Why I like biking to school

I started biking to school since the beginning of this semester and I enjoy it very much. First of all, biking saves me money. As a university student, I always feel the strain of managing my financial issues. Instead of struggling to pay for tremendous insurance, expensive gas, endless maintenance, parking permits or bus ticket fares, I only need to pay for the cost of a bike and this one time purchase can last for years. Secondly, biking is time saving and efficient. Traffic jams in rush hours are very common in urban area; therefore, everyday drivers just take them for granted. But as a biker, I rarely encounter this kind of obstacles. By biking in a direct and low traffic route, which involves trails and side roads, my traveling time only takes 15 minutes rather than 20 minutes by driving or 1 hour by taking bus. Also, biking is almost as flexible as driving, but it is much more manageable than taking bus. Since I started biking, I never suffer from being late for class because the bus driver takes off just a few seconds before I get to the bus stop. And physically, biking is healthy. By raising heart rate for 30 minutes with biking everyday, I can improve general fitness as well as respiratory and circulatory systems. Socially, biking opens my eyes to the changes around the neighborhood; it can also improve the relationships between me and the neighbors. Biking along the community, I can exchange greetings with others or even make stops and start chatting. Occasionally, I can give a hand to the people who are in need. Environmentally, biking saves energy and reduces pollutions. Being responsible for a better environment, I prefer biking rather than any other transportation methods. Last but not least, biking is relaxing. During the journey, I can think, focus and realize new goals and so forth. Riding on the recreation trails, I can appreciate nature – song birds fly over my head, gurgling streams flow along my side, chattering squirrels run across my way, and seasons change gradually from a flourishing summer to a deep golden autumn towards a peaceful winter.

Yu Tai Temple

After climbing for 999 steps, finally I arrived at the entrance of Yu Tai Temple that was considered as the Buddhist holy place in my hometown. The entrance was about 30 feet tall and 40 feet wide. Four granite pillars formed three gateways of the entrance with each pillar being twelve feet in girth. Three eaves were built on top of the pillars over each gateway. A black wooden tablet was hanging above the middle gateway with three encrypted golden words – Yu Tai Temple. Passing through the entrance, I stepped into a rectangular courtyard with two 60-foot-tall kapok trees standing on both sides. On the left of the courtyard, there stood a pagoda that was 9 feet tall with a history of more than 200 years. The ancient pagoda was respected as a cimelia of the temple. On the other side of the courtyard, an 800-pound bronze bell was hung in a pavilion. This bell was stroked 108 times by the monks on every New Year’s Day to celebrate a new beginning and to request blessing from God. A monument encrypted with the history of the temple stood besides the pavilion. At the far end of the courtyard, a ten-foot-high platform with two staircases on both sides rose from the ground. A two-floor building – Great Giant Palace – was located on the center of the platform. The main floor was the pilgrimage hall and the second floor was a loft surrounded by the roof of the first floor. The exterior of the building was mainly painted in red, but the roofs were tiled in golden ceramic. Being exited and curious, I stepped up onto the platform and walked into the pilgrimage hall. Three Buddha statues facing to doors sat at the back of the hall. The Sakyamuni statue, which was in the middle, was about 15 feet tall coated with gold foil. A long bench covered with red silk was placed in front of the statues. Three huge censers with burning incense were set on the bench. Being surrounded by the misty smog and mystic aura, I was confused if I should fell on my knees and prayed for my fortunes as the others did.

On The Way to Jing Gang Mountain

Playing cards in the train did help me kill time during the boring travel, but I had to rest because I could not keep my eyes opened any longer. After all, had been playing cards the whole night and the tine was 2 a.m. I gave up the so-called “last game” and headed into my narrow sleeper. Before long, I fell asleep while my companions were still enjoying their games.

“Wake up, man. Our stop is coming up in ten minutes.” John, who was the leader of the traveling team, woke me up. I looked at my watch. The time was 4:10 a.m. I got up and jumped off the sleeper. Like the other members, I began to collect my belongings on the table and put them into my backpack.

Accompanied by the tune of Chairman Mao’s favorite song – “The East Is Red”, the captain announced, “Next station, Jing Gang Mountain.” Suddenly, my heart gave a leap. I was existed because I would be putting my first step on the land that was considered the candle of the People’s Republic of China.

