Natasha's Posts (34)

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Writing Challenge #28: Book Love

Posted by Natasha on February 6, 2011

Title: A Thousand Splendid Suns


Author: Khaled Hosseini

Genre: Historical-fiction

When and where I read this book: I've just finished reading this book. I've heard so much about this novel that I tried to find this book as fast as I could. In actuality, I had a sort of distrust of this kind of books, but I was disappointed agreeably!

Summary: The novel is a breathtaking story set against the events of Afganistan's last thirty years.

K. Hosseini tells us about  two women and their struggles for life. The elder, Mariam is one of the most tragic characters in literature I have ever read about. She was born to a servant woman out of wedlock and is raised in banishment and ignorance. The family of her father forced her to marry a much older man after her mother commits suicide.

Laila, fifteen years younger than Mariam, and raised by intellectual parents, enters the marriage under much fifferent circumstances. Alone after a bomb destroys her home and kills her parents, and pregnant by her childhood love who  left the country with his family, she marries Rasheed, the husband of Mariam, in a desperate attempt to save her unborn child. For the first time, I'm not able to denounce such kind of actions!

 The writing is very beautiful. The pictures the author paints with his words are so vivid that everything  just flashes before your eyes like a movie.

This story shows us how grateful we should be every day of our life, and that hope can be always found.

 

 Favourite quotes:"A society has no chance of success if its women are uneducated..."

"Of all the hardships a person had to face, none was more punishing than the simple act of waiting."


Note: there is a very good blog about this book with audio by Anne Hodgson:

http://annehodgson.de/2008/07/28/khaled-hosseini-a-thousand-splendid-suns/

The link added by Monika: Afgan Women

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Writing Challenge #24: Blog Action Day. Water Problems In Russia?

Posted by Natasha on October 17, 2010

Before writing this post I tried to remember some funny facts, connecting with the topic. But unexpectedly, it turned to be rather hard! At last, one funny fact was ,however, found:the imported from other countries flush tanks are being broken down on account of hardness of water! To prevent this, the owner of them have often to wash filters. I hope you've already understood what kind of water is running from our taps? Besides, the running water can be turned off without notifying, and it's not hard to imagine what soaped person feels in this case!My country has got enormous stocks of water! For example, Lake Baikal contains roughly 20% of the world's surface fresh water. We got used to spend much water. Most of us even haven't got any water meters -- why? - water is cheap, as it is!Once, I read that in one country, it's common for family members to have a bath by turn! And I have been impressed by this fact for a long time!I drink tap water only after boiling it! Many people use mainly bottled water, though I think it's optional in my place. But I'm aware of the situation all over the country! A great deal of water is highly polluted mostly by industrial wastes.And in conclusion, one sad story. There was a beautiful garden in my town. Now it is perishing with soil contamination with the sewage...What should people do?
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Summer Holidays Have Finished -- the Life is Going on...

Posted by Natasha on September 21, 2010
Summer is supposed to be for having a rest. Some of us rested from their labours, travelling and not thinking of their problems, while others continue to work or study, demonstrating willingness and pleasure, or not feeling much fun in that.After starting to work, we face different, often old, problems that puzzle us... How to cope with them? The answer is simple -- to do something interesting! This will help control your emotions! Doing sports, reading, watching anime, surfing the Internet, learning foreign languages, writing after all !I 'd like to present you the poem of Vladimir Vysotsky, who, not being for a long time a professional author, wrote, and wrote much about his deep and strong feelings.Read and answer: Do you have any of this feelings? Can you express yourself in English?Vladimir Vysotsky. "I hate."I hate the fatal end - it’s so clear,Life never makes me tired, faint or blue,And I do hate each season of the yearWhen I don’t sing my merry songs to you.I hate the guy who’s cynical and cold;I’m rather cautious seeing too much glee;I hate to see the lad so rude and bold,Who reads my letters peeping over me.I’m full of bile when things are half-completed,To cut the talk abruptly - it’s a shame!To shoot in someone’s back is mean and bitter,To shoot the man point blank is just the same!Conceit and vanity, I think, are both rotten -I’d rather have a car with no brakes...It’s a disgrace that honor is forgottenBut in the race of life the squealers win the stakesFor gossip, tittle-tattle I don’t care,I hate both wavering and grandeur-gaining fuss,I hate it when I’m stroked against the hair,I hate to see how iron crushes glass.The broken wings in me wake no compassion,Though I am not too callous or too hard;And though I hate depression and aggression,The martyrdom of Christ still breaks my heart.I hate myself when I get feet so coldThat I can watch how innocents are hit...I hate it when they break into my soul,And hate it when into my soul they spit.I hate it when true art is turned to vending,When tawdry jesters’ fortunes dissipate...And even if great changes are impending,I’ll never fall in love with what I hate!Vladimir Vysotsky
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Natasha's Wordle Wednesday #1: September

Posted by Natasha on September 19, 2010
There appeared a new language tool - a good and useful toy - for English language learners in My EC. We can use it for remembering:1. Useful Verbs2. Adjectives I Love3. Idioms I’ve Learned4. Phrasal Verbs5. Proper Nouns6. Favourite Quotes7. Words I often spell wrong8. Words I learned this week9. My favourite English words10. English Rules I need to Remember(don’t forget to use the ~ to keep words together)Useful toy

The words of this poem are in the Wordle Window.All the leaves are falling down,Falling down, falling down.Falling , falling to the groundIt is autumn!As they fall they twirl around,Twirl around, twirl around.Twirling, swirling to the ground.It is autumn.Lots of colours touch the ground,Touch the ground, touch the ground.Red and yellow, green and brown.It is autumn!Kids' poems

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When we should use commas ( simple sentences).

