wavy, which phenomenon I had not had for weeks. The moment I got up, the noises became less loud. After going to the bathroom, taking cold medicine, and coming back, the noise was much less louder. And when I covered my head with the thick pot, they became weak. In thirty minutes, they had become normal.
Woke up again around 9:30 but stayed in bed for about an hour. While I was sitting in my bed looking down with my face covered with my hands, a rather strong electric shock hit my brain.
Worked on my PC in the afternoon, and went out to print out some documents, my printer being out of ink, and stayed in the fast-food restaurant at the station for an hour or so. When I left, the shop looked like a school library or cafeteria, most visitors seemed to be high school students, happy and gentle, and most of them were studying. Even the smoking room did not smell tobacco at all. It was nice.
Woke up again around 9:30 but stayed in bed for about an hour. While I was sitting in my bed looking down with my face covered with my hands, a rather strong electric shock hit my brain.
Worked on my PC in the afternoon, and went out to print out some documents, my printer being out of ink, and stayed in the fast-food restaurant at the station for an hour or so. When I left, the shop looked like a school library or cafeteria, most visitors seemed to be high school students, happy and gentle, and most of them were studying. Even the smoking room did not smell tobacco at all. It was nice.
Class Supplement (TOEFL Essay Writing, TOEFL independent writing・英語ショートエッセイに関する注意事項)
今回で今学期のTest Writing (月曜)の授業は終わりです。TOEFL independent writing (Test Writingの授業で練習したタイプのテスト)や大学受験の英文ショートエッセイ問題に解答する際の注意事項を今までの総復習をかねて確認しておきたいと思います。
《準備》
良いエッセイを書くために日頃から行っておくとよいこととしては、１）良い文章を読む ２）問題意識を持つ等がありますが、受験日が近くなると以下のようなことをすることも必要です。
♦実際に書いて練習しておく 授業では基本に忠実なエッセイ構成と段落展開を練習しました。また、実際に書いてみてより完成度の高いエッセイへのイメージはつかめたことと思います。レッスンで身につけたことを定着・維持・発展させるために「書く」ことを今後も続けましょう。TOEFLの実際の課題（URL→http://www.ets.org/Media/Tests/TEOFL/pdf)や大学入試の過去問に目を通し、特に書きづらそうなものを選んで書いて見ましょう。その際、最低２回書きます。最初は30分に時間を設定して書き、自分で添削するか誰かに添削してもらい、もう一度時間制限無しで書き直します。
♦添削済み答案の書き直し 自己添削では見つかりにくいミスや悪い癖を授業の添削済み答案の書き込みで確認し、それらに注意しながら書き直しましょう。
♦主な時事問題と自分の研究課題・趣味をまとめておく 環境問題、貧困対策、グローバル化等の時事問題と自分の趣味・研究課題を100語前後の英文にまとめておきましょう。
♦英文読後日記をつける 英字新聞・雑誌の記事・社説・投稿等を読み、要約と感想を各１～２文の英文にまとめましょう。具体例の材料集めと表現力をつけるのに役立ちます。
♦基本文法問題で典型的なミスをチェック 英文エッセイの試験ではきちんとした英文を書くことが最も重要です。文法の誤文訂正問題で典型的な文法ミスをチェックしておきましょう。また、文法の評価が１～２になることが多い人は文法の基本例文を言って書けるようにしましょう。
♦手本の書写と要約 文法・表現力の評価が３になることが多い人は模範解答やBarron’s Writing for the TOEFL iBT等のsample essayの書写をお勧めします。意味単位ごとに写すと表現が身につきやすくなります。ただ写すのではなく内容を取りながら行ってください。最後に内容を要約します。最初は各段落のMain Ideaを抜き出し、次に自分の言葉で言い換えます。
《試験本番》
以下の注意点は普段の練習で実践し本番では自然にできるようにしておきましょう。
♦手順を守る 1. 課題の確認 2. Brainstormingと構成 3. 書く4. 見直し の流れで書く。（あせらずに、1～4の手順を守ってきちんとしたエッセイにすることを目指しましょう。）
1. 課題の確認