Five minutes later, the train pulled into the station and gently stopped by a platform. I watched outside through the window. Outside was dark and I could not see anything. Following the team members, I stepped down from the train. Standing on the platform, I saw the station building which was very small and apparently closed. The only light that I could see was from the headlights of the bus that was waiting for us by the station. I caught up to the team and boarded the bus.

I was the last one who got on the bus. Not long after I found a seat at the back and sat down, the bus started off. No light was turned on in the bus and no light could be seen through the windows. I could not even see my fingers when I put my hand in front of my eyes. The bus soon began bumping and shaking after it left the station and ran onto the gravel roads. Worse than that, the bus was climbing uphill and kept making turns once for a while. With the endless darkness and the sickness, I started an excruciating ride that was leading me into the heart of Jing Gang Mountain.

Recycling together, we can save the world

How many times did you hear about the strikes of garbage collectors? Do you remember the thirteen weeks long shortage of disposal service in Thunder Bay? Increasing refuse in municipal area comes up with fast growth of disposal service positions and budget. Of course, this expanded cost is deducted from the tax we pay, which could be wisely used on other public services such as medical care and road maintenance.

Do you know producing one ton of aluminum from ore may cost 15,000 kilowatt-hour electric powers which can light up a 100 watts bulb for 17 years? And do you know refining pop cans to one ton of aluminum consumes 5 percent of this energy only? By recycling used metal, glass, plastic and paper instead of producing them from the raw material, we can save a considerable amount of energy.

Do you realize, for every ton of waste glass recycled in a furnace there is a saving of 1.2 tones of sand and limestone? Do you realize every ton of waste paper can be reproduced into 0.8 ton of high quality paper, which can also save 17 trees? And do you realize avoiding the dumping of one button size battery can save 600 tons of clean water? Furthermore, these savings can contribute to the preservation of our natural environment.

You may ask “Can I save the world just by saving such a small stack of newspaper?” Yes, you can. It is a small amount from an individual, but it could be one truck load from a community and one ship load from a city. It is said, many a little makes a mickle. On the other hand, recycle projects rely on the involvement of the whole population. A single person or a small group cannot get the job done. Your participation not only contributes the recyclable waste but also shows a good example to your children and stimulates the people around you.

Recycling is a lifelong procedure. It should become an important component of the ordinary routines in our lives. So please keep in mind: do the recycling whenever and wherever you can.

Casual expressions in oral English

One of the keys for a foreigner to speaking English like a native is the ability to use and understand casual expressions, or idioms. Casual expressions are widely used in everyday conversations, TV shows, magazines, newspapers and even books. Casual expressions can add colors to our conversations. For example, if a student is rushing to do a review for the next day’s quiz, he may tell his tennis partner he has to “hit the book” rather than just saying “start studying”. Here, “Hit the book” is not only giving the meaning of “start studying” but the sense of “rush”. Furthermore, casual expressions help us communicate in an efficient manner. For instance, the thunderwolf hokey team won every game in the past three months. Instead of saying “Our team is lucky since we keep winning game after game”, we may just say “Our team is on a winning steak”. In addition, people prefer to talk by using simple words and expressions in place of literal or professional terminologies which mostly appear on the written paper. As British author Alan Alexander Milne said, it is more fun to talk with someone who doesn't use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like What about lunch? However, casual expressions are difficult to be explained literally even though they consist of simple words only. For example, When we say “Peter is not Mary’s cup of tea”, we do not consider whether Peter is made of tea or not. Instead, we use the expression to describe “Peter is not a person Mary likes”. But for a foreigner, it is hard to catch this meaning just through word-by-word translating. In fact, more than one thousand of these simple-word-combinations are frequently used in ordinary speaking English. There is no doubt casual expressions can raise a barrier for an English learner to achieve speaking English in a native way.

(Composition Assignment #2)

What I Have Lived For

Bertrand Russell

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a great ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.

I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy - ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness--that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what--at last--I have found.

With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.

Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate this evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.

This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.

There Goes My Everything

Elvis Presley(words & music by Dallas Frazier)

There goes my only possession

There goes my everything

I hear footsteps slowly walking

As they gently walk across the lonely floor

And a voice is softly saying

Darling this will be goodbye for evermore

There goes my reason for living

There goes the one of my dreams

There goes my only possession

There goes my everything

As my memory turns back the pages

I can see the happy years we've had before

Now the love that kept this heart beating

Has been shattered by the closing of the door

First Thing First

This is Maple's Melody -- Andy's Blog -- established on April, 2006


You can also visit my Chinese version BLOG: http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/1227797252