Posted by Natasha on September 13, 2010
There are two main ways for using commas:1. Commas separate the things in a list.They are real ones.E.g. "I need some pencils, an exercise book and a calculator before I start my homework"."I must buy a dozen eggs, coffee, sugar and tea."Sometimes these items are things you do, or places you go.E.g. "Yesterday I went to the University, played tennis, went to the cinema and then went to bed.""I'm going to spend my vacation swimming in the sea, walking on the beach, sleeping in the sun and reading my favourite books."Note:Don't confuse commas with a full-stop.If the words could stand alone as a sentence then you need to put a full-stop or a joining word ('and', 'but' etc) and not a comma.E.g."Yesterday I went to college, I walked the dog, I went shopping and I watered the flowers" - "Yesterday I went to college. Then I walked my dog. At 3 o'clock I went shopping. After shopping I watered the flowers.This doesn't work as these could all stand alone as proper short sentences. If you want to write them as a list (for example, to show that you had a lot to do) take out the "I":"Yesterday I went to college, walked the dog, went shopping and watered the flowers."2. Commas mark out the less important part of a sentence.This is a useful way to make your sentences more interesting by adding extra information.E.g. "The car, which was parked next to the shop, had a big dog in the back seat."This sentence is about the car and the dog, it's not about where the car was parked.E.g."Ben, Ann's brother, was given a notebook as a birthday present"This sentence is about Ben getting a notebook. We don't need "Ann's brother" for the sentence to make sense, it's extra information.E.g."Ann, the youngest in the family, is going to get married."This sentence is about Ann getting married, it's not about her position in the family.You can check your writing:You need to see if the sentence makes sense without the words between the commas.The first sentence -"The car, which was parked next to the shop, had a big dog in the back seat."would become"The car ________ had a big dog in the back seat."This sentence makes sense so the commas are in the right places.

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Leo Tolstoy. "Anna Karenina". Read in English.

Posted by Natasha on September 8, 2010
Leo Tolstoy (9.09.1828-20.11.1910) - prominent Russian writer who the Wikipedia said about:"His ideas on nonviolent resistance expressed in such works as The Kingdom of God is Within You were to have a profound impact on such pivotal twentieth-century figures as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr." Leo TolstoyThe novel "Anna Karenina" by L. Tolstoy is a story about tragical love of Anna Karenina.Dear Karenina, it's for you as a lover of this novel!Fragments from the film: ">object>You can read this book here:L. Tolstoy. Anna Karenina. ">object>
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Looking for Happiness... "American Beauty".

Posted by Natasha on August 17, 2010

I can call myself a great lover of cinema, and, naturally, I've seen a lot of good and not very good films...Now, I'd like to tell you about one of my favourite films "American Beauty"(1999)directed by Sam Mendes and written by Alan Ball. Kevin Spacey stars as a main character Lester Burnham. The film was nominated for and won many awards and honors.Why do I love this film? First of all, for a significant social and moral message that is being conveyed by a film. I'm not going to retell the plot - just you should see it! In my view, the main issue, shown in this film, is misunderstanding.American Beauty is a story of two families suffering from constant pique between all the family members. For example,Lester's daughter despises her kind and gentle father. Once, she said: " I need a father who's a role model, not some horny geek-boy... Somebody really should put him out of his misery." Her boy friend Ricky replied:"Want me to kill him for you?" Jane:" Yeah, would you?"And when, at last, the characters had realised their grievous errors, a fatal accident occured. And the reason for it, once again, was misunderstanding between them!I haven't covered all the peculiarities of this film, I haven't told about the beauty lost by the heroes, but actually having it in their own hearts. I just want you to be interested in the movie and see it. As for those who have already seen it, I'd like to hear their opinion.
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What do you remember about your school?

Posted by Natasha on August 7, 2010
I'd like to tell you about Russia's education at first.

Thanks to advice of Reiziuh, I convert my comment into the blog.There are many features of Russian education, similar with those in other countries while there are some differences.1)Nowadays, there is a lack of kindergartens, for in nineties many of them were closed. Kids attend them for 3-4 years (since 3 to 6(7) years old). Parents are supposed to pay for it.2)At the age of 6-7 all the children start attending school. There is no strict dividing different schools on their levels- only elementary school is marked out.The term of schooling is 11 years. Secondary education is compulsory and is free of charge. Recently, the government has started debating the question of partly parents' paying - 10-11 grades.Bad and good features:a)The curriculum is very complicated- I mean all subjects! E.g., many children who used to study Maths in the USA, were surprised with the tasks' easiness!b)Lack of certain kinds of teachers- especially those who teach foreign languages, PT and IT. There isn't any compulsory exam in Foreign language.c)Frequent radical changes in the form of final exams. Since 2009 it's been Unified State Exam - form of graduation examinations in schools and the main form of preliminary examinations in universities (the US testing form had become a model for the Russian ones).d) There is a wide range of different educational institutions-colleges, institutes and universities. They are divided into state and private institutions. The state ones are regarded to be as more prestigious.e) Before the recent time the sertificates hadn't satisfied the International requirements formally.f)In a classroom there are usually about 25-30 school students.The new Unified State Exam was introduced in order to eliminate corruption and give equal potentialities to all the school-leavers, especially from remote areas. And now teachers intimidated by local authorities -not all of them - allow the students to cheat at the exams (using mobile phones and so on),as a rule, unselfishly.It's interesting to know about school life in your country, especially funny facts! :) ">object>
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