♦予想外の課題が出てもあわてない 英作文の力を見るテストであって知識を試すテストではないことを忘れず、自分に分かる範囲内で論理性のある答案を書きましょう。
♦課題の条件を見落とさない 例えば ”Parents are the best teachers for children (ages between 1-12).”の場合、eighth graders (中学生)を例に挙げることはできません。課題を正確に読み取ることが、期待される水準の答案を書く第一歩です。
2. Brainstormingと構成
♦まず論点と構成を明確にしてから書き始める 実際に書く前に数分かけてよいのでBrainstormingと構成の作業をしてエッセイの骨組みを作りましょう。Brainstormingは「頭の中の材料を外に出す作業」です。思いついたことを箇条書きで書き出すかPC画面に打ち込みます。構成ではBrainstormingで書き出した材料を整理し、１）topicごとにまとめ〈1 paragraph = 1 topic〉 ２）重要な順に本論の段落順を決め、最初に導入、最後に結論の段落を付けます。
♦英文エッセイの基本構造を崩さない 奇抜な構成のエッセイで評価が上がることはありません。基本のエッセイ構造に従って書きましょう。評価されるのは論証のうまさと表現力です。
3. 書く
♦読み手に話しかけるようなつもりで書くと同時にきちんとした書き言葉を心がける 実際に書き始めたら論証に集中します。読み手を身近な人に想定してその人に説明するような気持ちで書いてゆくのも良いと思います。ただし、きちんとした書き言葉を使うことだけは留意しましょう。
♦客観的な文章にする 書く内容を考える際に自分にとって身近なことから考えてゆくことはアイディアを出す上で大切ですが、考えを文章に変換するときは客観的な言い方を心がけましょう。コツとしては、主語が I ではなく People や Students などのより一般的な人や 形式主語のItあるいは無生物主語で文を始めると客観的な文章にしやすくなります。特に個人的な好みや選択を述べる部分以外でこの点に気をつけることが大切です。
♦当然予測される反論は取り上げて反論への反論をする 高スコアを目指す場合、反論の処理は避けて通れません。反論の処理により内容が充実し、合格ラインの語数をクリアできます。
１）反論処理用の段落を作る または ２）各段落の適所で反論を処理するようにしましょう。
♦内容を掘り下げる 漠然としたtopicに趣味関連で解答する場合、人生観・問題意識を入れて内容を深める努力をしましょう。♦よく知らない単語や使い慣れない構文は使わない 本番では実力を最大限に発揮することが大切です。背伸びをしたり迷ったりすると失敗しがちです。
♦同じ単語・表現を繰り返さない 表現力がないと思われますので同じ語・表現の繰り返しは２回程度にとどめましょう。別の語を思いつかない場合は主語や構文自体を変えてみましょう。
♦前置きは短めにする 導入の段落は主張とその理由があれば合格点の範囲内です。例えばいつもI agree with the statement that …(Writing Topicのstatement) . I have two reasons to support my opinion.のように書き出している場合、（このままでも良いですが）第2文を主張の理由を簡潔に述べたものにすると十分な導入になります。うまい前置きがあれば更に良いでしょうが時間配分も考えて主題は早めに簡潔に示すのが無難です。（主題は２行目位までに書くべきだと言う人もいます。） ♦論じ方の説明はしない 長い論文を書くわけではないので導入後はすぐ論証に入りましょう。 ♦導入に具体例は入れない 具体例は本論に書きます。 ♦結論に新しいtopicは加えない 結論では全てdiscussし終わっているはずなので新しいtopicは本論に入れましょう。 ♦カンマは迷ったら入れない カンマは次の3つの場合は必ず入れ、その他は入れない方が無難です。１．挿入の前後 ２．副詞（句・節）が文頭に出た時、その副詞の直後（例外: 後ろが倒置の時はカンマ不要） ３．重文（ … and …のような文）の前半が長いか複雑な時、また短くても内容が一区切りしている時、その部分の直後 ♦結論を必ず付ける 結論は総括です。導入と同じ内容を違う表現でまとめます。主張の理由が複数ある場合、それらを一言で表すのも良いし、各理由（本論の各主題）を1個の名詞や形容詞などで表すのも一つの方法です。
4. 見直し
主に論理の矛盾と説明不足に注意して読み直しましょう。
本番の前にはもう一度、基本を守り、論理性・客観性を保ち、沢山書くことを自分に言い聞かせましょう。頑張ってください！
《準備》
良いエッセイを書くために日頃から行っておくとよいこととしては、１）良い文章を読む ２）問題意識を持つ等がありますが、受験日が近くなると以下のようなことをすることも必要です。
♦実際に書いて練習しておく 授業では基本に忠実なエッセイ構成と段落展開を練習しました。また、実際に書いてみてより完成度の高いエッセイへのイメージはつかめたことと思います。レッスンで身につけたことを定着・維持・発展させるために「書く」ことを今後も続けましょう。TOEFLの実際の課題（URL→http://www.ets.org/Media/Tests/TEOFL/pdf)や大学入試の過去問に目を通し、特に書きづらそうなものを選んで書いて見ましょう。その際、最低２回書きます。最初は30分に時間を設定して書き、自分で添削するか誰かに添削してもらい、もう一度時間制限無しで書き直します。
♦添削済み答案の書き直し 自己添削では見つかりにくいミスや悪い癖を授業の添削済み答案の書き込みで確認し、それらに注意しながら書き直しましょう。
♦主な時事問題と自分の研究課題・趣味をまとめておく 環境問題、貧困対策、グローバル化等の時事問題と自分の趣味・研究課題を100語前後の英文にまとめておきましょう。
♦英文読後日記をつける 英字新聞・雑誌の記事・社説・投稿等を読み、要約と感想を各１～２文の英文にまとめましょう。具体例の材料集めと表現力をつけるのに役立ちます。
♦基本文法問題で典型的なミスをチェック 英文エッセイの試験ではきちんとした英文を書くことが最も重要です。文法の誤文訂正問題で典型的な文法ミスをチェックしておきましょう。また、文法の評価が１～２になることが多い人は文法の基本例文を言って書けるようにしましょう。
♦手本の書写と要約 文法・表現力の評価が３になることが多い人は模範解答やBarron’s Writing for the TOEFL iBT等のsample essayの書写をお勧めします。意味単位ごとに写すと表現が身につきやすくなります。ただ写すのではなく内容を取りながら行ってください。最後に内容を要約します。最初は各段落のMain Ideaを抜き出し、次に自分の言葉で言い換えます。
《試験本番》
以下の注意点は普段の練習で実践し本番では自然にできるようにしておきましょう。
♦手順を守る 1. 課題の確認 2. Brainstormingと構成 3. 書く4. 見直し の流れで書く。（あせらずに、1～4の手順を守ってきちんとしたエッセイにすることを目指しましょう。）
1. 課題の確認
♦予想外の課題が出てもあわてない 英作文の力を見るテストであって知識を試すテストではないことを忘れず、自分に分かる範囲内で論理性のある答案を書きましょう。
♦課題の条件を見落とさない 例えば ”Parents are the best teachers for children (ages between 1-12).”の場合、eighth graders (中学生)を例に挙げることはできません。課題を正確に読み取ることが、期待される水準の答案を書く第一歩です。
2. Brainstormingと構成
♦まず論点と構成を明確にしてから書き始める 実際に書く前に数分かけてよいのでBrainstormingと構成の作業をしてエッセイの骨組みを作りましょう。Brainstormingは「頭の中の材料を外に出す作業」です。思いついたことを箇条書きで書き出すかPC画面に打ち込みます。構成ではBrainstormingで書き出した材料を整理し、１）topicごとにまとめ〈1 paragraph = 1 topic〉 ２）重要な順に本論の段落順を決め、最初に導入、最後に結論の段落を付けます。
♦英文エッセイの基本構造を崩さない 奇抜な構成のエッセイで評価が上がることはありません。基本のエッセイ構造に従って書きましょう。評価されるのは論証のうまさと表現力です。
3. 書く
♦読み手に話しかけるようなつもりで書くと同時にきちんとした書き言葉を心がける 実際に書き始めたら論証に集中します。読み手を身近な人に想定してその人に説明するような気持ちで書いてゆくのも良いと思います。ただし、きちんとした書き言葉を使うことだけは留意しましょう。
♦客観的な文章にする 書く内容を考える際に自分にとって身近なことから考えてゆくことはアイディアを出す上で大切ですが、考えを文章に変換するときは客観的な言い方を心がけましょう。コツとしては、主語が I ではなく People や Students などのより一般的な人や 形式主語のItあるいは無生物主語で文を始めると客観的な文章にしやすくなります。特に個人的な好みや選択を述べる部分以外でこの点に気をつけることが大切です。
♦当然予測される反論は取り上げて反論への反論をする 高スコアを目指す場合、反論の処理は避けて通れません。反論の処理により内容が充実し、合格ラインの語数をクリアできます。
１）反論処理用の段落を作る または ２）各段落の適所で反論を処理するようにしましょう。
♦内容を掘り下げる 漠然としたtopicに趣味関連で解答する場合、人生観・問題意識を入れて内容を深める努力をしましょう。♦よく知らない単語や使い慣れない構文は使わない 本番では実力を最大限に発揮することが大切です。背伸びをしたり迷ったりすると失敗しがちです。
♦同じ単語・表現を繰り返さない 表現力がないと思われますので同じ語・表現の繰り返しは２回程度にとどめましょう。別の語を思いつかない場合は主語や構文自体を変えてみましょう。
♦前置きは短めにする 導入の段落は主張とその理由があれば合格点の範囲内です。例えばいつもI agree with the statement that …(Writing Topicのstatement) . I have two reasons to support my opinion.のように書き出している場合、（このままでも良いですが）第2文を主張の理由を簡潔に述べたものにすると十分な導入になります。うまい前置きがあれば更に良いでしょうが時間配分も考えて主題は早めに簡潔に示すのが無難です。（主題は２行目位までに書くべきだと言う人もいます。） ♦論じ方の説明はしない 長い論文を書くわけではないので導入後はすぐ論証に入りましょう。 ♦導入に具体例は入れない 具体例は本論に書きます。 ♦結論に新しいtopicは加えない 結論では全てdiscussし終わっているはずなので新しいtopicは本論に入れましょう。 ♦カンマは迷ったら入れない カンマは次の3つの場合は必ず入れ、その他は入れない方が無難です。１．挿入の前後 ２．副詞（句・節）が文頭に出た時、その副詞の直後（例外: 後ろが倒置の時はカンマ不要） ３．重文（ … and …のような文）の前半が長いか複雑な時、また短くても内容が一区切りしている時、その部分の直後 ♦結論を必ず付ける 結論は総括です。導入と同じ内容を違う表現でまとめます。主張の理由が複数ある場合、それらを一言で表すのも良いし、各理由（本論の各主題）を1個の名詞や形容詞などで表すのも一つの方法です。
4. 見直し
主に論理の矛盾と説明不足に注意して読み直しましょう。
本番の前にはもう一度、基本を守り、論理性・客観性を保ち、沢山書くことを自分に言い聞かせましょう。頑張ってください！
Class Supplement, TOEIC Part 5, Grammar Practice
Conditionals
1. We don’t know if the customer will accept our offer. What will you say if he ----- no?
A) said B) will say C) had said D) says
2. The customer is going to accept the offer. But what would you say if he ----- no?
A) said B) will say C) had said D) is going to say
3. The weatherman is not sure whether it will rain or not tomorrow. If the weather ----- fine tomorrow, I will do it for you tomorrow afternoon.
A) were B) was C) is D) will be
4. It’s raining. If the weather ----- fine today, I would go check the construction site.
A) were B) is C) will be D) has been
5. Ken was going to ask for a one-month leave. We don’t know what the supervisor said to him about the leave.
What do you think Ken said if the supervisor ----- no?
A) said B) will say C) says D) is going to say
6. I would not be still doing this job if it ----- for the customers who enjoy our products.
A) isn’t B) were not C) has not been D) had been
7. If the tech had still been in our office then, he ----- to our project a lot.
A) would have contributed B) will contribute C) would contribute D) contributed
8. If the computer ----- invented, it would take years to do this job.
A) wasn’t B) hadn’t been C) wouldn’t be D) wouldn’t have been
9. It is crucial that it ----- done at once.
A) be B) were C) being D) will be
10. If you ----- unable to make it to the meeting held this evening, would you contact us as soon as possible?
A) would be B) were C) should be D) will be
1. We don’t know if the customer will accept our offer. What will you say if he ----- no?
A) said B) will say C) had said D) says
2. The customer is going to accept the offer. But what would you say if he ----- no?
A) said B) will say C) had said D) is going to say
3. The weatherman is not sure whether it will rain or not tomorrow. If the weather ----- fine tomorrow, I will do it for you tomorrow afternoon.
A) were B) was C) is D) will be
4. It’s raining. If the weather ----- fine today, I would go check the construction site.
A) were B) is C) will be D) has been
5. Ken was going to ask for a one-month leave. We don’t know what the supervisor said to him about the leave.
What do you think Ken said if the supervisor ----- no?
A) said B) will say C) says D) is going to say
6. I would not be still doing this job if it ----- for the customers who enjoy our products.
A) isn’t B) were not C) has not been D) had been
7. If the tech had still been in our office then, he ----- to our project a lot.
A) would have contributed B) will contribute C) would contribute D) contributed
8. If the computer ----- invented, it would take years to do this job.
A) wasn’t B) hadn’t been C) wouldn’t be D) wouldn’t have been
9. It is crucial that it ----- done at once.
A) be B) were C) being D) will be
10. If you ----- unable to make it to the meeting held this evening, would you contact us as soon as possible?
A) would be B) were C) should be D) will be
2011年12月1日木曜日
Supersonic/Electronic Weapon 不特定多数による長期にわたる原因不明の嫌がらせ（６）
2011/12/01 (Thu) Slept from 1:30-6:30 (5 hrs). Three big fits of my legs a little after I set to sleep. My sense tells me that they, as other fits I report almost everyday, are caused by from an outside source, not by my brain. Natural fits accompany some sensation in your brain, but they do not. Weak funny feelings for a short time when doing the dishes.
I have been sleeping without the pot for several days partly because the last time I used it, I got a biggest, electrocuting shock and fit of my brain and partly because the electrocuting shocks have stopped since I started sleeping upside down, with my head placed where I usually place my feet.
Working and studying at the fast-food shop at the station has become my habit on days when I do not have classes. I’ve been there on Tuesday, Wednesday, and today.
Most people do not harass me anymore, at least in the restaurant. Probably because I starting to forget about harassments, when harassed, even when the harassment is a minor one, I get shocked. A little before 18:00 today, a high school girl who had been in the corner two tables away from mine moved her leg closer to me in a semicircle exactly when I found one question difficult and started thinking about it seriously. Maybe I am too sensitive and just imagining things, but the timing and the way she moved her leg are a combination that has been performed to me uncountable times over the past five years or so, especially on trains and in class, usually with vicious smiles till recently. I looked into her face and in a couple of second cold eyes met with mine. I felt sick and left the place.
About an hour before that, a male who had been sitting quietly next to me loudly stood up and left apparently indignant when I had finished solving questions of an English reading passage and found them all wrong and tried to make sure if I was referring to correct answers. The male’s behavior might have had nothing to do with my actions, but this combination, me finding my answers wrong and people around me showing some strange and often nasty behaviors such as coughing loudly, or looking into my eyes with vicious smils, or sticking their legs with their feet rolling, has been familiar, too. I have had this mainly on the train for at least 8 years. By the way, the passage was about influence of noises (IELYS 7, Test 4 Reading Passage 3). I’m doing this test textbook because I bought this for my private class one and a half years ago, but did not use, the student having changed the country where she was going to study, and because I find it a good textbook.
I have also become nervous about prying toward me or actions that look like it, about which I think I was rather indifferent before this experience of mass harassment. For example, I got nervous when someone looked at the plastic bag I was carrying this evening. The action reminded me of the behavior that also started around 8 years ago and gradually died down over the past few years, the behavior of looking into my everyday purchase, often sneering or staring and/or saying something critical or at least seemed to be related to my purchase, in supermarkets or in streets.
I think I can forget this experience if there is no one who reminds me of it.
I have been sleeping without the pot for several days partly because the last time I used it, I got a biggest, electrocuting shock and fit of my brain and partly because the electrocuting shocks have stopped since I started sleeping upside down, with my head placed where I usually place my feet.
Working and studying at the fast-food shop at the station has become my habit on days when I do not have classes. I’ve been there on Tuesday, Wednesday, and today.
Most people do not harass me anymore, at least in the restaurant. Probably because I starting to forget about harassments, when harassed, even when the harassment is a minor one, I get shocked. A little before 18:00 today, a high school girl who had been in the corner two tables away from mine moved her leg closer to me in a semicircle exactly when I found one question difficult and started thinking about it seriously. Maybe I am too sensitive and just imagining things, but the timing and the way she moved her leg are a combination that has been performed to me uncountable times over the past five years or so, especially on trains and in class, usually with vicious smiles till recently. I looked into her face and in a couple of second cold eyes met with mine. I felt sick and left the place.
About an hour before that, a male who had been sitting quietly next to me loudly stood up and left apparently indignant when I had finished solving questions of an English reading passage and found them all wrong and tried to make sure if I was referring to correct answers. The male’s behavior might have had nothing to do with my actions, but this combination, me finding my answers wrong and people around me showing some strange and often nasty behaviors such as coughing loudly, or looking into my eyes with vicious smils, or sticking their legs with their feet rolling, has been familiar, too. I have had this mainly on the train for at least 8 years. By the way, the passage was about influence of noises (IELYS 7, Test 4 Reading Passage 3). I’m doing this test textbook because I bought this for my private class one and a half years ago, but did not use, the student having changed the country where she was going to study, and because I find it a good textbook.
I have also become nervous about prying toward me or actions that look like it, about which I think I was rather indifferent before this experience of mass harassment. For example, I got nervous when someone looked at the plastic bag I was carrying this evening. The action reminded me of the behavior that also started around 8 years ago and gradually died down over the past few years, the behavior of looking into my everyday purchase, often sneering or staring and/or saying something critical or at least seemed to be related to my purchase, in supermarkets or in streets.
I think I can forget this experience if there is no one who reminds me of it.
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